# 041. Godhorn Tech

## 01. Volume 01

### 001. Afterword

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

It took a while and it was very nearly locked away without a release, but here it is at last: Godhorn Tech!

This story is set in a pastoral swords and sorcery fantasy world but with colossal sorcery weapons that tear up the terrain itself as they battle it out. There is nothing the protagonist, Miyabi, cannot destroy, so I remember having fun coming up with conversation patterns for the scenarios where he destroyed a shop or town. (But that would only get him kicked out of town or thrown behind bars, not create a major branch in the story.) I hope I managed to get some sense of that across in the novel version as well. The advertisement for the game focused more on the creation side, but it really all began with the idea that you were free to do whatever you wanted with the destruction side.

In that sense, I am pretty attached to each of the dungeons, like the derailed train or the castle town rooftops, but I think I put the most care into the initial forest. While being mercilessly bombed from afar, you need to send instructions to your borrowed bomber to tear apart the ground to form trenches, effectively creating the dungeon you need to survive. A lot of trial and error went into putting together an engaging tutorial with the two users talking to each other while you learned about the fear, destruction, and creation of the massive sorcery weapons.

I put a lot of my personal tastes into the characters this time, like the hag elf who uses a philosopher’s stone as a toy or the assassin young woman with black hair and glasses who is strait-laced but will also transform into a bunny girl if necessary. I even had a rare battle with Haimura-san over whether elves are supposed to wear green or white. I guess we all have something we refuse to back down on, huh? B-but a green elf would definitely have to be the main heroine, right!? After much fierce fighting, we gave Alicia an angelic design with the ring of flowers on her head and gave Helen a demonic design with her hair decorations and the tail.

A lot of progress was made on the Godhorn Techs, but it’s funny how I remember the ordinary handheld weapons causing a lot more trouble. Games have their own rules, so you can’t do some things that I take for granted with novels. And you can’t fudge certain things in 3D games in particular. For example, if your character carries a huge sword on their back all the time, they can’t sit in a chair with a back. And if they wear a wide-brimmed hat, their hands will clip through the brim when they raise their arms.

The 11th’s sorcery bombs was an idea for a multiplayer mode. You would try to obstruct the other players while using only the sound to locate a bomb randomly placed somewhere on the field so you could be the first to safely destroy it. There were other “game-like ideas” we came up with while trying to create some cohesion between the scenario and the system. A dungeon where you slip through the gaps between a derailed train’s cars and cargo and a dungeon where you move between the rooftops of a rioting castle town were both ideas we came up with while trying to make an enjoyable game. Now that you have read the novel version, I hope you will think up your own ideas along those lines.

Fitting it all back into a novel format was surprisingly difficult. Yet when writing the scenario, I remember trying to avoid some things that simply wouldn’t work in a novel. I wasn’t trying to switch to another writing mode, but I guess the circumstances influenced me more than I thought. I hope I learned some useful skills from this.

The character designs were done by Haimura-san and Tabata-san, and KeG-san was involved in designing the characters’ alternate outfits. Tabata-san drew the novel version’s illustrations. Thank you all! I also want to thank Square Enix, everyone else involved in the game’s production, and my editors Miki-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. This one starts with a traditional fantasy world and then it works to tear that world apart, so the illustrations can’t have been easy. Thank you so much!

And I want to thank the readers. We finally released Godhorn Tech in some form or another. Whether you were looking forward to the game or you only learned about the game here, I think it is thanks to all of your support that Godhorn Tech avoided being an untold tale. Thank you!!

And I will end this here.

It’s unusual for me to tell a story where the characters travel all around their world, isn’t it?

-Kamachi Kazuma

### 002. Chapter 1 Section 1

In that time, cracks had formed in the world.

The contradictory beings known as Wicked Gods soon emerged from that great womb.

My everyday life has just a hint of the mysterious mixed in.

But I only ever thought of it as providing a nice spice to life.

So never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be forced into eating a giant plateful of pepper.

A sudden white beam blotted out the blue of the midday sky.

“How powerful is that thing?”

The boy felt the weight of the blade in his wrists. He also felt an icy chill.

He had wobbled to the side and bumped into the massive boulder that had towered above him like a cliff face. But now it was broken and only rose to his hip height.

Miyabi Blackgarden, a redheaded 15-year-old boy with sawdust goggles on his forehead, just about forgot he was in a deep forest. He gulped, but not from the fear of touching a combat sword for the first time in his life.

The sword was no more than a conductor’s baton.

The actual destruction had been caused by the thing that seemed to cover everything overhead.

“Koo,” groaned the slipper-sized white creature at his feet upon seeing something.

It covered its mouth with small hands(?) and walked on two legs. It had a single round horn on its forehead and its stuffed animal eyes may have been viewing the massive artificial bird formed from countless straight and curved lines. Or maybe it was viewing what little that attack had left of its playground. Dark soil and greenery had been torn up and blasted into the air, so their scent filled Miyabi’s lungs. It was all another scar of destruction.

The scenery itself had been torn apart.

An entire section of the forest had been eradicated without a trace and the dark soil below had been torn up. The trees had to have stood 10 to 15 meters tall and parts of the forest had been too thick to allow much sunlight through, but all of that had been stripped away, exposing the ground to the sun. From a bird’s-eye view, you might have seen the scars of destruction formed a perfect circle.

Miyabi’s mind nearly went blank.

He could not even stop himself from blurting out some meaningless words.

A massive form measuring several dozen meters long soared by overhead. That bomber was an artificial monster with bat-like wings spread.

“No one told me it would do that!”

But the clock was ticking all the while.

Even Miyabi knew what it meant when he heard several whistling noises in quick succession. His was not the only “strongest” on the field. They had provoked something extremely dangerous. If he continued standing there in a daze, he would be blown to bits in only a few seconds.

He was hearing the enemy’s attacks.

And those attacks were meant to take his life.

“Alma, follow me!!”

“Koo koo!”

The bipedal creature could not speak human language. Miyabi gestured forward and they both ran through the deep forest. He had already been told where he needed to go.

“Celina is a Godhorn Tech user just like you are now.”

He recalled the words of that jerk he would much rather forget.

But with death only a step away, he threw open all the drawers of his memory to gather up every piece of information that might help him survive just a little longer.

“That is a colossal sorcery weapon with a Wicked God horn built inside. You need to stay on the move. Standing still will get you killed.”

The control sword he had been given felt so heavy.

It was short for a two-handed sword, but it still had a blade. Yet it did not feel remotely adequate.

He was always playing around in the mottled sunlight of this forest, but now it felt like the green stomach of great monster.

Something poured down from the sky at fearsome speed. But this was not from the bomber. After they whistled sharply through the air, explosions erupted on the ground. Miyabi snatched small Alma up from the ground and dove behind a nearby hill mere moments before a tree trunk thicker than him was transformed into a storm of splinters sharper than Beast Nova fangs and tore horizontally through the air. It might as well have been a solid wall of blades. Without his quick action, the two of them would have been shredded.

They never should have been illuminated by the sunshine this deep in the forest, but too many trees had been torn from the ground.

Who would have believed this was the result of lead masses fired high into the sky from outside the vast forest and allowed to drop back down from there?

It was a terrifying collection of sorcery technology.

It probably involved alchemy. Even a boy from a backwater village knew alchemy could do amazing things with metals and chemicals. Alchemical processing could apparently create massive fires and great heat.

“You okay, Alma?”

“Kyoo…”

He had to interpret any response at all as a good thing given the circumstances.

And that didn’t just apply to Alma. He was just an ordinary boy who had trouble keeping away the beasts of the forest.

However…

“For now, you can put off training your own body to move the way you want it. Learning to cross rivers and climb trees can wait until you have plenty of time to work on it.”

Those things had tremendous destructive power.

But that was not all they could do.

“Because right now, you can already make the terrain itself your ally. There was some weird static back when I transferred the contract to you, so maybe that’s why. …But anyway, learn when to use the creation and when to use the destruction. If you come across a cliff face, you can tear it down. Or if you want to climb over it instead, you can build up the land in front of it. Listen, you need to make everything around you into your ally. That’s a handy shortcut for turning you superhuman.”

(Are you kidding me? So if I keep this up, I’ll turn into one of those monsters too!?)

He heard more whistling.

The enemy shots were flying in from outside the forest, but the magic imbued in these ones did not wait until they hit the ground.

A blinding flash of light burst at a point in the sky and lightning crashed down all over the area. The attack dropped like a suspended ceiling to crush the entire field below.

“Ahhhh!?”

With the deadly blade in one hand and Alma in the other, Miyabi held his breath and scrambled out from behind the hill.

This was well beyond anything he could avoid on his own.

If this had been a wide-open field, a thick bolt of electricity would have crashed down on his head and roasted him. He was only still alive because this was a deep forest and the lightning was diverted toward the trees instead.

And that was not all that happened.

One shell passed over his head and hit well behind him, spreading a white frost in every direction. He had a bad feeling about what would happen if that caught up to him. He would probably be frozen solid in an instant.

“Alma!!”

He tightened his grip on his partner who resembled a white stuffed animal and ran like a bat out of hell. He jumped right over a hip-height stone, circled behind a simple charcoal burner’s hut, and crossed a river using the log lying across it.

The icy wave freezing everything white stopped when it reached the water, but Miyabi did not stop running. He quickly located an area with no bushes or other underbrush and rushed there. The next shell had to have already been loaded, so he had no time to breathe a sigh of relief.

Even with a special power in his grasp, all he could do was run away.

But at the same time, how was he still alive when his enemy was going to such lengths to kill him?

Instead of him parting the grass, he felt like the scenery itself was parting to let him through.

His enemy was using magical artillery.

Those alchemically-made projectiles were falling from the heavens like deadly rain, so the situation had already left “normal” far behind.

There had to be another power at play.

He had a way of fighting back. It did not actually boost his strength or muscles, but just knowing he could fight back allowed him to move the way he normally would instead of locking up with fear.

“Godhorn Tech Bomber – Lucifer Horn.”

He even had it in him to look into the blue sky overhead while he ran through the forest.

He was not just a helpless victim here. He could directly fight back.

“Is that monster really mine now?”

“Koo koo!” wailed the young life in his arm. Strangely, it was that nonhuman creature that reminded him what it meant to be human.

“That’s right. Surviving this comes first,” he muttered under his breath, reminding himself of his primary objective.

His feet carried him further through the green forest.

Even on the receiving end, it took him a bit to realize the density of fire was dropping. His opponent was not attacking as effectively. Instead of concentrating fire on his location, they were scattering shells across a wider area, hoping the target hiding in the forest would make a mistake and reveal his location.

Of course.

If even one of those happened to hit him, he would be killed just the same.

That was when he caught a glimpse of something through the trees.

He saw a gold color.

After a moment of confusion, surprise colored his face. That was blonde hair.

Given all the obstacles found in the deep forest, he had to be literally a stone’s throw away.

The voice he heard was of a lovely girl.

“We both possess Godhorn Tech, so why not cut loose and enjoy this?”

(She’s really close. And not even trying to hide!!)

That reminded Miyabi of a carnivorous beast standing at the top of the food chain. Instead of holding her breath and lying in wait for her prey, she would simply devour her prey because she was feeling a little hungry.

He had assumed she would be standing alongside the colossal weapon. He had assumed he still had a long way to go since it was nowhere to be seen. But there she was. She had left the collection of magical technology outside the forest far behind her while she continued on alone. For improved accuracy, she gave instructions from nearby her target and the alchemy shells would be launched over her head.

The boy cursed his right foot. He had taken the step before noticing her here, but it had still been careless of him.

The girl who reigned supreme had accurately detected his location through the trees.

“Celina, only daughter of the Bodenburg Company, at your service!!”

Several shells whistled down from the sky.

He decided it was fortunate she could not fire the shells directly at him. The arcing trajectory created a lag before they hit. He clenched his teeth and raced forward. The ground was torn up and blasted into the air over a few dozen meters of where they landed. Even trees standing more than 10 meters tall were obliterated like thin glass, so he was dead if he was caught in one of the explosions.

They were close enough for a raised voice to reach, yet the girl did not seem remotely afraid.

(Kh.)

“You okay, Alma?”

“Kyoo.”

Alma was dizzy and for good reason. The explosive blast and metal shrapnel were not the only threat. Even if they escaped the explosion itself, the booming noise was like a solid wall that sapped their strength when it hit them. But Miyabi knew all too well what would happen if he let his shaky legs come to a stop.

“My, my. Playing hide and seek, are we?”

In the near distance, the gold he had glimpsed between the trees slipped away.

Had she put more distance between them, or had she moved behind a thick tree to use it as a shield?

“Did you think that was enough to escape my company’s Schwarz Schütze!?”

That man’s voice played in his woozy mind like from a record player.

“Godhorn Tech does more than destroy. Especially for you with your unusual contract. If the firing is too intense to move in, try creating a Decoy Wall.”

“?”

For the first time, a change came over the girl singing happily deep in the forest.

As the shellfire only grew more intense, Miyabi tossed Alma to the side and held an empty hand out toward an empty patch of land.

The necessary words sprang unbidden from the depths of his mind.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Immediately, a green mass rose up with a dull thunk.

It was a wall. Each individual piece was a Palette Die, a piece of the undergrowth packed together into a box-sized mass, and enough of them linked together to grow taller than Miyabi himself.

The girl beyond the forest growth probably had two reasons to panic.

First, the simple fact that the sudden obstacle caused her to lose sight of Miyabi.

And second, a shell that was supposedly under her control suddenly veered off of its perfect arc like an invisible string had tugged on it.

The temporary barrier was obliterated, but that was its purpose.

Miyabi and Alma were out of danger while the enemy’s attacks were focused on the decoy, so they were already running to their next position. They were still on the run, but they could get by using that. And approach their enemy in the process.

“Your imagination is the limit. Right now, you can create anything out of the Palette Dice.”

That should not have been possible.

The power held by the boy and the girl was built for destruction and nothing else.

“Once you create something, you can register it with that control sword to automate the process next time. The materials used cost extra, of course. A momentary delay can mean the difference between life and death in battle, so it can’t hurt to reduce the time spent as much as possible.”

“Okay, let’s get closer to this Celina girl, Alma.”

“Kyoo.”

Miyabi got moving while encouraging the white slipper-sized creature that was feeling dizzy from all the loud noises.

They were still being targeted.

He could just barely avoid the shells by creating a Decoy Wall as tall as himself, but he was no bullfighter waving around a colorful cloth. He felt a squeezing at his heart whenever the dark soil was torn from the ground and the bark stripped from the trees.

He could barely breathe, but stopping was not an option.

Something far worse would happen to him if he did. Running away was meaningless when the entire vast forest was in her attack range. It would be as foolish as trying to run away from the lightning in a storm. But if he moved in close, she would be hesitant to fire shells that caused large explosions. He could taste the dark soil and the crushed grass on his lips, so he wiped them off with the back of his empty hand before taking the next step forward.

This was not a path worn down by animals.

He had to dodge thick trees and the knee-high underbrush and bushes caught at his legs. The squawking of the birds he disturbed made it hard to concentrate. When he stepped on a large rock, his foot slipped. He felt like the entire world was trying to get in his way. His fear was sharpening his senses, but the excess information only wore at his nerves more.

“The Decoy Wall will eventually be destroyed, but the enemy’s attacks will be focused on it while it lasts. You can approach the enemy head on during that time. The trick to survival is placing your next Decoy Wall before the previous one is destroyed.”

He couldn’t be that far away.

As the bird flies, he was literally a stone’s throw away. He had at least caught a glimpse of her blonde hair through the trees.

“Now, a single Decoy Wall isn’t going to gather every enemy’s attention. They can be weirdly picky. But for an enemy in the field, try making a field wall first.”

He heard a voice barely audible over the rustling of the leaves.

“A decoy meant to throw off my aim? You certainly know how to get under my skin.”

But he still tensed. Even though he knew the very simple equation of “stopping = death”.

“But that is meaningless if I just destroy everything in the area. My hail of bullets will crush you beyond recognition!”

Miyabi Blackgarden’s mind nearly went blank.

The rules had changed.

No longer were the massive shells flying high into the sky before dropping back down. One shot past right next to him. The thick forest of 10 to 15 meter trees and the dark soil below were torn away, leaving a massive ditch behind.

The girl herself was in between, but she still fired the weapon from behind her. Even though she would be destroyed if a shot strayed even slightly.

Then Miyabi’s nose detected further danger. This was not a whistling or the bright flash of magic, but he was certain of it.

“There’s something wrong with the air.”

By then, his uncertain concern had become a definite fear.

“Alma, jump into that ditch!”

“Koo!”

The many explosions all blended together at this point.

Destructive projectiles were released in a rapid-fire burst from right to left. These were smaller than the previous projectiles, but there were so many of them. A thousand, if not ten thousand, thumb-sized metal bullets were spewed out in the span of a single breath. He could not sense any human will behind the way the bullets surged and twisted around. He was reminded of the chameleons he had seen in picture books. The fearsome band of destruction struck back, pursuing them like a long tongue seeking its prey.

But just before it could reach them, Miyabi and Alma dove into the absurdly long and 2m-deep trench that had just been torn into the ground (by the girl’s own alchemy shell). Miyabi lived in a peaceful village and was unfamiliar with the idea of trench warfare, but he had known the trench was the only way to avoid having his and Alma’s flesh and blood splattered across the ground along with the splintered tree trunks and branches pouring down all around them.

The destruction was so great he was actually worried about the girl causing it. She could trust her weapon this fully if she wanted, but did she really understand what would happen if it screwed up?

However…

(Can I use this?)

The trench was only a meter or two deep, but that was better than nothing. If he stayed crouched, the rapid-fire sweeps would pass right over his head. He gestured Alma over with his head low and then continued further down the trench.

Dark soil and splinters poured down on him from above.

He looked up curiously and saw a tree trunk thicker than him flying his way.

“Koo!?”

“Tch. Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

He immediately raised a hand and a few cubes of dirt formed a flat panel in midair. He did not bother giving it any girders and just let the panel cross the ditch over their heads. It was a makeshift bridge, but he used it more like a roof. He grabbed Alma and dove beneath it in a panic just before a dull “boom!!” erupted overhead. The tree trunk bounced off the roof and flew in a different direction. The two of them would have been smashed by the giant tree hammer if not for that roof.

(This isn’t even a 1-on-1 fight. Just getting close to her is gonna get me killed.)

“Koo koo!”

“Yeah, I know. We just cheated death there, so I should record what I felt there. I’m not letting any of this get away.”

He recorded it in his control sword.

He decided to name it a Bypass Bridge.

It was said necessity is the mother of invention. Even if he only knew the saying from a major play. At any rate, free use of that bridge would likely come in handy for movement and defense. He wanted to make sure he could instantly construct one just by thinking the name in his head.

His target was the girl named Celina and he could not reach her by following this straight path torn into the ground. But he did have the sword he had been given.

“It’s okay, Alma. This isn’t a dead end. So calm down. Don’t panic.”

He spoke more to himself than Alma while awkwardly stabbing the double-edged sword into the ground, causing a magic circle to appear.

He still didn’t really know how to use it, but he mimicked what he had seen.

“ Lucifer Horn, take care of this.”

A massive form cut by overhead.

A thick beam of light dropped from heaven to earth and tore through the familiar forest like it was being dragged after the form in the sky. Up ahead, another trench was drawn perpendicular to the one he was in now.

Or that was the idea anyway.

Blinding light and a sizzling sound became his entire world.

The ground was torn apart.

“Kyah!?”

The girl must have been buffeted by the blast because he heard a surprisingly cute scream in the distance.

Miyabi himself was knocked to the ground and belatedly realized his mouth was full of dirt. After a few seconds, he spat it out. Not daring to get up, he grabbed his sword in one hand and Alma in the other before crawling forward like a slug. He managed to roll down into the straight line of destruction he had just created.

It was deep enough to hide him, making it a path of life. The beam must have melted the dirt or stone because the inside of the path had become smooth as glass.

“Kh.”

He got up, sat with his back against he still-hot wall, and took a deep breath.

“You all right, Alma?”

“…”

No response. It may have been upset with him.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

He held out his hand in a seemingly random direction.

The scattered glass, dark soil, and splinters gathered together to form a small doll. But this was more than just playing in the dirt. It was as well made as the dress-up dolls found on the item shop’s shelves. Miyabi himself was surprised to find he could make things like this instead of just walls, bridges, and other construction work. Alma accepted the reconciliation gift by hugging the prize in its front legs(?) while Miyabi ducked low and continued through the makeshift ditch.

They could not actually reach their goal this way.

The ditch continued in a straight line, but it did eventually end. If they climbed back up onto the surface, Celina would locate them again and they would be right back in the middle of that hellish hail of bullets.

Recalling the blinding light and deafening booms from before, Miyabi once more stabbed the tip of his sword into the bottom of the hole. It broke through the hardened glass-like ground to reach the soil below.

Doing this scared him.

It scared him a lot, but he needed more.

“Lucifer Horn, get me right over there. Use intersecting strikes to build a connected path!”

His senses were more used to it the second time.

The bomber soared across the sky, dropping a thick beam of light that tore through the ground along its path.

It repeated the process to add a few more ditches at different angles. Was the unseen girl relieved because she assumed the attacks had missed? He hoped so. If she realized this was meant to create trenches for him, then he would be killed like an ant as its colony was flooded with water.

“Let’s circle around toward her.”

“Kyoo.”

He continued through the zigzagging labyrinth built a level lower than the ground and gradually approached that strongest opponent. The depths of the trenches varied. Some were only hip deep, but others had walls that rose well over his head. Not too surprising since they had been created by tearing apart the ground with beams of light.

He continued on not so much because he thought he could win, but because he thought his trembling legs would stop if he did not have a concrete goal to work toward.

“Even Godhorn Tech users are ordinary people. They can be defeated by moving in close and getting a single attack in.”

Yeah, I’d noticed, silently griped Miyabi. That’s how you got injured and forced this pain-in-the-ass onto me.

“I think I can manage from here,” said Miyabi while pressing his thick gloved hands against the dirt wall.

“If you can’t reach the top no matter how much you jump or leap, then try gradually raising the ground to form steps.”

This was just like when he made the Decoy Wall.

He pictured the boxes in his head and held his hand out toward the surrounding dirt.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

“Godhorn Tech is powerful, so make sure you don’t trap yourself in a massive hole of your own creation.”

Packed soil quickly formed a stairway…or a close enough approximation. The steps were too tall, making it hard to climb, but he would just have to deal with that. And this time, he had deactivated the “lure” effect the Decoy Wall had used. He did not want his stairs to direct Celina’s alchemy shells right into the trench. Deadly metal shards would quickly fill his entire world if that happened.

He now had stairs.

This also looked useful in a wide variety of situations. He had created it out of necessity, but it couldn’t hurt to register it in his control sword. Then again, his opponent might not give him the chance to use it any other situation.

“I should probably give it a good descriptive name. Layer Stairs should work for now.”

“Koo!”

The Decoy Wall, the Bypass Bridge, the doll, and now the Layer Stairs.

He did not know how much he could do with this and he did not have time to test it, but he wondered if he could create an entire house or tower if he knew what he was doing.

(The power of destruction is much simpler and plenty scary, but this creation is disturbing in its own way. For one, how am I moving any of it when I’m not even touching it? I hope it isn’t sucking out my stamina or life force or something.)

Because he did not understand how it worked, he felt a shudder crawling from his fingertips to the core of his body. He forced that down and slowly climbed the pseudo-stairs while staying low. He was moving as cautiously as a lizard.

(It isn’t about distance or direction.)

He used every bit of amateur knowledge he had.

He loathed every single noise he made. The rustling of his clothing and his audible gulping pissed him off.

Alma started moving out ahead, so he grabbed it by the back of the neck to stop it while he tried to find anything he could to give himself hope. He had not even made the actual attack yet, but his heart already felt like it was going to burst from tension.

(I want to get between Celina and that Godhorn Tech in the distance…did she call it Schwarz Schütze? A shell that massive will tear right through me and she won’t want to blow herself up.)

He detected a sweet aroma.

It was more like honey than flowers.

But he consciously held his breath while hiding behind a bush.

He was smelling fancy black silk, an artificial perfume, the starch to get the wrinkles out of clothing, and the beads of sweat appearing on the young girl’s skin.

She was even closer than he had thought.

He and Alma may have been more sensitive to artificial smells because they were on the brink of death and coated in dirt and plant juices, but she was still only 10 meters away at the most.

And she did not seem to have noticed them yet.

Now that he had a better look at her, he really could not believe she was causing so much destruction. She looked 14 and maybe younger. Either way, she was definitely younger than him. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was parted to the sides with pure gold hair clips and every bit of her white skin was smooth and well cared for, giving her the shine of a stage actress. She wore a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems, which was not exactly hiking attire. On her legs and feet, she wore black knee socks and polished pumps. And despite wearing a long skirt, the front was left wide open, leaving her thighs exposed. All in all, her dress looked a lot like a giant jewelry bag.

If that were all, he might have looked like he was hiding in the bushes and plotting to attack a noble girl who had gotten lost in the mountains.

But a stock was pressed casually against a shoulder that looked as delicate as glasswork. That stock was joined by a flintlock mechanism, a gun barrel, and a sinister blade attached below the barrel.

In other words, this was one of the bayonet-equipped hunting rifles preferred by residents of the underground.

“…”

Yes, gunpowder and lead.

In a world run by magic, guns were the symbol of outlaws. Even in forestry villages where encounters with wild animals were common, bodyguards and hunters primarily used bows and arrows enhanced by magic. Guns, on the other hand, were expensive, but required no talent to use and supplied the same deadly force to anyone who used them. They were an uncontrollable weapon that could destroy the order of a village or entire kingdom if enough people had them.

Also, Miyabi recognized the material used for this one.

Without thinking, he glanced down at the double-edged sword he held in his hand. That control sword was made from the same material as that rifle larger than a folded umbrella. That meant the gun was a control device as well. Miyabi and Celina had both been entrusted with an embodiment of destruction capable of tearing apart the scenery in a single strike.

He had already known that.

He could not let his guard down.

“My Bodenburg Company must prove we can provide the world’s greatest distribution.”

The wind carried the girl’s sighing voice toward him.

He doubted the statement was meaningful.

It was an obvious display of confidence, an obvious provocation, an obvious threat.

But…

(Is it only bluster?)

He frowned behind the bushes while close enough to pick up her scent.

(Is she saying that to mask how afraid she really is? Because she’s lost sight of us? Or is she feeling rattled because she can’t seem to defeat us despite supposedly having the strongest power?)

“That is why our prized Schwarz Schütze is here and that is why I am here! Yes, I will defeat you to claim the title of strongest for myself, prove that we can provide the continent’s safest trade route by blowing away any bandits or disasters that might threaten the products en route, and thus establish the Bodenburg Company as the ultimate brand!! Yes, yes, nothing can stop me now.”

Don’t let her get to you, thought Miyabi, shaking his head.

He might have found an unexpectedly human side to her, but he still had to keep moving. He had a goal too. If he let this half-formed empathy stop him, he would be wasting his one and only chance.

So.

He grabbed the sword’s grip in both hands and burst from the bushes.

“Ah! When did you get-!?”

Celina turned toward the sound of feet on the grass, looking just like a girl who thought she saw a ghost while out at night. Even though her sinister rifle was aimed accurately his way with the stock against her shoulder.

And…

“Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, obliterate him!!”

The metal giant waiting outside the forest could be heard moving even here. It had to be aiming all of its many cannons his way.

He thought his heart was going to freeze.

Yes.

Miyabi was borrowing a power. His dull machete, which could not even slice through thick branches, had been replaced with a sharp-edged control sword, he could create any number of tools or obstacles just by holding out his hand, and Lucifer Horn could perform aerial bombings with destructive light.

He had thought he could somehow get by if he only had to face the rifle.

So his extreme tension came from something else.

“Are you stupid!? You’ll hit yourself too!”

“An acceptable result. My goal here is absolute victory.”

Her voice was cold.

His eyes met hers as she peered at him through the gun sight next to a large half-rotted tree.

“You must die here to prove this is the strongest Godhorn Tech!!”

Time seemed to stop inside Miyabi. Only that man’s voice echoed through his head. His mind focused solely on the goal he had set for himself.

“I’m leaving my Godhorn Tech with you, so don’t you forget this one thing.”

“You have just one task here.”

“And that isn’t to defeat Miss Celina!!”

How had this happened?

Answering that requires rewinding time a little.

### 003. Chapter 1 Section 2

My everyday life has just a hint of the mysterious mixed in.

But I only ever thought of it as providing a nice spice to life.

So never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be forced into eating a giant plateful of pepper.

“Kwehh.”

A silly-sounding cry echoed through the forest.

The sun managed to penetrate the treetops, so this forest was not all that dark and dank. Technically, it was only that way because people had cut down some of the branches. The biggest of the trees were so thick you could have made a decent-sized boat by felling them and hollowing them out, the plentiful underbrush filled the small herbivores’ stomachs, and lovely flowers colored the gaps between it all. The wide variety of the forest’s vegetation made it a valuable resource to Miyabi and the other villagers. They loved and looked after the forest just like a fisher loved the ocean and a potter loved the earth.

Miyabi Blackgarden wore enough clothing to protect his skin from the sharp branches and stiff leaves and something lay at his feet. It looked a lot like a white slipper-sized stuffed animal, but it was actually a living thing. It was covered in white fur, it walked on its hind legs, and it could skillfully operate its front legs like hands. Its most notable feature was the single round horn growing from the center of its forehead.

“Eh? Are you tired, Alma?” Miyabi looked down at the mysterious creature that had lay down on its back to say it had given up. “We’re here for your food because you always eat through everything I get you. C’mon, let’s go.”

“Koo!”

They knew this forest well. It might look wild at first glance, but the people who frequented it knew it had paths for people to follow and anything blocking out the sunlight overhead could be cut away with a machete or saw.

Miyabi was only an apprentice. He had grown up in a foresting village, but he was only now able to travel through the forest without a guide leading the way. His master knew exactly how to use your blade to make the mountain happy, but he had not reached that point himself.

(Now, then.)

He trudged onward through the underbrush (while dreading the thought of angering his master by stepping on a rare herb or bud) and he came up with a mental list like he was preparing to go shopping.

(I need to find something I can feed Alma with. Let’s start with the deep forest.)

“Koo koo!”

The ground at his feet was growing awfully noisy.

“What? You don’t smell anything tasty in here?”

Alma could not speak human language, but Miyabi could get the gist of it from the creature’s gestures and expressions. It helped that Alma was bipedal and used human gestures with its front legs.

“I’m looking for firewood. Hm, I guess I could cut off this thing’s branches.”

“Koo!?”

“You can’t eat firewood? Yeah, I know. But I can sell the firewood and use the money to buy you food. A dozen of these will probably get me around 5 methods.”

“Koo?”

Bipedal Alma put a hand (leg?) on its mouth and tilted its head. That gave the same “koo” a different nuance.

He was only an apprentice, but he could be patronizing when he had someone who would listen to him.

“Then you can eat bread, fish, or whatever you want,” he said with an air of smugness.

“Koo koo!!”

“I could charge even more if I made charcoal out of it. Then you could have some dessert too.”

“Kyooi☆”

“That’s right. We can do anything as long as we’ve got this forest and its trees. They’re what puts dinner on the table.”

Alma began hopping up and down at Miyabi’s feet while he pointed this way and that.

A few thinner branches were sticking out relatively low down on the tree trunks. Their presence did not seem quite natural, so the adults may have intentionally left them behind for the apprentices.

Miyabi drew a large machete from its sheath.

The goggles on his forehead were meant to protect against sawdust, but he rarely had a chance to use them. They distorted his vision enough to cause dangerous mistakes in his work.

Growing up in this peaceful rural village had left him much more familiar with blades than his peers in the cities. Despite what the plays would have you believe, cooks and carpenters knew a lot more about blades than legendary heroes.

“Let the trees grow wild and the dirt will rot, so cutting them back is an important job.”

(Not that they let me look after the trees much since I’m still in training.)

For today, he limited himself to only cutting away the lower branches that got in his way. He used the large machete he wore at his hip. It could be used to cut back the flora and to repel the smaller forest fauna. But it was not meant for actual hunting, so it would only discourage the animals from approaching. Even with that self-defense, he knew he needed to make a quick escape if he ran across any of the Beast Novae whose heads came up above his hips.

In fact, he was thoughtlessly swinging that machete when it bounced back with a dull clang. But it had not been bested by the tough scales of a legendary dragon. It had simply failed to cut through a thicker branch.

“Ow!?”

“Koo koo!”

Alma’s cries were not out of concern. Its eyes were bright as it urged him to hurry up with the branches so it could be fed.

Miyabi shook his hand, grimacing at the tingling coming from the machete’s grip.

“It’s no use. I can’t cut through that. You would need a really nice blade or one with a magically-enhanced edge.”

This was all he could do.

A machete found lying around the village was not going to be all that sharp and an apprentice like him could not use any real magic. With the Search Sign magic, the trees he could and could not cut through would have glowed different color, making the difference obvious at a glance. But only because the adults had marked them in advance.

Just then, he heard a lovely girl’s voice from above. But instead of a tree trunk or branch, it came from the top of a boulder.

“Hold it right there, human. What do you think you’re doing in the territory of the proud elves!?”

She spoke in a way more reminiscent of a wrinkly old woman or a muscular and mustachioed military commander, but she was in fact a lovely girl. She was an old hag who had spent an eternity at the age of 13 or 14.

Miyabi looked up at the figure in a white dress holding a wooden staff.

“Just when I thought I might get some peace and quiet today.”

“Wha-?”

She had distinctive long ears parting her long blonde hair and they rose in indignation.

He didn’t care, so he ignored her.

“C’mon, Alma. Let’s give her a wide berth. Slowly now.”

“Koo…”

“Get your human butt over here!”

The elf had a garland of flowers on her small head and tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

“B-but not because I climbed too high and am too scared to get back down! Just climb up here now!”

It could be hard to believe, but Alicia Blueforest there was the ruler of the forest.

If he was cruel to her, she would…no, the village elders would be angry with him and they might just begin a strange ritual where they presented offerings to her. So Miyabi sighed and walked toward the sharp boulder.

It was about three times his height, but that was difficult enough since he could not use much magic. He tried to avoid cliffs whenever possible, but he had learned firsthand how to move through the forest. You could even say the forest had been his playground since he was little. He viewed the entire boulder, spotted the handholds, and arrived at the top only a few minutes later.

Alicia sat down in relief when he arrived. She was only equipped with a white dress thin enough for light to pass through, a garland of flowers on her head, and a wooden staff, so he imagined it had to hurt to sit on the rough rock.

“Phew, finally made it. Okay, let’s get down from here, elf hag.”

“Oh, no!?”

The hag lifted her small butt a bit from the rock and held down her dress with both hands.

“Y-you saw, didn’t you? Thanks to that miraculous low angle!?”

“Do I have to shove you off to get you down?”

“Oh, Alma! I knew you would valiantly come to my aid!”

The instant she saw the slipper-sized thing scramble up to the top with its little arms(?) and legs, Alicia was all smiles. She sat back down and spread her arms to welcome it with all her might.

Then she drooped an extreme bombshell.

“Yes, a juvenile Wicked God just has a brighter soul than some filthy kid.”

A Wicked God.

That was a terrifying term, but neither Miyabi nor Alicia seemed bothered by it.

And when she hugged it and rubbed her cheek against it, Alma only looked like a stuffed animal that had learned to resist. It pushed back at Alicia’s cheek with its small front legs. Using a surprising amount of strength.

“It is truly tragic that this average face was the first thing you saw upon hatching. It could have been any face, so why this bland and average one?”

“Alma, leave her here. It’s time we got going.”

“Don’t! You! Dare!” The profoundly aged elf began to throw a tantrum. “I am going too! You are taking me with you! I hate that you must always be with Alma due to that blasted imprinting effect, but it is not everyday you get to observe a real live Wicked God! Hmph!!”

Alicia was ready to do this, but Alma slipped from her arms and clung to Miyabi’s leg. It looked a lot like it was peeking nervously out from behind a pillar or tree. It was seriously turned off by her behavior.

“K-koo…”

“Agreed. Let’s get down from here.”

Miyabi slid down the 5 or 6 meters of rock, leaving Alicia behind, but then she more or less rolled off after him. She had been terrified of that height, but now she dropped down in an instant. An elf’s bodily structure was different enough to make her much sturdier than a human. Afterwards, Miyabi was left wondering about the mismatch between the fancy, transparently-thin dress and the thick cotton underwear.

Since climbing up or down the boulder did nothing to fill Alma’s stomach, Miyabi got to work chopping down some branches that were in the way, but it was really awkward with Alicia, ruler of the forest, right there. The more serious he tried to look, the more he felt like she was going to erupt at him about how bad his technique was. She even gave him a look of supreme confidence.

If she wanted to, she could learn anything she wanted about the forest’s health. And without using the Search Sign magic that would cause any small scratches and marks to glow. She knew the forest better than anyone, so she knew the state of the greenery without relying on the codes used by the human workers.

She walked out ahead but looked back after noticing something.

Her mischievous smile suggested she had read something on his face.

“Ga ha ha. Build up that experience and you’ll make it eventually, boy. I’ll keep you company until you do. Because if there’s one thing elves have to spare, it’s time.”

“…”

That was disappointing.

It depressed him to know just how pathetic his skills apparently were. He felt so stupid for acting patronizing with Alma earlier.

But regardless…

“Okay, that should about do it.”

“Hey, you’re in trouble.”

A male voice interrupted out of nowhere.

The oddly scratchy voice initially surprised Miyabi, but he jumped for real once he realized it had come from the thing hanging from the strap around Alicia’s neck.

“Koo!?”

“What’s that box? It just talked!”

“This is no box, ignorant human.” The idiot triumphantly put her hands on her hips. “It is a crystal radio built around a philosopher’s stone. You could call it a fount of wisdom.”

“Well, this is nothing like the radios we have,” added the radio itself. “No headphones, for one.”

“This is the ultimate objective of alchemy. Everything in the world is stored in here, but the true stroke of genius is how it takes that silent crystal of wisdom and converts it into a form anyone can understand!”

“That’s not for you to get smug about, Miss Overgrown C-cups. Tall or short, all elves are supposed to be flat as a board. This is basic stuff here.”

“Hm. That, however, is utter nonsense. Is it picking up some other signal?”

“???”

Miyabi could only tilt his head.

Was that a highly technical discussion you needed extensive knowledge of alchemy to understand?

He could not decide whether that was a high-level or low-level conversation.

The radio was not done, though.

“Hold on, I sense the pheromones of an oppressive adult teacher. It’s her . No doubt about it.”

Miyabi’s shoulders shook at the way the radio said “adult”.

He could guess who it meant: Helen Clockgear.

That adult woman was not someone he wanted to get caught by, but for a different reason than with Alicia. Behind her back, the village’s small children had nicknamed her Lecture Lady and Glasses Boobs, which should be sufficient to make a decent guess what she was like.

“You’d better hide fast or you’ve got a looong lecture in your immediate future. You can mash the button all day and the scene never ends. You can put up with it for ages without any choices popping up! So unless you get off to a beautiful woman dressing you down, I’d get running!!”

Sneaking was their only option at this point.

Luckily, the forest provided plenty of hiding places. Beyond the tall trees and giant boulders, there were also curtains of vines hanging down thick enough to use in a game of hide and seek. That could end tragically if there happened to be a swarm of bugs in the vines, however.

They could hear the woman clearly.

Turning around now would make too much noise of their own, so they crouched down in pursuit of cover while moving in a large, slow circle around her.

Her voice reached them on the wind.

“If you ask me, Wicked Gods themselves are frightening enough as giant dragons and krakens, but they pose an even greater threat than that since their horn can be broken off and built into a machine to create those things that even major kingdoms fear. I am not monitoring you because it’s my idea of fun. The Republic has deemed it a necessary measure given the risk. Alma might look small and adorable now, but it is still a Wicked God and will eventually grow larger than a mountain. You took it in without knowing what you were doing and what’s done is done, but do you have any kind of plan for the future there, Miyabi? You certainly don’t seem to! Ahem, um, where was I? Oh, right.”

“Wh-what the hell? Is she rehearsing her lecture for me!? We’re this deep in the forest and she’s talking to yourself!?”

“Sh! If she finds us here, the lecture will be ten times worse. She will use our attempt to hide against us, so just wait it out!!”

Alicia was pushing against him from the side to fit behind the same bush. Miyabi’s primary takeaway was how painful her long ear felt stabbing into him.

That glasses woman had taken her lectures beyond the level of a job. It was more like a way of life for her. She took everything too seriously and may have even been addicted to it.

The worst part? She was a government official sent from the Republic’s capital.

Miyabi and the others fled that cursed area of forest like they had just witnessed an overstressed person sticking nails into dolls night after night.

Or they thought they had.

But just as they breathed a sigh of relief, they heard a rustling in the bushes behind them.

“Oh, there you all are!”

Miyabi’s breath just about caught in his throat, but he suppressed that and turned around with a smile.

Helen Clockgear looked like a beautiful black-haired young woman in glasses. The chest of her top was left unbuttoned, the button below her large chest was actually fastened yet her navel could still be glimpsed below that, and to top it all off, the shortness of her tight skirt was a source of endless fascination for Miyabi. Now, if he were to express that fascination, the strong-willed young woman was liable to answer him with a slap, but her appearance at least would undoubtedly earn a 5 out of 5 score. Assuming the judges were teenage boys, anyway.

If Alicia was a carefree angel, then Helen was a stickler of a demon.

Also, Helen was not an elf.

She had round human ears. She claimed to be an observer sent by the Republic.

“Out preparing to feed Alma again? I will accompany you. The Republic wishes to know everything that Wicked God does, after all.”

“Hot damn! Now that’s what I call jiggle physics. Where’s this world’s controller? Shaking it might make those things go wild.” The pervert of a philosopher’s stone then turned to complain to the elf. “See, if you were willing to take it that far, I might forgive your lack of flatness. That in-between crap isn’t gonna make anyone happy.”

“Silence, stray signal. All breasts have their own unique charm.”

“Whoa!? Did that box just talk!?”

The young woman showed off her intellectual nature by holding a finger to the side of her glasses as she jumped in surprise, but the tiny elf decided to pick a fight with her.

“Anyway, you Republic people are only interested in Alma’s horn.”

The horn.

Miyabi sensed a greater stir over that word than anything else. Even more than a mention of the juvenile Wicked God itself.

(…?)

“The Republic hopes to construct one of those with a Wicked God horn, don’t they?”

“…”

The big and little ladies silently glared at each other until they were interrupted by the most tactless individual present.

“Excuse me. I do hate to interrupt two lovely ladies getting worked up over nothing, but I must insist.”

“What is it, scrapbox?” Alicia grumbled down at the radio hanging from her neck.

“You might want to take a look at the sky. I’ve been detecting some faint noise in the signal for a bit now.”

That thing never seemed to take anything seriously, but its skill (function?) was real. The elf had said she used her (near limitless) spare time to create a crystal with alchemy.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I sense one of those horns you two are so obsessed with. Trouble always has a way of finding you, doesn’t it!?”

With a great roar, something massive cut by overhead.

Miyabi had no idea what this meant.

A moment later, all the trees, branches, and leaves in the forest were subjected to a powerful blast of wind. Helen predicted the wind’s direction and pressed her back against a tree and Alicia staggered while holding her skirt down with both hands.

That thing was…not alive.

It had to be several dozen meters long and it resembled a colossal bird or dragon with enormous wings, but the collection of straight and curved lines had the glint of metal and glass not found in nature and something about its design looked artificial. Something built by human hands had instantly stolen the leading role from the natural scenery.

It may have been something like a hanger made from bat wings.

But it was unbelievably large and sinister.

“Koo!”

“Hyah!? …You didn’t see, did you?”

“Didn’t see a thing, Cotton Elf Hag.” Miyabi kept a straight face. “Anyway, what was that huge thing!? A ship? A castle? This isn’t making any sense!”

“Godhorn Tech,” muttered Helen Clockgear.

The Republic official had a cold look on her face.

“…?”

“It is a symbol of humanity’s insatiable appetite for destruction,” said Alicia. “The supposedly untouchable Phoenix, Kraken, Fenrir, and more have their Wicked God horn broken off and used as the core for a giant sorcery weapon. The weapons are powerful enough to destroy an entire empire singlehandedly.”

She spoke like she had firsthand experience in the matter.

There was even a touch of anguish, like she was struggling to keep the memories sealed away.

“You’ve got a freaking flying wing bomber in a swords and sorcery fantasy world?” said the radio. “Everything about those Wicked Gods is crazy. How’s the thing even fly without producing any lift?”

“Th-this is serious. What is one of those doing inside the Republic!?”

“Koo…”

“Are you kidding?” The small elf sounded more exasperated than anything as her long ears twitched and she stared into the distance. “I don’t think that one in the sky is the only one.”

A heavy metallic boom shook the air, but this was different from that thing the radio had called a bomber. Another dark mass of metal sat on the ground far, far in the distance. It had to be more than 400m and maybe even more than 500m. Either way, it was large enough to see from within the deep forest. It appeared to rise up like a mountain.

It was a train.

Miyabi had never left this small village and had only ever seen that vehicle in picture books, but this one had sinister tools of killing installed all over it. Namely, cannons. It was like a cross between a train and a warship (another thing the mountain boy was unfamiliar with), but some people would have known the proper name for it: an armored train.

Helen had always been the capable glasses woman in front of Miyabi, but now her mouth flapped like she could not find any oxygen.

“T-two…users?”

“A duel? A deathmatch? Damn, are they really about to pit those huge-ass things against each other???”

The philosopher’s stone’s overly carefree (and baffling) comment must have gotten through to the Republic official because her eyes widened behind her glasses.

“P-pit them against each other? Do they have any idea how much damage a clash between Godhorn Tech will do to this area!?”

Just then, Alma’s head jerked up.

Miyabi should have been paying more attention.

“Koo!!”

Alma took off running, but not away from the conflict. It ran further into the forest.

Had that juvenile Wicked God sensed something?

“Ah. Hey, Alma!!”

Miyabi ran after it, but then he felt a shudder crawling up his spine.

Stop there.

Have Alicia and Helen stop as well, warned some instinctual part of him.

“Um, Alic-”

Immediately afterwards, the world split apart .

Quite literally.

Just as he looked back to have those two stay put, a powerful impact hit him from below and he flipped over. The ringing in his ears was bad and his vision blurred, so he initially thought the problem was in his own head.

The ground was gone.

The flat forest he had just been running through was now audibly cracking open like a broken cookie. The cracks continued to grow even now. That kept him from even standing on the edge to see what things were like at the bottom.

“Whoa!?”

He had his hands full just not falling in himself.

The cracks raced out and he had to crawl on all fours to scramble away from the newly slanted land. Approaching the edge would only men sliding off and being dumped down with all the dirt.

“Miyabi!!”

Helen called out to him from the other side of the newly-formed chasm.

He thought she was going to give him some clever solution. Or maybe come to his rescue by throwing him a rope or building a makeshift bridge.

But the adult woman did nothing of the sort.

“There’s nothing I can do for you here, so just stay away from the edge! Don’t even think about trying to cross it. The cracks might continue to spread, so it’s too dangerous!!”

“Wait, how far do these cracks go? How deep!?” shouted Alicia. “There had better not be any miasma seeping out from the depths to corrupt my sacred forest!!”

Not even the grownups could help.

His world felt a lot smaller all of a sudden. A great pressure weighed on him like the scene around him was ready to collapse in on him at any moment. He felt like he had been thrown from the box labeled “safety” before he had time to grow up. He could not meet back up with Alicia and Helen even though they were right there. He did not know what was happening, but the ground had shaken violently a few times already. He had to stay away from the edge.

But that was no guarantee of his safety.

He had to keep himself alive now. That basic rule of life weighed on him more than ever before.

(Where’s Alma?)

He looked around and spotted the color white.

The creature was using its small body to slip below some bushes.

“Get back here!!”

“Oh, hey, Miyabi!” called Helen. “Where should we regroup!?”

“We can’t do it anywhere around here,” said Alicia. “Those kids are nothing but trouble. We need to find somewhere to circle around all this damage!”

“Got it. Let’s see, where did I put my map of the forest?”

“I don’t need you to guide me. I know this forest like the back of my hand, so follow me!!”

As expected, the impacts and shaking did not stop. The ground quaked from time to time.

Something was happening.

Miyabi felt certain he would be happier in the long run if he never saw whatever this was.

“Koo koo!”

“Wait, Alma! Dammit, I hope the others managed to get away!”

Alma was unusually quick today. It kept slipping between rocks and below bushes, so he had to pay careful attention to avoid losing sight of it.

(I don’t believe it. The thing’s heading further and further in.)

They kept moving farther away from Alicia and Helen. Those two had said they were finding a way around that large crack running side to side, but how far had they gone?

“Godhorn Tech,” muttered Miyabi while chasing after Alma.

Those massive sorcery weapons were built around a Wicked God horn so humans could wield a Wicked God’s power.

“What do I do if I run across someone who controls something like that?”

Alma’s stuffed animal body came to a sudden stop.

Miyabi finally managed to snatch it by the back of the neck, but Alma flailed all four limbs to struggle. The forest’s trees thinned out up ahead and he sensed someone there. Shocked, he hid behind a thick tree before peeking out at the scene.

“There they are.”

“Koo.”

“I’ve never seen them before, but those have to be the Godhorn Tech users, right?”

One was a girl.

Her shoulder-length blonde hair was tied on either side and she wore a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems, which was not exactly hiking attire. But she was given a sinister appearance by what she held in her hand: a hunting rifle with one of those bayonets the nobility loved so much. Miyabi lived in the forest, but even his village only used bows to keep animals away. The only guns he had ever seen were wielded by the gangs in plays. The girl holding the strange flintlock rifle was unfamiliar to him. She was an outsider, not one of the villagers.

The other was a young man older than Miyabi.

He had long red hair and he wore a fancy jacket and pants. But he did not have the look of a nobleman. He would have looked more at home hunting down pirates aboard a warship. The term “prodigal son” fitted him to a tee.

He held an enormous double-edged sword.

Miyabi doubted he would even be able to lift the thing.

“I can’t believe this.” The young man was the first to speak. “I don’t want to battle you to the death, you know?”

“Maybe you don’t, but I do.”

The girl was undaunted.

She must have been relying on more than just that glistening rifle. Some deeper, more fundamental part of her being remained unshaken. Even though she was all alone deep in the forest and confronting a man wielding a sword large enough to smash through armor.

“I, Celina of the Bodenburg Company, shall defeat you, Moebius Entrance, and take the title of strongest Godhorn Tech!”

In fact, the young man called Moebius seemed taken aback.

“That’s all?” He looked like he very much wanted to believe he had misheard. “You’re going to split the continent apart in a Godhorn Tech battle for nothing more than that?”

“Oh? Reputation is everything in business.” The blonde girl – Celina? – laughed and did not hesitate to reply. “Especially when it comes to the trust the Bodenburg Company would earn if we could wield the strongest power to construct safe trade routes where not a single thief can approach the products.”

“Is that so? But I don’t see how this area could possibly survive that.”

Miyabi’s shoulders jumped while he pressed his back against the other side of the thick tree.

He might not understand the situation, but he could not let that statement slide. These people were very clearly talking about his village and the forest around it. Without giving the villagers a say.

“And I’m not just talking about scorched earth or a crater. The terrain itself will be altered. Got anything to say about that? Once it’s done, it’s too late to start feeling a pang of regret in that promising chest of yours, young lady.”

“I will ignore your incessant rudeness for now.” The blonde girl’s smile was unbroken. “It is true I would prefer to avoid profitless environmental destruction, but we are talking about an undeveloped forest in the middle of nowhere. No one even lives here. In fact, if you think of this as me going out of my way to develop it into something more…”

They were making assumptions.

Without getting any of the locals involved.

“Once I blow this entire forest away…yes, I know. My company can take responsibility and remake it into one of the finest resorts on the continent. Will that be acceptable?”

“Not on your life, you idiot!! We live here!!”

Miyabi and Alma rushed out without considering the consequences.

Time ground to a halt.

“Ah.”

“You…”

He moved in between the two monsters.

The foolish action seemed to catch Moebius by surprise even more than it did Celina. He took his eyes off his enemy and shouted wide-eyed at the boy.

“You’re the idiot here!”

Miyabi honestly did not understand what happened next. To him, they were both invaders threatening to take away everything he had ever known.

Which was why it came as such a surprise.

Moebius Entrance shifted his position to protect the boy who was so out of his element.

The blonde girl grinned and moved her rifle.

She would grasp this opportunity, no matter how it had come about.

But instead of raising it to aim, she stabbed the bayonet into the ground.

And she sang.

“Armored Train – Schwarz Schütze: Tactical Open.”

A giant magic circle appeared at her feet.

Pressure followed.

This pressure was much “sharper” than what Miyabi felt when he encountered a wild animal in the forest. The invisible wall was so solid even an amateur like him could tell he was sensing the killer intent coming from a human being.

But the epicenter of the tremor was not the girl or the magic circle. It came from much, much further away. From something waiting outside the forest far behind the girl.

She laughed loudly while carrying that intense pressure.

“My, my. Thinking you can look after an amateur while facing down Godhorn Tech? Maybe you really are the strongest…if you can pull it off, that is. Ohhh ho ho ho!!”

He never heard the end of her laughter.

His vision was dyed white.

He did not hear anything for quite a while afterwards.

He had no idea how long it lasted.

Alchemy.

That word wavered in the back of the boy’s hazy mind as he lay on his back.

Alicia Blueforest had gotten hooked on the subject to make use of her extreme surplus of life. It apparently involved the research of metals and medicines, but he was pretty sure one specific application was “alloys”, a mixture of multiple metals. And researching medicines required methods of heating and cooling.

Yes.

Heat and metal.

It had not even felt like the attack was thrown in from a great distance. It had felt more like a lightning bolt of orange-glowing metal had dropped from the sky.

The instant it had hit the ground, the world had gone white and exploded.

That kind of destructive power was not possible with the large cannons seen in picture books. Alicia’s devotion to alchemy had resulted in that talking radio(?), so this felt like a different type of alchemy altogether.

At any rate, that was not something to be directed toward someone even on accident.

Miyabi wondered if that scorching blast could fight on equal or greater footing than an actual Wicked God .

He was glad Alicia and Helen had not come with him. He had not been directly hit, but all his joints still ached. All his organs were writhing and he was burning up, but he could not stop sweating. He was so very thirsty.

(Where’s Alma?)

The first thing he noticed was the unpleasant sensation of dirt in his hair. When he tried to get up, he found his head was heavy, but he forced himself to move regardless.

There was a cliff face in front of him.

Looking up from the ground, he could see it rose for probably 10m.

The thing was…he didn’t recognize it. The forest was basically his backyard, yet he could not figure out how he had found himself at the bottom of a cliff in an open field.

“Ow, ow…”

He still felt woozy, but he decided to take it as a good thing he could feel pain. His body had not been torn apart.

That was actually a surprise.

(This isn’t one of those stories where I’m dead but haven’t noticed yet, is it? I’m amazed I wasn’t hurt worse.)

“Alma, are you okay? Good, you don’t have any bumps.”

“Koo…”

“But where are we? The forest didn’t have a cliff like this, did it?”

Lying nearby, Alma looked up at the cliff as well. It was tall. It was also fragile, made from dark soil. He doubted he could climb that without special equipment. That meant he had to walk alongside it. He had been hoping to find a gentler slope up to the top, but the further he walked, the stranger he found this. Where was he? He was painfully reminded of his inability to use magic like a real expert. He was sure one of the village’s workers would have immediately known where they were.

But before long, the truth dawned on him. A painful and unwanted truth.

“Wait… is this new ? One blast from that dumb-looking Celina girl did this!?”

The terrain had changed.

The scenery had fallen apart.

This was far more power than any individual should ever wield. His mind was focused less on how exactly she had done it and more on how terrifying it was for this much power to be at the whim of someone’s emotions and personal interests.

Then he heard something.

“Ugh…”

He initially did not interpret it as a voice, so it slipped past his notice. He was not expecting to find anyone here.

But when he viewed the cliff face made from the crumbled, torn, and transformed terrain, he saw a young man groaning on his back with his torso trapped below a boulder embedded in the bottom of the cliff.

“Don’t call her dumb where she can hear you. She won’t go easy on you just cause you’re an amateur.”

“Who are you, old man?”

“Old…”

Moebius seemed more bothered by that than any crisis to the world, but Miyabi was too busy viewing the boulder and the dirt on top to notice.

“Are you trapped under that thing? D-damn, we’ve gotta do something!”

He was afraid touching it would cause the cliff of dirt to collapse, but he could not wisely give up when there was someone suffering.

However…

“Arrrgh…it won’t budge.”

“Koo.”

“Give it up. There’s nothing you can do.”

Moebius actually got after him for trying.

“But you protected us just now!”

“(You really should have been obliterated even with my protection.)” The young man muttered something under his breath. “(Was something interfering with Celina’s horn?)”

“Koo?”

Moebius looked to Alma who only tilted its head.

He sighed below the boulder.

“Anyway, I’m a goner, as you can plainly see. There’s just no way I can move now, so you two need to scram.”

“But…isn’t there anything I can do!? I know, I can find you some healing flowers.”

Paling, Miyabi looked around at the ground, but the young man smiled bitterly.

“I appreciate the thought, but there’s nothing you can do.”

“So you expect me to leave you to die!? When that monster of a girl is still wandering around!?”

“She’s not the problem.”

That made no sense.

Celina Bodenburg was an embodiment of destruction and the greatest threat.

She could transform the terrain in a single attack, she wanted him dead, and he was trapped below a boulder. Once she found him, he would either be obliterated right away or slowly tortured to death. An outsider like him would put his own life first. He wouldn’t care what happened to Miyabi’s village or the forest they had protected for generations. Had that pompous asshole even bothered to figure out that Alicia, Helen, and the others were in the forest? A single stray shell would be the end of them all.

Those Godhorn Tech users had waltzed in and decided to destroy everything for their own selfish reasons, so what else could there be? What could possibly be a greater problem?

Did something like that really exist and was that why the trapped man was putting himself second and staring up at Miyabi???

“It isn’t about the little lady. She isn’t even aware of it.”

Moebius’s gaze was calm but powerful.

As if to say he could not afford to die before he said this.

“So I wanted to get her to escape if I could.”

“What…?”

“This forest has been rigged with something far worse.”

“Rigged?”

That was an odd word choice.

Almost like some malicious person had been sneaking around and up to no good. It was a very different concept than the Godhorn Tech that, for better or for worse, was very in-your-face about the threat it posed.

“What’s this about the forest? And the village too? What are you talking about!?”

“Listen. I’ll explain it all.” Moebius could not speak all that loudly while collapsed on his back, but his words carried a strength that silenced panicking Miyabi. “Including my Lucifer Horn, there are currently 10 Godhorn Techs in existence. Different countries and companies built them for the prestige they bring,” he explained. “We know the number because they’re so dangerous there’s a registration system in place to keep track of them all. Each of the 10 is equipped with a Wicked God horn, so their energy can’t be denied.”

“Koo…”

“But a certain rumor has been going around among us.” He glanced over at worried Alma. “There’s an 11th somewhere out there.”

Even ignorant Miyabi felt like it was worth ignoring the pressing situation to hear this out.

“The 11th is completely unregistered and exists as a ‘shadow’ lurking below the surface.”

“There’s a monster on this level.” The boy felt faint. “Without any country managing them?”

“They stay hidden, causing devastation whenever they feel like it. And unlike the other 10, their Wicked God horn is not built into a weapon. They use the energy flowing from that horn to create massive sorcery bombs.”

That alone left the boy speechless, but the young man’s next statement only made it worse.

“ And these bombs are made to look identical to trees, rocks, or whatever else. ”

“…”

“Once the time comes, they go boom. Using the power of Godhorn Tech. In a way, it’s even worse because this power isn’t controlled. A castle town built of thick stone would be obliterated if it was in range of the blast.”

“But…”

If that was true, this open forest and remote village didn’t stand a chance.

Miyabi had already seen enough destructive power to literally rewrite the map and he could not think of any reason why Moebius would be lying now.

“Where is it? What does it look like?”

“They’re an artist.” That word felt terribly out of place. “You’ve seen those pâtissiers who can make sugar sculptures indistinguishable from real shoes or gems, right? This is the same. It might be a brick wall and it might be a wagon wheel – anything can be remade into a weapon of war. ”

“…”

“We’re talking about a formless Godhorn Tech. In a way, that makes it the most dangerous of them all.” The man breathed a heavy sigh. “The only good news is that the sorcery bombs are not delicate things. Simply put, you could throw one in the fire or run it over with a wagon and it wouldn’t go off. That means you can stop it from detonating by attacking and destroying it once you locate it. The complexity of the trigger condition works in our favor there. So as long as you know where it is, even an amateur can deal with it.”

“But why here!? What did we do to deserve this!?”

Still pinned below the boulder, Moebius shook his head.

He looked sincere for once, so he may have been ashamed of his inability to stop this.

“Like I said, the 11th is a shadow lurking below the surface. If we knew their reasons and could predict their next target, we would’ve stopped them by now. You can’t predict this person with any motive as simple as money or resentment.”

He finally got to his main point.

This expert wielded the strongest power and had pursued his foe this far, but now he had to raise the white flag.

“So run away. You might just survive if you run full speed away from the forest right this instant.”

“What?” Miyabi shook his head. He knew he was being unreasonable, but he could not stop himself. “You want me to what!? You yourself said the sorcery bomb thing is hidden somewhere in the forest, didn’t you!? How can I run away and leave that here!?”

“I’d agree with you, except for one thing: how do you plan to find it on your own?”

That shut him up.

Unlike the boy, Moebius was facing the reality of the situation.

“Like I said, even an amateur can deal with it once you know where it is, but that’s the trick. Locating it is the hardest part. Not even I could do it without borrowing some power from the Lucifer Horn flying up there.”

“…”

“So run away. The 11th’s sorcery bomb is bad enough, but the ignorant little lady’s Schwarz Schütze is a Godhorn Tech too. If she fires again on a whim – maybe just to be thorough – everything from here to the horizon will be irrevocably changed. So you need to run away before that happens. Got that?”

Miyabi could find nothing to say.

If he stayed, he would die. Trying to play the hero would accomplish nothing. He bit his lip, hesitated, exhaled, and turned toward Alma. Alma said nothing, simply staring up at him. He stopped there, like he was trying to keep his eyes off of Moebius.

“…”

At the last second, he stopped himself.

“What will you do?”

“I’m not exactly flush with options at the moment.”

“My village is here! And Celina will die once the time comes, won’t she!?”

Silence followed.

He had intended to spur Moebius to action, but he received the last response he had wanted.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t enough,” he spat. “Hey, you control that crazy Godhorn Tech weapon, right?”

“Yes, and?”

“Lend it to me.”

Moebius could not believe his ears.

Miyabi may not have understood what he was really asking here.

“Then I can move that boulder off of you, have Celina escape, and rescue Alicia, Helen, and the others still in the forest.”

Moebius’s know-it-all mask slipped. Or maybe Miyabi had shattered it.

The mere boy thought this was the right thing to do. If innocence was the only way to keep going and if knowledge would only make people freeze up with fear, then he was fine with not knowing anything here.

It was true that knowledge would help in the creation and destruction. It was a lot like knowing how to select and arrange firewood. But all the knowledge in the world still needed an initial spark to start the fire.

Miyabi did not know how to explain it in words, but he felt like anyone watching him would understand as long as he did not lie to himself.

He calmly looked up.

He told himself to face forward and create a path for himself.

“And lastly, I’ll destroy that sorcery bomb in the forest and save the entire village.”

Without warning, a beam of light dyed the blue sky pure white.

Miyabi was caught off guard.

Celina’s armored train had taught him that Godhorn Tech’s destruction could upturn the terrain and tear apart the scenery, but he still wasn’t prepared.

“I only wanted to destroy the boulder on top of that old guy.”

He had wobbled to the side and bumped into the massive boulder that had towered above him like a cliff face. But now it was broken and only rose to his hip height.

He stood atop a small hill.

No, that hill had not existed a moment before. The flat forest now had several steep drop-offs. The route of the mountains had entirely changed.

He had only wanted to get rid of all the dirt on top of Moebius. He had succeeded in that much, so the man was now freed.

But that was not all he had done.

The village had protected the forest for decades and centuries. The experienced workers had carved countless marks and signs into the branches and trunks of the trees. None of it meant anything anymore. Nothing would glow after using Search Sign magic. Miyabi had taken it all away. He had blatantly transformed the land itself.

He held a double-edged sword.

That was the control sword.

It was more compact than the one Moebius had used, but it still required two hands to use. It was a deadly tool clearly designed to kill. It carried a chill not found by the machetes and knives used to provide sustenance. No one would believe that his usual machete had twisted and transformed into this when he made the contract.

“How powerful is that thing?”

“Koo.”

“No one told me it would do that!”

The atmosphere was shredded as a giant winged shape passed by overhead.

That was the Lucifer Horn.

But he could not let it shake him. Moebius had dragged himself out from under the shattered boulder, but he was too badly injured to escape on his own. And if Celina was still in the forest, she would have seen Miyabi’s attack. Once she realized her enemy was alive and could fight, she would strike back.

To finish the job.

And not even Celina Bodenburg knew about the extra-large bomb hidden in the forest. If he screwed this up, then Moebius, Celina, Alicia, Helen, the forest, and the village would all be lost.

“Koo, koo.”

“You’re right. We saved Moebius, so now we need to find the 11th’s sorcery bomb.” Miyabi used his words to focus on his goal. “I need to save them all without dragging Celina into it.”

The only thing he had to rely on now were the things Moebius had told him. He had been thrown into the thick of it without any practice or training, so he might even destroy himself with this borrowed power.

“He said my Wicked God horn will resonate with the powerful energy.”

The horns resonated.

Or so Moebius had heard from a philosopher’s stone he had met before . Moebius himself understood it more by instinct, though.

(That means there’s more than one of those philosopher’s stones. To think there’s another alchemist out there weird enough to want to create such an annoying tool.)

Miyabi’s thoughts turned toward the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck, so he may have been trying to ignore the reality of his situation.

He was about to enter hell.

Each of the armored train’s shots could destroy the terrain itself and they would soon be raining from the sky. He would have to achieve his goal while running through that deadly downpour.

He did not know who had set up the sorcery bomb, but he could not allow it to detonate.

“The sorcery bombs can be disguised as anything, but there is a way to locate them.”

He focused his mind.

It felt like gathering strength between his eyes.

He ignored the explosive blasts, imagining himself in a tranquil cave.

And he focused on his ears.

“It’s a lot like a sound. Pay attention for a high-pitched ringing in your ears that never goes away. That means there’s one in your area. The shorter the gaps between sounds, the closer you are. It might be a stump or a boulder, but you need to destroy it once you find it. The blast won’t trigger it early, so just focus on destroying it.”

He heard a high-pitched whistling.

He ran away, just barely getting out of the blast radius, but the cracks in the ground caught up to him and Alma. The two of them fell to the bottom of the crater.

That had not just been a mass of metal.

Magical shells made with alchemy came in many forms, including lightning and ice.

But he had still managed to approach his target.

He could hear something else, but not with his ears. It seemed to come from the center of his body. It was precise as the ticking of a clock and higher pitched than the previous whistling.

He had finally found what he was listening for.

He sighed in relief at this step in the right direction, but this also meant it really was here. If he did not track it down and destroy it, his home village would be destroyed.

“I doubt Miss Celina knows it’s there.”

Moebius had sounded certain and his voice had carried something other than anger or resentment.

“She’s doing everything she can to protect the organization created by her parents. …Please. Will you save her since I’m too useless and stupid to do it myself?”

After climbing out of the crater, Miyabi held out his empty hand. He packed together a bunch of undergrowth to create a Decoy Wall. It drew Celina’s fire to divert it away.

“ So with this contract, I can make a request to the Wicked God horn using Demon Lord Under Lilith as an intermediary? ”

“Koo?”

“And he said I can only use it like this because of an error in the contract transfer. I think he said it unnaturally expanded the abilities normally used for maintenance and repair of the Godhorn Tech.”

The whole thing creeped him out.

The power to destroy was frightening enough, but this change was something not even Moebius understood.

But right now, he had to recite the lines whether he liked it or not.

“And if it gives me an edge, I’ll take it.”

He left the Decoy Wall behind, jumped into the trench created by Celina’s straight-line blast, and used the bomber’s support to send sharp beams of light tearing through the forest. He crossed that labyrinth of interconnected trenches to gradually approach the strongest girl while avoiding the machinegun fire.

The ringing in his ears changed.

With every step he took, the space between the high-pitched noises shrank.

He was closing in.

This had to be the correct direction.

He looked up from his improvised trench. That did not actually give him a view ahead, but his ears picked something up.

Something other than the inner response to the sorcery bomb.

“Father, mother, please wait for me.”

Celina did not know.

She stood confidently on the ground one level above, oblivious to the danger she was in and unaware that her whispered words were overhead by the person sneaking up on her.

“I will achieve victory here and prove that Schwarz Schütze is the strongest. That will create the trust needed to provide the safe trade routes needed to further grow our Bodenburg Company.”

She was selfish, willful, and unbelievably dangerous.

She preferred to wield a gun, a symbol of outlaws, and she would undoubtedly bring disaster to this village and forest.

But.

Miyabi felt the sorcery bomb was much more despicable. The unseen 11th remained hidden, not even willing to accept people’s ire.

“I too am a part of the family, so I am prepared to do whatever it takes to protect the company you have built. So this does not scare me in the slightest. I can handle this just fine.”

“It has to be close.”

The phantom ringing in his ears was nearly a solid tone now, which should have been a good thing.

But he felt more panic than anything. For a simple reason.

“Is she right next to the sorcery bomb!?”

He held his hand toward the dirt within the trench and lined up the box-sized Palette Dice to create his imperfect Layer Stairs. There was no looking cool climbing those. He scrambled up them like a lizard and then found the sweet scent of a girl instead of the stench of torn plants and soil.

But that was not his focus.

A large, half-rotten tree stood right next to Celina Bodenburg.

The warning tone in his mind rang with such intensity the scenery around him seemed to gain wild new colors.

“Ah! When did you get-!?”

The girl spun around and raised her fancy rifle, but her movements were painfully slow. No, was it the speed of Miyabi’s own mind that was out of whack?

“Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, obliterate him!!”

He still could not see it.

But something like a pressure drew out straight and curved lines. Something wriggled along the surface of the rotted tree, like a coiled snake or a slug. It was definitely what you would call a magic circle.

(Is that it?)

He was sure of it, even though he had never seen one before.

He knew for sure that thing was meant to bring an end to this world.

(That’s the 11th’s sorcery bomb. I can protect everything if I destroy that!!)

“Koo!”

He flipped his sword around and stabbed it into the ground, creating a giant magic circle at his feet.

The sorcery bomb was not a delicate thing. It would not detonate early, so he could attack it however he liked to destroy it.

So he chose to use the strongest power he was currently borrowing.

“Bomber Lucifer Horn!! Please, protect everyone for me!!”

Blinding beams and deafening explosions filled his senses.

The thick beam of light sliced through the ground along a straight line shifted to the side of the bomber’s path. The beam’s path would only barely miss him.

But more importantly, Miyabi noticed what the bomber was aiming toward. He grabbed the grip of his control sword again and squeezed tight without pulling it from the ground.

“No!!!!! I said everyone . You don’t get compromise by giving up on or abandoning Celina!!”

He could not see or hear anything, but he still felt the wind blowing against his cheeks. While the giant device passed by overhead and tore through the ground with its beam, it forcibly altered its course, like the zigzag of a lightning bolt, to avoid the girl and skillfully blow away just the tree.

(It…heard me?)

His view was blocked by the light and smoke, but he still felt like everything had opened up before him.

(And it actually listened?)

That was due to the beam launched from the Lucifer Horn and it was also due to the explosion blasting all that smoke into the air. He only had his hearing to go on, but not his external hearing. He focused on the alarm in his head.

“The ringing is gone?”

He felt a need to say it out loud.

The tree had been blown away.

But what happened then? There had been an explosion, so could that have been the bomb going off?

He thought he would die if he did not confirm for himself that the sorcery bomb was destroyed. The anxiety was going to crush him.

“Did I…do it? Did I destroy the sorcery bomb and save the village!?”

He knew he had survived here in the cloud of smoke.

That should mean it had not detonated.

“Oh, right. Where did that Celina girl go!?”

Suddenly and silently, the thick curtain of smoke parted as if split, revealing a girl in a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems.

She appeared directly behind Miyabi.

Close enough for a heated breath to reach his ear and something soft to touch his back.

“I see. That control sword must mean you are the next user.”

“!?”

(I can’t move. Dammit, she completely snuck up on me!)

That large rifle would be hard to use at such close range, but he had not forgotten about its bayonet – that is, the thick knife attached to the end.

“Your name,” she bluntly stated. Her cold voice was polite but made it clear disobedience would be punished with death. “Please state your name.”

“M-Miyabi…”

“Very good, Miyabi. Your honest response is praiseworthy in a way. An unusual name, but that is all I need. The Bodenburg Company’s power surpasses that of every major country on the continent and I will pour it all into researching your full name and other personal information. Oh, and if that was a fake name, you will come to regret the decision.”

She sounded exasperated.

But also impressed.

“This is a surprise, but Moebius need not be my opponent. I only wish to prove that I am the strongest by defeating the Lucifer Horn. I must prove that no Godhorn Tech can surpass the Schwarz Schütze.”

Even gulping could lead to death here.

The pounding of his heart rang far too loud in his ears.

“You are a lot like him in one way, though: that arrogant concern for your enemy.”

He noticed a subtle change to the temperature of the breaths on his ear.

Was she truly exasperated now?

“But never mind that. From now on, you shall be an enemy of Bodenburg.”

He felt a soft touch on his cheek and then a gust of wind blew through the surrounding smoke.

“Was that her lips!?”

He looked back but found she was already gone.

He knew it was silly of him, but his emotions were in turmoil. He was losing track of just what feelings were running wild in his heart.

Even though her message was clear: I could kill you right this instant if I wanted to, but I will not. For now.

However, he did hear a voice somewhere in the forest.

It had a teasing, singsong quality to it.

“From the control rifle to the horn core – tactical close. Schwarz Schütze, disarm and await further orders.”

A low metallic rumbling came from outside the forest.

“Trains are meant to move. I was only using 30% of its true power, so make no mistake about your chances.”

Miyabi looked around with the double-edged sword in hand, but he could find no glimpse of that conspicuous blonde hair or dress. Yet she was not shouting in anger, so she could not be far.

“Also, I had set this stage with Moebius in mind. I, Celina Bodenburg, shall withdraw for now and set aside some later time especially for you. This crucial event shall prove the Bodenburg Company possesses the strongest power, so I need to put on the best show possible, don’t you think? So I will prepare the finest stage on which to kill you.”

The gap in skill level was simply too great.

Miyabi Blackgarden had only been a target to the very end.

“Farewell, my fated enemy. Please await the next available opportunity.”

And with that, she really did disappear.

Her voice, her presence, and her piercing pressure were all gone.

“…”

Left behind, Miyabi stood in a daze.

The most he could do was mutter to himself.

“ She never did notice the sorcery bomb. Is she more careless than she lets on? Is that all-knowing thing just an act?”

“Koo.”

“Hm? What is it, Alma?”

“Koo koo!!”

“Ow! You don’t have to bite me! Especially not repeatedly!”

The mystery creature was in a bad mood, so Miyabi had to guard his own legs.

“Anyway,” he said before a rustling of the undergrowth interrupted.

Some familiar voices followed.

“Hey, what in the world happened?”

“A-are you really still alive, Miyabi!?”

It was Alicia the elf and Helen the government official. Either they had found the end of the giant crack and walked around or they had thrown a rope across and used that. He was relieved to find no stray shots had hit them, but he also felt deeply exhausted.

“First, I have to explain all this to them.”

A sketchy young man’s voice reached him from a different direction.

“H-hey, you’re not just going to leave me out here, are you?”

“And I have to deal with that old man.”

Miyabi held his head in his hands.

“Sigh. How did I end up with all this extra work on my plate?”

The Lucifer Horn roared by overhead.

That ultimate sorcery weapon was built around a Wicked God horn.

### Character Profiles

Miyabi Blackgarden

Age: 15

Sex: Male

Height: 165cm

A perfectly ordinary boy with a friendly nature and a tendency to get involved in everything. Yet he keeps finding himself caught up in very non-ordinary problems, like Alma growing attached to him after hatching from a Wicked God egg and receiving the Lucifer Horn Godhorn Tech from Moebius.

Alma

Age: Unknown

Sex: Unknown

Height: 25cm

Probably the only juvenile Wicked God currently known to humanity. Miyabi was the first person it saw after hatching from its egg, so it tends to view him as its parent. Sometimes and during certain circumstances, it grows larger, but the sample size of 1 makes it impossible to say if that is a trait of all juvenile Wicked Gods or if it is unique to Alma.

Alicia Blueforest

Apparent Age: 13 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 140cm

An elf of the Blueforest race. Elves have always been a friendly species with a fair amount of contact with humans, but Alicia is especially friendly and regularly visits the human village. She is interested in human techniques and has picked up alchemy as a hobby, so she wears a radio-shaped philosopher’s stone around her neck.

Helen Clockgear

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 168cm

A Republic official who was sent from the central capital primarily to observe Alma, the juvenile Wicked God. She calls herself a government official, but her actual position is closer to being a spy tasked with infiltration, intel gathering, and sabotage. But on a personal level, she is starting to accept Miyabi and Alma who have grown so innocently attached to her.

Moebius Entrance

Age: 22

Sex: Male

Height: 185cm

The most powerful of the fixers, those who accept “personal requests” to resolve any trouble that the rich and powerful do not want becoming public knowledge. His skill can be inferred from the crazy fact that he possesses a Godhorn Tech despite not belonging to any specific country. And his skill extends beyond using that Godhorn Tech.

Godhorn Tech Bomber: Lucifer Horn

Pilot: Miyabi Blackgarden

(Previous Pilot: Moebius Entrance)

Affiliation: None

Size (LxWxH): 30m x 50m x 5m

A Godhorn Tech shaped like a giant bomber. Generally unmanned. Contains a lab for the creation of chemicals from plants. Injection of the chemicals is used to activate the Wicked God horn so it can fire powerful energy blasts. Extremely powerful, but the excessive tune-ups of the already high-power Wicked God horn cause it to overheat and stop firing if used too much. Design motif: witchcraft.

Celina Bodenburg

Age: 14

Sex: Female

Height: 155cm

Only daughter of the world-renowned Bodenburg Company. She was raised to believe money can solve all problems, giving her a domineering personality. But her skill is real and she was left in charge of the Schwarz Schütze, foundation of the company’s shipping routes.

### Between the Lines 1

This is a story about Celina Bodenburg.

It takes place a few days before she arrived at the Blueforest forest.

Every age of every world has its villains.

A free and open world still gives power to villains.

It gives them as much power as it gives anyone else.

“Man, talk about easy money,” said Dake Grassland, the large bearded man who led the group.

The stone-paved roads between large cities were crucial infrastructure for bandits as well. Especially in the endless expanses of plains where the knights’ attention was lax and the patrolmen could be bought off. That “prime real estate” would naturally be caught up in turf wars between bandits, but that was not a problem for this group.

There was a reason why they could so easily monopolize this artery of trade.

“Hey, Professor . You sure this is all you want for your share?”

“I am.”

“I’m not complaining about paying out less since our expenses have gone way up as our group’s gotten so big, but you could really stand to ask for more. It’s honestly weirding us out that you’re not.”

Dake kept a jocular tone, but he noticed the other person did not do the same.

A gloomy girl looked back at the bandit leader. Her name was Airi Downerzone. She wore a thick cloak pulled up over her head, but below that she only wore a negligee so thin the color of her skin showed through. The outfit was unusual for travel or for sleeping. She almost looked like a grim reaper wearing nothing but a cloak.

The teenage girl known as the Professor said little.

She lived in her own world. Time seemed to move at a different speed for her.

“I only need enough to survive off of.”

“Really?”

“But you did say I could take the ‘trash’ you have no use for yourself, didn’t you?”

She made it sound like she was doing them a favor by disposing of some defective items and trash, but the pressure behind her words would not take no for an answer. The pressure was all the more powerful because she herself was not aware of it.

There was something else she wanted far more than the obvious treasure.

Something the bandits could never imagine a use for.

Dake Grassland was honestly curious, but in an unusually perceptive moment for a bandit, he could tell that getting greedy here would end badly.

That girl had singlehandedly given them complete control in this area.

In this world of swords and sorcery, the sorcery side of the equation was incredibly powerful. The bandits had failed to master the sword but also lacked the guts to go for something as new as a gun, so they had been left with axes and hammers that relied on simple weight. Even as a group, they could not hope to face someone like that.

Airi had annihilated anyone who attempted to intrude .

But it was no more than coincidence that the gloomy grim reaper girl had joined this group in particular. If another organization would have helped her gather “trash” more efficiently, it was this group that would have been blown away while her magic tore into the ground.

“So what kind of ‘trash’ was there this time?”

“You mean the Beast Nova, right?”

Dake Grassland jerked his bearded chin toward the toppled wagon.

The grim reaper girl walked over with her thick cloak dragging behind her. Yes, she was clearly dragging the cloak, yet she moved in complete silence. That was enough for the bandit leader to shudder since he had failed to make it sneaking into mansions as an urban thief, so he had been forced to accept the outdoor life of a bandit where they only had rum to drink and dried meat to eat and never got to take a proper bath.

A change came over Airi when she peeked behind the wagon.

She smiled.

She had not batted an eye while blasting other bandit groups with powerful magic and converting them into fertilizer, so this smile was even more chilling than when she had calmly crushed and killed.

“Excellent.”

“Really?”

“That is a harpy. Flying Beast Novae are ideal because you can easily restrain them by breaking their wings.”

The figure seated on the ground trembled.

She could apparently understand human language.

“Couldn’t you just catch one of the wild monsters out there?”

“Capturing them alive is the hard part. My magic is so powerful I end crushing them instead.”

They were talking about a girl with giant falcon wings instead of arms. She was probably meant to keep away other monsters instead of as a product to be sold. Just like how people would wear a tuft of wolf fur on a necklace to ward off animal attacks. By taming a powerless Beast Nova and living with it, the hope was its smell would rub off on you and others of its kind would choose not to attack. Merchants who made long journeys by wagon often used that trick.

Then again, that was why they were often targeted by humans instead of monsters. Only wealthy merchants had the money to spare to tame a Beast Nova, so they might as well have been walking around with a sign saying “attack me, I’m rich”.

“There are several cracks in this continent,” said Airi Downerzone with her sticky smile intact. “A dark mist known as miasma rises from deep below the surface. Humans cannot fly over it or descend into the cracks to investigate, so these create what are known as World Barriers.”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“I am researching them. If a Beast Nova falls into the depths of those cracks and manages to crawl back out alive, they break past the limits of their own species, becoming a Wicked God. …Now, that is only an old legend without any real reason to believe it, but I want to see it happen.”

The harpy started shaking her head.

Was she calling that story a lie, or was she protesting the idea of having the experiment run on her?

If it manages to crawl back out alive.

I want to see it happen.

Airi had no guarantee of the subject’s survival, nor had she ever seen it work. Even though she had tested it several times. In plays, throwing someone alive into the miasma-filled cracks in the continent was a standard way for gangs to execute traitors.

Just then, a subordinate interrupted.

“Dake, there was a kid hiding in the wagon. What do we do with him?”

The bandit leader glared at his subordinate more than necessary because he was worried the youth had overseen the pathetic look on his face a moment earlier.

“Tch. A young boy?” he growled at the terrified youth. “What do you even do with that? We can’t sell him to a brothel or to the mines.”

“If you have some ‘trash’ needing disposal, then give it to me. I can toss it into the crack along with the harpy.” The cloaked girl smiled thinly. The smile seemed to split across her face. “Hee hee. Ee hee hee. I’ve thrown a few Beast Novae into the cracks, but never a human. Who knows, maybe the legend grew distorted over the ages. Maybe it really needs to be a hum-”

Before she even finished her sentence, a massive shape plowed into Airi Downerzone from the side.

“Hm? Hmm?”

Celina Bodenburg made some puzzled noises inside the Schwarz Schütze.

That mass of alchemy was 500m long, yet it broke the rules of trains by not needing a fixed track. The armored train constantly created new metal rails and constantly laid them out on the ground using the two rollers lined up on the front car, allowing it to travel across sand, snow, or whatever other terrain the continent threw at it. Now, the metal rails were so solid not even the average illegal diggers could remove them. That left ugly marks on the land, so she had a personal rule of avoiding roads, campgrounds, and other areas where people would see the result.

(What a pain. These small negatives really add up, so you can’t ignore them. Maybe I should invest a bit more in environmental protection before it influences our brand image.)

She was the queen of land travel.

The bandits had been out of luck the moment she encountered them. But the tragedy was only going to get worse for three primary reasons.

First, the Schwarz Schütze was a Godhorn Tech, a sorcery weapon so massive it towered over people, but it was by no means slow. The sensors installed all over the train searched its surroundings and accurately picked up even the smallest oddity.

Second, Celina Bodenburg was obsessed with money, but she was also a young girl with a lot to learn about business. That meant she would still get involved in issues with no chance of profit, calling it philanthropy or advertisement.

“Oh?”

And third, she had noticed the emblem on the side of the toppled wagon.

“Now that is a problem. They might be a tiny regional company, but we do business with them.”

With a dull roar, an unseen power grabbed at the girl and tugged her to the right.

The massive armored train had taken a wide curve to make a U-turn while the many alchemy cannons on its roof accurately rotated. That weapon could fire over a mountain range dividing two countries and crush the battlefield on the other side, so it was extreme overkill for protecting a trade route.

Instead of horses, the bandits were riding on the backs of giant six-legged ants made of metal. They had likely stolen those Slaughter Ants. They were 5m long and they might have been nigh untouchable with 1000 of them at their disposal, but their opponent this time proved why the “nigh” was necessary.

In this world of swords and sorcery, the sorcery side of the equation was incredibly powerful.

Especially when that sorcery was a 500m mass of alchemy equipped with a legendary Wicked God’s horn as a direct power source.

(Fools. Those are the parliament defense troops we sold to the Republic. They’re our products. Some official must be selling near-new malfunctioning ones in the name of research.)

“From iron to copper, from copper to lead, from lead to tin, from tin to mercury, from mercury to silver, from silver to gold, and from gold back to iron. Metals grow through the cycle of combination, death, and resurrection. Oh, great serpent, create a closed spiral and construct eternal stability. Here I choose seven-groove rifling with a right-hand twist.”

Of course, the Slaughter Ants coming her way had to be disposable decoys.

Schwarz Schütze’s crystal sensors danced gently along the river surface to accurately detect the other group trying to sneak from the field. That group was using the fancier winged model of Slaughter Ants.

After attacking one of the glorious Bodenburg Company’s business partners, they had realized they stood no chance, abandoned their weaker subordinates, and made a run for safety to ensure they did not lose everything.

“Set the Knight of Wands warhead – that is, fire in fire.”

She knew exactly what they deserved: death.

“Swiftly eliminate all worldly obstacles to our expert work, Schwarz Schütze.”

With a deafening boom, the world was compressed.

But it was not the swarm of gray-shining Slaughter Ants that was blown away. The green ground covered in weeds was torn up and the dirt blasted into the air became a storm that shredded the air and the bandits like a shotgun blast. A single attack changed the course of the river and created a new lake.

A second and third attack followed.

This would continue until the girl was satisfied.

This army of bandits was using illicitly-obtained military weaponry to arm themselves like a national cavalry, but such a minor threat was shredded like wet paper.

A criminal organization’s value came from their ability to remain hidden.

The more legendary the criminal, the less was known about them. For example, not even the national intelligence agencies knew if the top-class assassin known as Shadow Crack was a man or a woman.

So it should have been plain as day what would happen to bandits who carelessly revealed their presence like this.

“Calcination, coagulation, fixation, dissolution, digestion, distillation, sublimation, separation, incineration, fermentation, multiplication, and projection. From the 12 operations found in the 12 constellations, I choose the 1st – the Ram’s calcination.”

Trains were meant to move.

The Schwarz Schütze’s greatest selling point was the combination of its simple mass with its ability to act as the continent’s greatest ceremonial ground for alchemy. When combined with a technique capable of breaking all matter down at the smallest level, it became a deadly weapon that would crush any obstacle in its path, no matter the strength or size.

“I offer one final tribute. Those lives would normally be worth no more than the ashes you leave behind, but today is special. I will have our research division reveal your identities and send a small monetary gift to your families. Although I imagine they disinherited you long ago if you are out here working as bandits.”

No one ever heard their filthy pleas for their lives, but they only had themselves to blame. They were out here in the middle of nowhere to ambush and kill their targets.

Unlike the first pass, the train did not even shake when it hit them.

The alchemic operation of calcination referred to exposing a specimen to such intense heat that the solid was reduced to a powder .

“Hm, that should about do it.”

The countless sensors on the exterior of the armored train picked up footage of a harpy and small child staring in a daze. The ground had been torn up, the path of a river changed, a new lake created, and the entire map rewritten just to save those two. They may have felt their lives were not worth all that.

(And that is the correct conclusion as a businessperson. Advertisement and marketing are only given such large budgets by the companies large enough to have begun the cycle of money making money. If you want to avoid driving yourself into bankruptcy with unprofitable philanthropy, then don’t try this at home.)

“Now, then.”

After plowing that land without batting an eye, Celina Bodenburg threw out her cold tea and made some more.

If she wanted to call this the strongest power, she needed to create enough legends that everyone already knew what she could accomplish.

That also meant she could not allow anyone else to reduce the quality of her efforts.

She already had a target in mind.

“I will destroy you next, Moebius Entrance.”

### 004. Chapter 2 Section 1

Everyone feared the great power of the Wicked Gods.

Humans were the only beings that wanted that power for themselves.

He was a mess.

Back in a room of a simple wooden house, Miyabi Blackgarden could not get out of bed. He felt like his muscles had been replaced with mud.

But the morning arrived despite his protests.

“Please get up.”

It announced its presence with a polite young woman’s voice.

Helen Clockgear was not just inside his house – she was inside his bedroom.

“Miyabi, you need to get up. It’s morning.”

“Ugh,” he groaned, but not because he had low blood pressure.

That young woman provided a little too exciting a visual. Her long black hair and glasses made her look like a stickler for the rules, but then there were her clothes. The chest was left open, the part that was buttoned still left her navel visible, her tight skirt was short enough to show off her thighs, her hair decorations looked like devil horns, and the whip on the back of her hips looked like a tail. He appreciated her waking him up, but this was a little much for his adolescent heart.

He did his best to keep her from noticing his reaction.

“Helen? What are you doing here?”

“I am a Republic official. Managing people is my job.”

“You unlocked the front door with magic again, didn’t you?”

“That is not an abuse of my powers. It is a part of my job. On that note, Miyabi, as peaceful as this village is, you should really use a Jack class or better lock for your outside doors. Anyone can get through a 9 of Diamonds.”

He caught himself before pointing out she would break through that as well.

Then the (busty) glasses woman pointed toward the wooden door.

The cacophony of people working with the lumber could be heard even in here. That meant it was already past 8 in the morning. Miyabi found it easier to tell time that way than using the mechanical clock Helen had brought from the big city.

“I made you breakfast, so please come to the table.”

She left his bedroom and her footsteps creaked down the narrow and steep wooden stairs toward the dining room. His parents were not here, but that was common in this village. When one parent was home, so was the other. When one was gone, they were both out deep in the forest. He knew his boss and the older apprentices better than them.

It must not have been cold enough for Helen to light a fire in the fireplace. The morning chill woke him up before he even washed his face.

The table contained a simple breakfast of toast, salad, and ham and eggs. The simplicity was due to the magic stove and poorly-sealed refrigerator being old and falling apart, not because Helen was a poor cook.

She had apparently expected him to wake up sooner than this, but the food was not cold.

The tableware itself seemed to keep the food and drink warm. That would be more magic. He got to see a lot of convenient magic when Helen was around.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Miyabi had a mug full of hot milk (which somehow had not developed a film on top), but Helen’s cup only contained cold water as she sat politely across from him. But not because she was showing restraint; she really did like the village’s water.

“It recovers so much of your magic. Enough that you don’t even need to stay at an inn. I wish I could fill a bottle with it and carry it around with me, but I go through it so fast.”

“?”

Born and raised in this village, Miyabi had no idea what she meant, but the forest water straight from the well was apparently a rare thing for someone who had lived so long in the capital.

“So why are you cooking me breakfast?”

“I would prefer not to, if I’m being honest.” She was blunt about that. And she was approaching the ultimate decision of whether to put salt or sauce on her ham and eggs. “ The Republic has no Godhorn Tech. So what they fear most is what you might do with Alma. For example, you could break off the horn and sell it on the black market. If that found its way into the hands of the remnants of the old monarchy scattered across the land, the country could be in serious trouble. So to ensure their own safety, the Republic wants to ensure all your needs are met and you are never short on money.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“No thanks are necessary. I am only monitoring you for the country’s sake.”

She complained, but she had also refrained from adding carrots to the salad because she knew he didn’t like them. How cute could she be?

“Speaking of, where is Alma?”

The juvenile Wicked God would normally come running at the smell of food, so the curvy glasses woman explained.

“That elf dragged the poor thing outside to play.”

After eating, Miyabi volunteered to do the dishes. He hated working with the cold well water, but Helen warned him not to take it for granted. He still didn’t understand. They could get an endless supply of the stuff from the ground, so why was it so valuable? Washing dishes and his own face was a pain. It was so cold he had to wrap his aching hands in a towel to warm them before heading out to search for Alma. Helen followed him to “monitor” him as usual.

This was a small village.

It was half overgrown by the forest and Miyabi lived in a log house. Everything here was made from wood. But it really was a small village, so the roads were made of exposed brown dirt packed down by feet, hooves, and wagon wheels. Stone pavement was beyond anything they could hope for out here.

“In this village, we make a living cutting down the forest’s trees. We’re the only village out there that’s made a contract with the elves. We’re special!”

Lumberjack (Older Apprentice) was very cheerful for so early in the morning.

He worked accurately even as he smiled and greeted them. He ran his saw along the colorful pattern glowing on the magically-hovering log, rapidly shaping the desired piece of lumber. He worked alone on a tree several times taller than he was and his saw was unnaturally sharp. He had likely added on some water magic to cut with the water pressure. Miyabi could not do any of that yet.

(Special, huh?)

The village prided themselves in being left in charge of the forest by the local Blueforest race of elves. Although Miyabi sometimes wondered if the elves had tricked the humans into maintaining the forest paths, thinning out the trees, and all the other jobs they couldn’t be bothered to do.

Whatever the case, the village was hard at work for another day.

The sorcery bomb had been a very close call and the Celina and Schwarz Schütze problem remained, but he had protected this scene nonetheless.

“Please keep quiet about what happened,” quietly warned Helen, walking alongside him. His heart jumped when he felt her warm breath on his ear. “A single village boy wields a Godhorn Tech when not even the entire Republic has one. If word gets out, you can’t live here anymore. Do you want to be on the run around the clock? The remnants of the old monarchy still fantasize every night about bringing back the slave trade and they would love to get their hands on that thing.”

“So I’m a secret warrior, huh? Heh heh heh.”

“Why does that appeal to you? Sigh, boys never do grow up, do they?”

At any rate, he asked around for information on the long-eared hag.

“Hey, Miyabi! Tell that elf girl she can play in the village if she wants, but she shouldn’t use our lumber as an obstacle course!” (Lumberjack (Middle Aged))

“Sob, all I wanted was to make friends with some cute elves, so how did I end up surrounded by big burly men?” (Lumberjack (Newcomer))

“Ho ho ho. Watching Lady Alicia enjoy herself is so relaxing. Our ancestors agreed to a contract with the elves, giving us permission to cut down the forest’s trees, but it all happened so long ago no one remembers what the exact terms of the contract were. But that smile on Lady Alicia’s face is all we need to know we still have their permission.” (Elder)

None of it was very helpful.

And that old man’s lines were always long. Too long.

“Hm.” Helen placed a finger on the side of her glasses. “That elf isn’t surrounded by tourists like I expected.”

“?”

“The plays always present forests as a home to the elves and Azul Titanio isn’t that far from the Republic’s capital, so it’s known in some circles as a good health resort.”

“Azul what?”

“That’s the name of your village, Miyabi. Wait! Did you forget the name of your own home!?”

“Everyone born here just calls it the first village.”

“That’s sad. But it is a known social problem. When a long and complicated name is added to the official maps, the locals can end up abbreviating it to the point that no one there recognizes the correct name.”

That could explain why the pub and inn did such good business for a small village.

Miyabi had lived here all his life and one of his earliest memories was clinging to Alicia’s back and tugging on one of her long ears, so he had trouble understanding this talk of a health resort and traveling to see an elf. To him, the big city sounded a lot more convenient and comfortable.

And.

“Koo, kwehh!”

“Ah ha ha! Come and get me!”

He heard a joyous voice coming from the edge of the village where the forest had more or less taken over, so he took a look and then sighed.

“Finally found you,” he said.

“What are you two doing here?” asked Helen.

“O-ohh?”

For some reason, Alicia Blueforest froze with her hands in the air.

“Come to think of it, what are we doing here?”

“Koo?”

Seeing the two of them tilt their heads, Helen placed a hand on her cheek.

“Peaceful as always, I see.”

“ I’m sweating bullets over here, worried my spot as the adorable mascot is at risk.” The radio complained from the elf’s chest. “Curse that vile beast. No decency at all. There might be a million faces to choose from in this world, but I only get to use one of them as an icon, you know!?”

“I want to hear what that old guy has to say. To figure out what to do next.” With Alicia, Alma, Helen, and the radio here, this seemed like the best chance for this. “What about the rest of you? You can sit this out if it doesn’t interest you.”

“Kyoo kyoo!”

“If the juvenile Wicked God is going, I might as well go too. I wouldn’t have anyone to play with anymore.”

“Vile beast! I belong at the chest of this real elf! Don’t you dare steal my position!!”

The philosopher’s stone created a staticky noise resembling grinding teeth, but Helen ignored it.

She might as well have been the village guide at this point.

“I believe Mr. Moebius is being treated at the clinic.”

Rural villages like Miyabi’s “first village’ tended to have small clinics instead of big hospitals. There was no end to careless accidents with sharp blades in the logging industry, but most any illness could be treated here. With the number of wagons carrying heavy lumber out of the village and the proximity of the Republic’s capital, any patient with a serious enough injury or illness could be transported elsewhere, weather permitting.

For that reason, rural Azul Whatever-It-Was’s log house clinic was very well equipped. It had a simple design, but it was kept extremely clean with magic. Miyabi did not like the feel of the place. It was clean, but in an unnatural way.

A creaking of metal sounded in the village’s lifeline.

It came from the axle of a wheelchair.

The tall-redheaded man wore a coat that made him look more like a pirate than a noble, but that wild impression was ruined by just the one item.

“Does that mean…?”

“Don’t worry about it. I was already planning to retire at some point.”

Miyabi was struck speechless, but Moebius Entrance himself did not seem to mind.

This world had no recovery magic.

Magic could sterilize a room or mix a medicine, but it could not directly affect the human body. It could create a medicine to heal a cold or boost the healing power of a cast holding together broken bone, but it could not heal a rare disease or serious injury that lacked a corresponding White Sorcery Item . So as destructive as a Godhorn Tech was, the user could not cheat death or serious injury. They would have to groan in pain while using magically-boosted medicines and bandages just like everyone else.

“This gave me the chance I needed.” Moebius smiled. “Passing the Godhorn Tech onto you is a burden off my shoulders.”

“…”

“Let’s get down to business.” He still sounded lighthearted. Maybe he always did. “The Sorcery Doc said I can’t talk for long. Ow…”

“And I can see why!”

“Looks like he needs medicine and water.”

On Helen’s instructions, Miyabi handed Moebius some water and medicine to drink.

“Phew. There’s no point trying to show off here, so let’s just get this over with.”

“Is this about the 11th?”

“That’s an important issue, but they’re only a shadow. They’ll have gone into hiding and we won’t see hide nor hair of them for a while. They attack on a whim, so they don’t seem to get fixated on a single target when their attack fails.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t predict what they did.”

“And a fixation on a single target would make them really easy to predict. But the 11th doesn’t make it that easy. Anyway, keep them in a corner of your mind, but you have a more immediate threat to deal with.”

“More immediate?” Miyabi looked Moebius in the eye. “Do you mean Celina Bodenburg and Armored Train Schwarz Schütze?”

“Ha ha. Memorized both of those long names already? I guess imminent death is a good teacher.”

The term “armored train” must have sounded odd coming from the carefree forest boy. Moebius sank down into his wheelchair with a mischievous smile.

“Now that the Godhorn Tech is yours, you’ll be her new target. You’ve got an idea of how she does things now, right?”

“Yeah, she wouldn’t hesitate to attack just because we’re in the village.”

“Koo…” Alma worriedly cried at his feet.

Moebius nodded.

“But unlike the 11th, Miss Celina is easy to predict. She wants to secure the continent’s safest trade route using an unbeatable power no one else dares even attack. That way she can increase trust in the Bodenburg company and raise its value. So she will not allow any other Godhorn Tech to fight on the same level as hers. That’s all she’s fighting for. ”

“She really thinks money is everything, doesn’t she?”

Miyabi sounded exasperated and Moebius sighed.

“It’s not her fault. She was raised to think that way.”

Raised.

That was a simple word, but it had a somehow ominous ring to it here.

“And we’ve all benefited from it. Take a look around you. That company’s logo is everywhere.”

Shocked, Miyabi picked up some items around the clinic. The bandages, medicine bottles, and examination and treatment equipment all had the logo. So did the bed, the shelves, the cups, and the pitcher. He had never paid any attention to it, but now that he did…there it was.

The Bodenburg Company.

With the exception of the furniture made with wood, hammers, and saws, the hand-mixed medicines made from local plants, and the White Sorcery Items, almost all of the clinic’s equipment had been brought in from the big city and bore that logo.

“It’s everywhere…”

“That is a frightening level of market penetration,” commented Alicia, viewing a cylindrical package of chocolates with a frown.

“Pretty much any magical product is from them these days,” said Moebius. “And this village is more self-sufficient than most. You have that forest and the carpenters to thank for that.”

“And me,” added the elf. “You need to thank me for the forest’s blessings, boy.”

“?”

Miyabi was not sure why, but Alicia placed a hand on her chest and proudly winked at him.

Moebius continued on, whether he knew the reason or not.

“There are a lot of cities on the continent that can’t even get food and water without the company’s help. They own all the fishing rods and nets at the lakes and they control all the firewood and blankets in the snowy areas. They gain customers by offering enough convenient services for the local industries to deteriorate.” He smiled as he continued. “But you can make use of that. You know why Miss Celina fights, so you can set the perfect stage for her and guide her there. That means you can move the battle outside the village.”

“…”

“Still afraid of attacking another person? This would’ve been so much easier if you had only seen the Schwarz Schütze, but unfortunately you saw Miss Celina first.” The young man displayed his injured body in the wheelchair. “But don’t forget you already wielded the Lucifer Horn in battle and others saw it. You need to assume both Miss Celina and the 11th see you as a Godhorn Tech user. You can’t back out of the fight now. Not after asking me to lend you that power so you could save me.”

Sometimes having the power to fight caused a fight to happen.

But the boy had lived his whole life in this peaceful village and only ever thought of blades as something to cut through grass and trees, so he couldn’t be blamed for not realizing that.

Nevertheless, only his friends would listen to his complaints. His enemies would show no mercy. Celina and the massive Bodenburg Company that supported her were more powerful than the average country and they had poured everything they had into building that Godhorn Tech. That weapon’s cannons were now aimed squarely at Miyabi.

He may have been fortunate he had not known what he was doing.

If he had truly understood the threat, he might have fainted.

“Sometimes, options present themselves to you, but you won’t gain anything by sitting around until you’re out of time.”

Moebius then doubled over and groaned.

He had already taken some medicine, so blindly giving him another kind would be dangerous. And he appeared to know that.

“Okay, I’ve hit my limit.” He wiped sweat from his brow. “If you want some more details…yeah, you can come see me again tonight.”

Miyabi said nothing, but it was still up to him to choose.

“This is your life, so choose your own path through it.”

The village grew quiet at night.

Miyabi Blackgarden was lying in his bed staring up at the ceiling, but traversing the wood grain labyrinth with his eyes was not making him feel sleepy.

“…”

He couldn’t stand it anymore.

He held a hand to his head and sat up in bed.

In a village alongside the forest, the people were very careful with fire, but putting out the fire in the fireplace had still been a mistake. The chill of the night had crept into his room before sleep took him.

He doubted he was getting to sleep now.

“I should go ask that old guy what he can tell me.”

“Koo,” agreed Alma, squirming in the same bed.

He got dressed, left his house, and found a familiar face waiting with her back against a nearby tree. That familiar face had long ears.

“Hi,” she said.

“What are you doing?”

“Did you think you were the only one who had business with that Celina girl? The elf village might be safely tucked into an alternate dimension, but she more or less burnt the entranceway. I don’t see why I shouldn’t give her a piece of my mind.”

Alicia Blueforest gave a grumpy snort and Alma wobbled as the white stuffed animal thing nearly drifted off on its feet.

“Zzzkoo…”

“Mh, why are you so sleepy, Alma? I suppose this is late for a child, even if you are a Wicked God. If you need someplace to sleep, just leap into my chest and I will carry you around.”

“Another threat to my position!?” protested the radio hanging from the elf’s neck.

Miyabi smiled bitterly.

“Whatever the reason, I appreciate the company.”

“Y-yes, the village feels very different at night,” said the radio. “And thorough exploration is the key to adventuring. You might just find that annoying person blocking the way to the mysterious door is absent at night.”

“Now, ignoring the usual stray signal,” started Alicia.

“But don’t even think about leaving the village! You might run across more powerful monsters that only appear at night or on the full moon! Always make sure to train your party to a decent level before straying from the main story path! Don’t assume you’ll be safe just because you’re still in the early stages! And make sure to stock up on antidote items and sleep-prevention accessories before attempting to fight the alternate enemy forms!! Once those status effects get started, they come for the entire party!”

“Again, ignoring the stray signal!!”

After silencing the radio’s incessant chatter, Alicia crouched down, picked up sleepy Alma, and held it to her chest.

“Personally, I’m surprised we haven’t seen Miss Busty Glasses.”

“Let’s just get to the clinic. I want to hear what Moebius has to say.”

Miyabi did not need the radio to warn him about the dangers of the night. In the logging industry, working at night was like asking for an accident. You never wanted to enter the forest or operate a saw in the dark.

The village was quiet (except for the one establishment that served alcohol) as they walked to the clinic. With the sole exception of the pub’s lights, the starlight was the only thing illuminating their path. The clinic was wrapped in tranquility.

But something wasn’t right.

It was too quiet.

“Huh? There’s no one here.”

“Koo?”

“But could he really leave the village in that wheelchair?” asked Alicia. “The forest ground is covered in tree roots and rocks and that Celina girl just dug the place up , so I doubt he could have gotten far with that injury.”

“Assuming he isn’t endlessly going for random encounters in the hopes of finding a pink-haired succubus in a slingshot swimsuit, silver-haired brown-skinned apsaras covered only by a vanishingly thin cloth, or some other sexy night-exclusive mid-boss, then wouldn’t he be somewhere inside the village?”

Most of the philosopher’s stone’s line was incomprehensible, but Miyabi frowned at the ultimate conclusion.

Yes…

“Somewhere in the village?”

“That’s still running this late?”

“…”

The boy and girl fell silent and Alma tilted its head.

“Koo?”

The place had an entirely different aura.

The instant Miyabi hesitantly opened the door, the darkness of the night was swept away by colorful magic lights very different from his lamp at home. The din of excitement and mirth hit him like a physical blow. The young woman with her silver hair tied back in a single braid at the center of the pub appeared to be a dancer. She was wiggling her bare navel to the applause of the drunk crowd.

A full-on bunny girl greeted Miyabi with a smile. A young woman with long black hair wore a white and pink costume, including decorative long ears that, unlike the elf’s, extended vertically.

“Hello☆ Welcome to- eek!?”

Miyabi’s group looked around the noisy pub with its bunny girl and dancer.

“Now, where is that complete moron?” asked Miyabi.

“Hmm, I doubt he could have faked an injury like that,” said Alicia.

“That just means he’s such a moron that he decided to join in the festivities despite his injury.” Miyabi sounded exasperated. “Is he actually out drinking?”

“Heh.” The radio hanging from Alicia Blueforest’s neck interrupted in an unusually subdued way. “Sometimes a man gets so caught up in searching for the finest videos available that the dawn sneaks up on him. It can happen the day before an interview and it can happen the nervous night before a major surgery.”

“I’m not sure what that means, but I suddenly want to disinfect this piece of junk.”

Meanwhile, the busty white-eared bunny was muttering to herself.

“Th-they haven’t noticed. They don’t realize it’s me? G-good!!”

She clenched her fists and gave a snort of triumph before speaking up with a renewed smile.

“I am Venus, this the most popular girl you’ll find here. Welcome☆ Then again, you two look a little young for this kind of-”

“By the way, what in the world are you doing, Helen?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!?”

Her scream sounded like it was tearing apart her large chest.

Had she thought they wouldn’t recognize her without her glasses?

She just about fell backwards on the booze barrel behind her and her eyes wandered while she sweated profusely.

“Cough! Cough, cough! Wh-who is this Helen? My name is Venus.”

“We don’t have time for your comedy routine, slutty exhibitionist,” said Alicia. “Just tell us where Moebius is.”

“Koo?”

“Stop it, vile beast. Honest questions like that can be like a sharp knife in the gut at times. Like when you’re using energy drinks to fuel an all-night online gaming session and you’re riding that midnight high when an ignorant elementary school kid logs on.”

The radio’s comment somehow felt like a finishing blow.

The sexy young woman (sans glasses) tried and failed to say more in her defense.

“…!?”

I swear I’m not doing this because I want to and I haven’t had a drop to drink. This is a traditional Republic method of intel gathering. You see, statistics have proven that drunks have loose lips and I can’t ignore an order from the higher ups. Ahh, why did you have to come here!?

If they could have read her flapping lips, they would have found something along those lines, but no voice ever made it out.

Miyabi’s group spotted the wheelchair they wanted among the swaying drunks and the dancer(?) sitting on the edge of the stage instead of doing her job.

Moebius Entrance raised a hand in greeting from a round table, showing no sign of guilt.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here?”

“My wound hurt like hell, so I wanted some way to forget the pain☆”

“You know that’s like warming a bump on the head with a compress, right? There are always these idiots who sprain their ankle and try to reduce the swelling by soaking in a hot spring.”

No one was listening to the philosopher’s stone’s pointless trivia.

“If you ask me, alcohol is a disinfectant for the soul.” Moebius waved his empty glass. “Veeenus! Bring me another bottle o’ this tasty stuff! Or maybe I should get some water. Man, everything’s so tasty I can’t stop drinking!!”

“Eek!? U-um, I really don’t want to go back to that table…”

The bunny jumped enough for her large chest to jiggle vertically, but Miyabi was coldhearted.

“Helen, this guy’s being a pain, so get over here.”

“At least call me Venuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!”

The tearful bunny rushed over.

Moebius hummed while pouring more amber-colored liquid in his glass. He would probably be here till morning if they let him.

“If I recall.” Miyabi got down to business. “You said you would tell me some secret plan to lure Celina away from here if I came to you tonight.”

“Finally worked up the nerve, huh?” The man took a teasing tone. “Well, she might be a sheltered girl, but that Godhorn Tech’s power is the real deal. You can’t hope to search out the 11th with her after you.”

“I get that, but still…”

“What, don’t like the idea of fighting a girl?”

“…”

“Oops, I’m outta snacks.” He made it sound like that was more important than any mysteries of the world. “Sorry, but could you grab me a cheese plate? At Mach speed! Oh, do you know what Mach speed is?”

This seemed like a job for sexy Venus, but Miyabi glanced over to see her slumped over with her soul halfway out of her mouth. She apparently had her hands full already, so he had no choice but to get up and do it himself.

He approached the counter.

“Here is your snack plate.”

“Thanks?”

It came out as a question because the large plate made from the village’s wood was handed to him by an unfamiliar young woman with her navel showing. She gave off a sophisticated aura, or maybe refined was the better word, but he doubted she was native to the village. She was the dancer with her long silver hair tied back in a single braid, yet her behavior was surprisingly elegant now that he met her face to face. She had the same upper class feel as Celina, yet here she was working in a pub. She seemed so mysterious and rare.

A faintly sweet aroma reached him whenever her long braid swished behind her, but that would be due to a type of seduction magic, not perfume. It was the same basic idea as when Helen had pushed her large breasts together while clasping her hands in apology after breaking a plate at his house. It worked its way to the forefront of his mind despite the mixture of smells from the food, drink, sweat, and heat filling the pub.

She waved a hand with a smile.

“My technical job title is waitress. My name is Iris Tempinvy. If you’re interested, make sure to ask for me☆”

The teenage boy was very interested but was short on guts and money, so he grew red in the face and froze up. A woman of the night was too high a hurdle for him.

He took the large plate and returned to Moebius’s table with movements stiffer than a clockwork doll.

“Can we please get down to business now?”

“It’s nothing fancy.” Moebius’s words dripped with confidence. “First of all, the Bodenburg Company is the world’s largest company. They judge everything based on its business value. Even Celina’s attack on me was only to advertise her own Godhorn Tech.”

“Advertise?”

Miyabi frowned.

That girl lived in a completely different world from him, but he had to try to understand it. He wanted as much information as he could get. Especially when this could mean the village’s destruction as soon as tomorrow.

“Having a Godhorn Tech is just that big a deal.” Moebius smiled, rocking side to side in his wheelchair. “The Bodenburg Company was built up in a single generation, but that causes some people to underestimate it. Especially by the royal, nobles, priests, and priestesses who tend to cling to musty old tradition.”

Miyabi only looked more skeptical since none of the people on the list sounded like anyone he would ever meet, but he grasped that there was apparently a world out there where people worried about that kind of thing.

“That’s why the company is rumored to have spent a fortune getting a Wicked God horn. They wanted power that the rest of the world would pay attention to.”

“So they have a Wicked God horn and Godhorn tech for business purposes?”

“But what does that matter?” asked Alicia.

The elf surreptitiously reached for a glass full of amber-colored liquid, so Miyabi slapped the back of her small hand. He didn’t know her actual age or her alcohol tolerance, but she looked younger than him and he had felt like he needed to stop her.

“The customer is always right, hm?” said the radio hanging from her neck.

“Exactly.” Moebius’s smile vanished there and they could only hope that was not just part of being drunk. “I’m sobering up now. Hey, grab me some water.”

Helen was still out of order, so Miyabi was stuck with the task. He made a mental note to avoid this position in the future.

The highlight of last time found him again.

The dancer named Iris winked at him from near the counter and even leaned against him this time.

“What’s this? Stuck running errands again?”

“Hyah!!”

“Ah ha ha. You sound even girlier than me! Anyway, what are you discussing all serious-like over there? Is it about magic? Well? Is it!?”

She had apparently heard an awful lot over the pub’s noise. Maybe it was true what he had heard about people who worked with alcohol tending to well informed. But there was a sharpness behind her cheer that suggested she only danced and had not had a drop to drink.

He somehow managed to shake free the temptation of the dancer blowing him a kiss and he returned to the man with a glass of water in hand. It wasn’t often the world felt quite this unfair.

“Now.” The young man looked surprisingly calm after drinking down the cold glass of water. “As hostile as the company can seem, they will shake your hand with a smile if you can work out a deal with them. And that includes the company’s young heiress. Take advantage of her professionalism and you should find a way out of this.”

“Heh heh heh.”

Venus laughed weakly with her head hanging limply back. What was she even looking at? She may have been staring at the magic-powered ceiling fan in an attempt to hypnotize herself and erase the night’s unpleasant memories.

However, the shiny white and pink bunny actually had something to add to the conversation.

“But that only works if you have something valuable enough to draw the interest of that giant company. No offense, but I don’t think this city’s lumber is going to cut it.”

“Oh, he has something,” stated Moebius. “Something Celina would be desperate to get her hands on. Something that would directly influence the world’s power balance.”

“Koo?”

“Wait…”

Miyabi could not believe it.

It did fit the conditions, but could he really make that choice?

“ You’re telling me to sell her your Lucifer Horn !?”

“ Don’t forget, it’s yours now. ”

That correction did not sit well with him.

“When you write her the letter to lure her away, you only have to tell her you have a Wicked God horn for sale. The company already has the one Godhorn Tech to show off, but with all their influence, they still could only build just that one.”

It had the power to change the world, but that did not have to be done with direct violence.

Miyabi Blackgarden held that power in his hands.

Moebius winked and smiled.

“So not even the Bodenburg Company could ignore a chance at buying another, right?”

### 005. Chapter 2 Section 2

The forest had maintained its overall silhouette even after all the ripping and tearing it had undergone. Several masses of a dark metal were linked together outside that forest.

That was the armored train known as the Schwarz Schütze.

It was 500m long and more than 20m tall, it was as sturdy as a decent-sized castle, and it carried enough firepower to break through the front gate of an old-fashioned stationary fortress.

It looked like someone had taken a giant train and a warship and combined them in a flask. The train itself was in fact made using alchemy. A girl in a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems stood alongside the swiveling main cannon equipped on its roof.

“An anonymous letter.”

She was Celina Bodenburg.

A quiet crinkling came from the object the high-class girl held in both hands.

“No signature, no seal, and no documents to lend it any credibility? Someone does not know how this business works. Yet it was wiped clean to prevent me from reading the writer’s residual thoughts. I would never normally agree to something so suspicious, but with such dangerous merchandise, I can see why they would be cautious.”

She smiled a little as she spoke to herself.

“Another Wicked God horn would be nice. If this a trap, I can teach them a lesson with the untouchable Schwarz Schütze. And if it is real, I reap the benefits. Hee hee.”

A group had gathered at the boy’s house during the day.

Miyabi, Alicia, Helen, and Alma were there.

They could not bring Moebius along because of his wheelchair. Plus, he seemed to think of himself as retired, so at the moment, his hangover was probably turning him into a puke machine.

“Okay.” Miyabi Blackgarden got them started. “Let’s set out for the designated location.”

“That would be the inn town to the north. There is a major landmark there, so I doubt we will get lost. If all goes well, it should only take a few days.”

There was no point in asking why they had chosen somewhere so far away.

Their top priority was keeping any largescale battles away from Miyabi’s village, so choosing somewhere closer for travel convenience would defeat the purpose of the entire charade. Helen knew a lot about the outside world, so he had let her choose the location.

That selfish girl would be happily on her way to the designated location right about now. It was kind of cute to imagine.

“Curse that Celina,” said Alicia. “She takes care of everything once you’re her business partner, doesn’t she?”

They left the simple wooden house and cut across the village that was half overgrown with greenery. On the way, Miyabi glanced over at the pub. The rules of day and night were reversed there, so it was entirely silent now.

There was a notice posted on the door: Our dancer is sleeping. Don’t wake her!

“What, hoping to see Venus again?” teased Alicia.

“P-please just forget that!!”

The glasses woman grew red in the face and flustered. That apparently qualified as a nightmare for her.

As for the clinic…he decided it was best not to take a look inside.

But the curtains at one of the windows parted and Moebius greeted them as casually as if he were simply delivering a forgotten item.

And for some reason, the dancer from the night before, Iris Tempinvy, could be seen through the window next to him.

“Hee hee. Don’t worry about Moebius. I will be taking very good care of him.”

…Why?

Miyabi looked legitimately confused.

Her pretty navel was so bright he felt like it would bring tears to his eyes if he was not careful.

Where had this come from? Had they engaged in some adult form of communication that an adolescent like him could not hope to understand or even imagine!? A bare-navel dancer was too much for him! How did you even go about getting to know someone like that!?

But…

“Hee, hee hee, hee hee hee hee. After losing my position as guest magical researcher in that snowy kingdom, I began a life as a dancer, showing off my body night after night to earn enough to fund my research, but now I’ve stumbled upon a guinea pig who won’t break so easily. The authorities will never notice a thing in this backwater village, so I should make real progress with my research into supposedly impossible recovery magic.”

(Okay, yeah. I’m not getting anywhere near her.)

Even naïve Miyabi could figure that much out.

Maybe Moebius was oblivious to her intentions and maybe he was into that, but for now he spoke down from the window.

“Oh, right. One other thing.”

“?”

“There’s something you need to watch out for now that you have a Godhorn Tech. Using that much power can sometimes distort space-time and you’ll find someone who looks exactly like you challenging you to fight.”

Was that a joke, or was he serious?

Miyabi was not sure, but Moebius had one last thing to say.

“It will keep happening as long as you hold onto your Godhorn Tech – even after 100 challengers or 1000. It’s like a curse to punish you for being the strongest.”

A wide open world awaited him outside the village.

He had often entered the forest, but he rarely went the other way.

This had to be an insignificant plain in terms of the entire continent.

The road was not paved with stones, so the brown path meandering all the way to the horizon looked like it was made out of nothing but wagon wheel ruts.

Still, the rolling green hills of the plain and the horizon below the blue sky felt like a new world entirely for Miyabi Blackgarden.

He wished none of this had happened to him.

But if none of it had happened, he knew he may never have thought to leave the village.

“Koo,” cried Alma at his feet.

But Miyabi blinked.

“Hey, what’s with you? Where did you get those clothes???”

Alma had looked like a white stuffed animal, but it looked different now. First of all, it was colored a bright green. Its texture also looked a little different. It appeared to be wearing a raincoat with a snake motif.

But when he picked the creature up and tugged with his fingertips, he felt a springy resistance. That appeared to be fur.

“Hmm.” Alicia put a hand on her hip. “Alma must change form based on the environment. That form is similar to the Quetzalcoatl, a wind element Wicked God. Maybe Alma can feel the wind more in this open field than when surrounded by trees in the forest. But I never knew Quetzalcoatl was so round and adorable. Ah ha ha!”

“Changed form? Like a tree frog???”

“It may be less like a frog or chameleon’s colors and more like what happens inside an egg or chrysalis. Alma is a juvenile, so their entire body is still developing. I expect they will slowly figure out what form to take after learning more from their surroundings. Oh, Alma! You transform and you’re still cute as can be!!”

The hobbyist researcher elf only seemed to care about observing this one subject. She held it tight and rubbed it against her smiling face, forcing Alma to push her face away with its small front legs.

Then there was the young woman who had a firm grasp on reality and how to survive there.

Helen used a magic called Magnet Search to transform her sewing set’s needle into a weak magnet by running it over the tip of index finger.

“Let’s see, that way is north, so based on the map of the area…”

“Huh? Helen, that metal railroad running to the horizon is the path Celina took, right? Wouldn’t it be faster to follow that?”

“She isn’t taking the shortest route. Not to mention that those are the very obvious footprints left by our enemy. We already know she wants to fight you, so she’s probably left at least one trap for you. For example, she could have buried an alchemy shell with the fuse swapped out for one that will only detonate after detecting the approach of your control sword.” Helen could be scarily cool-headed at times and she shrugged here. “Either way, the standard method is to search out a safe path by comparing what you see around you to your map. But do keep an eye out. A wild Beast Nova could attack after sneaking up on us.”

“Hm. A Beast Nova, huh?”

“Why do I get the impression you don’t appreciate the threat there. Also, simply losing your way is dangerous enough. Getting lost out here is a very different experience from getting lost in the safety of your village.”

Miyabi thought about a number of things while walking on and on toward the northern inn town. There was a world out here that he never would have seen if he had not taken this step. Same for the animal and carnivorous plant Beast Novae they occasionally encountered. He would not have seen any of it if he had not set out to do so.

Meanwhile, the elf was half in tears.

“Can you two please stop using that discriminatory language!? Beast Nova might be technically defined as any lifeform not in your traditional encyclopedias, but you humans just use it as a catch-all term for everything that isn’t you! Which means you’re calling us elves ‘beasts’!”

“Shut up and fight! Do you want to die!?”

“I could tell you were panicking, but nice job slaying that Beast Nova, Miyabi!” Helen shouted, stabbing her thick short sword into a giant carnivorous plant rustling around on the ground.

These attacks were hindering their progress a lot. They had barely moved at all on the parchment map. Why did that distance of about three clips never seem to shrink any? Was it the scale? As they walked onward with weapons always at the ready, the sun was soon about to set.

The orange blaze in the sky was so bright Miyabi could only stare in bewilderment.

“How many more monsters are going to show up come nightfall?”

The elf used a different term, which was apparently acceptable to her. Perhaps Beast Nova was too broadly defined, whereas there was a clear distinction between a monster and an elf.

“Well, we were never going to cover this distance in a single day anyway,” said Helen.

“But if we sleep here, we’ll be surrounded by monsters!” protested Alicia. “I just know it!!”

Miyabi listened to the irritated voices while tracing his fingers along the sword he wore over his back.

That was the Lucifer Horn’s control sword.

“Moebius did mention some kind of hideout we could use. He called it the Horn Fortress. It’s a small island surrounded by magical barriers or cracks in the world or something.”

“You mean we would ride the Lucifer Horn there?” asked Helen. “Now there’s a scary thought.”

The idea of flight was unfamiliar to them since they had lived their entire lives on the ground. Anything beyond climbing a tree sounded terrifying. Traveling at high speed through the sky was downright unimaginable.

Maybe it was possible, but they did not have to test it out now. Nothing would be quite as foolish as attempting a potentially dangerous challenge and then actually dying when there had been no real need to do it at all.

So they took a more realistic option.

“Let’s search out a body of water before it gets dark. We can set up camp there.”

“Hell yes!! Now we’re setting the stage for a bathing scene with the moonlight shining on bare skin!! What kind of fantasy story doesn’t have some nudity in it!?”

The radio raised its voice while swaying back and forth at Alicia’s neck.

But this was not as simple as a kid’s sleepover party. They were out in the middle of the plains – that is, nature. This was nothing like the maintained village, so they could not find anywhere that would shelter them from the elements.

“Helen, don’t you have some magic to shelter us from the rain?”

“And let you leech off of my magic all night long? I don’t think so. Besides, the tent has some weak monster-repelling magic.”

“Hold on. That won’t make Alma or me feel ill inside it, will it?”

On capable Helen’s sharp instructions, the others cleared the tent’s planned location of rocks, but it was plenty cold even before the sun had set. They only had a fabric tent waterproofed with a wax coating, so it had no heater and Miyabi was worried if they would survive the night.

“Wh-what do we do once night falls?”

“Gathering food comes first,” said Helen.

There were no fruit trees around and the lack of food for animals meant none of them either.

In fact, any location without Beast Novae would naturally have no other animals either. Alicia Blueforest belatedly paled at that realization.

“W-we’re in serious trouble, aren’t we!?”

“Just kidding. Tah dah! I brought 4-5 days’ worth of preserved food just in case. The meat and fruit are dehydrated, so they’ll stay good for a while.”

Their somewhat early dinner was tough.

The extreme focus on preservation meant the oblong bread was so hard Miyabi thought he was going to dislocate his jaw chewing it. He could probably equip it as a weapon. The same went for the dried meat and fruit. Eating was supposed to be refreshing, but the more he ate, the more it dried out his mouth. The stuff was pretty awful without a cup of soup to go with it. The novelty was winning out this time, but eating this same thing for days on end would drain your spirit.

“I should probably prepare a trap tomorrow,” said Alicia. “Or catch some fish if we come across a river.”

They were going to spend the night there, so it was time for the tent.

“Let’s do this.”

Helen opened a small bag on the ground and something large expanded from within. The movement looked similar to popup book, but the end result was clearly too large to fit in the bag. The contents included a tallow lamp, a metal grilling plate, a barrel, a water filter full of pebbles and activated charcoal, a large wooden bucket, a washboard, and the rolled-up tent they were actually interested in. And beyond the camping items were a set of small spice bottles, makeup, a toothbrushing kit, some bath products, and more.

How had that all fit in there?

Miyabi’s dazed stare earned him a puzzled look from Helen as she grabbed the tent bag. This was so ordinary to the sexy glasses woman that she had never imagined someone would question it.

A moment later, it hit her and she explained.

“Oh, this? It’s just magic. Compress Cargo is a must for any trip☆”

“Wait! If that exists, why do I always have to carry all that heavy work equipment and firewood on my back in the forest!?”

“Nothing good comes of taking the easy way out before you build up sufficient strength,” said Alicia, sounding exasperated.

“That’s right. And,” added Helen. “Compress Cargo is far from perfect.”

Had she decided he would start making impossible requests if he got it into his head that magic was all-powerful?

“No matter how much you train, there is always a two second delay between accessing the items and selecting one, so keeping your combat gear stored like that can be a deadly mistake. Plus, the magic can only store so much. The size compression ratio is only around 100:1 at the most.”

He was a little curious what kind of past Helen had lived if a two second delay could be deadly, but Granny Alicia said something more attention grabbing.

“Technically speaking, it is not compressing the matter through application of an external force. The shape of the Palette Dice is wound up for storage and then extended again once you pull it out.”

“Palette Dice?”

“That is the smallest unit of all the world’s matter. They used to call them ‘elements’ way back when.”

Alicia winked in a needlessly smug way as she showed off her alchemy knowledge.

According to the little elf who was trying to act the big sister, examples included rock, metal, and snow. There were as many Palette Dice as their were types of matter and what looked like sand or soil was actually made of particles too small to see even with a magnifying glass.

“This stone here is actually made of countless particles. There are so many of them that you would see spiraling ribbons expanding in every direction if you could take a peek into that miniscule world. But that means there is a lot of wasted space there. By winding and folding up those ribbons, you can reduce the apparent weight and size. Think of it like a leaf versus a leaf bud.”

Miyabi couldn’t make any sense of it.

“Hmmm. I don’t get any of this alchemy stuff. It’s like reading a poem while trying to do math.”

“This is not limited to alchemy. The operation of Palette Dice is crucial for a witch’s cauldron and the empire’s magic automata. Honey and chicken seem like their flavors would clash, so why is honey chicken so delicious? Because of the bond that forms within the hot frying pan. …Anyway, because this magic packs things in by reordering them at the lowest level, anything too complex ends up a jumbled mess and can’t be restored to its original form. Yet the magic can only be used to put things in and bring them out, not to intentionally mix them together. It’s really just a quick help while on a trip, so it has a lot of flaws. For example, authenticity is everything for art and antiques, so their value would plummet if you used this on them.”

“Hm? That actually sounds kind of dangerous to me.”

“It is very dangerous. Which is why the magic is made to forcibly expel anything alive. Life cannot be made lighter or smaller. Well, with the exception of the legendary alchemist’s Holy Gate.”

“So you see, Compress Cargo won’t work on a house or castle because they are too complex and have too many parts,” said Helen.

“The same goes for firewood. As you should know from the technique of grafting, cutting down the forest’s trees does not fully kill them. But you can use Compress Cargo to get ticks out of a filthy blanket.” Alicia winked in an exasperated way as she gave an explanation for the boy who had never traveled before. She then lowered her voice to make one more addition. “You can say the same thing about the Wicked God horns that give off such great power even after being broken off.”

Once the sun had fully set, the radio started to celebrate in the moonlight.

Under the much-appreciated guidance of Outdoor Expert Helen Clockgear, they had set up just the one tent.

“Ha ha ha!! Too bad, Miyabi. As the only boy, you’re stuck with a lonely night outside. Kids at home, are you sick of this G-rated dreck, yet? Well, you’re in luck because a very adult night is about to begin! And Miyabi? Don’t feel too bad. While I spend my night resting between four amazing breasts and awash in the sweet scent of the girls, I will make sure to enjoy it enough for the both of- ahh!!”

The radio was the one casually tossed out into the cold.

“Yawwn. Okay, let’s get to sleep, boy,” said Alicia. “You too, Alma.”

“Eh? What?”

“Miyabi, scoot in closer,” said Helen. “The tent isn’t very big.”

“~ ~ ~!!!???”

He was dragged inside the tent, which had no walls or partitions of any kind.

When people gathered in a single space, heat also gathered. Especially when those people were an elf and a young woman. So it had not been too cold to sleep.

Nevertheless, Miyabi Blackgarden did not get a wink of sleep.

He was pretty sure they didn’t have to put him in the center…but that was not the reason.

“Hey, um.”

“Yes?”

It was still before dawn, but Alicia responded when he addressed her on his right. Her distinctive long and pointy ears were twitching. They were picking up this threat too, so Miyabi paled in the darkness.

“They’ve come to play, haven’t they? I can sense something outside the tent! Is that the radio’s curse or something!?”

“Sh! Be quiet, Miyabi!”

Helen was also awake on his left. He did not hear her rummaging around, so she must have still had her glasses on. Did that mean none of them had gotten any sleep?

There was good reason for that.

The wax-coated waterproof tent was thick, but still only a single layer of fabric, and they could hear a deep growling from the other side. The clacking footsteps told them whatever this was had thick claws capable of tearing through the tent in a single strike.

Miyabi gulped while lying motionless in the tent.

“That sounds like more than just one.”

“This isn’t a cheap tent,” said Helen. “What happened to the safety features? The outside should be covered by a monster-repelling magic circle while we sleep.”

“Oops.”

The two humans glared coldly at the elf.

Her long ears twitched and she poked her index fingers together in front of her medium-sized chest.

“Funny story about that. Um… (I’m sorry, but those beast-repelling spells are so imprecise they would also repel a pretty elf like me from the tent and I figured there wouldn’t be any real monsters this close to the village anyway, so…ah ha ha.)”

“Miyabi, on the count of three.”

“Got it, Helen. We can chuck this moron out of the tent as a diversion. What’s the point of an immortal elf if she’s dumb as a brick?”

“I’m sorryyyy!!” sobbed Alicia while clinging to Miyabi.

The green stuffed animal creature only now rubbed its sleepy eyes and gave them a puzzled look.

But even if they did use the elf as an offering to nature, Miyabi and Helen had nowhere to escape to. This was a wide-open plain, so there were no walled cities or cliffs that would stop a beast from pursuing them. They knew they could not outrun a legit beast, so the elf’s noble sacrifice would be in vain. They would all die soon enough.

“Miyabi, Miyabi.” The glasses woman, whose skillset included cooking and assassinations, beckoned him over. “Assassination magic includes the Sleep and Confusion spells. Let’s take some random food – yes, like this leftover soup in the pot – enchant it, and throw it outside. On this part of the plain, we’re probably dealing with Shadow Hyenas, a type of Anti-Zombie that will eat just about anything. They aren’t very smart, but they’ll go straight for any tasty-looking food.”

“Oh, this is sounding like a real plan. What can I do to help?”

“Kick that stupid elf outside to buy me enough time to finish the incantations.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am. But wouldn’t it be faster to just enchant her?”

“I said I was sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”

The boy only said “yes” or “right away” to every instruction, so he seriously prepared to kick Alicia out. But then…

“Ahhhh ha ha!! Could you travelers use a hand!?”

A strange voice came out of nowhere.

It spoke human language, so it probably wasn’t the Beast Novae. And sure enough, they heard several explosions and shockwaves outside the tent, followed by the cries of the monsters.

And these cries were all pitiful whines and shrieks.

The group in the tent exchanged a glance.

“Wh-what now?” asked Alicia. “I think something’s happening out there.”

“If we can communicate with whoever this is, it’s a step up from before,” said Miyabi. “I get the feeling that approaching them like a normal person won’t get us anywhere, though.”

“But if they have even half a brain, they’ll probably check inside the tent if we don’t say anything!”

Miyabi slowly opened the tent flap and poked his head out.

Monster corpses littered the ground.

They had black fur and red eyes (were they Shadow Hyenas?) and Beast Novae like that would be terrifying to run across. In fact, any wild animal bigger than a large dog would be. Yet these had fallen by the dozens.

Someone stood at the center of the KO’d beasts.

She stood proud and tall.

The beautiful woman of around 20 wore a red dress and had her long black hair parted behind her head with the ends braided. But the bight leg showing from the bold slit in her skirt and the gloves over her hands were too aggressive to simply describe her as alluring and sexy. Not to mention the humongous axe taller than she was with its blade scraping against the ground.

When their eyes met, she grinned like a child and gave him a peace sign. She was a very different kind of beautiful young woman than Helen. For example, Helen’s tight skirt provided the hope of seeing something without ever quite providing a glimpse, but the wide slit in this woman’s skirt was very generous when it came to glimpses of her black underwear. Which was a problem. Especially when they were black! But she didn’t seem to care at all.

“Hello, travelers. That was a close one, huh?”

“Oh, maybe she isn’t that weird after all. No one with an axe could be a bad person.”

“(Miyabi,)” whispered Helen. “(I know you grew up in a logging village, but you have to know that reasoning is absurd. If you saw a masked serial killer, would you walk over to shake their hand!?)”

“(The poor fool has fallen for the Curse of the Shadow Panties,)” added Alicia. “(You need to break free!)”

But the red dress martial artist (with black underwear) showed no intention of attacking them. Still smiling, she pointed here and there.

“If you don’t mind, could I borrow that firewood? You lucked into a whole lot of Beast Nova meat, but you can’t eat it all before it rots, can you?”

“D-don’t talk about eating Beast Novae in front Alma and me. That’s discriminatory language! And that bright smile only makes it worse!”

Alicia held green Alma in her arms and trembled. The stuffed animal creature only looked sleepy.

The red dress woman ignored that, held a hand over the remains of their campfire, and magically started a new fire. Something like smoke burst out and then then the collapsed beasts were transformed into meat on the bone in no time at all.

That was the meat processing magic called Target Cooker.

It only worked on dead animals, so it had no effect on living targets. It eliminated the painstaking processing of draining the blood and removing the organs, but the fur, fangs, and any other “inedible” parts would vanish into thin air. The professional hunters in Miyabi’s village avoided using it for that reason.

Since it worked on anything “dead”, it could also be used on the rotting Undead type of monster, but that was forbidden.

“I’m Victia Magnumfist.”

“Are you?”

“I’m working to establish a self-defense style I’ve developed so anyone can travel safely and comfortably, but I haven’t had much luck so far. So how about it? Learn my techniques and you’ll never find yourself in that sort of trouble again.”

“That sounds wonderful, but how long does it take to learn these techniques?”

“Ah ha ha! Don’t be so cautious. I’ve designed my training methods with beginners in mind. Anyone can learn it with ease after only three or so broken bones and about half a year living on the border between life and death!”

“…”

“And I’ve been feeling pretty lonely, so I would love an apprentice. How about it? You’d be Apprentice #1, so I’d make sure to give you extra TLC!”

Miyabi was sorely tempted by those large boobs, that bared thigh, and the black underwear, but he caught himself. Could he really keep up if he was asked to play with bears or tigers? He also had to wonder what exactly her idea of TLC was. He would be all for it if it meant learning some pinning techniques that involved a lot of close body contact, but he had a feeling it would not be anything that fun. The instant he agreed, he just knew something bad would be coming his way. Something real bad.

“(Hey, Miyabi,)” whispered Alicia. “(We need to neutralize her. Do you think you could convince her to give up that axe?)”

“Oh? You have a sharp eye, Miss Elf. Your suspicions are correct: I am even stronger in barehanded combat. The axe is a handicap to slow me down. Ah ha ha!!”

“…”

They all fell silent this time.

This was extremely bad.

She was harmless now while she was laughing, but they knew they could not afford to make her mad. In fact, they had heard a few explosions outside the tent, but did this mean she hadn’t used any magic for that?

Miyabi laughed with the ugliest smile he had made that day.

“Ha ha ha. Today’s not a good day for me, so maybe next time?”

“Ah ha ha. Let’s do it now.”

“Today’s a bad day. Next time?”

“Ah ha ha.”

“Today bad.”

“Now good.”

No matter how ugly he made his smile, he couldn’t get through to the smiling dress woman. They all realized this was never going to end unless he said yes. Worse, her fist was clenching tighter and tighter even though she was still smiling. Her limit was fast approaching.

Helen whispered with worry coloring her face.

“(Miyabi, Miyabi. Why not test out that thing here?)”

“What thing?”

“(That small island surrounded by magical barriers or cracks in the world. Was it called Horn Fortress? Anyway, that hideout only you can use. Why not call in the Lucifer Horn, scoop her up, and carry her off as an inactive party member? We need to put as much distance between her and us as possible. I don’t think she means any harm, but keeping her around will only lead to trouble.)”

That idea hadn’t occurred to him.

This was a journey of firsts for Miyabi Blackgarden and now he stabbed his control sword into the ground.

“Lucifer Horn, do the thing Helen just described!”

It flew in.

“Okay, everyone! How about we start with the basics? Don’t worry, I’ve gone through it all myself. When you break your first bone, your body will figure out on its own how to heal it as good as new!! …Oh?”

The woman finally noticed something was amiss.

A long, long wire dangled down from the Lucifer Horn, which caught Victia Magnumfist’s red dress on the back of the neck.

Then it flew off.

“Ohh? Wait, what is this? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Her scream vanished into the night sky.

Miyabi’s eyes widened at what he had done.

“Ehh!? That’s how it retrieves party members!? I never want to fly like that! I want something fun, like riding on a broom or on a dragon’s back!”

Apparently, the Lucifer Horn could not slowly descend for them.

They had acquired a reliable new party member, but Helen was staring off into the distance.

“I-is she even still alive after that?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Alicia Blueforest showed no mercy. “It’s basically impossible to kill a moron.”

After a few heart-pounding nights camping out, it was the third day of their quest.

They were all exhausted by the time they arrived at the northern inn town.

“Ughhh. I-I never did catch a single fish,” complained Alicia. “I’m so sick of those dried foods! Give me something hot to eat!!”

“…”

“Oh? What’s wrong, Miyabi?” asked Helen. “Hee hee. Feeling homesick already?”

The capable glasses woman failed to realize how he felt after getting so little sleep. Unbeknownst to her, she tossed and turned in her sleep a lot, so his face had been violently attacked by her boobs time and again during the night. And to turn that seduction into a finishing blow, she had a bad habit of reflexively jabbing a knee between his legs whenever he stirred. It was all well beyond what he would consider a reward.

There were several rusted railroad tracks left on the ground, but they all had developed gaps in places. Miyabi could not imagine why the trains had stopped traveling through here. The town itself had a lot of windmills and water storage tanks. He could tell the people left here had stubbornly clung to life even after they were cut off from the outside world.

There were a lot of people.

Were they from the village, or were they here to buy some junk? Miyabi had grown up in a village where everyone held the same values, so he found it strange to see such a mixture of people wearing different clothes and eating different foods.

“I don’t like the air here.” The elf sounded sick as she looked to the gray metal houses and stores made from gathered junk. “I miss my forest.”

But they had no time to rest.

A dark colossus already towered above them.

It was 400m long…or was it 500? And it had to be at least 20m tall.

That was the strongest power that worked to keep the trade routes safe and secure. The train was loaded with boxes and barrels, but did those use the Compress Cargo magic that had fit so much inside that small bag? If so, how much cargo was it carrying across the continent?

Helen consciously calmed her breathing before speaking.

“So that’s the Schwarz Schütze. It really is big.”

“It’s more conspicuous than the entire inn town,” said Alicia.

But this meant the girl waiting for them was surprisingly faithful to her promises. They had made sure they could complete the trip with time to spare, but would she have kept waiting even if they were late?

“You think that thing’s conspicuous? Then check this out: a real life high-class girl. That’s the thing about a fantasy world – all the girls belong to some rare type or another!”

The radio was right.

One of the many side doors silently opened. She must have decided they were approaching the train to meet her, not just gawking from afar.

“So you have finally arrived.” Celina Bodenburg, the rich girl who valued money above all, brushed her blonde hair back from her shoulder. “Punctuality is a crucial part of running a business, so even if you have a Wicked God horn to sell me, I don’t have all day to-”

Her words stopped.

They caught in her throat.

“…”

Her eyes bulged out.

She looked like she couldn’t even breathe as she pointed at them.

“Ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? Y-you!?”

She even had tears in her eyes.

What kind of connections was she making in her head?

“So the new horn in the letter was…no, the entire letter was a lie, wasn’t it!? Of course it was! What ‘new horn’ could anyone have found other than the one in the odious Lucifer Horn!?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her fists, and lightly pummeled Miyabi’s chest. Even though she had a Godhorn Tech right there. Miyabi was dumbfounded.

“Argh, enough of this!”

The short-tempered elf brought her fist down on the new money girl’s head.

“Ughh.”

Celina Bodenburg sobbed for a bit, but then the wiring in her brain seemed to reconnect. Without warning, she grabbed her bayonet-equipped hunting rifle – the control gun for the Schwarz Schütze.

The boy stared in shock.

If she stabbed that into the dry ground or the rusty and incomplete tracks, then the world would be destroyed around them.

“So this was a trap, was it? Control gun, connect to the horn core. Tactical open!!”

“Wait, wait!” shouted Miyabi. “I really did bring a Wicked God horn for you. Just hear me out!!”

“You…what?”

Her surprise was overwritten by his proof.

With an explosive roar, a colossal form cut by overhead.

“Bomber Lucifer Horn.” He spoke the name of his card. “I ended up with it by pure happenstance and it’s honestly too much for me! But I can’t just throw it out. I want an expert to take it off my hands. Is that so hard to believe?”

“…”

Silence followed.

Was she taken aback, or suspicious?

“A Godhorn Tech is extremely powerful. That doesn’t seem like enough of a reason to get rid of one.”

“Even thought it means having people like you after me all the time? I don’t want to go on some rampage across the world; I just want my normal life back.”

Yes. In Celina’s money-focused worldview, there was no advantage to giving up a Godhorn Tech. But what about the disadvantages of keeping it? Calculating risk was a part of business.

“And Moebius agreed to this?”

“He neglected to mention how dangerous it would be.” Miyabi shook his head like he was washing his hands of all this. “If he can pass it off to me and escape, then I should be allowed to do the same! Please, just give me my life back!!”

“…”

More silence.

But the temperature was different this time. She seemed to be assessing him.

“Well, I can do that for you if you want. Have the Lucifer Horn land according to my instructions.”

“You mean it!?”

“But there is an etiquette for such things.” She winked. “Just continue to follow my instructions.”

### 006. Chapter 2 Section 3

A powerful, heavy rumbling shook the armored train.

The Schwarz Schütze was traveling even further north. Despite the season, white snow coated the ground outside.

Miyabi had been taught that trains were inconvenient vehicles that could only run on the metal rails already installed through largescale construction projects, but everything had its exceptions.

The Schwarz Schütze laid its own rails as it went.

Alicia used her knowledge of alchemy to explain that the two rollers on the front of the train were laying out short rails like bricks to endlessly construct a track for itself. That left great scars on the ground after it passed through, which infuriated the nature-loving elf, but Miyabi honestly wanted to see it in action from the outside.

“We’re riding it.” Miyabi was weirdly excited for someone in the middle of enemy territory. “We’re riding a Godhorn Tech. Wow, can you believe it? This thing is so weird.”

“If you ask me, it’s weirder for a weapon of this size to leave the user on the outside.” Helen sounded somewhat exasperated. “Not that the Republic knows much about these things.”

Miyabi had only ever played around in the forest’s trees, so he didn’t understand how this product of alchemy worked. Alicia knew enough about alchemy to be shocked by how ridiculously wasteful it was, but only two things really mattered: the Lucifer Horn was strapped to the enormous train’s roof, and Miyabi’s group were onboard the train.

Alma remained the green of the wind-element Quetzalcoatl, so manmade metal and stone must not have qualified as a new environment.

(I’m going to destroy this thing.)

Miyabi still couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

This was a vehicle, but it had a second and third floor.

Just one of its cars could fit five or even ten of his log house inside, but several of those cars were linked together, giving it a worm-like shape. He wondered if all of the village’s buildings, from the homes to the church, would fit inside the train.

(Can I really do this? Moebius has been right so far, but he didn’t give us the next step. Just that we need to find a weakness inside it. He said we were sure to find something if we looked at it from a different angle, but I’m not so sure.)

He had known it was used to transport cargo, so he had expected the cars to basically be crude warehouses on wheels, but he instead found a fashionable bar and lounge. It offered a few trendy games like darts and billiards and a ceiling fan slowly spun up above. The magical oven and stovetop visible in the adjoined kitchen suggested that too was top rate. There was a large magically-powered refrigerator and a specialized icemaker. This wasn’t just nicer than Miyabi’s home kitchen; it may have been fancier than the professional kitchen at the village’s pub.

But it made sense when one of the continent’s richest girls lived here. He noticed a faint sweet scent, reminiscent of a girl’s room.

“Are there no maids or other workers onboard?” asked Miyabi, looking around.

“Or bodyguards. The Bodenburg Company should be able to afford private guards superior to your average country’s knights.”

Helen’s comment was a little concerning, but the rural boy did not know enough about military might to fully appreciate its meaning.

“Then is she alone in here? Does everything here run on magic? Wouldn’t she feel faint having so much magic power sucked out of her?”

“Hmph. She probably uses the Wicked God horn for all that,” said Alicia. “It would provide endless energy.”

The palatial interior covered up all of the thick metal walls and floors.

It all felt so much stranger since he could not get a good grip on the scale of the place.

He ended up repeating the same thing he had said countless times that day.

“W-whoa. It sure does shake a lot. You can really tell it’s moving.”

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

Alma danced happily atop the bar counter. The creature adapted quick, maybe because it was so young. The long-eared elf sat in a nearby bar stool to observe the juvenile Wicked God.

“Alma, you aren’t feeling sick, are you? It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You can use this if you need to.”

“Hey, you aren’t opening up my head for use as a barf bag, are you!?”

The hag and the radio started arguing, until…

“Sorry about the wait, everyone.”

A lovely girl’s voice took charge of the scene.

It belonged to Celina Bodenburg.

“The Wicked God horn built into Godhorn Tech might as well be pure energy. Safely removing one is a very different task than simply installing one. Not even our company has reached that level, so we must visit the snowy Arsenal Kingdom far to the north.”

That explained their journey.

“Okay, that much I get.”

Maybe he was being tactless, but Miyabi couldn’t help but stare. A double take was not enough.

That rich girl was wearing a flirty maid uniform featuring knee socks, a miniskirt, and plenty of cleavage. It was so frilly she looked more like a fairy tale heroine than a housekeeper.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

“Why? Because these are my work clothes.”

The miniskirt maid seemed puzzled by Miyabi’s question, but the radio could not stay silent.

“Damn, we are breaking new ground here. Those gaudy maids handing out fliers in front of the train station are fine, but an airheaded rich girl in an authentic maid uniform takes the cake!”

“Reminds you of a recent nightmare, doesn’t it, Venus?”

“Bwahh!?”

The elf’s attack on the glasses woman must have done considerable damage since she had to cling to the nearby billiards table for support. Miyabi wanted to tell her not to stick her butt out in her tight skirt like that, but he didn’t have the guts to say it out loud.

The strange maid shrugged.

“I don’t like it one bit, but you are important business partners. So until our business is concluded, it is my duty to provide you with the utmost in comfort. I chose this housekeeper uniform out of necessity, so I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Is that how it works? wondered Miyabi. I really don’t understand her obsession with money.

However…

“Nothing…at…all.”

“See, I knew that maid uniform was a step too far!! You don’t have to do this for us!”

The girl blushed and the busty glasses woman shouted a warning at Miyabi.

“Wait, Miyabi! Your kindness is like salt in the wound!! Believe me, I know! I know all too well!!”

But Celina refused to admit defeat. She was red in the face with tears in her eyes, but she managed to keep her voice strong.

“A-after all, a Wicked God horn is worth at least a billion methods. Failure is not an option here. I will do anything to land this deal!”

“Bff!? A b-billion!? But a dozen pieces of firewood only gets you five at the most!!”

“Really, boy?” said Alicia.

“Why not forget all this serious crap and go make yourself an island of nothing but girls, swimsuits, and dreams? Hell, you can use that Horn Fortress thing, can’t you? You can snatch up girls from all around the world to populate your island.”

“You be quiet, malfunctioning radio!”

Something about that exchange made Celina raise an eyebrow, but her suspicions were unfounded.

“What’s this? You aren’t trying to pull a fast one on me, are you?”

“O-of course not! But could we put off all this complicated business talk till later!?”

Miyabi was not trying to make waves here.

They were not at all interested in making a deal with the horn. They were using that as a pretext to infiltrate the Schwarz Schütze and find some way to incapacitate it.

He wanted to avoid a battle between bomber and armored train if it all possible.

“Sounds to me like we can boss her around for now,” said Alicia. “Hey, maid. Could you bring us some tea?”

“You’ve got guts, elf.”

The radio was a piece of junk, but it was generally correct.

“P-please, make yourself at home,” said the girl in the unfamiliar maid uniform.

The Arsenal Kingdom was a long way off, so they had plenty of time.

“Feel free to take a look around our company’s pride and joy – the Schwarz Schütze.”

They took her up on that offer to inspect the interior of the train. And when they split up, Celina could not keep an eye on them all.

“Would you like anything to eat?” awkwardly asked the nervous maid in the lounge. “I will do my very best to prepare something for you. I-I should be able to make some s-sandwiches maybe?”

“No, thanks. This place is incredible, though. So you have everything you need here on the train?”

“Enjoying a trip alone is one form of luxury. Having an army of butlers and maids at your beck and call is nice, but it becomes stifling after a while.”

The truly privileged had apparently figured out how to complain about their own privilege.

Celina smiled in a very upper class sort of way.

“Also, I must travel across the continent expanding our trade routes, but there is a lot a girl needs to keep with her.”

“That’s not what I meant. Why not use your hideout? Y’know, the Horn Fortress.”

“?”

For once, she looked truly puzzled.

Finally, anger silently spread across her face.

“Is that…some kind of super-secret Godhorn Tech feature I am not aware of? Oh, I see what’s going on here now. You’re showing off in an attempt to drag some information out of me. Impressive. You have guts attempting such rhetorical trickery against the only daughter of the Bodenburg Company.”

“Eh? No, um, that’s just something Moebius told me about. It’s apparently a secret base where you can take your party members, create items, and set up magic circles to boost your Godhorn Tech’s power.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about. You can sit here bragging about how special you are if you like, but I want no part of it! Hmph!!”

She seemed legitimately upset, so could she really not do it?

Miyabi himself did not see it as bragging since he considered everything about the Godhorn Tech to be borrowed power.

(And the way that wire snags people looks dangerous, so I’d rather not use it if at all possible. If you aren’t a freak like Victia, you’d probably freeze to death. That bomber isn’t made to gently land and pick you up, so I would honestly prefer an armored train that runs along the ground.)

Anyway.

Letting her brag instantly put her back in a good mood. She was holding her head high by the time they arrived at the crude cargo hold where wooden and metal boxes (she called them cargo containers) were stacked as high as a three-story building.

“Heh heh. This right here is the world’s safest cargo hold. A horde of bandits and the worst road conditions won’t harm the products in here. Although at the moment, our most valuable item is the Godhorn Tech strapped to the roof.”

There was also a space lined with countless glass lab equipment.

“Alchemy is crucial to the Schwarz Schütze,” she explained. “The many ultra-hard artillery shells and the very rails that support the train are all made with our own exclusive alchemy. Not only can it continue fighting indefinitely, but it can clear even the worst road conditions with its real-time track laying system!”

She then showed off the foremost room, which looked very important.

Thick glass had sealed away a massive piece of metal that looked far more daunting and impressive than the pipe organ in the village’s church.

“This is the very heart of the Godhorn Tech: the sealed container. Our company’s arms division gathered the best of its technology to safely manage the massive energy produced by the Wicked God horn contained within!”

She’s not a bad girl, concluded Miyabi.

She talked on and on with her head held high when bragging about the Schwarz Schütze. He could tell just how much she wanted to show off the Bodenburg Company’s accomplishments. It was just like a child reading an essay they wrote about their parents’ jobs. If you could ignore the dangerous content of her speech, the tone of voice and mannerisms were downright heartwarming.

Money was everything to her, so dealing with her on equal footing would be difficult. The instant their business deal fell through, she would be his enemy. He really wished they could have met under different circumstances.

Since he was her direct business partner in this deal, she generally followed him around.

Like a chick. Or like a child extoling her parent’s jobs to a visiting friend.

Still, his party found a chance to gather alone.

Strangely, things felt much more dangerous the instant their supposed enemy was absent.

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

“Has this vile thing developed a taste for tea? No! It’s trying to use a shared interest to score points with the rich girl. This vile beast is aiming for a harem end!!”

The rest of them ignored Alma and the radio.

Helen got started while seating her tight skirt butt on a wooden barrel labeled “truffles” and crossing her long legs.

“If we’re going to do damage from within, the alchemy ceremonial ground looks like the best candidate to me. She has more equipment and chemicals in there than the capital’s research library. And keeping such fragile equipment in a moving train is absurd enough on its own.”

“Hmm,” said Alicia. “Or we could use the Lucifer Horn to make a pinpoint attack on one of the links between cars. Those are a structural weak link, so an aerial bombing should be enough to slice right through them. That would be devastating while at speed. We only have to leave a marker at the desired point.”

That was technically possible.

For example, a Decoy Wall could draw in a Godhorn Tech attack to accurately divert it from the intended target. So by sandwiching their target between two of them, the falling beam of light would be twisted around so it sliced through both walls with the one attack.

“When do we make our attack?” asked Alicia. “We need to set things up here, but I would also like to escape before the attack begins.”

“…”

Miyabi fell silent, but not just because he was pondering the coming operation. There was an obvious cloud over his face.

He knew there was no avoiding a battle with Celina at this point. And if they lost their advantage, his home or village might be razed to the ground by the armored train’s firepower.

But still.

Celina was not with them because she was working with the oven. A look through the glass door showed her focused on baking the food she planned to serve them. She generally ate frozen and preserved foods, but she claimed to specialize in baking sweets because she refused to compromise with them.

Alicia Blueforest sighed when she noticed.

“Snap out of it, horny boy.”

“What?”

“That miniskirt maid outfit isn’t distracting you from our goal here, is it?”

“I know it’s all I’m thinking about,” said the radio, earning it a solid blow from the elf’s small fist.

“We came here so we could defeat Celina,” she reminded Miyabi.

“Failure is not an option now that you’ve used your Godhorn Tech as bait.” Helen calmly chimed in. “It will be dismantled once we arrive in the Arsenal Kingdom, so we have to settle this before then.”

“I know that,” grumbled Miyabi.

Down at his feet, Alma noticed something and began crying.

“Kyoo, kyoo!”

Celina Bodenburg was returning with her miniskirt maid uniform fluttering around her.

“Oh, you’ve all gathered in here? The cookies will take a while longer to bake, so why not head in there to talk? Don’t worry. I will accompany you.”

Helen slipped away and Alicia picked Alma up from the floor with a look that said “you deal with her”.

Celina guided Miyabi back to the lounge. The wonderful sweet aroma likely came from the oven.

Once they were alone together, Miyabi spoke his mind.

“This feels weird.”

“Yes, it does for me as well.”

She pinched the frills of her maid uniform and smiled bitterly.

“Um, I don’t really understand how your family does things.”

“?”

“But I don’t see why you need to do all this just for money.”

She did not immediately respond.

She sat on the edge of the billiards table and sighed first.

“Because money is so simple.”

“Is it though?”

“Hee hee. How about an example?” She ran her finger along a table in the lounge and then did the same with the counter. “This table is obviously not worth much, but this counter is of the finest quality. Now, Miyabi, destroy one or the other.”

He hesitated, but he could tell not choosing was not an option.

He drew his control sword.

The Lucifer Horn was in sleep mode, so he was barely receiving any power from the horn. Still, it was far sharper than the average blade.

He chose one of the options and a crash of destruction echoed through the lounge.

“See?” She smiled with just a hint of loneliness mixed in. “People either sacrifice the cheaper one, or they destroy the more expensive one because they can. Either way, they make their choice by ranking the options based on monetary value.”

“…”

“Money is simple.”

She sounded like she was speaking to herself more than him.

“My father always says so. As does my mother.”

Hadn’t Moebius Entrance said she was raised to think this way?

“With money, people will accept you. With money, you can grow. With money, you can do anything you want. With money, you can even protect people’s lives.”

She listed them off like lines of a lullaby.

But the lonely girl whispered one last line.

“With money…your parents will call you a good girl.”

“Wait…”

“The money itself is meaningless. The possibilities that money opens up for you are what matter.”

There was a gentleness to her voice.

Like this was a mantra driven into her day after day as far back as she could remember.

“Enjoying a trip alone is one form of luxury. Having an army of butlers and maids at your beck and call is nice, but it becomes stifling after a while.”

When he first heard her say that, it had disgusted him. It had sounded like the privileged complaining about their own privilege.

But looking back, he realized she had never mentioned her family or any friends.

“And that is enough reason for me to fight to the best of my ability. Feeling disillusioned?”

He started to say something, but he was cut off by a high-pitched ringing.

His heart skipped a beat because he initially thought it was the sign of a nearby sorcery bomb, but apparently not. Celina also looked up toward the ceiling.

“What was that?” he asked.

“A transmission is coming in.”

Celina approached a box on the wall behind the counter. Several thick pipes had covers over them, but this looked different from the speaking tubes he had seen in plays.

“Oh?”

“Kssshhh.”

“It appears to be from outside, but the signal quality is poor.”

She sighed and started fiddling with the device on the wall. He realized it must be difficult for just the one person to look after the entire armored train. And while he knew she was fixated on her work, he really wished she would stop bending over and sticking her small butt out toward him. He was only trying to see what was going on, yet the shortness of her maid uniform’s skirt kept giving him some very distracting glimpses!

“Excuse me, but would you mind helping out? Giving it a solid whack here should do the trick.”

After a loud “thwack!”, the static vanished.

The Schwarz Schütze lived up to its reputation. It seemed his solid control sword could only destroy the wooden furniture.

At any rate, the device was working again. The static coming from the ceiling was replaced by a cool female voice.

“This is Eliza Silverstorm of the White Seidr Chosen Knights. I have identified you as the Bodenburg Company’s armored train.”

“From the Arsenal Kingdom? Thank you for your cooperation.”

Celina must have been through this process before.

Miyabi had been nervous simply leaving his village, but she traveled across the continent to make business deals that rivaled national budgets. She could handle this just fine.

“I assume you have received the entrance request I sent. Surely you won’t claim my messenger harpy got lost along the way.”

“That form is just that: a request. You have no guarantee it will be accepted.”

But even the country boy could tell this was not going well.

He had a bad feeling about this.

Celina grabbed the metal pipe more firmly.

“The Arsenal Kingdom is a northern kingdom buried in deep snow. You might have meat, but I believe your average vegetable production is well below the self-sufficiency rate. Making an enemy of our company will only mean starvation after trade slows to a crawl.”

“You have guts gathering our internal information in the name of business. But this is an emergency. Do I sound like I want to pick a fight with you?”

Miyabi was close to panicking at this point.

“Wait, what’s going on here?”

“We received another letter. An anonymous letter,” responded the female voice. “It alleges that a portion of your train has been replaced with one of the 11th’s sorcery bombs.”

“What!?”

Miyabi felt his throat go dry.

“It also said you may be unaware of this fact.”

Why were they bringing up sorcery bombs now?

“We cannot possibly let you in under those circumstances. We are a fortified kingdom with thick walls surrounding our limited land. A blast of that magnitude within the walls would blow away the castle town where our people live and could do the same to the king’s castle as well. The king gave me my orders once the letter arrived, so this is the entire kingdom’s decision. If you wish to disregard that decision, then provide proof that your train is safe.”

“What is the meaning of this?” asked Celina.

“I wish I knew,” said the voice.

“…”

Miyabi was even more confused than those two.

What was happening here?

“The Arsenal Kingdom’s king is a good friend of my father’s.” The girl weighed things on unseen scales. “I doubt he would make a meaningless bluff here. So is it true?” She spun around. “Miyabi, I need your help to locate the sorcery bomb.”

The rhythmic rumbling continued.

The Schwarz Schütze continued on its way. The fear filling the girl’s chest may have told her that stopping would be admitting to the worst-case scenario here.

Not only was the train long, but it was multiple stories tall as well. But since Miyabi and Celina split up to search the train, he had a chance to speak with his party without her noticing.

“Koo koo!”

“Sorry, Alma, but it’ll have to wait!”

Young Alma was toddling along by his feet, but speaking with it would not help at the moment. That meant he had to contact Alicia or Helen.

Any alchemist would want a chance to check out someone else’s lab, so Alicia was absorbed in the alchemy ceremonial ground. The radio hanging from her neck didn’t have a care in the world.

“Hm? Is that the time limit lighting? Do we have enough time to open some treasure chests???”

“(H-hey,)” whispered Alicia. “(I don’t see anything set up in the alchemy lab, so did you set the marker on the car connection after all? Either way, you should have told us the plan before you got started!)”

Her question told him she had no idea what was happening. She had not even heard about the sorcery bomb.

He also tried asking Helen after finding her in the cargo hold full of wooden and metal boxes.

“I-is something wrong, Miyabi?” She approached close enough to whisper. “(What’s our escape route? We can’t just jump out at this speed, but I hope you aren’t planning to scoop us up with the Lucifer Horn!)”

She also knew nothing and was starved for information.

Regardless, now was not the time for conspiracies and attempts to outwit each other. All of them gathered in the lounge just in time for Celina to return from her search with her maid uniform’s short skirt fluttering.

And…

“You can’t find it?” he asked, feeling dazed.

That was the only possible conclusion when she too had completed a circuit of the train and returned to the lounge.

“Koo?”

“But I doubt the snowy Arsenal Kingdom is picking a fight with our company. They are reliant on our imports for food.” Celina responded immediately, showing how confident she was in that fact. “My father has built a strong connection with them and they are a major business partner, so there must be something to this warning.”

But was she really thinking about this clearly?

To Miyabi, it looked more like she was simply grasping at her trust in her family in her panic.

She unfurled a large parchment map atop the billiards table.

No, it was the armored train’s internal design.

She glanced over at Miyabi and hesitated for just a moment, suggesting she should not be letting outsiders see this, but she finally pushed past her doubts.

Then she grabbed a small box from the edge of the bar counter. It gave off a sweet aroma, so it may have been made from pieces of an aged fruit wine barrel. She poured the darts it contained onto the billiards table.

“Miyabi, stick a dart in the areas you checked. All of them.”

“Um, here, and here, and then here…and here I think?”

“I checked here and here. What about the rest of you? …??? I don’t know what to think now. This covers everything from the cargo hold to the alchemy ceremonial ground!! Then where could it-?”

“Celina.”

“N-no, it’s nothing. That couldn’t be.”

She shook her head and glared down at the parchment.

“Again.” She looked ready to chew on her thumbnail. “We need to search it all again!! Yes, that’s it. It might be mixed in with all the boxes and barrels containing the Compress Cargo items.”

“It’s no use, Celina.” Miyabi shook his head. “I already looked around everywhere beforehand, but I didn’t sense the horn resonance. That means we aren’t going to find it anywhere!”

“ Resonance ? Are you saying you can sense a sorcery bomb’s location!? But I can’t do that…”

“That isn’t what matters right now!”

She started to veer off track, so he verbally forced her back. She seemed aware they did not have time for an extended questioning session because she went along with it and placed a hand on her slender chin.

“In that case…”

That was when another transmission arrived.

But this time, the knight named Eliza sounded much more violent.

“Stop, Schwarz Schütze!”

An icy sensation pierced Miyabi’s heart. His head shot up and his eyes met with Celina’s rather than Alicia’s or Helen’s. They had both been on the receiving end of this great a threat in the past, so they could sense it on an instinctual level.

It was coming.

Something equal or greater to their own power was on its way.

“Approach any further and I will stop you with my Snow Sleigh Godhorn Tech – the Icicle Bullet.”

A violent tremor ran through the train.

Impossibly, it shook side to side, along with the scream of straining metal.

“Kyah!?”

“It directly…hit us!?”

He gasped. Celina lost her balance and he tried to catch her, but then both of them were slammed against the wall.

Even if it had come as a surprise, a single attack had done this to the Schwarz Schütze.

“Kh! Schwarz Schütze, respond with a direct attack of our own!! Immediately activate calcination of the 12 operations!!”

“It is no use. I am more powerful when it comes to pure tackling force. You might have managed a draw in a head-on collision, but you should know I have won from the moment I scored a hit on your side.”

Eliza was right.

Celina had done something, but it did nothing to stop the disconcerting noises.

The armored train was massive enough to forcibly take the star position no matter where it was and it could plow through anything standing in its way, yet it was clearly sliding to the side.

The maid girl paled.

“B-but not even crashing a great mass into the side should be able to-”

“I have derailed you,” curtly stated the ice knight before correcting herself. “Correction, I have overturned you.”

With a great roar, Miyabi’s vision tumbled and his mind was shattered into a million pieces.

Even if the armored train could lay its own track, there was nothing it could do once it rolled onto its side.

The knight’s iron will to keep the sorcery bomb away from her kingdom had rejected their entry.

### 007. Chapter 2 Section 4

Strangely, he did not feel cold.

Which scared him.

“Ow…”

Miyabi Blackgarden was lying on his back and he had to extract each of his limbs from the deep snow before he could slowly get up. Nothing seemed to be broken, but where was he? He was surrounded by a raging blizzard and an unfamiliar pointy type of tree jutted up into the frigid sky. A portion of that forest had been brought down by a scattering of metal rails, wooden boxes, and more detritus.

And by colossal train cars.

(I-I was thrown outside?)

Glass shards and wooden splinters were everywhere. Fancy truffles spilled from a broken barrel and he did not even want to think about how much those had to be worth. The kind of cutting-edge phonograph and film projector never seen in his village were smashed and half-buried in snow. The entire area would have looked like a treasure trove to the scrap collectors who had gathered in that inn town full of sheet iron and rusted rails.

With this much of the contents spilled, the armored train’s exterior could not have survived intact.

The links between cars had broken and they had rolled onto their sides. They were spread out over a wide area, so they and the scattered cargo containers built a strange 3D labyrinth as far as the eye could see.

Miyabi found himself outside.

What had happened to the giant front car? The entire car may have been torn asunder instead of just having the link to the next car broken.

“Are the others okay?”

Miyabi saw the others lying nearby and half-buried in the snow, so he called out to them. His body was number than he had thought. He experienced a general lack of feeling more than any pain from the impact of being thrown clear, but that was no reason to relax. Not feeling the biting cold could easily mean he was close to death.

“K-kyoo…”

“Are you all right, Alma?” asked Alicia. “Even for a Wicked God, that must have been rough at your age. But it’s okay now.”

“It turns out the body you made for me is sturdy, but a little concern would be nice.”

Alma and the radio seemed unharmed and Helen Clockgear mostly looked exasperated.

With a quiet popping sound, Alma’s coloration changed again within Alicia’s tight grasp. The creature was red now. The burning red seemed at odds with the snowy kingdom.

“Ohh!? Is that supposed to be the fire element Phoenix? You’re just so cute!!”

“At least you won’t blend in to your surroundings like with the green of the fields,” bluntly stated Miyabi, noting that this new form did not look any more useful in combat than the last one.

Was this meant to fight the cold rather than function as camouflage? But despite the fiery appearance, the elf was not burned as she held Alma close and rubbed her cheek against it. He tried snatching Alma up (to Alicia Blueforest’s protests), but he felt no warmth at all from the useless thing.

Miyabi held the juvenile Wicked God up out of the short elf’s reach, causing her to hop up and down trying to grab the one member of their party protected from the cold, but his little game was interrupted.

Celina Bodenburg appeared to be having trouble with the blizzard in her flirty miniskirt maid uniform. Her movements were stiff and slow as she got up.

A deep tremor ran through the white land and clumps of snow fell from the conifer trees.

“Eliza’s Icicle Bullet has left.”

That white giant was several dozen meters long. It was designed for ramming attacks, making it look like a spindle-shaped artillery shell with two icy blades attached below it in parallel. It would stab and pierce or crush and flatten. The sorcery weapon felt more specialized than Miyabi’s Lucifer Horn or Celina’s Schwarz Schütze, making it a true oddity. It was so specialized for ramming that the cannon at the center of the top looked puny by comparison. Even though that cannon was enough to obliterate Miyabi’s party on its own.

However, it seemed the still-unseen knight had only been interested in stopping the dangerous train’s approach. She had left without finishing off the survivors. The Icicle Bullet was departing through the blizzard, blasting white snow up from the ground along the way.

But Celina still could not believe what she had seen or what had been done to her.

“What was that about?” she asked. “We never did find a sorcery bomb.”

“…”

Alicia and Helen maintained poker faces.

(Did those two do something?)

Miyabi was curious, but he could not ask in front of Celina.

And there was a problem with that idea.

(No, you need a Wicked God horn to make one of those. Only the 11th can create a sorcery bomb, so it couldn’t have been them.)

But that thought was cut off by the sudden arrival of the real issue at hand.

A high-pitched, evenly-spaced alarm rang in his head.

His horn was resonating with a sorcery bomb.

“!?”

The ringing was loud and constant. It was terribly distracting when he could not turn it off. But Celina noticed the way his head sprang up to look into the frigid white sky.

“Is something…wrong?” she asked cautiously.

“I can hear it.” He gulped. “It’s just like that other time. I’m detecting a sorcery bomb!?”

They could not ignore this. This was a remote snowy forest, but if the sorcery bomb were to detonate without warning, it could reduce a village or two to ashes. Or so he had been told. He only had Moebius Entrance’s word to go on, but he felt that was better than having seen it for himself. However, the scope of the blast meant running away was not a good plan. With the deep snow hindering their movement, they would never escape the range of the blast in time. They would be swallowed up and blown away.

They had to do something about it themselves.

After the Schwarz Schütze derailed and rolled over, it had spread metal rails, wooden boxes, cargo containers, lab equipment, and furniture everywhere. The twisted remains of the giant cars themselves could be seen further in the distance. Nature and the artificial combined to create a deadly labyrinth in this forest.

“Oh, that’s my clothing bag.”

Celina happily reported a find while shivering in her maid uniform. A sleeve was sticking out of a boxy trunk. It did not appear to use the Compress Cargo magic that allowed so much more to be packed inside. But since that magic wound up the Palette Dice – or folded them up? He could not remember exactly – it apparently reduced the value of art or antiques where authenticity was so important.

“Please wait a moment.”

She circled behind a squashed container and rummaged around for a bit.

“What I wouldn’t give for some camera controls right about now,” lamented the radio.

“What in the world are you talking about?” asked Alicia.

It could not have taken more than 10 minutes in all.

“Thank you for waiting.”

Celina emerged in the black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems that she had worn before. It did not appear to use any heat insulation magic.

“That doesn’t look much warmer to me,” commented the elf.

“What is this about a sorcery bomb?” asked Celina. “You said there wasn’t one earlier! Are you saying that anonymous letter was right!?”

Her armored train had been destroyed over this, so he understood why she was upset.

“I can’t explain it either,” was all he could say. “But I can sense it now. If we don’t find the bomb and deal with it, we’ll be blown away along with the entire snowy mountain!”

The distance was all he could sense, so he wanted to walk over a wide area to figure out a general area where the bomb had to be.

It did not have a set form. The previous one had been transformed into a half-rotten and broken tree, so this one could be a box, a barrel, a container, a metal wall piercing into the ground, twisted metal scraps, a billiards table, or a chandelier. Any of the debris strewn across this area could be it, so they could not hope to spot it from a distance.

They walked deeper into the forest, where the remnants of the cars and furniture were. The forest’s trees had been torn down, the cars lay oin their sides with connections broken, and the containers and boxes had fallen in precarious piles. No straight path through lasted for long. They even had to duck below a train car blocking the way and walk along an oblong cargo container spanning a ravine.

Celina did not appreciate navigating a vast labyrinth made from her own possessions.

The contents of the containers and boxes had expanded to their original size when the Compress Cargo magic wore off, making it look like a giant’s toybox had been overturned.

“This feels like one of Strange Guide’s deadly dungeons.”

“?”

“That is a mysterious individual rumored to host death games as a form of entertainment for the immoral members of the wealthy class. I have never seen one for myself, for better or for worse.”

“Hm? The immoral members? Are you saying you’re not like that?”

“Hmph. I will leave that up to your imagination.”

But they were soon interrupted by a low rumbling.

No, a group of Beast Novae passed by close nearby. They were covered in white fur to survive the harsh blizzards and the appeared to be Abominable Snowmen, Werewolves, and the like.

“Kyoo!?”

“Watch out, Alma!”

Alicia moved to protect Alma and then lurched backwards.

“Gh!?”

“Alicia!”

“I-I am fine. I would have died without this hanging from my neck, though. (Grin)”

“What she means is, the claw or fang struck me instead!”

The pervert radio’s legitimate complaint was brushed aside.

Helen cautiously viewed their surroundings with her breath white and a finger on the side of her glasses.

“What is this? Are the Beast Novae afraid of something?”

“Damn, why don’t they focus on running and leave us alone?”

Miyabi had never seen snow monsters before.

They looked a lot more dangerous than the animals in the well-maintained forest of his village. Did the harsh cold environment mean they had to fight harder to survive? Those masses of powerful muscle would normally bring despair to any traveler who encountered them, but now they were fearful and panicked.

Miyabi heard what sounded like the snow and the ground below it tearing apart.

It came from a boar so massive he had to look up at it. The boar must have been agitated because it showed no sign of trying to flee like the other creatures. It was kicking its hind legs at the snow in an attempt to fight.

The philosopher’s stone noted the thick curved tusks.

“Oh…oh dear. Now those things would make short work of me, wouldn’t they?”

“Heh. Is that a fellow forest ruler I see?” said Alicia. “I get what’s going on here. He’s the rear guard, allowing the others to escape!!”

Miyabi’s party would gain nothing from defeating the ruler of this forest. In fact, spending time on it would give them less time for the sorcery bomb.

“My point is that he does not really want to fight. Now, set aside your prejudices, stop insulting him with terms like ‘Beast Nova’, and approach with a smile. I am sure we can work this ou-”

The ruler of the forest charged.

Miyabi swung his control sword to protect the elf who had frozen with a smile on her face. Specifically, he slammed the grip into the boar from the side.

The entire space was shaken by what sounded like a thunderclap.

The enormous boar had to weigh four times Miyabi’s weight, but it spiraled through the air, knocking the trees down along the way. It lay there twitching on the ground after it landed.

What was that?

It had not felt like simply saving his party member.

He stared blankly at his hands on the sword for a while.

This felt so different from when he had been cowering from Celina’s shellfire and searching for the sorcery bomb in the forest, or when the Shadow Hyenas had surrounded their tent that first night out camping. He had only struck the thing with the grip. Only ? Since when was Miyabi Blackgarden the kind of person who violently intervened like it was nothing?

Celina looked exasperated by his response while holding a control gun made of the same material.

“Oh? I see you’re getting the hang of it now.”

“…”

“The more experience you gain, the more efficiently you can wield your own power. It acts as the fuel needed to draw out more strength than you knew you had. Do not forget that you possess one of the world’s strongest powers. Is that only now sinking in?”

That meant Celina was the same.

No, she would have even more experience than him.

This went beyond the Godhorn Tech itself. Its wielder grew more inhuman the more they fought.

Combat alone could change people. Even if they were only fighting to protect their everyday life. Alicia and Helen were able to keep up with the battle despite no control sword or Godhorn Tech of their own, so did that experience affect everyone in his party? The rich girl gave a self-deprecating smile and declined to answer any of his questions.

To avoid thinking about it, he focused on the more pressing issue.

The resonance continued to ring in his mind. The sorcery bomb was out there, but he had not yet tracked down its location. Their only options were act now or sit around waiting for it to detonate.

The fleeing Beast Novae demonstrated no intention of fighting, but their fear and desperation were still dangerous. The more panicked they were, the harder it was to predict where they would charge. They could only aim their weapons toward any noises they heard.

“C-can you summon other partner members from Horn Fortress?” asked Helen. “Victia’s obscene strength would come in handy right about now!”

“Where even is that Horn Fortress?” replied Alicia. “How long does it take the Lucifer Horn to travel there and back again!?”

Miyabi swung his control sword this way and that.

“Why do you use a gun? Those things scare me. I’ve seen the plays, so I know those are what gangs use.”

“Sigh. Don’t let the royals and nobles trick you with their jealous lies, Miyabi.”

“?”

“Unlike magic or swordplay, guns are a next-generation all-purpose weapon that provides power equally to all, regardless of intellect or size. However, the powder must be treated with care, something the countries caught up in musty old tradition have a hard time with. They will carelessly let their armory grow too damp or blow up the entire room after an accidental ignition. So while those hardheaded countries dislike guns, they are spreading through newer, more openminded groups. Like, for example, our Bodenburg Company!!”

None of that seemed to address his fears, but he could not say a word more after seeing how she held her (small) chest out proudly.

She would occasionally aim the gun toward a noise and pull the trigger, but it looked like she was trying to frighten the Beast Novae away with the noise, not kill them.

The muzzle-loading rifle was not made for rapid-fire.

She had to stuff powder and a bullet in through the muzzle and cram it down with a long rod after every shot, but she was still fast. It only took the span of a breath. At the very least, she seemed quicker than someone could raise a large two-handed axe and swing it down. He could tell just how much she had used the gun.

As they trudged through the snow in their search, they came across an entire enormous train car. Wires thicker than Miyabi’s arm had snapped and the other Godhorn Tech loaded on its roof was now jabbed into the snow.

“That’s it.” Celina sounded like she had made a discovery. “There was no sorcery bomb on my Schwarz Schütze, so what if the sabotage was on your Lucifer Horn!?”

“Why would it be!?”

“It’s the only logical conclusion!”

She was adamant about this.

She may have been under more pressure than even she was aware.

“You knew you could never defeat my armored train in a fair fight, so you planned an underhanded trick. It all fits!”

The dark-hearted elf could not look the girl in the eye.

“(Ugh. It’s hard to argue when that was more or less our plan.)”

Miyabi took a deep breath.

It irritated him that his exhalations were visible. It felt like he was giving her a way to read his mind.

“Then we would be reduced to ashes along with you. How is that logical!?”

“But.”

“And the reading is coming from further back. It isn’t here.”

Miyabi could sense it.

Without that, he may have had no way of convincing her.

She still looked skeptical, but…

“Oh, right. You said you could somehow sense a sorcery bomb’s location.”

“It’s weird that you can’t.”

His sample size was too small, but since Moebius had gone out of his way to explain how it was done, he could only assume the man could do it too.

Moebius had said he was using the Godhorn Tech’s power to search, so detecting sorcery bombs may have been exclusive to the Lucifer Horn. And if only Miyabi could do it, then it was up to him.

“Just follow me. I’ll show you where the real sorcery bomb is.”

He gave a random swing of his control sword and frowned, noticing something off about it.

The power of the sword clearly weakened when the tip was aimed toward the Lucifer Horn lying on the ground.

“?”

“Obviously you can’t destroy your own Godhorn Tech with your own control device. Where did you think you were drawing that power from?”

But now was not the time for chitchat.

As they continued into the woods, the warning sounds sped up, showing they were getting closer. This was the right direction. There were no wild Beast Novae around here. They had all fled in fear, but from what?

Most of the trees had been toppled here.

At the farthest reaches of the strewn wreckage, the Schwarz Schütze’s front car lay half destroyed on its side.

The ringing was painful at this point.

“It’s here,” he said, his empty hand holding the side of his aching head.

“Kyoo?”

“Here?” repeated Celina, not sure what he meant.

Thick glass covered a mass of metal far more daunting and impressive than the pipe organ in the village’s church.

The girl’s voice wavered as she looked back and forth between Miyabi and the bomb.

“But that’s the Wicked God horn’s sealed container. Are you saying the sorcery bomb was placed on the horn!? Could someone really replace a component here!?”

“It explains why I didn’t notice it before.” Miyabi grimaced from the deafening noise no one else could hear. “My horn or its energy resonate with the bomb, but there was a more powerful reading than the bomb here.”

“Yes, that does make sense,” said Alicia. “This horn was creating too much interference, but now that it has stopped, the bomb’s reading rises to the forefront.”

They continued the conversation without the person who should have been at the center of it.

“W-wait! Are you saying…?”

“Yep,” confirmed the philosopher’s stone. “The only way to stop it is to destroy that thing.”

“Silence, box!! …Box?” Celina tilted her head at what she had just said. “Anyway, we can rebuild the train as long as that survives. But if the sealed container is destroyed, the horn will be destroyed as well and it can never be repaired! Are you telling me to abandon my Schwarz Schütze!?”

“B-but if we don’t do it, the explosion will kill us all!” shouted a flustered Helen.

But Celina still could not bring herself to do anything.

That showed just how valuable the Godhorn Tech was to her. It was enough to hold her back and restrain her.

No one was telling her to protect the train she was so proud of.

They were only telling her to rob the Bodenburg Company of that power.

The time had come for her to become just a girl once more.

So.

“…”

So.

“…”

So.

“Control gun, connect to the horn core. Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, tactical open!”

Several things moved all at once.

The train had derailed, the links between cars was broken, and it could no longer move, but the many cannons on the roofs and walls turned their heads to answer their master’s call. Just like a mortally wounded beast raising its head for one last threat.

It was an undeniable sign of hostile intent.

Miyabi was flustered.

“Celina, what are you doing!?”

“I cannot give up my Godhorn Tech.”

At first, he thought her face looked flat and emotionless.

“Without this, I lose my strongest power,” she said, her flintlock hunting rifle’s bayonet stabbed into the snowy ground. “I lose the continent’s safest trade routes and the trust in my company.”

But she was far from emotionless.

With each word, the mask crumbled further, revealing the true face hidden below.

“And I lose all hope mother and father had in me.”

She looked just like a lost child.

“Celina!!”

“Laugh and call me a fool if you must.”

Her face crumpled into a tearstained smile, but she refused to let go of the rifle. She now aimed Schwarz Schütze’s control gun toward Miyabi.

“If I must lose it, then I will take the title of strongest for myself and go out in a blaze of glory. I will create a legend no one can ever hope to match. That is sure to increase the company’s value.”

She spoke only of becoming the strongest for her business brand name, but she had not chosen that path so she could bathe in riches herself. All she wanted was her parent’s approval. Yet that simple desire had been twisted beyond recognition.

The boy clenched his teeth.

Slowly but firmly.

“Ready your control sword, Miyabi Blackgarden!!” roared the lonely girl. Her courage was misplaced to the very end. “I will use you to decorate my death!!”

Deafening roars tore through the air in multiple directions, seeming to drown out all other noise.

These were not something you could dodge by sight. If Miyabi had not swung his empty hand to create a Decoy Wall, they all might have died to the very first blast.

It was a fragile wall made from packed snow.

Helen Clockgear had fallen into a sitting position right next to the crumbling white obstacle. Even the capable Republic official had never seen Godhorn Tech destruction up close before.

Yes, the Republic had no Godhorn Tech.

“W-we’re alive?” she asked.

“Assuming you aren’t a ghost,” replied the elf.

But no wall was better at diverting enemy fire. Not even an array of the thickest fortress walls would have helped against this opponent.

“Hey!” shouted Alicia Blueforest, pale in the face and holding her long blonde hair down against the cutting wind. “What now, boy!?”

“Change of plans.”

A thick layer of snow could be heard falling from somewhere.

They all knew what it had to be.

The bomber had instantly reacted to the boy’s thoughts by snapping its bonds and taking flight.

He had thought his senses of hot and cold had been numbed away by the icy blizzard, but this heat he felt.

He did not fight the throbbing he felt in his chest.

There was no need to fight it.

“I can’t just watch this happen. I will break Celina’s bonds!”

“Heh hee hee. Now we’re talking! If your strongest character isn’t hot-blooded deep down, what the hell are you even doing!?”

The radio responded before Alicia herself could.

The philosopher’s stone may have had some issues with its attitude, but its answers were accurate.

“The main problems here are Celina and the surrounding cannons. Take out one or the other and this silly mess is over. The choice is yours!!”

“Got it!! She’s as good as saved!!”

The choice was obvious.

He could solve this by destroying either the derailed armored train’s countless cannons or the girl wielding her control gun as she raced full speed toward self-destruction. It could not have been more obvious whether a mass of alchemically-strengthened metal or a flesh-and-blood girl would be easier to cut down.

But Miyabi had already made up his mind.

He would save Celina Bodenburg no matter what it took.

“Ooooaaahhh!!”

“!?”

Celina was caught off guard.

She had been so certain he would charge at her, but he suddenly changed direction before reaching her. Before she could recover, he had used his control sword to forcibly smash a nearby cannon. She frantically gave commands to the other cannons, but he just barely got a Decoy Wall up in time. But not to protect himself. It was positioned to redirect the shells from one train car toward the cannons on another car.

The shells must have used a flash freeze magic to add even more cold to this icy land, so the car on the receiving end shattered like a sugar sculpture dropped on the floor and then exploded from within.

“Curse you…Miyabiii!!” screamed Celina with tears in her eyes.

That train was the only thing supporting the lonely girl’s heart.

She quickly readied her dark control device once more, but Miyabi used that moment to dive behind a large boulder. That cut off her direct line of fire, but that was all it did. That gun used alchemical flint to create a spark and guided that into a metal tube where it reacted with a dark powder to provide explosive acceleration. However, magical bullets did not always travel in a straight line. As she repeatedly shoved a long rod in through the muzzle to load the next powder and bullet in the span of a breath and then fired, several lines of light arced over the boulder to stab down behind it, erupting into explosions where they fell.

The paths of light had a variety of colors.

The wind bullets robbed the area of air once they hit and the fire bullets would rapidly fry the lungs of anyone who attempted to breathe in once it erupted.

But there was no one behind the boulder to be destroyed.

Miyabi had already moved elsewhere.

To the next cannon.

(Did he dig a tunnel below the deep snow!? Creating obstacles with that bizarre creation ability was bad enough, but is he also creating spaces by hollowing things out!?)

“Fight me, Miyabi!!”

“No, thanks!! I’m not giving you your blaze of glory!!”

The boy’s voice shouted back at her from near a toppled train car.

With a dull explosion, another of the cannons was blown away.

“Tch.”

Realizing even her rifle’s bullets were being diverted by the Decoy Walls, Celina clicked her tongue, kicked at the snow, and moved forward herself. She was intent on stopping Miyabi’s destruction even if it meant stabbing him with her bayonet or walloping him with the stock. Or was she willing to let Schwarz Schütze’s attacks blow her slender body away along with him if that was what it took?

However, she failed to get anywhere near the boy.

Because two other figures rushed in to stop her.

Helen wielded a thick dagger and Alicia wielded a gnarled tree branch staff.

“What!?”

“Don’t assume Miyabi is the only one…”

“…who doesn’t want you to die!!”

The attacks came simultaneously from either side, so Celina prioritized Helen’s knife. The blade shined with the purple light of a sleeping magic called Over Sleep, so even a nick could prove devastating in the middle of battle. She swung her rifle’s stock around to hold it back, but that left her open to the elf’s wooden staff.

An explosion of light burst from the staff’s head as it blossomed into a flower larger than the girl’s head.

“There are several schools of alchemy, but every one of them belongs to one of two categories: the transformation of matter or the alteration of living bodies. Thanks to your obsession with money, you were fixated on transforming metals to alter their value.”

“You’re an alchemist too!?”

“I needed some way to create the medicines and White Sorcery Items to look after the short-lived villagers. I know the human body inside and out, so appearances can be deceiving with my attacks. The lightest strike will rattle you to the core!!”

Impossibly, the blow from the staff felt like an explosion.

Alicia had swung the staff horizontally, slamming it into Celina’s side with all her might. Raising her arms to block the knife with her rifle had been a mistake. Her breath burst from her throat, like her bent ribs were squeezing at her lungs. Not only had Alicia aimed for a weak point, but she had likely used an alchemy potion to temporarily boost her physical strength.

“Gah!?”

Time seemed to freeze for Celina and her eyes landed on Miyabi Blackgarden stabbing his control sword into the last of the cannons.

“Koo!!”

Hearing red, glowing Alma’s cry, Miyabi’s party dove down onto the snow.

They got down to prepare for what came next.

After a moment’s delay, the cannon exploded. A thick shockwave spread out in a ring, compressing space itself. Only Celina Bodenburg remained standing, so she took the shockwave at hip height, sending her crashing down onto the snow.

“Ahh!?”

She could not get back up.

Her body was trembling and ignoring her commands, like she had taken a solid fist to the gut.

Someone else stood before her.

“Stop this, Celina. It’s meaningless.”

The Schwarz Schütze’s front car lay ahead of collapsed Celina.

The sealed container and the Wicked God horn within were there.

Nothing stood between it and the boy now.

The pitiful girl tried and failed to crawl toward him, so she settled for reaching a trembling hand out toward the destroyer’s back.

“Please.” Her voice was a mixture of entreaty and resentment. “Please wait. If I lose that…if I lose the strongest power, I’m worthless.”

She was willing to lick his shoes if it would protect the Schwarz Schütze.

But not for the money.

What she really wanted had never changed.

“I want mother and father to look my way…to say I did a good job.”

This was the true curse placed on her.

The root of her complex spilled out.

“But do this and they…they won’t love me anymore.”

She was not just crying anymore.

She was desperately begging the boy who stood facing the great mass within the broken train car.

“So…”

She felt pathetic.

And greedy.

But she could not stop her longing for the strongest power that so clearly bound her.

“So please!!”

Miyabi Blackgarden did not look back.

He faced the sealed container, but he did speak to the lost girl.

With a somehow gentle voice.

“I won’t take anything from you.”

“?”

“This isn’t the only Godhorn Tech.”

He said this while he prepared to destroy the Schwarz Schütze.

Only a Godhorn Tech could destroy a Godhorn Tech.

“I will become your strongest.”

“Ah.”

Celina’s mouth hung open, but nothing more came out.

“But not for Bodenburg. I will become the strongest for you.”

So instead of words, clear drops spilled from her eyes.

“Wahhh!!”

“So can I get started now?”

His choice was a cruel one, but it created a new contract that fulfilled all of the girl’s demands.

“Control sword, connect to the horn core. Tactical open!”

He stabbed the sword into the ground and a sinister magic circle appeared atop the snow.

“No one needs this strongest anymore, so let’s dispose of it.”

A white beam dropped from the sky above and shattered the girl’s chains.

The danger was over for now.

Alicia and Helen stood on the snowy plain. If Miyabi’s senses could be trusted, the sorcery bomb had been safely destroyed, so there was no need to flee the area as fast as their legs would take them.

Dark metal wreckage was strewn everywhere.

All of it contained secrets that could easily start a new conflict.

“Good grief. That boy cut it awfully close,” said Alicia.

“I wonder if he’s even aware how close that was.”

“We can only hope he isn’t that dumb.”

They shared a sigh and the visible breaths were soon swept away by the cold wind.

Helen was the first to resume speaking.

“A third party would have had a very hard time approaching the fully-equipped Schwarz Schütze and sabotaging it en route.”

“That means someone already knew where it would be derailed and was lying in wait to swap in the sorcery bomb after it came to a stop.”

“And they had it replace a piece of the Schwarz Schütze.”

“It would be simplest to assume that was the 11th.”

“…”

After a short silence, the two young women who watched over the pure and innocent boy shared another sigh.

The cunning displayed by that bastard made this their territory .

“I can’t believe this,” said Helen.

“Agreed,” said Alicia. “Whoever this is must be a lot shrewder and more dangerous than I expected.”

### Character Profiles

Iris Tempinvy

Age: 17

Sex: Female

Height: 159cm

Originally invited to the magically-weak Arsenal Kingdom as a guest magic researcher, but in her desperate attempt to research the theoretically impossible recovery magic, the kingdom decided she was using public funds to fund a hobby and she lost all national support. She currently earns enough as a dancer to fund her own personal research.

Victia Magnumfist

Age: 20

Sex: Female

Height: 163cm

Female martial artist working to develop a simple-to-learn form of self-defense that provides peace of mind to women and children on long journeys. However, her idea of “normal” is terribly skewed by her unnatural physical strength that could be called a form of inborn talent.

Godhorn Tech

Armored Train Schwarz Schütze

Pilot: Celina Bodenburg

Affiliation: Bodenburg Company

Size (LxWxH): 100m x 25m x 20m (per car) x 5 cars

A massive black train stretching for hundreds of meters. The entire train is covered in thick armor and each car is installed with multiple cannons. Can be controlled from within or remotely and the interior living space is decked out with its pilot’s fine tastes. Uses alchemy to lay out steel rails in real time, allowing it to move freely. Can also produce as many shells from ultra-hard alloys like orichalcum, meaning it never runs out of ammo. Design motif: alchemy.

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 1

“Heh heh. Yes, that’s right. Today has not been a productive day. I thought some shellfish would be simple enough, but that big wave dashed those hopes pretty quick.”

The black-haired martial artist grinned while seated with her arms around her knees.

Victia Magnumfist spoked up into the night sky.

“Sigh…another wasted day.”

She collapsed backwards.

She had stripped off her red dress, leaving her entirely nude. She knew she was alone here. Walking the circumference of the small island took less than a day. The ocean and forest provided plenty of resources, but there was no civilization to speak up.

It was a desert island.

And there was no hope of a ship happening by either. The horizon was not at all normal. That straight line dividing ocean from sky would occasionally blur with rainbow colors. This may not have been an ordinary location. Maybe it was surrounded by the miasma-belching cracks in the world and maybe it was separated out by some kind of magical barrier.

It was apparently known as Horn Fortress.

It was meant for the Lucifer Horn and its user’s logistical support. Tools could be made here and sent to the battleground or magical facilities could be built here to boost the Godhorn Tech’s power.

How did she know that? Because it was written here.

She had discovered it after climbing the island’s tallest tree to take a look around. Orderly text was written out on the ocean surface shining in the light of the setting sun.

But the text had vanished after she blinked in surprise.

She figured it was some kind of magic. Maybe the ocean currents had been manipulated and maybe the ocean floor had been moved around.

“His name was Miyabi, wasn’t it? Goddamn that boy! Nwohhhh!!”

This place was freeing yet stifling.

She had stripped naked in an attempt to break the mold, but…

(It didn’t do a thing.)

Her stay on this desert island was like trying and failing to work up the urge to do anything at all in your own room. She could not find any motivation inside herself. It all felt so hollow. When the loneliness pushed in, she felt like crying.

In a harsher environment, where even fresh water was hard to come by, she might have been too busy surviving to feel this way, but this island had the plentiful resources of the ocean and a forest. She had not needed to travel far into the forest to find a pure spring, river fish she could catch by hand, wild bean sprouts growing in the shade, and colorful vegetable flowers. With a fire to cook it all, she could survive just fine.

But the ease of survival provided enough free time for the poison that was dissatisfaction.

She caught a mosquito between her fingertips while lying naked on the beach.

(I should stop moping around and complete today’s last round of stretches. Think of it like becoming a mountain hermit.)

The naked idiot sat back up, failing to realize she would be more of a beach hermit.

But then an impossible sensation pierced her.

She sensed someone’s gaze on her.

“?”

She covered her bare chest with one arm and turned her head on reflex.

There she found her peeping tom.

A bear taller than her was picking up and stretching her black underwear!?

She was indeed a martial artist.

She rolled and hopped to her feet instead of reaching for the axe stabbed into the beach. She calculated how much the sand would absorb the force of her feet as she kicked off of it. Then she loosely clenched her fists and moved to perfect striking range. All while barefoot and bare everything else as well.

The bear stood on its hind legs, but that was not what scared her.

“Really? A Shadow Treading Parasite!?”

A pair of yellow twinkles moved toward her across the ground.

This was an Undead type of Beast Nova that entered a large animal’s shadow to take control of its body. Its weakness was salt, the standard for purification. The thing crawled like a slug and could not leave the ground, so it could be defeated by luring the shadow toward some salt on the ground or pushing the host into the ocean using a series of attacks that would not directly damage the parasite. In that sense, a bear weighing more than 500kg was close to a worst-case scenario. Martial artists who tried to train as a mountain hermit would often lose their lives after deciding to test their skills on a bear like this. And the parasite did not care what happened to the host, so she could never win if she simply fought the animal.

(Blue Starting Pistol, Red Gale, and Yellow Wrath. I have several options for knockback moves, but this is still bad. If I start off focusing on that, it really limits my attack patterns. If I can’t end this quick, I’ll start looking pretty predictable.)

She also sensed a more personal crisis here.

Yes, wild bears did not wear black underwear. The item the bear was stretching between its front paws was the one Victia had abandoned on the beach. She felt silly for thinking she didn’t need clothes earlier. If those tore on this desert island, she was in serious trouble.

This may have been some kind of divine punishment.

A full smile spread across her face as she crouched low and moved in.

“Heh. Eh heh heh. There are so many tastier things out there. If you like, I could treat you to some plump river fish or juicy honeyco-.”

The beast stuffed the panties in its mouth.

When it began to chew, Victia Magnumfist snapped.

“You’re dead meat now! That was the one and only pair on the entire islaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!!!”

When she rushed in, her opponent gave a joyous roar and raised its front legs.

But it was reacting to her long black hair, not the martial artist’s bouncing and jiggling flesh (raw meat?). It was more interested in the fluttering movement than any flavor or smell. But she could not afford to have any more of her clothing stolen from her for that reason.

She was stronger when not weighed down by the enormous axe.

The naked meathead worked her brain while using her clenched fists and flying kicks to forcibly knock the great mass of muscle toward the crashing waves.

(This can’t be the only Shadow Treading Parasite here. I need some kind of decoy to draw their attention, but what little cloth I have left is precious. If I want to live a wholesome, fully-clothed life here, I need to use as little cloth as possible on the decoys.)

A flash of insight came to the idiot.

“That’s it!! I’ll make swimsuits! The sexiest swimsuits I can think of! I can even make them out of shells, jewels, leaves, or caterpillar silk! I can defeat those monsters by mass-producing sexy swimsuits with materials found on the island!!!!!!”

### 008. Chapter 3 Part 3

The central hall, currently an audience chamber, was falling apart.

The din outside was fading away and a painful silence was sneaking in.

Or so it seemed.

“The Icicle Bullet is coming,” said Eliza Silverstorm, ignoring the biting chill entering through the large crack torn in the outer wall as if by a diagonal slash of a claw. “It left its border patrol to come here, to the center of our kingdom.”

“Y-you must be joking!” Celina Bodenburg could not believe what she was hearing. “That ice weapon derailed my Schwarz Schütze just by crashing into it from the side! Do you have any idea what happens if that breaks through the outer wall and plows through the closely-packed homes and shops of the castle town!?”

“Wait, wait, hey, wait!! Can’t you attack that sexy knight to get her to stop?”

The radio’s suggestion was rejected by Alicia Blueforest.

“Those White Seidr knights said the decision comes from a majority vote and we simply don’t have enough time to deal with all of them!”

“This kingdom is done for if the Icicle Bullet makes it here,” shouted Helen Clockgear in alarm. “The castle walls, the castle town, and the castle itself will all be swept away, along with every rioter in between!”

Miyabi thought quietly about the issue.

“…”

“Koo,” sadly cried red Alma with a hand(?) on its mouth.

Eliza bit her lip, but she did not hesitate.

That knight had lost her order, her companions, and her lance, but she was unbroken as she lowered her head here. Lowered it toward a simple boy with no official title of his own.

“Please.”

Receiving support took courage too. Plus, she did not have the power to stop him if he did betray her here. But she took this step regardless, using her great willpower.

“Stop the Icicle Bullet. Please use your power to protect the Arsenal Kingdom!!”

“Heh. If I was gonna say no to that, I wouldn’t’ve gotten involved in the first place.”

That settled it.

Miyabi Blackgarden rushed out through the tear in the castle’s wall.

“The Icicle Bullet is on its way.”

From this height, he could see it on the snowy plain stretching out beyond the castle town and castle wall.

Waiting here at the castle would mean sacrificing everyone in the castle town. The people there were packing the streets and speaking out against their poor treatment, oblivious to the approaching danger. If the snow sleigh was allowed to reach the castle town, it would result in an uncountable number of dead.

Miyabi looked back and spoke to Alma, Alicia, and the others.

“We can start by crossing the roofs to reach the wall outside the castle town. We can discuss a plan then!”

They practically jumped from building to building.

He created Bypass Bridges and Layer Stairs to make shortcuts and occasionally passed directly above the rioters covering the surface. The rioters were half drunk on rage, so they had failed to notice the danger. Although noticing it would only lead to a panic.

Miyabi’s party ran back to the gate they had initially entered through.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I was so exhausted after the first time, but it’s going so much faster now.”

“Experience makes people grow,” said Celina. “This shows just how much of it you have accumulated.”

They rushed out through the thick gate.

The boy jabbed his control sword down into the snowy ground and a large magic circle floated up at his feet.

Eliza had sworn she would show the king the error of his ways and save the rioters and other knights who were throwing stones and directing their weapons toward her. And she was not just saying that; she had risked her life to fight that fight all on her own.

Miyabi thought that made her super cool, so he was intent on doing this her way.

The kingdom was foolish, but he would protect it for that proud chosen knight.

“Control sword, connect to the horn core. Lucifer Horn, tactical open.”

Speaking the words was all well and good, but how could he actually stop this thing?

“What am I supposed to do now!?”

“That thing’s ramming power knocked over the supposedly impregnable Schwarz Schütze.” Celina best understood the gravity of that statement and she tried to express the threat with her gestures and body language. “I doubt your laser or bombs will be enough to stop it. You might hit it with several blasts, but as long as its basic shape remains, its momentum will keep it sliding across the snow!!”

“You need to work smarter, not harder,” said Alicia. “Fortunately, we know what direction the Icicle Bullet is coming from. You can create several walls and trenches to block its path.”

“Even thin paper can block a bullet with enough layers. And several used stockings together can make a good substitute sink strainer in a pinch,” cackled the philosopher’s stone. “So stay focused and build a solid wall!!”

That dreadfully white weapon looked so distant.

It was charging toward them. The white mass growing near the horizon had to be all the snow being knocked into the air.

This was a battle between Godhorn Techs.

It was creation versus destruction.

It was a head-on clash.

Noticing something, Eliza Silverstorm shouted “Watch out!!”

A great boom shook their surroundings.

The Icicle Bullet had yet to reach them, but it had weapons other than ramming. The explosion spread sharp spines of ice rather than flames. The blast was big enough to freeze mammoths by the dozen, not to mention humans.

“The Icicle Bullet’s greatest attack is the full-speed ram using its own weight,” explained Eliza, its original pilot. “So to ensure that attack hits, it rules the battlefield with the support of its many other weapons. That freezing magic is a good example. It is used to hold the target in place long enough for the ram to hit. It can also use divination to take aim…so…it…can…”

Miyabi bristled and shouted back when she trailed off like that.

“If it’s got some kind of secret, you’d better tell us now!! The fate of your kingdom is on the line!!”

“It has…”

“Yes? It has what?”

“That Godhorn Tech includes a Perfect Divination Slide Rule that uses Seidr magic! So it will never miss!!”

He stared blankly for a moment.

She had squeezed her eyes shut and blushed to make this confession, but he had no idea why it had been so hard for her. Was this some great secret of the knights? But Seidr was in their name.

Then he noticed Alicia and Helen refusing to look him in the eye either.

There was more to this.

“Th-the thing is, Seidr magic is an extremely accurate form of divination, but…”

The glasses woman fidgeted and poked her index fingers together in front of her large chest.

She said the rest as quickly and quietly as she could.

“Seeing a vision of the future requires detaching your mind from reality, but letting the spell song take over and guide you into a trance makes it very hard to restrain the, uh, feelings that naturally occur in the body, so um, uh, it is a very dangerous form of divination with an unavoidable side effect of being left in a mood that, shall we say, makes it hard to get to sleep at night, so as strait-laced as this knight might look, she must actually be filled with barely-contained unfulfilled desires!!”

Miyabi stared into the distance, entirely forgetting their dire situation.

He recalled what the chosen knights in the castle had said.

“The Icicle Bullet was granted to the White Seidr Chosen Knights as a whole.”

“Uh.”

“But it was left in Eliza’s care because she was the most compatible ???”

“~ ~ ~”

Eliza blushed and tearfully clutched her large lance as this secret was revealed. She could no longer even get her voice out. But with the Godhorn Tech stolen, her mood would not change for the time being.

And now was not the time to be thinking up a new nickname for her.

“Enough!!” shouted the Knight of Masked Horniness. “The Arsenal Kingdom itself is being targeted this time. It might not matter as much against a stationary target, but don’t assume the ramming is the Icicle Bullet’s only weapon. Even its secondary weapons can splatter a human across the snow easily enough!!”

Helen knew all too well that no blade small enough to fit in a human hand was going to help, no matter how skilled its wielder was with swords or magic, so she was growing increasingly anxious.

“W-we’re running short on time!” she shouted.

Miyabi knew that.

He had sworn to himself he would never abandon this knight who was strait-laced in the extreme, so he raised his hand and spoke quietly.

“Lucifer Horn…take care of this.”

What they needed was an obstacle.

Preferably, a large one made of several layers.

He stepped in front of the others, stabbed his control sword into the ground, and gave the command. The Lucifer Horn’s massive form swooped by overhead and its laser tore across the ground behind it.

It flew sideways to tear a few cliffs into the ground.

It also melted the snow to create a muddy marsh. The Icicle Bullet was designed to slide across the year-round snow, so this could actually help slow it down.

But not stop it. He looked back and raised his voice.

“Hey, Eliza! The Arsenal Kingdom is a kingdom of steel, right!? And with those huge walls around everything, you must have plenty of stone too.”

“Y-yes. But we are weak when it comes to magic. What of it!?”

“ I’ll be borrowing that .”

He slowly inhaled and then spoke.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!”

Giant obstacles appeared in rapid succession, weaving through the gaps left by the straight trenches and deep marsh.

Metal spikes more sinister than a rose vine’s thorns curled around to catch at the Godhorn Tech.

Countless upside-down anchors jutted up from the deep snow to tear at the bottom of the ice weapon.

Chunks of stone formed ramps that would send the snow sleigh airborne, throwing off its balance.

It was like an athletic obstacle course or a brutal off-road horse-racing track.

He created more and more, building up their power little by little, but none of it helped relieve his anxiety!!

“Here it comes, Miyabi!!” warned Helen.

It had begun.

The colossal Icicle Bullet charged in with fearsome acceleration. Bright lights flashed across it and the explosive booms arrived a moment later. Explosions of ice erupted much too close for comfort and a few of the makeshift walls were shattered. Ironically, the delay between the light and sound when the Icicle Bullet fired its weapons told them its distance, just like midsummer lightning and thunder. The massive Godhorn Tech seemed like an artillery shell itself.

Alicia shouted over at him while holding her bangs down against the blowing wind produced by the snow blasted into the air.

“It broke right through your trenches! Don’t fail to recalculate, boy! Thoughtlessly creating more cliffs and marshes won’t be enough to slow it down!!”

“Kh.”

A direct hit from this would literally break through an entire kingdom, bring down the central castle, and physically destroy everything.

The rolls of metal thorns were torn and the forest of anchors was crushed.

It even froze the marshes of thawed snow with its magic, all so it could continue onward at full speed.

“Miyabi!! Um, uh, look!”

He heard Celina shouting to him.

And that was not all.

Just as he was preparing to send snowmelt into a crater to create a new marsh, his peripheral vision noticed Alicia doing something.

But it was too late.

Why?

Because the color white filled his vision as the Icicle Bullet grew closer.

“Ah.”

Only once it was this close did he truly grasp that it was made of ice. The Icicle Bullet was a giant sleigh. The true core of the device were the two blades keeping contact with the ground, but they were made of ice. It really was a gigantic sorcery weapon. Every part of it was supported by magic.

Time seemed to have stopped.

But he did not have time to get his voice out.

It hit him.

The Godhorn Tech’s ramming attack crashed into Miyabi Blackgarden from dead ahead.

A dreadful cracking sound filled Miyabi’s mind, but he felt no real pain in his head. He was past even thinking about what had happened to his body. His torso may have been torn in two for all he knew.

No.

He had apparently gotten caught on the Icicle Bullet after it hit him. It was a colossal sleigh and its blades were made of jagged ice. The ice blades looked like frozen conifer trees laid on their side and he was caught on one of them. It must not have been made to attack a target as small as a human.

But this was still deadly. More than half his vision was dyed red.

My adventure didn’t last long, thought Miyabi.

He was just some village boy, not a legendary hero. When people died, they just died. He was no more than a rookie, so there was only so much he could accomplish when the Lucifer Horn was simply plopped down in his lap. He may have already known that deep down.

He had not wanted to learn this.

He wished he had been killed instantly, so he could avoid this realization.

And yet…

“…yabi…”

He heard a voice.

It was so weak that he normally might have thought he was imagining it, but it was very real.

A voice was calling his name.

“Miyabi, wait.”

It was falling apart.

It was a desperate thing, stripped of all pride and vanity.

It was the awkward voice of someone who had cast aside her image of a powerful knight to bet everything on this boy.

The girl, Eliza Silverstorm, was crying.

“Don’t leave me all alone! Please don’t give up on everyone in my kingdom!! Miyabiiii!!!!!!”

With a dull cracking, Miyabi Blackgarden gathered all his strength to force his eyes back open. He had been hit by the Godhorn Tech and caught on the mass of ice that formed the sleigh’s blade, so he could not even imagine how much damage his body had taken.

But the control sword remained in his hand.

When he looked down at that limp and bloodstained hand, he just about laughed at his own foolishness. His body had regained its focus before his mind had.

Fight.

Fight to the end so you can wipe away her tears.

He could finally hear his own inner voice.

You were about ready to give up on everything after nearly dying just the once, but this girl risked something even more important than her life to bet it all on you. And you’re just going to die without living up to that trust?

She protected her king.

She was separated from the rioting citizens and from the other chosen knights in identical armor.

Didn’t you decide you weren’t going to abandon her to the isolation she found after staying true to her values? She put all of her hopes in you, but you run into one little setback and you’re ready to give up on life and move on to the afterlife, leaving her behind here?

How can you do that?

Can you really let yourself be that selfish? Miyabi Blackgarden, what kind of person do you want to be!? You carry the powers of destruction and creation and that lets you do just about anything, but you’re going to let this world restrict you!? You aren’t even going to try to destroy the barriers and you’re just going to accept the limits placed on you!!!???

“Ugh.”

So.

He jabbed with the control sword in his hand. But not into the ground. He jabbed it into the Icicle Bullet’s ice blade.

Hence the dull cracking sound .

“Again…Lucifer Horn.”

The Lucifer Horn bomber was undoubtedly the strongest as it harnessed the unbelievably brutal power of a Wicked God horn. But it was up to Miyabi Blackgarden to decide how that power was used . That was a “power” that came from the boy himself.

First, he would destroy .

Destroy the horrific conclusion caused by the misunderstandings between the king, the knights, and the people, even though they had all wished the best for the kingdom and happiness for its people.

Then he would create .

Create a world that this girl, who was weeping after abandoning her pride and status to stand up for what she believed in, could face with her head held high.

If he could accomplish that, the boy would accept this crystallization of humanity’s lowly sins, which included building a weapon out of a Wicked God horn. He would accept this incredible power that could even destroy the world.

“Control sword, connect to the horn core. Lucifer Horn, tactical open.”

So he forcibly opened a control magic circle on the surface of the Icicle Bullet where his control sword had stabbed into it.

And he roared toward the heavens to become the person he hoped to be .

“Here’s your target, Lucifer Horn!! Attack here nowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!”

Something separated from the Lucifer Horn’s wing up above.

It was a massive bomb.

But something happened before the bomb could drop to the snowy ground and detonate and before the Icicle Bullet could attempt to defend against it.

A thick beam of light dropped down to follow after the bomb.

That was the sorcery weapon loaded on the Lucifer Horn from the beginning. It pierced right through the falling bomb, detonating it in midair.

A thick shockwave dropped down like a suspended ceiling.

The entire Icicle Bullet sank down into the snow.

Then another beam of light tore across the ground from the side. The snow sleigh’s massive suspension had already been compressed to absorb the previous impact, so now it audibly snapped.

The snow sleigh’s right side sank even further.

Conversely, the left side sprang upwards, breaking Miyabi’s bond to the jagged ice blade.

He was thrown from the Godhorn Tech and rolled along the snow for dozens of meters.

He heard the castle wall breaking, but that was all. The Icicle Bullet failed to pierce through, only managing to partially embed itself in the stone.

It was too soon to relax.

(What happened to that absurdly strait-laced girl?)

“Miyabi…”

He heard a sobbing voice.

Of all things, that ridiculously honest girl was standing in front of the gate all on her own.

She had her arms spread to act as one final barrier.

Miyabi noticed her legs were trembling.

(Yeah, of course she’s terrified.)

At this point, it actually angered him. She might be a chosen knight or a White Seidr or whatever, but how had she still not figured out that her strait-lacedness had long since reached lethal levels? What would she have done if he hadn’t managed to divert the Icicle Bullet’s path a little right at the end there? Her slender body couldn’t possibly defend against a ram from that Godhorn Tech.

He honestly did not even care what state his own body was in.

He only wanted to give that ridiculous girl a piece of his mind. He wanted to tell her to at least try to look after her own life. Because seeing her do things like this was why he had felt the need to join the fight himself.

But after a second, he laughed.

…He realized she must have felt the same way he did.

They were both reckless in the extreme. He had refused to give up even after the Icicle Bullet hit him head-on, so he was probably the very last person she wanted to hear criticizing her actions here.

“Gasp, pant.”

He was sticky with blood.

He was certain this had taken years off his life. He did not even want to know how many bones he had broken. But he had never let go of the control sword. That effort had meant more wounds and a strong blood flavor filling his mouth, but he had refused to let go. He slowly stood up, unable to keep his body straight.

“The Icicle Bullet…stopped?”

That thought finally occurred to Eliza Silverstorm.

Before even thinking about her own survival, she felt relief that the king, her colleagues, the kingdom’s people, and the companions she had fought alongside were all safe.

Miyabi swore to himself he would call her an idiot later on.

“I-it really stopped? Sniff, sob. Everyone’s…safe now?”

“No, not yet.”

But Miyabi had reached a different conclusion.

The tall stone wall was vibrating along with an ominous rumble. Needless to say, this came from the Icicle Bullet with its head buried inside that wall.

This was not over yet. The battle had not been won. Any headpats or rebukes would have to wait.

“Koo!” cried red Alma while rubbing against his leg.

“It’s only stopped for now. The knights’ majority vote is still in effect and it hasn’t been given a stop order. It will resume moving if left like this.” He spat some blood into the snow and lifted his control sword. “I have to deliver the finishing blow. Is that okay?”

Celina bitterly looked away. This may have reminded her of the agony when it had been her.

Finally, Eliza got out a scratchy voice.

Her eyes were already red and a tear dripped from one of them as she threw out her own pride.

“Yes.” Strength filled her voice as she overcame this final barrier. “Yes, go ahead! If that will protect the king and the people!! If it will remove the discord between the king and the knights and allow us to stand up as a unified kingdom once more!”

She likely had something she wanted to protect even if it meant tearing herself to pieces, so she could keep going no matter how injured she was.

She was stronger than anyone, so she would never lose her shine, even without the Godhorn Tech.

She faced forward and spoke with conviction.

“Do it. That knight’s lance deserves to be broken now that it has lost its luster!!”

“Got it.”

He stabbed his control sword into the snow.

A magic circle opened and he faced the colossal weapon once more.

Was this destruction?

No, he was creating a new path for this girl and her kingdom.

“Sorry, Icicle Bullet.”

He felt like he had to say this.

Even if this was the embodiment of destruction that had left him so badly injured.

“This wasn’t your fault. Thank you for listening to everyone’s commands all this time. You did a great job.”

That monster had faithfully obeyed without once breaking its promise, but now it vanished into the white beam of light that dropped from the heavens.

### Character Profiles

Sophia Calamity-Jinx

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 158cm

Started out as a Curse Cleaner who purifies malicious residual thoughts, but accidentally showed an interest in an “embarrassing charm” contract found when collecting items from an abandoned house and is now constantly targeted by vengeful spirits. There is a way to remove the charm, but the method is too embarrassing for her to tell anyone what it is. She is pursuing Under Lilith whose knowledge of magic and contracts may be able to remove the charm.

Eliza Silverstorm

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 160cm

A member of the White Seidr, an all-female group of chosen knights within the Arsenal Kingdom. She was given command of the Icicle Bullet Godhorn Tech due to her excellent compatibility. She is an honest but inflexible person, so even if it is at her king’s command, she does not enjoy the mercenary-like dirty work she performs while loaned out to other countries.

Garret Goldcave

Apparent Age: 50 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 120cm

A dwarf craftsman who creates the traps used to protect royal and noble tombs. Specializes in “soul possessing” traps disguised as treasure chests, money bags, gargoyles, etc. Upon learning his carefully-created traps were being removed from royal tombs and being misused for Strange Guide’s death games, he began traveling the world to “retrieve” the traps.

Godhorn Tech Sleigh: Icicle Bullet

Pilot: Eliza Silverstorm

Affiliation: Independent Militaria Material Kingdom

Size (LxWxH): 50m x 20m x 10m

A giant sleigh made of ice. Fires magic shells that freeze its target in place and then runs them over with the giant sleigh itself. As powerful as that attack is, the real problem is how it predicts its target’s next move to always hit with its attacks. If an opponent cannot avoid that seemingly prophetic aim, victory is an impossibility. Design motif: seidr magic.

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 2

“Oh?”

Victia Magnumfist, a martial artist in a red dress, was staring into the distance.

Something was headed this way. The Lucifer Horn passed by, its enormous wings spread, and something was dumped onto the island.

It was a naked girl. With big boobs.

“And now the perverts are attacking? Nice. An excellent test of my skills. I’ll show you what my training here has taught me!!”

“Oh, god, what now!? C-can you at least let me put my clothes on first!?” screamed Sophia Calamity-Jinx while gathering a thick cloth in front of her.

The tearful girl viewed the island to find only the bare minimum of civilization. She saw a few tents made of what looked like the hide of a large animal and a campfire situated on the ground. A branch was suspended above so a pot could hang over the fire, but the pot itself appeared to be made from a large animal’s skull.

“C-clothes. Clothes, clothes.”

“Hm? This island’s only got sexy swimsuits.”

“What- but- how does a civilization like that even develop!?”

Sophia blushed and even shed tears as she slowly squirmed her way into her own priest clothing. Meanwhile, she received an explanation from the extreme optimist who insisted that this remote island was the perfect place to train.

“Um, so you’re saying we have joined the party of this person called…Miyabi was it?”

“I think so, yeah,” said Victia. “I think when someone scares him bad enough, he snags them with a flying trap to recruit them! Ah ha ha. He’s got a great eye for talent, but once he’s got his eye on you, there’s no escape!!”

“Don’t people usually call that kidnapping or abduction? And why take us away against our will and then not even use us? Is he just holding onto us just in case!?”

The downer of an indoorsy type had a lot of questions about this, but rolling around and flailing her limbs was not going to change anything. If you wanted to avoid dying on the beach, you had to actively work toward survival.

“First, I’d like a room to myself. You have a few tents already, so can I borrow one of them?”

“Oh, those are my cheesemaking tents. The sun will ruin the whole process, after all. But humans are made of tougher stuff, so you’ll get used to it. Just strip off your clothes, lay them down on the sand, lie naked on top of that, and it’ll be morning before you know it!”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………I’m afraid to ask, but you do have a bath, don’t you?”

“Ah ha ha. That’s a silly question. The whole island’s surrounded by water, so why would I need to make a separate bath?”

The busty, stooped-over, downer girl began to tremble. She doubted she could get along with someone who was willing to wash her body in saltwater just because it kept food from spoiling. Did this island carry a curse that continually reduced one’s femininity values the longer you stayed there?

And all while living in such a wild environment.

“U-umm.”

“Need something?”

“D-does that animal skin and bones mean what I think it does?”

“Yup, we lucked out and the place has a thriving ecosystem. I don’t have the patience for fishing, so it’s great that I can get as much meat as I want with just my fists!”

“Nooo!! How is this place a battlefield and an extreme survival environment at the same time!?”

Sophia was a Curse Cleaner, which made her a specialist in fighting the Undead, but she was powerless against forest creatures. In fact, the ordinary animals scared her more. Especially if she was staying in a tent on the ground. She could be killed in her sleep if a nocturnal animal approached while she was too deep asleep to notice.

“Wh-what if a dangerous animal approaches while you’re asleep?”

“You wake up before it reaches you.”

“And what do you do then? I-i-i-if it actually attacks, I mean.”

“You beat it up before it attacks. Or put it in a chokehold. Your choice. Once you get used to it, this the best place in the world! You gain experience at all times – both night and day!”

“…”

Something about this felt very wrong to Sophia. Why was Victia acting like a naked human would be able to defeat a wild beast’s fangs and claws?

This was a desert island, but they could improve their lives here by creating new tools, equipment, and facilities. Fortunately, the ocean and forest provided plenty of materials. That meathead had even made sexy swimsuits on her own, so it felt like anything was possible if you put your mind to it.

“Oh, right. You’re strong against Undead, right?”

“Yes, I suppose. Not that my Curse Cleaner power is going to be any help on a desert island.”

“Don’t be so sure. This place is a den of Beast Novae, including Undead ones. Ah ha ha! See, you had nothing to worry about.”

Sophia shrieked in fear.

At the same time, a dark form poked its head out from between the trees of the forest. But its position was unusual. The head looked child-sized, but it was poking around the tree at a height of more than 3m.

Also, it had countless legs and a glistening black exoskeleton.

A massive centipede was curled around the tree trunk, but the face of an adorable human child was embedded at the front end. Sophia decided that was about the last thing she would want to be reincarnated as.

Victia licked her thumb.

“There you are, you Undead bastard!! We’ve gotta crush that unclean thing before it gets to our food and water!!”

“Wait!!” shouted Sophia, the expert on this subject (who was still only half dressed). “Attacking it and driving it away won’t solve this. The Undead are fueled by any power that ‘sends people to death’, so driving them away with punches and kicks will only give them more power for when they attack again.”

“Is that how it works?”

“This is a Hellbug. When a child dies lost at sea or in the mountains and they refuse the judgment of the dead, they are punished by being stranded in this world until their body is discovered. And they are remade into a hideous form. This just means they were never given a proper burial, so they haven’t done anything wrong themselves.”

As Sophia rattled off her explanation, her face was stern but her eyes were oddly compassionate.

“Even vengeful spirits were once human like us. No one ends up wandering this world after death for no reason. If you discover their reason and resolve the issue, they will return to their rightful place all on their own. In this case, we only have to ask them where they lost their life and search out their remains. No punching necessary.”

“Huh, neat. And what about Shadow Treading Parasites?”

“Those are plant spirits. It is the result of a plant growing too accustomed to manipulating animals with its flowers or fruit. But it is all for naught. The more they make their controlled host shine, the more pathetic they grow while hiding in the host’s shadow.”

A Curse Cleaner was a type of healer, not a knight or warrior.

The colorful will-o’-the-wisps following her around may have been the result of a certain type of popularity.

Just then, a massive form passed by above the small island. The Lucifer Horn dropped a new party member from its wire.

This one was an old male dwarf.

Sophia Calamity-Jinx, whose jiggliness was still only partially concealed, blanked her expression.

“Die, die! This insolent man must diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!!!!!!”

The pure and bashful girl showed no mercy.

Victia Magnumfist assessed her handiwork.

“Your punches aren’t half bad. With a little polishing, you could really shine.”

### 009. Chapter 3 Section 1

Upon gaining new power by happenstance, someone was struck by disaster by happenstance.

A disaster that shatters people’s bonds.

There was no avoiding the fact that this was a snowy field in the middle of a blizzard.

Alicia Blueforest held her hands over her extra-pointy ears to warm them.

“It sure is cold out here.”

“K-kyoo…”

“Oh, Alma!! This can’t be easy for someone so young. Come here and I will warm you.”

“What about me!? You already have a mascot!! Don’t think you can take me back once I make my big break and the merchandise is selling like hotcakes!!”

Only the radio had any energy left at all. Was that the benefit of not being alive? And hadn’t Alma’s new Phoenix form provided protection against the cold?

Helen Clockgear breathed into her hands.

“Of course you’re going to freeze if you walk around in the snow dressed like that.”

“Helen, you aren’t much better.”

Miyabi Blackgarden’s thick leather jacket and pants did not provide much warmth, but Helen wore a short tight skirt. Not to mention the open chest and bared midriff.

“How are you even still moving around?” he asked.

“Because a woman’s cleavage and thighs are hot, hot, hot! Now, when are we getting to the mountain cabin where we must keep each other warm with lots of direct body contact!?”

The radio’s nonsense was silenced by Alicia and Helen’s fists.

Helen’s bag was small, but it was packed full of camping gear using the Compress Cargo magic.

However…

“Eh? No, that wouldn’t help. I never thought we would be visiting the Arsenal Kingdom, so the tent and sleeping bags aren’t made for the cold and the lamp’s fire wouldn’t provide much heat in this blizzard. Besides, lighting a fire inside a summer tent with no smoke exhaust will poison you!”

So much for that idea.

But this was not Helen’s fault, so he could not feel disappointed in her. He resisted the urge to give her the nickname “Miss Useless”.

“Koo…”

“Yeah, we need to find a village.”

They would die without some heat.

Warm gear, a blanket, a heater, a stove, hot soup, and hot food – they would accept any of it right now. They missed civilization.

Then something odd happened.

Something fell from the sky and landed near Miyabi. It was a small wooden box wrapped in cotton cushioning. He looked up to see the Lucifer Horn flying by overhead even though he had not stabbed the control sword into the ground and ordered it here.

“Oh? What’s this?”

“It has a signature on it,” noted Helen. “From Victia Magnumfist of Horn Fortress?”

He had nearly forgotten.

Horn Fortress was the hideout where they sent any party members found during their journey. None of them had used it though. Not after seeing how you were carried there by the Lucifer Horn snagging you with a dangling wire.

“Is she taking a support role?” asked Alicia. “You know, making stuff and sending it here?”

“How thoughtful,” said Miyabi. “Could it be a coat? Or some hot food?”

He opened the box and found a strange string. But what in the world was it?

The answer, it turned out, was some kind of clothing made entirely out of a V-shaped string.

“Eh? You’re supposed to wear this? What good is that!? I bet this is like that bunny costume from before, so I say we equip it on Miss Glasses. She is our lewd party member after all! And it might give you a sexy curse when you equip it!!”

“Do you want me to kill you, brat? Where is this Horn Fortress anyway? Is it on a tropical island or something?”

Helen’s icy white sigh was mostly one of exasperation.

The “present” came with a message card: “Victia here! I’m trapped alone on a mysterious island surrounded by cracks in the world or a magical barrier. Escape is impossible and I have to scavenge for food. I want someone to talk with so badly. Are you trying to kill me with loneliness?”

“…”

This was much worse than just a sexy curse. This was as curse of loneliness.

Miyabi neatly folded up the card and put it in his pocket. After seeing it in plays, he had always thought it would be neat to try living on a desert island, but that note was enough to tell him he would crack quickly if he tried it for real.

He swore to himself he would find and send her a friend.

But he could never do that if he collapsed out here in the snow.

“F-finding a town is the correct course of action,” said Celina Bodenburg while holding her shoulders and trembling. “When it’s this cold, we should be able to see the chimney smoke from a distance.”

They were still a long way from the Arsenal Kingdom, but there were small villages along the large road leading there. Those would be meant for travelers. They eventually arrived at a village that felt more like a rest area than anything. It was only a scattering of buildings that doubled as shops and homes.

Alicia hopped around to knock the snow from her hair and shoulders.

“Yay, we made it!”

“I’ve got a simple design,” said the radio. “I don’t need a heavy-duty cooling system like a supercomputer.”

“But…the locals don’t look exactly welcoming,” warned Celina.

“True,” agreed Helen. “All of the doors are shut tight. Even for the inn across the way. Th-they aren’t afraid because we crossed the border without permission, are they?”

For better or for worse, Miyabi was new to traveling, so he could only see one option:

“Let’s ask around.”

Once they took a look around, they found the village was not all that large. The wood and stone buildings had a makeshift look to them and a lot of the roofs were bowing below the weight of the snow.

The place must not have had many people, but they were around if you looked. Closing up too much may have allowed the falling snow to block up the doors and windows.

Miyabi first spoke to a knowledgeable-looking old man.

“On your way to the Arsenal Kingdom, are you? Well, good luck getting there with that blizzard raging. You might be able to make it if that thing were working, though. This year’s snow is enough to freeze the hot spring, so there really isn’t much you can do, I’m afraid.”

It was a strange sight to Miyabi since he had barely ever seen snow before, but some people were working on the roofs. He spoke to one of the snow-shoveling young men.

“We’re a work group that fled the Arsenal Kingdom. But we didn’t have it in us to reach the next country over, so we ended up building our own village here. It’s a nice place and we even have hot spring water piped in from outside the village. Except this winter…”

A girl was dealing with the snow in front of the pub.

The powerful dancer girl was waving a tool that looked more like a sled than a shovel.

“Damn, why is the greatest dancer in the Arsenal Kingdom out here shoveling snow? We wouldn’t even need to if that thing were working, you know? You don’t know what I mean? I’m talking about the snow-melt pipe. With the hot spring water, we could make short work of this snow!”

They asked around for a bit, but they could not last much longer out in the blizzard. They were forced to gather in the village square for a quick strategy meeting.

“I-I’m freezing my rear off out here!” complained Celina.

“Yes, let’s make this quick,” said Miyabi.

Alicia got straight to the point with her teeth chattering and Alma in her arms, hoping to get some heat from the red stuffed animal creature.

“The people here can’t help us because of the snow.”

“It sounds like the device used to draw in hot spring water and melt the snow is not functioning,” said Celina.

“Koo koo!”

“Yes, the snow-melt pipe,” said Miyabi. “What if we destroy whatever’s blocking up the hot spring water? Once the water is flowing, they won’t need to shovel the snow.

“Sigh. Sounds like it is up to us to get them back in business,” said Celina.

From what they had heard, the hot spring itself was located outside the village. Returning to that snowy world now was not a pleasant thought, but sitting around the village would do them no good when all the buildings were closed.

“D-driving us out of the village is a lot like an indirect execution, don’t you think?” asked Alicia.

“It doesn’t count as an exile if we have a plan,” said Helen. “Look, Miyabi. We can follow that.”

A pipe thicker than an arm ran along the ground, elevated by support structures.

He feared it would end up buried below the snow, but it worked surprisingly well as a guide. Trudging through the snow allowed the chill to work its way from their toes to the core of their bodies, but they forced themselves to keep going until they arrived at what looked like a frozen lake. Was that actually the hot spring?

It was not warm in the slightest.

There was no steam at all and Miyabi felt certain they were going to die now.

The hot spring was 50m across and the entire thing was covered in thick ice. They could probably walk across without breaking through.

“It’s frozen solid.”

“It is 10 below out here. Actually, do you even use Celsius here?” hastily added the radio.

Alicia sighed with that annoying thing hanging from her neck.

“Okay, now we need to find some way of breaking through the thick ice.”

“That sounds like a job for Miyabi,” said Helen.

He blasted it with the Godhorn Tech.

An ultra-heavy mass dropped from the sky.

The attack harnessed height and weight to break through the thick ice and trigger an explosion at the bottom of the frozen lake. The white lid looked thick enough to ride a wagon over, but it was fully obliterated.

“Wh-what?”

The blast had knocked Celina over, but her eyes widened and she did not bother brushing the snow from her hair.

Yes, that attack had actual mass. It was not like the previous beam attacks.

“A…shell? Are you copying my Schwarz Schütze!?”

“I’m not that good.” Miyabi yanked the control sword from the ground. “I’m no magic specialist, so I can’t make the Godhorn Tech do exactly what I want. I tried using the Lucifer Horn the way you used Schwarz Schütze’s horn, but I had no idea what it would actually do.”

“…”

“Based on this, I don’t think I can fire on distant targets and blow them away. Ha ha. I think it’s just a bomb I can drop from above.”

He thought this was similar to the Wicked God horn resonance. At the very least, the Lucifer Horn had some way of sensing great powers like the sorcery bomb. It may have figured something out from what it sensed when it destroyed the sealed container and broke the horn within.

In Miyabi’s village, they would cut away a tree’s unneeded branches and check the moisture at the cut to see how healthy the tree was. The Lucifer Horn may have done something similar with the other Wicked God horn.

(I’m also a little curious about that error during the contract transfer. Celina and the Schwarz Schütze were nearby when Moebius gave me the Lucifer Horn, so if the horns can resonate, could something have gotten mixed in then?)

Every part of it sounded suspicious to him.

The Lucifer Horn had been trying to find that resonance between horns from their initial encounter to the moment it destroyed the other horn. It had failed to make a perfect copy of the Schwarz Schütze’s weapons, but had it also created a new form of attack that not even Celina could predict?

But regardless of how it worked, where had this bomb come from? Was it made from repair parts inside the bomber, or had the Lucifer Horn dropped down a wire to snag wreckage from the Schwarz Schütze? It always showed up when he stuck the sword into the ground and summoned it, but he honestly didn’t know what it did when it was away from him.

(Hopefully we’ll figure out how to build and maintain all of this stuff at Horn Fortress. Not much point in having a secret base otherwise. Speaking of, I wonder how things are going there.)

Anyway, the new attack was like a mixture of their magical knowledge.

Almost like a child born from the traits of the two parents.

“Ha ha…”

He heard some quiet laughter.

A moment later, a soft sensation filled his mind. Laughing and overcome by emotion, Celina Bodenburg had hugged him.

She even had tears in her eyes.

“That’s right. The Schwarz Schütze is still alive! It’s taken on a different form, but it’s still there inside you!!”

“A-anyway, Celina. The hot spring is what matters. Let’s take a look at the snow-melt pipe!!”

He blushed and shouted a rushed instruction.

He did not mind it. In fact, he liked it a little too much and was unsure how to respond. He felt like a coward for using the task at hand to avoid having to find a response.

And when they checked on the shattered ice lake…

“Oh, there’s steam rising now.”

“Koo!”

“Wait,” said Alicia. “Aren’t hot springs extremely hot?”

“Usually 90 degrees. About right for making some delicious tea.”

When Helen heard the radio’s response, she very elegantly spat out the contents of her mouth.

“R-run away!!”

Just as they all dove out of the way, a massive pillar of hot water burst up from the icy lake. That was known as a geyser, but the name was fairly irrelevant when it was threatening to kill you.

The pillar rose more than 20m.

That was impressive enough to stare up at it in awe, but then the hot water crashed back down onto the snow and ice before splattering out in every direction. Simply rolling out of the way was risky business. They threw themselves along the snow, forgetting all about how cold they had felt just a bit before.

“Pant, pant! D-did we survive?” groaned Celina while lying on her stomach.

She did not seem aware that her fancy dress’s skirt had worked its way up, revealing that even her underwear was covered in jewels. Miyabi had heard that fancy dresses and accessories were a form of liquid asset you could carry around with you, but where was she planning to sell that particular article of clothing?

The layer of ice was gone and white steam rose from the giant hot spring, but if a human so much as soaked their feet in it, their feet would soon look like boiled chickens.

Miyabi touched the metal pipe and then flinched back.

It was pretty hot already. Painfully so.

“The hot water is running through the pipe. Let’s get back to the village.”

The village felt like an entirely different place.

The snow on the roofs and streets had melted and the people were freed from their unending labor.

Alicia’s long ears twitched as they picked up the hustle and bustle.

“Oh, the place has come alive.”

“L-l-let’s get to the inn,” said Celina. “Before we freeze!!”

The village was still pretty rundown, but it looked like an enjoyable place now that it had livened up.

Celina was holding herself and shivering while her lips turned blue.

A cheerful dancer girl was twirling in front of the pub.

“I’m free! Free from that awful snow shoveling!! Eh? You were the ones who fixed that thing ? Then I’ll have to give you a special reward. Stop by when you have some time☆”

Based on what the snow shoveling young man, the overly-friendly maid, and some others said, everyone here had fled from the Arsenal Kingdom. Miyabi was curious about that, but they really would die if they did not warm up soon.

They entered the village’s only inn.

It was small enough that their party just about took up all the vacant rooms themselves. But not because it was all that much warmer inside; the building was sloppily made. The boards on the walls and floor had gaps between them, the nails were crooked, and the connections between stone and wood were poorly done, so the place was practically made out of drafts. Thanks to his woodworking background, just seeing the place filled Miyabi with anxiety.

But someone else was even more concerned: the daughter of the Bodenburg Company.

“W-we’re staying here? We have to share the bath with the other guests!? The entire building is more cramped than the Schwarz Schütze’s walk-in closet! To say nothing of the rooms!”

“Miyabi, if the selfish girl doesn’t like it here, kindly kick her out for me,” said Helen with a smile.

She was the one paying for their journey and the presence of another travel companion was enough to place pressure on their living expenses, so the look on her face said she would leap at an opportunity to not have to pay for the girl.

Miyabi parted with the others to check on his dreary wood-floored room.

“I really want to get to sleep right away, but I might not wake up again if I don’t warm up in the bath first. Alma, what are you gonna do?”

“Kyoo!” cried Alma while nestling between the bed and pillow where it stirred restlessly despite being so tired. With the inner warmth of the Phoenix form, the beast did not need to take a bath.

The rooms did not have their own baths. There was one shared bath, so he left his room again.

He checked Alicia and Helen’s rooms on the way and saw light escaping from below the door. They were in their rooms. The building’s poor craftsmanship worked in his favor here. He would not have to worry about opening the door to the bath and running into the elf or busty glasses woman in the middle of changing. His stamina was at its limit, so if they attacked, he might just end up the victim of a murder.

But this way, he felt comfortable opening the door to the dressing room.

Inside, he found a complete stranger. She was naked.

He was so confused time seemed to freeze.

The girl turned toward him with her removed clothing held in front of her to cover up the best she could. The white cloak and dark reddish-purple habit suggested she was some kind of priest. But she had an ephemeral look to her and four will-o’-the-wisps colored red, blue, yellow, and green floated around her.

He gulped.

And when the scream came, it came from him.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? A-a real ghost!? This bath here is haunted!?”

“No, wait!” she shouted. “It…it isn’t what it looks like!!”

Time unfroze and the girl with long pink hair started waving her hands wildly, but Miyabi was too freaked out to notice.

He hung his head, his eyes rolled in his head, and he addressed the crux of the issue.

“Wait, hold on. Why do I feel so lucky for stumbling onto this? I mean, she’s dead. Am I so exhausted that I’ve gone insane and developed a thing for dead girls? Nooo, say ain’t so! What did I do to deserve becoming a necrophile!? Whyyyyyy!!!???”

“C-c-c-calm down and look at me! Um, uh, don’t look too hard, but still look at me!!”

A soft hand covered his mouth.

But wait. The stooped ghost was working so hard to cover her nudity, but her hand was awfully soft and warm for a ghost. She also gave off a faintly sweet aroma.

She was warm and had a physical body.

Did that mean she wasn’t a ghost? Was this a teenage (and very naked) girl leaning against him and pressing her soft skin against his lips? Was this a perfectly normal thing to be turned on by?

“Mghfgh.”

“My name is Sophia. Sophia Calamity-Jinx. I am a well-known Curse Cleaner who travels the continent performing exorcisms.”

“Pwah. Exorcisms?”

“I defeat ghosts for a living.”

Oh, that explains it, thought Miyabi. The colorful will-o’-the-wisps were not because she was a ghost. She was an expert ghost buster and she was in the midst of defeating the baddies. Learning that ghosts were real should have scared him, but it was comforting to know he was with an expert. And when that expert was a naked girl, he could find no reason to complain.

So was she just another traveler?

But wait.

“Um, is it just me or are the ghosts a lot livelier than you?”

“Eek. W-well, these people are not ghosts haunting the bath. They follow me around everywhere I go because of the embarrassing charm, so, well, um…”

“Eh? They follow you into the bath?”

“…”

She blushed and froze up.

This girl taught some dangerous lessons. Learning that he could still enjoy life after death was cratering the value he saw in his own life.

“Hm? Oh, right,” she said. “I was meaning to ask: Are you one of those ruffians they call a peeping tom?”

“Lucifer Horn!! We’ve got ourselves a new party member, so take this girl away!!!!!”

“Hyahhh!? P-please! At least let me get dressed first!”

The wire hanging from the sky entered through the dressing room window, wrapped around Sophia Calamity-Jinx’s belly, and swept her away to Horn Fortress.

Coverup complete!!

Miyabi had a feeling that girl was pushed around by the ghosts a lot too. She was the kind of person who made him want to poke her here and there to see how she reacted.

You’re in luck, Victia.

You have a friend now.

Once night fell, they all gathered in Miyabi’s room, which was filled with the distinctive smell of a tallow lamp and a wood-burning stove. Alma, Alicia, and Celina were all visiting him tonight, but not because he had grown inexplicably popular.

“Ugh, what is keeping her?” complained the elf.

The others concurred.

The cheap wooden flooring was abysmal. In a snowy place like this, they would have loved a proper fireplace. The small stove was terribly insufficient and sipping at mugs of hot milk or tea was not enough to forget about the chill seeping in from the walls and floor.

Helen (who was still wearing her tight skirt in the cold) finally knocked at the door and entered the dimly-lit room.

“S-sorry about the wait.”

“Ah! You were out gathering information without telling us, weren’t you!?” accused Alicia with her butt seated on the side table.

“And I was so hoping I could see Venus at work,” lamented the philosopher’s stone.

“Why do you think I didn’t tell anyone I was going where all the action is!? C’mon, Miyabi, talk some sense into them!!”

“Ehh? What was that, mom?”

“Miyabi, I can tell you’re so tired you’re barely aware of your surroundings, but I must have misheard what you called me there.”

“Oh, shut up. What are those boobs if not motherly? Those things are too big to just be ‘womanly’, mama.”

“You’re not thinking straight, Miyabi. Are you freezing to death in this cold!? Don’t die on us!!”

The older girl next door was trembling from something other than the cold, but the boy failed to notice.

“Ugh.” He held his own body to fight the cold. “When the instructor teaching you to use the hammer or saw is a woman, you end up calling them that sometimes, right?”

“Hold on. If I’m the mother of the party, then why are you forcing me to dress up as the bunny!? Not that I’m accepting that role, mind you!!”

Helen blushed and made a rebuttal, but then she took a deep breath to fill her (large) chest with oxygen and regain her adult confidence.

She did not see anywhere to sit, so she leaned against the wall and cleared her throat.

“Ahem. Anyway, I managed to gather some information on the Arsenal Kingdom.”

While restlessly sitting on the bed with Miyabi, Celina tugged at his jacket and asked a question while giving him the puppy dog eyes.

“I-is her ‘Venus’ form really that entertaining?”

“Do you want me to tell you what I found or not!? Hmph!!”

“Oh, no!” exclaimed the radio. “It’s always bad news when an adult starts to sulk! It can last for ages! When a cosplayer starts getting up there in years, the grow more and more reliant on their position as the circle’s princess!!”

“Whoever said I’m ‘getting up there in years’, step forward.”

The radio was very nearly dismantled. By Helen’s bare hands.

Celina jumped and hid behind Miyabi’s back (without noticing she was pressing her growing chest against him).

“Why would you provoke her further!?” she asked.

“Ksshhh, she must be cold after walking through the snow at night. Someone serve her some tea!”

Static ran through the radio’s voice as its destruction neared and Miyabi reached for the tea set on the side table. They could not afford to have her sulk. As cute as it was.

“U-um, would you like some nice hot tea?”

He forced an ugly polite smile and she sighed mostly in exasperation.

“That just reminds me of what I went through out there. Ugh.”

“So what did you find out?”

Celina winked and patted on the bed next to her, so the redheaded boy sat back down and asked that fundamental question.

“That the Arsenal Kingdom may have been behind the destruction of Celina’s armored train.”

“…”

The Bodenburg girl gasped and Alicia grinned from the side table.

“Oh, you picked up on that, did you? Excellent.”

“I get the feeling the Arsenal Kingdom is in a state of political instability. We can head there now, but we need to assume there will be trouble,” warned Helen.

“We’re already caught up in their trouble,” added Alicia, half joking.

There was the sorcery bomb, but it was also worrying how the villagers here said they had “fled” that kingdom. The kingdom past the blizzard sounded dangerous, so Miyabi tried to mentally work through what they knew.

“The Arsenal Kingdom has that Godhorn Tech. The, um…”

“The Icicle Bullet,” supplied Celina.

He stole a glance over at her in the tallow lamp’s light, but he still could not tell what emotion her voice carried.

“That ice weapon is controlled by Eliza Silverstorm of the kingdom’s White Seidr Chosen Knights.”

“I want to hear what she has to say,” said Miyabi. “It was true the train had a sorcery bomb in it.”

“That anonymous letter is something of a mystery,” added the philosopher’s stone swaying from Alicia’s neck. “Including if it even exists.”

“You mean Eliza might be friends with the 11th? Or she could have some secret connection with them. Hell, she might be the 11th herself.”

“Koo.”

Whether Alma understood the situation or not, the red creature gave a worried cry with its small hands around the pillow. Helen beckoned toward it while stating her conclusion on the matter.

“We can reach the Arsenal Kingdom by traveling west from here. But like I said, make sure you’re ready for trouble.”

### 010. Chapter 3 Section 2

The blizzard was still raging outside after they spent the night at the village’s inn.

But Miyabi Blackgarden’s party had to brave the storm if they were to meet White Seidr Eliza Silverstorm who controlled the Icicle Bullet.

Alicia Blueforest breathed a very elderly-sounding sigh while trudging through the snow first thing in the morning.

The heavy sigh was colored white.

“This is horrific. My toes are already going numb. Do the people of this kingdom end up with soaked shoes every time they go outside?”

“The locals wear shoes that do not sink into the snow and can slide along the ice. They spread out the edge for increased friction or balance up on the edge to skate on it.”

Celina Bodenburg had visited in the past, so she knew a lot about the place.

Their breakfast was hot sandwiches filled with plenty of heavily-seasoned wild animal meat. Just like their desperation to find shelter the night before, they were afraid they would freeze to death without getting something to eat on a regular basis. The snowy land wore them out a lot faster than they expected.

The glasses woman did not look pleased with her food.

“Ugh, how can they call this breakfast? Did they ban vegetables here?”

“Hee hee,” laughed Celina. “Every child on the continent wishes they could live in this land of hamburger steak and sausages.“No, Miyabi.”

The boy jumped at Helen’s comment.

How had she known he was suddenly excited about visiting the Arsenal Kingdom!? Maybe the kind of young woman that demanded you eat your veggies had a special 6th sense for that kind of thing.

Celina sighed as she nibbled at the edge of her hot sandwich.

“Munch, munch. With all this snow, their cuisine is primarily focused on the meat they can hunt, while vegetable and other crops are a luxury item for those wealthy enough to look after their health. That is why most of those crops were shipped in by my company.”

They followed a path half-buried in snow until a massive castle wall came into view. The stone wall was tall and thick. The height alone made it as unapproachable as the Schwarz Schütze.

That was the Arsenal Kingdom.

A fortress state of metal and smithing. The castle, the castle town, and all of its limited land were surrounded by the thick castle walls, providing an impregnable defense. It was a safety measure, but was there really a need to reject outsiders to quite that extent? Miyabi was only familiar with his home village, so it felt downright bizarre to him.

And something happened before they even passed through that wall.

“?”

Miyabi could hear a rumbling in the distance. No, were those voices? So many people were shouting so loudly that none of the individual voices could be made out.

As cold as it was, he still came to a stop outside the gate and frowned.

“What’s going on? That’s a lot of noise.”

“Koo…”

“I do not like the sound of this,” said Alicia. “Alma, hide behind me.”

“Don’t say that while holding me out in front! If you ask me, you should use a smithing skill to increase my defense stat!! That’s this kingdom’s specialty, isn’t it!?”

“Shh!!”

Helen forbade the radio from speaking. And in an act very unlike a classy adult lady, she shoved her hot sandwich in her mouth. She had no idea when they would get more food. It may have been a ritual to help her focus on the battle at hand.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Helen Clockgear. “Tension is hanging in the air.”

Miyabi tried to follow the capable young woman’s example and set his throat on fire with the seasoning. He started choking on reflex, so the elf hag rubbed his back with an exasperated look.

“Why isn’t there a single guard at their front gate?” asked Alicia.

“Have they withdrawn inside?” speculated Celina.

No one had an answer.

The gate…was not locked. The thick double doors were sitting half open. They could twist their bodies to slip through – no Godhorn Tech necessary. The castle wall was supposed to be the border between countries, yet no one was monitoring who passed through.

“Sh-should we really be doing this?”

As a government official, Helen was getting cold feet, probably because of the small bag she carried. When crossing a border, any Compress Cargo magic had to be deactivated so everything within could be checked over by the guards. Anything else would make your country a smuggler’s paradise.

This was concerning.

There should have been people here, but there were not.

It was like wandering onto a ghost ship from a picture book.

“Koo…”

Alma cried anxiously while standing atop the snow at Miyabi’s feet without sinking down. Curious what was going on, Miyabi stuck his head through the half-open gate.

His face was immediately slapped by a wall of sound.

At first, he was unsure what had happened.

The limited land within the wall was crammed full of stone houses and shops, making for a unique type of city. The several towers jutting into the frigid air in the distance had to be the king’s castle. That was a castle town, something he had only ever seen in picture books. After a lifetime in that forest village, the stone-paved roads, bridges, and perfectly straight aqueducts had to be a strange sight for him.

But he failed to notice any of it.

His eyes widened as the voices rushed in at him with such terrible density.

“Drag that incompetent king from the throne!!”

“No more military expansionism! We demand peace!!”

“Why are we paying to fight foreign enemies when we can’t put food on our tables!? The taxes are the real enemy!!”

People, people, people, and more people.

Men, women, boys, and girls were boiling over with anger and rioting. They were packed in so tight it was hard to tell who they were angry with or who they were trying to get at.

Plus, Miyabi had never seen so many people at one time. So when they were all too furious to think straight, it was enough of a shock to rattle his very soul.

He initially thought they had to be using magic to amplify their voices, but they weren’t.

Since when were humans such violent creatures?

The public square immediately inside the gate was packed full, so he didn’t want to even think what the central castle area was like.

The village boy was frozen in place, unable to take a single step.

“What in the world!?”

“I’d heard there was unrest, but this is a full-on riot!”

Helen was a Republic official, but her eyes widened too.

Alicia winked and rubbed her index finger against her temple like she was viewing this human foolishness from a more detached viewpoint.

“That explains the lack of guards at the gate,” she said.

“If the border guards were dragged into an internal conflict, their chain of command must have fully collapsed,” said the philosopher’s stone, sounding exasperated.

“L-look over there!”

Celina pointed toward a woman running beyond the wall of people. Her equipment was too delicate to call armor. She wore a feather headdress and a shortish skirt. Several of the rioters appeared to be pursuing her. Her long silver ponytail was swimming behind her.

Her armor stood out, but so did her giant lance which resembled a control device. Was that part of the local knight gear? She might as well have been waving a torch and yelling for the rioters to attack her.

Celina was the only one who recognized her, so the girl explained.

“Eliza Silverstorm is one of the Arsenal Kingdom’s chosen knights. I do not know what has the people so riled up, but if their ire is directed at the monarchy, then the White Seidr Chosen Knights would be the most obvious symbol of its political and military might. The angry mob will attack her first!”

That settled it.

Helen responded with a bitter look.

“If she dies, we lose any information she has on the 11th.”

“Or we could hide among the rioters and throw stones from afar. If we intentionally push her to the limit, she might just use one of those rumored sorcery bombs.”

Alicia’s sly suggestion made Miyabi click his tongue.

Not even he was sure why, since the idea itself was sound.

But he couldn’t help but ask who would decide where “the limit” was? How could they be so confident that their calculations were correct and Eliza was in no risk of actually dying?

And what if she was innocent? No, even if she had some guilty secret, what if some remaining sliver of a conscience prevented her from using the sorcery bomb?

Could they really hold their heads high and say they had done the right thing just because it was the “the most logical choice”?

(No, now isn’t the time to make Alicia into a villain. She only made that suggestion because she knows no one else will. Simply listing it as a possibility isn’t wrong.)

Would they save her or kill her? Creation, or destruction? The cards had all been laid out on the table.

But it was Miyabi’s job to choose one.

No matter what anyone else said, this was Miyabi Blackgarden’s adventure. He could not force someone else to do it for him and he was not obligated to accept someone else’s choice. He was free to choose. So his real task here was to find an option he would not regret taking later on.

He had to reach for a version of himself he could be proud of.

“Koo!!”

“Yeah.” He clenched his teeth and nodded. “None of that matters. I can work through all these vague doubts later on. For now, I’ll go with what I know! If we don’t help Eliza get away, she’ll be killed!!”

He was afraid.

Of course he was.

This was different from Celina’s Schwarz Schütze or the mysterious 11th’s sorcery bomb. It was a group. Instead of a single powerful threat, this filled him with the same disgust as seeing a swarm of spiders covering a window.

However.

If he did not act now, she would be overwhelmed by the crowd. If that happened, he would lose all faith in humanity. Including in himself.

He wanted to believe there was more to humans than violence and thoughtless rioting.

And doing that required proving it himself. Right here and now.

“Hold your horses, boy,” said Alicia.

Even if he did charge right into the crowd, he would have a hard time weaving through the gaps. And clearing a path by blowing the rioters away with his Godhorn Tech was out of the question. He, Alicia, and Helen discussed what they had noticed, like that the cold wind indicated an area with fewer people and that Eliza could not enter just any alleyway carrying that big lance. Afterwards, they circled around using the relatively deserted back alleys.

“!?”

They appeared to catch her off guard.

Eliza Silverstorm’s eyes widened when she ran across them. She may have recognized Celina.

“What are you doing here!?”

“Watch out!!”

Miyabi tackled her to the ground just as an imagined red color filled his vision. The rusty flavor had to be his imagination as well, not something coming from his senses. The actual pain was minimal. Even though a thrown rock had definitely struck his temple.

“Gh!!”

“Wh-why do this!? What are you after!?”

Eliza grew suspicious after he knocked her to the ground, so Celina breathed an exasperated sigh.

Eliza talked a lot.

He had imagined her as being cold as ice, so this came as a surprise.

But he was also glad she had the energy to yell like that. He was also proud of himself for being glad that the suspect was unharmed.

His rattled head noted this may have cut off the quickest route to the answer they wanted, but he knew this was the correct answer for himself.

“I can’t believe you. And so soon after that nauseating pickup line about becoming my strongest.”

Celina had lost everything when her armored trained was destroyed.

But she appeared to have gotten over it. She smiled as if to say she had a new goal in sight and was intent on accepting the challenge fair and square.

She rested her rifle-shaped control device on her shoulder while gathering his attention.

“The strongest must hold their head high with pride. Yes, this could make for an excellent advertisement in its own way. Now, Miyabi, we do not have time to mess around.”

The air stirred.

The danger was growing.

“That guy’s protecting the arrogant knight!”

“They’re trying to steal our money too! Why else would they be helping the White Seidr!?”

“String them up! Wring out everything they’ve stolen from us!!”

Miyabi was already woozy after the blow to his temple, so he and Eliza ended up propping each other up. That appeared to anger the rioters. Their yelling never ended and they all reached out as one.

Celina aimed her flintlock rifle skywards and fired once.

The rioters would only flinch back for a moment.

Once they realized she had not fired toward them and once they detected any fear or hesitation at all, they would rush in with double the intensity. The blonde girl used the time she had bought them to load more powder and another bullet into the muzzle with the long, skinny rod, all while shouting at Miyabi.

“Both ways out of here are blocked by rioters. If you aren’t willing to kill them, then you need to create a new escape route!”

“!”

He drew his control sword.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

First, he lined up enough boxes of packed snow to form a wall blocking the wide street. Blocking the main thoroughfare led more people into the back alleys, so the rioters packed themselves in too tightly to move. But that would not last forever. Miyabi held his hand out toward another location, arranging snow blocks to form roughly-made Layer Stairs. He even created a landing supported by a building’s wall to build the stairs up to the roof of a three-story apartment.

“Hurry!!”

He gestured them all on and the snow wall blocking the street was forced down just as they climbed to the dark stone roof. Just before the rioters could rush toward the makeshift stairs, he swung his control sword to “cancel” it. The white Layer Stairs crumbled before the mob’s eyes.

Celina could not believe what she was seeing far below them.

But not because of the rioters filling that space.

“I-I-I know I asked for it, but that creation ability really is something else. All I have is the destruction side of things.”

“Still upset about that?”

“Not at all. You said you would become my strongest, so that means all of this actually belongs to me.”

The roof put them well above the rioters, but that was no guarantee of safety. Most of the roofs were sharp and pointed, presumably to keep snow off of them, so they were not easy to navigate. The tall and skinny apartment building had a flat roof, but it was coated with hardened snow and they could easily slip and fall.

Plus, humans were not animals. They might throw stones or fire bottles from the street. Someone might even construct a large slingshot or bow using the tools at hand. His imagination informed him of many unpleasant possibilities. The angry rioters might not have lost their creativity.

The ponytail woman who was even mores strait-laced than Helen shouted at Miyabi while they still supported each other.

“Creation? A-are you saying you used a Godhorn Tech’s power in the city!? Are you insane!?”

“Maybe so, but that insanity just saved your life!”

“Eh? Wha-?”

She must not have expected him to shout right back at her because her voice caught in her throat and her eyes wandered uncertainly.

He kept going regardless.

He wanted to preserve his faith in people, so he worked to get closer to this person here.

“Your armor and control lance are too conspicuous! We need to escape outside the castle walls. That way we can avoid this crowd!”

“No, wait! I cannot do that!”

Even the radio sounded exasperate by that.

“Cut the ‘cool as a cucumber’ act, you blushing tsundere. It’s a little late for that.”

“Tsun…what? What is that box saying?”

Her enormous lance must have been difficult to use at close range because Eliza used her hand to push Miyabi’s face away while he held her close.

“Anyway, I belong to this kingdom’s White Seidr Chosen Knights. I must protect the king!”

She even bowed at the end.

How strait-laced could you be? Was she trying to OD on it?

“You have my thanks for your concern, but I cannot flee and leave my king to fend for himself!!”

“Tch.”

“U-um, Miyabi?” asked Helen.

He was intrigued.

He was willing to laugh it off if someone like this manipulated him into providing assistance.

Helen sensed the dangerous idea growing inside him and she tried to nip it in the bud, but…

“Then what choice do we have? Let’s hurry to your king.”

“Miyabiiii!? W-we can’t! Any chance of survival is evaporating fast!”

“Hah hahhh hahhh!!” rejoiced the radio at Alicia’s chest. “Now this is more like it! In a swords and sorcery fantasy, no one’s looking for clever tricks. They want pure freedom. When you see a girl in a bind in a setting like this, why would you even need to think twice!?”

“(God, has he completely forgotten we’re here to figure out who placed the sorcery bomb in the crashed train?)”

“Alicia?”

“Nothing, boy. The grownups will protect you, so go have your fun.”

Looking down from the roof, the rioters looked like a single massive organism – a sea anemone spreading throughout the city. Miyabi never wanted to go down there again. Especially not with a primary target like Eliza.

That meant it would be best to travel between rooftops.

The roofs were dangerous enough with the snow and ice, but there were no routes between them, no matter how closely packed the buildings were. Fortunately, Miyabi had the power of creation.

“A Bypass Bridge should do the trick.”

The redhead boy packed the snow together while picturing boxes in his head. He lined up those Palette Dice to form a white bridge between this rooftop and the next. That allowed them to stay off the ground despite the main street blocking the way like a ravine. Still, the bridge support extended down to the road, so it might be brought down if they were not quick.

And the rioters were not the only threat.

Some squawking cries reached them from the sky.

“Kyah!?”

Frightened, Celina grabbed at Miyabi from the side, but now was not the time to be excited by the softness reaching him through that dress that was too revealing for such a snowy climate. His feet nearly slipped down the steep angle of the roof.

“Isn’t this the royal castle town?” he shouted, wide-eyed. “What is a Beast Nova doing in here!?”

“You know that classification counts me as a Beast Nova and Alma as a Wicked God, don’t you!?”

Alicia was upset, but his question received an answer from an unexpected source – the richest of the rich girls: Celina Bodenburg.

“Wh-why, that’s Millovannes! My messenger harpy! I used her to send our entrance request to the Arsenal Kingdom!!”

“Hey, that cheeky thing is keeping her distance and firing projectiles at us,” said Miyabi. “We should shoot her down just to be safe. We can’t afford to be pinned down halfway across the bridge. If the makeshift Bypass Bridge goes down, we’d fall right into the rioters’ hands.”

“Got it, Miyabi,” said Helen. “I’ll use some Lure magic to keep her focused on me.”

“No, stop!! Millovannes might as well be part of my fam-”

Something grazed Celina’s cheek.

It came from the messenger harpy squawking atop a roof a short distance away. That monster looked like a human girl with wings for arms. Millovannes had gone feral and was using her toes to grab sharp-edged metal disks with the company logo on them. And she appeared to be enjoying herself.

Celina lowered her shadowy face.

Her shoulders were shaking. From laughter.

Her head sprang up again and she aimed the very black control gun adorned with gold.

“Heh, eh heh heh. Very well. If that is how it must be, I will label this beast feral. I was growing sick of the greasy meat in this snowy region’s cuisine anyway, so tonight we can feast upon some healthy grilled chicken!!!!!!”

“There is something severely wrong with your human-nonhuman relations,” sobbed a trembling Alicia with fiery Alma in her arms.

Meanwhile…

“Everyone is so focused on the internal conflict no one is thinking about external threats,” bitterly replied Eliza, her massive control lance in both hands. “I apologize, but prepare yourselves. We must fight our way through!”

Bizarre creatures with bat wings were clinging to the roofs and chimneys while will-o’-the-wisps swooped through the sky on their own. None of them was a match for Miyabi with his Godhorn Tech. Celina no longer had the horn’s power, but she still had her bayonet-equipped rifle, so the two of them eliminated all of the monsters before they could even get close.

Eliza Silverstorm even had time to look down to the ground.

The chosen knight whose armor included a feathered headdress and a miniskirt pointed at the stone bridge across a river using the tip of her control lance.

“I apologize again, but please take care of that as well!!”

“?”

“The rioters can use that bridge to gather into a single mob large enough to break through the king’s gate.”

“Sure, but it looks more like they’re gonna topple like dominoes at this rate,” added the philosopher’s stone.

Eliza nearly clung to the boy as she asked a favor.

“My Icicle Bullet cannot take aim at such a precise target. Please destroy that bridge to keep the rioters separated!”

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the roof.

A magic circle opened at his feet and he sent an instruction to the Lucifer Horn flying overhead.

Immediately, a thick pillar of light dropped from the sky and tore across the ground.

The colossal winged Godhorn Tech flew along the path of the river.

The stone bridge was more vaporized than simply destroyed.

“I still can’t get used to that. Both the power and the accuracy are impressive. I’m not sure even my Schwarz Schütze could have attacked with such precision.”

Eliza grimaced at the brightness of the light, but she clenched her fist in triumph after noticing the rioters were separated by the river.

“Yes, thank you. Yes!!”

She was their #1 target, but she sounded delighted that no one had been hurt. Celina put a hand on her hip in exasperation.

“There is no end to the world’s troubles, is there? Argh, we need to paint the company name on the Lucifer Horn’s wings ASAP! This charity is going to waste! Miyabi, let’s get this over with. The central castle is our goal, isn’t it?”

She was right about the world’s troubles at least.

The city was overrun by human rioters, the Beast Novae who had gotten past the walls…and there was more. Something else was beginning. What looked like giant muscular stone sculptures were extracting themselves from the pedestals in the public squares or the walls of cathedrals and slowly approaching the rioters. Their strength was an unknown, but the weight of those 3m stone figures would be enough to kill a human.

“The security gargoyles are activating in error?” frowned Eliza.

“Gar-what?” asked Miyabi.

“Manmade autonomous traps.” Celina brushed her hair back from her shoulder. “I see no simplification in the design, so these must not be from our company’s factories. Did a local craftsman make them? Either way, we cannot allow military-grade weapons to attack those people. Miyabi, I will snipe them, so you support me. Move around on the rooftops to draw the attention of the gargoyles!!”

The gargoyles apparently would not crush the rioters if their attention was on the fighters safely up on the roofs. After a moment’s thought, Miyabi dropped a cube of snow from the roof and had it burst from within before it reached the ground. It functioned like a low-temperature firework.

As expected, that gathered the attention of everyone on the ground.

Bat wings grew from the gargoyles’ backs.

Wait. How were they storing those wings in their stone bodies!?

Concern rapidly filled Miyabi and he asked a worried question.

“U-um, Celina? They just grew stone wings, so, um, I was wondering…”

“Sigh. They’re gargoyles. Of course they grew wings.”

“How was I supposed to know that!? You have to tell me these things! And what happened to the roof being safe!?”

“My, my. Ho ho ho. Silly boy. When you make a deal with a professional company, you need to read the terms of the contract with utmost care!! Ohh ho ho ho ho!!”

“Miyabi, I just dumped some Lure Powder on her head,” coldly stated Helen in her assassin mode. “They’ll all be focused on her, so stay away from her.”

Celina’s newfound popularity forced her to tearfully fire her rifle-shaped device over and over. The gargoyles’ stone bodies must have been coated with a special wax that could deflect a certain amount of magic. When the red lines of light imbued with a flame effect came in contact with the stone surface, they burst into a spray and scattered behind the gargoyles.

Celina clicked her tongue while peering down the sight.

“I had a feeling my control gun wouldn’t be enough. Miyabi! Let me link with your horn!! Then I can fight with the level of power I’m used to!!”

“Hold on, what happens if you register two control devices with the same Godhorn Tech? You aren’t trying to hijack the Lucifer Horn, are you?”

“…”

She was unwilling to answer, so he was unwilling to give her access.

But that did not mean she was unable to fight. She made a subtle adjustment to her aim. She knew her shots would be deflected, so she aimed for the airborne gargoyles’ hands or the ends of their wings. The attacks did not pierce through, but they could not brace themselves in midair. The impacts knocked them off balance, buying some time.

She used that time to load her next powder and bullet in the span of a breath and fire again, the bullet flying right past the gargoyle.

No, it hit the clocktower behind the gargoyle, bounced off, and hit the stone statue in the back.

She used the ricochet.

The gargoyle twisted around, falling into an uncontrollable tailspin.

There was a round hole on the gargoyles’ backs. It may have been a socket for inserting the tool for winding up their spring, but when the magical bullet accurately flew into that hole, this one trembled and ceased to function. It spiraled down to the surface where it crashed into a frozen river.

“Hmph, who needs a Wicked God horn to fight?” Celina pulled the skinny rod from the muzzle and took aim again. “I can still promise eternal prosperity to my Bodenburg Company. I only need to invent new ways to fight when the need arises.”

Just as she began her next ricochet sniper shot, the gargoyle hopped to the side. No, someone had soared through the air to hit it with a flying kick. With an elderly masculine cry of effort.

“Nwohhhh!!”

“Out of the way, commoner!! What is wrong with you!?”

Celina shouted in frustration at having her timing thrown off.

What was happening, anyway?

Anyone could use magic these days, but kicking a gargoyle out of midair still seemed superhuman. Those were hunks of rock, after all. If magic could give people that kind of leg strength, Miyabi’s party would not be at all safe up on the roofs. The countless rioters would have just jumped up to surround them.

Alicia did not look pleased when she saw the small old man.

“Is that a dwarf, by any chance?”

“Eh? So he’s a Beast Nova?” asked Helen. “Be careful, Miyabi. He’s a new enemy!!”

“Discriminatory language!! And don’t go all ‘A Monster has Appeared’ and calculate out the money and item drops the instant you see someone from another species! It’s legitimately terrifying!!”

The elf bristled and protested, but then strait-laced Eliza spoke up.

“Oh, is that Sir Garret?”

“Hm?”

“Garret Goldcave. He is a craftsman with a royal warrant. The Arsenal Kingdom is supported by our superb smithing techniques, so human or dwarf makes no difference as long as they have the skills we require. In fact, dwarves like him have established metalworking techniques found nowhere else.”

“Tch, so he’s your pet.”

“Don’t look so disappointed you can’t attack him!

The elf was truly in tears now as she grabbed at the glasses woman and made a plea for nonhuman rights.

As a businessperson, Celina coldly weighed the pros and the cons.

“Interesting. Get him on our party and we would never want for equipment, Miyabi. He appears to be attacking those gargoyles, so we can easily convince him using the classic ‘the enemy of your enemy is your friend’ argument☆”

“No, Sir Garret is-”

Eliza hesitantly began a response, but she never managed to finish.

The person who jumped up to the rooftop in a single bound was a short old man. But his back was not stooped and he was far more muscular than Miyabi. He reminded Miyabi of the older men who worked in the forest. So while he looked intimidating, Miyabi felt an affinity toward him. When backed by excellent skills, stubbornness could feel reliable.

He wore a dark jumpsuit and wore a rucksack filled with hammers, saws, and other tools. He had knocked a gargoyle out of the air with a flying kick, so how powerful would he be with his weapon of choice?

Once he navigated the labyrinthine rooftops to reach them, Garret had this to say:

“Nwoah!! Are you the ones attacking my adorable traps!?”

“You’re on their side!?” exclaimed Celina. “Did you kick that gargoyle aside to keep me from sniping it!?”

Eliza held a hand to her forehead and spoke quietly, like she was revealing her own shame.

“Um, Sir Garret is a truly skilled craftsman, but he has the unfortunate flaw of adoring his autonomous traps like his own grandchildren.”

“Miyabi, if he is protecting the gargoyles, he is on their side. He is an enemy,” coldly concluded Helen. “Kill that Beast Nova and nab the money and item drops as a reward for risking our life here.”

“Why can’t you tell that’s nothing more than robbery, human!?” screamed Alicia. “A-an excellent craftsman would make a useful party member, Miyabi. So summon the Lucifer Horn and collect our new party member!!”

A wire snagged the nonhuman old man’s back collar and the bomber flew off to the farthest reaches of the world.

“D-did you just abduct a national treasure and a living treasure trove of military secrets!?” shouted Eliza.

“Not even you view him as a person? And it’s even scarier with you because you take everything so seriously I know you aren’t joking.”

Alicia wrapped her arms around her shoulders and trembled with fear in her eyes. Elves may have been susceptible to losing all trust in humans.

And things were not over quite yet.

“Ah!” shouted Celina while looking into the distance.

Black smoke was billowing into the sky. It was much too dark to be coming from a chimney.

Alicia’s eyes widened more than anyone’s, perhaps because she lived in the forest.

“There’s a fire burning!”

“The firefighters can’t possibly get past the rioters.” Eliza held her head up on the rooftop. “This fire will be devastating!”

Meanwhile, the radio spoke to Miyabi.

“Hey, herbivore boy. Water isn’t the only way to extinguish a fire. If there’s nothing more for it to burn, it burns itself out.”

“…”

The boy made a split-second decision.

He could save people with the destruction as well.

“Let’s destroy the surrounding homes to keep the fire from spreading!”

“God, it’s not that simple, you know!?” said Eliza.

“Making it work is a job for us grownups,” said Helen.

Those two nimbly jumped between rooftops to check inside the windows from the rooftops across the road. After confirming the homes were empty, they gestured to Miyabi and he stabbed his control sword into the roof at his feet.

He sent the Lucifer Horn another command.

The giant form flew by above the fortress kingdom once more.

A beam of light dropped from the sky and it was dragged across the ground. Several straight lines of destruction were carved into the city to draw a square around the fire. As all the burnable empty houses and roadside trees were destroyed, the fire began to wane. With a blizzard still raging, the fire rapidly lost strength without any new fuel.

Once she had regrouped with them on the black stone rooftop, Eliza Silverstorm looked ready to collapse. Miyabi supported her from the side and found her to be unexpectedly light.

In this sense, she was just a girl.

She seemed more concerned for the rioters flooding the streets than her own safety.

“D-did that stop the fire?”

“Ha ha! Fires and fights are the flowers of Edo!!”

The radio was shouting nonsense again, but Alicia stood on the packed-down snow and placed a hand above her eyes to look out from the rooftop.

“We’re pretty close to the castle now. Let’s get in there while we can.”

Entering the castle should have been an entire ordeal in itself, but security had collapsed from the chaos and Miyabi kept making them bridges between rooftops.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

White boxes of packed snow linked together to create a Bypass Bridge with a support below it.

After placing a large bridge up to the wall separating the city from the castle, he built some Layer Stairs down from the wall. They moved from there to the castle garden. But this garden was always buried under snow, so they did not plant any grass or roses there. Instead, something like wires were strung up in an orderly fashion to artificially design how the snow and ice formed there. Glittering transparent ice fences took the place of hedges, so it felt like entering a botanical garden made of clear crystal.

They were in the castle.

The residence of an entire kingdom’s king.

And without permission. Did he have his Godhorn Tech to thank for this? Miyabi had pulled it off so easily it actually made him nervous.

“Is this really the most strictly guarded place in the kingdom?”

“Sorry about this! I am in your debt!!”

Eliza Silverstorm had a habit of bowing whenever she said anything and the philosopher’s stone had some thoughts on the matter.

“Hm, she isn’t quite a tsundere, but she isn’t really a kuudere either. Her athletic side obscures it, but I think I would categorize her as the strict class rep type.”

A few more girls in armor similar to Eliza’s approached them. Did that make them more of the White Seidr Chosen Knights? They carried large lances and they initially looked cautious, but their faces lit up when they saw Eliza.

“Lady Eliza!!”

“W-what should we do now!?”

The armored girls gathered around Eliza and awaited instructions, suggesting they were not just perfect warriors. But Miyabi appreciated seeing that human side of them.

The younger chosen knights glanced over at the others.

“Um, who are these people?”

The girls appeared to be Eliza’s subordinates, not her companions. She also looked more relaxed and smiled now that they were with her.

“That is hard to explain, but I can assure you they are not our enemy. Anyway, is our king safe? That is our top priority!”

They entered the castle from the garden.

The inside was all white marble floors, red carpets, oppressive crystal chandeliers, and portraits of what appeared to be kings of different generations. It was a spacious building, but it did not feel chilly like the inn had the night before. Miyabi doubted the air was heated with nothing more than fireplaces.

He did a double take when someone passed them by.

“Wow, that was a real maid. I’ve never seen a professional court worker before. They must be the best of the best.”

“I am offended you did not react that way when you saw me, a real knight.”

“And you already saw and were served by a maid: me! W-working up the nerve to do that wasn’t easy, so why didn’t it count!?”

Eliza and Celina took issue with his comment, but the younger knights guided them through the resplendent castle. Now was not the time to worry about appropriate etiquette in the presence of a king. Everything was polished to a shine, the air was warm, and a sweet aroma reminiscent of roses or lilies hung in the air. Were their flowers in vases, or had the entire place been turned into a greenhouse? It felt like walking into a fairy tale. Then again, that may have been part of what inspired so much anger in the people freezing outside.

They were shown to the central hall.

By swapping out the furniture, this core of the castle could be converted into an audience chamber, a dance hall, and more.

It was large enough to hold a sports match inside and every surface was decorated with bright and shining artwork.

An old man in gorgeous clothing was accompanied by many chosen knights who wielded giant lances and whose armor included the same feathered headdress and miniskirt as Eliza’s.

“I have much to report, my king!”

The silver ponytailed servant bent her knee and lowered her head, but then she noticed something wasn’t right.

Eliza Silverstorm’s head snapped back up.

“!?”

The others remained standing.

If her bow was what etiquette demanded, then the other knights were all in violation. They refused to pay him the honor due a king and they instead surrounded him and looked down on him.

Eliza stared in disbelief and her lips trembled as she questioned her fellow White Seidr knights.

“What the hell do you think you are doing? This is your king!”

But none of them moved.

The air seemed to have grown solid. An awkward silence hung in the air, like Eliza was the one who had stepped on a magic circle landmine.

One of the chosen knights shrugged like she was sick of hearing those by-the-book responses.

“What are we doing? We are having the king fulfill his duty to the people. By offering up his own head.”

Eliza appeared fully stunned. She did not even show any anger on her face.

“The people’s anger comes from his failure to lead.”

“Don’t you dare!!”

“Do you have any idea how much money was poured into the Icicle Bullet!?”

Eliza’s shoulders shook.

She was saying all the right things, but she could not silence the others. In fact, they argued back with twice the intensity.

The values she believed in meant nothing to these other knights.

Her values rang hollow in their ears.

She had bowed her head with everything she said, she had rejoiced at finding a way to avoid killing the rioters trying to take her own life, and she had refused to escape to safety when her king could be in danger, so the impotence of those values hit her like a powerful blow to the heart.

The person wearing identical magic armor instead criticized her.

Using another set of values.

“The heavy taxes needed to pay for it have left the people starving. Our noble knight’s spears are rented out to other countries like lowly mercenaries and thugs!! Acquiring foreign currency? We’re supposed to be the noble chosen knights, paragons of our kingdom’s virtues! But even you’ve lost count of how many times you’ve bloodied your hands with that dirty work, haven’t you!?”

“But…”

“No one wanted that Godhorn Tech! No one but this king here!!”

Their raised voices were indistinguishable from those of the rioters outside.

Was that because the knights were human too?

Or was this the true ground zero of the uprising?

“He is a poison to our great kingdom, so we cannot afford to show mercy! This will never end until he has been hanged for all the people to see. He must be torn to pieces or this kingdom will be!!”

“…”

Silence fell.

Eliza clenched her teeth before speaking quietly.

“It is true our king may have been led astray by the Godhorn Tech’s power. His lust for its power may have caused him to neglect the people’s wellbeing.”

“Exactly our point!”

“But I am his knight.”

She used her words to cast out those careless feelings.

She stared straight at the other knights and raised her voice to a roar.

“Whatever might happen, I, Eliza Silverstorm, was appointed a White Seidr Chosen Knight by the king!! So I shall dedicate my life in service to the king who gave it meaning. I will never abandon him. I might correct his mistakes, but I have been granted no power to judge him guilty!!”

The other chosen knights stared blankly back at her and their representative finally responded with exasperation in her voice.

“You are a fool.” She looked at Eliza like she was garbage lying on the road. “The people out there are not the only ones angry about this. Everyone serving in the castle feels the same.”

With a scraping of metal, they moved toward Eliza.

All the other chosen knights in their magic armor and wielding their lances began to surround her.

Eliza sought no assistance from anyone. Not even from the younger knights who had led her here.

“My surname was a joyous gift granted me by the king. I will carry that proof of my knighthood until the day it is carved into my gravestone.”

She would have her way even if she had to do it alone.

She directed her control lance toward her colleagues’ many lances as if to say she needed no companions.

“Come. I may be the last one with any loyalty, but I will fulfill my duty as the king’s lance!!”

However, Eliza Silverstorm was not the only one faced with the situation.

“…”

Miyabi Blackgarden was too.

He smiled.

He wanted to believe in people.

He did not want to think of them as foolish, violent creatures that resorted to thoughtless anger.

So he would prove they weren’t by using all the power at his disposal.

“Heh.”

The smiling redhead boy had already stabbed his control sword into the floor.

“Uh, oh,” said the government official in glasses.

A deafening boom and blinding flash filled everything as the seemingly sturdy castle’s wall was mercilessly torn down. It looked like a giant claw had slashed diagonally through the stone. The many chosen knights had seemed so untouchable, but not even they could shrug off the shockwave of a Godhorn Tech blast.

They collapsed all around Miyabi as he smiled with control sword in hand.

“Have a little more faith in the world’s generosity.”

“What…did you do?”

Eliza’s voice was scratchy as she looked up at him.

She had shown him a world out of a fairy tale.

She had shown him values he could get behind.

So he only had to act on it. He raised his control sword and announced his intentions with a smile.

“I’m in too. How I use this strongest power is up to me. Eliza Silverstorm! I refuse to let you make this last stand all on your own!!!!!!”

Helen, meanwhile, was apoplectic.

Pale in the face, the government official yelled at him.

“You- you can’t just- international incident!”

“Wh-what just happened?” groaned one of the collapsed chosen knights, trying to get up from the floor.

But then she saw the massive form leisurely flying through the frigid white sky visible through the crack in the castle wall.

That was the Lucifer Horn.

“Eek!? A G-Godhorn Tech!?”

“I honestly have no clue how this happened either.” Eliza Silverstorm sighed before continuing. “But this is over. Lower your lances! I must demand our king changes his ways and pacifies the people! Or do you intend to fight against a Godhorn Tech!?”

Celina and Alicia approached Miyabi and whispered to him.

Nothing was as delightful as a secret conversation while on course to win.

“(Heh heh heh. Miyabi, they’re scared, so go ahead and finish them off!)”

“(Eh heh heh heh! She’s right. Smash a column or wall with your sword to scare them more!!)”

He only had to swing the control sword.

The power from the horn gave it the edge needed to break right through any of the columns in the central hall.

Now, how much were those marble columns worth?

The village-raised incarnation of destruction showed no mercy.

“Eek!”

The already intimidated chosen knights slowly crept backwards. This was working. Or so Miyabi thought.

But the woman who had made herself leader of the enemy knights forced a smile.

“Do not take us for fools.”

“What do you mean?”

This was not the victory he had envisioned. Eliza’s question may have summoned some unseen defeat. Whatever the case, the enemy knight continued speaking.

“We chose to rebel against the king to save the people. Because it is our duty as the White Seidr to protect them. And we will use even this kingdom’s greatest power to achieve that.”

“This kingdom’s greatest power?” parroted Eliza in confusion, but then her face stiffened. “You don’t mean…!?”

The chosen knights all used the same standardized equipment.

That included the beautiful and intricately designed armor and miniskirt that relied on magical defenses.

But it also included the lances that were much too large for them.

Yes.

Was there more than one control lance?

“That great firepower was granted to the White Seidr Chosen Knights as a whole . You happened to be the most compatible, but it was not your personal possession.” The enemy knight had regained enough confidence to scoff. “Even that control lance is just for show. We were always choosing its actions by a majority vote and kindly voting your way every time.”

It was now Eliza’s turn to groan.

“Are you insane?”

“Behold the true will of White Seidr!”

The younger knights had fear in their eyes.

They had guided Eliza here and had not been influenced to same extent as the others, but they still lacked the courage to risk their lives here. Some of the girls even squeezed their eyes shut.

So none of them protested that announcement.

“The will of every last one of us, save you!!”

“Again, are you insane!? You can’t ram that thing into the labyrinthine castle town!!”

“Control lance, connect to the horn core. Tactical open.”

There was no stopping it.

The mistaken majority was about to destroy the king’s kingdom.

“Icicle Bullet.”

The devastating trigger was pulled.

“Shoot down that unidentified Godhorn Tech and offer the foolish king’s head to the people!!”

### Between the Lines 2

The Independent Militaria Material Kingdom.

Commonly known as the Arsenal Kingdom.

That fortress state trapped in deep snow was also one of the continent’s greatest military powers. They were once threatened by the Empire, but their icy land was never taken and they successfully repelled the Empire’s forces with a direct defense. Their metalworking skills combined human and dwarf techniques, making them second to none in that field.

On the other hand, the kingdom wanted for much.

For one, the year-round snow prevented much in the way of crops. The kingdom did not starve thanks to the wild animal meat they could hunt, but all grains and vegetables had to be imported and a balanced diet was viewed as a luxury only afforded to the wealthy class.

Then there was magical technology.

As a contrast to metal equipment, they were starved for magical equipment.

The Arsenal Kingdom’s swords and armor were known for being made of solid tempered steel. They could crush with their solid weight and block or parry with their smooth movable parts. But Eliza Silverstorm knew all too well that the other countries joked they could be immobilized by magnets.

The White Seidr Chosen Knights were an oddity among the Arsenal Kingdom. They wore elegant and slim armor with a feather headdress made of precious metals and a miniskirt.

By keeping that elite unit’s numbers down, they could equip themselves with the kingdom’s limited amount of magical equipment. They were mostly just for show – a unit marched down the street in a parade or sent to other countries to make the kingdom as a whole look wealthier than it really was .

Then there was the Icicle Bullet.

That Godhorn Tech was an even more extreme example.

After the Empire collapsed on its own, it no longer threatened the rest of the continent and there was no real need for such a monstrous weapon. It was especially difficult to maintain for the magically-weak Arsenal Kingdom, so the expenses placed a lot more pressure on their finances than for the other powers. The ideals of knighthood were not enough to fudge the finances.

And this was the inevitable result.

“Here they come,” whispered Eliza Silverstorm, lying in the snow and removing binoculars from her eyes. “That’s five snow wagons that replaced their wheels with sleds. They have Slaughter Ants leading and trailing them for protection. This must be the traders. If our information is correct, they are loaded with amplified silver and crystals soaked in liquid magic.”

“Roger that. Time for another day’s work, huh?”

She heard the rustling of forest vegetation.

She was not alone. More knights appeared seemingly out of nowhere, forming a large unit.

Instead of their pretty parade armor, they now wore dazzling leather assassin outfits. They were hiding their identities and affiliation because this mission was far removed from her idea of what a knight should be doing.

Expert fighters trained to be their kingdom’s elite were attacking ordinary traders, even if those traders had hired bodyguards.

Of course, their objective was not to steal the magical materials.

The assets carried by some traders would be a drop in the bucket to an entire kingdom. Once it was done, a man wearing a black robe pulled up over his head approached Eliza.

He wore a mask over his face, his shoes had raised soles, and he kept his hips bent at all times. He was even masking his true height.

Eliza did not know who he really was.

“Excellent work. You wiped them out without any casualties on your end. I can see why they call you chosen knights.”

She had grown accustomed to the feel of the cold leather clinging to her body and she carried one of the large machetes they had bought at the market to ensure the wounds on the corpses did not give away their kingdom’s involvement.

“Are you here to mock us?” she asked with a hard look on her face.

“Far from it. The Arsenal Kingdom should be set for a while now, don’t you think?”

She felt like she could see the icy smile hidden below his mask.

He could see the big picture here, but Eliza could not.

“The preparations are complete. Now that their business rivals have met an ‘unfortunate accident’, the Bodenburg Company will have an easier time reaching this region. If you construct a stronger and more stable business partnership, you can purchase all the fruits, vegetables, and magical materials you want. Not long now until you are freed from your starvation. Hold your heads high because you have saved the people of your kingdom.”

“…”

“And here is your reward for this job.”

He snapped his fingers and another shadowy figure stepped forward to set down a mountain climbing rucksack stuffed full of something. It had to be filled with foreign currency, but Eliza did not reach for it.

The right thing was not always pretty.

But her own values refused to accept that.

If she accepted this as the right thing to do, she was truly lost. She had to at least view it as a dirty job.

“Are you from the Bodenburg Company?”

“No, I am merely someone who benefits from their rise.”

He was not going to identify himself that easily.

And she knew the people who hid their appearance and identity were rarely good people.

“I will be contacting you again shortly. Until then.”

“What is your name!?”

“Strange Guide. No, think of me as one of their underlings.”

The masked men left.

She had not expected an honest answer to her question, so she was left with no solid facts, no way of finding the answers, and a rucksack stuffed full of dirty money. Well, that and a pile of corpses surrounded by toppled wagons.

Would the knights in the picture books she grew up reading have done something like this?

Wasn’t this the work of mercenaries…if not bandits?

“Hey,” called one of the other chosen knights wearing red leather assassin outfit.

The shine of the leather felt like a cruel mockery of the gorgeous knight armor they were meant to wear.

This companion was gritting her teeth and glaring down at the rucksack full of foreign currency.

None of them wanted to touch it, but as much as it disgusted them, they would have to grab the shoulder straps and take it back with them. A knight served her king, no matter how much she disliked her orders. They were all weary. They might be rich in materials and money, but their minds were near collapse. They were so worn down mentally that their bare souls were leaking out.

The people of their kingdom were ignorant of it all, the knights were sick of it all, and only the king rejoiced at the influx of money.

Like a con artist, they were barely getting by from one job to another, but it always worked out in the end , preventing them from ever letting go of the Godhorn Tech draining their resources.

They all understood the problem, so they would whisper amongst themselves when they knew the king could not overhear them.

This was the knights’ resentment.

Or maybe it was the complaints of those never allowed to complain.

“Hey, Eliza. How many more times must we sell our souls?”

Eliza Silverstorm was their leader, but she had no answer for them.

Which may have been why it turned out the way it did.

### 011. Epilogue

People’s fear led to doubt. The have-nots doubted the haves while the haves doubted themselves.

And they all chose the same method of finding peace: to attack.

After a few days, the chaos in the city had entirely settled down.

The white clouds above the Arsenal Kingdom blocked out the light of the sun. Miyabi Blackgarden slowly rotated one of his shoulders in the bed of a castle town inn.

It was a hesitant movement.

“Somehow, this scares me more.”

“Why?” asked an exasperated Alicia Blueforest as she removed the White Sorcery charm bandage from him. “You had 13 broken bones, 2 ruptured organs, and innumerable burst veins and arteries. That normally would have left you partially paralyzed if you were lucky, and dead if you were not.”

“Yeah, here I am good as new after only a few days! What did you do to my body, you enigmatic elf!?”

“Sigh. I said I know some alchemy, didn’t I? Your village rarely received supplies, so who do you think mixed the medicines there?”

The serpentine writing on the bandages turned to golden particles and disappeared, starting from the end she had undone.

White Sorcery Items were powerful, but they were also single-use no matter how much time went into preparing them. Their effects could not be used as easily as waving a wand like with magic. Just like with a dropped plate, restoring something to its original state was much harder than destroying something old or creating something new. Especially when that something was a living being.

Miyabi realized just how blessed he had been without even knowing it, but then something else occurred to him.

That village clinic had been surprisingly well-stocked with White Sorcery Items, yet Moebius had still needed a wheelchair. Just how badly had he been injured?

After a final check over his body, the redhead boy stepped outside to find the snowy castle town was full of laughter and joy.

“Hey☆ Stop that, Millovannes. Hee hee hee.”

Celina Bodenburg was in a good mood. She had been safely reunited with the delivery harpy after their separation during the riot. Celina herself was happily holding out a hand like she was keeping the summer sun off her face, but…

“I-is it just me or is that harpy trying to scratch at Celina’s face with her talons?” whispered Miyabi.

“Sh! I don’t think Celina has noticed. You wouldn’t want to ruin the dream for her, would you?” replied Helen.

Instead of the harpy suddenly going feral and rebelling, this appeared to be the general state of things between those two. At any rate, they had no reason to remain here now that Miyabi had recovered.

They met Eliza Silverstorm at the city gate where the scars of the battle were still not fully healed.

“Some unrest remains, but the kingdom should be fine now.”

She was smiling.

It was a bashful smile, like she had finally accepted her own sense of shame.

Miyabi was a little surprised to find she could smile like this.

Seeing it made him glad he had risked his life for her.

“My king has come back to his senses and is accepting advice on how to resolve our crisis. Now that the Godhorn Tech is gone, you would think he had recovered from a demonic possession.”

“I see.”

Miyabi’s response was short, but that did not mean it had no meaning.

“If you are willing, I would like to join you on your journey.” The ponytail knight scratched her cheek in a somewhat bashful way. “The Arsenal Kingdom has given up its Godhorn Tech and stopped lending out its military might. We must find a new pillar for our finances, so I have been given a secret mission to travel the world and report back with any possibilities I discover.”

Miyabi did not initially understand what he had just heard.

And…

“Ha ha.”

“Miyabi?”

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!”

Before she could protest, he hugged the chosen knight.

The gate guards awkwardly looked the other way.

“Of course we’re willing!! I couldn’t ask for a better party member. Having you around is sure to be useful. I mean, we don’t have a knight who can wield a sword or lance as a dedicated fighter. I end up using anything like a machete, you know? You’ll fill a pretty basic gap in our party!! Ha ha ha!!”

“…”

The ponytail girl never did get any kind of complaint out.

The look on her face said she could not even feel angry when he was this delighted.

“Now, we have something to ask you as well,” cut in Alicia.

The knight herself looked puzzled.

“?”

“Th-that’s right! About my Schwarz- achoo!!”

“Your Schwarz Achoo?” accurately repeated the strait-laced knight.

“U-ugh, this kingdom is much too cold,” complained Celina.

“Maybe if you wore something that covered your shoulders,” pointed out Alicia.

“But that dress is great!! The more skin showing the better, if you ask me!! I recommend 30% at the very least, but I will praise the courage any who go for the full 100%!!”

No one even bothered listening to the radio’s nonsense anymore.

Eliza breathed a white sigh.

“How about we get something hot to drink while we discuss this?”

Miyabi feared that would be a tall order in this frigid kingdom, but the local knew what she was doing. She used a simple lamp and small pot to prepare some lightly-flavored tea in no time.

Celina Bodenburg held the cup between her hands and looked hesitant to actually drink it. She must have been very cold indeed.

“Ahh, that’s much better.”

“You’ll die in your sleep like this,” said the elf.

“Anyway, what did you want to ask?” asked Eliza, her head tilted.

“Oh, right!” Celina leaned forward again. “It’s about my armored train! The Schwarz Schütze!”

Eliza had refused them entrance to the Arsenal Kingdom and used the Icicle Bullet to derail the Schwarz Schütze because a sorcery bomb had been set up on the armored train, but something about how it had played out seemed odd to them. They explained it all, with plenty of gesturing, but the ponytail knight only tilted her head at a greater angle.

“I don’t know anything about that.”

“What do you mean?”

Helen’s sharp question did nothing to change Eliza’s attitude.

“I am saying I was not colluding with the 11th to destroy the company’s Godhorn Tech.”

“B-but! One of my train’s components was only swapped out with the sorcery bomb after it had been stopped by you . That means the 11th knew in advance the time and location that would happen!!”

That was the only way to explain the timing.

But would someone like Eliza really use trickery of that sort?

Miyabi sighed.

“One of us might be misunderstanding something here. I don’t care how trivial it seems – can you give us all the details about how you ended up attacking us?”

“There isn’t much to tell.”

Now that she knew them, Eliza seemed reluctant to remember that attack. She was ridiculously strait-laced through and through.

“I received an emergency notification and moved to stop Celina.”

“An emergency notification? You mean the anonymous letter?” asked Miyabi.

“Yes,” she concisely replied. “But while it was anonymous, letters can be identified from the handwriting and method of sealing.”

“Y-yes, contracts would be fairly useless if appraisal like that was impossible.”

Celina puffed out her cheeks at having to agree with Eliza right now, but determining the veracity of this information was her top priority.

At any rate, that letter would have allowed the sender to push Eliza to attack and then estimate the time and location well enough to lie in wait.

And once the Schwarz Schütze had been derailed, they could sneak up to it and replace an internal component with the sorcery bomb.

“His identity is an open secret, but that is why I felt I could trust him,” continued Eliza. “He is a legendary fixer who is allowed to possess a Godhorn Tech as an individual because he uses its power to resolve any trouble that crops up between countries.”

Yes, she had a clear answer.

“The letter was from Moebius Entrance .”

### 012. Preface

### Color Illustration 1

Miyabi Blackgarden

A perfectly ordinary boy from the first village. In a twist of fate, inherited the Lucifer Horn Bomber and got caught up in some trouble.

Godhorn Tech

Bomber – Lucifer Horn

With a great roar, something massive cut by overhead.

Miyabi had no idea what this meant.

A moment later, all the trees, branches, and leaves in the forest were subjected to a powerful blast of wind. Helen predicted the wind’s direction and pressed her back against a tree and Alicia staggered while holding her skirt down with both hands.

That thing was…not alive.

It had to be several dozen meters long and it resembled a colossal bird or dragon with enormous wings, but the collection of straight and curved lines had the glint of metal and glass not found in nature and something about its design looked artificial. Something built by human hands had instantly stolen the leading role from the natural scenery.

It may have been something like a hanger made from bat wings.

But it was unbelievably large and sinister.

### Color Illustration 2

Alma

The only currently known juvenile Wicked God.

Alicia Blueforest

Girl belonging to the Blueforest race of elves.

“B-but not because I climbed too high and am too scared to get back down!”

Helen Clockgear

Venus

Republic official in Miyabi’s village.

“I’m Venus, the most popular girl here. Welcome☆”

### Color Illustration 3

Celina Bodenburg

Only daughter of the world-renowned Bodenburg Company.

Controls the Godhorn Tech Armored Train - Schwarz Schütze.

“Raise your control sword, Miyabi Blackgarden!!”

“Celina, what are you doing?”

### Terminology

Godhorn Tech

Colossal sorcery weapons built around a Wicked God’s horn. Construction costs are massive, but their sturdiness makes maintenance and operation a breeze.

It is unclear if even Godhorn Tech could achieve victory against a true Wicked God. Godhorn Tech is a collection of human technology with just the horn built in, while the monster is a Wicked God from head to tail.

Wicked God

This world contains life forms known as Wicked Gods that human technology and civilization are unable to oppose. They can possess any number of shapes and natures, including dragons, krakens, and phoenixes, but they all have one point in common: a giant horn on their forehead.

It is theorized nonhumans and monsters become Wicked Gods when they fall into the cracks in the world and resist the miasma long enough to crawl back out again, but this has never been proven. Academics are also split on the etymology of the name. Some say it simply refers to their wicked nature, but others say it refers to them being a god of the wicked because they are too kind to turn down anyone’s request, no matter how wicked it might be.

The 11th

An assumed 11th Godhorn Tech user unknown to the world. Thought to cause mass destruction using sorcery bombs. However, it is also possible that one of the known 10 are calling themselves the 11th.

Their motive is unknown and their next target is always unpredictable. The governments are covering up their presence to prevent unrest among the people, but the information has begun to leak out and the world’s tension is approaching the limit, like a glass of water with surface tension about to break.

Sorcery Bomb

Weapon of mass destruction used by the 11th Godhorn Tech user. The massive power found inside the Wicked God horn is used to create a special bomb indistinguishable from a tree, a rock, etc. The blast is powerful enough to destroy an entire city.

As detonation approaches, a special symbol appears on the sorcery bomb’s surface, and some of the Godhorn Tech users can sense its presence. Can only be detonated via timer, so it can be disarmed if discovered and destroyed before detonation. External impacts present no risk of triggering the explosion early.

### 013. Chapter 1

### Chapter 1 Section 1

In that time, cracks had formed in the world.

The contradictory beings known as Wicked Gods soon emerged from that great womb.

My everyday life has just a hint of the mysterious mixed in.

But I only ever thought of it as providing a nice spice to life.

So never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be forced into eating a giant plateful of pepper.

A sudden white beam blotted out the blue of the midday sky.

“How powerful is that thing?”

The boy felt the weight of the blade in his wrists. He also felt an icy chill.

He had wobbled to the side and bumped into the massive boulder that had towered above him like a cliff face. But now it was broken and only rose to his hip height.

Miyabi Blackgarden, a redheaded 15-year-old boy with sawdust goggles on his forehead, just about forgot he was in a deep forest. He gulped, but not from the fear of touching a combat sword for the first time in his life.

The sword was no more than a conductor’s baton.

The actual destruction had been caused by the thing that seemed to cover everything overhead.

“Koo,” groaned the slipper-sized white creature at his feet upon seeing something.

It covered its mouth with small hands(?) and walked on two legs. It had a single round horn on its forehead and its stuffed animal eyes may have been viewing the massive artificial bird formed from countless straight and curved lines. Or maybe it was viewing what little that attack had left of its playground. Dark soil and greenery had been torn up and blasted into the air, so their scent filled Miyabi’s lungs. It was all another scar of destruction.

The scenery itself had been torn apart.

An entire section of the forest had been eradicated without a trace and the dark soil below had been torn up. The trees had to have stood 10 to 15 meters tall and parts of the forest had been too thick to allow much sunlight through, but all of that had been stripped away, exposing the ground to the sun. From a bird’s-eye view, you might have seen the scars of destruction formed a perfect circle.

Miyabi’s mind nearly went blank.

He could not even stop himself from blurting out some meaningless words.

A massive form measuring several dozen meters long soared by overhead. That bomber was an artificial monster with bat-like wings spread.

“No one told me it would do that!”

But the clock was ticking all the while.

Even Miyabi knew what it meant when he heard several whistling noises in quick succession. His was not the only “strongest” on the field. They had provoked something extremely dangerous. If he continued standing there in a daze, he would be blown to bits in only a few seconds.

He was hearing the enemy’s attacks.

And those attacks were meant to take his life.

“Alma, follow me!!”

“Koo koo!”

The bipedal creature could not speak human language. Miyabi gestured forward and they both ran through the deep forest. He had already been told where he needed to go.

“Celina is a Godhorn Tech user just like you are now.”

He recalled the words of that jerk he would much rather forget.

But with death only a step away, he threw open all the drawers of his memory to gather up every piece of information that might help him survive just a little longer.

“That is a colossal sorcery weapon with a Wicked God horn built inside. You need to stay on the move. Standing still will get you killed.”

The control sword he had been given felt so heavy.

It was short for a two-handed sword, but it still had a blade. Yet it did not feel remotely adequate.

He was always playing around in the mottled sunlight of this forest, but now it felt like the green stomach of great monster.

Something poured down from the sky at fearsome speed. But this was not from the bomber. After they whistled sharply through the air, explosions erupted on the ground. Miyabi snatched small Alma up from the ground and dove behind a nearby hill mere moments before a tree trunk thicker than him was transformed into a storm of splinters sharper than Beast Nova fangs and tore horizontally through the air. It might as well have been a solid wall of blades. Without his quick action, the two of them would have been shredded.

They never should have been illuminated by the sunshine this deep in the forest, but too many trees had been torn from the ground.

Who would have believed this was the result of lead masses fired high into the sky from outside the vast forest and allowed to drop back down from there?

It was a terrifying collection of sorcery technology.

It probably involved alchemy. Even a boy from a backwater village knew alchemy could do amazing things with metals and chemicals. Alchemical processing could apparently create massive fires and great heat.

“You okay, Alma?”

“Kyoo…”

He had to interpret any response at all as a good thing given the circumstances.

And that didn’t just apply to Alma. He was just an ordinary boy who had trouble keeping away the beasts of the forest.

However…

“For now, you can put off training your own body to move the way you want it. Learning to cross rivers and climb trees can wait until you have plenty of time to work on it.”

Those things had tremendous destructive power.

But that was not all they could do.

“Because right now, you can already make the terrain itself your ally. There was some weird static back when I transferred the contract to you, so maybe that’s why. …But anyway, learn when to use the creation and when to use the destruction. If you come across a cliff face, you can tear it down. Or if you want to climb over it instead, you can build up the land in front of it. Listen, you need to make everything around you into your ally. That’s a handy shortcut for turning you superhuman.”

(Are you kidding me? So if I keep this up, I’ll turn into one of those monsters too!?)

He heard more whistling.

The enemy shots were flying in from outside the forest, but the magic imbued in these ones did not wait until they hit the ground.

A blinding flash of light burst at a point in the sky and lightning crashed down all over the area. The attack dropped like a suspended ceiling to crush the entire field below.

“Ahhhh!?”

With the deadly blade in one hand and Alma in the other, Miyabi held his breath and scrambled out from behind the hill.

This was well beyond anything he could avoid on his own.

If this had been a wide-open field, a thick bolt of electricity would have crashed down on his head and roasted him. He was only still alive because this was a deep forest and the lightning was diverted toward the trees instead.

And that was not all that happened.

One shell passed over his head and hit well behind him, spreading a white frost in every direction. He had a bad feeling about what would happen if that caught up to him. He would probably be frozen solid in an instant.

“Alma!!”

He tightened his grip on his partner who resembled a white stuffed animal and ran like a bat out of hell. He jumped right over a hip-height stone, circled behind a simple charcoal burner’s hut, and crossed a river using the log lying across it.

The icy wave freezing everything white stopped when it reached the water, but Miyabi did not stop running. He quickly located an area with no bushes or other underbrush and rushed there. The next shell had to have already been loaded, so he had no time to breathe a sigh of relief.

Even with a special power in his grasp, all he could do was run away.

But at the same time, how was he still alive when his enemy was going to such lengths to kill him?

Instead of him parting the grass, he felt like the scenery itself was parting to let him through.

His enemy was using magical artillery.

Those alchemically-made projectiles were falling from the heavens like deadly rain, so the situation had already left “normal” far behind.

There had to be another power at play.

He had a way of fighting back. It did not actually boost his strength or muscles, but just knowing he could fight back allowed him to move the way he normally would instead of locking up with fear.

“Godhorn Tech Bomber – Lucifer Horn.”

He even had it in him to look into the blue sky overhead while he ran through the forest.

He was not just a helpless victim here. He could directly fight back.

“Is that monster really mine now?”

“Koo koo!” wailed the young life in his arm. Strangely, it was that nonhuman creature that reminded him what it meant to be human.

“That’s right. Surviving this comes first,” he muttered under his breath, reminding himself of his primary objective.

His feet carried him further through the green forest.

Even on the receiving end, it took him a bit to realize the density of fire was dropping. His opponent was not attacking as effectively. Instead of concentrating fire on his location, they were scattering shells across a wider area, hoping the target hiding in the forest would make a mistake and reveal his location.

Of course.

If even one of those happened to hit him, he would be killed just the same.

That was when he caught a glimpse of something through the trees.

He saw a gold color.

After a moment of confusion, surprise colored his face. That was blonde hair.

Given all the obstacles found in the deep forest, he had to be literally a stone’s throw away.

The voice he heard was of a lovely girl.

“We both possess Godhorn Tech, so why not cut loose and enjoy this?”

(She’s really close. And not even trying to hide!!)

That reminded Miyabi of a carnivorous beast standing at the top of the food chain. Instead of holding her breath and lying in wait for her prey, she would simply devour her prey because she was feeling a little hungry.

He had assumed she would be standing alongside the colossal weapon. He had assumed he still had a long way to go since it was nowhere to be seen. But there she was. She had left the collection of magical technology outside the forest far behind her while she continued on alone. For improved accuracy, she gave instructions from nearby her target and the alchemy shells would be launched over her head.

The boy cursed his right foot. He had taken the step before noticing her here, but it had still been careless of him.

The girl who reigned supreme had accurately detected his location through the trees.

“Celina, only daughter of the Bodenburg Company, at your service!!”

Several shells whistled down from the sky.

He decided it was fortunate she could not fire the shells directly at him. The arcing trajectory created a lag before they hit. He clenched his teeth and raced forward. The ground was torn up and blasted into the air over a few dozen meters of where they landed. Even trees standing more than 10 meters tall were obliterated like thin glass, so he was dead if he was caught in one of the explosions.

They were close enough for a raised voice to reach, yet the girl did not seem remotely afraid.

(Kh.)

“You okay, Alma?”

“Kyoo.”

Alma was dizzy and for good reason. The explosive blast and metal shrapnel were not the only threat. Even if they escaped the explosion itself, the booming noise was like a solid wall that sapped their strength when it hit them. But Miyabi knew all too well what would happen if he let his shaky legs come to a stop.

“My, my. Playing hide and seek, are we?”

In the near distance, the gold he had glimpsed between the trees slipped away.

Had she put more distance between them, or had she moved behind a thick tree to use it as a shield?

“Did you think that was enough to escape my company’s Schwarz Schütze!?”

That man’s voice played in his woozy mind like from a record player.

“Godhorn Tech does more than destroy. Especially for you with your unusual contract. If the firing is too intense to move in, try creating a Decoy Wall.”

“?”

For the first time, a change came over the girl singing happily deep in the forest.

As the shellfire only grew more intense, Miyabi tossed Alma to the side and held an empty hand out toward an empty patch of land.

The necessary words sprang unbidden from the depths of his mind.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Immediately, a green mass rose up with a dull thunk.

It was a wall. Each individual piece was a Palette Die, a piece of the undergrowth packed together into a box-sized mass, and enough of them linked together to grow taller than Miyabi himself.

The girl beyond the forest growth probably had two reasons to panic.

First, the simple fact that the sudden obstacle caused her to lose sight of Miyabi.

And second, a shell that was supposedly under her control suddenly veered off of its perfect arc like an invisible string had tugged on it.

The temporary barrier was obliterated, but that was its purpose.

Miyabi and Alma were out of danger while the enemy’s attacks were focused on the decoy, so they were already running to their next position. They were still on the run, but they could get by using that. And approach their enemy in the process.

“Your imagination is the limit. Right now, you can create anything out of the Palette Dice.”

That should not have been possible.

The power held by the boy and the girl was built for destruction and nothing else.

“Once you create something, you can register it with that control sword to automate the process next time. The materials used cost extra, of course. A momentary delay can mean the difference between life and death in battle, so it can’t hurt to reduce the time spent as much as possible.”

“Okay, let’s get closer to this Celina girl, Alma.”

“Kyoo.”

Miyabi got moving while encouraging the white slipper-sized creature that was feeling dizzy from all the loud noises.

They were still being targeted.

He could just barely avoid the shells by creating a Decoy Wall as tall as himself, but he was no bullfighter waving around a colorful cloth. He felt a squeezing at his heart whenever the dark soil was torn from the ground and the bark stripped from the trees.

He could barely breathe, but stopping was not an option.

Something far worse would happen to him if he did. Running away was meaningless when the entire vast forest was in her attack range. It would be as foolish as trying to run away from the lightning in a storm. But if he moved in close, she would be hesitant to fire shells that caused large explosions. He could taste the dark soil and the crushed grass on his lips, so he wiped them off with the back of his empty hand before taking the next step forward.

This was not a path worn down by animals.

He had to dodge thick trees and the knee-high underbrush and bushes caught at his legs. The squawking of the birds he disturbed made it hard to concentrate. When he stepped on a large rock, his foot slipped. He felt like the entire world was trying to get in his way. His fear was sharpening his senses, but the excess information only wore at his nerves more.

“The Decoy Wall will eventually be destroyed, but the enemy’s attacks will be focused on it while it lasts. You can approach the enemy head on during that time. The trick to survival is placing your next Decoy Wall before the previous one is destroyed.”

He couldn’t be that far away.

As the bird flies, he was literally a stone’s throw away. He had at least caught a glimpse of her blonde hair through the trees.

“Now, a single Decoy Wall isn’t going to gather every enemy’s attention. They can be weirdly picky. But for an enemy in the field, try making a field wall first.”

He heard a voice barely audible over the rustling of the leaves.

“A decoy meant to throw off my aim? You certainly know how to get under my skin.”

But he still tensed. Even though he knew the very simple equation of “stopping = death”.

“But that is meaningless if I just destroy everything in the area. My hail of bullets will crush you beyond recognition!”

Miyabi Blackgarden’s mind nearly went blank.

The rules had changed.

No longer were the massive shells flying high into the sky before dropping back down. One shot past right next to him. The thick forest of 10 to 15 meter trees and the dark soil below were torn away, leaving a massive ditch behind.

The girl herself was in between, but she still fired the weapon from behind her. Even though she would be destroyed if a shot strayed even slightly.

Then Miyabi’s nose detected further danger. This was not a whistling or the bright flash of magic, but he was certain of it.

“There’s something wrong with the air.”

By then, his uncertain concern had become a definite fear.

“Alma, jump into that ditch!”

“Koo!”

The many explosions all blended together at this point.

Destructive projectiles were released in a rapid-fire burst from right to left. These were smaller than the previous projectiles, but there were so many of them. A thousand, if not ten thousand, thumb-sized metal bullets were spewed out in the span of a single breath. He could not sense any human will behind the way the bullets surged and twisted around. He was reminded of the chameleons he had seen in picture books. The fearsome band of destruction struck back, pursuing them like a long tongue seeking its prey.

But just before it could reach them, Miyabi and Alma dove into the absurdly long and 2m-deep trench that had just been torn into the ground (by the girl’s own alchemy shell). Miyabi lived in a peaceful village and was unfamiliar with the idea of trench warfare, but he had known the trench was the only way to avoid having his and Alma’s flesh and blood splattered across the ground along with the splintered tree trunks and branches pouring down all around them.

The destruction was so great he was actually worried about the girl causing it. She could trust her weapon this fully if she wanted, but did she really understand what would happen if it screwed up?

However…

(Can I use this?)

The trench was only a meter or two deep, but that was better than nothing. If he stayed crouched, the rapid-fire sweeps would pass right over his head. He gestured Alma over with his head low and then continued further down the trench.

Dark soil and splinters poured down on him from above.

He looked up curiously and saw a tree trunk thicker than him flying his way.

“Koo!?”

“Tch. Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

He immediately raised a hand and a few cubes of dirt formed a flat panel in midair. He did not bother giving it any girders and just let the panel cross the ditch over their heads. It was a makeshift bridge, but he used it more like a roof. He grabbed Alma and dove beneath it in a panic just before a dull “boom!!” erupted overhead. The tree trunk bounced off the roof and flew in a different direction. The two of them would have been smashed by the giant tree hammer if not for that roof.

(This isn’t even a 1-on-1 fight. Just getting close to her is gonna get me killed.)

“Koo koo!”

“Yeah, I know. We just cheated death there, so I should record what I felt there. I’m not letting any of this get away.”

He recorded it in his control sword.

He decided to name it a Bypass Bridge.

It was said necessity is the mother of invention. Even if he only knew the saying from a major play. At any rate, free use of that bridge would likely come in handy for movement and defense. He wanted to make sure he could instantly construct one just by thinking the name in his head.

His target was the girl named Celina and he could not reach her by following this straight path torn into the ground. But he did have the sword he had been given.

“It’s okay, Alma. This isn’t a dead end. So calm down. Don’t panic.”

He spoke more to himself than Alma while awkwardly stabbing the double-edged sword into the ground, causing a magic circle to appear.

He still didn’t really know how to use it, but he mimicked what he had seen.

“ Lucifer Horn, take care of this.”

A massive form cut by overhead.

A thick beam of light dropped from heaven to earth and tore through the familiar forest like it was being dragged after the form in the sky. Up ahead, another trench was drawn perpendicular to the one he was in now.

Or that was the idea anyway.

Blinding light and a sizzling sound became his entire world.

The ground was torn apart.

“Kyah!?”

The girl must have been buffeted by the blast because he heard a surprisingly cute scream in the distance.

Miyabi himself was knocked to the ground and belatedly realized his mouth was full of dirt. After a few seconds, he spat it out. Not daring to get up, he grabbed his sword in one hand and Alma in the other before crawling forward like a slug. He managed to roll down into the straight line of destruction he had just created.

It was deep enough to hide him, making it a path of life. The beam must have melted the dirt or stone because the inside of the path had become smooth as glass.

“Kh.”

He got up, sat with his back against he still-hot wall, and took a deep breath.

“You all right, Alma?”

“…”

No response. It may have been upset with him.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

He held out his hand in a seemingly random direction.

The scattered glass, dark soil, and splinters gathered together to form a small doll. But this was more than just playing in the dirt. It was as well made as the dress-up dolls found on the item shop’s shelves. Miyabi himself was surprised to find he could make things like this instead of just walls, bridges, and other construction work. Alma accepted the reconciliation gift by hugging the prize in its front legs(?) while Miyabi ducked low and continued through the makeshift ditch.

They could not actually reach their goal this way.

The ditch continued in a straight line, but it did eventually end. If they climbed back up onto the surface, Celina would locate them again and they would be right back in the middle of that hellish hail of bullets.

Recalling the blinding light and deafening booms from before, Miyabi once more stabbed the tip of his sword into the bottom of the hole. It broke through the hardened glass-like ground to reach the soil below.

Doing this scared him.

It scared him a lot, but he needed more.

“Lucifer Horn, get me right over there. Use intersecting strikes to build a connected path!”

His senses were more used to it the second time.

The bomber soared across the sky, dropping a thick beam of light that tore through the ground along its path.

It repeated the process to add a few more ditches at different angles. Was the unseen girl relieved because she assumed the attacks had missed? He hoped so. If she realized this was meant to create trenches for him, then he would be killed like an ant as its colony was flooded with water.

“Let’s circle around toward her.”

“Kyoo.”

He continued through the zigzagging labyrinth built a level lower than the ground and gradually approached that strongest opponent. The depths of the trenches varied. Some were only hip deep, but others had walls that rose well over his head. Not too surprising since they had been created by tearing apart the ground with beams of light.

He continued on not so much because he thought he could win, but because he thought his trembling legs would stop if he did not have a concrete goal to work toward.

“Even Godhorn Tech users are ordinary people. They can be defeated by moving in close and getting a single attack in.”

Yeah, I’d noticed, silently griped Miyabi. That’s how you got injured and forced this pain-in-the-ass onto me.

“I think I can manage from here,” said Miyabi while pressing his thick gloved hands against the dirt wall.

“If you can’t reach the top no matter how much you jump or leap, then try gradually raising the ground to form steps.”

This was just like when he made the Decoy Wall.

He pictured the boxes in his head and held his hand out toward the surrounding dirt.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

“Godhorn Tech is powerful, so make sure you don’t trap yourself in a massive hole of your own creation.”

Packed soil quickly formed a stairway…or a close enough approximation. The steps were too tall, making it hard to climb, but he would just have to deal with that. And this time, he had deactivated the “lure” effect the Decoy Wall had used. He did not want his stairs to direct Celina’s alchemy shells right into the trench. Deadly metal shards would quickly fill his entire world if that happened.

He now had stairs.

This also looked useful in a wide variety of situations. He had created it out of necessity, but it couldn’t hurt to register it in his control sword. Then again, his opponent might not give him the chance to use it any other situation.

“I should probably give it a good descriptive name. Layer Stairs should work for now.”

“Koo!”

The Decoy Wall, the Bypass Bridge, the doll, and now the Layer Stairs.

He did not know how much he could do with this and he did not have time to test it, but he wondered if he could create an entire house or tower if he knew what he was doing.

(The power of destruction is much simpler and plenty scary, but this creation is disturbing in its own way. For one, how am I moving any of it when I’m not even touching it? I hope it isn’t sucking out my stamina or life force or something.)

Because he did not understand how it worked, he felt a shudder crawling from his fingertips to the core of his body. He forced that down and slowly climbed the pseudo-stairs while staying low. He was moving as cautiously as a lizard.

(It isn’t about distance or direction.)

He used every bit of amateur knowledge he had.

He loathed every single noise he made. The rustling of his clothing and his audible gulping pissed him off.

Alma started moving out ahead, so he grabbed it by the back of the neck to stop it while he tried to find anything he could to give himself hope. He had not even made the actual attack yet, but his heart already felt like it was going to burst from tension.

(I want to get between Celina and that Godhorn Tech in the distance…did she call it Schwarz Schütze? A shell that massive will tear right through me and she won’t want to blow herself up.)

He detected a sweet aroma.

It was more like honey than flowers.

But he consciously held his breath while hiding behind a bush.

He was smelling fancy black silk, an artificial perfume, the starch to get the wrinkles out of clothing, and the beads of sweat appearing on the young girl’s skin.

She was even closer than he had thought.

He and Alma may have been more sensitive to artificial smells because they were on the brink of death and coated in dirt and plant juices, but she was still only 10 meters away at the most.

And she did not seem to have noticed them yet.

Now that he had a better look at her, he really could not believe she was causing so much destruction. She looked 14 and maybe younger. Either way, she was definitely younger than him. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was parted to the sides with pure gold hair clips and every bit of her white skin was smooth and well cared for, giving her the shine of a stage actress. She wore a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems, which was not exactly hiking attire. On her legs and feet, she wore black knee socks and polished pumps. And despite wearing a long skirt, the front was left wide open, leaving her thighs exposed. All in all, her dress looked a lot like a giant jewelry bag.

If that were all, he might have looked like he was hiding in the bushes and plotting to attack a noble girl who had gotten lost in the mountains.

But a stock was pressed casually against a shoulder that looked as delicate as glasswork. That stock was joined by a flintlock mechanism, a gun barrel, and a sinister blade attached below the barrel.

In other words, this was one of the bayonet-equipped hunting rifles preferred by residents of the underground.

“…”

Yes, gunpowder and lead.

In a world run by magic, guns were the symbol of outlaws. Even in forestry villages where encounters with wild animals were common, bodyguards and hunters primarily used bows and arrows enhanced by magic. Guns, on the other hand, were expensive, but required no talent to use and supplied the same deadly force to anyone who used them. They were an uncontrollable weapon that could destroy the order of a village or entire kingdom if enough people had them.

Also, Miyabi recognized the material used for this one.

Without thinking, he glanced down at the double-edged sword he held in his hand. That control sword was made from the same material as that rifle larger than a folded umbrella. That meant the gun was a control device as well. Miyabi and Celina had both been entrusted with an embodiment of destruction capable of tearing apart the scenery in a single strike.

He had already known that.

He could not let his guard down.

“My Bodenburg Company must prove we can provide the world’s greatest distribution.”

The wind carried the girl’s sighing voice toward him.

He doubted the statement was meaningful.

It was an obvious display of confidence, an obvious provocation, an obvious threat.

But…

(Is it only bluster?)

He frowned behind the bushes while close enough to pick up her scent.

(Is she saying that to mask how afraid she really is? Because she’s lost sight of us? Or is she feeling rattled because she can’t seem to defeat us despite supposedly having the strongest power?)

“That is why our prized Schwarz Schütze is here and that is why I am here! Yes, I will defeat you to claim the title of strongest for myself, prove that we can provide the continent’s safest trade route by blowing away any bandits or disasters that might threaten the products en route, and thus establish the Bodenburg Company as the ultimate brand!! Yes, yes, nothing can stop me now.”

Don’t let her get to you, thought Miyabi, shaking his head.

He might have found an unexpectedly human side to her, but he still had to keep moving. He had a goal too. If he let this half-formed empathy stop him, he would be wasting his one and only chance.

So.

He grabbed the sword’s grip in both hands and burst from the bushes.

“Ah! When did you get-!?”

Celina turned toward the sound of feet on the grass, looking just like a girl who thought she saw a ghost while out at night. Even though her sinister rifle was aimed accurately his way with the stock against her shoulder.

And…

“Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, obliterate him!!”

The metal giant waiting outside the forest could be heard moving even here. It had to be aiming all of its many cannons his way.

He thought his heart was going to freeze.

Yes.

Miyabi was borrowing a power. His dull machete, which could not even slice through thick branches, had been replaced with a sharp-edged control sword, he could create any number of tools or obstacles just by holding out his hand, and Lucifer Horn could perform aerial bombings with destructive light.

He had thought he could somehow get by if he only had to face the rifle.

So his extreme tension came from something else.

“Are you stupid!? You’ll hit yourself too!”

“An acceptable result. My goal here is absolute victory.”

Her voice was cold.

His eyes met hers as she peered at him through the gun sight next to a large half-rotted tree.

“You must die here to prove this is the strongest Godhorn Tech!!”

Time seemed to stop inside Miyabi. Only that man’s voice echoed through his head. His mind focused solely on the goal he had set for himself.

“I’m leaving my Godhorn Tech with you, so don’t you forget this one thing.”

“You have just one task here.”

“And that isn’t to defeat Miss Celina!!”

How had this happened?

Answering that requires rewinding time a little.

### Chapter 1 Section 2

My everyday life has just a hint of the mysterious mixed in.

But I only ever thought of it as providing a nice spice to life.

So never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be forced into eating a giant plateful of pepper.

“Kwehh.”

A silly-sounding cry echoed through the forest.

The sun managed to penetrate the treetops, so this forest was not all that dark and dank. Technically, it was only that way because people had cut down some of the branches. The biggest of the trees were so thick you could have made a decent-sized boat by felling them and hollowing them out, the plentiful underbrush filled the small herbivores’ stomachs, and lovely flowers colored the gaps between it all. The wide variety of the forest’s vegetation made it a valuable resource to Miyabi and the other villagers. They loved and looked after the forest just like a fisher loved the ocean and a potter loved the earth.

Miyabi Blackgarden wore enough clothing to protect his skin from the sharp branches and stiff leaves and something lay at his feet. It looked a lot like a white slipper-sized stuffed animal, but it was actually a living thing. It was covered in white fur, it walked on its hind legs, and it could skillfully operate its front legs like hands. Its most notable feature was the single round horn growing from the center of its forehead.

“Eh? Are you tired, Alma?” Miyabi looked down at the mysterious creature that had lay down on its back to say it had given up. “We’re here for your food because you always eat through everything I get you. C’mon, let’s go.”

“Koo!”

They knew this forest well. It might look wild at first glance, but the people who frequented it knew it had paths for people to follow and anything blocking out the sunlight overhead could be cut away with a machete or saw.

Miyabi was only an apprentice. He had grown up in a foresting village, but he was only now able to travel through the forest without a guide leading the way. His master knew exactly how to use your blade to make the mountain happy, but he had not reached that point himself.

(Now, then.)

He trudged onward through the underbrush (while dreading the thought of angering his master by stepping on a rare herb or bud) and he came up with a mental list like he was preparing to go shopping.

(I need to find something I can feed Alma with. Let’s start with the deep forest.)

“Koo koo!”

The ground at his feet was growing awfully noisy.

“What? You don’t smell anything tasty in here?”

Alma could not speak human language, but Miyabi could get the gist of it from the creature’s gestures and expressions. It helped that Alma was bipedal and used human gestures with its front legs.

“I’m looking for firewood. Hm, I guess I could cut off this thing’s branches.”

“Koo!?”

“You can’t eat firewood? Yeah, I know. But I can sell the firewood and use the money to buy you food. A dozen of these will probably get me around 5 methods.”

“Koo?”

Bipedal Alma put a hand (leg?) on its mouth and tilted its head. That gave the same “koo” a different nuance.

He was only an apprentice, but he could be patronizing when he had someone who would listen to him.

“Then you can eat bread, fish, or whatever you want,” he said with an air of smugness.

“Koo koo!!”

“I could charge even more if I made charcoal out of it. Then you could have some dessert too.”

“Kyooi☆”

“That’s right. We can do anything as long as we’ve got this forest and its trees. They’re what puts dinner on the table.”

Alma began hopping up and down at Miyabi’s feet while he pointed this way and that.

A few thinner branches were sticking out relatively low down on the tree trunks. Their presence did not seem quite natural, so the adults may have intentionally left them behind for the apprentices.

Miyabi drew a large machete from its sheath.

The goggles on his forehead were meant to protect against sawdust, but he rarely had a chance to use them. They distorted his vision enough to cause dangerous mistakes in his work.

Growing up in this peaceful rural village had left him much more familiar with blades than his peers in the cities. Despite what the plays would have you believe, cooks and carpenters knew a lot more about blades than legendary heroes.

“Let the trees grow wild and the dirt will rot, so cutting them back is an important job.”

(Not that they let me look after the trees much since I’m still in training.)

For today, he limited himself to only cutting away the lower branches that got in his way. He used the large machete he wore at his hip. It could be used to cut back the flora and to repel the smaller forest fauna. But it was not meant for actual hunting, so it would only discourage the animals from approaching. Even with that self-defense, he knew he needed to make a quick escape if he ran across any of the Beast Novae whose heads came up above his hips.

In fact, he was thoughtlessly swinging that machete when it bounced back with a dull clang. But it had not been bested by the tough scales of a legendary dragon. It had simply failed to cut through a thicker branch.

“Ow!?”

“Koo koo!”

Alma’s cries were not out of concern. Its eyes were bright as it urged him to hurry up with the branches so it could be fed.

Miyabi shook his hand, grimacing at the tingling coming from the machete’s grip.

“It’s no use. I can’t cut through that. You would need a really nice blade or one with a magically-enhanced edge.”

This was all he could do.

A machete found lying around the village was not going to be all that sharp and an apprentice like him could not use any real magic. With the Search Sign magic, the trees he could and could not cut through would have glowed different color, making the difference obvious at a glance. But only because the adults had marked them in advance.

Just then, he heard a lovely girl’s voice from above. But instead of a tree trunk or branch, it came from the top of a boulder.

“Hold it right there, human. What do you think you’re doing in the territory of the proud elves!?”

She spoke in a way more reminiscent of a wrinkly old woman or a muscular and mustachioed military commander, but she was in fact a lovely girl. She was an old hag who had spent an eternity at the age of 13 or 14.

Miyabi looked up at the figure in a white dress holding a wooden staff.

“Just when I thought I might get some peace and quiet today.”

“Wha-?”

She had distinctive long ears parting her long blonde hair and they rose in indignation.

He didn’t care, so he ignored her.

“C’mon, Alma. Let’s give her a wide berth. Slowly now.”

“Koo…”

“Get your human butt over here!”

The elf had a garland of flowers on her small head and tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

“B-but not because I climbed too high and am too scared to get back down! Just climb up here now!”

It could be hard to believe, but Alicia Blueforest there was the ruler of the forest.

If he was cruel to her, she would…no, the village elders would be angry with him and they might just begin a strange ritual where they presented offerings to her. So Miyabi sighed and walked toward the sharp boulder.

It was about three times his height, but that was difficult enough since he could not use much magic. He tried to avoid cliffs whenever possible, but he had learned firsthand how to move through the forest. You could even say the forest had been his playground since he was little. He viewed the entire boulder, spotted the handholds, and arrived at the top only a few minutes later.

Alicia sat down in relief when he arrived. She was only equipped with a white dress thin enough for light to pass through, a garland of flowers on her head, and a wooden staff, so he imagined it had to hurt to sit on the rough rock.

“Phew, finally made it. Okay, let’s get down from here, elf hag.”

“Oh, no!?”

The hag lifted her small butt a bit from the rock and held down her dress with both hands.

“Y-you saw, didn’t you? Thanks to that miraculous low angle!?”

“Do I have to shove you off to get you down?”

“Oh, Alma! I knew you would valiantly come to my aid!”

The instant she saw the slipper-sized thing scramble up to the top with its little arms(?) and legs, Alicia was all smiles. She sat back down and spread her arms to welcome it with all her might.

Then she drooped an extreme bombshell.

“Yes, a juvenile Wicked God just has a brighter soul than some filthy kid.”

A Wicked God.

That was a terrifying term, but neither Miyabi nor Alicia seemed bothered by it.

And when she hugged it and rubbed her cheek against it, Alma only looked like a stuffed animal that had learned to resist. It pushed back at Alicia’s cheek with its small front legs. Using a surprising amount of strength.

“It is truly tragic that this average face was the first thing you saw upon hatching. It could have been any face, so why this bland and average one?”

“Alma, leave her here. It’s time we got going.”

“Don’t! You! Dare!” The profoundly aged elf began to throw a tantrum. “I am going too! You are taking me with you! I hate that you must always be with Alma due to that blasted imprinting effect, but it is not everyday you get to observe a real live Wicked God! Hmph!!”

Alicia was ready to do this, but Alma slipped from her arms and clung to Miyabi’s leg. It looked a lot like it was peeking nervously out from behind a pillar or tree. It was seriously turned off by her behavior.

“K-koo…”

“Agreed. Let’s get down from here.”

Miyabi slid down the 5 or 6 meters of rock, leaving Alicia behind, but then she more or less rolled off after him. She had been terrified of that height, but now she dropped down in an instant. An elf’s bodily structure was different enough to make her much sturdier than a human. Afterwards, Miyabi was left wondering about the mismatch between the fancy, transparently-thin dress and the thick cotton underwear.

Since climbing up or down the boulder did nothing to fill Alma’s stomach, Miyabi got to work chopping down some branches that were in the way, but it was really awkward with Alicia, ruler of the forest, right there. The more serious he tried to look, the more he felt like she was going to erupt at him about how bad his technique was. She even gave him a look of supreme confidence.

If she wanted to, she could learn anything she wanted about the forest’s health. And without using the Search Sign magic that would cause any small scratches and marks to glow. She knew the forest better than anyone, so she knew the state of the greenery without relying on the codes used by the human workers.

She walked out ahead but looked back after noticing something.

Her mischievous smile suggested she had read something on his face.

“Ga ha ha. Build up that experience and you’ll make it eventually, boy. I’ll keep you company until you do. Because if there’s one thing elves have to spare, it’s time.”

“…”

That was disappointing.

It depressed him to know just how pathetic his skills apparently were. He felt so stupid for acting patronizing with Alma earlier.

But regardless…

“Okay, that should about do it.”

“Hey, you’re in trouble.”

A male voice interrupted out of nowhere.

The oddly scratchy voice initially surprised Miyabi, but he jumped for real once he realized it had come from the thing hanging from the strap around Alicia’s neck.

“Koo!?”

“What’s that box? It just talked!”

“This is no box, ignorant human.” The idiot triumphantly put her hands on her hips. “It is a crystal radio built around a philosopher’s stone. You could call it a fount of wisdom.”

“Well, this is nothing like the radios we have,” added the radio itself. “No headphones, for one.”

“This is the ultimate objective of alchemy. Everything in the world is stored in here, but the true stroke of genius is how it takes that silent crystal of wisdom and converts it into a form anyone can understand!”

“That’s not for you to get smug about, Miss Overgrown C-cups. Tall or short, all elves are supposed to be flat as a board. This is basic stuff here.”

“Hm. That, however, is utter nonsense. Is it picking up some other signal?”

“???”

Miyabi could only tilt his head.

Was that a highly technical discussion you needed extensive knowledge of alchemy to understand?

He could not decide whether that was a high-level or low-level conversation.

The radio was not done, though.

“Hold on, I sense the pheromones of an oppressive adult teacher. It’s her . No doubt about it.”

Miyabi’s shoulders shook at the way the radio said “adult”.

He could guess who it meant: Helen Clockgear.

That adult woman was not someone he wanted to get caught by, but for a different reason than with Alicia. Behind her back, the village’s small children had nicknamed her Lecture Lady and Glasses Boobs, which should be sufficient to make a decent guess what she was like.

“You’d better hide fast or you’ve got a looong lecture in your immediate future. You can mash the button all day and the scene never ends. You can put up with it for ages without any choices popping up! So unless you get off to a beautiful woman dressing you down, I’d get running!!”

Sneaking was their only option at this point.

Luckily, the forest provided plenty of hiding places. Beyond the tall trees and giant boulders, there were also curtains of vines hanging down thick enough to use in a game of hide and seek. That could end tragically if there happened to be a swarm of bugs in the vines, however.

They could hear the woman clearly.

Turning around now would make too much noise of their own, so they crouched down in pursuit of cover while moving in a large, slow circle around her.

Her voice reached them on the wind.

“If you ask me, Wicked Gods themselves are frightening enough as giant dragons and krakens, but they pose an even greater threat than that since their horn can be broken off and built into a machine to create those things that even major kingdoms fear. I am not monitoring you because it’s my idea of fun. The Republic has deemed it a necessary measure given the risk. Alma might look small and adorable now, but it is still a Wicked God and will eventually grow larger than a mountain. You took it in without knowing what you were doing and what’s done is done, but do you have any kind of plan for the future there, Miyabi? You certainly don’t seem to! Ahem, um, where was I? Oh, right.”

“Wh-what the hell? Is she rehearsing her lecture for me!? We’re this deep in the forest and she’s talking to yourself!?”

“Sh! If she finds us here, the lecture will be ten times worse. She will use our attempt to hide against us, so just wait it out!!”

Alicia was pushing against him from the side to fit behind the same bush. Miyabi’s primary takeaway was how painful her long ear felt stabbing into him.

That glasses woman had taken her lectures beyond the level of a job. It was more like a way of life for her. She took everything too seriously and may have even been addicted to it.

The worst part? She was a government official sent from the Republic’s capital.

Miyabi and the others fled that cursed area of forest like they had just witnessed an overstressed person sticking nails into dolls night after night.

Or they thought they had.

But just as they breathed a sigh of relief, they heard a rustling in the bushes behind them.

“Oh, there you all are!”

Miyabi’s breath just about caught in his throat, but he suppressed that and turned around with a smile.

Helen Clockgear looked like a beautiful black-haired young woman in glasses. The chest of her top was left unbuttoned, the button below her large chest was actually fastened yet her navel could still be glimpsed below that, and to top it all off, the shortness of her tight skirt was a source of endless fascination for Miyabi. Now, if he were to express that fascination, the strong-willed young woman was liable to answer him with a slap, but her appearance at least would undoubtedly earn a 5 out of 5 score. Assuming the judges were teenage boys, anyway.

If Alicia was a carefree angel, then Helen was a stickler of a demon.

Also, Helen was not an elf.

She had round human ears. She claimed to be an observer sent by the Republic.

“Out preparing to feed Alma again? I will accompany you. The Republic wishes to know everything that Wicked God does, after all.”

“Hot damn! Now that’s what I call jiggle physics. Where’s this world’s controller? Shaking it might make those things go wild.” The pervert of a philosopher’s stone then turned to complain to the elf. “See, if you were willing to take it that far, I might forgive your lack of flatness. That in-between crap isn’t gonna make anyone happy.”

“Silence, stray signal. All breasts have their own unique charm.”

“Whoa!? Did that box just talk!?”

The young woman showed off her intellectual nature by holding a finger to the side of her glasses as she jumped in surprise, but the tiny elf decided to pick a fight with her.

“Anyway, you Republic people are only interested in Alma’s horn.”

The horn.

Miyabi sensed a greater stir over that word than anything else. Even more than a mention of the juvenile Wicked God itself.

(…?)

“The Republic hopes to construct one of those with a Wicked God horn, don’t they?”

“…”

The big and little ladies silently glared at each other until they were interrupted by the most tactless individual present.

“Excuse me. I do hate to interrupt two lovely ladies getting worked up over nothing, but I must insist.”

“What is it, scrapbox?” Alicia grumbled down at the radio hanging from her neck.

“You might want to take a look at the sky. I’ve been detecting some faint noise in the signal for a bit now.”

That thing never seemed to take anything seriously, but its skill (function?) was real. The elf had said she used her (near limitless) spare time to create a crystal with alchemy.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I sense one of those horns you two are so obsessed with. Trouble always has a way of finding you, doesn’t it!?”

With a great roar, something massive cut by overhead.

Miyabi had no idea what this meant.

A moment later, all the trees, branches, and leaves in the forest were subjected to a powerful blast of wind. Helen predicted the wind’s direction and pressed her back against a tree and Alicia staggered while holding her skirt down with both hands.

That thing was…not alive.

It had to be several dozen meters long and it resembled a colossal bird or dragon with enormous wings, but the collection of straight and curved lines had the glint of metal and glass not found in nature and something about its design looked artificial. Something built by human hands had instantly stolen the leading role from the natural scenery.

It may have been something like a hanger made from bat wings.

But it was unbelievably large and sinister.

“Koo!”

“Hyah!? …You didn’t see, did you?”

“Didn’t see a thing, Cotton Elf Hag.” Miyabi kept a straight face. “Anyway, what was that huge thing!? A ship? A castle? This isn’t making any sense!”

“Godhorn Tech,” muttered Helen Clockgear.

The Republic official had a cold look on her face.

“…?”

“It is a symbol of humanity’s insatiable appetite for destruction,” said Alicia. “The supposedly untouchable Phoenix, Kraken, Fenrir, and more have their Wicked God horn broken off and used as the core for a giant sorcery weapon. The weapons are powerful enough to destroy an entire empire singlehandedly.”

She spoke like she had firsthand experience in the matter.

There was even a touch of anguish, like she was struggling to keep the memories sealed away.

“You’ve got a freaking flying wing bomber in a swords and sorcery fantasy world?” said the radio. “Everything about those Wicked Gods is crazy. How’s the thing even fly without producing any lift?”

“Th-this is serious. What is one of those doing inside the Republic!?”

“Koo…”

“Are you kidding?” The small elf sounded more exasperated than anything as her long ears twitched and she stared into the distance. “I don’t think that one in the sky is the only one.”

A heavy metallic boom shook the air, but this was different from that thing the radio had called a bomber. Another dark mass of metal sat on the ground far, far in the distance. It had to be more than 400m and maybe even more than 500m. Either way, it was large enough to see from within the deep forest. It appeared to rise up like a mountain.

It was a train.

Miyabi had never left this small village and had only ever seen that vehicle in picture books, but this one had sinister tools of killing installed all over it. Namely, cannons. It was like a cross between a train and a warship (another thing the mountain boy was unfamiliar with), but some people would have known the proper name for it: an armored train.

Helen had always been the capable glasses woman in front of Miyabi, but now her mouth flapped like she could not find any oxygen.

“T-two…users?”

“A duel? A deathmatch? Damn, are they really about to pit those huge-ass things against each other???”

The philosopher’s stone’s overly carefree (and baffling) comment must have gotten through to the Republic official because her eyes widened behind her glasses.

“P-pit them against each other? Do they have any idea how much damage a clash between Godhorn Tech will do to this area!?”

Just then, Alma’s head jerked up.

Miyabi should have been paying more attention.

“Koo!!”

Alma took off running, but not away from the conflict. It ran further into the forest.

Had that juvenile Wicked God sensed something?

“Ah. Hey, Alma!!”

Miyabi ran after it, but then he felt a shudder crawling up his spine.

Stop there.

Have Alicia and Helen stop as well, warned some instinctual part of him.

“Um, Alic-”

Immediately afterwards, the world split apart .

Quite literally.

Just as he looked back to have those two stay put, a powerful impact hit him from below and he flipped over. The ringing in his ears was bad and his vision blurred, so he initially thought the problem was in his own head.

The ground was gone.

The flat forest he had just been running through was now audibly cracking open like a broken cookie. The cracks continued to grow even now. That kept him from even standing on the edge to see what things were like at the bottom.

“Whoa!?”

He had his hands full just not falling in himself.

The cracks raced out and he had to crawl on all fours to scramble away from the newly slanted land. Approaching the edge would only men sliding off and being dumped down with all the dirt.

“Miyabi!!”

Helen called out to him from the other side of the newly-formed chasm.

He thought she was going to give him some clever solution. Or maybe come to his rescue by throwing him a rope or building a makeshift bridge.

But the adult woman did nothing of the sort.

“There’s nothing I can do for you here, so just stay away from the edge! Don’t even think about trying to cross it. The cracks might continue to spread, so it’s too dangerous!!”

“Wait, how far do these cracks go? How deep!?” shouted Alicia. “There had better not be any miasma seeping out from the depths to corrupt my sacred forest!!”

Not even the grownups could help.

His world felt a lot smaller all of a sudden. A great pressure weighed on him like the scene around him was ready to collapse in on him at any moment. He felt like he had been thrown from the box labeled “safety” before he had time to grow up. He could not meet back up with Alicia and Helen even though they were right there. He did not know what was happening, but the ground had shaken violently a few times already. He had to stay away from the edge.

But that was no guarantee of his safety.

He had to keep himself alive now. That basic rule of life weighed on him more than ever before.

(Where’s Alma?)

He looked around and spotted the color white.

The creature was using its small body to slip below some bushes.

“Get back here!!”

“Oh, hey, Miyabi!” called Helen. “Where should we regroup!?”

“We can’t do it anywhere around here,” said Alicia. “Those kids are nothing but trouble. We need to find somewhere to circle around all this damage!”

“Got it. Let’s see, where did I put my map of the forest?”

“I don’t need you to guide me. I know this forest like the back of my hand, so follow me!!”

As expected, the impacts and shaking did not stop. The ground quaked from time to time.

Something was happening.

Miyabi felt certain he would be happier in the long run if he never saw whatever this was.

“Koo koo!”

“Wait, Alma! Dammit, I hope the others managed to get away!”

Alma was unusually quick today. It kept slipping between rocks and below bushes, so he had to pay careful attention to avoid losing sight of it.

(I don’t believe it. The thing’s heading further and further in.)

They kept moving farther away from Alicia and Helen. Those two had said they were finding a way around that large crack running side to side, but how far had they gone?

“Godhorn Tech,” muttered Miyabi while chasing after Alma.

Those massive sorcery weapons were built around a Wicked God horn so humans could wield a Wicked God’s power.

“What do I do if I run across someone who controls something like that?”

Alma’s stuffed animal body came to a sudden stop.

Miyabi finally managed to snatch it by the back of the neck, but Alma flailed all four limbs to struggle. The forest’s trees thinned out up ahead and he sensed someone there. Shocked, he hid behind a thick tree before peeking out at the scene.

“There they are.”

“Koo.”

“I’ve never seen them before, but those have to be the Godhorn Tech users, right?”

One was a girl.

Her shoulder-length blonde hair was tied on either side and she wore a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems, which was not exactly hiking attire. But she was given a sinister appearance by what she held in her hand: a hunting rifle with one of those bayonets the nobility loved so much. Miyabi lived in the forest, but even his village only used bows to keep animals away. The only guns he had ever seen were wielded by the gangs in plays. The girl holding the strange flintlock rifle was unfamiliar to him. She was an outsider, not one of the villagers.

The other was a young man older than Miyabi.

He had long red hair and he wore a fancy jacket and pants. But he did not have the look of a nobleman. He would have looked more at home hunting down pirates aboard a warship. The term “prodigal son” fitted him to a tee.

He held an enormous double-edged sword.

Miyabi doubted he would even be able to lift the thing.

“I can’t believe this.” The young man was the first to speak. “I don’t want to battle you to the death, you know?”

“Maybe you don’t, but I do.”

The girl was undaunted.

She must have been relying on more than just that glistening rifle. Some deeper, more fundamental part of her being remained unshaken. Even though she was all alone deep in the forest and confronting a man wielding a sword large enough to smash through armor.

“I, Celina of the Bodenburg Company, shall defeat you, Moebius Entrance, and take the title of strongest Godhorn Tech!”

In fact, the young man called Moebius seemed taken aback.

“That’s all?” He looked like he very much wanted to believe he had misheard. “You’re going to split the continent apart in a Godhorn Tech battle for nothing more than that?”

“Oh? Reputation is everything in business.” The blonde girl – Celina? – laughed and did not hesitate to reply. “Especially when it comes to the trust the Bodenburg Company would earn if we could wield the strongest power to construct safe trade routes where not a single thief can approach the products.”

“Is that so? But I don’t see how this area could possibly survive that.”

Miyabi’s shoulders jumped while he pressed his back against the other side of the thick tree.

He might not understand the situation, but he could not let that statement slide. These people were very clearly talking about his village and the forest around it. Without giving the villagers a say.

“And I’m not just talking about scorched earth or a crater. The terrain itself will be altered. Got anything to say about that? Once it’s done, it’s too late to start feeling a pang of regret in that promising chest of yours, young lady.”

“I will ignore your incessant rudeness for now.” The blonde girl’s smile was unbroken. “It is true I would prefer to avoid profitless environmental destruction, but we are talking about an undeveloped forest in the middle of nowhere. No one even lives here. In fact, if you think of this as me going out of my way to develop it into something more…”

They were making assumptions.

Without getting any of the locals involved.

“Once I blow this entire forest away…yes, I know. My company can take responsibility and remake it into one of the finest resorts on the continent. Will that be acceptable?”

“Not on your life, you idiot!! We live here!!”

Miyabi and Alma rushed out without considering the consequences.

Time ground to a halt.

“Ah.”

“You…”

He moved in between the two monsters.

The foolish action seemed to catch Moebius by surprise even more than it did Celina. He took his eyes off his enemy and shouted wide-eyed at the boy.

“You’re the idiot here!”

Miyabi honestly did not understand what happened next. To him, they were both invaders threatening to take away everything he had ever known.

Which was why it came as such a surprise.

Moebius Entrance shifted his position to protect the boy who was so out of his element.

The blonde girl grinned and moved her rifle.

She would grasp this opportunity, no matter how it had come about.

But instead of raising it to aim, she stabbed the bayonet into the ground.

And she sang.

“Armored Train – Schwarz Schütze: Tactical Open.”

A giant magic circle appeared at her feet.

Pressure followed.

This pressure was much “sharper” than what Miyabi felt when he encountered a wild animal in the forest. The invisible wall was so solid even an amateur like him could tell he was sensing the killer intent coming from a human being.

But the epicenter of the tremor was not the girl or the magic circle. It came from much, much further away. From something waiting outside the forest far behind the girl.

She laughed loudly while carrying that intense pressure.

“My, my. Thinking you can look after an amateur while facing down Godhorn Tech? Maybe you really are the strongest…if you can pull it off, that is. Ohhh ho ho ho!!”

He never heard the end of her laughter.

His vision was dyed white.

He did not hear anything for quite a while afterwards.

He had no idea how long it lasted.

Alchemy.

That word wavered in the back of the boy’s hazy mind as he lay on his back.

Alicia Blueforest had gotten hooked on the subject to make use of her extreme surplus of life. It apparently involved the research of metals and medicines, but he was pretty sure one specific application was “alloys”, a mixture of multiple metals. And researching medicines required methods of heating and cooling.

Yes.

Heat and metal.

It had not even felt like the attack was thrown in from a great distance. It had felt more like a lightning bolt of orange-glowing metal had dropped from the sky.

The instant it had hit the ground, the world had gone white and exploded.

That kind of destructive power was not possible with the large cannons seen in picture books. Alicia’s devotion to alchemy had resulted in that talking radio(?), so this felt like a different type of alchemy altogether.

At any rate, that was not something to be directed toward someone even on accident.

Miyabi wondered if that scorching blast could fight on equal or greater footing than an actual Wicked God .

He was glad Alicia and Helen had not come with him. He had not been directly hit, but all his joints still ached. All his organs were writhing and he was burning up, but he could not stop sweating. He was so very thirsty.

(Where’s Alma?)

The first thing he noticed was the unpleasant sensation of dirt in his hair. When he tried to get up, he found his head was heavy, but he forced himself to move regardless.

There was a cliff face in front of him.

Looking up from the ground, he could see it rose for probably 10m.

The thing was…he didn’t recognize it. The forest was basically his backyard, yet he could not figure out how he had found himself at the bottom of a cliff in an open field.

“Ow, ow…”

He still felt woozy, but he decided to take it as a good thing he could feel pain. His body had not been torn apart.

That was actually a surprise.

(This isn’t one of those stories where I’m dead but haven’t noticed yet, is it? I’m amazed I wasn’t hurt worse.)

“Alma, are you okay? Good, you don’t have any bumps.”

“Koo…”

“But where are we? The forest didn’t have a cliff like this, did it?”

Lying nearby, Alma looked up at the cliff as well. It was tall. It was also fragile, made from dark soil. He doubted he could climb that without special equipment. That meant he had to walk alongside it. He had been hoping to find a gentler slope up to the top, but the further he walked, the stranger he found this. Where was he? He was painfully reminded of his inability to use magic like a real expert. He was sure one of the village’s workers would have immediately known where they were.

But before long, the truth dawned on him. A painful and unwanted truth.

“Wait… is this new ? One blast from that dumb-looking Celina girl did this!?”

The terrain had changed.

The scenery had fallen apart.

This was far more power than any individual should ever wield. His mind was focused less on how exactly she had done it and more on how terrifying it was for this much power to be at the whim of someone’s emotions and personal interests.

Then he heard something.

“Ugh…”

He initially did not interpret it as a voice, so it slipped past his notice. He was not expecting to find anyone here.

But when he viewed the cliff face made from the crumbled, torn, and transformed terrain, he saw a young man groaning on his back with his torso trapped below a boulder embedded in the bottom of the cliff.

“Don’t call her dumb where she can hear you. She won’t go easy on you just cause you’re an amateur.”

“Who are you, old man?”

“Old…”

Moebius seemed more bothered by that than any crisis to the world, but Miyabi was too busy viewing the boulder and the dirt on top to notice.

“Are you trapped under that thing? D-damn, we’ve gotta do something!”

He was afraid touching it would cause the cliff of dirt to collapse, but he could not wisely give up when there was someone suffering.

However…

“Arrrgh…it won’t budge.”

“Koo.”

“Give it up. There’s nothing you can do.”

Moebius actually got after him for trying.

“But you protected us just now!”

“(You really should have been obliterated even with my protection.)” The young man muttered something under his breath. “(Was something interfering with Celina’s horn?)”

“Koo?”

Moebius looked to Alma who only tilted its head.

He sighed below the boulder.

“Anyway, I’m a goner, as you can plainly see. There’s just no way I can move now, so you two need to scram.”

“But…isn’t there anything I can do!? I know, I can find you some healing flowers.”

Paling, Miyabi looked around at the ground, but the young man smiled bitterly.

“I appreciate the thought, but there’s nothing you can do.”

“So you expect me to leave you to die!? When that monster of a girl is still wandering around!?”

“She’s not the problem.”

That made no sense.

Celina Bodenburg was an embodiment of destruction and the greatest threat.

She could transform the terrain in a single attack, she wanted him dead, and he was trapped below a boulder. Once she found him, he would either be obliterated right away or slowly tortured to death. An outsider like him would put his own life first. He wouldn’t care what happened to Miyabi’s village or the forest they had protected for generations. Had that pompous asshole even bothered to figure out that Alicia, Helen, and the others were in the forest? A single stray shell would be the end of them all.

Those Godhorn Tech users had waltzed in and decided to destroy everything for their own selfish reasons, so what else could there be? What could possibly be a greater problem?

Did something like that really exist and was that why the trapped man was putting himself second and staring up at Miyabi???

“It isn’t about the little lady. She isn’t even aware of it.”

Moebius’s gaze was calm but powerful.

As if to say he could not afford to die before he said this.

“So I wanted to get her to escape if I could.”

“What…?”

“This forest has been rigged with something far worse.”

“Rigged?”

That was an odd word choice.

Almost like some malicious person had been sneaking around and up to no good. It was a very different concept than the Godhorn Tech that, for better or for worse, was very in-your-face about the threat it posed.

“What’s this about the forest? And the village too? What are you talking about!?”

“Listen. I’ll explain it all.” Moebius could not speak all that loudly while collapsed on his back, but his words carried a strength that silenced panicking Miyabi. “Including my Lucifer Horn, there are currently 10 Godhorn Techs in existence. Different countries and companies built them for the prestige they bring,” he explained. “We know the number because they’re so dangerous there’s a registration system in place to keep track of them all. Each of the 10 is equipped with a Wicked God horn, so their energy can’t be denied.”

“Koo…”

“But a certain rumor has been going around among us.” He glanced over at worried Alma. “There’s an 11th somewhere out there.”

Even ignorant Miyabi felt like it was worth ignoring the pressing situation to hear this out.

“The 11th is completely unregistered and exists as a ‘shadow’ lurking below the surface.”

“There’s a monster on this level.” The boy felt faint. “Without any country managing them?”

“They stay hidden, causing devastation whenever they feel like it. And unlike the other 10, their Wicked God horn is not built into a weapon. They use the energy flowing from that horn to create massive sorcery bombs.”

That alone left the boy speechless, but the young man’s next statement only made it worse.

“ And these bombs are made to look identical to trees, rocks, or whatever else. ”

“…”

“Once the time comes, they go boom. Using the power of Godhorn Tech. In a way, it’s even worse because this power isn’t controlled. A castle town built of thick stone would be obliterated if it was in range of the blast.”

“But…”

If that was true, this open forest and remote village didn’t stand a chance.

Miyabi had already seen enough destructive power to literally rewrite the map and he could not think of any reason why Moebius would be lying now.

“Where is it? What does it look like?”

“They’re an artist.” That word felt terribly out of place. “You’ve seen those pâtissiers who can make sugar sculptures indistinguishable from real shoes or gems, right? This is the same. It might be a brick wall and it might be a wagon wheel – anything can be remade into a weapon of war. ”

“…”

“We’re talking about a formless Godhorn Tech. In a way, that makes it the most dangerous of them all.” The man breathed a heavy sigh. “The only good news is that the sorcery bombs are not delicate things. Simply put, you could throw one in the fire or run it over with a wagon and it wouldn’t go off. That means you can stop it from detonating by attacking and destroying it once you locate it. The complexity of the trigger condition works in our favor there. So as long as you know where it is, even an amateur can deal with it.”

“But why here!? What did we do to deserve this!?”

Still pinned below the boulder, Moebius shook his head.

He looked sincere for once, so he may have been ashamed of his inability to stop this.

“Like I said, the 11th is a shadow lurking below the surface. If we knew their reasons and could predict their next target, we would’ve stopped them by now. You can’t predict this person with any motive as simple as money or resentment.”

He finally got to his main point.

This expert wielded the strongest power and had pursued his foe this far, but now he had to raise the white flag.

“So run away. You might just survive if you run full speed away from the forest right this instant.”

“What?” Miyabi shook his head. He knew he was being unreasonable, but he could not stop himself. “You want me to what!? You yourself said the sorcery bomb thing is hidden somewhere in the forest, didn’t you!? How can I run away and leave that here!?”

“I’d agree with you, except for one thing: how do you plan to find it on your own?”

That shut him up.

Unlike the boy, Moebius was facing the reality of the situation.

“Like I said, even an amateur can deal with it once you know where it is, but that’s the trick. Locating it is the hardest part. Not even I could do it without borrowing some power from the Lucifer Horn flying up there.”

“…”

“So run away. The 11th’s sorcery bomb is bad enough, but the ignorant little lady’s Schwarz Schütze is a Godhorn Tech too. If she fires again on a whim – maybe just to be thorough – everything from here to the horizon will be irrevocably changed. So you need to run away before that happens. Got that?”

Miyabi could find nothing to say.

If he stayed, he would die. Trying to play the hero would accomplish nothing. He bit his lip, hesitated, exhaled, and turned toward Alma. Alma said nothing, simply staring up at him. He stopped there, like he was trying to keep his eyes off of Moebius.

“…”

At the last second, he stopped himself.

“What will you do?”

“I’m not exactly flush with options at the moment.”

“My village is here! And Celina will die once the time comes, won’t she!?”

Silence followed.

He had intended to spur Moebius to action, but he received the last response he had wanted.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t enough,” he spat. “Hey, you control that crazy Godhorn Tech weapon, right?”

“Yes, and?”

“Lend it to me.”

Moebius could not believe his ears.

Miyabi may not have understood what he was really asking here.

“Then I can move that boulder off of you, have Celina escape, and rescue Alicia, Helen, and the others still in the forest.”

Moebius’s know-it-all mask slipped. Or maybe Miyabi had shattered it.

The mere boy thought this was the right thing to do. If innocence was the only way to keep going and if knowledge would only make people freeze up with fear, then he was fine with not knowing anything here.

It was true that knowledge would help in the creation and destruction. It was a lot like knowing how to select and arrange firewood. But all the knowledge in the world still needed an initial spark to start the fire.

Miyabi did not know how to explain it in words, but he felt like anyone watching him would understand as long as he did not lie to himself.

He calmly looked up.

He told himself to face forward and create a path for himself.

“And lastly, I’ll destroy that sorcery bomb in the forest and save the entire village.”

Without warning, a beam of light dyed the blue sky pure white.

Miyabi was caught off guard.

Celina’s armored train had taught him that Godhorn Tech’s destruction could upturn the terrain and tear apart the scenery, but he still wasn’t prepared.

“I only wanted to destroy the boulder on top of that old guy.”

He had wobbled to the side and bumped into the massive boulder that had towered above him like a cliff face. But now it was broken and only rose to his hip height.

He stood atop a small hill.

No, that hill had not existed a moment before. The flat forest now had several steep drop-offs. The route of the mountains had entirely changed.

He had only wanted to get rid of all the dirt on top of Moebius. He had succeeded in that much, so the man was now freed.

But that was not all he had done.

The village had protected the forest for decades and centuries. The experienced workers had carved countless marks and signs into the branches and trunks of the trees. None of it meant anything anymore. Nothing would glow after using Search Sign magic. Miyabi had taken it all away. He had blatantly transformed the land itself.

He held a double-edged sword.

That was the control sword.

It was more compact than the one Moebius had used, but it still required two hands to use. It was a deadly tool clearly designed to kill. It carried a chill not found by the machetes and knives used to provide sustenance. No one would believe that his usual machete had twisted and transformed into this when he made the contract.

“How powerful is that thing?”

“Koo.”

“No one told me it would do that!”

The atmosphere was shredded as a giant winged shape passed by overhead.

That was the Lucifer Horn.

But he could not let it shake him. Moebius had dragged himself out from under the shattered boulder, but he was too badly injured to escape on his own. And if Celina was still in the forest, she would have seen Miyabi’s attack. Once she realized her enemy was alive and could fight, she would strike back.

To finish the job.

And not even Celina Bodenburg knew about the extra-large bomb hidden in the forest. If he screwed this up, then Moebius, Celina, Alicia, Helen, the forest, and the village would all be lost.

“Koo, koo.”

“You’re right. We saved Moebius, so now we need to find the 11th’s sorcery bomb.” Miyabi used his words to focus on his goal. “I need to save them all without dragging Celina into it.”

The only thing he had to rely on now were the things Moebius had told him. He had been thrown into the thick of it without any practice or training, so he might even destroy himself with this borrowed power.

“He said my Wicked God horn will resonate with the powerful energy.”

The horns resonated.

Or so Moebius had heard from a philosopher’s stone he had met before . Moebius himself understood it more by instinct, though.

(That means there’s more than one of those philosopher’s stones. To think there’s another alchemist out there weird enough to want to create such an annoying tool.)

Miyabi’s thoughts turned toward the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck, so he may have been trying to ignore the reality of his situation.

He was about to enter hell.

Each of the armored train’s shots could destroy the terrain itself and they would soon be raining from the sky. He would have to achieve his goal while running through that deadly downpour.

He did not know who had set up the sorcery bomb, but he could not allow it to detonate.

“The sorcery bombs can be disguised as anything, but there is a way to locate them.”

He focused his mind.

It felt like gathering strength between his eyes.

He ignored the explosive blasts, imagining himself in a tranquil cave.

And he focused on his ears.

“It’s a lot like a sound. Pay attention for a high-pitched ringing in your ears that never goes away. That means there’s one in your area. The shorter the gaps between sounds, the closer you are. It might be a stump or a boulder, but you need to destroy it once you find it. The blast won’t trigger it early, so just focus on destroying it.”

He heard a high-pitched whistling.

He ran away, just barely getting out of the blast radius, but the cracks in the ground caught up to him and Alma. The two of them fell to the bottom of the crater.

That had not just been a mass of metal.

Magical shells made with alchemy came in many forms, including lightning and ice.

But he had still managed to approach his target.

He could hear something else, but not with his ears. It seemed to come from the center of his body. It was precise as the ticking of a clock and higher pitched than the previous whistling.

He had finally found what he was listening for.

He sighed in relief at this step in the right direction, but this also meant it really was here. If he did not track it down and destroy it, his home village would be destroyed.

“I doubt Miss Celina knows it’s there.”

Moebius had sounded certain and his voice had carried something other than anger or resentment.

“She’s doing everything she can to protect the organization created by her parents. …Please. Will you save her since I’m too useless and stupid to do it myself?”

After climbing out of the crater, Miyabi held out his empty hand. He packed together a bunch of undergrowth to create a Decoy Wall. It drew Celina’s fire to divert it away.

“ So with this contract, I can make a request to the Wicked God horn using Demon Lord Under Lilith as an intermediary? ”

“Koo?”

“And he said I can only use it like this because of an error in the contract transfer. I think he said it unnaturally expanded the abilities normally used for maintenance and repair of the Godhorn Tech.”

The whole thing creeped him out.

The power to destroy was frightening enough, but this change was something not even Moebius understood.

But right now, he had to recite the lines whether he liked it or not.

“And if it gives me an edge, I’ll take it.”

He left the Decoy Wall behind, jumped into the trench created by Celina’s straight-line blast, and used the bomber’s support to send sharp beams of light tearing through the forest. He crossed that labyrinth of interconnected trenches to gradually approach the strongest girl while avoiding the machinegun fire.

The ringing in his ears changed.

With every step he took, the space between the high-pitched noises shrank.

He was closing in.

This had to be the correct direction.

He looked up from his improvised trench. That did not actually give him a view ahead, but his ears picked something up.

Something other than the inner response to the sorcery bomb.

“Father, mother, please wait for me.”

Celina did not know.

She stood confidently on the ground one level above, oblivious to the danger she was in and unaware that her whispered words were overhead by the person sneaking up on her.

“I will achieve victory here and prove that Schwarz Schütze is the strongest. That will create the trust needed to provide the safe trade routes needed to further grow our Bodenburg Company.”

She was selfish, willful, and unbelievably dangerous.

She preferred to wield a gun, a symbol of outlaws, and she would undoubtedly bring disaster to this village and forest.

But.

Miyabi felt the sorcery bomb was much more despicable. The unseen 11th remained hidden, not even willing to accept people’s ire.

“I too am a part of the family, so I am prepared to do whatever it takes to protect the company you have built. So this does not scare me in the slightest. I can handle this just fine.”

“It has to be close.”

The phantom ringing in his ears was nearly a solid tone now, which should have been a good thing.

But he felt more panic than anything. For a simple reason.

“Is she right next to the sorcery bomb!?”

He held his hand toward the dirt within the trench and lined up the box-sized Palette Dice to create his imperfect Layer Stairs. There was no looking cool climbing those. He scrambled up them like a lizard and then found the sweet scent of a girl instead of the stench of torn plants and soil.

But that was not his focus.

A large, half-rotten tree stood right next to Celina Bodenburg.

The warning tone in his mind rang with such intensity the scenery around him seemed to gain wild new colors.

“Ah! When did you get-!?”

The girl spun around and raised her fancy rifle, but her movements were painfully slow. No, was it the speed of Miyabi’s own mind that was out of whack?

“Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, obliterate him!!”

He still could not see it.

But something like a pressure drew out straight and curved lines. Something wriggled along the surface of the rotted tree, like a coiled snake or a slug. It was definitely what you would call a magic circle.

(Is that it?)

He was sure of it, even though he had never seen one before.

He knew for sure that thing was meant to bring an end to this world.

(That’s the 11th’s sorcery bomb. I can protect everything if I destroy that!!)

“Koo!”

He flipped his sword around and stabbed it into the ground, creating a giant magic circle at his feet.

The sorcery bomb was not a delicate thing. It would not detonate early, so he could attack it however he liked to destroy it.

So he chose to use the strongest power he was currently borrowing.

“Bomber Lucifer Horn!! Please, protect everyone for me!!”

Blinding beams and deafening explosions filled his senses.

The thick beam of light sliced through the ground along a straight line shifted to the side of the bomber’s path. The beam’s path would only barely miss him.

But more importantly, Miyabi noticed what the bomber was aiming toward. He grabbed the grip of his control sword again and squeezed tight without pulling it from the ground.

“No!!!!! I said everyone . You don’t get compromise by giving up on or abandoning Celina!!”

He could not see or hear anything, but he still felt the wind blowing against his cheeks. While the giant device passed by overhead and tore through the ground with its beam, it forcibly altered its course, like the zigzag of a lightning bolt, to avoid the girl and skillfully blow away just the tree.

(It…heard me?)

His view was blocked by the light and smoke, but he still felt like everything had opened up before him.

(And it actually listened?)

That was due to the beam launched from the Lucifer Horn and it was also due to the explosion blasting all that smoke into the air. He only had his hearing to go on, but not his external hearing. He focused on the alarm in his head.

“The ringing is gone?”

He felt a need to say it out loud.

The tree had been blown away.

But what happened then? There had been an explosion, so could that have been the bomb going off?

He thought he would die if he did not confirm for himself that the sorcery bomb was destroyed. The anxiety was going to crush him.

“Did I…do it? Did I destroy the sorcery bomb and save the village!?”

He knew he had survived here in the cloud of smoke.

That should mean it had not detonated.

“Oh, right. Where did that Celina girl go!?”

Suddenly and silently, the thick curtain of smoke parted as if split, revealing a girl in a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems.

She appeared directly behind Miyabi.

Close enough for a heated breath to reach his ear and something soft to touch his back.

“I see. That control sword must mean you are the next user.”

“!?”

(I can’t move. Dammit, she completely snuck up on me!)

That large rifle would be hard to use at such close range, but he had not forgotten about its bayonet – that is, the thick knife attached to the end.

“Your name,” she bluntly stated. Her cold voice was polite but made it clear disobedience would be punished with death. “Please state your name.”

“M-Miyabi…”

“Very good, Miyabi. Your honest response is praiseworthy in a way. An unusual name, but that is all I need. The Bodenburg Company’s power surpasses that of every major country on the continent and I will pour it all into researching your full name and other personal information. Oh, and if that was a fake name, you will come to regret the decision.”

She sounded exasperated.

But also impressed.

“This is a surprise, but Moebius need not be my opponent. I only wish to prove that I am the strongest by defeating the Lucifer Horn. I must prove that no Godhorn Tech can surpass the Schwarz Schütze.”

Even gulping could lead to death here.

The pounding of his heart rang far too loud in his ears.

“You are a lot like him in one way, though: that arrogant concern for your enemy.”

He noticed a subtle change to the temperature of the breaths on his ear.

Was she truly exasperated now?

“But never mind that. From now on, you shall be an enemy of Bodenburg.”

He felt a soft touch on his cheek and then a gust of wind blew through the surrounding smoke.

“Was that her lips!?”

He looked back but found she was already gone.

He knew it was silly of him, but his emotions were in turmoil. He was losing track of just what feelings were running wild in his heart.

Even though her message was clear: I could kill you right this instant if I wanted to, but I will not. For now.

However, he did hear a voice somewhere in the forest.

It had a teasing, singsong quality to it.

“From the control rifle to the horn core – tactical close. Schwarz Schütze, disarm and await further orders.”

A low metallic rumbling came from outside the forest.

“Trains are meant to move. I was only using 30% of its true power, so make no mistake about your chances.”

Miyabi looked around with the double-edged sword in hand, but he could find no glimpse of that conspicuous blonde hair or dress. Yet she was not shouting in anger, so she could not be far.

“Also, I had set this stage with Moebius in mind. I, Celina Bodenburg, shall withdraw for now and set aside some later time especially for you. This crucial event shall prove the Bodenburg Company possesses the strongest power, so I need to put on the best show possible, don’t you think? So I will prepare the finest stage on which to kill you.”

The gap in skill level was simply too great.

Miyabi Blackgarden had only been a target to the very end.

“Farewell, my fated enemy. Please await the next available opportunity.”

And with that, she really did disappear.

Her voice, her presence, and her piercing pressure were all gone.

“…”

Left behind, Miyabi stood in a daze.

The most he could do was mutter to himself.

“ She never did notice the sorcery bomb. Is she more careless than she lets on? Is that all-knowing thing just an act?”

“Koo.”

“Hm? What is it, Alma?”

“Koo koo!!”

“Ow! You don’t have to bite me! Especially not repeatedly!”

The mystery creature was in a bad mood, so Miyabi had to guard his own legs.

“Anyway,” he said before a rustling of the undergrowth interrupted.

Some familiar voices followed.

“Hey, what in the world happened?”

“A-are you really still alive, Miyabi!?”

It was Alicia the elf and Helen the government official. Either they had found the end of the giant crack and walked around or they had thrown a rope across and used that. He was relieved to find no stray shots had hit them, but he also felt deeply exhausted.

“First, I have to explain all this to them.”

A sketchy young man’s voice reached him from a different direction.

“H-hey, you’re not just going to leave me out here, are you?”

“And I have to deal with that old man.”

Miyabi held his head in his hands.

“Sigh. How did I end up with all this extra work on my plate?”

The Lucifer Horn roared by overhead.

That ultimate sorcery weapon was built around a Wicked God horn.

### Character Profiles

Miyabi Blackgarden

Age: 15

Sex: Male

Height: 165cm

A perfectly ordinary boy with a friendly nature and a tendency to get involved in everything. Yet he keeps finding himself caught up in very non-ordinary problems, like Alma growing attached to him after hatching from a Wicked God egg and receiving the Lucifer Horn Godhorn Tech from Moebius.

Alma

Age: Unknown

Sex: Unknown

Height: 25cm

Probably the only juvenile Wicked God currently known to humanity. Miyabi was the first person it saw after hatching from its egg, so it tends to view him as its parent. Sometimes and during certain circumstances, it grows larger, but the sample size of 1 makes it impossible to say if that is a trait of all juvenile Wicked Gods or if it is unique to Alma.

Alicia Blueforest

Apparent Age: 13 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 140cm

An elf of the Blueforest race. Elves have always been a friendly species with a fair amount of contact with humans, but Alicia is especially friendly and regularly visits the human village. She is interested in human techniques and has picked up alchemy as a hobby, so she wears a radio-shaped philosopher’s stone around her neck.

Helen Clockgear

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 168cm

A Republic official who was sent from the central capital primarily to observe Alma, the juvenile Wicked God. She calls herself a government official, but her actual position is closer to being a spy tasked with infiltration, intel gathering, and sabotage. But on a personal level, she is starting to accept Miyabi and Alma who have grown so innocently attached to her.

Moebius Entrance

Age: 22

Sex: Male

Height: 185cm

The most powerful of the fixers, those who accept “personal requests” to resolve any trouble that the rich and powerful do not want becoming public knowledge. His skill can be inferred from the crazy fact that he possesses a Godhorn Tech despite not belonging to any specific country. And his skill extends beyond using that Godhorn Tech.

Godhorn Tech Bomber: Lucifer Horn

Pilot: Miyabi Blackgarden

(Previous Pilot: Moebius Entrance)

Affiliation: None

Size (LxWxH): 30m x 50m x 5m

A Godhorn Tech shaped like a giant bomber. Generally unmanned. Contains a lab for the creation of chemicals from plants. Injection of the chemicals is used to activate the Wicked God horn so it can fire powerful energy blasts. Extremely powerful, but the excessive tune-ups of the already high-power Wicked God horn cause it to overheat and stop firing if used too much. Design motif: witchcraft.

Celina Bodenburg

Age: 14

Sex: Female

Height: 155cm

Only daughter of the world-renowned Bodenburg Company. She was raised to believe money can solve all problems, giving her a domineering personality. But her skill is real and she was left in charge of the Schwarz Schütze, foundation of the company’s shipping routes.

### Between the Lines 1

This is a story about Celina Bodenburg.

It takes place a few days before she arrived at the Blueforest forest.

Every age of every world has its villains.

A free and open world still gives power to villains.

It gives them as much power as it gives anyone else.

“Man, talk about easy money,” said Dake Grassland, the large bearded man who led the group.

The stone-paved roads between large cities were crucial infrastructure for bandits as well. Especially in the endless expanses of plains where the knights’ attention was lax and the patrolmen could be bought off. That “prime real estate” would naturally be caught up in turf wars between bandits, but that was not a problem for this group.

There was a reason why they could so easily monopolize this artery of trade.

“Hey, Professor . You sure this is all you want for your share?”

“I am.”

“I’m not complaining about paying out less since our expenses have gone way up as our group’s gotten so big, but you could really stand to ask for more. It’s honestly weirding us out that you’re not.”

Dake kept a jocular tone, but he noticed the other person did not do the same.

A gloomy girl looked back at the bandit leader. Her name was Airi Downerzone. She wore a thick cloak pulled up over her head, but below that she only wore a negligee so thin the color of her skin showed through. The outfit was unusual for travel or for sleeping. She almost looked like a grim reaper wearing nothing but a cloak.

The teenage girl known as the Professor said little.

She lived in her own world. Time seemed to move at a different speed for her.

“I only need enough to survive off of.”

“Really?”

“But you did say I could take the ‘trash’ you have no use for yourself, didn’t you?”

She made it sound like she was doing them a favor by disposing of some defective items and trash, but the pressure behind her words would not take no for an answer. The pressure was all the more powerful because she herself was not aware of it.

There was something else she wanted far more than the obvious treasure.

Something the bandits could never imagine a use for.

Dake Grassland was honestly curious, but in an unusually perceptive moment for a bandit, he could tell that getting greedy here would end badly.

That girl had singlehandedly given them complete control in this area.

In this world of swords and sorcery, the sorcery side of the equation was incredibly powerful. The bandits had failed to master the sword but also lacked the guts to go for something as new as a gun, so they had been left with axes and hammers that relied on simple weight. Even as a group, they could not hope to face someone like that.

Airi had annihilated anyone who attempted to intrude .

But it was no more than coincidence that the gloomy grim reaper girl had joined this group in particular. If another organization would have helped her gather “trash” more efficiently, it was this group that would have been blown away while her magic tore into the ground.

“So what kind of ‘trash’ was there this time?”

“You mean the Beast Nova, right?”

Dake Grassland jerked his bearded chin toward the toppled wagon.

The grim reaper girl walked over with her thick cloak dragging behind her. Yes, she was clearly dragging the cloak, yet she moved in complete silence. That was enough for the bandit leader to shudder since he had failed to make it sneaking into mansions as an urban thief, so he had been forced to accept the outdoor life of a bandit where they only had rum to drink and dried meat to eat and never got to take a proper bath.

A change came over Airi when she peeked behind the wagon.

She smiled.

She had not batted an eye while blasting other bandit groups with powerful magic and converting them into fertilizer, so this smile was even more chilling than when she had calmly crushed and killed.

“Excellent.”

“Really?”

“That is a harpy. Flying Beast Novae are ideal because you can easily restrain them by breaking their wings.”

The figure seated on the ground trembled.

She could apparently understand human language.

“Couldn’t you just catch one of the wild monsters out there?”

“Capturing them alive is the hard part. My magic is so powerful I end crushing them instead.”

They were talking about a girl with giant falcon wings instead of arms. She was probably meant to keep away other monsters instead of as a product to be sold. Just like how people would wear a tuft of wolf fur on a necklace to ward off animal attacks. By taming a powerless Beast Nova and living with it, the hope was its smell would rub off on you and others of its kind would choose not to attack. Merchants who made long journeys by wagon often used that trick.

Then again, that was why they were often targeted by humans instead of monsters. Only wealthy merchants had the money to spare to tame a Beast Nova, so they might as well have been walking around with a sign saying “attack me, I’m rich”.

“There are several cracks in this continent,” said Airi Downerzone with her sticky smile intact. “A dark mist known as miasma rises from deep below the surface. Humans cannot fly over it or descend into the cracks to investigate, so these create what are known as World Barriers.”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“I am researching them. If a Beast Nova falls into the depths of those cracks and manages to crawl back out alive, they break past the limits of their own species, becoming a Wicked God. …Now, that is only an old legend without any real reason to believe it, but I want to see it happen.”

The harpy started shaking her head.

Was she calling that story a lie, or was she protesting the idea of having the experiment run on her?

If it manages to crawl back out alive.

I want to see it happen.

Airi had no guarantee of the subject’s survival, nor had she ever seen it work. Even though she had tested it several times. In plays, throwing someone alive into the miasma-filled cracks in the continent was a standard way for gangs to execute traitors.

Just then, a subordinate interrupted.

“Dake, there was a kid hiding in the wagon. What do we do with him?”

The bandit leader glared at his subordinate more than necessary because he was worried the youth had overseen the pathetic look on his face a moment earlier.

“Tch. A young boy?” he growled at the terrified youth. “What do you even do with that? We can’t sell him to a brothel or to the mines.”

“If you have some ‘trash’ needing disposal, then give it to me. I can toss it into the crack along with the harpy.” The cloaked girl smiled thinly. The smile seemed to split across her face. “Hee hee. Ee hee hee. I’ve thrown a few Beast Novae into the cracks, but never a human. Who knows, maybe the legend grew distorted over the ages. Maybe it really needs to be a hum-”

Before she even finished her sentence, a massive shape plowed into Airi Downerzone from the side.

“Hm? Hmm?”

Celina Bodenburg made some puzzled noises inside the Schwarz Schütze.

That mass of alchemy was 500m long, yet it broke the rules of trains by not needing a fixed track. The armored train constantly created new metal rails and constantly laid them out on the ground using the two rollers lined up on the front car, allowing it to travel across sand, snow, or whatever other terrain the continent threw at it. Now, the metal rails were so solid not even the average illegal diggers could remove them. That left ugly marks on the land, so she had a personal rule of avoiding roads, campgrounds, and other areas where people would see the result.

(What a pain. These small negatives really add up, so you can’t ignore them. Maybe I should invest a bit more in environmental protection before it influences our brand image.)

She was the queen of land travel.

The bandits had been out of luck the moment she encountered them. But the tragedy was only going to get worse for three primary reasons.

First, the Schwarz Schütze was a Godhorn Tech, a sorcery weapon so massive it towered over people, but it was by no means slow. The sensors installed all over the train searched its surroundings and accurately picked up even the smallest oddity.

Second, Celina Bodenburg was obsessed with money, but she was also a young girl with a lot to learn about business. That meant she would still get involved in issues with no chance of profit, calling it philanthropy or advertisement.

“Oh?”

And third, she had noticed the emblem on the side of the toppled wagon.

“Now that is a problem. They might be a tiny regional company, but we do business with them.”

With a dull roar, an unseen power grabbed at the girl and tugged her to the right.

The massive armored train had taken a wide curve to make a U-turn while the many alchemy cannons on its roof accurately rotated. That weapon could fire over a mountain range dividing two countries and crush the battlefield on the other side, so it was extreme overkill for protecting a trade route.

Instead of horses, the bandits were riding on the backs of giant six-legged ants made of metal. They had likely stolen those Slaughter Ants. They were 5m long and they might have been nigh untouchable with 1000 of them at their disposal, but their opponent this time proved why the “nigh” was necessary.

In this world of swords and sorcery, the sorcery side of the equation was incredibly powerful.

Especially when that sorcery was a 500m mass of alchemy equipped with a legendary Wicked God’s horn as a direct power source.

(Fools. Those are the parliament defense troops we sold to the Republic. They’re our products. Some official must be selling near-new malfunctioning ones in the name of research.)

“From iron to copper, from copper to lead, from lead to tin, from tin to mercury, from mercury to silver, from silver to gold, and from gold back to iron. Metals grow through the cycle of combination, death, and resurrection. Oh, great serpent, create a closed spiral and construct eternal stability. Here I choose seven-groove rifling with a right-hand twist.”

Of course, the Slaughter Ants coming her way had to be disposable decoys.

Schwarz Schütze’s crystal sensors danced gently along the river surface to accurately detect the other group trying to sneak from the field. That group was using the fancier winged model of Slaughter Ants.

After attacking one of the glorious Bodenburg Company’s business partners, they had realized they stood no chance, abandoned their weaker subordinates, and made a run for safety to ensure they did not lose everything.

“Set the Knight of Wands warhead – that is, fire in fire.”

She knew exactly what they deserved: death.

“Swiftly eliminate all worldly obstacles to our expert work, Schwarz Schütze.”

With a deafening boom, the world was compressed.

But it was not the swarm of gray-shining Slaughter Ants that was blown away. The green ground covered in weeds was torn up and the dirt blasted into the air became a storm that shredded the air and the bandits like a shotgun blast. A single attack changed the course of the river and created a new lake.

A second and third attack followed.

This would continue until the girl was satisfied.

This army of bandits was using illicitly-obtained military weaponry to arm themselves like a national cavalry, but such a minor threat was shredded like wet paper.

A criminal organization’s value came from their ability to remain hidden.

The more legendary the criminal, the less was known about them. For example, not even the national intelligence agencies knew if the top-class assassin known as Shadow Crack was a man or a woman.

So it should have been plain as day what would happen to bandits who carelessly revealed their presence like this.

“Calcination, coagulation, fixation, dissolution, digestion, distillation, sublimation, separation, incineration, fermentation, multiplication, and projection. From the 12 operations found in the 12 constellations, I choose the 1st – the Ram’s calcination.”

Trains were meant to move.

The Schwarz Schütze’s greatest selling point was the combination of its simple mass with its ability to act as the continent’s greatest ceremonial ground for alchemy. When combined with a technique capable of breaking all matter down at the smallest level, it became a deadly weapon that would crush any obstacle in its path, no matter the strength or size.

“I offer one final tribute. Those lives would normally be worth no more than the ashes you leave behind, but today is special. I will have our research division reveal your identities and send a small monetary gift to your families. Although I imagine they disinherited you long ago if you are out here working as bandits.”

No one ever heard their filthy pleas for their lives, but they only had themselves to blame. They were out here in the middle of nowhere to ambush and kill their targets.

Unlike the first pass, the train did not even shake when it hit them.

The alchemic operation of calcination referred to exposing a specimen to such intense heat that the solid was reduced to a powder .

“Hm, that should about do it.”

The countless sensors on the exterior of the armored train picked up footage of a harpy and small child staring in a daze. The ground had been torn up, the path of a river changed, a new lake created, and the entire map rewritten just to save those two. They may have felt their lives were not worth all that.

(And that is the correct conclusion as a businessperson. Advertisement and marketing are only given such large budgets by the companies large enough to have begun the cycle of money making money. If you want to avoid driving yourself into bankruptcy with unprofitable philanthropy, then don’t try this at home.)

“Now, then.”

After plowing that land without batting an eye, Celina Bodenburg threw out her cold tea and made some more.

If she wanted to call this the strongest power, she needed to create enough legends that everyone already knew what she could accomplish.

That also meant she could not allow anyone else to reduce the quality of her efforts.

She already had a target in mind.

“I will destroy you next, Moebius Entrance.”

### 014. Chapter 2

### Chapter 2 Section 1

Everyone feared the great power of the Wicked Gods.

Humans were the only beings that wanted that power for themselves.

He was a mess.

Back in a room of a simple wooden house, Miyabi Blackgarden could not get out of bed. He felt like his muscles had been replaced with mud.

But the morning arrived despite his protests.

“Please get up.”

It announced its presence with a polite young woman’s voice.

Helen Clockgear was not just inside his house – she was inside his bedroom.

“Miyabi, you need to get up. It’s morning.”

“Ugh,” he groaned, but not because he had low blood pressure.

That young woman provided a little too exciting a visual. Her long black hair and glasses made her look like a stickler for the rules, but then there were her clothes. The chest was left open, the part that was buttoned still left her navel visible, her tight skirt was short enough to show off her thighs, her hair decorations looked like devil horns, and the whip on the back of her hips looked like a tail. He appreciated her waking him up, but this was a little much for his adolescent heart.

He did his best to keep her from noticing his reaction.

“Helen? What are you doing here?”

“I am a Republic official. Managing people is my job.”

“You unlocked the front door with magic again, didn’t you?”

“That is not an abuse of my powers. It is a part of my job. On that note, Miyabi, as peaceful as this village is, you should really use a Jack class or better lock for your outside doors. Anyone can get through a 9 of Diamonds.”

He caught himself before pointing out she would break through that as well.

Then the (busty) glasses woman pointed toward the wooden door.

The cacophony of people working with the lumber could be heard even in here. That meant it was already past 8 in the morning. Miyabi found it easier to tell time that way than using the mechanical clock Helen had brought from the big city.

“I made you breakfast, so please come to the table.”

She left his bedroom and her footsteps creaked down the narrow and steep wooden stairs toward the dining room. His parents were not here, but that was common in this village. When one parent was home, so was the other. When one was gone, they were both out deep in the forest. He knew his boss and the older apprentices better than them.

It must not have been cold enough for Helen to light a fire in the fireplace. The morning chill woke him up before he even washed his face.

The table contained a simple breakfast of toast, salad, and ham and eggs. The simplicity was due to the magic stove and poorly-sealed refrigerator being old and falling apart, not because Helen was a poor cook.

She had apparently expected him to wake up sooner than this, but the food was not cold.

The tableware itself seemed to keep the food and drink warm. That would be more magic. He got to see a lot of convenient magic when Helen was around.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Miyabi had a mug full of hot milk (which somehow had not developed a film on top), but Helen’s cup only contained cold water as she sat politely across from him. But not because she was showing restraint; she really did like the village’s water.

“It recovers so much of your magic. Enough that you don’t even need to stay at an inn. I wish I could fill a bottle with it and carry it around with me, but I go through it so fast.”

“?”

Born and raised in this village, Miyabi had no idea what she meant, but the forest water straight from the well was apparently a rare thing for someone who had lived so long in the capital.

“So why are you cooking me breakfast?”

“I would prefer not to, if I’m being honest.” She was blunt about that. And she was approaching the ultimate decision of whether to put salt or sauce on her ham and eggs. “ The Republic has no Godhorn Tech. So what they fear most is what you might do with Alma. For example, you could break off the horn and sell it on the black market. If that found its way into the hands of the remnants of the old monarchy scattered across the land, the country could be in serious trouble. So to ensure their own safety, the Republic wants to ensure all your needs are met and you are never short on money.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“No thanks are necessary. I am only monitoring you for the country’s sake.”

She complained, but she had also refrained from adding carrots to the salad because she knew he didn’t like them. How cute could she be?

“Speaking of, where is Alma?”

The juvenile Wicked God would normally come running at the smell of food, so the curvy glasses woman explained.

“That elf dragged the poor thing outside to play.”

After eating, Miyabi volunteered to do the dishes. He hated working with the cold well water, but Helen warned him not to take it for granted. He still didn’t understand. They could get an endless supply of the stuff from the ground, so why was it so valuable? Washing dishes and his own face was a pain. It was so cold he had to wrap his aching hands in a towel to warm them before heading out to search for Alma. Helen followed him to “monitor” him as usual.

This was a small village.

It was half overgrown by the forest and Miyabi lived in a log house. Everything here was made from wood. But it really was a small village, so the roads were made of exposed brown dirt packed down by feet, hooves, and wagon wheels. Stone pavement was beyond anything they could hope for out here.

“In this village, we make a living cutting down the forest’s trees. We’re the only village out there that’s made a contract with the elves. We’re special!”

Lumberjack (Older Apprentice) was very cheerful for so early in the morning.

He worked accurately even as he smiled and greeted them. He ran his saw along the colorful pattern glowing on the magically-hovering log, rapidly shaping the desired piece of lumber. He worked alone on a tree several times taller than he was and his saw was unnaturally sharp. He had likely added on some water magic to cut with the water pressure. Miyabi could not do any of that yet.

(Special, huh?)

The village prided themselves in being left in charge of the forest by the local Blueforest race of elves. Although Miyabi sometimes wondered if the elves had tricked the humans into maintaining the forest paths, thinning out the trees, and all the other jobs they couldn’t be bothered to do.

Whatever the case, the village was hard at work for another day.

The sorcery bomb had been a very close call and the Celina and Schwarz Schütze problem remained, but he had protected this scene nonetheless.

“Please keep quiet about what happened,” quietly warned Helen, walking alongside him. His heart jumped when he felt her warm breath on his ear. “A single village boy wields a Godhorn Tech when not even the entire Republic has one. If word gets out, you can’t live here anymore. Do you want to be on the run around the clock? The remnants of the old monarchy still fantasize every night about bringing back the slave trade and they would love to get their hands on that thing.”

“So I’m a secret warrior, huh? Heh heh heh.”

“Why does that appeal to you? Sigh, boys never do grow up, do they?”

At any rate, he asked around for information on the long-eared hag.

“Hey, Miyabi! Tell that elf girl she can play in the village if she wants, but she shouldn’t use our lumber as an obstacle course!” (Lumberjack (Middle Aged))

“Sob, all I wanted was to make friends with some cute elves, so how did I end up surrounded by big burly men?” (Lumberjack (Newcomer))

“Ho ho ho. Watching Lady Alicia enjoy herself is so relaxing. Our ancestors agreed to a contract with the elves, giving us permission to cut down the forest’s trees, but it all happened so long ago no one remembers what the exact terms of the contract were. But that smile on Lady Alicia’s face is all we need to know we still have their permission.” (Elder)

None of it was very helpful.

And that old man’s lines were always long. Too long.

“Hm.” Helen placed a finger on the side of her glasses. “That elf isn’t surrounded by tourists like I expected.”

“?”

“The plays always present forests as a home to the elves and Azul Titanio isn’t that far from the Republic’s capital, so it’s known in some circles as a good health resort.”

“Azul what?”

“That’s the name of your village, Miyabi. Wait! Did you forget the name of your own home!?”

“Everyone born here just calls it the first village.”

“That’s sad. But it is a known social problem. When a long and complicated name is added to the official maps, the locals can end up abbreviating it to the point that no one there recognizes the correct name.”

That could explain why the pub and inn did such good business for a small village.

Miyabi had lived here all his life and one of his earliest memories was clinging to Alicia’s back and tugging on one of her long ears, so he had trouble understanding this talk of a health resort and traveling to see an elf. To him, the big city sounded a lot more convenient and comfortable.

And.

“Koo, kwehh!”

“Ah ha ha! Come and get me!”

He heard a joyous voice coming from the edge of the village where the forest had more or less taken over, so he took a look and then sighed.

“Finally found you,” he said.

“What are you two doing here?” asked Helen.

“O-ohh?”

For some reason, Alicia Blueforest froze with her hands in the air.

“Come to think of it, what are we doing here?”

“Koo?”

Seeing the two of them tilt their heads, Helen placed a hand on her cheek.

“Peaceful as always, I see.”

“ I’m sweating bullets over here, worried my spot as the adorable mascot is at risk.” The radio complained from the elf’s chest. “Curse that vile beast. No decency at all. There might be a million faces to choose from in this world, but I only get to use one of them as an icon, you know!?”

“I want to hear what that old guy has to say. To figure out what to do next.” With Alicia, Alma, Helen, and the radio here, this seemed like the best chance for this. “What about the rest of you? You can sit this out if it doesn’t interest you.”

“Kyoo kyoo!”

“If the juvenile Wicked God is going, I might as well go too. I wouldn’t have anyone to play with anymore.”

“Vile beast! I belong at the chest of this real elf! Don’t you dare steal my position!!”

The philosopher’s stone created a staticky noise resembling grinding teeth, but Helen ignored it.

She might as well have been the village guide at this point.

“I believe Mr. Moebius is being treated at the clinic.”

Rural villages like Miyabi’s “first village’ tended to have small clinics instead of big hospitals. There was no end to careless accidents with sharp blades in the logging industry, but most any illness could be treated here. With the number of wagons carrying heavy lumber out of the village and the proximity of the Republic’s capital, any patient with a serious enough injury or illness could be transported elsewhere, weather permitting.

For that reason, rural Azul Whatever-It-Was’s log house clinic was very well equipped. It had a simple design, but it was kept extremely clean with magic. Miyabi did not like the feel of the place. It was clean, but in an unnatural way.

A creaking of metal sounded in the village’s lifeline.

It came from the axle of a wheelchair.

The tall-redheaded man wore a coat that made him look more like a pirate than a noble, but that wild impression was ruined by just the one item.

“Does that mean…?”

“Don’t worry about it. I was already planning to retire at some point.”

Miyabi was struck speechless, but Moebius Entrance himself did not seem to mind.

This world had no recovery magic.

Magic could sterilize a room or mix a medicine, but it could not directly affect the human body. It could create a medicine to heal a cold or boost the healing power of a cast holding together broken bone, but it could not heal a rare disease or serious injury that lacked a corresponding White Sorcery Item . So as destructive as a Godhorn Tech was, the user could not cheat death or serious injury. They would have to groan in pain while using magically-boosted medicines and bandages just like everyone else.

“This gave me the chance I needed.” Moebius smiled. “Passing the Godhorn Tech onto you is a burden off my shoulders.”

“…”

“Let’s get down to business.” He still sounded lighthearted. Maybe he always did. “The Sorcery Doc said I can’t talk for long. Ow…”

“And I can see why!”

“Looks like he needs medicine and water.”

On Helen’s instructions, Miyabi handed Moebius some water and medicine to drink.

“Phew. There’s no point trying to show off here, so let’s just get this over with.”

“Is this about the 11th?”

“That’s an important issue, but they’re only a shadow. They’ll have gone into hiding and we won’t see hide nor hair of them for a while. They attack on a whim, so they don’t seem to get fixated on a single target when their attack fails.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t predict what they did.”

“And a fixation on a single target would make them really easy to predict. But the 11th doesn’t make it that easy. Anyway, keep them in a corner of your mind, but you have a more immediate threat to deal with.”

“More immediate?” Miyabi looked Moebius in the eye. “Do you mean Celina Bodenburg and Armored Train Schwarz Schütze?”

“Ha ha. Memorized both of those long names already? I guess imminent death is a good teacher.”

The term “armored train” must have sounded odd coming from the carefree forest boy. Moebius sank down into his wheelchair with a mischievous smile.

“Now that the Godhorn Tech is yours, you’ll be her new target. You’ve got an idea of how she does things now, right?”

“Yeah, she wouldn’t hesitate to attack just because we’re in the village.”

“Koo…” Alma worriedly cried at his feet.

Moebius nodded.

“But unlike the 11th, Miss Celina is easy to predict. She wants to secure the continent’s safest trade route using an unbeatable power no one else dares even attack. That way she can increase trust in the Bodenburg company and raise its value. So she will not allow any other Godhorn Tech to fight on the same level as hers. That’s all she’s fighting for. ”

“She really thinks money is everything, doesn’t she?”

Miyabi sounded exasperated and Moebius sighed.

“It’s not her fault. She was raised to think that way.”

Raised.

That was a simple word, but it had a somehow ominous ring to it here.

“And we’ve all benefited from it. Take a look around you. That company’s logo is everywhere.”

Shocked, Miyabi picked up some items around the clinic. The bandages, medicine bottles, and examination and treatment equipment all had the logo. So did the bed, the shelves, the cups, and the pitcher. He had never paid any attention to it, but now that he did…there it was.

The Bodenburg Company.

With the exception of the furniture made with wood, hammers, and saws, the hand-mixed medicines made from local plants, and the White Sorcery Items, almost all of the clinic’s equipment had been brought in from the big city and bore that logo.

“It’s everywhere…”

“That is a frightening level of market penetration,” commented Alicia, viewing a cylindrical package of chocolates with a frown.

“Pretty much any magical product is from them these days,” said Moebius. “And this village is more self-sufficient than most. You have that forest and the carpenters to thank for that.”

“And me,” added the elf. “You need to thank me for the forest’s blessings, boy.”

“?”

Miyabi was not sure why, but Alicia placed a hand on her chest and proudly winked at him.

Moebius continued on, whether he knew the reason or not.

“There are a lot of cities on the continent that can’t even get food and water without the company’s help. They own all the fishing rods and nets at the lakes and they control all the firewood and blankets in the snowy areas. They gain customers by offering enough convenient services for the local industries to deteriorate.” He smiled as he continued. “But you can make use of that. You know why Miss Celina fights, so you can set the perfect stage for her and guide her there. That means you can move the battle outside the village.”

“…”

“Still afraid of attacking another person? This would’ve been so much easier if you had only seen the Schwarz Schütze, but unfortunately you saw Miss Celina first.” The young man displayed his injured body in the wheelchair. “But don’t forget you already wielded the Lucifer Horn in battle and others saw it. You need to assume both Miss Celina and the 11th see you as a Godhorn Tech user. You can’t back out of the fight now. Not after asking me to lend you that power so you could save me.”

Sometimes having the power to fight caused a fight to happen.

But the boy had lived his whole life in this peaceful village and only ever thought of blades as something to cut through grass and trees, so he couldn’t be blamed for not realizing that.

Nevertheless, only his friends would listen to his complaints. His enemies would show no mercy. Celina and the massive Bodenburg Company that supported her were more powerful than the average country and they had poured everything they had into building that Godhorn Tech. That weapon’s cannons were now aimed squarely at Miyabi.

He may have been fortunate he had not known what he was doing.

If he had truly understood the threat, he might have fainted.

“Sometimes, options present themselves to you, but you won’t gain anything by sitting around until you’re out of time.”

Moebius then doubled over and groaned.

He had already taken some medicine, so blindly giving him another kind would be dangerous. And he appeared to know that.

“Okay, I’ve hit my limit.” He wiped sweat from his brow. “If you want some more details…yeah, you can come see me again tonight.”

Miyabi said nothing, but it was still up to him to choose.

“This is your life, so choose your own path through it.”

The village grew quiet at night.

Miyabi Blackgarden was lying in his bed staring up at the ceiling, but traversing the wood grain labyrinth with his eyes was not making him feel sleepy.

“…”

He couldn’t stand it anymore.

He held a hand to his head and sat up in bed.

In a village alongside the forest, the people were very careful with fire, but putting out the fire in the fireplace had still been a mistake. The chill of the night had crept into his room before sleep took him.

He doubted he was getting to sleep now.

“I should go ask that old guy what he can tell me.”

“Koo,” agreed Alma, squirming in the same bed.

He got dressed, left his house, and found a familiar face waiting with her back against a nearby tree. That familiar face had long ears.

“Hi,” she said.

“What are you doing?”

“Did you think you were the only one who had business with that Celina girl? The elf village might be safely tucked into an alternate dimension, but she more or less burnt the entranceway. I don’t see why I shouldn’t give her a piece of my mind.”

Alicia Blueforest gave a grumpy snort and Alma wobbled as the white stuffed animal thing nearly drifted off on its feet.

“Zzzkoo…”

“Mh, why are you so sleepy, Alma? I suppose this is late for a child, even if you are a Wicked God. If you need someplace to sleep, just leap into my chest and I will carry you around.”

“Another threat to my position!?” protested the radio hanging from the elf’s neck.

Miyabi smiled bitterly.

“Whatever the reason, I appreciate the company.”

“Y-yes, the village feels very different at night,” said the radio. “And thorough exploration is the key to adventuring. You might just find that annoying person blocking the way to the mysterious door is absent at night.”

“Now, ignoring the usual stray signal,” started Alicia.

“But don’t even think about leaving the village! You might run across more powerful monsters that only appear at night or on the full moon! Always make sure to train your party to a decent level before straying from the main story path! Don’t assume you’ll be safe just because you’re still in the early stages! And make sure to stock up on antidote items and sleep-prevention accessories before attempting to fight the alternate enemy forms!! Once those status effects get started, they come for the entire party!”

“Again, ignoring the stray signal!!”

After silencing the radio’s incessant chatter, Alicia crouched down, picked up sleepy Alma, and held it to her chest.

“Personally, I’m surprised we haven’t seen Miss Busty Glasses.”

“Let’s just get to the clinic. I want to hear what Moebius has to say.”

Miyabi did not need the radio to warn him about the dangers of the night. In the logging industry, working at night was like asking for an accident. You never wanted to enter the forest or operate a saw in the dark.

The village was quiet (except for the one establishment that served alcohol) as they walked to the clinic. With the sole exception of the pub’s lights, the starlight was the only thing illuminating their path. The clinic was wrapped in tranquility.

But something wasn’t right.

It was too quiet.

“Huh? There’s no one here.”

“Koo?”

“But could he really leave the village in that wheelchair?” asked Alicia. “The forest ground is covered in tree roots and rocks and that Celina girl just dug the place up , so I doubt he could have gotten far with that injury.”

“Assuming he isn’t endlessly going for random encounters in the hopes of finding a pink-haired succubus in a slingshot swimsuit, silver-haired brown-skinned apsaras covered only by a vanishingly thin cloth, or some other sexy night-exclusive mid-boss, then wouldn’t he be somewhere inside the village?”

Most of the philosopher’s stone’s line was incomprehensible, but Miyabi frowned at the ultimate conclusion.

Yes…

“Somewhere in the village?”

“That’s still running this late?”

“…”

The boy and girl fell silent and Alma tilted its head.

“Koo?”

The place had an entirely different aura.

The instant Miyabi hesitantly opened the door, the darkness of the night was swept away by colorful magic lights very different from his lamp at home. The din of excitement and mirth hit him like a physical blow. The young woman with her silver hair tied back in a single braid at the center of the pub appeared to be a dancer. She was wiggling her bare navel to the applause of the drunk crowd.

A full-on bunny girl greeted Miyabi with a smile. A young woman with long black hair wore a white and pink costume, including decorative long ears that, unlike the elf’s, extended vertically.

“Hello☆ Welcome to- eek!?”

Miyabi’s group looked around the noisy pub with its bunny girl and dancer.

“Now, where is that complete moron?” asked Miyabi.

“Hmm, I doubt he could have faked an injury like that,” said Alicia.

“That just means he’s such a moron that he decided to join in the festivities despite his injury.” Miyabi sounded exasperated. “Is he actually out drinking?”

“Heh.” The radio hanging from Alicia Blueforest’s neck interrupted in an unusually subdued way. “Sometimes a man gets so caught up in searching for the finest videos available that the dawn sneaks up on him. It can happen the day before an interview and it can happen the nervous night before a major surgery.”

“I’m not sure what that means, but I suddenly want to disinfect this piece of junk.”

Meanwhile, the busty white-eared bunny was muttering to herself.

“Th-they haven’t noticed. They don’t realize it’s me? G-good!!”

She clenched her fists and gave a snort of triumph before speaking up with a renewed smile.

“I am Venus, this the most popular girl you’ll find here. Welcome☆ Then again, you two look a little young for this kind of-”

“By the way, what in the world are you doing, Helen?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!?”

Her scream sounded like it was tearing apart her large chest.

Had she thought they wouldn’t recognize her without her glasses?

She just about fell backwards on the booze barrel behind her and her eyes wandered while she sweated profusely.

“Cough! Cough, cough! Wh-who is this Helen? My name is Venus.”

“We don’t have time for your comedy routine, slutty exhibitionist,” said Alicia. “Just tell us where Moebius is.”

“Koo?”

“Stop it, vile beast. Honest questions like that can be like a sharp knife in the gut at times. Like when you’re using energy drinks to fuel an all-night online gaming session and you’re riding that midnight high when an ignorant elementary school kid logs on.”

The radio’s comment somehow felt like a finishing blow.

The sexy young woman (sans glasses) tried and failed to say more in her defense.

“…!?”

I swear I’m not doing this because I want to and I haven’t had a drop to drink. This is a traditional Republic method of intel gathering. You see, statistics have proven that drunks have loose lips and I can’t ignore an order from the higher ups. Ahh, why did you have to come here!?

If they could have read her flapping lips, they would have found something along those lines, but no voice ever made it out.

Miyabi’s group spotted the wheelchair they wanted among the swaying drunks and the dancer(?) sitting on the edge of the stage instead of doing her job.

Moebius Entrance raised a hand in greeting from a round table, showing no sign of guilt.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here?”

“My wound hurt like hell, so I wanted some way to forget the pain☆”

“You know that’s like warming a bump on the head with a compress, right? There are always these idiots who sprain their ankle and try to reduce the swelling by soaking in a hot spring.”

No one was listening to the philosopher’s stone’s pointless trivia.

“If you ask me, alcohol is a disinfectant for the soul.” Moebius waved his empty glass. “Veeenus! Bring me another bottle o’ this tasty stuff! Or maybe I should get some water. Man, everything’s so tasty I can’t stop drinking!!”

“Eek!? U-um, I really don’t want to go back to that table…”

The bunny jumped enough for her large chest to jiggle vertically, but Miyabi was coldhearted.

“Helen, this guy’s being a pain, so get over here.”

“At least call me Venuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!”

The tearful bunny rushed over.

Moebius hummed while pouring more amber-colored liquid in his glass. He would probably be here till morning if they let him.

“If I recall.” Miyabi got down to business. “You said you would tell me some secret plan to lure Celina away from here if I came to you tonight.”

“Finally worked up the nerve, huh?” The man took a teasing tone. “Well, she might be a sheltered girl, but that Godhorn Tech’s power is the real deal. You can’t hope to search out the 11th with her after you.”

“I get that, but still…”

“What, don’t like the idea of fighting a girl?”

“…”

“Oops, I’m outta snacks.” He made it sound like that was more important than any mysteries of the world. “Sorry, but could you grab me a cheese plate? At Mach speed! Oh, do you know what Mach speed is?”

This seemed like a job for sexy Venus, but Miyabi glanced over to see her slumped over with her soul halfway out of her mouth. She apparently had her hands full already, so he had no choice but to get up and do it himself.

He approached the counter.

“Here is your snack plate.”

“Thanks?”

It came out as a question because the large plate made from the village’s wood was handed to him by an unfamiliar young woman with her navel showing. She gave off a sophisticated aura, or maybe refined was the better word, but he doubted she was native to the village. She was the dancer with her long silver hair tied back in a single braid, yet her behavior was surprisingly elegant now that he met her face to face. She had the same upper class feel as Celina, yet here she was working in a pub. She seemed so mysterious and rare.

A faintly sweet aroma reached him whenever her long braid swished behind her, but that would be due to a type of seduction magic, not perfume. It was the same basic idea as when Helen had pushed her large breasts together while clasping her hands in apology after breaking a plate at his house. It worked its way to the forefront of his mind despite the mixture of smells from the food, drink, sweat, and heat filling the pub.

She waved a hand with a smile.

“My technical job title is waitress. My name is Iris Tempinvy. If you’re interested, make sure to ask for me☆”

The teenage boy was very interested but was short on guts and money, so he grew red in the face and froze up. A woman of the night was too high a hurdle for him.

He took the large plate and returned to Moebius’s table with movements stiffer than a clockwork doll.

“Can we please get down to business now?”

“It’s nothing fancy.” Moebius’s words dripped with confidence. “First of all, the Bodenburg Company is the world’s largest company. They judge everything based on its business value. Even Celina’s attack on me was only to advertise her own Godhorn Tech.”

“Advertise?”

Miyabi frowned.

That girl lived in a completely different world from him, but he had to try to understand it. He wanted as much information as he could get. Especially when this could mean the village’s destruction as soon as tomorrow.

“Having a Godhorn Tech is just that big a deal.” Moebius smiled, rocking side to side in his wheelchair. “The Bodenburg Company was built up in a single generation, but that causes some people to underestimate it. Especially by the royal, nobles, priests, and priestesses who tend to cling to musty old tradition.”

Miyabi only looked more skeptical since none of the people on the list sounded like anyone he would ever meet, but he grasped that there was apparently a world out there where people worried about that kind of thing.

“That’s why the company is rumored to have spent a fortune getting a Wicked God horn. They wanted power that the rest of the world would pay attention to.”

“So they have a Wicked God horn and Godhorn tech for business purposes?”

“But what does that matter?” asked Alicia.

The elf surreptitiously reached for a glass full of amber-colored liquid, so Miyabi slapped the back of her small hand. He didn’t know her actual age or her alcohol tolerance, but she looked younger than him and he had felt like he needed to stop her.

“The customer is always right, hm?” said the radio hanging from her neck.

“Exactly.” Moebius’s smile vanished there and they could only hope that was not just part of being drunk. “I’m sobering up now. Hey, grab me some water.”

Helen was still out of order, so Miyabi was stuck with the task. He made a mental note to avoid this position in the future.

The highlight of last time found him again.

The dancer named Iris winked at him from near the counter and even leaned against him this time.

“What’s this? Stuck running errands again?”

“Hyah!!”

“Ah ha ha. You sound even girlier than me! Anyway, what are you discussing all serious-like over there? Is it about magic? Well? Is it!?”

She had apparently heard an awful lot over the pub’s noise. Maybe it was true what he had heard about people who worked with alcohol tending to well informed. But there was a sharpness behind her cheer that suggested she only danced and had not had a drop to drink.

He somehow managed to shake free the temptation of the dancer blowing him a kiss and he returned to the man with a glass of water in hand. It wasn’t often the world felt quite this unfair.

“Now.” The young man looked surprisingly calm after drinking down the cold glass of water. “As hostile as the company can seem, they will shake your hand with a smile if you can work out a deal with them. And that includes the company’s young heiress. Take advantage of her professionalism and you should find a way out of this.”

“Heh heh heh.”

Venus laughed weakly with her head hanging limply back. What was she even looking at? She may have been staring at the magic-powered ceiling fan in an attempt to hypnotize herself and erase the night’s unpleasant memories.

However, the shiny white and pink bunny actually had something to add to the conversation.

“But that only works if you have something valuable enough to draw the interest of that giant company. No offense, but I don’t think this city’s lumber is going to cut it.”

“Oh, he has something,” stated Moebius. “Something Celina would be desperate to get her hands on. Something that would directly influence the world’s power balance.”

“Koo?”

“Wait…”

Miyabi could not believe it.

It did fit the conditions, but could he really make that choice?

“ You’re telling me to sell her your Lucifer Horn !?”

“ Don’t forget, it’s yours now. ”

That correction did not sit well with him.

“When you write her the letter to lure her away, you only have to tell her you have a Wicked God horn for sale. The company already has the one Godhorn Tech to show off, but with all their influence, they still could only build just that one.”

It had the power to change the world, but that did not have to be done with direct violence.

Miyabi Blackgarden held that power in his hands.

Moebius winked and smiled.

“So not even the Bodenburg Company could ignore a chance at buying another, right?”

### Chapter 2 Section 2

The forest had maintained its overall silhouette even after all the ripping and tearing it had undergone. Several masses of a dark metal were linked together outside that forest.

That was the armored train known as the Schwarz Schütze.

It was 500m long and more than 20m tall, it was as sturdy as a decent-sized castle, and it carried enough firepower to break through the front gate of an old-fashioned stationary fortress.

It looked like someone had taken a giant train and a warship and combined them in a flask. The train itself was in fact made using alchemy. A girl in a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems stood alongside the swiveling main cannon equipped on its roof.

“An anonymous letter.”

She was Celina Bodenburg.

A quiet crinkling came from the object the high-class girl held in both hands.

“No signature, no seal, and no documents to lend it any credibility? Someone does not know how this business works. Yet it was wiped clean to prevent me from reading the writer’s residual thoughts. I would never normally agree to something so suspicious, but with such dangerous merchandise, I can see why they would be cautious.”

She smiled a little as she spoke to herself.

“Another Wicked God horn would be nice. If this a trap, I can teach them a lesson with the untouchable Schwarz Schütze. And if it is real, I reap the benefits. Hee hee.”

A group had gathered at the boy’s house during the day.

Miyabi, Alicia, Helen, and Alma were there.

They could not bring Moebius along because of his wheelchair. Plus, he seemed to think of himself as retired, so at the moment, his hangover was probably turning him into a puke machine.

“Okay.” Miyabi Blackgarden got them started. “Let’s set out for the designated location.”

“That would be the inn town to the north. There is a major landmark there, so I doubt we will get lost. If all goes well, it should only take a few days.”

There was no point in asking why they had chosen somewhere so far away.

Their top priority was keeping any largescale battles away from Miyabi’s village, so choosing somewhere closer for travel convenience would defeat the purpose of the entire charade. Helen knew a lot about the outside world, so he had let her choose the location.

That selfish girl would be happily on her way to the designated location right about now. It was kind of cute to imagine.

“Curse that Celina,” said Alicia. “She takes care of everything once you’re her business partner, doesn’t she?”

They left the simple wooden house and cut across the village that was half overgrown with greenery. On the way, Miyabi glanced over at the pub. The rules of day and night were reversed there, so it was entirely silent now.

There was a notice posted on the door: Our dancer is sleeping. Don’t wake her!

“What, hoping to see Venus again?” teased Alicia.

“P-please just forget that!!”

The glasses woman grew red in the face and flustered. That apparently qualified as a nightmare for her.

As for the clinic…he decided it was best not to take a look inside.

But the curtains at one of the windows parted and Moebius greeted them as casually as if he were simply delivering a forgotten item.

And for some reason, the dancer from the night before, Iris Tempinvy, could be seen through the window next to him.

“Hee hee. Don’t worry about Moebius. I will be taking very good care of him.”

…Why?

Miyabi looked legitimately confused.

Her pretty navel was so bright he felt like it would bring tears to his eyes if he was not careful.

Where had this come from? Had they engaged in some adult form of communication that an adolescent like him could not hope to understand or even imagine!? A bare-navel dancer was too much for him! How did you even go about getting to know someone like that!?

But…

“Hee, hee hee, hee hee hee hee. After losing my position as guest magical researcher in that snowy kingdom, I began a life as a dancer, showing off my body night after night to earn enough to fund my research, but now I’ve stumbled upon a guinea pig who won’t break so easily. The authorities will never notice a thing in this backwater village, so I should make real progress with my research into supposedly impossible recovery magic.”

(Okay, yeah. I’m not getting anywhere near her.)

Even naïve Miyabi could figure that much out.

Maybe Moebius was oblivious to her intentions and maybe he was into that, but for now he spoke down from the window.

“Oh, right. One other thing.”

“?”

“There’s something you need to watch out for now that you have a Godhorn Tech. Using that much power can sometimes distort space-time and you’ll find someone who looks exactly like you challenging you to fight.”

Was that a joke, or was he serious?

Miyabi was not sure, but Moebius had one last thing to say.

“It will keep happening as long as you hold onto your Godhorn Tech – even after 100 challengers or 1000. It’s like a curse to punish you for being the strongest.”

A wide open world awaited him outside the village.

He had often entered the forest, but he rarely went the other way.

This had to be an insignificant plain in terms of the entire continent.

The road was not paved with stones, so the brown path meandering all the way to the horizon looked like it was made out of nothing but wagon wheel ruts.

Still, the rolling green hills of the plain and the horizon below the blue sky felt like a new world entirely for Miyabi Blackgarden.

He wished none of this had happened to him.

But if none of it had happened, he knew he may never have thought to leave the village.

“Koo,” cried Alma at his feet.

But Miyabi blinked.

“Hey, what’s with you? Where did you get those clothes???”

Alma had looked like a white stuffed animal, but it looked different now. First of all, it was colored a bright green. Its texture also looked a little different. It appeared to be wearing a raincoat with a snake motif.

But when he picked the creature up and tugged with his fingertips, he felt a springy resistance. That appeared to be fur.

“Hmm.” Alicia put a hand on her hip. “Alma must change form based on the environment. That form is similar to the Quetzalcoatl, a wind element Wicked God. Maybe Alma can feel the wind more in this open field than when surrounded by trees in the forest. But I never knew Quetzalcoatl was so round and adorable. Ah ha ha!”

“Changed form? Like a tree frog???”

“It may be less like a frog or chameleon’s colors and more like what happens inside an egg or chrysalis. Alma is a juvenile, so their entire body is still developing. I expect they will slowly figure out what form to take after learning more from their surroundings. Oh, Alma! You transform and you’re still cute as can be!!”

The hobbyist researcher elf only seemed to care about observing this one subject. She held it tight and rubbed it against her smiling face, forcing Alma to push her face away with its small front legs.

Then there was the young woman who had a firm grasp on reality and how to survive there.

Helen used a magic called Magnet Search to transform her sewing set’s needle into a weak magnet by running it over the tip of index finger.

“Let’s see, that way is north, so based on the map of the area…”

“Huh? Helen, that metal railroad running to the horizon is the path Celina took, right? Wouldn’t it be faster to follow that?”

“She isn’t taking the shortest route. Not to mention that those are the very obvious footprints left by our enemy. We already know she wants to fight you, so she’s probably left at least one trap for you. For example, she could have buried an alchemy shell with the fuse swapped out for one that will only detonate after detecting the approach of your control sword.” Helen could be scarily cool-headed at times and she shrugged here. “Either way, the standard method is to search out a safe path by comparing what you see around you to your map. But do keep an eye out. A wild Beast Nova could attack after sneaking up on us.”

“Hm. A Beast Nova, huh?”

“Why do I get the impression you don’t appreciate the threat there. Also, simply losing your way is dangerous enough. Getting lost out here is a very different experience from getting lost in the safety of your village.”

Miyabi thought about a number of things while walking on and on toward the northern inn town. There was a world out here that he never would have seen if he had not taken this step. Same for the animal and carnivorous plant Beast Novae they occasionally encountered. He would not have seen any of it if he had not set out to do so.

Meanwhile, the elf was half in tears.

“Can you two please stop using that discriminatory language!? Beast Nova might be technically defined as any lifeform not in your traditional encyclopedias, but you humans just use it as a catch-all term for everything that isn’t you! Which means you’re calling us elves ‘beasts’!”

“Shut up and fight! Do you want to die!?”

“I could tell you were panicking, but nice job slaying that Beast Nova, Miyabi!” Helen shouted, stabbing her thick short sword into a giant carnivorous plant rustling around on the ground.

These attacks were hindering their progress a lot. They had barely moved at all on the parchment map. Why did that distance of about three clips never seem to shrink any? Was it the scale? As they walked onward with weapons always at the ready, the sun was soon about to set.

The orange blaze in the sky was so bright Miyabi could only stare in bewilderment.

“How many more monsters are going to show up come nightfall?”

The elf used a different term, which was apparently acceptable to her. Perhaps Beast Nova was too broadly defined, whereas there was a clear distinction between a monster and an elf.

“Well, we were never going to cover this distance in a single day anyway,” said Helen.

“But if we sleep here, we’ll be surrounded by monsters!” protested Alicia. “I just know it!!”

Miyabi listened to the irritated voices while tracing his fingers along the sword he wore over his back.

That was the Lucifer Horn’s control sword.

“Moebius did mention some kind of hideout we could use. He called it the Horn Fortress. It’s a small island surrounded by magical barriers or cracks in the world or something.”

“You mean we would ride the Lucifer Horn there?” asked Helen. “Now there’s a scary thought.”

The idea of flight was unfamiliar to them since they had lived their entire lives on the ground. Anything beyond climbing a tree sounded terrifying. Traveling at high speed through the sky was downright unimaginable.

Maybe it was possible, but they did not have to test it out now. Nothing would be quite as foolish as attempting a potentially dangerous challenge and then actually dying when there had been no real need to do it at all.

So they took a more realistic option.

“Let’s search out a body of water before it gets dark. We can set up camp there.”

“Hell yes!! Now we’re setting the stage for a bathing scene with the moonlight shining on bare skin!! What kind of fantasy story doesn’t have some nudity in it!?”

The radio raised its voice while swaying back and forth at Alicia’s neck.

But this was not as simple as a kid’s sleepover party. They were out in the middle of the plains – that is, nature. This was nothing like the maintained village, so they could not find anywhere that would shelter them from the elements.

“Helen, don’t you have some magic to shelter us from the rain?”

“And let you leech off of my magic all night long? I don’t think so. Besides, the tent has some weak monster-repelling magic.”

“Hold on. That won’t make Alma or me feel ill inside it, will it?”

On capable Helen’s sharp instructions, the others cleared the tent’s planned location of rocks, but it was plenty cold even before the sun had set. They only had a fabric tent waterproofed with a wax coating, so it had no heater and Miyabi was worried if they would survive the night.

“Wh-what do we do once night falls?”

“Gathering food comes first,” said Helen.

There were no fruit trees around and the lack of food for animals meant none of them either.

In fact, any location without Beast Novae would naturally have no other animals either. Alicia Blueforest belatedly paled at that realization.

“W-we’re in serious trouble, aren’t we!?”

“Just kidding. Tah dah! I brought 4-5 days’ worth of preserved food just in case. The meat and fruit are dehydrated, so they’ll stay good for a while.”

Their somewhat early dinner was tough.

The extreme focus on preservation meant the oblong bread was so hard Miyabi thought he was going to dislocate his jaw chewing it. He could probably equip it as a weapon. The same went for the dried meat and fruit. Eating was supposed to be refreshing, but the more he ate, the more it dried out his mouth. The stuff was pretty awful without a cup of soup to go with it. The novelty was winning out this time, but eating this same thing for days on end would drain your spirit.

“I should probably prepare a trap tomorrow,” said Alicia. “Or catch some fish if we come across a river.”

They were going to spend the night there, so it was time for the tent.

“Let’s do this.”

Helen opened a small bag on the ground and something large expanded from within. The movement looked similar to popup book, but the end result was clearly too large to fit in the bag. The contents included a tallow lamp, a metal grilling plate, a barrel, a water filter full of pebbles and activated charcoal, a large wooden bucket, a washboard, and the rolled-up tent they were actually interested in. And beyond the camping items were a set of small spice bottles, makeup, a toothbrushing kit, some bath products, and more.

How had that all fit in there?

Miyabi’s dazed stare earned him a puzzled look from Helen as she grabbed the tent bag. This was so ordinary to the sexy glasses woman that she had never imagined someone would question it.

A moment later, it hit her and she explained.

“Oh, this? It’s just magic. Compress Cargo is a must for any trip☆”

“Wait! If that exists, why do I always have to carry all that heavy work equipment and firewood on my back in the forest!?”

“Nothing good comes of taking the easy way out before you build up sufficient strength,” said Alicia, sounding exasperated.

“That’s right. And,” added Helen. “Compress Cargo is far from perfect.”

Had she decided he would start making impossible requests if he got it into his head that magic was all-powerful?

“No matter how much you train, there is always a two second delay between accessing the items and selecting one, so keeping your combat gear stored like that can be a deadly mistake. Plus, the magic can only store so much. The size compression ratio is only around 100:1 at the most.”

He was a little curious what kind of past Helen had lived if a two second delay could be deadly, but Granny Alicia said something more attention grabbing.

“Technically speaking, it is not compressing the matter through application of an external force. The shape of the Palette Dice is wound up for storage and then extended again once you pull it out.”

“Palette Dice?”

“That is the smallest unit of all the world’s matter. They used to call them ‘elements’ way back when.”

Alicia winked in a needlessly smug way as she showed off her alchemy knowledge.

According to the little elf who was trying to act the big sister, examples included rock, metal, and snow. There were as many Palette Dice as their were types of matter and what looked like sand or soil was actually made of particles too small to see even with a magnifying glass.

“This stone here is actually made of countless particles. There are so many of them that you would see spiraling ribbons expanding in every direction if you could take a peek into that miniscule world. But that means there is a lot of wasted space there. By winding and folding up those ribbons, you can reduce the apparent weight and size. Think of it like a leaf versus a leaf bud.”

Miyabi couldn’t make any sense of it.

“Hmmm. I don’t get any of this alchemy stuff. It’s like reading a poem while trying to do math.”

“This is not limited to alchemy. The operation of Palette Dice is crucial for a witch’s cauldron and the empire’s magic automata. Honey and chicken seem like their flavors would clash, so why is honey chicken so delicious? Because of the bond that forms within the hot frying pan. …Anyway, because this magic packs things in by reordering them at the lowest level, anything too complex ends up a jumbled mess and can’t be restored to its original form. Yet the magic can only be used to put things in and bring them out, not to intentionally mix them together. It’s really just a quick help while on a trip, so it has a lot of flaws. For example, authenticity is everything for art and antiques, so their value would plummet if you used this on them.”

“Hm? That actually sounds kind of dangerous to me.”

“It is very dangerous. Which is why the magic is made to forcibly expel anything alive. Life cannot be made lighter or smaller. Well, with the exception of the legendary alchemist’s Holy Gate.”

“So you see, Compress Cargo won’t work on a house or castle because they are too complex and have too many parts,” said Helen.

“The same goes for firewood. As you should know from the technique of grafting, cutting down the forest’s trees does not fully kill them. But you can use Compress Cargo to get ticks out of a filthy blanket.” Alicia winked in an exasperated way as she gave an explanation for the boy who had never traveled before. She then lowered her voice to make one more addition. “You can say the same thing about the Wicked God horns that give off such great power even after being broken off.”

Once the sun had fully set, the radio started to celebrate in the moonlight.

Under the much-appreciated guidance of Outdoor Expert Helen Clockgear, they had set up just the one tent.

“Ha ha ha!! Too bad, Miyabi. As the only boy, you’re stuck with a lonely night outside. Kids at home, are you sick of this G-rated dreck, yet? Well, you’re in luck because a very adult night is about to begin! And Miyabi? Don’t feel too bad. While I spend my night resting between four amazing breasts and awash in the sweet scent of the girls, I will make sure to enjoy it enough for the both of- ahh!!”

The radio was the one casually tossed out into the cold.

“Yawwn. Okay, let’s get to sleep, boy,” said Alicia. “You too, Alma.”

“Eh? What?”

“Miyabi, scoot in closer,” said Helen. “The tent isn’t very big.”

“~ ~ ~!!!???”

He was dragged inside the tent, which had no walls or partitions of any kind.

When people gathered in a single space, heat also gathered. Especially when those people were an elf and a young woman. So it had not been too cold to sleep.

Nevertheless, Miyabi Blackgarden did not get a wink of sleep.

He was pretty sure they didn’t have to put him in the center…but that was not the reason.

“Hey, um.”

“Yes?”

It was still before dawn, but Alicia responded when he addressed her on his right. Her distinctive long and pointy ears were twitching. They were picking up this threat too, so Miyabi paled in the darkness.

“They’ve come to play, haven’t they? I can sense something outside the tent! Is that the radio’s curse or something!?”

“Sh! Be quiet, Miyabi!”

Helen was also awake on his left. He did not hear her rummaging around, so she must have still had her glasses on. Did that mean none of them had gotten any sleep?

There was good reason for that.

The wax-coated waterproof tent was thick, but still only a single layer of fabric, and they could hear a deep growling from the other side. The clacking footsteps told them whatever this was had thick claws capable of tearing through the tent in a single strike.

Miyabi gulped while lying motionless in the tent.

“That sounds like more than just one.”

“This isn’t a cheap tent,” said Helen. “What happened to the safety features? The outside should be covered by a monster-repelling magic circle while we sleep.”

“Oops.”

The two humans glared coldly at the elf.

Her long ears twitched and she poked her index fingers together in front of her medium-sized chest.

“Funny story about that. Um… (I’m sorry, but those beast-repelling spells are so imprecise they would also repel a pretty elf like me from the tent and I figured there wouldn’t be any real monsters this close to the village anyway, so…ah ha ha.)”

“Miyabi, on the count of three.”

“Got it, Helen. We can chuck this moron out of the tent as a diversion. What’s the point of an immortal elf if she’s dumb as a brick?”

“I’m sorryyyy!!” sobbed Alicia while clinging to Miyabi.

The green stuffed animal creature only now rubbed its sleepy eyes and gave them a puzzled look.

But even if they did use the elf as an offering to nature, Miyabi and Helen had nowhere to escape to. This was a wide-open plain, so there were no walled cities or cliffs that would stop a beast from pursuing them. They knew they could not outrun a legit beast, so the elf’s noble sacrifice would be in vain. They would all die soon enough.

“Miyabi, Miyabi.” The glasses woman, whose skillset included cooking and assassinations, beckoned him over. “Assassination magic includes the Sleep and Confusion spells. Let’s take some random food – yes, like this leftover soup in the pot – enchant it, and throw it outside. On this part of the plain, we’re probably dealing with Shadow Hyenas, a type of Anti-Zombie that will eat just about anything. They aren’t very smart, but they’ll go straight for any tasty-looking food.”

“Oh, this is sounding like a real plan. What can I do to help?”

“Kick that stupid elf outside to buy me enough time to finish the incantations.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am. But wouldn’t it be faster to just enchant her?”

“I said I was sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”

The boy only said “yes” or “right away” to every instruction, so he seriously prepared to kick Alicia out. But then…

“Ahhhh ha ha!! Could you travelers use a hand!?”

A strange voice came out of nowhere.

It spoke human language, so it probably wasn’t the Beast Novae. And sure enough, they heard several explosions and shockwaves outside the tent, followed by the cries of the monsters.

And these cries were all pitiful whines and shrieks.

The group in the tent exchanged a glance.

“Wh-what now?” asked Alicia. “I think something’s happening out there.”

“If we can communicate with whoever this is, it’s a step up from before,” said Miyabi. “I get the feeling that approaching them like a normal person won’t get us anywhere, though.”

“But if they have even half a brain, they’ll probably check inside the tent if we don’t say anything!”

Miyabi slowly opened the tent flap and poked his head out.

Monster corpses littered the ground.

They had black fur and red eyes (were they Shadow Hyenas?) and Beast Novae like that would be terrifying to run across. In fact, any wild animal bigger than a large dog would be. Yet these had fallen by the dozens.

Someone stood at the center of the KO’d beasts.

She stood proud and tall.

The beautiful woman of around 20 wore a red dress and had her long black hair parted behind her head with the ends braided. But the bight leg showing from the bold slit in her skirt and the gloves over her hands were too aggressive to simply describe her as alluring and sexy. Not to mention the humongous axe taller than she was with its blade scraping against the ground.

When their eyes met, she grinned like a child and gave him a peace sign. She was a very different kind of beautiful young woman than Helen. For example, Helen’s tight skirt provided the hope of seeing something without ever quite providing a glimpse, but the wide slit in this woman’s skirt was very generous when it came to glimpses of her black underwear. Which was a problem. Especially when they were black! But she didn’t seem to care at all.

“Hello, travelers. That was a close one, huh?”

“Oh, maybe she isn’t that weird after all. No one with an axe could be a bad person.”

“(Miyabi,)” whispered Helen. “(I know you grew up in a logging village, but you have to know that reasoning is absurd. If you saw a masked serial killer, would you walk over to shake their hand!?)”

“(The poor fool has fallen for the Curse of the Shadow Panties,)” added Alicia. “(You need to break free!)”

But the red dress martial artist (with black underwear) showed no intention of attacking them. Still smiling, she pointed here and there.

“If you don’t mind, could I borrow that firewood? You lucked into a whole lot of Beast Nova meat, but you can’t eat it all before it rots, can you?”

“D-don’t talk about eating Beast Novae in front Alma and me. That’s discriminatory language! And that bright smile only makes it worse!”

Alicia held green Alma in her arms and trembled. The stuffed animal creature only looked sleepy.

The red dress woman ignored that, held a hand over the remains of their campfire, and magically started a new fire. Something like smoke burst out and then then the collapsed beasts were transformed into meat on the bone in no time at all.

That was the meat processing magic called Target Cooker.

It only worked on dead animals, so it had no effect on living targets. It eliminated the painstaking processing of draining the blood and removing the organs, but the fur, fangs, and any other “inedible” parts would vanish into thin air. The professional hunters in Miyabi’s village avoided using it for that reason.

Since it worked on anything “dead”, it could also be used on the rotting Undead type of monster, but that was forbidden.

“I’m Victia Magnumfist.”

“Are you?”

“I’m working to establish a self-defense style I’ve developed so anyone can travel safely and comfortably, but I haven’t had much luck so far. So how about it? Learn my techniques and you’ll never find yourself in that sort of trouble again.”

“That sounds wonderful, but how long does it take to learn these techniques?”

“Ah ha ha! Don’t be so cautious. I’ve designed my training methods with beginners in mind. Anyone can learn it with ease after only three or so broken bones and about half a year living on the border between life and death!”

“…”

“And I’ve been feeling pretty lonely, so I would love an apprentice. How about it? You’d be Apprentice #1, so I’d make sure to give you extra TLC!”

Miyabi was sorely tempted by those large boobs, that bared thigh, and the black underwear, but he caught himself. Could he really keep up if he was asked to play with bears or tigers? He also had to wonder what exactly her idea of TLC was. He would be all for it if it meant learning some pinning techniques that involved a lot of close body contact, but he had a feeling it would not be anything that fun. The instant he agreed, he just knew something bad would be coming his way. Something real bad.

“(Hey, Miyabi,)” whispered Alicia. “(We need to neutralize her. Do you think you could convince her to give up that axe?)”

“Oh? You have a sharp eye, Miss Elf. Your suspicions are correct: I am even stronger in barehanded combat. The axe is a handicap to slow me down. Ah ha ha!!”

“…”

They all fell silent this time.

This was extremely bad.

She was harmless now while she was laughing, but they knew they could not afford to make her mad. In fact, they had heard a few explosions outside the tent, but did this mean she hadn’t used any magic for that?

Miyabi laughed with the ugliest smile he had made that day.

“Ha ha ha. Today’s not a good day for me, so maybe next time?”

“Ah ha ha. Let’s do it now.”

“Today’s a bad day. Next time?”

“Ah ha ha.”

“Today bad.”

“Now good.”

No matter how ugly he made his smile, he couldn’t get through to the smiling dress woman. They all realized this was never going to end unless he said yes. Worse, her fist was clenching tighter and tighter even though she was still smiling. Her limit was fast approaching.

Helen whispered with worry coloring her face.

“(Miyabi, Miyabi. Why not test out that thing here?)”

“What thing?”

“(That small island surrounded by magical barriers or cracks in the world. Was it called Horn Fortress? Anyway, that hideout only you can use. Why not call in the Lucifer Horn, scoop her up, and carry her off as an inactive party member? We need to put as much distance between her and us as possible. I don’t think she means any harm, but keeping her around will only lead to trouble.)”

That idea hadn’t occurred to him.

This was a journey of firsts for Miyabi Blackgarden and now he stabbed his control sword into the ground.

“Lucifer Horn, do the thing Helen just described!”

It flew in.

“Okay, everyone! How about we start with the basics? Don’t worry, I’ve gone through it all myself. When you break your first bone, your body will figure out on its own how to heal it as good as new!! …Oh?”

The woman finally noticed something was amiss.

A long, long wire dangled down from the Lucifer Horn, which caught Victia Magnumfist’s red dress on the back of the neck.

Then it flew off.

“Ohh? Wait, what is this? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Her scream vanished into the night sky.

Miyabi’s eyes widened at what he had done.

“Ehh!? That’s how it retrieves party members!? I never want to fly like that! I want something fun, like riding on a broom or on a dragon’s back!”

Apparently, the Lucifer Horn could not slowly descend for them.

They had acquired a reliable new party member, but Helen was staring off into the distance.

“I-is she even still alive after that?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Alicia Blueforest showed no mercy. “It’s basically impossible to kill a moron.”

After a few heart-pounding nights camping out, it was the third day of their quest.

They were all exhausted by the time they arrived at the northern inn town.

“Ughhh. I-I never did catch a single fish,” complained Alicia. “I’m so sick of those dried foods! Give me something hot to eat!!”

“…”

“Oh? What’s wrong, Miyabi?” asked Helen. “Hee hee. Feeling homesick already?”

The capable glasses woman failed to realize how he felt after getting so little sleep. Unbeknownst to her, she tossed and turned in her sleep a lot, so his face had been violently attacked by her boobs time and again during the night. And to turn that seduction into a finishing blow, she had a bad habit of reflexively jabbing a knee between his legs whenever he stirred. It was all well beyond what he would consider a reward.

There were several rusted railroad tracks left on the ground, but they all had developed gaps in places. Miyabi could not imagine why the trains had stopped traveling through here. The town itself had a lot of windmills and water storage tanks. He could tell the people left here had stubbornly clung to life even after they were cut off from the outside world.

There were a lot of people.

Were they from the village, or were they here to buy some junk? Miyabi had grown up in a village where everyone held the same values, so he found it strange to see such a mixture of people wearing different clothes and eating different foods.

“I don’t like the air here.” The elf sounded sick as she looked to the gray metal houses and stores made from gathered junk. “I miss my forest.”

But they had no time to rest.

A dark colossus already towered above them.

It was 400m long…or was it 500? And it had to be at least 20m tall.

That was the strongest power that worked to keep the trade routes safe and secure. The train was loaded with boxes and barrels, but did those use the Compress Cargo magic that had fit so much inside that small bag? If so, how much cargo was it carrying across the continent?

Helen consciously calmed her breathing before speaking.

“So that’s the Schwarz Schütze. It really is big.”

“It’s more conspicuous than the entire inn town,” said Alicia.

But this meant the girl waiting for them was surprisingly faithful to her promises. They had made sure they could complete the trip with time to spare, but would she have kept waiting even if they were late?

“You think that thing’s conspicuous? Then check this out: a real life high-class girl. That’s the thing about a fantasy world – all the girls belong to some rare type or another!”

The radio was right.

One of the many side doors silently opened. She must have decided they were approaching the train to meet her, not just gawking from afar.

“So you have finally arrived.” Celina Bodenburg, the rich girl who valued money above all, brushed her blonde hair back from her shoulder. “Punctuality is a crucial part of running a business, so even if you have a Wicked God horn to sell me, I don’t have all day to-”

Her words stopped.

They caught in her throat.

“…”

Her eyes bulged out.

She looked like she couldn’t even breathe as she pointed at them.

“Ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? Y-you!?”

She even had tears in her eyes.

What kind of connections was she making in her head?

“So the new horn in the letter was…no, the entire letter was a lie, wasn’t it!? Of course it was! What ‘new horn’ could anyone have found other than the one in the odious Lucifer Horn!?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her fists, and lightly pummeled Miyabi’s chest. Even though she had a Godhorn Tech right there. Miyabi was dumbfounded.

“Argh, enough of this!”

The short-tempered elf brought her fist down on the new money girl’s head.

“Ughh.”

Celina Bodenburg sobbed for a bit, but then the wiring in her brain seemed to reconnect. Without warning, she grabbed her bayonet-equipped hunting rifle – the control gun for the Schwarz Schütze.

The boy stared in shock.

If she stabbed that into the dry ground or the rusty and incomplete tracks, then the world would be destroyed around them.

“So this was a trap, was it? Control gun, connect to the horn core. Tactical open!!”

“Wait, wait!” shouted Miyabi. “I really did bring a Wicked God horn for you. Just hear me out!!”

“You…what?”

Her surprise was overwritten by his proof.

With an explosive roar, a colossal form cut by overhead.

“Bomber Lucifer Horn.” He spoke the name of his card. “I ended up with it by pure happenstance and it’s honestly too much for me! But I can’t just throw it out. I want an expert to take it off my hands. Is that so hard to believe?”

“…”

Silence followed.

Was she taken aback, or suspicious?

“A Godhorn Tech is extremely powerful. That doesn’t seem like enough of a reason to get rid of one.”

“Even thought it means having people like you after me all the time? I don’t want to go on some rampage across the world; I just want my normal life back.”

Yes. In Celina’s money-focused worldview, there was no advantage to giving up a Godhorn Tech. But what about the disadvantages of keeping it? Calculating risk was a part of business.

“And Moebius agreed to this?”

“He neglected to mention how dangerous it would be.” Miyabi shook his head like he was washing his hands of all this. “If he can pass it off to me and escape, then I should be allowed to do the same! Please, just give me my life back!!”

“…”

More silence.

But the temperature was different this time. She seemed to be assessing him.

“Well, I can do that for you if you want. Have the Lucifer Horn land according to my instructions.”

“You mean it!?”

“But there is an etiquette for such things.” She winked. “Just continue to follow my instructions.”

### Chapter 2 Section 3

A powerful, heavy rumbling shook the armored train.

The Schwarz Schütze was traveling even further north. Despite the season, white snow coated the ground outside.

Miyabi had been taught that trains were inconvenient vehicles that could only run on the metal rails already installed through largescale construction projects, but everything had its exceptions.

The Schwarz Schütze laid its own rails as it went.

Alicia used her knowledge of alchemy to explain that the two rollers on the front of the train were laying out short rails like bricks to endlessly construct a track for itself. That left great scars on the ground after it passed through, which infuriated the nature-loving elf, but Miyabi honestly wanted to see it in action from the outside.

“We’re riding it.” Miyabi was weirdly excited for someone in the middle of enemy territory. “We’re riding a Godhorn Tech. Wow, can you believe it? This thing is so weird.”

“If you ask me, it’s weirder for a weapon of this size to leave the user on the outside.” Helen sounded somewhat exasperated. “Not that the Republic knows much about these things.”

Miyabi had only ever played around in the forest’s trees, so he didn’t understand how this product of alchemy worked. Alicia knew enough about alchemy to be shocked by how ridiculously wasteful it was, but only two things really mattered: the Lucifer Horn was strapped to the enormous train’s roof, and Miyabi’s group were onboard the train.

Alma remained the green of the wind-element Quetzalcoatl, so manmade metal and stone must not have qualified as a new environment.

(I’m going to destroy this thing.)

Miyabi still couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

This was a vehicle, but it had a second and third floor.

Just one of its cars could fit five or even ten of his log house inside, but several of those cars were linked together, giving it a worm-like shape. He wondered if all of the village’s buildings, from the homes to the church, would fit inside the train.

(Can I really do this? Moebius has been right so far, but he didn’t give us the next step. Just that we need to find a weakness inside it. He said we were sure to find something if we looked at it from a different angle, but I’m not so sure.)

He had known it was used to transport cargo, so he had expected the cars to basically be crude warehouses on wheels, but he instead found a fashionable bar and lounge. It offered a few trendy games like darts and billiards and a ceiling fan slowly spun up above. The magical oven and stovetop visible in the adjoined kitchen suggested that too was top rate. There was a large magically-powered refrigerator and a specialized icemaker. This wasn’t just nicer than Miyabi’s home kitchen; it may have been fancier than the professional kitchen at the village’s pub.

But it made sense when one of the continent’s richest girls lived here. He noticed a faint sweet scent, reminiscent of a girl’s room.

“Are there no maids or other workers onboard?” asked Miyabi, looking around.

“Or bodyguards. The Bodenburg Company should be able to afford private guards superior to your average country’s knights.”

Helen’s comment was a little concerning, but the rural boy did not know enough about military might to fully appreciate its meaning.

“Then is she alone in here? Does everything here run on magic? Wouldn’t she feel faint having so much magic power sucked out of her?”

“Hmph. She probably uses the Wicked God horn for all that,” said Alicia. “It would provide endless energy.”

The palatial interior covered up all of the thick metal walls and floors.

It all felt so much stranger since he could not get a good grip on the scale of the place.

He ended up repeating the same thing he had said countless times that day.

“W-whoa. It sure does shake a lot. You can really tell it’s moving.”

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

Alma danced happily atop the bar counter. The creature adapted quick, maybe because it was so young. The long-eared elf sat in a nearby bar stool to observe the juvenile Wicked God.

“Alma, you aren’t feeling sick, are you? It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You can use this if you need to.”

“Hey, you aren’t opening up my head for use as a barf bag, are you!?”

The hag and the radio started arguing, until…

“Sorry about the wait, everyone.”

A lovely girl’s voice took charge of the scene.

It belonged to Celina Bodenburg.

“The Wicked God horn built into Godhorn Tech might as well be pure energy. Safely removing one is a very different task than simply installing one. Not even our company has reached that level, so we must visit the snowy Arsenal Kingdom far to the north.”

That explained their journey.

“Okay, that much I get.”

Maybe he was being tactless, but Miyabi couldn’t help but stare. A double take was not enough.

That rich girl was wearing a flirty maid uniform featuring knee socks, a miniskirt, and plenty of cleavage. It was so frilly she looked more like a fairy tale heroine than a housekeeper.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

“Why? Because these are my work clothes.”

The miniskirt maid seemed puzzled by Miyabi’s question, but the radio could not stay silent.

“Damn, we are breaking new ground here. Those gaudy maids handing out fliers in front of the train station are fine, but an airheaded rich girl in an authentic maid uniform takes the cake!”

“Reminds you of a recent nightmare, doesn’t it, Venus?”

“Bwahh!?”

The elf’s attack on the glasses woman must have done considerable damage since she had to cling to the nearby billiards table for support. Miyabi wanted to tell her not to stick her butt out in her tight skirt like that, but he didn’t have the guts to say it out loud.

The strange maid shrugged.

“I don’t like it one bit, but you are important business partners. So until our business is concluded, it is my duty to provide you with the utmost in comfort. I chose this housekeeper uniform out of necessity, so I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Is that how it works? wondered Miyabi. I really don’t understand her obsession with money.

However…

“Nothing…at…all.”

“See, I knew that maid uniform was a step too far!! You don’t have to do this for us!”

The girl blushed and the busty glasses woman shouted a warning at Miyabi.

“Wait, Miyabi! Your kindness is like salt in the wound!! Believe me, I know! I know all too well!!”

But Celina refused to admit defeat. She was red in the face with tears in her eyes, but she managed to keep her voice strong.

“A-after all, a Wicked God horn is worth at least a billion methods. Failure is not an option here. I will do anything to land this deal!”

“Bff!? A b-billion!? But a dozen pieces of firewood only gets you five at the most!!”

“Really, boy?” said Alicia.

“Why not forget all this serious crap and go make yourself an island of nothing but girls, swimsuits, and dreams? Hell, you can use that Horn Fortress thing, can’t you? You can snatch up girls from all around the world to populate your island.”

“You be quiet, malfunctioning radio!”

Something about that exchange made Celina raise an eyebrow, but her suspicions were unfounded.

“What’s this? You aren’t trying to pull a fast one on me, are you?”

“O-of course not! But could we put off all this complicated business talk till later!?”

Miyabi was not trying to make waves here.

They were not at all interested in making a deal with the horn. They were using that as a pretext to infiltrate the Schwarz Schütze and find some way to incapacitate it.

He wanted to avoid a battle between bomber and armored train if it all possible.

“Sounds to me like we can boss her around for now,” said Alicia. “Hey, maid. Could you bring us some tea?”

“You’ve got guts, elf.”

The radio was a piece of junk, but it was generally correct.

“P-please, make yourself at home,” said the girl in the unfamiliar maid uniform.

The Arsenal Kingdom was a long way off, so they had plenty of time.

“Feel free to take a look around our company’s pride and joy – the Schwarz Schütze.”

They took her up on that offer to inspect the interior of the train. And when they split up, Celina could not keep an eye on them all.

“Would you like anything to eat?” awkwardly asked the nervous maid in the lounge. “I will do my very best to prepare something for you. I-I should be able to make some s-sandwiches maybe?”

“No, thanks. This place is incredible, though. So you have everything you need here on the train?”

“Enjoying a trip alone is one form of luxury. Having an army of butlers and maids at your beck and call is nice, but it becomes stifling after a while.”

The truly privileged had apparently figured out how to complain about their own privilege.

Celina smiled in a very upper class sort of way.

“Also, I must travel across the continent expanding our trade routes, but there is a lot a girl needs to keep with her.”

“That’s not what I meant. Why not use your hideout? Y’know, the Horn Fortress.”

“?”

For once, she looked truly puzzled.

Finally, anger silently spread across her face.

“Is that…some kind of super-secret Godhorn Tech feature I am not aware of? Oh, I see what’s going on here now. You’re showing off in an attempt to drag some information out of me. Impressive. You have guts attempting such rhetorical trickery against the only daughter of the Bodenburg Company.”

“Eh? No, um, that’s just something Moebius told me about. It’s apparently a secret base where you can take your party members, create items, and set up magic circles to boost your Godhorn Tech’s power.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about. You can sit here bragging about how special you are if you like, but I want no part of it! Hmph!!”

She seemed legitimately upset, so could she really not do it?

Miyabi himself did not see it as bragging since he considered everything about the Godhorn Tech to be borrowed power.

(And the way that wire snags people looks dangerous, so I’d rather not use it if at all possible. If you aren’t a freak like Victia, you’d probably freeze to death. That bomber isn’t made to gently land and pick you up, so I would honestly prefer an armored train that runs along the ground.)

Anyway.

Letting her brag instantly put her back in a good mood. She was holding her head high by the time they arrived at the crude cargo hold where wooden and metal boxes (she called them cargo containers) were stacked as high as a three-story building.

“Heh heh. This right here is the world’s safest cargo hold. A horde of bandits and the worst road conditions won’t harm the products in here. Although at the moment, our most valuable item is the Godhorn Tech strapped to the roof.”

There was also a space lined with countless glass lab equipment.

“Alchemy is crucial to the Schwarz Schütze,” she explained. “The many ultra-hard artillery shells and the very rails that support the train are all made with our own exclusive alchemy. Not only can it continue fighting indefinitely, but it can clear even the worst road conditions with its real-time track laying system!”

She then showed off the foremost room, which looked very important.

Thick glass had sealed away a massive piece of metal that looked far more daunting and impressive than the pipe organ in the village’s church.

“This is the very heart of the Godhorn Tech: the sealed container. Our company’s arms division gathered the best of its technology to safely manage the massive energy produced by the Wicked God horn contained within!”

She’s not a bad girl, concluded Miyabi.

She talked on and on with her head held high when bragging about the Schwarz Schütze. He could tell just how much she wanted to show off the Bodenburg Company’s accomplishments. It was just like a child reading an essay they wrote about their parents’ jobs. If you could ignore the dangerous content of her speech, the tone of voice and mannerisms were downright heartwarming.

Money was everything to her, so dealing with her on equal footing would be difficult. The instant their business deal fell through, she would be his enemy. He really wished they could have met under different circumstances.

Since he was her direct business partner in this deal, she generally followed him around.

Like a chick. Or like a child extoling her parent’s jobs to a visiting friend.

Still, his party found a chance to gather alone.

Strangely, things felt much more dangerous the instant their supposed enemy was absent.

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

“Has this vile thing developed a taste for tea? No! It’s trying to use a shared interest to score points with the rich girl. This vile beast is aiming for a harem end!!”

The rest of them ignored Alma and the radio.

Helen got started while seating her tight skirt butt on a wooden barrel labeled “truffles” and crossing her long legs.

“If we’re going to do damage from within, the alchemy ceremonial ground looks like the best candidate to me. She has more equipment and chemicals in there than the capital’s research library. And keeping such fragile equipment in a moving train is absurd enough on its own.”

“Hmm,” said Alicia. “Or we could use the Lucifer Horn to make a pinpoint attack on one of the links between cars. Those are a structural weak link, so an aerial bombing should be enough to slice right through them. That would be devastating while at speed. We only have to leave a marker at the desired point.”

That was technically possible.

For example, a Decoy Wall could draw in a Godhorn Tech attack to accurately divert it from the intended target. So by sandwiching their target between two of them, the falling beam of light would be twisted around so it sliced through both walls with the one attack.

“When do we make our attack?” asked Alicia. “We need to set things up here, but I would also like to escape before the attack begins.”

“…”

Miyabi fell silent, but not just because he was pondering the coming operation. There was an obvious cloud over his face.

He knew there was no avoiding a battle with Celina at this point. And if they lost their advantage, his home or village might be razed to the ground by the armored train’s firepower.

But still.

Celina was not with them because she was working with the oven. A look through the glass door showed her focused on baking the food she planned to serve them. She generally ate frozen and preserved foods, but she claimed to specialize in baking sweets because she refused to compromise with them.

Alicia Blueforest sighed when she noticed.

“Snap out of it, horny boy.”

“What?”

“That miniskirt maid outfit isn’t distracting you from our goal here, is it?”

“I know it’s all I’m thinking about,” said the radio, earning it a solid blow from the elf’s small fist.

“We came here so we could defeat Celina,” she reminded Miyabi.

“Failure is not an option now that you’ve used your Godhorn Tech as bait.” Helen calmly chimed in. “It will be dismantled once we arrive in the Arsenal Kingdom, so we have to settle this before then.”

“I know that,” grumbled Miyabi.

Down at his feet, Alma noticed something and began crying.

“Kyoo, kyoo!”

Celina Bodenburg was returning with her miniskirt maid uniform fluttering around her.

“Oh, you’ve all gathered in here? The cookies will take a while longer to bake, so why not head in there to talk? Don’t worry. I will accompany you.”

Helen slipped away and Alicia picked Alma up from the floor with a look that said “you deal with her”.

Celina guided Miyabi back to the lounge. The wonderful sweet aroma likely came from the oven.

Once they were alone together, Miyabi spoke his mind.

“This feels weird.”

“Yes, it does for me as well.”

She pinched the frills of her maid uniform and smiled bitterly.

“Um, I don’t really understand how your family does things.”

“?”

“But I don’t see why you need to do all this just for money.”

She did not immediately respond.

She sat on the edge of the billiards table and sighed first.

“Because money is so simple.”

“Is it though?”

“Hee hee. How about an example?” She ran her finger along a table in the lounge and then did the same with the counter. “This table is obviously not worth much, but this counter is of the finest quality. Now, Miyabi, destroy one or the other.”

He hesitated, but he could tell not choosing was not an option.

He drew his control sword.

The Lucifer Horn was in sleep mode, so he was barely receiving any power from the horn. Still, it was far sharper than the average blade.

He chose one of the options and a crash of destruction echoed through the lounge.

“See?” She smiled with just a hint of loneliness mixed in. “People either sacrifice the cheaper one, or they destroy the more expensive one because they can. Either way, they make their choice by ranking the options based on monetary value.”

“…”

“Money is simple.”

She sounded like she was speaking to herself more than him.

“My father always says so. As does my mother.”

Hadn’t Moebius Entrance said she was raised to think this way?

“With money, people will accept you. With money, you can grow. With money, you can do anything you want. With money, you can even protect people’s lives.”

She listed them off like lines of a lullaby.

But the lonely girl whispered one last line.

“With money…your parents will call you a good girl.”

“Wait…”

“The money itself is meaningless. The possibilities that money opens up for you are what matter.”

There was a gentleness to her voice.

Like this was a mantra driven into her day after day as far back as she could remember.

“Enjoying a trip alone is one form of luxury. Having an army of butlers and maids at your beck and call is nice, but it becomes stifling after a while.”

When he first heard her say that, it had disgusted him. It had sounded like the privileged complaining about their own privilege.

But looking back, he realized she had never mentioned her family or any friends.

“And that is enough reason for me to fight to the best of my ability. Feeling disillusioned?”

He started to say something, but he was cut off by a high-pitched ringing.

His heart skipped a beat because he initially thought it was the sign of a nearby sorcery bomb, but apparently not. Celina also looked up toward the ceiling.

“What was that?” he asked.

“A transmission is coming in.”

Celina approached a box on the wall behind the counter. Several thick pipes had covers over them, but this looked different from the speaking tubes he had seen in plays.

“Oh?”

“Kssshhh.”

“It appears to be from outside, but the signal quality is poor.”

She sighed and started fiddling with the device on the wall. He realized it must be difficult for just the one person to look after the entire armored train. And while he knew she was fixated on her work, he really wished she would stop bending over and sticking her small butt out toward him. He was only trying to see what was going on, yet the shortness of her maid uniform’s skirt kept giving him some very distracting glimpses!

“Excuse me, but would you mind helping out? Giving it a solid whack here should do the trick.”

After a loud “thwack!”, the static vanished.

The Schwarz Schütze lived up to its reputation. It seemed his solid control sword could only destroy the wooden furniture.

At any rate, the device was working again. The static coming from the ceiling was replaced by a cool female voice.

“This is Eliza Silverstorm of the White Seidr Chosen Knights. I have identified you as the Bodenburg Company’s armored train.”

“From the Arsenal Kingdom? Thank you for your cooperation.”

Celina must have been through this process before.

Miyabi had been nervous simply leaving his village, but she traveled across the continent to make business deals that rivaled national budgets. She could handle this just fine.

“I assume you have received the entrance request I sent. Surely you won’t claim my messenger harpy got lost along the way.”

“That form is just that: a request. You have no guarantee it will be accepted.”

But even the country boy could tell this was not going well.

He had a bad feeling about this.

Celina grabbed the metal pipe more firmly.

“The Arsenal Kingdom is a northern kingdom buried in deep snow. You might have meat, but I believe your average vegetable production is well below the self-sufficiency rate. Making an enemy of our company will only mean starvation after trade slows to a crawl.”

“You have guts gathering our internal information in the name of business. But this is an emergency. Do I sound like I want to pick a fight with you?”

Miyabi was close to panicking at this point.

“Wait, what’s going on here?”

“We received another letter. An anonymous letter,” responded the female voice. “It alleges that a portion of your train has been replaced with one of the 11th’s sorcery bombs.”

“What!?”

Miyabi felt his throat go dry.

“It also said you may be unaware of this fact.”

Why were they bringing up sorcery bombs now?

“We cannot possibly let you in under those circumstances. We are a fortified kingdom with thick walls surrounding our limited land. A blast of that magnitude within the walls would blow away the castle town where our people live and could do the same to the king’s castle as well. The king gave me my orders once the letter arrived, so this is the entire kingdom’s decision. If you wish to disregard that decision, then provide proof that your train is safe.”

“What is the meaning of this?” asked Celina.

“I wish I knew,” said the voice.

“…”

Miyabi was even more confused than those two.

What was happening here?

“The Arsenal Kingdom’s king is a good friend of my father’s.” The girl weighed things on unseen scales. “I doubt he would make a meaningless bluff here. So is it true?” She spun around. “Miyabi, I need your help to locate the sorcery bomb.”

The rhythmic rumbling continued.

The Schwarz Schütze continued on its way. The fear filling the girl’s chest may have told her that stopping would be admitting to the worst-case scenario here.

Not only was the train long, but it was multiple stories tall as well. But since Miyabi and Celina split up to search the train, he had a chance to speak with his party without her noticing.

“Koo koo!”

“Sorry, Alma, but it’ll have to wait!”

Young Alma was toddling along by his feet, but speaking with it would not help at the moment. That meant he had to contact Alicia or Helen.

Any alchemist would want a chance to check out someone else’s lab, so Alicia was absorbed in the alchemy ceremonial ground. The radio hanging from her neck didn’t have a care in the world.

“Hm? Is that the time limit lighting? Do we have enough time to open some treasure chests???”

“(H-hey,)” whispered Alicia. “(I don’t see anything set up in the alchemy lab, so did you set the marker on the car connection after all? Either way, you should have told us the plan before you got started!)”

Her question told him she had no idea what was happening. She had not even heard about the sorcery bomb.

He also tried asking Helen after finding her in the cargo hold full of wooden and metal boxes.

“I-is something wrong, Miyabi?” She approached close enough to whisper. “(What’s our escape route? We can’t just jump out at this speed, but I hope you aren’t planning to scoop us up with the Lucifer Horn!)”

She also knew nothing and was starved for information.

Regardless, now was not the time for conspiracies and attempts to outwit each other. All of them gathered in the lounge just in time for Celina to return from her search with her maid uniform’s short skirt fluttering.

And…

“You can’t find it?” he asked, feeling dazed.

That was the only possible conclusion when she too had completed a circuit of the train and returned to the lounge.

“Koo?”

“But I doubt the snowy Arsenal Kingdom is picking a fight with our company. They are reliant on our imports for food.” Celina responded immediately, showing how confident she was in that fact. “My father has built a strong connection with them and they are a major business partner, so there must be something to this warning.”

But was she really thinking about this clearly?

To Miyabi, it looked more like she was simply grasping at her trust in her family in her panic.

She unfurled a large parchment map atop the billiards table.

No, it was the armored train’s internal design.

She glanced over at Miyabi and hesitated for just a moment, suggesting she should not be letting outsiders see this, but she finally pushed past her doubts.

Then she grabbed a small box from the edge of the bar counter. It gave off a sweet aroma, so it may have been made from pieces of an aged fruit wine barrel. She poured the darts it contained onto the billiards table.

“Miyabi, stick a dart in the areas you checked. All of them.”

“Um, here, and here, and then here…and here I think?”

“I checked here and here. What about the rest of you? …??? I don’t know what to think now. This covers everything from the cargo hold to the alchemy ceremonial ground!! Then where could it-?”

“Celina.”

“N-no, it’s nothing. That couldn’t be.”

She shook her head and glared down at the parchment.

“Again.” She looked ready to chew on her thumbnail. “We need to search it all again!! Yes, that’s it. It might be mixed in with all the boxes and barrels containing the Compress Cargo items.”

“It’s no use, Celina.” Miyabi shook his head. “I already looked around everywhere beforehand, but I didn’t sense the horn resonance. That means we aren’t going to find it anywhere!”

“ Resonance ? Are you saying you can sense a sorcery bomb’s location!? But I can’t do that…”

“That isn’t what matters right now!”

She started to veer off track, so he verbally forced her back. She seemed aware they did not have time for an extended questioning session because she went along with it and placed a hand on her slender chin.

“In that case…”

That was when another transmission arrived.

But this time, the knight named Eliza sounded much more violent.

“Stop, Schwarz Schütze!”

An icy sensation pierced Miyabi’s heart. His head shot up and his eyes met with Celina’s rather than Alicia’s or Helen’s. They had both been on the receiving end of this great a threat in the past, so they could sense it on an instinctual level.

It was coming.

Something equal or greater to their own power was on its way.

“Approach any further and I will stop you with my Snow Sleigh Godhorn Tech – the Icicle Bullet.”

A violent tremor ran through the train.

Impossibly, it shook side to side, along with the scream of straining metal.

“Kyah!?”

“It directly…hit us!?”

He gasped. Celina lost her balance and he tried to catch her, but then both of them were slammed against the wall.

Even if it had come as a surprise, a single attack had done this to the Schwarz Schütze.

“Kh! Schwarz Schütze, respond with a direct attack of our own!! Immediately activate calcination of the 12 operations!!”

“It is no use. I am more powerful when it comes to pure tackling force. You might have managed a draw in a head-on collision, but you should know I have won from the moment I scored a hit on your side.”

Eliza was right.

Celina had done something, but it did nothing to stop the disconcerting noises.

The armored train was massive enough to forcibly take the star position no matter where it was and it could plow through anything standing in its way, yet it was clearly sliding to the side.

The maid girl paled.

“B-but not even crashing a great mass into the side should be able to-”

“I have derailed you,” curtly stated the ice knight before correcting herself. “Correction, I have overturned you.”

With a great roar, Miyabi’s vision tumbled and his mind was shattered into a million pieces.

Even if the armored train could lay its own track, there was nothing it could do once it rolled onto its side.

The knight’s iron will to keep the sorcery bomb away from her kingdom had rejected their entry.

### Chapter 2 Section 4

Strangely, he did not feel cold.

Which scared him.

“Ow…”

Miyabi Blackgarden was lying on his back and he had to extract each of his limbs from the deep snow before he could slowly get up. Nothing seemed to be broken, but where was he? He was surrounded by a raging blizzard and an unfamiliar pointy type of tree jutted up into the frigid sky. A portion of that forest had been brought down by a scattering of metal rails, wooden boxes, and more detritus.

And by colossal train cars.

(I-I was thrown outside?)

Glass shards and wooden splinters were everywhere. Fancy truffles spilled from a broken barrel and he did not even want to think about how much those had to be worth. The kind of cutting-edge phonograph and film projector never seen in his village were smashed and half-buried in snow. The entire area would have looked like a treasure trove to the scrap collectors who had gathered in that inn town full of sheet iron and rusted rails.

With this much of the contents spilled, the armored train’s exterior could not have survived intact.

The links between cars had broken and they had rolled onto their sides. They were spread out over a wide area, so they and the scattered cargo containers built a strange 3D labyrinth as far as the eye could see.

Miyabi found himself outside.

What had happened to the giant front car? The entire car may have been torn asunder instead of just having the link to the next car broken.

“Are the others okay?”

Miyabi saw the others lying nearby and half-buried in the snow, so he called out to them. His body was number than he had thought. He experienced a general lack of feeling more than any pain from the impact of being thrown clear, but that was no reason to relax. Not feeling the biting cold could easily mean he was close to death.

“K-kyoo…”

“Are you all right, Alma?” asked Alicia. “Even for a Wicked God, that must have been rough at your age. But it’s okay now.”

“It turns out the body you made for me is sturdy, but a little concern would be nice.”

Alma and the radio seemed unharmed and Helen Clockgear mostly looked exasperated.

With a quiet popping sound, Alma’s coloration changed again within Alicia’s tight grasp. The creature was red now. The burning red seemed at odds with the snowy kingdom.

“Ohh!? Is that supposed to be the fire element Phoenix? You’re just so cute!!”

“At least you won’t blend in to your surroundings like with the green of the fields,” bluntly stated Miyabi, noting that this new form did not look any more useful in combat than the last one.

Was this meant to fight the cold rather than function as camouflage? But despite the fiery appearance, the elf was not burned as she held Alma close and rubbed her cheek against it. He tried snatching Alma up (to Alicia Blueforest’s protests), but he felt no warmth at all from the useless thing.

Miyabi held the juvenile Wicked God up out of the short elf’s reach, causing her to hop up and down trying to grab the one member of their party protected from the cold, but his little game was interrupted.

Celina Bodenburg appeared to be having trouble with the blizzard in her flirty miniskirt maid uniform. Her movements were stiff and slow as she got up.

A deep tremor ran through the white land and clumps of snow fell from the conifer trees.

“Eliza’s Icicle Bullet has left.”

That white giant was several dozen meters long. It was designed for ramming attacks, making it look like a spindle-shaped artillery shell with two icy blades attached below it in parallel. It would stab and pierce or crush and flatten. The sorcery weapon felt more specialized than Miyabi’s Lucifer Horn or Celina’s Schwarz Schütze, making it a true oddity. It was so specialized for ramming that the cannon at the center of the top looked puny by comparison. Even though that cannon was enough to obliterate Miyabi’s party on its own.

However, it seemed the still-unseen knight had only been interested in stopping the dangerous train’s approach. She had left without finishing off the survivors. The Icicle Bullet was departing through the blizzard, blasting white snow up from the ground along the way.

But Celina still could not believe what she had seen or what had been done to her.

“What was that about?” she asked. “We never did find a sorcery bomb.”

“…”

Alicia and Helen maintained poker faces.

(Did those two do something?)

Miyabi was curious, but he could not ask in front of Celina.

And there was a problem with that idea.

(No, you need a Wicked God horn to make one of those. Only the 11th can create a sorcery bomb, so it couldn’t have been them.)

But that thought was cut off by the sudden arrival of the real issue at hand.

A high-pitched, evenly-spaced alarm rang in his head.

His horn was resonating with a sorcery bomb.

“!?”

The ringing was loud and constant. It was terribly distracting when he could not turn it off. But Celina noticed the way his head sprang up to look into the frigid white sky.

“Is something…wrong?” she asked cautiously.

“I can hear it.” He gulped. “It’s just like that other time. I’m detecting a sorcery bomb!?”

They could not ignore this. This was a remote snowy forest, but if the sorcery bomb were to detonate without warning, it could reduce a village or two to ashes. Or so he had been told. He only had Moebius Entrance’s word to go on, but he felt that was better than having seen it for himself. However, the scope of the blast meant running away was not a good plan. With the deep snow hindering their movement, they would never escape the range of the blast in time. They would be swallowed up and blown away.

They had to do something about it themselves.

After the Schwarz Schütze derailed and rolled over, it had spread metal rails, wooden boxes, cargo containers, lab equipment, and furniture everywhere. The twisted remains of the giant cars themselves could be seen further in the distance. Nature and the artificial combined to create a deadly labyrinth in this forest.

“Oh, that’s my clothing bag.”

Celina happily reported a find while shivering in her maid uniform. A sleeve was sticking out of a boxy trunk. It did not appear to use the Compress Cargo magic that allowed so much more to be packed inside. But since that magic wound up the Palette Dice – or folded them up? He could not remember exactly – it apparently reduced the value of art or antiques where authenticity was so important.

“Please wait a moment.”

She circled behind a squashed container and rummaged around for a bit.

“What I wouldn’t give for some camera controls right about now,” lamented the radio.

“What in the world are you talking about?” asked Alicia.

It could not have taken more than 10 minutes in all.

“Thank you for waiting.”

Celina emerged in the black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems that she had worn before. It did not appear to use any heat insulation magic.

“That doesn’t look much warmer to me,” commented the elf.

“What is this about a sorcery bomb?” asked Celina. “You said there wasn’t one earlier! Are you saying that anonymous letter was right!?”

Her armored train had been destroyed over this, so he understood why she was upset.

“I can’t explain it either,” was all he could say. “But I can sense it now. If we don’t find the bomb and deal with it, we’ll be blown away along with the entire snowy mountain!”

The distance was all he could sense, so he wanted to walk over a wide area to figure out a general area where the bomb had to be.

It did not have a set form. The previous one had been transformed into a half-rotten and broken tree, so this one could be a box, a barrel, a container, a metal wall piercing into the ground, twisted metal scraps, a billiards table, or a chandelier. Any of the debris strewn across this area could be it, so they could not hope to spot it from a distance.

They walked deeper into the forest, where the remnants of the cars and furniture were. The forest’s trees had been torn down, the cars lay oin their sides with connections broken, and the containers and boxes had fallen in precarious piles. No straight path through lasted for long. They even had to duck below a train car blocking the way and walk along an oblong cargo container spanning a ravine.

Celina did not appreciate navigating a vast labyrinth made from her own possessions.

The contents of the containers and boxes had expanded to their original size when the Compress Cargo magic wore off, making it look like a giant’s toybox had been overturned.

“This feels like one of Strange Guide’s deadly dungeons.”

“?”

“That is a mysterious individual rumored to host death games as a form of entertainment for the immoral members of the wealthy class. I have never seen one for myself, for better or for worse.”

“Hm? The immoral members? Are you saying you’re not like that?”

“Hmph. I will leave that up to your imagination.”

But they were soon interrupted by a low rumbling.

No, a group of Beast Novae passed by close nearby. They were covered in white fur to survive the harsh blizzards and the appeared to be Abominable Snowmen, Werewolves, and the like.

“Kyoo!?”

“Watch out, Alma!”

Alicia moved to protect Alma and then lurched backwards.

“Gh!?”

“Alicia!”

“I-I am fine. I would have died without this hanging from my neck, though. (Grin)”

“What she means is, the claw or fang struck me instead!”

The pervert radio’s legitimate complaint was brushed aside.

Helen cautiously viewed their surroundings with her breath white and a finger on the side of her glasses.

“What is this? Are the Beast Novae afraid of something?”

“Damn, why don’t they focus on running and leave us alone?”

Miyabi had never seen snow monsters before.

They looked a lot more dangerous than the animals in the well-maintained forest of his village. Did the harsh cold environment mean they had to fight harder to survive? Those masses of powerful muscle would normally bring despair to any traveler who encountered them, but now they were fearful and panicked.

Miyabi heard what sounded like the snow and the ground below it tearing apart.

It came from a boar so massive he had to look up at it. The boar must have been agitated because it showed no sign of trying to flee like the other creatures. It was kicking its hind legs at the snow in an attempt to fight.

The philosopher’s stone noted the thick curved tusks.

“Oh…oh dear. Now those things would make short work of me, wouldn’t they?”

“Heh. Is that a fellow forest ruler I see?” said Alicia. “I get what’s going on here. He’s the rear guard, allowing the others to escape!!”

Miyabi’s party would gain nothing from defeating the ruler of this forest. In fact, spending time on it would give them less time for the sorcery bomb.

“My point is that he does not really want to fight. Now, set aside your prejudices, stop insulting him with terms like ‘Beast Nova’, and approach with a smile. I am sure we can work this ou-”

The ruler of the forest charged.

Miyabi swung his control sword to protect the elf who had frozen with a smile on her face. Specifically, he slammed the grip into the boar from the side.

The entire space was shaken by what sounded like a thunderclap.

The enormous boar had to weigh four times Miyabi’s weight, but it spiraled through the air, knocking the trees down along the way. It lay there twitching on the ground after it landed.

What was that?

It had not felt like simply saving his party member.

He stared blankly at his hands on the sword for a while.

This felt so different from when he had been cowering from Celina’s shellfire and searching for the sorcery bomb in the forest, or when the Shadow Hyenas had surrounded their tent that first night out camping. He had only struck the thing with the grip. Only ? Since when was Miyabi Blackgarden the kind of person who violently intervened like it was nothing?

Celina looked exasperated by his response while holding a control gun made of the same material.

“Oh? I see you’re getting the hang of it now.”

“…”

“The more experience you gain, the more efficiently you can wield your own power. It acts as the fuel needed to draw out more strength than you knew you had. Do not forget that you possess one of the world’s strongest powers. Is that only now sinking in?”

That meant Celina was the same.

No, she would have even more experience than him.

This went beyond the Godhorn Tech itself. Its wielder grew more inhuman the more they fought.

Combat alone could change people. Even if they were only fighting to protect their everyday life. Alicia and Helen were able to keep up with the battle despite no control sword or Godhorn Tech of their own, so did that experience affect everyone in his party? The rich girl gave a self-deprecating smile and declined to answer any of his questions.

To avoid thinking about it, he focused on the more pressing issue.

The resonance continued to ring in his mind. The sorcery bomb was out there, but he had not yet tracked down its location. Their only options were act now or sit around waiting for it to detonate.

The fleeing Beast Novae demonstrated no intention of fighting, but their fear and desperation were still dangerous. The more panicked they were, the harder it was to predict where they would charge. They could only aim their weapons toward any noises they heard.

“C-can you summon other partner members from Horn Fortress?” asked Helen. “Victia’s obscene strength would come in handy right about now!”

“Where even is that Horn Fortress?” replied Alicia. “How long does it take the Lucifer Horn to travel there and back again!?”

Miyabi swung his control sword this way and that.

“Why do you use a gun? Those things scare me. I’ve seen the plays, so I know those are what gangs use.”

“Sigh. Don’t let the royals and nobles trick you with their jealous lies, Miyabi.”

“?”

“Unlike magic or swordplay, guns are a next-generation all-purpose weapon that provides power equally to all, regardless of intellect or size. However, the powder must be treated with care, something the countries caught up in musty old tradition have a hard time with. They will carelessly let their armory grow too damp or blow up the entire room after an accidental ignition. So while those hardheaded countries dislike guns, they are spreading through newer, more openminded groups. Like, for example, our Bodenburg Company!!”

None of that seemed to address his fears, but he could not say a word more after seeing how she held her (small) chest out proudly.

She would occasionally aim the gun toward a noise and pull the trigger, but it looked like she was trying to frighten the Beast Novae away with the noise, not kill them.

The muzzle-loading rifle was not made for rapid-fire.

She had to stuff powder and a bullet in through the muzzle and cram it down with a long rod after every shot, but she was still fast. It only took the span of a breath. At the very least, she seemed quicker than someone could raise a large two-handed axe and swing it down. He could tell just how much she had used the gun.

As they trudged through the snow in their search, they came across an entire enormous train car. Wires thicker than Miyabi’s arm had snapped and the other Godhorn Tech loaded on its roof was now jabbed into the snow.

“That’s it.” Celina sounded like she had made a discovery. “There was no sorcery bomb on my Schwarz Schütze, so what if the sabotage was on your Lucifer Horn!?”

“Why would it be!?”

“It’s the only logical conclusion!”

She was adamant about this.

She may have been under more pressure than even she was aware.

“You knew you could never defeat my armored train in a fair fight, so you planned an underhanded trick. It all fits!”

The dark-hearted elf could not look the girl in the eye.

“(Ugh. It’s hard to argue when that was more or less our plan.)”

Miyabi took a deep breath.

It irritated him that his exhalations were visible. It felt like he was giving her a way to read his mind.

“Then we would be reduced to ashes along with you. How is that logical!?”

“But.”

“And the reading is coming from further back. It isn’t here.”

Miyabi could sense it.

Without that, he may have had no way of convincing her.

She still looked skeptical, but…

“Oh, right. You said you could somehow sense a sorcery bomb’s location.”

“It’s weird that you can’t.”

His sample size was too small, but since Moebius had gone out of his way to explain how it was done, he could only assume the man could do it too.

Moebius had said he was using the Godhorn Tech’s power to search, so detecting sorcery bombs may have been exclusive to the Lucifer Horn. And if only Miyabi could do it, then it was up to him.

“Just follow me. I’ll show you where the real sorcery bomb is.”

He gave a random swing of his control sword and frowned, noticing something off about it.

The power of the sword clearly weakened when the tip was aimed toward the Lucifer Horn lying on the ground.

“?”

“Obviously you can’t destroy your own Godhorn Tech with your own control device. Where did you think you were drawing that power from?”

But now was not the time for chitchat.

As they continued into the woods, the warning sounds sped up, showing they were getting closer. This was the right direction. There were no wild Beast Novae around here. They had all fled in fear, but from what?

Most of the trees had been toppled here.

At the farthest reaches of the strewn wreckage, the Schwarz Schütze’s front car lay half destroyed on its side.

The ringing was painful at this point.

“It’s here,” he said, his empty hand holding the side of his aching head.

“Kyoo?”

“Here?” repeated Celina, not sure what he meant.

Thick glass covered a mass of metal far more daunting and impressive than the pipe organ in the village’s church.

The girl’s voice wavered as she looked back and forth between Miyabi and the bomb.

“But that’s the Wicked God horn’s sealed container. Are you saying the sorcery bomb was placed on the horn!? Could someone really replace a component here!?”

“It explains why I didn’t notice it before.” Miyabi grimaced from the deafening noise no one else could hear. “My horn or its energy resonate with the bomb, but there was a more powerful reading than the bomb here.”

“Yes, that does make sense,” said Alicia. “This horn was creating too much interference, but now that it has stopped, the bomb’s reading rises to the forefront.”

They continued the conversation without the person who should have been at the center of it.

“W-wait! Are you saying…?”

“Yep,” confirmed the philosopher’s stone. “The only way to stop it is to destroy that thing.”

“Silence, box!! …Box?” Celina tilted her head at what she had just said. “Anyway, we can rebuild the train as long as that survives. But if the sealed container is destroyed, the horn will be destroyed as well and it can never be repaired! Are you telling me to abandon my Schwarz Schütze!?”

“B-but if we don’t do it, the explosion will kill us all!” shouted a flustered Helen.

But Celina still could not bring herself to do anything.

That showed just how valuable the Godhorn Tech was to her. It was enough to hold her back and restrain her.

No one was telling her to protect the train she was so proud of.

They were only telling her to rob the Bodenburg Company of that power.

The time had come for her to become just a girl once more.

So.

“…”

So.

“…”

So.

“Control gun, connect to the horn core. Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, tactical open!”

Several things moved all at once.

The train had derailed, the links between cars was broken, and it could no longer move, but the many cannons on the roofs and walls turned their heads to answer their master’s call. Just like a mortally wounded beast raising its head for one last threat.

It was an undeniable sign of hostile intent.

Miyabi was flustered.

“Celina, what are you doing!?”

“I cannot give up my Godhorn Tech.”

At first, he thought her face looked flat and emotionless.

“Without this, I lose my strongest power,” she said, her flintlock hunting rifle’s bayonet stabbed into the snowy ground. “I lose the continent’s safest trade routes and the trust in my company.”

But she was far from emotionless.

With each word, the mask crumbled further, revealing the true face hidden below.

“And I lose all hope mother and father had in me.”

She looked just like a lost child.

“Celina!!”

“Laugh and call me a fool if you must.”

Her face crumpled into a tearstained smile, but she refused to let go of the rifle. She now aimed Schwarz Schütze’s control gun toward Miyabi.

“If I must lose it, then I will take the title of strongest for myself and go out in a blaze of glory. I will create a legend no one can ever hope to match. That is sure to increase the company’s value.”

She spoke only of becoming the strongest for her business brand name, but she had not chosen that path so she could bathe in riches herself. All she wanted was her parent’s approval. Yet that simple desire had been twisted beyond recognition.

The boy clenched his teeth.

Slowly but firmly.

“Ready your control sword, Miyabi Blackgarden!!” roared the lonely girl. Her courage was misplaced to the very end. “I will use you to decorate my death!!”

Deafening roars tore through the air in multiple directions, seeming to drown out all other noise.

These were not something you could dodge by sight. If Miyabi had not swung his empty hand to create a Decoy Wall, they all might have died to the very first blast.

It was a fragile wall made from packed snow.

Helen Clockgear had fallen into a sitting position right next to the crumbling white obstacle. Even the capable Republic official had never seen Godhorn Tech destruction up close before.

Yes, the Republic had no Godhorn Tech.

“W-we’re alive?” she asked.

“Assuming you aren’t a ghost,” replied the elf.

But no wall was better at diverting enemy fire. Not even an array of the thickest fortress walls would have helped against this opponent.

“Hey!” shouted Alicia Blueforest, pale in the face and holding her long blonde hair down against the cutting wind. “What now, boy!?”

“Change of plans.”

A thick layer of snow could be heard falling from somewhere.

They all knew what it had to be.

The bomber had instantly reacted to the boy’s thoughts by snapping its bonds and taking flight.

He had thought his senses of hot and cold had been numbed away by the icy blizzard, but this heat he felt.

He did not fight the throbbing he felt in his chest.

There was no need to fight it.

“I can’t just watch this happen. I will break Celina’s bonds!”

“Heh hee hee. Now we’re talking! If your strongest character isn’t hot-blooded deep down, what the hell are you even doing!?”

The radio responded before Alicia herself could.

The philosopher’s stone may have had some issues with its attitude, but its answers were accurate.

“The main problems here are Celina and the surrounding cannons. Take out one or the other and this silly mess is over. The choice is yours!!”

“Got it!! She’s as good as saved!!”

The choice was obvious.

He could solve this by destroying either the derailed armored train’s countless cannons or the girl wielding her control gun as she raced full speed toward self-destruction. It could not have been more obvious whether a mass of alchemically-strengthened metal or a flesh-and-blood girl would be easier to cut down.

But Miyabi had already made up his mind.

He would save Celina Bodenburg no matter what it took.

“Ooooaaahhh!!”

“!?”

Celina was caught off guard.

She had been so certain he would charge at her, but he suddenly changed direction before reaching her. Before she could recover, he had used his control sword to forcibly smash a nearby cannon. She frantically gave commands to the other cannons, but he just barely got a Decoy Wall up in time. But not to protect himself. It was positioned to redirect the shells from one train car toward the cannons on another car.

The shells must have used a flash freeze magic to add even more cold to this icy land, so the car on the receiving end shattered like a sugar sculpture dropped on the floor and then exploded from within.

“Curse you…Miyabiii!!” screamed Celina with tears in her eyes.

That train was the only thing supporting the lonely girl’s heart.

She quickly readied her dark control device once more, but Miyabi used that moment to dive behind a large boulder. That cut off her direct line of fire, but that was all it did. That gun used alchemical flint to create a spark and guided that into a metal tube where it reacted with a dark powder to provide explosive acceleration. However, magical bullets did not always travel in a straight line. As she repeatedly shoved a long rod in through the muzzle to load the next powder and bullet in the span of a breath and then fired, several lines of light arced over the boulder to stab down behind it, erupting into explosions where they fell.

The paths of light had a variety of colors.

The wind bullets robbed the area of air once they hit and the fire bullets would rapidly fry the lungs of anyone who attempted to breathe in once it erupted.

But there was no one behind the boulder to be destroyed.

Miyabi had already moved elsewhere.

To the next cannon.

(Did he dig a tunnel below the deep snow!? Creating obstacles with that bizarre creation ability was bad enough, but is he also creating spaces by hollowing things out!?)

“Fight me, Miyabi!!”

“No, thanks!! I’m not giving you your blaze of glory!!”

The boy’s voice shouted back at her from near a toppled train car.

With a dull explosion, another of the cannons was blown away.

“Tch.”

Realizing even her rifle’s bullets were being diverted by the Decoy Walls, Celina clicked her tongue, kicked at the snow, and moved forward herself. She was intent on stopping Miyabi’s destruction even if it meant stabbing him with her bayonet or walloping him with the stock. Or was she willing to let Schwarz Schütze’s attacks blow her slender body away along with him if that was what it took?

However, she failed to get anywhere near the boy.

Because two other figures rushed in to stop her.

Helen wielded a thick dagger and Alicia wielded a gnarled tree branch staff.

“What!?”

“Don’t assume Miyabi is the only one…”

“…who doesn’t want you to die!!”

The attacks came simultaneously from either side, so Celina prioritized Helen’s knife. The blade shined with the purple light of a sleeping magic called Over Sleep, so even a nick could prove devastating in the middle of battle. She swung her rifle’s stock around to hold it back, but that left her open to the elf’s wooden staff.

An explosion of light burst from the staff’s head as it blossomed into a flower larger than the girl’s head.

“There are several schools of alchemy, but every one of them belongs to one of two categories: the transformation of matter or the alteration of living bodies. Thanks to your obsession with money, you were fixated on transforming metals to alter their value.”

“You’re an alchemist too!?”

“I needed some way to create the medicines and White Sorcery Items to look after the short-lived villagers. I know the human body inside and out, so appearances can be deceiving with my attacks. The lightest strike will rattle you to the core!!”

Impossibly, the blow from the staff felt like an explosion.

Alicia had swung the staff horizontally, slamming it into Celina’s side with all her might. Raising her arms to block the knife with her rifle had been a mistake. Her breath burst from her throat, like her bent ribs were squeezing at her lungs. Not only had Alicia aimed for a weak point, but she had likely used an alchemy potion to temporarily boost her physical strength.

“Gah!?”

Time seemed to freeze for Celina and her eyes landed on Miyabi Blackgarden stabbing his control sword into the last of the cannons.

“Koo!!”

Hearing red, glowing Alma’s cry, Miyabi’s party dove down onto the snow.

They got down to prepare for what came next.

After a moment’s delay, the cannon exploded. A thick shockwave spread out in a ring, compressing space itself. Only Celina Bodenburg remained standing, so she took the shockwave at hip height, sending her crashing down onto the snow.

“Ahh!?”

She could not get back up.

Her body was trembling and ignoring her commands, like she had taken a solid fist to the gut.

Someone else stood before her.

“Stop this, Celina. It’s meaningless.”

The Schwarz Schütze’s front car lay ahead of collapsed Celina.

The sealed container and the Wicked God horn within were there.

Nothing stood between it and the boy now.

The pitiful girl tried and failed to crawl toward him, so she settled for reaching a trembling hand out toward the destroyer’s back.

“Please.” Her voice was a mixture of entreaty and resentment. “Please wait. If I lose that…if I lose the strongest power, I’m worthless.”

She was willing to lick his shoes if it would protect the Schwarz Schütze.

But not for the money.

What she really wanted had never changed.

“I want mother and father to look my way…to say I did a good job.”

This was the true curse placed on her.

The root of her complex spilled out.

“But do this and they…they won’t love me anymore.”

She was not just crying anymore.

She was desperately begging the boy who stood facing the great mass within the broken train car.

“So…”

She felt pathetic.

And greedy.

But she could not stop her longing for the strongest power that so clearly bound her.

“So please!!”

Miyabi Blackgarden did not look back.

He faced the sealed container, but he did speak to the lost girl.

With a somehow gentle voice.

“I won’t take anything from you.”

“?”

“This isn’t the only Godhorn Tech.”

He said this while he prepared to destroy the Schwarz Schütze.

Only a Godhorn Tech could destroy a Godhorn Tech.

“I will become your strongest.”

“Ah.”

Celina’s mouth hung open, but nothing more came out.

“But not for Bodenburg. I will become the strongest for you.”

So instead of words, clear drops spilled from her eyes.

“Wahhh!!”

“So can I get started now?”

His choice was a cruel one, but it created a new contract that fulfilled all of the girl’s demands.

“Control sword, connect to the horn core. Tactical open!”

He stabbed the sword into the ground and a sinister magic circle appeared atop the snow.

“No one needs this strongest anymore, so let’s dispose of it.”

A white beam dropped from the sky above and shattered the girl’s chains.

The danger was over for now.

Alicia and Helen stood on the snowy plain. If Miyabi’s senses could be trusted, the sorcery bomb had been safely destroyed, so there was no need to flee the area as fast as their legs would take them.

Dark metal wreckage was strewn everywhere.

All of it contained secrets that could easily start a new conflict.

“Good grief. That boy cut it awfully close,” said Alicia.

“I wonder if he’s even aware how close that was.”

“We can only hope he isn’t that dumb.”

They shared a sigh and the visible breaths were soon swept away by the cold wind.

Helen was the first to resume speaking.

“A third party would have had a very hard time approaching the fully-equipped Schwarz Schütze and sabotaging it en route.”

“That means someone already knew where it would be derailed and was lying in wait to swap in the sorcery bomb after it came to a stop.”

“And they had it replace a piece of the Schwarz Schütze.”

“It would be simplest to assume that was the 11th.”

“…”

After a short silence, the two young women who watched over the pure and innocent boy shared another sigh.

The cunning displayed by that bastard made this their territory .

“I can’t believe this,” said Helen.

“Agreed,” said Alicia. “Whoever this is must be a lot shrewder and more dangerous than I expected.”

### Character Profiles

Iris Tempinvy

Age: 17

Sex: Female

Height: 159cm

Originally invited to the magically-weak Arsenal Kingdom as a guest magic researcher, but in her desperate attempt to research the theoretically impossible recovery magic, the kingdom decided she was using public funds to fund a hobby and she lost all national support. She currently earns enough as a dancer to fund her own personal research.

Victia Magnumfist

Age: 20

Sex: Female

Height: 163cm

Female martial artist working to develop a simple-to-learn form of self-defense that provides peace of mind to women and children on long journeys. However, her idea of “normal” is terribly skewed by her unnatural physical strength that could be called a form of inborn talent.

Godhorn Tech

Armored Train Schwarz Schütze

Pilot: Celina Bodenburg

Affiliation: Bodenburg Company

Size (LxWxH): 100m x 25m x 20m (per car) x 5 cars

A massive black train stretching for hundreds of meters. The entire train is covered in thick armor and each car is installed with multiple cannons. Can be controlled from within or remotely and the interior living space is decked out with its pilot’s fine tastes. Uses alchemy to lay out steel rails in real time, allowing it to move freely. Can also produce as many shells from ultra-hard alloys like orichalcum, meaning it never runs out of ammo. Design motif: alchemy.

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 1

“Heh heh. Yes, that’s right. Today has not been a productive day. I thought some shellfish would be simple enough, but that big wave dashed those hopes pretty quick.”

The black-haired martial artist grinned while seated with her arms around her knees.

Victia Magnumfist spoked up into the night sky.

“Sigh…another wasted day.”

She collapsed backwards.

She had stripped off her red dress, leaving her entirely nude. She knew she was alone here. Walking the circumference of the small island took less than a day. The ocean and forest provided plenty of resources, but there was no civilization to speak up.

It was a desert island.

And there was no hope of a ship happening by either. The horizon was not at all normal. That straight line dividing ocean from sky would occasionally blur with rainbow colors. This may not have been an ordinary location. Maybe it was surrounded by the miasma-belching cracks in the world and maybe it was separated out by some kind of magical barrier.

It was apparently known as Horn Fortress.

It was meant for the Lucifer Horn and its user’s logistical support. Tools could be made here and sent to the battleground or magical facilities could be built here to boost the Godhorn Tech’s power.

How did she know that? Because it was written here.

She had discovered it after climbing the island’s tallest tree to take a look around. Orderly text was written out on the ocean surface shining in the light of the setting sun.

But the text had vanished after she blinked in surprise.

She figured it was some kind of magic. Maybe the ocean currents had been manipulated and maybe the ocean floor had been moved around.

“His name was Miyabi, wasn’t it? Goddamn that boy! Nwohhhh!!”

This place was freeing yet stifling.

She had stripped naked in an attempt to break the mold, but…

(It didn’t do a thing.)

Her stay on this desert island was like trying and failing to work up the urge to do anything at all in your own room. She could not find any motivation inside herself. It all felt so hollow. When the loneliness pushed in, she felt like crying.

In a harsher environment, where even fresh water was hard to come by, she might have been too busy surviving to feel this way, but this island had the plentiful resources of the ocean and a forest. She had not needed to travel far into the forest to find a pure spring, river fish she could catch by hand, wild bean sprouts growing in the shade, and colorful vegetable flowers. With a fire to cook it all, she could survive just fine.

But the ease of survival provided enough free time for the poison that was dissatisfaction.

She caught a mosquito between her fingertips while lying naked on the beach.

(I should stop moping around and complete today’s last round of stretches. Think of it like becoming a mountain hermit.)

The naked idiot sat back up, failing to realize she would be more of a beach hermit.

But then an impossible sensation pierced her.

She sensed someone’s gaze on her.

“?”

She covered her bare chest with one arm and turned her head on reflex.

There she found her peeping tom.

A bear taller than her was picking up and stretching her black underwear!?

She was indeed a martial artist.

She rolled and hopped to her feet instead of reaching for the axe stabbed into the beach. She calculated how much the sand would absorb the force of her feet as she kicked off of it. Then she loosely clenched her fists and moved to perfect striking range. All while barefoot and bare everything else as well.

The bear stood on its hind legs, but that was not what scared her.

“Really? A Shadow Treading Parasite!?”

A pair of yellow twinkles moved toward her across the ground.

This was an Undead type of Beast Nova that entered a large animal’s shadow to take control of its body. Its weakness was salt, the standard for purification. The thing crawled like a slug and could not leave the ground, so it could be defeated by luring the shadow toward some salt on the ground or pushing the host into the ocean using a series of attacks that would not directly damage the parasite. In that sense, a bear weighing more than 500kg was close to a worst-case scenario. Martial artists who tried to train as a mountain hermit would often lose their lives after deciding to test their skills on a bear like this. And the parasite did not care what happened to the host, so she could never win if she simply fought the animal.

(Blue Starting Pistol, Red Gale, and Yellow Wrath. I have several options for knockback moves, but this is still bad. If I start off focusing on that, it really limits my attack patterns. If I can’t end this quick, I’ll start looking pretty predictable.)

She also sensed a more personal crisis here.

Yes, wild bears did not wear black underwear. The item the bear was stretching between its front paws was the one Victia had abandoned on the beach. She felt silly for thinking she didn’t need clothes earlier. If those tore on this desert island, she was in serious trouble.

This may have been some kind of divine punishment.

A full smile spread across her face as she crouched low and moved in.

“Heh. Eh heh heh. There are so many tastier things out there. If you like, I could treat you to some plump river fish or juicy honeyco-.”

The beast stuffed the panties in its mouth.

When it began to chew, Victia Magnumfist snapped.

“You’re dead meat now! That was the one and only pair on the entire islaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!!!”

When she rushed in, her opponent gave a joyous roar and raised its front legs.

But it was reacting to her long black hair, not the martial artist’s bouncing and jiggling flesh (raw meat?). It was more interested in the fluttering movement than any flavor or smell. But she could not afford to have any more of her clothing stolen from her for that reason.

She was stronger when not weighed down by the enormous axe.

The naked meathead worked her brain while using her clenched fists and flying kicks to forcibly knock the great mass of muscle toward the crashing waves.

(This can’t be the only Shadow Treading Parasite here. I need some kind of decoy to draw their attention, but what little cloth I have left is precious. If I want to live a wholesome, fully-clothed life here, I need to use as little cloth as possible on the decoys.)

A flash of insight came to the idiot.

“That’s it!! I’ll make swimsuits! The sexiest swimsuits I can think of! I can even make them out of shells, jewels, leaves, or caterpillar silk! I can defeat those monsters by mass-producing sexy swimsuits with materials found on the island!!!!!!”

### 015. Chapter 3

### Chapter 3 Section 1

Upon gaining new power by happenstance, someone was struck by disaster by happenstance.

A disaster that shatters people’s bonds.

There was no avoiding the fact that this was a snowy field in the middle of a blizzard.

Alicia Blueforest held her hands over her extra-pointy ears to warm them.

“It sure is cold out here.”

“K-kyoo…”

“Oh, Alma!! This can’t be easy for someone so young. Come here and I will warm you.”

“What about me!? You already have a mascot!! Don’t think you can take me back once I make my big break and the merchandise is selling like hotcakes!!”

Only the radio had any energy left at all. Was that the benefit of not being alive? And hadn’t Alma’s new Phoenix form provided protection against the cold?

Helen Clockgear breathed into her hands.

“Of course you’re going to freeze if you walk around in the snow dressed like that.”

“Helen, you aren’t much better.”

Miyabi Blackgarden’s thick leather jacket and pants did not provide much warmth, but Helen wore a short tight skirt. Not to mention the open chest and bared midriff.

“How are you even still moving around?” he asked.

“Because a woman’s cleavage and thighs are hot, hot, hot! Now, when are we getting to the mountain cabin where we must keep each other warm with lots of direct body contact!?”

The radio’s nonsense was silenced by Alicia and Helen’s fists.

Helen’s bag was small, but it was packed full of camping gear using the Compress Cargo magic.

However…

“Eh? No, that wouldn’t help. I never thought we would be visiting the Arsenal Kingdom, so the tent and sleeping bags aren’t made for the cold and the lamp’s fire wouldn’t provide much heat in this blizzard. Besides, lighting a fire inside a summer tent with no smoke exhaust will poison you!”

So much for that idea.

But this was not Helen’s fault, so he could not feel disappointed in her. He resisted the urge to give her the nickname “Miss Useless”.

“Koo…”

“Yeah, we need to find a village.”

They would die without some heat.

Warm gear, a blanket, a heater, a stove, hot soup, and hot food – they would accept any of it right now. They missed civilization.

Then something odd happened.

Something fell from the sky and landed near Miyabi. It was a small wooden box wrapped in cotton cushioning. He looked up to see the Lucifer Horn flying by overhead even though he had not stabbed the control sword into the ground and ordered it here.

“Oh? What’s this?”

“It has a signature on it,” noted Helen. “From Victia Magnumfist of Horn Fortress?”

He had nearly forgotten.

Horn Fortress was the hideout where they sent any party members found during their journey. None of them had used it though. Not after seeing how you were carried there by the Lucifer Horn snagging you with a dangling wire.

“Is she taking a support role?” asked Alicia. “You know, making stuff and sending it here?”

“How thoughtful,” said Miyabi. “Could it be a coat? Or some hot food?”

He opened the box and found a strange string. But what in the world was it?

The answer, it turned out, was some kind of clothing made entirely out of a V-shaped string.

“Eh? You’re supposed to wear this? What good is that!? I bet this is like that bunny costume from before, so I say we equip it on Miss Glasses. She is our lewd party member after all! And it might give you a sexy curse when you equip it!!”

“Do you want me to kill you, brat? Where is this Horn Fortress anyway? Is it on a tropical island or something?”

Helen’s icy white sigh was mostly one of exasperation.

The “present” came with a message card: “Victia here! I’m trapped alone on a mysterious island surrounded by cracks in the world or a magical barrier. Escape is impossible and I have to scavenge for food. I want someone to talk with so badly. Are you trying to kill me with loneliness?”

“…”

This was much worse than just a sexy curse. This was as curse of loneliness.

Miyabi neatly folded up the card and put it in his pocket. After seeing it in plays, he had always thought it would be neat to try living on a desert island, but that note was enough to tell him he would crack quickly if he tried it for real.

He swore to himself he would find and send her a friend.

But he could never do that if he collapsed out here in the snow.

“F-finding a town is the correct course of action,” said Celina Bodenburg while holding her shoulders and trembling. “When it’s this cold, we should be able to see the chimney smoke from a distance.”

They were still a long way from the Arsenal Kingdom, but there were small villages along the large road leading there. Those would be meant for travelers. They eventually arrived at a village that felt more like a rest area than anything. It was only a scattering of buildings that doubled as shops and homes.

Alicia hopped around to knock the snow from her hair and shoulders.

“Yay, we made it!”

“I’ve got a simple design,” said the radio. “I don’t need a heavy-duty cooling system like a supercomputer.”

“But…the locals don’t look exactly welcoming,” warned Celina.

“True,” agreed Helen. “All of the doors are shut tight. Even for the inn across the way. Th-they aren’t afraid because we crossed the border without permission, are they?”

For better or for worse, Miyabi was new to traveling, so he could only see one option:

“Let’s ask around.”

Once they took a look around, they found the village was not all that large. The wood and stone buildings had a makeshift look to them and a lot of the roofs were bowing below the weight of the snow.

The place must not have had many people, but they were around if you looked. Closing up too much may have allowed the falling snow to block up the doors and windows.

Miyabi first spoke to a knowledgeable-looking old man.

“On your way to the Arsenal Kingdom, are you? Well, good luck getting there with that blizzard raging. You might be able to make it if that thing were working, though. This year’s snow is enough to freeze the hot spring, so there really isn’t much you can do, I’m afraid.”

It was a strange sight to Miyabi since he had barely ever seen snow before, but some people were working on the roofs. He spoke to one of the snow-shoveling young men.

“We’re a work group that fled the Arsenal Kingdom. But we didn’t have it in us to reach the next country over, so we ended up building our own village here. It’s a nice place and we even have hot spring water piped in from outside the village. Except this winter…”

A girl was dealing with the snow in front of the pub.

The powerful dancer girl was waving a tool that looked more like a sled than a shovel.

“Damn, why is the greatest dancer in the Arsenal Kingdom out here shoveling snow? We wouldn’t even need to if that thing were working, you know? You don’t know what I mean? I’m talking about the snow-melt pipe. With the hot spring water, we could make short work of this snow!”

They asked around for a bit, but they could not last much longer out in the blizzard. They were forced to gather in the village square for a quick strategy meeting.

“I-I’m freezing my rear off out here!” complained Celina.

“Yes, let’s make this quick,” said Miyabi.

Alicia got straight to the point with her teeth chattering and Alma in her arms, hoping to get some heat from the red stuffed animal creature.

“The people here can’t help us because of the snow.”

“It sounds like the device used to draw in hot spring water and melt the snow is not functioning,” said Celina.

“Koo koo!”

“Yes, the snow-melt pipe,” said Miyabi. “What if we destroy whatever’s blocking up the hot spring water? Once the water is flowing, they won’t need to shovel the snow.

“Sigh. Sounds like it is up to us to get them back in business,” said Celina.

From what they had heard, the hot spring itself was located outside the village. Returning to that snowy world now was not a pleasant thought, but sitting around the village would do them no good when all the buildings were closed.

“D-driving us out of the village is a lot like an indirect execution, don’t you think?” asked Alicia.

“It doesn’t count as an exile if we have a plan,” said Helen. “Look, Miyabi. We can follow that.”

A pipe thicker than an arm ran along the ground, elevated by support structures.

He feared it would end up buried below the snow, but it worked surprisingly well as a guide. Trudging through the snow allowed the chill to work its way from their toes to the core of their bodies, but they forced themselves to keep going until they arrived at what looked like a frozen lake. Was that actually the hot spring?

It was not warm in the slightest.

There was no steam at all and Miyabi felt certain they were going to die now.

The hot spring was 50m across and the entire thing was covered in thick ice. They could probably walk across without breaking through.

“It’s frozen solid.”

“It is 10 below out here. Actually, do you even use Celsius here?” hastily added the radio.

Alicia sighed with that annoying thing hanging from her neck.

“Okay, now we need to find some way of breaking through the thick ice.”

“That sounds like a job for Miyabi,” said Helen.

He blasted it with the Godhorn Tech.

An ultra-heavy mass dropped from the sky.

The attack harnessed height and weight to break through the thick ice and trigger an explosion at the bottom of the frozen lake. The white lid looked thick enough to ride a wagon over, but it was fully obliterated.

“Wh-what?”

The blast had knocked Celina over, but her eyes widened and she did not bother brushing the snow from her hair.

Yes, that attack had actual mass. It was not like the previous beam attacks.

“A…shell? Are you copying my Schwarz Schütze!?”

“I’m not that good.” Miyabi yanked the control sword from the ground. “I’m no magic specialist, so I can’t make the Godhorn Tech do exactly what I want. I tried using the Lucifer Horn the way you used Schwarz Schütze’s horn, but I had no idea what it would actually do.”

“…”

“Based on this, I don’t think I can fire on distant targets and blow them away. Ha ha. I think it’s just a bomb I can drop from above.”

He thought this was similar to the Wicked God horn resonance. At the very least, the Lucifer Horn had some way of sensing great powers like the sorcery bomb. It may have figured something out from what it sensed when it destroyed the sealed container and broke the horn within.

In Miyabi’s village, they would cut away a tree’s unneeded branches and check the moisture at the cut to see how healthy the tree was. The Lucifer Horn may have done something similar with the other Wicked God horn.

(I’m also a little curious about that error during the contract transfer. Celina and the Schwarz Schütze were nearby when Moebius gave me the Lucifer Horn, so if the horns can resonate, could something have gotten mixed in then?)

Every part of it sounded suspicious to him.

The Lucifer Horn had been trying to find that resonance between horns from their initial encounter to the moment it destroyed the other horn. It had failed to make a perfect copy of the Schwarz Schütze’s weapons, but had it also created a new form of attack that not even Celina could predict?

But regardless of how it worked, where had this bomb come from? Was it made from repair parts inside the bomber, or had the Lucifer Horn dropped down a wire to snag wreckage from the Schwarz Schütze? It always showed up when he stuck the sword into the ground and summoned it, but he honestly didn’t know what it did when it was away from him.

(Hopefully we’ll figure out how to build and maintain all of this stuff at Horn Fortress. Not much point in having a secret base otherwise. Speaking of, I wonder how things are going there.)

Anyway, the new attack was like a mixture of their magical knowledge.

Almost like a child born from the traits of the two parents.

“Ha ha…”

He heard some quiet laughter.

A moment later, a soft sensation filled his mind. Laughing and overcome by emotion, Celina Bodenburg had hugged him.

She even had tears in her eyes.

“That’s right. The Schwarz Schütze is still alive! It’s taken on a different form, but it’s still there inside you!!”

“A-anyway, Celina. The hot spring is what matters. Let’s take a look at the snow-melt pipe!!”

He blushed and shouted a rushed instruction.

He did not mind it. In fact, he liked it a little too much and was unsure how to respond. He felt like a coward for using the task at hand to avoid having to find a response.

And when they checked on the shattered ice lake…

“Oh, there’s steam rising now.”

“Koo!”

“Wait,” said Alicia. “Aren’t hot springs extremely hot?”

“Usually 90 degrees. About right for making some delicious tea.”

When Helen heard the radio’s response, she very elegantly spat out the contents of her mouth.

“R-run away!!”

Just as they all dove out of the way, a massive pillar of hot water burst up from the icy lake. That was known as a geyser, but the name was fairly irrelevant when it was threatening to kill you.

The pillar rose more than 20m.

That was impressive enough to stare up at it in awe, but then the hot water crashed back down onto the snow and ice before splattering out in every direction. Simply rolling out of the way was risky business. They threw themselves along the snow, forgetting all about how cold they had felt just a bit before.

“Pant, pant! D-did we survive?” groaned Celina while lying on her stomach.

She did not seem aware that her fancy dress’s skirt had worked its way up, revealing that even her underwear was covered in jewels. Miyabi had heard that fancy dresses and accessories were a form of liquid asset you could carry around with you, but where was she planning to sell that particular article of clothing?

The layer of ice was gone and white steam rose from the giant hot spring, but if a human so much as soaked their feet in it, their feet would soon look like boiled chickens.

Miyabi touched the metal pipe and then flinched back.

It was pretty hot already. Painfully so.

“The hot water is running through the pipe. Let’s get back to the village.”

The village felt like an entirely different place.

The snow on the roofs and streets had melted and the people were freed from their unending labor.

Alicia’s long ears twitched as they picked up the hustle and bustle.

“Oh, the place has come alive.”

“L-l-let’s get to the inn,” said Celina. “Before we freeze!!”

The village was still pretty rundown, but it looked like an enjoyable place now that it had livened up.

Celina was holding herself and shivering while her lips turned blue.

A cheerful dancer girl was twirling in front of the pub.

“I’m free! Free from that awful snow shoveling!! Eh? You were the ones who fixed that thing ? Then I’ll have to give you a special reward. Stop by when you have some time☆”

Based on what the snow shoveling young man, the overly-friendly maid, and some others said, everyone here had fled from the Arsenal Kingdom. Miyabi was curious about that, but they really would die if they did not warm up soon.

They entered the village’s only inn.

It was small enough that their party just about took up all the vacant rooms themselves. But not because it was all that much warmer inside; the building was sloppily made. The boards on the walls and floor had gaps between them, the nails were crooked, and the connections between stone and wood were poorly done, so the place was practically made out of drafts. Thanks to his woodworking background, just seeing the place filled Miyabi with anxiety.

But someone else was even more concerned: the daughter of the Bodenburg Company.

“W-we’re staying here? We have to share the bath with the other guests!? The entire building is more cramped than the Schwarz Schütze’s walk-in closet! To say nothing of the rooms!”

“Miyabi, if the selfish girl doesn’t like it here, kindly kick her out for me,” said Helen with a smile.

She was the one paying for their journey and the presence of another travel companion was enough to place pressure on their living expenses, so the look on her face said she would leap at an opportunity to not have to pay for the girl.

Miyabi parted with the others to check on his dreary wood-floored room.

“I really want to get to sleep right away, but I might not wake up again if I don’t warm up in the bath first. Alma, what are you gonna do?”

“Kyoo!” cried Alma while nestling between the bed and pillow where it stirred restlessly despite being so tired. With the inner warmth of the Phoenix form, the beast did not need to take a bath.

The rooms did not have their own baths. There was one shared bath, so he left his room again.

He checked Alicia and Helen’s rooms on the way and saw light escaping from below the door. They were in their rooms. The building’s poor craftsmanship worked in his favor here. He would not have to worry about opening the door to the bath and running into the elf or busty glasses woman in the middle of changing. His stamina was at its limit, so if they attacked, he might just end up the victim of a murder.

But this way, he felt comfortable opening the door to the dressing room.

Inside, he found a complete stranger. She was naked.

He was so confused time seemed to freeze.

The girl turned toward him with her removed clothing held in front of her to cover up the best she could. The white cloak and dark reddish-purple habit suggested she was some kind of priest. But she had an ephemeral look to her and four will-o’-the-wisps colored red, blue, yellow, and green floated around her.

He gulped.

And when the scream came, it came from him.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? A-a real ghost!? This bath here is haunted!?”

“No, wait!” she shouted. “It…it isn’t what it looks like!!”

Time unfroze and the girl with long pink hair started waving her hands wildly, but Miyabi was too freaked out to notice.

He hung his head, his eyes rolled in his head, and he addressed the crux of the issue.

“Wait, hold on. Why do I feel so lucky for stumbling onto this? I mean, she’s dead. Am I so exhausted that I’ve gone insane and developed a thing for dead girls? Nooo, say ain’t so! What did I do to deserve becoming a necrophile!? Whyyyyyy!!!???”

“C-c-c-calm down and look at me! Um, uh, don’t look too hard, but still look at me!!”

A soft hand covered his mouth.

But wait. The stooped ghost was working so hard to cover her nudity, but her hand was awfully soft and warm for a ghost. She also gave off a faintly sweet aroma.

She was warm and had a physical body.

Did that mean she wasn’t a ghost? Was this a teenage (and very naked) girl leaning against him and pressing her soft skin against his lips? Was this a perfectly normal thing to be turned on by?

“Mghfgh.”

“My name is Sophia. Sophia Calamity-Jinx. I am a well-known Curse Cleaner who travels the continent performing exorcisms.”

“Pwah. Exorcisms?”

“I defeat ghosts for a living.”

Oh, that explains it, thought Miyabi. The colorful will-o’-the-wisps were not because she was a ghost. She was an expert ghost buster and she was in the midst of defeating the baddies. Learning that ghosts were real should have scared him, but it was comforting to know he was with an expert. And when that expert was a naked girl, he could find no reason to complain.

So was she just another traveler?

But wait.

“Um, is it just me or are the ghosts a lot livelier than you?”

“Eek. W-well, these people are not ghosts haunting the bath. They follow me around everywhere I go because of the embarrassing charm, so, well, um…”

“Eh? They follow you into the bath?”

“…”

She blushed and froze up.

This girl taught some dangerous lessons. Learning that he could still enjoy life after death was cratering the value he saw in his own life.

“Hm? Oh, right,” she said. “I was meaning to ask: Are you one of those ruffians they call a peeping tom?”

“Lucifer Horn!! We’ve got ourselves a new party member, so take this girl away!!!!!”

“Hyahhh!? P-please! At least let me get dressed first!”

The wire hanging from the sky entered through the dressing room window, wrapped around Sophia Calamity-Jinx’s belly, and swept her away to Horn Fortress.

Coverup complete!!

Miyabi had a feeling that girl was pushed around by the ghosts a lot too. She was the kind of person who made him want to poke her here and there to see how she reacted.

You’re in luck, Victia.

You have a friend now.

Once night fell, they all gathered in Miyabi’s room, which was filled with the distinctive smell of a tallow lamp and a wood-burning stove. Alma, Alicia, and Celina were all visiting him tonight, but not because he had grown inexplicably popular.

“Ugh, what is keeping her?” complained the elf.

The others concurred.

The cheap wooden flooring was abysmal. In a snowy place like this, they would have loved a proper fireplace. The small stove was terribly insufficient and sipping at mugs of hot milk or tea was not enough to forget about the chill seeping in from the walls and floor.

Helen (who was still wearing her tight skirt in the cold) finally knocked at the door and entered the dimly-lit room.

“S-sorry about the wait.”

“Ah! You were out gathering information without telling us, weren’t you!?” accused Alicia with her butt seated on the side table.

“And I was so hoping I could see Venus at work,” lamented the philosopher’s stone.

“Why do you think I didn’t tell anyone I was going where all the action is!? C’mon, Miyabi, talk some sense into them!!”

“Ehh? What was that, mom?”

“Miyabi, I can tell you’re so tired you’re barely aware of your surroundings, but I must have misheard what you called me there.”

“Oh, shut up. What are those boobs if not motherly? Those things are too big to just be ‘womanly’, mama.”

“You’re not thinking straight, Miyabi. Are you freezing to death in this cold!? Don’t die on us!!”

The older girl next door was trembling from something other than the cold, but the boy failed to notice.

“Ugh.” He held his own body to fight the cold. “When the instructor teaching you to use the hammer or saw is a woman, you end up calling them that sometimes, right?”

“Hold on. If I’m the mother of the party, then why are you forcing me to dress up as the bunny!? Not that I’m accepting that role, mind you!!”

Helen blushed and made a rebuttal, but then she took a deep breath to fill her (large) chest with oxygen and regain her adult confidence.

She did not see anywhere to sit, so she leaned against the wall and cleared her throat.

“Ahem. Anyway, I managed to gather some information on the Arsenal Kingdom.”

While restlessly sitting on the bed with Miyabi, Celina tugged at his jacket and asked a question while giving him the puppy dog eyes.

“I-is her ‘Venus’ form really that entertaining?”

“Do you want me to tell you what I found or not!? Hmph!!”

“Oh, no!” exclaimed the radio. “It’s always bad news when an adult starts to sulk! It can last for ages! When a cosplayer starts getting up there in years, the grow more and more reliant on their position as the circle’s princess!!”

“Whoever said I’m ‘getting up there in years’, step forward.”

The radio was very nearly dismantled. By Helen’s bare hands.

Celina jumped and hid behind Miyabi’s back (without noticing she was pressing her growing chest against him).

“Why would you provoke her further!?” she asked.

“Ksshhh, she must be cold after walking through the snow at night. Someone serve her some tea!”

Static ran through the radio’s voice as its destruction neared and Miyabi reached for the tea set on the side table. They could not afford to have her sulk. As cute as it was.

“U-um, would you like some nice hot tea?”

He forced an ugly polite smile and she sighed mostly in exasperation.

“That just reminds me of what I went through out there. Ugh.”

“So what did you find out?”

Celina winked and patted on the bed next to her, so the redheaded boy sat back down and asked that fundamental question.

“That the Arsenal Kingdom may have been behind the destruction of Celina’s armored train.”

“…”

The Bodenburg girl gasped and Alicia grinned from the side table.

“Oh, you picked up on that, did you? Excellent.”

“I get the feeling the Arsenal Kingdom is in a state of political instability. We can head there now, but we need to assume there will be trouble,” warned Helen.

“We’re already caught up in their trouble,” added Alicia, half joking.

There was the sorcery bomb, but it was also worrying how the villagers here said they had “fled” that kingdom. The kingdom past the blizzard sounded dangerous, so Miyabi tried to mentally work through what they knew.

“The Arsenal Kingdom has that Godhorn Tech. The, um…”

“The Icicle Bullet,” supplied Celina.

He stole a glance over at her in the tallow lamp’s light, but he still could not tell what emotion her voice carried.

“That ice weapon is controlled by Eliza Silverstorm of the kingdom’s White Seidr Chosen Knights.”

“I want to hear what she has to say,” said Miyabi. “It was true the train had a sorcery bomb in it.”

“That anonymous letter is something of a mystery,” added the philosopher’s stone swaying from Alicia’s neck. “Including if it even exists.”

“You mean Eliza might be friends with the 11th? Or she could have some secret connection with them. Hell, she might be the 11th herself.”

“Koo.”

Whether Alma understood the situation or not, the red creature gave a worried cry with its small hands around the pillow. Helen beckoned toward it while stating her conclusion on the matter.

“We can reach the Arsenal Kingdom by traveling west from here. But like I said, make sure you’re ready for trouble.”

### Chapter 3 Section 2

The blizzard was still raging outside after they spent the night at the village’s inn.

But Miyabi Blackgarden’s party had to brave the storm if they were to meet White Seidr Eliza Silverstorm who controlled the Icicle Bullet.

Alicia Blueforest breathed a very elderly-sounding sigh while trudging through the snow first thing in the morning.

The heavy sigh was colored white.

“This is horrific. My toes are already going numb. Do the people of this kingdom end up with soaked shoes every time they go outside?”

“The locals wear shoes that do not sink into the snow and can slide along the ice. They spread out the edge for increased friction or balance up on the edge to skate on it.”

Celina Bodenburg had visited in the past, so she knew a lot about the place.

Their breakfast was hot sandwiches filled with plenty of heavily-seasoned wild animal meat. Just like their desperation to find shelter the night before, they were afraid they would freeze to death without getting something to eat on a regular basis. The snowy land wore them out a lot faster than they expected.

The glasses woman did not look pleased with her food.

“Ugh, how can they call this breakfast? Did they ban vegetables here?”

“Hee hee,” laughed Celina. “Every child on the continent wishes they could live in this land of hamburger steak and sausages.“No, Miyabi.”

The boy jumped at Helen’s comment.

How had she known he was suddenly excited about visiting the Arsenal Kingdom!? Maybe the kind of young woman that demanded you eat your veggies had a special 6th sense for that kind of thing.

Celina sighed as she nibbled at the edge of her hot sandwich.

“Munch, munch. With all this snow, their cuisine is primarily focused on the meat they can hunt, while vegetable and other crops are a luxury item for those wealthy enough to look after their health. That is why most of those crops were shipped in by my company.”

They followed a path half-buried in snow until a massive castle wall came into view. The stone wall was tall and thick. The height alone made it as unapproachable as the Schwarz Schütze.

That was the Arsenal Kingdom.

A fortress state of metal and smithing. The castle, the castle town, and all of its limited land were surrounded by the thick castle walls, providing an impregnable defense. It was a safety measure, but was there really a need to reject outsiders to quite that extent? Miyabi was only familiar with his home village, so it felt downright bizarre to him.

And something happened before they even passed through that wall.

“?”

Miyabi could hear a rumbling in the distance. No, were those voices? So many people were shouting so loudly that none of the individual voices could be made out.

As cold as it was, he still came to a stop outside the gate and frowned.

“What’s going on? That’s a lot of noise.”

“Koo…”

“I do not like the sound of this,” said Alicia. “Alma, hide behind me.”

“Don’t say that while holding me out in front! If you ask me, you should use a smithing skill to increase my defense stat!! That’s this kingdom’s specialty, isn’t it!?”

“Shh!!”

Helen forbade the radio from speaking. And in an act very unlike a classy adult lady, she shoved her hot sandwich in her mouth. She had no idea when they would get more food. It may have been a ritual to help her focus on the battle at hand.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Helen Clockgear. “Tension is hanging in the air.”

Miyabi tried to follow the capable young woman’s example and set his throat on fire with the seasoning. He started choking on reflex, so the elf hag rubbed his back with an exasperated look.

“Why isn’t there a single guard at their front gate?” asked Alicia.

“Have they withdrawn inside?” speculated Celina.

No one had an answer.

The gate…was not locked. The thick double doors were sitting half open. They could twist their bodies to slip through – no Godhorn Tech necessary. The castle wall was supposed to be the border between countries, yet no one was monitoring who passed through.

“Sh-should we really be doing this?”

As a government official, Helen was getting cold feet, probably because of the small bag she carried. When crossing a border, any Compress Cargo magic had to be deactivated so everything within could be checked over by the guards. Anything else would make your country a smuggler’s paradise.

This was concerning.

There should have been people here, but there were not.

It was like wandering onto a ghost ship from a picture book.

“Koo…”

Alma cried anxiously while standing atop the snow at Miyabi’s feet without sinking down. Curious what was going on, Miyabi stuck his head through the half-open gate.

His face was immediately slapped by a wall of sound.

At first, he was unsure what had happened.

The limited land within the wall was crammed full of stone houses and shops, making for a unique type of city. The several towers jutting into the frigid air in the distance had to be the king’s castle. That was a castle town, something he had only ever seen in picture books. After a lifetime in that forest village, the stone-paved roads, bridges, and perfectly straight aqueducts had to be a strange sight for him.

But he failed to notice any of it.

His eyes widened as the voices rushed in at him with such terrible density.

“Drag that incompetent king from the throne!!”

“No more military expansionism! We demand peace!!”

“Why are we paying to fight foreign enemies when we can’t put food on our tables!? The taxes are the real enemy!!”

People, people, people, and more people.

Men, women, boys, and girls were boiling over with anger and rioting. They were packed in so tight it was hard to tell who they were angry with or who they were trying to get at.

Plus, Miyabi had never seen so many people at one time. So when they were all too furious to think straight, it was enough of a shock to rattle his very soul.

He initially thought they had to be using magic to amplify their voices, but they weren’t.

Since when were humans such violent creatures?

The public square immediately inside the gate was packed full, so he didn’t want to even think what the central castle area was like.

The village boy was frozen in place, unable to take a single step.

“What in the world!?”

“I’d heard there was unrest, but this is a full-on riot!”

Helen was a Republic official, but her eyes widened too.

Alicia winked and rubbed her index finger against her temple like she was viewing this human foolishness from a more detached viewpoint.

“That explains the lack of guards at the gate,” she said.

“If the border guards were dragged into an internal conflict, their chain of command must have fully collapsed,” said the philosopher’s stone, sounding exasperated.

“L-look over there!”

Celina pointed toward a woman running beyond the wall of people. Her equipment was too delicate to call armor. She wore a feather headdress and a shortish skirt. Several of the rioters appeared to be pursuing her. Her long silver ponytail was swimming behind her.

Her armor stood out, but so did her giant lance which resembled a control device. Was that part of the local knight gear? She might as well have been waving a torch and yelling for the rioters to attack her.

Celina was the only one who recognized her, so the girl explained.

“Eliza Silverstorm is one of the Arsenal Kingdom’s chosen knights. I do not know what has the people so riled up, but if their ire is directed at the monarchy, then the White Seidr Chosen Knights would be the most obvious symbol of its political and military might. The angry mob will attack her first!”

That settled it.

Helen responded with a bitter look.

“If she dies, we lose any information she has on the 11th.”

“Or we could hide among the rioters and throw stones from afar. If we intentionally push her to the limit, she might just use one of those rumored sorcery bombs.”

Alicia’s sly suggestion made Miyabi click his tongue.

Not even he was sure why, since the idea itself was sound.

But he couldn’t help but ask who would decide where “the limit” was? How could they be so confident that their calculations were correct and Eliza was in no risk of actually dying?

And what if she was innocent? No, even if she had some guilty secret, what if some remaining sliver of a conscience prevented her from using the sorcery bomb?

Could they really hold their heads high and say they had done the right thing just because it was the “the most logical choice”?

(No, now isn’t the time to make Alicia into a villain. She only made that suggestion because she knows no one else will. Simply listing it as a possibility isn’t wrong.)

Would they save her or kill her? Creation, or destruction? The cards had all been laid out on the table.

But it was Miyabi’s job to choose one.

No matter what anyone else said, this was Miyabi Blackgarden’s adventure. He could not force someone else to do it for him and he was not obligated to accept someone else’s choice. He was free to choose. So his real task here was to find an option he would not regret taking later on.

He had to reach for a version of himself he could be proud of.

“Koo!!”

“Yeah.” He clenched his teeth and nodded. “None of that matters. I can work through all these vague doubts later on. For now, I’ll go with what I know! If we don’t help Eliza get away, she’ll be killed!!”

He was afraid.

Of course he was.

This was different from Celina’s Schwarz Schütze or the mysterious 11th’s sorcery bomb. It was a group. Instead of a single powerful threat, this filled him with the same disgust as seeing a swarm of spiders covering a window.

However.

If he did not act now, she would be overwhelmed by the crowd. If that happened, he would lose all faith in humanity. Including in himself.

He wanted to believe there was more to humans than violence and thoughtless rioting.

And doing that required proving it himself. Right here and now.

“Hold your horses, boy,” said Alicia.

Even if he did charge right into the crowd, he would have a hard time weaving through the gaps. And clearing a path by blowing the rioters away with his Godhorn Tech was out of the question. He, Alicia, and Helen discussed what they had noticed, like that the cold wind indicated an area with fewer people and that Eliza could not enter just any alleyway carrying that big lance. Afterwards, they circled around using the relatively deserted back alleys.

“!?”

They appeared to catch her off guard.

Eliza Silverstorm’s eyes widened when she ran across them. She may have recognized Celina.

“What are you doing here!?”

“Watch out!!”

Miyabi tackled her to the ground just as an imagined red color filled his vision. The rusty flavor had to be his imagination as well, not something coming from his senses. The actual pain was minimal. Even though a thrown rock had definitely struck his temple.

“Gh!!”

“Wh-why do this!? What are you after!?”

Eliza grew suspicious after he knocked her to the ground, so Celina breathed an exasperated sigh.

Eliza talked a lot.

He had imagined her as being cold as ice, so this came as a surprise.

But he was also glad she had the energy to yell like that. He was also proud of himself for being glad that the suspect was unharmed.

His rattled head noted this may have cut off the quickest route to the answer they wanted, but he knew this was the correct answer for himself.

“I can’t believe you. And so soon after that nauseating pickup line about becoming my strongest.”

Celina had lost everything when her armored trained was destroyed.

But she appeared to have gotten over it. She smiled as if to say she had a new goal in sight and was intent on accepting the challenge fair and square.

She rested her rifle-shaped control device on her shoulder while gathering his attention.

“The strongest must hold their head high with pride. Yes, this could make for an excellent advertisement in its own way. Now, Miyabi, we do not have time to mess around.”

The air stirred.

The danger was growing.

“That guy’s protecting the arrogant knight!”

“They’re trying to steal our money too! Why else would they be helping the White Seidr!?”

“String them up! Wring out everything they’ve stolen from us!!”

Miyabi was already woozy after the blow to his temple, so he and Eliza ended up propping each other up. That appeared to anger the rioters. Their yelling never ended and they all reached out as one.

Celina aimed her flintlock rifle skywards and fired once.

The rioters would only flinch back for a moment.

Once they realized she had not fired toward them and once they detected any fear or hesitation at all, they would rush in with double the intensity. The blonde girl used the time she had bought them to load more powder and another bullet into the muzzle with the long, skinny rod, all while shouting at Miyabi.

“Both ways out of here are blocked by rioters. If you aren’t willing to kill them, then you need to create a new escape route!”

“!”

He drew his control sword.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

First, he lined up enough boxes of packed snow to form a wall blocking the wide street. Blocking the main thoroughfare led more people into the back alleys, so the rioters packed themselves in too tightly to move. But that would not last forever. Miyabi held his hand out toward another location, arranging snow blocks to form roughly-made Layer Stairs. He even created a landing supported by a building’s wall to build the stairs up to the roof of a three-story apartment.

“Hurry!!”

He gestured them all on and the snow wall blocking the street was forced down just as they climbed to the dark stone roof. Just before the rioters could rush toward the makeshift stairs, he swung his control sword to “cancel” it. The white Layer Stairs crumbled before the mob’s eyes.

Celina could not believe what she was seeing far below them.

But not because of the rioters filling that space.

“I-I-I know I asked for it, but that creation ability really is something else. All I have is the destruction side of things.”

“Still upset about that?”

“Not at all. You said you would become my strongest, so that means all of this actually belongs to me.”

The roof put them well above the rioters, but that was no guarantee of safety. Most of the roofs were sharp and pointed, presumably to keep snow off of them, so they were not easy to navigate. The tall and skinny apartment building had a flat roof, but it was coated with hardened snow and they could easily slip and fall.

Plus, humans were not animals. They might throw stones or fire bottles from the street. Someone might even construct a large slingshot or bow using the tools at hand. His imagination informed him of many unpleasant possibilities. The angry rioters might not have lost their creativity.

The ponytail woman who was even mores strait-laced than Helen shouted at Miyabi while they still supported each other.

“Creation? A-are you saying you used a Godhorn Tech’s power in the city!? Are you insane!?”

“Maybe so, but that insanity just saved your life!”

“Eh? Wha-?”

She must not have expected him to shout right back at her because her voice caught in her throat and her eyes wandered uncertainly.

He kept going regardless.

He wanted to preserve his faith in people, so he worked to get closer to this person here.

“Your armor and control lance are too conspicuous! We need to escape outside the castle walls. That way we can avoid this crowd!”

“No, wait! I cannot do that!”

Even the radio sounded exasperate by that.

“Cut the ‘cool as a cucumber’ act, you blushing tsundere. It’s a little late for that.”

“Tsun…what? What is that box saying?”

Her enormous lance must have been difficult to use at close range because Eliza used her hand to push Miyabi’s face away while he held her close.

“Anyway, I belong to this kingdom’s White Seidr Chosen Knights. I must protect the king!”

She even bowed at the end.

How strait-laced could you be? Was she trying to OD on it?

“You have my thanks for your concern, but I cannot flee and leave my king to fend for himself!!”

“Tch.”

“U-um, Miyabi?” asked Helen.

He was intrigued.

He was willing to laugh it off if someone like this manipulated him into providing assistance.

Helen sensed the dangerous idea growing inside him and she tried to nip it in the bud, but…

“Then what choice do we have? Let’s hurry to your king.”

“Miyabiiii!? W-we can’t! Any chance of survival is evaporating fast!”

“Hah hahhh hahhh!!” rejoiced the radio at Alicia’s chest. “Now this is more like it! In a swords and sorcery fantasy, no one’s looking for clever tricks. They want pure freedom. When you see a girl in a bind in a setting like this, why would you even need to think twice!?”

“(God, has he completely forgotten we’re here to figure out who placed the sorcery bomb in the crashed train?)”

“Alicia?”

“Nothing, boy. The grownups will protect you, so go have your fun.”

Looking down from the roof, the rioters looked like a single massive organism – a sea anemone spreading throughout the city. Miyabi never wanted to go down there again. Especially not with a primary target like Eliza.

That meant it would be best to travel between rooftops.

The roofs were dangerous enough with the snow and ice, but there were no routes between them, no matter how closely packed the buildings were. Fortunately, Miyabi had the power of creation.

“A Bypass Bridge should do the trick.”

The redhead boy packed the snow together while picturing boxes in his head. He lined up those Palette Dice to form a white bridge between this rooftop and the next. That allowed them to stay off the ground despite the main street blocking the way like a ravine. Still, the bridge support extended down to the road, so it might be brought down if they were not quick.

And the rioters were not the only threat.

Some squawking cries reached them from the sky.

“Kyah!?”

Frightened, Celina grabbed at Miyabi from the side, but now was not the time to be excited by the softness reaching him through that dress that was too revealing for such a snowy climate. His feet nearly slipped down the steep angle of the roof.

“Isn’t this the royal castle town?” he shouted, wide-eyed. “What is a Beast Nova doing in here!?”

“You know that classification counts me as a Beast Nova and Alma as a Wicked God, don’t you!?”

Alicia was upset, but his question received an answer from an unexpected source – the richest of the rich girls: Celina Bodenburg.

“Wh-why, that’s Millovannes! My messenger harpy! I used her to send our entrance request to the Arsenal Kingdom!!”

“Hey, that cheeky thing is keeping her distance and firing projectiles at us,” said Miyabi. “We should shoot her down just to be safe. We can’t afford to be pinned down halfway across the bridge. If the makeshift Bypass Bridge goes down, we’d fall right into the rioters’ hands.”

“Got it, Miyabi,” said Helen. “I’ll use some Lure magic to keep her focused on me.”

“No, stop!! Millovannes might as well be part of my fam-”

Something grazed Celina’s cheek.

It came from the messenger harpy squawking atop a roof a short distance away. That monster looked like a human girl with wings for arms. Millovannes had gone feral and was using her toes to grab sharp-edged metal disks with the company logo on them. And she appeared to be enjoying herself.

Celina lowered her shadowy face.

Her shoulders were shaking. From laughter.

Her head sprang up again and she aimed the very black control gun adorned with gold.

“Heh, eh heh heh. Very well. If that is how it must be, I will label this beast feral. I was growing sick of the greasy meat in this snowy region’s cuisine anyway, so tonight we can feast upon some healthy grilled chicken!!!!!!”

“There is something severely wrong with your human-nonhuman relations,” sobbed a trembling Alicia with fiery Alma in her arms.

Meanwhile…

“Everyone is so focused on the internal conflict no one is thinking about external threats,” bitterly replied Eliza, her massive control lance in both hands. “I apologize, but prepare yourselves. We must fight our way through!”

Bizarre creatures with bat wings were clinging to the roofs and chimneys while will-o’-the-wisps swooped through the sky on their own. None of them was a match for Miyabi with his Godhorn Tech. Celina no longer had the horn’s power, but she still had her bayonet-equipped rifle, so the two of them eliminated all of the monsters before they could even get close.

Eliza Silverstorm even had time to look down to the ground.

The chosen knight whose armor included a feathered headdress and a miniskirt pointed at the stone bridge across a river using the tip of her control lance.

“I apologize again, but please take care of that as well!!”

“?”

“The rioters can use that bridge to gather into a single mob large enough to break through the king’s gate.”

“Sure, but it looks more like they’re gonna topple like dominoes at this rate,” added the philosopher’s stone.

Eliza nearly clung to the boy as she asked a favor.

“My Icicle Bullet cannot take aim at such a precise target. Please destroy that bridge to keep the rioters separated!”

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the roof.

A magic circle opened at his feet and he sent an instruction to the Lucifer Horn flying overhead.

Immediately, a thick pillar of light dropped from the sky and tore across the ground.

The colossal winged Godhorn Tech flew along the path of the river.

The stone bridge was more vaporized than simply destroyed.

“I still can’t get used to that. Both the power and the accuracy are impressive. I’m not sure even my Schwarz Schütze could have attacked with such precision.”

Eliza grimaced at the brightness of the light, but she clenched her fist in triumph after noticing the rioters were separated by the river.

“Yes, thank you. Yes!!”

She was their #1 target, but she sounded delighted that no one had been hurt. Celina put a hand on her hip in exasperation.

“There is no end to the world’s troubles, is there? Argh, we need to paint the company name on the Lucifer Horn’s wings ASAP! This charity is going to waste! Miyabi, let’s get this over with. The central castle is our goal, isn’t it?”

She was right about the world’s troubles at least.

The city was overrun by human rioters, the Beast Novae who had gotten past the walls…and there was more. Something else was beginning. What looked like giant muscular stone sculptures were extracting themselves from the pedestals in the public squares or the walls of cathedrals and slowly approaching the rioters. Their strength was an unknown, but the weight of those 3m stone figures would be enough to kill a human.

“The security gargoyles are activating in error?” frowned Eliza.

“Gar-what?” asked Miyabi.

“Manmade autonomous traps.” Celina brushed her hair back from her shoulder. “I see no simplification in the design, so these must not be from our company’s factories. Did a local craftsman make them? Either way, we cannot allow military-grade weapons to attack those people. Miyabi, I will snipe them, so you support me. Move around on the rooftops to draw the attention of the gargoyles!!”

The gargoyles apparently would not crush the rioters if their attention was on the fighters safely up on the roofs. After a moment’s thought, Miyabi dropped a cube of snow from the roof and had it burst from within before it reached the ground. It functioned like a low-temperature firework.

As expected, that gathered the attention of everyone on the ground.

Bat wings grew from the gargoyles’ backs.

Wait. How were they storing those wings in their stone bodies!?

Concern rapidly filled Miyabi and he asked a worried question.

“U-um, Celina? They just grew stone wings, so, um, I was wondering…”

“Sigh. They’re gargoyles. Of course they grew wings.”

“How was I supposed to know that!? You have to tell me these things! And what happened to the roof being safe!?”

“My, my. Ho ho ho. Silly boy. When you make a deal with a professional company, you need to read the terms of the contract with utmost care!! Ohh ho ho ho ho!!”

“Miyabi, I just dumped some Lure Powder on her head,” coldly stated Helen in her assassin mode. “They’ll all be focused on her, so stay away from her.”

Celina’s newfound popularity forced her to tearfully fire her rifle-shaped device over and over. The gargoyles’ stone bodies must have been coated with a special wax that could deflect a certain amount of magic. When the red lines of light imbued with a flame effect came in contact with the stone surface, they burst into a spray and scattered behind the gargoyles.

Celina clicked her tongue while peering down the sight.

“I had a feeling my control gun wouldn’t be enough. Miyabi! Let me link with your horn!! Then I can fight with the level of power I’m used to!!”

“Hold on, what happens if you register two control devices with the same Godhorn Tech? You aren’t trying to hijack the Lucifer Horn, are you?”

“…”

She was unwilling to answer, so he was unwilling to give her access.

But that did not mean she was unable to fight. She made a subtle adjustment to her aim. She knew her shots would be deflected, so she aimed for the airborne gargoyles’ hands or the ends of their wings. The attacks did not pierce through, but they could not brace themselves in midair. The impacts knocked them off balance, buying some time.

She used that time to load her next powder and bullet in the span of a breath and fire again, the bullet flying right past the gargoyle.

No, it hit the clocktower behind the gargoyle, bounced off, and hit the stone statue in the back.

She used the ricochet.

The gargoyle twisted around, falling into an uncontrollable tailspin.

There was a round hole on the gargoyles’ backs. It may have been a socket for inserting the tool for winding up their spring, but when the magical bullet accurately flew into that hole, this one trembled and ceased to function. It spiraled down to the surface where it crashed into a frozen river.

“Hmph, who needs a Wicked God horn to fight?” Celina pulled the skinny rod from the muzzle and took aim again. “I can still promise eternal prosperity to my Bodenburg Company. I only need to invent new ways to fight when the need arises.”

Just as she began her next ricochet sniper shot, the gargoyle hopped to the side. No, someone had soared through the air to hit it with a flying kick. With an elderly masculine cry of effort.

“Nwohhhh!!”

“Out of the way, commoner!! What is wrong with you!?”

Celina shouted in frustration at having her timing thrown off.

What was happening, anyway?

Anyone could use magic these days, but kicking a gargoyle out of midair still seemed superhuman. Those were hunks of rock, after all. If magic could give people that kind of leg strength, Miyabi’s party would not be at all safe up on the roofs. The countless rioters would have just jumped up to surround them.

Alicia did not look pleased when she saw the small old man.

“Is that a dwarf, by any chance?”

“Eh? So he’s a Beast Nova?” asked Helen. “Be careful, Miyabi. He’s a new enemy!!”

“Discriminatory language!! And don’t go all ‘A Monster has Appeared’ and calculate out the money and item drops the instant you see someone from another species! It’s legitimately terrifying!!”

The elf bristled and protested, but then strait-laced Eliza spoke up.

“Oh, is that Sir Garret?”

“Hm?”

“Garret Goldcave. He is a craftsman with a royal warrant. The Arsenal Kingdom is supported by our superb smithing techniques, so human or dwarf makes no difference as long as they have the skills we require. In fact, dwarves like him have established metalworking techniques found nowhere else.”

“Tch, so he’s your pet.”

“Don’t look so disappointed you can’t attack him!

The elf was truly in tears now as she grabbed at the glasses woman and made a plea for nonhuman rights.

As a businessperson, Celina coldly weighed the pros and the cons.

“Interesting. Get him on our party and we would never want for equipment, Miyabi. He appears to be attacking those gargoyles, so we can easily convince him using the classic ‘the enemy of your enemy is your friend’ argument☆”

“No, Sir Garret is-”

Eliza hesitantly began a response, but she never managed to finish.

The person who jumped up to the rooftop in a single bound was a short old man. But his back was not stooped and he was far more muscular than Miyabi. He reminded Miyabi of the older men who worked in the forest. So while he looked intimidating, Miyabi felt an affinity toward him. When backed by excellent skills, stubbornness could feel reliable.

He wore a dark jumpsuit and wore a rucksack filled with hammers, saws, and other tools. He had knocked a gargoyle out of the air with a flying kick, so how powerful would he be with his weapon of choice?

Once he navigated the labyrinthine rooftops to reach them, Garret had this to say:

“Nwoah!! Are you the ones attacking my adorable traps!?”

“You’re on their side!?” exclaimed Celina. “Did you kick that gargoyle aside to keep me from sniping it!?”

Eliza held a hand to her forehead and spoke quietly, like she was revealing her own shame.

“Um, Sir Garret is a truly skilled craftsman, but he has the unfortunate flaw of adoring his autonomous traps like his own grandchildren.”

“Miyabi, if he is protecting the gargoyles, he is on their side. He is an enemy,” coldly concluded Helen. “Kill that Beast Nova and nab the money and item drops as a reward for risking our life here.”

“Why can’t you tell that’s nothing more than robbery, human!?” screamed Alicia. “A-an excellent craftsman would make a useful party member, Miyabi. So summon the Lucifer Horn and collect our new party member!!”

A wire snagged the nonhuman old man’s back collar and the bomber flew off to the farthest reaches of the world.

“D-did you just abduct a national treasure and a living treasure trove of military secrets!?” shouted Eliza.

“Not even you view him as a person? And it’s even scarier with you because you take everything so seriously I know you aren’t joking.”

Alicia wrapped her arms around her shoulders and trembled with fear in her eyes. Elves may have been susceptible to losing all trust in humans.

And things were not over quite yet.

“Ah!” shouted Celina while looking into the distance.

Black smoke was billowing into the sky. It was much too dark to be coming from a chimney.

Alicia’s eyes widened more than anyone’s, perhaps because she lived in the forest.

“There’s a fire burning!”

“The firefighters can’t possibly get past the rioters.” Eliza held her head up on the rooftop. “This fire will be devastating!”

Meanwhile, the radio spoke to Miyabi.

“Hey, herbivore boy. Water isn’t the only way to extinguish a fire. If there’s nothing more for it to burn, it burns itself out.”

“…”

The boy made a split-second decision.

He could save people with the destruction as well.

“Let’s destroy the surrounding homes to keep the fire from spreading!”

“God, it’s not that simple, you know!?” said Eliza.

“Making it work is a job for us grownups,” said Helen.

Those two nimbly jumped between rooftops to check inside the windows from the rooftops across the road. After confirming the homes were empty, they gestured to Miyabi and he stabbed his control sword into the roof at his feet.

He sent the Lucifer Horn another command.

The giant form flew by above the fortress kingdom once more.

A beam of light dropped from the sky and it was dragged across the ground. Several straight lines of destruction were carved into the city to draw a square around the fire. As all the burnable empty houses and roadside trees were destroyed, the fire began to wane. With a blizzard still raging, the fire rapidly lost strength without any new fuel.

Once she had regrouped with them on the black stone rooftop, Eliza Silverstorm looked ready to collapse. Miyabi supported her from the side and found her to be unexpectedly light.

In this sense, she was just a girl.

She seemed more concerned for the rioters flooding the streets than her own safety.

“D-did that stop the fire?”

“Ha ha! Fires and fights are the flowers of Edo!!”

The radio was shouting nonsense again, but Alicia stood on the packed-down snow and placed a hand above her eyes to look out from the rooftop.

“We’re pretty close to the castle now. Let’s get in there while we can.”

Entering the castle should have been an entire ordeal in itself, but security had collapsed from the chaos and Miyabi kept making them bridges between rooftops.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

White boxes of packed snow linked together to create a Bypass Bridge with a support below it.

After placing a large bridge up to the wall separating the city from the castle, he built some Layer Stairs down from the wall. They moved from there to the castle garden. But this garden was always buried under snow, so they did not plant any grass or roses there. Instead, something like wires were strung up in an orderly fashion to artificially design how the snow and ice formed there. Glittering transparent ice fences took the place of hedges, so it felt like entering a botanical garden made of clear crystal.

They were in the castle.

The residence of an entire kingdom’s king.

And without permission. Did he have his Godhorn Tech to thank for this? Miyabi had pulled it off so easily it actually made him nervous.

“Is this really the most strictly guarded place in the kingdom?”

“Sorry about this! I am in your debt!!”

Eliza Silverstorm had a habit of bowing whenever she said anything and the philosopher’s stone had some thoughts on the matter.

“Hm, she isn’t quite a tsundere, but she isn’t really a kuudere either. Her athletic side obscures it, but I think I would categorize her as the strict class rep type.”

A few more girls in armor similar to Eliza’s approached them. Did that make them more of the White Seidr Chosen Knights? They carried large lances and they initially looked cautious, but their faces lit up when they saw Eliza.

“Lady Eliza!!”

“W-what should we do now!?”

The armored girls gathered around Eliza and awaited instructions, suggesting they were not just perfect warriors. But Miyabi appreciated seeing that human side of them.

The younger chosen knights glanced over at the others.

“Um, who are these people?”

The girls appeared to be Eliza’s subordinates, not her companions. She also looked more relaxed and smiled now that they were with her.

“That is hard to explain, but I can assure you they are not our enemy. Anyway, is our king safe? That is our top priority!”

They entered the castle from the garden.

The inside was all white marble floors, red carpets, oppressive crystal chandeliers, and portraits of what appeared to be kings of different generations. It was a spacious building, but it did not feel chilly like the inn had the night before. Miyabi doubted the air was heated with nothing more than fireplaces.

He did a double take when someone passed them by.

“Wow, that was a real maid. I’ve never seen a professional court worker before. They must be the best of the best.”

“I am offended you did not react that way when you saw me, a real knight.”

“And you already saw and were served by a maid: me! W-working up the nerve to do that wasn’t easy, so why didn’t it count!?”

Eliza and Celina took issue with his comment, but the younger knights guided them through the resplendent castle. Now was not the time to worry about appropriate etiquette in the presence of a king. Everything was polished to a shine, the air was warm, and a sweet aroma reminiscent of roses or lilies hung in the air. Were their flowers in vases, or had the entire place been turned into a greenhouse? It felt like walking into a fairy tale. Then again, that may have been part of what inspired so much anger in the people freezing outside.

They were shown to the central hall.

By swapping out the furniture, this core of the castle could be converted into an audience chamber, a dance hall, and more.

It was large enough to hold a sports match inside and every surface was decorated with bright and shining artwork.

An old man in gorgeous clothing was accompanied by many chosen knights who wielded giant lances and whose armor included the same feathered headdress and miniskirt as Eliza’s.

“I have much to report, my king!”

The silver ponytailed servant bent her knee and lowered her head, but then she noticed something wasn’t right.

Eliza Silverstorm’s head snapped back up.

“!?”

The others remained standing.

If her bow was what etiquette demanded, then the other knights were all in violation. They refused to pay him the honor due a king and they instead surrounded him and looked down on him.

Eliza stared in disbelief and her lips trembled as she questioned her fellow White Seidr knights.

“What the hell do you think you are doing? This is your king!”

But none of them moved.

The air seemed to have grown solid. An awkward silence hung in the air, like Eliza was the one who had stepped on a magic circle landmine.

One of the chosen knights shrugged like she was sick of hearing those by-the-book responses.

“What are we doing? We are having the king fulfill his duty to the people. By offering up his own head.”

Eliza appeared fully stunned. She did not even show any anger on her face.

“The people’s anger comes from his failure to lead.”

“Don’t you dare!!”

“Do you have any idea how much money was poured into the Icicle Bullet!?”

Eliza’s shoulders shook.

She was saying all the right things, but she could not silence the others. In fact, they argued back with twice the intensity.

The values she believed in meant nothing to these other knights.

Her values rang hollow in their ears.

She had bowed her head with everything she said, she had rejoiced at finding a way to avoid killing the rioters trying to take her own life, and she had refused to escape to safety when her king could be in danger, so the impotence of those values hit her like a powerful blow to the heart.

The person wearing identical magic armor instead criticized her.

Using another set of values.

“The heavy taxes needed to pay for it have left the people starving. Our noble knight’s spears are rented out to other countries like lowly mercenaries and thugs!! Acquiring foreign currency? We’re supposed to be the noble chosen knights, paragons of our kingdom’s virtues! But even you’ve lost count of how many times you’ve bloodied your hands with that dirty work, haven’t you!?”

“But…”

“No one wanted that Godhorn Tech! No one but this king here!!”

Their raised voices were indistinguishable from those of the rioters outside.

Was that because the knights were human too?

Or was this the true ground zero of the uprising?

“He is a poison to our great kingdom, so we cannot afford to show mercy! This will never end until he has been hanged for all the people to see. He must be torn to pieces or this kingdom will be!!”

“…”

Silence fell.

Eliza clenched her teeth before speaking quietly.

“It is true our king may have been led astray by the Godhorn Tech’s power. His lust for its power may have caused him to neglect the people’s wellbeing.”

“Exactly our point!”

“But I am his knight.”

She used her words to cast out those careless feelings.

She stared straight at the other knights and raised her voice to a roar.

“Whatever might happen, I, Eliza Silverstorm, was appointed a White Seidr Chosen Knight by the king!! So I shall dedicate my life in service to the king who gave it meaning. I will never abandon him. I might correct his mistakes, but I have been granted no power to judge him guilty!!”

The other chosen knights stared blankly back at her and their representative finally responded with exasperation in her voice.

“You are a fool.” She looked at Eliza like she was garbage lying on the road. “The people out there are not the only ones angry about this. Everyone serving in the castle feels the same.”

With a scraping of metal, they moved toward Eliza.

All the other chosen knights in their magic armor and wielding their lances began to surround her.

Eliza sought no assistance from anyone. Not even from the younger knights who had led her here.

“My surname was a joyous gift granted me by the king. I will carry that proof of my knighthood until the day it is carved into my gravestone.”

She would have her way even if she had to do it alone.

She directed her control lance toward her colleagues’ many lances as if to say she needed no companions.

“Come. I may be the last one with any loyalty, but I will fulfill my duty as the king’s lance!!”

However, Eliza Silverstorm was not the only one faced with the situation.

“…”

Miyabi Blackgarden was too.

He smiled.

He wanted to believe in people.

He did not want to think of them as foolish, violent creatures that resorted to thoughtless anger.

So he would prove they weren’t by using all the power at his disposal.

“Heh.”

The smiling redhead boy had already stabbed his control sword into the floor.

“Uh, oh,” said the government official in glasses.

A deafening boom and blinding flash filled everything as the seemingly sturdy castle’s wall was mercilessly torn down. It looked like a giant claw had slashed diagonally through the stone. The many chosen knights had seemed so untouchable, but not even they could shrug off the shockwave of a Godhorn Tech blast.

They collapsed all around Miyabi as he smiled with control sword in hand.

“Have a little more faith in the world’s generosity.”

“What…did you do?”

Eliza’s voice was scratchy as she looked up at him.

She had shown him a world out of a fairy tale.

She had shown him values he could get behind.

So he only had to act on it. He raised his control sword and announced his intentions with a smile.

“I’m in too. How I use this strongest power is up to me. Eliza Silverstorm! I refuse to let you make this last stand all on your own!!!!!!”

Helen, meanwhile, was apoplectic.

Pale in the face, the government official yelled at him.

“You- you can’t just- international incident!”

“Wh-what just happened?” groaned one of the collapsed chosen knights, trying to get up from the floor.

But then she saw the massive form leisurely flying through the frigid white sky visible through the crack in the castle wall.

That was the Lucifer Horn.

“Eek!? A G-Godhorn Tech!?”

“I honestly have no clue how this happened either.” Eliza Silverstorm sighed before continuing. “But this is over. Lower your lances! I must demand our king changes his ways and pacifies the people! Or do you intend to fight against a Godhorn Tech!?”

Celina and Alicia approached Miyabi and whispered to him.

Nothing was as delightful as a secret conversation while on course to win.

“(Heh heh heh. Miyabi, they’re scared, so go ahead and finish them off!)”

“(Eh heh heh heh! She’s right. Smash a column or wall with your sword to scare them more!!)”

He only had to swing the control sword.

The power from the horn gave it the edge needed to break right through any of the columns in the central hall.

Now, how much were those marble columns worth?

The village-raised incarnation of destruction showed no mercy.

“Eek!”

The already intimidated chosen knights slowly crept backwards. This was working. Or so Miyabi thought.

But the woman who had made herself leader of the enemy knights forced a smile.

“Do not take us for fools.”

“What do you mean?”

This was not the victory he had envisioned. Eliza’s question may have summoned some unseen defeat. Whatever the case, the enemy knight continued speaking.

“We chose to rebel against the king to save the people. Because it is our duty as the White Seidr to protect them. And we will use even this kingdom’s greatest power to achieve that.”

“This kingdom’s greatest power?” parroted Eliza in confusion, but then her face stiffened. “You don’t mean…!?”

The chosen knights all used the same standardized equipment.

That included the beautiful and intricately designed armor and miniskirt that relied on magical defenses.

But it also included the lances that were much too large for them.

Yes.

Was there more than one control lance?

“That great firepower was granted to the White Seidr Chosen Knights as a whole . You happened to be the most compatible, but it was not your personal possession.” The enemy knight had regained enough confidence to scoff. “Even that control lance is just for show. We were always choosing its actions by a majority vote and kindly voting your way every time.”

It was now Eliza’s turn to groan.

“Are you insane?”

“Behold the true will of White Seidr!”

The younger knights had fear in their eyes.

They had guided Eliza here and had not been influenced to same extent as the others, but they still lacked the courage to risk their lives here. Some of the girls even squeezed their eyes shut.

So none of them protested that announcement.

“The will of every last one of us, save you!!”

“Again, are you insane!? You can’t ram that thing into the labyrinthine castle town!!”

“Control lance, connect to the horn core. Tactical open.”

There was no stopping it.

The mistaken majority was about to destroy the king’s kingdom.

“Icicle Bullet.”

The devastating trigger was pulled.

“Shoot down that unidentified Godhorn Tech and offer the foolish king’s head to the people!!”

### Between the Lines 2

The Independent Militaria Material Kingdom.

Commonly known as the Arsenal Kingdom.

That fortress state trapped in deep snow was also one of the continent’s greatest military powers. They were once threatened by the Empire, but their icy land was never taken and they successfully repelled the Empire’s forces with a direct defense. Their metalworking skills combined human and dwarf techniques, making them second to none in that field.

On the other hand, the kingdom wanted for much.

For one, the year-round snow prevented much in the way of crops. The kingdom did not starve thanks to the wild animal meat they could hunt, but all grains and vegetables had to be imported and a balanced diet was viewed as a luxury only afforded to the wealthy class.

Then there was magical technology.

As a contrast to metal equipment, they were starved for magical equipment.

The Arsenal Kingdom’s swords and armor were known for being made of solid tempered steel. They could crush with their solid weight and block or parry with their smooth movable parts. But Eliza Silverstorm knew all too well that the other countries joked they could be immobilized by magnets.

The White Seidr Chosen Knights were an oddity among the Arsenal Kingdom. They wore elegant and slim armor with a feather headdress made of precious metals and a miniskirt.

By keeping that elite unit’s numbers down, they could equip themselves with the kingdom’s limited amount of magical equipment. They were mostly just for show – a unit marched down the street in a parade or sent to other countries to make the kingdom as a whole look wealthier than it really was .

Then there was the Icicle Bullet.

That Godhorn Tech was an even more extreme example.

After the Empire collapsed on its own, it no longer threatened the rest of the continent and there was no real need for such a monstrous weapon. It was especially difficult to maintain for the magically-weak Arsenal Kingdom, so the expenses placed a lot more pressure on their finances than for the other powers. The ideals of knighthood were not enough to fudge the finances.

And this was the inevitable result.

“Here they come,” whispered Eliza Silverstorm, lying in the snow and removing binoculars from her eyes. “That’s five snow wagons that replaced their wheels with sleds. They have Slaughter Ants leading and trailing them for protection. This must be the traders. If our information is correct, they are loaded with amplified silver and crystals soaked in liquid magic.”

“Roger that. Time for another day’s work, huh?”

She heard the rustling of forest vegetation.

She was not alone. More knights appeared seemingly out of nowhere, forming a large unit.

Instead of their pretty parade armor, they now wore dazzling leather assassin outfits. They were hiding their identities and affiliation because this mission was far removed from her idea of what a knight should be doing.

Expert fighters trained to be their kingdom’s elite were attacking ordinary traders, even if those traders had hired bodyguards.

Of course, their objective was not to steal the magical materials.

The assets carried by some traders would be a drop in the bucket to an entire kingdom. Once it was done, a man wearing a black robe pulled up over his head approached Eliza.

He wore a mask over his face, his shoes had raised soles, and he kept his hips bent at all times. He was even masking his true height.

Eliza did not know who he really was.

“Excellent work. You wiped them out without any casualties on your end. I can see why they call you chosen knights.”

She had grown accustomed to the feel of the cold leather clinging to her body and she carried one of the large machetes they had bought at the market to ensure the wounds on the corpses did not give away their kingdom’s involvement.

“Are you here to mock us?” she asked with a hard look on her face.

“Far from it. The Arsenal Kingdom should be set for a while now, don’t you think?”

She felt like she could see the icy smile hidden below his mask.

He could see the big picture here, but Eliza could not.

“The preparations are complete. Now that their business rivals have met an ‘unfortunate accident’, the Bodenburg Company will have an easier time reaching this region. If you construct a stronger and more stable business partnership, you can purchase all the fruits, vegetables, and magical materials you want. Not long now until you are freed from your starvation. Hold your heads high because you have saved the people of your kingdom.”

“…”

“And here is your reward for this job.”

He snapped his fingers and another shadowy figure stepped forward to set down a mountain climbing rucksack stuffed full of something. It had to be filled with foreign currency, but Eliza did not reach for it.

The right thing was not always pretty.

But her own values refused to accept that.

If she accepted this as the right thing to do, she was truly lost. She had to at least view it as a dirty job.

“Are you from the Bodenburg Company?”

“No, I am merely someone who benefits from their rise.”

He was not going to identify himself that easily.

And she knew the people who hid their appearance and identity were rarely good people.

“I will be contacting you again shortly. Until then.”

“What is your name!?”

“Strange Guide. No, think of me as one of their underlings.”

The masked men left.

She had not expected an honest answer to her question, so she was left with no solid facts, no way of finding the answers, and a rucksack stuffed full of dirty money. Well, that and a pile of corpses surrounded by toppled wagons.

Would the knights in the picture books she grew up reading have done something like this?

Wasn’t this the work of mercenaries…if not bandits?

“Hey,” called one of the other chosen knights wearing red leather assassin outfit.

The shine of the leather felt like a cruel mockery of the gorgeous knight armor they were meant to wear.

This companion was gritting her teeth and glaring down at the rucksack full of foreign currency.

None of them wanted to touch it, but as much as it disgusted them, they would have to grab the shoulder straps and take it back with them. A knight served her king, no matter how much she disliked her orders. They were all weary. They might be rich in materials and money, but their minds were near collapse. They were so worn down mentally that their bare souls were leaking out.

The people of their kingdom were ignorant of it all, the knights were sick of it all, and only the king rejoiced at the influx of money.

Like a con artist, they were barely getting by from one job to another, but it always worked out in the end , preventing them from ever letting go of the Godhorn Tech draining their resources.

They all understood the problem, so they would whisper amongst themselves when they knew the king could not overhear them.

This was the knights’ resentment.

Or maybe it was the complaints of those never allowed to complain.

“Hey, Eliza. How many more times must we sell our souls?”

Eliza Silverstorm was their leader, but she had no answer for them.

Which may have been why it turned out the way it did.

### Chapter 3 Part 3

The central hall, currently an audience chamber, was falling apart.

The din outside was fading away and a painful silence was sneaking in.

Or so it seemed.

“The Icicle Bullet is coming,” said Eliza Silverstorm, ignoring the biting chill entering through the large crack torn in the outer wall as if by a diagonal slash of a claw. “It left its border patrol to come here, to the center of our kingdom.”

“Y-you must be joking!” Celina Bodenburg could not believe what she was hearing. “That ice weapon derailed my Schwarz Schütze just by crashing into it from the side! Do you have any idea what happens if that breaks through the outer wall and plows through the closely-packed homes and shops of the castle town!?”

“Wait, wait, hey, wait!! Can’t you attack that sexy knight to get her to stop?”

The radio’s suggestion was rejected by Alicia Blueforest.

“Those White Seidr knights said the decision comes from a majority vote and we simply don’t have enough time to deal with all of them!”

“This kingdom is done for if the Icicle Bullet makes it here,” shouted Helen Clockgear in alarm. “The castle walls, the castle town, and the castle itself will all be swept away, along with every rioter in between!”

Miyabi thought quietly about the issue.

“…”

“Koo,” sadly cried red Alma with a hand(?) on its mouth.

Eliza bit her lip, but she did not hesitate.

That knight had lost her order, her companions, and her lance, but she was unbroken as she lowered her head here. Lowered it toward a simple boy with no official title of his own.

“Please.”

Receiving support took courage too. Plus, she did not have the power to stop him if he did betray her here. But she took this step regardless, using her great willpower.

“Stop the Icicle Bullet. Please use your power to protect the Arsenal Kingdom!!”

“Heh. If I was gonna say no to that, I wouldn’t’ve gotten involved in the first place.”

That settled it.

Miyabi Blackgarden rushed out through the tear in the castle’s wall.

“The Icicle Bullet is on its way.”

From this height, he could see it on the snowy plain stretching out beyond the castle town and castle wall.

Waiting here at the castle would mean sacrificing everyone in the castle town. The people there were packing the streets and speaking out against their poor treatment, oblivious to the approaching danger. If the snow sleigh was allowed to reach the castle town, it would result in an uncountable number of dead.

Miyabi looked back and spoke to Alma, Alicia, and the others.

“We can start by crossing the roofs to reach the wall outside the castle town. We can discuss a plan then!”

They practically jumped from building to building.

He created Bypass Bridges and Layer Stairs to make shortcuts and occasionally passed directly above the rioters covering the surface. The rioters were half drunk on rage, so they had failed to notice the danger. Although noticing it would only lead to a panic.

Miyabi’s party ran back to the gate they had initially entered through.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I was so exhausted after the first time, but it’s going so much faster now.”

“Experience makes people grow,” said Celina. “This shows just how much of it you have accumulated.”

They rushed out through the thick gate.

The boy jabbed his control sword down into the snowy ground and a large magic circle floated up at his feet.

Eliza had sworn she would show the king the error of his ways and save the rioters and other knights who were throwing stones and directing their weapons toward her. And she was not just saying that; she had risked her life to fight that fight all on her own.

Miyabi thought that made her super cool, so he was intent on doing this her way.

The kingdom was foolish, but he would protect it for that proud chosen knight.

“Control sword, connect to the horn core. Lucifer Horn, tactical open.”

Speaking the words was all well and good, but how could he actually stop this thing?

“What am I supposed to do now!?”

“That thing’s ramming power knocked over the supposedly impregnable Schwarz Schütze.” Celina best understood the gravity of that statement and she tried to express the threat with her gestures and body language. “I doubt your laser or bombs will be enough to stop it. You might hit it with several blasts, but as long as its basic shape remains, its momentum will keep it sliding across the snow!!”

“You need to work smarter, not harder,” said Alicia. “Fortunately, we know what direction the Icicle Bullet is coming from. You can create several walls and trenches to block its path.”

“Even thin paper can block a bullet with enough layers. And several used stockings together can make a good substitute sink strainer in a pinch,” cackled the philosopher’s stone. “So stay focused and build a solid wall!!”

That dreadfully white weapon looked so distant.

It was charging toward them. The white mass growing near the horizon had to be all the snow being knocked into the air.

This was a battle between Godhorn Techs.

It was creation versus destruction.

It was a head-on clash.

Noticing something, Eliza Silverstorm shouted “Watch out!!”

A great boom shook their surroundings.

The Icicle Bullet had yet to reach them, but it had weapons other than ramming. The explosion spread sharp spines of ice rather than flames. The blast was big enough to freeze mammoths by the dozen, not to mention humans.

“The Icicle Bullet’s greatest attack is the full-speed ram using its own weight,” explained Eliza, its original pilot. “So to ensure that attack hits, it rules the battlefield with the support of its many other weapons. That freezing magic is a good example. It is used to hold the target in place long enough for the ram to hit. It can also use divination to take aim…so…it…can…”

Miyabi bristled and shouted back when she trailed off like that.

“If it’s got some kind of secret, you’d better tell us now!! The fate of your kingdom is on the line!!”

“It has…”

“Yes? It has what?”

“That Godhorn Tech includes a Perfect Divination Slide Rule that uses Seidr magic! So it will never miss!!”

He stared blankly for a moment.

She had squeezed her eyes shut and blushed to make this confession, but he had no idea why it had been so hard for her. Was this some great secret of the knights? But Seidr was in their name.

Then he noticed Alicia and Helen refusing to look him in the eye either.

There was more to this.

“Th-the thing is, Seidr magic is an extremely accurate form of divination, but…”

The glasses woman fidgeted and poked her index fingers together in front of her large chest.

She said the rest as quickly and quietly as she could.

“Seeing a vision of the future requires detaching your mind from reality, but letting the spell song take over and guide you into a trance makes it very hard to restrain the, uh, feelings that naturally occur in the body, so um, uh, it is a very dangerous form of divination with an unavoidable side effect of being left in a mood that, shall we say, makes it hard to get to sleep at night, so as strait-laced as this knight might look, she must actually be filled with barely-contained unfulfilled desires!!”

Miyabi stared into the distance, entirely forgetting their dire situation.

He recalled what the chosen knights in the castle had said.

“The Icicle Bullet was granted to the White Seidr Chosen Knights as a whole.”

“Uh.”

“But it was left in Eliza’s care because she was the most compatible ???”

“~ ~ ~”

Eliza blushed and tearfully clutched her large lance as this secret was revealed. She could no longer even get her voice out. But with the Godhorn Tech stolen, her mood would not change for the time being.

And now was not the time to be thinking up a new nickname for her.

“Enough!!” shouted the Knight of Masked Horniness. “The Arsenal Kingdom itself is being targeted this time. It might not matter as much against a stationary target, but don’t assume the ramming is the Icicle Bullet’s only weapon. Even its secondary weapons can splatter a human across the snow easily enough!!”

Helen knew all too well that no blade small enough to fit in a human hand was going to help, no matter how skilled its wielder was with swords or magic, so she was growing increasingly anxious.

“W-we’re running short on time!” she shouted.

Miyabi knew that.

He had sworn to himself he would never abandon this knight who was strait-laced in the extreme, so he raised his hand and spoke quietly.

“Lucifer Horn…take care of this.”

What they needed was an obstacle.

Preferably, a large one made of several layers.

He stepped in front of the others, stabbed his control sword into the ground, and gave the command. The Lucifer Horn’s massive form swooped by overhead and its laser tore across the ground behind it.

It flew sideways to tear a few cliffs into the ground.

It also melted the snow to create a muddy marsh. The Icicle Bullet was designed to slide across the year-round snow, so this could actually help slow it down.

But not stop it. He looked back and raised his voice.

“Hey, Eliza! The Arsenal Kingdom is a kingdom of steel, right!? And with those huge walls around everything, you must have plenty of stone too.”

“Y-yes. But we are weak when it comes to magic. What of it!?”

“ I’ll be borrowing that .”

He slowly inhaled and then spoke.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!”

Giant obstacles appeared in rapid succession, weaving through the gaps left by the straight trenches and deep marsh.

Metal spikes more sinister than a rose vine’s thorns curled around to catch at the Godhorn Tech.

Countless upside-down anchors jutted up from the deep snow to tear at the bottom of the ice weapon.

Chunks of stone formed ramps that would send the snow sleigh airborne, throwing off its balance.

It was like an athletic obstacle course or a brutal off-road horse-racing track.

He created more and more, building up their power little by little, but none of it helped relieve his anxiety!!

“Here it comes, Miyabi!!” warned Helen.

It had begun.

The colossal Icicle Bullet charged in with fearsome acceleration. Bright lights flashed across it and the explosive booms arrived a moment later. Explosions of ice erupted much too close for comfort and a few of the makeshift walls were shattered. Ironically, the delay between the light and sound when the Icicle Bullet fired its weapons told them its distance, just like midsummer lightning and thunder. The massive Godhorn Tech seemed like an artillery shell itself.

Alicia shouted over at him while holding her bangs down against the blowing wind produced by the snow blasted into the air.

“It broke right through your trenches! Don’t fail to recalculate, boy! Thoughtlessly creating more cliffs and marshes won’t be enough to slow it down!!”

“Kh.”

A direct hit from this would literally break through an entire kingdom, bring down the central castle, and physically destroy everything.

The rolls of metal thorns were torn and the forest of anchors was crushed.

It even froze the marshes of thawed snow with its magic, all so it could continue onward at full speed.

“Miyabi!! Um, uh, look!”

He heard Celina shouting to him.

And that was not all.

Just as he was preparing to send snowmelt into a crater to create a new marsh, his peripheral vision noticed Alicia doing something.

But it was too late.

Why?

Because the color white filled his vision as the Icicle Bullet grew closer.

“Ah.”

Only once it was this close did he truly grasp that it was made of ice. The Icicle Bullet was a giant sleigh. The true core of the device were the two blades keeping contact with the ground, but they were made of ice. It really was a gigantic sorcery weapon. Every part of it was supported by magic.

Time seemed to have stopped.

But he did not have time to get his voice out.

It hit him.

The Godhorn Tech’s ramming attack crashed into Miyabi Blackgarden from dead ahead.

A dreadful cracking sound filled Miyabi’s mind, but he felt no real pain in his head. He was past even thinking about what had happened to his body. His torso may have been torn in two for all he knew.

No.

He had apparently gotten caught on the Icicle Bullet after it hit him. It was a colossal sleigh and its blades were made of jagged ice. The ice blades looked like frozen conifer trees laid on their side and he was caught on one of them. It must not have been made to attack a target as small as a human.

But this was still deadly. More than half his vision was dyed red.

My adventure didn’t last long, thought Miyabi.

He was just some village boy, not a legendary hero. When people died, they just died. He was no more than a rookie, so there was only so much he could accomplish when the Lucifer Horn was simply plopped down in his lap. He may have already known that deep down.

He had not wanted to learn this.

He wished he had been killed instantly, so he could avoid this realization.

And yet…

“…yabi…”

He heard a voice.

It was so weak that he normally might have thought he was imagining it, but it was very real.

A voice was calling his name.

“Miyabi, wait.”

It was falling apart.

It was a desperate thing, stripped of all pride and vanity.

It was the awkward voice of someone who had cast aside her image of a powerful knight to bet everything on this boy.

The girl, Eliza Silverstorm, was crying.

“Don’t leave me all alone! Please don’t give up on everyone in my kingdom!! Miyabiiii!!!!!!”

With a dull cracking, Miyabi Blackgarden gathered all his strength to force his eyes back open. He had been hit by the Godhorn Tech and caught on the mass of ice that formed the sleigh’s blade, so he could not even imagine how much damage his body had taken.

But the control sword remained in his hand.

When he looked down at that limp and bloodstained hand, he just about laughed at his own foolishness. His body had regained its focus before his mind had.

Fight.

Fight to the end so you can wipe away her tears.

He could finally hear his own inner voice.

You were about ready to give up on everything after nearly dying just the once, but this girl risked something even more important than her life to bet it all on you. And you’re just going to die without living up to that trust?

She protected her king.

She was separated from the rioting citizens and from the other chosen knights in identical armor.

Didn’t you decide you weren’t going to abandon her to the isolation she found after staying true to her values? She put all of her hopes in you, but you run into one little setback and you’re ready to give up on life and move on to the afterlife, leaving her behind here?

How can you do that?

Can you really let yourself be that selfish? Miyabi Blackgarden, what kind of person do you want to be!? You carry the powers of destruction and creation and that lets you do just about anything, but you’re going to let this world restrict you!? You aren’t even going to try to destroy the barriers and you’re just going to accept the limits placed on you!!!???

“Ugh.”

So.

He jabbed with the control sword in his hand. But not into the ground. He jabbed it into the Icicle Bullet’s ice blade.

Hence the dull cracking sound .

“Again…Lucifer Horn.”

The Lucifer Horn bomber was undoubtedly the strongest as it harnessed the unbelievably brutal power of a Wicked God horn. But it was up to Miyabi Blackgarden to decide how that power was used . That was a “power” that came from the boy himself.

First, he would destroy .

Destroy the horrific conclusion caused by the misunderstandings between the king, the knights, and the people, even though they had all wished the best for the kingdom and happiness for its people.

Then he would create .

Create a world that this girl, who was weeping after abandoning her pride and status to stand up for what she believed in, could face with her head held high.

If he could accomplish that, the boy would accept this crystallization of humanity’s lowly sins, which included building a weapon out of a Wicked God horn. He would accept this incredible power that could even destroy the world.

“Control sword, connect to the horn core. Lucifer Horn, tactical open.”

So he forcibly opened a control magic circle on the surface of the Icicle Bullet where his control sword had stabbed into it.

And he roared toward the heavens to become the person he hoped to be .

“Here’s your target, Lucifer Horn!! Attack here nowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!”

Something separated from the Lucifer Horn’s wing up above.

It was a massive bomb.

But something happened before the bomb could drop to the snowy ground and detonate and before the Icicle Bullet could attempt to defend against it.

A thick beam of light dropped down to follow after the bomb.

That was the sorcery weapon loaded on the Lucifer Horn from the beginning. It pierced right through the falling bomb, detonating it in midair.

A thick shockwave dropped down like a suspended ceiling.

The entire Icicle Bullet sank down into the snow.

Then another beam of light tore across the ground from the side. The snow sleigh’s massive suspension had already been compressed to absorb the previous impact, so now it audibly snapped.

The snow sleigh’s right side sank even further.

Conversely, the left side sprang upwards, breaking Miyabi’s bond to the jagged ice blade.

He was thrown from the Godhorn Tech and rolled along the snow for dozens of meters.

He heard the castle wall breaking, but that was all. The Icicle Bullet failed to pierce through, only managing to partially embed itself in the stone.

It was too soon to relax.

(What happened to that absurdly strait-laced girl?)

“Miyabi…”

He heard a sobbing voice.

Of all things, that ridiculously honest girl was standing in front of the gate all on her own.

She had her arms spread to act as one final barrier.

Miyabi noticed her legs were trembling.

(Yeah, of course she’s terrified.)

At this point, it actually angered him. She might be a chosen knight or a White Seidr or whatever, but how had she still not figured out that her strait-lacedness had long since reached lethal levels? What would she have done if he hadn’t managed to divert the Icicle Bullet’s path a little right at the end there? Her slender body couldn’t possibly defend against a ram from that Godhorn Tech.

He honestly did not even care what state his own body was in.

He only wanted to give that ridiculous girl a piece of his mind. He wanted to tell her to at least try to look after her own life. Because seeing her do things like this was why he had felt the need to join the fight himself.

But after a second, he laughed.

…He realized she must have felt the same way he did.

They were both reckless in the extreme. He had refused to give up even after the Icicle Bullet hit him head-on, so he was probably the very last person she wanted to hear criticizing her actions here.

“Gasp, pant.”

He was sticky with blood.

He was certain this had taken years off his life. He did not even want to know how many bones he had broken. But he had never let go of the control sword. That effort had meant more wounds and a strong blood flavor filling his mouth, but he had refused to let go. He slowly stood up, unable to keep his body straight.

“The Icicle Bullet…stopped?”

That thought finally occurred to Eliza Silverstorm.

Before even thinking about her own survival, she felt relief that the king, her colleagues, the kingdom’s people, and the companions she had fought alongside were all safe.

Miyabi swore to himself he would call her an idiot later on.

“I-it really stopped? Sniff, sob. Everyone’s…safe now?”

“No, not yet.”

But Miyabi had reached a different conclusion.

The tall stone wall was vibrating along with an ominous rumble. Needless to say, this came from the Icicle Bullet with its head buried inside that wall.

This was not over yet. The battle had not been won. Any headpats or rebukes would have to wait.

“Koo!” cried red Alma while rubbing against his leg.

“It’s only stopped for now. The knights’ majority vote is still in effect and it hasn’t been given a stop order. It will resume moving if left like this.” He spat some blood into the snow and lifted his control sword. “I have to deliver the finishing blow. Is that okay?”

Celina bitterly looked away. This may have reminded her of the agony when it had been her.

Finally, Eliza got out a scratchy voice.

Her eyes were already red and a tear dripped from one of them as she threw out her own pride.

“Yes.” Strength filled her voice as she overcame this final barrier. “Yes, go ahead! If that will protect the king and the people!! If it will remove the discord between the king and the knights and allow us to stand up as a unified kingdom once more!”

She likely had something she wanted to protect even if it meant tearing herself to pieces, so she could keep going no matter how injured she was.

She was stronger than anyone, so she would never lose her shine, even without the Godhorn Tech.

She faced forward and spoke with conviction.

“Do it. That knight’s lance deserves to be broken now that it has lost its luster!!”

“Got it.”

He stabbed his control sword into the snow.

A magic circle opened and he faced the colossal weapon once more.

Was this destruction?

No, he was creating a new path for this girl and her kingdom.

“Sorry, Icicle Bullet.”

He felt like he had to say this.

Even if this was the embodiment of destruction that had left him so badly injured.

“This wasn’t your fault. Thank you for listening to everyone’s commands all this time. You did a great job.”

That monster had faithfully obeyed without once breaking its promise, but now it vanished into the white beam of light that dropped from the heavens.

### Character Profiles

Sophia Calamity-Jinx

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 158cm

Started out as a Curse Cleaner who purifies malicious residual thoughts, but accidentally showed an interest in an “embarrassing charm” contract found when collecting items from an abandoned house and is now constantly targeted by vengeful spirits. There is a way to remove the charm, but the method is too embarrassing for her to tell anyone what it is. She is pursuing Under Lilith whose knowledge of magic and contracts may be able to remove the charm.

Eliza Silverstorm

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 160cm

A member of the White Seidr, an all-female group of chosen knights within the Arsenal Kingdom. She was given command of the Icicle Bullet Godhorn Tech due to her excellent compatibility. She is an honest but inflexible person, so even if it is at her king’s command, she does not enjoy the mercenary-like dirty work she performs while loaned out to other countries.

Garret Goldcave

Apparent Age: 50 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 120cm

A dwarf craftsman who creates the traps used to protect royal and noble tombs. Specializes in “soul possessing” traps disguised as treasure chests, money bags, gargoyles, etc. Upon learning his carefully-created traps were being removed from royal tombs and being misused for Strange Guide’s death games, he began traveling the world to “retrieve” the traps.

Godhorn Tech Sleigh: Icicle Bullet

Pilot: Eliza Silverstorm

Affiliation: Independent Militaria Material Kingdom

Size (LxWxH): 50m x 20m x 10m

A giant sleigh made of ice. Fires magic shells that freeze its target in place and then runs them over with the giant sleigh itself. As powerful as that attack is, the real problem is how it predicts its target’s next move to always hit with its attacks. If an opponent cannot avoid that seemingly prophetic aim, victory is an impossibility. Design motif: seidr magic.

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 2

“Oh?”

Victia Magnumfist, a martial artist in a red dress, was staring into the distance.

Something was headed this way. The Lucifer Horn passed by, its enormous wings spread, and something was dumped onto the island.

It was a naked girl. With big boobs.

“And now the perverts are attacking? Nice. An excellent test of my skills. I’ll show you what my training here has taught me!!”

“Oh, god, what now!? C-can you at least let me put my clothes on first!?” screamed Sophia Calamity-Jinx while gathering a thick cloth in front of her.

The tearful girl viewed the island to find only the bare minimum of civilization. She saw a few tents made of what looked like the hide of a large animal and a campfire situated on the ground. A branch was suspended above so a pot could hang over the fire, but the pot itself appeared to be made from a large animal’s skull.

“C-clothes. Clothes, clothes.”

“Hm? This island’s only got sexy swimsuits.”

“What- but- how does a civilization like that even develop!?”

Sophia blushed and even shed tears as she slowly squirmed her way into her own priest clothing. Meanwhile, she received an explanation from the extreme optimist who insisted that this remote island was the perfect place to train.

“Um, so you’re saying we have joined the party of this person called…Miyabi was it?”

“I think so, yeah,” said Victia. “I think when someone scares him bad enough, he snags them with a flying trap to recruit them! Ah ha ha. He’s got a great eye for talent, but once he’s got his eye on you, there’s no escape!!”

“Don’t people usually call that kidnapping or abduction? And why take us away against our will and then not even use us? Is he just holding onto us just in case!?”

The downer of an indoorsy type had a lot of questions about this, but rolling around and flailing her limbs was not going to change anything. If you wanted to avoid dying on the beach, you had to actively work toward survival.

“First, I’d like a room to myself. You have a few tents already, so can I borrow one of them?”

“Oh, those are my cheesemaking tents. The sun will ruin the whole process, after all. But humans are made of tougher stuff, so you’ll get used to it. Just strip off your clothes, lay them down on the sand, lie naked on top of that, and it’ll be morning before you know it!”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………I’m afraid to ask, but you do have a bath, don’t you?”

“Ah ha ha. That’s a silly question. The whole island’s surrounded by water, so why would I need to make a separate bath?”

The busty, stooped-over, downer girl began to tremble. She doubted she could get along with someone who was willing to wash her body in saltwater just because it kept food from spoiling. Did this island carry a curse that continually reduced one’s femininity values the longer you stayed there?

And all while living in such a wild environment.

“U-umm.”

“Need something?”

“D-does that animal skin and bones mean what I think it does?”

“Yup, we lucked out and the place has a thriving ecosystem. I don’t have the patience for fishing, so it’s great that I can get as much meat as I want with just my fists!”

“Nooo!! How is this place a battlefield and an extreme survival environment at the same time!?”

Sophia was a Curse Cleaner, which made her a specialist in fighting the Undead, but she was powerless against forest creatures. In fact, the ordinary animals scared her more. Especially if she was staying in a tent on the ground. She could be killed in her sleep if a nocturnal animal approached while she was too deep asleep to notice.

“Wh-what if a dangerous animal approaches while you’re asleep?”

“You wake up before it reaches you.”

“And what do you do then? I-i-i-if it actually attacks, I mean.”

“You beat it up before it attacks. Or put it in a chokehold. Your choice. Once you get used to it, this the best place in the world! You gain experience at all times – both night and day!”

“…”

Something about this felt very wrong to Sophia. Why was Victia acting like a naked human would be able to defeat a wild beast’s fangs and claws?

This was a desert island, but they could improve their lives here by creating new tools, equipment, and facilities. Fortunately, the ocean and forest provided plenty of materials. That meathead had even made sexy swimsuits on her own, so it felt like anything was possible if you put your mind to it.

“Oh, right. You’re strong against Undead, right?”

“Yes, I suppose. Not that my Curse Cleaner power is going to be any help on a desert island.”

“Don’t be so sure. This place is a den of Beast Novae, including Undead ones. Ah ha ha! See, you had nothing to worry about.”

Sophia shrieked in fear.

At the same time, a dark form poked its head out from between the trees of the forest. But its position was unusual. The head looked child-sized, but it was poking around the tree at a height of more than 3m.

Also, it had countless legs and a glistening black exoskeleton.

A massive centipede was curled around the tree trunk, but the face of an adorable human child was embedded at the front end. Sophia decided that was about the last thing she would want to be reincarnated as.

Victia licked her thumb.

“There you are, you Undead bastard!! We’ve gotta crush that unclean thing before it gets to our food and water!!”

“Wait!!” shouted Sophia, the expert on this subject (who was still only half dressed). “Attacking it and driving it away won’t solve this. The Undead are fueled by any power that ‘sends people to death’, so driving them away with punches and kicks will only give them more power for when they attack again.”

“Is that how it works?”

“This is a Hellbug. When a child dies lost at sea or in the mountains and they refuse the judgment of the dead, they are punished by being stranded in this world until their body is discovered. And they are remade into a hideous form. This just means they were never given a proper burial, so they haven’t done anything wrong themselves.”

As Sophia rattled off her explanation, her face was stern but her eyes were oddly compassionate.

“Even vengeful spirits were once human like us. No one ends up wandering this world after death for no reason. If you discover their reason and resolve the issue, they will return to their rightful place all on their own. In this case, we only have to ask them where they lost their life and search out their remains. No punching necessary.”

“Huh, neat. And what about Shadow Treading Parasites?”

“Those are plant spirits. It is the result of a plant growing too accustomed to manipulating animals with its flowers or fruit. But it is all for naught. The more they make their controlled host shine, the more pathetic they grow while hiding in the host’s shadow.”

A Curse Cleaner was a type of healer, not a knight or warrior.

The colorful will-o’-the-wisps following her around may have been the result of a certain type of popularity.

Just then, a massive form passed by above the small island. The Lucifer Horn dropped a new party member from its wire.

This one was an old male dwarf.

Sophia Calamity-Jinx, whose jiggliness was still only partially concealed, blanked her expression.

“Die, die! This insolent man must diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!!!!!!”

The pure and bashful girl showed no mercy.

Victia Magnumfist assessed her handiwork.

“Your punches aren’t half bad. With a little polishing, you could really shine.”

### 016. Afterword

And with that Godhorn Tech is at Volume 2!

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

Volume 2 begins with the suspicion of Moebius’s betrayal, but how did you like it? Personally, I enjoyed getting to use all those ocean Godhorn Techs. We already had the Lucifer Horn, so now they’ve covered land, sea, and air. The scariest part is how Godhorn Techs refuse to be contained by those categories. I think that’s what really makes it feel like a sword and sorcery fantasy.

Speaking of sword and sorcery fantasy, I wanted to include a lot of variation in the different party members. While the ruined empire and the regional island nation are very different places, I thought it would be boring if everyone was a representative of some country or other. That is why I prepared more varied hierarchies for them to rule at the top of, like piracy, business, or research. I hope you can view the Godhorn Tech world from several different angles by seeing how the characters view the world from their different stages.

Since this project began as a game scenario, it was not designed to be sliced into novel-sized chunks, but while Volume 1 was nothing but girls outside of Miyabi (oh, and Moebius too), Volume 2 includes a lot more important dudes, giving it more variety. We’ve got a butler automaton, a charismatic muscle pirate, a young king, and a swordsman old man. …Hm, looking at the list like that, there isn’t a standard hero or mage, is there?

Anyway, you should be able to see how this volume’s boss characters were a lot more eccentric than Celina and Eliza in Volume 1. That’s because we couldn’t exactly make the Necromancer or the Lord or Ruin be the first boss (and thus the first new party member)!!

The story is also the tale of Miyabi traveling around the continent.

He primarily fought in the northwest side of the continent in Volume 1, but this time he took a big U-turn and trekked across the continent while even making a detour to an island nation outside the continent. I think I showed a lot of variation in the climate and topography. What did you think of it all?

I hope you have found a favorite among the many characters and Godhorn Techs, but I also hope you found a favorite region. I shoved all my favorite fantasy elements into this. Everyone speaks the same language and uses the same currency because that’s just how it works in games, but I really enjoyed giving each city a unique feature in its topography, climate, economic foundation, culinary culture, etc. The most prominent example this time may have been the criminal city where the mixture of different cultures led to a blossoming of art and food.

I give my thanks to Haimura-san and Tabata-san who did the character designs and KeG-san who was involved in designing the characters’ alternate outfits. Tabata-san also drew the novel version’s illustrations. I also want to thank Square Enix, everyone else involved in the game’s production, and my editors Miki-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. More party members!! Selecting scenes to draw the whole Miyabi Army couldn’t have been easy. Thank you so much for going along with my nonsense again.

And I want to thank the readers. This second volume only exists because all of you wanted to know what happened next. This project has transformed a lot, but I am so happy that there are still people out there who can enjoy it. Your enjoyment means the story, the lore, the characters, the Godhorn Techs, and every single background tree made for the project were not for nothing. You reading this and enjoying it with us completes the large circle that began with the original project. I can never thank you enough for allowing the project’s stopped clock to move again and for saving Miyabi and the others. Thank you so, so much!!

And I will end this here.

Oh, no! I let my guard down and now the Necromancer is running wild…

-Kamachi Kazuma

### 017. Chapter 4 Section 1

People’s fear led to doubt. The have-nots doubted the haves while the haves doubted themselves.

And they all chose the same method of finding peace: to attack.

Moebius Entrance.

Confronting that man required turning back from the snow-covered Arsenal Kingdom and returning to the first village. The Schwarz Schütze had taken them the majority of the way there, but they would have to trek through the cold on the way back. That meant taking time to prepare for the journey in the Arsenal Kingdom.

But the 15-year-old redhead boy with sawdust goggles on his forehead did not remember any of it.

He knew he and the others had walked around the fortress city surrounded by those thick walls, but he did not remember how he had spent his time there.

“S-sorry,” he vaguely recalled a puppy-like chosen knight saying. “Tours of the castle are currently canceled due to all the confusion. But only because everyone is working so hard to fix our current situation instead of insisting someone else do it. In that sense, this is a step in the right direction.”

She wore gorgeous armor, including fine silverwork, a feather headdress, and a miniskirt, but it also possessed excellent magical defenses. She was one of the elite White Seidr Chosen Knights, but she was now running around fixing up the castle town with the ordinary soldiers.

The heat of the riot had faded from the icy city, so everyone was working to gather up the trash and repair the crumbling wall.

“Sorry, but no tours today,” he half-remembered a chosen knight saying with a condescending look. “Nothing good comes of the commoners seeing chaos in the castle. You should leave now.”

The icicles and frozen waterways were likely an intentional part of the city’s design in this snowy land.

“Sigh, the place is finally looking like a city again,” he partially remembered a tomboyish chosen knight commenting. “I have more strength than I know what to do with, so I really wish they would send some jobs my way. I’ll do anything – even lay bricks or paint walls!”

“Eh? You were wondering if all the Arsenal Kingdom’s knights are women?” He must have asked a knowledgeable chosen knight that at some point. “It’s not a requirement, but it is true most are. Hee hee. But we do have male knights. Look around and you might just find one.”

But.

He felt like he was wandering through a dream.

He must have left the Arsenal Kingdom at some point, but he didn’t remember doing it. He would not have questioned it if someone told him the memories were merely implanted in his head.

The shock had left him feeling utterly pathetic.

Betrayals did not just leave the victim brimming with rage toward the traitor. It was more complicated than just hating an enemy. They found themselves unable to trust themselves after trusting the traitor like that. It left a deep emotional scar.

“Moebius.”

“Hold on, boy. I thought you were shopping around to prepare for our journey.”

He did not even hear Alicia Blueforest, an elf who looked 13 or 14.

Instead, he stabbed his thick blade into the deep snow.

That control sword had a short blade for a two-handed sword, but who would believe it had originally been a machete? It was in fact a special control device used to send commands to the Lucifer Horn.

He let his anger take control of his voice.

He felt like he had lost all other emotions.

He shouted the name like he was preparing to tear the man’s throat out with his teeth.

“Moebius Entrance!”

“Wait!! Summoning that thing in this blizzard accomplishes nothing. Snatching yourself up with its wire will only throw you out into the sky!!”

The short elf’s white dress fluttered as she grabbed at Miyabi to stop him. Concluding that was not enough, Helen Clockgear, a young black-haired woman in a tight skirt and glasses, struck the back of the boy’s neck with the pommel of her knife. He collapsed into the snow, and Eliza Silverstorm, a professional fighter of the White Seidr Chosen Knights, grew flustered.

“But why?” shouted blonde Alicia, scooping the boy up from the snow. “Why would he be pulling the strings!?”

None of them had the answer.

Nor would they until they returned to where this journey had begun.

They knew the answer awaiting them would please none of them, but they had to return to the first village. They had arrived comfortably enough in the Schwarz Schütze armored train, but the way back would be on foot, meaning the white snowscape would bear its fangs.

Just one step outside of the gate transformed their surroundings into one of biting cold.

“Are we really headed in the right direction?” groaned Celina Bodenburg, whose black dress left her shoulders bared even in the frigid temperatures. “We aren’t going to end up stranded out here, are we?”

They could not continue traveling through the night.

As impatient as they were, a night blizzard would be fatal. When they spotted a village along the way, they would take a short detour to find an inn. If they did not, they had to camp out in a cave or some other shelter.

Today, they were in a rocky mountain cave.

“Ugh, how many days has it been now?” asked Alicia. “How I miss stretching out in a nice bath.”

“Why is this forest elf only interested in burning trees for warmth?” added Helen. “But to be fair, I’m just as sick of this snowy land as she is.”

Helen was soaking a towel in boiled water. When they couldn’t find an inn, even that was a luxury. She had loosened her jacket and tied up her black hair to rub the wet towel against her nape, breathing an alluring sigh. The towel really was their replacement for a bath. Not only did it clean them off, it warmed them and helped them relax, albeit to a limited extent.

“Koo,” cried the stuffed animal creature called Alma.

That juvenile Wicked God was currently in a red phoenix form. It was only the size of a slipper, but its own warmth kept it nice and cozy. It looked a little sleepy.

Celina was passing water through a portable filter the size of a beer mug and using the purified water to cast Aqua Wash magic on her hands, eliciting an exasperated comment from Alicia.

“When did you humans forget how to play in the dirt and vegetation? We are surrounded by water out there. Just fill a pot with snow and place it over the fire. You aren’t going to sterilize our dinner with ethanol and formaldehyde, are you?”

“This may be difficult to understand for a nature-loving elf who thinks bathing in the same natural springs as an elephant or hippo will actually get her clean, but a cute and elegant lady must be ever vigilant when it comes to cleanliness. You should thank me for this kind gift – have some deodorant.”

The wild elf, whose long hair and nape gave off a sweet feminine scent, fled as she was sprayed with a disinfectant magic that used purifying silver as a catalyst.

Miyabi was curled up by the rocky wall and did not join in the horseplay.

His shell was shut tight around him.

Even in the freezing cave, the gloomy-eyed boy only ever brought up one topic.

The passage of time did nothing to remove the roiling mass within his heart.

“I don’t know why he did it.”

Throughout their break, he had been staring out from the cave entrance into the thick curtain of snow while muttering fragments of a conversation with himself.

He seemed to be releasing his doubts in advance in order to escape the nightmare. The pressure building in his heart was so painful he refused to eat.

He felt bad doing this to Eliza.

Starting a journey with this hanging over their heads had to be rough, but he could do nothing to break free of the weight bearing down on him.

“But from the beginning, I only ever did what he told me. He told me to take his Godhorn Tech and he told me to search for the 11th’s sorcery bombs.”

He felt used.

His own words threatened to tear him apart.

“He was even the one who told me to contact Celina and send the armored train to the Arsenal Kingdom!”

He had no real motivation. There was no treasure waiting at the finishing line. But he had to push on. Like it was his penance for being so gullible.

Still, each step brought him closer. If nothing else, the path he took would not betray him.

And before he knew it…

“Wow,” gasped Eliza, her silver ponytail swishing behind her.

The snow had vanished from the ground.

That proved they had left the northern lands where the Arsenal Kingdom held sway and that they were approaching the first village. Their feet trod on dark soil and their eyes fell on sparse green undergrowth. They saw the occasional wooden fence, suggesting this area had once been a ranch.

To the chosen knight in miniskirt armor, the white of snow was the natural color for the landscape, so this must have been an unusual sight for her.

But Miyabi only felt gloom.

He was approaching the person he most wanted to see but least wanted to hear from.

Moebius Entrance was waiting. The better one of them knew him, the more keenly aware of that fact they were.

Celina Bodenburg, only child of a massive company, was the first to address it.

“He was the one who chose that forest for our battlefield and injured himself protecting Miyabi.”

She had known the man before even Miyabi.

It had been a hostile relationship, but still.

“Are you saying he did all that to set this up?”

“You mean he dragged Miyabi into this in order to attack the Schwarz Schütze?” Helen placed a finger on the side of her glasses. “So he could send Miyabi after you, use that letter to have Eliza attack, and then lie in wait in the snowy forest so he could replace a portion of the derailed train with a sorcery bomb!?”

How many times had they discussed it now?

How many times had he seen it in his nightmares?

“Pant, gasp. We’ve finally – finally! – made it back,” said Alicia, her shoulders rising and falling. “I’m taking a bath and sleeping for three days straight.”

Yes.

Miyabi Blackgarden had returned to the first village.

That logging village was half enveloped by the Blue Forest. The rhythmic pounding and sawing of tools on trees was unchanged. The small village of log houses seemed cut off from the world’s changes.

Small.

Miyabi was a little surprised to find that adjective in his head. Had the journey really changed him that much? The place had felt so comfortable and complete when he was living here, but now its peace looked fragile and undefended.

“Oh, you’re back, Miyabi?”

“Your parents just went back home a bit ago. You barely miss each other an inordinate amount of the time.”

Some of the neighborhood workers called out to him, but the redhead boy did not respond.

“Is…?”

“Hm?”

“Is Moebius Entrance still here?”

He threw open the door to the clinic, but the place was empty. The wheelchair was gone too. He only found the stillness unique to an empty space.

No…

“Yikes!?” cried Helen after casually peeking below the bed, a habit she had picked up as a “government official”. “That’s Iris, the dancer who was looking after Moebius. …Good, she’s still breathing.”

Miyabi checked too and saw a silver sparkle. It was the dancer’s braid. She had been laid on her side and shoved under the bed in a pose that could not have been comfortable.

If Moebius had nothing to hide, he wouldn’t have had to run off or harm the person so kindly nursing him back to health.

Miyabi tried to fight the dizziness as anger swelled out within him. He now knew that bastard had done more than just trick a gullible fool like him. Moebius had even attacked someone doing him a favor.

“Goddamn it! It really was him.”

He had to shout.

If he did not use that as an outlet for his anger, he was certain he would collapse on the spot.

This new revelation weighed on him that heavily.

“Moebius really was the 11th!!”

“…”

“He set up the sorcery bombs, he had us pit our Godhorn Techs against each other, and he made sure Celina’s was destroyed. Why would that scumbag do all that!?”

Just then, Alma started hopping up and down on the windowsill.

“Koo? Koo, koo!!”

“What is it, Alma?” asked Alicia. “Oh…boy, set your wailing aside and take a look out the window. I see a wheelchair out there, so this is your last chance to catch him!!”

He seriously considered breaking through the wall to get at Moebius faster.

But he stopped himself at the last second and used the door instead. Maybe he wanted to prove that he, unlike that man, was still human.

He had already drawn his control sword and readied it in both hands.

He wanted to vomit remembering that this power was borrowed from that man.

“Moebius!!”

He spotted the distinctive wheelchair in the middle of a public square where anyone could see it. He also saw the man seated in it. He saw the long red hair and the thick coat that could have belonged to a noble or a pirate. He could not see the man’s face, but his mind’s eyes still saw the grin he knew would be plastered on the man’s face.

He could no longer view that smile the same way. Even if the movement of the eyes and lips was identical, it would only look cruel and mocking now.

But Moebius had his back turned.

He had to have heard Miyabi shout his name, but he said nothing.

A powerful tremor shook the entire village.

“Whoa!? Wh-what is that!?”

Celina had seen something while struggling to keep her footing.

Something had just stepped in from outside the village.

But what was it?

It almost looked like a thick castle wall, but…no. It appeared to be a colossal suit of bipedal armor, but its excessively wide torso was more reminiscent of a stretched accordion than realistic body proportions. It could likely create a crater in the ground with a single punch, but its size was not the only unusual thing about it. Its shoulders and chest appeared to be crammed full of as many projectile weapons as the Schwarz Schütze and the Lucifer Horn. It leisurely crossed the village’s border, crushing the fields and fences underfoot, and ignored all the surrounding chaos and confusion. It never hesitated, even when a house stood in the way.

No one could remain standing.

The boy heard piles of logs crashing to the ground.

His party and all the villagers struggling with the logs could only stay on all fours as they bore with the terrible shaking. Attempting to flee may have actually increased the risk of injury.

“Is that…a Godhorn Tech!?”

Helen’s eyes bugged. The Republic had no Godhorn Tech of its own, so not many people there had seen as many as she now had.

Moebius did not so much as glance back at them.

Were Miyabi and his control sword not even worth his attention?

“Took you long enough, Number 8.”

Was that someone’s name?

“So what’s the plan? Hoping to take me away with you?”

Someone stood at the feet of the giant armor.

He looked like a young man with half his face covered by black hair. He wore a tailcoat the color of the night, making him look like a butler. The source of the tremors had to be even more badly shaken, but he used motions as precise as clockwork to negate it, allowing him to stand tall without the slightest waver. He seemed cold and unfeeling, making him seem just as unshakeable as ever-grinning Moebius, but in a different way.

“…”

“Is the Divine Doll hard to operate even for one of you?”

The young butler never responded.

The Divine Doll crouched down and then its massive hand approached the wheelchair. It could have crushed Miyabi’s house with those fingers, but it instead grabbed and lifted just the one person. The butler also hopped onto the giant hand.

Miyabi immediately squeezed his control sword tight.

“Wait, Moebius!!”

“You mustn’t, Miyabi!!” Eliza stepped forward to stop him. “Think of the damage a Godhorn Tech battle would cause this village!!”

“Kh!!”

They were not the only ones in the village. The loggers and hunters who made their living in the forest had yet to get back up from the ground.

Meanwhile, the Divine Doll turned 180 degrees.

Almost like the worms crawling on the ground meant nothing to it.

Moebius did not look back even once. Miyabi could imagine the man’s look of scorn for Miyabi’s inability to actually fight.

The tremors resumed.

The Divine Doll made the ground quake when it walked. It leisurely left the village with Miyabi’s party pinned by the shaking. Its slow movements made one wonder if it even saw this as “running away”, but each step covered a great distance.

“Hm? It’s headed south,” commented Alicia, sounded exasperated. “That leads to the ruined Magic Empire.”

“Come to think of it, I had heard of an automaton that continues to protect those ruins,” said Eliza.

“Koo?” groaned Alma with a head tilt.

The creature may have been responding to the word “automaton”.

Miyabi felt a fire lit inside him as he listened to them speak.

He squeezed the control sword’s grip tight and muttered under his breath.

“Moebius and Number 8.”

But his power was borrowed.

And it was so insignificant that Moebius had not even tried to retrieve it.

Miyabi understood that, but he still could not bring himself to abandon it.

“He toys with us all without ever wiping that damn grin off his face!”

### 018. Chapter 4 Section 2

Miyabi Blackgarden’s party left the first village with just one goal in mind.

“If we’re going to catch up to Moebius, we need to reach that ruined empire.” His voice was clear but somewhat hoarse. “I’m getting that bastard to tell me the truth and then I’m settling the score with him.”

“…”

Alicia Blueforest viewed the boy from the side, but she decided against saying anything.

After traveling a while south, they stopped seeing inns.

Something like scarecrows dotted the weed-covered plains, suggesting these had once been farmlands.

The road was nothing more than brown wagon wheel ruts running along the green plains, but even that grew spotty. In fact, the weeds and grass faded away, leaving nothing but exposed dirt. The only remnants of the road were long, narrow puddles that actually made it harder to walk.

The blonde elf wiped the sweat from her brow and viewed the surrounding wasteland with obvious frustration over the absence of green. There were no cats or rabbits here. Her face lit up when she espied a creature covered in fluffy fur, but she screamed after realizing it was a Plague Rat the size of a small dog.

The desire to rest was written plainly on her face.

“D-damn. I guess we are close to the Empire of all places.”

“Um?”

“It has already been destroyed,” explained Helen. “The entire area has been fully polluted, some say as a reaction to the advanced sorcery technology they used. That has cut off the main road leading north to south, so people and things cannot travel through that polluted land without the use of a monster like the Schwarz Schütze. The lack of shops and homes is just a taste of what is to come.”

“With my company’s armored train gone, the only standard route left has to take a lengthy detour out into the ocean to bypass this area. And we were really hoping to keep costs down since we support so many people’s lives in this region.”

Helen Clockgear and Celina Bodenburg both sounded bitter, but that did not change what they needed to do. The talk of pollution was concerning, but Moebius Entrance and Number 8 had gone to that polluted empire.

They could not expect any more inns during this journey.

There was no guarantee they could find a cave to camp out in every single night and, if a cave happened to be a nest of those giant unclean Plague Rats, any attempt to rest there would only wear down their stamina further. After walking a while longer and feeling a lot closer to that ruined empire, they decided to stop for the night.

They had discovered a run-down sailing ship inexplicably abandoned on the land.

It was more than 50 meters long and the deck stood 7 meters above the ground. They guessed it had been used to sail across the ocean, not just along a river.

“Let’s take a short break there,” smiled Helen Clockgear.

“I can keep going.”

“Miyabi.”

The forceful tone in her voice demanded he obey.

Really, he had simply failed to notice how late it was until she forced him to notice.

The sun had vanished beyond the horizon and it had grown dark. They could not even guess what kind of Beast Novae awaited them in this unknown land, so continuing any longer would be dangerous. The Mobile Fire magic could provide illumination in the night, but it could only do so much. Miyabi had already learned just how thoroughly the darkness grew out in the true nature found outside the villages and cities.

A Godhorn Tech provided the greatest destructive force, but it was not an all-powerful shield. And the darkness was always an ally to the attacker. What did it matter if he was a Godhorn Tech user? If a Plague Rat the size of a small dog snuck up and sank its fangs into his calf, complications from the many illnesses they bore would kill him just the same as anyone else.

“Sigh, okay.”

He sounded uneasy and he held a hand out toward the ship.

“ Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice. ”

Once he recited the incantation, blocks of stone emerged from the filthy ground and rearranged themselves to create a sturdy boarding stairway. He had registered this one under the name Layer Stairs.

Normally, Godhorn Techs could only destroy, but an error in his registration transfer had given him the power to create as well.

Celina looked somehow happy as she raised both hands and stretched her back.

“Good, good. This looks like a merchant ship, not a warship, so if the interior is intact, we should be as comfortable as in any town. Ohhh, I’ve so missed a kitchen and bath!!”

But once up top, the entire ship wobbled, either from the wind or its poor balance. With a structure of at least 50 meters, it felt like an earthquake.

Alicia cautiously reached for the side deck’s rusted railing.

“Hm, I don’t know how it ended up on land, but this does not look safe.”

“It might shake so much you need to hold on for purchase or the entire ship might roll over, but the time to choose is now, Miyabi. Yes, if your face is going to end up in someone’s chest, what size would you prefer!? If you’re in a flat mood, I think that slender and strait-laced Eliza might just be even better than Celina.”

The crystal radio (containing a philosopher’s stone) hanging from the elf’s neck was trying very hard to earn a punch from one of the girls.

“Don’t those sails only make the problem worse?” Celina sighed while wiping off her hand with a handkerchief. “They catch the wind and raise the center of gravity.”

“This ship is not sailing anywhere, so it might be safest to tear down all the masts.”

Eliza may have been the type to take any task to its extreme.

The job was simple but hard work.

Miyabi used the knowledge from his logging village where everyone made a living growing and felling trees. Plus, he had the control sword and Godhorn Tech at his disposal.

He used the thick blade to slice through the base of the masts like he was cutting an opening in a bag and then let them fall so they tumbled off of the ship. Great clouds of dust rose each time. It was his upbringing in the logging village that let him so accurately control the direction in which they fell.

The task took enough focus that it distracted him from everything else. But he felt like garbage once he realized he was distracting himself like that.

“…”

“He was important to you, wasn’t he?”

Once all the masts were down, Eliza wiped off her mouth with a handkerchief and asked him that.

He slowly looked up from the weathered deck.

“What do you mean?”

“I only knew Moebius Entrance through his letters and his legends as a fixer, so I never really knew him. But you did, didn’t you?”

He shook his head. The action made him wobble, so he pressed his back against the wooden wall.

“I didn’t.” He was speaking from the heart. “I’m not even sure what I saw anymore.”

“Koo…”

“He gave me his Godhorn Tech.” He slid down to a sitting position. “He asked me to do something about the 11th’s sorcery bomb. I just happened to be there and it could have been anyone, but during that journey, I thought I had come to understand who I wanted to be.”

He clenched his teeth and hung his head. There was no hiding this, so he just let the words spill out.

“But I was in the palm of his hand the entire time. I thought I was saving someone, but he was using me to make everyone I met suffer.”

“Boy…” said Alicia, sounding different from normal.

“It can be…hard when someone breaks a promise between men,” said the radio, also differently.

“I never would have left the village without that. I never would have met anyone. He gave me that opportunity. Without him, I wouldn’t be who I am now. Nothing can change that.”

His breathing was heavy.

He so desperately wished to deny the reality sneering at him from the back of his mind. He covered his face with his filthy hands.

“Or I thought nothing could!!”

“…”

Celina stared silently down at the boy.

But she finally spoke.

“No.”

“?”

“Maybe Moebius was manipulating you. And maybe that led to the destruction of my Schwarz Schütze.”

He did not even want to contemplate that possibility.

He had thought he was hunting down the 11th to prevent any further harm from those sorcery bombs, but he had only been spreading that very harm.

But strangely, he saw no anger or resentment on Celina’s face. There was a gentleness in her eyes.

“But you don’t need to disparage yourself like this.”

“Even though I more or less destroyed your Godhorn Tech?”

His own words stabbed into his chest like tiny thorns.

Hurting Celina would change nothing. Was he trying to make everyone else feel the same pain he was? He curled up in a ball of self-hatred.

“Even though. Because I also gained something from that.”

But she did not hesitate to respond.

She was even smiling.

Smiling in a way she had not when he first met her.

“Look around you, Miyabi. You too have gained something from all this.”

He raised his head.

His view expanded. He was surrounded by people worried for him while he curled up and trembled.

“Yes, the people.” Celina placed a hand on her flat chest. “None of this changes that you met all of them. You have made some new, and unparalleled, business partners.”

“Correct.” Eliza nodded, shaking her long silver ponytail. “Your destruction of our Godhorn Tech opened a new path for my king, my kingdom, and myself. None of us would have been saved without you there.”

“…”

“You may have been following the path Moebius laid out for you, but the bonds you built with the people you met were not part of that,” she stated. “What if Moebius never imagined destruction could be beneficial?”

“I’ll admit it.”

Finally, Miyabi got some more words out.

He was hesitant, but he felt like he could let his weakness show around these party members.

It was slow, but he stood back up.

“It was a shock. I didn’t know him long, but Moebius meant a lot to me.”

“…”

“He gave me the chance to leave my village. He was irritating and questionable, but he shined so bright. I could tell at a glance he had something I didn’t. Yeah, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at all happy when he gave me his Godhorn Tech or when I protected everyone from the sorcery bomb.”

Helen said nothing, but the look in her eyes was kind.

“But that’s why I have to get the truth,” grumbled Miyabi. “I have to know why he’s spreading those sorcery bombs as the 11th.”

### 019. Chapter 4 Section 3

Miyabi Blackgarden was used to camping out now.

He stretched his arms on the abandoned ship to help wake his sleepy body in the morning sun.

He stepped out onto the weathered deck.

He found long-eared Alicia Blueforest munching on some bread for breakfast. The open deck probably made for a more enjoyable meal than the indoor dining hall where a permanent musty smell had settled in. He used a knife to cut a slit in an oblong piece of bread, smeared butter inside, stuck some jerky within, and then cooked it until it was nice and crispy. It was only possible thanks to the firewood they had secured by breaking up one of the masts he tore down yesterday.

“Not far to the ruined Magic Empire now,” said Alicia.

They left the ship.

The ground was still nothing but dark soil.

They had spent all night afraid those dog-sized Plague Rats would attack, but the things were nowhere to be found now. However, that was no reason to celebrate.

“This means not even the Plague Rats dare approach this place, doesn’t it?” cautiously concluded Helen.

After walking a while longer, an odd color joined the scenery: red.

As Miyabi wondered what it was, it overtook everything.

A red and shining dust covered the land as far as the eye could see. All of the buildings had collapsed, melted, and sunk into the ground, so it was hard to even imagine the city that must have once stood there.

“Is this…the pollution!?”

Miyabi started to take a step back and nearly stepped on an apple lying on the ground.

He managed to avoid it, but then a thought occurred to him.

“Wait, how long has this apple been here?”

There was no fruit tree nearby for it to have fallen from and not many travelers came through here.

Had one of the few eccentric travelers dropped it?

Or had it been here ever since the Empire fell?

The apple would have been exposed to the elements on the ground there, yet it still shined bright. It was unnaturally pristine. Even a wax sample’s colors would have faded in the sun.

It was almost like the entire fruit had been submerged in a special chemical to preserve it.

“I-I definitely want to avoid eating that,” groaned Celina Bodenburg, staying as far away as she could while poking at it with her rifle’s bayonet.

It was just as concerning as hearing a salesman insist a little too hard that “This milk is fresh. Don’t believe the lies. It’s as fresh as can be.”

“Rusty mana,” said Alicia who was self-taught in alchemy. The entire view here was covered by that scarlet dust that even dyed the rising sun as it floated into the air. “Mana is the natural power at the root of all magic, but when it deteriorates, it transforms into a nuisance that clings to all things. It surrounds everything, effectively isolating everything from everything else. It even repels and kills the ‘invisible things’ needed to make bread or cheese.”

“That explains the lack of Plague Rats.” Eliza Silverstorm placed a handkerchief over her mouth to avoid breathing in the red dust in the air. “This place is not dirty. Quite the opposite. It is so clean nothing can live here. It may be similar to a river of undiluted bleach.”

It was possible to be too clean.

This place took purity too far.

They could see red quagmires dotting the ground. Was that the result of the dust concentrating, or of it growing wet? It definitely had to do with the dust, but the exact requirements were unclear.

The wind blew a cloud of red dust from the ground up ahead of them.

Celina’s eyes widened.

“Hey, um, does anyone have any magic for protecting the mouth and nose!? Maybe called Toxin Away or something!?”

“Does the Bodenburg Company name everything like it’s athlete’s foot medicine?” complained the radio.

That girl was enough of a clean freak to carry around a portable water filter and silver-catalyst disinfectant magic, but even she could tell this was overdoing it.

“I wish you could create specialized magic like that,” Alicia sighed. “Besides, I thought a perfectly sterile world was exactly what you wanted? Ugh, a handkerchief over the mouth is about all we can do, isn’t it?”

“Wow,” said Miyabi as he appreciated just how complete the Empire’s fall had been.

“Kyoo…”

Hearing an odd cry, he looked down to find Alma had already transformed into a sort of black cat.

“Ohh, the shadow element!?” exclaimed Alicia. “Is that supposed to be a Greymalkin?”

Everyone had their own way of fighting it, but Alma had decided to be the opposite of the “deadly purity” of the red dust. If that was meant to repel the dust to remain safe, then the form may have been more aggressive than it looked. And either way, it was unlikely to protect Miyabi and the others.

“I-it’s a good thing I was using Compress Cargo,” groaned Helen while holding her small bag close. “Otherwise, this might have ruined all of our water and food. I bet that red dust gets in everything while it blows in the wind. Ugh, I thought my hair was feeling gritty. Not to mention my chest…”

The red ground crumbled and something came into view further down.

The objects lined up along a stone wall appeared to be bookcases. The parchment plans spread out on a desk resembled the design of a Godhorn Tech. It was unclear how valuable that would be, but there was no retrieving it anyway. Not only did a chemical-smelling red waterfall flow inside, but some of it bubbled up before crawling around on its own.

That caught Miyabi by surprise.

“I-it’s moving like it has a mind of its own?”

“Its movement is simply modeled after such things. Mimicking an animal’s movements is an efficient way of searching its surroundings and capturing its target.”

But that did not explain why the red slime was so intent on surrounding everything around it and turning the former imperial land into a red wasteland.

Maybe it was designed to do so, but that just led to further questions.

Also, the crawling red slime was not the only thing here.

“Are those the Empire’s famous magic automatons?” asked Celina, biting her thumbnail at seeing treasure she could not get at.

“Automatons?”

Come to think of it, that term had come up in reference to Number 8.

“Something that looks human but is not. Their specs and sizes can vary, so the Empire used colossal ones for military and construction purposes and miniature ones for medical purposes. I have heard they would send automatons smaller than a flower’s pollen into a patient’s body so they could directly cut away the disease from within. This is all a thing of the past, of course.”

The ones in the underground space below were all ordinary human size.

They had no hair, clothing, or even skin. The ball-jointed dolls were struggling within the red quagmire.

It all produced the sizzling sound of a caustic chemical at work.

“They’re fighting the red sludge. Have they been doing this the entire time?”

“Huh? Celina, haven’t you been through here before? On the Schwarz Schütze, I mean.”

“Why would I want to look outside in such a dreary area? Enjoying a good book and some delicious tea was a much better use of my time.”

That was not all. When they peered down into the split ground, they saw the bookcases rattling as thick magical tomes took flight like butterflies or birds and crashed into the lit candles. This was a purely inorganic conflict with none of the usual rats or roaches in evidence. A human like Miyabi had no way of telling how many sides there were or how they determined who was on what side, but they were doing it all on their own and he figured the party could avoid it all if they avoided provoking those things.

Alicia shut her eyes and muttered to herself.

“To think this is the massive Empire that came so close to conquering the entire continent not too long ago.” The words were bitter in her mouth. “It hasn’t even been a full year since it fell, yet these piles of rubble are all that remain. Even this scarlet mana was originally the all-purpose experimental material they had artificially created with their advanced technology.”

“Cough, cough!”

“Are you okay, Alma? Hmm, this red dust must be rough on a juvenile, even in that shadowy Greymalkin form. …If only I had a cloth to cover your mouth. Oh, how about you take shelter in my clothes?”

“You dare enter that unexplored zone kept off limits even to me!?” roared the crystal radio hanging from the elf’s neck.

Helen of course ignored it.

“The Empire once controlled a third of the continent. They were a major threat to the Republic. Not that we could focus on a foreign war when our primary city was embroiled in a civil war against the old monarchy,” she said. “Their military might was supported by advanced magic technology and even their Godhorn Tech was left in the hands of a special magic automaton, not a human. To ensure their strongest power was never used in error.”

“And that’s Number 8, huh?” Miyabi viewed the shocking scenery of red, red, and more red. “He’s continued protecting this place even with no one left to protect.”

“The Arsenal Kingdom could not ignore the Empire either. You could even say the Icicle Bullet was built as a defensive Godhorn Tech as a direct response to our fear of the Empire,” confessed Eliza, her large lance resting on her shoulder. That snow sleigh’s ramming attack had packed a punch, but since it required snow on the ground to move, it indeed could not be used to invade other countries. “We viewed them as our greatest enemy, but only because we admired what they had accomplished.”

Miyabi was honestly afraid to keep going, but he knew Number 8 and the Divine Doll were up ahead. Which meant Moebius would be as well.

He pulled his shirt’s collar up over his mouth as he trudged on through the red world.

“Urp, this is awful,” groaned Alicia.

That elf had been born in a filthy forest teeming with life, so this excessive purity had her long ears drooping.

After a while, they noticed some patterns in the red ruins. The rows of trees that looked frozen in time while surrounded by their fallen leaves showed the outlines of a major road. The foundations of angular stones and bricks showed where buildings had once been. They even spotted some dry fountains. A broken metal fence surrounded a large section of land, suggesting a considerable building had once stood there.

“They apparently called it a university,” said Eliza. “I never visited it myself, but instead of an apprenticeship or tutoring system, the Empire filled a large building full of hundreds or even thousands of people to provide them all with the same high-level magic education. And over a short period of time, too. Yet they were not trying to master a form of group action, like with knight or soldier training. I have even heard they competed among themselves over the tests and their standing in the class. They would keep their head down on their desk and choose to be alone within a room full of other people, something I have trouble imagining myself.”

That sounded like it would exclude the people who were not a good fit for that education format, but the Empire must not have cared if they had some dropouts as long as enough people succeeded. In Miyabi’s village, people would study as an apprentice at their own pace so they could learn the logging business while also pursuing their own dreams, so the Empire’s way of writing off some percentage of the population as “acceptable losses” sent a chill down his spine.

It might sound noble for the Empire to treat their automatons just like they treat their people, but what if they achieved that by reducing their people to the level of the automatons? The people were like no more than cogs in the machine.

Helen sighed.

“They covered a third of the continent, so I guess they decided they had people to spare.”

Then they heard a scraping metal sound.

Were more magical automatons fighting their endless battle somewhere in this red world?

Miyabi pulled his jacket’s collar over his mouth as well and turned toward the noise.

“The hell is that?”

He saw something odd there.

Was it some kind of confrontation?

On one side was a girl in an octopus-like mask. Why was he so sure she was a girl when he could not see her face? Because she wore her red hair in a side ponytail and because her skintight leather outfit revealed the shape of her figure.

“Oh, baby!! Black leather with a high-leg design!? What’s she supposed to be, a phantom thief? Or a sexy dominatrix? That bulging chest and indecent crotch are exactly what I’m looking for in a fantasy setting!!!!!”

The radio rejoiced, but Miyabi was not quite sure what he was looking at. Why cover her face and barely cover anything else?

And.

On the other side was a giant suit of armor standing two meters tall. The mass of steel was almost entirely round, but it was running away with its hands held protectively over its head. It behaved surprisingly feminine. Almost like the heroine in a children’s book.

Celina reflexively aimed her flintlock rifle from a short distance away and then spoke with her eyes on the exhibitionist in the weird mask.

“She might be a salvage hunter.”

“A what?”

“Basically, they are professional thieves who recklessly visit this dangerous ruined land and dig up old lab equipment and books. …That look tells me you are wondering how I know. Because my company buys more of their finds than anyone else.”

That business was so greedy it sounded borderline criminal.

Also, if that creepy octopus mask was what the experts wore, was it indeed dangerous to walk around this scarlet territory with their faces exposed?

The party was feeling a lot more anxious now.

“B-boy!! Hand me your goggles!! You aren’t using them, so you don’t mind, do you!?”

“Shut up, these are mine!! Hey, don’t just snatch them away! Noooo fairrrrr!!”

Eliza sighed at the idiots’ petty conflict.

The way the rusty mana could keep an apple fresh and shiny for years was certainly disconcerting, but if an expert thief was willing to operate with so much skin exposed, it must not have been deadly on contact or anything.

“Then what about that giant armor?” asked Eliza.

“That I can’t say,” said Celina. “Her next target perhaps?”

Anyway, finding an actual person here changed things significantly.

Number 8 and Moebius Entrance could use the Divine Doll and the only way of combating that Godhorn Tech was the Lucifer Horn, but that would mean a clash between two of those colossal sorcery weapons. A simple stray shot was of course a threat, but just the red dust blown into the air from an explosive blast or shockwave would be bad enough.

Even if this girl had special equipment, Miyabi stilled wanted to give her a chance to escape first.

But when he approached her to warn her, she was focused on something else entirely.

He heard two voices.

“Fshoo shoo shoo!! Now this is a find. The more human a magic automaton acts, the better its parts must be☆”

“No, really, please! I’m just an ordinary maid!”

Make no mistake.

The “fshoo shoo shoo” came from the octopus mask exhibitionist and the “I’m just an ordinary maid” came from the giant armor.

Miyabi’s eyes widened.

“What the hell!? Why does the magic automaton sound like the normal one!?”

“Fshoo? What’s this, some competition? You’ve got guts trying to steal from the great Marietta Diggrave!! Fshoo!!”

The octopus mask girl was willing to wield her giant shovel against human and automaton alike, so she seemed to be lacking in the sense department.

But just as her attention was diverted toward Miyabi’s party, the giant armor took a step back. With that sliver of safety, the armor flipped up the helmet’s visor.

“Please look at me! I’m not an automaton, see!? I’m a human in here!”

“W-wait? There’s actually someone in there!?”

Celina’s flustered shout earned an introduction from the timid girl inside.

“I-I am Angela Custardmare.”

The octopus mask shrugged off the claim.

“All I see is old tech so advanced it looks human. Fshoo, I’ll be set for life after this one☆”

Uncertain whether this was a human or an automaton, Miyabi hesitantly approached the armor. The visor looked tougher than a set of iron bars and, even with it raised, the armor was too tall for him to see inside from the ground.

“This should do it.”

He had to grab at the thick, round armor with his arms and legs and scramble up it. He was a teenage boy, but he had a hard time thinking of this as climbing up a teenage girl’s body. Unfortunately, the octopus mask girl (in revealing clothing) was winning that particular battle.

“Let’s take a look in here.”

“A boy!? No, that’s a bad i-”

Miyabi peeked inside the helmet.

“Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

He collapsed to the red ground, arched his back, and screamed.

Eliza immediately readied her enormous lance.

“What did she do to you, Miyabi!?”

“No, wait. I didn’t do anything. Sigh, why does this always happen? Agh!”

The giant armor held her head and the visor fell back down.

She skillfully pushed it back up again.

“Whoops… Um, the thing is, I used to work as a maid in a certain mansion, but unfortunately, the nobles who wanted to be my master ended up killing each other in a death game.”

“…”

“Their wives all blamed me and trapped me in this Prison Armor. Ugh…I really don’t know why it had to happen to me.”

“Unfortunate Beauty, hm?” Alicia sounded somewhat exasperated. “A talent like that sets you up for a difficult life.”

“D-does that mean Miyabi wasn’t harmed at all?” hesitantly suggested Helen. “Wow, that really is ecstasy on his face, isn’t it?”

“Hey, let’s not be ridiculous. He has a long-eared elf on his right and a curvy young woman on his left and you expect me to believe that round armor is what gave him his sexual awakening!? This swords and sorcery fantasy is too kinky even for me!!”

The radio’s lament stabbed through Miyabi’s heart, bringing him back to his senses. He blinked the hearts out of his eyes and managed to focus on reality once more. He realized having the hots for that round heavyweight was just plain rude to Eliza and her miniskirt armor.

The maid inside that armor was too beautiful to view directly.

He felt bad for Angela, but he agreed she would be too powerful without that thick armor sealing her away. He had never known cute and pretty could have a lethal dose. She had to be around his age, but she did not at all look that way.

Meanwhile, Celina brought a hand to her slender chin.

“Hmm, was that cruel death game the work of Strange Guide?”

“Oh, I don’t care about that. It wouldn’t bring the dead nobles back to life or anything.” The maid was surprisingly practical. “If anything, I want to find a way to remove this Prison Armor. Well, I can actually remove it just fine, but before long, it comes back to me like a magnet. It at least gives me enough time to wash my face or take a bath if I try hard enough.”

A maid too beautiful to gaze upon would strip down and bathe. All while rushing to beat the time limit. That thought made Miyabi even dizzier. Simply imagining the scene caused the capillaries in his eyes to burst, so Angela’s loveliness was like an anti-adolescent toxin.

“Is there any way to escape that?” asked Helen with an exasperated sigh.

“Um, the Prison Armor was bound to me using a fairly special contract. It involved Under Lilith, a Demon Lord whose name is found in major ‘Super Kingdom’ level contracts.”

“Th-that name’s in the spells related to Godhorn Tech contracts too.”

“Ah ha ha. That’s just how much effort went into creating this armor prison. I was lucky to learn the half-legendary abandoned library here has the magic book needed to negate that ‘Super Kingdom’ level curse, but as you can see, I ran into this shovel-wielding idiot.”

Miyabi and Celina exchanged a glance.

Under Lilith’s power was great, but not a 100% guarantee. There had even been an error when transferring the Lucifer Horn’s contract from Moebius to Miyabi.

Fortunately, that had let him use the power of creation on top of the destruction.

When he explained that, the maid clapped together her large armored hands and danced a jig. She was close enough that he was terrified he would be caught in the joints of that thick armor.

“That’s wonderful news!! Joining you might be better than blindly searching this vast and dangerous red kingdom. And if that doesn’t work, my only option might be trying blast the armor off with one of those rumored Godhorn Techs.”

“You’re the first person I’ve seen who wanted to be attacked by a Godhorn Tech,” said Alicia. “Just how powerful is that curse?”

“By the way, what about you?”

Miyabi’s question earned a cackle from octopus masked Marietta.

“Fshoo shoo shoo!! Where that thing goes, I follow. I’ll be rich once I disassemble it and sell it for parts. Treasure awaits☆”

“Were you not paying any attention at all!?” shouted Helen while bristling. “I get the feeling she’s going to murder someone with that shovel if we don’t give her some basic education first!!”

At the moment, their top priority was getting these survivors out of the empire’s ruins. Number 8 and Moebius could pick up on their movements at any moment.

“Take care of it, Lucifer Horn!”

A colossal form with bat-like wings roared through the sky and the thick wire dangling from it snagged the back of the black high-leg outfit, carrying the wearer away to Horn Fortress.

“It needs to do that again,” calmly stated Eliza Silverstorm.

“U-umm!! Couldn’t you at least take us both away at once!? This wait time is so awkward!”

They had successfully evacuated(?) Marietta and Angela, but that was not the end of it. Miyabi’s party had to continue onward and locate Moebius and the butler automaton named Number 8.

A clash was almost guaranteed no matter what happened.

That was the entire point of their preparations and the entire point of evacuating those two.

After reminding himself of all that, Miyabi felt a great weight in his gut.

“…”

Countless red quagmires dotted the land, giving off a chemical odor.

They had to avoid those, but they would never get anywhere if they walked around them all.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice.”

Red boxes were extracted from the ground.

But he was not interested in the actual Palette Dice made from that material that was so pure it became deadly to all forms of life. By removing those cubes from the ground, the water(?) filling those red quagmires drained into the newly-formed holes.

“Ewww, what is all that stuff left at the bottom?” Celina sounded nervous. “They aren’t bones, are they?”

“As long as it isn’t human bones, I don’t care,” said Miyabi.

“That’s elfphobia,” cautioned Alicia with a glare. “And to answer your question, I think those are dinosaur fossils. Those thick rusty ponds have dissolved the ground and started to erode the ancient fossils they exposed.”

“What does that mean?”

“In dust form, that stuff is so pure it can kill you, but once it thickens into a liquid, it can dissolve organic tissue. Simply put, it purifies things by physically destroying them. That sludge is deadly to all forms of life, so try to keep your good deeds and righteous acts to a minimum here.”

They continued on while trying their best to avoid provoking the red slimes wandering the area. Those things were frightening, but they tended to gather into a few larger clumps, making it unlikely anyone would accidentally step on one.

They gained nothing by fighting anything here, so if they wanted to avoid pointless injury, it was best to ignore those things and keep going.

The journey felt so empty and unsatisfying, but after crossing another red chemical-smelling bog and approaching a surviving rectangular stone wall, they glimpsed some movement through the crimson sandstorm.

It was more than 100m away.

“Another automaton?”

“No, wait. An automaton wouldn’t be using a wheelchair. They could just get a replacement part.”

The radio was right.

“Shh!”

Miyabi pressed against the crumbling wall and took a peek through the arching gate that looked so strange with no other structures around.

“There’s someone there. In fact…”

His tension grew. Moving even a few centimeters wore on his nerves so badly. He used the crumbling wall as a cover while peering around its edge.

They were a long way away, but there was no mistaking it. A man sat in a wheelchair and a butler stood tall.

“Is that Moebius and Number 8?” groaned Helen when she saw it too.

“You do not need to rush out toward them,” warned Alicia. “Why not eavesdrop on their conversation instead?”

Miyabi’s party slowly passed through the arch to enter an area that had once been surrounded by walls. Something felt different about this place, almost like they had set foot in a king’s tomb.

Celina spotted a metal sign half-buried in the red dust.

“The Imperial Archives?”

“As the name suggests, this was a private collection of old texts made by the last emperor,” explained Eliza. “Not everyone could make a request to read the books like they could with their national library, but it was rumored the magical books here were much more dangerous.”

Eliza had mentioned the universities as well, so why did someone from the Arsenal Kingdom know so much about the Empire?

The chosen knight shrugged with a hint of self-deprecation when she noticed Miyabi’s gaze.

“My kingdom had plenty of mines and metals, but little magical technology. We once put together a plan to send in a spy who would steal dangerous texts from the bookshelves here, but it was abandoned because the risk of military retaliation was too great if discovered.”

So she had her reasons.

The books collected here had been so rare people were willing to cross borers to get at them, but they were now exposed to the red dust. Not even Eliza wanted to pick one up and flip through the pages.

They walked through a cemetery of books that would be forever preserved.

They moved from cover to cover, making sure the figures in the distance never noticed them. Fortunately, the stone walls and bookcases coated in red dust provided plenty of cover.

They walked silently alongside the red-coated ancient tomes.

Once Miyabi had covered half the distance, the wind carried the voices to his ears.

The scratchy sound was mixed with the sound of the blowing red dust.

“I do apologize. Was the ride comfortable enough?”

That was Number 8. His voice was polite…and nothing else. There was no emotion to be found there.

“It was a literal pain in the ass.”

The response from the wheelchair carried an obvious smile.

The voice rang so intensely in Miyabi’s ears that the veins at his temples bulged.

Those two appeared to be facing each other from across a large crystal chandelier that had fallen to the red ground after its chain broke. The ceiling that had once supported it was gone, but some vestiges of the walls remained.

“I had assumed the Empire’s advanced magical tech would be more delicate.”

“We took three breaks along the way. On my own, it would have taken less than a day.”

Miyabi listened to Moebius’s pointless jokes from where the row of bookcases came to an end. He felt faint when he heard the enjoyment in the man’s voice.

“That bastard!!”

“Restrain yourself, boy.”

He clenched his teeth while Alicia held him back.

They still weren’t exactly close. It was risky, but he moved from the bookcases, ducked below a long table, and slowly crawled closer. He knew he could keep going from there.

The conversation across the fallen chandelier continued in the distance.

“Why take me all the way home with you? Afraid you couldn’t win an away game? Thought I might have a trap in place?”

“It had nothing to do with holding an advantage. I brought you here for a reason.”

“Oh, a reason? That narrows it down.”

Moebius’s mocking tone did nothing to slow Number 8 down.

The butler continued speaking with his long bangs covering half his face.

“There is only ever one thing that motivates my actions.”

“Yeah, I thought that might be what they used to mess with you.”

“What do you mean?”

Something was up.

Miyabi’s party moved from the end of the long table and hid behind another stone wall. There was another table there. Food and drink would not have been served here, but it looked a lot like a restaurant counter and it contained quills and what looked like ledgers. Miyabi ducked below that to hide, but his mind was in utter chaos. He started to wonder if those two had noticed their approach and this conversation was disinformation meant to confuse them.

“What’s that about messing with him?”

“I get the feeling there is more to this.”

Eliza primarily fought on vast snowy plains and had little experience in sneaking around labyrinthine urban areas, so she had trouble positioning her enormous lance. She had to tilt it on its side and place it alongside the stone wall while she got right to the point.

Helen nodded from behind another bookcase.

“Does that meant Moebius was taken from the village against his will?”

“Hmm, we can’t make out enough of their conversation to say for sure,” added Alicia.

“Why not tiptoe even closer?” suggested the philosopher’s stone.

Approaching further would be risky, but they did it anyway.

Miyabi slowly opened the door behind the counter, revealing more of that red world. No buildings remained standing, only the occasional walls.

He slowly walked on, remaining behind those walls.

Nowhere was safe anymore. A sorcery bomb had been set up in the forest next to the first village and those were powerful enough to blow away the forest and village both.

He continued approaching until they had reached the last of the surviving walls.

He held his breath and listened.

He was pretty close now.

The stone wall was thick, but they would hear if he rapped on it.

“It’s true I manufactured some sorcery bombs in advance.” Moebius’s words stabbed into Miyabi’s heart. “One for the forest where I met the kid and one for the Schwarz Schütze.”

Miyabi could not fight the wave of dizziness.

“!?”

“Quiet. This is just as much of a shock for me.”

Celina steadied his shoulders and they both concentrated on the voices.

“But I was only a copycat.” Moebius Entrance had a distinct self-deprecating smile in his voice. “I just used the bomber’s horn to pulls off something similar to what the real 11th does. And I could only stock up so many bombs, so it was a bit of a gamble whether I could draw them out before I used them all up.”

“…”

“But only the real one would know I was a fake.”

He clearly stated his goal.

A crunching sound came from the wheelchair and magical automaton.

Miyabi risked a glance to see they were slowly circling around the fallen crystal chandelier as they confronted each other.

Why?

It was like a game where one approached while the other kept their distance.

They were both so cautious, like they could not let the other approach too close.

“And since you were the first to react, you must be working for the real one. You proved it yourself by falling for my trap. Or do you have another explanation?”

“What are you talking about?”

The question flowed out so easily, but that may have been what made it so unnatural.

The young man in the wheelchair narrowed his eyes toward the butler automaton standing motionless in the red wind.

“You’re an automaton, so whose orders are you acting on now?”

Moebius’s focus was elsewhere. He was physically gazing into Number 8’s eyes, but he was looking through those eyes to some other place.

The shattered crystal chandelier reflected the light in a twisted form.

That symbol of ruin was coated in red dust.

“This isn’t over until I reel in the 11th. I’m no legendary fixer. Not when I failed to stop so many of those sorcery bombs. The aftermath is truly horrific. The children, the elderly, the pregnant, and the sick are slaughtered along with everyone else! …So I need to cut this off at the source. I might earn some grudges and I might dirty my hands along the way, but it’s all worth it if I can stop it from ever happening again!!”

The dizziness vanished.

The doubt was gone.

The boy clung to the red stone wall with both hands and whispered too quietly for anyone to hear.

“Moebius.”

“That’s more like it,” whispered the radio. “We can still get closer, so how about we find a better position to listen in?”

They approached even further on the other side of an almost fully collapsed wall. Only a door remained at the far end. This all counted as outside now and the divisions between rooms were no more, but opening that door would still mean breathing the same air as that man.

Miyabi felt like he could sense Moebius’s emotions through the door.

“I’m sick of hearing the screams. And you should understand how I feel after you lost your entire Empire to a Godhorn Tech made from a Wicked God horn!!”

“What nonsense is this?”

But the automaton was not following along.

As if to say he could not comprehend the emotional aspect.

“The 11th? A trillion years could pass and I would only ever serve one master: the emperor of the Unified Cassul Blanc Sorcery Empire.”

“Then answer me this,” cut in Moebius. “What is your beloved emperor’s name?”

“…”

Silence.

“…”

Silence.

“…?”

Silence, but of a different type.

The wind blew, whipping up a cloud of red dust. The black bangs half-covering Number 8’s face were lifted.

The area around his eye was cracked and a complex arrangement of tiny gears audibly turned within.

This proved he was mechanical.

This proved he was damaged and that damage was spreading.

Were the gears audibly straining because the red dust had gotten inside?

“Yeah, you’re pretty badly broken.” Moebius sounded mournful, like a bad feeling of his had been confirmed. “ Anyone you meet looks like the emperor to you now, don’t they? Which means you’ll obey anyone’s commands. That’s why you didn’t even question it when some stranger had you set up those sorcery bombs.”

Alicia’s eyes widened in confusion on the other side of the door in the surviving wall.

“I don’t get it. What does that mean?”

“He’s talking about some malicious roleplaying,” answered the philosopher’s stone hanging from her neck. “Someone used the automaton’s malfunction to pretend they were the emperor. And it was even easier than faking your identity on social media. That guy intends to serve his dead emperor until the end of time.”

“Someone abused his loyalty to have him commit crimes?” Eliza clenched her fist tight. “This 11th individual has made a mockery of someone’s loyalty to their ruler. He might be an enemy and a lifeless automaton…but there are lines you simply do not cross.”

“More importantly, Number 8 is behaving oddly,” whispered Helen while peeking out from behind the wall.

They heard and felt a heavy rumbling.

The contradiction must have been too much for the red-stained butler to accept. He held a heavy metal ball that was connected to his staff with a thick thread of electricity. It was a strange weapon made with unknown technology.

That morning star alone could beat a heavily-armored knight to death in a single blow. With a magical automaton’s superhuman strength and sturdiness, pure weight would be more efficient than a sharp sword or spear. He could simply crush his foe’s thick armor and helmet along with the squishy person within.

But that efficient destruction was not the true threat of that weapon.

“From the control weight to the horn core.”

Light spread out from the metal ball after it dropped to the red ground.

That light formed a giant magic circle.

“Divine Doll – tactical open.”

This time, even the sound was blown away.

It all radiated out from the thick wall towering up behind Number 8.

It looked like a king’s castle.

At first, Miyabi thought it was just another of the Empire’s ruins, frozen in time and left to be weathered away by the rusty mana.

But it was not.

It placed giant hands on the ground and stood up on massive legs before shaking just enough to throw the red dust off of itself. The result was comparable to a sandstorm.

This was the strongest Godhorn Tech of the lost Empire – the Divine Doll.

Redness obscured the sun and a darkness similar to evening set in. The only person remaining on their feet in the dust storm was the magical automaton standing calmly alongside the Divine Doll.

“This is the Empire, the continent’s greatest country, ruled by the glorious emperor.”

A new red sandstorm roared up.

The silver armor had raised its colossal foot in order to mercilessly crush its target seated in the wheelchair.

“The great emperor’s rule has created a blessed land of eternal peace for all its people. All unauthorized intrusions are forbidden and no one must be allowed to insult the emperor. If you doubt his existence, his power, and his great deeds, then know you have committed an unforgivable crime.”

“How sad. This red wasteland can’t even return to nature, but you claim this place has eternal peace?”

He was faced with great violence and a strange red glow, but the puny boy hiding behind a surviving wall no longer hesitated.

He spoke after using the crumbling shelter to escape the sinister redness.

“We can’t wait any longer.”

“Yeah, that light’s back in your eyes now, kid,” said the radio.

“Let’s do this!!” roared the redhead boy.

He kicked open the surviving door and entered the same world as those two.

He was there to protect Moebius Entrance, his party member.

The air shook around him, but not because the Divine Doll’s foot had crashed down upon the wheelchair.

Just before it could, the Lucifer Horn had soared by and fired a beam of light that knocked the giant back a bit.

The redness burst into the air.

He could see that man grinning even through the deadly-pure rusty mana.

“You’re right in the nick of time, you cute little hero.”

What was that young man thinking while he maintained his jocular tone? He viewed his old control sword like it was shining bright.

Miyabi did not look back that way.

He took up a position to protect that suspicious man and he no longer doubted his actions.

“I’m no hero. Just so you know, I doubted you the entire journey here.”

“That excessive honesty is part of what makes you a hero.”

“I’m giving you a piece of my mind once this is over.”

But that would have to wait.

In front of him, another figure was muttering to himself with a hand on his head.

“Force deleting self-contradiction…eliminating unnecessary doubt.”

Number 8 continued to produce a straining sound. Almost like sandy gears forced to turn. He held something while he lowered his head.

He called it a control weight, but it was more of a morning star.

The unique blunt weapon connected the grip and metal ball with electricity. It was a powerful weapon in its own right, but it also controlled the Godhorn Tech.

“I must serve…must serve my emperor…in all things.”

“But I’ll start with him!!”

If Miyabi did not win here, the truth he had discovered meant nothing.

So.

“From the control sword to the horn core. Lucifer Horn – tactical open!”

The Divine Doll was a colossal suit of silver armor.

It towered above Miyabi and its chest and shoulders were far broader than any ordinary proportions. It had the shape of an extended accordion, making it look like a massive fortress wall.

Its pounding footsteps shook the ground too much for the average person to remain standing and it could do far more than that. Whether the giant punched, stomped, or tackled, any one of its attacks would be fatal. And not just to an individual. It could tear through armies.

Then there was the issue of its size.

Miyabi’s party had to find some way to attack it.

“But up close, we can only aim for its thick feet!”

“I-I doubt my rifle is enough to defeat that thing.”

Knife-wielding Helen and rifle-wielding Celina both sounded flustered. Approaching would not help them damage it and they would instead be one-shotted by a stomp.

That meant Miyabi had to fight alone.

Yes….

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Boxes of the unpleasant red ground were torn away.

He stacked them up into some Layer Stairs to create a makeshift boarding ramp.

White Seidr Chosen Knight Eliza Silverstorm raced up that ramp.

“The Icicle Bullet never did engage the Empire’s Godhorn Tech, but I was trained to battle you.”

She leaped from the peak of the right triangle to reach the top of the Divine Doll’s head.

She flipped through the air, her ponytail whipping after her, and jabbed in her massive lance with precise aim.

“Prepare yourself!!!!!!”

She used the pull of gravity to strike down like a lightning bolt, producing the groan of straining metal.

Number 8 ignored the attack.

“Set priority.”

“!?”

A horizontal sweep of a giant fist brought down the red right triangle of stairs. Eliza landed on the Divine Doll’s arm and ran toward its shoulder.

She made an additional attack.

She jumped from the enormous shoulder toward the head. She scored a clean hit of her lance on its silver face at maximum acceleration, but she was the one who grimaced. She jumped back and into the empty air to avoid a strike from the giant palm.

“I can’t break through!! Now I see why my king never considered anything other than a Godhorn Tech to defend ourselves. A jack of all trades could never penetrate this armor!!”

“Now is not the time for analysis!” shouted Alicia, eyes wide. “I swear your strait-lacedness is going to get you killed someday!!”

Miyabi manipulated the Palette Dice again. He broke apart a lonely imperial flag and a twisted metal railing and constructed a hammock-like cushion to gently catch the falling knight.

The giant silver armor looked down at them.

Its enormous shoulders burst open and metal spikes flew out in a fan shape for a concentrated downpour of destruction. Each spike was taller than Miyabi.

Miyabi held up his hand.

Those javelins or extra-large arrows dropped like a solid ceiling, but he held up a giant stone umbrella to protect Eliza.

Moebius whistled.

“So that’s the power of creation, huh? I’d mastered the destruction side, but I could never fight like that.”

“Are you aware you’re his #1 target!?”

“I’m also aware you would never leave a poor injured man to die.”

That guy always had a retort.

Miyabi spoke harshly, but he had to bite his lip to keep the tears at bay.

Everything was back to “normal”.

If he had not sworn to himself he would never cry in front of Moebius, he probably couldn’t have stopped it.

“Miyabi. The Divine Doll’s horn extraction system uses the ‘auto-fighting sword’.”

“The what?”

“That’s the magic its designers gave it. Just like Miss Celina’s used alchemy and strait-laced Eliza’s used Seidr magic. As big as they are, a Godhorn Tech will have a specific design motif – a type of magic it always uses. Your Lucifer Horn is no exception.”

Even the Lucifer Horn?

That caught him by surprise. He had entrusted his life to that Godhorn Tech several times already, but he now realized he did not even know what kind of magic that trump card used.

“And the Divine Doll was built on the framework of a spiritual sword that flies through the air and slays any enemy once it has been drawn. That idea was expanded upon and reinterpreted to the point of producing this kind of firepower. Doesn’t that sound perfect for a lifeless magical automaton’s weapon?”

“Hm?”

Number 8 tilted his head a little.

He did not seem offended at the “lifeless” descriptor. If anything, he accepted it as accurate.

“I need not focus only on the Godhorn Tech battle. This land is dangerously pure, so why not use that to my advantage? There are other ways to efficiently damage biological life.”

Helen frowned at the red dust floating in the air.

“Is this our chance?”

“Maybe we can’t damage the Divine Doll, but what about Number 8!?”

Helen and Alicia stepped forward.

Number 8’s electrically-linked morning star was powerful, but it had to be difficult to use. It was also not made for defense or for attacking multiple enemies coming from different directions.

But…

“This, for example.”

He made a merciless strike with the metal ball, but not against Alicia or Helen. He attacked the red ground at his feet.

It was a lot like a smokescreen.

The red dust coating the ground burst into the air to cover everything in all 360 degrees. Alicia and Helen were forced to slam on the brakes.

“He used the rusty mana!?”

“It is deadly to life, but not to us.”

The automaton’s unchanging voice spoke from the other side of that red world.

The wind roared as the Divine Doll lifted its enormous foot to follow Number 8’s example.

The stomp was coming.

The noise was on another level altogether. A veritable mountain range of red dust spread out, rushing in like a solid wall.

“Are you serious!? It isn’t that simple!!” protested the radio at Alicia’s neck. “This mystery substance has got to harm machines too!!”

“Magical automatons are not feared for being indestructible. We are feared for our lack of hesitation.”

A single eye glowed through the red curtain.

It belonged to the eternally-faithful artificial butler.

“That is why the emperor had no choice but to provide excessive defenses for the Empire. They were meant to repel external invaders and to prevent any internal fracturing.”

They could not afford to let that cloud hit them, but that did not leave them with many options.

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the red ground and raised his voice.

“Do it, Lucifer Horn!!”

“ So predictable. ”

Miyabi froze when that voice interrupted him.

The beam of light tore a line in the ground to blow away the approaching red cloud that was so pure it could kill organic life, but Number 8 did not bat an eye.

“If I can predict your flight path, I can fight back. Divine Doll.”

They had seen this attack already. The towering silver armor’s shoulders launched javelins in a fan shape.

This time, they were launched into the red sky and seemed to blot out the sun.

The Lucifer Horn twisted around in protest, but a few of the scattered metal spikes still stabbed into the bomber with their sharp tips. The spikes had small feathers on the rear, so were they meant to be arrows? There were too many of them to avoid even with a rapid turn.

The bomber lost its balance.

“Lucifer-!?”

“Did you think you were untouchable in the sky? Greater altitude is an advantage, but not an insurmountable one. The phalanx gastraphetes was originally used as an anti-air weapon to shoot down enemies of that sort.”

Number 8 dispassionately explained his actions.

They were both fighting to the best of their abilities, so Miyabi could not expect to remain unscathed throughout. He understood that. He really did, but this still came as a shock. He had never even imagined the Lucifer Horn taking damage. He was almost like a small child who fully believed that his father was invincible.

“And the effectiveness of this tactic remains unchanged. I need only repeat my actions.”

Miyabi heard a sticky sound.

To his disbelief, Number 8 had stuck his morning star’s weight into a sticky red bog.

With a snap of his wrist, he swung it around.

“D-dodge!!” yelled Eliza Silverstorm, eyes wide.

It did not matter if the electrically-attached metal ball hit them or not. The entire party leaped out of the way in different directions and Miyabi knocked the wheelchair onto its side so he could lie protectively atop Moebius.

Sizzling sounds surrounded them.

If even a drop of the red slime got on them, it would tear their body apart. He understood that.

“Heh heh.”

But an odd sound reached his ears.

Moebius was laughing. Even though his wheelchair was on its side and he could not have dodged even if it was not.

It weirded Miyabi out.

This was the legendary fixer, a side of the man he had not seem before.

“What? How are you so calm?”

“Huh? Because, boy – heh heh – he gave you all the hints you could want. Looks like these imperial automatons let you play on easy mode. No one’s better at assisting humans, I guess.”

“…?”

Miyabi did not understand at first.

But he gasped when he heard the sizzling again.

None of his party member’s skin was dissolving, yet the audible destruction continued and a disconcerting red steam filled the air.

It came from the half-crumbled stone wall, the fallen crystal chandelier, and even Number 8’s morning star ball.

“It works on more than just living things?”

“Never overlook any information. That radio said it must harm machines too, remember? And that imperial butler said himself that magical automatons aren’t feared for being indestructible.”

It all fell into place from there and Miyabi shouted the answer.

“Then it’ll work on the Divine Doll too. We just have to find a way to send it into one of those red bogs!!”

Easy enough to say.

However…

“Argh, and how are we supposed to do that!?” shouted Alicia, her tree branch staff tight in her hands.

The elf could boost her physical abilities with alchemy potions and the chosen knight was powerful enough to wield a massive lance, but neither of them could make that giant budge. There was no way they were forcing it into a red bog. Even if they tried, they would only get stomped as they approached.

Number 8 did not see this plan as a threat.

“The Divine Doll is the vast Empire’s shield. It will not give ground even if you send in your aerial Godhorn Tech.”

The Lucifer Horn had two weapons: the beam of light that shot down and tore through the ground and the bombs that dropped to the surface and exploded. Both were enormously powerful and thus tricky to use. Using them at such close range would mean surrounding Miyabi’s party with a red cloud or dumping the red sludge on their heads, killing them.

But…

“Who said I’d be doing that?”

Miyabi had it in him to smile.

He held out the hand not holding the control sword.

He held it toward the red ground for a power he had already demonstrated.

By removing chunks of the ground, he could create waterways for the red sludge to pass through.

He just had to repeat the process.

But instead of removing the sludge from their path, he guided it toward the Divine Doll’s feet.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

The result was the sticky but heavy sound of a great mass moving all at once.

It came from the Divine Doll’s feet. Red steam erupted from there and then the colossus began to sink.

A deadly artificial lake had formed.

Miyabi had torn down the side of a red bog and sent it through a waterway situated a level lower to create a new bog where none had been before.

That new one was of course located precisely where the Divine Doll stood.

The bog was a mere puddle for something of that size, but it still sank.

Technically speaking, it was dissolving.

Eventually, it lost its balance and toppled backwards. That had to have done considerable damage and it was entirely covered in the red sludge now.

Its greatest enemy turned out to be the very doom the Empire had brought upon itself.

“It’s stopped, boy!!” shouted Alicia.

“Fire that massive cannon you’re so fond of!!” added the radio.

Miyabi’s control sword pierced the crimson ground filled with so much rusty mana.

A large magic circle opened at his feet.

“I’m on it.”

That colossus had fallen.

The magical automaton by its side could not have escaped unscathed after the red dust and sludge were dumped on his head.

Number 8 was staring into empty space.

“Ksshh. Yes, yes. As you…wish, my emperor.”

“That’s enough of that, Number 8.”

“But…but then what…remains for me to protect?”

Number 8 had set up sorcery bombs across the continent.

A great many people had suffered for it.

According to Moebius, not everyone had survived.

But.

Even so.

No matter what anyone said, the magical automaton was not at fault. The blame lay squarely on the 11th who had known he was malfunctioning and used it to pretend to be the emperor.

“Number 8!!”

“Nwahhh!!”

The emperor was gone. The Empire was no more.

Nothing the magical automaton could do would change that history. His best efforts could not protect anyone, could not erase that tragedy, and could never bring about the promised peace and prosperity.

But that did not mean his desperate struggle and his malfunctioning mind’s drive to protect his beloved Empire had accomplished nothing at all. They had struck a chord within Miyabi.

So.

Miyabi Blackgarden rushed straight in and caught the attacking morning star on his thick sword. The Divine Doll was trapped in the red bog, but he still clashed with the magical automaton so trusted by the former emperor that he had been granted that Godhorn Tech.

He attacked the butler who the emperor had trusted more than any of the empire’s many humans, who had felt he owed a powerful obligation for that trust, and who had done everything he could to live up to his emperor’s expectations.

This was not about being living or lifeless or being born as human or inhuman. Could Miyabi’s feelings defeat this man’s? Could he demonstrate something inside him that was greater than this man who had remained alone in the ruined Empire and continued to protect that land even as it slowly destroyed him? That was the true nature of the battle Miyabi had chosen.

His enemy’s attack was heavy.

When metal ball clashed with double-edged blade, Miyabi felt his wrist bones rattling. But for some reason, that weight pleased him.

Both Moebius and Number 8 had been driven by honest motivations.

He did not dodge nimbly out of the way, but not because he cared about protecting the red ruins around him. He had to look the imperial butler in the eye and face him in a proper duel. Only by accepting his opponent’s earnest feelings did he earn the right to speak to him on equal footing.

He could not let the 11th abuse those feelings.

“Your heart is pure, Number 8. No matter what someone tricked you into doing, no one can deny the purity of your feelings!!”

He had to direct his hatred toward the correct person.

Committing a crime did not mean someone could never again seek out help.

So.

There was nothing at all wrong with wanting to save this lifeless automaton! With that conviction in his heart, Miyabi could stand on equal ground. It created a powerful support for his soul.

Just like Number 8 could throw out all else when he thought he was acting on behalf of his emperor.

Miyabi refused to let anyone defeat him when it came to the power of his feelings!!

“That loyalty belongs to you and you alone. I won’t let anyone else corrupt it!!”

He gave the command.

That massive airborne shape had been damaged and he knew he was pushing it too far, but after he deflected the metal ball, he stabbed the control sword into the red ground and raised his voice as if in prayer.

He shouted to his weapon flying unsteadily overhead.

“Isn’t that right, Lucifer Horn!!!???”

A white beam of light dropped from the sky and blew the dissolving Divine Doll to pieces.

Time seemed to distort.

Everything played out in slow motion for Miyabi.

He saw Number 8 blasted into the air like a dried leaf. He reached out an arm to catch him, but Alicia grabbed that arm with her entire body.

Time sped back up.

“Can’t you see all that red sludge on him!? Touch him and not even your bones will be left!!”

In that sense, he had gotten off easy.

He heard a dull crashing as the imperial automaton rolled across the red land, covered in red, but never wavered in his resolve. For better or for worse, his crawling scraped the red sludge off onto the ground.

“Emper…emperor…I…I…”

“Oh, no!!” shouted Moebius in his toppled wheelchair.

“What’s the matter!?” Miyabi looked puzzled. “We’re all dead if we don’t stop the Divine Doll!!”

“Since the Godhorn Tech and automaton are both artificial, their damage is linked. And if Number 8 is destroyed, we lose any way of tracking down the phony emperor who was giving him orders. This solves nothing if we don’t catch the 11th, so we need to get that information out of him!”

But it was too late.

“Bshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

“Whoa!?” shouted Alicia.

“Sigh, he’s puking like a new hire who celebrated a little too hard at his welcoming party,” groaned the radio. “As a fellow machine, that is exactly what I hope to avoid.”

Celina’s hands wandered wildly through the air as she watched Number 8 spew white steam everywhere.

And…

“W-we have to stop this. Yes, even if that means attacking him!”

She drove the stock of her rifle into the butler’s head.

That did stop the white steam, but…

“He’s stopped moving.”

Helen was right.

If they could not speak with him, they could not figure out who had pretended to be the emperor. For the 11th, Number 8 was a safety measure, not a crucial lifeline. Even now, they might be leisurely setting up the next sorcery bomb.

“What do we do?” asked Miyabi.

Moebius sighed while the boy righted the wheelchair for him.

He brushed the red dust from his coat before speaking.

“What, ready to follow my instructions again already?”

“Damn. You’re just saying that because you’re out of ideas too, aren’t you!?”

“Hey, provoking adults is a dangerous habit.” Moebius grinned. “Anyway, if he’s broken, he’s broken. But he’s a machine, so we can fix him. How’s that sound for a plan?”

“But the Empire that created him is gone. Where can we find parts for a rare automaton?”

The magical automatons, red slimes, magic books, furniture, and everything else in this danger zone of rusty mana continued to fight all on their own, but that constant struggling meant they would be in bad condition. Trying to use bad parts could actually make the damage worse.

But Moebius did not seem concerned.

“We happen to know a girl who can provide us any product under the sun, don’t we?”

At first, not even the girl in question knew who he meant.

“…”

Celina silently tilted her head for a while before realizing everyone’s eyes had gathered on her.

“Eh? Me?”

“The Boooodenburg Companyyyy,” sang Moebius. “Don’t you offer everything a person could need, from pacifier to coffin? Your home and the company’s headquarters are located in a famous port city. It’s the continent’s largest criminal city, home to pirates and mercenaries, where money is king and the law has no power.”

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 3

The island was starting to feel a lot more civilized.

That was largely thanks to Garret Goldcave, a dwarf and expert craftsman.

The old man may have had a better example of femininity than Curse Cleaner Sophia Calamity-Jinx or Martial Artist Victia Magnumfist, who had been lying around naked since the island was deserted. At the very least, he was wearing clothes.

A few buildings and manufacturing facilities were taking form on the empty island.

It was crudely made, but having a furnace meant a lot. It could refine ordinary dirt and sand into bricks and glass.

“Hmph,” snorted Garret, sounding annoyed. “I still have a lot to do before I’m ready to work with metal.”

He had found some sulfur and niter on the island, but it would be a while before he could create alchemy gunpowder. Iron came first. But finding items from several steps ahead in the process made his current level of skill and equipment feel all the more inadequate.

On this desert island, he had to figure everything out on his own. Iron ore would be hard to come by, but he could at least separate the iron sand out from the beach’s sand. Still, he had to go through a few other steps before he could create blades and hammers out of that iron sand.

Sophia viewed the buildings with delight.

“Good, maybe we can finally be of some use. Instead of just sending them sexy swimsuits, sexy swimsuits, and more sexy swimsuits.”

“Ha ha ha! But I have a feeling Miyabi would love a world of nothing but sexy swimsuits!”

“Eh? Miyabi likes to wear them? I never would have guessed he was into that!”

Victia made no attempt to correct Sophia’s mistaken interpretation. Idiots came in many forms, but the kind that failed to explain themselves properly tended to spread confusion.

Meanwhile, two new rookies had just arrived.

“Fshoo shoo shoo!! This supposedly desert island is littered with wreckage. Someone may have lived here before. Only one way to find out: grab my shovel and dig, dig, dig☆”

“Y-yikes!”

The octopus mask and giant armor were both shouting about something or other.

The island may have been cursed to never see any traditional femininity.

### Profiles

Marietta Diggrave

Age: 16

Sex: Female

Height: 153cm

A salvage hunter who digs up the remains of a ruined kingdom to gather advanced magical lab equipment and sell it to used item shops. Known for aiming big, but the high price of the treasure maps means she barely scrapes by despite the high profile of her jobs. Her excessive mask is more of a good luck charm or jinx, so it may not be strictly necessary.

Angela Custardmare

Age: 15

Sex: Female

Height: 200cm (140cm inside)

A maid known for her extreme loveliness known as the “Unfortunate Beauty”. Strange Guide once led a death game in which several nobles killed each other with her as the prize and the nobles’ wives responded by enclosing her in the unremovable Prison Armor. She wants a Wicked God horn in order to free herself from the armor.

Number 8

Apparent Age: 20 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Designed as Male

Height: 190cm

A magical automaton created from the advanced technology of the massive Empire that once ruled a third of the continent. He was given the humanoid Divine Doll Godhorn Tech as the foundation of the Empire’s defenses. He continues to obey the emperor’s commands even after the Empire’s fall, so he continues to protect the ruins of the capital. The extreme environment causes his damage to grow by the day, which has likely negatively affected his internal memory.

Godhorn Tech Silver Armor: Divine Doll

Pilot: Number 8

Affiliation: Unified Cassul Blanc Sorcery Empire (since destroyed)

Size: About 8m tall

Colossal silver armor. Obeys Number 8’s orders and works to slay its enemies. Wields swords, spears, and bows, but their great size turns them all into enormous blunt attacks. Number 8 was created to protect the Empire’s massive borders on the emperor’s orders. The Divine Doll obeys his orders unconditionally, so if he were to malfunction, the Divine Doll would follow along. Design motif: the sword which automatically fights to bring victory to its wise owner.

### 020. Chapter 5, Section 1

The Wicked God horn brought peace.

But it also fueled the next catastrophe.

Night had fully fallen.

They could not relax enough for a strategy meeting inside the ruined Empire covered in the mystery red dust called rusty mana. How could they when it could destroy the Divine Doll when at high enough concentrations? They could not leave Number 8 where he was either. Washing off the red sludge was not enough to rouse him.

That was why Miyabi’s party returned to the ship abandoned on dry land near the Empire’s ruins.

Maybe the wind played a role, but the red had not yet encroached upon the wasteland to the north.

The fact that the mysterious abandoned ship actually seemed comfortable may have shown just how tough they had gotten.

“Phew. Purification magic just can’t compete with some everyday necessities. Like a shower,” said Celina. “I just hope that little adventure didn’t take years off of our lives.”

“Based on the samples the Republic has taken, short-term skin contact has no effect on life,” said Helen. “Assuming it hasn’t been concentrated into that sludge, of course. Long-term oral or mucus membrane intake has been shown to cause abnormal growth in certain Beast Novae.”

“Discriminatory language!!” shouted Alicia. “What are you saying, that my chest is going to grow overnight!? Am I going to have watermelons bouncing around on my chest!? Oh, Alma, they can be so hurtful! Please comfort me!!”

The girls’ voices sounded muffled but not because Miyabi Blackgarden’s mind was elsewhere.

The abandoned ship’s interior remained intact and that included the bath.

That was one of the main reasons they had turned back instead of continuing onward. They had wanted someplace they knew they could rest, but they had also been dying for a bath. And there was still plenty of firewood made from the felled masts.

The radio had been thrown to the deck outside.

Miyabi was sitting with his back to a weathered wood wall and he could hear the girls’ voices through that wall.

He shut his eyes and focused on the fact that everyone was safe.

“These are the moments you live for, aren’t they?”

“Moebius?”

The young man rolled up with a smile.

He had fought using the Lucifer Horn more often than Miyabi and saved many more people. He had fought with entire regions, whole countries, and maybe even the full continent riding on the outcome. How many times had he been able to indulge in the relief of knowing his party members were all safe afterwards?

He was a legend – a fixer who made a living taking jobs that saved entire countries.

“The girls have let their guard down due to the unique mixture of exhaustion and the joy of survival, so now’s your chance to peep!!”

“It scares me that someone like you controlled a Godhorn Tech for even a moment.” The redhead boy breathed a somewhat exasperated sigh. “What are you going to do now? Stick with us?”

“No, giving you the Lucifer Horn would’ve been pretty pointless if I did that. I want to leave the world’s troubles behind and relax. Live that slow life that’s all the rage these days☆”

“…”

Scratch the somewhat.

Miyabi was truly exasperated now. Meanwhile, Moebius Entrance whispered something under his breath.

“(Also, you’ve started down a different path from me. The power of creation, huh? If I helped you out, you’d be right back on the boring-as-hell path of destruction, destruction, and more destruction.)”

“Moebius?”

“It’s nothing.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I’ll be searching for some comfortable place in the middle of nowhere to settle down. Some friendly place with no sign of Godhorn Techs or the fight against the 11th.”

“Then I know just the place.”

Miyabi grabbed the short control sword in both hands and stabbed it into the ship’s deck.

“Lucifer Horn!” he roared before Moebius could say a word. “One-way trip for one!!”

A wire dangling from the heavens caught the grinning young man’s wheelchair.

“Wait, what are you doing!?”

“Oh, right! I forget to mention!!” Miyabi quickly shouted to the wheelchair being yanked from the deck. “The Lucifer Horn can use bombs now! You should have told me it could adapt to new weapons like that! I might never have figured it out!!”

Moebius himself had set up Horn Fortress as a secret base, so he was in no position to refuse.

Moebius Entrance was enjoying a pleasure flight with imminent death as a constant companion.

But while he clutched the wheelchair’s armrests for dear life, a different tension filled him too.

He must have known no one could hear him way up in the air, but he still spoke aloud. Or maybe he said it aloud because he knew no one could hear him.

“Hold on. The Lucifer Horn’s horn extraction system was witchcraft. It should only have that energy beam attack created by injecting a special potion into the horn to forcibly boost its light.”

He looked straight up at the Godhorn Tech carrying him.

The legendary fixer seemed to be complaining directly to his former partner.

“ I had no idea you could do that. ”

Back on the abandoned ship, Celina Bodenburg had apparently finished her bath. She still had steam rising from her as she poked her head out and saw Miyabi.

“We’re all done in there. Oh? What are you doing out here?”

“Ridding us of a peeping tom.”

Celina gave a start and moved back a few steps when she heard that. Then Alicia Blueforest, also fresh out of the bath, arrived with Alma’s black cat form in her arms.

“There you are, boy. The bath is free. Go soak in our used bathwater.”

“I-in what world is that a normal thing to say!?” protested Celina. “There is something wrong with you!”

The elf usually bathed outdoors, so she could be careless about such things. An unexpected encounter with a defenseless elf was sometimes how an innocent boy got a crash course on the female body.

Helen arrived last and sighed in exasperation.

“This elf might live a wild life of stealing vegetables from people’s fields, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t more civilized. Speaking of which, our next stop is your hometown, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Celina Bodenburg got down to business. “Our next destination is the criminal port city where my company has its headquarters. It is south from here and will take a while on foot.”

Alicia Blueforest gave her a skeptical look.

“I don’t like the sound of that description.”

“Ahem. To make this as simple as possible, I would describe the city like this.” The local actually cleared her throat first. “That place is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad news.”

Wet-haired Helen Clockgear held her head.

“The Republic really does have it marked as ‘visit with extreme caution’. It’s best to assume it isn’t anything like a normal city.”

“Koo?”

“Then maybe we should make some preparations before we go there.” Miyabi Blackgarden rubbed his chin. “Do we head straight there, or do we make a detour to a safe town beforehand?”

They ended up choosing the direct route.

Their reasoning was simple: they had to deal with Number 8. They had no idea if he was even fixable, but any chance they had now might go to waste if the vibrations of dragging him around or the wind, rain, and other weather conditions caused further internal damage.

“This would be so much easier if you had the Lucifer Horn take him to Horn Fortress,” complained the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck.

“Wouldn’t we tear that half-broken thing to pieces if we tried snagging him with that wire? Then we would lose any information he has on the 11th.”

Miyabi had exposed an injured man to that exact same treatment, but that was a sign of how much he trusted Moebius Entrance. He knew dropping that legendary fixer from the sky wasn’t enough to kill him.

Helen took charge like usual and spread out a parchment map.

“This is how it looks on the map. Once we arrive south of the Empire’s ruins, we take a curving path southeast to reach the southernmost point of the continent.”

“We can’t just pass through here?”

Miyabi pointed at the actual plains, not the ones on the map. A stone-paved road drew a line across the green grassy ground.

“The map shows a crack there, so no.” Helen shook her head and traced her finger along a sewing needle to magically transform it into a compass. “How it works still isn’t known, but there are impassible deep cracks in the ground at some places. Dangerous miasma flows out, so no one knows what things are like deep inside.”

“There are rumors saying a Wicked God will crawl back out if you throw a nonhuman species inside,” said Alicia.

She went on to explain that those rumors were entirely baseless.

Miyabi’s takeaway was that they had to read the map carefully to avoid dying. They ended up leaving the stone-paved road to travel along a side path of packed-down grass.

It helped to have an experienced traveler in your party.

The color of the sky seemed to have changed. It was now a brilliant bright blue.

The air also carried an odd smell.

It was not quite the same as rot. It was a unique scent, but not a bad one.

“I can finally smell the salt in the air,” said Celina.

“Salt?”

Miyabi pictured the small shaker on the dinner table, but that could not be what she meant.

“Oh? Miyabi, is this your first time to see the sea?”

“See the see? What?”

“Hee hee. Then this might come as a shock for you.”

The rich girl was in a stupendous mood.

Miyabi noticed something else before they arrived. He heard something he did not recognize.

“What’s that? I’ve never heard so much meowing. Does your city have a lot of cats?”

“Ho ho ho. Kitties aren’t the only creature to hunt down fish at the oceanside, Miyabi. Those are seabirds.”

It turned out there were a lot of different seabirds.

There were some crow-sized ones with white wings that were related to swallows and there were even some that looked like scantily-clad girls with wings for arms.

“Gasp, those are harpies!” shouted Helen. “They’re dangerous Beast Novae!!”

No one paid the elf’s cry of “discriminatory language!!” any heed.

“It’s just that kind of city.” Celina shrugged. “And harpies are great. They’re smart enough to do what you tell them and they always return home when you send them out from your window. Both humans and monsters trust them. You can love them as a pet or give them jobs. They’re especially useful as hunter harpies who accompany you on hunting trips or as messenger harpies that deliver letters to distant locations.”

“If you want a clever pet, just get a dog. Why would you start talking about chaining up nonhumans and raising them as pets when you know an elf can hear you?”

“If a dog had the face of a cute girl, it would be a thing of nightmares, you stupid elf. There’s nothing beautiful about them.”

They heard the flapping of wings and then a large form swooped down toward Celina, so she held her arm out horizontally as a perch.

“My Millovannes is very well behaved, as you can see. Hee hee. Now, now, Millovannes, we can love on each other later. Oh, you spoiled thing, you’ll make Miyabi jealous if we do this in front of him. Oh, you☆”

U-um, uh, isn’t it slashing at your face with its thick talons? Um. Miyabi very much wanted to say something, but the more mature Helen and Eliza covered his mouth.

He was not to shatter the friendly girl’s dreams.

Celina was smiling so happily even with something red spurting from her badly-damaged forehead and temple.

“Anyway, you will see plenty of the port’s many seabirds once we are in the city. So, Miyabi, are you a dog person or a cat person. If the former, you can take a look at the well-trained guard dogs and military dogs. If the latter, you can check out the swarms of thieving cats hoping to snag some fish. Welcome to the criminal city where everyone loves their pets☆”

“Hm, so it works on the theory that delinquents have a soft spot for abandoned cats, does it?” said the radio. “It is true the lonely delinquent girl with a damaged heart is something you’ll only find in a fantasy world! I’m hoping for a fashionable and good-looking blonde gyaru!! Especially if she’s handy around the house, loves baths, and looks after any of the gang when they catch a cold!!”

“Oh, no. A big city like this is sure to be crawling with elfphobes!” said Alicia. “Please don’t let me be captured in a giant bug net and sold off at some market somewhere!!!!!”

And.

“Ohh!” shouted Miyabi.

Once they crossed a certain line, the view changed.

A city was built along a gentle downwards slope. All the buildings had white walls and orange roofs and it had a very different feel from his village or Eliza’s Arsenal Kingdom. There was no wall around the city, so it felt a lot more open.

But Miyabi Blackgarden’s focus was elsewhere.

He was not even viewing the city.

His eyes moved past the gentle slope and to the great expanse beyond it.

“What is that? There’s a huge body of water over there!! Is that more than just a lake!?”

“Heh heh heh. That, my friend, is the ocean. Shipbuilding is yet another of the Bodenburg Company’s major industries, so- hey, wait, Miyabi!”

The boy was not listening to her any more than he was viewing the city.

He and black cat Alma rushed off at full speed. They had never seen anything like the ocean before.

“Whoa! Hey, jackass! Watch where you’re fucking going!!!!!”

On his third step down the gentle slope, someone cussed him out.

It would have been one thing if the culprit was a rough-looking young man, but unfortunately, this was what looked like a lovely flower seller girl. And this was her reaction when he only almost ran into her.

Seeing the boy tearfully curled up on the side of the road and trembling, Celina put a hand on her hip and smacked her forehead with the other hand.

“How many times do I have to tell you this is a criminal city? C’mon, having your bittersweet fantasies about girls shattered isn’t that big a deal. And word to the wise? Always watch where you’re going in this city.”

“Ohh. Ohhhhhhhh…”

“Leave him be!!” For some reason the radio sided with the depressed boy. “The shattering of your dreams is a rite of passage – a baptism of blood – we all must go through! He just had his soul shredded, so let him mourn!!”

“Oh, dear. That hit him pretty bad, so it might take a while before he recovers. Fine, then. I will help refuel his fantasies. Look, Miyabi, do you see this slight gap between my miniskirt and black socks? Now watch as I lift my skirt and make it grow☆”

“Oh, there is good in the world after all.”

“Dammit, Miyabi! I defended you! And now you don’t even know the difference between pure and lewd? I swear, the young have no taste at all. If you want that obvious junk food sexiness, you already have Curvy McGlassesTits over there! She’s only pretending to be so mature, so if you go crying to her, I guarantee you she’ll hug your face right into her chest!!”

“Don’t drag me into this silly nonsense!!” protested a blushing Helen, her attempt at being an uninvolved observer failing miserably. She did not want to be viewed in the same category as the skirt teaser (who had miscalculated and accidentally lifted the skirt enough to see everything).

The bright sun shined down through dry air, so even a light breeze felt like a great treasure in this memorable tourist destination.

The way the sun reflected off the white walls and orange roofs made it look like the entire city was sending out welcoming rays of light.

However.

Now that the unintentional panty flasher had guided him back to reality, Miyabi took his time to observe the city more carefully.

While the lit areas were indeed bright, that accentuated the darkness of the alleys between the homes and stores. When he peeked inside one of those, he saw the sharp light of several eyes glaring back at him. He got the feeling they belonged to people who did not take kindly to intruders on their turf. In fact, he was pretty sure some of the lights were the glint of sharp blades.

Helen looked around in fear, clutching her bag in both hands. Compress Cargo magic made travel easier since you could fit so much in a small bag, but that also meant you would lose everything if that one bag was stolen. Easy to carry was also easy to steal.

“U-um, where are the knights or guards in this city? I haven’t seen a single one out on patrol.”

“Sigh, we don’t have any of those wet blankets here. We’ve long since driven out anyone who use their supposed ‘justice’ to attack anyone who criticizes their own illicit actions. Order here is preserved by the private troops of the Bodenburg Company!”

“Sounds like the South American and Eastern European cities were the gangs make the rules. She really does hold all the power here, doesn’t she?”

Even the radio was dumbfounded.

If what they saw here was the result of those private troops “preserving order”, they could guess just how effective that really was. It also explained why the Bodenburg Company was so successful. With no government officials to monitor or crack down on their dirty business practices, they were free to go hog wild.

But if you ignored the frequency of encountering crime, the quality of life here did not appear all that bad. The roads were all paved with perfectly smooth and sparkling stones, the white-walled and orange-roofed homes and shops were clean, and the street stalls had plenty of fresh fruits and fishes to go around. The Bodenburg Company apparently brought plenty of benefits to its hometown, so the locals never went hungry. People’s fashion was a lot more refined than at Miyabi’s home village. Befitting the hometown of the girl who was willing to tease a view of her underwear to cheer someone up (while oblivious to the fact that she was actually doing more than just teasing), there was no shortage of exposed skin in the criminal port town. Bare midriffs and exposed underwear straps were apparently the norm here.

Miyabi looked around in a mixture of interest and fear.

“I don’t get how a city can run on crime. How does that work?”

“Wait, Miyabi! Looking down alleys is a good way to get yourself into troub-!”

The local girl tried to stop him, but it was too late.

He had already found some trouble.

A blonde girl around his age or a little older was accompanied by several people dressed all in black. She wore a coat with the hood up…but what was that? Two thick belts hung down from the back of the coat and those belts had several knife blades sticking out. They almost looked like wings made from sharp saws, but letting them flutter in the wind had to be dangerous.

Also, she was not wearing a skirt or pants below the coat. Other than the protectors on her legs, she only wore thick belts around her chest and hips. She was certainly easy on the eyes.

Celina Bodenburg groaned loudly when she peeked into the alley. Seeing this person was enough to make you “a witness”, especially when you knew who she was. The rifle-wielding girl was especially tense because she knew the proper etiquette in this criminal city.

“Geh, why did it have to be the Neverjudge Family? Worse, it’s Phobia, the big boss’s only daughter! You have the worst luck imaginable, Miyabi!”

“What, is she a friend of yours?”

“Miyabi, this is a serious issue. She is from an unbelievably brutal gang. Any ordinary person who gets involved with them is rumored to either end up feeding the fish out at sea or finding themselves at the bottom of a special sort of bath.”

“The fish? A bath?”

Celina cleared her throat with her face somewhat red.

Suddenly finding herself left all alone to explain this to him, the precocious girl spoke more quickly than normal.

“While our company buys and sells goods and information with money, they are a professional criminal group that makes money renting out ‘violence’ as a product. They will do threats, kidnappings, robberies, murders, revenge assistance, eliminating false charges, bodyguarding, rescues, and anything else that can be accomplished through violence. And they do not ask many questions about the ethics of the job. They might attack or defend the same person depending on the specific job they receive.”

“Huh? You mean they do good things too?”

“Either way, their exorbitant fees and the rapidly snowballing interest send all of their clients to hell eventually. Our private troops will work to ‘mop them up’ from time to time, but we never can get rid of these morally-bankrupt loan sharks.”

The gang was surrounding a very different sort of person.

She was wearing a shiny black…was it called a high-leg leotard? Anyway, a very revealing leather thing plus a vest, bunny ears, fishnet stockings, and stilettos. The curvy young woman with her long red hair in twintails was exactly what she looked like.

The radio gave the correct answer.

“Take it all in, Miyabi, and take one step closer to adulthood!! That is an orthodox tuxedo-style bunny girl, one of the classy ladies who work at casinos!!!!!!”

“Could you not imply that I’m a fake one!” cut in Helen.

She would prefer to not transform into Venus, but she also did not want her efforts to go unappreciated.

Meanwhile, a conversation was underway in the back alley.

Celina stayed by Miyabi’s side and leaned forward. She seemed very curious what was going on here.

The first to speak was the gang daughter named Phobia Neverjudge.

She addressed the bunny girl her gang had surrounded.

“Work as our magician.”

“Ugh.”

“Our previous magician was trash. Terrible at following directions, no real skill to speak of, and never covered things up properly. So if you take over that position, we will overlook all that cheating at our casino.”

“Um, and if I say no?”

“You get the usual treatment. We have a special brand for cheaters. Burns an appropriate message onto their face: ‘I’m a filthy cheater. Keep an eye on me, everyone.’ D’you think any casino’ll let you in with that covering your entire face?”

“Ha ha ha, yeah. But I think half the fun in gambling is seeing how long it takes before my cheating is found out.”

“Then your life is already a failure. Interested in buying it back?”

“Ha ha ha, yeah.” The bunny girl’s laughter was weak, but she did have a reason to be laughing. “But, but. It might be miniscule, but I still have a chance. Gambling is so much fun because everyone has a chance to turn things around.”

She had noticed the newcomers and she was very hopeful.

The hope was practically radiating from her.

Miyabi’s mouth formed a small triangle and Celina slapped her forehead.

“Oh, god. Really? Fine, Miyabi, which side are you going to take? The gangsters or the cheater? Neither one is exactly a good person, so just choose whichever one strikes your fancy. Oh, but keep in mind that pretending you never saw anything counts as siding with the Neverjudge Family.”

Miyabi Blackgarden nodded deeply.

The decision was an easy one.

“Why wouldn’t I choose the sexy bunny!? I mean, she’s sexy!!”

“Sigh, is that all Miyabi sees when he looks at me?”

The bespectacled version of Venus looked like she was witnessing the end of the world.

“Tch.”

The born gangster clicked her tongue.

Phobia had also noticed the people at the alleyway entrance. When up to no good, such as when surrounding a target, the gang would naturally be focused on the entrance whether there was someone there or not.

The blade wings shook behind her as she turned to face them.

“Well, well, well. If isn’t the new money girl that thinks she’s a fairy tale knight by sending in private troops she’s paid to fight for her! How badly did you rip off that country bumpkin there when you hired him? Scratch that. I don’t care. Your forces might be more powerful, but the Family is second to none when it comes to pinpoint urban assassina-”

“Lucifer Horn!! Take her away before she can attack!!!!!!”

The Lucifer Horn roared by overhead and its wire snagged the gang daughter, whisking her away. Probably all the way to Horn Fortress somewhere out in the ocean.

The gangsters in black stared blankly now that their boss’s only daughter had vanished before their eyes.

“Ha ha.” Celina burst out laughing while aiming her flintlock rifle at the gangsters. “Ah ha ha ha ha ha!! Miyabi, you are the absolute best! So what now? We have your gang’s heir. And since she’s our new party member, you’ll want to start this new relationship off on the right foot, right?”

“…”

“March on back to whatever hideout that greedy old geezer is rotting away in and pass on a message for me. If he doesn’t want his gang torn apart over some new succession issues at this late stage in his life, he needs to start accepting only the moral jobs that come in and to be a lot more flexible in the payment plans he accepts for the people trying to pay back their loans. And convey it all verbatim. It would be a shame if any miscommunication here led to a misunderstanding that bred unnecessary ill will between us☆”

The several shadowy figures clicked their tongues and left. Miyabi’s peaceful rural upbringing left him unprepared to note the significance of them setting aside their pride and turning their backs on Celina.

Then the shiny black bunny girl collapsed limply to the ground. She ended up with her legs splayed out beneath her in an oddly sexy way. She was around the same age as Eliza and Phobia, but she had an entirely different feel to her.

“Ohhhh, ohhhhhhhh!! You saved me. What even are the odds of turning that one around? Ahh, I’m all tinglyyyyy.”

However, he got the impression she had not collapsed from relief once the fear faded away.

After enjoying some kind of sensation that sent an alluring tremor up her spine, she finally looked up at the others from the ground.

“I’m Eluné. Eluné Jackpot. FYI: professional gamblers almost never give you their real name when you first meet them☆”

“What now? People who go by fake names are almost always up to no good.”

“I did warn you, Miyabi: neither one is exactly a good person. The same applies to anyone in this city.”

Celina sounded exasperated, but was she aware that applied to her too since this was her hometown?

Eluné smiled with her round-tailed butt still pressed against the ground.

“I need to repay you for this. Boy, is this your first time in the city? Then I can introduce you to the absolute best places here.”

“You want him to take information from someone who forgot to check who owned the casino she was cheating in and got dragged into a back alley? That can only end badly.”

“But I want to repay him.”

“Ugh, enough of this,” said Alicia. “Miyabi, why not let her join the party?”

“Fine, but what can a bunny girl do for the party?”

“She can give Venus a few pointers, making her even sexier. And I’m talking about things too indecent for the daylight hours.”

“That is not happening!!” protested the glasses woman, but no one was listening.

The real bunny girl’s face lit up.

“Join your party? I accept, I accept! I can just tell you’re on some exciting adventure! If I let this opportunity pass me by, I might as well retire as a gambler. I’m in, I’m in, I am so in!!”

“Um, okay then. I’ve got another one for you, Lucifer Horn!!”

Another wire arrived to collect the black bunny girl. She was such a risk junky that she actually managed to blow him a kiss while she was swept away into the sky.

After a bit, Eliza tilted her head.

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

“Well…sending that gang daughter – Phobia was it? – to Horn Fortress was fine, but you just sent Eluné there as well. Won’t that just lead to Round 2 once they encounter each other there?”

“…”

“And isn’t that a remote island surrounded by powerful barriers? Sh-she’s trapped there with Phobia.”

They all fell silent. The Lucifer Horn was no longer visible in the sliver of blue sky seen from the narrow alley.

Eventually, Miyabi nodded.

“Well, she seemed to like high-stakes gambles.”

“I just hope this doesn’t end with a dead body in the ocean over there,” said Alicia.

Miyabi’s party had already received an initiation into how the criminal city worked, but they could not let that scare them away.

The only way to make use of the city’s unique resources was to get used to the city’s ways.

They needed to repair the imperial automaton and ask him about the 11th who had pretended to be the emperor to command him.

Eliza glanced around while carrying Number 8’s limp form on her back.

“There is so much here my kingdom lacked. For one, the city is not lit by fires and tallow lamps.”

“Yes, these are cutting-edge gas lamps you see alongside the road. Hee hee. You are in for a surprise tonight. Metal foil is used to color the fires red, yellow, and blue. Each and every shop appears to be shining.”

“Hm. I had noticed glass tubes bent into letters like balloon art, but are those made to be illuminated? That explains why all the signs are transparent and hard to read. For example, what is that shop supposed to be?”

“…”

Celina sealed her lips shut and refused to answer.

She must have been unwilling to speak the name Bubble Bath Paradise out loud.

Helen the hall monitor placed a finger on the bridge of her glasses and stared like she could not believe her eyes.

“The bars are garish, the casinos have no rate limits and are buddy-buddy with loan sharks, I’m willing to bet the pawn shops are full of stolen goods, and those ‘theatres’ look more like the kind of place where the performers take their clothes of for tips. Wow, there’s even a battle arena where people actually lose their lives. Nothing on this street would be legal in the Republic. And the other street at this intersection appears to be nothing but hotels.”

“You’re awfully good at recognizing such establishments for someone who doesn’t approve of them,” said Alicia. “Got more of an interest in some of them than you’re letting on, perhaps?”

“Th-that information is necessary for working undercover!!”

Alma was looking all around from Miyabi’s feet.

“Koo…” said the black cat creature with a shiver.

“What’s wrong, Alma?” asked Alicia. “If you’re scared, then I’ll make a hammock out of my skirt for you. Ha ha ha. Yes, just jump on in!”

“Country Girl Limited Edition Strawberry Picker Chef’s Special Elf! Lift that skirt a little higher! Yes, even higher than that!! Wait, but how am I ever supposed to see that glorious fabric triangle when looking down from your neck!?”

The radio made a ruckus, earning a punch from Eliza and Helen both.

The pure knight was still having trouble reading the signs, but even she was starting to pick up on the indecent atmosphere. She had more doubt and caution in her voice while she carried the deactivated magical automaton around.

“Where is the Bodenburg Company? Don’t we need to visit them to fix Number 8 and get his information on the 11th?”

Celina winked and raised a finger.

“It’s the biggest building of them all. It’s impossible to miss.”

They were walking along the widest and most conspicuous road, but Miyabi still caught glimpses of a world he had never known.

For example, he peeked inside a weapon shop along the way.

“Welcome…except I would recommend against shopping here, kid. Carrying a weapon only makes it more likely you’ll be stabbed.”

For some reason, the shop’s owner firmly turned him away, which seemed like a terrible way to stay in business. The gloomy maid tending to the sharp and blunt weapons in the shop gave him a thin smile.

“Oh? Were you not expecting to find a maid here?” she said. “Hee hee. As a mercenary, I happen to be another of the products for sale. Stop by again if you have a job for me.”

Out of curiosity (a curiosity mostly directed toward the darker side of society glimpsed in this city), Miyabi nervously peeked inside all the stores they passed by. Either they refused to sell to first-timers, or they appeared to have all the more interesting items unlisted so they had to be requested by name. The major port had to be a starting point for a lot of journeys, but the place was not made for tourists.

“The food looks good, though,” said Miyabi, watching some sweets being cooked at a street stall.

“That is known as a crepe, Miyabi. People call this a criminal city, but it actually values freedom more than anywhere else on the continent and people from all sorts of backgrounds end up here. We are second to none when it comes to culture and the arts. Food is no exception.”

But their destination was the Bodenburg Company.

They had the most powerful card in their deck for that. Celina was the company’s only daughter. She was right about it being impossible to miss. The biggest building was visible from any part of the city.

As they approached, they came across a large iron gate. They could see a garden with rose hedges and fountains past the sturdy bars. It was too large to even call a park. Miyabi thought his entire village might have fit inside it. Maids and gardeners were coming and going within and they even saw a carriage driving by. The grand white mansion was enough to leave even Helen of the Republic and Eliza of the Arsenal Kingdom speechless. It was fancier even than the residences of their heads of state.

Miyabi gasped just from looking through the gate.

“That’s incredible.”

“Heh heh. It is, isn’t it?”

“Why is there a naked statue of you in the middle of that fountain? Was it some kind of punishment?”

“Th-that is of my mother when she was younger! And it was not some bizarre form of punishment!!”

Celina had clearly corrected exactly this misunderstanding on more than a few occasions.

She approached the gate with a bright blush on the face that took after her mother.

“Anyway, this is the headquarters of our company. Rudolf!”

“Oh?”

A gray-haired old man – presumably Rudolf – approached from the other side of the gate, but he did not bow. Powerful old men were in no short supply in a logging village, so for Miyabi, this muscular old-timer was like a point of familiarity in an otherwise strange city.

The air was dry, the sun was bright, and Rudolf wore black dress clothes, yet he was not sweating.

“Rudolf, I would like to discuss the company’s inventory. I require a list of all imperial automaton components we have in stock. I have reason to repair this automaton named Number 8.

Rudolf was smiling.

And he continued smiling as he responded.

“And why would I give you that?”

“Surely you aren’t going to say you do not recognize me.”

“I am afraid I must. The Bodenburg Company is run by the wealthiest family at Galletfron Trade Port. Being known far and wide comes at a price. Just the other day, a girl who looked exactly like the young lady rashly stopped by to scam us out of some travel expenses, so the master has ordered us to be stricter in our dealings with anyone, even if they appear to be family.”

“Even your family is turning you away, rich girl?” asked Alicia.

“(Kh!!)”

After the world-famous girl gave the elf one hell of a look, Rudolf made a suggestion.

“You might be a well-disguised fake, but I know I would recognize the real young lady’s exceptional business acumen. Let’s see…this city uses guns more than swords or sorcery, so why not acquire a Divine Crystal Bullet? Yes, just one will do. Bring that to me and I will be able to tell at a glance that you are the real young lady.”

“Hm, that isn’t much info to go on,” said Alicia.

The intellectual glasses woman gave a start.

The elf grinned and turned toward the woman, ready to boss her around.

“Heh heh heh. This sounds like a job for Venus, don’t you think?”

“L-let’s go take a look around, Miyabi! We’ll go over the city with a fine-tooth comb!!”

Thus, Operation Fine-Tooth Comb began.

“We’ll be asking around?”

Miyabi gave a thoughtful look toward Eliza.

Armor and weapons were a common sight in this criminal city full of thugs, so the problem was the thing she was carrying as their “muscle”.

“Then shouldn’t we find some place to keep Number 8? He looks so realistic people might think we’re carrying around a corpse.”

“But people carry drunks out of bars all the time here.”

The local girl sounded casual enough, but Miyabi wondered worriedly why she hadn’t specified where the drunks were being carried to .

They were in front of Celina’s mansion, but they were not allowed inside. Helen was in charge of their finances and she fell to her knees at the thought of renting out an inn room large enough for them all when a party member’s home was this very city.

“The corner room is open right now. I could move you there.”

“No, thank you!! I refuse to even consider any further expenses!!”

For some reason, Helen’s refusal elicited a quiet tongue click from the innkeeper.

The party gathered in a 2nd floor room where they were finally able to lay Number 8 down in a bed.

They needed to speak with him to get information on the 11th.

Miyabi nodded.

“Okay, let’s go find that Divine Crystal Bullet thing.”

“Yes, we cannot get the repair parts without convincing Rudolf.”

Would they find a bullet at a weapon shop?

They discussed the possibilities while descending the stairs, but they received a hint much sooner than expected.

A filthy middle-aged man wrapped in old rags spoke to them as soon as they stepped out of the inn.

“Hee hee hee. I’ve got some information you might just be interested in.”

“If you were that well informed, you wouldn’t look like you crawled out of a trash heap,” said Alicia.

“Now, now. Just hear me out.”

The elf’s exasperated comment was not enough to get him down.

“It’s about that inn you just left. Hm, so you managed to avoid the corner room, did you? That’s good to hear. Wanna know why the place is always empty but always makes a killing? Anyone who stays in the corner room is put to sleep by the special spores or insect scales rubbed onto the pillows and blankets. Once you’re out, they can steal everything of value. The innkeeper’s vault is crammed full of rare prizes.”

“…”

Normally, that would scare them enough to find a different inn.

In fact, this man was probably working for a different inn to guide customers that way. Those rags were a type of uniform. They looked filthy, but the sour smell was more reminiscent of watered-down vinegar than human body odor. It even had a touch of apply sweetness.

But Miyabi’s party had a goal in mind.

“(That means the innkeeper might have some rare weapons. Like the Divine Crystal Bullet that Rudolf guy asked for.)”

“(Even if he doesn’t have one, he might have done some research into potential targets that would have one. When a customer looks like they probably have a lot of valuables, he must try to get them to take the corner room.)”

So it was time to turn right around.

When they brought up the corner room, the innkeeper looked troubled.

But not because he was begging for mercy.

“50 thousand methods.”

“Huh?”

Celina had thought they had him dead to rights, so her eyes widened.

With a solid thunk, he placed a crystal smaller than his thumb down on the counter. The shadow cast by the clear crystal contained a colorful band of light just like when light shined through a water tank.

He grinned and leaned forward.

“For the Divine Crystal Bullet. Believe me, that’s a bargain. You should really be thanking me.”

The criminal city was indeed a criminal city.

Celina’s mouth flapped wordlessly a bit before she got her voice out.

“You expect me to pay 50 thousand methods for a sketchy item with nothing to prove it’s legit!? You could build a house with a decent garden in a rural village for that! You do understand you’ll be out of business if we reveal your misdeeds here, don’t you!?”

“Um, isn’t it wrong to let him get away with it just because we get what we want out of him?” quietly commented Helen, but no one was listening.

The innkeeper had the upper hand here and he was not letting go. He almost seemed to be enjoying it like a game.

“I stole this inn and its land with a forged title deed, so it’s no skin off my nose if I have to move elsewhere. There are tons of poorly-managed vacant buildings around here. Now. I believe the real issue here is that you need this Divine Crystal Bullet for some reason or another.”

“…”

“50 thousand and not a method less. If you’re short on cash, then sell that jewel-encrusted dress of yours. And if that isn’t enough, your underwear too. We can talk after that.”

“~ ~ ~!!!!!!”

Being outdone in a business discussion must have been unforgivable for Celina. She tugged on panicking Miyabi’s sleeve, guiding him away from the counter, and then whispered in his ear. With her bayonetted rifle held close.

“(Let’s rob him.)”

“This escalated quickly!!!”

“(Shh. Let’s teach that fucker the meaning of freedom in this criminal city. There’s no use haggling with him. I have a sixth sense for deals that aren’t going to work out. We’d be here for a century without making any progress.)”

“Says the girl who was all over us when we said we would sell our Wicked God horn.”

Celina glared over at the elf.

As for Miyabi…

“We do need that thing to convince Mr. Rudolf…”

“(This innkeeper is clearly taking advantage of us. That Divine Crystal Bullet is no more a piece of glasswork!)”

“But what are we supposed to do?” asked the pure boy.

Celina rubbed a finger against her temple.

“(Well, if we aren’t just going to blow his brains out…oh, I know. We can create our own. You saw what it looks like, right? We can counterfeit ourselves one!)”

The Lucifer Horn connected them to Horn Fortress.

The wire dangling from the bomber could carry people and things to and from that island. They did not know how developed Horn Fortress was at this point, but they did know they had a useful party member there.

The dwarf named Garett Goldcave was an Arsenal Kingdom blacksmith skilled enough to be considered a national treasure.

“That might just work. If we did the work here, someone might notice and word might reach Rudolf.”

They had approval from the glasses woman who preferred to follow the rules but still excelled at conspiracies.

They left the dumbfounded innkeeper behind and returned to their room in his inn. Their only option was to send a letter via the Lucifer Horn and trust in Garett’s skill.

It was complete before sunset.

The dish called pizza turned out to be a controversial choice. Helen and Celina were arguing over whether garlic shrimps were an acceptable topping when the Lucifer Horn delivered a small box wrapped in cushioning.

“Is this it?”

“Miyabi, you don’t know a thing about how guns work, from the firing mechanism to how the lead deforms on impact, do you?” said Celina. “I will give you a thorough lecture later on, but for now, let’s get back to Rudolf.”

They walked to the Bodenburg residence and found Rudolf waiting in the same place as before.

He had not given them a time limit, so had he been waiting there the entire time?

“That was fast. Do you have the Divine Crystal Bullet?”

“Who do you think I am?”

“I would like to see it, if you don’t mind. Excuse me.”

Miyabi had trouble looking the man in the eye, so Celina surreptitiously stomped on his foot with a smile.

“…”

“Interesting,” said Rudolf with a nod.

Was that a yes or a no? It was a tense moment. Miyabi did not know how things worked in this city, but he was worried they would be subjected to some very creative punishments if it was discovered they had given the man a fake.

“It really is you, milady.” Rudolf smiled. “I knew you would never pay such an absurd price.”

“It was such an obvious setup. That wasn’t even worth haggling over. I bet you knew it was me and decided to have some fun!”

“Ho ho. That is the Bodenburg way.”

Then I’ll never understand it, thought Commoner Miyabi. He could never stand living in a home where everyone made such stomachache-inducing jokes.

“You wished to discuss an imperial automaton, correct?”

“Wait, we’re just going to chat out here? Invite us in already.”

The elf’s complaints did nothing to wipe the smile off of Rudolf’s face.

He continued standing perfectly still in front of the gate.

“I apologize, but the master is in a bad mood within.”

“What’s upset father this time?”

“Pirates,” replied Rudolf. “The loss of the armored train required the company to switch to ocean shipping routes, but a pirate took advantage of the shipping fleet’s poor coordination during the confusion of the switchover. Their defenses should have been sufficient, but they were gathered in a hurry and thus unable to work together so soon.”

“…”

The girl fell silent.

This was a complicated issue, but she may have felt responsible for losing the Schwarz Schütze.

“Only the cargo was targeted, so the crew and mercenaries were unharmed. …However, the pirate was very thorough, almost to the point of mockery. The magical automaton parts you want were no exception. Items from the ruined Empire are rare, so it will be difficult to find replacements on such short notice. Your only option may be to attack the pirate and take back what was stolen.”

“Um, a pirate?”

Miyabi had grown up in the mountains, so the word only vaguely rang a bell.

Rudolf shook his head.

“This one is quite famous, sadly enough.”

He identified the pirate.

“Onelife Shiftup, the one-eyed pirate. He is known to use a special prosthetic arm, so he may have need for imperial technology.”

“Hm.” Eliza brought a hand to her chin. “Does he use a high-tech automaton arm?”

“But not even our company has managed to track him down. People say he is a gentleman thief and that he singlehandedly defeated a Wicked God and broke off its horn. It is hard to say how much of it is a coincidence and how much of it is an intentional strategy on his part, but all the unconfirmed rumors have confused our attempts to find real information on him. We know he is somewhere in this port city, but not his exact location.”

“…”

“We do know, however, that he possesses a powerful Godhorn Tech: the King Knot pirate ship. Unfortunately, that part is undoubtedly true because it is registered as one of the continent’s 10 Godhorn Techs.”

### 021. Chapter 5, Section 2

Night had fallen.

It was finally time for the dangerous criminal city to awaken.

Back in their inn room, Celina Bodenburg placed her hands on her hips and breathed from her nose.

“Asking around during the day would be a waste of time. The outlaws are only out and about at night. Now, let’s track down that pirate who stole my company’s cargo! Then we teach him a painful lesson on why that was a bad idea!!”

Village Boy Miyabi Blackgarden was terrified.

He took a nervous look out from the 2nd story window. For reasons he could not explain, the city was now filled with lights dyed in pinks, yellows, and other colors. The place was so much busier than during the day. He knew he had to be imagining it, but he could have sworn the stench of alcohol was seeping in through the window.

“Are you sure this is a good idea? It looks extremely dangerous out there.”

“She’s the expert, so I’m sure she’ll explain it for us.”

Alicia Blueforest jerked her thumb over toward the bunny girl sans glasses.

“Hello, hello! Venus here, at your service!!”

“Don’t you dare gloss over the fanservice like it’s nothing!! I don’t care how many times it’s happened, you’ve gotta show it all in detail! You can’t forget your embarrassment or the impact it has on your innocent heart!! …Miss Elf, I know this will make you jealous, but you need to place me on the floor. This requires drastic measures, so I need a low angle view of that V-shape between the bunny’s legs!!”

The elf tossed the radio to the floor and the sexy young woman crushed it below her sharp heel. It was reminiscent of stopping a rolling ball underfoot.

The bunny girl ignored any possible damage to the jerk.

“Anyway, this city works differently than a normal one. It’s full of thieves, assassins, and resupplying pirates, so there are wanted criminals everywhere you turn.”

“Wait,” said Miyabi. “Are thieves different from bandits?”

“Thieves work very differently from the bandits running rampant in the fields. They are experts at working in a city. Although I can’t tell you if it’s the authorities or the criminals who are so picky about the nomenclature.”

However, one of them was not going to let this go without comment.

Someone even more strait-laced than Helen Clockgear was actually trembling. That person was of course Eliza Silverstorm.

“Wh-wh-what?”

“Oh, yeah. Eliza never saw Venus before this. But didn’t she see the black bunny during the day?”

“Why are you waring that highly indecent and utterly insane rabbit costume, you horny titty monsterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!???”

“Really!? You’re actually drawing your lance over this!? I’m not doing this because I want to, you know!?”

Helen preferred not becoming a mutilated corpse while dressed like that, so she paled and shouted a defense.

This was also Celina’s first time seeing it, but she did not seem all that surprised. She picked up black cat Alma in a classy way.

“Oh, is that all? I was expecting something more after everything I heard. Hee hee. You see bunny girls like that all over this city at night.”

“There’s something wrong with a city that has bunny girls walking around! You don’t wear this kind of thing outside!!”

“I was expecting some kind of strange gimmick, like zippers or bows in some risqué places that could be undone to spice things up, or a special fabric that becomes see-through when viewed through a special magnifying glass. Or maybe thick padlocks on either hip to show you can’t take it off on your own.”

“???”

“Ksh! Wh-where can I buy Bodenburg stock! And I’m not talking about making a quick buck off of some day trading! I want the special shareholder treatment! These ideas are brilliant! Ksh, their next manger has a bright future!!!!!!”

The radio was even more excitable than usual, perhaps due to the beautiful woman stepping on it.

The entire discussion went way over Miyabi’s head.

Afraid Celina would smile and offer to customize their bunny to demonstrate what she meant, Venus spoke rapidly and hurried to the door.

“Yes, well, thank you, but I think I’m going to go change! Just a sec!!”

“Sh-she must want to be fully prepared when the fun begins,” suggested the radio as Alicia finally collected it from the floor.

Helen returned in the jacket and tight skirt of her government official outfit. The glasses were back as well.

“Yes, fully prepared,” she said.

“What!? Not so fast! Why did that lousy door not pop open while she was changing!?”

Being stepped on had not slowed the radio down at all, but Alicia was focused on something else.

“Was she in such a hurry she changed out in the hallway?”

“Is everything she does indecent?” muttered Eliza.

The knight’s comment came as a shock to the glasses woman.

“Wait just a second! Is no one on my side!? Miyabi, you know I’m not like that, don’t you? No, don’t blush and look the other way, Miyabiiii!!”

“Mom, try taking some deep breaths!!”

“I’m not your mom! How can I be indecent and your mom!? Did some Montage magic mess with your mind!?”

Helen tearfully tried to hide her body, but Eliza was ready to get down to business.

“So we’re up against a pirate?” asked the righteous person. “I am more than willing to punish a villain. We should get started as soon as possible.”

Alicia sighed.

“Yes, but we can’t just obliterate the city with a Godhorn Tech.”

“Onelife Shiftup, a one-eyed pirate with a prosthetic arm.” Miyabi repeated the information to make sure he had it right. “Let’s ask around for some information on him.”

Outside, the city was a deluge of lights.

The red, yellow, and blue gas lights were not limited to the main street. Signs everywhere glowed with strange colored fire, the glass tubes shining from within.

Pure as the driven snow, Eliza read off the glowing signs in puzzlement.

“Bubble Bath Paradise?”

“M-Miyabi? Let’s hurry on to find Onelife. Immediately!!”

Celine shouted and pushed on Eliza’s back with both hands before the reality could sink in.

The streets were aflood with noise.

“Just one! You make just the one order and there aren’t any additional charges to worry about!!”

“Hey there, handsome. Remember the name on this sign, okay?☆ We’re open all night long, so you can stop by after the other places close. I won’t force you to stop by now, but how about ending the night here after you visit two or three other places?☆”

“The information desk? Don’t even bother. If you want to have some real fun, you need to know where the unlisted places are. So if you don’t want your courage and savings to go to waste, stop by the Secret Diviner.”

Miyabi had known it was a large city, but he could not believe how many people were crammed inside. It was on an entirely different level from the daytime. He was surrounded by the smell of alcohol and perfume, cheerful cries calling for customers, little shrieks made mostly in jest, and an unidentifiable scent created by the greasy smoke of all the different grilled and fried street foods. Disinfectant magic made with a purifying silver could not even dent the effect this place had.

Miyabi felt dizzy.

“It’s like a whole other world. I don’t understand half the things they’re saying.”

“Nhhh☆ I’m finally home.”

Meanwhile, Celina stretched her arms up with a relaxed smile.

The city operated under different rules at night and these rules must have felt more like home to her. They were surrounded by garish signs and (practically naked) young women in such skimpy outfits it was unclear if they counted as dresses or underwear, but she had the same look as a country child seeing the rhino beetles and shaved ice after returning home.

“Has no one here heard of restraint?” asked a fed-up Alicia.

However, the city’s overwhelming night was not limited to the outdoors. Once they began entering shops to ask around, Miyabi quickly ran into an obstacle.

For example, the owner of a weapons shop had this to say.

“What are you doing out this late? The night is Juicy , so get your ass back home!”

For example, a grinning customer whispered to him while perusing the products at an item shop.

“Oh, dear. Everyone has been so uneasy at night lately. Maybe because Ripped has been causing so much trouble. It’s weird I haven’t seen any of his other pirates around lately though.”

For example, the gorgeous woman serving drinks at a bar welcomed him with a smile.

“Oh, welcome! You might go looking for the younger girls, but my skills at Hard are quite something if I say so myself.”

He had listened carefully, but he had no idea what they meant.

He was stuck blinking in confusion.

“Wh-what? What are they even saying?”

“Oh, dear,” said Celina. “It sounds like some strange new rules have spread across the city while I was away.”

“If it happened recently, it might be related to that celebrity,” suggested Helen.

“Celebrity? You mean that pirate?” Alicia looked bitter. “He isn’t some gentleman thief in a play – he’s an actual criminal. There’s something wrong with a town that lionizes someone like that.”

They found some more unusual people around the city’s night. A young man was drinking at a table outside a bar.

And his long ears were twitching.

Miyabi did not even try to beat around the bush.

“Huh? Are you an elf!?”

“Hm, what gave it away?”

The slender male knight did not seem bothered and did not even set down his mug. He had long blond hair, white skin, and the handsome face of a stage actor, but he was wearing armor and a cape. And instead of deflecting attacks with thick metal, the armor was designed to efficiently and economically spread defense magic across his body. Eliza eyed the armor with a hint of jealousy.

As a fellow elf, Alicia put her hands on her hips.

“What are you doing in this disgusting city? Did you take one wrong step and get sold off by the humans?”

“They finally abandoned that bad habit centuries ago. Modern humans aren’t quite that unreasonable. The world is at peace.”

“Ho ho? I see. So you can look at the world out there and call it peaceful, can you?”

Alicia grinned at him with some obvious hidden meaning behind the look. Almost like she was sneering at a rich kid who had no idea how the real world worked.

Miyabi tilted his head.

“What, do you know each other?”

“My apologies. I am Cliff Blueforest. I originally guarded the Blue Forest, but I had reason to leave and travel the outside world instead.”

“Blue…?”

Miyabi looked over at Alicia, but she shook her head, looking disgusted.

“No, no. We’re not siblings or anything. We’re just both from the Blueforest race. Every elf born in that forest uses the Blueforest name.”

“I also get the feeling he has his act together a lot more than you.”

“Shut up. I can live my life however I want.”

And then…

“Heh heh. Yes, if only we could all live our lives however we want. That would make things so much easier for me.”

Miyabi gasped.

What was that?

It didn’t seem to be ventriloquism, but it had sounded an awful lot like a seductive female voice had come from Cliff.

Cliff himself grimaced.

“You don’t usually make your presence known in front of others.”

“Get a clue, dullard. You seemed to be enjoying yourself for once, so I was feeling jealous.”

Miyabi was not imagining things.

Two different voices were coming from Cliff, but the female one did not match his lips. He also seemed to be conversing with that other voice.

“Hm? Do you, um, have a crystal radio like Alicia?”

“Oh, is that elf a skilled enough alchemist to create a philosopher’s stone? Yes, elves tend to be exceptionally skilled in magic. For me, that means summoning the Demon Lord. Unfortunately, my ceremony worked just fine for summoning her, but entirely failed to control her afterwards.”

“The Demon Lord?”

“Correct, boy. The very same Demon Lords you see in picture books and plays. Those twelve rulers are said to determine the nature of the world around them with their mere presence. This irritating woman who never leaves me alone is one of those Demon Lords that include the great Philia Shout and Rising Dark. This one claims to be Under Lilith .”

“?”

Miyabi was even more confused now.

He recognized that name. She had been involved in transferring the Lucifer Horn’s contract from Moebius and in the incantation used to control the Palette Dice.

According to Angela Custardmare, the armor-trapped maid he had taken as a party member before, that name showed up in contract ceremonies so powerful they were classified as Super Kingdom level.

“Contract Owner…”

“…Under Lilith?”

Celina and Eliza had also used Godhorn Techs, so their eyes grew wide. They likely recognized the name from the incantation they used to link their control device with the Godhorn Tech itself.

Helen, who had never used one, held a finger to the side of her glasses.

“Well, setting aside issues of strength and compatibility, there are a few legends of beings that act as intermediaries. There’s Freyja who commands the heavenly Valkyries and there’s Legba Atibon who is said to manage the ceremonies themselves. It all follows the basic idea of using them to control something else.”

“Like a giant Beast Nova?”

“Discriminatory language!!” shouted Alicia, red in the face and long ears fully vertical.

But different elves must have had different views on the matter because Cliff did not seem bothered by the term Miyabi had used. His pointed ears kept their horizontal orientation.

Miyabi found this strange.

He had thought the name Under Lilith was just part of the incantation. Even if it was someone’s name, he had assumed they were someone who had lived centuries or even millennia ago.

He had never imagined he would be able to chat with them in a bar.

“But we only have her word to go on.”

When Miyabi thought about it, he realized he did not actually know how old any of these elves were. Cliff himself gave a dismissive wave of the hand not holding his mug.

“Taking a demon at her word is never a good idea. She’s just making stuff up since I lost my memories. Trusting her would end badly.”

“Heh heh heh. Believe what you wish,” said the female voice. “Your mind might not survive full knowledge of the truth anyway.”

The elf knight had just mentioned something else that sounded important. He had a lot going on.

“Um, what was that about your memories?”

“I lost them all. I was lucky to even remember the name Blueforest as a clue to my origins.” Cliff sounded bitter. “I was apparently in love with a human and I dabbled in the dark arts to save her from illness, but that’s why I’m stuck with this evil being now. My memories were the price I paid, so now I can’t even remember what she looked like. That is why I now travel the continent searching for some proof that she survived. No matter how small it might be.”

“…”

Under Lilith (or the voice claiming the name) said nothing.

She had mentioned jealousy before, so maybe this was more of that.

And…

“Oh? When did you find some more drinking buddies?”

“They showed up on their own. Just like you always do.”

Someone else walked up to the table.

She too had long ears.

However, the woman had shoulder-length silver hair and alluring brown skin. Her only clothing were some bandages and dark strips of cloth wrapped around her. What had once been a cape was in tatters. However, the way she carried herself showed no sign of injury, so that may have been her idea of fashion.

The whip at her hip looked like it was made from a rose vine and she toyed with it in her fingers as she spoke.

“I am Lillian Greenforest. As you can plainly see, I am a dark elf.”

“Green…?”

Alicia was dumbfounded and the brown woman responded with a bewitching laugh.

“Yes, I come from that forest that was burned to the ground. The survivors are few but we are around. And we have not forgotten what was done to us.”

That last line sounded plenty ominous.

Alicia even had some unnatural beads of sweat on her forehead.

But Miyabi was fixated on another detail.

“D-dark?”

“Hm? Do you need something?”

“A dark elf!? That’s a thing!? That sounds so cool! And the dark part makes you sound rare!!”

“Eh? Huh?”

Lillian was taken aback when he approached with eyes aglitter. The look on her face made it clear she was not accustomed to compliments.

“Boy,” interrupted Alicia. “You need to stop talking about our noble species like a rare collectible. It’s insulting.”

“Oh, did you say something, ordinary elf?”

“Ordinary elf!!!??? That’s even worse!! It is high time I took you aside and taught you just how noble elves are. I never should have let you get away with lifting my skirt and tugging on my ears when you were little!!”

Cliff sighed and provided some advice.

“Be careful around Lillian. She looks cute and all, but her lifelong goal is to destroy humanity.”

“Eh?”

“Oh, you have nothing to worry about. You don’t seem interested in that sort of thing .” Lillian snapped her lithe fingers to call over a waiter and accepted a pink cocktail, the name of which Miyabi could not even imagine. “I consider myself a ‘passive avenger’. My primary targets are sorcery researchers. They make so much progress when I let them use my body as a specimen. Progress on developing magic that will destroy them all. Godhorn Tech is not enough. One day, humanity will create some truly uncontrollable magic that will send them straight down the path to extinction. That is my idea of revenge.”

“…”

“There are so many excellent potential triggers: the aerosol ballistic missiles developed by the Republic’s old monarchy, the Necromancer…oh, and let’s not forget Holy Gate who it’s said truly mastered alchemy. Unfortunately, all those people are half legendary, so contacting them is no easy task.”

Miyabi was unsure how to react to her thin smile.

He could not even tell if she was deadly serious or if she was teasing him. The cocktail glass she was toying with made it even harder to judge.

“By the way, what has you out this late?” Cliff reached for the bar nuts. “You look a little young to be drinking.”

“Solving a riddle.”

“?”

Cliff looked puzzled but curious.

Miyabi hoped he would know what Juicy or Hard meant, but no such luck.

Cliff did have some advice, though.

“I see. I would recommend finding multiple people who use the same term.”

“Why?”

Miyabi frowned and Cliff gave an exaggerated nod.

“For example…yes, let’s say one of the words is Hot .”

“Okay.”

“If a customer at one table orders a Hot , you have no way of narrowing down what kind of dish it is. But what if you also hear a fisherman at the port saying he caught a lot Hot s today? And what if a small child pouts and complains that Hot s are good but removing all the little bones is a pain? Then you can conclude that a Hot is a fish, right?”

“Hee hee. And this goes beyond codes. Multiple sources is crucial when researching any kind of information,” added Lillian. “Conversely, the key to tricking someone is to isolate them, cutting them off from any information outside of yours.”

Miyabi thanked the two elves and prepared to brave the city’s night once more, but then he turned back and asked them a question.

“Oh, right. What are you two planning to do after this? Will we meet again somewhere?”

“Hard to say. I don’t really have any solid plans.”

“I don’t want to search the entire continent to find you again, so I think I’ll call in the Lucifer Horn and have you join my party. I’d love to borrow your wisdom again, but more than that, I feel like we get along well.”

Cliff smiled a little.

Lillian looked seriously exasperated. She had announced her intentions to destroy humanity, so she was unsure what to make of this human saying they got along well.

But she also looked amused.

“Yes, I am searching the entire world for signs my lover once lived there. I want to be thorough and avoid missing anything, but I can’t reach that Horn Fortress through normal means, can I? Then accepting your invitation seems the best course of action to me.”

“A Godhorn Tech, you say? That sorcery technology is a little too small-scale and – worse – manageable for my use, but I might be able to direct its evolution in a more malicious direction. Besides, I have more lifespan than I know what to do with, so it can’t hurt to take a short detour and check out a new possibility. Hee hee. And the 11th’s sorcery bombs might also make an interesting trigger.”

Once Cliff Blueforest and Lillian Greenforest had been sent to Horn Fortress by the Lucifer Horn, Miyabi’s party resumed their investigation.

They had to find the one-armed pirate Onelife no matter what it took.

“Miyabi, the plan was to ask around some more and find a pattern to the codewords, wasn’t it?”

At Eliza’s prompting, they patiently gathered even more information. They even found a sketchy old man who claimed to be selling a list of codes, but they had no way of knowing if it was legit until they bought it. Celina knew the city best and she advised they refuse.

Still, they managed to find some patterns. They regathered below the colorful gas lamps to discuss their findings.

Alicia counted off on her fingers.

“Um, they said you can find Joy in the Creepy …”

“Koo koo!”

“Hold on, Alma. I’ll get confused if you interrupt!” shouted Miyabi.

They were going to be at it all night at this rate. The city was so different at night, so they wanted to find their answers before dawn. They continued walking around the city gathering information for a while longer.

And eventually…

“ Joy is money… Juicy is dangerous…hm, this is actually working.”

“Let’s share what we know so we won’t forget it. And this doesn’t mean I’ve given up on figuring it out on my own!!”

On Celina’s suggestion, they wrote down all of their findings on a piece of paper to compare it all.

“Umm, let’s go with what we know for sure. Tight is the port, Creepy is the back alleys…and Ripped is Onelife himself.” Miyabi went over his thoughts under his breath. “Does that mean he isn’t at the port and is hiding somewhere in the back alleys?”

“Let’s go, Miyabi. Let’s show him exactly whose cargo he decided to steal!”

Celina was liable to charge in on her own, but her rifle was too scary for them to claim she couldn’t handle herself. Their only choice was to rush after her.

They found a dark, narrow alleyway.

Even the moonlight seemed to steer clear of the place.

This underground side of the city would be hidden in shadows during the day and people like Miyabi would never get close, but strangely, it actually brought his guard down once night fell. He felt some relief when he stepped into the alleyway. The gentle shadows seemed to protect him from the garish lights of all the signs.

But that may have been why real tragedy seemed to coat the walls and ground.

“So he’s here?”

The darkness seemed to absorb Miyabi’s question.

The Mobile Fire magic lit at the end of Celina’s bayonet was nowhere near sufficient.

There was only one path with no side paths branching off. All of the windows were boarded up. Almost like whoever was inside wanted to preemptively ensure their safety by ensuring they could never witness something they shouldn’t have.

The boards were like a sign saying “we allow any and all criminal acts here”.

“This is exactly where I would expect to find a criminal,” said Eliza while observing her surroundings.

“Koo?” cried the creepy Greymalkin walking at Miyabi’s feet.

No, Alma was grabbing at the boy’s leg to say it had found something.

“Koo koo!!”

And not just from one direction.

Miyabi looked out ahead and behind him.

“Damn, an ambush!”

Young men wearing rough shirts and bandannas stepped out to block the back alley’s exits.

Even without a ship, they were clearly pirates.

There were of course several of them.

“We know you’re looking for Onelife, so don’t bother pretending to be searching for a lost cat. You’ve left tracks everywhere. Did you never think we’d get wind of what you were planning?”

One of the pirates spoke in a deep voice while creeping closer to lay on the pressure.

Why did outlaws care so much about internal rules and hierarchies? Then again, they probably didn’t care if Miyabi’s party understood. They were essentially waving a cat toy in the party’s faces, hoping they would take a step too far. They hoped to lure the party into confirming they were after Onelife.

“With that look in your eyes and the weapons, I get the feeling you aren’t just some tourists hoping to hitch a ride on a wagon,” said the bandanna pirate. “So here’s a word of advice: old-fashioned swords and sorcery aren’t everything in this city. And if you need proof, we’re more than happy to oblige.”

The pirates looked like they belonged on a theatre stage, but with one crucial difference.

They did not use swords or sorcery. Miyabi expected them to draw guns like Celina’s, but even that was wrong.

They pulled out strange bottles with a silver foil pasted all over them. The two wires sticking out from the lid at the top were connected by the intermittent flashing of brutal electricity.

Informed Celina Bodenburg’s eyes widened.

“Leyden jars!? Thugs are making electric toys these days!?”

“Electric?”

Miyabi had no idea what that meant, but the crackling noise was enough to scare him.

“Think of it like mini-lightning,” explained Helen. “When combined with ocean spray, it can knock people out over a wide area, so be careful. I imagine these thugs have them to capture runaway sex workers without leaving any kind of scar.”

“…”

“M-Miyabi? Um, uh, why are you turning away with such a wounded look? N-no! This isn’t about me!! It’s about the enemy!!”

“Mom…”

“Please stop confusing me for your mother whenever you panic!!!!!!”

“Stepmom?”

“What difference is that supposed to make!!!???”

Anyway, if what she said about those bottles was true, they were in trouble.

Even a boy raised in a village of swords and sorcery understood that lightning could travel through water.

The alley was straight and narrow. If they filled the entire space with some kind of spray and then released the electricity, the entire party would be knocked out regardless of how strong any of them was individually.

“The codes spread throughout the city may have been a trap meant to lure us here,” said Alicia.

“I can’t believe how popular that Onelife crook is!” roared Celina.

None of the pirates even flinched.

In fact, they continued to creep closer from both directions.

Eliza’s enormous lance must have been a poor match for the narrow alley because she whispered a question.

“What now? Will you use your Godhorn Tech?”

“…”

“Hey, what now!?”

“…”

The pirates moved even closer, maybe to be absolutely certain. At this range, a pistol or even a blade would be a threat.

But then…

“Hold it right therrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!”

A voice boomed out like an explosion.

Then booming footsteps and a booming impact sent a few of the pirates crashing into the wall.

The culprit was a muscular macho man.

He had wild hair and an equally wild beard and he wore a thick coat and a distinctive tricorn hat. Instead of an ordinary eyepatch held in place by string, he had a golden metal plate embedded in the eye socket itself.

He was about as piratey as pirates came and he was extremely fit despite being on the borderline between middle age and old age.

“I appreciate the attempt to protect me!”

A scream was drowned out by another loud impact.

The large man had punched another pirate and the Leyden jar he held.

“But I never asked you to dirty your hands for me!!”

The gust of wind created by his massive fist was enough to blow away the sea spray that would carry the artificial lightning. The target of the punch flew even further than that.

The strangely metallic sound of the blow led Miyabi to realize the man’s arm was a prosthetic.

Then that heavy metal fist dropped down toward him.

The one-eyed old man raised an unintelligible cry.

“Whoa, watch out!?”

“Hm? Oh, my bad. I’ve got a bad habit of losing control in battle.”

Miyabi had held his control sword in both hands to block, but his fingers were still throbbing with pain from the force of the impact. The man laughed it off like it didn’t matter, but without the link to the Godhorn Tech, Miyabi would have been helplessly engulfed in a storm of blows.

Mostly taken aback, Helen listed off some observations to make absolutely certain.

“A pirate. A prosthetic arm. Says they were protecting him.”

“You mean this filthy guy is him?” The radio sounded upset. “Why!? Where’s my eyepatch girl with a miniskirt and cutlass!?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Then why respond at all!?”

Everyone ignored the radio’s laments.

The large man pointed at his own chest with his metal thumb.

“I am indeed Onelife Shiftup, the great pirate whose reputation extends out into the ocean since the continent wasn’t enough to contain me.”

He was at least willing to have a conversation, so they explained their situation to him.

“So the automaton parts we need should be within the cargo you stole.”

“I see.” Onelife leaned back against the dark alleyway’s wall, crossed his arms, and groaned in thought. “First, I would like to apologize for what happened here. Nhh, my immense popularity is usually a good thing, but some of them look up to me so much they get a little carried away. But they were acting out of concern for me and meant no harm, so please forgive them.”

“Look up to you?” asked Miyabi with a tilt of the head.

“This guy’s the real deal. He even called himself immensely popular,” added the radio, sounding impressed.

Did this mean those bandanna pirates were not part of his crew?

Celina was of course the one to argue back.

“Don’t you have something more to apologize for? All of that cargo belonged to my company! Return it all this instant!!”

“I already said I was sorry and a true man among men knows how to let bygones be bygones. Still, this is a problem. I need those automaton parts myself.”

“For your arm?” asked Helen.

The one-eyed pirate shook his head.

“No. Well, it’d be faster to just show you. Come with me to the port.”

He gestured them over. He could never be a king or a knight captain, but his actions had a way of drawing everyone’s eye.

He did in fact gather a lot of attention in the city.

There was a clear change as they exited the damp back alley and entered the alcohol-smelling street.

Everyone focused on the one-armed pirate and cleared a path for him in the colorful light of the gas lamps. But not out of fear. Their eyes contained admiration.

The calls for customers ceased entirely and were replaced by heartfelt cheers.

It was like an outlaw parade.

Everyone gathered on the side of the road to see the legendary pirate.

“Everyone looks up to Captain Onelife!” A kleptomaniac girl’s eyes shined bright. “Even groups that never get along will work together for him!”

“He even owns a Godhorn Tech. Rumor has it he broke off a Wicked God’s horn and installed it in his own ship.” An assassin lurking in the shadows truly believed the rumors. “His greatest weapon has to be that powerful presence that makes such a crazy story sound so plausible.”

“A monster who can break off a Wicked God horn and the King Knot pirate ship,” whispered an assassin disguised as a flower seller girl. “Not someone I want to be on the wrong side of.”

The one-eyed pirate led them down the city’s gentle slope until they arrived at the port bordering the ocean.

Seeing the ocean after it absorbed the dark color of the night sky was more of a shock than Miyabi had been expecting. It was so dark, deep, and terrifying. The lamplight grew sparser here and could not hold the darkness at bay and the noise of the city faded into the background. The place seemed cold.

He felt like he was approaching the realm of the dead.

Several wooden piers jutted out from the stone coast of the port. Those appeared to be docks for the ships that stopped here, so many large sailing ships could be seen. They all had large symbols on their sails. Miyabi did not know what any of them meant, but Helen’s jaw dropped as she viewed them.

“That one is from the Empty Fleet that hints at a baseless legend of a sunken ship to trick people into buying fake treasure maps, and that one is from the Blind family of smugglers. A-are none of the ships here legal!?”

“The best thing about this city is how it will let any villain resupply and stay the night as long as they can pay,” said Celina.

“Oh? That’s the same mark I saw on the Schwarz Schütze,” noted Miyabi. “So is that why the Bodenburg Company uses the city so much?”

Celina puffed out her cheeks and kicked him in the shin for that observation, but he had not yet earned enough experience to consider that a reward.

However, the ships were not their biggest problem.

“Hmm. You said his name was Number 8?”

“Have you heard of him?” asked Miyabi.

Surprisingly, the larger-than-life pirate nodded.

“I do own some similar products, after all.”

“No, you stole them from our company!!”

Miyabi was fairly certain the Bodenburg Company had gotten them by paying criminally low prices for items stolen from the Empire’s ruins, but he held his tongue to avoid another kick to the shin.

“The Number Whatever series were special automatons built to have direct audiences with the emperor…or so I’ve heard. A useless privilege now that the Empire itself is gone,” said Onelife. “That one was probably even more special since he was chosen to protect the vast Empire on all sides, but he would have used the same basic design. They would have taken the standard core and reinforced all the external parts to make their strongest model yet. By using ordinary automaton parts, you might just be able to repair him for the time begin . But…”

“But what?”

The man had trailed off for some reason.

He answered Miyabi’s question by jerking his chin over toward some wooden boxes stacked up on the wharf.

“As you can see, all the imperial automatons are packed up already.”

“In those boxes!? Where?”

Miyabi was surprised, but Celina was incensed.

The boxes were stacked up to twice her height, creating a small mountain.

“You stole that much from us, you crook!?”

“Not again!? All those inconvenient facts slipped my miiiiiiiiiiiiiiind!!”

“How can a criminal be so pure!?”

He further proved himself by not letting Eliza’s comment faze him.

“Anyway, the automatons are packed up because I was planning to ship them out.”

“To where?” asked Miyabi.

“This might be hard to grasp for someone from the continent, but there are islands out at sea.”

“At sea? So you’re sending them to a remote island country?” asked Helen.

When Celina noticed Miyabi and Eliza both looking out to sea, she quietly stopped them.

“They’re not close enough to see from here, you idiots.”

“Meh heh heh. I’m talking about a proper monarchy. They’re a lot more peaceful than here.” Onelife needlessly crossed his arms, but he did not look particularly cheerful. “But their king died of disease recently and a boy of only 12 was placed on the throne. They have people who question the succession, others who want to bring down the monarchy altogether, and then there are external forces to worry about. Since they have Godhorn Tech, there’s no end to people after the Wicked God horn. …It’s left a giant mess on the young king’s plate. It’s so bad he can’t even trust his own aides.”

“That’s sad and all, but why are you supporting him?” Alicia gave him a skeptical look. “I doubt you were born and raised there and criminals don’t follow the rules anyway.”

For some reason, he pushed his chest out proudly and grinned.

“The previous king valued the freedom of the ocean. If someone fell overboard or was shipwrecked, he would save them even if they were a foreigner or a pirate. He saved my own men on more than one occasion.”

“In other words, even a pirate can feel indebted to his savior?” cautiously asked Eliza.

“He accepted you regardless of your background. That’s much easier said than done. Especially for someone who has to rule a kingdom. But he did it. I shared his view of a free ocean, so if the new king is having trouble, I’m willing to help out a little. At least until he can find his footing and carry the weight himself.”

Miyabi looked up at the pile of boxes.

“And that means sending automatons?”

“Like I said, he’s surrounded by chaos and confusion and can’t even rely on his own aides. But an automaton army never betrays its master. They’d make decent bodyguards while he solidifies his position. We pirates don’t want any unneeded conflict out on the ocean, so I’m sending a gift to the new king!”

“S-stop acting like the good guy when you stole all of this! B-besides, we only need one of those boxes! We only want to repair Number 8 and hear what he has to say!!”

That Celina was sounding reasonable may have been the biggest sign of how larger-than-life Onelife was.

“Hmm. Okay, what parts do you need to repair him?”

“Eh?”

Flustered, Miyabi turned to Celina for help, but she was little better.

“W-well…”

“How are you going to find the parts you need when you don’t even know what they’re called or what they look like? And let’s not forget there isn’t much light to search by at night.”

Onelife pointed at the “mountain” with his powerful fake thumb and Miyabi had no rebuttal.

“…”

“T-to hell with it!” shouted Celina. “No point in backing out now. We just have to find some automaton parts even if it means opening up every last one of those boxes!!”

It was like a battle.

They had to pull the nails from the wooden boxes, remove the lids, and pull out the contents. The first contained completely unrelated cookware. The next one had books and the one after that had bottles of fruit wine cushioned by balled up cloth. The work never seemed to end and they quickly lost track of how much they had already done.

“U-ughh,” groaned Alicia. “I can’t keep going. I need sleep.”

“Stay awake, you useless elf!” shouted Celina. “We haven’t even opened half of them yet!!”

“S-sorry,” said Eliza. “I did not expect the journey to have worn me out so much. Zzz…”

“You too, Miss Muscles!? How are we supposed to finish with these boxes if our strait-laced and high-horsepower knight gives up!?”

The black sky gradually grew navy blue and then orange. The ocean appeared to be burning.

Dawn had arrived.

Onelife yawned and Alma was curled up asleep nearby, but Miyabi was still working since he always liked to be helpful. He had started to drift off a few times, but he had refused to give in after seeing Celina biting her lip and giving him a tearful but wordless look. The way she tugged at his sleeve and gave him the puppy dog eyes felt like a threat. Curse that younger girl. What did she think she was, his little sister?

In the end, their efforts went unrewarded.

Once even Helen fell asleep, her boobs resting on a box (and her tight skirt butt sticking out toward Miyabi), Celina finally snapped.

“Pant, gasp, pant. Kh, we still haven’t found anything at all!!”

The radio spoke up from around Alicia’s neck as the elf lay face up on the wooden pier.

“It’s like the black hole that forms in a messy person’s room. You end up buying multiple copies of a manga volume because you completely forget you already own it.”

“Argh!! We don’t have time for this!” shouted Onelife. “The new king could be violently dethroned by a conspiracy at any moment!!”

“Th-this is your fault!! You’re the one that stole this stuff and then didn’t even bother organizing it!!”

Celina’s very high-class teeth-grinding did not faze Onelife.

“I’m a pirate! What’d you expect!?”

“Ugh, that shouldn’t be as convincing as it is!!”

Celina flinched back, but Miyabi sighed.

“Hmm. But in that case…”

“Zzz…koo?”

“If we fix Number 8, the 12-year-old king is doomed. If we save the new king, we lose our only clue to the 11th.”

He weighed two terrible options against each other, but then the one-eyed pirate grinned.

“There is one way of having it both ways.”

“?”

“First, I’ll give you the automatons contained in these boxes. No problem with that, I assume?”

“You’d better! They belong to me!” griped Celina, but Miyabi was interested in something else.

“But then what happens to that island kingdom?”

“Oh, that’s simple enough. I wanted to send him some fighters who would never betray him. Emotionless automatons were one option, but outsiders with nothing at stake work just as well. So I just have to give you the job instead. …Assuming you can save 12-year-old King Kananka Fulpen, that is.”

### Between the Lines 3

Onelife Shiftup was officially known as a pirate.

There was no doubting that. Finding the criminal city comfortable and choosing it as your home were enough to know someone had something to hide, but he was a known threat who gathered people into a professional criminal group that sailed the sea.

Yet his large-sailed pirate ship looked downright carefree.

It was a Godhorn Tech named King Knot.

Onelife himself had slain the Wicked God and broken off its horn.

Perhaps he only had the luxury of peace because he was surrounded by the greatest power out there.

“Captain.”

A new pirate in a short-sleeved sailor uniform and shorts hopped up and leaned out over the railing. The new pirate was peering out with an extendable telescope and were young enough to appear androgynous.

“Some light is reflecting near the horizon at 5 o’clock. It’s an SOS.”

“Hmm, from a merchant ship?”

The large and muscular man named Onelife Shiftup crossed his arms and listened to the response from the newcomer who kicked their skinny legs with their belly resting on the railing.

“Hard to tell since they’ve almost fully sunk, but I think it’s a warship. Ah ha ha. Maybe they ran right into a reef. The sail is dyed with a gear pattern, so I think they’re from the Republic.”

That made them an enemy of the pirates.

The criminal city did not belong to any country, so it had no military or police agency. The Bodenburg Company’s private troops took the role of knights and guards…but that was just something they did and it was not supported by any international treaties.

So at times, some people with way too much time on their hands would sail out to the distant sea and wipe out every pirate they saw, all in the name of preserving the peace out at sea.

A young man walked over and joined the conversation.

Their criminal group was quite polished as an organization, but their ability to freely share information allowed them lighter footwork.

The young man used the number and position of the gears on the sail to decode the ship’s affiliation like he was identifying a constellation.

“What is a C1 fleet doing this far south? Their glider cannons require frequent resupplying. Hm, are they trying to cover up some kind of scandal maybe? Come to think of it, a lot of Republic funding earmarked for tracking down a Wicked God horn has gone missing recently.”

The skinny young man wore glasses and had an intellectual look, so he was basically asking for a nickname of ‘strategist’, ‘scholar’, or ‘string bean’, but all his information came from the light and frivolous rumors running rampant through the criminal city. In a city where outlaws of various cultures interacted, there was no shortage of gossip and scandalous information. It was their ability to sniff out what was real and what was fake that allowed them to skillfully evade the surprise inspections made by the Bodenburg Company’s private troops either late at night or early in the morning.

At any rate, the sinking ship was Onelife and his crew’s enemy.

But that man among men did not even hesitate.

“Understood. Prepare the rope and boats. How many empty barrels do we have left? Gather them on the deck so we can dump them in the water as floats.”

Outlaws were not generally in the habit of helping those in need.

For one thing…

“What are we even doing? Didn’t we start this hoping to be a naval rescue squad?”

Yes, Onelife’s crew were not thieves who attacked other ships.

The criminal city on the southern end of the continent received a lot of naval traffic, but it was also known as a dangerous region of sea full of reefs, rapid currents, and fierce and violent oceanic Beast Novae. Ships could not even get through if the pirates did not fight the monsters and bring down their numbers (mostly for their own purposes). And since the criminal city was not supported by any specific country, it had no naval rescue squad to help any sinking ships or stranded crews.

So Onelife and his crew had decided to make one themselves.

They had been attacked for it and forced to arm themselves.

They had done so by retrieving the wooden boxes thrown into the ocean by sinking ships. The one exception was their Wicked God horn.

The androgynous young newcomer cackled with their soft stomach resting on the railing.

“We can’t help it. Naval accidents are great for meeting new people . We’d normally never get to meet kings, nobles, holy men, or millionaires, but even they’ll grab a commoner’s hand when they’re drowning out at sea. And once they owe you one for saving their lives, you’re set for life. You can’t guarantee it though, so it’s more like a big lottery.”

“Some people can guarantee those things. Unlike the children’s story about the glass slipper, there are ways of getting ahead outside of those fancy balls us commoners aren’t allowed in. If you calculate everything out and follow a plan while purchasing enough lottery tickets, it counts as a financial investment giving you a stable fortune. Those greedy people think we’re interfering with their business of probability and statistics. It’s pathetic.”

Onelife sighed from his nose as the short kid and the glasses man spoke.

They had saved any lives that would be lost at sea and they had protected those with the same ideals. And eventually, he had become known as the strongest pirate.

He had ended up the exact opposite of what he had wanted to be.

He was sick of stealing. He had grown accustomed to fighting. He had lost count of how many times he had stolen to protect people, let a dangerous weapon sink into the depths, and freed slaves packed tightly into the limited space below a ship’s deck.

“Your thoughts on the matter don’t change what’s happening before your eyes. You can worry about those philosophical issues after saving all the drowning people out there.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

“Ideally we’ll be discussing what a great job we did in a bar supplied with barrels upon barrels of bourbon. Gah hah hah!!”

That man at the top did have his thoughts, but he knew it did no one any good if he let his crew see the worry on his face.

“Are you ready, men!? We’ve got some rescuing to do!!!!”

### 022. Chapter 5, Section 3

Another morning arrived.

Miyabi Blackgarden had overslept for a variety of reasons, but Alicia Blueforest did not even hesitate to throw open the door to his room. They used to bathe together when he was little, so she did not even bother knocking.

“Hey, that buff pirate is waiting at the port. We need to fix Number 8 and ask him about the 11th. I’ll give you time for some coffee to wake up, but then we need to set sail, cross the ocean, and help out that remote island kingdom.”

“How in the world are you so refreshed?”

“Ha ha ha. Because I was the very first to give up last night!!”

Miyabi had stuck with it to the end (after succumbing to Celina’s tearful puppy dog eyes), so he held Alicia’s head between his fists and rubbed at her temples. It did not actually do anything about his drowsiness, but he still felt a little more awake afterwards.

They joined the others in the inn’s small lobby.

They were leaving Number 8 in a room at the same inn. Carrying the motionless automaton onto a ship could raise suspicions that they were planning to dump a body at sea.

They already knew the inn was untrustworthy, so they went out to eat.

Food was one area where the criminal city excelled. Mornings tended to have limited food options, but there was a wide variety of tasty things for sale. Miyabi noticed something as he observed it all.

“An awful lot of it is made to carry with you while you eat it.”

“Because it was all developed for sailors to eat while they worked on their ships.”

For some reason, a hot dog apparently did not count as a sandwich. Celina explained it all to him while munching on a burrito – chopped vegetables and ground meat wrapped in thin bread known as a tortilla. She managed to look strangely graceful while she walked and ate at the same time.

“Man, that burrito you got looks good.”

“Miyabi. I know boys your age love meat, but you need a balanced diet of meat, vegetables, and grains. An extra-large frankfurter is not enough.”

“She’s right, you know? Munch, munch.”

“You too, elf. Grilled corn is not enough for a meal either.”

Black cat Alma ended up with a perfectly balanced meal since Helen Clockgear fed it some of her small canape topped with vegetables and seafood.

“Burrito…”

“O-okay, fine! Here, Miyabi. You can have one bite. …Hold it yourself when you do!!”

They walked to the harbor while eating a light meal of simple but varied foods. Once there, they found the muscle man needlessly crossing his arms in the sun.

“There you are!”

“You have guts showing up in the light of day, thief!” shouted Celina.

“Men of the sea are early to rise. Also, the continent’s rules don’t apply in the island kingdom, so be careful.”

Onelife Shiftup was not even listening.

That may have been why Helen sounded exasperated when she responded.

“And it sounds like they’re going through a lot of political upheaval.”

“Maybe we should go shopping before we leave,” suggested Alicia.

“How about it!? Nwohhh! Ready to set sail!?”

When Miyabi nodded, the man slapped him on the back with his heavy prosthetic hand.

“That’s the spirit! You can have the imperial automatons, but make sure you deliver my gifts to King Kananka!”

“I’m not sure how to feel about this when you stole it all from us.”

Celina Bodenburg looked up at the stacked boxes in disgust, but then something occurred to Miyabi.

“Wait. You aren’t taking us on your ship?”

“Unfortunately, I’ve got other business to attend to.”

“…”

The one-eyed muscle pirate did not even glance over at the glaring local girl.

“I thought for sure she was only a lookalike, but that really is the Bodenburg Company’s heir, isn’t it!? Gotta go!!”

“The coward is making a run for it!! Stop him!!!!!”

But…

“Drat…he’s already gone.”

“The entire city is on his side, so we would never find him,” said Alicia.

Celina clicked her tongue with her rifle ominously at the ready, but it actually looked comical after how fast Onelife managed to skedaddle. He had mastered the technique of hiding behind cover to escape projectiles. No matter how charismatic he was, he was a criminal at heart.

Helen agreed with Alicia’s assessment.

“Tracking down that utter moron would only exhaust us further. Let’s get this errand done with so we can repair Number 8.”

“That is important, but we need to make sure we really help Kananka,” said Miyabi.

The glasses woman looked troubled and kept her response short.

“Involving yourself in another country’s chaos never ends well.”

“Hm,” groaned Eliza Silverstorm with a shadow over her face.

She may have been thinking of the riot in the Arsenal Kingdom. Being as strait-laced as her was a good way to take damage when no one was even talking about you.

“Even so.” Miyabi looked to the horizon out at sea. “It would be easy to do the bare minimum here and just complete the job without worrying about how it turns out. But the other side doesn’t get to choose who comes to help. They have to accept it even if it isn’t enough.”

If they did that here, it was the 12-year-old king who would suffer.

It did not affect them in any way, but it was not a pleasant thing to consider.

“Let’s truly complete this errand before we fix Number 8. We can’t focus on our job if we haven’t repaid our debts.”

“We don’t owe that thief squat! He stole it all from my company!”

Before long, Miyabi’s party was being rocked by the waves on the ship.

The sailing ship was about 30m long.

Instead of giant gears and shafts, the many sailors used thick ropes and a sail to catch the wind and move the ship, giving it a different charm from the Lucifer Horn or Schwarz Schütze. Tugging on the ropes required great strength, but the manipulation of the sail was a complex and precise task.

As a cargo ship, it was covered in wooden boxes tied down with ropes and wires. Compress Cargo was apparently not an option with the gifts meant for the young king. That magic wrapped the microscopic Palette Dice like a ribbon to compress them, but it did not work with living things or with artwork where authenticity was key.

They had spent two nights aboard a sailing ship abandoned on the land near the ruined Empire, but that did not really count. This was a brand new experience for a boy who grew up in the mountains. Eliza had lived in the north, so she did not even dare approach the railing.

“Oh, ohhh. It keeps shaking.”

“Eliza, it’s been three days.”

“Th-that does not make this any less frightening! Please, Miyabi. Do not let go of my hand!!”

Miyabi was not about to argue when she was clinging to him like this. All the softness he felt had him worried that her miniskirt armor did not provide much in the way of defense. That armor prioritized magical defense, so its design was less straightforward.

“Th-the White Seidr Chosen Knights appear before the people on the king’s orders, so our appearance is a matter of national pride. Our armor was designed with parades and other public appearances in mind.”

“Neat.”

“My point is: wipe that grin off your face. This is a symbol of our kingdom’s courage and strength, so viewing it in a sexual light is an insult to the entire kingdom! Don’t you dare think of this as a lucky break!!”

The fact that she felt the need to warn him suggested she was somewhat aware how it made her look.

Meanwhile, someone else had bigger issues to worry about.

“Urp, blehh…”

“Why have you wilted, Alicia? Do elves plant their roots in the land or something?”

“H-how are just fine after spending three days rocking in the waves? My hair is all gross from the sea breeze and I swear the sun is being extra bright just to spite me. …Oh, no. I don’t think I can hold it in any longer!!”

“Hey! Don’t just open my cover out of desperation! I’m into a lot of things, but low-angle shots of a barfing elf is not one of them!!”

The radio sounded truly desperate this time.

The elf’s long ears drooped (after she barely avoided catastrophe), but the trip was full of exciting new surprises for Miyabi. Unlike Eliza, his excitement won out over his fear of the ocean. He got the crew to teach him how to work out the directions using the stars, how to tie some basic knots, and the trick to washing dishes while preserving their valuable fresh water. It all felt like a grand adventure to him. He was a little disappointed the sailors wouldn’t let him have any of the gin and rum they loved so much.

Eventually, they heard some sea birds crying in the distance.

“Oh, I think I see an island!” exclaimed Celina.

“Ugh, gwehh… A-as long as it has a beautiful forest, nothing else matters,” groaned Alicia.

A seabird flew a large circle through a sky much bluer than on the continent and eventually landed on the ship. The large white bird skillfully alighted on the deck’s railing. Eliza had never seen one up close, so she blinked while clinging to Miyabi’s arm.

“So this is a seabird. Interesting. It looks so different from the birds I am used to.”

“You there. If you have business with my kingdom, I shall guide you.”

The seabird…talked?

Miyabi and Alicia stared in shock, but Eliza gave a firm nod (while still clinging to the boy). The white seabird opened its hard-looking beak to speak more.

“As beautiful as our ocean is, the coral is fairly labyrinthine and there are also reefs to worry about.”

“Interesting. So seabirds know how to speak human language. Smart things, aren’t they?”

“I-I assure you that is not normal!” shouted Helen.

With a loud boom, a sharp conical spike burst vertically from the ocean surface just off the ship’s side. It rose higher than the ship’s mast and it appeared to be made of…maybe stone? It could have easily sunk the ship by piercing it from below, but a head-on collision with it would also have been disastrous. The crew frantically turned the wheel and adjusted the sails to turn the bow as much as possible while a few more of the spikes burst from the ocean.

At this point, they felt more like a metal fence surrounding a mansion’s garden.

They appeared to be forcibly guiding the ship along a certain course.

“Whoa!?”

“Follow the path I provide and you can pass the labyrinth of reefs,” commanded the seabird.

“Is this a type of magic that lifts the ocean floor to pierce a ship’s hull with sharp stone?” asked a Celina in disbelief.

“We call it the Shark Tooth. That said, it was originally peaceful magic that fished a livable island out of the ocean.”

With a splashing sound, a massive silhouette cut by below the surface and below the sailing ship.

Whoever this was had full control. Even if their ship was equipped with cannons, they could not have attacked something lurking below the water.

With a more extended splashing sound, the ocean split open and something emerged.

It was…not quite a ship.

Something resembling a massive shark traveled freely through the watery depths.

“That is the Mother Shark submarine,” explained the seabird. “My kingdom’s Godhorn Tech is unbeatable in the ocean. I am praying you do not make yourselves my enemy, visitors.”

This errand was already off to a rocky start.

Nevertheless, they arrived safely on the southern island.

The wharf was very different from the criminal city’s. There was no more than a simple wooden pier sticking out from the white sandy beach. There was no lighthouse or breakwater. They may have dug deep into the sandy ocean floor to accommodate larger ships, but it still felt a lot more natural.

There were bright red flowers Miyabi had never before seen and blue butterflies that looked like fluttering gems.

The strange trees growing directly from the sand were apparently known as palm trees.

“Coconuts are used in a lot of sweets and drinks, so you can find them for sale at the criminal city.”

If Celina saw them as a rare delicacy, Miyabi knew he would never have another chance to try one, so he wanted to try everything he could while he was here.

“Ughh…f-finally back on solid ground,” groaned Alicia, looking truly worn out.

She collapsed face down onto the beach and the radio to protested being plunged into the sand.

“Hey, are you okay? How about some water?”

“Thanks. No, wait, boy! That’s seawat- blehhhh!!!”

“?”

Miyabi looked puzzled and Celina rubbed her temples. Beyond the simple freshwater/saltwater issue, a city dweller like her could not believe he would try to give someone water he simply found lying around. Even when journeying outdoors, she made sure to use her mug-sized filter or to boil it in a kettle first.

“Okay, that’s enough of the classic gags, ocean newbies. We need to get moving.”

“Ew, why is it so salty!? Eh? Eh? Is the whole ocean like that?”

“How far behind are you!? Surely even your mountain village has a salt shaker on the dinner table.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying rock salt isn’t something they dig up from the ground?”

He had seen the ocean at the criminal city, but he had not had a chance to interact with it while on the stone harbor. Same while he was on the ship.

“Sorry, Alicia. I’ll borrow Celina’s thingy to filter the seawater.”

“Not in a million years!! Filtering out that much salt would ruin it in one go! It isn’t designed for that!!”

“Koo,” cheerfully cried Alma.

Miyabi glanced down to see the stuffed animal of a creature had transformed again. This time, it was white with a bluish swimsuit and goggles. The striped one-piece swimsuit was something Miyabi had only ever seen in plays. Except this was a fur pattern, not clothing, highlighting how strange that creature was. Miyabi felt the same as when he first saw a ladybug or butterfly in the forest when he was little.

“Oh, Alma,” said Alicia. “What a cute Kraken you are. I just have to pick you up. I’ll let you nuzzle against me, so come and comfort me.”

“Why is the foul beast the first one in a swimsuit? What about the elf, the glasses woman, the rich girl, or the knight!?”

The sandy radio complained, but the seasick elf was in no mood to respond.

Miyabi looked around curiously.

“So this is the remote island kingdom Onelife was talking about.”

“Ugh, it sure is hot here.”

Eliza’s composed face was dripping with sweat.

Ever-capable Helen looked worried and exasperated at the same time.

“This can’t be a comfortable place for a knight from a snowy kingdom.”

“B-but the place doesn’t feel as on edge as I expected,” said Alicia.

“True. The talk of political upheaval reminded me of the Arsenal Kingdom.”

“Gulp!”

Weakened by the sun, Eliza jumped at the mention of her kingdom’s troubles. Meanwhile, the radio decided to speak some cursed words.

“Who cares about that when there are swimsuits to be worn? This is a tropical island! Where’s all the bare skin!? Of the feminine variety, I mean!!”

There was indeed no sign of rioting or fighting.

A small crab crawled across the white beach without a care in the world.

Standing around near the ship was not going to help anything. The messenger seabird had been flying above their heads, but now it flew inland and above the island’s colorful forest. It may have been asking them to follow, so they nervously prepared to leave the beach for the first time.

But…

“Sneak, sneak.”

“Excuse me, everyone, but someone is attempting to board our ship. Someone who thinks saying ‘sneak’ out loud makes them sneakier, I might add. Attack, attack!!”

A small figure shrieked and jumped straight up.

Acting like a thief was simply not possible with the bright sun shining down on the white sand. Miyabi’s party turned around looking skeptical and found a girl curled up in a pitiful ball on the sand.

She had long wavy hair with a bluish tint to it.

Her skin was abnormally bright and pale for the sunny beach.

And her chest earned at least a “decent” rating.

She looked to be around Miyabi’s age. Kids these days had apparently adopted some bold fashion choices because she wore a tank top and a miniskirt. To be blunt, she looked more fashionable than Miyabi.

But that aside, there were a few major problems. For example, she wore a flintlock gun at her hip, she wore a thick coat to keep the sun and sea breeze off of her, and she wore a black leather eyepatch and tricorn hat that would have looked perfect on a jolly roger.

The gun must have only been a sidearm because she rested a trident on her shoulder. It was unclear if the weapon had its origins in agriculture or fishing, but it would hurt just the same if it stabbed you. Miyabi recalled how a play mentioned that pirates preferred projectiles and long-handled spears or sickles to help attack from one ship to another.

“Let’s gooooooo!!” rejoiced the radio at Alicia’s chest. “No big muscles and no giant beard! This is the kind of sexy fantasy pirate girl I wanted! Who else would you want to nurse you back to health when you come down with heatstroke!? The big hat and miniskirt are so much better than a pathetic bandanna!! Ask anyone what they want in a pirate and this is what they’ll tell you!!!!!!”

Yes, she was a pirate.

Celina was 100% anti-pirate, so her eyebrows arched upwards.

“Heh heh heh. I see, so the vermin of society run rampant in this remote island kingdom too, do they? Very well. I will cleanse this world of them to lay the groundwork for the Bodenburg Company’s greater glory!!!!!!”

“Wait, no, no! I’m not a pirate!! Please take a deep breath and calm down!!”

Helen sighed with a hand on her cheek.

Something about this had bothered her.

“Hm, another fancy-sounding girl. This could get confusing.”

“You even steal my speech patterns, you filthy pirate!?”

“Again, I’m not a pirate!! My name is Charlotte Nightlagoon and I am well-known in the mermaid world. What, did I misinterpret what I saw from the ocean? I can’t believe this!! I thought this was the latest in human fashion!”

The bare-midriff pirate(?) girl’s claim was a little confusing, but then she noticed something and jumped to her feet. Before Miyabi could figure out what was going on, she had pressed up against his back and started whistling nonchalantly.

Some locals with bloodshot eyes arrived.

The brown-skinned men and women in grass skirts and scraps of cloth were carrying fishing nets and harpoons. They wore pots over their heads and held bath covers as shields.

“Where’d she go!? Where did that mermaid go!?”

“She had legs, so she has to still be on the island. If we can only slice up that mermaid flesh, we’d be set!!”

Hadn’t he just met someone who thought saying ‘sneak’ out loud made her sneakier?

He could tell now was not the time to be enjoying the boobs pressed against his back.

He waited until the dangerously-equipped but oddly lighthearted people ran off down the coast before he slowly turned around.

“A…mermaid?”

“Heh heh. Eh heh heh.”

“A well-known one???”

“It’s kind of embarrassing, but I have had several picture books made about me.”

It was hard to notice with her fluffy hair and large hat, but one of her ears looked like a webbed flipper. Miyabi was unsure what to say when he saw her poking her index fingers together in front of her decent or better chest.

“(Wait, so the people on this island eat mermaids? Now I’m worried about this place’s customs.)”

“(Th-their culture might take an ‘anything goes’ stance when it comes to Beast Novae in any form. In fact, I have heard of a country on the continent that slices up only the snake portion of an echidna for food. They apparently have an extreme reaction to certain White Sorcery Items, so the snake tail grows back, giving them an endless food source.)”

Eliza’s unnecessary trivia only worried Miyabi further.

Alicia needed to be extremely cautious as another humanoid Beast Nova, yet she calmly clapped her hands together in realization.

“A mermaid? Oh, is this about the stories of gaining immortality and eternal youth by eating their flesh?”

“Wha-!?”

“Eternal youth…we’d make billions! No, wait. In the long term, we would stop selling anything but the youth-targeted products.”

The glasses woman reacted with excitement and the rich girl by calculating out possible profits, but the legged mermaid waved her hands to stop them.

“W-wait, no, that’s only a superstition! It’s not true!!”

“Hm?”

Alicia only frowned, looking confused, so the long-lived hag elf must not have been too interested in eternal youth.

The mermaid’s gentle tone of voice slipped when she was panicked.

“Mermaid meat doesn’t do that!! Where did that crazy belief even come from? I mean, yikes! I’d dreamed of visiting the land for years, but when I finally get here for a secret vacation, it turns into a terrifying fight for survival.”

Miyabi had a more fundamental question.

“I thought mermaids had the lower body of a fish and swam around in the ocean.”

“I changed that by chugging a magic potion.”

She demonstrated by putting a hand on her hip and tilting her head back.

The way she arched her back pushed out her chest to a troubling extent.

“So I got legs and that was great, but now I can’t get my fishtail back. That means I can’t return to the ocean and I have to live on this hellish island where the superstitions turn my days into a dangerous cooking school of eat or be eaten.”

It was quite possible she was just an idiot.

The oblivious idiot kicked at the white sand with one of the legs she had gone to such lengths to obtain.

“I can’t stand it anymore! If I’m stuck on this remote island any longer, they really are going to devour my delicious body! And not in the sexy way, either! I mean filet me and serve me with your choice of sides!! I need to get off this island! That elf who reeks of grass makes it sound like the superstition has made it to the mainland too, but it should at least be easier to hide there. I just want out of this endless game of tag!!”

“This cargo ship isn’t scheduled to leave for a while, you stupid mermaid who leaves a trail of salty puddles. The ship needs maintenance, it needs to be resupplied with food and water, the cargo bound for the continent needs to be loaded, and the crew needs time off, so it won’t be leaving for two or three more days at least.”

“…”

Charlotte paled and collapsed to the sand. Her soul was trying to escape through her mouth.

“(Miyabi, Miyabi,)” whispered Eliza.

“How about you show her some kindness? The Lucifer Horn can cross the ocean and take her to Horn Fortress. I’ve heard mermaids use an entirely different system of magic from humans, so it can’t hurt to have her on our side.”

The half-dead mermaid lifted her head from the sand.

She got up on her knees, clasped her hands in front of her face, and looked up at Miyabi with unbelievable pressure in her gaze. He could see stars twinkling in her eyes.

“You know a way out of here!? Please let me use it!! I might just find a solution if I can escape to the continent. The alchemist named Holy Gate is practically a legend at this point, but if I can find them, I can have a magic potion made to give me my tail back!”

“Eh!?” This turn of events came as a surprise to pirate-hating Celina.

The against side made their argument:

“We don’t really know who she even is, so we could be accepting a traitor into our midst. We only have her word to go on that she isn’t a pirate, so she might still be a filthy thief. Miyabi, working in a group requires strict management of your wallet. For the above reasons, it would be illogical to accept this suspicious individual into our party. Yes, this has nothing to do with my personal belief that you cannot trust anyone who wants to be a pirate! This is nothing but a logical analysis of the facts!!”

The for side made their much more succinct argument:

“Mermaid equals clamshell bikini.”

“Welcome aboard, Charlotte!! I don’t know what a bikini is, but something about the word calls out to my very soul!!”

“Four words!? Don’t let her seduce you that quick, Miyabi!!”

Celina’s tearful plea did nothing to overturn his decision. The human girl was not willing to strip for this particular issue.

The eyepatch trident flintlock miniskirt bare-midriff mermaid pirate girl idiot (the list never seemed to end) fidgeted awkwardly.

“Um, so could you please send me across the ocean to the mainland now? How are we even going to leave this remote island anyway?”

“Oh, that’s simple enough. Lucifer Horn, we’ve got another one.”

The mermaid tilted her head. It was much too late by the time she realized what was happening.

A massive shape flew by overhead and a wire whipped through the air and snagged the back of Charlotte’s pirate coat.

“Wait, what!? Surely you aren’t going to send me across the ocean like this! If this is supposed to be a joke about catching a mermaid like a fish, it isn’t funnyyyyyyyyyyy!!!”

The doppler effect distorted her voice.

“Sigh.” Helen stared into the distance. “Goodbye eternal youth…”

“Were you really planning to chop her up and eat her, Miss Aging Skin?” asked Alicia. “Anyway, are you sure that was a good idea? I hope the locals don’t mistake us for a sketchy gang of kidnappers.”

However.

Miyabi continued tilting his head even after Charlotte Nightlagoon was long gone. She had left a very appealing word in his mind.

“So what is a bikini anyway?” asked the mountain village boy.

“Yes, yes. It’s only natural to be interested in that sort of thing, but we’re here to meet with King Fulpen and help him however we can. We don’t really have time for any more detours, so-”

Helen came to a stop midsentence.

She had a good reason for it.

Celina Bodenburg put on a full-face smile, flipped her giant travel bag upside down, and shook it.

A pile of colorful cloth formed on the ground.

And a while later…

“Sorry about the wait, Miyabi. Ho ho ho. You were very right. How could we leave the hustle and bustle of the city, travel all the way to one of the finest beaches around, and not put on swimsuits? The serious atmosphere made it so hard to let everyone know I had brought enough to share, but this country boy gave me exactly the opening I needed!”

Celina emerged from a thicket, but Miyabi was far too preoccupied to listen.

What was that?

She stood there with a hand on her hip, but all she was wearing were three triangles of black cloth. They only covered her chest and around her hips and were held in place with some strings. They were also decorated with pure gold and red gems.

This was nothing like the swimsuits he had seen in plays. Those covered the entire body down to the feet. Miyabi gathered all of the fragmentary knowledge he had and found only one thing this could be.

“Eh? Eh? Why are you in your underwear!? We’re outside!!”

“Heh heh. You’re the one who wanted to know what a bikini is.”

“But it’s only three triangles, so…ehhh!? Why is this okay, but seeing up someone’s skirt isn’t!?”

“Now, now, Miyabi. There are some questions you just don’t ask. Don’t try to answer a question that no one wants an answer to. When a girl is willing to bare her skin in public, you don’t look that gift horse in the mouth.” The crystal radio tried to make this sound like a serious issue. “Mwa ha ha! Finally! I was getting worried it might never happen, but the swimsuit event is as much a staple as miniskirt Santas on Christmas and kimonos on New Year’s!! We just needed a hot enough environment to make them strip themselves!! The North Wind and the Sun effect has blessed us once again!!!!!!”

As for the radio’s owner, Alicia’s swimsuit was more modest than Celina’s. It looked a lot like a too-short white shirt and skintight shorts, but the two pieces were fully separated, showing off her navel and thighs.

She formed a hook with a finger to fix the butt.

“How strange. I know this is meant to wear in the water, but I can’t get used to this water-repelling material.”

“Oh, right. I forget you were so shameless you always just go skinny dipping.”

“Boy!! Now is not the time to dig up that mistake from your younger days when you saw me in the forest spring and froze up! I have since learned shame!!”

That swimsuit did not belong to Alicia. She had borrowed it from Celina’s collection.

The elf’s long ears cautiously twisted this way and that.

“Are you sure it’s safe to strip down and play on the beach like this? I thought the locals were upset with their new king for being too young. A riot or armed conflict could break out at any time with that kind of political upheaval.”

“What do you think happens if a group of outsiders with a Godhorn Tech shows up and immediately visits their new king?” asked Celina. “The king will assume it is a trap and grow cautious while the opposition might fear he is gathering power and pull the trigger on a civil war.”

“So you want us to take things slow and get a feel for things first?”

“This is a remote island kingdom located well off the continent, but it has enough of a trade infrastructure to receive regular cargo ships. It is also a little-known resort for the wealthy, so this should put them at ease a lot more than rushing in with a Godhorn Tech and control device at the ready.”

Celina’s reasoning was sound, but Miyabi had trouble following it because he had no idea where he was supposed to look. Her bare belly drew his eye far more than he could have predicted. Were all swimsuits like this, was this an indecent trend derived from the criminal tastes of her hometown, or was it Celina’s personal tastes?

(Wait. If all of them were Celina’s, won’t they all be in her size?)

When Eliza emerged from the thicket a little later, she was wearing a trio of triangles just like Celina. Her figure must not have been that different because she wore it without issue, but her greater height changed the overall impression. It accentuated her slenderness first and foremost.

And…

“U-ugh…”

Helen was the real problem.

Instead of a triangle trio or a two piece, hers had the same silhouette as the bunny girl costume. Celina exasperatedly explained that it was known as a one piece.

But why was she so exasperated?

Helen, an adult, had forced herself into a swimsuit in Celina’s size, so it was full to bursting in certain key places!!

Miyabi stared into the distance.

“Helen…”

“Finally stooped to out-and-out seducing the boy to get at Alma, have you?” asked Alicia. “Glad I’m not a government official.”

“N-no!!”

Helen was practically in tears as she desperately tried to hide the parts where the too-small swimsuit was digging into her body, but she could not fully hide what was going on at her crotch and butt. Not to mention her chest, which was noticeable no matter what she wore.

Eliza put a hand on her hip and sighed. The Celina-sized orange triangles were a little small for her, so she kept having to bend her finger into a hook and fix the butt after she moved.

“This is why I said you should wear one of these…bikinis were they called? Since they are tied together by strings, your height doesn’t matter.”

“I thought covering the most skin would be the least inappropriate option! Why am I always the one sacrificed on the altar of sexy!?”

Yes, a bikini had a separate top and bottom and the chest and hips could be adjusted with the strings, so some extra height was barely an issue. The extra size was only so much of an issue because she had chosen a one piece with the top and bottom connected in a single tube of fabric.

Now, the bikini bottoms looked a lot like triangular underwear, but Miyabi was told he could not wear one. He was new to swimsuits, so all the little rules confused him.

“Stop, Miyabi!!” yelled the radio. “The girls can handle all the swimsuits and bare skin themselves. This is enough. I do not want a punchline where you take a step off that figurative cliff!!”

“Pff. Heh heh heh. If you’re into that, Miyabi, my Bodenburg Company will support you wholeheartedly. Now, what would you like? I recommend this thong with cute frills along both sides.”

Meanwhile, Miyabi’s party moved inland from the coast to the green island.

The boy once more tilted his head.

“Wait, I thought swimsuits were for swimming.”

“Miyabi,” said Celina. “No one chooses a swimsuit for being warm and waterproofed. How are you supposed to show off its design if you get in the water? A swimsuit is meant for the beach or the poolside.”

“???”

He was even more confused now. The full-body swimsuits he had seen in plays had been in swimming scenes. But the formula to answer his question would require flipping several chapters back in his rich and sexy tutor’s textbook (Swimsuits II-B).

They of course found more than just a forest.

Even Miyabi could sense people’s presence further inland.

They made their way toward the most populated area and found something like a village in the tropical forest. The trees apparently kept the wind and the sand out. The buildings all had a unique design. First, they were made out of plant stems and thick logs. For ventilation purposes, all of the walls had been removed. Miyabi had lived in a log cabin himself, but it had not been so open.

All the people’s skin was tanned brown by the bright sun. Their clothing looked like a hybrid of colorfully-dyed cloths and palm leaves, so the girls often had their navels and backs exposed. Their well-tanned and healthy skin was dazzling.

The kingdom did not receive many visitors, but it was open to them. The people who spotted them seemed used to it . That may have been the influence of the previous king who had apparently rescued people at sea regardless of their status or affiliation.

They had been chasing after a legendary mermaid with nets and harpoons, but they seemed to be much more relaxed when an unexpected treasure(?) was not in the offing.

None of them seemed fazed by Alicia or Eliza’s swimsuits.

Celina must have been right about the island receiving relatively frequent tourists from the continent. Helen (with her overly small swimsuit wrapped so tightly around her body) opted to hide behind Miyabi. His back stiffened at the various sensations and breaths reaching it.

“This is the holy island ruled by King Kananka Fulpen! The Godhorn Tech our king inherited is super strong! The Mother Shark keeps our island peaceful!”

An energetic boy gave a fairly generic greeting, but they heard some other things as well.

“I don’t care whose butt is on the throne as long as we’re guaranteed a good catch. That’s the king’s #1 job since only he can speak with the invisible spirits. The Godhorn Tech honestly scares me. Makes me think the mainland’s gonna show up to get at its horn.”

The young fisherman described his king in a very different way from the old man who had sat on the Arsenal Kingdom’s throne.

“I look slim? Why, thank you,” said a girl who was proud of her figure. “A diet of fish and seaweed is the secret to health. I’ve never eaten non-seafood meat, so life on the mainland sounds so strange to me.”

The island was overflowing with nature, but it was fairly small. They had to be reliant on the sea to survive. Receiving the sea’s blessings was their top priority, so it sounded like protecting the sea was just one part of that.

Helen nervously looked around from behind Miyabi.

“(Hm, is eating a mermaid the ultimate form of receiving the sea’s blessings?)”

“(I have to wonder if any humans have actually eaten one,)” said Alicia. “(Wouldn’t there be stories of an immortal islander here if they had?)”

It may have been an imaginary food for these islanders. They may have thought mermaids were as real as the tsuchinoko or skyfish. No one had ever caught one, so you could claim whatever you liked about them.

All the islanders mentioned the House of the King and Spirits, which was the largest mansion in the village. But its lack of walls kept it from feeling as imposing as mansions usually did.

It felt more warm than grand or daunting. Miyabi felt at home in this small village surrounded by trees.

He looked up at the building made from palm trees and a grass roof.

“This one is bigger than the others, so is this the place?”

“Only two guards…a-and the entire building feels too simple for a king’s residence,” said Eliza. “Do they not decorate things in their culture? No, they must have gold and emeralds on the island. Maybe they just treat royalty differently from the continent.”

You could view it as a form of honorable poverty.

The lack of walls presented the king as an advisor the people were free to visit.

When the king and the people lived similar lives, there was less friction between them and the king could detect any problems in the kingdom as quickly as the people could.

Even in a small society, the powerful could horde wealth and build themselves up above the rest, but the royalty here did not. Choosing to suppress one’s greed and live alongside the people was a virtue. That gave the island kingdom a very different look from Eliza’s Arsenal Kingdom or Number 8’s Empire.

“But it’s a double-edged sword.”

Celina chose to deflate Miyabi’s honest admiration.

She may have sniffed this out with the senses she had developed in the company her parents had built from the ground up.

“Declining your own majesty allows people to think you don’t deserve the power you have. We already heard someone complaining about the king. This might work during the good times, but when the kingdom is shaken by misgovernment or natural disaster, it may allow others to plot to overthrow the king.”

“You mean kindness isn’t enough?”

“For those in power, standing above the rest is partially a safety measure. An isolated island like this needs to be self-sufficient, so a poor fishing season or a lack of water could easily be blamed on the king’s power.”

Come to think of it, Onelife had been worried about this.

The new king had taken the throne at only 12 after his father died, but not everyone agreed with that.

Kindness was not enough.

An outlaw pirate may have understood those blunt rules more than anyone, so he had sent Miyabi’s party in to break the jinx. He had asked them to help the new king in exchange for the magical automatons.

“Sigh, thank goodness. I shouldn’t need to do that on this peaceful island.”

Since they had found the king’s residence so easily, the glasses woman breathed a sigh of relief (blowing a heated adult breath onto the back of Miyabi’s neck).

“Yes, I shouldn’t need to transform into Venus.”

But Alicia whispered into her ear.

“Don’t be so sure. If the people here have never seen a bunny girl, it might catch on as an explosive new fad.”

“Wow, this place is a treasure trove of possibilities!” rejoiced the radio. “Let’s remake the island into a fishnet stocking empire!!”

“That’s all the more reason not to! I don’t want to be responsible for that!!”

Helen shuddered as the party entered the House of the King and Spirits.

After an aide welcomed them in, a brown boy with short, bluish hair emerged to greet them. His clothing was dyed a bright blue using some fish or flower found in the ocean or on the island, but he was very clearly nothing more than a small child. He was young enough that the distinctions between the sexes were blurred. Miyabi could see why even a criminal like Onelife would be worried about the boy’s wellbeing.

He looked too soft to place in harm’s way in the dog-eat-dog world of royal politics.

“I was already informed of your arrival.” His voice would have sounded regal if it were not such a high-pitched soprano. “You are the foreigners from the mainland, aren’t you?”

“Are you the king?”

There were no chairs or sofas, so the young king sat directly on the empty floor. It was an unusual arrangement for Miyabi’s party, but if the king was doing it, it had to be the polite thing to do. They followed suit. Celina and Eliza were more familiar with the continent’s etiquette, so they were more uncomfortable with this than the others.

“I would like to introduce myself right away, but we have certain courtesies that must be followed in our kingdom.”

“S-such as?”

Had it been rude to visit the king without being invited first?

Miyabi shrank down nervously, but the brown boy shook his head to say the problem was not with who they were.

He winked as he explained.

“The sun shining down from heaven and the azure sea surrounding our kingdom are our greatest treasures and I do understand it must have been exhilarating to see them for the very first time. I am even willing to take it as a compliment. That said, how about you change into ordinary clothing before we discuss the future of my kingdom?”

So…

“Sigh. That swimsuit was weird, but it feels wrong taking it off before ever swimming in it.”

“S-sorry about the wait, everyone.”

Alicia, Helen, and the rest soon returned, back in their normal clothing. That clothing was meant for journeying in, so it was not quite formal wear. Still, it was about right for holding a secret discussion.

“Now, then.”

The brown boy waited until they had all settled in before straightening up himself.

Straightening his spine was all it took to change the atmosphere around them. No matter his age or how he looked, he had what it took to be a leader.

“I am Kananka Fulpen, the new king ruling over the islands, people, and spirits of the Fulpen Maknika Ocean Kingdom.”

“I’m surprised you gave us an audience without an appointment,” said Celina.

“We have long received a lot of useful knowledge from those who arrive on our shores. Plus, one of you owns a Godhorn Tech. Outside knowledge, technology, and excitement is a much-needed cultural stimulant for a closed environment like ours, so I could never ignore this opportunity. That said, we are very busy with the upcoming coronation, so we cannot do much even for valued guests like you.”

“About that.”

Eliza glared at Miyabi for interrupting. She was all about chivalry, so she demanded respect of kings from any culture.

“Do you know a pirate named Onelife?”

“…”

Kananka wordlessly prompted him to continue.

Still seated on the floor, Miyabi explained the situation with plenty of gesturing. Alma mimicked the gestures, but probably didn’t know what any of it meant.

“He asked us to come here and gave us some gifts for you. I just hope there’s something we can do to help.”

“I see. So you know him.”

“Are you saying you really do know him too?”

Miyabi’s face lit up, but something was wrong.

“If I had known, I might have handled this differently,” continued Kananka. “No, enough about Onelife. What is your name?”

“M-me? Miyabi. Miyabi Blackgarden.”

“Miyabi, you do not seem like a bad person. In fact, I quite like you.”

That was an ominously phrased compliment.

And that impression was accurate.

“But unfortunately, you have brought a great calamity to this island.”

“Eh?”

Something rang in his mind.

He recognized the regular, high-pitched alarm.

“What!? I’m detecting…a sorcery bomb!?”

With an island this small, one of those could wipe the entire kingdom off the map.

“Does that mean the 11th is on this island!?”

He sprang to his feet, but Kananka remained calm.

“Wait a moment. I think it must have been hidden among the gifts you brought. Miyabi, you seem capable of sensing this bomb.”

“…”

“But did you think you were the only one in the entire world capable of that? The spirits speak to us all equally. It is just that not many know how to listen.”

Kananka winked and he seemed to be calling n some kind of invisible power or phenomenon that he referred to as “the spirits”.

“Are you, um, using your Godhorn Tech’s power?”

“I see. So you use that to boost your natural ability? Fascinating. That is not what I do. The ability to converse with the spirits is a requirement to rule as king here. I can use this power to predict the weather and the height of the waves. One of the king’s duties is to ensure the people can catch enough fish. Not even I understand how it works. All I can say is I was born this way.”

That put him above Moebius and Miyabi.

But the upshot here was that Kananka could also sense the sorcery bomb’s threat.

Maybe even more accurately than Miyabi could.

“Maybe it used a timer to switch on and maybe its box was shielded in some way. Either one would explain why we did not sense it until now.”

“Why would they be so careful about it this time?” asked Alicia.

“It may be a response to the previous bombs being disarmed,” suggested the radio.

“Meaning?” asked Miyabi.

The philosopher’s stone spat out the correct answer, just as a philosopher’s stone was meant to do.

Even if no one wanted to hear that answer.

“Listen, the last two bombs – the one in the forest and the one at the Schwarz Schütze – were both bluffs by Moebius. That would mean, Miyabi, that this is your first time encountering a sorcery bomb from the real 11th .”

“Oh.”

“Again, Moebius’s bluffs were only meant to draw out the 11th, so they would have been set up so they wouldn’t actually detonate. But that changes from here on out.”

“So the real 11th would have been watching Moebius’s decoy bombs from afar, or sending Number 8 in to check it out for them? So they know everything that happened, including how those decoy bombs were disarmed by someone?”

“That would mean they already see you as a major threat. They go to the effort of disguising the bombs as part of the scenery, remember? But not because they’re bored and setting up a high-stakes game of spot-the-difference. The real 11th doesn’t want you interfering at all. If they’ve figured out that you can detect them in advance, of course they’ll think up a way of keeping you from doing that.”

That was a truly unpleasant idea.

Eliza was getting antsy.

“We can discuss the reasoning behind it later. This is not my kingdom, but I cannot sit here and let innocent people die!!”

“Like I said before, my Mother Shark is unbeatable in the ocean. It can pierce any warship from below and bring down any flying object. But it’s powerless against an enemy once they arrive on the beach.”

This was not an attack by brute force.

Whoever had set it up had won the kingdom’s trust and learned detailed information on its internal situation before putting together the plan. And they had to know that detonating a sorcery bomb here could destroy the entire island.

“Onelife Shiftup…” muttered Miyabi.

Moebius had had his reasons, but this was different. The 11th had deceived Number 8 into setting up the sorcery bombs. Miyabi knew he should have been more careful after learning their enemy used such underhanded methods. Feeling used, he repeated that hated man’s name to himself.

“So was he the 11th? I should have paid more attention! Now I see why he found every excuse he could to keep us from repairing Number 8!! Because he didn’t want the automaton to give us his name!!”

Miyabi and Eliza rushed from the House of the King and Spirits. They were initially surprised that Kananka didn’t follow them, but then they recalled him saying he was unbeatable in the ocean but powerless on land.

Anything could happen in a confused situation and there were apparently some who did not approve of his coronation. The king had to avoid being killed at all costs. If he was, it would plunge the kingdom into chaos.

“We need to locate and destroy the sorcery bomb.”

The glaring sun worked against them.

Miyabi had to work hard to organize his confused thoughts and figure out what he needed to do.

“We can identify Onelife’s gifts by the wooden boxes. He tricked us, so the boxes should already be inside the village. I’ll just destroy them all until the bomb’s reading is gone!”

“Koo!!”

The threat likely came from the boxes they had brought with them, but those boxes had already been unloaded from the ship and carried to locations around the village. When Miyabi’s party attempted to remove the nails from one, a slender human arm punched through the wood from within.

No, it only looked human.

“A magical automaton!?”

“You mean he loaded the boxes with more than just the bomb!?”

This one did not look as human as Number 8. It was more like a well-made ball-jointed doll. It had no clothing or skin.

Onelife had said he would not send the automatons if Miyabi’s party visited the remote island kingdom instead.

But that promise too had been nothing but words. That traitor had been planning all along to send in this fighting force.

Celina clicked her tongue.

“He said he wasn’t using Compress Cargo on the gifts to preserve the artwork, but now we know the real reason. Sorcery bombs and magical automatons are too complex to store that way!”

The rustic islanders looked confused at first.

They did not properly grasp the threat, so their initial fear may not have been directed at the sorcery bomb or the imperial automatons.

It was only when Alicia’s staff gave a roar and Celina obliterated the automaton’s head with her rifle that the entire village erupted with screams. When the people paled, fled in a panic, tripped, and cowered in place, they were not trying to escape the automatons. They feared the people wielding real violence capable of dealing out death. They shook their heads in protest after seeing Miyabi’s control sword, not the automatons bursting from the boxes.

“Ugh, no good deed goes unpunished, I see!” complained Alicia.

“Seeing their fear is better than seeing them as silent corpses!!” said Eliza.

The pure white knight wielding a giant lance in both hands was the perfect honor student through and through.

Several automatons appeared around Miyabi, the sand crunching beneath their feet.

Miyabi’s eyes met those of one of the automatons.

He thought he might be able to strike back and break through their formation. He thought he might be able to destroy them by ordering an aerial bombing from the Lucifer Horn.

But he hesitated for just a moment.

In that moment, Eliza thrust her enormous lance in from the side, smashing the automaton’s head.

Inorganic parts scattered with a sound deeper than a plant pot breaking.

“Miyabi!! Don’t look at them like Number 8. These are mass-produced models without any high-level intelligence!!”

“Kh.”

His fear must have shown.

But more and more of the boxes were being broken from within and more magical automatons appeared, swinging their limbs wildly. They were targeting the panicked and fleeing islanders.

They only ever fought as ordered.

There was nothing they wished to protect and nothing they detested. Those empty ball-jointed dolls simply carried out their orders one after another.

Miyabi squeezed his eyes shut.

Then he raised his control sword for the sake of the living people here.

“Sorry!!”

He heard a dull impact and the dry crack of something breaking.

He felt the splitting destruction of something inhuman.

He clenched his teeth and felt like vomiting…and he hated that he was able to suppress it.

“That said, the automatons are appearing from multiple locations simultaneously,” said Helen. “The ordinary houses here have no walls, preventing the people from locking themselves in. If we don’t prepare a better location before beginning the battle, we’ll have a hard time protecting all of the islanders!”

“I’m aware of that!!”

Miyabi raised the hand not holding the control sword.

He had a power that sat opposite of destruction.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Something rose from the sandy ground in response. It was an iron hemisphere larger than a tent and made from gathered iron sand. That shelter could protect against the automaton’s blade-hard fingers.

“Get in!!”

He gestured toward a cowering youth and raised his control sword again to buy time. Dodging was not an option, so he had to clash directly with the automaton arms.

His bones strained and pain spread across his palms.

He was receiving the special power of a Godhorn Tech, but he was not actually trained in swordplay. The fragility of his fundamentals was all too clear in a direct battle like this.

But he still clenched his teeth, endured, and pushed back.

“Hurry inside!! You’ll be safe in there!!”

The paralysis finally wore off and the brown-skinned youth took a small child’s hand and rushed inside the metal shelter.

The automaton clashing with Miyabi was destroyed by a giant lance.

Eliza spoke to the boy while they stood back to back.

“Do you know why they were suddenly able to move just now, Miyabi?”

“?”

“Because the people accepted that your sword is a tool to protect them, not a weapon to threaten their lives. So they no longer need to fear it. Now they can rely on it. …Remember this, Miyabi, because this is the joy of being a protector knight. If you never forget this accomplishment, you can always grow stronger!!”

One of those iron shelters was not enough.

They could use as many of them as they could get.

Of course, those makeshift shelters were meaningless if the sorcery bomb detonated. The entire island kingdom could be wiped off the map or sink into the ocean.

So he would not let that happen.

He had put the islanders at ease. He had earned their trust. So now he had to hold up his end of the bargain. He had to locate the sorcery bomb and keep it from detonating. This was his own battle now.

“Ohhh!!”

He would not let it end prematurely.

He clenched his teeth, challenged a new automaton, and asked about something he had noticed.

“These are imperial, right? But they don’t seem as persistent or unpredictable as Number 8.”

“Eliza said these are the mass-produced models, remember?” said Celina. “Their internal parts are mutually compatible, but they are much simpler than the eight primary models that answered directly to the emperor and guarded the Empire from eight directions.”

That meant there were a lot of them, but they brought nothing new to the table.

If they were inferior to Number 8, a tactic that worked against him would work here.

The magical automatons alone would not be enough to destroy the island, which was why Onelife had focused on the sorcery bomb and sent the automatons to buy time as insurance. The automatons were slow and not all that durable, so they were easily damaged with Eliza’s lance and Celina’s gun.

After they had destroyed around half of the boxes, the ground shook and an explosive blast reached their ears.

But it was nowhere near them.

“Whoa!? Wh-what!?”

Miyabi’s jumpiness must have been contagious because Helen clung to the younger boy without thinking. She was certainly soft in places, but he was mostly afraid of the thick knife she was holding and being none too careful with.

“Eek!? Did it detonate!?”

“No, that was too far away. And I recognize this…”

Eliza and Celina joined the conversation because they too had operated one of those strongest weapons.

“That sounds like Godhorn Techs fighting,” said Celina. “But whose are they!?”

“Whatever the answer, there won’t be much left of this island if we don’t deal with the sorcery bomb. We can deal with that later. We need to address with the more immediate problem first!”

With a goal in mind, Miyabi used the resonance alarm ringing in his mind to search out the sorcery bomb.

His sixth sense finally gathered on a single point.

“It’s in that box!!”

He raised his control sword, stabbed it into the box, and smashed up the contents.

Until the sound in his head completely vanished.

The 11th was an artist, just like a top-rate pâtissier who could create sweets indistinguishable from an actual shoe or jewel. The sorcery bomb could replace anything and it was apparently powerful enough to wipe out an entire castle and its castle town once it detonated.

But on the other hand, the detonation method was so complex that it would not trigger when attacked. Finding it was the hard part because it would be smashed by brute force once it was located. Moebius had taught him that, so Miyabi felt no fear.

“Pant, pant.”

“I-is it gone? Is it safe now!?”

The box had been destroyed. Alicia repeatedly asked for confirmation while holding swimsuit Alma tight. Only Miyabi could tell the reading was gone, so of course she was worried.

“Damn that pirate. I bet he was originally going to bring the boxes himself, but he saw an opportunity to have us bring those ‘gifts’ for him!”

They heard footsteps on the forest sand.

Kananka Fulpen was walking their way. The giant weapon in his hand was a bent…what even was it? It may have been his Godhorn Tech’s control device. But his balance was off and he was clearly favoring one leg.

The young king did not let the pain show in his voice.

“Yes, I had a feeling this would happen.”

“King Kananka, you’re hurt!” shouted Helen.

The king himself did not seem bothered.

“I only have my own naivete to blame. The possibility of a trap occurred to me, but I still opted not to sink you and your entire ship.”

He wobbled to the side.

Miyabi rushed over to support him and the younger boy slipped down to the sandy beach.

Eliza looked unwell as she watched.

“W-we need to treat him. If the king collapses here, the panicked and anxious people’s emotions will explode!”

“Gh…don’t worry about me. I simply had some trouble calming the raging spirits. I was caught in the anger erupting from the control wing.”

“The spirits” appeared to be a general term for any unseen powers, but those powers came in many forms. Miyabi’s party was unsure how this one translated into their own words.

Kananka smiled bitterly and waved his giant weapon made of stone polished so bright it shined like a gemstone.

That had to be his Godhorn Tech control device. If that had done it, he must not have been injured in an attack by the automatons. Could damage to the Godhorn Tech itself reach the wielder through the control device? Miyabi had not used his enough to know.

Kananka had called it a control wing, but what was that weapon called? Miyabi was curious, but he could not quite find an answer. It didn’t seem to be a bent sword or club.

“What is that thing? Could it be an axe!?”

“Miyabi, why are your eyes sparkling? Also, that is not an axe.” World-traveler Celina’s eyes widened. “How unusual. Not everyday you see a boomerang.”

“Oh? You’re familiar with them?”

“There is not a product my Bodenburg Company doesn’t sell☆” She winked with a hand on her chest. “But the ones created by the continent’s craftsmen do not actually return to the thrower. They are such a strange device.”

“They are, but why does Miyabi look so disappointed?”

“Oh, this forest-obsessed boy just loves axes,” explained Helen, rubbing her temples.

According to Kananka, his control device had attacked him after his Godhorn Tech went berserk in some way.

The question was what had caused it to go berserk. But…

“You hurt your ankle, didn’t you?” said Alicia. “Miyabi! Go find something to cool it with!!”

According to the villagers who nervously peeked out from their shelters, the blessings of the ocean always took priority on the island. He ended up bringing back several types of seaweed they had in stock. They must have been similar to mint because his fingertips felt a cool sensation as he massaged in freshwater to rehydrate them.

“Will this work?”

“Wrap it around his ankle.”

“The pirate wants to create a diversion and confusion,” said Kananka, seated with his small leg extended. “My Mother Shark is unbeatable in the ocean, so he intentionally caused chaos on land to create problems for the island’s protector. Even the sorcery bomb was a diversion.”

“You mean…?”

Miyabi was cut off by an especially loud explosion.

It was a scary thought, but if true, it meant Kananka could not run away.

“My Mother Shark was defeated while patrolling the ocean. Because I was distracted.”

“It was defeated so easily?” groaned Knight Eliza, but King Kananka was unshaken. He was the kind of leader who accepted his failures and used them to do better in the future.

“There is no denying it.”

“Hm, we should probably fix his ankle in place,” said Alicia

“What about with taping? Are there any vines around here?” asked the radio.

Miyabi entered the forest full of unfamiliar plants, but he was fortunate to find plenty of vines.

“Here you go. Let’s get his ankle fixed up.”

“Yes. It might hurt some when we bind it, but bear with it, new king,” said Eliza.

Kananka did not even wait for them to finish their treatment before continuing the conversation.

“More importantly, the Mother Shark is no longer defending the island. You might be able to mess with one if you’re clever enough, but it takes another Godhorn Tech to actually destroy one. I hate needing to leave the fate of my kingdom in the hands of guests, but what choice do I have?”

Miyabi thought for a bit.

“Onelife supposedly broke off a Wicked God horn and built it into his pirate ship.”

“Th-that has to be an embellishment!”

Rejecting something because it was hard to believe only narrowed your viewpoint.

Celina’s protest was mostly just wishful thinking.

“We’ll know soon enough I suppose,” bluntly concluded Alicia. “The explosion came from the beach. That damn muscle man has brought his whole Godhorn Tech onto the island!”

The battlefield was on the ocean this time.

Miyabi’s party rushed through the forest to reach the beach, hearing enormous artillery shells crashing down all the while. They were hitting much too close for comfort, so Miyabi diverted their aim with Decoy Walls while they ran across the sand.

The tropical forest opened up all of a sudden.

The two Godhorn Techs were all jumbled together.

The sharp ram on the bow of the King Knot pirate ship had pierced the side of the Mother Shark submarine, forming a giant letter T in the waves crashing down on the beach. The 50m ship and the 60m sub created a single massive work of art.

The giant sailing ship had emerged victorious.

The many sails caught the wind to spread out grandly, large cannons lined either side of the ship, and the brutal ram made from the Wicked God horn itself rose up from the bow. This was another ruler of the sea, built with a wholly different design philosophy from Kananka’s. The lord of the deep had been pierced through, pushed up onto the beach, and laid out on the chopping block. Insolent was not enough to describe this pirate.

A strange tingling pain covered Miyabi’s cheeks as he approached.

This was an act of evil, yet it appeared majestic and powerful.

Even the radio could scarcely believe it.

“It really dragged that thing onto the beach. I thought the Mother Shark was supposed to be unbeatable in the ocean!”

“You have to do whatever you can, Miyabi,” said Helen.

Nothing remained to protect the island.

Miyabi stepped forward, control sword in hand, as if to break free of the fear binding him. He finally set foot on the beach. The pirate ship was still functioning. If he didn’t stop it, it would destroy this small island in no time.

A dull rumble shook the air as the cannons on either side of the ship began to move.

A chill ran down Miyabi’s spine.

“Here it comes. Stay away from the Decoy Walls and dodge!!!!!”

A flash of light.

A deafening boom.

The King Knot kept the appearance of a ruler even as it abandoned its mobility by sailing up onto land. It could not be destroyed by any normal means and anyone who so much as approached would be obliterated by a storm of shells.

Miyabi and Celina discussed it after he created a thick wall of sand…which was really camouflage for the makeshift trench he gouged across the beach and rolled inside to hide.

“Fire, water, wind, and earth. Is there anything it can’t do?”

“This is not alchemy. I-it might be using talismans or amulets.”

“Talis-what? Amul-huh?”

“The difference is whether or not they activate automatically. T-think of them as a type of magic charm. They say sailors can tell directions by looking to the stars, so I imagine he’s developed a way of extracting that constellation power and sealing it in a charm. Gh.”

Celina’s logical analysis may have been her way of conquering the fear.

But it wasn’t enough.

This thing’s power was real. Revealing how it worked did not cause that power to wither away.

The rich girl’s slender shoulders trembled. The more she learned about it, the worse it got and she appeared to have hit her limit. She was half in tears as she clung to Miyabi.

He had never before seen the moment logic was overwhelmed by emotion.

“Wh-wh-wh-what can we even do against that kind of firepower!? Th-th-th-this is so stupid! We can’t survive that pirate’s nonsense!”

“I can control the sand, so maybe I can make the ground collapse below it. If I dig into the sand enough, it might fall on its side.”

“Th-that isn’t enough. I doubt it would explode just from falling on its side. Isn’t there some better…more foolproof and perfect plan for- yikes!?”

Just then…

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

A valiant roar erupted nearby.

The strait-laced person was strait-lacedly charging toward the headwind of shells with lance at the ready. And not even in the trench. She was on the flat beach with nothing to use as a shield.

“Th-th-that…strait-laced moron!!!”

Celina’s eyes bugged out, but none of them had expected what happened next.

Eliza made a chance discovery.

“Oh? The cannons cannot target me when I am this close to the ship.”

The cannons were lined up near the deck, so they could not aim down far enough to hit Eliza directly below them.

“Goooo!!” shouted Alicia. “Destroy the cannons while we can!!”

That was no easy feat.

This was a Godhorn Tech, after all. The fear did not go away just because it was motionless on the beach and could not directly fire on you from that close.

Another explosion erupted from the beach.

It was not a direct hit, but the blast still knocked Alicia over onto the sand. The noise of the cannon firing was enough to make you dizzy. Celina was an expert with guns and gunpowder, so she explained that artillery could do direct damage with the shell and indirect damage by wearing down the target’s morale from all the noise and shaking it produced even when it missed. Helen grimaced at exactly that pain and ran over to collect the dizzy elf.

“Damn, that thing’s tough!!” said Celina.

“But it can’t keep this up forever,” said Miyabi. “We’re wearing it down little by little.”

The thick control sword gave a roar and the cannons were destroyed one after another.

They had found a weakness and slipped into a blind spot, but they were still scared. Even in these relatively favorable conditions, there was always a possibility that the ship would crush them all with some kind of brute force attack. What if the recoil of the cannons caused the ship to lift from the ground and crush them? The Godhorn Tech gave off that sort of mythical aura. Enough to make Miyabi worry unnecessarily and nearly come to a stop.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

He plugged a cannon’s muzzle with sand, causing it to blow itself up.

His control sword smashed the last of the cannons.

And just as he neutralized all of the pirate ship’s weapons…

“Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

Someone yelled even louder than the explosions.

The scent of sweat joined the salty aroma of the ocean.

Miyabi looked up to see a man with a prosthetic arm standing on the pirate ship’s deck. He wore a distinctive hat, a gold metal plate in his empty eye socket, and a coat. It was undoubtedly Onelife Shiftup.

“There you are, pirate!!”

“Since you were using the magical automatons and a sorcery bomb, I take it you’re the 11th?”

Onelife responded to Miyabi’s question by jumping down from the ship.

He landed with a boom and a cloud of white sand burst into the air. The bright sunlight glinted off his imperial prosthetic arm and his abnormally large cutlass.

“All those inconvenient facts slipped my mind!” he roared.

“Then I’ll just have to remind you. Control sword – tactical open!!”

A clash had finally developed between the two Godhorn Tech users.

The King Knot was grounded and all of its cannons had been destroyed. The ram on the front was its most powerful weapon, but even that was useless when the ship could not move. But that was no reason to relax. The control device was a powerful weapon in and of itself. Celina and Eliza were still useful in a fight even after losing their Godhorn Techs, so they needed to be prepared for a special attack that combined an ordinary weapon with magic.

Or so Miyabi thought.

And he was not entirely wrong.

But…

“Ugh!?”

After the heavy clang, he was the one who bent backwards along with his control sword. This was more than a clash between swords. It was like a bizarre execution method where he was ordered to hold back a tackle from a rhino or elephant using only a thin metal panel. He could easily die if he did not catch the force in a way that kept his bones from bending and breaking.

Onelife’s sword technique was far from refined.

But he made up for it with such great power that he took complete control of the battle. Weight and weapon meant nothing. Clever tricks were meaningless. When he took a step, the beach exploded and a great mass of air roared out. He was a raging storm of violence that tore through the puny world around him. Miyabi did not choose any of his moves. If he did not react to each of Onelife’s attacks first and foremost, it would all fall apart. He could tell on an instinctual level.

“Bwa ha ha ha!! Pathetic!! Simply pathetic!! You should’ve trained yourself until your steel was a storm and your blade the crashing waves. If you hope to break my control blade and kill the sailor, you’ll need an attack capable of shattering an oceangoing vessel! Clench your fist then and you might just reach me!!!!!!”

This made no sense.

Something was missing here. Plus…

“How is this real? Why is he stronger without his Godhorn Tech!?”

Eliza’s eyes widened, control lance in hand.

Miyabi’s party had him outnumbered, but they could not keep up with him. In fact, he pushed them back and threatened to break their flesh and bones if they let up for even a moment. Like an invisible hand was squeezing at their spines.

“The King Knot is only a trophy celebrating my life.”

The prosthetic arm pirate laughed.

He laughed and easily raised his massive blade.

“A real man does his own fighting!!!!!!”

That meant he was not even using the control device to boost his own magic.

He really and truly was only using his own muscles and the prosthetic arm, yet he could battle Godhorn Techs and had broken off a real Wicked God’s horn. He only saw the cutlass as a stick so sturdy he didn’t have to worry about breaking it.

“I-I don’t understand. What do we do about a musclebound freak like this!?”

Celina decided it would be silly to face someone like him in a close-range battle, so she kept her distance and focused on firing her gun.

Guns promised the same destructive power to anyone who used them, but that also meant not even the greatest expert in the world could increase their power. Celina applied magic to her bullets – primarily alchemy related to lead – but she must have been reaching the limits of what that could accomplish. She clicked her tongue while quickly pushing in more powder and another bullet with the long, skinny rod.

The pirate had a pistol at his hip, but he made no attempt to draw it. He may have only used it to send signals with the light and sound. He knocked all the projectiles from the air with his thick cutlass, but he was gradually forced onto the defensive. Of course, he was enough of a monster to be fighting a long-term battle while fully exposed to the threat of magical bullets.

They outnumbered him but could not manage to surround him.

Miyabi clenched his teeth and stabbed his control sword into the beach.

“Shoot him, Lucifer Horn!!!!!!”

The bomber cut by overhead, dropping a beam of light as it went.

The thick beam tore across the beach, approaching Onelife to envelop his enormous body.

But…

“Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!”

With a boom, the light scattered like ocean spray.

The pirate’s enormous cutlass was held skyward. He had sliced through the Lucifer Horn’s beam, scorching the sand around him.

The beam had not been any weaker than usual.

It had been hot enough to melt the sand into glass. And yet…

“Worthless!! No soul in it at all. If you want to kill me, come at me with love in your blade. Yes, love – a form of admiration. A surprise confession’s enough to scare even me!! I’d be bedridden for a week, you landlubberrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!”

“I-is this idiot impervious to blades and bullets both? Not even Miyabi’s bombing worked! Do his muscles break the laws of physics or something!?”

Helen could handle everything from housework to assassinations, but she was out of breath, her shoulders rising and falling. She was not used to the tropical heat or the sand catching at her feet, so it all sapped at her stamina. At this rate, Miyabi’s party would be worn down first and then a fatal attack could reach them once their movements slowed.

“No, we might still have a chance,” said Celina, rudely wiping the sweat dripping down her chin.

“What a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing,” said Eliza.

“Care to share with the rest of us!?” shouted Miyabi.

“We took out the King Knot’s cannons, but the Wicked God horn remains.”

“Destroy the sealed container to release the horn within, and not even that musclebound freak can ignore it,” explained Celina.

Miyabi finally got it.

“So you’re saying I just have to keep attacking the ship, right!?”

He changed targets.

“Use this, strait-laced girl!”

Alicia tossed a delicate glass container.

The skinny test tube soared into Eliza’s outstretched hand and she gave the colorful liquid within a puzzled glance, so the elf alchemist grinned.

“That’s the secret alchemy potion I use to boost my physical strength. It’s pure magic, so not even caffeine can compete. You won’t be getting a wink of sleep tonight!!”

Not even that would be enough to reach Onelife’s level, but Eliza and her enormous lance was their heaviest hitter. Once the alchemical boost was added to her innate horsepower, they sent her to the ship while Miyabi and Celina faced Onelife.

“Buying time?”

The man took a thundering footstep.

That was all it took to drain all color from their surroundings. The world was deprived of freedom and pressure bore down on them from all directions. An unseen wall pressed in on Miyabi’s party.

“Against me? How? Have you forgotten I slayed a real Wicked God and broke off its horn with just my own two arms?”

But.

Onelife was not the only confident one.

“Oh? Miyabi, this idiot seems to be mistaken about some things.”

“Yeah, we aren’t here to sacrifice ourselves and buy some time.”

Onelife narrowed his one eye questioningly, but it was already too late.

They had achieved their goal.

“We were using your confidence against you to lure you to this very spot.”

A thunderous sound rang out.

Alicia and Helen had rushed in, the former swinging her staff in from the side and the latter holding her thick dagger.

The real threat there was Helen Clockgear whose assassin skills included applying magic or potions to her blade to provide special effects.

Not even an embodiment of thick muscles could ignore a paralysis potion.

“Gh…”

Even then, it only lasted a moment.

The mass of muscles stagged backwards and bumped into his own ship.

No.

He staggered back against the hole in the hull that Eliza had created, bumping against the thick outer shell of the sealed container that kept the Wicked God horn stable.

“Celina!!”

The girl fired a bullet through the crack in the armor to stimulate what lay within. She did not hesitate to pull the trigger because she knew hitting the man would not kill him. Plus, she was not aiming at the pirate. A flash of bluish-white lightning scattered from within the ship.

A hint of panic appeared on Onelife’s face.

“Nhh!?”

“Hey, Onelife. Why didn’t you just come with us?” Miyabi glared at Onelife and held his control sword at the ready so the man’s great strength could not reach Alicia, Celina, or the others. “I doubt we were originally part of your plan, but our presence shouldn’t have kept you from taking that cargo ship. If you had visited the island as part of our group, you should have had an even easier time setting up a trap close to Kananka.”

“…”

“The people at the port adore you and the butler called Rudolf said you didn’t harm any of the crew when you attacked the trade ships. You put your crew first and you don’t harm people doing honest work, right!? I thought you didn’t like earning people’s trust through deception!”

“All those inconvenient facts slipped my-”

“Like hell they have! Where is your crew !? That pirate ship only has a captain!!”

“!?”

Yes.

This had been bothering Miyabi.

Onelife was so adored at the criminal city, yet Miyabi had not seen any of his actual crewmembers. Some youths had so looked up to the man that they had attacked Miyabi’s party with something called electricity to protect him. If he had been recruiting, he would have had a flood of hopeful crewmembers.

No.

It made no sense for him to lack a crew. But then where had they gone?

“A nonsensical mission, a missing crew, and the shadow of the 11th… Yeah, I think I get it now. This is just like with Number 8. I already know the real 11th is willing to trample on people’s feelings and make use of whatever someone cares about most to get their way. So you’re telling me everything!! What is it you’re dealing with here!?”

Miyabi was done attacking bad people for being bad. With Moebius Entrance and Number 8, he had learned that everyone had their own reasons or circumstances driving whatever they did.

So.

So surely the same applied to Onelife Shiftup.

Control sword clashed with prosthetic hand.

Miyabi was the one pushed back, but then Eliza’s lance joined in. Alicia’s staff and Helen’s thick knife also cut in as soon as one of them was pushed back. They refused to let an opening develop. Celina fired her rifle to scatter the sand at Onelife’s feet, knocking him off balance.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

“Nhhh!?”

Miyabi created a large box of sand and simply chucked it at his adversary.

The pirate easily smashed it, but that scattered fine sand everywhere. It got into the joints of his complex prosthetic arm, causing it to groan.

It malfunctioned.

“Onelife!!”

Miyabi leaned in with his entire body weight.

He pushed forward on his control sword, forcing back Onelife and his metal arm.

He pushed him against the hull of the pirate ship, through the broken armor, and toward the sealed container, where sparks were flying.

The sinister serpent of sparks seized his spine.

Not even his extreme muscles could protect him from a direct attack with the horn’s power.

“Gwohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Out with it already!! Tell me what led you to do all this!!”

“Miyabi!! Any further and you’ll be caught too!!”

Helen shouted a frantic warning, but the boy did not even look back. He did not take his eyes off of the powerful pirate for even a second.

Even now, Onelife remained a formidable opponent.

He forced his locked-up prosthetic arm to move, pushing his cutlass against Miyabi’s control sword.

With a dull clang, the grip slipped from the boy’s hand. The sword spun through the air and stabbed into the sand a short distance away.

Ordinarily, he might have let his party members take over while he retrieved his sword.

But he moved forward instead.

Because the pirate had thrown aside his enormous cutlass.

That just left clenching their fists.

“Onelife!!!!!!”

“Nwahh!!”

They both threw their punches.

In a pure exchange of fists, Miyabi would have had no way of defeating Onelife. This was the legendary pirate who had singlehandedly slain a Wicked God and broken off its horn. What could a boy who had rarely ever gotten into fights back in his home village do against that?

Miyabi’s punch was terribly light and no match for Onelife’s.

Miyabi’s body was terribly small and no match for Onelife’s.

Miyabi’s speed was terribly slow and no match for Onelife’s.

But.

“Owwaaahhhh!!!!!!”

The roar of agony came from Onelife.

Then his biological fist tore through the air.

Miyabi dodged it so barely a few strands of red hair scattered in the wind while he sent in his own fist!

Yes.

He could not let himself fear because he was more fragile than Onelife Shiftup.

He could not let himself worry because he was smaller than Onelife Shiftup.

He could not let himself give up because he was weaker than Onelife Shiftup.

After all, all of those things pointed to another fact.

Miyabi had something that Onelife did not!!

“How!? How can you possibly keep up with me in a pure fistfight!?”

He still hadn’t been hit.

He still wasn’t dead.

Onelife was of course surprised by this. Because the boy was showing off some things that the legendary pirate could never hope to have.

He felt fear, so he carefully calculated out the best distance to attack from. His attacks were too light, so he searched for the best way of putting his weight behind them. The haves and the have-nots all had their own way of finding victory under any condition. Miyabi could not pull off the feats Onelife had demonstrated, but Onelife could not struggle as hard as Miyabi. People were not overwhelmingly powerful because they were superior and people were not obsessively persistent because they were inferior. Rock, paper, and scissors were all equal. This was no more than a person named Miyabi clashing with a person named Onelife. All of the preconceptions and added values were unnecessary.

A deafening crack shook the air.

It did not come from Miyabi’s fist.

Onelife’s metal fist had caught the boy’s cheekbone.

“Is…that…”

But there was no victorious grin on Onelife’s face.

He had landed the punch, but he was the one who looked struck.

Even after feeling the heavy blow to his cheekbone, the light in Miyabi Blackgarden’s eyes did not waver.

“Is that all you’ve got, pirate!?”

“Kh.”

This was the legendary pirate. The great man everyone admired.

Was his legend really this shallow?

The boy who should have been knocked out with the very first punch threw his other hand toward Onelife’s face.

It landed.

He was a child who didn’t know the first thing about martial arts, but Onelife’s pillar was definitely shaken.

“You’re the 11th? Defeat you and all our problems are in the past? You really expect me to believe that!!!???”

He shouted.

He roared.

Nothing he said could actually negate the damage done to his body. That one clean hit had dyed the right half of his vision an unnatural red.

But he kept going regardless.

Because there was no other way to reach this man.

“Everyone looked up to you as a pirate, so what would you gain by tricking Number 8 into setting up those sorcery bombs!? None of it fits, so no one would be satisfied with an answer like that!! You said it yourself. You did. You said a real man does his own fighting. So you’d never choose to hide a bomb no one can find and then flee to safety while the city is blown to hell!!!!!!”

More dull impacts rang out.

There was no room for Helen’s assassin techniques or Eliza’s expert warfighting skills.

It was 1-on-1.

For this moment only, the fate of the continent and the Wicked God horns didn’t even matter.

It was simply a battle between men.

“Show me.”

He was beaten and battered.

It was a hellish scene where the boy seemed to be further crushed the more he kept fighting.

Yet he did not fall back.

It was absurd, but it was puny Miyabi who pushed forward, still shouting and showing off his bloodstained teeth.

“Show me the real Onelife Shiftup, the pirate everyone looks up to!! Is the legendary pirate really someone who bites his tongue, clenches his teeth, and does some job someone forced onto him? Is that the true form of Onelife Shiftup who naturally gathers a crowd when he walks down the street, creating an impromptu parade!? Of course not. So please, I’m begging you! Look me in the eye and tell me to my face that isn’t who you are!!!”

He kept pushing.

Fist hit fist and he felt something inside him bending, but he ignored the pain and roared at close range.

A crew had gathered around this man, attracted to his way of life.

Others had unofficially worked, and even committed crimes, to protect the pirate.

Could he really be the cowardly 11th? Was that really how this journey ended? Could Miyabi shove all blame onto him, refused to listen to his side of the story, strike him down as the bad guy, and then return to first village to live happily ever after?

Why did that feel so wrong?

It had to be wrong.

Miyabi Blackgarden had to believe in this. If he could not prove that Onelife was the kind of pirate he was known to be, he would be stomping on all those people’s feelings! And if Miyabi let himself be defeated here, that was exactly what would happen!!

He had to believe.

He had to continue believing and find the true answer. He clenched his teeth to do exactly that.

Just once more. Just once.

As battered as he was, he could still clench his fist one last time!!

“Owaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Two fists flew in, compressing the air between them.

A dull sound erupted.

Silence fell.

The one left with a grin on his face was Onelife. Their fists had collided head on. Miyabi’s fist had embedded itself in the pirate’s prosthetic, but it had been flattened in that shape. Almost like a clump of clay thrown against a thick fortress wall.

Onelife had caught Miyabi’s fist on his thick, heavy prosthetic and mercilessly broken it. This was not about technique. There was no trick to avoiding it.

Miyabi had lost in the field of pure solid toughness.

“It’s over, boy. You can’t defeat me.”

“As an outlaw pirate, you must know a thing or two about guns and cannons, right? So it’s funny you overlooked this.”

But.

Something strange happened. The boy with the crushed fist had a cruel smile on his face.

Because…

“You don’t want a bullet that’s just hard and nothing else. Softer lead allows it to be crushed and transfer all of its force to its target. ”

Miyabi did not have a gun. Everything he knew about them came from Celina.

But that was no reason to fear every little thing.

He would use even the smallest and most trivial facts to take another step toward victory!!

After a short delay, a powerful force passed through the pirate’s prosthetic arm and entered his body through the shoulder.

Onelife teetered backwards and finally staggered back. His back plunged toward the damaged sealed container revealed through the ship’s broken hull. His great form was swallowed up by bursting sparks.

“You had no reason to attack Kananka and this island,” roared Miyabi, his crushed and badly bleeding fist still held out in front.

His eyes were directed dead ahead.

This was not over yet.

He could not call it a win until he saved this man. It was that conviction that kept him from collapsing no matter what happened.

“And the most unnatural element in all this is the 11th. What did they say to you!? What did they use to make you do this!?”

“What does it matter to you?”

“ Because I’ll do something about it. ”

He didn’t even need to think about it.

“So spill the beans and pass the baton to me!! I’ll fix it all for you!!!!!!”

Onelife’s giant body was shaking.

Miyabi’s attack had been powerful enough to crush his own fist, but it was unclear if it had actually affected the man.

But each of the boy’s attacks had pushed Onelife’s back against the Wicked God horn and all of its energy unleashed by the broken sealed container.

Each attack had exposed him to a shock so powerful an ordinary human – and even a powerful Beast Nova – could not have survived.

He had been knocked back, but it was only when something else inside him broke that he slowly opened his mouth.

“…”

The boy was reckless and foolish, but Onelife was defeated by the look in his eyes. As if to say that had wounded him far more than the fistfight or the sparks coming from the horn.

“Parasites…”

“?”

“My entire crew was infected…and the 11th is the only one who can heal them.”

“That’s more like it.”

That was a starting point.

Onelife had had no choice but to obey. He had clenched his teeth and done things that violated his principles, but he had been fighting all alone the entire time.

He was not the 11th. There was someone else pulling the strings.

Knowing that was enough. Those words brought new life to the boy’s half-broken soul. He had nearly sacrificed his own life for it, but now he was glad he had chosen this path.

This was enough fighting.

There was just one thing he had to say now. He owed it to this man for working up the courage to reveal the truth to him.

“Leave the rest to us. We’ll clean up this mess!!”

In that final moment, the one-eyed pirate smiled.

It was small, but nothing like the other smiles he had given.

“Boy!”

Someone tossed something to Miyabi from the side.

His battered hand caught the control sword that Alicia had thrown and he stabbed the tip into the beach. A large magic circle opened at his feet and he roared a command.

Everything was dyed white.

The King Knot pirate ship and the Mother Shark submarine were both blown to bits in two brilliant explosions when the Lucifer Horn’s beam hit them.

“D-do you think maybe you overdid it?” nervously asked Alicia.

“No, that blast only has him sleeping comfortably. Just all sprawled out there,” replied the exasperated radio.

The pirate was convulsing on the beach and looked unlikely to wake back up anytime soon.

Alicia finally turned back toward the redhead boy who had nearly been caught in the blast but was still sent rolling across the sand.

“Okay, boy, enough smiling and pretending you’re fine. Show me that hand you’re hiding behind your back! God, you really smashed that up good, and I don’t even know if I can make my usual White Sorcery Items with the different vegetation and ecosystem on this island!!”

“Miyabi, this might sound like a lecture from an old hag with stick up her butt, but this is actually a reward. You need to use the ears of your soul to translate this before her usual rebellious phase returns: ‘Oh, why must you always come home covered in mud? You are just hopeless, you know that?’ This world has no more need for towels! So before starting on dinner, fill your heart with her love and compassion and then join her in the bubble baaaaaaath!!”

The radio’s noisy nonsense got it stepped on by the complaining elf while she wrapped a special bandage around the boy’s broken fist. Helen approached, imbued her thick knife with magic, and transferred a purple light to him. But not because he was beyond saving and she wanted to put him out of his misery. She was actually applying some light paralysis magic to help him with the pain.

Eliza glanced over at them and rubbed her temples.

The chosen knight was looking down at the unconscious pirate.

“If only this man could have found a master he could serve. We need to ask him some questions, so how about we dump some water on him?”

Finding a metal bucket in this remote island kingdom would have been difficult, but they did find two empty halves of a coconut lying on the beach. Someone must have already removed the contents. Miyabi’s hand felt weird as it rapidly healed, but he used it to scoop up seawater in the coconut and approached Onelife. He had taken a lot of damage too, but Miyabi mercilessly dumped the water on the collapsed pirate’s face.

“Ugh…”

That was precisely when Kananka came to check on them, still favoring one leg.

“Hm, so is it over?”

“Kananka.”

“Relax, Miyabi. My kingdom has its own standards of propriety. We are not in the habit of beating someone who has already been punished and had a change of heart.”

Kanaka smiled a little. He may have been exasperated to see Miyabi trying to protect someone who had been his enemy just a moment before. But Kananka was little different since the pirate had also tried to destroy his kingdom.

“Our way is to welcome any who reach our shores as guests, remember?”

“…”

Onelife opened his eyes.

Young Kananka nodded and continued.

“I would like to know who our true enemy is. If you do not tell me that, I cannot punish this 11th person.”

“I don’t know when it happened.” The pirate remained on the ground, but the look on his face said this story was even more painful than his wounds. “But my beloved crew started collapsing one after another. I sought out academics, white sorcerers, and experts from the underground before finally learning it was caused by some parasites they had never seen before. But the back alley doctors available to criminals like us couldn’t do anything about it.”

Miyabi could use ordinary doctors and shops, so that was difficult for him to understand.

But someone had definitely suffered because of it.

“Only she could do it.”

“She?”

“She shamelessly called herself an expert.” Onelife gave a self-deprecating smile. “She said the target would show itself if I kept stealing imperial automatons. And if I dealt with that target in a specific way, she would remove the parasites from my crew… It’s silly really. I mean, she was obviously the one who gave them the parasites in the first place.”

“And who is this ‘she’!?”

“I don’t think anyone knows her real name.”

But that did not mean Onelife Shiftup had nothing to say.

“The Necromancer.”

That was her de facto name.

“She owns a Godhorn Tech and she uses forbidden necromancy.”

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 4

“That’s a mermaid!!”

“Mermaid flesh makes you immortal! Find her!!”

Charlotte Nightlagoon was on the run.

It was a small island and she had given herself human legs, so there were not many hiding spots for her. She needed to slip aboard a ship and leave the island before the islanders could organize a more thorough search.

“Pant, pant, goddammit. In what world do people surround you in order to eat you?”

She was crouched down and hiding behind a relatively thick portion of the island’s tropical forest.

That was when she heard a small child sobbing.

She clicked her tongue and frowned below her decorative eyepatch.

“Father,” cried the child.

She peered out from the thicket to see a brown boy who only came up to her hips rubbing his eyes and trudging along.

He looked like he had wandered around in search of the mermaid flesh until he was sick and tired of it.

“No, please don’t die, fatherrrr!!”

(God, really!?)

Eating mermaid flesh did not actually make you immortal. If it did, the mermaids would have stooped to cannibalism long before humans got into the mix. And Charlotte was not a selfless saint who was willing to offer up her own body over some silly superstition.

She wanted to run away.

She wanted to leave this island.

But.

“What choice do I have!?”

It was the middle of the night and Charlotte knew good and well she shouldn’t be doing this, but she snuck over anyway. This was the middle of the village, the most dangerous area for her.

She approached the building known as the House of the King and Spirits.

It was a king’s residence, yet it lacked walls. The king’s lifestyle was kept open to the people, tearing down any division between him and those people. That political system relied on the goodness of the people, which just felt dangerous to Charlotte, who was from the privileged class among mermaids. It did make her fond of the king, however.

Right now, a screen was placed around the bedroom area.

The islanders considered diseases to be unclean and used the screen to keep them from escaping. They were a strange group since humans knew nothing of microbes, despite using them to make delicious wines and cheeses, but she could tell they had woven the screen from the stems of plants they had learned through experience were excellent at disinfecting disease.

Charlotte spoke through the screen.

“You’ve gotten old.”

“…Is that you?”

“You really have gotten old if you can’t defeat such a minor disease.”

She heard a quiet breath of laughter.

He must not have been able to get up.

“I apologize on behalf of my people. Our silly superstitions have caused nothing but trouble for you here.”

“They’re only so desperate for the supposed immortality my flesh brings because they want to save you, right? They’re a good people. I can see how much they care for each other.”

“In my generation, anyway.”

“You think the next will be different?”

“Can I ask something of you?”

“I’ve had my fill of trouble, so-”

“Stay with my son, Kananka. He is still young and I am sure there will be trouble as his coronation approaches.”

“God, really!? You can’t just tell me what it is before I have a chance to refuse!!”

“Ha ha. I knew you would say that, so I made sure to get it out first.”

Another laugh was followed by a coughing fit.

The coughing was terribly wet, like fluid was building deep in his chest.

“I am not asking you to watch over him until he is an adult.”

“Yeah, the next king is gonna be super vulnerable. He might even be killed before he can grow up.”

“This is my son’s and my kingdom’s responsibility. I cannot keep you here long term. A king must know what his own destruction would mean and maintain the proper tension throughout his life. He must know how to protect himself. At the same time, he must be prepared to let the crown pass to the next generation sooner rather than later.”

“…”

“So my son must handle his official duties himself, but I want you to protect him outside of that. If he wants to leave the island and have some fun, go with him. I am not asking for an absolute oath or anything. Just remember your promise from time to time and stop by when it is convenient.”

“Hmph,” snorted Charlotte, a hand on her hip. “You have gotten old. Leaving me behind like this is bad enough, but you’re also forcing a young child onto the throne before he’s even learned how to make friends.”

“Shameful, I know.”

“But I know how serious you are about this. I guess that’s worth a favor or two.”

The bedridden king made one last request.

He could barely get out of bed anymore and his death was unavoidable at this point, but he had been waiting so very long for this one thing.

“Then how about just one more before I die?”

“Fine. One last song.”

A mermaid’s song could affect people’s mind.

So of course it could numb the pain in someone’s final moments.

“So you see, it’s really a touching story!! Ha ha!!”

“Ehhh!? We had a ton of newcomers this time, so why do you get all the focus!!!???”

### Profiles

Phobia Neverjudge

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 157cm

Only daughter of the Neverjudge Family, which accepts any job requiring an armed solution. They do bodyguard, rescue, kidnapping, and assassination jobs, all without asking too many questions. With the presence of Wicked Gods harming the Family’s reputation, she is working to slay the Wicked Gods herself. She has failed to discover the identity of the legendary assassin Shadow Crack and she suspects they are an elf, making them impossible to track down when viewing only the human side of the equation.

Eluné Jackpot

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 160cm

A gambler who constantly tests how far she can push her luck. After trying more and more crazy gambles, she has reached the point of seeing if she can survive a direct confrontation with a real Wicked God. When she speaks of luck, she includes how long it takes for her cheating to be discovered. Rumor has it she has even used her incredible luck to cheat her way into a contract with Under Lilith.

Cliff Blueforest

Apparent Age: 18 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 185cm

An elf knight who once risked his life binding a contract with Demon Lord Under Lilith to save his human lover from a deadly illness, successfully saving her life. As payment, all his memories of that lover were erased and he now travels the world in search of any proof that she lived a happy life. All elves of that forest use the surname Blueforest, so he and Alicia are not related.

Lillian Greenforest

Apparent Age: 18 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 162cm

One of the dark elves who were forced to scatter across the land after their sacred forest was destroyed. A ‘passive avenger’ who offers up her own body as a specimen for magical research to advance human military technology, hoping all the humans will kill each other with the results. She is searching for the alchemist named Holy Gate to advance humanity’s doomsday clock.

Onelife Shiftup

Age: 56

Sex: Male

Height: 200cm

The legendary pirate who once slayed a Wicked God with just the one arm, broke off its horn, and remade his own ship into a Godhorn Tech. His larger-than-life personality and refusal to sweat the small stuff gives him a powerful charisma. His popularity allows him as much notoriety as the entire Bodenburg Company that controls the criminal port city. He is more frightening when directly attacking with his prosthetic combat arm than when using a control device or Godhorn Tech.

Godhorn Tech Submarine: Mother Shark

Pilot: Kananka Fulpen

Affiliation: Fulpen Maknika Ocean Kingdom

Size (LxWxH): 60m x 30m x 11m

A submarine resembling a giant shark with the power to raise the ocean floor. By sending up the Shark Tooth reef below an enemy ship, it can sink even the most unsinkable warship. The legend of a great being fishing up islands for people to live on was remade into this weapon of war. Unbeatable at sea, but helpless once the enemy reaches the island it must protect. Motif: island creation myth.

Charlotte Nightlagoon

Apparent Age: 16 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 156cm

A tomboy who is well-known in the mermaid world(?). Taught herself how to make a magic potion to give herself legs so she could indulge in some wild partying on the surface. But she learned too late that she could no longer return to the ocean without her fishtail. While disguised as a pirate(?), she is searching for the unmatched alchemist named Holy Gate so she can acquire a magic potion to regain her original form.

Kananka Fulpen

Age: 12

Sex: Male

Height: 130cm

The young king who rules some islands far south of the continent after his father’s untimely death. Well-versed in a method of contacting spirits that differs from the continent’s magic, can sense coming changes in the weather and the natural environment, and is tasked with ensuring the island catches enough fish. Uses the Mother Shark Godhorn Tech to protect the islands he rules.

Godhorn Tech Pirate Ship: King Knot

Pilot: Onelife Shiftup

Size (LxWxH): 50m x 12m x 30m

A pirate ship that has mastered the use of talismans (automatically-consumed charms). The method of determining directions from the constellations has been expanded to fire that star power as a weapon. The weapons can only be charged at night, but they can imbue their shells with various elements: fire, water, wind, earth, light, shadow, etc. As a pirate, Onelife wanted the ability to respond to any national force sent to take him out. But since he has an extraordinary enough body to slay a Wicked God with nothing more than a cutlass, he only views the Godhorn Tech as support. Motif: talismans.

### 023. Chapter 6, Section 1

People can get used to anything.

Any who are no longer satisfied with one taboo will seek out even deeper depths.

The sky was colored a single uniform blue in a way it never was on the continent.

The small king made a suggestion after walking out to the island kingdom’s simple port made of no more than a few wooden docks lined up on the white beach.

“Now, I believe I will join your fight.”

“K-King Fulpen, shouldn’t you stay here and manage your kingdom?”

Helen Clockgear’s voice cracked when questioning the king, presumably because she was a government official. The Republic had no king, but she still had to understand the diplomatic value one held.

Kananka Fulpen smiled a little.

“My kingdom cannot find stability without first eliminating our primary concern. That means the Necromancer who is known as the 11th.”

“We appreciate the help, but are you sure? I thought you couldn’t trust your aides due to the confusion surrounding your coronation.”

“No pain, no gain,” he said smoothly. “Miyabi, could you try making a vague threat with your Godhorn Tech?”

Miyabi Blackgarden was confused, but he had the king’s permission. He took his control sword, which was a little short for a two-handed one, and stabbed it into the beach, producing a large magic circle.

He ordered the Lucifer Horn to attack an unoccupied point out in the ocean.

An extra-large bomb dropped and a pillar of fire burst skyward like a great tower attempting to reach heaven above.

The distant boom arrived after a short delay and large waves pushed in toward the beach.

Panicked voices could be heard coming from the direction of the village.

“Yikes, what now!?”

“Run, run away! I’ve had enough of this! Eek!!”

But these were not just ordinary people. Some well-to-do men rushed out of the forest, but when their eyes met Kananka’s, they collapsed backwards like they had run face-first into a solid wall. They scrambled backwards and then fled.

But that was not all.

“Are you okay, King Kananka!?”

“My intellect is at your service whenever you might need it.”

Others rushed out to see if the king was well.

Kananka sighed.

“As you can see, I do have some problems to deal with, but this has separated the wheat from the chaff. People’s loyalty and allegiance can be so hard to tease out, but this drew it out in a visible form for me. Frankly, I’m thankful. And this means my kingdom will be fine in my absence.”

“I see,” was all Miyabi said.

Then Onelife Shiftup lifted his sandy body from the beach.

“I will join you too. I betrayed the previous king’s ideal of a free ocean, so I need to make up for that no matter what it costs me.”

“Pirate, I need no excuses from you,” cut in Kananka. “You wanted to save your crew’s lives. You need not hide your motivations anymore. You clearly care a lot about them – enough to betray your own principles to save them – so a true king of the ocean must generously recognize the difficulty with which you made your decision. We must remove those parasites as soon as possible. No matter what. I will assist you, as a fellow resident of this free ocean.”

The king paused before addressing a crucial point he could not compromise on.

Young though he was, the king of the ocean’s words held great weight.

“But we must do it the right way – without giving in to the villain’s threats.”

“…”

The one-eyed pirate remained silent for a while.

Then he slowly bowed his head.

“I am in your debt.”

“Okay, next up is Number 8,” said Miyabi. “We have plenty of magical automaton parts after destroying so many of them, so let’s fix up that butler and hear what he has to say.”

“Oh?” Celina Bodenburg put a hand on her hip. “You mean we aren’t pursuing that necromancer who muscles-for-brains here mentioned?”

“We are, but we might have missed something or had a misunderstanding. It’s happened before, remember? It isn’t uncommon to find you were making an incorrect assumption somewhere along the line.” The redhead boy sighed. “I made a huge mistake there with Moebius and this enemy is clearly acting maliciously. I want to avoid any chance of being caught unawares. Besides, a nickname like the Necromancer isn’t much to go on, so it would be best to hear what Number 8 has to say and compare that with the rest of our info.”

“Then are we headed to the criminal city? We left that automaton in an inn room.”

Once out at sea, they found a few ships remaining among the Godhorn Tech wreckage. They could return to the city on one of those.

The ocean journey back took a few days and Miyabi spent the entire time receiving intensive care from Doctor Alicia.

“Agh!? Ow ow ow ow ow ow!!”

“Pipe down, boy. The hand is a delicate part of the skeleton because of all the nerves and joints, so you can’t just wrap it in a magic bandage and call it a day. And when you smash it up this good, it requires some thorough treatment. It’s a good thing the sailors brought so much rum with them, since I can use it for sorcery medicine. If I couldn’t create some White Sorcery Items with my alchemy, you might have forever lost use of your dominant hand!!”

“Y-you aren’t making it hurt on purposhe?”

“This is me being extremely gentle This would normally be so painful you’d die mid-treatment, you fool!”

The sailors paled as they heard screams worse than someone having a dentist work at their cavity all day long, but Alicia Blueforest’s skill was the real deal. And she apparently did not get seasick when she had something to focus on.

By the time the large sailing ship arrived at the criminal city’s port, he had recovered enough to eat with a knife and fork like normal. Something inside his hand still felt off when he clenched a fist too tightly, but it was a miracle that was the only problem left.

Kananka took a curious look around the lively city of stone and metal. All while his small hand clung to Miyabi’s coat.

Celina must have been happy she was back in her hometown because she raised her arms and stretched (with that dangerous rifle still in hand).

“Nhhh… Okay, let’s go repair Number 8.”

They had left the automaton in that sketchy inn, but it was gone once they arrived.

Not Number 8.

The entire inn had been shut down by the authorities.

“Wait, wait, Rudolf? What is the meaning of this?”

The criminal city had no knights or guards. Instead, the Bodenburg Company’s private soldiers kept the peace. For businesses purposes, of course.

“Oh, milady?”

“Huh? If it isn’t Lady Celina!”

Those private soldiers were resting some rather unique weapons on their shoulders. They were thicker than Celina’s flintlock rifle and the barrel was large enough to fit your arm inside. They appeared to be designed to launch gas bombs when they were being peaceful and regular bombs when they were not. They were dragoons, equipped with armor and guns, and they responded in slight surprise when they heard the girl’s voice. They quickly pulled on their horses’ reins to clear the way for her. Their equipment looked scary, but they spoke and acted more like maids and butlers.

As the richest girl on the continent, Celina accepted the special treatment like it was normal. If anything, she acted like they were not treating her well enough.

It turned out dragoons were a high-speed mounted firing unit armed with guns, not legendary aerial knights that rode wyverns and wielded giant spears. This revelation shattered Miyabi’s dreams, earning him a silent and sympathetic pat on the shoulder from Eliza Silverstorm. She had always wanted to be a knight and chosen to serve in the castle, so she may have gone through much the same thing in the past.

The old butler commanding the private soldiers spoke to them with a smile.

“Oh, back already, milady? We value any and all opportunities in this city, so you know what it means when we are forced to make an exception and shut someone down, don’t you?”

“They took it too far?”

“In a world unbound by order, those who cannot judge the boundaries of acceptable behavior must be ruthlessly eliminated. Simply put, a grown adult should have known better. Oh, yes. The prizes the innkeeper had collected are being gathered over there.”

This had turned into a lot of trouble.

They took a peek behind the inn and it was a mess. Weapons, jewels, mystery vases, and strange paintings were piled up everywhere. There was even a rainbow-colored cat in a cage and a tearful and trembling girl with a collar around her neck, but where they part of the “prizes” too?

Celina clicked her tongue.

“The slave trade. Now I see why Rudolf decided to make an exception here.”

“Hmph,” snorted Eliza. “Even I have figured out what kind of establishment that Bubble Bath Paradise is. This criminal city is lined with brothels and indecent theatres, so I hardly see how this is that much worse.”

“Hey, what are you all talking about?”

Miyabi tried to join in, but Big Sis Helen grabbed his head in one hand and dragged him away.

Celina shrugged at Eliza’s accusation.

“We value and any all opportunities people might use to enrich themselves. Knocking on the front door and asking for a job is a very different thing from being kicked in through the front door and forced to take a job.”

“You guarantee people the opportunity to get addicted to the nightlife and gambling, you guarantee them the opportunity to drown themselves in debt, and you guarantee them the opportunity to try and pay it back with absurd levels of interest?”

“Everyone dreams of an opportunity with no risk involved, but that’s as hard to come by as the secret to everlasting life. Not even the Empire’s emperor managed to find that one, so he was destroyed in the end, remember?”

“…”

“My company is not a non-profit charity and we are not kind enough to look after the people who ruined their lives with their own reckless decisions. But this girl is a different matter. No one should suffer for someone else’s debt. In our way of life, everyone should be given the same opportunities, regardless of bloodline or birthplace. …Rudolf! Give her a hot shower and a warm meal. If she has no family – or none she can trust – then hire her on. At least until she is in a position to find a path for herself.”

The old butler gave her a warning first.

“This will increase your expenses again .”

“True, but this is worth the expense. I am buying her the opportunity to live her own life.”

Rudolf reacted with a troubled frown, but he could not hide his enjoyment. Celina had just said no one should carry someone else’s debt, yet she had immediately decided this was not a wasted expense. She knew money could protect people’s lives and that did not just apply to her own life.

Among the prizes, they found the magical automaton seated against a wall.

The repair process was going to make a lot of noise, so they may not have been able to do it in the original inn room anyway.

But what were they to do now?

He looked just like a human, so working at him out on the street would cause a commotion. People might think they were mutilating a corpse, or someone might try to steal him after recognizing him as one of the special automatons who directly served the emperor.

They heard a voice from the side.

In fact, it was a woman’s scream.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!? Wh-what are you- what is that limp thing!? Are you carrying a corpse around!?”

“Miyabi, we have trouble.”

Eliza, who was carrying deactivated Number 8 on her back, was too direct in her response and only assisted the misunderstanding.

The stranger continued shouting.

“Oh, no, no, no, no! Am I a witness now!? Am I going to be erased!? Am I going to end up dumped in the ocean or closed up in a wall!?”

Ideally, she would have run away, but she instead fell flat on her butt.

Who was she anyway?

She was a young woman with short, curly hair, but her clothing was highly unusual. Her chest and hips had only triangles of cloth or armor covering them. Other than that…would you call it a cape? Decorative items resembling a giant butterfly or a large belt were draped down from the back of her neck. She did have parts on her arms and legs that looked like leather armor, but the much more important head and torso were left bare. Her healthy navel and thighs left Miyabi unsure where to look.

Celina gave her a skeptical look.

“That’s not a swimsuit. Not even I have ever seen true bikini armor before. Do you fight in the battle arena that’s all about show business these days?”

“Hweh?” Still on her butt, the young woman blinked a while before coming back to her senses. “Ah!? Yes, yes, I am! Ah ha ha!! I am Queen Cate Tornadodancer, the strongest in the land. Your luck ran out the moment you ran across me, because I can slay bears and tigers with ease. I-i-i-if you don’t want to throw your lives away, I recommend turning yourselves in!!”

She still had not gotten up from the ground.

Her thighs were trembling so much she looked like she would piss herself if someone snuck from behind and shouted boo, so even Miyabi was feeling awkward.

“Um, is she serious?”

“I think she is, yes.” Celina held a hand to her forehead. “I said it’s all about show business, didn’t I? It’s all overly revealing costumes, oversized weapons, and flashy attacks. I doubt she could defeat a single bandit in a real battle.”

“N-not true! I can slay bears and tigers!!”

“Yeah, arena animals that have been tamed, defanged, declawed, and drugged until their muscles barely support them anymore. A pretty clear-cut and severe case of animal abuse if you ask me, but no one questions it when it has history and tradition behind it.”

“B-but…”

The trembling crossed a certain line and she practically exploded.

“Wahhhhhhhhhhhh!! That’s not true! I really, really am the strongest in the land!!”

“Yikes, now she’s crying!? But she’s older than me!!!!!!”

“Miyabi, she’s gathering attention. Find a way to silence her!!” said always dry Kananka, showing no mercy.

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the ground and the magic circle appeared.

“Lucifer Horn!! Bring her some warm milk and a blanket!!”

The sobbing arena queen was whisked away by a wire.

The Godhorn Tech must not have understood such high-level instructions.

They had to fix Number 8, but they wanted to avoid any further commotion.

However, Celina was not the only one who called the criminal city home. Onelife had built up trust there from the bottom up.

“A lot of people come and go here, so unoccupied houses are pretty common. Yes, you should be able to work in one of those without being interrupted.”

“Why does a pirate know so much about empty houses on land?”

“Gah hah hah. Because I tend to find myself in one of them when I wake up after a bender. Good life lesson for you: stay away from the cheap bourbon they’ve switched the label on. I do sometimes end up in a house someone’s living in, though. Gah hah hah hah!!”

That he could make such a defenseless fool of himself and yet had never been turned over to the private soldiers who protected the peace (or what passed for peace under the giant company’s rule) showed just how much the people here adored him. Miss Celina looked unsure how to feel about that.

However, the magical automaton was indistinguishable from a human at a glance, so working on it as a group might get those soldiers called on them.

The eyepatch man was right.

As they walked down the road, they saw a lot of buildings with no nameplate out front. It was a strange idea for Miyabi who had lived in the same house in the same village all his life, but people frequently came and went here and the resident of a particular house would change a lot. And in between occupants, they would sit empty.

Alicia restlessly held swimsuit Alma close.

“But we don’t have the key. Are we just going to break a window?”

“Now that would gather attention. Oh, dear. Do I really have to reveal this skill?”

Helen mumbled to herself, but Miyabi never actually saw what she did. She made some swift and silent movement of her fingers and then turned the knob to open the main entrance. The entire process took less than 3 seconds, so it almost looked like it had never been locked at all.

Eliza and Onelife quickly checked all the rooms, but there was no sign of delinquent boys or squatters.

Onelife gave the ponytail girl a surprised look.

“You’ve done this before. I wouldn’t have pegged you as the type for this sort of work.”

“I will explain if we have the chance, but I do not have a clean past. I did a lot of dirty work for my kingdom.”

When Miyabi entered, carrying Number 8’s unmoving form, he found the place was really dusty. The walls were thin, but that barrier seemed to cut them off from the hustle and bustle of the city. Although it felt more like a mysterious mystical barrier than a warm living space.

The building itself had to be about the same size as his own home, but it felt a lot larger. Maybe because it had no furniture.

With no sofa or bed, they had to wipe the dust from the floor and lay the automaton there.

“He is a complicated mechanism, so we should get the dust out of the air as well.”

Clean freak Celina cast a room cleaning magic used in clinics and the like, altering the quality of the air.

They needed a toolbox, an automaton’s gears and cylinders, and several more odds and ends necessary for the work. After some rummaging around, they had a thick pair of pliers, a manual drill, and more lined up on the floor. The radio hanging from Alicia’s neck could not help but comment.

“Yeah, you couldn’t let anyone see this. If someone took a peek in the window, they’d assume you were torturing someone or chopping up the body before dumping it out at sea.”

Number 8.

Miyabi finally got to work on that butler.

“So this goes here…”

“Are you sure that’s right?” asked Alicia.

“Hm!?” groaned Kananka as he helped. “T-this part opens?”

They had the spare parts, but they did not have an accurate blueprint since the Empire that had manufactured him was gone. Without Alicia and Celina’s knowledge of alchemy and Onelife’s experience remaking an imperial automaton arm into a prosthetic for himself, they would have been completely lost. They followed their general predictions to find and replace the necessary pieces that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

“That should be everything,” said Miyabi after shutting a cover.

“Nothing’s happening, though?”

Kananka tilted his head, but the muscular pirate flexed his bicep.

“Nhhh! Nothing like a solid blow to fix a faulty contraption! Go for it!!”

Afraid Onelife would knock Number 8’s head clean off, Miyabi struck the automaton himself. He remembered how Celina had asked him to hit the communicator back on her armored train, so this may have been a ritual for operating machines.

“You savages!” howled the radio. “You actually did it!”

“Compatible parts detected…checking connection. Wiring is in working order.”

“Ahhh, don’t prove them right, you smarty pants robot! Now they’ll think they can treat me that way!”

The philosopher’s stone lamented, but Onelife roared with laughter.

“Gwa ha ha ha! You don’t live with a prosthetic arm this long without picking up a trick or two!”

“H-he’s moving?”

Eliza grew cautious, but young Kananka actually stepped forward.

“How very strange. He is inorganic, yet I sense a pressure much like the spirits.”

Miyabi was coming to understand that “the spirits” was a general term for all unseen powers in the boy’s remote island kingdom. The Empire that built the magical automaton likely had a different name for it.

At any rate, something was circulating within the artificial body and Number 8 opened his eyes once more.

“I want to see if you’re functioning now, but this might be hard for you,” said Miyabi.

“What did you have in mind?” asked the prone automaton.

“Tell me. What happened to your Empire?”

“…”

Silence followed.

This had not worked last time, so tension ran through the others.

But…

“It has been destroyed. Along with the last emperor’s corpse.”

“Phew.”

Helen breathed a sigh of relief and Number 8 slowly sat up on the floor, causing his long bangs to sway.

The hidden half of his face was revealed, showing the cracks spreading where his eye had once been. Countless gears of varying sizes could be seen within.

Common parts like the gears and springs could be replaced, but using generic parts for something as distinctive as his face would give him a weird, patchwork look. So they had left his face untouched.

Miyabi chose to apologize.

“I’m sorry for making you remember something so painful.”

“That is not your fault.”

“Then can you tell us what you did? What role did the 11th – the Necromancer – play?”

More silence.

But the response came much more smoothly this time.

“The Necromancer was originally a guest magical researcher in the Empire. She is a woman age…25 in the current year. Her real name is unknown. She did not care much what other people thought of her, but she did seem aware that she had earned a lot of grudges. I have heard she came from the wealthy class in a small kingdom beyond the reach of imperial law, but on the Empire’s border. That could be entirely false of course, but her facial features and wavy hair do match those of the people in the central inland region. She was known for her rude behavior, but it was a rudeness that understood proper etiquette enough to intentionally break the rules.”

“Wealthy?” Celina sounded truly disgusted. “And necromancy too? Yeah, people tend to pick up the worst hobbies when they have more money and time than they know what to do with.”

Everyone gave the rich girl quite a look, but she did not seem to notice.

Number 8 continued in his cold way.

“She seemed to want people to view her as a pure academic, but unlike a self-proclaimed expert with only superficial knowledge, she definitely has real knowledge and skills. She is a top-class intellectual. Admittedly, the Empire specialized more in inorganic research, but none of our seven universities had anyone with more expertise in the subject of life and death. However, she is severely lacking in the moral compass required to use such specialized technology.”

“That’s always the case with the rich and their hobbies.”

Celina came from the Bodenburg Company which had created its own position through business success, so she may have been wary of the aristocracy whose position, honor, and money were all hereditary.

Eliza, who served a king, and Kananka, who was a king himself, both breathed exasperated sighs.

Number 8 continued.

“Once she lost the Empire’s protection, I have heard she abandoned her home and fortune to live free out in- wihhh!”

“Wh-what!?”

An earsplitting noise led Miyabi to cover his ears and cry out, but Number 8 did not answer. They heard a commotion outside, so they were forced to hide in the bathroom and ashless fireplace.

They waited there a while.

Fortunately, no one was curious enough to open the door and take a look inside. Since Celina had used room cleaning magic to clear out all the dust, it was likely they would have noticed something was amiss even if they did not immediately spot the hiding people.

“What just happened?”

“Sh. Something isn’t right.”

Celina, who was curled up like a cat in the fireplace alongside Miyabi, was right. Number 8’s lips were moving as mechanically as ever, but his voice was not forming human language.

“Ywah, ghhhghghghgh!”

“See? This is why you don’t hit machines,” said the radio.

Onelife tapped the back of his thick neck with his giant cutlass.

“Won’t hitting him again fix him?”

“Yes, best to strike while the iron is hot,” agreed Eliza, pulling out her control lance.

“What is wrong with you!?” wailed the philosopher’s stone.

After several loud sounds indicating a severe misuse of such a fine craftsmanship, Number 8’s voice returned.

“Ywahghghgh…hm, that seems to have done the trick. Thank you.”

“They keep learning the wrong lesson here. I dread to think what they’ll do to me now…”

The radio was concerned, but Celina wanted to get the conversation moving.

“But how did the Necromancer deceive you? Wouldn’t she need to approach you in advance to pretend she was the emperor?”

“She said she could bring back the dead emperor using her necromancy.”

That was a powerful statement.

Number 8 was as expressionless as ever, but the face behind his black bangs seemed to radiate self-deprecation.

“But my memories of the emperor’s appearance have faded so much.”

So the 11th had performed a phony ceremony and appeared to Number 8 again, shamelessly claiming to be the resurrected emperor. That allowed her to change her role from necromancer to emperor.

The long exposure to that extreme environment had damaged the automaton’s recognition to the point that he had fallen for the deception. No, it was not just a mechanical issue. After waiting for so long in that too-pure red world, even that butler would have been desperate for any hope at all. So as miraculous as it had seemed, he had leaped at the chance to once more kneel and bow his head before his master.

The 11th had taken advantage of that vulnerability with a sneer on her face. She had commanded him to set up sorcery bombs, all while sticking her tongue out when he had his back turned.

“She’s a monster,” groaned Miyabi.

The butler automaton slowly stood from the floor and made a request.

“I would like to accompany you.” He was clear and to the point. “She resides in the Bio Rainforest to the east, but that is a dangerous place. That deep forest is much too large to cross without a plan, but I should be able to guide you since I worked with her for a while.”

They stayed in the empty house for that day.

They got some rest to recover from their sea journey and to make sure Number 8 really was in working order again.

The redhead boy was clenching and unclenching his dominant hand while lying on the hard wooden floor.

(It seems fine.)

They were leaving the following morning.

Since this house did not belong to them and was not an inn, they had an extra task to complete before they left.

They had to remove all trace of their stay.

“Even if it’s empty, someone still owns it, right?” said Miyabi. “Yet here we are staying without permission. The criminal city really has gotten to us, hasn’t it?”

“We fixed the leaky roof and exterminated a swarm of Leftovers Flies bigger than a baby, so this was a good deed, really,” insisted Alicia. “Ugh, I didn’t realize the city had its own unique monsters. Gross.”

Making excuses to justify your crimes seemed like the first step toward a life of crime to Miyabi.

After leaving the criminal city, they traveled east.

The magical automaton spoke while walking along the open plains with a uniform pace.

“The Necromancer has a lab in the Bio Rainforest on the continent’s eastern side. An unofficial one with no national affiliation. We should reach it if we travel northeast from here.”

“I’m amazed there’s an actual road to that forest,” commented Miyabi.

The bumpy stone-paved road was partially pushed up by the powerful undergrowth. Eventually, the boy noticed someone he recognized up ahead.

“Huh? Is that that dancer with the bare midriff?”

“Is that how you remembered me, boy? The name is Iris. Iris Tempinvy.”

A slim woman with a midriff-baring blue dress and a long silver braid turned back toward him. She had arrived in the first village’s pub and ended up frequenting the clinic to look after injured Moebius, so what was she doing out here?

She smiled and clasped her hands together in front of her jiggling chest.

“I can’t believe my luck. I thought the Bio Rainforest was my only option left for continuing my recovery magic research, but now I run into some of his friends. Now, now. Where might Moebius Entrance be?☆ Spill the beans so I can nab him and drag him back to that clinic.”

“O-ohh…”

Miyabi was unsure what good a dancer was in battle or on an adventure, but the more party members the better, right?

He drew his control sword and stabbed it into the ground, opening a magic circle at his feet.

“I’ll send you to Horn Fortress. That’s where Moebius is.”

“Ah ha ha! I’m coming, my guinea pig! Don’t think you can escape my research and experimentation that easily!!”

The dancer may have been the bravest of them all because she actually grabbed onto the wire herself and let it carry her away. She made it look a lot like the trapeze at the circus that had visited his village a while back.

Helen Clockgear stared off into the distance.

“W-wait… If you kept Iris here, she could have done all the sexy infiltration work.”

“Hm, so you’re aware that work is entirely reliant on being sexy, are you?” asked Alicia. “Anyway, the terms like ‘guinea pig’ and ‘experimentation’ give me a bad feeling about her.”

Also, what did the Bio Rainforest have to do with recovery magic research?

There was only one way to find the answer to that: visit the forest for themselves.

This area was relatively warm and the scenery was colored by rolling green hills and blue streams. There was even a stone-paved road, even if it was a bit bumpy due to poor maintenance. Young Kananka occasionally rubbed his body chillily since he was still used to his tropical kingdom. What would he think if he saw the blizzards of the Arsenal Kingdom?

Number 8 spoke up while walking alongside Miyabi.

“Here is a water bottle, Miyabi. You need to stay hydrated.”

“Thanks.”

“Your hair is a mess. I will fix it for you.”

“Th-thanks?”

“Is there anything else I can do for you? No, I am at fault for failing to find anything more myself. Surely I can come up with something.”

“…”

As his (very curvy) teacher, Helen cut in between the two of them.

“S-stop spoiling my Miyabi right this instant! He can be lazy enough as it is!!”

“But I was designed and manufactured to be a butler.” The former imperial servant was unfazed. “I have no intention of rejecting the ideas any of you have about yourselves, but I excel at giving advice concerning preexisting problems.”

“I see. So you’re like a GPS or AI speaker.”

The radio hanging from Alicia’s neck accepted that, but Miyabi didn’t get it at all.

“Hm? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“People have their fortune told because there is something they want to learn about, such as their finances or love life, correct? Don’t the system and tools used – cards, crystal balls, etc. – differ depending on what you want to know? Magical automatons are similar. Just tell me what it is you want from me.”

Helen pouted her lips, still clinging to Miyabi.

She understood Number 8’s position, but she also wanted to avoid the butler’s endless spoiling turning Miyabi into a lazybones who never got up off his ass. The conflict was plain to see on her face.

Miyabi tilted his head.

“So what exactly do you want from me, Number 8?”

“Well, if I could have it my way…yes, I want you to corner me by the wall, slam your hand against the wall right next to my head, and speak the magic words: ‘You belong to me now’.”

“Just how overconfident and arrogant was your emperor!?” asked Helen.

“He went around calling himself an emperor. What did you expect?” said Alicia.

“A Kabe-Don and a demanding attitude? A bit retro, but I guess these are the tastes of a ruined empire.”

The radio was unsure how to judge this one.

Their journey continued smoothly for a while, but that all fell apart once they reached a certain point.

The temperature and humidity skyrocketed.

The colors black and purple became their entire world.

“Ugh!?”

The nature-loving elf held a hand to her mouth and groaned.

They had entered a deep, deep forest.

The trees were more like the tropical ones in Kananka’s island kingdom than the ones in the Blue Forest where Miyabi lived. However, this one had something the tropical forest had not. The entire place had a thin layer of water over it and thick roots spread out through that water like great serpents. The trees were growing on the water instead of the soil.

However…

“Stagnant water, a strange ecosystem, and rotting trees… This isn’t just the forest weeping, it’s like the forest is a zombie begging for a death it can never have. I can’t stand this place!!”

Alicia Blueforest had lived among the greenery all her life, so she had tears in her eyes here.

The poorly maintained road vanished altogether once they entered the forest.

Tree roots and a mysterious dark water took its place.

The water that came up to their ankles was colored black and purple and the concentration was far from even. The more concentrated areas had formed a purple film on top, similar to hot milk. They wanted to avoid touching the filthy water if at all possible, but that extra-concentrated film looked like it would eat their foot down to the bone if they carelessly stepped in it.

“Celina, can your filter handle this if you use your purification magic alongside it?”

“I would have to throw out the entire filter.”

Soaking up that water must have affected the trees because the leaves overhead were colored bright red, light blue, and other colors. Different branches growing from the same tree would have different colors of leaves growing from them. The red and yellow just looked dried up, but what had they absorbed to create those toxic pinks and blues? The trunks and branches had what looked like human faces covering them. Miyabi leaned in close to get a better look and found those were some kind of enormous moss. The trunks were coated in moss, plants and vines tangled around them, and they all absorbed each other’s nutrients. The soil was too weak to support them all, so the half-rotting plants had to leech off of each other for what little nutrients remained.

The weak would die off in this world.

That was the way of life anywhere in nature, so why did it appear so much more sinister here?

Everything was so wet and soft.

It was so bad Miyabi feared he would sink in and never again escape if he tried leaning against a tree.

Helen could hardly believe her eyes either.

“This is the Baboulas Rondo Bio Rainforest. The rich never could build any villas here because the tree roots were too strong, but it was supposed to be a beautiful forest where a mangrove enveloped the ruins of a megalithic culture. When did it turn into this?”

The dark, stagnant water reached their ankles and the serpentine tree roots were tangled around the stone ruins sitting in that filthy water. There was a nearly trapezoidal stone building, a circular plaza, and a giant face of unclear purpose. All the many ruins were dissolving away. A wet sound inexplicably came from within the thick tree trunks. Miyabi could not even guess what kind of animals lived here.

Celina held a hand over her mouth.

“Urp… I should have asked Rudolf for more detailed geographical information.”

“What, do you do business out here? With who?”

“Miyabi, pass north through the Bio Rainforest and you reach a desert nation. But thanks to the trees, ruins, water, and roots getting in the way, all of our shipping routes – including the Schwarz Schütze – took a detour around the forest. That may be why it took us so long to notice something was wrong.”

The situation here may have been even worse than the ruined Empire covered in red dust.

Celina grew even paler.

“But I can see why it would be a bad idea to walk around at random searching for the Necromancer. We would probably die long before finding her.”

They heard a dull splashing sound and Helen looked over in that direction before immediately going pale.

“U-um, there’s some kind of fish in that shallow water, isn’t there? I didn’t get a good look because the water is so dark, but I didn’t like the look of it one bit!”

On closer inspection, the thick tree root contacting the sticky water there had a bite mark in it. As if to say this was something’s territory. And that location would be difficult for any land animal to get at.

“P-please tell me we’re not talking about teeth so sharp they can take off our toes if we’re not careful!”

“A fish? Something like my kingdom’s freshwater Steel Piranhas wouldn’t be so bad.” Kananka looked reluctant to explain this. “But we need to hope it isn’t anything like the Bloody Candiru. See, they use an insta-kill attack where they sneak up on their target and charge straight toward a fish’s gills or a land animal’s crotch. And they can jump from the water, so lifting your hips out won’t save you. Their fins act like the barb on a fishing hook, so once they’re inside, there is no removing them. The occasional tourist who isn’t aware of the danger ends up with one right up their butt.”

“M-M-Miyabi, isn’t there anything we can do!? I demand you come up with a fundamental solution right this instant!”

Miyabi was plenty afraid of the creepy opaque water himself. He didn’t know the first thing about necromancy, but he had no desire to scoop up and drink something with that color.

“We can have Number 8 guide us and we need to stay out of the water. We can walk on the roots, driftwood, large lotus leaves, and stone ruins. Really, anything that’s sticking out of the water should be safer.”

“I just hope it all forms a convenient path to where we need to go.”

Kananka’s concern was valid.

And when nature did not provide them with a path, they had to make one themselves.

“Gwohhhhh!!!!!!”

They used Onelife’s brute strength to break down a rotting tree at the base, creating a makeshift bridge. Alicia actually looked relieved when she saw the tree felled by those powerful arms. She may have seen it as putting the tree out of its misery.

But even with all that, the journey was far from safe.

“Yikes.” Helen paled. “I’m afraid I’ll slip on that wet log or my foot will break right through the rotting wood.”

“Whoever loses a game of rock-paper-scissors can go first and test it for us.”

Number 8 ignored the cowardly humans’ complaints and crossed the bridge without batting an eye.

He moved with such purpose none of them had time to stop him.

“Magical automatons are immune to toxins, so I should be the one to test such things.”

“That’s a dangerous way of thinking. I bet that’s what led the Empire to its doom.”

Miyabi viewed the polluted area next to them as they cautiously crossed over after Number 8.

“We might have no choice but to step in that filthy water at some point, right?” he said to Kananka directly behind him.

“?”

“You see the patches of oily film? The purple ones, I mean. It would be best to avoid those.”

Miyabi was proven right once they had crossed the log bridge.

As soon as a falling leaf touched a patch of film that looked 100 times grosser than the film atop hot milk, it was enveloped and melted away with a sizzling sound.

“The water below those purple patches is so dark I’m afraid we would overlook one.”

“Carry a long stick and poke around ahead of you while you walk. If it starts to smoke and dissolve, don’t go that way.”

No one laughed at Miyabi’s suggestion.

The Necromancer had apparently built a base inside this deep forest in search of a sort of freedom different from what the criminal city offered…but all of this was only the side effects. What in the world was she researching in the depths of this forest? And how did a single person manage to distort an entire region so thoroughly?

They could see why the Necromancer had chosen a magical automaton like Number 8. His malfunctions had made it easier to deceive him, but he had also needed to travel through this forest. No normal person could manage that.

The butler automaton was the only one who did not look concerned.

“This way,” he said.

Rain as warm as blood began to fall.

Miyabi Blackgarden could not tell if this would wash away some of the black and purple filth or if it was even more dangerous.

He suddenly realized Alma had transformed again.

The creature was colored white with the horn sticking further out from its forehead than ever before. Alicia said this was a unicorn form.

“Alma doesn’t even come up to our knees, so this filthy water is a matter of life or death. This form must be better for purifying the filth. Ohh, don’t you worry, Alma! I’ll carry you the entire way!!”

Number 8 had worked with the Necromancer before, so he guided them through the Bio Rainforest full of toxins, mangroves, and stone ruins. The surface of the filthy water would occasionally part in the distance and a toxic-colored carnivorous fish would leap straight up. Maybe they were eating bugs flying near the water, but maybe they were showing off their ability to kill Miyabi’s party.

A distant look came over Kananka when he saw a wriggling fish that resembled a loach.

“Aaaand there’s a Bloody Candiru. Hard to believe they’re a type of catfish. And this one is a good bit larger than the ones in my kingdom’s freshwater. It looks 50cm, which is more than enough to destroy a human down there.”

“Eek!? I-i-i-is it going to lock onto us from below!?”

“I can see a freshwater Needle Fish too. Those react to reflective objects and can punch right through armor.”

Meanwhile, they heard some movement.

But this time it was not from the water. The rustling of leaves meant something was approaching on land. Celina jumped and grabbed onto Miyabi.

“Kyah!? Wh-what now!? Is one of the Necromancer’s gross experiments attacking!?”

“Miyabi, restrain that idiot! It’s a person! Don’t let her shoot them!!”

Eliza’s sharp command surprised even Miyabi.

A person?

Skeptical, he looked over and found it was true. A man was peering out from the entrance to one of the stone ruins half-buried in tree roots. The rustling came from the vines hanging down over the entrance. The middle-aged man wore filthy rags and his hair and facial hair were a mess.

On closer inspection, the ruins were larger than Miyabi’s home. The structure was built a level up from the water, keeping the black and purple water and its carnivorous fish and turtles out. The strange plants did not appear to be growing inside the stone ruins either.

But what was someone doing here?

Helen groaned when she saw the chest of his rags.

“The Elder Art Research Institute. That practical research institute is the best in the field of extreme environment biology. What is one of those magical elites doing in this rotting forest?”

“Because he is a former elite, I assume. Take a look around.”

Alicia gestured over with her chin.

He was not alone. Several more gazes focused on Miyabi’s party from the other stone ruins, from the branches overhead, or from hollows in the trees. They created the tense atmosphere of an exclusionary village facing outsiders.

Yes.

These were not travelers. This was clearly their territory and they lived here.

“E-eek!? I-I’m not causing anyone any trouble. That’s why I came to this forest in the first place! Mumble, mumble…no, now isn’t the time to see if they know anything about the Missing Dice. Hee hee hee hee!!”

A suspicious man was staring at them from the entrance to a nearly trapezoidal stone structure, but he did not seem to be speaking to them.

“Are they working for the Necromancer?”

Helen was wary, but that did not seem to be the case.

A stir surrounded Miyabi’s party.

“Leave us alone. We just want the freedom to do what we want. We don’t care about you, so just leave us be.”

“We’re not interested in necromancy. This forest is now a market of unspeakable research. You want to know what I’m doing here? What part of unspeakable didn’t you get?”

Miyabi felt like he had a vague understanding of this place. The rotting forest felt like it was taking years off his life every time he took a breath, but there were people who found it much more comfortable than anywhere else in the world.

Former elites.

Academics shunned for their research.

This was their final sanctuary. They were willing to sacrifice years off their life for every minute or second they could get to make progress on their research. The Necromancer’s violence may have looked like a sort of independence movement to them. Miyabi took another look around the contaminated forest.

“None of them care what’s happening around them.”

“A lot of them have never even seen the Necromancer,” flatly said Number 8. “They are just using each other. It is more like mutual parasitism than a commune.”

What had the dancer named Iris said when they ran across her on the way here? The Bio Rainforest was her only option left for continuing her recovery magic research.

When intellectual pursuits hit a dead end, they ended up here.

There were indeed people who were drawn to the rotting forest as a comfortable place for them. And they were all geniuses much smarter than Miyabi.

Kananka held his aching head.

“This forest is unbelievable. The pressure is running wild, but this isn’t the spirits.”

“M-most of the continent isn’t like this! There are plenty of beautiful places!!”

Afraid of causing a diplomatic problem, Eliza frantically started listing the continent’s better features.

The temperature was bad and the humidity worse. Celina wiped off her brow with a handkerchief and looked resentfully up at the blood-warm rain.

“I kind of excepted the Necromancer to be alone.”

Number 8 fielded that one.

“Mages in every taboo field imaginable gather around her. It can be hard to tell since they use the unmanaged and unprotected ancient ruins for their homes and labs, but it may be best to think of this as a sort of research village.”

“Hm, a group of people with an established society? Sounds like a job for our resident information gatherer.”

Alicia gave Helen a sidelong glance and the philosopher’s stone delivered the finishing blow.

“That’s right! A job for Venus!!”

“You expect me to wear that in this humid mess!?”

Miyabi’s party could tell they were not welcome here, but the locals made no attempt to attack them. These people and the Necromancer were mutual parasites trying to suck each other dry and these academics had grown detached from reality (or rather, they had all ended up here because they hated the demands of ordinary society). They felt no sense of obligation or compassion, so they did not even consider sending word to the Necromancer.

There were shops here, but Miyabi’s party had no way of using them. They did not even use money. Instead, they used a barter system where people traded their research results, either as a finished product or a blueprint. Information was valued more than food and water in this rotting forest. Acquiring those daily necessities required a combination of purification and disinfecting magic.

Celina held a hand to her forehead.

She looked as pale as someone who had toxic sludge dumped over their head.

“A-a world without money? This is a fundamental attack on capitalism.”

Meanwhile, they heard a somewhat frantic voice.

“Huh? What’s this, what’s this? Not every day we get some non-recluses in this rotting forest. Who’re you?”

“?”

One researcher approached them in a much more friendly way than the others.

She was a short-haired glasses girl. Her hat and her round pants were somewhat reminiscent of pumpkins.

She rested a large broom on her shoulder and smiled amiably at them.

“I’m Candy Lunaticover, a former Godhorn Tech researcher. Nice to meetcha☆”

“A Godhorn Tech…researcher!?”

Celina’s eyes widened at that casually-dropped bombshell, but Candy herself seemed unaware it was a shocking thing to say. She shrugged like it was nothing.

“A former one. Now I’m just one more eccentric researcher living in this rotting forest.”

“But why?” asked Eliza.

Candy winked behind her glasses.

“I designed all sorts of Godhorn Techs. I dunno how many were actually built, though.”

“…”

There would be more designers than just her, but if that were true, her power would have been distributed to multiple countries.

On the other hand, you could invent whatever glorious past you wanted for yourself inside this polluted forest.

“I’ve been everywhere on the land, in the sea, and up in the air, but that’s as far as I could go. I hit a dead end. The deep sea was pretty fun, but even that’s so limited. Once you can go anywhere you want in the world, it all feels so boring. None of it’s exciting anymore. But after agonizing over that one for a while, it hit me.” She pointed a finger skyward. “I’ve never been to the moon, have I? Woo hoo, wouldn’t that be cool!!”

“Are you serious?”

That was too large a scale for Miyabi to even comprehend, but Candy Lunaticover put her hands on her hips and laughed at the top of her lungs.

“As a heart attack! That’s why I’m spending all my time developing this explosive multistage flying broom. Yahoo! …Unfortunately, this research has a weensy little problem of not being profitable, so no country wants to fund it. I’ve heard of someone who works as a dancer to fund her research, but I’m not built for that sexy stuff. That left just one option: this paradise for recluses who just want to research in peace.”

“But isn’t this place dangerous? Everything around you is contaminated and there are tons of strange creatures.”

“Like I said, this is a last resort when you can’t find the freedom to research anywhere else. You have to be prepared for some health drawbacks. I’d be out of here in a heartbeat if there was a nicer place where I could research.”

“…”

“What’s with the meaningful silence? Wait, do you know a place that isn’t polluted where I’d be free to research!? Where is it!! Out with it!!”

Horn Fortress was isolated by a thick barrier or the cracks in the world, so no one would get after anyone for what they were researching there.

Candy rubbed her chin and looked up into the rainy sky.

“Hm, so you use the Lucifer Horn – a bomber type? Not the approach I would’ve taken, but I get the concept. Yes, there’s no rule requiring the broom to be launched from the ground, is there? Amazing! And if I go with a midair launch from sufficiently high altitude, I wouldn’t need a nosy country’s permission to build a surface launch pad. Yes, this could work.”

“?”

She started speaking to herself and calculating something far beyond Miyabi’s understanding.

Then she turned back to him.

“You have a deal. I’ll give you my knowledge as a former Godhorn Tech designer.”

“Eh, really!? That title sounds incredible!!”

“Again, former. I’m just a hobbyist now. And all I ask in return is you give me a new research environment. Will you let me work on that Horn Fortress place you mentioned? Pretty please? If it’s nicer than this rotting forest, I’ll gladly accept your recruitment offer☆”

After sending Candy Lunaticover away, Miyabi’s party resumed their march through the rainforest.

The people brave enough to live in this brutal environment appeared to walk across the water using stilt-like toys. Tripping would of course mean soaking yourself in the filth and possibly being killed by the carnivorous fish or the purple film. Miyabi’s party was not keen to try it out themselves.

They stuck to the roots and fallen trees sticking up out of the black and purple goop and watched their step as they traveled deeper in.

And eventually…

“It’s a dead end,” groaned Eliza.

They had come cross a large area of thick water with no impurities on which to safely cross it. There was a stone plaza past it, but it was more than 30m away. With the difficult-to-locate purple film and the various dangerous creatures lurking in the murky water, they felt no desire to cross it on foot.

But the butler automaton did not even tilt his head.

“I can cross it.”

“Ah!!”

He did not give them time to stop him.

Number 8 set foot in the dark sludge and sloshed his way across.

Then he grabbed something.

It was a bundle of rope and he tied one end to their side. After drawing it taut and tying the other end to the other side, he gestured them over.

The rope was positioned diagonally, so they only had to grab it and slide down to reach the other side.

Onelife stepped out in front.

“Oh, now this gets makes my manly soul happy!!”

“Wait, muscles-for-brains!! You need to protect your hands from the friction, or-”

“Hot hot hot hot hot hot hot!?”

The meathead started screaming partway down.

If not for his prosthetic hand, he would have been badly injured.

“He’s captain of a sailing ship, so how in the world doesn’t he know how to handle ropes?”

Thanks to that valuable test run, the others placed some cloth over the rope and used that protect their hands as they slid down. The carnivorous fish reacted to their shadows and worked hard to show off their ferocity in the water below.

However…

“We can’t do this every time. There won’t be a rope at each crossing and these cloths won’t last forever.”

Miyabi responded to his own complaint by holding his hand out into empty air.

It was too late to test these things out once they were already in danger, so he needed to get the trial-and-error over with while they could still afford some error.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice.”

The fragile rock crumbled and came apart into box-sized chunks which then lined up. The final shape was a bridge. Only Miyabi had this creation power. It had saved him and created footholds or shields countless times. It was only a meter tall and too narrow for a horse to cross, but he successfully created a Bypass Bridge.

But Helen’s eyes widened when she looked down.

“I-it’s breaking apart from where it’s touching the water!”

“That purple film again. There’s no time – hurry across!!”

Miyabi pumped his arms as he pushed onward, but then he sensed a great pressure from beyond the twisted trees. This was not like the researchers from before. The gaze he sensed was fiercer, more instinctual, and engulfed in rage.

Almost like someone lamenting the pollution of their home and lashing out with righteous anger.

Miyabi’s eyes widened.

“A real Beast Nova!? Now!?”

“Discriminatory language!! At least try to fix that habit!!”

Alicia shouted back with Alma in her arms, but now was not the time.

It was huge.

Miyabi had never seen anything like it. Would you end up with something like this if you forced a colossal slug to crawl across a salty surface? It dissolved and crumbled and gathered back together. The sticky life form repeated the process endlessly as it walked shockingly close by.

This creature did not belong in any known ecosystem.

It was bizarre even for a Beast Nova.

Could it only survive in the Necromancer’s base – this Bio Rainforest full of sinister sludge?

“That’s a bird.” Celina reflexively readied her control rifle and grimaced at what she saw through the sight. “I can see shriveled and degenerated wings on its slimy surface and also a twisted beak that doesn’t fit together properly. But I can’t imagine any reason to make something like this, so is this not even a result of the Necromancer’s research ? Is this just what extended exposure to that sludge does to animals!?”

Could they defeat this thing or not?

Could they fight at their usual level on such unsteady footing?

If they stabbed a sword into that thing, would its bodily fluids erupt out and splatter onto them?

Several questions spiraled through Miyabi’s mind, always in the negative direction, but the reality was even worse.

“!”

He noticed something.

That thing had not sensed their presence and it was not patrolling its territory in search of food.

He gulped atop the crumbling bridge. That mystery creature might as well have been made of the goop itself, and yet…

“It’s running away…in fear?”

“But from what!?” asked Alicia.

The red, yellow, bright blue, and toxic pink leaves rustled together and ripples ran through the sludge. Countless sounds joined together to form a sinister chorus. They were not as polite as Miyabi’s party. Even when they broke through a rotting branch, fell to the black and purple water, and flopped around there, they never stopped walking.

Because they had bigger things to worry about.

They were on high alert.

However.

When the tremor hit, Miyabi’s feet were nearly pulled out from under him.

No, the shaking was too much for the collapsing bridge, so it broke.

The situation was getting worse at an accelerating rate.

His legs just about locked up in fear, so when he shouted to the others, it was mostly to himself.

“Jump!!”

If it had taken even half a second longer for his mind to catch up, he would have still been standing there when the bridge fully collapsed into the filthy water.

Fortunately, they were only about a meter up. Even as it collapsed, the Bypass Bridge was divided into a few blocks. Some of those remained even as they sizzled and smoked, so they jumped from stone to stone, crossing the pond.

Falling back would only have made things worse for them.

They had no idea what was coming, but they could not avoid it without the freedom to move.

The shaking nearly tripped Miyabi and that would mean falling into the water where carnivorous fish and crabs lurked. He kept jumping from platform to platform until he reached the stone plaza. The circular plaza was situated a bit above the filthy water, but the blood-warm rain kept his back feeling sticky.

Alicia arrived a moment later and worked to keep her balance against the ominous shaking.

“Wh-wh-what is that!?”

“The Necromancer’s Godhorn Tech – the Deadman’s Fenrir,” groaned Onelife, man of the ocean trapped in a rotting forest.

Deep rumblings rang out intermittently. The shaking of the branches overhead allowed water to drip from the leaves, joining the blood-warm rain. They all understood these were massive footsteps.

They could not see it yet, but Miyabi could sense a clear change to the atmosphere. Something known as a king or guardian ruled in this deep polluted forest.

But instead of a ferocious beast found in nature, this was the bizarre product of necromancy. That seemed to best describe how twisted the forest was.

“She didn’t build the Wicked God horn into a piece of stone or steel,” continued Onelife. “Nhh, I’ve heard she stuck one Wicked God’s horn into another’s corpse, forcing the corpse to move again.”

“The pressure is unbearable. And so twisted.”

Kananka gulped while the one-eyed pirate helped support him.

Onelife was not the only one who knew how the Necromancer did things.

Number 8 did as well.

“I have heard Deadman’s Fenrir is a perpetual soul devouring device.”

“A what?”

Miyabi asked about the unfamiliar term while standing back up and Number 8 accurately nodded.

“It is known as a device, but it is fundamentally different from us automatons who use springs and gears to move. The corpse summons parasites and then kills those parasites to endlessly obtain more souls to devour and fuel its movement. It is a contraption of blood and guts that provides its rotting flesh with more strength than a living being could ever produce.”

“You mean…?”

Helen paled and took a quiet look around.

There was a rustling, but it was different from before.

This was not the leaves rustling as grotesque creatures fled from the Deadman’s Fenrir. This was the chorus of something much more sinister moving toward the great corpse. The nature and type of creature was audibly distinct.

The fierce presence was like a thick invisible wall at this point.

Unable to bear the unpleasant pressure, Miyabi glanced in that direction. It was like having a balloon filled with a hose while it was pressed against your cheek. As much as you were afraid of it popping, you would still give in to the urge to look.

And so he saw it.

He saw the color white.

And he screamed.

If powerful Onelife and Eliza hadn’t restrained him, he might have thoughtlessly taken off running and fallen right into the murky water with the deadly film on top.

“Ah, ahh. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

That was a color they hadn’t seen in this rotting forest of black and purple.

A wall taller than any of them pushed in from one direction. Something unidentified softly enveloped the trees, covered the stagnant water, and approached at unchanging speed.

They were bugs.

Something like maggots thicker than a human arm were gathered by the hundreds of thousands to form a massive wave. The carnivorous parasites were drawn by the scent of rotting flesh, unaware they were being lured out as food. Even the bizarre animals transformed by the forest were fleeing in a panic. The carnivorous fish and turtles awaiting prey at the bottom of the dark water were splashing their way out of there. Anything with the misfortune to be caught in that wave would not last long.

What was the worst way to die?

This felt like an answer to that most fruitless of arguments.

They seemed as numerous as the stars in the sky. Even as a mother Beast Novae trampled them underfoot in a last-ditch resistance, the white parasites ignored it all and kept coming. Their losses meant nothing, so they threw themselves into the polluted water and the purple film on top to continue their charge.

There was no stopping them.

Miyabi could not imagine how he could use his Godhorn Tech here. His imagination and ingenuity were at a loss. This natural disaster was truly unstoppable.

“Miyabi,” said Helen Clockgear.

“Y-yes!?”

“Miyabi!! Your power of creation is our only hope here. Instead of running blindly, you need to create bridges and stairs for a planned evacuation. They’re almost here!!”

When she held his head between her hands and shouted straight at him, he finally broke out of his daze.

Yes, running away was not the wrong answer.

The question was whether or not he could give that answer meaning.

They had to settle things with the Necromancer for manipulating Number 8 and Onelife into planting sorcery bombs. That would require facing her Godhorn Tech, the Deadman’s Fenrir. To do that, they could not die here. Being killed by the bugs summoned for it to eat was not how this was meant to go. They hadn’t fought it or even caught its attention yet.

Miyabi clenched his teeth and faced that fear once more.

His priority for now was just to survive.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

They had no idea what kinds of carnivorous animals lurked below the surface and they might overlook one of the purple patches of film on the surface, so safety demanded they avoid setting foot in the murky water covering the ground here.

But they could not let the swarm of white bugs catch up either.

That was why Miyabi created a Bypass Bridge. But to prevent the filthy water or the shaking of the ground from directly damaging the bride, he gave it no support pillars and only connected the box-sized masses directly to the thick trees.

They just had to avoid touching the dark murky water that was a hotbed of dangers, such as the purple film and the carnivorous fish.

Or so he thought, but once he tried it, the tree trunk thicker around than his torso readily snapped.

“Whoa!?”

With its support broken, the bridge tilted down like a slide, but there was no time to go back and try again. If they stopped moving, the parasites would engulf them. He attached more boxy Palette Dice to the broken end of the bridge, creating the next one.

It ran less than a meter above the water.

And the wall of creepy-crawlies was approaching all the while.

“Miyabi, can’t you burn them all away with the Lucifer Horn!?” asked Celina.

“I could, but I have no idea how far it would blast the filthy water!! Do you want that stuff splashed over your head!?”

“No, but can’t you build a roof over us!?”

He hadn’t thought of that.

He ended up using a Bypass Bridge for it. He held up his hand and built another bridge overhead to cross with their makeshift roof. Then he used his other hand to stab the control sword down at his feet.

A magic circle spread out and he raised his voice.

“Lucifer Horn, tactical open!!”

This time, he dispensed with the tricks and just fired a beam of light from straight overhead.

The blinding light dropped from the sky and then cut horizontally across the world.

First, they had to hold fast against the shockwave.

A short pause.

Then something poured down like a sudden rain shower. It was a mixture of the sticky water and the thick, white bodily fluids of the roasted parasites. None of them could say what would happen if a single drop hit them.

A sizzling as if from acid came from the roof over their heads.

Miyabi still could not relax. It took a lot to worry someone with a Godhorn Tech at their disposal. How much of that stuff would get on them if it ate a hole in their roof and leaked through?

“D-did that work?” asked Celina, holding onto him from the side and still trembling.

Nothing was stronger than a Godhorn Tech, yet this rotting forest was ruled by an anxiety not even the Lucifer Horn could erase.

They heard more rustling.

At the same time, Helen Clockgear looked away from the site of the blast.

“The Necromancer’s Godhorn Tech is made from a corpse that consumes the parasites to continue running, right?” She froze in place with her eyes in that direction. “A-another wall is coming from this direction!! D-did it call them in from every direction!?”

“W-w-w-we need to get out of here!! Alicia, Eliza! Hurry!!”

They looked like pale white worms and like fat maggots thicker than a human arm. No one would ever want to touch one, much less have them approaching in an “attack”.

One of them would have been unbearable enough, but this was a white wall. A tsunami.

This group came from much closer by, so it was going to catch up if they wasted any time at all.

(The Bypass Bridge…won’t be done in time!!)

“Argh!! Grab a stick, boy!!” shouted Alicia, jumping from the half-completed bridge into the stagnant water.

This increased the danger by a lot.

Fortunately, the approaching parasites had forced the carnivorous fish to flee. By poking around ahead of them with a stick longer than a mop, they could detect the milk-like film on the surface. They had to avoid that purple film as they advanced to minimize the damage.

“Onelife! You carry Kananka!!”

“Can do!! Nwahh!!”

The large man let the small king ride on his shoulders, a simple but effective method. It would fully protect Kananka from the water below, but he had to avoid hitting his head on the wet branches a little higher up. And it wouldn’t help at all if the parasites caught up.

“I will carry Alma!” said Alicia. “I’ll hold tight and never let go!!”

It was easily the most hellish escape they had ever made.

A deluge of rustling and splashing sounds pursued them, so they splashed through the filthy water and made their way between the rotting trees.

Their boots were soon full of the lukewarm liquid. It was only water and it made sense for it not to hurt, but the lack of pain still scared them for some reason.

Each step seemed to be taking them closer to death.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Miyabi held his hand behind him as he ran.

He was not bothering with a Bypass Bridge at this point.

He used all his strength to create a wall taller than he was, but it accomplished nothing. When the white wave hit it, it cracked and the fat white creepy-crawlies crawled inside to devour it from within. That seemed to hint at what would happen to him if those things caught up.

But things could always get worse.

“They’re coming from this direction too!!”

“Argh!”

“Don’t go that way, Miyabi! Look at my stick! It’s discolored from that purple film!!”

If Eliza had not grabbed his shoulders, he might have stepped right into that sticky mess. And that one step would have eaten down to the bone.

This did not seem to be a coordinated attack. The unseen Godhorn Tech of flesh and bone had not seen them yet. This level of pollution and danger was an everyday occurrence for the Bio Rainforest. Ordinary life could never survive here.

Thanks to the murky water and the fat white bugs, their paths forward through the deep forest were severely limited. They were losing options fast, like they were being driven through a funnel.

The next thing they knew, they had climbed up onto one of the stone ruins dotting the forest. A small stone plaza was attached to a nearly trapezoidal building. It put them higher than the filthy water.

“Ugh!!”

“Don’t, boy. Take off your boots and you lose any chance of survival,” warned Alicia. “You don’t want to walk around this forest barefoot, do you!?”

Once on land, Miyabi’s soaked boots felt so heavy and unpleasant. He wanted to strip them off and be rid of them, but that was not an option. He was terrified of being contaminated. Even the blood-warm rain felt clean by comparison. It was actually transparent, which seemed so beautifully pure. Not that he had any guarantee it was safe.

An endless stream of sticky sounds echoed from nearby, so Celina reflexively held onto Miyabi from the side. She had tears in her eyes.

“Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew! What do we do!?”

“…”

Number 8 briefly stopped blinking as he thought.

Only he remained calm.

“Pull that spear from the top of that building and stab it into the water.”

“A spear?”

They would have to burn the parasites away with the Godhorn Tech’s beam if that didn’t work, but they were so much closer this time. When the purple film and parasite juices were splattered everywhere, they needed a roof to keep it off of them, but that was useless if it splattered in from the side. However, they did not have enough time to build a sturdy shelter with a full complement of walls.

To repeat, the parasites were much closer this time.

“Can that spear really repel an entire wall of bugs!?” shouted Miyabi, eyes wide. “They’ll overwhelm me in an instant during a close-range battle!!”

“You will not be using it that way. Do not worry. The Empire that created me was the strongest military nation on the continent. You cannot match my ability to come up with lethal ideas.”

“Dammit!!”

Miyabi scrambled up the nearby trapezoid just like the butler automaton demanded. He grabbed the spear sticking into the gap between two of the giant stones forming the roof, but then he frowned. It was unusual to find a spear where even the long shaft was made of metal. Was this design because the wood would rot away in the Bio Rainforest?

And…

(Why is it scorched?)

He did not have time to pursue that question. Extracting it from the gap was a challenge since the blade was swollen with red rust, but he managed to yank it on out after grabbing with both hands. He staggered back when it popped out and nearly fell from the roof, but he managed to stop himself in time. It was pretty heavy. He shouted down toward the others with rusty spear in hand.

“I got it out, but what now!?”

“I already told you. Stab it into the water.”

On Number 8’s instruction, he threw the rusty spear from the roof. When he saw it clank against the plaza instead, he just about stomped in frustration but lost his balance and nearly slid off the roof. He frantically clung to the stone roof. Destruction and creation were meaningless at this point. It was a job for old-fashioned physical strength.

The wall of bugs was closing in and Helen shouted from the fear.

“Miya-Miya-Miyabi! Tell the Lucifer Horn to take me somewhere else – anywhere else!!”

He felt his internal pressure reaching its limit as he climbed down carefully, not wanting to slip and break a bone. What good was that rusty old spear? It didn’t look like a special magic weapon or anything like that. And if they only wanted a long weapon, Eliza’s control lance looked a lot stronger to him.

Once down on the plaza, he grabbed the spear again. Its excessive weight only made him more impatient. He did not have time to wait around. He jumped from the stone platform, planted his feet in the murky water, and stabbed the spear down with both hands.

Everything but the ancient ruins was ordinary, albeit submerged, ground covered by dirt and tree roots. No, he felt the spear stab into something softer and flabbier. He frowned at how it almost felt like he was piercing a rotting corpse’s chest.

Then he looked back.

“Okay, I did it. What next!?”

“You fool! Get out of the water!!”

“?”

It was not often that Number 8 yelled like that.

Miyabi heard a deep rumbling from overhead. The massive Empire had extended its knowledge in every direction it could and used all it learned for military purposes. The magical automaton containing all of that knowledge yelled a further warning.

“ Lightning is about to strike !!”

A pillar of electricity dropped from heaven to earth, striking the spear. Then it spread out across the murky water in a flash.

Miyabi managed to scramble onto the stone ruins in the nick of time.

“Whoa!?”

Kananka helped him to his feet and he looked over to see the fried corpses of the parasites.

“Hm, that worked well.”

“Was that an offensive use of a lighting rod?” groaned Helen.

Eliza belatedly gave her control lance a fearful look. She had it resting on her shoulder, as was her wont, but now she understood how dangerous it was to walk around with the tip sticking up.

Not even the great wall of parasites could escape the high-voltage current traveling through the sticky water. No, the great size of the swarm only made it harder for them to escape. When the lightning reached them from the water, it rapidly spread across the entire swarm since they were packed together so closely. The result was a series of bursting sounds and scorching smells. The water was now covered in parasites lying belly up.

But not even that lasted long.

Passing out must have switched off some kind of defense mechanism covering their bodies because their stomachs and intestines were eaten through by their own filth. With a sound much like flesh being burned by a chemical, their thick skin dissolved away, leaving only an unrecognizable white liquid floating in the dark water. The strange marble pattern was a lot like milk in coffee.

That had dealt with the parasites rushing in from multiple directions, so the rustling sounds were gone.

But solving the problem did not purify it.

The place was even more contaminated than before.

“Breathing in that chemical smoke would be a bad idea. We should hurry on.”

Number 8 was not biological himself, but he calmly assessed the situation.

“Nhh.” Onelife grimanced too. Since Deadman’s Fenrir is here, we must be getting close.”

The flesh-and-blood Godhorn Tech was going to notice that its meal never arrived and it had already caused this much trouble without even noticing their presence. How much worse would it be once it was actually trying to kill them? They wanted to avoid being on the receiving end of a surprise attack inside the deep and disgusting forest.

They needed to move from here, take up positions, and go on the offensive.

When you were at a disadvantage, you always wanted to hold the initiative.

Curious about the electrified water, Alicia crouched at the edge of the ruins.

“Will this water zap us if we touch it?”

“Don’t test it with me!!” protested the radio. “Machines are doubly vulnerable to that!”

Fortunately, her fear was unfounded.

They marched onward through the blood-warm rain, alert for parasites or deformed plants or animals. They could not afford to overlook anything and they could not predict what might happen. They spotted bugs and snakes camouflaged as withered leaves or vines hanging down from rotting branches, so even the nearby trees might bite them if they weren’t careful.

Miyabi used the Palette Dice to create Bypass Bridges, Onelife occasionally rolled large rocks to create new platforms, and Number 8 moved out ahead through the dangerous water to scout things out since he was (supposedly?) resistant to the toxins. Still, every step Miyabi took produced a sticky sound in his boots and all the warmth was sapped from his feet. He was growing seriously worried he would remove his boots to find he had grown webbed feet like a frog.

Helen took a nervous look around.

“Deadman’s Fenrir still hasn’t shown up.”

“It may be finding another supply of dead souls since we robbed it of that first one.”

The scariest part was how Number 8 was not smiling in the slightest, suggesting that was not a joke.

“What is that?” asked Celina, staring into the distance.

An artificial structure jutted up through the rotting leaves.

It was larger than the other ruins.

It was on an entirely different scale, so it may have originally been a temple for the ruling class.

Quarried stone had been stacked up to create an impressive mountain. They had seen a few nearly trapezoidal buildings already, but none had been this large. The stepped walls were covered in hemispherical containers, perhaps to hold fires. It was designed to make itself look big and grand, not purely for functionality.

Were the holes in the walls meant to be windows or doors?

An orange glow akin to red-hot steel came from those holes.

“…”

The contamination was so strong that simply seeing it – not even touching it! – sent a stabbing pain into Miyabi’s eyes.

This had to be the center.

The pollution covering the country-sized Bio Rainforest had spread from here.

“Oh?”

And someone was there.

She stood on the flat stone plaza spread out in front of the building.

She controlled such a large building, yet she was not using its roof for protection.

But it did not look like she had noticed the problem in Deadman’s Fenrir’s meal and rushed out with a weapon to attack the thing.

She was crouching down on one end of the plaza and using a dissolving metal implement to pick up the purple film and place it inside a test tube.

She cared more about research than combat or her own life.

This woman thought the forest was paradise.

“Not often the Bio Rainforest receives visitors who smell of the open sun.”

Miyabi felt like decadent was the best word to describe her.

She had long, wavy purple hair and the attractive features of a stage actress. She also had curvy proportions. Hadn’t number 8 said she had the traits of some region’s wealthy class? She had broken that down to give herself an even sweeter appearance. Almost like an apple beginning to rot.

Her clothing was like a cross between a village’s white sorcerer and a witch. She wore a witch’s hat, skinny pants, a midriff-baring vest, and a white coat. But what were the pants and coat made of ? They were strangely oily and patched together. Miyabi held a hand over his mouth when he realized the truth.

That was all rawhide.

And with how patchwork it was, some of that skin might have been human.

Whether it was still alive or dead flesh reanimated with magic, a lizard tail swished side to side from the back of her white coat’s hips.

“You don’t look like more researchers who ended up here after being kicked out.”

“The Necromancer.”

“Correct.”

It was like an attack.

She did not even consider running away or hiding. She may not have been aware anything she had done was wrong.

“But I would really prefer if you showed more reverence and love when you spoke my name.”

Cackling laughter reached Miyabi’s ears.

He readied himself for another foe, but it apparently came from the witch’s hat she wore on her head. A horizontal slit opened in the garment of skin and it spoke human language.

“Boss, I bet they’re new guinea pigs. Y’know, the kind of people who march up to their own execution for some unfathomable reason.”

“That guy’s just like me !” roared the crystal radio hanging from Alicia’s neck. AKA, the philosopher’s stone.

“Let me guess,” said the hat(?). “You’re one of those harem-loving losers who wishes he could get rid of all the guys!”

“Oh, and what’s your area of expertise supposed to be? Hag nostrils?”

“…”

The tools glared at each other while Number 8 spoke up.

“Necromancer.” The stiffness of his voice had to be more than just being an inorganic automaton. “Does my presence not remind you what you did!?”

“Nhhh!! You’re getting rid of my crew’s parasites!”

The Necromancer was cornered by Number 8 and Onelife, the two men she had manipulated, but she remained calm.

For that matter, she may not have seen this as being cornered.

“I have no interest in a living human or a soulless automaton.”

“Woo, go boss!!”

She was taking control.

Ordinary good and evil held no sway in this rotten forest. This woman had absolute control of the conversation. That scared Miyabi into shouting.

“Who cares what you think!? I just want to know if you’re the 11th or not!”

“Again, why should I bother responding to the living?”

With a rustling sound, she reached for the side of her hip. The rolled-up object attached to her belt there was probably a whip. Only “probably” because filthy strings of saliva dripped from it when she unfurled it.

Yes, saliva .

What kind of animal had that come from? Or had she destroyed an existing animal to force a mutation? Regardless, the whip was actually a tongue measuring several meters long.

It was likely her Godhorn Tech’s control device.

“There is more to the world than meets the eye. I am also interested in vessels capable of carrying ghosts. So if you wish to draw my interest…yes, why not make yourselves into ghosts?”

A heavy tremor shook the ground and continuous sticky sounds soon followed.

A colossal four-legged beast had appeared.

Pieces of it were rotting away and parasites spilled from the sewn-up wounds. The forcibly-attached Wicked God horn glowed faintly.

Overall, it may have been similar to a black horse.

However, a horse did not have strange, flabby tentacles implanted in place of a mane. A horse did not have its chest split down the center or its ribs clacking together like fangs. A horse did not have a long, chameleon-like tongue flitting in and out of its split mouth. A horse did not have overlarge muscles tearing its thick skin apart, countless stitches to contain those muscles, or thick chains both inside and outside those wounds to control it in some way.

And an ordinary horse out in the plains did not whinny while shaking a body more than 20m tall.

This was the Deadman’s Fenrir.

It might look small when compared to the Schwarz Schütze or the Icicle Bullet, but there was something blatantly unnatural about an animal that had swollen too large to support itself.

Miyabi felt a chill that shook the very core of his body, maybe because this one was based on an animal.

Or was this his disgust at a corpse that was not even living anymore?

This was closer to being a Wicked God, but it was undoubtedly not one.

In a way, the changes caused by the Deadman’s Fenrir were even greater than the bomber or the pirate ship. Just think how many parasites had pursued them through the Bio Rainforest. The swarm of hundreds of thousands of parasites was not even an attack; it was a form of resupplying and maintenance.

Number 8 had said it summoned the parasites.

Miyabi grimaced at a faint scent hanging in the air. It was not an unpleasant odor. The wounds gave off an oddly sweet scent reminiscent of rotting bananas.

“You are insane,” said Eliza.

During the riots in her own kingdom, she had attempted to act as her king’s shield without insulting anyone else’s feelings. That knight had tried to never give up on anyone, but now her eyes grew wide and she trembled in fear.

She was staring at the horn.

The Wicked God horn.

The sharp and twisted horn glowed softly at the center of the colossal horse’s forehead.

Oh, come to think of it, thought Miyabi in belated realization.

Something wasn’t right.

He had fought several Godhorn Techs now. He had destroyed the Schwartz Schütze’s sealed container and broken open the King Knot’s hull to expose its horn, but this was his first time seeing a horn that was always exposed to the air with nothing to protect it.

“You leave the horn exposed instead of using a sealed container? How can you possibly control something like that? Aren’t you afraid of if it obliterating everything in the vicinity, yourself included!?”

That alone was enough of a taboo, but there was more.

Death plus death would never lead to even a flicker of life.

Miyabi had assumed the horn had been forcibly reattached, but that was not an accurate description.

Another horn had been attached atop the broken horn, almost like grafting a plant.

The dead Wicked God’s body had been hijacked by another horn.

And that horn would be a portion of a different corpse.

Everything about it came from necromancy.

A faint glow came from the chains moving from rotting wound to rotting wound, and even to the tip of the horn. The unnatural number of eyes convulsed and glared at Miyabi’s party, but it was unclear if this was a conscious act or not.

That was enough to push Miyabi past his boiling point.

“Necromancer!!”

“What has you so worked up? You use a Godhorn Tech too, don’t you?” With sticky control whip in hand, the decadently woman opened a giant magic circle at her feet and whispered in an exasperated way. “You build a dead component into your weapon, draw out its power, and use it to your ends. All Godhorn Techs are a product of necromancy, so don’t get mad at me just because I don’t bother hiding that fact.”

Miyabi had known from the beginning that this was never going to end without a battle.

He stood a step up from the filthy water, on the plaza in front of the massive stone temple.

He faced a powerful foe there. This woman was the one Moebius Entrance had been pursuing. She had used the sorcery bombs herself and tricked or forced Number 8 and Onelife Shiftup to distribute them.

She was the 11th.

She was the source of it all.

A roar exploded from the Deadman’s Fenrir.

The great black horse neighing toward the heavens sent a physical shockwave radiating out from it. The invisible compressed wall tore the stone plaza from the ground, smashed it in midair, and used the scattershot debris to create a wall of destruction.

Miyabi did not bother holding back.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

He used the stone plaza itself to build a thick wall. He could not dodge the blast sweeping in horizontally, but he could avoid a fatal blow by sacrificing the wall.

He heard a bubbling sound as the smashed and scattered stone rapidly dissolved. This had not just been an explosion or shockwave. Some unseen factor had been spread with it.

“I thought it was only superstition.”

Crouched for safety, Alicia sounded dazed.

This was not her first time fighting against a Godhorn Tech, but Miyabi had never seen the elf so overwhelmed.

“They say any nonhuman that crawls back out of the miasma-spewing cracks in the world becomes a Wicked God. They say that potential is what makes us Beast Novae. I always thought they had made it up to justify their discrimination of nonhumans. And yet…”

Something like a black mist was flowing from the colossal horse’s mouth.

“Mi…asma?” muttered Miyabi, but it still didn’t feel real. He did not know much about magic, so he only thought of it like the secret to immortality spoken of in picture books. “Has she…has that freak been experimenting with that too!?”

“FYI.” The Necromancer smiled with her tongue whip in hand. But this was not a daring grin. She looked delighted that she had this chance to finally show off the result of her research. “That really is no more than superstition. External exposure to miasma has such a miniscule effect on the cellular level that any tissue would rot away long before any major changes had manifested. Conversely, injection or inhalation has too great an effect, so the tissue refuses to remain stable, resulting in something more like collapse than transformation. Thus , kicking a monster down into those cracks won’t create a Wicked God. That is the only logical conclusion.”

“…”

“Heh heh. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Humans do not run on petroleum. So if you want them to, you need to replace all of their blood vessels and internal organs before attempting the transfusion.”

So she had done so.

Most likely, none of this work had been absolutely necessary for the creation of a necromancy-based Godhorn Tech. None of it sounded so key and critical.

It was more like she had discovered an unusual metal and wanted to run every test she could on it.

This was just one of a battery of tests.

Finding that the superstition was indeed a superstition was a satisfactory result for her. She had violated the corpse’s dignity by ripping out its organs, reinforcing its network of blood vessels, and injecting it with untouchable miasma for nothing more than that.

“Can-” Helen shouted half in a panic while palely gripping her thick knife, that’s paralysis and poison magic were feeling awfully unlikely to accomplish much of anything at the moment. “C-c-can we contact Candy? She’s a Godhorn Tech designer, isn’t she!?”

“She claimed to be, anyway. And I doubt she would know anything about a flesh and blood one like this. This is like nothing we’ve seen! It has to be highly irregular!!”

This was nothing like the taxidermy Miyabi had seen at his village. Taxidermy preserved a large animal in its most impressive state so it could be shown off as a hunting trophy. The hunters were not cutting open the animal to alter it, harm it, or make it suffer. But the Necromancer enjoyed this. She had given up a comfortable life in a city and accepted life in this dark forest for it. And she had spread pollution for it.

“The corpse is only a corpse.” Young Kananka held a boomerang about as tall as he was. “The dead may not feel pain, but there is a downside. For example, it can’t heal even the smallest of wounds!!”

“Hm, I see. So we just have to attack and attack until it falls apart. In that sense, you are more of a weapon than a creature, Deadman’s Fenrir!!”

Celina readied her bayonet-equipped rifle.

The enemy was a 20m colossus, but the real fear was the miasma spewing from its mouth and the pollutants like the filthy water and the purple film spreading out around the plaza. They could not get close or stray too far, so keeping the right distance and continuing to attack with projectiles would be the best fighting style.

“Now.” The Necromancer smiled a little without even cracking her whip to send an additional command. “Is that really true?”

The stone boomerang glittering with magical jewels was large enough that Miyabi had mistaken it for an axe, so it was more brutal than a guillotine blade. Celina’s rifle fired alchemy-enhanced bullets, so it could attack with fire, ice, or any other type of damage.

But more than that…

“Watch out!!”

With the sound of scraping stone, sparks tore a line in the ground. This was an attack style no ordinary horse could pull off. It lowered its head and charged while scraping its horn along the ground. If Miyabi had not pushed Celina out of the way, the sharp horn would have hit her torso when the horse swung up its head. That deadly attack was meant for a confrontation with another Godhorn Tech, so it may have torn her to pieces more than skewer her.

The close shave left Celina staring wide-eyed, forgetting to even reload her gun.

“What!? It charged right into our attacks!?”

This was not a simple case of thick skin.

In fact, its muscles had swollen so far its skin had been split from within. The skin had to be as fragile as a rotting fruit’s.

Yet it had pushed through.

There was a simple reason.

“The wounds are closing?” Kananka could not believe his eyes as he skillfully caught his returning boomerang. “Can this corpse heal itself!?”

There was magic that transformed defeated birds and beasts into meat on the bone, but it was unlikely to work here. Target Cooker could apparently one-shot undead enemies because they counted as lifeless meat, but it would probably only take out a small portion of this massive corpse. And it could heal that damage soon enough.

Normal weapons were not going to cut it here.

Miyabi was the only one who could use a Godhorn Tech, but causing an explosion at this close range would splash them with the filthy water, the purple film, and any carnivorous fish that had failed to flee in time.

Miyabi immediately stabbed his control sword down at his feet.

“Please, Lucifer Horn! Combine your abilities!!”

First, a giant bomb dropped from the bomber.

Then a thick beam pierced it like a sharp kick from behind.

All sound vanished.

But the bomb did not detonate in midair. Instead, it was given a “push”, accelerating it down at unthinkable speed until it embedded itself in the colossal rotting horse’s back.

“That’d be classified as a photon rocket,” shouted the radio. “That’s better than a bunker buster! We’re talking future tech here!!”

The bomb exploded while fully buried in Deadman’s Fenrir’s rotting bones and muscles. The idea was for the blast to push out at and squash the internal organs, without any of the destructive power escaping.

But…

“What?” groaned Miyabi.

He heard a straining sound.

The massive weapon should have been buried inside that rotting body, but the jagged remains of its covering were pushed back out and rejected by the rotting muscles. Blood the muddy color of oxidized wine spilled out as the object restricting its movements was extracted. It was like a snake spitting back out the shell after swallowing an egg whole. It even tore open its own wounds further.

The remains clattered to the ground.

Stabbing a bomb inside it was not enough. This was not a living creature. It was a Godhorn Tech – a massive sorcery weapon – created from one.

“Sewing it up by hand was never going to be enough, so I added a self-healing function,” explained the Necromancer.

The colossal black horse extended its chameleon-like tongue and groped at its own body with it. Both the dark surface and the inside of the grossly-split wounds.

“It is a perpetual soul devouring device.”

“Kh.”

Miyabi had heard that ominous term before.

How had Number 8 described it?

“By devouring the parasites hoping to gorge on its rotting flesh, the Deadman’s Fenrir obtains the ticket needed to make use of their dead souls. Each one might be small, but that can be overcome with sufficient quantities.” Then the Necromancer pointed in a seemingly unrelated direction. “And this rotting forest provides as large a supply as you could ever want.”

The entire scenery seemed to strain.

Miyabi’s body and mind were not working in harmony. Just like when a bug fell from overhead and your hand reached out on reflex even though touching it was the last thing you wanted to do. He knew that was happening here as he stood on the stone plaza with control sword in hand, but his head still slowly turned.

And he saw it.

“They’re coming…”

He could only give the answer in a daze.

“The parasites are coming!! It’s that white wave again!!”

Hundreds of thousands of carnivorous parasites thicker than his arm were approaching. He could never survive if the wave swallowed him up. The enemy Godhorn Tech was right in front of him, but he had to redirect the Lucifer Horn’s focus elsewhere.

He stabbed the blade into the seamless stone ground and roared at the top of his lungs.

“From the control sword to the horn core! Lucifer Horn – tactical open!”

A corner of the rotten forest was sliced through by a beam of light and a massive explosion erupted a moment later. That had to be more than just the Lucifer Horn’s bombing. The gases emitted by rotting meat may have gathered in the forest.

“Do not fear, Miyabi. I can detect the state of the air using the path my boomerang takes. That explosion will not affect us!!”

But it did burn away the wave of parasites just before it hit them.

In addition to direct damage, they could obstruct the Deadman’s Fenrir’s recovery by cutting off its supplies. The damage was working, so they could force a win as long as they prevented it from continually recovering.

“By the way.” With a snap of the Necromancer’s wrist, her tongue whip swished through the air like a ribbon. She had it draw an arch over her head while still loose and relaxed. “Those parasites you so loathe are in their adult form. They are not larvae waiting to become pupae.”

“…?”

This was strange. And confusing.

What had the Necromancer just knocked from the air?

“'Which means the eggs and babies are much smaller .”

“This is bad, boy! Build a roof immed-!!”

Alicia tried to shout a warning after realizing something, but it was too late.

Something much more unpleasant than the blood-warm rain dropped on Miyabi’s right eyelid.

And it was not alone.

Something like the rice used for pilafs and paella dropped toward them like the stories of frogs and fish falling from the sky.

Except this “rice” was all squirming and wriggling.

Miyabi’s bombing and the flammable gas explosion had launched the parasite larvae high into the sky.

Hadn’t Onelife’s crew been infested by the parasites without noticing? That could not be explained with the ones thicker than an arm. The infection must have come from the eggs or larvae.

The realization caused Miyabi’s mind to explode.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Deadman’s Fenrir is packed full of convenient features, both inside and out, but the biggest problem is how I have to work so hard to ensure I am not infected myself.”

The Necromancer sounded like she was complaining how high veggie prices were recently. It was unclear if she was even speaking to Miyabi’s party.

Miyabi started to reach for his eye in a panic, but Alicia grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“Don’t rub your eye!! These parasites have been swimming through all that murky water. Maybe they were all in the especially dangerous purple film. I will get it out, so don’t move. Crush it with your finger and you’ll absorb all of the toxins right then and there!!”

“Eek!!” screamed Helen from elsewhere. She was throwing away her disinfectant and bandages. “This too!? Oh, and this!! It’s all soaked with parasites and filthy water!! Ugh, we can’t use any of it anymore!!” Convenient recovery magic did not exist in this world.

Magically healing wounds and disease required the creation of physical healing items known as White Sorcery Items, but a hand wound would require a different type than a leg wound.

Helen had said before that Compress Cargo was convenient but was poorly suited for combat since there was a 2 second lag before you could extract an item.

She must have kept her recovery White Sorcery Items in small pockets on her clothing instead of in her bag, but that had come back to bite her. Not that it mattered since the parasites and sticky water would have ruined them as soon as she removed them from Compress Cargo anyway.

In other words…

“ Now, care to remind me who it was that can’t heal in this battle? ”

“!!”

“The border between life and death is a fickle thing. But don’t worry. Humans do not cease moving just because they are dead. I will make very efficient use of you. I will turn you into something just as impressive as that Wicked God horn that continues to function in its broken state. Makes the difference between life and death seem downright trivial, don’t you think?”

“Damn you!!”

Was she saying it didn’t matter?

Alive or dead, humans were humans. And the dead ones were actually useful to her research. So did that mean she had no qualms about blowing away cities with sorcery bombs and creating piles of corpses?

Alchemist Alicia clicked her tongue, pulled out some test tubes, and tossed them all toward the water. Her physical boosting potions must have been ruined too.

They were growing disordered.

No, they had been disordered.

“Heh heh heh heh heh. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

The Necromancer roared with laughter.

That cruel researcher in the rawhide coat swung her tongue whip to knock away the small parasites raining down from overhead.

“Necromancy scares you? So it should be suppressed? There is obviously more to the world than meets the eye, but it’s taboo to even try to research ghosts? Not to mention that Godhorn Techs could be called necromancy since they use a Wicked God’s horn. And you thought I would fall short of the rest of the world in my own field? Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha hah hah ha ha ah ha ah ha ha!!”

“You’re the coolest, boss!!”

“Don’t just irresponsibly flatter her, you fool!!”

The radio shouted in protest, but things were heating up in a very bad way.

And.

Miyabi Blackgarden made a terrible mistake.

His enemy was the Necromancer and the greatest threat was the Deadman’s Fenrir.

The parasites and toxins were only distractions.

“Ah.”

He heard something scraping at stone, but it was still only dumb luck that he managed to push Alicia out of the way in time.

Finally and far too late, he turned to face the crux of the issue. He could see orange sparks charging toward him. They grew until they filled his vision. There was no dodging them now. He had seen this attack before.

The 20m or more horse was charging in at its top speed.

The Wicked God horn rushed in from below, thrusting up toward his gut.

It was like an upside-down lightning strike.

It seemed to gouge into space itself and Miyabi’s jacket tore.

Red blood flew and he felt his body twisting.

Yes.

He had escaped a direct hit.

The Lucifer Horn had flown by overhead, dangling a long, long wire that caught at the enemy horn and yanked it to the right.

That had forced the Deadman’s Fenrir off course, but the Lucifer Horn did not escape unscathed. The wire had been forcibly snapped and the intense force pulling back at it actually threw the bomber off balance.

It had been hit in the battle against the Divine Doll and it was possible it would eventually hit its limit if he forced it to do things like this much longer.

And…

“Gahhhhhhhh!?”

Some terrifying cracking and popping sounds came from within his body, but he did not have time to focus on that. Even if the attack had only torn his clothing, it had still exposed him to a great force and sent him into a rapid spin. He felt like a rag being wrung out. He could not even tell which way was up, much less brace for impact with the ground. He failed to do much of anything before his back slammed down against the stone plaza.

Now he could not even breathe.

It felt like his vision had shattered into a million pieces.

He could only scream unintelligibly.

“Music to my ears.”

He could not respond to the Necromancer as she approached him.

The decadent woman crawled on top of him and whispered.

“Good boy. You are now a step closer to death. So allow me to take a step closer to you. Remember when I said to become a ghost if you wished to speak with me? I like boys who know how to do what they’re told. So keep it up. Just stop your heart, cease your breathing, and die. Then I will love you. The pain and suffering are unbearable, aren’t they? If you want a peaceful and loving embrace from me, your best bet is to die.”

“Damn, sounding pretty sexy, boss!”

“Yes, shut your eyes. This may be too much for a child. But if you want, you can take a peek.”

“!!”

But he noticed the instant her attention was diverted away.

He clenched his teeth and swung his right hand from the ground.

His control sword had originally been a machete, but it was not small enough to aim for the head of someone on all fours over him. He failed to gain much speed, so she easily grabbed his wrist, sat down on him, and swung her head back.

She winked.

Then she slammed her forehead against his. Hard.

“One.”

She restrained his other hand before he could even think of using it.

And she did it again.

“Two.”

The blow rattled his brain like taking a hammer to the head, so he could no longer see her even though she had to be right there in front of him. Perhaps he had lost the ability to recognize the thing in front of him as a face. He shook his woozy head and she released his hands to grip her tongue whip with both her hands.

But not to whip her poor living sacrifice.

A wet sensation assaulted his throat. She had wrapped the whip fully around his neck.

“The closer you approach death, the closer I will approach you. So why not just die here? When you foam at the mouth, I will lick your lips clean. When the blood drains from your face, I will taste that delicious pallor. So there is nothing to worry about. You fear death because you know it to be painful and miserable, right? But that is a silly misconception. There is no pain or fear in true death. I am an expert on the subject, so you can trust me.”

“Gah…”

It was hopeless.

There was nothing he could do.

By now, he had noticed something was amiss. The Necromancer intended to strangle him to death, but why wasn’t anyone attacking her defenselessly exposed back? The answer was simple: they couldn’t.

Deadman’s Fenrir spewed miasma from its mouth, called in countless parasites with its sweet rotting flesh, and kicked the filthy water and purple film into the air with its hind legs.

That corpse was an incarnation of death and pollution.

And it was a Godhorn Tech.

With Lucifer Horn and Deadman’s Fenrir, it was a clash of the strongests. But what if one side was lost? No matter how powerful his party members were and even if they had once wielded one of the 10 Godhorn Techs, they could not hope to win with only ordinary weapons or control devices.

A tremor of the ground assaulted Miyabi’s back.

Helen had lamented that she could no longer heal them.

Had some of them been hit by Deadman’s Fenrir and taken out of the fight? If he did not get them out of this forest and to safety as soon as possible, they could reach a point of no return.

If Miyabi died, it was all over.

So much that he cared for would be crushed below that Godhorn Tech’s rotting feet and then the smashed bones and organs would be made into this woman’s playthings. And it was the same for everyone on the continent. With each city or castle blown away by the sorcery bombs, she gained more corpses and dead spirits.

He could not lose.

He could not afford to lose.

Yet…he could not think of anything to do.

“Accept the natural phenomenon of death.”

The tongue whip constricted so tightly around his neck he felt like his head was swelling.

“You’ve lost all your baby teeth at your age, haven’t you? As a boy, your voice has changed too. Are you starting to grow a beard? Were you surprised when you first saw the hair down there? This is no different. The ordinary changes can seem scary at first, but after the fact, you realize they were nothing to fear. So experience death and overcome it. This is the final rite of passage we all must complete.”

More than the breath, it was the lack of blood to his head that caused his thoughts to scatter.

Even the concept of “resistance” faded away.

“Kah…ah?”

“The one advantage of the living is how each and every one of them can be made into a corpse if you kill them. I shall make an adult out of you.”

So when it first happened, he had no idea if he was imagining it or not.

Either way, he saw a sword slash drop from heaven like a bolt of lightning.

He had no idea what had happened. In fact, was this even possible?

Deadman’s Fenrir was instantly split in two and its two halves stickily collapsed into the dark water. From the horn on the forehead, down the thick neck, and all the way across its large back, the beast was sliced into two perfectly symmetrical pieces.

Someone stood there.

Someone with such an overwhelming presence that the Necromancer, who had twisted the very environment, was overshadowed.

“ Eh? Huh? ”

“ A-a one shot!? ”

The decadent woman and her inhuman hat were both taken aback. Still straddling him, her hands loosened on the tongue whip strangling him.

Miyabi could not get up, but he could get his voice out now.

“Cough, cough, cough!! W-who are you!?”

No response.

He looked like an old man.

But he could not guess at an accurate age because the man wore a smooth mask that fully hid his face. He wore a loose outfit that looked like some kind of foreign attire and he held…a sword?

Had he really slain Deadman’s Fenrir with no more than that?

Again, was that even possible? That thing was a colossal rotting horse swollen to 20 meters with a Wicked God horn attached. How had he done it!? A human-sized sword should have been like a toothpick to it!!

Light flashed a moment later.

It came from the side and targeted the Necromancer.

“Gah…ah!?”

There was nothing she could do.

The horizontal line of red appeared below her chest but above her navel.

She had been attacked with a blade capable of slaying a Godhorn Tech in a single strike. No defensive stance or evasive maneuver could have avoided this. The critical mask made by the researcher of death was freezing up after witnessing something truly unexpected. With her legs spread to straddle the boy, evasion had not been an option.

Red sprayed out.

The color splattered across Miyabi below her.

She collapsed forward with a look of disbelief, so he caught her in his arms. Even she still had the warmth of life in her.

Only then did the world return to normal .

He was no longer viewing the world through the oddly detached viewpoint of someone approaching death. He felt the air on his skin like normal and his tunnel vision had faded away.

He held the injured Necromancer and scooted backwards. He wanted to get as far away from that masked old man as possible.

Then he heard his party members’ voices from quite nearby.

They were so distinct he was amazed he had not heard them until now.

“Gh, what is with that sword? Its presence is just as powerful as Scwharz Schütze. Wait, could that sword – that katana – be a Godhorn Tech!?” shouted Celina, wiping the filth from her head with a handkerchief. Miyabi could not say if she had been knocked to the ground during the battle or if the eruption of gore from that bisection had hit her.

Some others agreed with Celina’s instincts that something was wrong here: Number 8 and Kananka Fulpen.

“What is this pressure? It is interfering with my internal components.”

“That man himself isn’t normal. This abnormal pressure is even greater than that monstrous corpse!!”

The massive magical empire and the remote island kingdom had both developed their own theories about unseen powers in order to harness them. They were speaking from that expertise here.

That old man himself was out of the ordinary.

He said nothing.

Miyabi could feel the Necromancer’s warmth in his arms.

He could sense her pulse and breathing gradually weakening. Worse, it felt like the deep sword wound was pulsing separately from her heart.

His tunnel vision was gone.

That meant he could focus on something other than his own death.

That allowed him to identify the most pressing problem.

“This is…agh…bad. If the Necromancer dies, what happens to the pirates’ parasites!? How do we get them an antidote or vaccine or whatever!?”

“!?”

Onelife grimaced.

The masked old man did not seem to care.

“ The horn. ”

He spoke in a way that said he could not see anything else in this wide world.

His voice was unusually dry and scratchy even for an old man. After hearing that, Miyabi would not have been surprised to find there was nothing but a gaping hole behind the mask. In fact, finding an ordinary human face would have felt wrong.

“ You too possess a Godhorn Tech. ”

The tip of his sword was directed at Miyabi Blackgarden.

He was only interested in the boy out of all the people here.

This was not over yet.

Whoever he was, he was not here to rescue Miyabi.

“Hey, we should get the hell out of here.” The radio sounded dazed. “This is what I’d call an unwinnable fight. Trying to fight a master swordsman is better known as suicide!!”

“Kh…”

Miyabi was only holding the Necromancer in his arms because she had fallen toward him, but she felt like an entirely different person from the one who had intentionally straddled him. No matter how light you might call them, a human was still a heavy burden to carry. This opponent had bisected a Godhorn Tech from beyond his sword’s length. There was no escaping him while carrying something heavier than a sack of flour.

But she was the key to everything.

Even if she was an undisputable monster who had desecrated life, distributed sorcery bombs, and done so much harm to the natural environment here.

There was no saving Onelife’s pirates from the parasites without getting her to say how to heal them. Miyabi had promised that man he would solve that problem.

Just then, Miyabi heard something like an approaching wave.

A swarm of parasites had crashed into the masked old man from the side. Only one being in the world could do that: Deadman’s Fenrir.

“That undead freak survived such a clean bisection!?” shouted the radio. “Is everyone in this crazy jungle a monster!?”

Miyabi did not answer. Instead, he clenched his teeth and adjusted his grip on the Necromancer’s limp form. Then he turned his back on the sword-wielding assailant.

The parasites rushed in. The panicked Beast Novae must have been pushed to action as well. The Godhorn Tech had forcibly reunited its two halves using its many tentacles and it snapped through the rotting trees as it kicked off the ground and charged in for a do-or-die attack.

However.

There was no ground-quaking roar or shockwave.

The sound of the sharp blade slicing through the air was far too light.

It was enough to make you want to cry.

That was all it took for one side to be defeated, so the sense of danger racing up Miyabi’s spine remained unchanged. He could not bear to look at it. Now was not the time to stand and gawk. The Deadman’s Fenrir could not have thought its attack would result in something different from before. It would be bisected again, but it made that final attack regardless.

It had lost, but it still forced the masked old man to focus on it. It could take some of his time, no matter how small. And it had decided that was good enough.

As long as it created enough of an opening for the Necromancer to escape!!

“I get it.”

Miyabi looked away.

Like he was shaking free.

He considered how many sacrifices had been made to give him this 1-second opportunity. He reflected on the nobility of making such a choice without hesitation.

So he carried the injured villain away while shouting back at their savior.

“I have her, so don’t you worry, Deadman’s Fenrir!!!!!!”

The fear of that masked man’s gaze pierced Miyabi’s back, but he brushed it off.

At any other moment, he might have frozen on the spot, but no paralysis could stop him now.

He had to do this.

Of course, his efforts would be little obstacle for that old man wielding a special sword known as a katana. His most desperate efforts would be casually sidestepped.

But he had a moment to work with.

To use this hard-won opening to its fullest, he and his party ran as fast as their feet would take them.

They had just one goal: leave the deadly necromancy forest with their lives.

“Hey, I thought that was just a corpse with another Wicked God’s horn attached, so something like moving a dead frog’s legs! Why did it protect the Necromancer without being told to!?”

Helen kept trying to look back as she ran, but Eliza stopped her.

The chivalrous knight may have had her thoughts on the matter.

“Stop, it would be crass to search for an answer there. We know it wielded its great power to save someone. What else do we need to know!?”

But all of this would be for naught if the mysterious intruder caught up to them.

The Necromancer was a villain.

She was a hopelessly bad person.

But her life had been entrusted with them. She had desecrated death, toyed with people’s bodies, and become the center of the forest’s pollution, but that Godhorn Tech had still served its lonely master.

Perhaps it had wanted to guide her away from necromancy and in a healthier direction. Perhaps it had failed to do that and decided to at least keep her company.

There was nothing to suggest that.

It was probably just a figment of Miyabi’s imagination.

But even if the Deadman’s Fenrir was nothing more than a pile of flesh, its final act had shined with the light of a soul. There was something noble within it. It had style and grace. It carried some unseen factor that a simple village boy like Miyabi Blackgarden could respect.

Which was why it had refused to die even as it rotted away.

The woman was a hopeless villain, but Miyabi would never forget how that creature had fought to the very end to protect her!!

“Kh!!”

However, the reality they faced was cruel. He had decided not to abandon the Necromancer, but he could barely carry her. Plus this kept him from using his hands.

And the Lucifer Horn was near its limit.

He would be lucky to get in a single surprise attack. It would likely be cut down in an actual battle.

“I don’t think we can use our weapons or Godhorn Tech. We need to focus on escaping!” he shouted.

He did not even have time to use the power of creation to move the Palette Dice and create Bypass Bridges or Layer Stairs. Onelife tore a branch from a rotting tree and Alicia and Helen grabbed long sticks to poke at the filthy water ahead of them and search out paths they could use.

“Something doesn’t add up,” said Miyabi while carrying the Necromancer’s limp form. “He sliced the 20m Deadman’s Fenrir in two with a single strike.”

“Yes, and!?” asked Alicia.

“But that didn’t happen when he attacked the Necromancer. Look, she’s badly injured but intact. Why? There shouldn’t have been much left of her.”

Alicia gasped and Miyabi continued.

“You were saying that weird sword – was it called a katana? – might be a Godhorn Tech, right? Is there some secret there?”

“It is likely a Wicked God horn,” answered butler-uniformed Number 8, made from the best technology available to the Empire who had once operated the most Godhorn Techs on the continent. “When the Deadman’s Fenrir was defeated, I sensed two invisible pressures. The second sent a massive amount of energy into the wound and shredded the target Godhorn Tech from within. He intentionally let the powers of his own horn and the target’s horn reflect off of the inside of the Godhorn Tech’s skin to tear the initial wound further open. But a human’s body does not deflect that kind of energy, so it would simply leave your body. Just like how a window does not shatter when shot by a sniper rifle.”

“So that thing was developed as a…pure Godhorn Tech slayer?”

Celina gulped with a look that said she had never even considered the possibility before.

But the magical automaton expressionlessly shook his head.

“I am not so sure. It may be that he found a different use for a weapon that already existed. Since he was planning to fight Miyabi’s Lucifer Horn, he may have simply forgotten to switch it to anti-personnel mode.”

This opponent used a sword, so they were safe as long as they did not let him approach or see them.

Or so Miyabi thought.

“Get down, Miyabi!!”

“!?”

Kananka sensed something and shouted a warning. The instant Miyabi lowered his head, everything was sliced through at the same height. It was a horizontal sword slash. Even the blood-warm raindrops were sliced through, all the rotting mangrove trees slid to the side partway up, and they collapsed toward Miyabi’s fleeing party.

Of course…

“Gahhhh!?”

This was not a case of missing due to poor aim. When the trees fell, they splashed up the dark water onto Miyabi’s party. None of the extra-concentrated purple film was in it, but the water could still be fatal to the Necromancer with her open wound.

“What, is this the horn’s power too!?” asked Miyabi.

“You can’t use them so directly,” explained Eliza. “Why do you think they’re kept inside a sealed container? Release their power as-is and an explosive blast will spread in every direction, transforming the entire rotten forest into a massive crater!”

Eliza had answered on reflex, but she may have accepted for herself that the she was seeing something that violated the rules as she understood them.

“The rain is trembling…but not because it laments the pollution it will find once it falls. Does it fear that blade?” muttered young Kananka. His phrasing was based on his culture, which made it hard to understand. “I can’t believe that man. I bet he swung his sword to slice through a falling raindrop with enough force to rapidly vaporize it. Then he used that water vapor to ‘push’ at things. That is how he sliced through the trees.”

“You mean a single raindrop was superheated and instantaneously stretched out impossibly thin and wide? Th-that’s absurd!” shouted the radio. “That’s beyond what brute force can accomplish!! This goes beyond modern science. Can you really adlib your way to nonsense like that!?”

Then Alicia came to a stop and cursed.

“Damn!! That must have stirred things up in the water. Hurry back the way we came!!”

“Back!? But the masked old man is after us!”

“Do you want that purple goop to dissolve your legs!?”

The sight of Alicia’s stick dissolving into chemical smoke was enough to silence Celina’s objections.

But the Bio Rainforest was vast and labyrinthine. If the direct route was cut off, they would have to take a lengthy detour. Kananka was exhausted and veered off course, so the pirate had to grab him.

If they lost their bearings, they could end up wandering in circles.

“Look to the sun,” said Eliza, mostly for her own benefit. “Use it to keep your bearings.”

The rotting forest’s fauna included everything from the white parasites to mutated monsters that did not even qualify as ordinary Beast Novae anymore, yet none of it was in evidence. While the Deadman’s Fenrir had skillfully made use of the parasites, this swordsman pushed everything away.

He could do all this even from a distance.

They could not give up just because they had been stopped and forced to take a detour. If he got close, they had no chance of winning. They had all learned that lesson today.

“Pant, gasp!!”

Alicia clicked her tongue when she saw Miyabi trying to catch his breath.

“Tch. Carrying that injured woman is slowing us down!”

“Boss…”

“God, she is nothing but trouble.” The radio was not happy. “If not for the parasites, we could just dump that villain out here!”

“No!” shouted back the hat. Even after everything, it could not abandon this emotional bond. “Don’t leave her behind!! I’ll do anything, so please!!”

“…”

“Please!! Save the boss! Wahhhhh!!”

Miyabi knew it was not worth it, but when he heard that, he clenched his teeth and once more gathered strength in the hands holding the unconscious woman. Deadman’s Fenrir and the mystery hat were a disturbing pair, but the Necromancer had not been alone. They had tried to protect her from isolation and they had left her fate in Miyabi’s hands. Even though they cared about her life more than anything.

She was a villain, so she could never be forgiven.

Once they had a way of rescuing Onelife’s crew from the parasites, they could leave her to die.

But was that really true?

The Necromancer was undeniably a bad person, but it was up to Miyabi to decide if she lived or died. If he dropped her in the purple film floating on the water, the toxins entering through her wound would rapidly destroy her organs and blood.

In fact…

Would it even matter if he saved her? She had promised to save Onelife’s crew, but she was a known liar. There might not even be an antidote or vaccine for the parasites.

The part of him arguing to give up on her was a weakness he had to fight.

“Ghhh!!”

He pushed the weariness from his arms to fill them with further strength. He could not drop this wounded woman.

He kept running.

He ran without looking back.

He didn’t even want to know how close the deadly assassin had come. It was a miracle he had not been cut down from behind already.

The enemy had only a sword, yet his actions were entirely unpredictable.

That was a sword-sized Godhorn Tech, but it was not just a source of raw power. There was clear skill behind its usage, both in the Godhorn Tech slayer move that one-shotted Deadman’s Fenrir and the long-distance slash using vaporization. Miyabi would never be able to use it in the same way.

The Necromancer slowly opened her eyes in Miyabi’s arms.

“Ugh…you? Why?”

“I honestly don’t know. Part of me is still telling me to dump you here!” desperately shouted Miyabi. “But we can’t remove the pirates’ parasites without you. And more than that, those two were struggling to save you despite being powerless! That Wicked God worked to save a rotten villain like you even though it meant bisection and this other guy kept begging us to save his ‘boss’!!”

“Uhh…”

The decadent woman grabbed the brim of her hat with trembling fingers.

Then she looked up at Miyabi.

“You…”

“You made this mess, so you’re gonna clean it up! You were behind the pirates’ parasites and the sorcery bombs, so this should’ve been the end of it! So what’s the deal with that masked old man!?”

He shouted and ran until the Bio Rainforest’s exit came into view.

Eliza’s weary face lit up.

“Pant, pant. Almost there. We’re almost at the exit!!”

The escape had been tougher on her with her large lance and armor weighing her down, so she had obvious relief and hope in her voice as she made sure her feet did not get caught in the dark liquid.

But…

“Ugh!?”

He stood there.

Right in the way.

The white masked old man held his fearsome blade casually in one hand after reaching the exit ahead of them.

Miyabi bristled and shouted.

This one old man scared him more than all the monsters and parasites filling the forest.

“Goddammit!! We just can’t lose him!!”

Time ground to a halt.

He could not ask the Lucifer Horn to fight anymore.

No, he probably wouldn’t even have the time to stab his control sword into the ground and activate the magic circle.

The man took a sharp step forward.

He faced them with his eyeless and mouthless mask.

Miyabi could only watch helplessly as the sharp sword swung upwards to aim toward his neck.

And then…

“Koo!!”

A small cry and figure intervened.

That was enough for the old man’s sword to hop up and away from the party. Almost like he wanted to avoid taking that small, defenseless life more than anything.

“!?”

The old man froze in place and appeared to be analyzing his own action.

And then he came to a realization.

“Oh, ohhh…”

“Wh-what is this?” asked Alicia. “What did Alma do?”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He screamed like he was trying to tear apart his throat and chest.

Miyabi gave a start, but the masked old man had already vanished. Miyabi had not even seen him jump in any direction.

None of them could move for a bit.

“A-are we safe now?” Miyabi asked in a daze.

“Koo?”

Horn Fortress was found somewhere out on the ocean.

That secret base had started out as a desert island and Moebius Entrance now smiled thinly there in his wheelchair.

“If he’s causing trouble across the continent with such a large group in tow, he’ll probably run across him before long.”

He sounded both sad and irritated.

Even if he had a smile on the surface.

“History’s very first Godhorn Tech user – the Lord of Ruin .”

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 5

Development is coming along nicely, concluded dwarf craftsman Garett Goldcave, looking up at a giant structure.

Before, he had only built some small stone or brick buildings here and there on the island, but he had added on enough extensions that they were now complexly intertwined and stacked on top of each other, creating a bizarre sort of castle. He had not planned this out, so the interior had an inefficient and labyrinthine layout, but it was accomplishment enough that the unplanned structure did not collapse under its own weight.

He was finally at the point where the materials abandoned around the island would be useful.

He and the others could do most anything with the facilities they had created. Whether they wanted to cook or manufacture, they just had to draw out an accurate plan of the fuzzy idea in their head, process the materials, and assemble them.

For example, they could create bombs for the Lucifer Horn and help it resupply.

He had of course received help from the others in this.

The dwarf craftsman was joined by many other technicians. The gasmask girl named Marietta Diggrave had gathered imperial documents without realizing their value. The maid named Angela Custardmare had frequented enough mansions and castles to know a lot about their structure. The bunny girl named Eluné Jackpot and the gang daughter named Phobia Neverjudge were familiar enough with crime to know how to construct secret tunnels and doors. The former Godhorn Tech designer Candy Lunaticover could bring everyone’s fragmentary ideas together into a final product. The nonhuman and non-dwarf knowledge of the elves like Cliff Blueforest and Lillian Greenforest had come in handy as well. All of their knowledge had fused together to develop the unorthodox techniques needed to keep such a bizarre castle standing.

(Still, I think I was right to create some gargoyles and golems as soon as I was set up for metalworking. We can all design things and come up with ideas, but I need more help on the actual construction side of things.)

“Yes, you’re all such good boys. It’s time for your daily winding.”

He had the look that a grumpy old man reserved for his grandchildren.

This here was one of the biggest facilities.

“Nhhh… It’s been so long since I was kicked out of my guest researcher position in the Arsenal Kingdom and forced to earn my research funding as a traveling dancer, but I finally have a clinic all my own!!”

Iris Tempinvy, the dancer with a long silver braid, lifted her arms and stretched her back. She primarily researched supposedly-impossible recovery magic, but she had apparently been working as a dancer to fund that research.

Garett gave a snort.

“Hmph. Clinics are best when they’re rarely used.”

“Unlikely to happen on an island crawling with venomous snakes, venomous spiders, bears, tigers, and even the undead. Of course, we have all of them to thank for the plentiful materials and food.”

That brought into question what exactly they ate on this island. Life on a desert island was not always pleasant.

“Shouldn’t we consider trying our hand at some fields or paddies?”

“I think none of us wants to accept that we’ll be stuck on this desert island long enough for crops to grow, but it is true we’ll run out of animals eventually if we keep relying on hunting alone.”

Garett and the others had walked all around the Horn Fortress island, making it into their own backyard, but they had not run a detailed ecological survey. They could be stuck fighting against starvation tomorrow if they ended up killing and eating the last of some birds or beasts that they mistakenly thought were plentiful.

“If we do plant some seeds or seedlings in a field, the animals might come along and try to eat them,” said Garett.

“Wouldn’t that just mean more delicious meat for us?” asked Iris.

“Sigh. If I want someone to till the dirt, maybe I should go to Marietta since she’s an expert at digging holes. But this will work differently from the previous construction. I hope I don’t let my guard down and injure myself.”

“Oh ho ho. I hope you bring me plenty of scrapes and scratches to work with.” Iris laughed in delight, slapped the center of her chest, and winked. “We have a clinic now. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for the excitement of a serious wound. Moebius is a fine guinea pig, but it gets boring with just the one.”

“…”

“I also want to experiment with some trickier magic! Anyway, I just need patients, so make sure you come to me with any injuries☆”

### Profiles

Cate Tornadodancer

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 160cm

A former queen of the battle arena. It was recommended that she retire because she won so reliably it hindered the gambling side of the arena’s business, so she now wanders the world using the money she had won. Her skill was developed in the show business of the battle arena, so it isn’t much use in real battles and she can’t let anyone know her journey’s true purpose is to retrain herself from the ground up. Her ultimate goal is to be strong enough to break off a Wicked God’s horn.

Candy Lunaticover

Age: 14

Sex: Female

Height: 155cm

A genius designer known as the youngest person to draw up the plans for Godhorn Techs. Since she has already conquered land, sea, air, and even the deep sea, she has set her sights on outer space as her final frontier. She is searching for a Wicked God horn in order to create an explosive multistage flying broom capable of breaking the bonds of gravity.

Godhorn Tech Corpse: Deadman’s Fenrir

Pilot: The Necromancer

Affiliation: None

Size: Shoulder Height – 18m, Head Alone – 6m, Shoulder to Rear – 24m

A real Wicked God corpse had its horn removed and another’s horn attached to forcibly restart it, making for the most unorthodox Godhorn Tech of them all. More like forcing a rotting corpse to continue moving than a simple organ transplant. It is overflowing with various parasites and its dead flesh calls in more parasites to be killed. The souls of those dead parasites are converted into necromancy power, making it something like a semi-perpetual motion machine.

The Necromancer

Age: 25

Sex: Female

Height: 167cm

A researcher who continues to run secret experiments using forbidden necromancy. Her top priority is giving form to her own experimental wishes, so she does not even consider the harm or influence those experiments will have on her surroundings. Her research includes Wicked Gods where she has created the Deadman’s Fenrir by controlling a Wicked God corpse with another one’s horn. She has pride in her use of death as a researcher, so she is infuriated by the perverted nobles and anyone else who call themselves necromancers to justify their own interests.

Lord of Ruin

Apparent Age: 70 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 178cm

A mysterious person wearing a smooth mask who is likely an old man. Wields an unidentified sword that can bisect a Godhorn Tech in a single strike. He appears to possess great skill instead of just raw power. For example, he can launch long-range slashes using rapidly vaporized water. The only partial comfort is that he only seems interested in Godhorn Tech owners.

### 024. Epilogue

The humans prided themselves in their ability to feel regret

But they showed no sign of mending their ways

The first order of business was treating the Necromancer’s wounds.

They could finally lay her down once they had left the Bio Rainforest and there were far fewer toxins around. It was little more than a camp out in the middle of a field, but it made a lot of difference. Because of how messed up that rainforest had been. You weren’t supposed to have to deal with purple film and carnivorous fish in a forest where any injured person would be killed just by lying down.

“Bwah!!”

Miyabi took a deep breath. The air seemed to have physically changed the instant they left the rotting forest.

As had the temperature and humidity.

“The wind feels so nice.” Celina Bodenburg wiped the sweat from her brow. “The climate is entirely different, even though our coordinates are more or less the same. Why is that forest like a greenhouse?”

“The unnaturally captured heat might explain why the entire forest is fermenting,” replied Helen Clockgear, sitting on the green grass to catch her breath.

The air felt so fresh, which showed just how awful an environment that forest had been.

At any rate, the world had entirely changed.

There was no more black and purple water at their feet, so they could lower an injured person to the ground.

Onelife Shiftup laid his coat down on the ground and Miyabi Blackgarden laid the Necromancer on top of it while practically falling over himself. He was at his limit. His arms felt like they were never going to move again.

A red wound ran in a horizontal line below her chest and above her navel. Blood was still seeping from it.

Miyabi was only an apprentice, but he had been born and raised in a forestry village. With everyone using hammers and saws, he had seen his fair share of injuries, but this was something else entirely. Just seeing it sent a soul-rending chill running from his fingertips to the core of his body.

It had been so sharp.

So merciless.

This deep wound was no accident; it was an intentional attempt to take someone’s life.

“Wh-what do we do about this? Where do we even begin!?”

They had to get started.

It was a race against time.

Yet his mind had gone blank and he couldn’t shake the feeling.

What was he supposed to do? Helen was his usual go-to person for help, but the recovery medicines and antidotes in her small pockets had all been ruined by the Deadman’s Fenrir’s parasites. The natural herbs and nuts had been contaminated by the dark water and the concentrated purple film. The Necromancer only had herself to blame for that, but she really was going to die at this rate.

“Pant, pant…”

“Her blood pressure is dropping and her breathing is shallow.”

Number 8 and the philosopher’s stone were monitoring the woman’s condition.

“This is bad. If she dies, we’ve lost our only information source.”

“Boss.”

Helen searched through all of the medicines and bandages she had on hand, but she screamed when she found a rice-sized parasite that had stubbornly stuck with her. She quickly crushed it below her boot’s heel to make sure it could not spread outside the forest. That ruled out using any of those.

“A-anyway, we need to treat her. We need medicine…and something to close the wound!”

“Okay, fine.” Alicia Blueforest beckoned Celina over. “Hey, rich girl, help me out. We both know some alchemy, but if you want to act like an expert, you’ll have to prove it by saving someone on occasion.”

“U-unlike you, I work with metals, not medicines.”

Celina sounded confused, but she did seem to know how to deal with wounds and injuries better than Miyabi. Thinking back, she had journeyed on her own a lot, even if it was in an armored train. She may have been accustomed to dealing with injuries and illness as a part of looking after herself.

They all had to provide what knowledge they had.

“Right now, I need your gun. Aim it into the sky, new money.”

“Huh? You mean we aren’t searching through the grass for usable plants!?”

“Barren land like this only grows persistent but useless weeds. But some migratory birds prefer to eat rare medicinal herbs and their seeds. And if they’ve flown in from afar, they should have eaten some safer fruits from beyond the reach of the forest’s pollution.”

“I see. I should have known a filthy elf who lives out in the mud would think differently.”

“Oh, some Spring Carriers. See that bird with the pink tailfeathers? Their appearance reflects the food they’ve eaten. Try to take that one down in a single shot. The loud gunshot will scare the entire flock away.”

“L-laying on the pressure will not make my aim any better.”

With an earsplitting gunshot, feathers brighter than blood scattered in the air.

Young Kananka Fulpen looked away.

Come to think of it, his island kingdom apparently ate mostly fish and seaweed, so they may not have been in the habit of eating birds. And Kananka himself had sent out seabirds as magical messengers.

“Isn’t your boomerang meant for hunting?” Celina sounded exasperated. “Why aren’t you used to seeing dead birds?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is a defensive weapon used to knock down the shells fired by an invading ship before they can reach the island.”

“Please tell me you’re joking! Because the alternative is terrifying!!”

But for now, they needed medicinal herbs.

The party walked to where the bird fell, Alicia quickly chopped up the migratory bird with a small knife, and she pulled some undigested plants and seeds from its stomach. Miyabi had expected its stomach contents to be gross vomit, but it was surprisingly clean. He saw no sign of stomach acid and the pink flowers and seeds were still recognizable.

“Birds generally swallow things whole instead of chewing them with teeth,” explained Alicia. “And it depends on the species, but the Spring Carrier intentionally holds back on digestion to feel fuller longer with less food. Otherwise it would be so busy searching for food all day it would never have a chance to fly.”

The rest was simple enough.

Alchemy could create magic when given the appropriate materials. Miyabi watched as Alicia used fire to heat up a glass device similar to a siphon coffee maker to sterilize it of any unseen parasite eggs. Then she stuck the materials inside to create the medicine. The plant seeds were dissolved, the flower petals were crushed into a powder, and that powder was transformed into a liquid. She was using fire and hot water, but the changes were so different from when Helen cooked.

And the clock was ticking the entire time.

The Necromancer’s life was fading away.

“There, all done. This should do the trick!!”

Helen gave a nod of approval after swishing the colorful liquid in the flask.

The Necromancer appeared to be unconscious, but her body jerked unnaturally when they wiped down the wound to disinfect it. That meant she could still feel pain and was still alive. Her back arched and even more blood flowed out.

“Hold her down! Hurry!”

“Ugh!! This is one bad wound.”

Eliza Silverstorm was used to war, but even she groaned when facing that wound head on.

Helen would take on assassination jobs at times, so she remained calm.

“Frankly, she’s lucky to be in one piece after taking a hit from a sword that sliced right through a Godhorn Tech. And we can keep it from getting worse. Here goes!”

For better or for worse, they were given some time to think.

And eventually…

“Is she…okay?”

Miyabi did not even wipe the sweat from his brow. Both his hands were red.

Chosen Knight Eliza responded to the boy’s fears.

“I have fought in many battles. Do you see the red returning to her pale cheeks? She is also sweating again. Those are both signs of recovery.”

“All of her vitals are stabilizing.”

It was unclear what exactly he was doing, but Number 8 could apparently detect people’s life signs by holding out his hand and closing his eyes.

She was safe for now.

Which allowed them to think about other things.

“Hold on,” said the radio. “Her blood itself might be a defense against the parasites.”

“?”

“She lived out there with all those parasites. Granted, she kept some of them away with her whip, but she still must have some antibodies in her. You have butter in this sword and sorcery fantasy world, right? Or maybe sugar refinement? Then you should be able to do centrifugal separation with a hand-spun device. We can’t take too much blood since she’s already lost so much, but…oh, I know. If you mix a small amount of blood with saline and spin it around, you might be able to gather enough of the separated components to create a serum.”

Miyabi had no idea what antibodies were, but Alicia nodded in understanding. The alchemist elf explained that they were like an elemental defense built into your body. It did make sense that the Necromancer would not want to be affected by her own toxins and parasites. In fact, wouldn’t she have a hard living in that forest without a resistance?

Kananka’s face lit up.

“Then you can save the pirates with that! That’s excellent news!”

“…”

“Hey, cheer up, old man,” said Miyabi. “Now isn’t the time to feel guilty about what you did.”

“Agreed,” said Alicia. “Risking your life and throwing away your life are too very different things.”

“No matter how many detours you took along the way, you can save your crew now. So smile and accept it.”

“Yes…but…”

“No matter how it happened, saving lives is its own reward,” plainly stated Number 8. “I was not up to the task and the Empire was enveloped in the red you saw. I would redo it all if I could. Never let that happen to you, human.”

“Anyway, who was that with the magic sword?” asked Helen, wiping the blood from her hands.

“It was a special katana. It also appeared to be a Godhorn Tech itself,” said Celina.

Eliza had apparently viewed the old man in a different light.

She put her hands on her hips and explained.

“His sword technique was extremely refined, but I did not recognize it. Even though I have researched the military sword techniques of all my kingdom’s potential enemies. It may be an older style no country uses anymore.”

“He didn’t say much, but what he said was curious.” Kananka slowly repeated the words, like he was carefully contemplating them. “You too possess a Godhorn Tech.”

Miyabi gulped.

“You mean he’s intentionally targeting Godhorn Techs with nothing but a sword? So he only attacked the Necromancer because he was waiting for her?”

“Hm. Then could he have attacked me or King Kananka if he had chosen a different order?” asked Onelife.

“We never did get confirmation that the Necromancer is the 11th,” pointed out Miyabi.

Helen looked skeptical.

“You think it might not be her? But we know she was pulling the strings with Number 8 and the pirate.”

“That is true.” Miyabi took a cautious tone. He carved away the foreboding roiling within him, gradually revealing its shape. “With everything Deadman’s Fenrir could do, would she really need sorcery bombs? And blowing things away without a trace doesn’t sound like her. I mean, look at that forest. Wouldn’t you expect her to pollute the entire area and build up her own territory there?”

“But she also said all Godhorn Techs count as necromancy since they use a Wicked God horn. We’re talking about a mad scientist with all her screws so loose they fell out long ago. I could see her breaking her own rules when it’s convenient for her.”

The decadent woman was still unconscious.

Her hat was not saying anything. It was impossible to tell if it was refusing to speak or if it had fallen asleep after wearing itself out sobbing.

“If only we could ask her directly.”

The magical automaton’s words were always accurate but not always easy to implement.

Night had fallen.

“It’s lucky the Lucifer Horn can still fly. I’m not sure what we would have done if it couldn’t bring us firewood.”

Helen was tending to their magically-lit campfire.

They had taken turns looking after the Necromancer, but she was still in a deep sleep. Still, Number 8 had been right about her vitals stabilizing. It may have been safe to move her now.

They could not leave her at this camp forever.

Miyabi Blackgarden placed a wet handkerchief on her forehead and repeated the same thing for the umpteenth time.

“She still isn’t waking up.”

“Boss…” weakly moaned the hat.

It had been so silent before, but it had recovered a bit.

They could not walk all the way back to the criminal city while carrying the wounded Necromancer. That city was home to endless fighting and would thus have plentiful medical facilities, but that was not a short journey. There was a risk of her wound reopening before they arrived.

But what other option was there? He could only think of one thing. And with Moebius, they had already transported an injured person that way.

“Let’s send her to Horn Fortress for now,” concluded Miyabi. “We can speak with her once she wakes up.”

“You’re going to carry her with that wire!? When she’s asleep!?”

“Hm, then we need to create some kind of stretcher for her. The tent…alone wouldn’t work. Do you mind if I take apart the bag used to carry it?”

“You, automaton! Stop fixing the flaws in Miyabi’s plan!! He’ll never learn if you keep spoiling him as the perfect butler!”

No one listened to Helen’s reasonable complaint.

Miyabi summoned the Lucifer Horn.

It could not fly anywhere, but it was helpful enough just sending things to the safety of Horn Fortress. Instead of attaching the wire at a single point, they connected wires of their own to all four corners of the stretcher with the patient strapped down. Then they attached the wires together above, making a rectangular pyramid.

The colossal bomber flew by overhead and took the Necromancer and her hat away on the stretcher.

The rest of them needed to deal with their current situation.

“Like Miyabi was saying, the Necromancer was pretty powerful herself,” said the radio. “Why would she need to stick to sorcery bombs when she was so multitalented? Her specialty was biological stuff, which those bombs aren’t.”

Miyabi thought for a bit before responding.

“Then should we focus on someone fixated on Godhorn Techs and Wicked God horns?”

For example, that white masked man?

“That swordsman,” said Eliza.

“It does seem likely he could be the 11th,” agreed Alicia. “Maybe he uses any means necessary to kill Godhorn Tech users.”

“But that makes him easy to predict.”

The philosopher’s stone was right.

“He will appear wherever you find a Godhorn Tech and its user,” softly stated Miyabi.

Miyabi Blackgarden.

Celina Bodenburg.

Eliza Silverstorm

Number 8.

Kananka Fulpen.

Onelife Shiftup.

The Necromancer.

And the white-masked old man.

He pictured all of them in his mind and groaned.

“Since there are 10 in all, there aren’t many candidates left. And if he cares about the Godhorn Techs and not their users, we can rule out Moebius.”

For the same reason, the Arsenal Kingdom’s Chosen Knights, who had controlled theirs by majority rule, would be safe now that the Icicle Bullet was no more.

“We should be able to get ahead of him if we know who the remaining options are.”

Number 8’s suggestion made Alicia gasp.

“…”

“What is it, miss?” asked the radio around her neck.

The elf shook her head.

“Well, I do know the name of one…but I have no idea where she would be nowadays.”

“Oh, in that case.” Celina raised a small hand. “There is one place I know has one of the few remaining Godhorn Techs.”

“?”

“My Bodenburg Company has built a distribution network covering every part of the continent. There is a desert nation north of that Bio Rainforest. We should probably visit that massive religious nation and warn their Godhorn Tech user.”

The sun was setting, so they decided to spend the night in the tent and head out in the morning.

The desert was apparently past the Bio Rainforest.

They were extremely reluctant to revisit that forest and travel to the other side, but they did so anyway.

The tropical forest was just as gross as ever, but it showed signs of gradual recovery with the Necromancer gone. There was also no sign of the old man.

A chilly wind was driving out the uncomfortably stuffy heat.

Alicia sounded impressed as the blood-warm rain continued to fall.

“Nature is incredible.”

“Safe travel through here would do wonders for our company. Eh heh heh. We could take the shortest route between the criminal city and the desert nation. Ooh, and we could even look into the former researchers hiding out in the forest and try recruiting some of them.”

Miyabi still didn’t understand any of Celina’s business talk, but he was glad she was calm enough to count her chickens before they hatched like that.

And.

They finally made it out of that creepy black and purple forest.

“This is…a desert?”

The world had changed.

Was this really a part of the same continent? Kananka’s island had been hot, but not like this. There was nothing but fine sand as far as they eye could see – no plants and no water. The rolling dunes of that sandy world resembled an ocean frozen in time. No one could live in such an empty place. That was plain to see just by looking at it.

The heat was like what you felt when removing pottery from the kiln.

“This is incredible!!” shouted mountain boy Miyabi.

“Ohh, this is worse than just no forest – there’s no grass or flowers either. It’s all so dry.”

The elf was always sapped of energy in the absence of greenery, so this was a trial so soon after the rotting forest.

There was no stone-paved road here. Maybe none had ever existed and maybe it had long since been buried below the blowing sand.

“Koo…”

“I know, Alma. Painful, isn’t it? Here, I will hold you.”

“N-no concern for the machine who’s vulnerable to fine sand and temperature changes, I see!” protested the radio.

“I feel your pain,” said the magical automaton.

“I don’t want sympathy from a guy! Anyway, the days out here are hot as hell and the nights are cold as hell. Either way, it ain’t gonna be pleasant.”

“There is a country full of people here somewhere,” said Helen, providing no details whatsoever.

When they observed the sandy desert carefully, they could see what may have been paths. Those were the safest and shortest routes between villages. As they followed one, they saw some fleshy plants growing from the sand, meaning there was water here.

Then Miyabi saw a small pond.

His eyes widened.

“Oh.”

“Waterrrr!” rejoiced Alicia. “Greeeeeeen!!”

“Someone stop that idiot before she strips and jumps in!!” shouted Helen.

“No, don’t stop her!” shouted back the radio. “I want to see a bathing elf! A real one!! Did we skip 5G to go straight to 6G!! This is moving blazing fast!!”

Miyabi was closest, so he tackled her slender hips, knocking the elf to the sand where she screamed and flailed at how hot it was. But holding her down until it subsided was the only way to reclaim peace. He had to harden his heart and keep his weight on her.

In the short time he was focused on that, Alma had undergone a new transformation while seated on the edge of the oasis and soaking its short back legs in the water. A flower was blossoming from the creature’s head.

Celina crouched down and poked at the flower.

“Is this…a dryad?”

“This isn’t the earth element. Is it wood? The thing’s become a plant to soak up all the water for itself,” said the radio, sounding disgusted.

But one of them was in no state to join the silly conversation: Eliza, born and raised in a snowy kingdom.

“Pant, pant. Th-that island kingdom was bad enough, but this is on another level…phew.”

Kananka sighed.

“I do understand that seeing some water can be calming.”

“Nhhh!! It’s no ocean, but it’s something!!” agreed Onelife.

“Don’t you dare! This blessed oasis is reserved for bathing elves, not smelly muscle men!!” shouted the radio so forcefully its voice distorted.

Celina put a hand on her hip.

“Sigh. It’s an oasis all right. We were lucky to find it. People need water to traverse the desert, so we should reach the desert nation if we follow the oases.”

They had not noticed it before, but there was some kind of rock jutting up from the center of the oasis. It was too smooth to be natural and it pointed sharply up toward heaven. It had a giant slab sticking diagonally into it, so it may have been a makeshift building with a simple roof. Whatever it was, it was clearly artificial.

“?”

Number 8 looked puzzled for once.

“What an odd sensation. I feel a slight pressure in my chest.”

They continued across the scorching desert after that.

Knowing there would be more oases up ahead filled them with hope. They could actually observe their surroundings now. They could see other stone ruins further out from the oasis, but these were different from the ones in the Bio Rainforest. There were giant statues of four-legged beasts and great rulers and there were enormous square pyramidal structures. The boy could not even imagine what they had been built for.

After passing through a few more oases, a large city came into view. It was nothing like they had seen before and it was a living, growing place, not ancient ruins.

“Pant, gasp.”

Miyabi wiped sweat from his brow in a world where simple walking was a wearying affair.

“Is that it?” asked Alicia. “Have we finally found the desert nation?”

“K-koo…”

“It is called the Hibis Aclia Oracle Nation, country elf. Oh? There are people gathered near the entrance. Is that…a sign?”

Helen was right.

A sign had been erected in front of the large gate. It appeared to contain some kind of notification. Three or four youths viewed it for a bit, but then they nodded and entered through the gate.

Kananka made a reasonable guess.

“It might explain the process for entering the city.”

“So it isn’t just the sand and heat. There is something going on here. I just hope it can explain this pressure I feel.”

Number 8 was fighting something unseen and Celina tilted her head next to him.

“Hm? I don’t remember that sign there last time I visited.”

“We’ll know what it is when we read it. Let’s take a look.”

Miyabi walked up to the sign.

The words jumped out at him: Sacrifices wanted. Inquire within.

“…”

They all fell silent.

Miyabi spoke for them all.

“Why do I get the feeling we’ve walked into trouble again?”

### 025. Preface

### Color Illustration 1

“Please, Miyabi. Do not let go of my hand!!”

Eliza Silverstorm

A member of the Arsenal Kingdom’s White Seidr Chosen Knights. Former owner of the Icicle Bullet Snow Sleigh.

“Urp, blehh…”

Alicia Blueforest

Girl belonging to the Blueforest race of elves. Dabbles in alchemy as a hobby.

“Hey! Don’t just open my cover out of desperation!”

Crystal Radio

A philosopher’s stone that Alicia made with alchemy. Talks like an adult human man.

### Color Illustration 2

“Why am I always the one sacrificed on the altar of sexy!?”

Helen Clockgear

Republic official in Miyabi’s village. Specializes in infiltration and intel gathering.

“You’re the one that wanted to know what a bikini is.”

Celina Bodenburg

Only daughter of the world-renowned Bodenburg Company. Former owner of the Schwarz Schütze Armored Train.

### Color Illustration 3

Godhorn Tech Bestial Corpse – Deadman’s Fenrir

A heavy tremor shook the ground and continuous sticky sounds soon followed.

A colossal four-legged beast had appeared.

Pieces of it were rotting away and parasites spilled from the sewn-up wounds. The forcibly-attached Wicked God horn glowed faintly.

Miyabi Blackgarden

A perfectly ordinary boy from the first village. Inherited the Lucifer Horn Bomber and pursues the 11th who uses sorcery bombs to cause damage across the land.

The Necromancer

A scholar who performs secret experiments using forbidden necromancy. Owner of the Deadman’s Fenrir Bestial Corpse.

### Terminology

Palette Dice

Construction units perceivable by some Godhorn Tech users and alchemists. Envisions the materials of the world as cubic dice. They are a collection of the elements that make up the world and it is said they can even influence fate when brought together.

Control Device

A human-sized weapon that links with the Godhorn Tech itself. The user’s own possession is transformed into a new weapon that provides control. The user and Godhorn Tech are connected by a contract, so if their control device is stolen, they only need to have another weapon registered as a control device, meaning there is no risk in having the device itself stolen. They tend to be larger than the original tool or weapon, presumably to accommodate the link with the Godhorn Tech.

Magic

A popular technical system that is well-known even among the commoners. This world’s civilizations are not all that advanced, but life is still comfortable thanks to magic allowing excellent hygiene and more. Baths and bathrooms are not an issue. But there is only so much magic a single person can use, so reaching greater levels of power requires something else to boost one’s magic. The best example of this is the Godhorn Tech that uses a Wicked God horn.

Philosopher’s Stone

Crystallized knowledge created with alchemy. They are extremely valuable in and of themselves, but their knowledge can also be extracted by combining them with a crystal radio or a writing tool. Whether they chan change the nature of metals or provide immortality differs between schools of alchemy, so two different stones both called philosopher’s stones might be made of entirely different materials.

### 026. Excerpts

- The Lucifer Horn records its battles to assist its self-improvement. When the user views these records, it rearranges the voice data based on its own analysis and interpretation to test its ability to compress the meaning of statements and understand the situations being described.

- Coordinate A2: Blue Forest.

- Sorcery bomb detected. Schwarz Schütze detected.

- User registration updated. Unknown error detected during update process.

“Godhorn Tech Bomber – Lucifer Horn. Is that monster really mine now?”

“I’m leaving my Godhorn Tech with you, so don’t you forget this one thing. You have just one task here. And that isn’t to defeat Miss Celina!!”

- Entry: The battle was initially between Moebius Entrance and Celina Bodenburg, but Moebius’s injury meant the user registration was updated to Miyabi.

- From there, the Lucifer Horn followed Miyabi’s instructions and continued the fight against the Schwarz Schütze.

“The 11th is completely unregistered and exists as a ‘shadow’ lurking below the surface.”

“There’s a monster on this level. Without any country managing them?”

“They stay hidden, causing devastation whenever they feel like it. And unlike the other 10, their Wicked God horn is not built into a weapon. They use the energy flowing from that horn to create massive sorcery bombs. And these bombs are made to look identical to trees, rocks, or whatever else. ”

(Is that it? That’s the 11th’s sorcery bomb. I can protect everything if I destroy that!!)

“Bomber Lucifer Horn!! Please, protect everyone for me!!”

- Entry: The sorcery bomb was disguised as a large tree right next to Celina.

- On Miyabi’s instructions, the Lucifer Horn destroyed it while avoiding Celina. Celina could not sense the sorcery bomb’s presence and she once more viewed the Lucifer Horn as a target.

“This is a surprise, but Moebius need not be my opponent. I only wish to prove that I am the strongest by defeating the Lucifer Horn. I must prove that no Godhorn Tech can surpass the Schwarz Schütze. You are a lot like him in one way, though: that arrogant concern for your enemy. But never mind that. From now on, you shall be an enemy of Bodenburg.”

- Coordinate A2: Azul Titanio Village.

- The Schwarz Schütze is now an enemy.

“Celina Bodenburg and the Armored Train Schwarz Schütze. You know why Miss Celina fights, so you can set the perfect stage for her and guide her there. That means you can move the battle outside the village.”

- Entry: On Moebius’s advice, Miyabi chose to defeat Celina now so he could focus on dealing with the sorcery bombs.

“ You’re telling me to sell her your Lucifer Horn!? ”

“ Don’t forget, it’s yours now. ”

- Coordinate A1: Independent Militaria Material Kingdom Territory

- Attack on the Schwarz Schütze begins.

- Sorcery bomb detected. Icicle Bullet detected.

- Entry: Miyabi pretends to make a business deal with Celina to board the Schwarz Schütze.

“The Wicked God horn built into Godhorn Tech might as well be pure energy. Safely removing one is a very different task than simply installing one. Not even our company has reached that level, so we must visit the snowy Arsenal Kingdom far to the north.”

“Money is simple. My father always says so. As does my mother. With money, people will accept you. With money, you can grow. With money, you can do anything you want. With money, you can even protect people’s lives. With money…your parents will call you a good girl.”

- Entry: Celina and Eliza Silverstorm make contact via radio.

“We received another letter. An anonymous letter. It alleges that a portion of your train has been replaced with one of the 11th’s sorcery bombs.”

- Entry: The Schwarz Schütze was derailed by a surprise attack from the Icicle Bullet.

“But that’s the Wicked God horn’s sealed container. Are you saying the sorcery bomb was placed on the horn!? Could someone really replace a component here!?”

“I want mother and father to look my way…to say I did a good job. But do this and they…they won’t love me anymore. So please!!”

“I won’t take anything from you. I will become your strongest. But not for Bodenburg. I will become the strongest for you.”

- Entry: Alicia Blueforest and Helen Clockgear arrived at some useful conclusions.

“A third party would have had a very hard time approaching the fully-equipped Schwarz Schütze and sabotaging it en route.”

“That means someone already knew where it would be derailed and was lying in wait to swap in the sorcery bomb after it came to a stop.”

“And they had it replace a piece of the Schwarz Schütze.”

“It would be simplest to assume that was the 11th.”

- Coordinate A1: Independent Militaria Material Kingdom – Castle

- The Schwarz Schütze was destroyed

- The Icicle Bullet is now an enemy. The attack begins.

- Entry: A largescale riot had broken out across the entire fortress state.

“Drag that incompetent king from the throne!!”

“No more military expansionism! We demand peace!!”

“Why are we paying to fight foreign enemies when we can’t put food on our tables!? The taxes are the real enemy!!”

- Entry: All the White Seidr Chosen Knights save Eliza agreed with the rioters and plotted to drive out the king who supported the Godhorn Tech.

“The people’s anger comes from his failure to lead. Do you have any idea how much money was poured into the Icicle Bullet!? The heavy taxes needed to pay for it have left the people starving. Our noble knight’s spears are rented out to other countries like lowly mercenaries and thugs!! Acquiring foreign currency? We’re supposed to be the noble chosen knights, paragons of our kingdom’s virtues!!”

“But…”

“No one wanted that Godhorn Tech! No one but this king here!! Behold the true will of White Seidr! The will of every last one of us, save you!!”

- Entry: With no other options, the chosen knights intended to use the Icicle Bullet to defeat their king. If successful, it was evident the castle town located between the castle wall and the castle itself would be destroyed.

“Please. Stop the Icicle Bullet. Please use your power to protect the Arsenal Kingdom!!”

“Here’s your target, Lucifer Horn!! Attack here nowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!”

- Coordinate A1: Independent Militaria Material Kingdom – Gate

- Icicle Bullet defeated.

“I am saying I was not colluding with the 11th to destroy the company’s Godhorn Tech.”

“B-but! One of my train’s components was only swapped out with the sorcery bomb after it had been stopped by you . That means the 11th knew in advance the time and location that would happen!!”

- Entry: With the problem in the Arsenal Kingdom (common name of the Independent Militaria Material Kingdom) resolved, discussion turned to the aforementioned letter.

- The sender’s identity was revealed.

“There isn’t much to tell. I received an emergency notification and moved to stop Celina. He is a legendary fixer who is allowed to possess a Godhorn Tech as an individual because he uses its power to resolve any trouble that crops up between countries. The letter was from Moebius Entrance .”

- Data optimization complete.

- The Lucifer Horn will continue to record its battles.

### 027. Chapter 4

### Chapter 4 Section 1

People’s fear led to doubt. The have-nots doubted the haves while the haves doubted themselves.

And they all chose the same method of finding peace: to attack.

Moebius Entrance.

Confronting that man required turning back from the snow-covered Arsenal Kingdom and returning to the first village. The Schwarz Schütze had taken them the majority of the way there, but they would have to trek through the cold on the way back. That meant taking time to prepare for the journey in the Arsenal Kingdom.

But the 15-year-old redhead boy with sawdust goggles on his forehead did not remember any of it.

He knew he and the others had walked around the fortress city surrounded by those thick walls, but he did not remember how he had spent his time there.

“S-sorry,” he vaguely recalled a puppy-like chosen knight saying. “Tours of the castle are currently canceled due to all the confusion. But only because everyone is working so hard to fix our current situation instead of insisting someone else do it. In that sense, this is a step in the right direction.”

She wore gorgeous armor, including fine silverwork, a feather headdress, and a miniskirt, but it also possessed excellent magical defenses. She was one of the elite White Seidr Chosen Knights, but she was now running around fixing up the castle town with the ordinary soldiers.

The heat of the riot had faded from the icy city, so everyone was working to gather up the trash and repair the crumbling wall.

“Sorry, but no tours today,” he half-remembered a chosen knight saying with a condescending look. “Nothing good comes of the commoners seeing chaos in the castle. You should leave now.”

The icicles and frozen waterways were likely an intentional part of the city’s design in this snowy land.

“Sigh, the place is finally looking like a city again,” he partially remembered a tomboyish chosen knight commenting. “I have more strength than I know what to do with, so I really wish they would send some jobs my way. I’ll do anything – even lay bricks or paint walls!”

“Eh? You were wondering if all the Arsenal Kingdom’s knights are women?” He must have asked a knowledgeable chosen knight that at some point. “It’s not a requirement, but it is true most are. Hee hee. But we do have male knights. Look around and you might just find one.”

But.

He felt like he was wandering through a dream.

He must have left the Arsenal Kingdom at some point, but he didn’t remember doing it. He would not have questioned it if someone told him the memories were merely implanted in his head.

The shock had left him feeling utterly pathetic.

Betrayals did not just leave the victim brimming with rage toward the traitor. It was more complicated than just hating an enemy. They found themselves unable to trust themselves after trusting the traitor like that. It left a deep emotional scar.

“Moebius.”

“Hold on, boy. I thought you were shopping around to prepare for our journey.”

He did not even hear Alicia Blueforest, an elf who looked 13 or 14.

Instead, he stabbed his thick blade into the deep snow.

That control sword had a short blade for a two-handed sword, but who would believe it had originally been a machete? It was in fact a special control device used to send commands to the Lucifer Horn.

He let his anger take control of his voice.

He felt like he had lost all other emotions.

He shouted the name like he was preparing to tear the man’s throat out with his teeth.

“Moebius Entrance!”

“Wait!! Summoning that thing in this blizzard accomplishes nothing. Snatching yourself up with its wire will only throw you out into the sky!!”

The short elf’s white dress fluttered as she grabbed at Miyabi to stop him. Concluding that was not enough, Helen Clockgear, a young black-haired woman in a tight skirt and glasses, struck the back of the boy’s neck with the pommel of her knife. He collapsed into the snow, and Eliza Silverstorm, a professional fighter of the White Seidr Chosen Knights, grew flustered.

“But why?” shouted blonde Alicia, scooping the boy up from the snow. “Why would he be pulling the strings!?”

None of them had the answer.

Nor would they until they returned to where this journey had begun.

They knew the answer awaiting them would please none of them, but they had to return to the first village. They had arrived comfortably enough in the Schwarz Schütze armored train, but the way back would be on foot, meaning the white snowscape would bear its fangs.

Just one step outside of the gate transformed their surroundings into one of biting cold.

“Are we really headed in the right direction?” groaned Celina Bodenburg, whose black dress left her shoulders bared even in the frigid temperatures. “We aren’t going to end up stranded out here, are we?”

They could not continue traveling through the night.

As impatient as they were, a night blizzard would be fatal. When they spotted a village along the way, they would take a short detour to find an inn. If they did not, they had to camp out in a cave or some other shelter.

Today, they were in a rocky mountain cave.

“Ugh, how many days has it been now?” asked Alicia. “How I miss stretching out in a nice bath.”

“Why is this forest elf only interested in burning trees for warmth?” added Helen. “But to be fair, I’m just as sick of this snowy land as she is.”

Helen was soaking a towel in boiled water. When they couldn’t find an inn, even that was a luxury. She had loosened her jacket and tied up her black hair to rub the wet towel against her nape, breathing an alluring sigh. The towel really was their replacement for a bath. Not only did it clean them off, it warmed them and helped them relax, albeit to a limited extent.

“Koo,” cried the stuffed animal creature called Alma.

That juvenile Wicked God was currently in a red phoenix form. It was only the size of a slipper, but its own warmth kept it nice and cozy. It looked a little sleepy.

Celina was passing water through a portable filter the size of a beer mug and using the purified water to cast Aqua Wash magic on her hands, eliciting an exasperated comment from Alicia.

“When did you humans forget how to play in the dirt and vegetation? We are surrounded by water out there. Just fill a pot with snow and place it over the fire. You aren’t going to sterilize our dinner with ethanol and formaldehyde, are you?”

“This may be difficult to understand for a nature-loving elf who thinks bathing in the same natural springs as an elephant or hippo will actually get her clean, but a cute and elegant lady must be ever vigilant when it comes to cleanliness. You should thank me for this kind gift – have some deodorant.”

The wild elf, whose long hair and nape gave off a sweet feminine scent, fled as she was sprayed with a disinfectant magic that used purifying silver as a catalyst.

Miyabi was curled up by the rocky wall and did not join in the horseplay.

His shell was shut tight around him.

Even in the freezing cave, the gloomy-eyed boy only ever brought up one topic.

The passage of time did nothing to remove the roiling mass within his heart.

“I don’t know why he did it.”

Throughout their break, he had been staring out from the cave entrance into the thick curtain of snow while muttering fragments of a conversation with himself.

He seemed to be releasing his doubts in advance in order to escape the nightmare. The pressure building in his heart was so painful he refused to eat.

He felt bad doing this to Eliza.

Starting a journey with this hanging over their heads had to be rough, but he could do nothing to break free of the weight bearing down on him.

“But from the beginning, I only ever did what he told me. He told me to take his Godhorn Tech and he told me to search for the 11th’s sorcery bombs.”

He felt used.

His own words threatened to tear him apart.

“He was even the one who told me to contact Celina and send the armored train to the Arsenal Kingdom!”

He had no real motivation. There was no treasure waiting at the finishing line. But he had to push on. Like it was his penance for being so gullible.

Still, each step brought him closer. If nothing else, the path he took would not betray him.

And before he knew it…

“Wow,” gasped Eliza, her silver ponytail swishing behind her.

The snow had vanished from the ground.

That proved they had left the northern lands where the Arsenal Kingdom held sway and that they were approaching the first village. Their feet trod on dark soil and their eyes fell on sparse green undergrowth. They saw the occasional wooden fence, suggesting this area had once been a ranch.

To the chosen knight in miniskirt armor, the white of snow was the natural color for the landscape, so this must have been an unusual sight for her.

But Miyabi only felt gloom.

He was approaching the person he most wanted to see but least wanted to hear from.

Moebius Entrance was waiting. The better one of them knew him, the more keenly aware of that fact they were.

Celina Bodenburg, only child of a massive company, was the first to address it.

“He was the one who chose that forest for our battlefield and injured himself protecting Miyabi.”

She had known the man before even Miyabi.

It had been a hostile relationship, but still.

“Are you saying he did all that to set this up?”

“You mean he dragged Miyabi into this in order to attack the Schwarz Schütze?” Helen placed a finger on the side of her glasses. “So he could send Miyabi after you, use that letter to have Eliza attack, and then lie in wait in the snowy forest so he could replace a portion of the derailed train with a sorcery bomb!?”

How many times had they discussed it now?

How many times had he seen it in his nightmares?

“Pant, gasp. We’ve finally – finally! – made it back,” said Alicia, her shoulders rising and falling. “I’m taking a bath and sleeping for three days straight.”

Yes.

Miyabi Blackgarden had returned to the first village.

That logging village was half enveloped by the Blue Forest. The rhythmic pounding and sawing of tools on trees was unchanged. The small village of log houses seemed cut off from the world’s changes.

Small.

Miyabi was a little surprised to find that adjective in his head. Had the journey really changed him that much? The place had felt so comfortable and complete when he was living here, but now its peace looked fragile and undefended.

“Oh, you’re back, Miyabi?”

“Your parents just went back home a bit ago. You barely miss each other an inordinate amount of the time.”

Some of the neighborhood workers called out to him, but the redhead boy did not respond.

“Is…?”

“Hm?”

“Is Moebius Entrance still here?”

He threw open the door to the clinic, but the place was empty. The wheelchair was gone too. He only found the stillness unique to an empty space.

No…

“Yikes!?” cried Helen after casually peeking below the bed, a habit she had picked up as a “government official”. “That’s Iris, the dancer who was looking after Moebius. …Good, she’s still breathing.”

Miyabi checked too and saw a silver sparkle. It was the dancer’s braid. She had been laid on her side and shoved under the bed in a pose that could not have been comfortable.

If Moebius had nothing to hide, he wouldn’t have had to run off or harm the person so kindly nursing him back to health.

Miyabi tried to fight the dizziness as anger swelled out within him. He now knew that bastard had done more than just trick a gullible fool like him. Moebius had even attacked someone doing him a favor.

“Goddamn it! It really was him.”

He had to shout.

If he did not use that as an outlet for his anger, he was certain he would collapse on the spot.

This new revelation weighed on him that heavily.

“Moebius really was the 11th!!”

“…”

“He set up the sorcery bombs, he had us pit our Godhorn Techs against each other, and he made sure Celina’s was destroyed. Why would that scumbag do all that!?”

Just then, Alma started hopping up and down on the windowsill.

“Koo? Koo, koo!!”

“What is it, Alma?” asked Alicia. “Oh…boy, set your wailing aside and take a look out the window. I see a wheelchair out there, so this is your last chance to catch him!!”

He seriously considered breaking through the wall to get at Moebius faster.

But he stopped himself at the last second and used the door instead. Maybe he wanted to prove that he, unlike that man, was still human.

He had already drawn his control sword and readied it in both hands.

He wanted to vomit remembering that this power was borrowed from that man.

“Moebius!!”

He spotted the distinctive wheelchair in the middle of a public square where anyone could see it. He also saw the man seated in it. He saw the long red hair and the thick coat that could have belonged to a noble or a pirate. He could not see the man’s face, but his mind’s eyes still saw the grin he knew would be plastered on the man’s face.

He could no longer view that smile the same way. Even if the movement of the eyes and lips was identical, it would only look cruel and mocking now.

But Moebius had his back turned.

He had to have heard Miyabi shout his name, but he said nothing.

A powerful tremor shook the entire village.

“Whoa!? Wh-what is that!?”

Celina had seen something while struggling to keep her footing.

Something had just stepped in from outside the village.

But what was it?

It almost looked like a thick castle wall, but…no. It appeared to be a colossal suit of bipedal armor, but its excessively wide torso was more reminiscent of a stretched accordion than realistic body proportions. It could likely create a crater in the ground with a single punch, but its size was not the only unusual thing about it. Its shoulders and chest appeared to be crammed full of as many projectile weapons as the Schwarz Schütze and the Lucifer Horn. It leisurely crossed the village’s border, crushing the fields and fences underfoot, and ignored all the surrounding chaos and confusion. It never hesitated, even when a house stood in the way.

No one could remain standing.

The boy heard piles of logs crashing to the ground.

His party and all the villagers struggling with the logs could only stay on all fours as they bore with the terrible shaking. Attempting to flee may have actually increased the risk of injury.

“Is that…a Godhorn Tech!?”

Helen’s eyes bugged. The Republic had no Godhorn Tech of its own, so not many people there had seen as many as she now had.

Moebius did not so much as glance back at them.

Were Miyabi and his control sword not even worth his attention?

“Took you long enough, Number 8.”

Was that someone’s name?

“So what’s the plan? Hoping to take me away with you?”

Someone stood at the feet of the giant armor.

He looked like a young man with half his face covered by black hair. He wore a tailcoat the color of the night, making him look like a butler. The source of the tremors had to be even more badly shaken, but he used motions as precise as clockwork to negate it, allowing him to stand tall without the slightest waver. He seemed cold and unfeeling, making him seem just as unshakeable as ever-grinning Moebius, but in a different way.

“…”

“Is the Divine Doll hard to operate even for one of you?”

The young butler never responded.

The Divine Doll crouched down and then its massive hand approached the wheelchair. It could have crushed Miyabi’s house with those fingers, but it instead grabbed and lifted just the one person. The butler also hopped onto the giant hand.

Miyabi immediately squeezed his control sword tight.

“Wait, Moebius!!”

“You mustn’t, Miyabi!!” Eliza stepped forward to stop him. “Think of the damage a Godhorn Tech battle would cause this village!!”

“Kh!!”

They were not the only ones in the village. The loggers and hunters who made their living in the forest had yet to get back up from the ground.

Meanwhile, the Divine Doll turned 180 degrees.

Almost like the worms crawling on the ground meant nothing to it.

Moebius did not look back even once. Miyabi could imagine the man’s look of scorn for Miyabi’s inability to actually fight.

The tremors resumed.

The Divine Doll made the ground quake when it walked. It leisurely left the village with Miyabi’s party pinned by the shaking. Its slow movements made one wonder if it even saw this as “running away”, but each step covered a great distance.

“Hm? It’s headed south,” commented Alicia, sounded exasperated. “That leads to the ruined Magic Empire.”

“Come to think of it, I had heard of an automaton that continues to protect those ruins,” said Eliza.

“Koo?” groaned Alma with a head tilt.

The creature may have been responding to the word “automaton”.

Miyabi felt a fire lit inside him as he listened to them speak.

He squeezed the control sword’s grip tight and muttered under his breath.

“Moebius and Number 8.”

But his power was borrowed.

And it was so insignificant that Moebius had not even tried to retrieve it.

Miyabi understood that, but he still could not bring himself to abandon it.

“He toys with us all without ever wiping that damn grin off his face!”

### Chapter 4 Section 2

Miyabi Blackgarden’s party left the first village with just one goal in mind.

“If we’re going to catch up to Moebius, we need to reach that ruined empire.” His voice was clear but somewhat hoarse. “I’m getting that bastard to tell me the truth and then I’m settling the score with him.”

“…”

Alicia Blueforest viewed the boy from the side, but she decided against saying anything.

After traveling a while south, they stopped seeing inns.

Something like scarecrows dotted the weed-covered plains, suggesting these had once been farmlands.

The road was nothing more than brown wagon wheel ruts running along the green plains, but even that grew spotty. In fact, the weeds and grass faded away, leaving nothing but exposed dirt. The only remnants of the road were long, narrow puddles that actually made it harder to walk.

The blonde elf wiped the sweat from her brow and viewed the surrounding wasteland with obvious frustration over the absence of green. There were no cats or rabbits here. Her face lit up when she espied a creature covered in fluffy fur, but she screamed after realizing it was a Plague Rat the size of a small dog.

The desire to rest was written plainly on her face.

“D-damn. I guess we are close to the Empire of all places.”

“Um?”

“It has already been destroyed,” explained Helen. “The entire area has been fully polluted, some say as a reaction to the advanced sorcery technology they used. That has cut off the main road leading north to south, so people and things cannot travel through that polluted land without the use of a monster like the Schwarz Schütze. The lack of shops and homes is just a taste of what is to come.”

“With my company’s armored train gone, the only standard route left has to take a lengthy detour out into the ocean to bypass this area. And we were really hoping to keep costs down since we support so many people’s lives in this region.”

Helen Clockgear and Celina Bodenburg both sounded bitter, but that did not change what they needed to do. The talk of pollution was concerning, but Moebius Entrance and Number 8 had gone to that polluted empire.

They could not expect any more inns during this journey.

There was no guarantee they could find a cave to camp out in every single night and, if a cave happened to be a nest of those giant unclean Plague Rats, any attempt to rest there would only wear down their stamina further. After walking a while longer and feeling a lot closer to that ruined empire, they decided to stop for the night.

They had discovered a run-down sailing ship inexplicably abandoned on the land.

It was more than 50 meters long and the deck stood 7 meters above the ground. They guessed it had been used to sail across the ocean, not just along a river.

“Let’s take a short break there,” smiled Helen Clockgear.

“I can keep going.”

“Miyabi.”

The forceful tone in her voice demanded he obey.

Really, he had simply failed to notice how late it was until she forced him to notice.

The sun had vanished beyond the horizon and it had grown dark. They could not even guess what kind of Beast Novae awaited them in this unknown land, so continuing any longer would be dangerous. The Mobile Fire magic could provide illumination in the night, but it could only do so much. Miyabi had already learned just how thoroughly the darkness grew out in the true nature found outside the villages and cities.

A Godhorn Tech provided the greatest destructive force, but it was not an all-powerful shield. And the darkness was always an ally to the attacker. What did it matter if he was a Godhorn Tech user? If a Plague Rat the size of a small dog snuck up and sank its fangs into his calf, complications from the many illnesses they bore would kill him just the same as anyone else.

“Sigh, okay.”

He sounded uneasy and he held a hand out toward the ship.

“ Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice. ”

Once he recited the incantation, blocks of stone emerged from the filthy ground and rearranged themselves to create a sturdy boarding stairway. He had registered this one under the name Layer Stairs.

Normally, Godhorn Techs could only destroy, but an error in his registration transfer had given him the power to create as well.

Celina looked somehow happy as she raised both hands and stretched her back.

“Good, good. This looks like a merchant ship, not a warship, so if the interior is intact, we should be as comfortable as in any town. Ohhh, I’ve so missed a kitchen and bath!!”

But once up top, the entire ship wobbled, either from the wind or its poor balance. With a structure of at least 50 meters, it felt like an earthquake.

Alicia cautiously reached for the side deck’s rusted railing.

“Hm, I don’t know how it ended up on land, but this does not look safe.”

“It might shake so much you need to hold on for purchase or the entire ship might roll over, but the time to choose is now, Miyabi. Yes, if your face is going to end up in someone’s chest, what size would you prefer!? If you’re in a flat mood, I think that slender and strait-laced Eliza might just be even better than Celina.”

The crystal radio (containing a philosopher’s stone) hanging from the elf’s neck was trying very hard to earn a punch from one of the girls.

“Don’t those sails only make the problem worse?” Celina sighed while wiping off her hand with a handkerchief. “They catch the wind and raise the center of gravity.”

“This ship is not sailing anywhere, so it might be safest to tear down all the masts.”

Eliza may have been the type to take any task to its extreme.

The job was simple but hard work.

Miyabi used the knowledge from his logging village where everyone made a living growing and felling trees. Plus, he had the control sword and Godhorn Tech at his disposal.

He used the thick blade to slice through the base of the masts like he was cutting an opening in a bag and then let them fall so they tumbled off of the ship. Great clouds of dust rose each time. It was his upbringing in the logging village that let him so accurately control the direction in which they fell.

The task took enough focus that it distracted him from everything else. But he felt like garbage once he realized he was distracting himself like that.

“…”

“He was important to you, wasn’t he?”

Once all the masts were down, Eliza wiped off her mouth with a handkerchief and asked him that.

He slowly looked up from the weathered deck.

“What do you mean?”

“I only knew Moebius Entrance through his letters and his legends as a fixer, so I never really knew him. But you did, didn’t you?”

He shook his head. The action made him wobble, so he pressed his back against the wooden wall.

“I didn’t.” He was speaking from the heart. “I’m not even sure what I saw anymore.”

“Koo…”

“He gave me his Godhorn Tech.” He slid down to a sitting position. “He asked me to do something about the 11th’s sorcery bomb. I just happened to be there and it could have been anyone, but during that journey, I thought I had come to understand who I wanted to be.”

He clenched his teeth and hung his head. There was no hiding this, so he just let the words spill out.

“But I was in the palm of his hand the entire time. I thought I was saving someone, but he was using me to make everyone I met suffer.”

“Boy…” said Alicia, sounding different from normal.

“It can be…hard when someone breaks a promise between men,” said the radio, also differently.

“I never would have left the village without that. I never would have met anyone. He gave me that opportunity. Without him, I wouldn’t be who I am now. Nothing can change that.”

His breathing was heavy.

He so desperately wished to deny the reality sneering at him from the back of his mind. He covered his face with his filthy hands.

“Or I thought nothing could!!”

“…”

Celina stared silently down at the boy.

But she finally spoke.

“No.”

“?”

“Maybe Moebius was manipulating you. And maybe that led to the destruction of my Schwarz Schütze.”

He did not even want to contemplate that possibility.

He had thought he was hunting down the 11th to prevent any further harm from those sorcery bombs, but he had only been spreading that very harm.

But strangely, he saw no anger or resentment on Celina’s face. There was a gentleness in her eyes.

“But you don’t need to disparage yourself like this.”

“Even though I more or less destroyed your Godhorn Tech?”

His own words stabbed into his chest like tiny thorns.

Hurting Celina would change nothing. Was he trying to make everyone else feel the same pain he was? He curled up in a ball of self-hatred.

“Even though. Because I also gained something from that.”

But she did not hesitate to respond.

She was even smiling.

Smiling in a way she had not when he first met her.

“Look around you, Miyabi. You too have gained something from all this.”

He raised his head.

His view expanded. He was surrounded by people worried for him while he curled up and trembled.

“Yes, the people.” Celina placed a hand on her flat chest. “None of this changes that you met all of them. You have made some new, and unparalleled, business partners.”

“Correct.” Eliza nodded, shaking her long silver ponytail. “Your destruction of our Godhorn Tech opened a new path for my king, my kingdom, and myself. None of us would have been saved without you there.”

“…”

“You may have been following the path Moebius laid out for you, but the bonds you built with the people you met were not part of that,” she stated. “What if Moebius never imagined destruction could be beneficial?”

“I’ll admit it.”

Finally, Miyabi got some more words out.

He was hesitant, but he felt like he could let his weakness show around these party members.

It was slow, but he stood back up.

“It was a shock. I didn’t know him long, but Moebius meant a lot to me.”

“…”

“He gave me the chance to leave my village. He was irritating and questionable, but he shined so bright. I could tell at a glance he had something I didn’t. Yeah, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at all happy when he gave me his Godhorn Tech or when I protected everyone from the sorcery bomb.”

Helen said nothing, but the look in her eyes was kind.

“But that’s why I have to get the truth,” grumbled Miyabi. “I have to know why he’s spreading those sorcery bombs as the 11th.”

### Chapter 4 Section 3

Miyabi Blackgarden was used to camping out now.

He stretched his arms on the abandoned ship to help wake his sleepy body in the morning sun.

He stepped out onto the weathered deck.

He found long-eared Alicia Blueforest munching on some bread for breakfast. The open deck probably made for a more enjoyable meal than the indoor dining hall where a permanent musty smell had settled in. He used a knife to cut a slit in an oblong piece of bread, smeared butter inside, stuck some jerky within, and then cooked it until it was nice and crispy. It was only possible thanks to the firewood they had secured by breaking up one of the masts he tore down yesterday.

“Not far to the ruined Magic Empire now,” said Alicia.

They left the ship.

The ground was still nothing but dark soil.

They had spent all night afraid those dog-sized Plague Rats would attack, but the things were nowhere to be found now. However, that was no reason to celebrate.

“This means not even the Plague Rats dare approach this place, doesn’t it?” cautiously concluded Helen.

After walking a while longer, an odd color joined the scenery: red.

As Miyabi wondered what it was, it overtook everything.

A red and shining dust covered the land as far as the eye could see. All of the buildings had collapsed, melted, and sunk into the ground, so it was hard to even imagine the city that must have once stood there.

“Is this…the pollution!?”

Miyabi started to take a step back and nearly stepped on an apple lying on the ground.

He managed to avoid it, but then a thought occurred to him.

“Wait, how long has this apple been here?”

There was no fruit tree nearby for it to have fallen from and not many travelers came through here.

Had one of the few eccentric travelers dropped it?

Or had it been here ever since the Empire fell?

The apple would have been exposed to the elements on the ground there, yet it still shined bright. It was unnaturally pristine. Even a wax sample’s colors would have faded in the sun.

It was almost like the entire fruit had been submerged in a special chemical to preserve it.

“I-I definitely want to avoid eating that,” groaned Celina Bodenburg, staying as far away as she could while poking at it with her rifle’s bayonet.

It was just as concerning as hearing a salesman insist a little too hard that “This milk is fresh. Don’t believe the lies. It’s as fresh as can be.”

“Rusty mana,” said Alicia who was self-taught in alchemy. The entire view here was covered by that scarlet dust that even dyed the rising sun as it floated into the air. “Mana is the natural power at the root of all magic, but when it deteriorates, it transforms into a nuisance that clings to all things. It surrounds everything, effectively isolating everything from everything else. It even repels and kills the ‘invisible things’ needed to make bread or cheese.”

“That explains the lack of Plague Rats.” Eliza Silverstorm placed a handkerchief over her mouth to avoid breathing in the red dust in the air. “This place is not dirty. Quite the opposite. It is so clean nothing can live here. It may be similar to a river of undiluted bleach.”

It was possible to be too clean.

This place took purity too far.

They could see red quagmires dotting the ground. Was that the result of the dust concentrating, or of it growing wet? It definitely had to do with the dust, but the exact requirements were unclear.

The wind blew a cloud of red dust from the ground up ahead of them.

Celina’s eyes widened.

“Hey, um, does anyone have any magic for protecting the mouth and nose!? Maybe called Toxin Away or something!?”

“Does the Bodenburg Company name everything like it’s athlete’s foot medicine?” complained the radio.

That girl was enough of a clean freak to carry around a portable water filter and silver-catalyst disinfectant magic, but even she could tell this was overdoing it.

“I wish you could create specialized magic like that,” Alicia sighed. “Besides, I thought a perfectly sterile world was exactly what you wanted? Ugh, a handkerchief over the mouth is about all we can do, isn’t it?”

“Wow,” said Miyabi as he appreciated just how complete the Empire’s fall had been.

“Kyoo…”

Hearing an odd cry, he looked down to find Alma had already transformed into a sort of black cat.

“Ohh, the shadow element!?” exclaimed Alicia. “Is that supposed to be a Greymalkin?”

Everyone had their own way of fighting it, but Alma had decided to be the opposite of the “deadly purity” of the red dust. If that was meant to repel the dust to remain safe, then the form may have been more aggressive than it looked. And either way, it was unlikely to protect Miyabi and the others.

“I-it’s a good thing I was using Compress Cargo,” groaned Helen while holding her small bag close. “Otherwise, this might have ruined all of our water and food. I bet that red dust gets in everything while it blows in the wind. Ugh, I thought my hair was feeling gritty. Not to mention my chest…”

The red ground crumbled and something came into view further down.

The objects lined up along a stone wall appeared to be bookcases. The parchment plans spread out on a desk resembled the design of a Godhorn Tech. It was unclear how valuable that would be, but there was no retrieving it anyway. Not only did a chemical-smelling red waterfall flow inside, but some of it bubbled up before crawling around on its own.

That caught Miyabi by surprise.

“I-it’s moving like it has a mind of its own?”

“Its movement is simply modeled after such things. Mimicking an animal’s movements is an efficient way of searching its surroundings and capturing its target.”

But that did not explain why the red slime was so intent on surrounding everything around it and turning the former imperial land into a red wasteland.

Maybe it was designed to do so, but that just led to further questions.

Also, the crawling red slime was not the only thing here.

“Are those the Empire’s famous magic automatons?” asked Celina, biting her thumbnail at seeing treasure she could not get at.

“Automatons?”

Come to think of it, that term had come up in reference to Number 8.

“Something that looks human but is not. Their specs and sizes can vary, so the Empire used colossal ones for military and construction purposes and miniature ones for medical purposes. I have heard they would send automatons smaller than a flower’s pollen into a patient’s body so they could directly cut away the disease from within. This is all a thing of the past, of course.”

The ones in the underground space below were all ordinary human size.

They had no hair, clothing, or even skin. The ball-jointed dolls were struggling within the red quagmire.

It all produced the sizzling sound of a caustic chemical at work.

“They’re fighting the red sludge. Have they been doing this the entire time?”

“Huh? Celina, haven’t you been through here before? On the Schwarz Schütze, I mean.”

“Why would I want to look outside in such a dreary area? Enjoying a good book and some delicious tea was a much better use of my time.”

That was not all. When they peered down into the split ground, they saw the bookcases rattling as thick magical tomes took flight like butterflies or birds and crashed into the lit candles. This was a purely inorganic conflict with none of the usual rats or roaches in evidence. A human like Miyabi had no way of telling how many sides there were or how they determined who was on what side, but they were doing it all on their own and he figured the party could avoid it all if they avoided provoking those things.

Alicia shut her eyes and muttered to herself.

“To think this is the massive Empire that came so close to conquering the entire continent not too long ago.” The words were bitter in her mouth. “It hasn’t even been a full year since it fell, yet these piles of rubble are all that remain. Even this scarlet mana was originally the all-purpose experimental material they had artificially created with their advanced technology.”

“Cough, cough!”

“Are you okay, Alma? Hmm, this red dust must be rough on a juvenile, even in that shadowy Greymalkin form. …If only I had a cloth to cover your mouth. Oh, how about you take shelter in my clothes?”

“You dare enter that unexplored zone kept off limits even to me!?” roared the crystal radio hanging from the elf’s neck.

Helen of course ignored it.

“The Empire once controlled a third of the continent. They were a major threat to the Republic. Not that we could focus on a foreign war when our primary city was embroiled in a civil war against the old monarchy,” she said. “Their military might was supported by advanced magic technology and even their Godhorn Tech was left in the hands of a special magic automaton, not a human. To ensure their strongest power was never used in error.”

“And that’s Number 8, huh?” Miyabi viewed the shocking scenery of red, red, and more red. “He’s continued protecting this place even with no one left to protect.”

“The Arsenal Kingdom could not ignore the Empire either. You could even say the Icicle Bullet was built as a defensive Godhorn Tech as a direct response to our fear of the Empire,” confessed Eliza, her large lance resting on her shoulder. That snow sleigh’s ramming attack had packed a punch, but since it required snow on the ground to move, it indeed could not be used to invade other countries. “We viewed them as our greatest enemy, but only because we admired what they had accomplished.”

Miyabi was honestly afraid to keep going, but he knew Number 8 and the Divine Doll were up ahead. Which meant Moebius would be as well.

He pulled his shirt’s collar up over his mouth as he trudged on through the red world.

“Urp, this is awful,” groaned Alicia.

That elf had been born in a filthy forest teeming with life, so this excessive purity had her long ears drooping.

After a while, they noticed some patterns in the red ruins. The rows of trees that looked frozen in time while surrounded by their fallen leaves showed the outlines of a major road. The foundations of angular stones and bricks showed where buildings had once been. They even spotted some dry fountains. A broken metal fence surrounded a large section of land, suggesting a considerable building had once stood there.

“They apparently called it a university,” said Eliza. “I never visited it myself, but instead of an apprenticeship or tutoring system, the Empire filled a large building full of hundreds or even thousands of people to provide them all with the same high-level magic education. And over a short period of time, too. Yet they were not trying to master a form of group action, like with knight or soldier training. I have even heard they competed among themselves over the tests and their standing in the class. They would keep their head down on their desk and choose to be alone within a room full of other people, something I have trouble imagining myself.”

That sounded like it would exclude the people who were not a good fit for that education format, but the Empire must not have cared if they had some dropouts as long as enough people succeeded. In Miyabi’s village, people would study as an apprentice at their own pace so they could learn the logging business while also pursuing their own dreams, so the Empire’s way of writing off some percentage of the population as “acceptable losses” sent a chill down his spine.

It might sound noble for the Empire to treat their automatons just like they treat their people, but what if they achieved that by reducing their people to the level of the automatons? The people were like no more than cogs in the machine.

Helen sighed.

“They covered a third of the continent, so I guess they decided they had people to spare.”

Then they heard a scraping metal sound.

Were more magical automatons fighting their endless battle somewhere in this red world?

Miyabi pulled his jacket’s collar over his mouth as well and turned toward the noise.

“The hell is that?”

He saw something odd there.

Was it some kind of confrontation?

On one side was a girl in an octopus-like mask. Why was he so sure she was a girl when he could not see her face? Because she wore her red hair in a side ponytail and because her skintight leather outfit revealed the shape of her figure.

“Oh, baby!! Black leather with a high-leg design!? What’s she supposed to be, a phantom thief? Or a sexy dominatrix? That bulging chest and indecent crotch are exactly what I’m looking for in a fantasy setting!!!!!”

The radio rejoiced, but Miyabi was not quite sure what he was looking at. Why cover her face and barely cover anything else?

And.

On the other side was a giant suit of armor standing two meters tall. The mass of steel was almost entirely round, but it was running away with its hands held protectively over its head. It behaved surprisingly feminine. Almost like the heroine in a children’s book.

Celina reflexively aimed her flintlock rifle from a short distance away and then spoke with her eyes on the exhibitionist in the weird mask.

“She might be a salvage hunter.”

“A what?”

“Basically, they are professional thieves who recklessly visit this dangerous ruined land and dig up old lab equipment and books. …That look tells me you are wondering how I know. Because my company buys more of their finds than anyone else.”

That business was so greedy it sounded borderline criminal.

Also, if that creepy octopus mask was what the experts wore, was it indeed dangerous to walk around this scarlet territory with their faces exposed?

The party was feeling a lot more anxious now.

“B-boy!! Hand me your goggles!! You aren’t using them, so you don’t mind, do you!?”

“Shut up, these are mine!! Hey, don’t just snatch them away! Noooo fairrrrr!!”

Eliza sighed at the idiots’ petty conflict.

The way the rusty mana could keep an apple fresh and shiny for years was certainly disconcerting, but if an expert thief was willing to operate with so much skin exposed, it must not have been deadly on contact or anything.

“Then what about that giant armor?” asked Eliza.

“That I can’t say,” said Celina. “Her next target perhaps?”

Anyway, finding an actual person here changed things significantly.

Number 8 and Moebius Entrance could use the Divine Doll and the only way of combating that Godhorn Tech was the Lucifer Horn, but that would mean a clash between two of those colossal sorcery weapons. A simple stray shot was of course a threat, but just the red dust blown into the air from an explosive blast or shockwave would be bad enough.

Even if this girl had special equipment, Miyabi stilled wanted to give her a chance to escape first.

But when he approached her to warn her, she was focused on something else entirely.

He heard two voices.

“Fshoo shoo shoo!! Now this is a find. The more human a magic automaton acts, the better its parts must be☆”

“No, really, please! I’m just an ordinary maid!”

Make no mistake.

The “fshoo shoo shoo” came from the octopus mask exhibitionist and the “I’m just an ordinary maid” came from the giant armor.

Miyabi’s eyes widened.

“What the hell!? Why does the magic automaton sound like the normal one!?”

“Fshoo? What’s this, some competition? You’ve got guts trying to steal from the great Marietta Diggrave!! Fshoo!!”

The octopus mask girl was willing to wield her giant shovel against human and automaton alike, so she seemed to be lacking in the sense department.

But just as her attention was diverted toward Miyabi’s party, the giant armor took a step back. With that sliver of safety, the armor flipped up the helmet’s visor.

“Please look at me! I’m not an automaton, see!? I’m a human in here!”

“W-wait? There’s actually someone in there!?”

Celina’s flustered shout earned an introduction from the timid girl inside.

“I-I am Angela Custardmare.”

The octopus mask shrugged off the claim.

“All I see is old tech so advanced it looks human. Fshoo, I’ll be set for life after this one☆”

Uncertain whether this was a human or an automaton, Miyabi hesitantly approached the armor. The visor looked tougher than a set of iron bars and, even with it raised, the armor was too tall for him to see inside from the ground.

“This should do it.”

He had to grab at the thick, round armor with his arms and legs and scramble up it. He was a teenage boy, but he had a hard time thinking of this as climbing up a teenage girl’s body. Unfortunately, the octopus mask girl (in revealing clothing) was winning that particular battle.

“Let’s take a look in here.”

“A boy!? No, that’s a bad i-”

Miyabi peeked inside the helmet.

“Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

He collapsed to the red ground, arched his back, and screamed.

Eliza immediately readied her enormous lance.

“What did she do to you, Miyabi!?”

“No, wait. I didn’t do anything. Sigh, why does this always happen? Agh!”

The giant armor held her head and the visor fell back down.

She skillfully pushed it back up again.

“Whoops… Um, the thing is, I used to work as a maid in a certain mansion, but unfortunately, the nobles who wanted to be my master ended up killing each other in a death game.”

“…”

“Their wives all blamed me and trapped me in this Prison Armor. Ugh…I really don’t know why it had to happen to me.”

“Unfortunate Beauty, hm?” Alicia sounded somewhat exasperated. “A talent like that sets you up for a difficult life.”

“D-does that mean Miyabi wasn’t harmed at all?” hesitantly suggested Helen. “Wow, that really is ecstasy on his face, isn’t it?”

“Hey, let’s not be ridiculous. He has a long-eared elf on his right and a curvy young woman on his left and you expect me to believe that round armor is what gave him his sexual awakening!? This swords and sorcery fantasy is too kinky even for me!!”

The radio’s lament stabbed through Miyabi’s heart, bringing him back to his senses. He blinked the hearts out of his eyes and managed to focus on reality once more. He realized having the hots for that round heavyweight was just plain rude to Eliza and her miniskirt armor.

The maid inside that armor was too beautiful to view directly.

He felt bad for Angela, but he agreed she would be too powerful without that thick armor sealing her away. He had never known cute and pretty could have a lethal dose. She had to be around his age, but she did not at all look that way.

Meanwhile, Celina brought a hand to her slender chin.

“Hmm, was that cruel death game the work of Strange Guide?”

“Oh, I don’t care about that. It wouldn’t bring the dead nobles back to life or anything.” The maid was surprisingly practical. “If anything, I want to find a way to remove this Prison Armor. Well, I can actually remove it just fine, but before long, it comes back to me like a magnet. It at least gives me enough time to wash my face or take a bath if I try hard enough.”

A maid too beautiful to gaze upon would strip down and bathe. All while rushing to beat the time limit. That thought made Miyabi even dizzier. Simply imagining the scene caused the capillaries in his eyes to burst, so Angela’s loveliness was like an anti-adolescent toxin.

“Is there any way to escape that?” asked Helen with an exasperated sigh.

“Um, the Prison Armor was bound to me using a fairly special contract. It involved Under Lilith, a Demon Lord whose name is found in major ‘Super Kingdom’ level contracts.”

“Th-that name’s in the spells related to Godhorn Tech contracts too.”

“Ah ha ha. That’s just how much effort went into creating this armor prison. I was lucky to learn the half-legendary abandoned library here has the magic book needed to negate that ‘Super Kingdom’ level curse, but as you can see, I ran into this shovel-wielding idiot.”

Miyabi and Celina exchanged a glance.

Under Lilith’s power was great, but not a 100% guarantee. There had even been an error when transferring the Lucifer Horn’s contract from Moebius to Miyabi.

Fortunately, that had let him use the power of creation on top of the destruction.

When he explained that, the maid clapped together her large armored hands and danced a jig. She was close enough that he was terrified he would be caught in the joints of that thick armor.

“That’s wonderful news!! Joining you might be better than blindly searching this vast and dangerous red kingdom. And if that doesn’t work, my only option might be trying blast the armor off with one of those rumored Godhorn Techs.”

“You’re the first person I’ve seen who wanted to be attacked by a Godhorn Tech,” said Alicia. “Just how powerful is that curse?”

“By the way, what about you?”

Miyabi’s question earned a cackle from octopus masked Marietta.

“Fshoo shoo shoo!! Where that thing goes, I follow. I’ll be rich once I disassemble it and sell it for parts. Treasure awaits☆”

“Were you not paying any attention at all!?” shouted Helen while bristling. “I get the feeling she’s going to murder someone with that shovel if we don’t give her some basic education first!!”

At the moment, their top priority was getting these survivors out of the empire’s ruins. Number 8 and Moebius could pick up on their movements at any moment.

“Take care of it, Lucifer Horn!”

A colossal form with bat-like wings roared through the sky and the thick wire dangling from it snagged the back of the black high-leg outfit, carrying the wearer away to Horn Fortress.

“It needs to do that again,” calmly stated Eliza Silverstorm.

“U-umm!! Couldn’t you at least take us both away at once!? This wait time is so awkward!”

They had successfully evacuated(?) Marietta and Angela, but that was not the end of it. Miyabi’s party had to continue onward and locate Moebius and the butler automaton named Number 8.

A clash was almost guaranteed no matter what happened.

That was the entire point of their preparations and the entire point of evacuating those two.

After reminding himself of all that, Miyabi felt a great weight in his gut.

“…”

Countless red quagmires dotted the land, giving off a chemical odor.

They had to avoid those, but they would never get anywhere if they walked around them all.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice.”

Red boxes were extracted from the ground.

But he was not interested in the actual Palette Dice made from that material that was so pure it became deadly to all forms of life. By removing those cubes from the ground, the water(?) filling those red quagmires drained into the newly-formed holes.

“Ewww, what is all that stuff left at the bottom?” Celina sounded nervous. “They aren’t bones, are they?”

“As long as it isn’t human bones, I don’t care,” said Miyabi.

“That’s elfphobia,” cautioned Alicia with a glare. “And to answer your question, I think those are dinosaur fossils. Those thick rusty ponds have dissolved the ground and started to erode the ancient fossils they exposed.”

“What does that mean?”

“In dust form, that stuff is so pure it can kill you, but once it thickens into a liquid, it can dissolve organic tissue. Simply put, it purifies things by physically destroying them. That sludge is deadly to all forms of life, so try to keep your good deeds and righteous acts to a minimum here.”

They continued on while trying their best to avoid provoking the red slimes wandering the area. Those things were frightening, but they tended to gather into a few larger clumps, making it unlikely anyone would accidentally step on one.

They gained nothing by fighting anything here, so if they wanted to avoid pointless injury, it was best to ignore those things and keep going.

The journey felt so empty and unsatisfying, but after crossing another red chemical-smelling bog and approaching a surviving rectangular stone wall, they glimpsed some movement through the crimson sandstorm.

It was more than 100m away.

“Another automaton?”

“No, wait. An automaton wouldn’t be using a wheelchair. They could just get a replacement part.”

The radio was right.

“Shh!”

Miyabi pressed against the crumbling wall and took a peek through the arching gate that looked so strange with no other structures around.

“There’s someone there. In fact…”

His tension grew. Moving even a few centimeters wore on his nerves so badly. He used the crumbling wall as a cover while peering around its edge.

They were a long way away, but there was no mistaking it. A man sat in a wheelchair and a butler stood tall.

“Is that Moebius and Number 8?” groaned Helen when she saw it too.

“You do not need to rush out toward them,” warned Alicia. “Why not eavesdrop on their conversation instead?”

Miyabi’s party slowly passed through the arch to enter an area that had once been surrounded by walls. Something felt different about this place, almost like they had set foot in a king’s tomb.

Celina spotted a metal sign half-buried in the red dust.

“The Imperial Archives?”

“As the name suggests, this was a private collection of old texts made by the last emperor,” explained Eliza. “Not everyone could make a request to read the books like they could with their national library, but it was rumored the magical books here were much more dangerous.”

Eliza had mentioned the universities as well, so why did someone from the Arsenal Kingdom know so much about the Empire?

The chosen knight shrugged with a hint of self-deprecation when she noticed Miyabi’s gaze.

“My kingdom had plenty of mines and metals, but little magical technology. We once put together a plan to send in a spy who would steal dangerous texts from the bookshelves here, but it was abandoned because the risk of military retaliation was too great if discovered.”

So she had her reasons.

The books collected here had been so rare people were willing to cross borers to get at them, but they were now exposed to the red dust. Not even Eliza wanted to pick one up and flip through the pages.

They walked through a cemetery of books that would be forever preserved.

They moved from cover to cover, making sure the figures in the distance never noticed them. Fortunately, the stone walls and bookcases coated in red dust provided plenty of cover.

They walked silently alongside the red-coated ancient tomes.

Once Miyabi had covered half the distance, the wind carried the voices to his ears.

The scratchy sound was mixed with the sound of the blowing red dust.

“I do apologize. Was the ride comfortable enough?”

That was Number 8. His voice was polite…and nothing else. There was no emotion to be found there.

“It was a literal pain in the ass.”

The response from the wheelchair carried an obvious smile.

The voice rang so intensely in Miyabi’s ears that the veins at his temples bulged.

Those two appeared to be facing each other from across a large crystal chandelier that had fallen to the red ground after its chain broke. The ceiling that had once supported it was gone, but some vestiges of the walls remained.

“I had assumed the Empire’s advanced magical tech would be more delicate.”

“We took three breaks along the way. On my own, it would have taken less than a day.”

Miyabi listened to Moebius’s pointless jokes from where the row of bookcases came to an end. He felt faint when he heard the enjoyment in the man’s voice.

“That bastard!!”

“Restrain yourself, boy.”

He clenched his teeth while Alicia held him back.

They still weren’t exactly close. It was risky, but he moved from the bookcases, ducked below a long table, and slowly crawled closer. He knew he could keep going from there.

The conversation across the fallen chandelier continued in the distance.

“Why take me all the way home with you? Afraid you couldn’t win an away game? Thought I might have a trap in place?”

“It had nothing to do with holding an advantage. I brought you here for a reason.”

“Oh, a reason? That narrows it down.”

Moebius’s mocking tone did nothing to slow Number 8 down.

The butler continued speaking with his long bangs covering half his face.

“There is only ever one thing that motivates my actions.”

“Yeah, I thought that might be what they used to mess with you.”

“What do you mean?”

Something was up.

Miyabi’s party moved from the end of the long table and hid behind another stone wall. There was another table there. Food and drink would not have been served here, but it looked a lot like a restaurant counter and it contained quills and what looked like ledgers. Miyabi ducked below that to hide, but his mind was in utter chaos. He started to wonder if those two had noticed their approach and this conversation was disinformation meant to confuse them.

“What’s that about messing with him?”

“I get the feeling there is more to this.”

Eliza primarily fought on vast snowy plains and had little experience in sneaking around labyrinthine urban areas, so she had trouble positioning her enormous lance. She had to tilt it on its side and place it alongside the stone wall while she got right to the point.

Helen nodded from behind another bookcase.

“Does that meant Moebius was taken from the village against his will?”

“Hmm, we can’t make out enough of their conversation to say for sure,” added Alicia.

“Why not tiptoe even closer?” suggested the philosopher’s stone.

Approaching further would be risky, but they did it anyway.

Miyabi slowly opened the door behind the counter, revealing more of that red world. No buildings remained standing, only the occasional walls.

He slowly walked on, remaining behind those walls.

Nowhere was safe anymore. A sorcery bomb had been set up in the forest next to the first village and those were powerful enough to blow away the forest and village both.

He continued approaching until they had reached the last of the surviving walls.

He held his breath and listened.

He was pretty close now.

The stone wall was thick, but they would hear if he rapped on it.

“It’s true I manufactured some sorcery bombs in advance.” Moebius’s words stabbed into Miyabi’s heart. “One for the forest where I met the kid and one for the Schwarz Schütze.”

Miyabi could not fight the wave of dizziness.

“!?”

“Quiet. This is just as much of a shock for me.”

Celina steadied his shoulders and they both concentrated on the voices.

“But I was only a copycat.” Moebius Entrance had a distinct self-deprecating smile in his voice. “I just used the bomber’s horn to pulls off something similar to what the real 11th does. And I could only stock up so many bombs, so it was a bit of a gamble whether I could draw them out before I used them all up.”

“…”

“But only the real one would know I was a fake.”

He clearly stated his goal.

A crunching sound came from the wheelchair and magical automaton.

Miyabi risked a glance to see they were slowly circling around the fallen crystal chandelier as they confronted each other.

Why?

It was like a game where one approached while the other kept their distance.

They were both so cautious, like they could not let the other approach too close.

“And since you were the first to react, you must be working for the real one. You proved it yourself by falling for my trap. Or do you have another explanation?”

“What are you talking about?”

The question flowed out so easily, but that may have been what made it so unnatural.

The young man in the wheelchair narrowed his eyes toward the butler automaton standing motionless in the red wind.

“You’re an automaton, so whose orders are you acting on now?”

Moebius’s focus was elsewhere. He was physically gazing into Number 8’s eyes, but he was looking through those eyes to some other place.

The shattered crystal chandelier reflected the light in a twisted form.

That symbol of ruin was coated in red dust.

“This isn’t over until I reel in the 11th. I’m no legendary fixer. Not when I failed to stop so many of those sorcery bombs. The aftermath is truly horrific. The children, the elderly, the pregnant, and the sick are slaughtered along with everyone else! …So I need to cut this off at the source. I might earn some grudges and I might dirty my hands along the way, but it’s all worth it if I can stop it from ever happening again!!”

The dizziness vanished.

The doubt was gone.

The boy clung to the red stone wall with both hands and whispered too quietly for anyone to hear.

“Moebius.”

“That’s more like it,” whispered the radio. “We can still get closer, so how about we find a better position to listen in?”

They approached even further on the other side of an almost fully collapsed wall. Only a door remained at the far end. This all counted as outside now and the divisions between rooms were no more, but opening that door would still mean breathing the same air as that man.

Miyabi felt like he could sense Moebius’s emotions through the door.

“I’m sick of hearing the screams. And you should understand how I feel after you lost your entire Empire to a Godhorn Tech made from a Wicked God horn!!”

“What nonsense is this?”

But the automaton was not following along.

As if to say he could not comprehend the emotional aspect.

“The 11th? A trillion years could pass and I would only ever serve one master: the emperor of the Unified Cassul Blanc Sorcery Empire.”

“Then answer me this,” cut in Moebius. “What is your beloved emperor’s name?”

“…”

Silence.

“…”

Silence.

“…?”

Silence, but of a different type.

The wind blew, whipping up a cloud of red dust. The black bangs half-covering Number 8’s face were lifted.

The area around his eye was cracked and a complex arrangement of tiny gears audibly turned within.

This proved he was mechanical.

This proved he was damaged and that damage was spreading.

Were the gears audibly straining because the red dust had gotten inside?

“Yeah, you’re pretty badly broken.” Moebius sounded mournful, like a bad feeling of his had been confirmed. “ Anyone you meet looks like the emperor to you now, don’t they? Which means you’ll obey anyone’s commands. That’s why you didn’t even question it when some stranger had you set up those sorcery bombs.”

Alicia’s eyes widened in confusion on the other side of the door in the surviving wall.

“I don’t get it. What does that mean?”

“He’s talking about some malicious roleplaying,” answered the philosopher’s stone hanging from her neck. “Someone used the automaton’s malfunction to pretend they were the emperor. And it was even easier than faking your identity on social media. That guy intends to serve his dead emperor until the end of time.”

“Someone abused his loyalty to have him commit crimes?” Eliza clenched her fist tight. “This 11th individual has made a mockery of someone’s loyalty to their ruler. He might be an enemy and a lifeless automaton…but there are lines you simply do not cross.”

“More importantly, Number 8 is behaving oddly,” whispered Helen while peeking out from behind the wall.

They heard and felt a heavy rumbling.

The contradiction must have been too much for the red-stained butler to accept. He held a heavy metal ball that was connected to his staff with a thick thread of electricity. It was a strange weapon made with unknown technology.

That morning star alone could beat a heavily-armored knight to death in a single blow. With a magical automaton’s superhuman strength and sturdiness, pure weight would be more efficient than a sharp sword or spear. He could simply crush his foe’s thick armor and helmet along with the squishy person within.

But that efficient destruction was not the true threat of that weapon.

“From the control weight to the horn core.”

Light spread out from the metal ball after it dropped to the red ground.

That light formed a giant magic circle.

“Divine Doll – tactical open.”

This time, even the sound was blown away.

It all radiated out from the thick wall towering up behind Number 8.

It looked like a king’s castle.

At first, Miyabi thought it was just another of the Empire’s ruins, frozen in time and left to be weathered away by the rusty mana.

But it was not.

It placed giant hands on the ground and stood up on massive legs before shaking just enough to throw the red dust off of itself. The result was comparable to a sandstorm.

This was the strongest Godhorn Tech of the lost Empire – the Divine Doll.

Redness obscured the sun and a darkness similar to evening set in. The only person remaining on their feet in the dust storm was the magical automaton standing calmly alongside the Divine Doll.

“This is the Empire, the continent’s greatest country, ruled by the glorious emperor.”

A new red sandstorm roared up.

The silver armor had raised its colossal foot in order to mercilessly crush its target seated in the wheelchair.

“The great emperor’s rule has created a blessed land of eternal peace for all its people. All unauthorized intrusions are forbidden and no one must be allowed to insult the emperor. If you doubt his existence, his power, and his great deeds, then know you have committed an unforgivable crime.”

“How sad. This red wasteland can’t even return to nature, but you claim this place has eternal peace?”

He was faced with great violence and a strange red glow, but the puny boy hiding behind a surviving wall no longer hesitated.

He spoke after using the crumbling shelter to escape the sinister redness.

“We can’t wait any longer.”

“Yeah, that light’s back in your eyes now, kid,” said the radio.

“Let’s do this!!” roared the redhead boy.

He kicked open the surviving door and entered the same world as those two.

He was there to protect Moebius Entrance, his party member.

The air shook around him, but not because the Divine Doll’s foot had crashed down upon the wheelchair.

Just before it could, the Lucifer Horn had soared by and fired a beam of light that knocked the giant back a bit.

The redness burst into the air.

He could see that man grinning even through the deadly-pure rusty mana.

“You’re right in the nick of time, you cute little hero.”

What was that young man thinking while he maintained his jocular tone? He viewed his old control sword like it was shining bright.

Miyabi did not look back that way.

He took up a position to protect that suspicious man and he no longer doubted his actions.

“I’m no hero. Just so you know, I doubted you the entire journey here.”

“That excessive honesty is part of what makes you a hero.”

“I’m giving you a piece of my mind once this is over.”

But that would have to wait.

In front of him, another figure was muttering to himself with a hand on his head.

“Force deleting self-contradiction…eliminating unnecessary doubt.”

Number 8 continued to produce a straining sound. Almost like sandy gears forced to turn. He held something while he lowered his head.

He called it a control weight, but it was more of a morning star.

The unique blunt weapon connected the grip and metal ball with electricity. It was a powerful weapon in its own right, but it also controlled the Godhorn Tech.

“I must serve…must serve my emperor…in all things.”

“But I’ll start with him!!”

If Miyabi did not win here, the truth he had discovered meant nothing.

So.

“From the control sword to the horn core. Lucifer Horn – tactical open!”

The Divine Doll was a colossal suit of silver armor.

It towered above Miyabi and its chest and shoulders were far broader than any ordinary proportions. It had the shape of an extended accordion, making it look like a massive fortress wall.

Its pounding footsteps shook the ground too much for the average person to remain standing and it could do far more than that. Whether the giant punched, stomped, or tackled, any one of its attacks would be fatal. And not just to an individual. It could tear through armies.

Then there was the issue of its size.

Miyabi’s party had to find some way to attack it.

“But up close, we can only aim for its thick feet!”

“I-I doubt my rifle is enough to defeat that thing.”

Knife-wielding Helen and rifle-wielding Celina both sounded flustered. Approaching would not help them damage it and they would instead be one-shotted by a stomp.

That meant Miyabi had to fight alone.

Yes….

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Boxes of the unpleasant red ground were torn away.

He stacked them up into some Layer Stairs to create a makeshift boarding ramp.

White Seidr Chosen Knight Eliza Silverstorm raced up that ramp.

“The Icicle Bullet never did engage the Empire’s Godhorn Tech, but I was trained to battle you.”

She leaped from the peak of the right triangle to reach the top of the Divine Doll’s head.

She flipped through the air, her ponytail whipping after her, and jabbed in her massive lance with precise aim.

“Prepare yourself!!!!!!”

She used the pull of gravity to strike down like a lightning bolt, producing the groan of straining metal.

Number 8 ignored the attack.

“Set priority.”

“!?”

A horizontal sweep of a giant fist brought down the red right triangle of stairs. Eliza landed on the Divine Doll’s arm and ran toward its shoulder.

She made an additional attack.

She jumped from the enormous shoulder toward the head. She scored a clean hit of her lance on its silver face at maximum acceleration, but she was the one who grimaced. She jumped back and into the empty air to avoid a strike from the giant palm.

“I can’t break through!! Now I see why my king never considered anything other than a Godhorn Tech to defend ourselves. A jack of all trades could never penetrate this armor!!”

“Now is not the time for analysis!” shouted Alicia, eyes wide. “I swear your strait-lacedness is going to get you killed someday!!”

Miyabi manipulated the Palette Dice again. He broke apart a lonely imperial flag and a twisted metal railing and constructed a hammock-like cushion to gently catch the falling knight.

The giant silver armor looked down at them.

Its enormous shoulders burst open and metal spikes flew out in a fan shape for a concentrated downpour of destruction. Each spike was taller than Miyabi.

Miyabi held up his hand.

Those javelins or extra-large arrows dropped like a solid ceiling, but he held up a giant stone umbrella to protect Eliza.

Moebius whistled.

“So that’s the power of creation, huh? I’d mastered the destruction side, but I could never fight like that.”

“Are you aware you’re his #1 target!?”

“I’m also aware you would never leave a poor injured man to die.”

That guy always had a retort.

Miyabi spoke harshly, but he had to bite his lip to keep the tears at bay.

Everything was back to “normal”.

If he had not sworn to himself he would never cry in front of Moebius, he probably couldn’t have stopped it.

“Miyabi. The Divine Doll’s horn extraction system uses the ‘auto-fighting sword’.”

“The what?”

“That’s the magic its designers gave it. Just like Miss Celina’s used alchemy and strait-laced Eliza’s used Seidr magic. As big as they are, a Godhorn Tech will have a specific design motif – a type of magic it always uses. Your Lucifer Horn is no exception.”

Even the Lucifer Horn?

That caught him by surprise. He had entrusted his life to that Godhorn Tech several times already, but he now realized he did not even know what kind of magic that trump card used.

“And the Divine Doll was built on the framework of a spiritual sword that flies through the air and slays any enemy once it has been drawn. That idea was expanded upon and reinterpreted to the point of producing this kind of firepower. Doesn’t that sound perfect for a lifeless magical automaton’s weapon?”

“Hm?”

Number 8 tilted his head a little.

He did not seem offended at the “lifeless” descriptor. If anything, he accepted it as accurate.

“I need not focus only on the Godhorn Tech battle. This land is dangerously pure, so why not use that to my advantage? There are other ways to efficiently damage biological life.”

Helen frowned at the red dust floating in the air.

“Is this our chance?”

“Maybe we can’t damage the Divine Doll, but what about Number 8!?”

Helen and Alicia stepped forward.

Number 8’s electrically-linked morning star was powerful, but it had to be difficult to use. It was also not made for defense or for attacking multiple enemies coming from different directions.

But…

“This, for example.”

He made a merciless strike with the metal ball, but not against Alicia or Helen. He attacked the red ground at his feet.

It was a lot like a smokescreen.

The red dust coating the ground burst into the air to cover everything in all 360 degrees. Alicia and Helen were forced to slam on the brakes.

“He used the rusty mana!?”

“It is deadly to life, but not to us.”

The automaton’s unchanging voice spoke from the other side of that red world.

The wind roared as the Divine Doll lifted its enormous foot to follow Number 8’s example.

The stomp was coming.

The noise was on another level altogether. A veritable mountain range of red dust spread out, rushing in like a solid wall.

“Are you serious!? It isn’t that simple!!” protested the radio at Alicia’s neck. “This mystery substance has got to harm machines too!!”

“Magical automatons are not feared for being indestructible. We are feared for our lack of hesitation.”

A single eye glowed through the red curtain.

It belonged to the eternally-faithful artificial butler.

“That is why the emperor had no choice but to provide excessive defenses for the Empire. They were meant to repel external invaders and to prevent any internal fracturing.”

They could not afford to let that cloud hit them, but that did not leave them with many options.

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the red ground and raised his voice.

“Do it, Lucifer Horn!!”

“ So predictable. ”

Miyabi froze when that voice interrupted him.

The beam of light tore a line in the ground to blow away the approaching red cloud that was so pure it could kill organic life, but Number 8 did not bat an eye.

“If I can predict your flight path, I can fight back. Divine Doll.”

They had seen this attack already. The towering silver armor’s shoulders launched javelins in a fan shape.

This time, they were launched into the red sky and seemed to blot out the sun.

The Lucifer Horn twisted around in protest, but a few of the scattered metal spikes still stabbed into the bomber with their sharp tips. The spikes had small feathers on the rear, so were they meant to be arrows? There were too many of them to avoid even with a rapid turn.

The bomber lost its balance.

“Lucifer-!?”

“Did you think you were untouchable in the sky? Greater altitude is an advantage, but not an insurmountable one. The phalanx gastraphetes was originally used as an anti-air weapon to shoot down enemies of that sort.”

Number 8 dispassionately explained his actions.

They were both fighting to the best of their abilities, so Miyabi could not expect to remain unscathed throughout. He understood that. He really did, but this still came as a shock. He had never even imagined the Lucifer Horn taking damage. He was almost like a small child who fully believed that his father was invincible.

“And the effectiveness of this tactic remains unchanged. I need only repeat my actions.”

Miyabi heard a sticky sound.

To his disbelief, Number 8 had stuck his morning star’s weight into a sticky red bog.

With a snap of his wrist, he swung it around.

“D-dodge!!” yelled Eliza Silverstorm, eyes wide.

It did not matter if the electrically-attached metal ball hit them or not. The entire party leaped out of the way in different directions and Miyabi knocked the wheelchair onto its side so he could lie protectively atop Moebius.

Sizzling sounds surrounded them.

If even a drop of the red slime got on them, it would tear their body apart. He understood that.

“Heh heh.”

But an odd sound reached his ears.

Moebius was laughing. Even though his wheelchair was on its side and he could not have dodged even if it was not.

It weirded Miyabi out.

This was the legendary fixer, a side of the man he had not seem before.

“What? How are you so calm?”

“Huh? Because, boy – heh heh – he gave you all the hints you could want. Looks like these imperial automatons let you play on easy mode. No one’s better at assisting humans, I guess.”

“…?”

Miyabi did not understand at first.

But he gasped when he heard the sizzling again.

None of his party member’s skin was dissolving, yet the audible destruction continued and a disconcerting red steam filled the air.

It came from the half-crumbled stone wall, the fallen crystal chandelier, and even Number 8’s morning star ball.

“It works on more than just living things?”

“Never overlook any information. That radio said it must harm machines too, remember? And that imperial butler said himself that magical automatons aren’t feared for being indestructible.”

It all fell into place from there and Miyabi shouted the answer.

“Then it’ll work on the Divine Doll too. We just have to find a way to send it into one of those red bogs!!”

Easy enough to say.

However…

“Argh, and how are we supposed to do that!?” shouted Alicia, her tree branch staff tight in her hands.

The elf could boost her physical abilities with alchemy potions and the chosen knight was powerful enough to wield a massive lance, but neither of them could make that giant budge. There was no way they were forcing it into a red bog. Even if they tried, they would only get stomped as they approached.

Number 8 did not see this plan as a threat.

“The Divine Doll is the vast Empire’s shield. It will not give ground even if you send in your aerial Godhorn Tech.”

The Lucifer Horn had two weapons: the beam of light that shot down and tore through the ground and the bombs that dropped to the surface and exploded. Both were enormously powerful and thus tricky to use. Using them at such close range would mean surrounding Miyabi’s party with a red cloud or dumping the red sludge on their heads, killing them.

But…

“Who said I’d be doing that?”

Miyabi had it in him to smile.

He held out the hand not holding the control sword.

He held it toward the red ground for a power he had already demonstrated.

By removing chunks of the ground, he could create waterways for the red sludge to pass through.

He just had to repeat the process.

But instead of removing the sludge from their path, he guided it toward the Divine Doll’s feet.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

The result was the sticky but heavy sound of a great mass moving all at once.

It came from the Divine Doll’s feet. Red steam erupted from there and then the colossus began to sink.

A deadly artificial lake had formed.

Miyabi had torn down the side of a red bog and sent it through a waterway situated a level lower to create a new bog where none had been before.

That new one was of course located precisely where the Divine Doll stood.

The bog was a mere puddle for something of that size, but it still sank.

Technically speaking, it was dissolving.

Eventually, it lost its balance and toppled backwards. That had to have done considerable damage and it was entirely covered in the red sludge now.

Its greatest enemy turned out to be the very doom the Empire had brought upon itself.

“It’s stopped, boy!!” shouted Alicia.

“Fire that massive cannon you’re so fond of!!” added the radio.

Miyabi’s control sword pierced the crimson ground filled with so much rusty mana.

A large magic circle opened at his feet.

“I’m on it.”

That colossus had fallen.

The magical automaton by its side could not have escaped unscathed after the red dust and sludge were dumped on his head.

Number 8 was staring into empty space.

“Ksshh. Yes, yes. As you…wish, my emperor.”

“That’s enough of that, Number 8.”

“But…but then what…remains for me to protect?”

Number 8 had set up sorcery bombs across the continent.

A great many people had suffered for it.

According to Moebius, not everyone had survived.

But.

Even so.

No matter what anyone said, the magical automaton was not at fault. The blame lay squarely on the 11th who had known he was malfunctioning and used it to pretend to be the emperor.

“Number 8!!”

“Nwahhh!!”

The emperor was gone. The Empire was no more.

Nothing the magical automaton could do would change that history. His best efforts could not protect anyone, could not erase that tragedy, and could never bring about the promised peace and prosperity.

But that did not mean his desperate struggle and his malfunctioning mind’s drive to protect his beloved Empire had accomplished nothing at all. They had struck a chord within Miyabi.

So.

Miyabi Blackgarden rushed straight in and caught the attacking morning star on his thick sword. The Divine Doll was trapped in the red bog, but he still clashed with the magical automaton so trusted by the former emperor that he had been granted that Godhorn Tech.

He attacked the butler who the emperor had trusted more than any of the empire’s many humans, who had felt he owed a powerful obligation for that trust, and who had done everything he could to live up to his emperor’s expectations.

This was not about being living or lifeless or being born as human or inhuman. Could Miyabi’s feelings defeat this man’s? Could he demonstrate something inside him that was greater than this man who had remained alone in the ruined Empire and continued to protect that land even as it slowly destroyed him? That was the true nature of the battle Miyabi had chosen.

His enemy’s attack was heavy.

When metal ball clashed with double-edged blade, Miyabi felt his wrist bones rattling. But for some reason, that weight pleased him.

Both Moebius and Number 8 had been driven by honest motivations.

He did not dodge nimbly out of the way, but not because he cared about protecting the red ruins around him. He had to look the imperial butler in the eye and face him in a proper duel. Only by accepting his opponent’s earnest feelings did he earn the right to speak to him on equal footing.

He could not let the 11th abuse those feelings.

“Your heart is pure, Number 8. No matter what someone tricked you into doing, no one can deny the purity of your feelings!!”

He had to direct his hatred toward the correct person.

Committing a crime did not mean someone could never again seek out help.

So.

There was nothing at all wrong with wanting to save this lifeless automaton! With that conviction in his heart, Miyabi could stand on equal ground. It created a powerful support for his soul.

Just like Number 8 could throw out all else when he thought he was acting on behalf of his emperor.

Miyabi refused to let anyone defeat him when it came to the power of his feelings!!

“That loyalty belongs to you and you alone. I won’t let anyone else corrupt it!!”

He gave the command.

That massive airborne shape had been damaged and he knew he was pushing it too far, but after he deflected the metal ball, he stabbed the control sword into the red ground and raised his voice as if in prayer.

He shouted to his weapon flying unsteadily overhead.

“Isn’t that right, Lucifer Horn!!!???”

A white beam of light dropped from the sky and blew the dissolving Divine Doll to pieces.

Time seemed to distort.

Everything played out in slow motion for Miyabi.

He saw Number 8 blasted into the air like a dried leaf. He reached out an arm to catch him, but Alicia grabbed that arm with her entire body.

Time sped back up.

“Can’t you see all that red sludge on him!? Touch him and not even your bones will be left!!”

In that sense, he had gotten off easy.

He heard a dull crashing as the imperial automaton rolled across the red land, covered in red, but never wavered in his resolve. For better or for worse, his crawling scraped the red sludge off onto the ground.

“Emper…emperor…I…I…”

“Oh, no!!” shouted Moebius in his toppled wheelchair.

“What’s the matter!?” Miyabi looked puzzled. “We’re all dead if we don’t stop the Divine Doll!!”

“Since the Godhorn Tech and automaton are both artificial, their damage is linked. And if Number 8 is destroyed, we lose any way of tracking down the phony emperor who was giving him orders. This solves nothing if we don’t catch the 11th, so we need to get that information out of him!”

But it was too late.

“Bshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

“Whoa!?” shouted Alicia.

“Sigh, he’s puking like a new hire who celebrated a little too hard at his welcoming party,” groaned the radio. “As a fellow machine, that is exactly what I hope to avoid.”

Celina’s hands wandered wildly through the air as she watched Number 8 spew white steam everywhere.

And…

“W-we have to stop this. Yes, even if that means attacking him!”

She drove the stock of her rifle into the butler’s head.

That did stop the white steam, but…

“He’s stopped moving.”

Helen was right.

If they could not speak with him, they could not figure out who had pretended to be the emperor. For the 11th, Number 8 was a safety measure, not a crucial lifeline. Even now, they might be leisurely setting up the next sorcery bomb.

“What do we do?” asked Miyabi.

Moebius sighed while the boy righted the wheelchair for him.

He brushed the red dust from his coat before speaking.

“What, ready to follow my instructions again already?”

“Damn. You’re just saying that because you’re out of ideas too, aren’t you!?”

“Hey, provoking adults is a dangerous habit.” Moebius grinned. “Anyway, if he’s broken, he’s broken. But he’s a machine, so we can fix him. How’s that sound for a plan?”

“But the Empire that created him is gone. Where can we find parts for a rare automaton?”

The magical automatons, red slimes, magic books, furniture, and everything else in this danger zone of rusty mana continued to fight all on their own, but that constant struggling meant they would be in bad condition. Trying to use bad parts could actually make the damage worse.

But Moebius did not seem concerned.

“We happen to know a girl who can provide us any product under the sun, don’t we?”

At first, not even the girl in question knew who he meant.

“…”

Celina silently tilted her head for a while before realizing everyone’s eyes had gathered on her.

“Eh? Me?”

“The Boooodenburg Companyyyy,” sang Moebius. “Don’t you offer everything a person could need, from pacifier to coffin? Your home and the company’s headquarters are located in a famous port city. It’s the continent’s largest criminal city, home to pirates and mercenaries, where money is king and the law has no power.”

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 3

The island was starting to feel a lot more civilized.

That was largely thanks to Garret Goldcave, a dwarf and expert craftsman.

The old man may have had a better example of femininity than Curse Cleaner Sophia Calamity-Jinx or Martial Artist Victia Magnumfist, who had been lying around naked since the island was deserted. At the very least, he was wearing clothes.

A few buildings and manufacturing facilities were taking form on the empty island.

It was crudely made, but having a furnace meant a lot. It could refine ordinary dirt and sand into bricks and glass.

“Hmph,” snorted Garret, sounding annoyed. “I still have a lot to do before I’m ready to work with metal.”

He had found some sulfur and niter on the island, but it would be a while before he could create alchemy gunpowder. Iron came first. But finding items from several steps ahead in the process made his current level of skill and equipment feel all the more inadequate.

On this desert island, he had to figure everything out on his own. Iron ore would be hard to come by, but he could at least separate the iron sand out from the beach’s sand. Still, he had to go through a few other steps before he could create blades and hammers out of that iron sand.

Sophia viewed the buildings with delight.

“Good, maybe we can finally be of some use. Instead of just sending them sexy swimsuits, sexy swimsuits, and more sexy swimsuits.”

“Ha ha ha! But I have a feeling Miyabi would love a world of nothing but sexy swimsuits!”

“Eh? Miyabi likes to wear them? I never would have guessed he was into that!”

Victia made no attempt to correct Sophia’s mistaken interpretation. Idiots came in many forms, but the kind that failed to explain themselves properly tended to spread confusion.

Meanwhile, two new rookies had just arrived.

“Fshoo shoo shoo!! This supposedly desert island is littered with wreckage. Someone may have lived here before. Only one way to find out: grab my shovel and dig, dig, dig☆”

“Y-yikes!”

The octopus mask and giant armor were both shouting about something or other.

The island may have been cursed to never see any traditional femininity.

### Profiles

Marietta Diggrave

Age: 16

Sex: Female

Height: 153cm

A salvage hunter who digs up the remains of a ruined kingdom to gather advanced magical lab equipment and sell it to used item shops. Known for aiming big, but the high price of the treasure maps means she barely scrapes by despite the high profile of her jobs. Her excessive mask is more of a good luck charm or jinx, so it may not be strictly necessary.

Angela Custardmare

Age: 15

Sex: Female

Height: 200cm (140cm inside)

A maid known for her extreme loveliness known as the “Unfortunate Beauty”. Strange Guide once led a death game in which several nobles killed each other with her as the prize and the nobles’ wives responded by enclosing her in the unremovable Prison Armor. She wants a Wicked God horn in order to free herself from the armor.

Number 8

Apparent Age: 20 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Designed as Male

Height: 190cm

A magical automaton created from the advanced technology of the massive Empire that once ruled a third of the continent. He was given the humanoid Divine Doll Godhorn Tech as the foundation of the Empire’s defenses. He continues to obey the emperor’s commands even after the Empire’s fall, so he continues to protect the ruins of the capital. The extreme environment causes his damage to grow by the day, which has likely negatively affected his internal memory.

Godhorn Tech Silver Armor: Divine Doll

Pilot: Number 8

Affiliation: Unified Cassul Blanc Sorcery Empire (since destroyed)

Size: About 8m tall

Colossal silver armor. Obeys Number 8’s orders and works to slay its enemies. Wields swords, spears, and bows, but their great size turns them all into enormous blunt attacks. Number 8 was created to protect the Empire’s massive borders on the emperor’s orders. The Divine Doll obeys his orders unconditionally, so if he were to malfunction, the Divine Doll would follow along. Design motif: the sword which automatically fights to bring victory to its wise owner.

### 028. Chapter 5

### Chapter 5, Section 1

The Wicked God horn brought peace.

But it also fueled the next catastrophe.

Night had fully fallen.

They could not relax enough for a strategy meeting inside the ruined Empire covered in the mystery red dust called rusty mana. How could they when it could destroy the Divine Doll when at high enough concentrations? They could not leave Number 8 where he was either. Washing off the red sludge was not enough to rouse him.

That was why Miyabi’s party returned to the ship abandoned on dry land near the Empire’s ruins.

Maybe the wind played a role, but the red had not yet encroached upon the wasteland to the north.

The fact that the mysterious abandoned ship actually seemed comfortable may have shown just how tough they had gotten.

“Phew. Purification magic just can’t compete with some everyday necessities. Like a shower,” said Celina. “I just hope that little adventure didn’t take years off of our lives.”

“Based on the samples the Republic has taken, short-term skin contact has no effect on life,” said Helen. “Assuming it hasn’t been concentrated into that sludge, of course. Long-term oral or mucus membrane intake has been shown to cause abnormal growth in certain Beast Novae.”

“Discriminatory language!!” shouted Alicia. “What are you saying, that my chest is going to grow overnight!? Am I going to have watermelons bouncing around on my chest!? Oh, Alma, they can be so hurtful! Please comfort me!!”

The girls’ voices sounded muffled but not because Miyabi Blackgarden’s mind was elsewhere.

The abandoned ship’s interior remained intact and that included the bath.

That was one of the main reasons they had turned back instead of continuing onward. They had wanted someplace they knew they could rest, but they had also been dying for a bath. And there was still plenty of firewood made from the felled masts.

The radio had been thrown to the deck outside.

Miyabi was sitting with his back to a weathered wood wall and he could hear the girls’ voices through that wall.

He shut his eyes and focused on the fact that everyone was safe.

“These are the moments you live for, aren’t they?”

“Moebius?”

The young man rolled up with a smile.

He had fought using the Lucifer Horn more often than Miyabi and saved many more people. He had fought with entire regions, whole countries, and maybe even the full continent riding on the outcome. How many times had he been able to indulge in the relief of knowing his party members were all safe afterwards?

He was a legend – a fixer who made a living taking jobs that saved entire countries.

“The girls have let their guard down due to the unique mixture of exhaustion and the joy of survival, so now’s your chance to peep!!”

“It scares me that someone like you controlled a Godhorn Tech for even a moment.” The redhead boy breathed a somewhat exasperated sigh. “What are you going to do now? Stick with us?”

“No, giving you the Lucifer Horn would’ve been pretty pointless if I did that. I want to leave the world’s troubles behind and relax. Live that slow life that’s all the rage these days☆”

“…”

Scratch the somewhat.

Miyabi was truly exasperated now. Meanwhile, Moebius Entrance whispered something under his breath.

“(Also, you’ve started down a different path from me. The power of creation, huh? If I helped you out, you’d be right back on the boring-as-hell path of destruction, destruction, and more destruction.)”

“Moebius?”

“It’s nothing.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I’ll be searching for some comfortable place in the middle of nowhere to settle down. Some friendly place with no sign of Godhorn Techs or the fight against the 11th.”

“Then I know just the place.”

Miyabi grabbed the short control sword in both hands and stabbed it into the ship’s deck.

“Lucifer Horn!” he roared before Moebius could say a word. “One-way trip for one!!”

A wire dangling from the heavens caught the grinning young man’s wheelchair.

“Wait, what are you doing!?”

“Oh, right! I forget to mention!!” Miyabi quickly shouted to the wheelchair being yanked from the deck. “The Lucifer Horn can use bombs now! You should have told me it could adapt to new weapons like that! I might never have figured it out!!”

Moebius himself had set up Horn Fortress as a secret base, so he was in no position to refuse.

Moebius Entrance was enjoying a pleasure flight with imminent death as a constant companion.

But while he clutched the wheelchair’s armrests for dear life, a different tension filled him too.

He must have known no one could hear him way up in the air, but he still spoke aloud. Or maybe he said it aloud because he knew no one could hear him.

“Hold on. The Lucifer Horn’s horn extraction system was witchcraft. It should only have that energy beam attack created by injecting a special potion into the horn to forcibly boost its light.”

He looked straight up at the Godhorn Tech carrying him.

The legendary fixer seemed to be complaining directly to his former partner.

“ I had no idea you could do that. ”

Back on the abandoned ship, Celina Bodenburg had apparently finished her bath. She still had steam rising from her as she poked her head out and saw Miyabi.

“We’re all done in there. Oh? What are you doing out here?”

“Ridding us of a peeping tom.”

Celina gave a start and moved back a few steps when she heard that. Then Alicia Blueforest, also fresh out of the bath, arrived with Alma’s black cat form in her arms.

“There you are, boy. The bath is free. Go soak in our used bathwater.”

“I-in what world is that a normal thing to say!?” protested Celina. “There is something wrong with you!”

The elf usually bathed outdoors, so she could be careless about such things. An unexpected encounter with a defenseless elf was sometimes how an innocent boy got a crash course on the female body.

Helen arrived last and sighed in exasperation.

“This elf might live a wild life of stealing vegetables from people’s fields, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t more civilized. Speaking of which, our next stop is your hometown, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Celina Bodenburg got down to business. “Our next destination is the criminal port city where my company has its headquarters. It is south from here and will take a while on foot.”

Alicia Blueforest gave her a skeptical look.

“I don’t like the sound of that description.”

“Ahem. To make this as simple as possible, I would describe the city like this.” The local actually cleared her throat first. “That place is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad news.”

Wet-haired Helen Clockgear held her head.

“The Republic really does have it marked as ‘visit with extreme caution’. It’s best to assume it isn’t anything like a normal city.”

“Koo?”

“Then maybe we should make some preparations before we go there.” Miyabi Blackgarden rubbed his chin. “Do we head straight there, or do we make a detour to a safe town beforehand?”

They ended up choosing the direct route.

Their reasoning was simple: they had to deal with Number 8. They had no idea if he was even fixable, but any chance they had now might go to waste if the vibrations of dragging him around or the wind, rain, and other weather conditions caused further internal damage.

“This would be so much easier if you had the Lucifer Horn take him to Horn Fortress,” complained the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck.

“Wouldn’t we tear that half-broken thing to pieces if we tried snagging him with that wire? Then we would lose any information he has on the 11th.”

Miyabi had exposed an injured man to that exact same treatment, but that was a sign of how much he trusted Moebius Entrance. He knew dropping that legendary fixer from the sky wasn’t enough to kill him.

Helen took charge like usual and spread out a parchment map.

“This is how it looks on the map. Once we arrive south of the Empire’s ruins, we take a curving path southeast to reach the southernmost point of the continent.”

“We can’t just pass through here?”

Miyabi pointed at the actual plains, not the ones on the map. A stone-paved road drew a line across the green grassy ground.

“The map shows a crack there, so no.” Helen shook her head and traced her finger along a sewing needle to magically transform it into a compass. “How it works still isn’t known, but there are impassible deep cracks in the ground at some places. Dangerous miasma flows out, so no one knows what things are like deep inside.”

“There are rumors saying a Wicked God will crawl back out if you throw a nonhuman species inside,” said Alicia.

She went on to explain that those rumors were entirely baseless.

Miyabi’s takeaway was that they had to read the map carefully to avoid dying. They ended up leaving the stone-paved road to travel along a side path of packed-down grass.

It helped to have an experienced traveler in your party.

The color of the sky seemed to have changed. It was now a brilliant bright blue.

The air also carried an odd smell.

It was not quite the same as rot. It was a unique scent, but not a bad one.

“I can finally smell the salt in the air,” said Celina.

“Salt?”

Miyabi pictured the small shaker on the dinner table, but that could not be what she meant.

“Oh? Miyabi, is this your first time to see the sea?”

“See the see? What?”

“Hee hee. Then this might come as a shock for you.”

The rich girl was in a stupendous mood.

Miyabi noticed something else before they arrived. He heard something he did not recognize.

“What’s that? I’ve never heard so much meowing. Does your city have a lot of cats?”

“Ho ho ho. Kitties aren’t the only creature to hunt down fish at the oceanside, Miyabi. Those are seabirds.”

It turned out there were a lot of different seabirds.

There were some crow-sized ones with white wings that were related to swallows and there were even some that looked like scantily-clad girls with wings for arms.

“Gasp, those are harpies!” shouted Helen. “They’re dangerous Beast Novae!!”

No one paid the elf’s cry of “discriminatory language!!” any heed.

“It’s just that kind of city.” Celina shrugged. “And harpies are great. They’re smart enough to do what you tell them and they always return home when you send them out from your window. Both humans and monsters trust them. You can love them as a pet or give them jobs. They’re especially useful as hunter harpies who accompany you on hunting trips or as messenger harpies that deliver letters to distant locations.”

“If you want a clever pet, just get a dog. Why would you start talking about chaining up nonhumans and raising them as pets when you know an elf can hear you?”

“If a dog had the face of a cute girl, it would be a thing of nightmares, you stupid elf. There’s nothing beautiful about them.”

They heard the flapping of wings and then a large form swooped down toward Celina, so she held her arm out horizontally as a perch.

“My Millovannes is very well behaved, as you can see. Hee hee. Now, now, Millovannes, we can love on each other later. Oh, you spoiled thing, you’ll make Miyabi jealous if we do this in front of him. Oh, you☆”

U-um, uh, isn’t it slashing at your face with its thick talons? Um. Miyabi very much wanted to say something, but the more mature Helen and Eliza covered his mouth.

He was not to shatter the friendly girl’s dreams.

Celina was smiling so happily even with something red spurting from her badly-damaged forehead and temple.

“Anyway, you will see plenty of the port’s many seabirds once we are in the city. So, Miyabi, are you a dog person or a cat person. If the former, you can take a look at the well-trained guard dogs and military dogs. If the latter, you can check out the swarms of thieving cats hoping to snag some fish. Welcome to the criminal city where everyone loves their pets☆”

“Hm, so it works on the theory that delinquents have a soft spot for abandoned cats, does it?” said the radio. “It is true the lonely delinquent girl with a damaged heart is something you’ll only find in a fantasy world! I’m hoping for a fashionable and good-looking blonde gyaru!! Especially if she’s handy around the house, loves baths, and looks after any of the gang when they catch a cold!!”

“Oh, no. A big city like this is sure to be crawling with elfphobes!” said Alicia. “Please don’t let me be captured in a giant bug net and sold off at some market somewhere!!!!!”

And.

“Ohh!” shouted Miyabi.

Once they crossed a certain line, the view changed.

A city was built along a gentle downwards slope. All the buildings had white walls and orange roofs and it had a very different feel from his village or Eliza’s Arsenal Kingdom. There was no wall around the city, so it felt a lot more open.

But Miyabi Blackgarden’s focus was elsewhere.

He was not even viewing the city.

His eyes moved past the gentle slope and to the great expanse beyond it.

“What is that? There’s a huge body of water over there!! Is that more than just a lake!?”

“Heh heh heh. That, my friend, is the ocean. Shipbuilding is yet another of the Bodenburg Company’s major industries, so- hey, wait, Miyabi!”

The boy was not listening to her any more than he was viewing the city.

He and black cat Alma rushed off at full speed. They had never seen anything like the ocean before.

“Whoa! Hey, jackass! Watch where you’re fucking going!!!!!”

On his third step down the gentle slope, someone cussed him out.

It would have been one thing if the culprit was a rough-looking young man, but unfortunately, this was what looked like a lovely flower seller girl. And this was her reaction when he only almost ran into her.

Seeing the boy tearfully curled up on the side of the road and trembling, Celina put a hand on her hip and smacked her forehead with the other hand.

“How many times do I have to tell you this is a criminal city? C’mon, having your bittersweet fantasies about girls shattered isn’t that big a deal. And word to the wise? Always watch where you’re going in this city.”

“Ohh. Ohhhhhhhh…”

“Leave him be!!” For some reason the radio sided with the depressed boy. “The shattering of your dreams is a rite of passage – a baptism of blood – we all must go through! He just had his soul shredded, so let him mourn!!”

“Oh, dear. That hit him pretty bad, so it might take a while before he recovers. Fine, then. I will help refuel his fantasies. Look, Miyabi, do you see this slight gap between my miniskirt and black socks? Now watch as I lift my skirt and make it grow☆”

“Oh, there is good in the world after all.”

“Dammit, Miyabi! I defended you! And now you don’t even know the difference between pure and lewd? I swear, the young have no taste at all. If you want that obvious junk food sexiness, you already have Curvy McGlassesTits over there! She’s only pretending to be so mature, so if you go crying to her, I guarantee you she’ll hug your face right into her chest!!”

“Don’t drag me into this silly nonsense!!” protested a blushing Helen, her attempt at being an uninvolved observer failing miserably. She did not want to be viewed in the same category as the skirt teaser (who had miscalculated and accidentally lifted the skirt enough to see everything).

The bright sun shined down through dry air, so even a light breeze felt like a great treasure in this memorable tourist destination.

The way the sun reflected off the white walls and orange roofs made it look like the entire city was sending out welcoming rays of light.

However.

Now that the unintentional panty flasher had guided him back to reality, Miyabi took his time to observe the city more carefully.

While the lit areas were indeed bright, that accentuated the darkness of the alleys between the homes and stores. When he peeked inside one of those, he saw the sharp light of several eyes glaring back at him. He got the feeling they belonged to people who did not take kindly to intruders on their turf. In fact, he was pretty sure some of the lights were the glint of sharp blades.

Helen looked around in fear, clutching her bag in both hands. Compress Cargo magic made travel easier since you could fit so much in a small bag, but that also meant you would lose everything if that one bag was stolen. Easy to carry was also easy to steal.

“U-um, where are the knights or guards in this city? I haven’t seen a single one out on patrol.”

“Sigh, we don’t have any of those wet blankets here. We’ve long since driven out anyone who use their supposed ‘justice’ to attack anyone who criticizes their own illicit actions. Order here is preserved by the private troops of the Bodenburg Company!”

“Sounds like the South American and Eastern European cities were the gangs make the rules. She really does hold all the power here, doesn’t she?”

Even the radio was dumbfounded.

If what they saw here was the result of those private troops “preserving order”, they could guess just how effective that really was. It also explained why the Bodenburg Company was so successful. With no government officials to monitor or crack down on their dirty business practices, they were free to go hog wild.

But if you ignored the frequency of encountering crime, the quality of life here did not appear all that bad. The roads were all paved with perfectly smooth and sparkling stones, the white-walled and orange-roofed homes and shops were clean, and the street stalls had plenty of fresh fruits and fishes to go around. The Bodenburg Company apparently brought plenty of benefits to its hometown, so the locals never went hungry. People’s fashion was a lot more refined than at Miyabi’s home village. Befitting the hometown of the girl who was willing to tease a view of her underwear to cheer someone up (while oblivious to the fact that she was actually doing more than just teasing), there was no shortage of exposed skin in the criminal port town. Bare midriffs and exposed underwear straps were apparently the norm here.

Miyabi looked around in a mixture of interest and fear.

“I don’t get how a city can run on crime. How does that work?”

“Wait, Miyabi! Looking down alleys is a good way to get yourself into troub-!”

The local girl tried to stop him, but it was too late.

He had already found some trouble.

A blonde girl around his age or a little older was accompanied by several people dressed all in black. She wore a coat with the hood up…but what was that? Two thick belts hung down from the back of the coat and those belts had several knife blades sticking out. They almost looked like wings made from sharp saws, but letting them flutter in the wind had to be dangerous.

Also, she was not wearing a skirt or pants below the coat. Other than the protectors on her legs, she only wore thick belts around her chest and hips. She was certainly easy on the eyes.

Celina Bodenburg groaned loudly when she peeked into the alley. Seeing this person was enough to make you “a witness”, especially when you knew who she was. The rifle-wielding girl was especially tense because she knew the proper etiquette in this criminal city.

“Geh, why did it have to be the Neverjudge Family? Worse, it’s Phobia, the big boss’s only daughter! You have the worst luck imaginable, Miyabi!”

“What, is she a friend of yours?”

“Miyabi, this is a serious issue. She is from an unbelievably brutal gang. Any ordinary person who gets involved with them is rumored to either end up feeding the fish out at sea or finding themselves at the bottom of a special sort of bath.”

“The fish? A bath?”

Celina cleared her throat with her face somewhat red.

Suddenly finding herself left all alone to explain this to him, the precocious girl spoke more quickly than normal.

“While our company buys and sells goods and information with money, they are a professional criminal group that makes money renting out ‘violence’ as a product. They will do threats, kidnappings, robberies, murders, revenge assistance, eliminating false charges, bodyguarding, rescues, and anything else that can be accomplished through violence. And they do not ask many questions about the ethics of the job. They might attack or defend the same person depending on the specific job they receive.”

“Huh? You mean they do good things too?”

“Either way, their exorbitant fees and the rapidly snowballing interest send all of their clients to hell eventually. Our private troops will work to ‘mop them up’ from time to time, but we never can get rid of these morally-bankrupt loan sharks.”

The gang was surrounding a very different sort of person.

She was wearing a shiny black…was it called a high-leg leotard? Anyway, a very revealing leather thing plus a vest, bunny ears, fishnet stockings, and stilettos. The curvy young woman with her long red hair in twintails was exactly what she looked like.

The radio gave the correct answer.

“Take it all in, Miyabi, and take one step closer to adulthood!! That is an orthodox tuxedo-style bunny girl, one of the classy ladies who work at casinos!!!!!!”

“Could you not imply that I’m a fake one!” cut in Helen.

She would prefer to not transform into Venus, but she also did not want her efforts to go unappreciated.

Meanwhile, a conversation was underway in the back alley.

Celina stayed by Miyabi’s side and leaned forward. She seemed very curious what was going on here.

The first to speak was the gang daughter named Phobia Neverjudge.

She addressed the bunny girl her gang had surrounded.

“Work as our magician.”

“Ugh.”

“Our previous magician was trash. Terrible at following directions, no real skill to speak of, and never covered things up properly. So if you take over that position, we will overlook all that cheating at our casino.”

“Um, and if I say no?”

“You get the usual treatment. We have a special brand for cheaters. Burns an appropriate message onto their face: ‘I’m a filthy cheater. Keep an eye on me, everyone.’ D’you think any casino’ll let you in with that covering your entire face?”

“Ha ha ha, yeah. But I think half the fun in gambling is seeing how long it takes before my cheating is found out.”

“Then your life is already a failure. Interested in buying it back?”

“Ha ha ha, yeah.” The bunny girl’s laughter was weak, but she did have a reason to be laughing. “But, but. It might be miniscule, but I still have a chance. Gambling is so much fun because everyone has a chance to turn things around.”

She had noticed the newcomers and she was very hopeful.

The hope was practically radiating from her.

Miyabi’s mouth formed a small triangle and Celina slapped her forehead.

“Oh, god. Really? Fine, Miyabi, which side are you going to take? The gangsters or the cheater? Neither one is exactly a good person, so just choose whichever one strikes your fancy. Oh, but keep in mind that pretending you never saw anything counts as siding with the Neverjudge Family.”

Miyabi Blackgarden nodded deeply.

The decision was an easy one.

“Why wouldn’t I choose the sexy bunny!? I mean, she’s sexy!!”

“Sigh, is that all Miyabi sees when he looks at me?”

The bespectacled version of Venus looked like she was witnessing the end of the world.

“Tch.”

The born gangster clicked her tongue.

Phobia had also noticed the people at the alleyway entrance. When up to no good, such as when surrounding a target, the gang would naturally be focused on the entrance whether there was someone there or not.

The blade wings shook behind her as she turned to face them.

“Well, well, well. If isn’t the new money girl that thinks she’s a fairy tale knight by sending in private troops she’s paid to fight for her! How badly did you rip off that country bumpkin there when you hired him? Scratch that. I don’t care. Your forces might be more powerful, but the Family is second to none when it comes to pinpoint urban assassina-”

“Lucifer Horn!! Take her away before she can attack!!!!!!”

The Lucifer Horn roared by overhead and its wire snagged the gang daughter, whisking her away. Probably all the way to Horn Fortress somewhere out in the ocean.

The gangsters in black stared blankly now that their boss’s only daughter had vanished before their eyes.

“Ha ha.” Celina burst out laughing while aiming her flintlock rifle at the gangsters. “Ah ha ha ha ha ha!! Miyabi, you are the absolute best! So what now? We have your gang’s heir. And since she’s our new party member, you’ll want to start this new relationship off on the right foot, right?”

“…”

“March on back to whatever hideout that greedy old geezer is rotting away in and pass on a message for me. If he doesn’t want his gang torn apart over some new succession issues at this late stage in his life, he needs to start accepting only the moral jobs that come in and to be a lot more flexible in the payment plans he accepts for the people trying to pay back their loans. And convey it all verbatim. It would be a shame if any miscommunication here led to a misunderstanding that bred unnecessary ill will between us☆”

The several shadowy figures clicked their tongues and left. Miyabi’s peaceful rural upbringing left him unprepared to note the significance of them setting aside their pride and turning their backs on Celina.

Then the shiny black bunny girl collapsed limply to the ground. She ended up with her legs splayed out beneath her in an oddly sexy way. She was around the same age as Eliza and Phobia, but she had an entirely different feel to her.

“Ohhhh, ohhhhhhhh!! You saved me. What even are the odds of turning that one around? Ahh, I’m all tinglyyyyy.”

However, he got the impression she had not collapsed from relief once the fear faded away.

After enjoying some kind of sensation that sent an alluring tremor up her spine, she finally looked up at the others from the ground.

“I’m Eluné. Eluné Jackpot. FYI: professional gamblers almost never give you their real name when you first meet them☆”

“What now? People who go by fake names are almost always up to no good.”

“I did warn you, Miyabi: neither one is exactly a good person. The same applies to anyone in this city.”

Celina sounded exasperated, but was she aware that applied to her too since this was her hometown?

Eluné smiled with her round-tailed butt still pressed against the ground.

“I need to repay you for this. Boy, is this your first time in the city? Then I can introduce you to the absolute best places here.”

“You want him to take information from someone who forgot to check who owned the casino she was cheating in and got dragged into a back alley? That can only end badly.”

“But I want to repay him.”

“Ugh, enough of this,” said Alicia. “Miyabi, why not let her join the party?”

“Fine, but what can a bunny girl do for the party?”

“She can give Venus a few pointers, making her even sexier. And I’m talking about things too indecent for the daylight hours.”

“That is not happening!!” protested the glasses woman, but no one was listening.

The real bunny girl’s face lit up.

“Join your party? I accept, I accept! I can just tell you’re on some exciting adventure! If I let this opportunity pass me by, I might as well retire as a gambler. I’m in, I’m in, I am so in!!”

“Um, okay then. I’ve got another one for you, Lucifer Horn!!”

Another wire arrived to collect the black bunny girl. She was such a risk junky that she actually managed to blow him a kiss while she was swept away into the sky.

After a bit, Eliza tilted her head.

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

“Well…sending that gang daughter – Phobia was it? – to Horn Fortress was fine, but you just sent Eluné there as well. Won’t that just lead to Round 2 once they encounter each other there?”

“…”

“And isn’t that a remote island surrounded by powerful barriers? Sh-she’s trapped there with Phobia.”

They all fell silent. The Lucifer Horn was no longer visible in the sliver of blue sky seen from the narrow alley.

Eventually, Miyabi nodded.

“Well, she seemed to like high-stakes gambles.”

“I just hope this doesn’t end with a dead body in the ocean over there,” said Alicia.

Miyabi’s party had already received an initiation into how the criminal city worked, but they could not let that scare them away.

The only way to make use of the city’s unique resources was to get used to the city’s ways.

They needed to repair the imperial automaton and ask him about the 11th who had pretended to be the emperor to command him.

Eliza glanced around while carrying Number 8’s limp form on her back.

“There is so much here my kingdom lacked. For one, the city is not lit by fires and tallow lamps.”

“Yes, these are cutting-edge gas lamps you see alongside the road. Hee hee. You are in for a surprise tonight. Metal foil is used to color the fires red, yellow, and blue. Each and every shop appears to be shining.”

“Hm. I had noticed glass tubes bent into letters like balloon art, but are those made to be illuminated? That explains why all the signs are transparent and hard to read. For example, what is that shop supposed to be?”

“…”

Celina sealed her lips shut and refused to answer.

She must have been unwilling to speak the name Bubble Bath Paradise out loud.

Helen the hall monitor placed a finger on the bridge of her glasses and stared like she could not believe her eyes.

“The bars are garish, the casinos have no rate limits and are buddy-buddy with loan sharks, I’m willing to bet the pawn shops are full of stolen goods, and those ‘theatres’ look more like the kind of place where the performers take their clothes of for tips. Wow, there’s even a battle arena where people actually lose their lives. Nothing on this street would be legal in the Republic. And the other street at this intersection appears to be nothing but hotels.”

“You’re awfully good at recognizing such establishments for someone who doesn’t approve of them,” said Alicia. “Got more of an interest in some of them than you’re letting on, perhaps?”

“Th-that information is necessary for working undercover!!”

Alma was looking all around from Miyabi’s feet.

“Koo…” said the black cat creature with a shiver.

“What’s wrong, Alma?” asked Alicia. “If you’re scared, then I’ll make a hammock out of my skirt for you. Ha ha ha. Yes, just jump on in!”

“Country Girl Limited Edition Strawberry Picker Chef’s Special Elf! Lift that skirt a little higher! Yes, even higher than that!! Wait, but how am I ever supposed to see that glorious fabric triangle when looking down from your neck!?”

The radio made a ruckus, earning a punch from Eliza and Helen both.

The pure knight was still having trouble reading the signs, but even she was starting to pick up on the indecent atmosphere. She had more doubt and caution in her voice while she carried the deactivated magical automaton around.

“Where is the Bodenburg Company? Don’t we need to visit them to fix Number 8 and get his information on the 11th?”

Celina winked and raised a finger.

“It’s the biggest building of them all. It’s impossible to miss.”

They were walking along the widest and most conspicuous road, but Miyabi still caught glimpses of a world he had never known.

For example, he peeked inside a weapon shop along the way.

“Welcome…except I would recommend against shopping here, kid. Carrying a weapon only makes it more likely you’ll be stabbed.”

For some reason, the shop’s owner firmly turned him away, which seemed like a terrible way to stay in business. The gloomy maid tending to the sharp and blunt weapons in the shop gave him a thin smile.

“Oh? Were you not expecting to find a maid here?” she said. “Hee hee. As a mercenary, I happen to be another of the products for sale. Stop by again if you have a job for me.”

Out of curiosity (a curiosity mostly directed toward the darker side of society glimpsed in this city), Miyabi nervously peeked inside all the stores they passed by. Either they refused to sell to first-timers, or they appeared to have all the more interesting items unlisted so they had to be requested by name. The major port had to be a starting point for a lot of journeys, but the place was not made for tourists.

“The food looks good, though,” said Miyabi, watching some sweets being cooked at a street stall.

“That is known as a crepe, Miyabi. People call this a criminal city, but it actually values freedom more than anywhere else on the continent and people from all sorts of backgrounds end up here. We are second to none when it comes to culture and the arts. Food is no exception.”

But their destination was the Bodenburg Company.

They had the most powerful card in their deck for that. Celina was the company’s only daughter. She was right about it being impossible to miss. The biggest building was visible from any part of the city.

As they approached, they came across a large iron gate. They could see a garden with rose hedges and fountains past the sturdy bars. It was too large to even call a park. Miyabi thought his entire village might have fit inside it. Maids and gardeners were coming and going within and they even saw a carriage driving by. The grand white mansion was enough to leave even Helen of the Republic and Eliza of the Arsenal Kingdom speechless. It was fancier even than the residences of their heads of state.

Miyabi gasped just from looking through the gate.

“That’s incredible.”

“Heh heh. It is, isn’t it?”

“Why is there a naked statue of you in the middle of that fountain? Was it some kind of punishment?”

“Th-that is of my mother when she was younger! And it was not some bizarre form of punishment!!”

Celina had clearly corrected exactly this misunderstanding on more than a few occasions.

She approached the gate with a bright blush on the face that took after her mother.

“Anyway, this is the headquarters of our company. Rudolf!”

“Oh?”

A gray-haired old man – presumably Rudolf – approached from the other side of the gate, but he did not bow. Powerful old men were in no short supply in a logging village, so for Miyabi, this muscular old-timer was like a point of familiarity in an otherwise strange city.

The air was dry, the sun was bright, and Rudolf wore black dress clothes, yet he was not sweating.

“Rudolf, I would like to discuss the company’s inventory. I require a list of all imperial automaton components we have in stock. I have reason to repair this automaton named Number 8.

Rudolf was smiling.

And he continued smiling as he responded.

“And why would I give you that?”

“Surely you aren’t going to say you do not recognize me.”

“I am afraid I must. The Bodenburg Company is run by the wealthiest family at Galletfron Trade Port. Being known far and wide comes at a price. Just the other day, a girl who looked exactly like the young lady rashly stopped by to scam us out of some travel expenses, so the master has ordered us to be stricter in our dealings with anyone, even if they appear to be family.”

“Even your family is turning you away, rich girl?” asked Alicia.

“(Kh!!)”

After the world-famous girl gave the elf one hell of a look, Rudolf made a suggestion.

“You might be a well-disguised fake, but I know I would recognize the real young lady’s exceptional business acumen. Let’s see…this city uses guns more than swords or sorcery, so why not acquire a Divine Crystal Bullet? Yes, just one will do. Bring that to me and I will be able to tell at a glance that you are the real young lady.”

“Hm, that isn’t much info to go on,” said Alicia.

The intellectual glasses woman gave a start.

The elf grinned and turned toward the woman, ready to boss her around.

“Heh heh heh. This sounds like a job for Venus, don’t you think?”

“L-let’s go take a look around, Miyabi! We’ll go over the city with a fine-tooth comb!!”

Thus, Operation Fine-Tooth Comb began.

“We’ll be asking around?”

Miyabi gave a thoughtful look toward Eliza.

Armor and weapons were a common sight in this criminal city full of thugs, so the problem was the thing she was carrying as their “muscle”.

“Then shouldn’t we find some place to keep Number 8? He looks so realistic people might think we’re carrying around a corpse.”

“But people carry drunks out of bars all the time here.”

The local girl sounded casual enough, but Miyabi wondered worriedly why she hadn’t specified where the drunks were being carried to .

They were in front of Celina’s mansion, but they were not allowed inside. Helen was in charge of their finances and she fell to her knees at the thought of renting out an inn room large enough for them all when a party member’s home was this very city.

“The corner room is open right now. I could move you there.”

“No, thank you!! I refuse to even consider any further expenses!!”

For some reason, Helen’s refusal elicited a quiet tongue click from the innkeeper.

The party gathered in a 2nd floor room where they were finally able to lay Number 8 down in a bed.

They needed to speak with him to get information on the 11th.

Miyabi nodded.

“Okay, let’s go find that Divine Crystal Bullet thing.”

“Yes, we cannot get the repair parts without convincing Rudolf.”

Would they find a bullet at a weapon shop?

They discussed the possibilities while descending the stairs, but they received a hint much sooner than expected.

A filthy middle-aged man wrapped in old rags spoke to them as soon as they stepped out of the inn.

“Hee hee hee. I’ve got some information you might just be interested in.”

“If you were that well informed, you wouldn’t look like you crawled out of a trash heap,” said Alicia.

“Now, now. Just hear me out.”

The elf’s exasperated comment was not enough to get him down.

“It’s about that inn you just left. Hm, so you managed to avoid the corner room, did you? That’s good to hear. Wanna know why the place is always empty but always makes a killing? Anyone who stays in the corner room is put to sleep by the special spores or insect scales rubbed onto the pillows and blankets. Once you’re out, they can steal everything of value. The innkeeper’s vault is crammed full of rare prizes.”

“…”

Normally, that would scare them enough to find a different inn.

In fact, this man was probably working for a different inn to guide customers that way. Those rags were a type of uniform. They looked filthy, but the sour smell was more reminiscent of watered-down vinegar than human body odor. It even had a touch of apply sweetness.

But Miyabi’s party had a goal in mind.

“(That means the innkeeper might have some rare weapons. Like the Divine Crystal Bullet that Rudolf guy asked for.)”

“(Even if he doesn’t have one, he might have done some research into potential targets that would have one. When a customer looks like they probably have a lot of valuables, he must try to get them to take the corner room.)”

So it was time to turn right around.

When they brought up the corner room, the innkeeper looked troubled.

But not because he was begging for mercy.

“50 thousand methods.”

“Huh?”

Celina had thought they had him dead to rights, so her eyes widened.

With a solid thunk, he placed a crystal smaller than his thumb down on the counter. The shadow cast by the clear crystal contained a colorful band of light just like when light shined through a water tank.

He grinned and leaned forward.

“For the Divine Crystal Bullet. Believe me, that’s a bargain. You should really be thanking me.”

The criminal city was indeed a criminal city.

Celina’s mouth flapped wordlessly a bit before she got her voice out.

“You expect me to pay 50 thousand methods for a sketchy item with nothing to prove it’s legit!? You could build a house with a decent garden in a rural village for that! You do understand you’ll be out of business if we reveal your misdeeds here, don’t you!?”

“Um, isn’t it wrong to let him get away with it just because we get what we want out of him?” quietly commented Helen, but no one was listening.

The innkeeper had the upper hand here and he was not letting go. He almost seemed to be enjoying it like a game.

“I stole this inn and its land with a forged title deed, so it’s no skin off my nose if I have to move elsewhere. There are tons of poorly-managed vacant buildings around here. Now. I believe the real issue here is that you need this Divine Crystal Bullet for some reason or another.”

“…”

“50 thousand and not a method less. If you’re short on cash, then sell that jewel-encrusted dress of yours. And if that isn’t enough, your underwear too. We can talk after that.”

“~ ~ ~!!!!!!”

Being outdone in a business discussion must have been unforgivable for Celina. She tugged on panicking Miyabi’s sleeve, guiding him away from the counter, and then whispered in his ear. With her bayonetted rifle held close.

“(Let’s rob him.)”

“This escalated quickly!!!”

“(Shh. Let’s teach that fucker the meaning of freedom in this criminal city. There’s no use haggling with him. I have a sixth sense for deals that aren’t going to work out. We’d be here for a century without making any progress.)”

“Says the girl who was all over us when we said we would sell our Wicked God horn.”

Celina glared over at the elf.

As for Miyabi…

“We do need that thing to convince Mr. Rudolf…”

“(This innkeeper is clearly taking advantage of us. That Divine Crystal Bullet is no more a piece of glasswork!)”

“But what are we supposed to do?” asked the pure boy.

Celina rubbed a finger against her temple.

“(Well, if we aren’t just going to blow his brains out…oh, I know. We can create our own. You saw what it looks like, right? We can counterfeit ourselves one!)”

The Lucifer Horn connected them to Horn Fortress.

The wire dangling from the bomber could carry people and things to and from that island. They did not know how developed Horn Fortress was at this point, but they did know they had a useful party member there.

The dwarf named Garett Goldcave was an Arsenal Kingdom blacksmith skilled enough to be considered a national treasure.

“That might just work. If we did the work here, someone might notice and word might reach Rudolf.”

They had approval from the glasses woman who preferred to follow the rules but still excelled at conspiracies.

They left the dumbfounded innkeeper behind and returned to their room in his inn. Their only option was to send a letter via the Lucifer Horn and trust in Garett’s skill.

It was complete before sunset.

The dish called pizza turned out to be a controversial choice. Helen and Celina were arguing over whether garlic shrimps were an acceptable topping when the Lucifer Horn delivered a small box wrapped in cushioning.

“Is this it?”

“Miyabi, you don’t know a thing about how guns work, from the firing mechanism to how the lead deforms on impact, do you?” said Celina. “I will give you a thorough lecture later on, but for now, let’s get back to Rudolf.”

They walked to the Bodenburg residence and found Rudolf waiting in the same place as before.

He had not given them a time limit, so had he been waiting there the entire time?

“That was fast. Do you have the Divine Crystal Bullet?”

“Who do you think I am?”

“I would like to see it, if you don’t mind. Excuse me.”

Miyabi had trouble looking the man in the eye, so Celina surreptitiously stomped on his foot with a smile.

“…”

“Interesting,” said Rudolf with a nod.

Was that a yes or a no? It was a tense moment. Miyabi did not know how things worked in this city, but he was worried they would be subjected to some very creative punishments if it was discovered they had given the man a fake.

“It really is you, milady.” Rudolf smiled. “I knew you would never pay such an absurd price.”

“It was such an obvious setup. That wasn’t even worth haggling over. I bet you knew it was me and decided to have some fun!”

“Ho ho. That is the Bodenburg way.”

Then I’ll never understand it, thought Commoner Miyabi. He could never stand living in a home where everyone made such stomachache-inducing jokes.

“You wished to discuss an imperial automaton, correct?”

“Wait, we’re just going to chat out here? Invite us in already.”

The elf’s complaints did nothing to wipe the smile off of Rudolf’s face.

He continued standing perfectly still in front of the gate.

“I apologize, but the master is in a bad mood within.”

“What’s upset father this time?”

“Pirates,” replied Rudolf. “The loss of the armored train required the company to switch to ocean shipping routes, but a pirate took advantage of the shipping fleet’s poor coordination during the confusion of the switchover. Their defenses should have been sufficient, but they were gathered in a hurry and thus unable to work together so soon.”

“…”

The girl fell silent.

This was a complicated issue, but she may have felt responsible for losing the Schwarz Schütze.

“Only the cargo was targeted, so the crew and mercenaries were unharmed. …However, the pirate was very thorough, almost to the point of mockery. The magical automaton parts you want were no exception. Items from the ruined Empire are rare, so it will be difficult to find replacements on such short notice. Your only option may be to attack the pirate and take back what was stolen.”

“Um, a pirate?”

Miyabi had grown up in the mountains, so the word only vaguely rang a bell.

Rudolf shook his head.

“This one is quite famous, sadly enough.”

He identified the pirate.

“Onelife Shiftup, the one-eyed pirate. He is known to use a special prosthetic arm, so he may have need for imperial technology.”

“Hm.” Eliza brought a hand to her chin. “Does he use a high-tech automaton arm?”

“But not even our company has managed to track him down. People say he is a gentleman thief and that he singlehandedly defeated a Wicked God and broke off its horn. It is hard to say how much of it is a coincidence and how much of it is an intentional strategy on his part, but all the unconfirmed rumors have confused our attempts to find real information on him. We know he is somewhere in this port city, but not his exact location.”

“…”

“We do know, however, that he possesses a powerful Godhorn Tech: the King Knot pirate ship. Unfortunately, that part is undoubtedly true because it is registered as one of the continent’s 10 Godhorn Techs.”

### Chapter 5, Section 2

Night had fallen.

It was finally time for the dangerous criminal city to awaken.

Back in their inn room, Celina Bodenburg placed her hands on her hips and breathed from her nose.

“Asking around during the day would be a waste of time. The outlaws are only out and about at night. Now, let’s track down that pirate who stole my company’s cargo! Then we teach him a painful lesson on why that was a bad idea!!”

Village Boy Miyabi Blackgarden was terrified.

He took a nervous look out from the 2nd story window. For reasons he could not explain, the city was now filled with lights dyed in pinks, yellows, and other colors. The place was so much busier than during the day. He knew he had to be imagining it, but he could have sworn the stench of alcohol was seeping in through the window.

“Are you sure this is a good idea? It looks extremely dangerous out there.”

“She’s the expert, so I’m sure she’ll explain it for us.”

Alicia Blueforest jerked her thumb over toward the bunny girl sans glasses.

“Hello, hello! Venus here, at your service!!”

“Don’t you dare gloss over the fanservice like it’s nothing!! I don’t care how many times it’s happened, you’ve gotta show it all in detail! You can’t forget your embarrassment or the impact it has on your innocent heart!! …Miss Elf, I know this will make you jealous, but you need to place me on the floor. This requires drastic measures, so I need a low angle view of that V-shape between the bunny’s legs!!”

The elf tossed the radio to the floor and the sexy young woman crushed it below her sharp heel. It was reminiscent of stopping a rolling ball underfoot.

The bunny girl ignored any possible damage to the jerk.

“Anyway, this city works differently than a normal one. It’s full of thieves, assassins, and resupplying pirates, so there are wanted criminals everywhere you turn.”

“Wait,” said Miyabi. “Are thieves different from bandits?”

“Thieves work very differently from the bandits running rampant in the fields. They are experts at working in a city. Although I can’t tell you if it’s the authorities or the criminals who are so picky about the nomenclature.”

However, one of them was not going to let this go without comment.

Someone even more strait-laced than Helen Clockgear was actually trembling. That person was of course Eliza Silverstorm.

“Wh-wh-what?”

“Oh, yeah. Eliza never saw Venus before this. But didn’t she see the black bunny during the day?”

“Why are you waring that highly indecent and utterly insane rabbit costume, you horny titty monsterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!???”

“Really!? You’re actually drawing your lance over this!? I’m not doing this because I want to, you know!?”

Helen preferred not becoming a mutilated corpse while dressed like that, so she paled and shouted a defense.

This was also Celina’s first time seeing it, but she did not seem all that surprised. She picked up black cat Alma in a classy way.

“Oh, is that all? I was expecting something more after everything I heard. Hee hee. You see bunny girls like that all over this city at night.”

“There’s something wrong with a city that has bunny girls walking around! You don’t wear this kind of thing outside!!”

“I was expecting some kind of strange gimmick, like zippers or bows in some risqué places that could be undone to spice things up, or a special fabric that becomes see-through when viewed through a special magnifying glass. Or maybe thick padlocks on either hip to show you can’t take it off on your own.”

“???”

“Ksh! Wh-where can I buy Bodenburg stock! And I’m not talking about making a quick buck off of some day trading! I want the special shareholder treatment! These ideas are brilliant! Ksh, their next manger has a bright future!!!!!!”

The radio was even more excitable than usual, perhaps due to the beautiful woman stepping on it.

The entire discussion went way over Miyabi’s head.

Afraid Celina would smile and offer to customize their bunny to demonstrate what she meant, Venus spoke rapidly and hurried to the door.

“Yes, well, thank you, but I think I’m going to go change! Just a sec!!”

“Sh-she must want to be fully prepared when the fun begins,” suggested the radio as Alicia finally collected it from the floor.

Helen returned in the jacket and tight skirt of her government official outfit. The glasses were back as well.

“Yes, fully prepared,” she said.

“What!? Not so fast! Why did that lousy door not pop open while she was changing!?”

Being stepped on had not slowed the radio down at all, but Alicia was focused on something else.

“Was she in such a hurry she changed out in the hallway?”

“Is everything she does indecent?” muttered Eliza.

The knight’s comment came as a shock to the glasses woman.

“Wait just a second! Is no one on my side!? Miyabi, you know I’m not like that, don’t you? No, don’t blush and look the other way, Miyabiiii!!”

“Mom, try taking some deep breaths!!”

“I’m not your mom! How can I be indecent and your mom!? Did some Montage magic mess with your mind!?”

Helen tearfully tried to hide her body, but Eliza was ready to get down to business.

“So we’re up against a pirate?” asked the righteous person. “I am more than willing to punish a villain. We should get started as soon as possible.”

Alicia sighed.

“Yes, but we can’t just obliterate the city with a Godhorn Tech.”

“Onelife Shiftup, a one-eyed pirate with a prosthetic arm.” Miyabi repeated the information to make sure he had it right. “Let’s ask around for some information on him.”

Outside, the city was a deluge of lights.

The red, yellow, and blue gas lights were not limited to the main street. Signs everywhere glowed with strange colored fire, the glass tubes shining from within.

Pure as the driven snow, Eliza read off the glowing signs in puzzlement.

“Bubble Bath Paradise?”

“M-Miyabi? Let’s hurry on to find Onelife. Immediately!!”

Celine shouted and pushed on Eliza’s back with both hands before the reality could sink in.

The streets were aflood with noise.

“Just one! You make just the one order and there aren’t any additional charges to worry about!!”

“Hey there, handsome. Remember the name on this sign, okay?☆ We’re open all night long, so you can stop by after the other places close. I won’t force you to stop by now, but how about ending the night here after you visit two or three other places?☆”

“The information desk? Don’t even bother. If you want to have some real fun, you need to know where the unlisted places are. So if you don’t want your courage and savings to go to waste, stop by the Secret Diviner.”

Miyabi had known it was a large city, but he could not believe how many people were crammed inside. It was on an entirely different level from the daytime. He was surrounded by the smell of alcohol and perfume, cheerful cries calling for customers, little shrieks made mostly in jest, and an unidentifiable scent created by the greasy smoke of all the different grilled and fried street foods. Disinfectant magic made with a purifying silver could not even dent the effect this place had.

Miyabi felt dizzy.

“It’s like a whole other world. I don’t understand half the things they’re saying.”

“Nhhh☆ I’m finally home.”

Meanwhile, Celina stretched her arms up with a relaxed smile.

The city operated under different rules at night and these rules must have felt more like home to her. They were surrounded by garish signs and (practically naked) young women in such skimpy outfits it was unclear if they counted as dresses or underwear, but she had the same look as a country child seeing the rhino beetles and shaved ice after returning home.

“Has no one here heard of restraint?” asked a fed-up Alicia.

However, the city’s overwhelming night was not limited to the outdoors. Once they began entering shops to ask around, Miyabi quickly ran into an obstacle.

For example, the owner of a weapons shop had this to say.

“What are you doing out this late? The night is Juicy , so get your ass back home!”

For example, a grinning customer whispered to him while perusing the products at an item shop.

“Oh, dear. Everyone has been so uneasy at night lately. Maybe because Ripped has been causing so much trouble. It’s weird I haven’t seen any of his other pirates around lately though.”

For example, the gorgeous woman serving drinks at a bar welcomed him with a smile.

“Oh, welcome! You might go looking for the younger girls, but my skills at Hard are quite something if I say so myself.”

He had listened carefully, but he had no idea what they meant.

He was stuck blinking in confusion.

“Wh-what? What are they even saying?”

“Oh, dear,” said Celina. “It sounds like some strange new rules have spread across the city while I was away.”

“If it happened recently, it might be related to that celebrity,” suggested Helen.

“Celebrity? You mean that pirate?” Alicia looked bitter. “He isn’t some gentleman thief in a play – he’s an actual criminal. There’s something wrong with a town that lionizes someone like that.”

They found some more unusual people around the city’s night. A young man was drinking at a table outside a bar.

And his long ears were twitching.

Miyabi did not even try to beat around the bush.

“Huh? Are you an elf!?”

“Hm, what gave it away?”

The slender male knight did not seem bothered and did not even set down his mug. He had long blond hair, white skin, and the handsome face of a stage actor, but he was wearing armor and a cape. And instead of deflecting attacks with thick metal, the armor was designed to efficiently and economically spread defense magic across his body. Eliza eyed the armor with a hint of jealousy.

As a fellow elf, Alicia put her hands on her hips.

“What are you doing in this disgusting city? Did you take one wrong step and get sold off by the humans?”

“They finally abandoned that bad habit centuries ago. Modern humans aren’t quite that unreasonable. The world is at peace.”

“Ho ho? I see. So you can look at the world out there and call it peaceful, can you?”

Alicia grinned at him with some obvious hidden meaning behind the look. Almost like she was sneering at a rich kid who had no idea how the real world worked.

Miyabi tilted his head.

“What, do you know each other?”

“My apologies. I am Cliff Blueforest. I originally guarded the Blue Forest, but I had reason to leave and travel the outside world instead.”

“Blue…?”

Miyabi looked over at Alicia, but she shook her head, looking disgusted.

“No, no. We’re not siblings or anything. We’re just both from the Blueforest race. Every elf born in that forest uses the Blueforest name.”

“I also get the feeling he has his act together a lot more than you.”

“Shut up. I can live my life however I want.”

And then…

“Heh heh. Yes, if only we could all live our lives however we want. That would make things so much easier for me.”

Miyabi gasped.

What was that?

It didn’t seem to be ventriloquism, but it had sounded an awful lot like a seductive female voice had come from Cliff.

Cliff himself grimaced.

“You don’t usually make your presence known in front of others.”

“Get a clue, dullard. You seemed to be enjoying yourself for once, so I was feeling jealous.”

Miyabi was not imagining things.

Two different voices were coming from Cliff, but the female one did not match his lips. He also seemed to be conversing with that other voice.

“Hm? Do you, um, have a crystal radio like Alicia?”

“Oh, is that elf a skilled enough alchemist to create a philosopher’s stone? Yes, elves tend to be exceptionally skilled in magic. For me, that means summoning the Demon Lord. Unfortunately, my ceremony worked just fine for summoning her, but entirely failed to control her afterwards.”

“The Demon Lord?”

“Correct, boy. The very same Demon Lords you see in picture books and plays. Those twelve rulers are said to determine the nature of the world around them with their mere presence. This irritating woman who never leaves me alone is one of those Demon Lords that include the great Philia Shout and Rising Dark. This one claims to be Under Lilith .”

“?”

Miyabi was even more confused now.

He recognized that name. She had been involved in transferring the Lucifer Horn’s contract from Moebius and in the incantation used to control the Palette Dice.

According to Angela Custardmare, the armor-trapped maid he had taken as a party member before, that name showed up in contract ceremonies so powerful they were classified as Super Kingdom level.

“Contract Owner…”

“…Under Lilith?”

Celina and Eliza had also used Godhorn Techs, so their eyes grew wide. They likely recognized the name from the incantation they used to link their control device with the Godhorn Tech itself.

Helen, who had never used one, held a finger to the side of her glasses.

“Well, setting aside issues of strength and compatibility, there are a few legends of beings that act as intermediaries. There’s Freyja who commands the heavenly Valkyries and there’s Legba Atibon who is said to manage the ceremonies themselves. It all follows the basic idea of using them to control something else.”

“Like a giant Beast Nova?”

“Discriminatory language!!” shouted Alicia, red in the face and long ears fully vertical.

But different elves must have had different views on the matter because Cliff did not seem bothered by the term Miyabi had used. His pointed ears kept their horizontal orientation.

Miyabi found this strange.

He had thought the name Under Lilith was just part of the incantation. Even if it was someone’s name, he had assumed they were someone who had lived centuries or even millennia ago.

He had never imagined he would be able to chat with them in a bar.

“But we only have her word to go on.”

When Miyabi thought about it, he realized he did not actually know how old any of these elves were. Cliff himself gave a dismissive wave of the hand not holding his mug.

“Taking a demon at her word is never a good idea. She’s just making stuff up since I lost my memories. Trusting her would end badly.”

“Heh heh heh. Believe what you wish,” said the female voice. “Your mind might not survive full knowledge of the truth anyway.”

The elf knight had just mentioned something else that sounded important. He had a lot going on.

“Um, what was that about your memories?”

“I lost them all. I was lucky to even remember the name Blueforest as a clue to my origins.” Cliff sounded bitter. “I was apparently in love with a human and I dabbled in the dark arts to save her from illness, but that’s why I’m stuck with this evil being now. My memories were the price I paid, so now I can’t even remember what she looked like. That is why I now travel the continent searching for some proof that she survived. No matter how small it might be.”

“…”

Under Lilith (or the voice claiming the name) said nothing.

She had mentioned jealousy before, so maybe this was more of that.

And…

“Oh? When did you find some more drinking buddies?”

“They showed up on their own. Just like you always do.”

Someone else walked up to the table.

She too had long ears.

However, the woman had shoulder-length silver hair and alluring brown skin. Her only clothing were some bandages and dark strips of cloth wrapped around her. What had once been a cape was in tatters. However, the way she carried herself showed no sign of injury, so that may have been her idea of fashion.

The whip at her hip looked like it was made from a rose vine and she toyed with it in her fingers as she spoke.

“I am Lillian Greenforest. As you can plainly see, I am a dark elf.”

“Green…?”

Alicia was dumbfounded and the brown woman responded with a bewitching laugh.

“Yes, I come from that forest that was burned to the ground. The survivors are few but we are around. And we have not forgotten what was done to us.”

That last line sounded plenty ominous.

Alicia even had some unnatural beads of sweat on her forehead.

But Miyabi was fixated on another detail.

“D-dark?”

“Hm? Do you need something?”

“A dark elf!? That’s a thing!? That sounds so cool! And the dark part makes you sound rare!!”

“Eh? Huh?”

Lillian was taken aback when he approached with eyes aglitter. The look on her face made it clear she was not accustomed to compliments.

“Boy,” interrupted Alicia. “You need to stop talking about our noble species like a rare collectible. It’s insulting.”

“Oh, did you say something, ordinary elf?”

“Ordinary elf!!!??? That’s even worse!! It is high time I took you aside and taught you just how noble elves are. I never should have let you get away with lifting my skirt and tugging on my ears when you were little!!”

Cliff sighed and provided some advice.

“Be careful around Lillian. She looks cute and all, but her lifelong goal is to destroy humanity.”

“Eh?”

“Oh, you have nothing to worry about. You don’t seem interested in that sort of thing .” Lillian snapped her lithe fingers to call over a waiter and accepted a pink cocktail, the name of which Miyabi could not even imagine. “I consider myself a ‘passive avenger’. My primary targets are sorcery researchers. They make so much progress when I let them use my body as a specimen. Progress on developing magic that will destroy them all. Godhorn Tech is not enough. One day, humanity will create some truly uncontrollable magic that will send them straight down the path to extinction. That is my idea of revenge.”

“…”

“There are so many excellent potential triggers: the aerosol ballistic missiles developed by the Republic’s old monarchy, the Necromancer…oh, and let’s not forget Holy Gate who it’s said truly mastered alchemy. Unfortunately, all those people are half legendary, so contacting them is no easy task.”

Miyabi was unsure how to react to her thin smile.

He could not even tell if she was deadly serious or if she was teasing him. The cocktail glass she was toying with made it even harder to judge.

“By the way, what has you out this late?” Cliff reached for the bar nuts. “You look a little young to be drinking.”

“Solving a riddle.”

“?”

Cliff looked puzzled but curious.

Miyabi hoped he would know what Juicy or Hard meant, but no such luck.

Cliff did have some advice, though.

“I see. I would recommend finding multiple people who use the same term.”

“Why?”

Miyabi frowned and Cliff gave an exaggerated nod.

“For example…yes, let’s say one of the words is Hot .”

“Okay.”

“If a customer at one table orders a Hot , you have no way of narrowing down what kind of dish it is. But what if you also hear a fisherman at the port saying he caught a lot Hot s today? And what if a small child pouts and complains that Hot s are good but removing all the little bones is a pain? Then you can conclude that a Hot is a fish, right?”

“Hee hee. And this goes beyond codes. Multiple sources is crucial when researching any kind of information,” added Lillian. “Conversely, the key to tricking someone is to isolate them, cutting them off from any information outside of yours.”

Miyabi thanked the two elves and prepared to brave the city’s night once more, but then he turned back and asked them a question.

“Oh, right. What are you two planning to do after this? Will we meet again somewhere?”

“Hard to say. I don’t really have any solid plans.”

“I don’t want to search the entire continent to find you again, so I think I’ll call in the Lucifer Horn and have you join my party. I’d love to borrow your wisdom again, but more than that, I feel like we get along well.”

Cliff smiled a little.

Lillian looked seriously exasperated. She had announced her intentions to destroy humanity, so she was unsure what to make of this human saying they got along well.

But she also looked amused.

“Yes, I am searching the entire world for signs my lover once lived there. I want to be thorough and avoid missing anything, but I can’t reach that Horn Fortress through normal means, can I? Then accepting your invitation seems the best course of action to me.”

“A Godhorn Tech, you say? That sorcery technology is a little too small-scale and – worse – manageable for my use, but I might be able to direct its evolution in a more malicious direction. Besides, I have more lifespan than I know what to do with, so it can’t hurt to take a short detour and check out a new possibility. Hee hee. And the 11th’s sorcery bombs might also make an interesting trigger.”

Once Cliff Blueforest and Lillian Greenforest had been sent to Horn Fortress by the Lucifer Horn, Miyabi’s party resumed their investigation.

They had to find the one-armed pirate Onelife no matter what it took.

“Miyabi, the plan was to ask around some more and find a pattern to the codewords, wasn’t it?”

At Eliza’s prompting, they patiently gathered even more information. They even found a sketchy old man who claimed to be selling a list of codes, but they had no way of knowing if it was legit until they bought it. Celina knew the city best and she advised they refuse.

Still, they managed to find some patterns. They regathered below the colorful gas lamps to discuss their findings.

Alicia counted off on her fingers.

“Um, they said you can find Joy in the Creepy …”

“Koo koo!”

“Hold on, Alma. I’ll get confused if you interrupt!” shouted Miyabi.

They were going to be at it all night at this rate. The city was so different at night, so they wanted to find their answers before dawn. They continued walking around the city gathering information for a while longer.

And eventually…

“ Joy is money… Juicy is dangerous…hm, this is actually working.”

“Let’s share what we know so we won’t forget it. And this doesn’t mean I’ve given up on figuring it out on my own!!”

On Celina’s suggestion, they wrote down all of their findings on a piece of paper to compare it all.

“Umm, let’s go with what we know for sure. Tight is the port, Creepy is the back alleys…and Ripped is Onelife himself.” Miyabi went over his thoughts under his breath. “Does that mean he isn’t at the port and is hiding somewhere in the back alleys?”

“Let’s go, Miyabi. Let’s show him exactly whose cargo he decided to steal!”

Celina was liable to charge in on her own, but her rifle was too scary for them to claim she couldn’t handle herself. Their only choice was to rush after her.

They found a dark, narrow alleyway.

Even the moonlight seemed to steer clear of the place.

This underground side of the city would be hidden in shadows during the day and people like Miyabi would never get close, but strangely, it actually brought his guard down once night fell. He felt some relief when he stepped into the alleyway. The gentle shadows seemed to protect him from the garish lights of all the signs.

But that may have been why real tragedy seemed to coat the walls and ground.

“So he’s here?”

The darkness seemed to absorb Miyabi’s question.

The Mobile Fire magic lit at the end of Celina’s bayonet was nowhere near sufficient.

There was only one path with no side paths branching off. All of the windows were boarded up. Almost like whoever was inside wanted to preemptively ensure their safety by ensuring they could never witness something they shouldn’t have.

The boards were like a sign saying “we allow any and all criminal acts here”.

“This is exactly where I would expect to find a criminal,” said Eliza while observing her surroundings.

“Koo?” cried the creepy Greymalkin walking at Miyabi’s feet.

No, Alma was grabbing at the boy’s leg to say it had found something.

“Koo koo!!”

And not just from one direction.

Miyabi looked out ahead and behind him.

“Damn, an ambush!”

Young men wearing rough shirts and bandannas stepped out to block the back alley’s exits.

Even without a ship, they were clearly pirates.

There were of course several of them.

“We know you’re looking for Onelife, so don’t bother pretending to be searching for a lost cat. You’ve left tracks everywhere. Did you never think we’d get wind of what you were planning?”

One of the pirates spoke in a deep voice while creeping closer to lay on the pressure.

Why did outlaws care so much about internal rules and hierarchies? Then again, they probably didn’t care if Miyabi’s party understood. They were essentially waving a cat toy in the party’s faces, hoping they would take a step too far. They hoped to lure the party into confirming they were after Onelife.

“With that look in your eyes and the weapons, I get the feeling you aren’t just some tourists hoping to hitch a ride on a wagon,” said the bandanna pirate. “So here’s a word of advice: old-fashioned swords and sorcery aren’t everything in this city. And if you need proof, we’re more than happy to oblige.”

The pirates looked like they belonged on a theatre stage, but with one crucial difference.

They did not use swords or sorcery. Miyabi expected them to draw guns like Celina’s, but even that was wrong.

They pulled out strange bottles with a silver foil pasted all over them. The two wires sticking out from the lid at the top were connected by the intermittent flashing of brutal electricity.

Informed Celina Bodenburg’s eyes widened.

“Leyden jars!? Thugs are making electric toys these days!?”

“Electric?”

Miyabi had no idea what that meant, but the crackling noise was enough to scare him.

“Think of it like mini-lightning,” explained Helen. “When combined with ocean spray, it can knock people out over a wide area, so be careful. I imagine these thugs have them to capture runaway sex workers without leaving any kind of scar.”

“…”

“M-Miyabi? Um, uh, why are you turning away with such a wounded look? N-no! This isn’t about me!! It’s about the enemy!!”

“Mom…”

“Please stop confusing me for your mother whenever you panic!!!!!!”

“Stepmom?”

“What difference is that supposed to make!!!???”

Anyway, if what she said about those bottles was true, they were in trouble.

Even a boy raised in a village of swords and sorcery understood that lightning could travel through water.

The alley was straight and narrow. If they filled the entire space with some kind of spray and then released the electricity, the entire party would be knocked out regardless of how strong any of them was individually.

“The codes spread throughout the city may have been a trap meant to lure us here,” said Alicia.

“I can’t believe how popular that Onelife crook is!” roared Celina.

None of the pirates even flinched.

In fact, they continued to creep closer from both directions.

Eliza’s enormous lance must have been a poor match for the narrow alley because she whispered a question.

“What now? Will you use your Godhorn Tech?”

“…”

“Hey, what now!?”

“…”

The pirates moved even closer, maybe to be absolutely certain. At this range, a pistol or even a blade would be a threat.

But then…

“Hold it right therrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!”

A voice boomed out like an explosion.

Then booming footsteps and a booming impact sent a few of the pirates crashing into the wall.

The culprit was a muscular macho man.

He had wild hair and an equally wild beard and he wore a thick coat and a distinctive tricorn hat. Instead of an ordinary eyepatch held in place by string, he had a golden metal plate embedded in the eye socket itself.

He was about as piratey as pirates came and he was extremely fit despite being on the borderline between middle age and old age.

“I appreciate the attempt to protect me!”

A scream was drowned out by another loud impact.

The large man had punched another pirate and the Leyden jar he held.

“But I never asked you to dirty your hands for me!!”

The gust of wind created by his massive fist was enough to blow away the sea spray that would carry the artificial lightning. The target of the punch flew even further than that.

The strangely metallic sound of the blow led Miyabi to realize the man’s arm was a prosthetic.

Then that heavy metal fist dropped down toward him.

The one-eyed old man raised an unintelligible cry.

“Whoa, watch out!?”

“Hm? Oh, my bad. I’ve got a bad habit of losing control in battle.”

Miyabi had held his control sword in both hands to block, but his fingers were still throbbing with pain from the force of the impact. The man laughed it off like it didn’t matter, but without the link to the Godhorn Tech, Miyabi would have been helplessly engulfed in a storm of blows.

Mostly taken aback, Helen listed off some observations to make absolutely certain.

“A pirate. A prosthetic arm. Says they were protecting him.”

“You mean this filthy guy is him?” The radio sounded upset. “Why!? Where’s my eyepatch girl with a miniskirt and cutlass!?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Then why respond at all!?”

Everyone ignored the radio’s laments.

The large man pointed at his own chest with his metal thumb.

“I am indeed Onelife Shiftup, the great pirate whose reputation extends out into the ocean since the continent wasn’t enough to contain me.”

He was at least willing to have a conversation, so they explained their situation to him.

“So the automaton parts we need should be within the cargo you stole.”

“I see.” Onelife leaned back against the dark alleyway’s wall, crossed his arms, and groaned in thought. “First, I would like to apologize for what happened here. Nhh, my immense popularity is usually a good thing, but some of them look up to me so much they get a little carried away. But they were acting out of concern for me and meant no harm, so please forgive them.”

“Look up to you?” asked Miyabi with a tilt of the head.

“This guy’s the real deal. He even called himself immensely popular,” added the radio, sounding impressed.

Did this mean those bandanna pirates were not part of his crew?

Celina was of course the one to argue back.

“Don’t you have something more to apologize for? All of that cargo belonged to my company! Return it all this instant!!”

“I already said I was sorry and a true man among men knows how to let bygones be bygones. Still, this is a problem. I need those automaton parts myself.”

“For your arm?” asked Helen.

The one-eyed pirate shook his head.

“No. Well, it’d be faster to just show you. Come with me to the port.”

He gestured them over. He could never be a king or a knight captain, but his actions had a way of drawing everyone’s eye.

He did in fact gather a lot of attention in the city.

There was a clear change as they exited the damp back alley and entered the alcohol-smelling street.

Everyone focused on the one-armed pirate and cleared a path for him in the colorful light of the gas lamps. But not out of fear. Their eyes contained admiration.

The calls for customers ceased entirely and were replaced by heartfelt cheers.

It was like an outlaw parade.

Everyone gathered on the side of the road to see the legendary pirate.

“Everyone looks up to Captain Onelife!” A kleptomaniac girl’s eyes shined bright. “Even groups that never get along will work together for him!”

“He even owns a Godhorn Tech. Rumor has it he broke off a Wicked God’s horn and installed it in his own ship.” An assassin lurking in the shadows truly believed the rumors. “His greatest weapon has to be that powerful presence that makes such a crazy story sound so plausible.”

“A monster who can break off a Wicked God horn and the King Knot pirate ship,” whispered an assassin disguised as a flower seller girl. “Not someone I want to be on the wrong side of.”

The one-eyed pirate led them down the city’s gentle slope until they arrived at the port bordering the ocean.

Seeing the ocean after it absorbed the dark color of the night sky was more of a shock than Miyabi had been expecting. It was so dark, deep, and terrifying. The lamplight grew sparser here and could not hold the darkness at bay and the noise of the city faded into the background. The place seemed cold.

He felt like he was approaching the realm of the dead.

Several wooden piers jutted out from the stone coast of the port. Those appeared to be docks for the ships that stopped here, so many large sailing ships could be seen. They all had large symbols on their sails. Miyabi did not know what any of them meant, but Helen’s jaw dropped as she viewed them.

“That one is from the Empty Fleet that hints at a baseless legend of a sunken ship to trick people into buying fake treasure maps, and that one is from the Blind family of smugglers. A-are none of the ships here legal!?”

“The best thing about this city is how it will let any villain resupply and stay the night as long as they can pay,” said Celina.

“Oh? That’s the same mark I saw on the Schwarz Schütze,” noted Miyabi. “So is that why the Bodenburg Company uses the city so much?”

Celina puffed out her cheeks and kicked him in the shin for that observation, but he had not yet earned enough experience to consider that a reward.

However, the ships were not their biggest problem.

“Hmm. You said his name was Number 8?”

“Have you heard of him?” asked Miyabi.

Surprisingly, the larger-than-life pirate nodded.

“I do own some similar products, after all.”

“No, you stole them from our company!!”

Miyabi was fairly certain the Bodenburg Company had gotten them by paying criminally low prices for items stolen from the Empire’s ruins, but he held his tongue to avoid another kick to the shin.

“The Number Whatever series were special automatons built to have direct audiences with the emperor…or so I’ve heard. A useless privilege now that the Empire itself is gone,” said Onelife. “That one was probably even more special since he was chosen to protect the vast Empire on all sides, but he would have used the same basic design. They would have taken the standard core and reinforced all the external parts to make their strongest model yet. By using ordinary automaton parts, you might just be able to repair him for the time begin . But…”

“But what?”

The man had trailed off for some reason.

He answered Miyabi’s question by jerking his chin over toward some wooden boxes stacked up on the wharf.

“As you can see, all the imperial automatons are packed up already.”

“In those boxes!? Where?”

Miyabi was surprised, but Celina was incensed.

The boxes were stacked up to twice her height, creating a small mountain.

“You stole that much from us, you crook!?”

“Not again!? All those inconvenient facts slipped my miiiiiiiiiiiiiiind!!”

“How can a criminal be so pure!?”

He further proved himself by not letting Eliza’s comment faze him.

“Anyway, the automatons are packed up because I was planning to ship them out.”

“To where?” asked Miyabi.

“This might be hard to grasp for someone from the continent, but there are islands out at sea.”

“At sea? So you’re sending them to a remote island country?” asked Helen.

When Celina noticed Miyabi and Eliza both looking out to sea, she quietly stopped them.

“They’re not close enough to see from here, you idiots.”

“Meh heh heh. I’m talking about a proper monarchy. They’re a lot more peaceful than here.” Onelife needlessly crossed his arms, but he did not look particularly cheerful. “But their king died of disease recently and a boy of only 12 was placed on the throne. They have people who question the succession, others who want to bring down the monarchy altogether, and then there are external forces to worry about. Since they have Godhorn Tech, there’s no end to people after the Wicked God horn. …It’s left a giant mess on the young king’s plate. It’s so bad he can’t even trust his own aides.”

“That’s sad and all, but why are you supporting him?” Alicia gave him a skeptical look. “I doubt you were born and raised there and criminals don’t follow the rules anyway.”

For some reason, he pushed his chest out proudly and grinned.

“The previous king valued the freedom of the ocean. If someone fell overboard or was shipwrecked, he would save them even if they were a foreigner or a pirate. He saved my own men on more than one occasion.”

“In other words, even a pirate can feel indebted to his savior?” cautiously asked Eliza.

“He accepted you regardless of your background. That’s much easier said than done. Especially for someone who has to rule a kingdom. But he did it. I shared his view of a free ocean, so if the new king is having trouble, I’m willing to help out a little. At least until he can find his footing and carry the weight himself.”

Miyabi looked up at the pile of boxes.

“And that means sending automatons?”

“Like I said, he’s surrounded by chaos and confusion and can’t even rely on his own aides. But an automaton army never betrays its master. They’d make decent bodyguards while he solidifies his position. We pirates don’t want any unneeded conflict out on the ocean, so I’m sending a gift to the new king!”

“S-stop acting like the good guy when you stole all of this! B-besides, we only need one of those boxes! We only want to repair Number 8 and hear what he has to say!!”

That Celina was sounding reasonable may have been the biggest sign of how larger-than-life Onelife was.

“Hmm. Okay, what parts do you need to repair him?”

“Eh?”

Flustered, Miyabi turned to Celina for help, but she was little better.

“W-well…”

“How are you going to find the parts you need when you don’t even know what they’re called or what they look like? And let’s not forget there isn’t much light to search by at night.”

Onelife pointed at the “mountain” with his powerful fake thumb and Miyabi had no rebuttal.

“…”

“T-to hell with it!” shouted Celina. “No point in backing out now. We just have to find some automaton parts even if it means opening up every last one of those boxes!!”

It was like a battle.

They had to pull the nails from the wooden boxes, remove the lids, and pull out the contents. The first contained completely unrelated cookware. The next one had books and the one after that had bottles of fruit wine cushioned by balled up cloth. The work never seemed to end and they quickly lost track of how much they had already done.

“U-ughh,” groaned Alicia. “I can’t keep going. I need sleep.”

“Stay awake, you useless elf!” shouted Celina. “We haven’t even opened half of them yet!!”

“S-sorry,” said Eliza. “I did not expect the journey to have worn me out so much. Zzz…”

“You too, Miss Muscles!? How are we supposed to finish with these boxes if our strait-laced and high-horsepower knight gives up!?”

The black sky gradually grew navy blue and then orange. The ocean appeared to be burning.

Dawn had arrived.

Onelife yawned and Alma was curled up asleep nearby, but Miyabi was still working since he always liked to be helpful. He had started to drift off a few times, but he had refused to give in after seeing Celina biting her lip and giving him a tearful but wordless look. The way she tugged at his sleeve and gave him the puppy dog eyes felt like a threat. Curse that younger girl. What did she think she was, his little sister?

In the end, their efforts went unrewarded.

Once even Helen fell asleep, her boobs resting on a box (and her tight skirt butt sticking out toward Miyabi), Celina finally snapped.

“Pant, gasp, pant. Kh, we still haven’t found anything at all!!”

The radio spoke up from around Alicia’s neck as the elf lay face up on the wooden pier.

“It’s like the black hole that forms in a messy person’s room. You end up buying multiple copies of a manga volume because you completely forget you already own it.”

“Argh!! We don’t have time for this!” shouted Onelife. “The new king could be violently dethroned by a conspiracy at any moment!!”

“Th-this is your fault!! You’re the one that stole this stuff and then didn’t even bother organizing it!!”

Celina’s very high-class teeth-grinding did not faze Onelife.

“I’m a pirate! What’d you expect!?”

“Ugh, that shouldn’t be as convincing as it is!!”

Celina flinched back, but Miyabi sighed.

“Hmm. But in that case…”

“Zzz…koo?”

“If we fix Number 8, the 12-year-old king is doomed. If we save the new king, we lose our only clue to the 11th.”

He weighed two terrible options against each other, but then the one-eyed pirate grinned.

“There is one way of having it both ways.”

“?”

“First, I’ll give you the automatons contained in these boxes. No problem with that, I assume?”

“You’d better! They belong to me!” griped Celina, but Miyabi was interested in something else.

“But then what happens to that island kingdom?”

“Oh, that’s simple enough. I wanted to send him some fighters who would never betray him. Emotionless automatons were one option, but outsiders with nothing at stake work just as well. So I just have to give you the job instead. …Assuming you can save 12-year-old King Kananka Fulpen, that is.”

### Between the Lines 3

Onelife Shiftup was officially known as a pirate.

There was no doubting that. Finding the criminal city comfortable and choosing it as your home were enough to know someone had something to hide, but he was a known threat who gathered people into a professional criminal group that sailed the sea.

Yet his large-sailed pirate ship looked downright carefree.

It was a Godhorn Tech named King Knot.

Onelife himself had slain the Wicked God and broken off its horn.

Perhaps he only had the luxury of peace because he was surrounded by the greatest power out there.

“Captain.”

A new pirate in a short-sleeved sailor uniform and shorts hopped up and leaned out over the railing. The new pirate was peering out with an extendable telescope and were young enough to appear androgynous.

“Some light is reflecting near the horizon at 5 o’clock. It’s an SOS.”

“Hmm, from a merchant ship?”

The large and muscular man named Onelife Shiftup crossed his arms and listened to the response from the newcomer who kicked their skinny legs with their belly resting on the railing.

“Hard to tell since they’ve almost fully sunk, but I think it’s a warship. Ah ha ha. Maybe they ran right into a reef. The sail is dyed with a gear pattern, so I think they’re from the Republic.”

That made them an enemy of the pirates.

The criminal city did not belong to any country, so it had no military or police agency. The Bodenburg Company’s private troops took the role of knights and guards…but that was just something they did and it was not supported by any international treaties.

So at times, some people with way too much time on their hands would sail out to the distant sea and wipe out every pirate they saw, all in the name of preserving the peace out at sea.

A young man walked over and joined the conversation.

Their criminal group was quite polished as an organization, but their ability to freely share information allowed them lighter footwork.

The young man used the number and position of the gears on the sail to decode the ship’s affiliation like he was identifying a constellation.

“What is a C1 fleet doing this far south? Their glider cannons require frequent resupplying. Hm, are they trying to cover up some kind of scandal maybe? Come to think of it, a lot of Republic funding earmarked for tracking down a Wicked God horn has gone missing recently.”

The skinny young man wore glasses and had an intellectual look, so he was basically asking for a nickname of ‘strategist’, ‘scholar’, or ‘string bean’, but all his information came from the light and frivolous rumors running rampant through the criminal city. In a city where outlaws of various cultures interacted, there was no shortage of gossip and scandalous information. It was their ability to sniff out what was real and what was fake that allowed them to skillfully evade the surprise inspections made by the Bodenburg Company’s private troops either late at night or early in the morning.

At any rate, the sinking ship was Onelife and his crew’s enemy.

But that man among men did not even hesitate.

“Understood. Prepare the rope and boats. How many empty barrels do we have left? Gather them on the deck so we can dump them in the water as floats.”

Outlaws were not generally in the habit of helping those in need.

For one thing…

“What are we even doing? Didn’t we start this hoping to be a naval rescue squad?”

Yes, Onelife’s crew were not thieves who attacked other ships.

The criminal city on the southern end of the continent received a lot of naval traffic, but it was also known as a dangerous region of sea full of reefs, rapid currents, and fierce and violent oceanic Beast Novae. Ships could not even get through if the pirates did not fight the monsters and bring down their numbers (mostly for their own purposes). And since the criminal city was not supported by any specific country, it had no naval rescue squad to help any sinking ships or stranded crews.

So Onelife and his crew had decided to make one themselves.

They had been attacked for it and forced to arm themselves.

They had done so by retrieving the wooden boxes thrown into the ocean by sinking ships. The one exception was their Wicked God horn.

The androgynous young newcomer cackled with their soft stomach resting on the railing.

“We can’t help it. Naval accidents are great for meeting new people . We’d normally never get to meet kings, nobles, holy men, or millionaires, but even they’ll grab a commoner’s hand when they’re drowning out at sea. And once they owe you one for saving their lives, you’re set for life. You can’t guarantee it though, so it’s more like a big lottery.”

“Some people can guarantee those things. Unlike the children’s story about the glass slipper, there are ways of getting ahead outside of those fancy balls us commoners aren’t allowed in. If you calculate everything out and follow a plan while purchasing enough lottery tickets, it counts as a financial investment giving you a stable fortune. Those greedy people think we’re interfering with their business of probability and statistics. It’s pathetic.”

Onelife sighed from his nose as the short kid and the glasses man spoke.

They had saved any lives that would be lost at sea and they had protected those with the same ideals. And eventually, he had become known as the strongest pirate.

He had ended up the exact opposite of what he had wanted to be.

He was sick of stealing. He had grown accustomed to fighting. He had lost count of how many times he had stolen to protect people, let a dangerous weapon sink into the depths, and freed slaves packed tightly into the limited space below a ship’s deck.

“Your thoughts on the matter don’t change what’s happening before your eyes. You can worry about those philosophical issues after saving all the drowning people out there.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

“Ideally we’ll be discussing what a great job we did in a bar supplied with barrels upon barrels of bourbon. Gah hah hah!!”

That man at the top did have his thoughts, but he knew it did no one any good if he let his crew see the worry on his face.

“Are you ready, men!? We’ve got some rescuing to do!!!!”

### Chapter 5, Section 3

Another morning arrived.

Miyabi Blackgarden had overslept for a variety of reasons, but Alicia Blueforest did not even hesitate to throw open the door to his room. They used to bathe together when he was little, so she did not even bother knocking.

“Hey, that buff pirate is waiting at the port. We need to fix Number 8 and ask him about the 11th. I’ll give you time for some coffee to wake up, but then we need to set sail, cross the ocean, and help out that remote island kingdom.”

“How in the world are you so refreshed?”

“Ha ha ha. Because I was the very first to give up last night!!”

Miyabi had stuck with it to the end (after succumbing to Celina’s tearful puppy dog eyes), so he held Alicia’s head between his fists and rubbed at her temples. It did not actually do anything about his drowsiness, but he still felt a little more awake afterwards.

They joined the others in the inn’s small lobby.

They were leaving Number 8 in a room at the same inn. Carrying the motionless automaton onto a ship could raise suspicions that they were planning to dump a body at sea.

They already knew the inn was untrustworthy, so they went out to eat.

Food was one area where the criminal city excelled. Mornings tended to have limited food options, but there was a wide variety of tasty things for sale. Miyabi noticed something as he observed it all.

“An awful lot of it is made to carry with you while you eat it.”

“Because it was all developed for sailors to eat while they worked on their ships.”

For some reason, a hot dog apparently did not count as a sandwich. Celina explained it all to him while munching on a burrito – chopped vegetables and ground meat wrapped in thin bread known as a tortilla. She managed to look strangely graceful while she walked and ate at the same time.

“Man, that burrito you got looks good.”

“Miyabi. I know boys your age love meat, but you need a balanced diet of meat, vegetables, and grains. An extra-large frankfurter is not enough.”

“She’s right, you know? Munch, munch.”

“You too, elf. Grilled corn is not enough for a meal either.”

Black cat Alma ended up with a perfectly balanced meal since Helen Clockgear fed it some of her small canape topped with vegetables and seafood.

“Burrito…”

“O-okay, fine! Here, Miyabi. You can have one bite. …Hold it yourself when you do!!”

They walked to the harbor while eating a light meal of simple but varied foods. Once there, they found the muscle man needlessly crossing his arms in the sun.

“There you are!”

“You have guts showing up in the light of day, thief!” shouted Celina.

“Men of the sea are early to rise. Also, the continent’s rules don’t apply in the island kingdom, so be careful.”

Onelife Shiftup was not even listening.

That may have been why Helen sounded exasperated when she responded.

“And it sounds like they’re going through a lot of political upheaval.”

“Maybe we should go shopping before we leave,” suggested Alicia.

“How about it!? Nwohhh! Ready to set sail!?”

When Miyabi nodded, the man slapped him on the back with his heavy prosthetic hand.

“That’s the spirit! You can have the imperial automatons, but make sure you deliver my gifts to King Kananka!”

“I’m not sure how to feel about this when you stole it all from us.”

Celina Bodenburg looked up at the stacked boxes in disgust, but then something occurred to Miyabi.

“Wait. You aren’t taking us on your ship?”

“Unfortunately, I’ve got other business to attend to.”

“…”

The one-eyed muscle pirate did not even glance over at the glaring local girl.

“I thought for sure she was only a lookalike, but that really is the Bodenburg Company’s heir, isn’t it!? Gotta go!!”

“The coward is making a run for it!! Stop him!!!!!”

But…

“Drat…he’s already gone.”

“The entire city is on his side, so we would never find him,” said Alicia.

Celina clicked her tongue with her rifle ominously at the ready, but it actually looked comical after how fast Onelife managed to skedaddle. He had mastered the technique of hiding behind cover to escape projectiles. No matter how charismatic he was, he was a criminal at heart.

Helen agreed with Alicia’s assessment.

“Tracking down that utter moron would only exhaust us further. Let’s get this errand done with so we can repair Number 8.”

“That is important, but we need to make sure we really help Kananka,” said Miyabi.

The glasses woman looked troubled and kept her response short.

“Involving yourself in another country’s chaos never ends well.”

“Hm,” groaned Eliza Silverstorm with a shadow over her face.

She may have been thinking of the riot in the Arsenal Kingdom. Being as strait-laced as her was a good way to take damage when no one was even talking about you.

“Even so.” Miyabi looked to the horizon out at sea. “It would be easy to do the bare minimum here and just complete the job without worrying about how it turns out. But the other side doesn’t get to choose who comes to help. They have to accept it even if it isn’t enough.”

If they did that here, it was the 12-year-old king who would suffer.

It did not affect them in any way, but it was not a pleasant thing to consider.

“Let’s truly complete this errand before we fix Number 8. We can’t focus on our job if we haven’t repaid our debts.”

“We don’t owe that thief squat! He stole it all from my company!”

Before long, Miyabi’s party was being rocked by the waves on the ship.

The sailing ship was about 30m long.

Instead of giant gears and shafts, the many sailors used thick ropes and a sail to catch the wind and move the ship, giving it a different charm from the Lucifer Horn or Schwarz Schütze. Tugging on the ropes required great strength, but the manipulation of the sail was a complex and precise task.

As a cargo ship, it was covered in wooden boxes tied down with ropes and wires. Compress Cargo was apparently not an option with the gifts meant for the young king. That magic wrapped the microscopic Palette Dice like a ribbon to compress them, but it did not work with living things or with artwork where authenticity was key.

They had spent two nights aboard a sailing ship abandoned on the land near the ruined Empire, but that did not really count. This was a brand new experience for a boy who grew up in the mountains. Eliza had lived in the north, so she did not even dare approach the railing.

“Oh, ohhh. It keeps shaking.”

“Eliza, it’s been three days.”

“Th-that does not make this any less frightening! Please, Miyabi. Do not let go of my hand!!”

Miyabi was not about to argue when she was clinging to him like this. All the softness he felt had him worried that her miniskirt armor did not provide much in the way of defense. That armor prioritized magical defense, so its design was less straightforward.

“Th-the White Seidr Chosen Knights appear before the people on the king’s orders, so our appearance is a matter of national pride. Our armor was designed with parades and other public appearances in mind.”

“Neat.”

“My point is: wipe that grin off your face. This is a symbol of our kingdom’s courage and strength, so viewing it in a sexual light is an insult to the entire kingdom! Don’t you dare think of this as a lucky break!!”

The fact that she felt the need to warn him suggested she was somewhat aware how it made her look.

Meanwhile, someone else had bigger issues to worry about.

“Urp, blehh…”

“Why have you wilted, Alicia? Do elves plant their roots in the land or something?”

“H-how are just fine after spending three days rocking in the waves? My hair is all gross from the sea breeze and I swear the sun is being extra bright just to spite me. …Oh, no. I don’t think I can hold it in any longer!!”

“Hey! Don’t just open my cover out of desperation! I’m into a lot of things, but low-angle shots of a barfing elf is not one of them!!”

The radio sounded truly desperate this time.

The elf’s long ears drooped (after she barely avoided catastrophe), but the trip was full of exciting new surprises for Miyabi. Unlike Eliza, his excitement won out over his fear of the ocean. He got the crew to teach him how to work out the directions using the stars, how to tie some basic knots, and the trick to washing dishes while preserving their valuable fresh water. It all felt like a grand adventure to him. He was a little disappointed the sailors wouldn’t let him have any of the gin and rum they loved so much.

Eventually, they heard some sea birds crying in the distance.

“Oh, I think I see an island!” exclaimed Celina.

“Ugh, gwehh… A-as long as it has a beautiful forest, nothing else matters,” groaned Alicia.

A seabird flew a large circle through a sky much bluer than on the continent and eventually landed on the ship. The large white bird skillfully alighted on the deck’s railing. Eliza had never seen one up close, so she blinked while clinging to Miyabi’s arm.

“So this is a seabird. Interesting. It looks so different from the birds I am used to.”

“You there. If you have business with my kingdom, I shall guide you.”

The seabird…talked?

Miyabi and Alicia stared in shock, but Eliza gave a firm nod (while still clinging to the boy). The white seabird opened its hard-looking beak to speak more.

“As beautiful as our ocean is, the coral is fairly labyrinthine and there are also reefs to worry about.”

“Interesting. So seabirds know how to speak human language. Smart things, aren’t they?”

“I-I assure you that is not normal!” shouted Helen.

With a loud boom, a sharp conical spike burst vertically from the ocean surface just off the ship’s side. It rose higher than the ship’s mast and it appeared to be made of…maybe stone? It could have easily sunk the ship by piercing it from below, but a head-on collision with it would also have been disastrous. The crew frantically turned the wheel and adjusted the sails to turn the bow as much as possible while a few more of the spikes burst from the ocean.

At this point, they felt more like a metal fence surrounding a mansion’s garden.

They appeared to be forcibly guiding the ship along a certain course.

“Whoa!?”

“Follow the path I provide and you can pass the labyrinth of reefs,” commanded the seabird.

“Is this a type of magic that lifts the ocean floor to pierce a ship’s hull with sharp stone?” asked a Celina in disbelief.

“We call it the Shark Tooth. That said, it was originally peaceful magic that fished a livable island out of the ocean.”

With a splashing sound, a massive silhouette cut by below the surface and below the sailing ship.

Whoever this was had full control. Even if their ship was equipped with cannons, they could not have attacked something lurking below the water.

With a more extended splashing sound, the ocean split open and something emerged.

It was…not quite a ship.

Something resembling a massive shark traveled freely through the watery depths.

“That is the Mother Shark submarine,” explained the seabird. “My kingdom’s Godhorn Tech is unbeatable in the ocean. I am praying you do not make yourselves my enemy, visitors.”

This errand was already off to a rocky start.

Nevertheless, they arrived safely on the southern island.

The wharf was very different from the criminal city’s. There was no more than a simple wooden pier sticking out from the white sandy beach. There was no lighthouse or breakwater. They may have dug deep into the sandy ocean floor to accommodate larger ships, but it still felt a lot more natural.

There were bright red flowers Miyabi had never before seen and blue butterflies that looked like fluttering gems.

The strange trees growing directly from the sand were apparently known as palm trees.

“Coconuts are used in a lot of sweets and drinks, so you can find them for sale at the criminal city.”

If Celina saw them as a rare delicacy, Miyabi knew he would never have another chance to try one, so he wanted to try everything he could while he was here.

“Ughh…f-finally back on solid ground,” groaned Alicia, looking truly worn out.

She collapsed face down onto the beach and the radio to protested being plunged into the sand.

“Hey, are you okay? How about some water?”

“Thanks. No, wait, boy! That’s seawat- blehhhh!!!”

“?”

Miyabi looked puzzled and Celina rubbed her temples. Beyond the simple freshwater/saltwater issue, a city dweller like her could not believe he would try to give someone water he simply found lying around. Even when journeying outdoors, she made sure to use her mug-sized filter or to boil it in a kettle first.

“Okay, that’s enough of the classic gags, ocean newbies. We need to get moving.”

“Ew, why is it so salty!? Eh? Eh? Is the whole ocean like that?”

“How far behind are you!? Surely even your mountain village has a salt shaker on the dinner table.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying rock salt isn’t something they dig up from the ground?”

He had seen the ocean at the criminal city, but he had not had a chance to interact with it while on the stone harbor. Same while he was on the ship.

“Sorry, Alicia. I’ll borrow Celina’s thingy to filter the seawater.”

“Not in a million years!! Filtering out that much salt would ruin it in one go! It isn’t designed for that!!”

“Koo,” cheerfully cried Alma.

Miyabi glanced down to see the stuffed animal of a creature had transformed again. This time, it was white with a bluish swimsuit and goggles. The striped one-piece swimsuit was something Miyabi had only ever seen in plays. Except this was a fur pattern, not clothing, highlighting how strange that creature was. Miyabi felt the same as when he first saw a ladybug or butterfly in the forest when he was little.

“Oh, Alma,” said Alicia. “What a cute Kraken you are. I just have to pick you up. I’ll let you nuzzle against me, so come and comfort me.”

“Why is the foul beast the first one in a swimsuit? What about the elf, the glasses woman, the rich girl, or the knight!?”

The sandy radio complained, but the seasick elf was in no mood to respond.

Miyabi looked around curiously.

“So this is the remote island kingdom Onelife was talking about.”

“Ugh, it sure is hot here.”

Eliza’s composed face was dripping with sweat.

Ever-capable Helen looked worried and exasperated at the same time.

“This can’t be a comfortable place for a knight from a snowy kingdom.”

“B-but the place doesn’t feel as on edge as I expected,” said Alicia.

“True. The talk of political upheaval reminded me of the Arsenal Kingdom.”

“Gulp!”

Weakened by the sun, Eliza jumped at the mention of her kingdom’s troubles. Meanwhile, the radio decided to speak some cursed words.

“Who cares about that when there are swimsuits to be worn? This is a tropical island! Where’s all the bare skin!? Of the feminine variety, I mean!!”

There was indeed no sign of rioting or fighting.

A small crab crawled across the white beach without a care in the world.

Standing around near the ship was not going to help anything. The messenger seabird had been flying above their heads, but now it flew inland and above the island’s colorful forest. It may have been asking them to follow, so they nervously prepared to leave the beach for the first time.

But…

“Sneak, sneak.”

“Excuse me, everyone, but someone is attempting to board our ship. Someone who thinks saying ‘sneak’ out loud makes them sneakier, I might add. Attack, attack!!”

A small figure shrieked and jumped straight up.

Acting like a thief was simply not possible with the bright sun shining down on the white sand. Miyabi’s party turned around looking skeptical and found a girl curled up in a pitiful ball on the sand.

She had long wavy hair with a bluish tint to it.

Her skin was abnormally bright and pale for the sunny beach.

And her chest earned at least a “decent” rating.

She looked to be around Miyabi’s age. Kids these days had apparently adopted some bold fashion choices because she wore a tank top and a miniskirt. To be blunt, she looked more fashionable than Miyabi.

But that aside, there were a few major problems. For example, she wore a flintlock gun at her hip, she wore a thick coat to keep the sun and sea breeze off of her, and she wore a black leather eyepatch and tricorn hat that would have looked perfect on a jolly roger.

The gun must have only been a sidearm because she rested a trident on her shoulder. It was unclear if the weapon had its origins in agriculture or fishing, but it would hurt just the same if it stabbed you. Miyabi recalled how a play mentioned that pirates preferred projectiles and long-handled spears or sickles to help attack from one ship to another.

“Let’s gooooooo!!” rejoiced the radio at Alicia’s chest. “No big muscles and no giant beard! This is the kind of sexy fantasy pirate girl I wanted! Who else would you want to nurse you back to health when you come down with heatstroke!? The big hat and miniskirt are so much better than a pathetic bandanna!! Ask anyone what they want in a pirate and this is what they’ll tell you!!!!!!”

Yes, she was a pirate.

Celina was 100% anti-pirate, so her eyebrows arched upwards.

“Heh heh heh. I see, so the vermin of society run rampant in this remote island kingdom too, do they? Very well. I will cleanse this world of them to lay the groundwork for the Bodenburg Company’s greater glory!!!!!!”

“Wait, no, no! I’m not a pirate!! Please take a deep breath and calm down!!”

Helen sighed with a hand on her cheek.

Something about this had bothered her.

“Hm, another fancy-sounding girl. This could get confusing.”

“You even steal my speech patterns, you filthy pirate!?”

“Again, I’m not a pirate!! My name is Charlotte Nightlagoon and I am well-known in the mermaid world. What, did I misinterpret what I saw from the ocean? I can’t believe this!! I thought this was the latest in human fashion!”

The bare-midriff pirate(?) girl’s claim was a little confusing, but then she noticed something and jumped to her feet. Before Miyabi could figure out what was going on, she had pressed up against his back and started whistling nonchalantly.

Some locals with bloodshot eyes arrived.

The brown-skinned men and women in grass skirts and scraps of cloth were carrying fishing nets and harpoons. They wore pots over their heads and held bath covers as shields.

“Where’d she go!? Where did that mermaid go!?”

“She had legs, so she has to still be on the island. If we can only slice up that mermaid flesh, we’d be set!!”

Hadn’t he just met someone who thought saying ‘sneak’ out loud made her sneakier?

He could tell now was not the time to be enjoying the boobs pressed against his back.

He waited until the dangerously-equipped but oddly lighthearted people ran off down the coast before he slowly turned around.

“A…mermaid?”

“Heh heh. Eh heh heh.”

“A well-known one???”

“It’s kind of embarrassing, but I have had several picture books made about me.”

It was hard to notice with her fluffy hair and large hat, but one of her ears looked like a webbed flipper. Miyabi was unsure what to say when he saw her poking her index fingers together in front of her decent or better chest.

“(Wait, so the people on this island eat mermaids? Now I’m worried about this place’s customs.)”

“(Th-their culture might take an ‘anything goes’ stance when it comes to Beast Novae in any form. In fact, I have heard of a country on the continent that slices up only the snake portion of an echidna for food. They apparently have an extreme reaction to certain White Sorcery Items, so the snake tail grows back, giving them an endless food source.)”

Eliza’s unnecessary trivia only worried Miyabi further.

Alicia needed to be extremely cautious as another humanoid Beast Nova, yet she calmly clapped her hands together in realization.

“A mermaid? Oh, is this about the stories of gaining immortality and eternal youth by eating their flesh?”

“Wha-!?”

“Eternal youth…we’d make billions! No, wait. In the long term, we would stop selling anything but the youth-targeted products.”

The glasses woman reacted with excitement and the rich girl by calculating out possible profits, but the legged mermaid waved her hands to stop them.

“W-wait, no, that’s only a superstition! It’s not true!!”

“Hm?”

Alicia only frowned, looking confused, so the long-lived hag elf must not have been too interested in eternal youth.

The mermaid’s gentle tone of voice slipped when she was panicked.

“Mermaid meat doesn’t do that!! Where did that crazy belief even come from? I mean, yikes! I’d dreamed of visiting the land for years, but when I finally get here for a secret vacation, it turns into a terrifying fight for survival.”

Miyabi had a more fundamental question.

“I thought mermaids had the lower body of a fish and swam around in the ocean.”

“I changed that by chugging a magic potion.”

She demonstrated by putting a hand on her hip and tilting her head back.

The way she arched her back pushed out her chest to a troubling extent.

“So I got legs and that was great, but now I can’t get my fishtail back. That means I can’t return to the ocean and I have to live on this hellish island where the superstitions turn my days into a dangerous cooking school of eat or be eaten.”

It was quite possible she was just an idiot.

The oblivious idiot kicked at the white sand with one of the legs she had gone to such lengths to obtain.

“I can’t stand it anymore! If I’m stuck on this remote island any longer, they really are going to devour my delicious body! And not in the sexy way, either! I mean filet me and serve me with your choice of sides!! I need to get off this island! That elf who reeks of grass makes it sound like the superstition has made it to the mainland too, but it should at least be easier to hide there. I just want out of this endless game of tag!!”

“This cargo ship isn’t scheduled to leave for a while, you stupid mermaid who leaves a trail of salty puddles. The ship needs maintenance, it needs to be resupplied with food and water, the cargo bound for the continent needs to be loaded, and the crew needs time off, so it won’t be leaving for two or three more days at least.”

“…”

Charlotte paled and collapsed to the sand. Her soul was trying to escape through her mouth.

“(Miyabi, Miyabi,)” whispered Eliza.

“How about you show her some kindness? The Lucifer Horn can cross the ocean and take her to Horn Fortress. I’ve heard mermaids use an entirely different system of magic from humans, so it can’t hurt to have her on our side.”

The half-dead mermaid lifted her head from the sand.

She got up on her knees, clasped her hands in front of her face, and looked up at Miyabi with unbelievable pressure in her gaze. He could see stars twinkling in her eyes.

“You know a way out of here!? Please let me use it!! I might just find a solution if I can escape to the continent. The alchemist named Holy Gate is practically a legend at this point, but if I can find them, I can have a magic potion made to give me my tail back!”

“Eh!?” This turn of events came as a surprise to pirate-hating Celina.

The against side made their argument:

“We don’t really know who she even is, so we could be accepting a traitor into our midst. We only have her word to go on that she isn’t a pirate, so she might still be a filthy thief. Miyabi, working in a group requires strict management of your wallet. For the above reasons, it would be illogical to accept this suspicious individual into our party. Yes, this has nothing to do with my personal belief that you cannot trust anyone who wants to be a pirate! This is nothing but a logical analysis of the facts!!”

The for side made their much more succinct argument:

“Mermaid equals clamshell bikini.”

“Welcome aboard, Charlotte!! I don’t know what a bikini is, but something about the word calls out to my very soul!!”

“Four words!? Don’t let her seduce you that quick, Miyabi!!”

Celina’s tearful plea did nothing to overturn his decision. The human girl was not willing to strip for this particular issue.

The eyepatch trident flintlock miniskirt bare-midriff mermaid pirate girl idiot (the list never seemed to end) fidgeted awkwardly.

“Um, so could you please send me across the ocean to the mainland now? How are we even going to leave this remote island anyway?”

“Oh, that’s simple enough. Lucifer Horn, we’ve got another one.”

The mermaid tilted her head. It was much too late by the time she realized what was happening.

A massive shape flew by overhead and a wire whipped through the air and snagged the back of Charlotte’s pirate coat.

“Wait, what!? Surely you aren’t going to send me across the ocean like this! If this is supposed to be a joke about catching a mermaid like a fish, it isn’t funnyyyyyyyyyyy!!!”

The doppler effect distorted her voice.

“Sigh.” Helen stared into the distance. “Goodbye eternal youth…”

“Were you really planning to chop her up and eat her, Miss Aging Skin?” asked Alicia. “Anyway, are you sure that was a good idea? I hope the locals don’t mistake us for a sketchy gang of kidnappers.”

However.

Miyabi continued tilting his head even after Charlotte Nightlagoon was long gone. She had left a very appealing word in his mind.

“So what is a bikini anyway?” asked the mountain village boy.

“Yes, yes. It’s only natural to be interested in that sort of thing, but we’re here to meet with King Fulpen and help him however we can. We don’t really have time for any more detours, so-”

Helen came to a stop midsentence.

She had a good reason for it.

Celina Bodenburg put on a full-face smile, flipped her giant travel bag upside down, and shook it.

A pile of colorful cloth formed on the ground.

And a while later…

“Sorry about the wait, Miyabi. Ho ho ho. You were very right. How could we leave the hustle and bustle of the city, travel all the way to one of the finest beaches around, and not put on swimsuits? The serious atmosphere made it so hard to let everyone know I had brought enough to share, but this country boy gave me exactly the opening I needed!”

Celina emerged from a thicket, but Miyabi was far too preoccupied to listen.

What was that?

She stood there with a hand on her hip, but all she was wearing were three triangles of black cloth. They only covered her chest and around her hips and were held in place with some strings. They were also decorated with pure gold and red gems.

This was nothing like the swimsuits he had seen in plays. Those covered the entire body down to the feet. Miyabi gathered all of the fragmentary knowledge he had and found only one thing this could be.

“Eh? Eh? Why are you in your underwear!? We’re outside!!”

“Heh heh. You’re the one who wanted to know what a bikini is.”

“But it’s only three triangles, so…ehhh!? Why is this okay, but seeing up someone’s skirt isn’t!?”

“Now, now, Miyabi. There are some questions you just don’t ask. Don’t try to answer a question that no one wants an answer to. When a girl is willing to bare her skin in public, you don’t look that gift horse in the mouth.” The crystal radio tried to make this sound like a serious issue. “Mwa ha ha! Finally! I was getting worried it might never happen, but the swimsuit event is as much a staple as miniskirt Santas on Christmas and kimonos on New Year’s!! We just needed a hot enough environment to make them strip themselves!! The North Wind and the Sun effect has blessed us once again!!!!!!”

As for the radio’s owner, Alicia’s swimsuit was more modest than Celina’s. It looked a lot like a too-short white shirt and skintight shorts, but the two pieces were fully separated, showing off her navel and thighs.

She formed a hook with a finger to fix the butt.

“How strange. I know this is meant to wear in the water, but I can’t get used to this water-repelling material.”

“Oh, right. I forget you were so shameless you always just go skinny dipping.”

“Boy!! Now is not the time to dig up that mistake from your younger days when you saw me in the forest spring and froze up! I have since learned shame!!”

That swimsuit did not belong to Alicia. She had borrowed it from Celina’s collection.

The elf’s long ears cautiously twisted this way and that.

“Are you sure it’s safe to strip down and play on the beach like this? I thought the locals were upset with their new king for being too young. A riot or armed conflict could break out at any time with that kind of political upheaval.”

“What do you think happens if a group of outsiders with a Godhorn Tech shows up and immediately visits their new king?” asked Celina. “The king will assume it is a trap and grow cautious while the opposition might fear he is gathering power and pull the trigger on a civil war.”

“So you want us to take things slow and get a feel for things first?”

“This is a remote island kingdom located well off the continent, but it has enough of a trade infrastructure to receive regular cargo ships. It is also a little-known resort for the wealthy, so this should put them at ease a lot more than rushing in with a Godhorn Tech and control device at the ready.”

Celina’s reasoning was sound, but Miyabi had trouble following it because he had no idea where he was supposed to look. Her bare belly drew his eye far more than he could have predicted. Were all swimsuits like this, was this an indecent trend derived from the criminal tastes of her hometown, or was it Celina’s personal tastes?

(Wait. If all of them were Celina’s, won’t they all be in her size?)

When Eliza emerged from the thicket a little later, she was wearing a trio of triangles just like Celina. Her figure must not have been that different because she wore it without issue, but her greater height changed the overall impression. It accentuated her slenderness first and foremost.

And…

“U-ugh…”

Helen was the real problem.

Instead of a triangle trio or a two piece, hers had the same silhouette as the bunny girl costume. Celina exasperatedly explained that it was known as a one piece.

But why was she so exasperated?

Helen, an adult, had forced herself into a swimsuit in Celina’s size, so it was full to bursting in certain key places!!

Miyabi stared into the distance.

“Helen…”

“Finally stooped to out-and-out seducing the boy to get at Alma, have you?” asked Alicia. “Glad I’m not a government official.”

“N-no!!”

Helen was practically in tears as she desperately tried to hide the parts where the too-small swimsuit was digging into her body, but she could not fully hide what was going on at her crotch and butt. Not to mention her chest, which was noticeable no matter what she wore.

Eliza put a hand on her hip and sighed. The Celina-sized orange triangles were a little small for her, so she kept having to bend her finger into a hook and fix the butt after she moved.

“This is why I said you should wear one of these…bikinis were they called? Since they are tied together by strings, your height doesn’t matter.”

“I thought covering the most skin would be the least inappropriate option! Why am I always the one sacrificed on the altar of sexy!?”

Yes, a bikini had a separate top and bottom and the chest and hips could be adjusted with the strings, so some extra height was barely an issue. The extra size was only so much of an issue because she had chosen a one piece with the top and bottom connected in a single tube of fabric.

Now, the bikini bottoms looked a lot like triangular underwear, but Miyabi was told he could not wear one. He was new to swimsuits, so all the little rules confused him.

“Stop, Miyabi!!” yelled the radio. “The girls can handle all the swimsuits and bare skin themselves. This is enough. I do not want a punchline where you take a step off that figurative cliff!!”

“Pff. Heh heh heh. If you’re into that, Miyabi, my Bodenburg Company will support you wholeheartedly. Now, what would you like? I recommend this thong with cute frills along both sides.”

Meanwhile, Miyabi’s party moved inland from the coast to the green island.

The boy once more tilted his head.

“Wait, I thought swimsuits were for swimming.”

“Miyabi,” said Celina. “No one chooses a swimsuit for being warm and waterproofed. How are you supposed to show off its design if you get in the water? A swimsuit is meant for the beach or the poolside.”

“???”

He was even more confused now. The full-body swimsuits he had seen in plays had been in swimming scenes. But the formula to answer his question would require flipping several chapters back in his rich and sexy tutor’s textbook (Swimsuits II-B).

They of course found more than just a forest.

Even Miyabi could sense people’s presence further inland.

They made their way toward the most populated area and found something like a village in the tropical forest. The trees apparently kept the wind and the sand out. The buildings all had a unique design. First, they were made out of plant stems and thick logs. For ventilation purposes, all of the walls had been removed. Miyabi had lived in a log cabin himself, but it had not been so open.

All the people’s skin was tanned brown by the bright sun. Their clothing looked like a hybrid of colorfully-dyed cloths and palm leaves, so the girls often had their navels and backs exposed. Their well-tanned and healthy skin was dazzling.

The kingdom did not receive many visitors, but it was open to them. The people who spotted them seemed used to it . That may have been the influence of the previous king who had apparently rescued people at sea regardless of their status or affiliation.

They had been chasing after a legendary mermaid with nets and harpoons, but they seemed to be much more relaxed when an unexpected treasure(?) was not in the offing.

None of them seemed fazed by Alicia or Eliza’s swimsuits.

Celina must have been right about the island receiving relatively frequent tourists from the continent. Helen (with her overly small swimsuit wrapped so tightly around her body) opted to hide behind Miyabi. His back stiffened at the various sensations and breaths reaching it.

“This is the holy island ruled by King Kananka Fulpen! The Godhorn Tech our king inherited is super strong! The Mother Shark keeps our island peaceful!”

An energetic boy gave a fairly generic greeting, but they heard some other things as well.

“I don’t care whose butt is on the throne as long as we’re guaranteed a good catch. That’s the king’s #1 job since only he can speak with the invisible spirits. The Godhorn Tech honestly scares me. Makes me think the mainland’s gonna show up to get at its horn.”

The young fisherman described his king in a very different way from the old man who had sat on the Arsenal Kingdom’s throne.

“I look slim? Why, thank you,” said a girl who was proud of her figure. “A diet of fish and seaweed is the secret to health. I’ve never eaten non-seafood meat, so life on the mainland sounds so strange to me.”

The island was overflowing with nature, but it was fairly small. They had to be reliant on the sea to survive. Receiving the sea’s blessings was their top priority, so it sounded like protecting the sea was just one part of that.

Helen nervously looked around from behind Miyabi.

“(Hm, is eating a mermaid the ultimate form of receiving the sea’s blessings?)”

“(I have to wonder if any humans have actually eaten one,)” said Alicia. “(Wouldn’t there be stories of an immortal islander here if they had?)”

It may have been an imaginary food for these islanders. They may have thought mermaids were as real as the tsuchinoko or skyfish. No one had ever caught one, so you could claim whatever you liked about them.

All the islanders mentioned the House of the King and Spirits, which was the largest mansion in the village. But its lack of walls kept it from feeling as imposing as mansions usually did.

It felt more warm than grand or daunting. Miyabi felt at home in this small village surrounded by trees.

He looked up at the building made from palm trees and a grass roof.

“This one is bigger than the others, so is this the place?”

“Only two guards…a-and the entire building feels too simple for a king’s residence,” said Eliza. “Do they not decorate things in their culture? No, they must have gold and emeralds on the island. Maybe they just treat royalty differently from the continent.”

You could view it as a form of honorable poverty.

The lack of walls presented the king as an advisor the people were free to visit.

When the king and the people lived similar lives, there was less friction between them and the king could detect any problems in the kingdom as quickly as the people could.

Even in a small society, the powerful could horde wealth and build themselves up above the rest, but the royalty here did not. Choosing to suppress one’s greed and live alongside the people was a virtue. That gave the island kingdom a very different look from Eliza’s Arsenal Kingdom or Number 8’s Empire.

“But it’s a double-edged sword.”

Celina chose to deflate Miyabi’s honest admiration.

She may have sniffed this out with the senses she had developed in the company her parents had built from the ground up.

“Declining your own majesty allows people to think you don’t deserve the power you have. We already heard someone complaining about the king. This might work during the good times, but when the kingdom is shaken by misgovernment or natural disaster, it may allow others to plot to overthrow the king.”

“You mean kindness isn’t enough?”

“For those in power, standing above the rest is partially a safety measure. An isolated island like this needs to be self-sufficient, so a poor fishing season or a lack of water could easily be blamed on the king’s power.”

Come to think of it, Onelife had been worried about this.

The new king had taken the throne at only 12 after his father died, but not everyone agreed with that.

Kindness was not enough.

An outlaw pirate may have understood those blunt rules more than anyone, so he had sent Miyabi’s party in to break the jinx. He had asked them to help the new king in exchange for the magical automatons.

“Sigh, thank goodness. I shouldn’t need to do that on this peaceful island.”

Since they had found the king’s residence so easily, the glasses woman breathed a sigh of relief (blowing a heated adult breath onto the back of Miyabi’s neck).

“Yes, I shouldn’t need to transform into Venus.”

But Alicia whispered into her ear.

“Don’t be so sure. If the people here have never seen a bunny girl, it might catch on as an explosive new fad.”

“Wow, this place is a treasure trove of possibilities!” rejoiced the radio. “Let’s remake the island into a fishnet stocking empire!!”

“That’s all the more reason not to! I don’t want to be responsible for that!!”

Helen shuddered as the party entered the House of the King and Spirits.

After an aide welcomed them in, a brown boy with short, bluish hair emerged to greet them. His clothing was dyed a bright blue using some fish or flower found in the ocean or on the island, but he was very clearly nothing more than a small child. He was young enough that the distinctions between the sexes were blurred. Miyabi could see why even a criminal like Onelife would be worried about the boy’s wellbeing.

He looked too soft to place in harm’s way in the dog-eat-dog world of royal politics.

“I was already informed of your arrival.” His voice would have sounded regal if it were not such a high-pitched soprano. “You are the foreigners from the mainland, aren’t you?”

“Are you the king?”

There were no chairs or sofas, so the young king sat directly on the empty floor. It was an unusual arrangement for Miyabi’s party, but if the king was doing it, it had to be the polite thing to do. They followed suit. Celina and Eliza were more familiar with the continent’s etiquette, so they were more uncomfortable with this than the others.

“I would like to introduce myself right away, but we have certain courtesies that must be followed in our kingdom.”

“S-such as?”

Had it been rude to visit the king without being invited first?

Miyabi shrank down nervously, but the brown boy shook his head to say the problem was not with who they were.

He winked as he explained.

“The sun shining down from heaven and the azure sea surrounding our kingdom are our greatest treasures and I do understand it must have been exhilarating to see them for the very first time. I am even willing to take it as a compliment. That said, how about you change into ordinary clothing before we discuss the future of my kingdom?”

So…

“Sigh. That swimsuit was weird, but it feels wrong taking it off before ever swimming in it.”

“S-sorry about the wait, everyone.”

Alicia, Helen, and the rest soon returned, back in their normal clothing. That clothing was meant for journeying in, so it was not quite formal wear. Still, it was about right for holding a secret discussion.

“Now, then.”

The brown boy waited until they had all settled in before straightening up himself.

Straightening his spine was all it took to change the atmosphere around them. No matter his age or how he looked, he had what it took to be a leader.

“I am Kananka Fulpen, the new king ruling over the islands, people, and spirits of the Fulpen Maknika Ocean Kingdom.”

“I’m surprised you gave us an audience without an appointment,” said Celina.

“We have long received a lot of useful knowledge from those who arrive on our shores. Plus, one of you owns a Godhorn Tech. Outside knowledge, technology, and excitement is a much-needed cultural stimulant for a closed environment like ours, so I could never ignore this opportunity. That said, we are very busy with the upcoming coronation, so we cannot do much even for valued guests like you.”

“About that.”

Eliza glared at Miyabi for interrupting. She was all about chivalry, so she demanded respect of kings from any culture.

“Do you know a pirate named Onelife?”

“…”

Kananka wordlessly prompted him to continue.

Still seated on the floor, Miyabi explained the situation with plenty of gesturing. Alma mimicked the gestures, but probably didn’t know what any of it meant.

“He asked us to come here and gave us some gifts for you. I just hope there’s something we can do to help.”

“I see. So you know him.”

“Are you saying you really do know him too?”

Miyabi’s face lit up, but something was wrong.

“If I had known, I might have handled this differently,” continued Kananka. “No, enough about Onelife. What is your name?”

“M-me? Miyabi. Miyabi Blackgarden.”

“Miyabi, you do not seem like a bad person. In fact, I quite like you.”

That was an ominously phrased compliment.

And that impression was accurate.

“But unfortunately, you have brought a great calamity to this island.”

“Eh?”

Something rang in his mind.

He recognized the regular, high-pitched alarm.

“What!? I’m detecting…a sorcery bomb!?”

With an island this small, one of those could wipe the entire kingdom off the map.

“Does that mean the 11th is on this island!?”

He sprang to his feet, but Kananka remained calm.

“Wait a moment. I think it must have been hidden among the gifts you brought. Miyabi, you seem capable of sensing this bomb.”

“…”

“But did you think you were the only one in the entire world capable of that? The spirits speak to us all equally. It is just that not many know how to listen.”

Kananka winked and he seemed to be calling n some kind of invisible power or phenomenon that he referred to as “the spirits”.

“Are you, um, using your Godhorn Tech’s power?”

“I see. So you use that to boost your natural ability? Fascinating. That is not what I do. The ability to converse with the spirits is a requirement to rule as king here. I can use this power to predict the weather and the height of the waves. One of the king’s duties is to ensure the people can catch enough fish. Not even I understand how it works. All I can say is I was born this way.”

That put him above Moebius and Miyabi.

But the upshot here was that Kananka could also sense the sorcery bomb’s threat.

Maybe even more accurately than Miyabi could.

“Maybe it used a timer to switch on and maybe its box was shielded in some way. Either one would explain why we did not sense it until now.”

“Why would they be so careful about it this time?” asked Alicia.

“It may be a response to the previous bombs being disarmed,” suggested the radio.

“Meaning?” asked Miyabi.

The philosopher’s stone spat out the correct answer, just as a philosopher’s stone was meant to do.

Even if no one wanted to hear that answer.

“Listen, the last two bombs – the one in the forest and the one at the Schwarz Schütze – were both bluffs by Moebius. That would mean, Miyabi, that this is your first time encountering a sorcery bomb from the real 11th .”

“Oh.”

“Again, Moebius’s bluffs were only meant to draw out the 11th, so they would have been set up so they wouldn’t actually detonate. But that changes from here on out.”

“So the real 11th would have been watching Moebius’s decoy bombs from afar, or sending Number 8 in to check it out for them? So they know everything that happened, including how those decoy bombs were disarmed by someone?”

“That would mean they already see you as a major threat. They go to the effort of disguising the bombs as part of the scenery, remember? But not because they’re bored and setting up a high-stakes game of spot-the-difference. The real 11th doesn’t want you interfering at all. If they’ve figured out that you can detect them in advance, of course they’ll think up a way of keeping you from doing that.”

That was a truly unpleasant idea.

Eliza was getting antsy.

“We can discuss the reasoning behind it later. This is not my kingdom, but I cannot sit here and let innocent people die!!”

“Like I said before, my Mother Shark is unbeatable in the ocean. It can pierce any warship from below and bring down any flying object. But it’s powerless against an enemy once they arrive on the beach.”

This was not an attack by brute force.

Whoever had set it up had won the kingdom’s trust and learned detailed information on its internal situation before putting together the plan. And they had to know that detonating a sorcery bomb here could destroy the entire island.

“Onelife Shiftup…” muttered Miyabi.

Moebius had had his reasons, but this was different. The 11th had deceived Number 8 into setting up the sorcery bombs. Miyabi knew he should have been more careful after learning their enemy used such underhanded methods. Feeling used, he repeated that hated man’s name to himself.

“So was he the 11th? I should have paid more attention! Now I see why he found every excuse he could to keep us from repairing Number 8!! Because he didn’t want the automaton to give us his name!!”

Miyabi and Eliza rushed from the House of the King and Spirits. They were initially surprised that Kananka didn’t follow them, but then they recalled him saying he was unbeatable in the ocean but powerless on land.

Anything could happen in a confused situation and there were apparently some who did not approve of his coronation. The king had to avoid being killed at all costs. If he was, it would plunge the kingdom into chaos.

“We need to locate and destroy the sorcery bomb.”

The glaring sun worked against them.

Miyabi had to work hard to organize his confused thoughts and figure out what he needed to do.

“We can identify Onelife’s gifts by the wooden boxes. He tricked us, so the boxes should already be inside the village. I’ll just destroy them all until the bomb’s reading is gone!”

“Koo!!”

The threat likely came from the boxes they had brought with them, but those boxes had already been unloaded from the ship and carried to locations around the village. When Miyabi’s party attempted to remove the nails from one, a slender human arm punched through the wood from within.

No, it only looked human.

“A magical automaton!?”

“You mean he loaded the boxes with more than just the bomb!?”

This one did not look as human as Number 8. It was more like a well-made ball-jointed doll. It had no clothing or skin.

Onelife had said he would not send the automatons if Miyabi’s party visited the remote island kingdom instead.

But that promise too had been nothing but words. That traitor had been planning all along to send in this fighting force.

Celina clicked her tongue.

“He said he wasn’t using Compress Cargo on the gifts to preserve the artwork, but now we know the real reason. Sorcery bombs and magical automatons are too complex to store that way!”

The rustic islanders looked confused at first.

They did not properly grasp the threat, so their initial fear may not have been directed at the sorcery bomb or the imperial automatons.

It was only when Alicia’s staff gave a roar and Celina obliterated the automaton’s head with her rifle that the entire village erupted with screams. When the people paled, fled in a panic, tripped, and cowered in place, they were not trying to escape the automatons. They feared the people wielding real violence capable of dealing out death. They shook their heads in protest after seeing Miyabi’s control sword, not the automatons bursting from the boxes.

“Ugh, no good deed goes unpunished, I see!” complained Alicia.

“Seeing their fear is better than seeing them as silent corpses!!” said Eliza.

The pure white knight wielding a giant lance in both hands was the perfect honor student through and through.

Several automatons appeared around Miyabi, the sand crunching beneath their feet.

Miyabi’s eyes met those of one of the automatons.

He thought he might be able to strike back and break through their formation. He thought he might be able to destroy them by ordering an aerial bombing from the Lucifer Horn.

But he hesitated for just a moment.

In that moment, Eliza thrust her enormous lance in from the side, smashing the automaton’s head.

Inorganic parts scattered with a sound deeper than a plant pot breaking.

“Miyabi!! Don’t look at them like Number 8. These are mass-produced models without any high-level intelligence!!”

“Kh.”

His fear must have shown.

But more and more of the boxes were being broken from within and more magical automatons appeared, swinging their limbs wildly. They were targeting the panicked and fleeing islanders.

They only ever fought as ordered.

There was nothing they wished to protect and nothing they detested. Those empty ball-jointed dolls simply carried out their orders one after another.

Miyabi squeezed his eyes shut.

Then he raised his control sword for the sake of the living people here.

“Sorry!!”

He heard a dull impact and the dry crack of something breaking.

He felt the splitting destruction of something inhuman.

He clenched his teeth and felt like vomiting…and he hated that he was able to suppress it.

“That said, the automatons are appearing from multiple locations simultaneously,” said Helen. “The ordinary houses here have no walls, preventing the people from locking themselves in. If we don’t prepare a better location before beginning the battle, we’ll have a hard time protecting all of the islanders!”

“I’m aware of that!!”

Miyabi raised the hand not holding the control sword.

He had a power that sat opposite of destruction.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Something rose from the sandy ground in response. It was an iron hemisphere larger than a tent and made from gathered iron sand. That shelter could protect against the automaton’s blade-hard fingers.

“Get in!!”

He gestured toward a cowering youth and raised his control sword again to buy time. Dodging was not an option, so he had to clash directly with the automaton arms.

His bones strained and pain spread across his palms.

He was receiving the special power of a Godhorn Tech, but he was not actually trained in swordplay. The fragility of his fundamentals was all too clear in a direct battle like this.

But he still clenched his teeth, endured, and pushed back.

“Hurry inside!! You’ll be safe in there!!”

The paralysis finally wore off and the brown-skinned youth took a small child’s hand and rushed inside the metal shelter.

The automaton clashing with Miyabi was destroyed by a giant lance.

Eliza spoke to the boy while they stood back to back.

“Do you know why they were suddenly able to move just now, Miyabi?”

“?”

“Because the people accepted that your sword is a tool to protect them, not a weapon to threaten their lives. So they no longer need to fear it. Now they can rely on it. …Remember this, Miyabi, because this is the joy of being a protector knight. If you never forget this accomplishment, you can always grow stronger!!”

One of those iron shelters was not enough.

They could use as many of them as they could get.

Of course, those makeshift shelters were meaningless if the sorcery bomb detonated. The entire island kingdom could be wiped off the map or sink into the ocean.

So he would not let that happen.

He had put the islanders at ease. He had earned their trust. So now he had to hold up his end of the bargain. He had to locate the sorcery bomb and keep it from detonating. This was his own battle now.

“Ohhh!!”

He would not let it end prematurely.

He clenched his teeth, challenged a new automaton, and asked about something he had noticed.

“These are imperial, right? But they don’t seem as persistent or unpredictable as Number 8.”

“Eliza said these are the mass-produced models, remember?” said Celina. “Their internal parts are mutually compatible, but they are much simpler than the eight primary models that answered directly to the emperor and guarded the Empire from eight directions.”

That meant there were a lot of them, but they brought nothing new to the table.

If they were inferior to Number 8, a tactic that worked against him would work here.

The magical automatons alone would not be enough to destroy the island, which was why Onelife had focused on the sorcery bomb and sent the automatons to buy time as insurance. The automatons were slow and not all that durable, so they were easily damaged with Eliza’s lance and Celina’s gun.

After they had destroyed around half of the boxes, the ground shook and an explosive blast reached their ears.

But it was nowhere near them.

“Whoa!? Wh-what!?”

Miyabi’s jumpiness must have been contagious because Helen clung to the younger boy without thinking. She was certainly soft in places, but he was mostly afraid of the thick knife she was holding and being none too careful with.

“Eek!? Did it detonate!?”

“No, that was too far away. And I recognize this…”

Eliza and Celina joined the conversation because they too had operated one of those strongest weapons.

“That sounds like Godhorn Techs fighting,” said Celina. “But whose are they!?”

“Whatever the answer, there won’t be much left of this island if we don’t deal with the sorcery bomb. We can deal with that later. We need to address with the more immediate problem first!”

With a goal in mind, Miyabi used the resonance alarm ringing in his mind to search out the sorcery bomb.

His sixth sense finally gathered on a single point.

“It’s in that box!!”

He raised his control sword, stabbed it into the box, and smashed up the contents.

Until the sound in his head completely vanished.

The 11th was an artist, just like a top-rate pâtissier who could create sweets indistinguishable from an actual shoe or jewel. The sorcery bomb could replace anything and it was apparently powerful enough to wipe out an entire castle and its castle town once it detonated.

But on the other hand, the detonation method was so complex that it would not trigger when attacked. Finding it was the hard part because it would be smashed by brute force once it was located. Moebius had taught him that, so Miyabi felt no fear.

“Pant, pant.”

“I-is it gone? Is it safe now!?”

The box had been destroyed. Alicia repeatedly asked for confirmation while holding swimsuit Alma tight. Only Miyabi could tell the reading was gone, so of course she was worried.

“Damn that pirate. I bet he was originally going to bring the boxes himself, but he saw an opportunity to have us bring those ‘gifts’ for him!”

They heard footsteps on the forest sand.

Kananka Fulpen was walking their way. The giant weapon in his hand was a bent…what even was it? It may have been his Godhorn Tech’s control device. But his balance was off and he was clearly favoring one leg.

The young king did not let the pain show in his voice.

“Yes, I had a feeling this would happen.”

“King Kananka, you’re hurt!” shouted Helen.

The king himself did not seem bothered.

“I only have my own naivete to blame. The possibility of a trap occurred to me, but I still opted not to sink you and your entire ship.”

He wobbled to the side.

Miyabi rushed over to support him and the younger boy slipped down to the sandy beach.

Eliza looked unwell as she watched.

“W-we need to treat him. If the king collapses here, the panicked and anxious people’s emotions will explode!”

“Gh…don’t worry about me. I simply had some trouble calming the raging spirits. I was caught in the anger erupting from the control wing.”

“The spirits” appeared to be a general term for any unseen powers, but those powers came in many forms. Miyabi’s party was unsure how this one translated into their own words.

Kananka smiled bitterly and waved his giant weapon made of stone polished so bright it shined like a gemstone.

That had to be his Godhorn Tech control device. If that had done it, he must not have been injured in an attack by the automatons. Could damage to the Godhorn Tech itself reach the wielder through the control device? Miyabi had not used his enough to know.

Kananka had called it a control wing, but what was that weapon called? Miyabi was curious, but he could not quite find an answer. It didn’t seem to be a bent sword or club.

“What is that thing? Could it be an axe!?”

“Miyabi, why are your eyes sparkling? Also, that is not an axe.” World-traveler Celina’s eyes widened. “How unusual. Not everyday you see a boomerang.”

“Oh? You’re familiar with them?”

“There is not a product my Bodenburg Company doesn’t sell☆” She winked with a hand on her chest. “But the ones created by the continent’s craftsmen do not actually return to the thrower. They are such a strange device.”

“They are, but why does Miyabi look so disappointed?”

“Oh, this forest-obsessed boy just loves axes,” explained Helen, rubbing her temples.

According to Kananka, his control device had attacked him after his Godhorn Tech went berserk in some way.

The question was what had caused it to go berserk. But…

“You hurt your ankle, didn’t you?” said Alicia. “Miyabi! Go find something to cool it with!!”

According to the villagers who nervously peeked out from their shelters, the blessings of the ocean always took priority on the island. He ended up bringing back several types of seaweed they had in stock. They must have been similar to mint because his fingertips felt a cool sensation as he massaged in freshwater to rehydrate them.

“Will this work?”

“Wrap it around his ankle.”

“The pirate wants to create a diversion and confusion,” said Kananka, seated with his small leg extended. “My Mother Shark is unbeatable in the ocean, so he intentionally caused chaos on land to create problems for the island’s protector. Even the sorcery bomb was a diversion.”

“You mean…?”

Miyabi was cut off by an especially loud explosion.

It was a scary thought, but if true, it meant Kananka could not run away.

“My Mother Shark was defeated while patrolling the ocean. Because I was distracted.”

“It was defeated so easily?” groaned Knight Eliza, but King Kananka was unshaken. He was the kind of leader who accepted his failures and used them to do better in the future.

“There is no denying it.”

“Hm, we should probably fix his ankle in place,” said Alicia

“What about with taping? Are there any vines around here?” asked the radio.

Miyabi entered the forest full of unfamiliar plants, but he was fortunate to find plenty of vines.

“Here you go. Let’s get his ankle fixed up.”

“Yes. It might hurt some when we bind it, but bear with it, new king,” said Eliza.

Kananka did not even wait for them to finish their treatment before continuing the conversation.

“More importantly, the Mother Shark is no longer defending the island. You might be able to mess with one if you’re clever enough, but it takes another Godhorn Tech to actually destroy one. I hate needing to leave the fate of my kingdom in the hands of guests, but what choice do I have?”

Miyabi thought for a bit.

“Onelife supposedly broke off a Wicked God horn and built it into his pirate ship.”

“Th-that has to be an embellishment!”

Rejecting something because it was hard to believe only narrowed your viewpoint.

Celina’s protest was mostly just wishful thinking.

“We’ll know soon enough I suppose,” bluntly concluded Alicia. “The explosion came from the beach. That damn muscle man has brought his whole Godhorn Tech onto the island!”

The battlefield was on the ocean this time.

Miyabi’s party rushed through the forest to reach the beach, hearing enormous artillery shells crashing down all the while. They were hitting much too close for comfort, so Miyabi diverted their aim with Decoy Walls while they ran across the sand.

The tropical forest opened up all of a sudden.

The two Godhorn Techs were all jumbled together.

The sharp ram on the bow of the King Knot pirate ship had pierced the side of the Mother Shark submarine, forming a giant letter T in the waves crashing down on the beach. The 50m ship and the 60m sub created a single massive work of art.

The giant sailing ship had emerged victorious.

The many sails caught the wind to spread out grandly, large cannons lined either side of the ship, and the brutal ram made from the Wicked God horn itself rose up from the bow. This was another ruler of the sea, built with a wholly different design philosophy from Kananka’s. The lord of the deep had been pierced through, pushed up onto the beach, and laid out on the chopping block. Insolent was not enough to describe this pirate.

A strange tingling pain covered Miyabi’s cheeks as he approached.

This was an act of evil, yet it appeared majestic and powerful.

Even the radio could scarcely believe it.

“It really dragged that thing onto the beach. I thought the Mother Shark was supposed to be unbeatable in the ocean!”

“You have to do whatever you can, Miyabi,” said Helen.

Nothing remained to protect the island.

Miyabi stepped forward, control sword in hand, as if to break free of the fear binding him. He finally set foot on the beach. The pirate ship was still functioning. If he didn’t stop it, it would destroy this small island in no time.

A dull rumble shook the air as the cannons on either side of the ship began to move.

A chill ran down Miyabi’s spine.

“Here it comes. Stay away from the Decoy Walls and dodge!!!!!”

A flash of light.

A deafening boom.

The King Knot kept the appearance of a ruler even as it abandoned its mobility by sailing up onto land. It could not be destroyed by any normal means and anyone who so much as approached would be obliterated by a storm of shells.

Miyabi and Celina discussed it after he created a thick wall of sand…which was really camouflage for the makeshift trench he gouged across the beach and rolled inside to hide.

“Fire, water, wind, and earth. Is there anything it can’t do?”

“This is not alchemy. I-it might be using talismans or amulets.”

“Talis-what? Amul-huh?”

“The difference is whether or not they activate automatically. T-think of them as a type of magic charm. They say sailors can tell directions by looking to the stars, so I imagine he’s developed a way of extracting that constellation power and sealing it in a charm. Gh.”

Celina’s logical analysis may have been her way of conquering the fear.

But it wasn’t enough.

This thing’s power was real. Revealing how it worked did not cause that power to wither away.

The rich girl’s slender shoulders trembled. The more she learned about it, the worse it got and she appeared to have hit her limit. She was half in tears as she clung to Miyabi.

He had never before seen the moment logic was overwhelmed by emotion.

“Wh-wh-wh-what can we even do against that kind of firepower!? Th-th-th-this is so stupid! We can’t survive that pirate’s nonsense!”

“I can control the sand, so maybe I can make the ground collapse below it. If I dig into the sand enough, it might fall on its side.”

“Th-that isn’t enough. I doubt it would explode just from falling on its side. Isn’t there some better…more foolproof and perfect plan for- yikes!?”

Just then…

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

A valiant roar erupted nearby.

The strait-laced person was strait-lacedly charging toward the headwind of shells with lance at the ready. And not even in the trench. She was on the flat beach with nothing to use as a shield.

“Th-th-that…strait-laced moron!!!”

Celina’s eyes bugged out, but none of them had expected what happened next.

Eliza made a chance discovery.

“Oh? The cannons cannot target me when I am this close to the ship.”

The cannons were lined up near the deck, so they could not aim down far enough to hit Eliza directly below them.

“Goooo!!” shouted Alicia. “Destroy the cannons while we can!!”

That was no easy feat.

This was a Godhorn Tech, after all. The fear did not go away just because it was motionless on the beach and could not directly fire on you from that close.

Another explosion erupted from the beach.

It was not a direct hit, but the blast still knocked Alicia over onto the sand. The noise of the cannon firing was enough to make you dizzy. Celina was an expert with guns and gunpowder, so she explained that artillery could do direct damage with the shell and indirect damage by wearing down the target’s morale from all the noise and shaking it produced even when it missed. Helen grimaced at exactly that pain and ran over to collect the dizzy elf.

“Damn, that thing’s tough!!” said Celina.

“But it can’t keep this up forever,” said Miyabi. “We’re wearing it down little by little.”

The thick control sword gave a roar and the cannons were destroyed one after another.

They had found a weakness and slipped into a blind spot, but they were still scared. Even in these relatively favorable conditions, there was always a possibility that the ship would crush them all with some kind of brute force attack. What if the recoil of the cannons caused the ship to lift from the ground and crush them? The Godhorn Tech gave off that sort of mythical aura. Enough to make Miyabi worry unnecessarily and nearly come to a stop.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

He plugged a cannon’s muzzle with sand, causing it to blow itself up.

His control sword smashed the last of the cannons.

And just as he neutralized all of the pirate ship’s weapons…

“Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

Someone yelled even louder than the explosions.

The scent of sweat joined the salty aroma of the ocean.

Miyabi looked up to see a man with a prosthetic arm standing on the pirate ship’s deck. He wore a distinctive hat, a gold metal plate in his empty eye socket, and a coat. It was undoubtedly Onelife Shiftup.

“There you are, pirate!!”

“Since you were using the magical automatons and a sorcery bomb, I take it you’re the 11th?”

Onelife responded to Miyabi’s question by jumping down from the ship.

He landed with a boom and a cloud of white sand burst into the air. The bright sunlight glinted off his imperial prosthetic arm and his abnormally large cutlass.

“All those inconvenient facts slipped my mind!” he roared.

“Then I’ll just have to remind you. Control sword – tactical open!!”

A clash had finally developed between the two Godhorn Tech users.

The King Knot was grounded and all of its cannons had been destroyed. The ram on the front was its most powerful weapon, but even that was useless when the ship could not move. But that was no reason to relax. The control device was a powerful weapon in and of itself. Celina and Eliza were still useful in a fight even after losing their Godhorn Techs, so they needed to be prepared for a special attack that combined an ordinary weapon with magic.

Or so Miyabi thought.

And he was not entirely wrong.

But…

“Ugh!?”

After the heavy clang, he was the one who bent backwards along with his control sword. This was more than a clash between swords. It was like a bizarre execution method where he was ordered to hold back a tackle from a rhino or elephant using only a thin metal panel. He could easily die if he did not catch the force in a way that kept his bones from bending and breaking.

Onelife’s sword technique was far from refined.

But he made up for it with such great power that he took complete control of the battle. Weight and weapon meant nothing. Clever tricks were meaningless. When he took a step, the beach exploded and a great mass of air roared out. He was a raging storm of violence that tore through the puny world around him. Miyabi did not choose any of his moves. If he did not react to each of Onelife’s attacks first and foremost, it would all fall apart. He could tell on an instinctual level.

“Bwa ha ha ha!! Pathetic!! Simply pathetic!! You should’ve trained yourself until your steel was a storm and your blade the crashing waves. If you hope to break my control blade and kill the sailor, you’ll need an attack capable of shattering an oceangoing vessel! Clench your fist then and you might just reach me!!!!!!”

This made no sense.

Something was missing here. Plus…

“How is this real? Why is he stronger without his Godhorn Tech!?”

Eliza’s eyes widened, control lance in hand.

Miyabi’s party had him outnumbered, but they could not keep up with him. In fact, he pushed them back and threatened to break their flesh and bones if they let up for even a moment. Like an invisible hand was squeezing at their spines.

“The King Knot is only a trophy celebrating my life.”

The prosthetic arm pirate laughed.

He laughed and easily raised his massive blade.

“A real man does his own fighting!!!!!!”

That meant he was not even using the control device to boost his own magic.

He really and truly was only using his own muscles and the prosthetic arm, yet he could battle Godhorn Techs and had broken off a real Wicked God’s horn. He only saw the cutlass as a stick so sturdy he didn’t have to worry about breaking it.

“I-I don’t understand. What do we do about a musclebound freak like this!?”

Celina decided it would be silly to face someone like him in a close-range battle, so she kept her distance and focused on firing her gun.

Guns promised the same destructive power to anyone who used them, but that also meant not even the greatest expert in the world could increase their power. Celina applied magic to her bullets – primarily alchemy related to lead – but she must have been reaching the limits of what that could accomplish. She clicked her tongue while quickly pushing in more powder and another bullet with the long, skinny rod.

The pirate had a pistol at his hip, but he made no attempt to draw it. He may have only used it to send signals with the light and sound. He knocked all the projectiles from the air with his thick cutlass, but he was gradually forced onto the defensive. Of course, he was enough of a monster to be fighting a long-term battle while fully exposed to the threat of magical bullets.

They outnumbered him but could not manage to surround him.

Miyabi clenched his teeth and stabbed his control sword into the beach.

“Shoot him, Lucifer Horn!!!!!!”

The bomber cut by overhead, dropping a beam of light as it went.

The thick beam tore across the beach, approaching Onelife to envelop his enormous body.

But…

“Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!”

With a boom, the light scattered like ocean spray.

The pirate’s enormous cutlass was held skyward. He had sliced through the Lucifer Horn’s beam, scorching the sand around him.

The beam had not been any weaker than usual.

It had been hot enough to melt the sand into glass. And yet…

“Worthless!! No soul in it at all. If you want to kill me, come at me with love in your blade. Yes, love – a form of admiration. A surprise confession’s enough to scare even me!! I’d be bedridden for a week, you landlubberrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!”

“I-is this idiot impervious to blades and bullets both? Not even Miyabi’s bombing worked! Do his muscles break the laws of physics or something!?”

Helen could handle everything from housework to assassinations, but she was out of breath, her shoulders rising and falling. She was not used to the tropical heat or the sand catching at her feet, so it all sapped at her stamina. At this rate, Miyabi’s party would be worn down first and then a fatal attack could reach them once their movements slowed.

“No, we might still have a chance,” said Celina, rudely wiping the sweat dripping down her chin.

“What a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing,” said Eliza.

“Care to share with the rest of us!?” shouted Miyabi.

“We took out the King Knot’s cannons, but the Wicked God horn remains.”

“Destroy the sealed container to release the horn within, and not even that musclebound freak can ignore it,” explained Celina.

Miyabi finally got it.

“So you’re saying I just have to keep attacking the ship, right!?”

He changed targets.

“Use this, strait-laced girl!”

Alicia tossed a delicate glass container.

The skinny test tube soared into Eliza’s outstretched hand and she gave the colorful liquid within a puzzled glance, so the elf alchemist grinned.

“That’s the secret alchemy potion I use to boost my physical strength. It’s pure magic, so not even caffeine can compete. You won’t be getting a wink of sleep tonight!!”

Not even that would be enough to reach Onelife’s level, but Eliza and her enormous lance was their heaviest hitter. Once the alchemical boost was added to her innate horsepower, they sent her to the ship while Miyabi and Celina faced Onelife.

“Buying time?”

The man took a thundering footstep.

That was all it took to drain all color from their surroundings. The world was deprived of freedom and pressure bore down on them from all directions. An unseen wall pressed in on Miyabi’s party.

“Against me? How? Have you forgotten I slayed a real Wicked God and broke off its horn with just my own two arms?”

But.

Onelife was not the only confident one.

“Oh? Miyabi, this idiot seems to be mistaken about some things.”

“Yeah, we aren’t here to sacrifice ourselves and buy some time.”

Onelife narrowed his one eye questioningly, but it was already too late.

They had achieved their goal.

“We were using your confidence against you to lure you to this very spot.”

A thunderous sound rang out.

Alicia and Helen had rushed in, the former swinging her staff in from the side and the latter holding her thick dagger.

The real threat there was Helen Clockgear whose assassin skills included applying magic or potions to her blade to provide special effects.

Not even an embodiment of thick muscles could ignore a paralysis potion.

“Gh…”

Even then, it only lasted a moment.

The mass of muscles stagged backwards and bumped into his own ship.

No.

He staggered back against the hole in the hull that Eliza had created, bumping against the thick outer shell of the sealed container that kept the Wicked God horn stable.

“Celina!!”

The girl fired a bullet through the crack in the armor to stimulate what lay within. She did not hesitate to pull the trigger because she knew hitting the man would not kill him. Plus, she was not aiming at the pirate. A flash of bluish-white lightning scattered from within the ship.

A hint of panic appeared on Onelife’s face.

“Nhh!?”

“Hey, Onelife. Why didn’t you just come with us?” Miyabi glared at Onelife and held his control sword at the ready so the man’s great strength could not reach Alicia, Celina, or the others. “I doubt we were originally part of your plan, but our presence shouldn’t have kept you from taking that cargo ship. If you had visited the island as part of our group, you should have had an even easier time setting up a trap close to Kananka.”

“…”

“The people at the port adore you and the butler called Rudolf said you didn’t harm any of the crew when you attacked the trade ships. You put your crew first and you don’t harm people doing honest work, right!? I thought you didn’t like earning people’s trust through deception!”

“All those inconvenient facts slipped my-”

“Like hell they have! Where is your crew !? That pirate ship only has a captain!!”

“!?”

Yes.

This had been bothering Miyabi.

Onelife was so adored at the criminal city, yet Miyabi had not seen any of his actual crewmembers. Some youths had so looked up to the man that they had attacked Miyabi’s party with something called electricity to protect him. If he had been recruiting, he would have had a flood of hopeful crewmembers.

No.

It made no sense for him to lack a crew. But then where had they gone?

“A nonsensical mission, a missing crew, and the shadow of the 11th… Yeah, I think I get it now. This is just like with Number 8. I already know the real 11th is willing to trample on people’s feelings and make use of whatever someone cares about most to get their way. So you’re telling me everything!! What is it you’re dealing with here!?”

Miyabi was done attacking bad people for being bad. With Moebius Entrance and Number 8, he had learned that everyone had their own reasons or circumstances driving whatever they did.

So.

So surely the same applied to Onelife Shiftup.

Control sword clashed with prosthetic hand.

Miyabi was the one pushed back, but then Eliza’s lance joined in. Alicia’s staff and Helen’s thick knife also cut in as soon as one of them was pushed back. They refused to let an opening develop. Celina fired her rifle to scatter the sand at Onelife’s feet, knocking him off balance.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

“Nhhh!?”

Miyabi created a large box of sand and simply chucked it at his adversary.

The pirate easily smashed it, but that scattered fine sand everywhere. It got into the joints of his complex prosthetic arm, causing it to groan.

It malfunctioned.

“Onelife!!”

Miyabi leaned in with his entire body weight.

He pushed forward on his control sword, forcing back Onelife and his metal arm.

He pushed him against the hull of the pirate ship, through the broken armor, and toward the sealed container, where sparks were flying.

The sinister serpent of sparks seized his spine.

Not even his extreme muscles could protect him from a direct attack with the horn’s power.

“Gwohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Out with it already!! Tell me what led you to do all this!!”

“Miyabi!! Any further and you’ll be caught too!!”

Helen shouted a frantic warning, but the boy did not even look back. He did not take his eyes off of the powerful pirate for even a second.

Even now, Onelife remained a formidable opponent.

He forced his locked-up prosthetic arm to move, pushing his cutlass against Miyabi’s control sword.

With a dull clang, the grip slipped from the boy’s hand. The sword spun through the air and stabbed into the sand a short distance away.

Ordinarily, he might have let his party members take over while he retrieved his sword.

But he moved forward instead.

Because the pirate had thrown aside his enormous cutlass.

That just left clenching their fists.

“Onelife!!!!!!”

“Nwahh!!”

They both threw their punches.

In a pure exchange of fists, Miyabi would have had no way of defeating Onelife. This was the legendary pirate who had singlehandedly slain a Wicked God and broken off its horn. What could a boy who had rarely ever gotten into fights back in his home village do against that?

Miyabi’s punch was terribly light and no match for Onelife’s.

Miyabi’s body was terribly small and no match for Onelife’s.

Miyabi’s speed was terribly slow and no match for Onelife’s.

But.

“Owwaaahhhh!!!!!!”

The roar of agony came from Onelife.

Then his biological fist tore through the air.

Miyabi dodged it so barely a few strands of red hair scattered in the wind while he sent in his own fist!

Yes.

He could not let himself fear because he was more fragile than Onelife Shiftup.

He could not let himself worry because he was smaller than Onelife Shiftup.

He could not let himself give up because he was weaker than Onelife Shiftup.

After all, all of those things pointed to another fact.

Miyabi had something that Onelife did not!!

“How!? How can you possibly keep up with me in a pure fistfight!?”

He still hadn’t been hit.

He still wasn’t dead.

Onelife was of course surprised by this. Because the boy was showing off some things that the legendary pirate could never hope to have.

He felt fear, so he carefully calculated out the best distance to attack from. His attacks were too light, so he searched for the best way of putting his weight behind them. The haves and the have-nots all had their own way of finding victory under any condition. Miyabi could not pull off the feats Onelife had demonstrated, but Onelife could not struggle as hard as Miyabi. People were not overwhelmingly powerful because they were superior and people were not obsessively persistent because they were inferior. Rock, paper, and scissors were all equal. This was no more than a person named Miyabi clashing with a person named Onelife. All of the preconceptions and added values were unnecessary.

A deafening crack shook the air.

It did not come from Miyabi’s fist.

Onelife’s metal fist had caught the boy’s cheekbone.

“Is…that…”

But there was no victorious grin on Onelife’s face.

He had landed the punch, but he was the one who looked struck.

Even after feeling the heavy blow to his cheekbone, the light in Miyabi Blackgarden’s eyes did not waver.

“Is that all you’ve got, pirate!?”

“Kh.”

This was the legendary pirate. The great man everyone admired.

Was his legend really this shallow?

The boy who should have been knocked out with the very first punch threw his other hand toward Onelife’s face.

It landed.

He was a child who didn’t know the first thing about martial arts, but Onelife’s pillar was definitely shaken.

“You’re the 11th? Defeat you and all our problems are in the past? You really expect me to believe that!!!???”

He shouted.

He roared.

Nothing he said could actually negate the damage done to his body. That one clean hit had dyed the right half of his vision an unnatural red.

But he kept going regardless.

Because there was no other way to reach this man.

“Everyone looked up to you as a pirate, so what would you gain by tricking Number 8 into setting up those sorcery bombs!? None of it fits, so no one would be satisfied with an answer like that!! You said it yourself. You did. You said a real man does his own fighting. So you’d never choose to hide a bomb no one can find and then flee to safety while the city is blown to hell!!!!!!”

More dull impacts rang out.

There was no room for Helen’s assassin techniques or Eliza’s expert warfighting skills.

It was 1-on-1.

For this moment only, the fate of the continent and the Wicked God horns didn’t even matter.

It was simply a battle between men.

“Show me.”

He was beaten and battered.

It was a hellish scene where the boy seemed to be further crushed the more he kept fighting.

Yet he did not fall back.

It was absurd, but it was puny Miyabi who pushed forward, still shouting and showing off his bloodstained teeth.

“Show me the real Onelife Shiftup, the pirate everyone looks up to!! Is the legendary pirate really someone who bites his tongue, clenches his teeth, and does some job someone forced onto him? Is that the true form of Onelife Shiftup who naturally gathers a crowd when he walks down the street, creating an impromptu parade!? Of course not. So please, I’m begging you! Look me in the eye and tell me to my face that isn’t who you are!!!”

He kept pushing.

Fist hit fist and he felt something inside him bending, but he ignored the pain and roared at close range.

A crew had gathered around this man, attracted to his way of life.

Others had unofficially worked, and even committed crimes, to protect the pirate.

Could he really be the cowardly 11th? Was that really how this journey ended? Could Miyabi shove all blame onto him, refused to listen to his side of the story, strike him down as the bad guy, and then return to first village to live happily ever after?

Why did that feel so wrong?

It had to be wrong.

Miyabi Blackgarden had to believe in this. If he could not prove that Onelife was the kind of pirate he was known to be, he would be stomping on all those people’s feelings! And if Miyabi let himself be defeated here, that was exactly what would happen!!

He had to believe.

He had to continue believing and find the true answer. He clenched his teeth to do exactly that.

Just once more. Just once.

As battered as he was, he could still clench his fist one last time!!

“Owaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Two fists flew in, compressing the air between them.

A dull sound erupted.

Silence fell.

The one left with a grin on his face was Onelife. Their fists had collided head on. Miyabi’s fist had embedded itself in the pirate’s prosthetic, but it had been flattened in that shape. Almost like a clump of clay thrown against a thick fortress wall.

Onelife had caught Miyabi’s fist on his thick, heavy prosthetic and mercilessly broken it. This was not about technique. There was no trick to avoiding it.

Miyabi had lost in the field of pure solid toughness.

“It’s over, boy. You can’t defeat me.”

“As an outlaw pirate, you must know a thing or two about guns and cannons, right? So it’s funny you overlooked this.”

But.

Something strange happened. The boy with the crushed fist had a cruel smile on his face.

Because…

“You don’t want a bullet that’s just hard and nothing else. Softer lead allows it to be crushed and transfer all of its force to its target. ”

Miyabi did not have a gun. Everything he knew about them came from Celina.

But that was no reason to fear every little thing.

He would use even the smallest and most trivial facts to take another step toward victory!!

After a short delay, a powerful force passed through the pirate’s prosthetic arm and entered his body through the shoulder.

Onelife teetered backwards and finally staggered back. His back plunged toward the damaged sealed container revealed through the ship’s broken hull. His great form was swallowed up by bursting sparks.

“You had no reason to attack Kananka and this island,” roared Miyabi, his crushed and badly bleeding fist still held out in front.

His eyes were directed dead ahead.

This was not over yet.

He could not call it a win until he saved this man. It was that conviction that kept him from collapsing no matter what happened.

“And the most unnatural element in all this is the 11th. What did they say to you!? What did they use to make you do this!?”

“What does it matter to you?”

“ Because I’ll do something about it. ”

He didn’t even need to think about it.

“So spill the beans and pass the baton to me!! I’ll fix it all for you!!!!!!”

Onelife’s giant body was shaking.

Miyabi’s attack had been powerful enough to crush his own fist, but it was unclear if it had actually affected the man.

But each of the boy’s attacks had pushed Onelife’s back against the Wicked God horn and all of its energy unleashed by the broken sealed container.

Each attack had exposed him to a shock so powerful an ordinary human – and even a powerful Beast Nova – could not have survived.

He had been knocked back, but it was only when something else inside him broke that he slowly opened his mouth.

“…”

The boy was reckless and foolish, but Onelife was defeated by the look in his eyes. As if to say that had wounded him far more than the fistfight or the sparks coming from the horn.

“Parasites…”

“?”

“My entire crew was infected…and the 11th is the only one who can heal them.”

“That’s more like it.”

That was a starting point.

Onelife had had no choice but to obey. He had clenched his teeth and done things that violated his principles, but he had been fighting all alone the entire time.

He was not the 11th. There was someone else pulling the strings.

Knowing that was enough. Those words brought new life to the boy’s half-broken soul. He had nearly sacrificed his own life for it, but now he was glad he had chosen this path.

This was enough fighting.

There was just one thing he had to say now. He owed it to this man for working up the courage to reveal the truth to him.

“Leave the rest to us. We’ll clean up this mess!!”

In that final moment, the one-eyed pirate smiled.

It was small, but nothing like the other smiles he had given.

“Boy!”

Someone tossed something to Miyabi from the side.

His battered hand caught the control sword that Alicia had thrown and he stabbed the tip into the beach. A large magic circle opened at his feet and he roared a command.

Everything was dyed white.

The King Knot pirate ship and the Mother Shark submarine were both blown to bits in two brilliant explosions when the Lucifer Horn’s beam hit them.

“D-do you think maybe you overdid it?” nervously asked Alicia.

“No, that blast only has him sleeping comfortably. Just all sprawled out there,” replied the exasperated radio.

The pirate was convulsing on the beach and looked unlikely to wake back up anytime soon.

Alicia finally turned back toward the redhead boy who had nearly been caught in the blast but was still sent rolling across the sand.

“Okay, boy, enough smiling and pretending you’re fine. Show me that hand you’re hiding behind your back! God, you really smashed that up good, and I don’t even know if I can make my usual White Sorcery Items with the different vegetation and ecosystem on this island!!”

“Miyabi, this might sound like a lecture from an old hag with stick up her butt, but this is actually a reward. You need to use the ears of your soul to translate this before her usual rebellious phase returns: ‘Oh, why must you always come home covered in mud? You are just hopeless, you know that?’ This world has no more need for towels! So before starting on dinner, fill your heart with her love and compassion and then join her in the bubble baaaaaaath!!”

The radio’s noisy nonsense got it stepped on by the complaining elf while she wrapped a special bandage around the boy’s broken fist. Helen approached, imbued her thick knife with magic, and transferred a purple light to him. But not because he was beyond saving and she wanted to put him out of his misery. She was actually applying some light paralysis magic to help him with the pain.

Eliza glanced over at them and rubbed her temples.

The chosen knight was looking down at the unconscious pirate.

“If only this man could have found a master he could serve. We need to ask him some questions, so how about we dump some water on him?”

Finding a metal bucket in this remote island kingdom would have been difficult, but they did find two empty halves of a coconut lying on the beach. Someone must have already removed the contents. Miyabi’s hand felt weird as it rapidly healed, but he used it to scoop up seawater in the coconut and approached Onelife. He had taken a lot of damage too, but Miyabi mercilessly dumped the water on the collapsed pirate’s face.

“Ugh…”

That was precisely when Kananka came to check on them, still favoring one leg.

“Hm, so is it over?”

“Kananka.”

“Relax, Miyabi. My kingdom has its own standards of propriety. We are not in the habit of beating someone who has already been punished and had a change of heart.”

Kanaka smiled a little. He may have been exasperated to see Miyabi trying to protect someone who had been his enemy just a moment before. But Kananka was little different since the pirate had also tried to destroy his kingdom.

“Our way is to welcome any who reach our shores as guests, remember?”

“…”

Onelife opened his eyes.

Young Kananka nodded and continued.

“I would like to know who our true enemy is. If you do not tell me that, I cannot punish this 11th person.”

“I don’t know when it happened.” The pirate remained on the ground, but the look on his face said this story was even more painful than his wounds. “But my beloved crew started collapsing one after another. I sought out academics, white sorcerers, and experts from the underground before finally learning it was caused by some parasites they had never seen before. But the back alley doctors available to criminals like us couldn’t do anything about it.”

Miyabi could use ordinary doctors and shops, so that was difficult for him to understand.

But someone had definitely suffered because of it.

“Only she could do it.”

“She?”

“She shamelessly called herself an expert.” Onelife gave a self-deprecating smile. “She said the target would show itself if I kept stealing imperial automatons. And if I dealt with that target in a specific way, she would remove the parasites from my crew… It’s silly really. I mean, she was obviously the one who gave them the parasites in the first place.”

“And who is this ‘she’!?”

“I don’t think anyone knows her real name.”

But that did not mean Onelife Shiftup had nothing to say.

“The Necromancer.”

That was her de facto name.

“She owns a Godhorn Tech and she uses forbidden necromancy.”

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 4

“That’s a mermaid!!”

“Mermaid flesh makes you immortal! Find her!!”

Charlotte Nightlagoon was on the run.

It was a small island and she had given herself human legs, so there were not many hiding spots for her. She needed to slip aboard a ship and leave the island before the islanders could organize a more thorough search.

“Pant, pant, goddammit. In what world do people surround you in order to eat you?”

She was crouched down and hiding behind a relatively thick portion of the island’s tropical forest.

That was when she heard a small child sobbing.

She clicked her tongue and frowned below her decorative eyepatch.

“Father,” cried the child.

She peered out from the thicket to see a brown boy who only came up to her hips rubbing his eyes and trudging along.

He looked like he had wandered around in search of the mermaid flesh until he was sick and tired of it.

“No, please don’t die, fatherrrr!!”

(God, really!?)

Eating mermaid flesh did not actually make you immortal. If it did, the mermaids would have stooped to cannibalism long before humans got into the mix. And Charlotte was not a selfless saint who was willing to offer up her own body over some silly superstition.

She wanted to run away.

She wanted to leave this island.

But.

“What choice do I have!?”

It was the middle of the night and Charlotte knew good and well she shouldn’t be doing this, but she snuck over anyway. This was the middle of the village, the most dangerous area for her.

She approached the building known as the House of the King and Spirits.

It was a king’s residence, yet it lacked walls. The king’s lifestyle was kept open to the people, tearing down any division between him and those people. That political system relied on the goodness of the people, which just felt dangerous to Charlotte, who was from the privileged class among mermaids. It did make her fond of the king, however.

Right now, a screen was placed around the bedroom area.

The islanders considered diseases to be unclean and used the screen to keep them from escaping. They were a strange group since humans knew nothing of microbes, despite using them to make delicious wines and cheeses, but she could tell they had woven the screen from the stems of plants they had learned through experience were excellent at disinfecting disease.

Charlotte spoke through the screen.

“You’ve gotten old.”

“…Is that you?”

“You really have gotten old if you can’t defeat such a minor disease.”

She heard a quiet breath of laughter.

He must not have been able to get up.

“I apologize on behalf of my people. Our silly superstitions have caused nothing but trouble for you here.”

“They’re only so desperate for the supposed immortality my flesh brings because they want to save you, right? They’re a good people. I can see how much they care for each other.”

“In my generation, anyway.”

“You think the next will be different?”

“Can I ask something of you?”

“I’ve had my fill of trouble, so-”

“Stay with my son, Kananka. He is still young and I am sure there will be trouble as his coronation approaches.”

“God, really!? You can’t just tell me what it is before I have a chance to refuse!!”

“Ha ha. I knew you would say that, so I made sure to get it out first.”

Another laugh was followed by a coughing fit.

The coughing was terribly wet, like fluid was building deep in his chest.

“I am not asking you to watch over him until he is an adult.”

“Yeah, the next king is gonna be super vulnerable. He might even be killed before he can grow up.”

“This is my son’s and my kingdom’s responsibility. I cannot keep you here long term. A king must know what his own destruction would mean and maintain the proper tension throughout his life. He must know how to protect himself. At the same time, he must be prepared to let the crown pass to the next generation sooner rather than later.”

“…”

“So my son must handle his official duties himself, but I want you to protect him outside of that. If he wants to leave the island and have some fun, go with him. I am not asking for an absolute oath or anything. Just remember your promise from time to time and stop by when it is convenient.”

“Hmph,” snorted Charlotte, a hand on her hip. “You have gotten old. Leaving me behind like this is bad enough, but you’re also forcing a young child onto the throne before he’s even learned how to make friends.”

“Shameful, I know.”

“But I know how serious you are about this. I guess that’s worth a favor or two.”

The bedridden king made one last request.

He could barely get out of bed anymore and his death was unavoidable at this point, but he had been waiting so very long for this one thing.

“Then how about just one more before I die?”

“Fine. One last song.”

A mermaid’s song could affect people’s mind.

So of course it could numb the pain in someone’s final moments.

“So you see, it’s really a touching story!! Ha ha!!”

“Ehhh!? We had a ton of newcomers this time, so why do you get all the focus!!!???”

### Profiles

Phobia Neverjudge

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 157cm

Only daughter of the Neverjudge Family, which accepts any job requiring an armed solution. They do bodyguard, rescue, kidnapping, and assassination jobs, all without asking too many questions. With the presence of Wicked Gods harming the Family’s reputation, she is working to slay the Wicked Gods herself. She has failed to discover the identity of the legendary assassin Shadow Crack and she suspects they are an elf, making them impossible to track down when viewing only the human side of the equation.

Eluné Jackpot

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 160cm

A gambler who constantly tests how far she can push her luck. After trying more and more crazy gambles, she has reached the point of seeing if she can survive a direct confrontation with a real Wicked God. When she speaks of luck, she includes how long it takes for her cheating to be discovered. Rumor has it she has even used her incredible luck to cheat her way into a contract with Under Lilith.

Cliff Blueforest

Apparent Age: 18 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 185cm

An elf knight who once risked his life binding a contract with Demon Lord Under Lilith to save his human lover from a deadly illness, successfully saving her life. As payment, all his memories of that lover were erased and he now travels the world in search of any proof that she lived a happy life. All elves of that forest use the surname Blueforest, so he and Alicia are not related.

Lillian Greenforest

Apparent Age: 18 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 162cm

One of the dark elves who were forced to scatter across the land after their sacred forest was destroyed. A ‘passive avenger’ who offers up her own body as a specimen for magical research to advance human military technology, hoping all the humans will kill each other with the results. She is searching for the alchemist named Holy Gate to advance humanity’s doomsday clock.

Onelife Shiftup

Age: 56

Sex: Male

Height: 200cm

The legendary pirate who once slayed a Wicked God with just the one arm, broke off its horn, and remade his own ship into a Godhorn Tech. His larger-than-life personality and refusal to sweat the small stuff gives him a powerful charisma. His popularity allows him as much notoriety as the entire Bodenburg Company that controls the criminal port city. He is more frightening when directly attacking with his prosthetic combat arm than when using a control device or Godhorn Tech.

Godhorn Tech Submarine: Mother Shark

Pilot: Kananka Fulpen

Affiliation: Fulpen Maknika Ocean Kingdom

Size (LxWxH): 60m x 30m x 11m

A submarine resembling a giant shark with the power to raise the ocean floor. By sending up the Shark Tooth reef below an enemy ship, it can sink even the most unsinkable warship. The legend of a great being fishing up islands for people to live on was remade into this weapon of war. Unbeatable at sea, but helpless once the enemy reaches the island it must protect. Motif: island creation myth.

Charlotte Nightlagoon

Apparent Age: 16 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 156cm

A tomboy who is well-known in the mermaid world(?). Taught herself how to make a magic potion to give herself legs so she could indulge in some wild partying on the surface. But she learned too late that she could no longer return to the ocean without her fishtail. While disguised as a pirate(?), she is searching for the unmatched alchemist named Holy Gate so she can acquire a magic potion to regain her original form.

Kananka Fulpen

Age: 12

Sex: Male

Height: 130cm

The young king who rules some islands far south of the continent after his father’s untimely death. Well-versed in a method of contacting spirits that differs from the continent’s magic, can sense coming changes in the weather and the natural environment, and is tasked with ensuring the island catches enough fish. Uses the Mother Shark Godhorn Tech to protect the islands he rules.

Godhorn Tech Pirate Ship: King Knot

Pilot: Onelife Shiftup

Size (LxWxH): 50m x 12m x 30m

A pirate ship that has mastered the use of talismans (automatically-consumed charms). The method of determining directions from the constellations has been expanded to fire that star power as a weapon. The weapons can only be charged at night, but they can imbue their shells with various elements: fire, water, wind, earth, light, shadow, etc. As a pirate, Onelife wanted the ability to respond to any national force sent to take him out. But since he has an extraordinary enough body to slay a Wicked God with nothing more than a cutlass, he only views the Godhorn Tech as support. Motif: talismans.

### 029. Chapter 6

### Chapter 6, Section 1

People can get used to anything.

Any who are no longer satisfied with one taboo will seek out even deeper depths.

The sky was colored a single uniform blue in a way it never was on the continent.

The small king made a suggestion after walking out to the island kingdom’s simple port made of no more than a few wooden docks lined up on the white beach.

“Now, I believe I will join your fight.”

“K-King Fulpen, shouldn’t you stay here and manage your kingdom?”

Helen Clockgear’s voice cracked when questioning the king, presumably because she was a government official. The Republic had no king, but she still had to understand the diplomatic value one held.

Kananka Fulpen smiled a little.

“My kingdom cannot find stability without first eliminating our primary concern. That means the Necromancer who is known as the 11th.”

“We appreciate the help, but are you sure? I thought you couldn’t trust your aides due to the confusion surrounding your coronation.”

“No pain, no gain,” he said smoothly. “Miyabi, could you try making a vague threat with your Godhorn Tech?”

Miyabi Blackgarden was confused, but he had the king’s permission. He took his control sword, which was a little short for a two-handed one, and stabbed it into the beach, producing a large magic circle.

He ordered the Lucifer Horn to attack an unoccupied point out in the ocean.

An extra-large bomb dropped and a pillar of fire burst skyward like a great tower attempting to reach heaven above.

The distant boom arrived after a short delay and large waves pushed in toward the beach.

Panicked voices could be heard coming from the direction of the village.

“Yikes, what now!?”

“Run, run away! I’ve had enough of this! Eek!!”

But these were not just ordinary people. Some well-to-do men rushed out of the forest, but when their eyes met Kananka’s, they collapsed backwards like they had run face-first into a solid wall. They scrambled backwards and then fled.

But that was not all.

“Are you okay, King Kananka!?”

“My intellect is at your service whenever you might need it.”

Others rushed out to see if the king was well.

Kananka sighed.

“As you can see, I do have some problems to deal with, but this has separated the wheat from the chaff. People’s loyalty and allegiance can be so hard to tease out, but this drew it out in a visible form for me. Frankly, I’m thankful. And this means my kingdom will be fine in my absence.”

“I see,” was all Miyabi said.

Then Onelife Shiftup lifted his sandy body from the beach.

“I will join you too. I betrayed the previous king’s ideal of a free ocean, so I need to make up for that no matter what it costs me.”

“Pirate, I need no excuses from you,” cut in Kananka. “You wanted to save your crew’s lives. You need not hide your motivations anymore. You clearly care a lot about them – enough to betray your own principles to save them – so a true king of the ocean must generously recognize the difficulty with which you made your decision. We must remove those parasites as soon as possible. No matter what. I will assist you, as a fellow resident of this free ocean.”

The king paused before addressing a crucial point he could not compromise on.

Young though he was, the king of the ocean’s words held great weight.

“But we must do it the right way – without giving in to the villain’s threats.”

“…”

The one-eyed pirate remained silent for a while.

Then he slowly bowed his head.

“I am in your debt.”

“Okay, next up is Number 8,” said Miyabi. “We have plenty of magical automaton parts after destroying so many of them, so let’s fix up that butler and hear what he has to say.”

“Oh?” Celina Bodenburg put a hand on her hip. “You mean we aren’t pursuing that necromancer who muscles-for-brains here mentioned?”

“We are, but we might have missed something or had a misunderstanding. It’s happened before, remember? It isn’t uncommon to find you were making an incorrect assumption somewhere along the line.” The redhead boy sighed. “I made a huge mistake there with Moebius and this enemy is clearly acting maliciously. I want to avoid any chance of being caught unawares. Besides, a nickname like the Necromancer isn’t much to go on, so it would be best to hear what Number 8 has to say and compare that with the rest of our info.”

“Then are we headed to the criminal city? We left that automaton in an inn room.”

Once out at sea, they found a few ships remaining among the Godhorn Tech wreckage. They could return to the city on one of those.

The ocean journey back took a few days and Miyabi spent the entire time receiving intensive care from Doctor Alicia.

“Agh!? Ow ow ow ow ow ow!!”

“Pipe down, boy. The hand is a delicate part of the skeleton because of all the nerves and joints, so you can’t just wrap it in a magic bandage and call it a day. And when you smash it up this good, it requires some thorough treatment. It’s a good thing the sailors brought so much rum with them, since I can use it for sorcery medicine. If I couldn’t create some White Sorcery Items with my alchemy, you might have forever lost use of your dominant hand!!”

“Y-you aren’t making it hurt on purposhe?”

“This is me being extremely gentle This would normally be so painful you’d die mid-treatment, you fool!”

The sailors paled as they heard screams worse than someone having a dentist work at their cavity all day long, but Alicia Blueforest’s skill was the real deal. And she apparently did not get seasick when she had something to focus on.

By the time the large sailing ship arrived at the criminal city’s port, he had recovered enough to eat with a knife and fork like normal. Something inside his hand still felt off when he clenched a fist too tightly, but it was a miracle that was the only problem left.

Kananka took a curious look around the lively city of stone and metal. All while his small hand clung to Miyabi’s coat.

Celina must have been happy she was back in her hometown because she raised her arms and stretched (with that dangerous rifle still in hand).

“Nhhh… Okay, let’s go repair Number 8.”

They had left the automaton in that sketchy inn, but it was gone once they arrived.

Not Number 8.

The entire inn had been shut down by the authorities.

“Wait, wait, Rudolf? What is the meaning of this?”

The criminal city had no knights or guards. Instead, the Bodenburg Company’s private soldiers kept the peace. For businesses purposes, of course.

“Oh, milady?”

“Huh? If it isn’t Lady Celina!”

Those private soldiers were resting some rather unique weapons on their shoulders. They were thicker than Celina’s flintlock rifle and the barrel was large enough to fit your arm inside. They appeared to be designed to launch gas bombs when they were being peaceful and regular bombs when they were not. They were dragoons, equipped with armor and guns, and they responded in slight surprise when they heard the girl’s voice. They quickly pulled on their horses’ reins to clear the way for her. Their equipment looked scary, but they spoke and acted more like maids and butlers.

As the richest girl on the continent, Celina accepted the special treatment like it was normal. If anything, she acted like they were not treating her well enough.

It turned out dragoons were a high-speed mounted firing unit armed with guns, not legendary aerial knights that rode wyverns and wielded giant spears. This revelation shattered Miyabi’s dreams, earning him a silent and sympathetic pat on the shoulder from Eliza Silverstorm. She had always wanted to be a knight and chosen to serve in the castle, so she may have gone through much the same thing in the past.

The old butler commanding the private soldiers spoke to them with a smile.

“Oh, back already, milady? We value any and all opportunities in this city, so you know what it means when we are forced to make an exception and shut someone down, don’t you?”

“They took it too far?”

“In a world unbound by order, those who cannot judge the boundaries of acceptable behavior must be ruthlessly eliminated. Simply put, a grown adult should have known better. Oh, yes. The prizes the innkeeper had collected are being gathered over there.”

This had turned into a lot of trouble.

They took a peek behind the inn and it was a mess. Weapons, jewels, mystery vases, and strange paintings were piled up everywhere. There was even a rainbow-colored cat in a cage and a tearful and trembling girl with a collar around her neck, but where they part of the “prizes” too?

Celina clicked her tongue.

“The slave trade. Now I see why Rudolf decided to make an exception here.”

“Hmph,” snorted Eliza. “Even I have figured out what kind of establishment that Bubble Bath Paradise is. This criminal city is lined with brothels and indecent theatres, so I hardly see how this is that much worse.”

“Hey, what are you all talking about?”

Miyabi tried to join in, but Big Sis Helen grabbed his head in one hand and dragged him away.

Celina shrugged at Eliza’s accusation.

“We value and any all opportunities people might use to enrich themselves. Knocking on the front door and asking for a job is a very different thing from being kicked in through the front door and forced to take a job.”

“You guarantee people the opportunity to get addicted to the nightlife and gambling, you guarantee them the opportunity to drown themselves in debt, and you guarantee them the opportunity to try and pay it back with absurd levels of interest?”

“Everyone dreams of an opportunity with no risk involved, but that’s as hard to come by as the secret to everlasting life. Not even the Empire’s emperor managed to find that one, so he was destroyed in the end, remember?”

“…”

“My company is not a non-profit charity and we are not kind enough to look after the people who ruined their lives with their own reckless decisions. But this girl is a different matter. No one should suffer for someone else’s debt. In our way of life, everyone should be given the same opportunities, regardless of bloodline or birthplace. …Rudolf! Give her a hot shower and a warm meal. If she has no family – or none she can trust – then hire her on. At least until she is in a position to find a path for herself.”

The old butler gave her a warning first.

“This will increase your expenses again .”

“True, but this is worth the expense. I am buying her the opportunity to live her own life.”

Rudolf reacted with a troubled frown, but he could not hide his enjoyment. Celina had just said no one should carry someone else’s debt, yet she had immediately decided this was not a wasted expense. She knew money could protect people’s lives and that did not just apply to her own life.

Among the prizes, they found the magical automaton seated against a wall.

The repair process was going to make a lot of noise, so they may not have been able to do it in the original inn room anyway.

But what were they to do now?

He looked just like a human, so working at him out on the street would cause a commotion. People might think they were mutilating a corpse, or someone might try to steal him after recognizing him as one of the special automatons who directly served the emperor.

They heard a voice from the side.

In fact, it was a woman’s scream.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!? Wh-what are you- what is that limp thing!? Are you carrying a corpse around!?”

“Miyabi, we have trouble.”

Eliza, who was carrying deactivated Number 8 on her back, was too direct in her response and only assisted the misunderstanding.

The stranger continued shouting.

“Oh, no, no, no, no! Am I a witness now!? Am I going to be erased!? Am I going to end up dumped in the ocean or closed up in a wall!?”

Ideally, she would have run away, but she instead fell flat on her butt.

Who was she anyway?

She was a young woman with short, curly hair, but her clothing was highly unusual. Her chest and hips had only triangles of cloth or armor covering them. Other than that…would you call it a cape? Decorative items resembling a giant butterfly or a large belt were draped down from the back of her neck. She did have parts on her arms and legs that looked like leather armor, but the much more important head and torso were left bare. Her healthy navel and thighs left Miyabi unsure where to look.

Celina gave her a skeptical look.

“That’s not a swimsuit. Not even I have ever seen true bikini armor before. Do you fight in the battle arena that’s all about show business these days?”

“Hweh?” Still on her butt, the young woman blinked a while before coming back to her senses. “Ah!? Yes, yes, I am! Ah ha ha!! I am Queen Cate Tornadodancer, the strongest in the land. Your luck ran out the moment you ran across me, because I can slay bears and tigers with ease. I-i-i-if you don’t want to throw your lives away, I recommend turning yourselves in!!”

She still had not gotten up from the ground.

Her thighs were trembling so much she looked like she would piss herself if someone snuck from behind and shouted boo, so even Miyabi was feeling awkward.

“Um, is she serious?”

“I think she is, yes.” Celina held a hand to her forehead. “I said it’s all about show business, didn’t I? It’s all overly revealing costumes, oversized weapons, and flashy attacks. I doubt she could defeat a single bandit in a real battle.”

“N-not true! I can slay bears and tigers!!”

“Yeah, arena animals that have been tamed, defanged, declawed, and drugged until their muscles barely support them anymore. A pretty clear-cut and severe case of animal abuse if you ask me, but no one questions it when it has history and tradition behind it.”

“B-but…”

The trembling crossed a certain line and she practically exploded.

“Wahhhhhhhhhhhh!! That’s not true! I really, really am the strongest in the land!!”

“Yikes, now she’s crying!? But she’s older than me!!!!!!”

“Miyabi, she’s gathering attention. Find a way to silence her!!” said always dry Kananka, showing no mercy.

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the ground and the magic circle appeared.

“Lucifer Horn!! Bring her some warm milk and a blanket!!”

The sobbing arena queen was whisked away by a wire.

The Godhorn Tech must not have understood such high-level instructions.

They had to fix Number 8, but they wanted to avoid any further commotion.

However, Celina was not the only one who called the criminal city home. Onelife had built up trust there from the bottom up.

“A lot of people come and go here, so unoccupied houses are pretty common. Yes, you should be able to work in one of those without being interrupted.”

“Why does a pirate know so much about empty houses on land?”

“Gah hah hah. Because I tend to find myself in one of them when I wake up after a bender. Good life lesson for you: stay away from the cheap bourbon they’ve switched the label on. I do sometimes end up in a house someone’s living in, though. Gah hah hah hah!!”

That he could make such a defenseless fool of himself and yet had never been turned over to the private soldiers who protected the peace (or what passed for peace under the giant company’s rule) showed just how much the people here adored him. Miss Celina looked unsure how to feel about that.

However, the magical automaton was indistinguishable from a human at a glance, so working on it as a group might get those soldiers called on them.

The eyepatch man was right.

As they walked down the road, they saw a lot of buildings with no nameplate out front. It was a strange idea for Miyabi who had lived in the same house in the same village all his life, but people frequently came and went here and the resident of a particular house would change a lot. And in between occupants, they would sit empty.

Alicia restlessly held swimsuit Alma close.

“But we don’t have the key. Are we just going to break a window?”

“Now that would gather attention. Oh, dear. Do I really have to reveal this skill?”

Helen mumbled to herself, but Miyabi never actually saw what she did. She made some swift and silent movement of her fingers and then turned the knob to open the main entrance. The entire process took less than 3 seconds, so it almost looked like it had never been locked at all.

Eliza and Onelife quickly checked all the rooms, but there was no sign of delinquent boys or squatters.

Onelife gave the ponytail girl a surprised look.

“You’ve done this before. I wouldn’t have pegged you as the type for this sort of work.”

“I will explain if we have the chance, but I do not have a clean past. I did a lot of dirty work for my kingdom.”

When Miyabi entered, carrying Number 8’s unmoving form, he found the place was really dusty. The walls were thin, but that barrier seemed to cut them off from the hustle and bustle of the city. Although it felt more like a mysterious mystical barrier than a warm living space.

The building itself had to be about the same size as his own home, but it felt a lot larger. Maybe because it had no furniture.

With no sofa or bed, they had to wipe the dust from the floor and lay the automaton there.

“He is a complicated mechanism, so we should get the dust out of the air as well.”

Clean freak Celina cast a room cleaning magic used in clinics and the like, altering the quality of the air.

They needed a toolbox, an automaton’s gears and cylinders, and several more odds and ends necessary for the work. After some rummaging around, they had a thick pair of pliers, a manual drill, and more lined up on the floor. The radio hanging from Alicia’s neck could not help but comment.

“Yeah, you couldn’t let anyone see this. If someone took a peek in the window, they’d assume you were torturing someone or chopping up the body before dumping it out at sea.”

Number 8.

Miyabi finally got to work on that butler.

“So this goes here…”

“Are you sure that’s right?” asked Alicia.

“Hm!?” groaned Kananka as he helped. “T-this part opens?”

They had the spare parts, but they did not have an accurate blueprint since the Empire that had manufactured him was gone. Without Alicia and Celina’s knowledge of alchemy and Onelife’s experience remaking an imperial automaton arm into a prosthetic for himself, they would have been completely lost. They followed their general predictions to find and replace the necessary pieces that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

“That should be everything,” said Miyabi after shutting a cover.

“Nothing’s happening, though?”

Kananka tilted his head, but the muscular pirate flexed his bicep.

“Nhhh! Nothing like a solid blow to fix a faulty contraption! Go for it!!”

Afraid Onelife would knock Number 8’s head clean off, Miyabi struck the automaton himself. He remembered how Celina had asked him to hit the communicator back on her armored train, so this may have been a ritual for operating machines.

“You savages!” howled the radio. “You actually did it!”

“Compatible parts detected…checking connection. Wiring is in working order.”

“Ahhh, don’t prove them right, you smarty pants robot! Now they’ll think they can treat me that way!”

The philosopher’s stone lamented, but Onelife roared with laughter.

“Gwa ha ha ha! You don’t live with a prosthetic arm this long without picking up a trick or two!”

“H-he’s moving?”

Eliza grew cautious, but young Kananka actually stepped forward.

“How very strange. He is inorganic, yet I sense a pressure much like the spirits.”

Miyabi was coming to understand that “the spirits” was a general term for all unseen powers in the boy’s remote island kingdom. The Empire that built the magical automaton likely had a different name for it.

At any rate, something was circulating within the artificial body and Number 8 opened his eyes once more.

“I want to see if you’re functioning now, but this might be hard for you,” said Miyabi.

“What did you have in mind?” asked the prone automaton.

“Tell me. What happened to your Empire?”

“…”

Silence followed.

This had not worked last time, so tension ran through the others.

But…

“It has been destroyed. Along with the last emperor’s corpse.”

“Phew.”

Helen breathed a sigh of relief and Number 8 slowly sat up on the floor, causing his long bangs to sway.

The hidden half of his face was revealed, showing the cracks spreading where his eye had once been. Countless gears of varying sizes could be seen within.

Common parts like the gears and springs could be replaced, but using generic parts for something as distinctive as his face would give him a weird, patchwork look. So they had left his face untouched.

Miyabi chose to apologize.

“I’m sorry for making you remember something so painful.”

“That is not your fault.”

“Then can you tell us what you did? What role did the 11th – the Necromancer – play?”

More silence.

But the response came much more smoothly this time.

“The Necromancer was originally a guest magical researcher in the Empire. She is a woman age…25 in the current year. Her real name is unknown. She did not care much what other people thought of her, but she did seem aware that she had earned a lot of grudges. I have heard she came from the wealthy class in a small kingdom beyond the reach of imperial law, but on the Empire’s border. That could be entirely false of course, but her facial features and wavy hair do match those of the people in the central inland region. She was known for her rude behavior, but it was a rudeness that understood proper etiquette enough to intentionally break the rules.”

“Wealthy?” Celina sounded truly disgusted. “And necromancy too? Yeah, people tend to pick up the worst hobbies when they have more money and time than they know what to do with.”

Everyone gave the rich girl quite a look, but she did not seem to notice.

Number 8 continued in his cold way.

“She seemed to want people to view her as a pure academic, but unlike a self-proclaimed expert with only superficial knowledge, she definitely has real knowledge and skills. She is a top-class intellectual. Admittedly, the Empire specialized more in inorganic research, but none of our seven universities had anyone with more expertise in the subject of life and death. However, she is severely lacking in the moral compass required to use such specialized technology.”

“That’s always the case with the rich and their hobbies.”

Celina came from the Bodenburg Company which had created its own position through business success, so she may have been wary of the aristocracy whose position, honor, and money were all hereditary.

Eliza, who served a king, and Kananka, who was a king himself, both breathed exasperated sighs.

Number 8 continued.

“Once she lost the Empire’s protection, I have heard she abandoned her home and fortune to live free out in- wihhh!”

“Wh-what!?”

An earsplitting noise led Miyabi to cover his ears and cry out, but Number 8 did not answer. They heard a commotion outside, so they were forced to hide in the bathroom and ashless fireplace.

They waited there a while.

Fortunately, no one was curious enough to open the door and take a look inside. Since Celina had used room cleaning magic to clear out all the dust, it was likely they would have noticed something was amiss even if they did not immediately spot the hiding people.

“What just happened?”

“Sh. Something isn’t right.”

Celina, who was curled up like a cat in the fireplace alongside Miyabi, was right. Number 8’s lips were moving as mechanically as ever, but his voice was not forming human language.

“Ywah, ghhhghghghgh!”

“See? This is why you don’t hit machines,” said the radio.

Onelife tapped the back of his thick neck with his giant cutlass.

“Won’t hitting him again fix him?”

“Yes, best to strike while the iron is hot,” agreed Eliza, pulling out her control lance.

“What is wrong with you!?” wailed the philosopher’s stone.

After several loud sounds indicating a severe misuse of such a fine craftsmanship, Number 8’s voice returned.

“Ywahghghgh…hm, that seems to have done the trick. Thank you.”

“They keep learning the wrong lesson here. I dread to think what they’ll do to me now…”

The radio was concerned, but Celina wanted to get the conversation moving.

“But how did the Necromancer deceive you? Wouldn’t she need to approach you in advance to pretend she was the emperor?”

“She said she could bring back the dead emperor using her necromancy.”

That was a powerful statement.

Number 8 was as expressionless as ever, but the face behind his black bangs seemed to radiate self-deprecation.

“But my memories of the emperor’s appearance have faded so much.”

So the 11th had performed a phony ceremony and appeared to Number 8 again, shamelessly claiming to be the resurrected emperor. That allowed her to change her role from necromancer to emperor.

The long exposure to that extreme environment had damaged the automaton’s recognition to the point that he had fallen for the deception. No, it was not just a mechanical issue. After waiting for so long in that too-pure red world, even that butler would have been desperate for any hope at all. So as miraculous as it had seemed, he had leaped at the chance to once more kneel and bow his head before his master.

The 11th had taken advantage of that vulnerability with a sneer on her face. She had commanded him to set up sorcery bombs, all while sticking her tongue out when he had his back turned.

“She’s a monster,” groaned Miyabi.

The butler automaton slowly stood from the floor and made a request.

“I would like to accompany you.” He was clear and to the point. “She resides in the Bio Rainforest to the east, but that is a dangerous place. That deep forest is much too large to cross without a plan, but I should be able to guide you since I worked with her for a while.”

They stayed in the empty house for that day.

They got some rest to recover from their sea journey and to make sure Number 8 really was in working order again.

The redhead boy was clenching and unclenching his dominant hand while lying on the hard wooden floor.

(It seems fine.)

They were leaving the following morning.

Since this house did not belong to them and was not an inn, they had an extra task to complete before they left.

They had to remove all trace of their stay.

“Even if it’s empty, someone still owns it, right?” said Miyabi. “Yet here we are staying without permission. The criminal city really has gotten to us, hasn’t it?”

“We fixed the leaky roof and exterminated a swarm of Leftovers Flies bigger than a baby, so this was a good deed, really,” insisted Alicia. “Ugh, I didn’t realize the city had its own unique monsters. Gross.”

Making excuses to justify your crimes seemed like the first step toward a life of crime to Miyabi.

After leaving the criminal city, they traveled east.

The magical automaton spoke while walking along the open plains with a uniform pace.

“The Necromancer has a lab in the Bio Rainforest on the continent’s eastern side. An unofficial one with no national affiliation. We should reach it if we travel northeast from here.”

“I’m amazed there’s an actual road to that forest,” commented Miyabi.

The bumpy stone-paved road was partially pushed up by the powerful undergrowth. Eventually, the boy noticed someone he recognized up ahead.

“Huh? Is that that dancer with the bare midriff?”

“Is that how you remembered me, boy? The name is Iris. Iris Tempinvy.”

A slim woman with a midriff-baring blue dress and a long silver braid turned back toward him. She had arrived in the first village’s pub and ended up frequenting the clinic to look after injured Moebius, so what was she doing out here?

She smiled and clasped her hands together in front of her jiggling chest.

“I can’t believe my luck. I thought the Bio Rainforest was my only option left for continuing my recovery magic research, but now I run into some of his friends. Now, now. Where might Moebius Entrance be?☆ Spill the beans so I can nab him and drag him back to that clinic.”

“O-ohh…”

Miyabi was unsure what good a dancer was in battle or on an adventure, but the more party members the better, right?

He drew his control sword and stabbed it into the ground, opening a magic circle at his feet.

“I’ll send you to Horn Fortress. That’s where Moebius is.”

“Ah ha ha! I’m coming, my guinea pig! Don’t think you can escape my research and experimentation that easily!!”

The dancer may have been the bravest of them all because she actually grabbed onto the wire herself and let it carry her away. She made it look a lot like the trapeze at the circus that had visited his village a while back.

Helen Clockgear stared off into the distance.

“W-wait… If you kept Iris here, she could have done all the sexy infiltration work.”

“Hm, so you’re aware that work is entirely reliant on being sexy, are you?” asked Alicia. “Anyway, the terms like ‘guinea pig’ and ‘experimentation’ give me a bad feeling about her.”

Also, what did the Bio Rainforest have to do with recovery magic research?

There was only one way to find the answer to that: visit the forest for themselves.

This area was relatively warm and the scenery was colored by rolling green hills and blue streams. There was even a stone-paved road, even if it was a bit bumpy due to poor maintenance. Young Kananka occasionally rubbed his body chillily since he was still used to his tropical kingdom. What would he think if he saw the blizzards of the Arsenal Kingdom?

Number 8 spoke up while walking alongside Miyabi.

“Here is a water bottle, Miyabi. You need to stay hydrated.”

“Thanks.”

“Your hair is a mess. I will fix it for you.”

“Th-thanks?”

“Is there anything else I can do for you? No, I am at fault for failing to find anything more myself. Surely I can come up with something.”

“…”

As his (very curvy) teacher, Helen cut in between the two of them.

“S-stop spoiling my Miyabi right this instant! He can be lazy enough as it is!!”

“But I was designed and manufactured to be a butler.” The former imperial servant was unfazed. “I have no intention of rejecting the ideas any of you have about yourselves, but I excel at giving advice concerning preexisting problems.”

“I see. So you’re like a GPS or AI speaker.”

The radio hanging from Alicia’s neck accepted that, but Miyabi didn’t get it at all.

“Hm? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“People have their fortune told because there is something they want to learn about, such as their finances or love life, correct? Don’t the system and tools used – cards, crystal balls, etc. – differ depending on what you want to know? Magical automatons are similar. Just tell me what it is you want from me.”

Helen pouted her lips, still clinging to Miyabi.

She understood Number 8’s position, but she also wanted to avoid the butler’s endless spoiling turning Miyabi into a lazybones who never got up off his ass. The conflict was plain to see on her face.

Miyabi tilted his head.

“So what exactly do you want from me, Number 8?”

“Well, if I could have it my way…yes, I want you to corner me by the wall, slam your hand against the wall right next to my head, and speak the magic words: ‘You belong to me now’.”

“Just how overconfident and arrogant was your emperor!?” asked Helen.

“He went around calling himself an emperor. What did you expect?” said Alicia.

“A Kabe-Don and a demanding attitude? A bit retro, but I guess these are the tastes of a ruined empire.”

The radio was unsure how to judge this one.

Their journey continued smoothly for a while, but that all fell apart once they reached a certain point.

The temperature and humidity skyrocketed.

The colors black and purple became their entire world.

“Ugh!?”

The nature-loving elf held a hand to her mouth and groaned.

They had entered a deep, deep forest.

The trees were more like the tropical ones in Kananka’s island kingdom than the ones in the Blue Forest where Miyabi lived. However, this one had something the tropical forest had not. The entire place had a thin layer of water over it and thick roots spread out through that water like great serpents. The trees were growing on the water instead of the soil.

However…

“Stagnant water, a strange ecosystem, and rotting trees… This isn’t just the forest weeping, it’s like the forest is a zombie begging for a death it can never have. I can’t stand this place!!”

Alicia Blueforest had lived among the greenery all her life, so she had tears in her eyes here.

The poorly maintained road vanished altogether once they entered the forest.

Tree roots and a mysterious dark water took its place.

The water that came up to their ankles was colored black and purple and the concentration was far from even. The more concentrated areas had formed a purple film on top, similar to hot milk. They wanted to avoid touching the filthy water if at all possible, but that extra-concentrated film looked like it would eat their foot down to the bone if they carelessly stepped in it.

“Celina, can your filter handle this if you use your purification magic alongside it?”

“I would have to throw out the entire filter.”

Soaking up that water must have affected the trees because the leaves overhead were colored bright red, light blue, and other colors. Different branches growing from the same tree would have different colors of leaves growing from them. The red and yellow just looked dried up, but what had they absorbed to create those toxic pinks and blues? The trunks and branches had what looked like human faces covering them. Miyabi leaned in close to get a better look and found those were some kind of enormous moss. The trunks were coated in moss, plants and vines tangled around them, and they all absorbed each other’s nutrients. The soil was too weak to support them all, so the half-rotting plants had to leech off of each other for what little nutrients remained.

The weak would die off in this world.

That was the way of life anywhere in nature, so why did it appear so much more sinister here?

Everything was so wet and soft.

It was so bad Miyabi feared he would sink in and never again escape if he tried leaning against a tree.

Helen could hardly believe her eyes either.

“This is the Baboulas Rondo Bio Rainforest. The rich never could build any villas here because the tree roots were too strong, but it was supposed to be a beautiful forest where a mangrove enveloped the ruins of a megalithic culture. When did it turn into this?”

The dark, stagnant water reached their ankles and the serpentine tree roots were tangled around the stone ruins sitting in that filthy water. There was a nearly trapezoidal stone building, a circular plaza, and a giant face of unclear purpose. All the many ruins were dissolving away. A wet sound inexplicably came from within the thick tree trunks. Miyabi could not even guess what kind of animals lived here.

Celina held a hand over her mouth.

“Urp… I should have asked Rudolf for more detailed geographical information.”

“What, do you do business out here? With who?”

“Miyabi, pass north through the Bio Rainforest and you reach a desert nation. But thanks to the trees, ruins, water, and roots getting in the way, all of our shipping routes – including the Schwarz Schütze – took a detour around the forest. That may be why it took us so long to notice something was wrong.”

The situation here may have been even worse than the ruined Empire covered in red dust.

Celina grew even paler.

“But I can see why it would be a bad idea to walk around at random searching for the Necromancer. We would probably die long before finding her.”

They heard a dull splashing sound and Helen looked over in that direction before immediately going pale.

“U-um, there’s some kind of fish in that shallow water, isn’t there? I didn’t get a good look because the water is so dark, but I didn’t like the look of it one bit!”

On closer inspection, the thick tree root contacting the sticky water there had a bite mark in it. As if to say this was something’s territory. And that location would be difficult for any land animal to get at.

“P-please tell me we’re not talking about teeth so sharp they can take off our toes if we’re not careful!”

“A fish? Something like my kingdom’s freshwater Steel Piranhas wouldn’t be so bad.” Kananka looked reluctant to explain this. “But we need to hope it isn’t anything like the Bloody Candiru. See, they use an insta-kill attack where they sneak up on their target and charge straight toward a fish’s gills or a land animal’s crotch. And they can jump from the water, so lifting your hips out won’t save you. Their fins act like the barb on a fishing hook, so once they’re inside, there is no removing them. The occasional tourist who isn’t aware of the danger ends up with one right up their butt.”

“M-M-Miyabi, isn’t there anything we can do!? I demand you come up with a fundamental solution right this instant!”

Miyabi was plenty afraid of the creepy opaque water himself. He didn’t know the first thing about necromancy, but he had no desire to scoop up and drink something with that color.

“We can have Number 8 guide us and we need to stay out of the water. We can walk on the roots, driftwood, large lotus leaves, and stone ruins. Really, anything that’s sticking out of the water should be safer.”

“I just hope it all forms a convenient path to where we need to go.”

Kananka’s concern was valid.

And when nature did not provide them with a path, they had to make one themselves.

“Gwohhhhh!!!!!!”

They used Onelife’s brute strength to break down a rotting tree at the base, creating a makeshift bridge. Alicia actually looked relieved when she saw the tree felled by those powerful arms. She may have seen it as putting the tree out of its misery.

But even with all that, the journey was far from safe.

“Yikes.” Helen paled. “I’m afraid I’ll slip on that wet log or my foot will break right through the rotting wood.”

“Whoever loses a game of rock-paper-scissors can go first and test it for us.”

Number 8 ignored the cowardly humans’ complaints and crossed the bridge without batting an eye.

He moved with such purpose none of them had time to stop him.

“Magical automatons are immune to toxins, so I should be the one to test such things.”

“That’s a dangerous way of thinking. I bet that’s what led the Empire to its doom.”

Miyabi viewed the polluted area next to them as they cautiously crossed over after Number 8.

“We might have no choice but to step in that filthy water at some point, right?” he said to Kananka directly behind him.

“?”

“You see the patches of oily film? The purple ones, I mean. It would be best to avoid those.”

Miyabi was proven right once they had crossed the log bridge.

As soon as a falling leaf touched a patch of film that looked 100 times grosser than the film atop hot milk, it was enveloped and melted away with a sizzling sound.

“The water below those purple patches is so dark I’m afraid we would overlook one.”

“Carry a long stick and poke around ahead of you while you walk. If it starts to smoke and dissolve, don’t go that way.”

No one laughed at Miyabi’s suggestion.

The Necromancer had apparently built a base inside this deep forest in search of a sort of freedom different from what the criminal city offered…but all of this was only the side effects. What in the world was she researching in the depths of this forest? And how did a single person manage to distort an entire region so thoroughly?

They could see why the Necromancer had chosen a magical automaton like Number 8. His malfunctions had made it easier to deceive him, but he had also needed to travel through this forest. No normal person could manage that.

The butler automaton was the only one who did not look concerned.

“This way,” he said.

Rain as warm as blood began to fall.

Miyabi Blackgarden could not tell if this would wash away some of the black and purple filth or if it was even more dangerous.

He suddenly realized Alma had transformed again.

The creature was colored white with the horn sticking further out from its forehead than ever before. Alicia said this was a unicorn form.

“Alma doesn’t even come up to our knees, so this filthy water is a matter of life or death. This form must be better for purifying the filth. Ohh, don’t you worry, Alma! I’ll carry you the entire way!!”

Number 8 had worked with the Necromancer before, so he guided them through the Bio Rainforest full of toxins, mangroves, and stone ruins. The surface of the filthy water would occasionally part in the distance and a toxic-colored carnivorous fish would leap straight up. Maybe they were eating bugs flying near the water, but maybe they were showing off their ability to kill Miyabi’s party.

A distant look came over Kananka when he saw a wriggling fish that resembled a loach.

“Aaaand there’s a Bloody Candiru. Hard to believe they’re a type of catfish. And this one is a good bit larger than the ones in my kingdom’s freshwater. It looks 50cm, which is more than enough to destroy a human down there.”

“Eek!? I-i-i-is it going to lock onto us from below!?”

“I can see a freshwater Needle Fish too. Those react to reflective objects and can punch right through armor.”

Meanwhile, they heard some movement.

But this time it was not from the water. The rustling of leaves meant something was approaching on land. Celina jumped and grabbed onto Miyabi.

“Kyah!? Wh-what now!? Is one of the Necromancer’s gross experiments attacking!?”

“Miyabi, restrain that idiot! It’s a person! Don’t let her shoot them!!”

Eliza’s sharp command surprised even Miyabi.

A person?

Skeptical, he looked over and found it was true. A man was peering out from the entrance to one of the stone ruins half-buried in tree roots. The rustling came from the vines hanging down over the entrance. The middle-aged man wore filthy rags and his hair and facial hair were a mess.

On closer inspection, the ruins were larger than Miyabi’s home. The structure was built a level up from the water, keeping the black and purple water and its carnivorous fish and turtles out. The strange plants did not appear to be growing inside the stone ruins either.

But what was someone doing here?

Helen groaned when she saw the chest of his rags.

“The Elder Art Research Institute. That practical research institute is the best in the field of extreme environment biology. What is one of those magical elites doing in this rotting forest?”

“Because he is a former elite, I assume. Take a look around.”

Alicia gestured over with her chin.

He was not alone. Several more gazes focused on Miyabi’s party from the other stone ruins, from the branches overhead, or from hollows in the trees. They created the tense atmosphere of an exclusionary village facing outsiders.

Yes.

These were not travelers. This was clearly their territory and they lived here.

“E-eek!? I-I’m not causing anyone any trouble. That’s why I came to this forest in the first place! Mumble, mumble…no, now isn’t the time to see if they know anything about the Missing Dice. Hee hee hee hee!!”

A suspicious man was staring at them from the entrance to a nearly trapezoidal stone structure, but he did not seem to be speaking to them.

“Are they working for the Necromancer?”

Helen was wary, but that did not seem to be the case.

A stir surrounded Miyabi’s party.

“Leave us alone. We just want the freedom to do what we want. We don’t care about you, so just leave us be.”

“We’re not interested in necromancy. This forest is now a market of unspeakable research. You want to know what I’m doing here? What part of unspeakable didn’t you get?”

Miyabi felt like he had a vague understanding of this place. The rotting forest felt like it was taking years off his life every time he took a breath, but there were people who found it much more comfortable than anywhere else in the world.

Former elites.

Academics shunned for their research.

This was their final sanctuary. They were willing to sacrifice years off their life for every minute or second they could get to make progress on their research. The Necromancer’s violence may have looked like a sort of independence movement to them. Miyabi took another look around the contaminated forest.

“None of them care what’s happening around them.”

“A lot of them have never even seen the Necromancer,” flatly said Number 8. “They are just using each other. It is more like mutual parasitism than a commune.”

What had the dancer named Iris said when they ran across her on the way here? The Bio Rainforest was her only option left for continuing her recovery magic research.

When intellectual pursuits hit a dead end, they ended up here.

There were indeed people who were drawn to the rotting forest as a comfortable place for them. And they were all geniuses much smarter than Miyabi.

Kananka held his aching head.

“This forest is unbelievable. The pressure is running wild, but this isn’t the spirits.”

“M-most of the continent isn’t like this! There are plenty of beautiful places!!”

Afraid of causing a diplomatic problem, Eliza frantically started listing the continent’s better features.

The temperature was bad and the humidity worse. Celina wiped off her brow with a handkerchief and looked resentfully up at the blood-warm rain.

“I kind of excepted the Necromancer to be alone.”

Number 8 fielded that one.

“Mages in every taboo field imaginable gather around her. It can be hard to tell since they use the unmanaged and unprotected ancient ruins for their homes and labs, but it may be best to think of this as a sort of research village.”

“Hm, a group of people with an established society? Sounds like a job for our resident information gatherer.”

Alicia gave Helen a sidelong glance and the philosopher’s stone delivered the finishing blow.

“That’s right! A job for Venus!!”

“You expect me to wear that in this humid mess!?”

Miyabi’s party could tell they were not welcome here, but the locals made no attempt to attack them. These people and the Necromancer were mutual parasites trying to suck each other dry and these academics had grown detached from reality (or rather, they had all ended up here because they hated the demands of ordinary society). They felt no sense of obligation or compassion, so they did not even consider sending word to the Necromancer.

There were shops here, but Miyabi’s party had no way of using them. They did not even use money. Instead, they used a barter system where people traded their research results, either as a finished product or a blueprint. Information was valued more than food and water in this rotting forest. Acquiring those daily necessities required a combination of purification and disinfecting magic.

Celina held a hand to her forehead.

She looked as pale as someone who had toxic sludge dumped over their head.

“A-a world without money? This is a fundamental attack on capitalism.”

Meanwhile, they heard a somewhat frantic voice.

“Huh? What’s this, what’s this? Not every day we get some non-recluses in this rotting forest. Who’re you?”

“?”

One researcher approached them in a much more friendly way than the others.

She was a short-haired glasses girl. Her hat and her round pants were somewhat reminiscent of pumpkins.

She rested a large broom on her shoulder and smiled amiably at them.

“I’m Candy Lunaticover, a former Godhorn Tech researcher. Nice to meetcha☆”

“A Godhorn Tech…researcher!?”

Celina’s eyes widened at that casually-dropped bombshell, but Candy herself seemed unaware it was a shocking thing to say. She shrugged like it was nothing.

“A former one. Now I’m just one more eccentric researcher living in this rotting forest.”

“But why?” asked Eliza.

Candy winked behind her glasses.

“I designed all sorts of Godhorn Techs. I dunno how many were actually built, though.”

“…”

There would be more designers than just her, but if that were true, her power would have been distributed to multiple countries.

On the other hand, you could invent whatever glorious past you wanted for yourself inside this polluted forest.

“I’ve been everywhere on the land, in the sea, and up in the air, but that’s as far as I could go. I hit a dead end. The deep sea was pretty fun, but even that’s so limited. Once you can go anywhere you want in the world, it all feels so boring. None of it’s exciting anymore. But after agonizing over that one for a while, it hit me.” She pointed a finger skyward. “I’ve never been to the moon, have I? Woo hoo, wouldn’t that be cool!!”

“Are you serious?”

That was too large a scale for Miyabi to even comprehend, but Candy Lunaticover put her hands on her hips and laughed at the top of her lungs.

“As a heart attack! That’s why I’m spending all my time developing this explosive multistage flying broom. Yahoo! …Unfortunately, this research has a weensy little problem of not being profitable, so no country wants to fund it. I’ve heard of someone who works as a dancer to fund her research, but I’m not built for that sexy stuff. That left just one option: this paradise for recluses who just want to research in peace.”

“But isn’t this place dangerous? Everything around you is contaminated and there are tons of strange creatures.”

“Like I said, this is a last resort when you can’t find the freedom to research anywhere else. You have to be prepared for some health drawbacks. I’d be out of here in a heartbeat if there was a nicer place where I could research.”

“…”

“What’s with the meaningful silence? Wait, do you know a place that isn’t polluted where I’d be free to research!? Where is it!! Out with it!!”

Horn Fortress was isolated by a thick barrier or the cracks in the world, so no one would get after anyone for what they were researching there.

Candy rubbed her chin and looked up into the rainy sky.

“Hm, so you use the Lucifer Horn – a bomber type? Not the approach I would’ve taken, but I get the concept. Yes, there’s no rule requiring the broom to be launched from the ground, is there? Amazing! And if I go with a midair launch from sufficiently high altitude, I wouldn’t need a nosy country’s permission to build a surface launch pad. Yes, this could work.”

“?”

She started speaking to herself and calculating something far beyond Miyabi’s understanding.

Then she turned back to him.

“You have a deal. I’ll give you my knowledge as a former Godhorn Tech designer.”

“Eh, really!? That title sounds incredible!!”

“Again, former. I’m just a hobbyist now. And all I ask in return is you give me a new research environment. Will you let me work on that Horn Fortress place you mentioned? Pretty please? If it’s nicer than this rotting forest, I’ll gladly accept your recruitment offer☆”

After sending Candy Lunaticover away, Miyabi’s party resumed their march through the rainforest.

The people brave enough to live in this brutal environment appeared to walk across the water using stilt-like toys. Tripping would of course mean soaking yourself in the filth and possibly being killed by the carnivorous fish or the purple film. Miyabi’s party was not keen to try it out themselves.

They stuck to the roots and fallen trees sticking up out of the black and purple goop and watched their step as they traveled deeper in.

And eventually…

“It’s a dead end,” groaned Eliza.

They had come cross a large area of thick water with no impurities on which to safely cross it. There was a stone plaza past it, but it was more than 30m away. With the difficult-to-locate purple film and the various dangerous creatures lurking in the murky water, they felt no desire to cross it on foot.

But the butler automaton did not even tilt his head.

“I can cross it.”

“Ah!!”

He did not give them time to stop him.

Number 8 set foot in the dark sludge and sloshed his way across.

Then he grabbed something.

It was a bundle of rope and he tied one end to their side. After drawing it taut and tying the other end to the other side, he gestured them over.

The rope was positioned diagonally, so they only had to grab it and slide down to reach the other side.

Onelife stepped out in front.

“Oh, now this gets makes my manly soul happy!!”

“Wait, muscles-for-brains!! You need to protect your hands from the friction, or-”

“Hot hot hot hot hot hot hot!?”

The meathead started screaming partway down.

If not for his prosthetic hand, he would have been badly injured.

“He’s captain of a sailing ship, so how in the world doesn’t he know how to handle ropes?”

Thanks to that valuable test run, the others placed some cloth over the rope and used that protect their hands as they slid down. The carnivorous fish reacted to their shadows and worked hard to show off their ferocity in the water below.

However…

“We can’t do this every time. There won’t be a rope at each crossing and these cloths won’t last forever.”

Miyabi responded to his own complaint by holding his hand out into empty air.

It was too late to test these things out once they were already in danger, so he needed to get the trial-and-error over with while they could still afford some error.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice.”

The fragile rock crumbled and came apart into box-sized chunks which then lined up. The final shape was a bridge. Only Miyabi had this creation power. It had saved him and created footholds or shields countless times. It was only a meter tall and too narrow for a horse to cross, but he successfully created a Bypass Bridge.

But Helen’s eyes widened when she looked down.

“I-it’s breaking apart from where it’s touching the water!”

“That purple film again. There’s no time – hurry across!!”

Miyabi pumped his arms as he pushed onward, but then he sensed a great pressure from beyond the twisted trees. This was not like the researchers from before. The gaze he sensed was fiercer, more instinctual, and engulfed in rage.

Almost like someone lamenting the pollution of their home and lashing out with righteous anger.

Miyabi’s eyes widened.

“A real Beast Nova!? Now!?”

“Discriminatory language!! At least try to fix that habit!!”

Alicia shouted back with Alma in her arms, but now was not the time.

It was huge.

Miyabi had never seen anything like it. Would you end up with something like this if you forced a colossal slug to crawl across a salty surface? It dissolved and crumbled and gathered back together. The sticky life form repeated the process endlessly as it walked shockingly close by.

This creature did not belong in any known ecosystem.

It was bizarre even for a Beast Nova.

Could it only survive in the Necromancer’s base – this Bio Rainforest full of sinister sludge?

“That’s a bird.” Celina reflexively readied her control rifle and grimaced at what she saw through the sight. “I can see shriveled and degenerated wings on its slimy surface and also a twisted beak that doesn’t fit together properly. But I can’t imagine any reason to make something like this, so is this not even a result of the Necromancer’s research ? Is this just what extended exposure to that sludge does to animals!?”

Could they defeat this thing or not?

Could they fight at their usual level on such unsteady footing?

If they stabbed a sword into that thing, would its bodily fluids erupt out and splatter onto them?

Several questions spiraled through Miyabi’s mind, always in the negative direction, but the reality was even worse.

“!”

He noticed something.

That thing had not sensed their presence and it was not patrolling its territory in search of food.

He gulped atop the crumbling bridge. That mystery creature might as well have been made of the goop itself, and yet…

“It’s running away…in fear?”

“But from what!?” asked Alicia.

The red, yellow, bright blue, and toxic pink leaves rustled together and ripples ran through the sludge. Countless sounds joined together to form a sinister chorus. They were not as polite as Miyabi’s party. Even when they broke through a rotting branch, fell to the black and purple water, and flopped around there, they never stopped walking.

Because they had bigger things to worry about.

They were on high alert.

However.

When the tremor hit, Miyabi’s feet were nearly pulled out from under him.

No, the shaking was too much for the collapsing bridge, so it broke.

The situation was getting worse at an accelerating rate.

His legs just about locked up in fear, so when he shouted to the others, it was mostly to himself.

“Jump!!”

If it had taken even half a second longer for his mind to catch up, he would have still been standing there when the bridge fully collapsed into the filthy water.

Fortunately, they were only about a meter up. Even as it collapsed, the Bypass Bridge was divided into a few blocks. Some of those remained even as they sizzled and smoked, so they jumped from stone to stone, crossing the pond.

Falling back would only have made things worse for them.

They had no idea what was coming, but they could not avoid it without the freedom to move.

The shaking nearly tripped Miyabi and that would mean falling into the water where carnivorous fish and crabs lurked. He kept jumping from platform to platform until he reached the stone plaza. The circular plaza was situated a bit above the filthy water, but the blood-warm rain kept his back feeling sticky.

Alicia arrived a moment later and worked to keep her balance against the ominous shaking.

“Wh-wh-what is that!?”

“The Necromancer’s Godhorn Tech – the Deadman’s Fenrir,” groaned Onelife, man of the ocean trapped in a rotting forest.

Deep rumblings rang out intermittently. The shaking of the branches overhead allowed water to drip from the leaves, joining the blood-warm rain. They all understood these were massive footsteps.

They could not see it yet, but Miyabi could sense a clear change to the atmosphere. Something known as a king or guardian ruled in this deep polluted forest.

But instead of a ferocious beast found in nature, this was the bizarre product of necromancy. That seemed to best describe how twisted the forest was.

“She didn’t build the Wicked God horn into a piece of stone or steel,” continued Onelife. “Nhh, I’ve heard she stuck one Wicked God’s horn into another’s corpse, forcing the corpse to move again.”

“The pressure is unbearable. And so twisted.”

Kananka gulped while the one-eyed pirate helped support him.

Onelife was not the only one who knew how the Necromancer did things.

Number 8 did as well.

“I have heard Deadman’s Fenrir is a perpetual soul devouring device.”

“A what?”

Miyabi asked about the unfamiliar term while standing back up and Number 8 accurately nodded.

“It is known as a device, but it is fundamentally different from us automatons who use springs and gears to move. The corpse summons parasites and then kills those parasites to endlessly obtain more souls to devour and fuel its movement. It is a contraption of blood and guts that provides its rotting flesh with more strength than a living being could ever produce.”

“You mean…?”

Helen paled and took a quiet look around.

There was a rustling, but it was different from before.

This was not the leaves rustling as grotesque creatures fled from the Deadman’s Fenrir. This was the chorus of something much more sinister moving toward the great corpse. The nature and type of creature was audibly distinct.

The fierce presence was like a thick invisible wall at this point.

Unable to bear the unpleasant pressure, Miyabi glanced in that direction. It was like having a balloon filled with a hose while it was pressed against your cheek. As much as you were afraid of it popping, you would still give in to the urge to look.

And so he saw it.

He saw the color white.

And he screamed.

If powerful Onelife and Eliza hadn’t restrained him, he might have thoughtlessly taken off running and fallen right into the murky water with the deadly film on top.

“Ah, ahh. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

That was a color they hadn’t seen in this rotting forest of black and purple.

A wall taller than any of them pushed in from one direction. Something unidentified softly enveloped the trees, covered the stagnant water, and approached at unchanging speed.

They were bugs.

Something like maggots thicker than a human arm were gathered by the hundreds of thousands to form a massive wave. The carnivorous parasites were drawn by the scent of rotting flesh, unaware they were being lured out as food. Even the bizarre animals transformed by the forest were fleeing in a panic. The carnivorous fish and turtles awaiting prey at the bottom of the dark water were splashing their way out of there. Anything with the misfortune to be caught in that wave would not last long.

What was the worst way to die?

This felt like an answer to that most fruitless of arguments.

They seemed as numerous as the stars in the sky. Even as a mother Beast Novae trampled them underfoot in a last-ditch resistance, the white parasites ignored it all and kept coming. Their losses meant nothing, so they threw themselves into the polluted water and the purple film on top to continue their charge.

There was no stopping them.

Miyabi could not imagine how he could use his Godhorn Tech here. His imagination and ingenuity were at a loss. This natural disaster was truly unstoppable.

“Miyabi,” said Helen Clockgear.

“Y-yes!?”

“Miyabi!! Your power of creation is our only hope here. Instead of running blindly, you need to create bridges and stairs for a planned evacuation. They’re almost here!!”

When she held his head between her hands and shouted straight at him, he finally broke out of his daze.

Yes, running away was not the wrong answer.

The question was whether or not he could give that answer meaning.

They had to settle things with the Necromancer for manipulating Number 8 and Onelife into planting sorcery bombs. That would require facing her Godhorn Tech, the Deadman’s Fenrir. To do that, they could not die here. Being killed by the bugs summoned for it to eat was not how this was meant to go. They hadn’t fought it or even caught its attention yet.

Miyabi clenched his teeth and faced that fear once more.

His priority for now was just to survive.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

They had no idea what kinds of carnivorous animals lurked below the surface and they might overlook one of the purple patches of film on the surface, so safety demanded they avoid setting foot in the murky water covering the ground here.

But they could not let the swarm of white bugs catch up either.

That was why Miyabi created a Bypass Bridge. But to prevent the filthy water or the shaking of the ground from directly damaging the bride, he gave it no support pillars and only connected the box-sized masses directly to the thick trees.

They just had to avoid touching the dark murky water that was a hotbed of dangers, such as the purple film and the carnivorous fish.

Or so he thought, but once he tried it, the tree trunk thicker around than his torso readily snapped.

“Whoa!?”

With its support broken, the bridge tilted down like a slide, but there was no time to go back and try again. If they stopped moving, the parasites would engulf them. He attached more boxy Palette Dice to the broken end of the bridge, creating the next one.

It ran less than a meter above the water.

And the wall of creepy-crawlies was approaching all the while.

“Miyabi, can’t you burn them all away with the Lucifer Horn!?” asked Celina.

“I could, but I have no idea how far it would blast the filthy water!! Do you want that stuff splashed over your head!?”

“No, but can’t you build a roof over us!?”

He hadn’t thought of that.

He ended up using a Bypass Bridge for it. He held up his hand and built another bridge overhead to cross with their makeshift roof. Then he used his other hand to stab the control sword down at his feet.

A magic circle spread out and he raised his voice.

“Lucifer Horn, tactical open!!”

This time, he dispensed with the tricks and just fired a beam of light from straight overhead.

The blinding light dropped from the sky and then cut horizontally across the world.

First, they had to hold fast against the shockwave.

A short pause.

Then something poured down like a sudden rain shower. It was a mixture of the sticky water and the thick, white bodily fluids of the roasted parasites. None of them could say what would happen if a single drop hit them.

A sizzling as if from acid came from the roof over their heads.

Miyabi still could not relax. It took a lot to worry someone with a Godhorn Tech at their disposal. How much of that stuff would get on them if it ate a hole in their roof and leaked through?

“D-did that work?” asked Celina, holding onto him from the side and still trembling.

Nothing was stronger than a Godhorn Tech, yet this rotting forest was ruled by an anxiety not even the Lucifer Horn could erase.

They heard more rustling.

At the same time, Helen Clockgear looked away from the site of the blast.

“The Necromancer’s Godhorn Tech is made from a corpse that consumes the parasites to continue running, right?” She froze in place with her eyes in that direction. “A-another wall is coming from this direction!! D-did it call them in from every direction!?”

“W-w-w-we need to get out of here!! Alicia, Eliza! Hurry!!”

They looked like pale white worms and like fat maggots thicker than a human arm. No one would ever want to touch one, much less have them approaching in an “attack”.

One of them would have been unbearable enough, but this was a white wall. A tsunami.

This group came from much closer by, so it was going to catch up if they wasted any time at all.

(The Bypass Bridge…won’t be done in time!!)

“Argh!! Grab a stick, boy!!” shouted Alicia, jumping from the half-completed bridge into the stagnant water.

This increased the danger by a lot.

Fortunately, the approaching parasites had forced the carnivorous fish to flee. By poking around ahead of them with a stick longer than a mop, they could detect the milk-like film on the surface. They had to avoid that purple film as they advanced to minimize the damage.

“Onelife! You carry Kananka!!”

“Can do!! Nwahh!!”

The large man let the small king ride on his shoulders, a simple but effective method. It would fully protect Kananka from the water below, but he had to avoid hitting his head on the wet branches a little higher up. And it wouldn’t help at all if the parasites caught up.

“I will carry Alma!” said Alicia. “I’ll hold tight and never let go!!”

It was easily the most hellish escape they had ever made.

A deluge of rustling and splashing sounds pursued them, so they splashed through the filthy water and made their way between the rotting trees.

Their boots were soon full of the lukewarm liquid. It was only water and it made sense for it not to hurt, but the lack of pain still scared them for some reason.

Each step seemed to be taking them closer to death.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Miyabi held his hand behind him as he ran.

He was not bothering with a Bypass Bridge at this point.

He used all his strength to create a wall taller than he was, but it accomplished nothing. When the white wave hit it, it cracked and the fat white creepy-crawlies crawled inside to devour it from within. That seemed to hint at what would happen to him if those things caught up.

But things could always get worse.

“They’re coming from this direction too!!”

“Argh!”

“Don’t go that way, Miyabi! Look at my stick! It’s discolored from that purple film!!”

If Eliza had not grabbed his shoulders, he might have stepped right into that sticky mess. And that one step would have eaten down to the bone.

This did not seem to be a coordinated attack. The unseen Godhorn Tech of flesh and bone had not seen them yet. This level of pollution and danger was an everyday occurrence for the Bio Rainforest. Ordinary life could never survive here.

Thanks to the murky water and the fat white bugs, their paths forward through the deep forest were severely limited. They were losing options fast, like they were being driven through a funnel.

The next thing they knew, they had climbed up onto one of the stone ruins dotting the forest. A small stone plaza was attached to a nearly trapezoidal building. It put them higher than the filthy water.

“Ugh!!”

“Don’t, boy. Take off your boots and you lose any chance of survival,” warned Alicia. “You don’t want to walk around this forest barefoot, do you!?”

Once on land, Miyabi’s soaked boots felt so heavy and unpleasant. He wanted to strip them off and be rid of them, but that was not an option. He was terrified of being contaminated. Even the blood-warm rain felt clean by comparison. It was actually transparent, which seemed so beautifully pure. Not that he had any guarantee it was safe.

An endless stream of sticky sounds echoed from nearby, so Celina reflexively held onto Miyabi from the side. She had tears in her eyes.

“Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew! What do we do!?”

“…”

Number 8 briefly stopped blinking as he thought.

Only he remained calm.

“Pull that spear from the top of that building and stab it into the water.”

“A spear?”

They would have to burn the parasites away with the Godhorn Tech’s beam if that didn’t work, but they were so much closer this time. When the purple film and parasite juices were splattered everywhere, they needed a roof to keep it off of them, but that was useless if it splattered in from the side. However, they did not have enough time to build a sturdy shelter with a full complement of walls.

To repeat, the parasites were much closer this time.

“Can that spear really repel an entire wall of bugs!?” shouted Miyabi, eyes wide. “They’ll overwhelm me in an instant during a close-range battle!!”

“You will not be using it that way. Do not worry. The Empire that created me was the strongest military nation on the continent. You cannot match my ability to come up with lethal ideas.”

“Dammit!!”

Miyabi scrambled up the nearby trapezoid just like the butler automaton demanded. He grabbed the spear sticking into the gap between two of the giant stones forming the roof, but then he frowned. It was unusual to find a spear where even the long shaft was made of metal. Was this design because the wood would rot away in the Bio Rainforest?

And…

(Why is it scorched?)

He did not have time to pursue that question. Extracting it from the gap was a challenge since the blade was swollen with red rust, but he managed to yank it on out after grabbing with both hands. He staggered back when it popped out and nearly fell from the roof, but he managed to stop himself in time. It was pretty heavy. He shouted down toward the others with rusty spear in hand.

“I got it out, but what now!?”

“I already told you. Stab it into the water.”

On Number 8’s instruction, he threw the rusty spear from the roof. When he saw it clank against the plaza instead, he just about stomped in frustration but lost his balance and nearly slid off the roof. He frantically clung to the stone roof. Destruction and creation were meaningless at this point. It was a job for old-fashioned physical strength.

The wall of bugs was closing in and Helen shouted from the fear.

“Miya-Miya-Miyabi! Tell the Lucifer Horn to take me somewhere else – anywhere else!!”

He felt his internal pressure reaching its limit as he climbed down carefully, not wanting to slip and break a bone. What good was that rusty old spear? It didn’t look like a special magic weapon or anything like that. And if they only wanted a long weapon, Eliza’s control lance looked a lot stronger to him.

Once down on the plaza, he grabbed the spear again. Its excessive weight only made him more impatient. He did not have time to wait around. He jumped from the stone platform, planted his feet in the murky water, and stabbed the spear down with both hands.

Everything but the ancient ruins was ordinary, albeit submerged, ground covered by dirt and tree roots. No, he felt the spear stab into something softer and flabbier. He frowned at how it almost felt like he was piercing a rotting corpse’s chest.

Then he looked back.

“Okay, I did it. What next!?”

“You fool! Get out of the water!!”

“?”

It was not often that Number 8 yelled like that.

Miyabi heard a deep rumbling from overhead. The massive Empire had extended its knowledge in every direction it could and used all it learned for military purposes. The magical automaton containing all of that knowledge yelled a further warning.

“ Lightning is about to strike !!”

A pillar of electricity dropped from heaven to earth, striking the spear. Then it spread out across the murky water in a flash.

Miyabi managed to scramble onto the stone ruins in the nick of time.

“Whoa!?”

Kananka helped him to his feet and he looked over to see the fried corpses of the parasites.

“Hm, that worked well.”

“Was that an offensive use of a lighting rod?” groaned Helen.

Eliza belatedly gave her control lance a fearful look. She had it resting on her shoulder, as was her wont, but now she understood how dangerous it was to walk around with the tip sticking up.

Not even the great wall of parasites could escape the high-voltage current traveling through the sticky water. No, the great size of the swarm only made it harder for them to escape. When the lightning reached them from the water, it rapidly spread across the entire swarm since they were packed together so closely. The result was a series of bursting sounds and scorching smells. The water was now covered in parasites lying belly up.

But not even that lasted long.

Passing out must have switched off some kind of defense mechanism covering their bodies because their stomachs and intestines were eaten through by their own filth. With a sound much like flesh being burned by a chemical, their thick skin dissolved away, leaving only an unrecognizable white liquid floating in the dark water. The strange marble pattern was a lot like milk in coffee.

That had dealt with the parasites rushing in from multiple directions, so the rustling sounds were gone.

But solving the problem did not purify it.

The place was even more contaminated than before.

“Breathing in that chemical smoke would be a bad idea. We should hurry on.”

Number 8 was not biological himself, but he calmly assessed the situation.

“Nhh.” Onelife grimanced too. Since Deadman’s Fenrir is here, we must be getting close.”

The flesh-and-blood Godhorn Tech was going to notice that its meal never arrived and it had already caused this much trouble without even noticing their presence. How much worse would it be once it was actually trying to kill them? They wanted to avoid being on the receiving end of a surprise attack inside the deep and disgusting forest.

They needed to move from here, take up positions, and go on the offensive.

When you were at a disadvantage, you always wanted to hold the initiative.

Curious about the electrified water, Alicia crouched at the edge of the ruins.

“Will this water zap us if we touch it?”

“Don’t test it with me!!” protested the radio. “Machines are doubly vulnerable to that!”

Fortunately, her fear was unfounded.

They marched onward through the blood-warm rain, alert for parasites or deformed plants or animals. They could not afford to overlook anything and they could not predict what might happen. They spotted bugs and snakes camouflaged as withered leaves or vines hanging down from rotting branches, so even the nearby trees might bite them if they weren’t careful.

Miyabi used the Palette Dice to create Bypass Bridges, Onelife occasionally rolled large rocks to create new platforms, and Number 8 moved out ahead through the dangerous water to scout things out since he was (supposedly?) resistant to the toxins. Still, every step Miyabi took produced a sticky sound in his boots and all the warmth was sapped from his feet. He was growing seriously worried he would remove his boots to find he had grown webbed feet like a frog.

Helen took a nervous look around.

“Deadman’s Fenrir still hasn’t shown up.”

“It may be finding another supply of dead souls since we robbed it of that first one.”

The scariest part was how Number 8 was not smiling in the slightest, suggesting that was not a joke.

“What is that?” asked Celina, staring into the distance.

An artificial structure jutted up through the rotting leaves.

It was larger than the other ruins.

It was on an entirely different scale, so it may have originally been a temple for the ruling class.

Quarried stone had been stacked up to create an impressive mountain. They had seen a few nearly trapezoidal buildings already, but none had been this large. The stepped walls were covered in hemispherical containers, perhaps to hold fires. It was designed to make itself look big and grand, not purely for functionality.

Were the holes in the walls meant to be windows or doors?

An orange glow akin to red-hot steel came from those holes.

“…”

The contamination was so strong that simply seeing it – not even touching it! – sent a stabbing pain into Miyabi’s eyes.

This had to be the center.

The pollution covering the country-sized Bio Rainforest had spread from here.

“Oh?”

And someone was there.

She stood on the flat stone plaza spread out in front of the building.

She controlled such a large building, yet she was not using its roof for protection.

But it did not look like she had noticed the problem in Deadman’s Fenrir’s meal and rushed out with a weapon to attack the thing.

She was crouching down on one end of the plaza and using a dissolving metal implement to pick up the purple film and place it inside a test tube.

She cared more about research than combat or her own life.

This woman thought the forest was paradise.

“Not often the Bio Rainforest receives visitors who smell of the open sun.”

Miyabi felt like decadent was the best word to describe her.

She had long, wavy purple hair and the attractive features of a stage actress. She also had curvy proportions. Hadn’t number 8 said she had the traits of some region’s wealthy class? She had broken that down to give herself an even sweeter appearance. Almost like an apple beginning to rot.

Her clothing was like a cross between a village’s white sorcerer and a witch. She wore a witch’s hat, skinny pants, a midriff-baring vest, and a white coat. But what were the pants and coat made of ? They were strangely oily and patched together. Miyabi held a hand over his mouth when he realized the truth.

That was all rawhide.

And with how patchwork it was, some of that skin might have been human.

Whether it was still alive or dead flesh reanimated with magic, a lizard tail swished side to side from the back of her white coat’s hips.

“You don’t look like more researchers who ended up here after being kicked out.”

“The Necromancer.”

“Correct.”

It was like an attack.

She did not even consider running away or hiding. She may not have been aware anything she had done was wrong.

“But I would really prefer if you showed more reverence and love when you spoke my name.”

Cackling laughter reached Miyabi’s ears.

He readied himself for another foe, but it apparently came from the witch’s hat she wore on her head. A horizontal slit opened in the garment of skin and it spoke human language.

“Boss, I bet they’re new guinea pigs. Y’know, the kind of people who march up to their own execution for some unfathomable reason.”

“That guy’s just like me !” roared the crystal radio hanging from Alicia’s neck. AKA, the philosopher’s stone.

“Let me guess,” said the hat(?). “You’re one of those harem-loving losers who wishes he could get rid of all the guys!”

“Oh, and what’s your area of expertise supposed to be? Hag nostrils?”

“…”

The tools glared at each other while Number 8 spoke up.

“Necromancer.” The stiffness of his voice had to be more than just being an inorganic automaton. “Does my presence not remind you what you did!?”

“Nhhh!! You’re getting rid of my crew’s parasites!”

The Necromancer was cornered by Number 8 and Onelife, the two men she had manipulated, but she remained calm.

For that matter, she may not have seen this as being cornered.

“I have no interest in a living human or a soulless automaton.”

“Woo, go boss!!”

She was taking control.

Ordinary good and evil held no sway in this rotten forest. This woman had absolute control of the conversation. That scared Miyabi into shouting.

“Who cares what you think!? I just want to know if you’re the 11th or not!”

“Again, why should I bother responding to the living?”

With a rustling sound, she reached for the side of her hip. The rolled-up object attached to her belt there was probably a whip. Only “probably” because filthy strings of saliva dripped from it when she unfurled it.

Yes, saliva .

What kind of animal had that come from? Or had she destroyed an existing animal to force a mutation? Regardless, the whip was actually a tongue measuring several meters long.

It was likely her Godhorn Tech’s control device.

“There is more to the world than meets the eye. I am also interested in vessels capable of carrying ghosts. So if you wish to draw my interest…yes, why not make yourselves into ghosts?”

A heavy tremor shook the ground and continuous sticky sounds soon followed.

A colossal four-legged beast had appeared.

Pieces of it were rotting away and parasites spilled from the sewn-up wounds. The forcibly-attached Wicked God horn glowed faintly.

Overall, it may have been similar to a black horse.

However, a horse did not have strange, flabby tentacles implanted in place of a mane. A horse did not have its chest split down the center or its ribs clacking together like fangs. A horse did not have a long, chameleon-like tongue flitting in and out of its split mouth. A horse did not have overlarge muscles tearing its thick skin apart, countless stitches to contain those muscles, or thick chains both inside and outside those wounds to control it in some way.

And an ordinary horse out in the plains did not whinny while shaking a body more than 20m tall.

This was the Deadman’s Fenrir.

It might look small when compared to the Schwarz Schütze or the Icicle Bullet, but there was something blatantly unnatural about an animal that had swollen too large to support itself.

Miyabi felt a chill that shook the very core of his body, maybe because this one was based on an animal.

Or was this his disgust at a corpse that was not even living anymore?

This was closer to being a Wicked God, but it was undoubtedly not one.

In a way, the changes caused by the Deadman’s Fenrir were even greater than the bomber or the pirate ship. Just think how many parasites had pursued them through the Bio Rainforest. The swarm of hundreds of thousands of parasites was not even an attack; it was a form of resupplying and maintenance.

Number 8 had said it summoned the parasites.

Miyabi grimaced at a faint scent hanging in the air. It was not an unpleasant odor. The wounds gave off an oddly sweet scent reminiscent of rotting bananas.

“You are insane,” said Eliza.

During the riots in her own kingdom, she had attempted to act as her king’s shield without insulting anyone else’s feelings. That knight had tried to never give up on anyone, but now her eyes grew wide and she trembled in fear.

She was staring at the horn.

The Wicked God horn.

The sharp and twisted horn glowed softly at the center of the colossal horse’s forehead.

Oh, come to think of it, thought Miyabi in belated realization.

Something wasn’t right.

He had fought several Godhorn Techs now. He had destroyed the Schwartz Schütze’s sealed container and broken open the King Knot’s hull to expose its horn, but this was his first time seeing a horn that was always exposed to the air with nothing to protect it.

“You leave the horn exposed instead of using a sealed container? How can you possibly control something like that? Aren’t you afraid of if it obliterating everything in the vicinity, yourself included!?”

That alone was enough of a taboo, but there was more.

Death plus death would never lead to even a flicker of life.

Miyabi had assumed the horn had been forcibly reattached, but that was not an accurate description.

Another horn had been attached atop the broken horn, almost like grafting a plant.

The dead Wicked God’s body had been hijacked by another horn.

And that horn would be a portion of a different corpse.

Everything about it came from necromancy.

A faint glow came from the chains moving from rotting wound to rotting wound, and even to the tip of the horn. The unnatural number of eyes convulsed and glared at Miyabi’s party, but it was unclear if this was a conscious act or not.

That was enough to push Miyabi past his boiling point.

“Necromancer!!”

“What has you so worked up? You use a Godhorn Tech too, don’t you?” With sticky control whip in hand, the decadently woman opened a giant magic circle at her feet and whispered in an exasperated way. “You build a dead component into your weapon, draw out its power, and use it to your ends. All Godhorn Techs are a product of necromancy, so don’t get mad at me just because I don’t bother hiding that fact.”

Miyabi had known from the beginning that this was never going to end without a battle.

He stood a step up from the filthy water, on the plaza in front of the massive stone temple.

He faced a powerful foe there. This woman was the one Moebius Entrance had been pursuing. She had used the sorcery bombs herself and tricked or forced Number 8 and Onelife Shiftup to distribute them.

She was the 11th.

She was the source of it all.

A roar exploded from the Deadman’s Fenrir.

The great black horse neighing toward the heavens sent a physical shockwave radiating out from it. The invisible compressed wall tore the stone plaza from the ground, smashed it in midair, and used the scattershot debris to create a wall of destruction.

Miyabi did not bother holding back.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

He used the stone plaza itself to build a thick wall. He could not dodge the blast sweeping in horizontally, but he could avoid a fatal blow by sacrificing the wall.

He heard a bubbling sound as the smashed and scattered stone rapidly dissolved. This had not just been an explosion or shockwave. Some unseen factor had been spread with it.

“I thought it was only superstition.”

Crouched for safety, Alicia sounded dazed.

This was not her first time fighting against a Godhorn Tech, but Miyabi had never seen the elf so overwhelmed.

“They say any nonhuman that crawls back out of the miasma-spewing cracks in the world becomes a Wicked God. They say that potential is what makes us Beast Novae. I always thought they had made it up to justify their discrimination of nonhumans. And yet…”

Something like a black mist was flowing from the colossal horse’s mouth.

“Mi…asma?” muttered Miyabi, but it still didn’t feel real. He did not know much about magic, so he only thought of it like the secret to immortality spoken of in picture books. “Has she…has that freak been experimenting with that too!?”

“FYI.” The Necromancer smiled with her tongue whip in hand. But this was not a daring grin. She looked delighted that she had this chance to finally show off the result of her research. “That really is no more than superstition. External exposure to miasma has such a miniscule effect on the cellular level that any tissue would rot away long before any major changes had manifested. Conversely, injection or inhalation has too great an effect, so the tissue refuses to remain stable, resulting in something more like collapse than transformation. Thus , kicking a monster down into those cracks won’t create a Wicked God. That is the only logical conclusion.”

“…”

“Heh heh. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Humans do not run on petroleum. So if you want them to, you need to replace all of their blood vessels and internal organs before attempting the transfusion.”

So she had done so.

Most likely, none of this work had been absolutely necessary for the creation of a necromancy-based Godhorn Tech. None of it sounded so key and critical.

It was more like she had discovered an unusual metal and wanted to run every test she could on it.

This was just one of a battery of tests.

Finding that the superstition was indeed a superstition was a satisfactory result for her. She had violated the corpse’s dignity by ripping out its organs, reinforcing its network of blood vessels, and injecting it with untouchable miasma for nothing more than that.

“Can-” Helen shouted half in a panic while palely gripping her thick knife, that’s paralysis and poison magic were feeling awfully unlikely to accomplish much of anything at the moment. “C-c-can we contact Candy? She’s a Godhorn Tech designer, isn’t she!?”

“She claimed to be, anyway. And I doubt she would know anything about a flesh and blood one like this. This is like nothing we’ve seen! It has to be highly irregular!!”

This was nothing like the taxidermy Miyabi had seen at his village. Taxidermy preserved a large animal in its most impressive state so it could be shown off as a hunting trophy. The hunters were not cutting open the animal to alter it, harm it, or make it suffer. But the Necromancer enjoyed this. She had given up a comfortable life in a city and accepted life in this dark forest for it. And she had spread pollution for it.

“The corpse is only a corpse.” Young Kananka held a boomerang about as tall as he was. “The dead may not feel pain, but there is a downside. For example, it can’t heal even the smallest of wounds!!”

“Hm, I see. So we just have to attack and attack until it falls apart. In that sense, you are more of a weapon than a creature, Deadman’s Fenrir!!”

Celina readied her bayonet-equipped rifle.

The enemy was a 20m colossus, but the real fear was the miasma spewing from its mouth and the pollutants like the filthy water and the purple film spreading out around the plaza. They could not get close or stray too far, so keeping the right distance and continuing to attack with projectiles would be the best fighting style.

“Now.” The Necromancer smiled a little without even cracking her whip to send an additional command. “Is that really true?”

The stone boomerang glittering with magical jewels was large enough that Miyabi had mistaken it for an axe, so it was more brutal than a guillotine blade. Celina’s rifle fired alchemy-enhanced bullets, so it could attack with fire, ice, or any other type of damage.

But more than that…

“Watch out!!”

With the sound of scraping stone, sparks tore a line in the ground. This was an attack style no ordinary horse could pull off. It lowered its head and charged while scraping its horn along the ground. If Miyabi had not pushed Celina out of the way, the sharp horn would have hit her torso when the horse swung up its head. That deadly attack was meant for a confrontation with another Godhorn Tech, so it may have torn her to pieces more than skewer her.

The close shave left Celina staring wide-eyed, forgetting to even reload her gun.

“What!? It charged right into our attacks!?”

This was not a simple case of thick skin.

In fact, its muscles had swollen so far its skin had been split from within. The skin had to be as fragile as a rotting fruit’s.

Yet it had pushed through.

There was a simple reason.

“The wounds are closing?” Kananka could not believe his eyes as he skillfully caught his returning boomerang. “Can this corpse heal itself!?”

There was magic that transformed defeated birds and beasts into meat on the bone, but it was unlikely to work here. Target Cooker could apparently one-shot undead enemies because they counted as lifeless meat, but it would probably only take out a small portion of this massive corpse. And it could heal that damage soon enough.

Normal weapons were not going to cut it here.

Miyabi was the only one who could use a Godhorn Tech, but causing an explosion at this close range would splash them with the filthy water, the purple film, and any carnivorous fish that had failed to flee in time.

Miyabi immediately stabbed his control sword down at his feet.

“Please, Lucifer Horn! Combine your abilities!!”

First, a giant bomb dropped from the bomber.

Then a thick beam pierced it like a sharp kick from behind.

All sound vanished.

But the bomb did not detonate in midair. Instead, it was given a “push”, accelerating it down at unthinkable speed until it embedded itself in the colossal rotting horse’s back.

“That’d be classified as a photon rocket,” shouted the radio. “That’s better than a bunker buster! We’re talking future tech here!!”

The bomb exploded while fully buried in Deadman’s Fenrir’s rotting bones and muscles. The idea was for the blast to push out at and squash the internal organs, without any of the destructive power escaping.

But…

“What?” groaned Miyabi.

He heard a straining sound.

The massive weapon should have been buried inside that rotting body, but the jagged remains of its covering were pushed back out and rejected by the rotting muscles. Blood the muddy color of oxidized wine spilled out as the object restricting its movements was extracted. It was like a snake spitting back out the shell after swallowing an egg whole. It even tore open its own wounds further.

The remains clattered to the ground.

Stabbing a bomb inside it was not enough. This was not a living creature. It was a Godhorn Tech – a massive sorcery weapon – created from one.

“Sewing it up by hand was never going to be enough, so I added a self-healing function,” explained the Necromancer.

The colossal black horse extended its chameleon-like tongue and groped at its own body with it. Both the dark surface and the inside of the grossly-split wounds.

“It is a perpetual soul devouring device.”

“Kh.”

Miyabi had heard that ominous term before.

How had Number 8 described it?

“By devouring the parasites hoping to gorge on its rotting flesh, the Deadman’s Fenrir obtains the ticket needed to make use of their dead souls. Each one might be small, but that can be overcome with sufficient quantities.” Then the Necromancer pointed in a seemingly unrelated direction. “And this rotting forest provides as large a supply as you could ever want.”

The entire scenery seemed to strain.

Miyabi’s body and mind were not working in harmony. Just like when a bug fell from overhead and your hand reached out on reflex even though touching it was the last thing you wanted to do. He knew that was happening here as he stood on the stone plaza with control sword in hand, but his head still slowly turned.

And he saw it.

“They’re coming…”

He could only give the answer in a daze.

“The parasites are coming!! It’s that white wave again!!”

Hundreds of thousands of carnivorous parasites thicker than his arm were approaching. He could never survive if the wave swallowed him up. The enemy Godhorn Tech was right in front of him, but he had to redirect the Lucifer Horn’s focus elsewhere.

He stabbed the blade into the seamless stone ground and roared at the top of his lungs.

“From the control sword to the horn core! Lucifer Horn – tactical open!”

A corner of the rotten forest was sliced through by a beam of light and a massive explosion erupted a moment later. That had to be more than just the Lucifer Horn’s bombing. The gases emitted by rotting meat may have gathered in the forest.

“Do not fear, Miyabi. I can detect the state of the air using the path my boomerang takes. That explosion will not affect us!!”

But it did burn away the wave of parasites just before it hit them.

In addition to direct damage, they could obstruct the Deadman’s Fenrir’s recovery by cutting off its supplies. The damage was working, so they could force a win as long as they prevented it from continually recovering.

“By the way.” With a snap of the Necromancer’s wrist, her tongue whip swished through the air like a ribbon. She had it draw an arch over her head while still loose and relaxed. “Those parasites you so loathe are in their adult form. They are not larvae waiting to become pupae.”

“…?”

This was strange. And confusing.

What had the Necromancer just knocked from the air?

“'Which means the eggs and babies are much smaller .”

“This is bad, boy! Build a roof immed-!!”

Alicia tried to shout a warning after realizing something, but it was too late.

Something much more unpleasant than the blood-warm rain dropped on Miyabi’s right eyelid.

And it was not alone.

Something like the rice used for pilafs and paella dropped toward them like the stories of frogs and fish falling from the sky.

Except this “rice” was all squirming and wriggling.

Miyabi’s bombing and the flammable gas explosion had launched the parasite larvae high into the sky.

Hadn’t Onelife’s crew been infested by the parasites without noticing? That could not be explained with the ones thicker than an arm. The infection must have come from the eggs or larvae.

The realization caused Miyabi’s mind to explode.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Deadman’s Fenrir is packed full of convenient features, both inside and out, but the biggest problem is how I have to work so hard to ensure I am not infected myself.”

The Necromancer sounded like she was complaining how high veggie prices were recently. It was unclear if she was even speaking to Miyabi’s party.

Miyabi started to reach for his eye in a panic, but Alicia grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“Don’t rub your eye!! These parasites have been swimming through all that murky water. Maybe they were all in the especially dangerous purple film. I will get it out, so don’t move. Crush it with your finger and you’ll absorb all of the toxins right then and there!!”

“Eek!!” screamed Helen from elsewhere. She was throwing away her disinfectant and bandages. “This too!? Oh, and this!! It’s all soaked with parasites and filthy water!! Ugh, we can’t use any of it anymore!!” Convenient recovery magic did not exist in this world.

Magically healing wounds and disease required the creation of physical healing items known as White Sorcery Items, but a hand wound would require a different type than a leg wound.

Helen had said before that Compress Cargo was convenient but was poorly suited for combat since there was a 2 second lag before you could extract an item.

She must have kept her recovery White Sorcery Items in small pockets on her clothing instead of in her bag, but that had come back to bite her. Not that it mattered since the parasites and sticky water would have ruined them as soon as she removed them from Compress Cargo anyway.

In other words…

“ Now, care to remind me who it was that can’t heal in this battle? ”

“!!”

“The border between life and death is a fickle thing. But don’t worry. Humans do not cease moving just because they are dead. I will make very efficient use of you. I will turn you into something just as impressive as that Wicked God horn that continues to function in its broken state. Makes the difference between life and death seem downright trivial, don’t you think?”

“Damn you!!”

Was she saying it didn’t matter?

Alive or dead, humans were humans. And the dead ones were actually useful to her research. So did that mean she had no qualms about blowing away cities with sorcery bombs and creating piles of corpses?

Alchemist Alicia clicked her tongue, pulled out some test tubes, and tossed them all toward the water. Her physical boosting potions must have been ruined too.

They were growing disordered.

No, they had been disordered.

“Heh heh heh heh heh. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

The Necromancer roared with laughter.

That cruel researcher in the rawhide coat swung her tongue whip to knock away the small parasites raining down from overhead.

“Necromancy scares you? So it should be suppressed? There is obviously more to the world than meets the eye, but it’s taboo to even try to research ghosts? Not to mention that Godhorn Techs could be called necromancy since they use a Wicked God’s horn. And you thought I would fall short of the rest of the world in my own field? Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha hah hah ha ha ah ha ah ha ha!!”

“You’re the coolest, boss!!”

“Don’t just irresponsibly flatter her, you fool!!”

The radio shouted in protest, but things were heating up in a very bad way.

And.

Miyabi Blackgarden made a terrible mistake.

His enemy was the Necromancer and the greatest threat was the Deadman’s Fenrir.

The parasites and toxins were only distractions.

“Ah.”

He heard something scraping at stone, but it was still only dumb luck that he managed to push Alicia out of the way in time.

Finally and far too late, he turned to face the crux of the issue. He could see orange sparks charging toward him. They grew until they filled his vision. There was no dodging them now. He had seen this attack before.

The 20m or more horse was charging in at its top speed.

The Wicked God horn rushed in from below, thrusting up toward his gut.

It was like an upside-down lightning strike.

It seemed to gouge into space itself and Miyabi’s jacket tore.

Red blood flew and he felt his body twisting.

Yes.

He had escaped a direct hit.

The Lucifer Horn had flown by overhead, dangling a long, long wire that caught at the enemy horn and yanked it to the right.

That had forced the Deadman’s Fenrir off course, but the Lucifer Horn did not escape unscathed. The wire had been forcibly snapped and the intense force pulling back at it actually threw the bomber off balance.

It had been hit in the battle against the Divine Doll and it was possible it would eventually hit its limit if he forced it to do things like this much longer.

And…

“Gahhhhhhhh!?”

Some terrifying cracking and popping sounds came from within his body, but he did not have time to focus on that. Even if the attack had only torn his clothing, it had still exposed him to a great force and sent him into a rapid spin. He felt like a rag being wrung out. He could not even tell which way was up, much less brace for impact with the ground. He failed to do much of anything before his back slammed down against the stone plaza.

Now he could not even breathe.

It felt like his vision had shattered into a million pieces.

He could only scream unintelligibly.

“Music to my ears.”

He could not respond to the Necromancer as she approached him.

The decadent woman crawled on top of him and whispered.

“Good boy. You are now a step closer to death. So allow me to take a step closer to you. Remember when I said to become a ghost if you wished to speak with me? I like boys who know how to do what they’re told. So keep it up. Just stop your heart, cease your breathing, and die. Then I will love you. The pain and suffering are unbearable, aren’t they? If you want a peaceful and loving embrace from me, your best bet is to die.”

“Damn, sounding pretty sexy, boss!”

“Yes, shut your eyes. This may be too much for a child. But if you want, you can take a peek.”

“!!”

But he noticed the instant her attention was diverted away.

He clenched his teeth and swung his right hand from the ground.

His control sword had originally been a machete, but it was not small enough to aim for the head of someone on all fours over him. He failed to gain much speed, so she easily grabbed his wrist, sat down on him, and swung her head back.

She winked.

Then she slammed her forehead against his. Hard.

“One.”

She restrained his other hand before he could even think of using it.

And she did it again.

“Two.”

The blow rattled his brain like taking a hammer to the head, so he could no longer see her even though she had to be right there in front of him. Perhaps he had lost the ability to recognize the thing in front of him as a face. He shook his woozy head and she released his hands to grip her tongue whip with both her hands.

But not to whip her poor living sacrifice.

A wet sensation assaulted his throat. She had wrapped the whip fully around his neck.

“The closer you approach death, the closer I will approach you. So why not just die here? When you foam at the mouth, I will lick your lips clean. When the blood drains from your face, I will taste that delicious pallor. So there is nothing to worry about. You fear death because you know it to be painful and miserable, right? But that is a silly misconception. There is no pain or fear in true death. I am an expert on the subject, so you can trust me.”

“Gah…”

It was hopeless.

There was nothing he could do.

By now, he had noticed something was amiss. The Necromancer intended to strangle him to death, but why wasn’t anyone attacking her defenselessly exposed back? The answer was simple: they couldn’t.

Deadman’s Fenrir spewed miasma from its mouth, called in countless parasites with its sweet rotting flesh, and kicked the filthy water and purple film into the air with its hind legs.

That corpse was an incarnation of death and pollution.

And it was a Godhorn Tech.

With Lucifer Horn and Deadman’s Fenrir, it was a clash of the strongests. But what if one side was lost? No matter how powerful his party members were and even if they had once wielded one of the 10 Godhorn Techs, they could not hope to win with only ordinary weapons or control devices.

A tremor of the ground assaulted Miyabi’s back.

Helen had lamented that she could no longer heal them.

Had some of them been hit by Deadman’s Fenrir and taken out of the fight? If he did not get them out of this forest and to safety as soon as possible, they could reach a point of no return.

If Miyabi died, it was all over.

So much that he cared for would be crushed below that Godhorn Tech’s rotting feet and then the smashed bones and organs would be made into this woman’s playthings. And it was the same for everyone on the continent. With each city or castle blown away by the sorcery bombs, she gained more corpses and dead spirits.

He could not lose.

He could not afford to lose.

Yet…he could not think of anything to do.

“Accept the natural phenomenon of death.”

The tongue whip constricted so tightly around his neck he felt like his head was swelling.

“You’ve lost all your baby teeth at your age, haven’t you? As a boy, your voice has changed too. Are you starting to grow a beard? Were you surprised when you first saw the hair down there? This is no different. The ordinary changes can seem scary at first, but after the fact, you realize they were nothing to fear. So experience death and overcome it. This is the final rite of passage we all must complete.”

More than the breath, it was the lack of blood to his head that caused his thoughts to scatter.

Even the concept of “resistance” faded away.

“Kah…ah?”

“The one advantage of the living is how each and every one of them can be made into a corpse if you kill them. I shall make an adult out of you.”

So when it first happened, he had no idea if he was imagining it or not.

Either way, he saw a sword slash drop from heaven like a bolt of lightning.

He had no idea what had happened. In fact, was this even possible?

Deadman’s Fenrir was instantly split in two and its two halves stickily collapsed into the dark water. From the horn on the forehead, down the thick neck, and all the way across its large back, the beast was sliced into two perfectly symmetrical pieces.

Someone stood there.

Someone with such an overwhelming presence that the Necromancer, who had twisted the very environment, was overshadowed.

“ Eh? Huh? ”

“ A-a one shot!? ”

The decadent woman and her inhuman hat were both taken aback. Still straddling him, her hands loosened on the tongue whip strangling him.

Miyabi could not get up, but he could get his voice out now.

“Cough, cough, cough!! W-who are you!?”

No response.

He looked like an old man.

But he could not guess at an accurate age because the man wore a smooth mask that fully hid his face. He wore a loose outfit that looked like some kind of foreign attire and he held…a sword?

Had he really slain Deadman’s Fenrir with no more than that?

Again, was that even possible? That thing was a colossal rotting horse swollen to 20 meters with a Wicked God horn attached. How had he done it!? A human-sized sword should have been like a toothpick to it!!

Light flashed a moment later.

It came from the side and targeted the Necromancer.

“Gah…ah!?”

There was nothing she could do.

The horizontal line of red appeared below her chest but above her navel.

She had been attacked with a blade capable of slaying a Godhorn Tech in a single strike. No defensive stance or evasive maneuver could have avoided this. The critical mask made by the researcher of death was freezing up after witnessing something truly unexpected. With her legs spread to straddle the boy, evasion had not been an option.

Red sprayed out.

The color splattered across Miyabi below her.

She collapsed forward with a look of disbelief, so he caught her in his arms. Even she still had the warmth of life in her.

Only then did the world return to normal .

He was no longer viewing the world through the oddly detached viewpoint of someone approaching death. He felt the air on his skin like normal and his tunnel vision had faded away.

He held the injured Necromancer and scooted backwards. He wanted to get as far away from that masked old man as possible.

Then he heard his party members’ voices from quite nearby.

They were so distinct he was amazed he had not heard them until now.

“Gh, what is with that sword? Its presence is just as powerful as Scwharz Schütze. Wait, could that sword – that katana – be a Godhorn Tech!?” shouted Celina, wiping the filth from her head with a handkerchief. Miyabi could not say if she had been knocked to the ground during the battle or if the eruption of gore from that bisection had hit her.

Some others agreed with Celina’s instincts that something was wrong here: Number 8 and Kananka Fulpen.

“What is this pressure? It is interfering with my internal components.”

“That man himself isn’t normal. This abnormal pressure is even greater than that monstrous corpse!!”

The massive magical empire and the remote island kingdom had both developed their own theories about unseen powers in order to harness them. They were speaking from that expertise here.

That old man himself was out of the ordinary.

He said nothing.

Miyabi could feel the Necromancer’s warmth in his arms.

He could sense her pulse and breathing gradually weakening. Worse, it felt like the deep sword wound was pulsing separately from her heart.

His tunnel vision was gone.

That meant he could focus on something other than his own death.

That allowed him to identify the most pressing problem.

“This is…agh…bad. If the Necromancer dies, what happens to the pirates’ parasites!? How do we get them an antidote or vaccine or whatever!?”

“!?”

Onelife grimaced.

The masked old man did not seem to care.

“ The horn. ”

He spoke in a way that said he could not see anything else in this wide world.

His voice was unusually dry and scratchy even for an old man. After hearing that, Miyabi would not have been surprised to find there was nothing but a gaping hole behind the mask. In fact, finding an ordinary human face would have felt wrong.

“ You too possess a Godhorn Tech. ”

The tip of his sword was directed at Miyabi Blackgarden.

He was only interested in the boy out of all the people here.

This was not over yet.

Whoever he was, he was not here to rescue Miyabi.

“Hey, we should get the hell out of here.” The radio sounded dazed. “This is what I’d call an unwinnable fight. Trying to fight a master swordsman is better known as suicide!!”

“Kh…”

Miyabi was only holding the Necromancer in his arms because she had fallen toward him, but she felt like an entirely different person from the one who had intentionally straddled him. No matter how light you might call them, a human was still a heavy burden to carry. This opponent had bisected a Godhorn Tech from beyond his sword’s length. There was no escaping him while carrying something heavier than a sack of flour.

But she was the key to everything.

Even if she was an undisputable monster who had desecrated life, distributed sorcery bombs, and done so much harm to the natural environment here.

There was no saving Onelife’s pirates from the parasites without getting her to say how to heal them. Miyabi had promised that man he would solve that problem.

Just then, Miyabi heard something like an approaching wave.

A swarm of parasites had crashed into the masked old man from the side. Only one being in the world could do that: Deadman’s Fenrir.

“That undead freak survived such a clean bisection!?” shouted the radio. “Is everyone in this crazy jungle a monster!?”

Miyabi did not answer. Instead, he clenched his teeth and adjusted his grip on the Necromancer’s limp form. Then he turned his back on the sword-wielding assailant.

The parasites rushed in. The panicked Beast Novae must have been pushed to action as well. The Godhorn Tech had forcibly reunited its two halves using its many tentacles and it snapped through the rotting trees as it kicked off the ground and charged in for a do-or-die attack.

However.

There was no ground-quaking roar or shockwave.

The sound of the sharp blade slicing through the air was far too light.

It was enough to make you want to cry.

That was all it took for one side to be defeated, so the sense of danger racing up Miyabi’s spine remained unchanged. He could not bear to look at it. Now was not the time to stand and gawk. The Deadman’s Fenrir could not have thought its attack would result in something different from before. It would be bisected again, but it made that final attack regardless.

It had lost, but it still forced the masked old man to focus on it. It could take some of his time, no matter how small. And it had decided that was good enough.

As long as it created enough of an opening for the Necromancer to escape!!

“I get it.”

Miyabi looked away.

Like he was shaking free.

He considered how many sacrifices had been made to give him this 1-second opportunity. He reflected on the nobility of making such a choice without hesitation.

So he carried the injured villain away while shouting back at their savior.

“I have her, so don’t you worry, Deadman’s Fenrir!!!!!!”

The fear of that masked man’s gaze pierced Miyabi’s back, but he brushed it off.

At any other moment, he might have frozen on the spot, but no paralysis could stop him now.

He had to do this.

Of course, his efforts would be little obstacle for that old man wielding a special sword known as a katana. His most desperate efforts would be casually sidestepped.

But he had a moment to work with.

To use this hard-won opening to its fullest, he and his party ran as fast as their feet would take them.

They had just one goal: leave the deadly necromancy forest with their lives.

“Hey, I thought that was just a corpse with another Wicked God’s horn attached, so something like moving a dead frog’s legs! Why did it protect the Necromancer without being told to!?”

Helen kept trying to look back as she ran, but Eliza stopped her.

The chivalrous knight may have had her thoughts on the matter.

“Stop, it would be crass to search for an answer there. We know it wielded its great power to save someone. What else do we need to know!?”

But all of this would be for naught if the mysterious intruder caught up to them.

The Necromancer was a villain.

She was a hopelessly bad person.

But her life had been entrusted with them. She had desecrated death, toyed with people’s bodies, and become the center of the forest’s pollution, but that Godhorn Tech had still served its lonely master.

Perhaps it had wanted to guide her away from necromancy and in a healthier direction. Perhaps it had failed to do that and decided to at least keep her company.

There was nothing to suggest that.

It was probably just a figment of Miyabi’s imagination.

But even if the Deadman’s Fenrir was nothing more than a pile of flesh, its final act had shined with the light of a soul. There was something noble within it. It had style and grace. It carried some unseen factor that a simple village boy like Miyabi Blackgarden could respect.

Which was why it had refused to die even as it rotted away.

The woman was a hopeless villain, but Miyabi would never forget how that creature had fought to the very end to protect her!!

“Kh!!”

However, the reality they faced was cruel. He had decided not to abandon the Necromancer, but he could barely carry her. Plus this kept him from using his hands.

And the Lucifer Horn was near its limit.

He would be lucky to get in a single surprise attack. It would likely be cut down in an actual battle.

“I don’t think we can use our weapons or Godhorn Tech. We need to focus on escaping!” he shouted.

He did not even have time to use the power of creation to move the Palette Dice and create Bypass Bridges or Layer Stairs. Onelife tore a branch from a rotting tree and Alicia and Helen grabbed long sticks to poke at the filthy water ahead of them and search out paths they could use.

“Something doesn’t add up,” said Miyabi while carrying the Necromancer’s limp form. “He sliced the 20m Deadman’s Fenrir in two with a single strike.”

“Yes, and!?” asked Alicia.

“But that didn’t happen when he attacked the Necromancer. Look, she’s badly injured but intact. Why? There shouldn’t have been much left of her.”

Alicia gasped and Miyabi continued.

“You were saying that weird sword – was it called a katana? – might be a Godhorn Tech, right? Is there some secret there?”

“It is likely a Wicked God horn,” answered butler-uniformed Number 8, made from the best technology available to the Empire who had once operated the most Godhorn Techs on the continent. “When the Deadman’s Fenrir was defeated, I sensed two invisible pressures. The second sent a massive amount of energy into the wound and shredded the target Godhorn Tech from within. He intentionally let the powers of his own horn and the target’s horn reflect off of the inside of the Godhorn Tech’s skin to tear the initial wound further open. But a human’s body does not deflect that kind of energy, so it would simply leave your body. Just like how a window does not shatter when shot by a sniper rifle.”

“So that thing was developed as a…pure Godhorn Tech slayer?”

Celina gulped with a look that said she had never even considered the possibility before.

But the magical automaton expressionlessly shook his head.

“I am not so sure. It may be that he found a different use for a weapon that already existed. Since he was planning to fight Miyabi’s Lucifer Horn, he may have simply forgotten to switch it to anti-personnel mode.”

This opponent used a sword, so they were safe as long as they did not let him approach or see them.

Or so Miyabi thought.

“Get down, Miyabi!!”

“!?”

Kananka sensed something and shouted a warning. The instant Miyabi lowered his head, everything was sliced through at the same height. It was a horizontal sword slash. Even the blood-warm raindrops were sliced through, all the rotting mangrove trees slid to the side partway up, and they collapsed toward Miyabi’s fleeing party.

Of course…

“Gahhhh!?”

This was not a case of missing due to poor aim. When the trees fell, they splashed up the dark water onto Miyabi’s party. None of the extra-concentrated purple film was in it, but the water could still be fatal to the Necromancer with her open wound.

“What, is this the horn’s power too!?” asked Miyabi.

“You can’t use them so directly,” explained Eliza. “Why do you think they’re kept inside a sealed container? Release their power as-is and an explosive blast will spread in every direction, transforming the entire rotten forest into a massive crater!”

Eliza had answered on reflex, but she may have accepted for herself that the she was seeing something that violated the rules as she understood them.

“The rain is trembling…but not because it laments the pollution it will find once it falls. Does it fear that blade?” muttered young Kananka. His phrasing was based on his culture, which made it hard to understand. “I can’t believe that man. I bet he swung his sword to slice through a falling raindrop with enough force to rapidly vaporize it. Then he used that water vapor to ‘push’ at things. That is how he sliced through the trees.”

“You mean a single raindrop was superheated and instantaneously stretched out impossibly thin and wide? Th-that’s absurd!” shouted the radio. “That’s beyond what brute force can accomplish!! This goes beyond modern science. Can you really adlib your way to nonsense like that!?”

Then Alicia came to a stop and cursed.

“Damn!! That must have stirred things up in the water. Hurry back the way we came!!”

“Back!? But the masked old man is after us!”

“Do you want that purple goop to dissolve your legs!?”

The sight of Alicia’s stick dissolving into chemical smoke was enough to silence Celina’s objections.

But the Bio Rainforest was vast and labyrinthine. If the direct route was cut off, they would have to take a lengthy detour. Kananka was exhausted and veered off course, so the pirate had to grab him.

If they lost their bearings, they could end up wandering in circles.

“Look to the sun,” said Eliza, mostly for her own benefit. “Use it to keep your bearings.”

The rotting forest’s fauna included everything from the white parasites to mutated monsters that did not even qualify as ordinary Beast Novae anymore, yet none of it was in evidence. While the Deadman’s Fenrir had skillfully made use of the parasites, this swordsman pushed everything away.

He could do all this even from a distance.

They could not give up just because they had been stopped and forced to take a detour. If he got close, they had no chance of winning. They had all learned that lesson today.

“Pant, gasp!!”

Alicia clicked her tongue when she saw Miyabi trying to catch his breath.

“Tch. Carrying that injured woman is slowing us down!”

“Boss…”

“God, she is nothing but trouble.” The radio was not happy. “If not for the parasites, we could just dump that villain out here!”

“No!” shouted back the hat. Even after everything, it could not abandon this emotional bond. “Don’t leave her behind!! I’ll do anything, so please!!”

“…”

“Please!! Save the boss! Wahhhhh!!”

Miyabi knew it was not worth it, but when he heard that, he clenched his teeth and once more gathered strength in the hands holding the unconscious woman. Deadman’s Fenrir and the mystery hat were a disturbing pair, but the Necromancer had not been alone. They had tried to protect her from isolation and they had left her fate in Miyabi’s hands. Even though they cared about her life more than anything.

She was a villain, so she could never be forgiven.

Once they had a way of rescuing Onelife’s crew from the parasites, they could leave her to die.

But was that really true?

The Necromancer was undeniably a bad person, but it was up to Miyabi to decide if she lived or died. If he dropped her in the purple film floating on the water, the toxins entering through her wound would rapidly destroy her organs and blood.

In fact…

Would it even matter if he saved her? She had promised to save Onelife’s crew, but she was a known liar. There might not even be an antidote or vaccine for the parasites.

The part of him arguing to give up on her was a weakness he had to fight.

“Ghhh!!”

He pushed the weariness from his arms to fill them with further strength. He could not drop this wounded woman.

He kept running.

He ran without looking back.

He didn’t even want to know how close the deadly assassin had come. It was a miracle he had not been cut down from behind already.

The enemy had only a sword, yet his actions were entirely unpredictable.

That was a sword-sized Godhorn Tech, but it was not just a source of raw power. There was clear skill behind its usage, both in the Godhorn Tech slayer move that one-shotted Deadman’s Fenrir and the long-distance slash using vaporization. Miyabi would never be able to use it in the same way.

The Necromancer slowly opened her eyes in Miyabi’s arms.

“Ugh…you? Why?”

“I honestly don’t know. Part of me is still telling me to dump you here!” desperately shouted Miyabi. “But we can’t remove the pirates’ parasites without you. And more than that, those two were struggling to save you despite being powerless! That Wicked God worked to save a rotten villain like you even though it meant bisection and this other guy kept begging us to save his ‘boss’!!”

“Uhh…”

The decadent woman grabbed the brim of her hat with trembling fingers.

Then she looked up at Miyabi.

“You…”

“You made this mess, so you’re gonna clean it up! You were behind the pirates’ parasites and the sorcery bombs, so this should’ve been the end of it! So what’s the deal with that masked old man!?”

He shouted and ran until the Bio Rainforest’s exit came into view.

Eliza’s weary face lit up.

“Pant, pant. Almost there. We’re almost at the exit!!”

The escape had been tougher on her with her large lance and armor weighing her down, so she had obvious relief and hope in her voice as she made sure her feet did not get caught in the dark liquid.

But…

“Ugh!?”

He stood there.

Right in the way.

The white masked old man held his fearsome blade casually in one hand after reaching the exit ahead of them.

Miyabi bristled and shouted.

This one old man scared him more than all the monsters and parasites filling the forest.

“Goddammit!! We just can’t lose him!!”

Time ground to a halt.

He could not ask the Lucifer Horn to fight anymore.

No, he probably wouldn’t even have the time to stab his control sword into the ground and activate the magic circle.

The man took a sharp step forward.

He faced them with his eyeless and mouthless mask.

Miyabi could only watch helplessly as the sharp sword swung upwards to aim toward his neck.

And then…

“Koo!!”

A small cry and figure intervened.

That was enough for the old man’s sword to hop up and away from the party. Almost like he wanted to avoid taking that small, defenseless life more than anything.

“!?”

The old man froze in place and appeared to be analyzing his own action.

And then he came to a realization.

“Oh, ohhh…”

“Wh-what is this?” asked Alicia. “What did Alma do?”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He screamed like he was trying to tear apart his throat and chest.

Miyabi gave a start, but the masked old man had already vanished. Miyabi had not even seen him jump in any direction.

None of them could move for a bit.

“A-are we safe now?” Miyabi asked in a daze.

“Koo?”

Horn Fortress was found somewhere out on the ocean.

That secret base had started out as a desert island and Moebius Entrance now smiled thinly there in his wheelchair.

“If he’s causing trouble across the continent with such a large group in tow, he’ll probably run across him before long.”

He sounded both sad and irritated.

Even if he had a smile on the surface.

“History’s very first Godhorn Tech user – the Lord of Ruin .”

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 5

Development is coming along nicely, concluded dwarf craftsman Garett Goldcave, looking up at a giant structure.

Before, he had only built some small stone or brick buildings here and there on the island, but he had added on enough extensions that they were now complexly intertwined and stacked on top of each other, creating a bizarre sort of castle. He had not planned this out, so the interior had an inefficient and labyrinthine layout, but it was accomplishment enough that the unplanned structure did not collapse under its own weight.

He was finally at the point where the materials abandoned around the island would be useful.

He and the others could do most anything with the facilities they had created. Whether they wanted to cook or manufacture, they just had to draw out an accurate plan of the fuzzy idea in their head, process the materials, and assemble them.

For example, they could create bombs for the Lucifer Horn and help it resupply.

He had of course received help from the others in this.

The dwarf craftsman was joined by many other technicians. The gasmask girl named Marietta Diggrave had gathered imperial documents without realizing their value. The maid named Angela Custardmare had frequented enough mansions and castles to know a lot about their structure. The bunny girl named Eluné Jackpot and the gang daughter named Phobia Neverjudge were familiar enough with crime to know how to construct secret tunnels and doors. The former Godhorn Tech designer Candy Lunaticover could bring everyone’s fragmentary ideas together into a final product. The nonhuman and non-dwarf knowledge of the elves like Cliff Blueforest and Lillian Greenforest had come in handy as well. All of their knowledge had fused together to develop the unorthodox techniques needed to keep such a bizarre castle standing.

(Still, I think I was right to create some gargoyles and golems as soon as I was set up for metalworking. We can all design things and come up with ideas, but I need more help on the actual construction side of things.)

“Yes, you’re all such good boys. It’s time for your daily winding.”

He had the look that a grumpy old man reserved for his grandchildren.

This here was one of the biggest facilities.

“Nhhh… It’s been so long since I was kicked out of my guest researcher position in the Arsenal Kingdom and forced to earn my research funding as a traveling dancer, but I finally have a clinic all my own!!”

Iris Tempinvy, the dancer with a long silver braid, lifted her arms and stretched her back. She primarily researched supposedly-impossible recovery magic, but she had apparently been working as a dancer to fund that research.

Garett gave a snort.

“Hmph. Clinics are best when they’re rarely used.”

“Unlikely to happen on an island crawling with venomous snakes, venomous spiders, bears, tigers, and even the undead. Of course, we have all of them to thank for the plentiful materials and food.”

That brought into question what exactly they ate on this island. Life on a desert island was not always pleasant.

“Shouldn’t we consider trying our hand at some fields or paddies?”

“I think none of us wants to accept that we’ll be stuck on this desert island long enough for crops to grow, but it is true we’ll run out of animals eventually if we keep relying on hunting alone.”

Garett and the others had walked all around the Horn Fortress island, making it into their own backyard, but they had not run a detailed ecological survey. They could be stuck fighting against starvation tomorrow if they ended up killing and eating the last of some birds or beasts that they mistakenly thought were plentiful.

“If we do plant some seeds or seedlings in a field, the animals might come along and try to eat them,” said Garett.

“Wouldn’t that just mean more delicious meat for us?” asked Iris.

“Sigh. If I want someone to till the dirt, maybe I should go to Marietta since she’s an expert at digging holes. But this will work differently from the previous construction. I hope I don’t let my guard down and injure myself.”

“Oh ho ho. I hope you bring me plenty of scrapes and scratches to work with.” Iris laughed in delight, slapped the center of her chest, and winked. “We have a clinic now. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for the excitement of a serious wound. Moebius is a fine guinea pig, but it gets boring with just the one.”

“…”

“I also want to experiment with some trickier magic! Anyway, I just need patients, so make sure you come to me with any injuries☆”

### Profiles

Cate Tornadodancer

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 160cm

A former queen of the battle arena. It was recommended that she retire because she won so reliably it hindered the gambling side of the arena’s business, so she now wanders the world using the money she had won. Her skill was developed in the show business of the battle arena, so it isn’t much use in real battles and she can’t let anyone know her journey’s true purpose is to retrain herself from the ground up. Her ultimate goal is to be strong enough to break off a Wicked God’s horn.

Candy Lunaticover

Age: 14

Sex: Female

Height: 155cm

A genius designer known as the youngest person to draw up the plans for Godhorn Techs. Since she has already conquered land, sea, air, and even the deep sea, she has set her sights on outer space as her final frontier. She is searching for a Wicked God horn in order to create an explosive multistage flying broom capable of breaking the bonds of gravity.

Godhorn Tech Corpse: Deadman’s Fenrir

Pilot: The Necromancer

Affiliation: None

Size: Shoulder Height – 18m, Head Alone – 6m, Shoulder to Rear – 24m

A real Wicked God corpse had its horn removed and another’s horn attached to forcibly restart it, making for the most unorthodox Godhorn Tech of them all. More like forcing a rotting corpse to continue moving than a simple organ transplant. It is overflowing with various parasites and its dead flesh calls in more parasites to be killed. The souls of those dead parasites are converted into necromancy power, making it something like a semi-perpetual motion machine.

The Necromancer

Age: 25

Sex: Female

Height: 167cm

A researcher who continues to run secret experiments using forbidden necromancy. Her top priority is giving form to her own experimental wishes, so she does not even consider the harm or influence those experiments will have on her surroundings. Her research includes Wicked Gods where she has created the Deadman’s Fenrir by controlling a Wicked God corpse with another one’s horn. She has pride in her use of death as a researcher, so she is infuriated by the perverted nobles and anyone else who call themselves necromancers to justify their own interests.

Lord of Ruin

Apparent Age: 70 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 178cm

A mysterious person wearing a smooth mask who is likely an old man. Wields an unidentified sword that can bisect a Godhorn Tech in a single strike. He appears to possess great skill instead of just raw power. For example, he can launch long-range slashes using rapidly vaporized water. The only partial comfort is that he only seems interested in Godhorn Tech owners.

### 030. Afterword

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

This is Godhorn Tech’s 3rd volume. I am truly grateful you stuck with Miyabi and gang’s story to the end.

This all began with emptiness.

The Japanese game app was canceled. The advance check of my scenario and the main character graphics had already been completed and delivered, yet they were still having trouble settling on a final game system. They had promised to have it ready to go by the next meeting, but at the next meeting a month later, they decided to cancel it. When that happened, I think I had nothing but emptiness in my heart.

Enjoyment is great. Even anger can be converted into a creative drive.

But nothingness is a problem.

I think it was less than an hour after it all ended that something new started up in my heart.

I decided I would do whatever it took to complete Godhorn Tech and release it to the world in some form or another. And to do that, I had to forcibly get my empty heart moving. If I let time pass with the emptiness still there, I knew my heart would only shrivel and harden.

I started working that very day.

First, I took everything I had used to create the scenario and reformatted it into something that would work as just text. Specifically, I took the dialogue-only text data and added narration so a reader could follow the story and tell who was doing what when and where.

Of course, simply adding enough narration to follow the story does not make it a novel. That does not create a finished product where the author has used a variety of tricks to arrange it so it entertains the reader and inspires different emotions in them. The logic behind the enjoyment of a novel you read is entirely different to that of a game you play. As the argumentative meetings with my editors continued, it gradually approached completion as an entertainment product, so the creative process here was a lot different than normal for me. I converted the destruction into creation, which fits right along Godhorn Tech’s theme.

It was by no means easy, but while I was working at it, I realized I actually enjoyed it.

Really, I think the first driving force that rose from the nothingness was anger. Before, I said it took less than an hour, but to be honest, from the very moment they announced the cancelation in that meeting, I was weighing the scales between writing a novel about Miyabi’s party or writing a hostile non-fiction account of what had happened.

But once I started creating a novel out of the story, I found I couldn’t stop.

Writing out Miyabi’s party’s adventures in novel form was so much fun.

My options were destruction or creation and I very nearly ended up giving into my anger and writing something hurtful. I’m glad I shifted gears to creation instead and chose the path that would bring people enjoyment.

I thought about what Miyabi and the others would have done if the game had been completed, about what I would have wanted to see in the dungeons, and how I could emphasize the gimmicks in the boss battles. I thought about how Miyabi would react when eating the specialties in each new town and how Alicia and Celina would find it amusing but exasperating. I would completely lose track of time while thinking about it all and typing up the text. In all seriousness, I stared at the screen for 15 hours some days. I was so engrossed in writing up the expressions and gestures not found in the dialogue that I would only notice how much time had passed after the fact. And even when I was exhausted, it was a pleasant feeling.

This is the novel version. Simply adding narration to the existing text in order to explain the characters’ actions would not qualify as real entertainment, so I added whatever was needed to help the story flow smoothly. And while I did so, I found I was happy to meet Miyabi and the others again. I truly enjoyed moving their hands, giving them words, and pitting their emotions against each other. And I realized something while looking back at the many game documents for reference. Even if the project ended up failing, the game producers had put together a business model, thought up a setting, and otherwise created the groundwork that could not have existed with just a desire to make something. After all the work they had put into it, it would be wrong to view them as the enemy. I realized it must have pained them as much as me when they looked me in the face and canceled it.

I want to release Godhorn Tech in some form so they can enjoy it as well.

After starting the project in that mindset, I also managed to reconfirm how I feel about Miyabi and the others. I want nothing more than for their adventures to have excited at least one person out there and for them to live on in your heart.

I have nothing but thanks for everyone who was involved in or has picked up and read this selfish project of mine.

I love everything about Godhorn Tech.

I give my thanks to Haimura-san and Tabata-san for their character designs and to KeG-san for designing each character’s alternate outfits. We also asked Tabata-san to do the novel’s illustrations. I also give my thanks to Square Enix and everyone else involved in the game’s production as well as my editors Miki-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. I can never thank you enough for allowing me to create such a colorful world. Thank you so much for listening to my ridiculous demands to the very end.

I also give my thanks to the readers. I’ve expressed my thanks all throughout the afterword, but I want to say it again: thank you so much. I hope you found a character or something else in this you adore. And I hope their world will live on forevermore in your heart.

I will end this here.

I think including Philia Shout in their party shows that anything goes in that world.

-Kamachi Kazuma

### 031. Chapter 10 Section 1

People are foolish.

But in the end, they worked together and found the right answer.

They stood on the summit of a nameless mountain.

The broad, flat summit was void of vegetation and it contained the stone altar where a juvenile’s horn was broken off to create the world’s first Godhorn Tech. This was the first and final battlefield.

A distorted tone rang out.

The Lucifer Horn had charged in and torn off a layer of the summit with its massive form. All so it could crush Philia Shout, the 11th and the Mother of Wicked Gods.

A white beam surged forth at the same time.

The ultra-close-range shot was fired with the muzzle pressed against the side of her head.

“Gh.”

However.

The girl remained standing, her head only tilted a bit to the side.

She had not lost a single drop of blood.

In fact, the Lucifer Horn’s course had been altered, forcing it to take a large turn in midair to recover.

Lucifer Shout made some adjustments to her voice as if correcting some kind of error.

“Gekuslba. Asback. Tlets. Ahh, there we go. I have had enough of you. It’s time I obliterated you. I don’t have time to waste on fools who can’t understand creation or destruction.”

All the horns on her body shrank down for a moment before jutting out like spring-loaded contraptions. Every part of her soft, feminine skin was decorated with the sinister Wicked God horns that could destroy the entire continent.

The sharp horns came from all ten of her fingers and several of them squirmed like wings on her back. In all, it looked like she should have had trouble moving.

Glaring eyes peered out through the gaps in her bright pink hair.

“I might as well destroy this world. It certainly isn’t worth preserving!!!!!!”

The air roared.

Pink light danced all around her. Most likely, only Miyabi Blackgarden and a few others could see that light. Those boxy will-o’-the-wisps trailing pink light were the true identity of the sorcery bombs. They each gained different textures: stone, dirt, grass, wood, etc. Once they were embedded in the background, they would fully transform into that material and begin the countdown to doomsday.

Except…

“No, I’m through being sneaky.”

Something materialized and was cut out of the ground.

It looked about the size of an ordinary wooden box, but with a smooth red surface. It floated above Philia Shout’s palm.

That was a warning color – the color used to tell someone they were about to cross a line not meant to be crossed.

The blood-red bomb glowed in the darkness.

“So now I will attack more directly, leaving no piece of this world remaining. Mommy is saying she will clean up your mess, so at least you’ll be clean when you disintegrate!!!!!!”

Had she been pushed to this point?

Instead of hiding the bomb, she simply tossed it with a single hand.

“Ahh!?”

“Koo!!”

“I can sense it too. There’s this tingling pressure on my skin…is that a sorcery bomb!?” shouted Alicia Blueforest while tilting back a test tube to drink the physical boosting potion inside.

With the power this exposed, even the others could sense it.

If not for a flash of light that seemed to slice through space itself, Miyabi’s party may have been blown away along with the entire mountain.

The Lord of Ruin had drawn his sword.

Helen Clockgear gulped.

“It didn’t work, but since she threw it, physical contact must be the key. It may detonate after hitting someone or falling to the ground. Once that happens, there is no evading or defending. Armor means nothing against a sorcery bomb, so be careful!”

But surely this irregular action meant Philia Shout had lost sight of a guaranteed strategy.

The mother held her head in her horned hands and glared at Alma.

She could not defeat someone she should have defeated with ease.

She had been injured where she should have been invulnerable.

Of course she felt fear. Miyabi knew how it felt after having his own assumptions overturned so many times.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

“!?”

Philia Shout gave a start, but it was too late.

By then, Miyabi’s outstretched hand had already created a right triangular staircase out of stone.

The attacker had jumped up from the top of the Layer Stairs, so making a quick horizontal slash of the space in front of her was not enough to repel him.

Yes, the attacker.

The Lord of Ruin had leaped into the air.

He refused to kill a Wicked God no matter what, but their mother was a different matter. That distinction might seem contradictory, but it made perfect sense to the wielder of the demon blade.

Yes.

If she would harm her own children like a mother cat would kill and eat her kittens under certain circumstances, then he would do anything to separate them and protect the Wicked Gods.

For that, he was willing to wield the demon blade bearing the name of calamity.

“En garde!!”

After leaping from the top of the stone stairway, his blade dropped down like a guillotine.

The Mother of Wicked Gods immediately moved back.

But the masked old man’s sword was decorated with blood.

It was not much, but he had left a wound on her soft(-looking) cheek.

Then it happened.

“Grrrrr!!”

With rough movements, Philia Shout used her many sharp horns to slice off and tear away everything within reach: the trees, the flowers, the bugs, and even the animal bones.

She pulled them all toward her.

But was she really eating them?

Maybe it was all being absorbed into her large chest, maybe she was crushing and chewing it with her armpits, and maybe it was being directly absorbed into her palms.

Whatever the case, she curled up in a ball with her hands full, leaving her entirely open to attack. Yet Miyabi’s party could not move in that moment. They were overwhelmed and absorbed by the spectacle.

They could not let this mystery remain a mystery.

They sought understanding first and foremost.

But in the end, there was only one way of describing it.

“She’s s-swallowing all forms of life and traces of life around her?” groaned Eliza Silverstorm.

“Fusing with it may be more accurate. Whether organic or inorganic, she is directly absorbing the Palette Dice that form our world and converting them into power,” said the Necromancer while looking to the woman she could never see eye to eye with.

Then Kananka Fulpen realized something.

Something was squirming stickily along the horned girl’s soft skin.

No.

“Such suction. It’s even healing her wound!” he shouted.

“There’s no end to this if she can just do that forever!” added Celina in a frantic voice.

“Koo!!” cried Alma.

“Yeah, only if we let her do it forever!!” agreed Miyabi.

He adjusted his grip on the control sword that was a little small for a two-hand blade and charged in. She seemed to notice.

With a loud clang, she blocked his sword with a stone in her hand. But Miyabi was the one smiling.

“You sure you want to do that? Use that for defense and you can’t absorb it.”

“!?”

“That’s right. You’re supposed to focus on healing when that’s your goal. No matter how absurdly powerful you are, you can’t do everything at once!!”

They had to keep her from healing.

Or they had to damage her defenseless body faster than she could heal.

Eliza Silverstorm’s lance and Acacia and Ixea’s giant axes used their great attack power to repeatedly strike Philia Shout with attacks that could be fatal if she failed to respond to them.

“Nwaaahhhh!!!!!!” roared Onelife Shiftup as he charged in with enormous cutlass at the ready.

Those powerful attacks rarely hit, but they did devastating damage when they did. She had no choice but to respond and put off healing until later. This pirate had, after all, killed a Wicked God.

She glared at them with a look that felt like a curse.

The mother’s façade of confidence crumbled away. Her irritation became plain to see.

And either way…

“Ohhh!” shouted Onelife.

“It appears to be working.” Number 8 smiled a little. “My attacks should be powerful enough to accomplish the same thing.”

The one had a metal prosthetic hand and the other a morning star linked by electricity.

They made even more attacks before Philia Shout could strike back at the girls. And that was not all. Kananka’s boomerang informed them of the wind and air conditions while Celina’s rifle and Elaine’s bow provided further distractions for the 11th. By continuing the attack, the reckless challengers kept themselves safe on a mountain summit with nowhere to hide.

They did not allow their foe to heal or counterattack.

Miyabi adjusted his grip on the control sword and raised his voice again.

“This is over, 11th. We won’t give you a way out!!”

They all challenged her at once.

Philia Shout was undoubtedly fearsome, but she could be defeated.

Supposedly, anyway.

However.

“Hey, wait. This is insane!” shouted Alicia.

“How have you not accomplished anything after hitting her that many times!?” groaned the Philosopher’s Stone who was apparently keeping track.

“I am the strongest all on my own.” Philia Shout grumbled to herself while swaying side to side. “Yes, I cannot be defeated here.”

“Koo!!”

“So what if you’re the strongest!?” shouted Miyabi.

“Koooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!” responded Alma.

Alma’s call was answered by several smooth, yellow cubes falling from the sky. Seeing those unnatural boxes scattering strange sparks, Philia Shout stiffened and took a clear step back.

The yellow glow was a different warning color from the red cubes.

They were not as dangerous as the red wielded by the mother. They were not too far gone to return to the path of safety. The red coldly announced you had moved beyond the point of no return, but this warning kindly stopped you and gave you a chance. Hence, the yellow light.

“Kh!?”

And she had to have noticed something else.

She had let all the other attacks hit her, but for the first time, she flinched. That reaction proved that they had found a weakness in the supposedly untouchable Mother of Wicked Gods.

“Did the 11th just flinch!?” observed Helen.

“She did!!” confirmed Eliza.

Philia Shout realized there was no point trying to hide it.

She instead focused on understanding and overcoming.

“ Are these high-energy blocks the Missing Dice ?” she asked. “ No, they aren’t even sorcery bombs. ”

And.

She reached the destructive answer.

“ Th-they don’t explode? They constantly draw on the horn’s energy yet remain stable !?”

“Nwohhhh!! This goes way over my head, but now’s our chance! I don’t know if we can actually damage her, but keep pushing and knock her into those sparking thiiiiiiiiiiings!!”

The others didn’t need Onelife’s prompting.

They could not ignore this.

Their attacks might not damage her, but they could at least physically push her. More of those sparking things fell down each time Alma cried, so Celina used her rifle, Kanaka his boomerang, and Elaine her bow. Those projectile weapons struck the cubes to give them erratic movements like they had a life of their own.

Finally, Philia Shout had nowhere left to escape.

She was surrounded.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

The sparking boxes suddenly rose up from the ground.

Miyabi had stimulated the ground to stack up several dirt cubes as a wall. The shaking of the ground pushed the sparking boxes up.

The fearsome boxes rolled like dice and left the ground to fly through the air. Miyabi didn’t even need to see the 11th’s widened eyes to tell that this had finally surpassed Philia Shout’s calculations.

They made contact.

The instant his control sword slammed into the sharp horn emerging from her elbow, she lost her balance and the sparks touched her right heel.

The heel contained a thick tendon, making it a weak point no one could train.

In the blink of an eye, the dreadful sparks raced up from her foot to the rest of her body.

“K-kooo!!!???”

“So even their original mother goes ‘koo’ when she cries out,” noted Number 8.

“Oh, dear. Is it over already? If so, I’ve lost all interest in researching you,” spat the Necromancer, striking the ground with her tongue whip.

“You’re the best, boss!”

“How can this be?”

Philia Shout stared at her own hands more than her enemy.

Specifically, at the horns growing from them.

Fine cracks ran through those horns until the finally broke off. They seemed to be losing their power, drying out from the inside, and deteriorating.

Had the core or marrow within burned away?

Her fingers became nothing more than the soft fingers of a girl. The horns covering her arm and leg joints crumbled away and thick cracks ran through ran through the white armor covering her chest and hips.

“I am the strongest. I was born with this power!!”

“So what if you’re the strongest?” said Miyabi straight to her face. “Who’s going to accept you as strongest if all you do is push others down to climb even higher on your own? Hell, I doubt you can accept it yourself.”

“!?”

“Alma’s suffering isn’t just about getting us involved in this mess too. Alma regrets having to turn on a fellow Wicked God and the mother of them all, so she wants to save you this time. It was that conviction that gave her the strength to climb back up onto the stage!!”

This time, they would push back.

They would push back and have their way.

“So we can’t lose.” Miyabi stared straight at her with the control sword gripped tight in his hands. “Alma decided to question the silly divisions between enemy and ally and to create a new path and that’s something that can never lose to a supposed strongest that can only destroy!!!!!!”

Philia Shout used her own projectiles to destroy the sparking cubes and Alma dropped more of them from the sky.

Miyabi charged in among it all.

He swung down his sword and Philia Shout bent backwards. But the Mother of Wicked Gods had a fierce smile on her lips. She had fallen back, but none of the sparking boxes of agony were there. The encirclement had been incomplete. She had slipped through a gap to find safety.

But she realized her mistake a moment later.

Yes, even if she had only wobbled from unexpected damage, it had been a mistake to create even the slightest opening.

“From the control sword to the horn core. Lucifer Horn – tactical open.” Miyabi flipped his sword around and stabbed it into the ground. “Blow her away, Lucifer Horn!!!!!!”

A thick beam of light dropped from the sky.

The attack seemed to burn away the entire summit, its shockwave and tremor rattling the world itself. The many agony boxes were sent airborne once more. The density of yellow changed, truly surrounding the mother in a deadly cage this time. It resembled a dome.

Miyabi was close enough to distinctly see her cheek tense.

“This isn’t over yet!!” she roared.

“So what if it isn’t?”

He raised his sword once more.

A normal blade could not harm her at this point and he was well aware of that.

But he did not give up.

“Did you think we’d give up just because we hadn’t perfected it the first time? You’re the one that refuses to allow the slightest flaw or mistake. You’re the one that gets too frustrated to even listen to your opponent’s excuses. You’re the only one left trembling from that kind of weakness !!”

A roar of impact followed.

Impact with one of the yellow cubes that had been knocked up from the ground.

Miyabi had swung his control sword horizontally, striking one of Alma’s manifestations of destruction that could supply critical damage to the Mother of Wicked Gods on contact.

Intense and tingling pain entered through his wrists and clutched at his heart.

The color white exploded in his mind.

For a moment, he nearly forgot where he even was.

But.

But his reckless attack had made a real difference.

He didn’t mind the pain.

As long as he could gather up the opportunities created by the others and make use of them here. As long as he could bring an end to the 11th’s attacks and protect the party who had fought alongside him. He focused on that through the pain and swung his sword as hard as he could, even if it made him cough up blood.

Just as Philia Shout was going to slip free of the surrounding cubes, he sealed off her exit and slammed one of the yellow cubes into her like a bullet!!!!!!

“Gahhh!!!???”

She arched her back.

The redhead boy had taken exactly the same amount of damage, but he had a smile on his face when he saw it.

This would give them a future.

So he would pursue her as far as it took. He might be injured too, but it meant something entirely different for her!!

Miyabi and Alma’s combined attacks had surrounded and cornered Philia Shout!!!!!!

“What…is happening?”

When she came to a stop, the yellow “bullets” hit her one after another. She could not avoid those deadly cubes as they contacted her in quick succession with their unnatural sparks that flowed deep inside the body of what looked like a slender girl.

None of the sharp horns adorning her body remained.

Time seemed to speed back up to normal and the strange-colored boxes dropped to the ground. Miyabi had made it through that tense moment. Yes, it was over.

He had to stab his sword into the ground and clench his teeth, but his trembling legs stayed beneath him. He remained standing.

More than his own life and destiny were riding on this, so he refused to let his own will make him collapse.

Philia Shout, on the other hand, fell to her knees.

She still couldn’t believe what had happened.

She had always had only herself and she could no longer hold her shoulders level.

“How did this…happen to me?”

So in the very end, it was confusion that filled her.

“I don’t recognize…this strength.”

Then she fully collapsed.

All of her horns had fallen out and only her pink hair blew in the mountain wind. She had been reduced to a pitifully defeated girl.

It ended in silence.

“You’ll understand someday,” said Miyabi, crouching down.

He took the collapsed girl’s hands and moved them to her back. He tied them together with some rope he found. He had his doubts that would accomplish much with the Mother of Wicked Gods, so it was more of a ritual to mark the battle as over in his mind.

“Once you learn to accept your weakness and rely on others.”

“Koo…”

“Yeah,” he agreed. He let out a soft breath, wiped the blood from his lips, and looked down at that living legend. “Let’s head home and rejoin the others.”

### 032. Chapter 7, Section 1

The humans prided themselves in their ability to feel regret

But they showed no sign of mending their ways

“Whoa, what is this!?”

“I-it’s chilly. There’s an actual livable world out here!!”

Eliza Silverstorm’s life in a snowy kingdom had left her entirely unprepared for the desert heat, especially in armor, so she just about collapsed forward in relief.

When Miyabi Blackgarden and the others passed through the giant gate to enter the desert nation, they found the city within to be unexpectedly cool.

That may have been thanks to the water flowing through stone canals.

“Koo,” cried Alma, the living stuffed animal walking by Miyabi’s feet.

The slipper-sized juvenile Wicked God had a flower blossoming on its head. This form was apparently a plant creature known as a dryad – a rare example of the wood element instead of the earth element. …But Miyabi was not as familiar with those magical particulars as Helen Clockgear or Celina Bodenburg, so he was not entirely sure what elements that would be strong and weak against.

They were surrounded by massive ruins with small houses clustered together in the gaps between. A large square pyramid temple sat at the very center and the foot traffic included enough priests and priestesses to surmise this was a religious nation.

Alicia Blueforest’s pointy elf ears stuck out through her long blonde hair to twitch curiously as she stared into the distance.

“So that’s one of the famous pyramids. I’ve never actually seen one before.”

The passersby were full of life.

A lot of them were dressed skimpily, perhaps to fight the heat, but there was a noticeable difference from Kananka Fulpen’s remote island kingdom. The clothing here used a lot of thin silks with clasps and decorations made from gold, silver, or other precious metals.

And there were an awful lot of cats.

Just a quick glance around showed some lazily crossing the street and others curled up atop walls.

“This desert nation is where kitty cats come from,” explained Celina, her jewel-studded black dress fluttering. “A lot of cat lovers who want a thoroughbred will cross the desert to find this place.”

There were a lot of non-feline animals as well. Someone had a hawk perched on their shoulder and another was slowly guiding an enormous cow by waving a small bundle of hay in front of it. But instead of just pets or livestock, they all seemed to have some religious meaning here.

“We should probably buy plenty of water now instead of waiting until we run out and are desperate,” said Helen, viewing a pump-equipped well instead of the canals that kept the flower beds and fruit trees alive. The bored-looking merchant standing next to it suggested there was a fee.

Water could get heavy fast, but with the Compress Cargo magic that divided a material into invisibly small Palette Dice and wound them like ribbons, they could fit 100 times as much in a small bag and carry it around with ease.

Then White Seidr Chosen Knight Eliza gave her silver ponytail a swish and clung weakly to Miyabi for once.

She was not used to flirting for something, so it came off as more innocent.

“M-Miyabi, I beg you…please do this one thing for me. There is something I must have.”

“I can tell the heat’s gotten to you, but start buying cold drinks and frozen treats and you’ll never be able to stop.”

“No, I want that.”

Eliza recovered somewhat after entering the cool shade of a building and managed to point at what she wanted, which made Helen Clockgear bristle.

“Um, a swimsuit!? Did the heat tilt the strait-laced but naughty knight’s internal scales too far in the one direction, giving her a thing for exhibitionism!?”

But Eliza seemed to be serious.

“I’m thinking of the future!!” explained the sweaty knight. “W-we’re going to be staying in this desert nation for a while, right? We’re bound to be walking back and forth across that deadly desert that saps your stamina with every step, so I need to have some defense against the heat.”

Celina Bodenburg shrugged.

“Why not let her have her way? When someone is desperate, telling them no is a good way to trigger a tantrum.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” murmured Miyabi, taking a look at the street stall.

The equipment was surprisingly cheap for its rarity. According to the dark-skinned female shopkeeper: “It looks fancy, but swimsuits doesn’t require any special weaving like with silk lace, so we can keep the price down.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Aren’t you just admitting it’s just some cheap pieces of thick cloth with strings connecting them?”

There was a reason the known cheapskate and only daughter of the Bodenburg Company had been willing to shrug off this unnecessary expense. Class Rep Helen was still confused, but since Eliza wanted this, there was no stopping it.

“Yes!! The North Wind and the Sun effect has finally given us a regular swimsuit wearer!!” exclaimed the crystal radio hanging from Alicia’s neck. “Miyabi, you keep her headed in this direction. Whittle away her shame and get her used to skimpier and skimpier outfits until she’s only wearing a set of three small stickers or a lewd V-shaped swimsuit! I’ve already seen this sword and sorcery world has bandages of the standard and adhesive varieties, so either one’s a real possibility! Ohhh, at long last I get to witness a real fantasy with no obtrusive beams of light obscuring the best parts!!!!!”

The large street was lined with a wide variety of shops, not just the swimsuit one.

Some were stone buildings and others were carpets laid out on the roadside.

An item shop’s discount shopkeeper was yelling something about even the smallest items here containing ancient wisdom since this was the world’s oldest civilization, but a wise old man who heard it had something else to say:

“He makes it sound nicer than it is. Most of it is lost technology. We can maintain the ruins so they last longer, but we don’t know how to create new ones. Not that he would care since he’s just yanking out parts and selling them.”

They also heard a few people talking about the sacrifices. Something was going on at the temple and you would be paid if you helped. But no one mentioned any specifics and there were too many rumors.

“Nhh,” groaned Onelife Shiftup. “There are some weird tents lined up over there.”

There were an unusual number of independent fortunetellers for a religious nation. Miyabi considered taking a look, but Helen grabbed his sleeve to stop him.

“No, Miyabi. I-if they’re real, they would know you own a Godhorn Tech!”

“Ehh? Do we really have to be that cautious?”

“Um, it would be safe if they were a fraud, but then why would you want to pay them your hard-earned money?”

The overly diligent government worker seemed unaware that you could still enjoy the experience knowing it was fake.

An innocent boy told them where the water came from.

“They say a god lives in the ruins. Or I think they said the god ‘resides’ in them? Only the priests and priestesses can maintain the ruins, so we have them to thank for the water we drink and food we eat.”

Miyabi’s party was searching for the Godhorn Tech user.

One of the priests or priestesses that represented the nation seemed like their best bet.

Their first idea was to check the biggest ruins in the center of the city.

Its size was impressive enough, but as they approached, it became clear the building was made by stacking up square stones. Miyabi could not imagine how much effort had gone into that since he couldn’t carry even one of the stones. It was such an unusual sight that he was worried the whole thing might collapse in an earthquake. He did not know how it was built, but he did not see any pillars or other supports a log cabin used.

“This is the desert nation’s temple?”

“The pyramid, yes,” confirmed Alicia.

It was made of thick stone and had no windows, yet the inside was cool and remained strangely bright without any candles or lamps.

Onelife crossed his arms inside what felt like a bright cave.

“Hm, not quite the same as an underwater cave. Those caves have a bluish shine from reflected sunlight.”

“You’re full of useless trivia, aren’t you?”

“Gah hah hah! All pirates love underwater caves!! …If only an enclosed cave didn’t keep a sailing ship from catching the wind.”

Maybe mirrors were directing the sunlight inside and maybe it was some form of magic. There were occasional brighter spots of light that caused a light burning pain in the skin.

Miyabi grew nervous as they walked deeper inside.

“W-we sure got in here easily. Isn’t this like a central castle in a kingdom? And I still have my control sword.”

“Heh heh. Miyabi, I am glad to hear you have learned how to act like a proper gentleman. Gone are the days when you barged right into my king’s castle while still armed.”

“Does anyone have a mirror I could borrow? I’ll use this unnatural – magical? – light to melt this snowy knight.”

“Hyah!?”

The sunburn-like pain made Eliza tremble like a newborn fawn. She fell to her knees and tearfully clung to Miyabi’s hip as if to beg for her life. Heat had a way of making her honest, but reacting so strongly to light made her seem more like a vampire.

Alicia sighed.

“Do they not use fire inside the pyramid because they’re afraid of it being too airtight? With all this stone stacked up without the slightest gap between, consuming the air with flames would get you asphyxiated pretty quick.”

The interior was also gorgeous.

Everything from the carpet below their feet to the candlesticks by the walls were polished to a shine.

12-year-old King Kanaka Fulpen raised an eyebrow.

“I sense spirit pressure…coming from the building itself? But who’s contacting it? It almost feels like an abandoned ship adrift at sea.”

“…”

Sensing something, butler automaton Number 8 frowned slightly.

Just then, an old man in a splendid robe walked out to them. His robe was mostly white, but the excessive gold thread and gemstones made it look very heavy. It had a different look to Celina’s dress. Hers was all about increasing the value of the clothing itself, while the old man’s was about spending money to make oneself look important.

He had to be one of the desert nation’s priests.

“The ancient gods will grant their wisdom to any who seek it, so their temple must be open to all.”

“Who are you?” asked Miyabi.

The priest shook his head.

“Wouldn’t this be easier if we remained anonymous? As long as you are speaking with the ancient gods and seeking their wisdom, we choose not to trouble ourselves with differences in nationality and affiliation.”

Alicia and Helen stepped closer to Miyabi.

“(So what now?)”

“(Don’t we need to pass on our message in some form or another?)”

Then Celina whispered in his ear as well.

“(It did seem like that devil swordsman was after Godhorn Tech users.)”

That gave Miyabi a basic plan, so he faced the priest again.

“Th-then, let’s say there’s an issue we would like some divine wisdom on.”

“Then you must first purify yourselves.”

The priest smiled and showed the newcomers how it was done.

“Please grab a pinch of salt and sprinkle it over your head.”

They did so and he nodded, satisfied.

Miyabi was unfamiliar with their teachings, so he could not even imagine what meaning this held. And he was honestly a little scared. What if this was their final sterilization before they were cooked whole?

“Thank you.”

“Then let me tell you why we’re here.”

Miyabi slowly began to explain.

Eventually, the old priest cut him off with a sigh.

“I see,” he said. “In that case, you would be better off speaking with someone else.”

“!”

Helen’s shoulders shook.

Kananka also went on alert, his brown skin tensing.

“Passing us over to the military? Or just taking us into custody?”

“Not at all. If this is about the horn, you should speak with the horn’s owners.” The priest slowly shook his head. “You should speak with the twin priestesses who were chosen by the Executive Ground – our Godhorn Tech.”

Miyabi parroted back a word he could not afford to overlook.

“ Twins ?”

He recalled what Moebius had told him when they met.

“Including my Lucifer Horn, there are currently 10 Godhorn Techs in existence.”

“But a certain rumor has been going around among us.”

“There’s an 11th somewhere out there.”

If this was true…

“ Your Godhorn Tech has more than one user!? ”

“Is that a problem?”

Yes, it meant the number of Godhorn Techs did not match the number of users.

But the priest did not see the issue.

“Oh, perfect timing. They have just returned, so I can introduce you.”

They heard two sets of footsteps approaching behind them.

The boy spun around to see them.

They were both brown girls. They had an unshakable lack of expression and black hair cut at shoulder length. Maybe it was the desert style and maybe it was meant to help with the heat, but their clothing did not leave much of their flat chests and bright thighs to the imagination. Instead of a slitted skirt, it looked more like they had a piece of cloth hanging down the front of their hips and another on the back. The jangling sound seemed to be from the thick chains hanging from the back of their hips like a tail. Those may have had some kind of sacred meaning to the locals. Same with what looked like dog and cat ears on their heads.

Yes, the different types of ears were the only difference between them.

They were otherwise identical.

They both held a control axe taller than they were. Their slow movement made it feel like time flowed differently for them as they crossed their axes together and viewed Miyabi’s party with blank eyes. The priest introduced them.

“This is Acacia Flightheart and Ixea Flightheart, the elites of our temple and the high priestesses given the honor of the Godhorn Tech.”

### 033. Chapter 7, Section 2

The two girls left the desert nation’s giant temple with composed expression and the thick chains swaying from the back of their hips like tails.

Miyabi’s party quickly followed after them.

The instant they left the pyramid and reentered the heat of the sun, Eliza Silverstorm’s head lolled back like she had been physically struck. Then she slowly retreated to the shade of the palm trees. The noble knight’s soul was growing more and more sluglike.

“Ugwah…it’s way too hot out here.”

“She’s as bad as any A/C addict. And didn’t she say the city felt chilly earlier?”

The radio hanging at Alicia Blueforest’s chest gave an exasperated comment, but now was not the time.

The square stone buildings lining the street must not have been enough because a lot of merchants were hawking their wares from tents or simple cloths. That showed just how many people there were here. It would not be hard to lose sight of the twins.

Number 8 pointed ahead without a bead of sweat or any concern on his face.

“Over there, Miyabi.”

They ran down the row of palm trees, passed by a street stand selling dates – something like giant raisins – crossed a waterway using a bridge, and finally managed to catch up to the twins at a circular plaza filled with strange creatures called camels.

Miyabi Blackgarden raised his voice so they would not get away.

“Hey, wait, hold on!”

“We heard what you had to say, but we have business of our own to attend to. Don’t we, sister?”

“We do, sister. We had only returned for a progress report. We must get back.”

Acacia and Ixea.

When they were lined up next to each other, it was easy to get them confused.

And their cold rejection was not enough for Miyabi to give up.

Because…

“I can’t abandon them when they use axes. They could have used any kind of weapon for their control device, but they chose an axe! That’s how you know they’re good people!!”

“I know you grew up in a lumberjack village, Miyabi, but that is not how most people view the world!!” said Helen. “Would you try to make friends when an axe murderer shows up at the campsite!?”

The users of the Godhorn Tech that protected the nation had to be fairly well-known, but none of the passersby paid them any heed. Maybe the ordinary people assumed those famous twins wouldn’t just be out in the city like this.

“What kind of underwear are they wearing?”

Miyabi spoke an entirely unrelated question out loud and a low kick from young Kananka Fulpen did nothing to discourage him.

He was curious.

How could he not be?

Those twins’ outfits could not be explained away by the heat of the desert nation.

Acacia and Ixea’s clothing glittered with golden stitching and was very different from what the ordinary people wore. It probably had some important meaning for their role as priestesses but Miyabi knew nothing about that and he could only focus on two things: their flat chests were only covered by suspenders and a single horizontal piece of cloth, and their lower body was only covered by a fluttering piece of cloth hanging down the front and another down the back, not quite qualifying as a skirt. The sides left their sides, ribs, skinny bellies, and hip bones all exposed.

They did have a piece of cloth wrapped around their hips, but it was as high up as their navels.

There was nothing at the height you would normally expect for the side strap of underwear. Nothing at all!

So what was going on under there!?

The philosopher’s stone had its own opinion on the matter.

“Heh. I get the reflexive temptation to say they aren’t wearing any, but as a true panty connoisseur (a position that leads me to rate your adventure quite highly overall) I cannot judge this one so simply. This looks more like a cleverly-laid trap to me. Even Tutankhamun wore something like a loincloth. I expect they are only giving the illusion of a delicious treat while actually remaining fully guarded by a tall T-shaped affair. …But mysteries are meant to be solved. And if you want to solve this one, look to the terrain. Use the pyramid, Miyabi. Those steep stairs might as well be designed for looking up skirts. Fetishes are often a twisted form of people seeking after what has been hidden from them, so now is the time to open your eyes to who you truly are, Miyabi Blackgardeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!!!!!!”

“What is wrong with you two?” groaned Alicia. With the crystal radio hanging from her neck, there was no way for those two to have a private conversation.

It was clear that pursuing those girls’ secrets over the mysteries of the world was going to get them killed, so now was not the time for a ridiculous side quest.

As frightening as this was, Miyabi had to face it head on.

He could not afford to lose sight of those twins, so he gathered his strength and shouted everything he could say at the moment.

“A-anyway, that guy – the one with the magic sword – really is dangerous! He will hunt you down if you have a Godhorn Tech. And once he finds you, he’ll tear your Godhorn Tech apart from within!!”

The brown twins both tilted their heads.

A butterfly fluttered over their heads, perhaps drawn by the flower beds supported by the canals.

Maybe that was the natural reaction for someone who had not experienced that fear themselves. Miyabi himself might have reacted the same in their shoes. Bisecting a Godhorn Tech with a single sword slash beggared belief.

“God, this is taking forever,” said the impatient radio. “People won’t listen to you just because you’re right. You’ve gotta draw their interest!”

“Nhh, then lure them in with something. We need to buy enough time for them to listen!”

That advice seemed to hold further implications coming from a wanted criminal like the pirate. He sounded more like a professional kidnapper.

Unfortunately, they did not know what the twins were interested in or enjoyed to eat. They only had so long to find something to stop them, so Miyabi ran around seeing what the street stands had to offer. They lived here, so Miyabi figured they had to like something here. He tried offering them a thin and cheap meat snack he bought at a nearby stand.

Acacia Flightheart was unmoved by the fried food.

Maybe he should not have brought her something he could only describe as a mystery meat.

“Hmph.”

“H-how aloof can she be?” muttered Alicia.

“Umm, might she be more friendly with someone who didn’t start talking about her underwear one minute after meeting her?” speculated Helen.

“Don’t worry. This is just the initial phase of a tsundere. Keep at it!” urged the radio.

The fried treat had failed, so Miyabi fed it to ever-hungry Alma.

Next, he set his sights on Ixea.

As hot as the desert was, there was apparently a market for more than just cold things. While Alicia and the others bought time by bringing up the weather and waving around a desert plant like a cat toy (they dubbed it a “priestess toy”), Miyabi bought a skewer of hot meat. He had a feeling they had told him what kind of meat it was, but he had been too preoccupied to pay attention.

Miyabi and Alma were the hungry types who always chose pork cutlets or meatballs for a snack when on a trip, so he kept offering meat products to the delicate girls. Lady Celina, who chose cake and tea even when hiking outdoors, clearly wanted to criticize that decision, but…

“…”

Ixea Flightheart actually seemed interested. Overall, she backed away, but her head stretched forward with small nose sniffing. She was cautious of Miyabi himself, but she could not fight her curiosity in the food.

“Sniff sniff.”

“Oh, she’s smelling it. I think she’s interested.”

“Wait, this isn’t the kind of tsundere I had in mind.”

Ixea snatched the skewer from him.

The philosopher’s stone was confused, but it looked like they had had this figured out.

“So could we win her over all at once with some colorful sweets recommended by a fancy 5-star pâtissier?” asked Celina.

“No, Miyabi. Don’t listen to the rich girl who doesn’t know how much anything is worth. We only have so much travel funds, so go for something cheap that children would like. Don’t worry! Children will believe anything is a shortcake if it has a strawberry on top!!”

Acacia gave her identical twin a critical look, but there was also a hint of jealousy in her eyes. The fact that neither brown twin left suggested they were both interested. Miyabi followed the rich girl and young woman’s advice by focusing on the sweet foods. He approached again and again with new items.

He brought them cookies, crepes, and cake.

It was possible Acacia and Ixea were unaccustomed to luxury items.

“Phew,” sighed Ixea.

Acacia held her sister’s shoulders and finally spoke.

“That old man was probably the Lord of Ruin. His skill with a sword is said to be extraordinary.”

“Hm?”

When Miyabi showed interested, Ixea continued for her sister.

“If you would like to continue this conversation, follow us. Now, let’s go, sister.”

“Yes, sister. We can’t stay here any longer. We need to return to the western ruins.”

“Hey!”

The twins climbed onto two of the camels tied up in the plaza and vanished into the city. Miyabi had been careless. He had assumed camels were as slow as they looked, but they actually moved as quickly as horses.

“So they left after all. Did I do all that for nothing?”

Miyabi’s complaints were understandable.

“You have little experience with women,” rationally judged Number 8.

“Gah hah hah!” guffawed Onelife Shiftup. “You probably should’ve held their interest longer than that!”

But…

“No, this was not the boy’s fault.”

Someone else was burning with rage.

Their cheeks were puffed out and their long elfin ears were standing tall.

“How can they ignore someone’s kindness like that!? Maybe they deserve to be cut in two by that magic sword!!”

“Koo!? Koo…”

“Hey, um, the crowd is keeping their distance,” warned the radio.

“This is curious,” said Helen Clockgear. “With those twins controlling one of the 10 Godhorn Techs, we officially have an 11th.”

“Could either Acacia or Ixea secretly have another one?” asked Eliza.

“Any country with two would have extraordinary power,” said Celina. “Wicked God horns can’t be produced on demand. Even my company could only create the Schwarz Schütze.”

“My Empire only officially owned the Divine Doll. We did have spares for all its parts, an extra horn, and several magical automatons capable of controlling it, but it was all kept separated to facilitate repairs. The emperor feared the possibility of a mass-produced model being stolen and the Empire being torn apart from within by a clash between Godhorn Techs, so he never even tried to protect our lengthy borders with more than one. He said the ability to make a retaliatory strike was enough of a threat to prevent an invasion by another country.”

“…” Miyabi thought for a bit and then threw in the towel. “So maybe it’s the Lord of Ruin and maybe it’s the twins. This is so confusing.”

“Ha ha! No use worrying over it. Just figure it out one step at a time!” Onelife’s simple thought process came in handy at times. “What is it we know? Gwohhh, we know those twins are headed to the western ruins! So that’s where we’ll go. We’re bound to learn something new there!”

“Agreed.”

Miyabi smiled a little.

The twins had said they were headed west, so Miyabi also left the city, returning to the desert.

Young Kananka was wiping sweat from his brow before long.

“Pant, gasp. I-I thought I was used to the sand, but it’s so much worse without the crashing waves nearby.”

“Speaking of, you’re handling this oddly well, Onelife.”

“Oh, me? Bearing with the glaring sun and rationing your drinking water isn’t that much different from life on a ship. Hah hah!”

Heading out into the vast desert with a goal no more specific than “search the west” sounded like suicide, but they fortunately found a sort of road. The feet of many people had packed down the soft sand, giving them a path to follow.

“Ah ha ha!”

They heard someone laughing.

They had their hands boldly on their hips below the scorching sun.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!! Who’s laughing now!? Bet you all wish you had bought swimsuits too!!”

“Seriously, an actual bikini knight!? That naughty knight is a blot on her kingdom’s reputation. Or wait. Did the small taste of exhibitionism she got on the island nation get her addicted!?”

Helen (who dressed up in lewd costumes more than anyone) could not believe her eyes, but there was no stopping the heat-addled knight.

Miyabi returned to his old question.

“It still just looks like underwear to me.”

“Miyabi, it’s about the texture. Note how it glistens when wet with sweat or water and you’ll see the difference. Underwear becomes see through when it absorbs water, while a swimsuit repels the water, causing it to bead up. Both are enjoyable in their own way.”

The radio was getting philosophical.

Helen changed the subject while doing her best not to look at the bikini knight.

“There really is nothing but sand, sand, and more scorching sand out here.” She looked out across the rolling dunes reminiscent of a stormy sea. “It’s truly incredible. This has to be a major risk when it comes to preserving order as well.”

“?”

“Think about it, Miyabi. Countries and villages can easily exile someone if they are rumored to hold some nonexistent treasure. What if they did that to someone out in this harsh desert so devoid of landmarks? And they could always feign ignorance if it failed.”

“Ah ha ha. Did you see a play about an inheritance conflict, Helen? That kind of thing doesn’t happen in the real worl-”

They heard a scraping sound.

They saw someone pulling up a stone buried under the sand, digging below that with a shovel, and hiding a black bag there.

Miyabi could only scream.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaahh, for real!? Did we really run across someone hiding their bloody knife or glove in broad daylight because they couldn’t wait until nightfall!!!???”

“Huh?” The shoveler was a brown-skinned boy with curly blond hair. “Ooh, you weren’t supposed to see this. I need to find a different dig spot.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!! Don’t hide criminal evidence right in front of us. I might not be an official of this nation’s government, but I can’t just overlook this, you know!?”

“Criminal? No, you misunderstand.” The shoveler spoke in a gloomy way, poking the large bag with the tool of his trade(?). He breathed a heavy sigh before continuing. “This is a job from a merchant in the desert nation. These are the documents detailing a purchase plan. See, he’s terrified of the outsiders in the Bodenburg Company controlling the market for everyone’s daily necessities, so he plans to bring together a bunch of small local shops to create a solid local production base. But he doesn’t want his rivals sniffing out his plans beforehand.”

“My, my. So you work for the competition.”

Celina gave a bewitching smile with a hand on her soft cheek.

The look on her face said some light competition could actually help energize the market.

“My job is to hide people’s secrets and the (figurative) skeletons in their closet.”

He did not sound proud of his work.

He may have seen it as no more glamorous than selling vegetables or fish at the market.

“The desert is a big place and it’s littered with old, weathered ruins no one knows about. Bury a secret out here and there’s almost no chance of anyone else digging it up. This is so much safer than hiding it in a safe that practically announces there’s something valuable there. I’m the only one who knows where it’s buried and, with so much desert to work with, I never run out of space to bury more. Thanks to that, I get plenty of work as a guardian…or I used to.”

He glared over at them.

The fact remained that they were not meant to have seen this.

The shovel boy breathed a heavy sigh.

“I really don’t want to believe it’s time to call it quits.”

“Hm?”

“This isn’t the first trouble I’ve run into. I’ve earned the ire of several groups and some strange assassin – I think called Shadow Crack – has supposedly been sent after me. I wish I could hide myself right now, but unfortunately, I can’t bury myself in the sand.”

Miyabi crossed his arms and thought for a moment.

“What if you could hide somewhere other than the desert?”

“Without anyone knowing, you mean?”

“It’s called Horn Fortress. It’s surrounded by a weird barrier and by the cracks in the world, so you can’t reach it by ordinary means.”

“I see. That sounds promising.”

The blond-haired brown-skinned boy grinned and held out his right hand.

What did a handshake with him signify?

“I’m Ginger Sandstrike. If you’ve got any secrets or skeletons in your closet you need hidden away, just come to me.”

The Lucifer Horn flew by overhead.

They discovered more than just human life.

“Hmm, are these grassroots? Never thought I’d find them here.”

Onelife tilted his head while moving his feet out of the way.

Miyabi had thought the desert was nothing but sand, but there was so much more to find there. For example, palm trees, cacti, and other plants that could survive in the heat.

“Wow, what is that weird tree!? It’s so big!”

“It must be a baobab,” said Alicia. “They look strange, but from what I’ve heard, they evolved that way because it’s the best shape for them.”

“Are you sure they didn’t evolve the wrong way? They look like giant, ugly carrots.”

“Which allows some of them to live for more than 5000 years. Survival logic is not judged by human aesthetics. Nature truly is powerful.”

There were animals as well. Unfortunately, that included hideous local Beast Novae like a scorpion bigger than they were or an antlion that created its own quicksand.

Miyabi started to think they should have asked that Ginger guy to be their guide.

“I’ve never seen creatures like these,” he said, carefully walking around a giant bowl-shaped patch of quicksand resembling a crater. “Do you think those fried and skewered meats were made from these local ingredients?”

“Th-think too much about it and you won’t have much of an appetite, Miyabi.”

Also, the white bikini knight had been restlessly rubbing her legs together for a while now.

She also hooked her finger and messed with the butt of her swimsuit.

“What are you doing?” asked Alicia. “Is the bikini riding up back there?”

“More than I thought. And when the wind blows, the sand gets in-”

“Okay, we get it. Don’t you dare destroy any more of our manly dreams, you failure of a knight.”

The radio gave a deep rumble of a warning for once.

Eventually, the ruins came into view.

Several pillars stood on a stone-paved ground, with a foundation and L-shaped remnants of stone walls hinting that a square building had once stood there. It was a lot smaller than the pyramid temple in the desert nation, but it was larger than the oases they had seen here and there. Did it serve some kind of special purpose?

“Are these the ruins we want?” asked Miyabi.

“I do sense people here,” confirmed the magical automaton. “And I sense a pressure bearing down on me.”

“I sense a powerful spirit pressure too,” said Kananka. “This place must be even more consecrated than the temple in the middle of that city.”

At any rate, Miyabi took a look around and spoke half in prayer below the scorching sun.

“Where are those twin priestesses – Acacia and Ixea? If they’re not here, then the trail’s gone cold. We’ll have to search at random.”

They heard voices coming from the stone arch at the crumbling entrance to the ruins.

A few commoners were arguing with the priest-in-training who appeared to be their guide.

“Don’t push, please don’t push. All sacrifices should come this way. Please stay in line. The end of the line starts here.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!!” yelled the radio. “How flippant can you be!?”

“Y-yeah, I’m not sure what to make of this one!” said Alicia.

“Hold on. Something isn’t right,” said Helen (who had clear sweat building up in her large cleavage).

They took a closer look.

“Yes, it’s finally my turn.”

“Hurry it up, will you!?”

“This is my chance to be a sacrifice. I might even get recruited as a priestess!”

The people gathered at the far end of the stone plaza had bright excitement in their eyes.

Celina was taken aback by this.

“This does not feel as…tragic as I was expecting.”

“What are they even talking about? A chance to be a sacrifice? Recruited as a priestess? They make it sound like this isn’t the end for them.”

Eliza remained cautious, but the muscle man did not.

“Enough. If you want to know what’s going on, you march on up and ask them!”

When the muscular man (and wanted criminal) approached, everyone paled, so Miyabi quickly intervened.

“Oh, are you here to be sacrifices?” asked the priest-in-training. “Please wait a moment.”

“No, that’s not what-”

“Hey, no cutting in line, bikini girl! We were here first!!”

The smiling girl, who wanted to be a priestess, gave Miyabi’s party a cheerful warning. Her excitement about what was to come shined through even as she rebuked them.

Then they heard a deafening explosion. And felt a powerful tremor. But the shaking was variable, like a living thing was crawling around.

Cracks ran through the parched stone ruins.

“Whoa!?”

“Koo!?”

When Miyabi and Alma left the crumbling wall, a stir was spreading through the people around them. A few of the stone pillars started to collapse unpredictably.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

The original size of the stones and the original seams between them meant nothing. Several cubes of stone were extracted and rearranged vertically to forcibly prop up the heavy pillars.

But he could not cover the entire ruin himself. He had reflexively moved to protect the powerless ordinary people, so his own party had briefly entered a blind spot.

Stones larger than people’s heads collapsed. Celina Bodenburg started, but the flintlock rifle she normally used to protect herself (with a powerful offense) was of little use.

Something tackled the girl out of the way to protect her.

It was a tame Beast Nova that looked like a scantily-clad girl with falcon wings for arms.

That messenger harpy was in fact…

“M-Millovannes!!!???”

“Wow. With the way she was always slashing at her owner with those talons, I assumed she hated the girl, but apparently she’s just an extreme tsundere,” groaned the radio behind the rising cloud of sand.

Celina crawled forward while down on all fours from being knocked to the ground. She clutched the sand that had flowed into the scorching ruins and squeezed it in trembling hands for one second, two seconds, three seconds.

“I will never forget you… But I must move on, Millovannes. Damn this desert nation’s Godhorn Tech! It’s time for some delightful revenge!!”

“You got over that awfully quick for someone you claim to be family. At least look sad for more than three seconds! You humans scare me more all the time!!”

The entire scene had left the elf in tears.

Fortunately, the capable harpy was skilled enough to survive on her own. Since she crawled out of the rubble and flew off into the sky, she must have avoided being crushed to death. Maybe it was this treatment that kept her from ever getting closer to Celina.

Meanwhile, the brown-skinned people in the area did not just sit around waiting to be crushed.

“Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.”

“We weren’t enough! Run away!”

The line scattered.

A commotion spread as they fled for their lives.

“Hey, wait! Come back, sacrifices!”

The priest-in-training ran out into the scorching desert to pursue the fleeing people, but it still did not feel very tragic. Miyabi had the feeling no one was going to die there.

“Wh-what is going on here?” asked the elf, her long ears wiggling.

“The tremor is unstable but somehow orderly,” analyzed Number 8 with his eyes shut.

A second and third tremor reached their feet. The sand on the ground began to flow disconcertingly in some places. Dunes collapsed and quicksand formed.

“That priest said something curious,” said Helen.

“What part!? It all sounded crazy to me!!” shouted back Miyabi.

“ ‘The end of the line starts here.’ ”

“Hm, he did say that, didn’t he?” agreed Number 8.

“Hold on,” said Kananka, something about this bothering him.

“Does that mean the people who fled weren’t the only ones in the ruins? Th-there were more further in!?”

It seemed wrong for Eliza to be so strait-laced while equipped with a bikini. Miyabi looked back over at the stone ruins on the verge of collapse, but they were too large for him to make any quick judgments.

The chosen knight said what needed to be said at times like this.

Even if she was hooking a finger to fix the butt of her swimsuit while she did so.

“These tremors must be from the Godhorn Tech. But what are those twins hoping to accomplish by bringing it to these ruins? Are they hunting something so big it requires a Godhorn Tech?”

The radio asked the fundamental question here.

“But…what kind of opponent would a Godhorn Tech have trouble with?”

“…”

“Koo?”

They all fell silent and Alma tilted its flowery head.

Everyone but the juvenile Wicked God had reached the same conclusion.

“Could it be the Lord of Ruin!?” shouted Miyabi, setting them all into motion. “This is bad. They might even speed up their use of sacrifices to fight back. I don’t know how they use them, but they’re necessary for their Godhorn Tech, right? We need to stop both sides of this fight!!”

Either way, they had to check and make sure no one had been buried alive deeper inside the ruins.

Once inside, they found the ruins did not continue on underground. And the ceilings had entirely collapsed. The sun beat down on that roofless indoor space as they traveled through a labyrinth of crumbling stone walls.

“Nwohhh!? I’m being pulled into the sand!!”

“Wait, everyone,” said Helen. “The meathead pirate is caught in some quicksand!!”

“Huh? I thought that was a solid rock wall, but my hand passed right through it.”

“Miyabi, that must be a secret passageway created with a mirage,” said Kananka. “You see this along the coast in my kingdom, but seeing it artificially constructed is unusual.”

“Someone please save the macho man!!” shouted Helen, so the ever-obedient Number 8 fished the man out with his morning star.

The ruins, being ruins, had more traps than Beast Novae. They progressed deeper in while avoiding spears from the walls and swinging guillotines. With the scorching sun shining in through the crumbled ceiling, it at least did not feel dank and gloomy.

“It’s like a mall with the underground floor open to the air,” grumbled the radio. “It’s hard to say what’s underground and what’s aboveground, or what’s indoors and what’s outdoors. Reminds me of a convertible.”

They encountered a variety of people along the way.

The place was dangerous, so the people familiar with it may have viewed it like a secret base. …Although inattention created by that familiarity may have been the most dangerous thing of all.

“Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. I’m afraid not even Priestesses Acacia and Ixea can control it this time. But then what are we supposed to do!?”

A veteran priest worked to calm a girl who was pale faced with terror, but then he murmured to himself.

“They’ve lost control again. Is the Executive Ground just too much for us to handle? Sure, it’s supposed to resonate with the ruins, but we don’t actually know how that works.”

Further in, a calmer priest explained things further:

“We have the ruins to thank for our desert nation, the oases, and all our water, but we didn’t actually build any of them. Is the Godhorn Tech the same? Could the resonance with the ruins be some kind of warning?”

“The priests said they were providing everyone with equal opportunities when they chose those twin sisters despite their social status,” said an old man who looked resigned to his death. “But do we even need that Godhorn Tech? I understand that rulers want power, but what good is a power you can’t control?”

Fortunately, they did not see anything too serious, such as people trapped underground or crushed below a fallen wall or pillar. Miyabi used the Palette Dice to create a sturdy path of stone and then gestured for the remaining people to evacuate while his party continued on in.

“Doesn’t something about this still feel off?” Helen touched the side of her glasses. “The sacrifices still want to do their jobs – there’s no tension there.”

“And based on what they’ve said, this isn’t an enemy attack,” said Kananka.

“True,” agreed Eliza. “I get the feeling their own Godhorn Tech is running wild.”

“Oh,” said Miyabi.

He had spotted Acacia – or was it Ixea? Regardless, he had seen one of the Godhorn Tech users up ahead. But just the one. The brown girl was viewing the vast desert from a hole in the wall.

But what was that out on the desert?

It was swelling up in places, like something was crawling below the sand.

“There one is,” said the radio, but Miyabi tilted his head.

“But which one is she?”

The slender girl must have heard him because she toward him and spoke so stiffly and expressionlessly she sounded like a ventriloquist’s doll.

“Hello. I. Am. Acacia.”

“Okay, this is definitely Ixea. Don’t shove the blame on your sister!”

“Why won’t you leave us alone?”

“Your axes are cool. I ended up with a sword, so I’m honestly jealous.”

Ixea Flightheart’s face had expressed no emotion since they first met, but now it twisted into something hard to read. Miyabi only saw that forestry tool as a taste of home to soothe his homesickness, but he could see Alicia and Helen slapping their foreheads. Maybe Ixea now saw him as a weirdo. Maybe a fair assessment since underwear and axes were pretty much all he had talked about since meeting her.

But anyway.

Miyabi sighed.

“You’re too relaxed for this to be the Lord of Ruin.”

“S-says the boy acting all relaxed with a real Godhorn Tech running wild out there,” pointed out Helen.

“What are you even doing out there?” asked bikini Eliza, looking out into the distance. “Tilling the desert?”

More and more tremors ran through the ground. It appeared to be avoiding the ruins, but the sandy ground was crumbling away. Sand billowed out like cumulonimbus clouds.

“I couldn’t do it.” Ixea stared out at it all. “Maybe the ruins just weren’t in a good mood .”

“?”

“Priests and priestesses can be rejected from the ruins for how they live their life. Although you can change that if you can directly read their mood.”

“…”

Kananka and Number 8 intentionally held their tongues.

Ixea did not seem to notice.

“It was my sister’s turn today, but this does not look promising.”

“Nhh. Are you saying you can’t control your own Godhorn Tech?” groaned Onelife.

“That’s insane.” Celina’s eyes widened. “A berserk Godhorn Tech will only destroy your own country!!”

Eliza groaned and held a hand to the center of her bikini chest. Her ridiculous outfit did nothing to change her strait-lacedness and she was reminded of what had happened in her Arsenal Kingdom.

But there must have been more to it than that because Ixea made a suggestion after noticing Eliza.

“Oh, are you okay? You should probably move into the shade.”

“Wh-why me specifically? I’m the only one with the foresight to change into a swimsuit.”

“Showing too much skin reduces your defenses against the sun’s rays, so you actually take more damage.”

The local girl did not pull her punches.

Without their roof, shade was surprisingly difficult to come by in the stone ruins. Miyabi ended up holding out his hand and rearranging the stone plaza to create a sun-blocking roof. Eliza was feeling dizzy, so she lay down in the newfound shade.

A hint of surprise appeared on Ixea’s expressionless face as she looked alternately between Miyabi and the makeshift roof.

“What did you just do?”

“I don’t know myself. It seems to be some kind of error.”

“An…error, you say?”

It was Miyabi’s turn to look surprised.

He saw something like affinity in Ixea’s expressionless face.

But the bikini girl interrupted before he could ask what it meant.

“Ugh, sorry about that. Please continue.”

“If you insist,” sighed Ixea. The look was already gone from her eyes. “But things could be worse. My sister and I lived in the alleys before we were taken in for our talent. You could say our warm welcome proved we have what it takes.”

“So what’s all this about sacrifices?” earnestly asked Helen.

“Ugh,” groaned the chosen knight.

“You should probably give your knight some water first.”

As one of the temples, there was water here. They scooped up some in a collapsible metal camping cup and handed it to Eliza, who sat up and eagerly drank it. She held it in both hands and gulped it down like a hungry baby with a bottle.

“Gulp, gulp…”

“Oh, dear. I get the feeling she would swallow just about anything right now.”

Ixea gave the radio a look before getting back on topic.

“A pilot must board the Executive Ground to control it, but my sister and I could never keep it stable.”

“So you brought more people onboard?” asked Miyabi.

“I see,” said the automaton. “Like changing from piano four hands to a full orchestra.”

Eliza lay back down, the heat making her hate everything going on around her.

“Ugh…ughhhh!”

“Hm, you should probably find something to fan her with,” calmly suggested Ixea.

Alicia’s mouth formed a small triangle.

“That bikini ponytail has gotten awfully shameless of late, hasn’t she?”

They were not even calling her a knight anymore. Eliza Silverstorm’s identity was in crisis. Remove the bikini now, and she would have nothing left.

Miyabi and the others gathered big palm leaves from the hot sand.

By bundling a few of them together, they could function as a large fan. Miyabi held it in both hands and fanned it in Eliza’s direction.

She only lay there, sweating.

“Sigh. I’m never getting up again…”

“Does she think she’s a queen?”

Even Ixea was sounding exasperated now. People could learn the wrong lesson when they solved a problem in the wrong way.

But the defenseless bikini girl felt too nice to even consider moving from that spot.

Until, that is, a sudden tremor shook the stone below her and she shot to her feet. The rapid motion pushed the bikini straps’ knots to their limit.

Something burst straight up from the desert. Was it a snake or a centipede? It was large enough to rival a small tower in size, but the very tip looked more biological. Three round pieces of armor clacked open and shut like an eye or a maw.

This was the Executive Ground subterranean tank.

It was unclear how exactly it traveled through the ground, but the thick armor itself was rotating in alternating directions. The tooth-like blades, bits, and rollers used to dig through the ground looked like brutal weapons.

Was it a snake, a worm, or a centipede?

It wriggled in a horrifying way that made it look alive, so Celina (who had added a bayonet to her hunting rifle to make it even more deadly) grew pale.

“Ew, ew, ew, ew. Aren’t you the top of your nation? W-why would you make it look like a big, wriggling mess?”

“Your Schwarz Schütze was big, long, and black too,” point out Alicia.

“B-but it wasn’t a snake! Leave it to an elf hick to not understand the beauty of trains!!”

Since they had chosen that form, it must have had some special meaning for their desert nation. Maybe it was a sacred symbol of their nation’s protector, or maybe they had intentionally made it creepy to scare away any enemies.

“The cobra is a royal symbol,” explained Ixea, still watching the distant Godhorn Tech. “Hee hee. Strange, isn’t it? Our religion controls both the sun and the underworld and believes in the rebirth of mummies and our nation chooses its leaders equally from the wealthy and the poor, yet here we are clinging to an old, outdated image of the pharaoh. We claim to put equality first, but maybe people can’t help but throw it all away so some charismatic person can rule them and make them feel safe.”

Ixea’s shoulders shook in expressionless laughter, but Miyabi could not tell what was so funny.

Also, what were mummies?

The Executive Ground towered above them like a castle watchtower, but more of it had to still be hidden below the sand. Miyabi could not even imagine how big it was in all.

“Oh, that is not what I thought you meant by sacrifices.”

“It is modeled after the people sacrificed as grave goods. Theoretically , the more people who accompany a pharaoh in his grave, the greater his power in the next life. But if that control method were a success, it would mean sending a deadly weapon to the front line while stuffed full of living people. The term sacrifice seems appropriate, don’t you think?”

Ixea watched as the colossal device dove back into the sand. It almost seemed to be dissolving into the ground.

“I don’t understand humans.” The elf sounded exasperated. “You create weapons to protect people, but then you put people onboard those weapons to operate them. Why are you so fixated on having the power to fight? And if the Lord of Ruin arrives, he’ll just slice right through that thing.”

“The Lord of Ruin, hm?”

Ixea’s shoulder-length black hair swayed as she repeated the name.

The bizarre Godhorn Tech was below the sand once more. They could hear the occasional explosion or tremor, but they could not tell where it was or where it was going. It may have been similar to Kananka’s submarine in that way.

At times, a torrent of quicksand would burst from belowground, its face would emerge from the sand, fine sand would shoot out like a glowing blade to tear through a boulder, and a sandstorm would appear to hide its great form while it dove back into the sand.

It had several methods of offense and defense that used every aspect of the harsh desert.

“What do you think?” asked Ixea, half curious and half serious.

“That would depend on how deep it can dive,” mumbled Miyabi.

If it could use the ground itself as a thick shield, the Lucifer Horn’s aerial attacks would have a hard time hitting. He had gouged great trenches into the ground before, but that was the most he could manage. He doubted those beams could actually break into the depths of the earth.

Meanwhile, the Executive Ground could obscure its enemy’s vision with a sandstorm and spew high-speed sand to tear through even boulders. Depending on its range, even the airborne Lucifer Horn could be at risk.

After a while, Miyabi realized the deep rumbling had stopped.

An identical voice spoke from a different direction.

“Sister.”

This one was Acacia Flightheart.

Had she exited the Godhorn Tech because the experiment was over? Miyabi’s party had no idea where that massive sorcery weapon had gone to get the girl back here.

The faintest of frowns appeared on Acacia’s expressionless face.

“What were you talking about? Are they here to mock us for failing to control our Godhorn Tech?”

“The same as before, sister. They wished to discuss our subterranean tank and the Lord of Ruin.”

“Mhh.” Acacia puffed out her cheeks. Still expressionless in every other way, she turned toward Miyabi’s party. “I could have discussed that with you. Stop plotting to contact my sister while I am away.”

“Um…what?”

Acacia approached the confused redhead boy and gave a warning.

“As you can see, my sister is the puppy type, so she is very trusting of strangers. She makes it far too easy, so it takes mere moments before she-”

“Sister.”

“Ahem. Anyway, we should be going, sister.” Acacia paused for a moment and started again on a new topic. “We will handle the Lord of Ruin ourselves. And controlling the Executive Ground is the only way to do that.”

The twins left.

They gave off the pressure of someone who carried the weight of a nation on their shoulders. The village boy had been given a Godhorn Tech, but that was not something he had. He could not keep his eyes off of their departing backs.

After a while, the radio spoke up.

“Hey, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Koo?”

“Oh, you’re right! I forget to ask them who the Lord of Ruin is! They look like they would know!”

### Between the Lines 4

Those sisters could not remember how long they had lived like that.

They had no idea if they had ever had a comfortable home to live in.

Their first memories were of curling up together in the cold alleys. They had watched as so many people walked by without so much as a glance. Abandoned children were far from an unusual sight in their country.

For better or for worse, the extreme environment of the desert forced people to cut the fat and live rationally. The days were blazing hot and the nights freezing cold. They had been forced to do whatever it took to survive there.

They had never known their parents.

They had truly believed they may have been born from one of the buckets or sacks lying around in the alleys.

They had only learned of cooking when they were entirely fed up with the sourness of whatever they could find in the buckets.

They had only learned of clothing when the rags wrapped around them had lost all color.

They had never learned what a bath or a bed were.

It had not been a happy life.

They had assumed that was how their lives would always be.

They had expected to eventually grow weak and die together.

But that had all changed one day.

A kind priest had told them they were special, chosen by the sacred ruins.

The twin sisters were invited to the large temple, where they were given hot food to eat and a hot bath. They were given priestess clothing made of a material they had never before experienced, they were taught to read and write and otherwise educated, and they came to realize how wrong their previous assumptions about the world were.

Their desert nation was reliant on water.

There were no wells or rivers. Dig as deep as you like, you would never find anything.

The water that supported all their lives came from the mysterious ruins scattered across the desert. The nation only really protected the select few who could make a mental connection with the ruins and gather water from them.

And it turned out Acacia Flightheart and Ixea Flightheart had the most suitable wavelength for that.

Thus, they were given the Executive Ground, the desert nation’s prized Godhorn Tech.

So the girls could not abandon the nation that supported their lifestyle, the people who relied on their power, the priests who trusted their talent, or the Godhorn Tech and ruins that gave them such value.

But.

What was it they had really wanted to do, back when they stared up into the night sky from the frigid back alleys?

They had said they would do anything to survive. They had lived day to day by digging through buckets in the back alley. They had no memory of their parents and truly believed they may have been born from one of the buckets or sacks lying around in the alleys.

But no matter how hungry, cold, and weary they were and no matter how much they had resented the invisible presence they could sense in the stone ruins, there was one thing they had never wanted to do.

They had never wanted to wield a tool of killing.

### 034. Chapter 7, Section 3

Miyabi’s party had returned to the desert nation.

Camping out in such an extreme environment would have presented too much of a challenge, so they chose to fork over the money necessary for an inn.

Evening had since fallen.

“This country really likes its dried foods. They do it with meat, with fish, and even with fruit.”

“A culture of food preservation suggests there was a period in their long history when food supplies were unreliable. Still, it does have a unique flavor to it. Fish and shellfish must taste different if you slightly rehydrate it before cooking.”

“The spices are different too.”

“Ha ha. Yeah, those were a bit much when water is a luxury item. I bet it wakes you up in the morning, though.”

Miyabi Blackgarden and Kananka Fulpen discussed the food as they walked down a major road.

Alicia Blueforest, Helen Clockgear, and Celina Bodenburg were with them as well, but a lot of their party was elsewhere.

Miyabi made sure to buy something for Eliza Silverstorm, who wanted nothing to do with the great outdoors after the hot sun had worn her out. Number 8 had also stayed inside to focus on something called a “self-diagnostic” related to the fine sand getting inside his automaton body.

Miyabi’s group was on their way back to the inn after grabbing a bite to eat.

But then Miyabi bumped into someone.

However, the impact was unusually low. The person’s head hit him in the stomach, meaning they were about the same height as Kananka. Did that mean they were a small child?

“Oh, excuse-”

He looked down and started to speak, but he was cut off by a jangling sound that could only come from a thick chain.

He finally realized this was a small girl with a thick chain wrapped all around her.

“Eh? Eh? What’s this? She’s walking around like normal, so is this the latest fashion trend in the desert nation? Come to think of it, those twins wore chains like tails. Is this place just really into bondage?”

“Our Bodenburg Company does business all over the continent, but I assure you nowhere is quite that crazy!” insisted Celina. “Hm, a chained child out in the city at night. She might have escaped from some criminal organization or another. We need to protect her!!”

She looked no older than 10 or 12, but Miyabi had trouble judging small children’s ages and couldn’t say for sure.

“Kananka.”

“Hm? I think she’s about my age.”

If Kananka saw it that way, then she had to be exactly 12. A year’s age difference was a big deal in kid society, so they would know how to tell far more than someone older like Miyabi.

She had long blonde hair brushed aside from her forehead and white skin. Aside from the chain, she wore a thin blue dress and an apron. It made her look more like a country girl than a maid.

No one else in the city was dressed anything like her.

Celina crouched down to her eye level and put on a comforting smile.

“Were you brought here by someone, or were you abducted while on vacation? Either way, you’re safe now. There’s nothing to be afraid-.”

“Shut the hell up, you justice-obsessed freak. Keep away from this child with that creepy smile on your face.”

Celina curled up and held her hands over her sobbing face, so they decided to leave her be for a bit.

The young girl continued speaking with an unusually deep voice.

“Rose Dollycastle.” She directed cold, emotionless eyes toward Miyabi. “This girl has not been illegally abducted or sold into the slave trade, so do not worry. (Your worries are more a nuisance than anything.) I am journeying to find a way to break the curse.”

“ This girl ?” Miyabi frowned. “You make it sound like you and the girl are different people.”

“She probably thinks it makes her more interesting. It’s a common affliction among adolescents. They’ll wear eyepatches or silver accessories or whatever. I’ll admit that chain is pretty extreme, though. Wah hah hah!”

Miyabi was not sure what the radio was talking about, but apparently she was not injured or sick.

Then a black crack ran through the empty space directly above the girl’s head. No, it looked more like a single eye floating there. The pitch-black thing blinked with a mind of its own, narrowed its eye, and turned toward Miyabi’s party.

The girl(?) continued speaking.

“I am not this girl.”

“?”

“I am the chain – the cursed chain. Think of it as cursed equipment that provides both offense and defense. One day, Rose ended up wielding me. Ever since, I have been searching out a way to return her body to her. No matter what it takes.”

Cursed equipment.

On closer inspection, the ends of the chain wrapped around the girl were indeed shaped like scythe or spear blades. There was also something like an hourglass at her flat chest.

“A-a girl this young needed to wield a weapon?” Helen could hardly believe what she was hearing. “And you make it sound like you’ve been searching for a long time. How long ago did that happen?”

The chain(?) readily answered her question while turning its dark gaze toward her.

“Her family was surrounded by several Beast Novae in a mountain blizzard with no hope of rescue, so she had no choice but to wield a cursed weapon to protect them. Are you criticizing that decision?”

“…”

“Unfortunately, she was kicked out of her home because of it. I destroyed her life, so I must restore it to her. I require some means of breaking the chain – breaking myself.”

“Breaking yourself?”

“Isn’t the best way to conquer a curse to destroy its source?”

“I suppose,” sighed Miyabi.

This was more complicated than he had expected. And while the girl was trapped after wielding the weapon, it was unknown if she herself wanted to destroy the chain that had saved her and her family’s lives.

They had only heard the chain’s side of the story – not Rose’s.

(If they might do something they would regret, maybe it would be best to keep them close by.)

“Did you have something to say?” asked the chain.

“No.” Miyabi shook his head and put on a fake smile. “You want to break yourself and I happen to have access to the world’s greatest weapon: a Godhorn Tech. Surely you’ve at least heard of them.”

“That sounds wonderful, but I would like some proof of this power before we shake on it.”

That was easily done.

He stabbed his control sword into the ground, opening a magic circle.

“Lucifer Horn, take this girl to Horn Fortress!!”

Night had fallen.

They had been right to get some dinner before sunset. Miyabi had never lived in the desert before, but it was apparently well known that day and night there might as well have been different places entirely.

Helen Clockgear – or Venus, the bunny girl sans glasses – was muttering to herself alone in the inn room. She could not let Miyabi or the others see this transformation.

“Phew.”

She looked annoyed, but she made sure to strike a pose in front of the large mirror. She used her mannerisms to gather moderate attention and bring down people’s guard, but that was easier said than done. The correct answer was influenced by the current trends, the local character, and even an individual’s personal tastes.

She only had to put on a coat and she was ready to gather intelligence in the city’s night.

The ridiculousness of the outfit did not change the risk she undertook.

“Whenever we’re in need of information, we have a job for Venus. I need to gather whatever intel I can.”

But she was interrupted by Alicia who was hiding out in the room.

“Are you talking to yourself now?”

“Eek!?”

Miyabi, Celina, and the rest did not even bother knocking before barging in.

“Hm. I do wonder why Acacia and Ixea knew about the Lord of Ruin.”

“Right?”

“Not a single surprised reaction after setting foot in this unreal realm of the bunny girl!? Do I have that idiotic bikini armor to thank for this!? Is this just not enough to excite you anymore? Did she trigger some kind of bare skin inflation!? But I can’t show any more than this! You won’t get anything else from me!!!”

Helen bristled and shouted at them, but no one even looked her way.

And speaking of the bikini knight…

“It’s so cold, cold, cold? Why, why, why? Chatter, chatter, chatter.”

“The desert can’t store any heat, so it gets very cold at night!! Change back into your usual armor or you’ll freeze to death!!”

“Now, now, mom. Leave her be.”

“I am not your mom, Miyabi! Why do you start calling me that whenever I’m dressed as a bunny girl!? What disturbing ideas are lodged in the depths of your psyche!?”

“When I say ‘mom’, I guess I more mean the mom at a friend’s house.”

“What did you see when you were little!?”

The cold was so bad their breaths were visible even indoors.

Even Onelife Shiftup was bothered by it.

“Ghh, now this is a bit much. And my metal hand cools off way faster than a real one.”

Eliza Silverstorm was too exhausted to even adapt to the changing environment, so the most she could manage was grabbing a blanket from the bed and balling up inside it. And Alma had climbed onto the bed, so the poor creature was accidentally caught inside with her. She was close to looking like one of the mascot costumes at a crepe or hot dog stand. The desert was making her less and less capable of taking care of herself. If this continued, she might never be able to set foot outside the inn room. It scared the others enough that no one else dared approach the bed.

Meanwhile, someone was rubbing his body for warmth over by the wall.

Thanks to his tropical upbringing, Kananka may not have been accustomed to extreme cold. The young brown king had always experienced sweltering nights, so he had to hold his skinny shoulders against the cold.

“Th-this is not easy. I never experienced this back home.”

“Hey, are you okay, Kananka?”

“I should manage. Ahh, but you’re nice and warm, Miyabi. I think I’ll just nestle up against you until I’m used to it.

“Wait, is Miyabi starting down a new path here?” wondered the radio, but no one was paying any attention.

“The Lord of Ruin.” Celina breathed an exasperate sigh while seated on the windowsill. “With all the ruins, this desert kingdom must have the oldest history on the continent, so they may have more accumulated knowledge than anyone else too.”

“Do you know anything, walking dictionary elf?” asked Miyabi while leaning against the wall, but Alicia only breathed a visible sigh from a corner of the room.

“I generally never leave my forest, you know? All I know comes from the books I would read to pass the time at night. I just happen to have had a lot more tedious nights than a human.”

“Anyway, we need to ask them about the Lord of Ruin,” said bikini blanket Eliza while rubbing her cheek against Alma for warmth.

“N-need I remind you that one of the twins could still be the 11th?” asked Bunny Helen while trembling. “It might be best to ask them what they know before this gets any more complicated.”

“True, but can we really trust them?’ asked Number 8 who stood perfectly still in the center of the room. “Since they too are suspects, they could always lie.”

“If they do, we can use that lie to make our attack. But that requires confirming what they tell us, which will mean more detours,” replied Helen, seeming to have recovered some by focusing on the topic at hand.

That government worker could be strict at times like this. She served her country in a different way from a knight or butler.

“But they’re central figures of their country. How we do we approach them?” asked Kananka while using Miyabi for warmth.

But then…

“Hey, isn’t that Priestess Acacia!?”

They heard a voice from outside.

“…”

“Koo?”

They all fell silent and Alma pushed Eliza’s face away with its front paws to tilt its head.

They knew what they had to do know, so Onelife roared with laughter.

“Now that night’s fallen, this investigation can really get started!”

“What is even happening?”

Miyabi scratched his head and walked to the door, but Venus alone could not accept this.

“Ehh? Wait, you want me to do a lengthy investigation outside dressed like this!? At least let me put a coat on over the bunny suit! Wait, wait, wait!”

“Hurry it up, horny bunny.”

“Please put back on your normal armor, lewd knight!! Surely you aren’t going to head outside still wrapped in that blanket! I mean, you’ll very nearly be a flasher wearing nothing below their coat. Just let go of Alma and come with me!!”

Helen finally tugged on cocoon Eliza’s ear to drag her into another room.

Once outside the inn, Miyabi’s party was assaulted by the biting cold. It was quite a bit colder than when they had been out for dinner. But the canals and crowds kept the city relatively warm at night, so it would be even worse out in the open desert.

Everyone around them was already talking about Acacia Flightheart. It reminded them of how the criminal city had so adored Onelife.

It turned out the religious nation had no custom of going to bed and getting up early.

The city was illuminated by oil lamps and the reflected starry sky appeared to be scattered across the ground. The beauty of the city seemed to be a sign of the how much business was done there.

They passed by a bar when a window burst open and a tipsy man shouted from within.

“A toast to the two priestesses!! Who the hell knows what they actually do, but they get the job done! That way we don’t gotta worry about it ourselves! A toast, a toast!”

The lady at his table was pouting her lips and teasing her glass with her fingertips.

“Priestesses Acacia and Ixea are all they ever talk about. Hard to imagine they used to live in the back alleys. Sigh, why can’t a priest come by and recruit me?”

A fortuneteller woman let a comment slip in a gap between customers.

“The type of customer is so different between day and night, but neither type ever has any real problems. Is that just how peaceful we are thanks to that Godhorn Tech?”

They walked around a while before spotting a familiar brown girl at a plaza.

“There she is, Miyabi,” said Number 8 with no emotion on his face. “It’s that idiot.”

“What are you doing?” asked Miyabi while Alicia calmly grabbed one of the “priestess toys” growing nearby to make sure the girl did not escape.

He thought this was Acacia.

By this point, he had figured out the subtle differences in the twins’ behavior. Their clothing was also subtly different. Acacia’s was feline and Ixea’s was canine.

Also, she was not alone.

The chain swished from the back of her hips and she showed no change of expression as she explained why some man was following her around.

“A stranger asked me for directions.”

“Wow, that is a really good costume,” said the man. “You look just like Acacia! Can you show me to your club? I’d love to down some drinks with you sitting in my lap!”

Onelife placed an arm around the unintentionally inappropriate man’s shoulders.

“Gah hah hah! I think the two of us need to have a chat, man to man!”

“Eh? What? You mean it’s not a costume? That really is Acacia??? Oh, no! Oh, no, no, no, no!!”

The man ran off, showing surprising agility for a drunk.

Acacia still did not seem to understand.

“Oh, did he remember the way?”

“…”

Miyabi was not sure what to say and Kananka felt a need to break the awkward silence.

“I know I never would have made it onto the throne without so many people’s protection, but I think she’s even worse than me.”

“It turns out I interrupted an important conversation with my sister earlier, so I thought I should visit you to apologize and tell you about the Lord of Ruin. However, I forgot to ask where you were staying.” Miyabi’s eyes widened at that casual explanation.

“The Lord of Ruin!? Really!?”

“That was surprisingly easy,” noted Number 8.

“I also forgot how cold the desert night is. It has been too long since I was out this late.”

“Now’s your chance, Miyabi. Grab a blanket from somewhere,” urged the radio. “Heh heh heh. The careless fool just told you exactly what it is she wants. Building up affection points will be a piece of cake now!!”

With no convenient blankets lying around, he had to grab one from their inn room. Which was generally frowned upon.

Acacia looked satisfied inside the blanket that still held some of Eliza’s body heat.

“Ooh, this is nice and warm. But that does not mean I will open up to you.”

“She’s just taking you for all you’re worth!? With the wrong upbringing, this girl could turn into a real problem.”

Acacia had apparently learned by now to ignore the radio’s delusions. Once she had sat down on a bench by the plaza fountain, Miyabi concluded she was not going to leave right away.

The brown priestess began her explanation in an oil lamp’s light.

“You should have seen by now how reliant we are on the ruins. With so much history, we have more antique murals and ancient documents than we could ever need.”

“?” Kanaka tilted his head and briefly fell silent. “You mean…this isn’t something someone told you? Is the Lord of Ruin a figure from some ancient text?”

“I assume you passed through the Bio Rainforest on your way here?”

“Don’t ask me! I’m no navigator!!” replied the muscle man.

“Then stay quiet and let someone else field the question, idiot!!” shouted back the glasses woman.

Meanwhile, Acacia continued her lecture.

“You should have seen stone ruins buried in the vegetation there.”

“Like the ones the Necromancer was using as a lab?” asked Celina.

Acacia shook her head on the bench and toyed with a flower growing in one of the beds supported by the stone canals.

“ Those ruins originally belonged to – no, were originally constructed by the Lord of Ruin .”

“Constructed by?” Miyabi felt faint trying to sort out the timeline there. “But that must have been centuries ago – if not millennia!”

“It would have at least been before the foundation of the Empire.”

Number 8’s assessment was more accurate and Acacia nodded.

“Similar to our ancient stone ruins, plenty of records can be found there. It is said the Lord of Ruin created history’s first Godhorn Tech inside those forest ruins.”

That one term cut to the heart of the matter.

“The demon sword Calamity Revenge.”

The chill of the desert night was overwritten by something else.

That name alone seemed as sharp as a blade’s edge.

That sword itself was already such an enigma.

Miyabi’s party had seen it bisect the Deadman’s Fenrir in a single strike. They had abandoned the idea of fighting the Lord of Ruin and failed to even escape, so they were only still alive thanks to some whim of his.

Acacia had been kicking her legs a little while seated on the bench and wrapped in the blanket, but now she stopped moving altogether.

“The records say he broke off a juvenile Wicked God’s horn and forcibly built it into his sword.”

“K-koo…”

“From a juvenile?” said Alicia. “That’s horrific.”

“I believe it was called a sword of slaughter that brings victory to its user but always leaves new conflict in its wake. Even if the wielder wants to stop fighting, their people, their country, and the world as a whole pushes them to fight until they are consumed by it. The fundamental magic it uses is Geas. You could call it a vow or a curse. You bind yourself with a promise and gain powerful magic with which to harm others. It truly is a demonic sword. It restricts its wielder’s freedom, so to have used it for so long without self-destructing suggests a shocking level of skill.”

It was a frightening concept.

Any Godhorn Tech could be described as a double-edged sword, but Calamity Revenge had to be the most prominent example. It almost seemed to punish you for wielding such a deadly power.

“He must have had enough power to commit the taboo of breaking off a juvenile’s horn,” continued Acacia. “There are even records saying this one continent is all we know because he split apart the sea to cut it off from the rest of the world.”

That sounded like something from a fairy tale, but Acacia was serious. Her tone implied that would be within his power.

“It isn’t actually known if today’s Godhorn Techs could defeat a real Wicked God, but either way, the very first one had to be done without a Godhorn Tech and there would have only been so many someone could defeat to claim the horn. But that doesn’t mean the other Wicked Gods would have been okay with it. It is obvious what must have happened when you remember that his kingdom is now buried below vegetation. …He acquired the strongest power he so desired, but that brought about an even greater disaster.”

“…”

The Lord of Ruin.

Was that name meant to say he was lord of a ruined kingdom?

“Then why is he still wandering the world?”

“To make up for his mistake,” clearly stated Acacia. “After breaking off the juvenile’s horn, that ancient king saw the monster writhing in pain and realized Wicked Gods are no different from humans. But after he built the horn into his sword and displayed its destructive power to the world, there was naturally no end to people who wanted that overwhelming power for themselves.”

From there, the brown girl almost seemed to be singing.

With her emotionless eyes looking up into the starry sky.

“The Wicked Gods were made out to be evil.”

Her words were so smooth.

“He was made out to be just for slaying that evil.”

Yet so sinister.

“So the Lord of Ruin still opposes the world that perpetuates that framing.”

“That’s why he does it?”

Miyabi gulped and Acacia nodded.

“He has lived in regret for so very long. He regrets distorting history with the introduction of Godhorn Techs…and he regrets directing people’s greed toward the Wicked God horns.”

“…”

“By ensuring that anyone with a Godhorn Tech meets an unpleasant end and ensuring that anyone who attempts to break off a Wicked God horn is destroyed, he hopes to change how the world works. He appears to be attacking everyone who possesses one, turning himself into the greatest calamity of all.”

“In that case…”

Miyabi thought back to the Lord of Ruin’s apparent agony when Alma had moved to protect them at the exit to the rotting Bio Rainforest.

He thought about why such a powerful man had stopped his attack.

“Did the Lord of Ruin leave the forest because of Alma?”

Then what about when he had dealt with the Deadman’s Fenrir? From Miyabi’s perspective, it had looked like a merciless one-shot kill, but the old man may have been weeping blood below his mask.

With a corpse that had been turned into a rotting sorcery weapon by forcibly attaching another horn, maybe he could clench his teeth and justify his actions by saying he was putting it out of its misery.

But that reasoning did not allow him to attack a living juvenile like Alma.

He refused to commit the same mistake twice.

Even if it put him at a severe disadvantage.

Was that part of his pride as a king?

Blanket-wrapped Acacia’s voice was the only sound in the cold starry night.

“Anyway, contacting the Lord of Ruin should be easy enough. He will appear to anyone with a Godhorn Tech, no matter what, so you don’t even need to do anything.”

“W-wait. Then aren’t you and your sister in danger too!?”

“Yes, but that changes nothing. We cannot battle a Godhorn Tech user without control of the Executive Ground. I don’t know what exactly happened in those unthinkably ancient days, but the Godhorn Tech is a crucial pillar supporting our country. We do not have time to bother with philosophical questions of right and wrong.”

“You have a point,” groaned Number 8.

“It is ironic, really. The more the Lord of Ruin hates Godhorn Techs, the more we must fortify ourselves using them.”

The brown girl’s lips twisted with a hint of self-deprecation.

Maybe it was meant as a smile, but she was so out of practice it didn’t come out right.

“Could we work together?” cautiously suggested Miyabi.

“Just so you know, we consider you a threat as well. You are not bound to any country, you are immune to diplomacy, and you control a Godhorn Tech all on your own. You need to be aware that you could destroy an entire country on a whim if you wanted.”

That was the end of it.

With a rustle of cloth, the blanket dropped to the bench and she left. Miyabi could not stop her.

“The Lord of Ruin might be on his way, so I should not be out here talking.”

They had not solved anything, but time had passed and the conversation had ended.

Miyabi’s party had no choice but to return to the inn for now.

He felt bad continuing to intervene in their lives, but he could not let those twins stay like this. He knew the Lord of Ruin’s power was real. He had seen the threat with his own eyes.

And.

Alicia Blueforest remained behind, all alone.

Well, the radio was still with her.

“Now. I hope that boy has not forgotten that one of the twins might be the 11th. …Their behavior could be an act and their Godhorn Tech’s malfunction could be because one of them is drawing off all the energy to create sorcery bombs.”

“Heh heh. With twins that cute, maybe he doesn’t care if they trick him.”

“…”

Morning arrived and Miyabi sat up in the inn bed, lost in thought.

“Now, where are Acacia and Ixea?”

“Koo!”

“We need to find some way to get their cooperation today.”

Plant Alma had an excess of energy today, perhaps due to sunbathing by the window while in a flowery dryad form. Miyabi and the stuffed-animal creature got ready together and then left their room to meet with the others. After buying some water and meals of assorted dried foods from a street vendor, they made their way out into the desert.

“Sigh, not the desert again. It’s nothing but hot sand, hot sand, and more hot sand.”

Eliza was depressed already. It was blazing hot even in the morning. This time, the chosen knight was wearing her usual armor instead of the bikini. It was just as hot as before, but she had finally learned that wearing less only exposed her skin to sun damage.

“What a shame. I so wanted to see the novice exhibitionist’s bikini tan lines,” grumbled the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck.

Come to think of it, Eliza’s skin was surprisingly untanned for all the sun she had gotten. Instead, it looked faintly flushed. Was that what happened with the pale-skinned people of her snowy kingdom?

The sand began to shake violently when they were still near the city. It happened a second time, a third time, and they eventually lost count. The dunes looked like an ocean’s waves frozen in time, but now they collapsed and changed shape like the flow of time had been restored.

The unnatural quicksand made their footing as unstable as stepping in a shallow forest stream that had a stronger current than expected.

“Whoa.”

The redheaded boy staggered and Eliza had to support him from the side. Her armor seemed to have restored her dignity, so she had regained the gallant look of the sort of opera star every girl wanted to be.

“How can they keep this up in such a harsh environment? They must be continuing their tests with that subterranean tank, so do they do that from dawn to dusk?”

“Where are they this time?” asked Celina just in time for another great tremor. “They must be to the north today.”

They were more afraid of the sand covering up the narrow path of packed-down sand than they were of being swallowed whole by quicksand. The desert was so vast that they would have a hard time finding landmarks. If this path disappeared, they would have no way of navigating back.

For now, they followed the sounds.

They continued on, the hot sand catching at their feet, until some stone ruins finally came into view. They were relieved to find something other than sand they could use as a landmark. Acacia and Ixea had to be doing their tests in there.

Then they saw some people approaching them from the ruins. The details were still unclear, but the people may have found the harsh desert to be safer than the ruins.

While they passed, Miyabi’s party overhead a conversation between a young male artist and a carefree girl.

“Will the priestesses be all right on their own?”

“They said they weren’t accepting sacrifices, so I guess so.”

“Please hurry away. These were the priestesses’ instructions, so there is nothing to worry about.”

A priest waved a small flag to guide the carefree group through the desert. If they fled into the mirage-filled desert at random, they could indeed get lost easily.

Alicia glanced back at that group with skepticism on her face.

“What’s that about? This isn’t how they did things yesterday.”

“Their technology is reliant on the ruins and the chosen priestesses have to stand in harm’s way,” said Miyabi.

“You mean everyone is placing all the nation’s problems on those two’s shoulders?” Helen’s face clouded. “They keep insisting there is a problem, but no one takes them seriously while also blaming them when things gradually get worse? Everyone is so used to peace they fail to notice all the work those two put in. It must be so stifling for them.”

“It isn’t pleasant to hear about, that’s for sure,” said the radio.

“Nhh.” Onelife tilted his head. “But don’t they need the sacrifices to control their Godhorn Tech? You can’t call it a voyage if you let your whole crew off your ship and let it drift out at sea.”

“They did say the sacrifices were needed to restrain the unnatural resonance with the ruins,” said Number 8.

“Although I’m not sure how those sacrifices can help if they don’t know how to sense the spirit pressure,” said Kananka.

Those two’s descriptions were too abstract for the others to grasp very well.

“Hmm. Weren’t the experiments meant to stabilize the subterranean tank using the power of their people?” asked Eliza. “No way to test that without the people.”

“I’m amazed you remember all that when you were all dizzy from your bikini adventures yesterday,” said Celina, sounding impressed (and exasperated).

Just then, they heard a rumbling.

Something appeared to be crawling closer.

“Hold on.” Miyabi asked a careful question. “If they aren’t running their test, then what is this?”

“If it is not training, then could it be combat?” suggested Number 8, earning a groan from Miyabi. “What are Acacia and Ixea using their Godhorn Tech to do!?”

They encountered some Beast Novae while hurrying toward the ruins.

The desert monsters looked like giant snakes or bugs. The lack of water and the extreme temperature differences between day and night had created a very unique ecosystem. There were antlions with control over quicksand, dung beetles that flipped on their backs and toyed with infection bombs larger than they were, and many more.

“Whoa!?”

“Just get ready for battle!”

They did not need to defeat them all. After repelling them, the ground shook hard enough to crack open. The panicked monsters scattered and fled. The man-eating antlions emerged onto the sand and crawled awkwardly around and the wagon-sized dung beetles rolled away on their own filthy orbs.

They had avoided an all-out war with the Beast Novae, but they could not relax yet.

Eliza gulped and extracted her large lance from the flabby belly of an antlion (which was pretty gross-looking once out of the sand).

“It looks more like they fled in surprise than tried to attack. But what from?”

“Koo…”

“This isn’t the time to grimace in distaste,” said Alicia. “If they attack us, we have to fight back.”

“Oh, how unusual. You usually defend the Beast Novae.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that the cute species like us are not the same as those monsters that crawl around eating living flesh!? Come here, Alma. I will carry you on my head.”

They continued through the desert.

They spotted two camels on the way, but not wild ones. These still had saddles and reins like a horse would wear.

They did not have nametags, but their owners were obvious enough after seeing the glittering golden equipment. Not to mention the feline and canine decorations attached to their ears like earrings.

“Do those belong to Acacia and Ixea?” asked Miyabi.

They had arrived in the stone ruins.

After observing the desert around the ruins themselves, Helen pointed into the distance.

“Oh, is that it!?”

A massive cloud of sand rose from a great shape.

That had to be the desert nation’s Godhorn Tech: the Executive Ground.

However…

“What is this wild and irregular pressure? What is happening here?”

Kananka and Number 8 were both rendered speechless.

“This is more than just resonating with the ruins.”

“Hold on. Is that what I think it is!?”

An enormous object burst from the hot sand.

A massive snake covered in thick armor used tooth-like bits and blades to kick up the sand. But what they saw was only a portion of the weapon that had so destroyed the scenery. Part of it remained buried below the sand. It must have had a great many joints because it moved in an eerily biological way that made their skin crawl to watch, but it also looked like a piece of mining equipment that tore through the ground to dig tunnels. But that colossus was not the center of this scene. It moved three round pieces of armor to open its great maw, but another figure was facing the Executive Ground.

He wore a white mask.

He wore loose clothing.

He held the world’s oldest Godhorn Tech.

“…”

“The Lord of Ruin!?” shouted Miyabi.

Onelife clenched his prosthetic fist.

“Now that villain is turning his blade on those twins!?”

“Did they send out the subterranean tank to battle him? They must have let the sacrifices go to keep them out of this deadly battle,” concluded Eliza with a mixture of approval and exasperation.

“B-but they couldn’t control it even with the sacrifices, right?” said pale-faced Helen.

“They would not have been much help if they could not sense this pressure,” said Kananka, looking like staying on his feet was a struggle.

Helen supported him with a hand on the shoulder and finally started shouting.

“Th-th-th-then are Acacia and Ixea in any condition to fight!? What can they do if they can’t control the Executive Ground!?”

The face covered by the smooth, eyeless and mouthless mask tilted slightly.

The blade flipped around.

“The subterranean tank and I can both kill with a single strike. We have entered a mutual contract that remains in effect until this promise is fulfilled.”

The glint of reflected sunlight showed the path of the blade after the fact. Even at a distance, Miyabi could not see at all what the sword did in real time. The desert’s poor footing and the scorching sun did nothing to restrict his divine speed.

The serpent or worm that was the Executive Ground writhed in pain, forming a massive arch in the air, and then dove back down into the dry sand. No, fleeing may have been the better word.

The desert continued as far as the eye could see, but it felt far too small now. The Lord of Ruin’s presence was just that great. It would have been one-shotted if it had not shed some of its armor and diverted the blade’s path with a thick cloud of sand.

The Lord of Ruin’s sword was the Calamity Revenge.

Was it Celina who had called it a Godhorn Tech slayer when they first saw it in the Bio Rainforest?

Muscular Onelife could also be extraordinarily destructive, but the Lord of Ruin’s destruction was of a different type altogether. The one-eyed pirate wielded brute force and weight like he had an endless supply of energy within him, but this sword was cold and sharp and it calmly cornered its foe before accurately destroying them.

Did the twins have any chance of winning even if they managed to fully control the Executive Ground and draw out 100% of its power? It was impressive they had survived even that initial attack.

“It doesn’t matter if they can control it,” muttered Miyabi in a daze.

“Koo?”

“Acacia and Ixea plan to throw the uncontrollable subterranean tank at the Lord of Ruin to try and repel him. They want to protect their country even if it means their own destruction.”

“I see.” Surprisingly it was the cold magical automaton who responded first. Or maybe it was no surprise since he had failed to protect his own homeland. “I would do the same if it would save the country I was responsible for.”

“B-but they can’t keep this up! They control that from inside, just like I did my Schwarz Schütze, don’t they? Those twins are still in there!”

“This could be our chance, Miyabi.” Kananka made an odd suggestion. “You might have an easier time of it if we attacked the Lord of Ruin now, making it 2-to-1. He made a surprise attack on the Necromancer’s Deadman’s Fenrir to bring down the number of enemy Godhorn Techs, remember? That suggests he doesn’t want to fight more than one at once.”

“Will you stop the subterranean tank or the Lord of Ruin, Miyabi!?”

Miyabi fell silent considering Alicia’s question.

“…”

And.

“…”

And.

“…”

And.

He gave his answer.

“ Let’s stop Acacia and Ixea. ”

That settled it.

Miyabi faced his enemy and adjusted his grip on the control sword.

“We might have more opportunities to fight the Lord of Ruin, but we don’t get a second chance if those two lose their lives. This is our only chance to save them! So that’s what I’ll do, even if they resent me for it!!”

No one objected.

The small king loved by the sea and the spirits smiled gently.

“If that is your decision, I will assist you. Show them how to use a Godhorn Tech, Miyabi!”

Moving quickly through the desert was a challenge in and of itself.

Just like at the beach, the fine sand gently absorbed the energy of their feet on the ground, eating away their speed.

Meanwhile, they were up against a subterranean tank, a Godhorn Tech designed for use in the desert.

Only that colossus could move freely through the sand that caught at everyone else’s feet, so it moved too swiftly to ever reach without a plan.

Also, the Executive Ground did not keep its face above ground at all times. In fact, it had to be safer while submerged in the sand. It could wait for the desert to wear its opponent down with the heat of the day or the chill of the night and then attack from below once they were too weak and distracted.

But.

Its current opponent was an exception.

“Another Godhorn Tech.”

An old man wore a smooth white mask with no eyes or mouth and casually held a fearsome demon sword in one hand.

He was the Lord of Ruin.

“Eek!?”

Helen ducked down and covered her head, even though he was still so far away. Normally, there was no way a sword could reach them from that distance, but they all ducked down, their legs seizing up with fear. They knew on an instinctual level that “normal” meant nothing here.

“The subterranean tank and I can both split the sandy terrain with our blades. We have entered a mutual contract that remains in effect until the subterranean tank has been destroyed.”

Their opponent bound the field with a curse that benefited only him.

With a single strike, he split open the sandy ground, mercilessly exposing the Executive Ground attempting to hide there. The thick armor of the ground accomplished nothing and the Godhorn Tech itself was damaged. The tooth-like blades and bits meant to dig through the sand were torn away like a fish’s scales and cracks visibly ran through the rollers. Nevertheless, the great serpent or worm wriggled in its berserk state, targeting the Lord of Ruin with unpredictable movements, but…

“Argh, this had better do the trick!!”

Celina’s sniper shot struck what looked like a red ball of glass embedded in the Godhorn Tech’s head. The crimson liquid within sloshed around. That had to be more like the inner ear than an eye. With its midair attitude control sensor shaken, the venomous snake was thrown off course during its sharp leap toward its prey. Acacia and Ixea had been robbed of one of their few chances to strike.

Miyabi was not going to just stand idly by.

That great serpent was a massive tunnel digger that could move freely through the sandy ground. Only the Lord of Ruin could thoughtlessly stand up to that serpentine collection of bits and rollers, but Miyabi had a Godhorn Tech of his own: the Lucifer Horn bomber.

He stabbed his control sword into the ground, opening a magic circle at his feet.

“Tactical open,” he shouted. “Blow it away!!”

Sensing the danger, the Executive Ground opened the three round armor pieces that complexly folded together to form a mouth. It aimed its open mouth toward the sky and fired absorbed sand with enough speed to function as a cutter.

Fearsome attacks were launched from the sky and the earth.

But they did not collide in between.

Because Miyabi had not been targeting the subterranean tank itself.

Thus, the Lucifer Horn managed to avoid the skyward attack by a hair’s breadth.

But what had the bomber’s beam accomplished?

It crashed into the ground next to the Executive Ground. The ultra-hot beam tore into the ground, transforming the fine sand into sticky glass. It was a miniscule change when looking at the desert as a whole, but the melted glass gummed up the digging bits and blades.

With a terrible grinding, the desert rejected the serpent. Its blades were a poor match for the sticky goop. It was a horrific analogy, but it was just like how a blade lost its sharp edge to the blood and fat after cutting down enough people.

For a brief moment, the subterranean tank lost its greatest advantage: the ability to dive below the desert and move rapidly through the sand. Unable to even hide, it writhed up on the surface.

Its gaping maw turned toward Miyabi this time.

And it produced voices. The voices of the twins.

Miyabi could hear the girls despite the distance, so the serpent’s internal cavity must have amplified the voices like a trumpet. If that ability was refined and the noise concentrated in a single direction, it could probably function as an acoustic weapon that knocked people out by rattling their heads. Then again, the uncontrollable Executive Ground was unlikely to allow such fine-tuned control.

“Tch!!”

“Why must you interfere!?”

Acacia and Ixea spoke from within the Godhorn Tech, so Miyabi yelled back at them.

“And why must you do everything you’re told!? Why didn’t you even hesitate to board the Executive Ground!?”

The girls spoke one after another.

Each statement blended into the next so well it was hard to tell which was which.

“That goes without saying.”

“We cannot protect the desert nation without controlling this Godhorn Tech.”

“And we will protect our country even if we cannot control it!”

“Even if it means sacrificing ourselves!!”

It sounded a lot like they were trying and failing to speak in unison.

So Miyabi spat out more questions.

“Because someone told you to? Because those priests took you in? Because the people are counting on you? Because you were given control of the Executive Ground?”

A single attack from that blade of compressed sand – no, a single tackle – would be enough to kill Miyabi, but he directly faced and shouted at that colossus.

“That isn’t what you want to do. That’s what’s been forced onto you!”

“Silence. You have no right to speak about our inner feelings.”

“That’s right. Our feelings are our own!”

“…Our?” Something bothered him about that, so he pursued that feeling. “Our, us, we. You’re always talking about the two of you together and never just yourself ! So whose feelings are really in control of the Godhorn Tech!?”

“!?”

The twins trembled in response.

“You decide this is the right thing to do because your sister says so.” The more he spoke, the more the idea felt wrong to him. “The people do it to you, you do it to them, and you do it to your sister! Everyone is shoving responsibility for your decisions onto each other!! So what do you have that’s your own? That’s why you can’t control the Godhorn Tech. Who does the Executive Ground really belong to !?”

Godhorn Techs were controlled through a contract.

Miyabi, Celina, and even inhuman Number 8 had faced their strongest power through a 1-on-1 contract. The Icicle Bullet had been controlled by majority rule determined by Eliza and the rest of the chosen knights, but that was because they each understood the importance of their vote and cast it with the appropriate tension.

They knew their choices would have significant results.

But what if someone lacked that realization?

This had nothing to do with the “mood” of the ruins or a lack of skill on the twins’ part. This nation had erred from the very beginning. It made perfect sense that they were incapable of holding their Godhorn Tech’s reins.

“I-I…”

“No, we…!!”

It came from head on.

The subterranean tank fired ultra-pressurized sand from its gaping maw. A direct hit from that would cleave through a rocky mountain like a giant’s sword.

But Miyabi did not even flinch.

He only swept his empty hand to the side and packed together sand to create a Decoy Wall. By diverting their aim just slightly, the nightmarish attack tore through the air right next to him.

He kept his eyes on them and raised his voice again.

“I’ll drag you out of that centerless cradle, so do some self-reflection, Acacia, Ixea! I won’t act like you’re both basically the same. I will hear what it is each of you really want individually!!”

They had said he could destroy a country on a whim, so he would show them that he could also save two girls on a whim. And to do that, he was willing to face the Godhorn Tech that was a collection of all of the desert nation’s power.

The Lucifer Horn’s beam could tear through the sand and the metal maw could approach through the ground to devour Miyabi.

Then there was the white mask.

The Lord of Ruin acted as a wild card in this fight.

The Executive Ground had been troubled by the glass made from melted sand, but it forcibly shattered the cooled and solidified glass to free its thick bits and rollers.

It was close enough now that a glass shard scraped Miyabi’s cheek.

But he did not have time to worry about that. If it dove back below the surface, he would lose his chance to win this. He forgot all about backing away as he stabbed his control sword into the hot sand.

A giant magic circle opened at his feet.

“That won’t…!!”

“…work again!!”

The twins shouted from the fully-opened mouth.

He ignored their claim because he was not thinking of melting the sand to create more glass. That Godhorn Tech was used to protect an entire nation, so he had never expected the same move to work more than once.

“Lucifer Horn, break it down!!”

With a deafening boom, the Executive Ground was once more repelled from the sand, but this time its tooth-like blades and rollers were not gummed up with melted glass.

A massive bomb had fallen and exploded on the surface.

It initially only seemed to damage the surface, but that was not the case.

“Your Executive Ground might rule this desert, but loose sand isn’t nearly as hard as packed-together sand, is it!?”

Alicia brought a test tube to her mouth, drank the physical boosting potion within, and gave a fierce roar.

“Ha ha. I see. A gravity anomaly, huh? Gravity is actually different at some points on the continent. For example, the locations of iron ore deposits hidden below the desert. You altered the density to create an obstacle that can, for a brief moment, stop the subterranean tank in its tracks!!”

The Lord of Ruin was approaching.

The unwanted third party approached the desert Godhorn Tech and his blade flashed as it was released from its scabbard.

That was enough to cause some kind of emergency because the curled-up serpent collapsed flat down on the sand. It looked to be more than 70m long, proving yet again that Godhorn Techs were absurd. How could something so large move so freely through the sand?

Miyabi did not have time to lament this unexpected attack.

“Now’s my chance!!” he shouted instead.

He stabbed his control sword into the ground and a white beam stabbed down from the sky.

The serpentine silhouette writhed in agony. Its three round armor pieces wriggled as its maw opened wide and the girls’ voices emerged.

“Kh, how dare you!!”

“We need the Executive Ground!!”

Miyabi had a fundamental question about this.

He looked to his heart, searched out the question there, and let it out.

Definite power filled the ordinary boy’s words.

“Is that Godhorn Tech really protecting your nation? The Republic doesn’t have one and the Arsenal Kingdom got rid of theirs, but they’re still doing just fine!”

Acacia snapped back at him.

They were cheap words drawn out on reflex.

“It is our only defense against that enemy right there! The Lord of Ruin!!”

“He never would have attacked if not for the Godhorn Tech!!”

“…”

The twin girls said nothing more.

They fell silent.

“Oh, did that actually get through to them?” hesitantly asked Alicia.

“ Then what about you? ”

But the older twin’s strangely gloomy words left the great serpent’s mouth, soon followed by the younger twin’s.

“That’s right, sister. All other Godhorn Tech owners are a threat. It is our duty to fight them.”

“It’s not working!!” Helen looked up into the sky. “You aren’t reaching them!!”

“Do we have to stop them by force after all?” asked Eliza, raising her lance.

Miyabi was actually smiling.

Belligerently.

“Fine by me. This just means we duke it out until we reach an understanding.”

“Well said!!” responded Onelife for some reason. “I’m sick of running away. Nwohhhhh!! It’s time for a chat through the medium of violence!!”

It was time to really do it.

That one strike from the masked Lord of Ruin had been powerful indeed. The subterranean tank was left lying out on the sand, which meant something had gone wrong and it could not dive back below the sand. And before the 70m colossus could recover, direct hits from Kananka’s boomerang, Miyabi’s control sword, and more pushed its writhing past the limit.

Onelife Shiftup scored a direct hit.

This went beyond his imperial prosthetic or control blade. With him, you were lucky if an attack could be described scientifically at all. The real threat was when he used his muscles to throw all that troublesome logic to the curb. Yes, he forcibly held one of the many rollers in place with his arms.

“Hwa ha ha!! I slaid a Wicked God with my own two hands! Did you think the Lord of Ruin was the only monster out there!?”

“…”

The blade flashed without warning.

The white mask kept them from reading the man’s emotions, but the Lord of Ruin sent a merciless attack toward Onelife’s neck after he announced he had killed a Wicked God .

“Oh, no you don’t!!”

Celina’s bullet intercepted the line of light, redirecting it ever so slightly. Otherwise, it would have sliced right through Onelife’s protectively raised arms and his neck behind them.

The Lord of Ruin fell back, expecting a counterattack.

A giant morning star connected with electricity crashed into the sandy ground. Without that, a series of sword strikes would have reached the pirate. The path of the attacks bent again and again, like thunderbolts on their way to the ground.

“Thanks! You saved my rear!!”

“I require no thanks. I was only hoping to break his mask and get a look at his face, but he moved too quickly.”

“But what’s with all the support and defense? Nhh, since when am I Mr. Popular!?”

“Be warned, everyone. Show an idiot some kindness and he will get the wrong idea.”

The woman who braved the night life as a bunny girl could be cold about such things.

Eliza Silverstorm held her giant lance at her hip and kicked powerfully off the sand.

The meathead was not the only one to make a charge.

But they were not after the Lord of Ruin.

They had said from the beginning that their target was the Executive Ground. They had said their object was to rescue the twin priestesses.

So they did not hesitate.

“Once more!!!!!!”

Approaching from another angle, she jabbed her lance into a gap in one of the joints in the great serpent’s armor. It was meant to hinder movement more than cause damage.

And once the serpent had been slowed even slightly, she raised her voice.

“Miyabi, deliver the finishing-!?”

A dull snapping sound cut the chosen knight off.

Her method had been correct. She had done her very best, but the Executive Ground did something unexpected.

It forced itself to move with the lance still piercing it.

One of its enormous gears broke and shattered, sending shards larger than the average axe blade soaring through the air. One metal fragment spun through the air and hit Miyabi right in the face.

The color red flew.

“Boy!?” shouted Alicia before she was rendered speechless.

A line of red blood ran across the boy’s cheek just below his right eye. A few centimeters higher and it might have gouged his entire eye out.

But.

Miyabi Blackgarden’s challenging gaze was unchanged. He did not even reach up to feel the wound.

Because they were right there.

Those girls had been given the massive power of a Godhorn Tech, but they had not been given even a taste of freedom. The priests and the people had shoved all the country’s troubles on those girls’ shoulders until they were being crushed below the weight.

Their lives were being threatened by a foe as fearsome as the Lord of Ruin, but they had been left out here all alone, not a single person in their country attempting to help them.

(No.)

Miyabi Blackgarden clenched his teeth.

He squeezed his control sword in both hands so tight he seemed to be cursing his own word choice.

(You aren’t all alone There’s someone here for you. There is someone stupid enough to rush out into the desert for you and stand between you and the Lord of Ruin’s blade. And it’s not just me. That describes every single one of us out here right now!!)

He was not afraid of any pain he could ignore by clenching his teeth.

Unfortunate coincidences and a mocking destiny were not worth fearing.

If he could reach out and find them – if he could help bring them freedom as long as he did not give up – then this temporary blood loss wasn’t worth even a moment’s thought!!

So.

The possessor of a Wicked God horn gave a roar while slamming his sword blade into the desert at his feet.

This was the only way to show respect for the strait-laced knight who gave him this opportunity.

He could only do this because she had done everything she could to rescue those twins.

So he had to make sure she would not regret that decision.

“I’ve got this, Eliza!! Tactical open!!!!!!”

First, a bomb was dropped and detonated in midair.

That on its own was meaningless.

At most, it could sweep all the fine sand from the desert sky. With the air cleaned of all impurities, a beam of light shot down from heaven to earth.

This time, the brutal light scored a direct hit on the serpent.

The utmost care was taken to ensure it did not hit Eliza who was still nearby, a sharpshooting feat akin to shooting an apple off someone’s head with a bow and arrow.

A strange sound left the great maw.

It was not the girls’ voices this time.

Maybe it was the accumulated damage and maybe it was as safety feature kicking in, but Acacia and Ixea were spat from the great maw. They collapsed into the hot sand with the tail chains jangling from the back of their hips.

“Ugh!?”

“Ghh!”

Just as the Lord of Ruin directed his sword in their direction, Miyabi stabbed his sword into the sand and the Lucifer Horn passed by overhead with a fearsome gust of wind.

A brutal beam of light tore across the ground, creating a wall of flames between the Lord of Ruin and the twins.

After protecting them with that massive shield, Miyabi faced the Lord of Ruin directly.

This was who he wanted to be.

Gone were the days when he would look the other way and flee.

“…”

“Stand back, Lord of Ruin!! This isn’t your fight!!!!!!”

Something strange happened.

The Lord of Ruin slowly raised his demon sword again and then stopped moving.

This was no attack; it was more like someone brushing aside the cobweb in front of their face. It was a passive action, not an active one. He was measuring the distance between them and attempting to read his opponent’s breathing. Almost like he was trying to judge Miyabi’s intentions.

A painfully tense equilibrium formed between their blades.

It made no difference how much distance there was between the two blade tips.

Miyabi was silently asking about the old man’s stance on this battle. Before entering the direct clash, he used his sword to ask how the Lord of Ruin hoped to win.

It was such a foolish and childish question.

In true combat, how you won was irrelevant. His opponent could have shoved past the boy while insisting that history was written by the victors.

But the Lord of Ruin was different.

In whatever form it took, he was still a king. So he would not ignore that childish question.

But.

Someone else was even more confused.

Ixea spoke in a groaning voice while lying on the ground, the hot sand lightly burning her skin.

“Wh-what? Why did you save us?”

“No, sister. We must return to the Executive Ground.”

“Not yet!!” shouted Miyabi, his control sword directed toward the distant Lord of Ruin as a warning.

This miracle would not last forever. The boy himself did not understand what was allowing him to stop the Lord of Ruin’s attack right now.

But it gave him a tiny, seemingly impossible opportunity.

If he did not use that to grab the small hands sticking out from the stormy ocean, he would never find them again.

So he would make use of this opportunity no matter what!!

“You still haven’t told me why you want to fight so badly!! That’s a singular you! I want to know what you think, Acacia! And what you think, Ixea!”

Silence followed.

Then the words spilled from the twin sisters while they tasted sand.

“Because…”

It sounded like they were regurgitating an imprinted idea.

“Because we have to repay the priests for taking us in,” said Acacia.

“That’s what the priests want.”

“Because we can’t protect the country without the Godhorn-” began Ixea.

“That’s what the people want!”

There was more to this. Something was still hidden deeper.

Miyabi believed people were not so simple. He had bet his own life on the idea.

Acacia and then Ixea gave individual answers.

“Because my sister…”

“Because my sister is working so hard.”

“That’s just what the sisters want!!!!!!”

No.

That wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

They were holding back and giving the wholesome answer people expected of them, but their heart wasn’t in it.

Which was why the Executive Ground would not respond.

It could not.

It wanted something else. It might be pathetic and it might be unsightly, but there had to be some pure, unadulterated feelings born deep within their hearts. Once the Godhorn Tech heard that, it would lend each girl as much power as they needed.

In a way, the Executive Ground had seen this country’s cruelties more than anyone else. It had seen how everyone piled more and more pressures on those girls, pushing them ever closer to the breaking point.

It didn’t matter if it was messy and ugly. Because revealing those things without fear was a form of trust.

They only had to cast it all aside and be honest about what they wanted.

Their talents were wasted like this.

And Miyabi was not going to let it end like this.

No matter what it took.

“…”

“Forget what everyone else wants. You don’t need to put yourself in harm’s way for anyone’s reasons but your own!! What is it you really wanted to do! I’m not interested in what anyone else has to say! What did you each want as individuals!?”

“…”

And.

Finally.

The girls’ true selves emerged from the great depths in which they had buried themselves.

“I don’t want to mess with the Godhorn Tech.”

“I want to be free to do what I want with my sister.”

It was twisted.

They weren’t in sync.

“I…”

“I…!!”

They were at odds.

They did not fit together at all.

“I want to go see the rest of the world!”

“I want to stay home and relax!”

Miyabi smiled.

He couldn’t help it, although he did keep his control sword at the ready.

“I finally got different answers out of the two of you. But that’s how it should be.”

Lowering his sword from the Lord of Ruin would be much too dangerous. The tension squeezing at his heart was equivalent to crossing a deep ravine on a bridge made from a single long hair.

But he did not hesitate to stab his control sword into the ground. Because the elation he felt was even greater.

He had extracted what each sister really wanted. He had stripped their thoughts bare. He had convinced them to trust him that much. What good was the Lucifer Horn if he would not use it here?

He opened the magic circle and spoke.

“From the control sword to the horn core – tactical open!”

He would end this here.

That thought was enough to erase all fear of the bleeding below his eye.

He could worry about that later.

Right now, all his focus needed to be on Acacia and Ixea’s futures.

He would do whatever it took to clear a path for them each.

He would create them each a future.

And for that, he was willing to endure any pain and battle any adversary!!!!!!

“This is my way of saying thanks. So answer their honest desires, forced onto them by no one, Lucifer Horn!!”

A tremendous blast blew away the colossal weapon that had bound those twins.

It was over.

The Executive Ground had been destroyed.

Its wreckage and components were strewn across the vast desert. Would this too become known as “ruins” one day?

But not everything was over.

“…”

The Lord of Ruin silently turned to face Miyabi.

Miyabi moved in front of collapsed Acacia and Ixea and raised his control sword.

But.

He realized he had made a fundamental misunderstanding.

Despite the white mask’s lack of eyes, the Lord of Ruin’s gaze pierced the center of the boy’s body like a sharp stake. The tip of his demon blade remained fixed on Miyabi.

He was a king.

He did not make a habit of finishing off those who had already lost to another.

The Lord of Ruin always chose to battle whoever possessed the strongest power.

The killer intent emanating from him was refreshingly pure in its bluntness.

Miyabi actually felt bad for doubting him as he waited this long.

“Sorry, Lord of Ruin.”

“I had a feeling it would come to this,” said the radio watching the two swords held at the ready.

No one could stop this now.

The crystal radio knew that, but it still expressed regret.

“You got rid of the Godhorn Tech holding him at bay, so of course he goes straight for you now!”

“I will destroy.” A muffled voice emerged from the smooth mask. “I will destroy all Godhorn Techs.”

These were the words of a king who had converted his solid conviction into actual combat power.

Seeing his opponent save someone was not enough to shake his resolve.

“They should not be. I will correct the mistake I introduced into the world!”

Miyabi also kept his eyes on the Lord of Ruin.

The Lord of Ruin saw him as an enemy. He had diverted his attention from his immediate target to focus on Miyabi instead. Calamity Revenge was no longer directed toward Acacia and Ixea. Miyabi could not let that go to waste.

The time had come to face the greatest of foes.

Miyabi Blackgarden again adjusted his grip on the control sword.

“Everyone, take care of Acacia and Ixea.”

“Koo?”

“He’s after me since I have a Godhorn Tech. I’ll keep his attention!!”

“You will not escape.”

As soon as the words were spoken, an impossible explosion occurred right next to Miyabi.

Celina screamed.

Muscular Onelife immediately moved to protect her and was blasted backwards.

Did the man see the rest of his party as targets too?

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!!” screamed the radio at Alicia’s neck. “That pirate’s in imbecile, but didn’t he slay a Wicked God all on his own!? And yet he was taken out in a single blast!?”

What had happened?

This attack had come from a different direction, so it couldn’t have been from the Lord of Ruin.

The magical explosion almost seemed to have blocked the escape route for Miyabi’s party members, but something wasn’t right. That had been a projectile attack. An arrow had flown in, stabbed into the ground, and then exploded. That wasn’t at all how the Lord of Ruin did things.

Was someone else working with him?

Number 8 carefully observed their surroundings.

“A bow and arrow? Are we trapped?”

And.

Alicia Blueforest felt a cold sweat despite the heat of the sand.

“Wait, this arrow…”

She seemed to have some idea who this person connected to the masked old man was.

“But it couldn’t be!”

Then they heard a voice.

It came from the same direction as the arrow.

Someone slowly emerged from behind a sand dune and addressed Alicia.

“It has been so very long since I saw you and your healthy forest.”

“The revenge mercenary…Elaine Greenforest!?”

She had silky semi-long silver hair, brown skin…and long ears. She wore special goggles over her eyes, perhaps to assist with her magical bow. The goggles did not cover her full face like the Lord of Ruin’s mask did. While the Lord’s gave the impression he would coldly hunt down and kill any who fit his criteria, her exposed mouth gave her a more cruel and mocking look.

She wore sheer, white clothing similar to a see-through negligee, but the additional decorations made it look something like a princess’s dress.

She held a large bow that resembled a twisted harp.

The many things spread out around her scantily-clad hips like a large skirt appeared to be quivers.

She was from the Greenforest race of elves.

Hadn’t their party member Lillian Greenforest also used that last name? And hadn’t she said that the scattered dark elves were all intent on destroying humanity?

The radio responded to the appearance of this girl in a white dress so sheer her skin color showed through.

“Hey, you didn’t tell me you were friends with an ultra-rare dark elf! Introduce me!”

“The Greenforest race’s forest was burned down by the Empire.” Alicia sounded like she was reliving a nightmare. “And this is the Godhorn Tech user who retaliated by burning down the entire Empire.”

“…”

A cracking sound hinted at something happening within Number 8 despite his unchanged expression.

Alicia clenched her teeth and shouted at the other elf.

“I was wondering where you had gotten off to!!”

“I don’t want to hear any complaints about a last-minute helper when you’re fighting as a group,” whispered the long-eared goggle girl with a smile on her visible lips.

The Lord of Ruin was blunt.

“Enough talk. Fulfill your contract, girl.”

“Yes, yes. Whew, you have been cursed bad if you can legitimately treat such a long-lived elf like a young girl. Do the hidden rules of this world bind you like invisible chains?”

“?” Kananka noticed something. “Do her weird goggles let her detect spirit pressure? No, that’s not it.”

“…”

The Lord of Ruin said nothing.

Elaine shrugged and sighed, as if surrendering to the silent pressure coming from his mask.

“Yes, fine. We’ll have to end our delightful chat here. Sorry my client is so impatient.”

Her feet audibly trod on the hot sand.

She nocked an arrow to her large bow and slowly pulled the string taut while whispering to herself. The incantation created a fire that transformed the sharp arrowhead like a melted sugar sculpture.

“Rainmaker: Thunderstorm – Category 5. Gather, cataclysm. Heaven is ruled by the number 3, so the three-pronged arrowhead contains the thunderclouds.”

The metal arrowhead split in three on its own and a blinding light appeared between the prongs, as if lightning were gathering there. How was it contained there and what would unleash it? Miyabi did not want to know anything about this threat, but his focus was naturally drawn toward the light.

They were trapped between the Lord of Ruin and Elaine.

He was unsure if he should direct his sword ahead or behind.

“I can hear them weeping.”

“Kh…”

Helen groaned as she covered Miyabi’s back so he could continue facing the Lord of Ruin.

The old man spoke beneath his mask. His muffled voice contained a, concentrated and malevolent heat. He may not have meant for anyone else to hear it.

“I will not let any more horns be taken. I will destroy the very idea that Wicked God horns have value!!”

“Oh, no! We have no escape route!”

Eliza clenched her teeth and looked this way and that.

But it was too late.

There was no cover to be found in the open desert.

“I must end this. I must bring death to all the sinful horn owners!!”

Just then, Elaine Greenforest unleashed the energy built up in her bow. White light burned through the air, leaving a glowing trail behind. The magic arrow tore through the air with terrifying speed.

And.

It flew straight toward the Lord of Ruin, her supposed client.

“Eh!?”

The dull sound of impact was so raw that Miyabi thought his own heart had stopped.

The sound came from the center of the old man’s chest.

His surprise was palpable even with the smooth white mask covering his face.

“Ghh!?”

“Yes, I will carry out your revenge without delay . You asked for the destruction of all Godhorn Tech users. That includes you, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t want to leave the contract incomplete, now would I?”

Miyabi felt no relief.

Elaine Greenforest’s smile was much too dark.

When Onelife finally managed to get back up, he was trembling from what had happened, not from his own pain.

“A-a sneak attack?”

“I never knew even cowardice could appear impressive when taken far enough!!” spat out Eliza.

But Elaine did not seem to care.

She lived in an entirely different world from the knight.

“Yes, this is revenge .”

This was someone who had dedicated her entire being to that one word.

The dark elf girl grinned darkly with the goggles hiding her eyes.

“I am not in the business of helping people. You loathed yourself, so I will heal that rotten wound that can only be closed with misfortune and tragedy.”

“Gwohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?” roared the Lord of Ruin.

But the arrowhead embedded in his chest detonated first.

Everything was dyed white.

By the time Miyabi could see once more, the Lord of Ruin was nowhere to be found.

Was he collapsed behind one of the rolling dunes?

Or…?

“But you had the same plan, didn’t you? You wanted to destroy the Godhorn Techs and their users, so I bet you planned to finish it out by killing me and then killing yourself.”

Only the demon sword remained.

But the dark elf did not let the Godhorn Tech remain stabbed into the sand.

“Just to be thorough☆”

“!?”

“He hired me to eliminate every Godhorn Tech and their users, after all.”

With a shockingly ordinary thunk, an additional arrow stabbed into Calamity Revenge’s blade. She actually stuck her tongue out as she did so.

Another explosion.

More white.

Once the dazzling flash had faded, only Elaine remained standing. It seemed unlikely the silver-haired, brown-skinned girl could have defeated the Lord of Ruin in a direct battle, but she had something that allowed her to tear down the rules of a direct battle. There was something so terribly disconcerting about her.

The special goggles made it impossible to follow the movement of her eyes.

The goggles could not just be to keep the sand out, but it was unclear what kind of support they provided. Whatever they did, they made a deadly combination with her bow and arrow.

Since no one could not read the emotion in her eyes, the way she licked her lips appeared all the creepier.

“Now, what to do about the rest of you?”

“…”

But Miyabi’s thoughts had turned elsewhere.

He pointed out something he had noticed.

“Even as he was dying, the Lord of Ruin never did use a sorcery bomb.”

Eliza realized he was right.

“Now that you mention it. But what does that matter?”

“We now know the 11th wasn’t Acacia, Ixea, or the Lord of Ruin.” Miyabi glared at this new threat with his control sword in hand. “But we’ve seen all the Godhorn Tech users.”

Miyabi, Celina, Eliza, Number 8, Kananka, Onelife, the Necromancer, Acacia, Ixea, and the Lord of Ruin made 10.

And the very last person on the list was Elaine Greenforest.

“The job must continue even without the client, so maybe I should continue his revenge.”

“You’re the last one left. Are you the 11th?”

“…”

Hearing Miyabi’s suggestion, Number 8 silently glared at Elaine. She used a bow and arrow, magical explosions, and (most importantly) betrayal. She was a true monster who had gone out of her way to choose cruelly deceptive tactics and one-shotted the Lord of Ruin. It went without saying what would happen if they tried to attack her without a plan.

And dying here would accomplish nothing.

It was Number 8’s many past regrets that allowed him to resist the urge to rush in for a simple attack.

Miyabi hated it.

The butler automaton was working so hard to resist, so Miyabi hated how he couldn’t resist speaking up himself.

“Are you placing sorcery bombs around the continent just like you once destroyed the Empire!?”

“ Oh, now that one was fun. Fish and frogs rained from the sky. Those humans had never doubted their own science, so seeing them fall to their knees and pray to a god they claimed not to believe in was the funniest thing ever. No, scratch that. The funniest part was how they were killed by the very rusty mana they had created themselves☆”

“…!!”

Number 8 clenched his teeth hard.

Miyabi thought he could actually hear the artificial teeth grinding together.

This was someone who would destroy a country on a whim. This was what Miyabi could have become.

“From the control bow to the horn core – tactical open!”

She recited it in a singsong voice.

The instant the bottom of her bow stabbed into the sand, a sinister magic circle appeared at her feet.

“High-altitude blimp Godhorn Tech: Huge Eye.”

Something floated overhead.

A giant shadow began to blot out the sun overhead.

This ruler of the sky was on an entirely different level. It followed a completely different concept from the Lucifer Horn that tore through the air with its wings. This strange flying object was shaped more like a big sphere. It almost looked like a black skull. Its size was unclear. They could see it, but it was too far away to trust the apparent scale.

“Tch!!”

Miyabi readied his control sword and prepared to stab it into the ground.

But he stopped.

He could open the magic circle and summon the Lucifer Horn…but then what?

The unidentified Godhorn Tech was so far above it looked like a speck. Yes, it’s altitude was simply too great. It floated well above where the Lucifer Horn flew.

The bomber fired its weapons down from above.

It was not made to target something positioned higher than it!

And the high-altitude blimp did not release a downpour of heavy steel beams, nor did it tear through the ground with a powerful beam of light.

Just as Miyabi had feared, it did not at all attack like a bomber.

Elaine Greenforest smiled as she spoke.

This was the brown girl who had sunk the fangs of vengeance into a symbol of the artificial after her natural forest had been burned to the ground.

“Blow it all away and raze it to the ground♪”

There was a gust, a gale, a squall, a tempest.

All forms of windy violence produced a massive explosion that assaulted Miyabi’s party.

It was a storm.

The Huge Eye was a Godhorn Tech that controlled meteorological disasters.

And it had once destroyed an entire empire using that.

It was the master of natural disasters.

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 6

“Whoa!?”

Iris Tempinvy, the dancer and recovery magic researcher, looked up despite being inside a stone building.

The magical lighting had suddenly gone out, leaving the windowless corridor in darkness.

And the trouble was not isolated to her location.

“What? Why did the shower just shut off? Did I make another bad bet in life?”

“Just put a towel on, you gambling-obsessed bunny. And why were you wearing your bunny ears in the shower?”

“Wait, can you see in the dark?”

By biting her canine tooth into an herbal flower petal instilled with moonlight, Iris could see every single drop of water falling from Eluné Jackpot’s twintails.

Iris sighed with pupils unnaturally dilated.

“This isn’t a failure of any magic in particular. We keep adding more and more to Horn Fortress, but I’m not sure I ever heard what was at the core.”

“I dunno either. Some kind of generator maybe? Or a transmission? Anyway, that old dwarf would know best how all the magic works. Damn that old man. No matter how cutely I beg him, he still won’t build me a casino.”

The bunny girl failed to mention that she had been carving driftwood and stones to create her own dice and dominos. She had even gotten the help of Phobia, the gang daughter who had previously wanted her dead, and Charlotte, the mermaid who got bored after 3 seconds of inactivity, to sneak into the printing room and try to create some playing cards.

Once the dancer walked through the dark, castle-like structure in search of Garret Goldcave, she found him almost immediately. He must not have liked to use magic for anything other than construction because he had already been relying on candlelight.

The light was dazzling to Iris since she had drugged herself to see in the dark.

“It uses the Wicked God horn,” said Garret.

“The horn?”

“Yes. This place was given to Miyabi by the Lucifer Horn, after all. I assume you have noticed how any magic we activate stays in effect without us needing to supply any more power. The massive core powering it all is the Wicked God horn itself. So Horn Fortress’s very existence grows unstable when either Miyabi or the Lucifer Horn are defeated.”

“For real? Then could the entire island sink into the ocean if they die? So our fates are decided by some battle fought on the other side of the world?”

“It is a distinct possibility. Why do you think we’re creating useful tools here and sending them to the front line?”

“I see,” sighed the bare-midriff dancer.

In the darkness, her thoughts turned toward her secret weapon. It existed in her territory: the clinic.

The alluring researcher placed a lithe finger on her chin and winked.

“Then maybe I should send them something useful as well. I’m sick of simply doing what I’m told back here, so I’ll send them something that’s sure to throw them all off balance and send everything in a different direction.”

“?”

“Yes, she would do nicely.”

### Profiles

Acacia Flightheart

Ixea Flightheart

Age: 13

Sex: Female

Height: 145cm

Twin sisters with the highest position among the priestesses who access the desert religious nation’s ancient ruins to distribute water and other blessings to the people. Acacia is the older twin and Ixea the younger. A priest discovered their talent while they were living on the streets and they were given the privilege of controlling the Executive Ground. Neither sister is very assertive and it can be hard to tell what they are thinking. Their duty is to protect their nation, but are having some unexplained difficulties.

Ginger Sandstrike

Age: 17

Sex: Male

Height: 185cm

A “guardian” in the desert religious nation who takes items related to people’s past and hides them deep in unexplored ruins. He had the legendary assassin Shadow Crack sent after him after a client lost trust in him, but he has dealt with so many sketchy jobs he has no idea which client it might have been. He is trying to escape Shadow Crack while also searching out the person who put the hit out on him.

Godhorn Tech Subterranean Tank: Executive Ground

Pilot: Acacia Flightheart & Ixea Flightheart

Affiliation: Pure Hibis Aclia Oracle Nation

Size: 5m diameter, 75m length

A Godhorn Tech based on the pyramids derived from the mythology worshiped by Acacia and Ixea. Looks like a massive snake and makes the entire desert its ally by traveling freely through the ground to attack its enemies. Just as a pyramid grants greater authority the more grave goods it contains, it increases its power by swallowing more people. Since the “grave goods” were generally buried alive, these people need not be killed as they are eaten. However, the interior environment is poor and there is a risk of asphyxiation during a long-term battle. Design motif: pyramids and mummies.

Rose Dollycastle

Age: 12

Sex: Female

Height: 145cm

When lost in a mountain blizzard and surrounded by monsters, she grabbed a cursed chain and broke its seal to protect her family. Ever since, her body has been fully hijacked by the chain. But the chain’s mind does not approve of sacrificing another intelligent being to possess a body of its own, so it is journeying in search of someone that can destroy it. Since it is only borrowing the body, it shows no mercy against anyone who would try to harm the girl.

Godhorn Tech Demon Sword: Calamity Revenge

Wielder: Lord of Ruin

Affiliation: None

Length: 1.4m

Contains a juvenile Wicked God’s horn and carries a powerful curse. Brings its wielder victory, but creates new conflict in return. Its curse is powerful, but the used curse must bring harm to the user as well. It cannot curse just the enemy. Thus, the use of killing curses is theoretically possible, but would realistically mean self-destruction. Design motif: Geas.

Lord of Ruin

Apparent Age: 70 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 178cm

An ancient king who created history’s first Godhorn Tech by breaking off a Wicked God horn and placing it within his own sword. To obtain a horn from a creature too powerful for a human to defeat, he chose to slay a juvenile. He regrets that foolish choice and feels intense hatred for the individuals and groups that have constructed Godhorn Techs after him. He has lived far longer than a single lifespan should allow for, but he appears to keep his body moving through sheer force of will, like a curse burned into his very flesh.

### 035. Chapter 8 Section 1

The ruling king said a vengeful heart was the greatest power.

Little did he know he himself would fall to a blade of vengeance.

The redheaded boy awoke in a cheap inn bed.

He guessed this was the desert nation. He based that guess on the pillow being stuffed with wheat or some other grain, the ceiling being made of stone, and the thin curtain fluttering in a dry breeze. The light shining in through the window suggested it was daytime.

“Ugh…”

“Oh, you’re awake.”

He heard a decadent female voice.

The face staring down at Miyabi Blackgarden belonged to the Necromancer .

“If you had stayed out a little longer, I could have run some interesting tests on you in the name of resurrecting you.”

“Wait…what are you doing here?”

“My boss was just wiping down your body. Very thoroughly, I might add. Were you hoping for something more than that?”

“!?”

The boy sat up in a hurry and immediately felt agonizing pain running through his entire back. He writhed around unable to scream or even breathe. He had lost track of where the chaff pillow had ended up.

“Gah, abwehhh!!!???”

The Necromancer laughed.

“Like I said, you were on the verge of needing an experimental resurrection, so you’re not over the pain yet. Living is full of inconveniences, don’t you think? Now, do you want a powerful drug, or will you bear with the pain?”

“Ah, gah. …I-I’m not taking anything you’re offering. It’ll probably get rid me of the pain by turning me into a zombie.”

“Hm, too bad. But watching you writhe in pain is enjoyable in its own way. The Lucifer Horn carried me here from that Horn Fortress place. Do not forget that I am recuperating under your protection. If you kick the bucket, I lose the peace I need to heal my wound.”

“Carried? You mean you went there and came back?”

“Carrying someone all that way can’t be easy. Fortunately, it feels like it takes no time at all if you make the trip in a suspended animation coffin. I arrived here while frozen in time.”

Did that mean the trip was so terrifying even the Necromancer felt the need to do that? He was a long way off from developing a luxurious sky cruise.

But anyway.

“…”

The Necromancer had been sent here to help. Maybe it was possible for the flying Godhorn Tech to carry her here, but Miyabi could not have given the command while unconscious.

Had the Lucifer Horn done it of its own volition?

Why?

The hat on her head spoke with a child’s voice. Whether or not it really was a child was suspect, though.

“Boss, have you decided to turn over a new leaf?”

“Heh heh heh. I realized the quickest path to being given free rein is to do good deeds. Commit a wee bit of murder just once over your long life and they execute you, but take the side of justice and they praise you for signing the execution papers. Even if you end up authorizing the deaths of dozens every year. Heh heh heh. Morality is entirely determined by your role in society. And as long as people find it useful, they never want to remove a gear in their society, no matter how old and rusted it has become. Heh heh heh heh heh.”

“That’s my boss! You can make healing people’s wounds and saving their lives sound sinister!”

It all sounded like a series of jokes, but she had in fact saved his life.

He rested his head on the chaff pillow and stared up at her in confusion, so she sighed and spoke.

“Do you find it that strange to see me saving someone?”

“You’re the one that told us to make ourselves into ghosts if we wanted to talk to you.”

“And that is what I would prefer.” Even the decadent woman’s most casual comments were frightening. “But only because I am interested in researching life and death. I ignore morality because it insists on getting in my way, so nothing is forcing me to take the path of evil. I will do whatever it is I want and you can decide for yourself if it qualifies as good or evil.”

“…”

“Of course, when I see one of those noble freaks with a lab in their basement who think they can get away with anything if they call themselves necromancers, I can’t help but send in the fruits of my research to tear down their entire mansion☆” The researcher cruelly stuck out her tongue. “You use Compress Cargo, I assume? I recommend packing your bag with a lot of White Sorcery Tools separate from the pocket you have for immediate-use items. Especially when you know the terrain will not be in your favor.”

“Compress…” That reminded him of the person who used that magic. “Oh, right. Where’s Helen? Not to mention Alicia, Celina, and the others!”

“Have you still not noticed the other patients sleeping in this very room? Then you probably need more rest yourself. Still, there was nothing I could do for that automaton – Number 8, was it?”

“!?”

“I mean, he’s a magical automaton. But the Empire built them to last. I have no idea how he can still move after taking so much damage. If only necromancy and anatomy meant anything with that bucket of bolts.”

“Boss, Miyabi’s a beginner, so you need to tell him that’s a black joke before he has a heart attack.”

The hat tried to be helpful, but did that mean they were fine after all? The Necromancer sighed when she saw Miyabi was too shocked to blink.

“Patients who only ever tilt the scales toward life are so boring. Where’s the drama there? I’m not going to continue nursing you forever, so maybe I should let those twins handle the rest since they escaped the attack.”

All the strength drained from his body and the witch hat woman breathed an exasperated sigh.

“Really? You’re going to cry over that?”

“Am I crying?”

“Heh hee hee. Now, now, Miyabi. A real man never cries in front of a girl. I know my perfect boss seems comforting, but she’s actually dying for someone who can support her!”

“Silence, little one.”

“She’s just too much of a dreamer. And she’s still alone because she keeps holding reality to the standards of her dreams. She’s still waiting or her Prince Charming!”

“I said silence.”

“I see,” said Miyabi.

Alicia Blueforest, Helen Clockgear, and the others were safe. And if Acacia and Ixea had escaped the attack, they wouldn’t have been injured at all.

Thank goodness, he thought deep down.

Also, this was not just a case of being lucky. It never would have happened without the Necromancer’s help.

He felt like something may have gone wrong at some point.

What if she had found someone who would patiently speak with her and find some kind of compromise? What if someone had discussed limits with her instead of pushing her away as creepy? What if someone had avoided any conflict or friction and found a way to safely leave her to her own devices instead of trying to oppressively manage her? Then it was possible she might have left her name in history as a famous researcher.

But could he let that remain a mere hypothetical?

Was there really no way for Miyabi Blackgarden to become that person for her?

“I also found him out there.”

“Him who?”

Miyabi turned his heavy head to view the adjacent bed.

The Lord of Ruin was lying there.

“…”

“Whoa!?”

Seeing that masked face was enough for Miyabi to roll off his own bed in surprise. He nearly tore down the papyrus tapestry on the wall. The Necromancer gave him a look mixed with pity.

“Like I asked before, are you too weak to tell who you’re sharing a room with? If your vitals fall any further, you might need some nutrients or a vasopressor. Heh heh heh. Would you like an injection or an IV? Oh, or applying it to your mucous membranes could be fun. Maybe I should just fill every last one of your holes with it for good measure☆”

“B-but? But that’s the L-L-Lord of R-Ruin.”

“What, you didn’t make friends with him after fighting him? Then maybe I shouldn’t have saved him. Either way, he won’t be waking up anytime soon.”

“Don’t sweat it, boss. You’re new to this whole ‘saving people’ business, so you’re bound to screw up sometimes. Lucky for you, you’re cute when you screw up.”

Miyabi saw for himself that Alicia, Helen, and his other party members were lying in the beds. Except there were not enough beds, so Onelife Shiftup was seated on the examining table and nonhuman Number 8 was standing in the corner of the room. …But those two had a history with the Necromancer, so they did not look particularly happy.

The Necromancer ignored that entirely as she looked to something leaning against the wall.

It was the Lord of Ruin’s sword known as a katana.

“Calamity Revenge. The sword was supposedly made with a juvenile’s horn, but the inside has been fried. The sword looks the same, but it no longer functions as a horn.”

“Are you saying Elaine’s arrow did that?”

“If that was intentional, it was a miracle of a shot. You couldn’t even think up that attack without a deep understanding of Wicked Gods.”

The Necromancer herself was a heretical scientist who had used the full corpse of a Wicked God for her research, but this was enough to shock even her.

Elaine Greenforest.

She was a revenge mercenary, the final Godhorn Tech owner, and the 11th.

“?”

The scientist of death had a surprisingly childish look of confusion when Miyabi stared at her.

She had been resting in Horn Fortress to recover from her serious injury and she had been following the actions of Miyabi’s party that entire time. She was blackhearted, but it didn’t seem like she had played a role in the 11th business.

That meant Elaine was the most likely suspect.

“You should count yourself lucky she didn’t detonate a sorcery bomb back there. If she had, you would have been vaporized inside a glass crater.”

After a light knock, the door opened.

The twins Acacia and Ixea peeked inside. Come to think of it, hadn’t the Necromancer said they were spared the attack by the Huge Eye? Elaine may have stopped paying attention to them after Miyabi’s party destroyed their Executive Ground.

“I thought I heard a lot of noise in here. I am glad to see you awake.”

“We nearly lost our way again.”

Miyabi gave them a puzzled look from the floor.

“You asked us what it was we really wanted to do, remember?”

“We have given up our position as priestesses for the time being. We did lose the Godhorn Tech, after all. And the other priestesses can handle speaking with the ruins and extracting water.”

“But…” muttered Miyabi.

“From what they tell me, you are up against a Greenforest dark elf,” said the Necromancer. “Then why not head west from here and visit that razed forest? Heh heh heh. I’ve taken a look around to gather ‘materials’ a few times and it is quite a sight.”

“It’s home to vengeful spirits,” said the hat with an obvious smile in its voice.

Number 8 and Onelife were less than pleased with this new alliance. Not too surprising given how they had been treated.

“…”

Alicia and the radio put a stop to it.

“Stop.”

“(Fistfights aren’t the only form of justice. If you can’t trust her, then keep an eye on her at all times.)”

Elaine had hit them with a Godhorn Tech attack, so it was a miracle none of them had died. Miyabi carefully checked over his body and then decided to leave the desert nation. They would visit the dark elf forest said to be west of here. And this time, the Necromancer, Acacia, and Ixea would be with them.

But the Lord of Ruin was still in the bed. It was unclear if they could even bring him with them as an ally. Miyabi wanted to figure out how to deal with him before they left.

“So what do we do with him?”

“Yeah, leave him here and he might resume his Godhorn Tech slayer thing when he comes to.”

Miyabi’s eyes widened at the Necromancer’s rational prediction.

“Which is why I’m asking what we should do!”

“Why not trap him somewhere inescapable so we and the world can be safe?”

That only left one possibility.

“Lucifer Horn! Take him to Horn Fortress!!”

“So you finally admit that place is the world’s greatest prison, do you?”

The Necromancer whispered those forbidden words.

They still wanted to see more of the desert nation, but they could not stay here forever.

They had to deal with Elaine Greenforest.

Her Huge Eye could control disasters. They had been helpless against it last time, so if the Necromancer had not come running, some of them might have died.

But that was why they couldn’t leave that revenge mercenary out there. Not even the Lucifer Horn had been any help, so if an ordinary village was subjected to it, it would be a one-sided slaughter. And Elaine had indeed singlehandedly destroyed the powerful Empire to take revenge.

And what if she also had sorcery bombs as the 11th?

They knew exactly where to go.

Plus, there weren’t many places left on the continent they had to check.

They checked out of their inn and left the desert nation. They hadn’t been sure whether it would be better to leave during the day or the night, but they had ultimately settled on the day. There weren’t many landmarks in the desert, so they had feared overlooking one in the dark of the night. They could easily end up walking in circles throughout the night.

“We have to say goodbye to this nation’s food now,” grumbled Miyabi as he walked out through the stone gate.

They had bought some water and lunches of dried foods, but he was hesitant to eat that when he knew it was the last they had.

After walking through the desert a while, Helen looked back the way they had come.

Their footprints were plain to see in the fine sand, so they left a long, serpentine trail behind them.

“I can’t believe it, but I really have gotten used to the desert.”

“I’m afraid my usual forest will feel chilly now that I’m used to this heat,” ominously commented Alicia.

They were so accustomed to walking through the desert that they could actually chat while doing so.

Then the twins called out to Miyabi Blackgarden from behind.

“Miyabi, pant, wait up,” said Acacia.

“I’m thirsty, Miyabi. I want water,” said Ixea.

Helen’s eyes widened in surprise.

An outsider like the (busty) glasses woman was actually more accustomed to the desert climate.

“Eh? You’re kidding, right? You two are the first to call it quits!? But you’re locals! You’ve lived in this desert all your life!”

“Yes, but they were the people’s precious priestesses.” Alicia placed an exasperated hand on her hip. “They rarely left that well-maintained city or their fancy temple and they had escorts when they did travel to the desert ruins.”

Come to think of it, hadn’t they seen Acacia and Ixea’s camels running into the desert during the mess with the Executive Ground?

The priestesses were staggering like zombies, but they approached the redheaded boy from the side when they did catch up. They did not want to burn their butts on the sand, so they leaned on him for support in lieu of sitting down for a break.

The summer(?) festival of careless body contact had begun.

“Miyabi, I can’t keep this up.”

“Carry me, Miyabi.”

Eliza, who was even more strait-laced than Helen in some ways, stared in shock.

“Hold on!! You never told me the rules allowed for that!! Carry me too!!!!!!”

“What, is the heat getting to you again!? Don’t you have any resistance at all!? And you can’t justify anything and everything by claiming ‘the rules’ allow for it!!”

They were only two smaller girls, but the sun was beating down on him and the desert sand made for poor footing. The dunes were like ocean waves frozen in time, so it was a lot less flat than picture books let on. Miyabi had a lot of trouble with those two wearily clinging to him from either side. The twin attack plus the desert heat worked much like the hellish heat that swarms of weak bees used to kill powerful hornets.

Helen took a strong stance to get the healthy (and lewd) brown zombies off of him.

“Get away from him, you two. Your body heat is going to kill him.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Actually, it’s not all that bad. ”

“Oh, right. I forgot how much of perv you are!!!!!! You can’t just accept everyone’s advances, you know!?”

“Pant, gasp.” Alicia wiped sweat from her brow. “But, boy, how can you tell those twins apart? I get mixed up when they’re right next to each other like this.”

“Really? They each have a pretty distinct ‘feel’ to them. Acacia is stricter and less accommodating while Ixea likes to cut corners.”

“Are you mocking me?” asked both twins at once.

The elf only looked more confused.

“See, they said the exact same thing.”

“Ixea is lazy, so she was only going along with her sister so she doesn’t have to think for herself. But if Acacia said she would carry all our luggage as a newcomer to the party, Ixea would immediately break away.”

Alicia stared at the twins, trying to tell them apart, but she only ended up feeling like a mirage was going to make her see three or four of them.

The radio hanging from her neck took a more condescending stance.

“Heh. Miyabi, I see you have stopped viewing them as the single category of ‘twins’ and instead discovered the unique charm of an older sister and a younger sister even if they are the same age. You are one step closer to being an adult of impeccable taste. Next, I recommend studying up on the difference between tights and stockings. That way you can immediately jump down the throat of anyone foolish enough to confuse them!!”

Was it bad that praise from the radio put him on the defensive?

Sweaty Acacia pouted her lips like a child while she draped her arms around his neck from the side and leaned her full body weight against him like the melted cheese on a piece of toast.

“Miyabi, you told us to do what we wanted to do as individuals, not as twins.”

“So I will find what I want to do in this vast world.”

They were completely serious.

This was the stereotypical result of an overly serious or strait-laced person shifting into gear in the wrong direction. He sometimes saw the phenomenon with Eliza Silverstorm and Number 8.

Then Acacia Flightheart spoke a forbidden word.

“…Meow.”

“Acacia!! Aren’t you taking our newfound freedom a little far!? Just because you wear cat ear decorations doesn’t mean you can so shamelessly clench a loose fist and bend your wrist like that!!!!!!”

“Ixea, I am searching for whatever it is I really want to do. And how can I judge that without trying it out for myself?”

The sterile environment had been contaminated. It felt like the contents of the sealed and sterilized container was being transformed.

“How long until they start figuring out who they want to do?” commented the radio, earning it a flurry of punches from the female party members.

Meanwhile, they heard a dull thud.

They looked over to see a Beast Nova surprisingly close by. They had failed to notice it earlier because a large dune was in the way. The scorpion was larger than they were and its head looked small compared to the rest of it. And a long arrow was sticking into the center of that head.

A young man in a green cape and hat approached the dead scorpion and pulled out the arrow.

Helen looked impressed.

“Wow, looks like he defeated the Beast Nova for free. Are you a volunteer who keeps the roads safe?”

“So hunting us down is considered a charitable act of love and peace now, is it?”

The glasses woman’s comment had the elf feeling blue, but the young man saw things differently.

“This is not for free. I get food out of it,” he said, turning back their way.

“You…eat these things?”

Miyabi looked skeptical, but that only confused the young man further.

“From that direction, you must have come from the desert nation. All the meat the street vendors sell is-”

“Stop – not a word more. I do not know who you are, but we bought some lunches there. You had better not scare us by insisting it’s made from something gross!!” shouted Celina Bodenburg, looking legitimately distressed.

“I’m Harber Snipe-Eat.” The young man with a bow did not seem to mind. “And you don’t need to worry about what you’re eating. The strong capture and eat the weak. That is the law of nature. And that includes the Wicked Gods spoken of in stories. Even they will wait for travelers on a desert path and devour them if they have no weapons or magic to defend themselves.”

“So anything is allowed if you’re strong enough?”

“Doesn’t that sound a lot truer to nature than being crushed by a swarm of the weak?”

People were not always going to agree, but using their greater numbers to insist on their point of view felt like it would be accepting his premise that anything is allowed if you are strong enough.

It was a lot smarter to just agree to disagree.

And with that in mind, something else caught Miyabi’s attention: Harber’s bow.

That was the same type of weapon used by Elaine Greenforest, who they were on their way to confront.

“Aren’t bows hard to use? An old man at my village ended up writhing in pain after he hit his ear with the string.”

“That is no laughing matter. It is a risk anyone who relies on the bow and arrow carries with them at all times. The open desert here is fine, but a thick forest is pretty frightening. If a large animal bursts out of the bushes right next to you, you have no guarantee you can bring it down in a single attack.

“Hm. I thought they would do more damage at close range.”

“Bows are not as deadly as you might think. It’s safer to increase the killing power by adding poison or magic to the arrowhead. Because if your attack fails to kill, it’s their turn to attack you. That’s the problem with a surprise attack – you don’t have time to prepare all that.”

Miyabi started to like Harber while talking to him.

They did not agree, but Harber gave simple and accurate advice. He may have been similar to the Necromancer in that sense.

Miyabi felt like he would come to regret it if he pushed Harber away over a simple difference of opinion.

“Do you have any reason to stick with the desert? If not, I know a place that’s at least more comfortable than here. It’s called Horn Fortress.”

“If I can find food there, I don’t care where it is.”

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the sand and winked.

“That settles it then,” he said as the magic circle spread out.

Harber had been wandering the desert.

If he had not been reliant on the desert nation, then he must have found somewhere he could be self-sufficient.

They found the answer soon enough.

While crossing the desert and taking breaks in the shade of rocks or at small oases, the sandy ground started to grow harder. Sparse grass also came into view. They had apparently left the desert.

“I can’t point to any one thing.” Kananka Fulpen spoke cautiously. “But this place feels so desolate.”

The grassy ground and the flowing stream might be enough to camp out for the night, but Harber must have had a reason to head out into the desert and catch a giant scorpion.

“Why is the presence of life fading only now that we have left the harsh desert?” asked Kananka.

“There’s a good reason for that,” whispered Alicia while viewing a world of death reminiscent of the lunar surface seen in plays. “We are entering the famous Green Forest.”

After walking across the plain a while longer – and stopping to eat their lunches along the way – the forest’s trees came into view. That had to be the Green Forest, the home of that race of dark elves.

Except the forest was black.

Pitch black.

“This is awful.”

Miyabi was the first to groan a response after seeing the scene spreading out before their eyes.

This was not like the Bio Rainforest the Necromancer had called home.

This forest was entirely empty.

Even more so than the vast desert. It had been burned down, leaving only the scorched ground and trees behind. The trees that still looked like trees had become black charcoal shaped like trees.

The stream was clear enough to see the white ash sediment at the bottom, but it was too clear.

Nothing lived inside that water, so there was nothing to dirty it. It would remain perfectly clear forever, like a birthday cake with no one to cut it into pieces. Just sitting there on the table in an abandoned house.

“It looks safe to drink at least,” said Celina, crouching down and passing some river water through her filter the size of a beer mug. She also cast purification magic on it, so it was probably perfectly safe.

But none of the others agreed with her.

Even if it contained the exact same well water people normally drank, they would be hesitant to drink from a cup left at a grave as an offering. Something about this place similarly gave them pause.

Like some faint sense that hung over the entire dead forest.

Hearing a “koo” from down at his feet, Miyabi looked down to see Alma was once more a white stuffed animal. That was the same form as in the first village. Did that mean there was nothing to learn from this dead forest? …Alma too refused to eat that “birthday cake”. The creature’s young age may have made it more open in its judgment.

The Flightheart twins nervously huddled together and looked around.

“Is everything outside the desert this ‘quiet’?”

“Maybe so, Acacia. But maybe we are simply too accustomed to those ruins.”

Number 8 shook his head.

“No, I sense no burden here. And I usually sense some just as background noise no matter where I am.”

“…”

Alicia looked like she was suppressing a bad headache.

Eliza placed her hand above her eyes to look into the distance.

“What is that over there? It looks like an enormous tree…or the remnants of one.”

She was right.

One tree in the center towered far higher than the other trees that had been frozen in time by the blaze. None of the manmade towers or ruins they had ever seen came close to its height.

Its impressive height almost seemed to be piercing through the world itself.

It had broken away partway up, so just how tall had it been and how expansive had its branches back when it was whole?

“It was apparently known as the Celestial Tree.” Celina sighed. “The people of the emerald forest supposedly believed it kept the sky from falling.”

“Well, that one was proven wrong,” groaned Onelife. “Glad the sky’s still up there, though.”

“At the time, the Empire feared the Arsenal Kingdom and the desert nation would join forces, since they were both nearly as powerful as them,” said Helen. “The difference in power was small enough that, if those two stopped fighting over the #2 spot and formed an alliance, they could have challenged the Empire’s #1 spot. But to put a stop to that, something needed to be done about the vast forest that connected the east and west from the north and allowed people and things to be covertly transported between nations.”

“The Empire hoped to rid themselves of a problem, but they only earned the ire of the dark elves,” said one twin. “Not to mention that any covert operations in the forest were being done by humans intruding on their land and the dark elves had no intention of joining the fight themselves.”

“Or maybe they feared that nonhuman race was gaining power by doing the humans a favor,” said the other. “Destroying them over an unfounded fantasy sounds utterly foolish to me. Not to mention that the alliance they feared was only a theory. I know our desert nation never even discussed it. But the Empire let their paranoia win out and decided to attack.”

The magical automaton shook his head and spoke like he was piecing together his damaged memories.

“The Emperor did not have grand ambitions. In fact, his fear grew every time our territory and population grew. He feared the possibility of losing what he had. So he was willing to do anything to protect that. Without hesitation.”

“…” Onelife fell silent for a moment. “I can understand the sentiment, but…”

“But I cannot approve of the method.” Eliza shook her head too. “Apologies for speaking ill of your emperor.”

Unsurprisingly, the one who took the conversation in a gruesome direction was the Necromancer.

“This is all extremely fascinating from a necromancy perspective. This place is immersed in so much death that it is crawling with undead monsters that have refused to accept their own death. Be careful as you continue on.”

“Woo! No one makes things exciting like you do, boss!”

Did Elaine live here?

Was it even possible to live here?

Miyabi gulped and walked into the forest. It was just as thoroughly burned as it looked from the outside.

But he did hear flowing water.

But not from the previous river.

“Huh?”

“I see,” said Alicia, breathing from her nose.

In some places, new moss and small flowers were using the nutrients in the burned trees and rough ashes to grow. The next generation was beginning. If that continued, the tragedy would eventually be covered up and made a thing of the past.

“Elaine has been living off of these things,” bitterly groaned Alicia. “Even though she could have found so much more if she left the forest. Makes it look like she enjoys hurting herself.”

Looking further into the forest, they could see the amount of green growing. But it was all down on the ground and not growing thickly through the entire space. There was also moss clinging to the burned trees. The growth was not at all like an ordinary plain or forest.

So at first, they thought they were seeing some kind of small flora or fauna.

Maybe glowing moss or bugs.

But this was something else.

“Work, work, work.”

The faint hovering light spoke in a small girl’s voice.

“I have to gather firewood and draw some water. Work, work, work!”

“These are residual thoughts,” said Alicia.

She did not say what of.

The lights moving so energetically through this lonely world must not have understood none of it was real.

There were so many of them here.

Miyabi’s party seemed to draw lines between those points of light as they walked across the burned forest. They tried their best not to step on the moss and grass starting to grow anew on the blackened trees or the ground covered in ashes and a black powder.

A flashing light spoke with the voice of an old man.

“Things are growing dangerous outside the forest. All we want is to go on living peacefully in our forest, so I hope none if it spreads here.”

A bright light grew larger as if to express its emotion.

“Curse that human empire. Do they think they own this forest!? To your bows, everyone! Buy enough time for the children and elderly to reach the hidden village!!”

It felt like time had come to a stop at some point.

But instead of the entire place freezing at a single time and date, it was like time had been incinerated at different points for each individual.

Miyabi’s party could not see where they were being guided by all this. Or maybe they were traveling into the past instead of the future.

“Hot, hot, hot, hot…”

A sticky light pleaded in an elegant female voice.

“Where is the river? Oh, no. I can’t see it. I can’t see anything. …Is this bumpy mass my face? Where did my face go?”

They could not read the frozen time in some of the lights.

One bursting light was scratchy from the beginning.

“Someone…please. I can’t go on like this…someone please…”

At one point, this forest had been teeming with life.

Right up until it was transformed into what they saw now.

Someone from outside had shown up and burned the entire thing down.

There were fallen trees and murky rivers in their way, but Miyabi was disinclined to move the Palette Dice. They took the long way around instead of crossing over with Layer Stairs or a Bypass Bridge. Creating those things would have been like taking the flowers left at a grave and making a wreath out of them.

Nothing here was to be disturbed.

Doing so would mean destroying these records of lives cut short.

Or so it felt.

“Ugh!”

Miyabi held his head.

Was this unique to dark elves, or did war produce powerful enough grudges to create this?

This was no longer the gentle lights they had seen before.

A distinct vision leapt into Miyabi’s mind.

A beautiful forest spread out before him.

The grass and flowers shined like gems, the blessings of the sun were filtered through the leaves overhead, and the Celestial Tree supported the sky.

Everything shined green in the dark elf forest. That may have been why they so easily sensed the barbaric actions of the humans and burned with righteous fury.

An agitated dark elf warrior was speaking.

“The Empire is finally making their move. They intend to burn down our entire forest. We cannot sit idly by and let this happen. Grab your bows! Repel these humans whose short lives keep them from learning their rightful place!”

A brown girl watched it all with an indescribable look in her eyes.

“…”

(Elaine?)

Miyabi opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

He was not actually here.

A graceful dark elf tugged gently on Elain’s sleeve.

“You say that, but the Empire’s army is massive. I don’t know which automaton number they will place in command, but they will likely send in their Godhorn Tech. We must not underestimate a power we ourselves lack. Elaine, you guide the powerless to the hidden village.”

“But what about all of you?”

“I cannot guarantee you our bows will repel the Empire, but we must at least buy the time needed for everyone else to escape.”

Miyabi returned to the present with a numbness like he had taken a blow to the head.

His hands wandered in search of support and found something with a rough texture. The black charcoal remnants of a tree stood nearby.

“Gh, what was that?”

Miyabi must not have been the only one to see it because Alicia had a hand on her forehead.

“Are Elaine’s thoughts lingering in this place? Or…”

This may have been something like footprints left by whatever burned within Elaine. Regardless, there were no other hints around, so they chose to pursue the residual thoughts through the ruined forest.

They found some discarded items leaning against a burned and collapsed tree.

They were magical automaton joints and broken staffs.

Those were probably the remnants of the weapons abandoned by the magically-powerful Empire.

“…”

Number 8 viewed the remains of his fellow automatons with no discernable emotion on his face.

Miyabi could find nothing to say to him.

Before long, that feeling returned deep in Miyabi’s mind.

He clenched his teeth and prepared for the pain.

Another vision flew directly into his mind.

Embers.

Pillars of fire.

Red.

The color of hell covered all.

Yes, the forest was burning. Scarlet pillars rose all around and walls of heat and smoke divided the space, cutting off any escape route.

Elaine continued gesturing inside the forest even as it transformed into a deadly maze.

“Hurry, everyone! The flames have almost caught up!!”

The hidden village could not be reached through ordinary means.

The gate was opened by following the green flowers blossoming in the forest and completing a set pattern of stabbing sticks into the ground and rolling rocks around. The village itself was best understood as existing in an alternate dimension.

The dark elves who had already escaped were calling to them from beyond the gate.

“Elaine, that was the last of them! You hurry on in and we will close the gate. This space is cut off from the world, so the flames can’t reach us!!”

“But the others are still fighting the Empire!!”

“We can’t wait any longer!! This is all for naught if the flames make it through the gate!!”

“…”

Elaine clenched her teeth and started toward the gate, but her feet came to a stop. Her long ears had picked up a weak voice.

The dark elves were not the only life in the forest. There was so much more.

They were crying out for help.

A beast growled as it dragged along an injured leg and curled up.

Something’s young howled for its mother.

“…”

Elaine couldn’t do it.

She could not stop her trembling.

She was not a vegetarian. Living in this forest meant capturing and eating other living things. She was particularly fond of bird meat.

But this was different.

No one was eating this meat. No one was making a blanket out of the feathers.

The Empire was fueled by hatred, fear, and resentment.

The flames fueled by those emotions would leave nothing behind. Utter annihilation was their goal here. They would turn everything here to ashes and not even collect a single fragment of bone afterwards.

What purpose did these deaths serve? What justification was there to ignore these cries for help? She stood there, clenched her teeth, and shook her head, but it wasn’t enough. What did it matter if they weren’t dark elves? They were still living beings trying so desperately to keep living.

Elaine Greenforest wanted to save them.

She was putting her own life at risk.

She knew that.

But still.

“Wait just a little longer. Please! Just a bit longer!! Then we might not have to regret this for the rest of our lives. We might still be able to look back on this disaster with a smile because we all overcame it and survived!!”

“…”

“I’m sick of this. If we abandon them out there, we’re no better than the Empire. I don’t want to be on the side that takes lives.”

“Dammit. Okay, fine!!”

Elaine turned away from the gate.

She parted the black smoke, broke through the flames, and tried to collect as many lives as she could.

“This way, hurry!!”

She heard the cries of creatures that had not given up on life.

“Run this way if you want to live! The hidden village is right over there!!”

She heard the roars of animals that had not abandoned hope.

But.

Even so.

She heard a dazed voice from one of the dark elves who had already evacuated.

“It’s no use, Elaine…”

“?”

“No, it’s breaking, the fire has reached the Celestial Tree. It’s too late, the fire is already- aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

The color red grew until nothing else remained.

Alicia remained motionless for a while after it ended.

If she had seen the same thing he had, Miyabi didn’t blame her.

“…”

Finally, she muttered something under her breath.

She leaned against a burned tree and then slid down to the ground. Instead of a natural tree trunk, a few logs had been erected here. It may have originally been a lookout tower or a simple shelter to keep out the rain.

That was about all that remained now.

Not even the dark elf village hidden in another dimension had survived.

“How can this be…?” said Alicia.

“So Elaine – and the dark elves as a whole – could have saved just themselves, but they couldn’t abandon the pained cries they heard in the forest…and tried to save them all?”

Miyabi sounded dazed. This did not at all fit the Elaine who enjoyed taking on other people’s revenge and then betraying them.

What had happened after she tried to save all those lives?

He had only seen the twisted final result.

“Damn,” spat Miyabi, walking further into the forest.

New moss and plants were crawling up the burned trees. The blackened remains of a horrific act were being covered up by new green.

But what about the people’s feelings?

The cries of a girl with nowhere to go flooded into Miyabi’s brain.

The forest had turned black.

The expansive flames were nowhere to be seen and the Empire’s malice had left.

The battle was already over. Everything Elaine had wanted to protect was gone.

Gone and destroyed.

The girl lay unmoving on the ground, hoping to just weather away along with the ashes.

“…”

The ground rumbled.

She knew what this low tremor was.

“…”

So when she sensed a massive shadow covering her, she slowly raised her head.

A normal person might have fainted upon seeing it.

It spoke in words she could understand.

“You still live, Elaine?”

That giant was the Forest Guardian.

“Why?” muttered the girl. “Why was I the only one to survive? I don’t understand.”

“…”

“Everyone was asking for help.”

She could not even get up, but she still lifted her head in search of something.

“They never gave up on life and resisted far more than I did. So why am I the only one…?”

“There is no deep meaning behind who lives and who dies.” The giant spoke solemnly. “Fortune favored you, Elaine. So now you must live.”

“I don’t want to.”

The survivor had no strength left.

No strength to get back on her feet.

“I’m so tired. Of everything.”

“Elaine, you did nothing wrong.” The twisted being known as the Forest Guardian spoke with a smile. “There is no deep meaning behind who lives and who dies, but it violates the principles of this sacred forest for the blameless to continue suffering forever. …You leave me no choice, Elaine. I will protect your pride.”

“?”

Now was not the time to be asking questions.

Elaine needed to get moving right away.

But she could not and this was the result.

She failed to stop the eerie sound of a snapping horn.

Her mind went blank.

She did not understand. Nor did she want to.

She had long since hit her limit.

“What did you do!?”

“I broke off my horn,” calmly stated the Forest Guardian. So very calmly. “Elaine, you can create a Godhorn Tech with this. Live the life you want to live and smile as much as you like. The world has taken so much from you, so now it is time you took the life you want. You are free to do whatever you like.”

She heard another deep rumbling, but this was different from before.

This was the sound of something falling, never to get back up. It was a sad, lonely tremor that seemed to tear her heart to pieces.

The girl had been given a clear power that would grant her victory over anyone. And she had lost her final savior.

“Ah, ahh…”

The power had been left to her by that loss.

This time, she truly was alone.

How was this the strongest power? What could that horn do?

That comforting presence had supported them all, watched over the girl from afar, and gently allayed her fears during stormy nights. That warm being had let her know she was not alone whenever she needed to know it. That individual had been more reliable than her father, closer than her oldest friend, and her role model for how to treat a hypothetical apprentice or child in the future.

Elaine knew the Forest Guardian had cared for them all more gently than anyone. She knew he had hidden within the Celestial Tree for fear his giant, bizarre appearance would frighten them.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

No, it was not just her. Everyone who lived in the forest had understood how kind a heart he had and how unnecessarily thoughtful he had been. The dark elves looked different from humans, so they had accepted the Forest Guardian for the same reason they did not judge people based on the shape of their ears or the length of their life. He was so gentle, shy, and fearful, but he was more caring than anyone or anything else and he ended up worrying over anything and everything. So they had not even named their annual forest festival after their guardian. Instead, they had expressed a year’s worth of thanks to the guardian they chose not to name.

His great strength could not be found in this .

The horn was just a horn.

It was a tool directed at a powerful enemy to pierce and kill them. That was all it could do.

A source of violence could never carry the power needed to soothe the girl’s loneliness.

Everything she wanted to protect died.

Everything she hoped for slipped through her fingers.

No matter what she did.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

The dull headache was irrelevant.

Miyabi was so furious at being unable to interact with that vision of the past that he didn’t care if his head really was cracking open.

“…”

No.

It wasn’t the past he needed to change. He already had the power to change the present and the future.

He gripped his control sword tight.

Destruction and creation.

How could he use those two powers to reach her heart?

“I was wondering how a wandering dark elf managed to get a Godhorn Tech when they usually take an entire country or company to develop.”

It had come from a hopelessly foolish act of self-sacrifice.

And his visit to the Bio Rainforest had already shown him the world was flooded with unregistered scientists and engineers who were greatly skilled but refused to compromise with society. She would have been able to search someone out.

Miyabi clenched his teeth now that he knew what was contained within Elaine’s Godhorn Tech.

“How did it turn out this way?”

Just then, something appeared before him – a ball of light. It was even larger than the residual thoughts of the dark elves floating here and there.

He could only think of one being this could be.

“I am the Forest Guardian.”

Miyabi did not doubt the claim. He had no reason to.

“I am the ugly guardian who has seen long ages pass from within the hollow Celestial Tree.”

“…”

He had a horn.

So in the world outside the forest, he would be known as a Wicked God.

“Elaine had lost far too much, so she required some power to make up for it. I wanted her to wield my horn’s power to live free in the outside world. She could have chosen for herself what to create and what to destroy – how she would live and what she would leave behind. I wanted her to find happiness and smile as much as she liked without anyone getting in her way. But she was too kind.”

Could Miyabi interrupt?

What would it even accomplish if he could?

“She could have ignored her own feelings, if that was all it was. But she heard the voices of those around her. When she saw someone too weak to carry out their revenge, she understood how they felt. She was too kind to abandon them. She could not refuse them when they asked for help and she eventually started calling it her job. …She no longer even considers whose revenge she is carrying out. It does not even cross her mind.”

The large ball of light vanished into thin air.

She had her hatred of the Empire.

And she had picked up the resentments of complete strangers.

The engineers who had helped make a Godhorn Tech out of her Wicked God horn may have done so in order to get back at the society that had rejected them.

Even though the being who had broken his own horn to save her had not wanted such a painful future for her.

“So that’s it.”

Miyabi understood now.

There were only residual thoughts here and he knew the actual Guardian could not hear him, but he still felt like he had to say this.

“This isn’t what Elaine wanted. It was their wish.”

“I thought she had completely changed. I thought the person who attacked the Empire couldn’t have been the girl I knew.” Alicia reflected on it all. “But she has only been wandering – lost – this entire time.”

The twins took turns asking questions.

“What are we going to do?”

“After she intruded on our business, you aren’t just going to let her go on like this, are you?”

The answer was obvious.

“Of course not,” said Miyabi Blackgarden. “It’s time to end this.”

They were deep in the forest.

Even if it was burned and broken, the colossal tree in the center still looked down upon the entire continent. A kind Wicked God had once lived in that holy ground and watched over the dark elves’ lives.

The green moss was quietly growing there too.

The Celestial Tree did not reject it. It demonstrated a mysterious acceptance of this new greenery bathing in the forest sunlight and of the new form the forest was taking.

And at the base of that tree…

“Ah,” said Miyabi.

He saw silver hair and brown skin.

He saw a strange outfit resembling a whin white negligee or babydoll that left the navel visible. But the many quivers worn around her hips made it almost look like a fairy tale dress.

Then there were the special goggles over the eyes.

Elaine casually emerged from between the black trees.

Small glowing bugs took silent flight whenever she trod on the green moss.

“…”

“What, is this more residual thoughts? Does she have more to tell us?”

He gave her a puzzled look as she slowly approached.

Alicia, on the other hand, widened her eyes.

“No! That’s the real Elaine!! I wouldn’t confuse her with an illusion. She exists in the same time as us!!”

“!?”

Elaine fired a magic arrow from dead ahead.

Miyabi barely managed to dodge it and a disturbingly white explosion erupted directly behind him. He would have been killed instantly had it hit him.

“…!!”

“Nhhh! She does love her tricks, doesn’t she!?” roared Onelife.

“She never could have destroyed my Empire otherwise. Not even with a Godhorn Tech,” said Number 8 calmly but firmly.

“Heh heh heh.”

She laughed.

It was a somehow broken and derailed laugh. The goggles over her eyes served to accentuate the sinister crescent moon of her lips.

She held the long bow in one hand and used the other to toy with the quivers worn around her like a skirt.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Yes, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be so easy!”

“What’s so funny!?” asked Alicia.

“Oh? Aren’t you supposed to enjoy the game of revenge?”

Something happened within the magical automaton.

Even time seemed to strain.

“Enjoy…?” Number 8 spoke each word like he was crushing them one by one between his back teeth. “Do you have any idea how many lives were lost back then? How many tears were shed, how many people stood up to protect their loved ones, and how many ultimately fell!?”

“Enough, faithful servant. She too is ruled by tragedy,” shouted Eliza, unable to just watch any longer.

The Empire’s army had destroyed the forest and a survivor of the forest had brought down the Empire. They had all been drunk on and ruled by their own power. That power was too great even for nonhumans like an automaton or dark elf.

The power of a Wicked God’s horn.

The power of a Godhorn Tech.

That was why Elaine had not stopped. Why she could not stop.

“I intentionally accept the burden of other people’s lives. Because what greater thrill is there than two lives engaged in combat until one or the other falls?”

“…”

Miyabi’s knowledge of her past allowed her damaged heart to stab into the core of his being.

All that remained of that lonely girl was sneering at him here.

“It’s a game!! A game!! What else could you call it!? They might call me a revenge mercenary, but if this was only a job, how could I ever be so obsessed with it!? You can’t stick with something unless you enjoy it, right? Ha ha, ah ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ah ha, ah ha ha!!!!!!”

Alicia bit her lips with pity in her eyes.

But Elaine continued laughing. She hid her face with goggles, kept everyone away with her bow and arrow, and could not bear the weight of the horn given to save her.

She was more fragile than glass and more brittle than hard candy.

At the same time, she was more sinister than steel and more unclean than dark charcoal.

“Now give me more!! So much more! Surpass all of my expectations so I can finally feel satisfied!!”

With a straining sound, Elaine Greenforest nocked a deadly arrow to her bow that resembled a distorted harp.

She aimed at Alicia, the elf girl she had supposedly spent plenty of time with.

Her melted voice invited in death.

“Entertain me, miss♪”

“Tch. Damn tragedy addict.” The radio clicked its tongue. “She’s developed a taste for blood!!”

Alicia did not avert her gaze even as that piercing dark pressure was directed her way.

“But we spent so much time together. Is there really nothing we can do? A way to keep this fellow elf – my childhood friend – from falling any further!?”

“If you can’t find a reason to give up on her, then you don’t have to.” The redhead boy placed a hand on Alicia’s head and held his control sword with the other hand. “No one here did anything wrong to begin with – not Elaine, not the dark elves, and not the Celestial Tree’s Wicked God. Yet Elaine was led down this path.”

So…

“Help me, Alicia. The rest of you too.”

With the assurance that his party members were watching his back, Miyabi faced the lonely girl who had lost everything and then pushed everything away herself.

Destruction and creation.

What was that strongest power for? What did he want to do with what Moebius Entrance had given him?

That wasn’t even a question.

If he could reach out and grab a trembling hand and if he could add just one more member to his party, he could work up enough courage to directly battle someone with the power to destroy the world.

He had to look her in the eye and raise his voice.

He had to make this crystal clear.

This was not for the world or to do the right thing. He simply could not leave that girl alone any longer. Not one second more. What was wrong with fighting for that?

So he spoke his mind.

So that he could smash the unwanted destiny that had led to this point and create a new path for this vengeful demon who had given up on herself!!

Miyabi Blackgarden simply shouted as his boiling instincts led him.

“Your twisted tragedy ends here!!!!!!”

It was a battle between sword and bow.

The dark elf recited her incantations as if in song.

“Rainmaker: Downburst – Category 3. The number 2 refers to the two extremes, so the gap between the high and the low shall invite in a great wind!!”

A massive amount of air was compressed by a metal arrowhead spilt into two prongs at the tip.

That deadly arrowhead would scatter walls of shockwaves in every direction when it hit.

Their new party member Harber had been right. Elaine’s bow looked frightening at first, but its power was actually boosted by magic. That meant Elaine herself knew it was lacking in power on its own.

Miyabi fearlessly rushed toward her.

He just barely dodged the initial attack and continued forward.

Once close enough, Elaine could not use any exploding magic arrows because their great power would hit her as well. And his sword could reach just fine at that range. She would be forced to use her bow itself for defense, which would also prevent her from nocking an arrow.

And yet…

Despite being a mid and long range specialist, she remained confident even at close range?

“Rainmaker: Reverse Engineering – Category #$%&. The number 4 symbolizes the easily understood colors. By revealing how clouds are formed, I gain the key to making it rain!!”

Surprisingly, she aimed her bow straight down and launched the arrow into the ashes piled up at her feet.

“Get back, boy!!!!!!”

If not for Alicia’s warning, he might have been crushed.

He rolled along the mossy ground, getting ashes all over him, but he felt a prickling pain across all his skin.

(What was that!? She was right in front of me, yet something flew in from another direction!?)

Miyabi was dumbfounded while he got back on his feet.

He saw a faint glow.

It was a fire.

For that one moment, a fearsome pillar of fire entirely surrounded Elaine Greenforest.

“Rainmaker,” said the Necromancer with a grin. She seemed to come alive the closer she was to death. “There are a lot of rainmaking ceremonies, but this is one major branch: using fire to summon water. The smoke is viewed as rainclouds, the fire as the sun, and the water that puts out the fire as the rain. But this does not just apply to water. Lightning can be used to create the smoke and a sandstorm can symbolize the clouds in the sky. If hiding the sun makes it rain, it doesn’t matter if that is done by covering it with dirt or snuffing it out with the wind. Ah ha ha. See? All magic can be used for good or evil – it isn’t just necromancy. There are simply restrictions applied to its usage and you gain more freedom if you break free of the boring restrictions society loves to put on it!!”

“…!!”

He tried to approach Elaine, but more and more of the ashy ground and black trees exploded. But if he thoughtlessly moved back, her bow and arrow would make short work of him.

Kananka read the path of his boomerang.

He was using the minute changes to determine the wind direction, the temperature, the humidity, and more about the air.

“Move in from the west-southwest!! The fire should be weakest there!!”

Alicia flicked a test tube’s cap off with her thumb and downed the physical boosting potion within.

But not even that was enough.

If Helen had not noticed and tripped her, Alicia would have been badly injured. Simply increasing her fire resistance was not enough to charge through the wall of fire. The obvious curtain of flames was being used to camouflage several sharp stone spikes jutting up from the ground.

“Tch!!”

“She used her tricks to take out the Lord of Ruin in a single blow, so assume there’s more to her attacks than meets the eye!!”

Of course, it was not over yet.

Next…

“You’re wiiiide open☆”

With a sound like tearing paper, Elaine launched her next attack while laughing. She intended to blast Miyabi now that he was stopped by the wall of fire and the stone spikes.

She was a survivor of the dark elves who had lost everything when their beautiful forest was burned.

Even an outsider like Miyabi felt like the rage and regret would smother his heart after hearing the story.

Yet she still launched a trident arrowhead with lightning compressed between the prongs.

“!!”

Miyabi was not as skilled with a sword as the Lord of Ruin, so he could not hope to stop the projectile with his control sword. And even if he did manage, the magic contained within the sharp arrowhead would explode in his face.

So instead, he forcibly twisted his body around and dropped to the ashes to dodge it.

It was the most he could manage and even that only succeeded thanks to some luck.

He felt a prickling pain in his skin as time seemed to freeze, but was that the electrical energy grazing him or was it the result of his own extreme tension?

Far behind him, the arrowhead erupted into a terrifying pure white explosion.

“Tch. Cautious thing, aren’t you?”

That was Elaine’s only response. The simple and sloppy impression he got from her had to be from more than just the goggles covering her eyes. She destroyed the environment around her while hoping to maybe be lucky enough to hit. She transformed the terrain, set it on fire, and stained it with blood. She clearly no longer viewed this as her homeland.

“Rainmaker: Low Level Wind Shear – Category 3. The number 1 is an arrow pointing the way. …The wind hurts a lot more when it carries broken branches and hard leaves, doesn’t it? And this place has plenty of remnants of the past.”

“Don’t do this, Elaiiiiiiine!!” shouted Miyabi before he was sent tumbling backwards.

It was like a fan-shaped explosion. Countless branches blew in horizontally, baring the fangs that were their jagged ends.

Miyabi heard cracking sounds from his chest and side.

He coughed violently, but he was not impaled thanks to the thick leather forestry jacket he wore and the depressing fragility of the black and burned branches. They all shattered before piercing through. It almost felt like the many dark elves sleeping in the forest were breaking their own bodies to avoid any further bloodshed here.

The heartache was worse than the physical pain.

It felt like being pummeled by shards of broken gravestones.

Even Miyabi – a complete stranger visiting for the first time – had been hesitant to remake the dirt and trees into Bypass Bridges and Layer Stairs, yet she could do this!?

“Tch. Didn’t work. You’re no fun. Next I can…oh, I know. Maybe I can include the wreckage of the weapons and automatons I picked up in the Empire. There’s no way you can survive that one, is there?”

“Wait…agh. How can you do this…to the forest?”

“It’s just a forest. Or it used to be one. Do you see anything other than that here?”

The forest was already dead.

Who died here and what slumbered here were not an issue of the physical reality. They could burn, roast, and melt down the rest or even tear up the very dirt the dark elves had returned to, but nothing would ever wake them back up.

Why get so angry when there was no one here to be bothered by what she did?

But.

Even so.

Who was she thinking of when she took over other people’s revenge? Was she already so broken?

They stood at the base of the broken Celestial Tree.

Was she no longer even aware that they were disturbing the dead’s slumber by loudly crossing weapons and launching magic in this holy ground packed full of the dark elves’ precious memories!?

(No.)

He didn’t want to believe that.

An image of the past flashed in the back of his mind.

He once more reflected on the regret and urgent request of the Forest Guardian.

(No!!)

He managed to get back up, even if only to crawl.

And he clutched the control sword even tighter.

When the humans had set the forest ablaze, a kind girl had attempted to get the forest animals into the hidden village, failed, and ultimately lost everything. Her decision had been admirable and her motives virtuous. The sensitive girl had broken as a result, but he never wanted to believe she had fallen so far down the path of evil that she could never recover!!

What could he do?

He had to think.

What were his Godhorn Tech and its powers of destruction of creation meant for? He was free to use that much power for good or for evil, so was there really not even a single thing he could do for this girl!?

The Lucifer Horn impatiently awaited his orders up in the sky.

He could not let this end in disgrace. He needed to do something worthy of the title of strongest!!

“Elaine!!!!!!”

“Ah ha ha. Looking for some way to help the dead? Then come join me, human boy. What is a Godhorn Tech and its Wicked God horn good for other than revenge?”

“Kh.”

There had to be something.

Tell her.

Tell her the Forest Guardian had been so worried for her he had carved his feelings into the forest. Tell her that saving her would help soothe the spirits of all of those who had lived in the forest.

Tell her there were ways to comfort an aching heart far more effective than revenge.

You saw her past on the way here, didn’t you!?

“Ha ha ha!! This forest is already dead. There’s no one left here. Not one! Why should I care if I damage it!?”

She snapped her fingers, sending unnatural sparks flying.

The instant they fell on the ash and soot covered ground, her bow and arrow affected the weather, creating an impossible horizontal gust of wind.

It was like a powerful breath blowing on the still-hot white ashes left in the fireplace.

The wind itself became an orange-glowing wall of flame.

Fire, water, wind, earth, wood, lightning, and what else?

Elaine would probably do the same thing with light or a holy power as well.

She could use all sorts of magic, but she depressingly only used it for destruction. Even though her dedication could have been put to better use.

She might as well have been setting a graveyard ablaze. Was she actually setting fire to the land where the dark elves slept after being killed in a fire!?

But the Necromancer sounded amused as she held a long whip made from some kind of tongue.

“She only has the upper hand thanks to all the charcoal and ashes filling the forest, so you only need to get rid of that cause of death. That bitch said a Godhorn Tech is only good for revenge, but you can do more than that with yours, can’t you? You can use it to protect and to save.”

“Lucifer Horn, take care of it!!” shouted Miyabi, stabbing his control sword into the ground.

Something dropped from the sky above.

A massive bomb exploded, pushing back at the approaching flames like another wall.

He did not put out the fire with water.

He fought fire with fire.

“So what? Ee hee, ee hee hee. We dark elves were already destroyed by the Empire’s cruel attack. Ha ha ha ha ha!! Rainmaker: Reverse Engineering – Category @*￥. Wind, dust, and all other ways of controlling the weather and rainmaking can be used to stop you from-!?”

Elaine suddenly stopped and her twisted laughter caught in her throat.

Then a beam of light dropped down.

It landed a bit to the side of Elaine and her wall of flame, but not because it had missed. Miyabi Blackgarden stared straight at her and he never used his Godhorn Tech to directly attack her despite the handicap that placed on him.

Yes, the true purpose of the attack soon presented itself.

A swarm of every type of bug pushed in from all directions.

“This was a dead forest, but that’s a thing of the past. Moss and grass have grown in to overwrite that in places,” whispered the Necromancer, her feet gently resting on the green moss spreading across the ground. “You can find life almost anywhere on the continent: in the desert, on the snowy fields, and even at the bottom of the sea or in a volcano. The fire may have been too much of a hint. Most all living things are drawn toward light. And all the more so in such a quiet forest. The smallest stimulation can draw them out from across the forest. Just like spreading iron sand thinly across a large plate and then gathering it in the center with a magnet.”

“What!?”

“No one can stop the circle of life. Necromancers can make some minor adjustments to the death part, but the overall circle remains unchanged. Just like cheating at the casino to earn cash can never bring down the entire system of currency. And if you summon life to a place overflowing with death, you can neutralize that death. Neither life nor death are anything special, after all.”

The swarm of bugs smothered Elaine’s wall of flames, preventing it from burning or pushing back Miyabi’s party.

Kananka’s boomerang tore through the curtain of black smoke to take a reading, not to attack.

“There is no invisible mass of heat. Miyabi, run straight through!!”

And with the fire gone, the path was clear.

Now it was Miyabi’s turn to attack!!

“Kee hee.”

Just as he was arriving in striking distance, Elaine laughed.

She raised her bow to block his attack and lock their weapons together, but…

“I had hoped to enjoy your resistance a little longer, but all good things must come to an end.”

He heard something other than his sword striking her bow.

Even with their weapons awkwardly locked together, the bottom of her bow stabbed into the ground.

Despite being the one on the attack, Miyabi felt a chill down his spine.

“From the control bow to the horn core – tactical open.”

He knew it was coming, but they currently had their weapons locked together.

“High-Altitude Blimp Huge Eye. Chew it all to pieces!!”

It was a giant sphere.

The sorcery weapon looked so unnatural floating up in the sky with the power of heat.

The eerie sphere was colored black and looked both like a human skull and like a giant eyeball.

It was positioned far higher than even the Lucifer Horn. The bomber generally attacked by dropping something below it, so the Huge Eye was fully protected. The Huge Eyes’ great size made the scale hard to judge, but it had to be above 5000m, putting it higher than a mountain range. The strength of its armor hardly mattered because finding a weapon or magic that could reach that high would be a challenge in and of itself. Celina’s gun and Kananka’s boomerang could not even get close.

And that was not all.

It was the center of a raging spiral of wind. It carried around the destructive power of a natural disaster to lay waste to the surface.

A pillar colored a dirty gray by the ash and charcoal was slowly approaching from the distance.

“A-a giant hurricane?” groaned the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck. “Is this what blew us away in the desert? What kind of fantasy world is this!? You’re not supposed to have weather control devices!”

“The spirits are weeping… They weren’t here before, though. Or did they flee here from elsewhere!?”

The boomerang did not return to surprised Kananka. It had hit a nearby rock and bounced off. That meant something was wrong. Something unseen had diverted its course.

Number 8 looked like he had been transported to some other time.

“I have seen this,” he said. “This happened in my broken memories. The abnormal sky produced a wind that knocked down all things and sent fish and frogs raining from above. It tore the vaults from their foundations, swept up the mana within, and spread it across the land. That disaster took the Empire’s people and the emperor from me. It was just like a natural disaster!!”

“Hee hee.” Elaine laughed behind her goggles. And she snapped her fingers. “Hee hee hee. This will make that look like nothing. Revenge is all about leaving an impact, so you need to constantly update your methods.”

Small sparks scattered from her fingers, but they had seen this before.

A change came over the ashes the sparks fell upon.

They glowed orange like the tip of a cigarette or a fireplace.

The smallest of embers sent the fine ash into the air and gathered up the air to burn with an explosive intensity. Elaine’s bow and arrow alone had created a thick wall, so what would happen with these powerful winds fueling the fire? It could easily create a pillar of fire large enough to pierce the sky.

Alicia clenched her teeth while viewing the distant pillar of ashes and charcoal.

But she could not give up.

“Nothing will save us if we are caught by that. We need to end this before it arrives, boy!!”

The silver lining was how slow an attack it was.

It was absurdly powerful, but they had some time before the winds arrived and absorbed all the fire burning on the ground.

Now the question was how stubbornly Elaine could hold her ground with her tricks and traps. Miyabi’s party should have the upper hand due to their superior numbers, but she was the type to trick them into attacking each other.

But then something strange happened.

With a dull creaking, one of the black carbonized trees fell toward Elaine. Puzzled, she took a step back and the tree sent ashes and smashed charcoal dust into the air.

But that was all.

The gathered air did not produce an orange wall of flame.

Because the fallen tree had pinpoint crushed the embers on the ground. It almost looked like someone had calculated it out and tackled the fragile tree, but neither Miyabi nor Elaine saw anyone there. That had not been the work of the powerhouses like Eliza or Onelife.

“Miyabi, did you use the Palette Dice?” asked Celina with her flintlock rifle at the ready.

“No,” bluntly replied Miyabi.

Then who had done it?

Next, a boulder rolled onto some embers and some dirt buried some more. More and more unnatural phenomena accurately eliminated the embers that Elaine had sent out as a deadly trigger.

Elaine was badly shaken when she noticed the pale lights flying around like fireflies.

The goggles were not enough to hide how shaken she was.

Those were supposed to mere remnants.

There shouldn’t have been anyone left.

Because it was the loss of everything born and raised here that had made Elaine into what she was.

“The spirits…of the dark elves?”

Yet the unthinkable words came unbidden from her mouth.

She herself accepted it.

“But how? These are only thoughts affixed to specific coordinates. They shouldn’t even have their own personalities!”

“Don’t you get it?” said Miyabi without a thought to strategy.

He had no proof, but nothing required him to give any.

He trusted in the feeling inside himself and gripped his control sword tight.

“The Greenforest race has long regretted wishing for revenge after the Empire destroyed them. Because that wish was placed entirely on your shoulders. So they regretted it, regretted it so very much, and wondered if there was anything they could do to help you. They’re only residual thoughts now and there’s no way they can be conveniently resurrected at this point!! But they’re still trying to save you from the fire they started, Elaine!!”

Maybe it was the lack of strategy that caused crafty Elaine Greenforest’s mind to briefly go blank.

And not even that dark elf could escape unscathed with so many people rushing straight at her.

With her trickery temporarily halted, their greater numbers could do the talking.

She took aim at Miyabi who was moving straight toward her with his control sword in both hands, but someone passed the boy on the left and on the right.

They arrived faster than she had predicted, so she had no choice but to block their attacks with her bow itself.

“Ghhh!?”

Impressively, she managed to dodge Onelife’s prosthetic hand by a hair’s breadth.

But then Alicia’s staff solidly struck her in the side.

Her shoulders slanted just a bit.

Her strength left her.

“Did that do it!?” shouted the radio at the other elf’s neck.

“This ends now, Elaine. Open your eyes to reality. The proud Forest Guardian broke off his horn hoping you would live free and smile innocently. You don’t have to be bound by someone else’s revenge any longer!”

“Heh heh. Don’t be absurd.”

She was still doubled over as the straining in her ribs crossed a line and a red liquid spilled from her mouth.

Yet the beautiful but broken dark elf continued to smile.

And that crescent moon smile looked all the more sinister with the goggles covering her eyes.

“Eh heh heh. You’re the one who saw our plight yet refused to leave your own forest. Heh heh heh hah hah!!”

“!?”

“Don’t listen to her!!” warned the Philosopher’s Stone, but it was too late.

Elaine’s sticky words had latched onto Alicia’s heart.

“Yet here you are. Some childhood friend you are. You ignore us when we beg you for help, but when it’s for your own personal interests, out you come?”

“This isn’t even anyone’s revenge. You just want to tear us apart!!”

But the dark elf did not stick with it. She must not have cared too much if it worked or not. She was willing to sneer and strike with her poisoned claws on no more than the off chance it might come in handy. Even though she was striking the soft heart inside someone’s chest.

Kanaka came to an awkward stop. He had stopped throwing his boomerang at the last second because he was not confident it would come back to him.

A great mass of wind blew through the remaining blackened tree branches.

“Looks like I bought enough time there,” said Elaine.

“You mean…” said Alicia with a tremor in her throat.

“Huge Eye, fill the world with the ultimate thrill. Blow your winds right through me!”

This was a hurricane.

This power could control natural disasters, which were a greater threat than crime and war. This power had even destroyed the Empire through a chain reaction of destruction. That wind was dangerous enough even if it did not absorb the flames. Everyone here knew it after being on the receiving end in the desert. They knew clenching your teeth and planting your feet on the ground was not enough to endure it.

But.

The redhead boy moved to intervene by any means necessary.

“No, this isn’t over yet!!”

“?”

Miyabi shouted to push on Alicia’s back.

There was something there.

It was blackened, falling apart, and abandoned by the flow of time.

But he had succeeded in pulling out something like a giant bat wing. It was more than 10m wide and torn, leaving only pieces of it still intact.

“There’s still something we can do using this!!”

“Koo…”

Alma hopped up and down after finding this remnant of another one here.

In other words…

“Did that wing belong to that Wicked God or whatever it was?” asked Helen, mentioning a crucial term.

Wicked God.

Elaine looked like she had been struck by lightning. There had only been one of those in the Green Forest.

That avenger’s eyes had always pierced straight through her target, but even with the support of the special goggles, she briefly lost sight of something now.

“What? But that…!?”

Her eyes focused on something that wasn’t here.

“ What are you doing here!? Why now!!!???”

“We can’t do anything about that hurricane down here on the ground. I’ll admit that.” Miyabi grinned and made a gamble. “So I’ll pave a path to somewhere where we can stop it. Even if it means diving in myself!”

Number 8 looked up.

“Oh, I get it. The fish and frogs falling from the sky.”

“You’ll be helping me, Elaine. Even if you are my enemy!!”

Gravity disappeared.

Miyabi’s party flew up into the sky along with the many branches, trees, and rocks.

They were above the clouds, in a world of pure blue.

There was actually no wind here, presumably because they were in the eye of the storm. Also, the biting cold kept their minds sharply focused.

They were higher even than the Lucifer Horn here. At more than 5000m up, they were in the Huge Eye’s territory. And Miyabi’s party set foot atop that giant sphere in its inviolable airspace.

“Kh, where are we?”

Elaine had been taken along with them and she wouldn’t have any way of backing out this high in the air. The brown avenger’s eyes widened.

“Are we on top of the Huge Eye!?”

“This worked out better than I thought. And in the eye of the storm, your winds can’t reach us.”

Miyabi knew what the awkward Forest Guardian had wanted when he broke off his own horn to give the surviving girl hope. He knew that tragic ruler’s request for her to live the life she wanted to live had come to fruition in the worst possible way.

Miyabi knew about the poor girl whose last remaining savior had died ahead of her, plunging her into the depths of true loneliness. He knew about that shabby avenger whose kindness prevented her from ignoring the cries of others in similar situations and thus could not stop fighting using the great power of her Godhorn Tech.

Miyabi knew all of that.

So he could not push that lonely girl away from the outcome. Whether she won or lost, Elaine Greenforest could never be freed from her bonds unless she accepted the outcome. She was so sensitive that she had broken and could not find her original smile anymore. So she had to be with him on this final stage!!

This was not about giving him an advantage in the fight.

He could not truly end this any other way.

Miyabi readied his control sword in both hands and faced the dark elf.

And he roared.

All so he could reach a future where the Forest Guardian’s wish to protect the girl’s freedom and happiness would actually reach her and she could actually hold someone’s hand once more, even if she still had her reservations at first!!

He had to create.

Yes, now was the time for creation.

Everyone had given up on this avenger, so he would have to create a world where she could smile and live happily!!

“Elaine, no more aimless wandering as a revenge mercenary. I heard the Forest Guardian’s prayer. If this Godhorn Tech only helps you waste your freedom, then I’ll destroy it and take away that power that’s binding you!!”

They stood far up in the sky.

There was no escape from this aerial battlefield in any direction.

But.

Elaine Greenforest demonstrated surprising persistence even while cornered so thoroughly.

She snapped her fingers.

Small sparks were swept away from the Huge Eye and the massive hurricane surrounding them burst into flames.

She had ignited the ashes and charcoal dust swept into the air.

Alma bristled and jumped at Miyabi’s feet.

“Kyoo!?”

Everything was dyed orange and Miyabi felt a stinging heat on his skin, but his core remained cold.

The broken dark elf was saying she would not let any of them escape.

“Fine then. But I will still put revenge above all else. Even if that means burning down the entire world!!”

They were far higher even than the Lucifer Horn and the bomber was only made to attack the surface, so it was unlikely it could even target something higher than itself.

But Miyabi did not hesitate.

He raised his control sword in both hands and pointed the tip toward the lonely dark elf.

There had been no need at all for her to remain alone, but that was the only choice she had found for herself. She had misinterpreted the hope left to her by the others and jumped into the depths of hell herself.

Miyabi knew he had to end this here.

He truly believed it.

“I’ll show you, Elaine.”

“?”

“Show you there is another option for you!!”

He ran along the unstable high-altitude blimp.

Close range should have given him an advantage, but he knew Elaine was too crafty for that to necessarily work.

But this was not a 1-on-1 battle.

If he was betting every part of himself and wielding the entire path he had taken to reach this point, then this tactic was an option for him.

“She uses a bow. Rush in and keep her from using it!!!!!!”

The others all responded to his call.

Helen moved forward with her large knife, as did Number 8 with his morning star connected to its grip by electricity. Celina and Kananka did the same even though their rifle and boomerang were ranged weapons.

As if to say they would not let this continue any longer.

As if to say they refused to let this girl live a life where she seemed to enjoy harming herself.

“Kh.”

Elaine bit her lip.

If not for the goggles over her eyes, she may have narrowed them as if viewing a dazzling light.

But there was no need for that look.

She could join them any time she wanted. She could become one of them. That cracked and broken girl had never needed to isolate herself and obsess over futile revenge!!

“Hee hee hee.”

Elaine Greenforest did not give in even after taking attacks from Eliza’s surprisingly powerful lance or Onelife’s prosthetic hand.

She continued to fight.

She cast magic, launched arrows, and sometimes swung the entire twisted bow like it was a whip. Miyabi’s party remained a step away from reaching her. They were constantly repelled and forced back.

The lonely girl had learned how to get by in her loneliness.

She did not even seem to care when one of their attacks landed cleanly.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!”

“Stop…stop this, Elaine!!”

Alicia struck with her wooden staff and winced when she felt it crack something inside Elaine.

Mercilessly killing Elaine would be meaningless.

That was not their idea of victory.

But nothing Alicia said changed a thing.

The dark elf’s bloody laughter and the wall of wind surrounding the high-altitude blimp – no, the fiery cyclone – were only growing in intensity.

Elaine swung her slender arms while cackling in a way that squeezed at the hearts of all who heard it. She even repelled Onelife who was said to have slain a Wicked God.

“Nhhh!?”

“I keep landing accurate blows, so how is she still conscious? This does not compute.”

Elaine was of course paying a price for the amount of raw power she was forcing out of her body.

After knocking back Onelife, her arm had grown bluish from internal bleeding.

It was amazing the bones were unbroken.

Number 8 shared his analysis with the others and the Necromancer toyed with her tongue whip and sighed in exasperation.

“She certainly is tough. Are you sure she’s still alive? With that kind of disregard for her own wellbeing, I would be amazed to find she hasn’t dabbled in necromancy.”

“You’re killing it today, boss!”

“I imagine her own brain chemicals have put her in the zone. Her sense of pain is completely gone, so physical blows aren’t going to knock her out.”

“…”

After a short silence, Number 8 made a suggestion.

A suggestion as a subject of the Empire she had destroyed.

“Then do we kill her to stop her?”

“No!!” screamed Alicia.

The ever-cunning elf gripped her wooden staff tight, squeezed her eyes shut, and failed to stop the tears.

And she shouted loud enough to tear open her own throat.

“I won’t abandon her this time! I finally left my forest and she’s finally at arm’s reach! So I won’t abandon her this time!!”

“Don’t worry, miss,” roared the radio. “A real man won’t abandon a girl in need. Right, Miyabi!? Forget strategy and tactics. This is a swords and sorcery fantasy where anything goes and you’ve got the strongest power in your grasp, so remember what it is you want to do here!!!!!!”

“Sigh.” The Necromancer sounded exasperated. “If we can’t stop Elaine without killing her, then we’ll have to find some other way to win.”

That was it.

They only had to win. And that didn’t necessarily mean aiming for Elaine.

And this was bound to work against Elaine more than anyone else.

It only took a split second for Miyabi to reach a decision.

“ Scatter!! ”

“?”

The dark elf’s laughter momentarily stopped.

And in that moment…

“Now we’re talking!! I was pretty sick of having to pummel such a scrawny girl anyway,” said Onelife. “If I’m gonna fight something, I want it to be even tougher and bigger than me!!!!!!”

“I see you’ve already conveniently edited out your memories of attacking me so mercilessly in the Bio Rainforest,” said the Necromancer. “Idiots are such a mystery.”

Maybe because you aren’t a girl, thought Miyabi and she glared at him like she had read his mind.

Onelife and the Necromancer ran in opposite directions like they were repelled by each other.

“Ixea, we need to fight as well.”

“Indeed we do, Acacia. We finally get an outside view of someone trapped by a Godhorn Tech. I feel like I’m seeing my old self, which kind of pisses me off.”

The twins wielding giant axes actually moved back with their hip cloths fluttering in front of them.

“What are you doing?”

The dark elf viewed the entire scene through her special goggles.

And then she cried out in alarm.

“No!”

She tried to ready her bow, but Miyabi had moved right up in front of her.

Sword clashed with bow before she could nock an arrow.

With their weapons locked together, Miyabi smiled savagely in front of the girl. In a pure clash of force, he could place more force on his thick, two-handed sword than she could on her bow.

“Hey, Elaine. If you need an elf babysitter, I’m your guy. I’ve had to put up with Alicia’s selfishness and short temper all my life, after all.”

“Kh!! M-move! Move out of the way!!!!!!”

“Not happening, no matter what. Your drive for vengeance, your trapped heart, and your twisted hope can all go to hell. The Forest Guardian left this task with us. He trusted us when we only ignorantly walked into this forest! We also saw the ghosts of the dark elves who gathered together to help end your life of revenge!! So I’ll shatter the chains binding you. Every last one of them!!”

Yes.

Her magically-enhanced projectiles were a threat, but she also had to focus on defense when challenged at close range. And it went without saying which of their weapons was better suited for blocking blows.

Shining steel drew out large arcs. The movements resembled the tilling of the soil.

More and more heavy impacts rang out.

But not against Elaine Greenforest. The heavy hitters like Onelife and Number 8 were attacking the Huge Eye below them.

Miyabi’s party only needed to spread out and smash the armor of the blimp they stood on. And they had to keep that up until it could no longer fly under its own power.

Its overwhelming altitude had been its greatest shield, but now they could reach it and damage it.

Elaine forcibly kicked at Miyabi’s legs with their weapons locked together and she used the brief opening to roll back and away.

She only gained 5m, but it was enough for her to use her bow as a projectile weapon again.

“Tch!! Rainmaker: Flood – Category 4. The number 1 indicates a single direction. Produce a massive deluge following the unhesitating arrow! Make the wingless intruders slip and tumble down to their dooms!!”

Water sprayed out toward Miyabi with greater force than a hand-pumped fire hydrant. He really was doomed if he was knocked over the edge this high up. He practically fell on his face in his haste to avoid it.

He just about slipped off anyway, but someone grabbed his hand.

“This isn’t over yet!!”

It was Alicia Blueforest.

She was drenched and covered in embers and ashes, but she poured everything into keeping the fight going.

She was almost embracing the human boy as she shouted with powerful conviction.

“I won’t let it be over. I will not let your hope die here, Elaine!! You might try to shake free of our grasp, but I will never let go of your hand!!”

Elaine herself was at risk of slipping and losing her balance.

With such unstable footing, that water attack was far more frightening than an immediately deadly one.

However.

A bow was a bow. It could not attack in every direction at once.

She still may have been able to deal with Miyabi’s entire party attacking her at the same time, but her defenses were not enough when more than 10 people split up and attacked the balloon instead. And if she started firing her exploding magic arrows at random, she could easily catch herself in the blast.

So she could not stop it.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Miyabi held out his hand and raised his voice.

He could not take out pieces of the Godhorn Tech itself, but the blazing cyclone surrounding them had swept up trees and boulders from the dead land.

(Sorry!!)

He felt like he was vandalizing a grave, so he silently apologized.

But he wanted to save this girl no matter what it took.

He wanted to grant the dark elves their wish. With a mental image of grabbing something in midair, he broke those materials down into cubes and reconnected them.

He formed a massive stake.

He positioned it above the high-altitude blimp and then stabbed it down into the black armor like a lightning strike.

He felt a dull tremor.

The thick spike had smashed its way into the Huge Eye’s armor.

Elaine was initially dumbfounded, but then she shouted what was more a prayer than anything.

“This isn’t over!!”

“So what if it isn’t?” replied Number 8. The uniformed butler gave a powerful swing of his electrically-linked morning star. “Elaine, you were powerful enough to destroy the vast Empire, so your power to kill may be greater than anyone else’s. Maybe even more than the Lord of Ruin who only knew how to make head-on attacks. But your power of revenge cannot be used to protect someone! You provide less of a defense than a single piece of tissue paper!!”

He drove the stake further in.

Onelife continued with his large cutlass in hand.

“Nwohhh!! Feeling frustrated, or maybe jealous? You might’ve been able to stop us if you wielded some power other than revenge. Maybe you could’ve done more than sit there and pray!! But there’s nothing you can do! You’ve got no trump card for when you really need it! That’s why you resort to revenge and despair!! …Does this hurt to hear? If you feel even the smallest ache in your heart, then it’s not too late. Show us you can reach for a power that avoids regret and precludes the need for reveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenge!!!!!!”

Onelife used his great arm strength to drive the stake in even more, but then he was knocked from his feet. Something had exploded beneath him.

It was like an invisible volcanic eruption. By widening the wound, the gas used to keep the blimp afloat may have erupted out.

More and more of the thick armor was torn up, starting from the edge of the gash.

The metallic wound spread endlessly.

But they could not just calmly observe the widening hole.

Their footing had noticeably tilted. That meant the Huge Eye itself was tilting.

“It’s falling?”

At first, Elaine stared blankly down at it.

She could not believe this was happening.

“What, what!? How can this happen!? This is my power! It has always been with me and it was to always be with me!!”

Had that been her one and only bond remaining?

Had she chosen to stay with that massive sorcery weapon forever, transforming her into an incarnation of destruction?

Just as the damaged Godhorn Tech tilted even further, Elaine staggered. There was not all that much room to stand on atop the round blimp.

Miyabi’s skin was stinging.

He grimaced.

The ashes and charcoal powder were burning and the heat contained in the fiery cyclone had to be greater than in a blacksmith’s furnace.

If any of them left the eye of the storm, they would be enveloped by the scorching orange wall of swirling fire and burned to ashes before they even hit the ground.

“Watch out!” he shouted, but he was too far away.

So.

It was someone else’s hand that reached out and grabbed her.

The hand belonged to her childhood friend Alicia.

Alicia grabbed her, pulled her close, and held her tight.

“?”

Elaine actually looked puzzled. The confusion was palpable even with her eyes hidden behind the goggles.

Alicia was not going to let her look like that any longer.

She ignored the smell of her own burning hair and the pain of her burning skin as she spoke.

“I will not let this end here. I won’t let it end in death after coming this far. No matter what!!”

“Kh.”

Groaning was not enough.

Miyabi reached his empty hand out to the two of them.

“I need to create a wall to keep them from falling!”

(Please, Forest Guardian and dark elves. I’ll be breaking down and transforming your homeland and resting place, but please lend Elaine your strength one last time!!)

The natural materials that had been swept up this high were broken down into Palette Dice that dropped down and stacked up vertically.

He barely made it in time.

The wall holding the two girls in place was black and burned, but it was definitely made from the trees so loved by the dark elves.

“Wh-why?” stammered Elaine.

“Shut up,” shouted Alicia, biting her lip. She paid no attention to the black soot covering her cheeks and clothes. “Why do I need a reason!? I’m here to actually save my childhood friend this time!”

“The Wicked God that gave you that horn didn’t want this. He offered you his horn hoping you would fly freer than anyone, smile bright, and be happy. He told you to live the life you want, but you never could find what you wanted to do. Or were you too afraid to stop fighting and find a different path for yourself? Were you afraid you would have it taken away from you again? So you were afraid to stop even after your revenge was complete. You thought helping other people with their revenge would be easier because that was the one place you had found success! You decided that was the only way you could be happy, narrowed your view of the world, and stuck with the one thing you knew you could do!! Even though you could have seen so many new things if you had looked away from that path just for a moment. Isn’t that right, Elaine!?” Miyabi slowly approached those two. “But the more you repeat the same thing, the less you get out of it. There is no freedom there. You must have known that yourself, which is why you had to escalate things in that closed-off world. You never did actually save anyone while helping with their revenge, did you? Of course you didn’t. Dress it up however you like, violence is still violence. I’m not calling it good or evil – I’m saying your hands end up just as bloody either way!!”

They had no guarantee that wall would last forever. It could crumble away in an unexpected gust of wind or the Huge Eye could tilt even further, dumping Alicia and Elaine into the fire. Or the fiery cyclone could heat up further, roasting everything in the eye of the storm.

But he had just one thought about that: so what?

Why had he come all this way otherwise? He wanted to grant the Forest Guardian his wish!!

“You never needed to help people with their revenge. When you discovered their problems, maybe you could have given them advice and stopped the tragedy, effectively saving them from their own path of violence!! Then you could have broken free! You could have found a happiness you had never before experienced!!!!!!”

“…”

“Don’t trample it all underfoot, Elaine.”

No matter what he said, he was an outsider who had arrived after the dark elf forest had been burned down. He had not arrived in time or even realized it was happening. He was no more than a human boy. Ordinarily, acting like he understood better than her might have been an insult to her and all the other victims of that tragedy.

But there were times when the people with a direct connection lost their way.

There were things that could only be seen with a more detached viewpoint.

That was why this task had been given to him.

He felt the weight of the burden the Forest Guardian had placed on him. He was an outsider and a human, but he did everything he could to gather up as much as he could.

He wanted to give them some kind of solution.

Even if he had only gathered 1% of Elaine’s bloody resolve, his words still carried some unseen power. They carried some piece of the Forest Guardian’s feelings.

So he would hesitate no longer.

He let go of his own support and his shoes slid down along the slope.

Maybe he didn’t know what he was talking about and maybe he was only rubbing salt in the actual victim’s wounds, but he knew he had to use his words to carry these feelings to that lonely girl!!

He would drag her out of this.

That was the only thought on his mind as he went in deeper.

“Don’t trample on the idea of risking your life to save people! Don’t use your resolve as an excuse for taking the easy way out!! Are you kidding me, Elaine!? The Forest Guardian broke off his own horn for you and you expect me to believe this was the person he was picturing with a smile on his face!? How long are you going to continue worrying him? Tell me, Elaine Greenforest. If you truly believe you’re meant to live this silly life of self-harm as a revenge mercenary – if you truly think you’re happy – then picture that kindhearted Wicked God in your mind and tell me all this was for the best!!!!!!”

Even through her goggles, she was clearly shaken.

Her breath and her words caught in her throat.

She couldn’t do it. She simply could not approve of her silly life as a revenge mercenary while in the imagined presence of the Forest Guardian.

“But…but.” Without a doubt, Elaine had taken more damage from this than any of the physical blows. “It comes to me so naturally. Revenge feels so comfortable. I mean, I’ve done it so many times there’s nothing to worry about. There are no surprises there, so it gives me stability.”

“No. That isn’t stability. Walking endlessly down a path with no end in sight isn’t a journey. That’s called being lost. Elaine, you haven’t found your path and you haven’t created anything. You’re just lost!!”

“You mean to say the Wicked God and the others didn’t want this? But then how can I trust anything I’ve seen in this world?”

“It’s not too late to find the kind of happiness that will let the dark elves and the Forest Guardian rest in peace! And I’ll help you find it. Listen, Elaine. You don’t need to be all powerful to find freedom. So what if you can’t save yourself? Who cares if you’re helpless? I’ll show you what true creation is. Because we’ll create a new home for you!!”

As Miyabi slid down the slope, he finally arrived within arm’s reach of the two girls.

He could reach them in the most natural and ordinary way.

“So come back to the wider world, Elaine!!”

“Ah…”

They were all shaken even more wildly than before.

The Huge Eye was not going to last.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Miyabi’s consciousness flashed in and out.

Which meant he was still alive.

“Koo…”

Alma cried quietly while lying face up on the ashes. At least the little thing wasn’t hurt.

He could tell they had crashed somewhere.

The blackened trees were knocked over and there may have been a large crater.

There was no sign of a wildfire. Had the fiery cyclone vanished already? When the Huge Eye had lost its balance, it may have lost its power to maintain the whirlwind, which cut off the supply of air and allowed the flames to extinguish naturally.

Those flames had continued burning like a furnace as long as they had a supply of air, but that also meant they went out once that air supply ended. Miyabi knew some about fires due to living in a forest. Because they had to avoid a forest fire at all costs.

“Elaine, are you all right?”

He had no strength left, so he crawled across the black ground to reach Elaine.

He approached slowly but surely.

“…”

She did not seem able to move.

She may have been in a state of shock.

“You have so many party members, so why did you come check on me first?”

“How is that even a question?” he immediately asked. “Because you’re one of those party members now.”

Of that he was certain.

He slowly stood up.

“You aren’t the 11th. If you had sorcery bombs in addition to your flying Godhorn Tech, you could have rained bombs down on us from the sky or something.”

“What was I even doing?” murmured the girl with her eyes hidden behind goggles. “The Forest Guardian only did that because he was so worried for me.”

“Forget it. Think of it like no more than a long dream.”

“Ugh,” someone groaned.

“?”

Elaine moved just her head to see another elf crawling over to her. Her beautiful skin and blonde hair were filthy, but she didn’t care in the slightest.

“Are you okay, Elaine?”

Alicia’s voice was scratchy.

She entirely ignored the ashes in her hair, the soot on her cheeks, and the injuries across her body.

She was not here to hurt someone.

None of them had been risking their lives for anything as silly as that.

“Thank goodness. Thank everything I never gave up on you.”

She touched Elaine.

She used her trembling fingertips to feel her body heat – the warmth that confirmed she was alive.

This is what she had been fighting for.

She stood up to the Godhorn Tech that had destroyed the powerful Empire for this.

So now she could not stop the flood of emotions.

“Hic, sob…”

She hit her limit.

Alicia held her childhood friend in her arms with clear drops building in the corners of her eyes.

And the dam broke.

“Ugh, wahh. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The redheaded boy smiled just a little.

It wasn’t often you felt immensely glad you had risked your life.

This was one of those times.

It was a nervous and timid thing, but Elaine Greenforest, who had grown so comfortable with destruction, slowly reached a trembling hand to the back of the girl crying for her.

The other girl’s face crumpled too. She did not make a noise, but it was obvious even with the goggles.

Miyabi exhaled and leaned back against a black and burned tree before speaking under his breath.

He was looking up into the sunlight filtered through the forest’s branches.

“Hey.”

There was nothing to worry about.

She had been broken, but now she had been given a second chance.

“Did you see that, Forest Guardian?”

Onelife and Number 8 watched it all from a short distance away.

The first to speak was the one-eyed pirate.

“Are you over your grudge?”

“Hmph,” spat out the magical automaton. “I will do something she could not: end the cycle of revenge. I can’t think of a better form of payback for a revenge mercenary.”

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 7

“Oh, we really changed some things, huh?” said Ginger Sandstrike, using his shovel as a cane and looking to the distorted horizon even though he couldn’t actually see anything there. “I didn’t think we could have such an affect, but we really did influence the outcome.”

“Horn Fortress might be destroyed if Miyabi dies, so we had better have some influence.”

A dancer’s outfit fluttered in the sea breeze.

Iris Tempinvy, a dancer (and recovery magic researcher), had been sent to the front line after treating the Necromancer’s wound. Without her, Miyabi’s party might have succumbed to their wounds after the Huge Eye attacked them in the desert nation.

The blond and dark-skinned “guardian” gave her a cynical smile.

“And here I thought we would be trapped here forever ‘just in case’ he needs us eventually.”

“Do not even joke about that!”

Iris’s eyes widened.

People were willing to do whatever it took to survive. Their greatest motivator was not dreams or ideals; it was anxiety and fear. When they looked back, they saw a stone structure nicer than a royal castle in the center of the island. That was the result of all the additions they had made here. There had been no plan in its construction, so the boxy rooms sticking out from the sides did make it somewhat ugly.

They had standard facilities like a clinic, a smithy, and a potion mixing lab and they also had odder choices like a blueprint library and a fish tank for rare but small fish they could use for potion ingredients. They had simply built everything they could think of that Miyabi’s party might need out there.

At first, the Lucifer Horn had only circled overhead without ever coming close, but not it would sometimes descend toward the ocean when it had nothing else to do. Ships could not visit this island, but they had still built a wooden pier in order to access the Lucifer Horn.

The bomber was now letting them perform maintenance and load bombs. It acted arrogant, but it also let them do whatever they wanted. Almost like a cat curling up in an old lady’s lap near the fireplace and asking to be patted. The group at Horn Fortress may have seen a side to the Lucifer Horn that Miyabi was unaware of.

On the other hand, their building was missing one thing necessary to call it a castle.

It had no defensive weapons, arrowslits, or murder holes.

“It sure is peaceful here,” said Ginger in a somehow rusty voice, making Iris wonder what kind of life he had lived before coming here. “This place doesn’t even have the weapons needed to defend itself. Thanks to the barriers surrounding us and the miasma coming from the cracks, we don’t have to worry about robbers or armies. There are some Beast Novae on the island, but they’re more like a source of food and materials than a threat.”

“Oh? Why do you sound so disappointed?”

“I’m not really.” Ginger, who would be decently handsome if he kept his mouth shut, twisted his lips up in a grin. “I’m just a cynic, so when I see a 100% peaceful environment, I can’t help but assume there’s something sinister lurking below the surface. I mean, what would you think if you were introduced to ‘a city of eternal peace where all social problems have been solved and everyone is guaranteed happiness’?”

“Hmm… I would want to move there, but I would wonder what the odds were of being chosen.”

“See, you’re trusting. That spiel would make me suspicious. Now, what if someone was selling you ‘a hyper dangerous dragon that never, ever betrays its master – definitely didn’t eat its last master!!’ ”

“Sounds like the perfect home security system. Wouldn’t be long until there was one in every house.”

“Okay, wow. I underestimated you. Ah ha ha. You are really trusting!”

### Profiles

Harber Snipe-Eat

Age: 20

Sex: Male

Height: 170cm

A pure hunter who makes a living by hunting animals. No matter how human a monster looks, he will still try to slay it and he is cold-hearted toward nonhumans like elves. He thinks the deadly act of hunting can be fully explained by the natural world’s food chain. If a human village is destroyed by a monster, he considers that too to be the natural way of things. He hunts and eats animals because that is his place in the food chain, not because he has any real animosity for them.

Elaine Greenforest

Apparent Age: 14 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 145cm

A dark elf girl who took revenge on the Empire for burning her forest and slaughtering the other dark elves. After destroying the Empire with the power of her Huge Eye Godhorn Tech, she began traveling the continent and using that power to fulfill other people’s revenge as a “revenge mercenary”. The motive for her actions is up to whoever hires her, so her actions are impossible to predict, in a way making her even more dangerous than the Lord of Ruin who is bound by his own way of thinking. Appears to be an old friend of Alicia Blueforest.

Godhorn Tech High-Altitude Blimp: Huge Eye

Pilot: Elaine Greenforest

Affiliation: None

Size: Details Unknown

A giant one-eyed blimp floating at extreme high altitude. Can control the atmosphere and can eliminate its enemy by creating a massive hurricane with itself as the eye. The hurricane can be controlled by moving the blimp, but it cannot be eliminated at will. Once it has been activated, it must go away naturally. Even with so much power, its elevated position protects it from most any attack from the ground. Design motif: rainmaking.

### 036. Chapter 9 Section 1

In the beginning was the Mother of all Wicked Gods. In the end was the Mother of all Wicked Gods.

She said destruction and creation are one and the same.

The battle against Dark Elf Elaine Greenforest was over.

The Huge Eye Godhorn Tech had been destroyed.

Either due to the intense fires dying down or just the sun setting, it was starting to feel chilly. The way Kananka Fulpen rubbed at his skin told Miyabi he was not just imagining that.

However…

“Not even the revenge mercenary was the 11th.”

Miyabi Blackgarden tilted his head.

A short distance away, ashy and sooty Alicia Blueforest still refused to let go of the dark elf. Goggled Elaine pushed her palm against her childhood friend’s cheek in slight annoyance, but she also seemed to be enjoying herself.

And Alma looked somewhat sad, despite normally pushing the elf away when she tried to rub her cheek against it. Miyabi smiled a little.

“Come here, Alma.”

“Koo…”

They had defeated the enemy and supposedly solved the problem, but they still had not answered one crucial question. Stopping Elaine’s revenge mercenary work had of course been important, but none of it added up.

She had in fact used the power of a Wicked God horn to destroy the massive Empire.

So many people living there would have played no direct role in the razing of the dark elf forest. The people who had never even set foot outside their hometown – like Miyabi until recently – might not have even known the forest existed. But Elaine had still done it.

The destruction had been her goal, so she had not sought any further benefit from it. She lost interest in what she had destroyed and moved on to her next target. She had traveled the continent spreading destruction even more freely than the Necromancer who valued dead spirits and corpses as a resource and had holed up in a rotten world, so Elaine did seem like a good match for those sorcery bombs.

However…

“Elaine did not use any,” whispered Number 8. The black-haired butler was looking to something much wider than just Miyabi. “Not in this battle or when she destroyed the Empire. I have never once seen her use a sorcery bomb. ”

“What?”

“It took some time to arrive at this conclusion because I had to run a self-diagnostic to ensure these memories were not damaged, but I am certain of it now. Nothing is missing from these memories. The dark elf did not need any more than her high-altitude blimp. The Huge Eye’s cataclysmic effects are simply that powerful. Not to mention that she only managed to contaminate a full third of the continent by inducing explosions in the Empire’s own magical facilities.”

The Green Forest had to be full of precious memories for Elaine, but once a certain switch flipped inside her, she prioritized destruction above all else. She had in fact set traps in the forest, made a surprise attack on Miyabi there, and even created a fiery cyclone by igniting the forest’s ashes and charcoal and catching them in a hurricane.

“It’s like I said,” murmured Miyabi. “It doesn’t make sense for Elaine to be the 11th. If she really was the bomber, she would have used those bombs to defeat us.”

Yes.

She had not been the type to be stopped by sentimental reasons like her memories of the place or not wanting to disturb the dark elves’ slumber.

“What if she had scattered sorcery bombs from that blimp? Or what if she had built a giant C of bombs in the forest and then closed the ring behind us after we walked inside? We would have been helpless to stop her from blowing us to smithereens. Maybe not anymore, but back when she was a revenge mercenary, she definitely would have taken it that far if she could.”

What did it mean if Elaine Greenforest had gone all out and used every card in her deck but she had never used a sorcery bomb?

“Elaine…isn’t the 11th?”

“But we have also run out of Godhorn Tech users.” The magical automaton pointed out that fundamental issue once more. “Miyabi, Celina, Eliza, Kananka, Onelife, the Necromancer, Acacia, Ixea, the Lord of Ruin, Elaine, and me. With the twins, that makes 11 users for 10 Godhorn Techs. That’s all of them. Or we could include Moebius in the count if former users qualify.”

“No, it isn’t him,” confidently stated Miyabi.

He had suspected Moebius before after he sent a letter to the Arsenal Kingdom to set up the Schwarz Schütze.

That had turned out to be a diversion meant to draw out Number 8 who had been made into a pawn of the 11th, but that would have been meaningless if Moebius really was the 11th. That letter had been the only hint Miyabi’s group had, so without it, Moebius could have continued using Number 8 to blow up locations across the continent without drawing any suspicion to himself.

In other words, intentionally drawing suspicion to himself just to have his name cleared, which provided him even more safety than no suspicion in the first place, was just too risky and unnecessary. That was the kind of desperate gamble someone took when they were already under suspicion.

Number 8 accurately stated the only possibilities.

“Either there is someone else out there we have yet to see or someone on that list is the 11th.”

“…”

Miyabi had no answer.

Or maybe he didn’t want to find an answer.

It seemed unlikely they would find new information in the dark elf forest where ashes and moss covered the ground and all the trees had carbonized. They had traveled across the continent in a large U-shape, so if they continued west from here, they would complete the loop and end up in the snowy Arsenal Kingdom. And searching the forest’s past would only give them information about the destroyed Empire.

That did not sound like where they would find an entirely new country or someone they had yet to see.

So…

“Miyabi,” said the small brown prince named Kananka Fulpen. “I know eavesdropping is rude, but I couldn’t help but overhear. I recommend we organize all of our information.”

“Why?”

“There are still a few questions we have yet to answer. The disaster that struck my kingdom being one of them.” Kananka winked and pressed a small hand against his chest. “We have dealt with the Necromancer, the Lord of Ruin, and Elaine now, but have we really finished speaking with the people who were manipulated by the 11th’s conspiracy? We were so focused on traveling across the continent we might have missed something during our quest.”

If they got everyone’s story, they could locate any discrepancies that suggested someone was lying or hiding something. And if they were all telling the truth, they could conclude that someone else was still out there. Either way, it would be worth their while.

And on that note…

“The Lord of Ruin should be waking soon,” said the Necromancer, her bewitching fingers toying with the brim of her witch’s hat.

Miyabi tilted his head.

“How can you know that when he was so badly injured?”

“Because his anesthesia is running out. Do you know what anesthesia is? If he isn’t writhing in pain at this point, then he’s never waking up again.”

“Boss, don’t pretend you wouldn’t be happy to get another specimen to research on☆”

The hat spoke with the voice of a small child, but Miyabi had to think for a bit.

Getting everyone’s story wasn’t a bad idea.

But bringing the recovering Lord of Ruin here would be a problem. He was badly injured, he was old, and Miyabi himself did not want to stay in this forest of ashes, charcoal, and green moss any longer than he had to. In fact, they would have difficulty setting up camp once the sun set. How were they supposed to acquire food around here?

So…

“It might be best for us all to pay Horn Fortress a visit.”

“Eh? Please tell me I misheard that!” Helen’s uncanny hearing caused her to jump up and join the conversation. “Um, it isn’t possible to walk to Horn Fortress, right? Isn’t it a remote island surrounded by the miasma-spewing cracks in the world or by an artificial barrier? But in that case…”

Miyabi stabbed the tip of his control sword into the hardened ash at his feet.

A large magic circle appeared there.

The glasses woman panicked even more.

“Wait, stop, let’s not be rash!! It’s too soon! Please be reasonable, Miyabi! Isn’t this where the Lucifer Horn snatches us up with a wire and flies us over the horizon? I’ll die! Straight up die! If the hook slips off of my collar on the way, I’ll be splattered against the ground and die instantly!!”

Helen Clockgear was nearly in tears, but she was interrupted by an exasperated sigh by another curvy young woman: the Necromancer.

“Oh? I made the trip twice and I’m fine.”

“I do not trust assurances of safety from people who reek of death. Who knows what kind of tricks you used to survive.”

“No tricks. I simply put myself in a state of suspended animation by freezing myself inside a coffin until I arrived. The freezing part is easy, but getting the unfreezing to happen on schedule takes some doing.”

“Are you sure Horn Fortress isn’t part of the afterlife and only the dead can get there!?”

Both sides of that argument were taking such extreme stances that it was hard to agree with either one. And if the argument held over the boy’s head grew anymore heated, those two young women might just crush his head between their boobs.

But this did give him an important hint for gathering his thoughts.

He needed to solve this one problem at a time.

“Um, Helen? I really don’t think we can stay here for long. There doesn’t seem to be anyone other than Elaine to talk to in the forest, so we won’t find any new information.”

“Uh…b-but we can still wait until we’re back in civilization before we have this strategy meeting.”

“Were you planning to head east to the desert nation or west to the snowy Arsenal Kingdom? Either way, we’ll find a harsh environment blocking our way even after we leave the forest. And based on the position of the sun, night will have fallen before we even get out of the forest.”

Helen’s shoulders shook.

Since Alicia wasn’t paying it any attention, Alma was tugging on Helen’s ankles for once. The creature was asking for food.

That meant it was dinnertime.

The position of the sun made it clear it was more evening than afternoon at this point.

Helen had mostly handled their travel funds and camp arrangements, so she would know the problems facing them better than anyone. But since she still didn’t want to admit to them, Miyabi said them for her.

And he put it bluntly.

“Helen, we can’t get food here. There’s nothing but ashy ground and carbonized trees. And even if we walk through the night to leave the forest, we’ll only find ourselves in either a desert or a snowy field.”

“Kh!?”

“Or were you thinking of eating this moss? New life does seem to be taking root here, but there isn’t much variety yet. For now at least, everything here seems to be that soft and creepy stuff the Necromancer loves, but can you really get a good night’s sleep after eating that? I wouldn’t want to eat it no matter how you cooked it up, but what about you? You could always turn it into a smoothie to help it go down quick, if gloppy. And there appear to be a lot of glowing bugs here, so at least it’ll look pretty.”

“Kooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

Helen let out a very Alma-like cry.

Yes, before even getting to the Lord of Ruin issue, they had no real choice other than visiting Horn Fortress if they wanted to survive. Would they brave a game of culinary concentration using all sorts of gross creepy crawlies not found in any reference book, or would they brave a dangerous midair jaunt, supported by a single wire? No one had guaranteed them a safe and comfortable path, so if they had to risk their lives, they might as well weigh the options against each other.

The Necromancer’s witch hat spoke in a singsong voice.

“It isn’t every day you get to see a cute girl tearfully and reluctantly stuffing some grotesque thing in her mouth. N-now there’s an image I can mentally combine with some other choice images. You know, like with a thick banana or a long piece of bread!! Through the power of imagination!!!!!!”

“I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, but I’m disinclined to choose anything that delights a hat that thinks on the same level as the radio,” said Miyabi. “What about you, Helen? Will you leave this with me?”

Helen Clockgear responded by clenching her tight skirt in her fists, biting her lip, and nodding like a child trying to hold it in while waiting for the bathroom. It was rare indeed for that busty glasses woman to fully admit defeat like this.

Now that he had permission, Miyabi sighed.

His sword was already stabbed into the ground, so he grabbed the grip again and spoke the words in his head.

“Take care of it, Lucifer Horn.”

Something tore through the air right next to Miyabi and scraped along the ground as it flew off somewhere.

It took a few seconds to realize the catching hook at the end of the thick wire had scraped by right next to the boy. And hadn’t there been some orange sparks flying?

The Lucifer Horn had already vanished into the distance.

The only signs of its passage were the long, thin clouds that looked like claw marks left by a massive beast.

Helen Clockgear’s legs gave out and she fell right back onto her butt with her eyes wide behind her glasses. She was like a cup filled to the limit. She could not get back up, so she trembled and clung to Miyabi’s hips.

And she yelled with the look of someone who would piss herself if just one more drop was added to the cup.

“I can’t. I can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t possibly do that!! How is that even supposed to safely catch you!? Reach your hand out in the wrong spot and you’ll lose more than just a few fingers at that speed! How did that ever work!? Please can we just give up on this terrible idea!? I’ll do anything else! Anything!!!!!!”

“Now that’s what I want to hear from a panicked beautiful woman! Saying you’ll do ‘anything’ as a last-ditch attempt at bargaining is hot, hot, hot!!”

Since the radio and the hat were both rejoicing, they had to be doing something wrong.

The Necromancer sighed with a hand on her cheek in a way that gave her a surprisingly respectable air.

“Well, a bomber wouldn’t be designed for vertical takeoff and landing. That wire must be a makeshift solution. I mean, it can only carry one person or item at a time. Using that to carry the entire group is not going to be easy.”

“Eh? Can’t I just send each of you one at a time and then grab the wire myself the last time?”

Helen desperately shook her head while still clinging to the boy. It didn’t really matter, but with her sitting on the ground and holding onto the younger boy’s hips, her soft cheek, shapely nose, and (maybe someone out there cares) some part of her glasses were touching him in weird places. The healthy teenage boy really wished she would not shake her head like that, but she was too afraid of her impending death to care.

Also, Alma was holding onto his calf and mimicking the woman for fun. The horn hurt as it poked at his leg.

The Necromancer pinched and toyed with the brim of her witch hat sort of like someone poking their finger inside a small bird’s cage.

“Would what you did for me come in handy?”

“?”

“Or what you did for the Lord of Ruin. When I was injured, didn’t you create a stretcher and then attach the wire to that? So if you carry us as a single large item and not individual people, you can ignore how many of us there are.”

The death scientist may have been a tutor at heart.

When she saw the puzzled tilt of Miyabi’s head, she happily explained.

“Create a big box or container that we can all fit inside. Miyabi, if you use your control sword to have the wire latch onto the box, we can enjoy a luxurious trip through the sky. That way we don’t even have to worry about the cold air. And inside that ‘room’, there is no risk of a sudden crosswind dislodging the hook from our clothing.”

“Yeah, that would work!”

“Nooo, don’t give him a workable solution! Now he’s really going to do iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”

Now that they had a plan, they got to work creating the big box.

They had seen professional containers and boxes on Celina’s armored train and at the criminal city’s port and Miyabi had created shelters to protect the islanders from the magical automatons in the remote island kingdom. That should have worked well enough, but he did not want to break apart and reuse the trees and stones leftover in this damaged forest. They were like the dark elves’ tombstones. He did not want to eat a grave offering or build a home out of tombstones. There were pieces of broken imperial weapons abandoned here and there, but they were a part of the forest at this point.

He had trashed the place while saving Elaine like the Forest Guardian and the dark elves had wanted, but he did not want to do that again for his own purposes.

Which meant…

“The pieces are scattered everywhere,” he said while looking around.

He was talking about the items that were clearly not the carbonized trees or the ashy ground.

Yes, the wreckage from the Huge Eye.

But if he could simply hold out his hand and break the Godhorn Tech down into Palette Dice and remake those into a structure or tool, then his past battles would have been a lot easier. He was not expecting that to work. Some big pieces were buried among all the jagged armor fragments and strange gears.

For example, a metal box that looked large enough to shelter from the rain inside.

For example, a tunnel-like pipe that he could have walked through without even ducking.

“I think we could use this and this. We cover up the front and back of the huge pipe with those gears taller than I am.”

“It would be like a human-sized canned good. But even if we use heat to weld the covers on, the side of the pipe has nothing for the Lucifer Horn’s hook to catch on. How will you solve that?”

The Necromancer was sexy enough to make for a very inappropriate tutor, but her question (asked while her crossed arms pushed up her large breasts) got Miyabi thinking. He crouched down on the spot.

“I found a wire. We can tie this to the pipe and create a loop at the top.”

Helen was tearfully shouting something about being terrified of a device handmade by someone who didn’t know what they were doing and comparing this to jumping off a cliff in an amateur inventor’s flying machine, but without a viable alternative, she had no way of stopping the redhead boy and the death scientist.

The used leverage to roll the giant pipe on top of the wire they had laid out on the ground. Then Miyabi climbed atop the cylinder to tightly tie the wire around it. With the pipe itself bound, he added a smaller loop to help the Lucifer Horn grab it. With the loop on top, the wire kind of looked like a giant ring on an even bigger finger.

“Why are you so good at tying knots and stuff, Necromancer? I would’ve expected a sailor like Onelife to be the expert there.”

“Hee hee. Hoping to drown in my darkness, boy?”

“No one’s better at sexy bondage than the boss! Admittedly, she developed the skills so she could restrain some overeager and uncontrollable specimens without damaging their rotten limbs. But only when they were too important to just dump in the acid pool for disposal.”

The rest of the party approached while those two worked.

Celina Bodenburg put her hands on her hips and looked up at the boy from the ashy ground.

“Oh? Developing a new delivery service using the Lucifer Horn, Miyabi!? Using such a large device to carry just the one container is extremely inefficient, but we might be able to make it profitable if we market it as premium air delivery for the wealthy hoping to receive gourmet ingredients before they go bad or transport valuables without fear of bandits attacking. This isn’t specialized for delivering messages like the messenger harpies, so it would be a first on the continent! I need to get in on the ground floor of this, so g-give me a second to work out some figures!!”

Celina started using a stick to scratch out some numbers on the ashy ground, so Miyabi decided to leave her be.

With just a metal wire tied around the thick pipe, he feared the pipe would slip out in midair. Alicia solved that problem with her knowledge of alchemy. She used a special chemical to melt the surface of the wire just enough for it to stick to the pipe. She said the process was called unheated welding.

“Climb in, everyone,” said the elf. “I will seal the other lid from the inside. There is no door, so we can’t get in after it’s sealed up.”

“Fine, but don’t seal it too tightly. It would be tragic indeed if we were trapped inside as some living canned goods.”

Death was a constant companion for the Necromancer, so if she called it tragic, it would have to be tragic indeed.

At any rate, their preparations were complete.

Helen was still trembling and throwing a tantrum, so Miyabi had to grab her hand and drag her inside. Once they were all inside the tunnel-like interior of the thick pipe, they sealed up that end as well. They could no longer see outside. Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the tube below his feet. The magic circle followed the surface of the pipe’s interior, so it circled around and covered the area overhead as well.

And Miyabi gave the final command.

“Take care of it, Lucifer Horn!!”

If he was being honest, Miyabi did not feel all that much fear.

They were journeying through the sky, but the pipe they were using as a container had both ends covered by giant gears. With no windows or doors, they could not see anything outside.

“Koo, koo.”

Alma cried worriedly in the darkness, presumably in Alicia’s arms. The creature may have been complaining about the lack of windows.

A strange sense of acceleration clutched at Miyabi’s gut, but he did not feel the vertigo of peering off the edge of a cliff. He could not even imagine what was happening to them, so the fear could not catch up with him.

(Well, Eliza’s castle was pretty high up too, but that was indoors and the building was so solid you didn’t feel the height. Is this similar?)

“Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.”

Helen, meanwhile, had the misfortune of knowing exactly how to calculate out all the appropriate values in her head. She had been clinging to seated Miyabi and trembling for a while now. But even if she was acting like a small child after a nightmare, she was still a fully-grown woman. Her large breasts were well on their way to suffocating Miyabi and she was holding him tight with her arms and even her legs, creating such close contact that he had no way to escape her body heat and sweet aroma. And the darkness meant he sensed that scent and the heat of her breath on his neck all the more vividly.

Also, he had failed to consider another factor.

Dangling this “room” from the Lucifer Horn by a wire was all well and good, but how were they going to land?

The tunnel-like pipe had no wings, nor could it decelerate by opening a giant umbrella like in a comedy play.

There was only one way it was going to end:

“Gwaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!???”

A great shock ran through his entire body and the world flipped around him over and over.

The hook had release them in midair, dropping them to a sandy surface. It took him some time to realize the pipe was rolling along the beach.

But how did he know they were on a beach?

The fall had caused the gears to pop off the ends of the tube. A not insignificant amount of white sand got inside and he sensed an ocean scent that reminded him of the criminal city or the remote island kingdom.

“I am never following one of your plans again, Miyabi. Never ever…”

Miyabi heard Helen’s exhausted voice from the tangle of bodies below him, but he did not let his guard down. That was only her voice. The warm mass below him could still be muscular Onelife. He needed to make absolutely certain before rubbing his cheek against whoever it was.

“Oh, th-that’s me all right.”

“Mh? So it really is Helen? Then what is this concerningly dangerous thing I feel here?”

“That would be my knife.”

“Stop! I like my head attached!!”

Groaning (after nearly angering the glasses woman by getting a little too carried away), Miyabi picked up Alma and crawled outside.

His spine froze when he saw how close they were to a palm tree. It was just standing there on the beach, but hitting that would have killed them.

“Ugh, it’s gotten everywhere. Peh, peh. I really need a shower or a bath.”

Celina grabbed the bottom of her skirt and shook off the ash and sand. The unintentional thigh flashing caused the miniskirt to blow a mysterious wind on the boy’s face like a fan. Which meant he was close enough for that wind to reach him. That restored some of the happiness the young woman’s knife had taken from him. The world was a wonderful place after all.

Assuming no bizarre accidents had taken place, the Lucifer Horn would have taken them to their destination.

That meant Horn Fortress.

The view opened up before their eyes.

The orange light of the setting sun shined on a tropical island. It was similar to Kananka’s remote island kingdom, but there were differences. The flowers and shellfish visible on the beach were enough to know the island contained flora and fauna not found in that island kingdom. But more than that, the type of building was entirely different from how that kingdom had created felled palm trees and made roofs of grass to build very open homes without four walls surrounding them.

“Koo…”

Alma looked up at the impressive structure.

It was made of rock and metal.

It felt similar to the royal castle at the center of the snowy Arsenal Kingdom. But while that symmetrical castle had been built based on a plan, no such order was found here. It must have started as a few small huts that eventually fused together into one massive structure as additions were made. From there, more and more rooms were added horizontally and vertically, causing it to expand like soap bubbles.

Based on the windows, it had 7 – no, 8 floors in all.

Alicia planted her feet on the fine sand, put her hands on her hips, and looked up at it with exasperation on her face.

“Gather a bunch of humans on a desert island and they build this? Human greed knows no bounds, does it?”

“Yeah, like your room back home isn’t full of trash and lab equipment. You never let Miyabi visit by claiming the Blueforest hidden village doesn’t allow outsiders, but I bet you just didn’t want him to see what a pigsty you live-”

The radio was silenced by a fist from its owner.

“…”

This was Horn Fortress.

Miyabi himself only stared at that isolated world for a while.

They had worked hard to reach this point, but even after searching across the entire continent, they had found no solid evidence concerning the 11th. But it had not been for nothing. He had gathered a party here that had supported his journey so far.

A single boy had come all this way and the result could be seen here.

“Hm, hm, hm.”

He heard some cheerful humming.

It came from Elaine Greenforest as she walked across the sandy beach.

In fact, she walked right up to Miyabi and wrapped her arms around his arm.

“Um, um, Elaine? Do you…need something?”

Surprised, he tried being polite and she whispered in his ear.

“Dark elves rarely leave our forest. When we do visit an unfamiliar land, we ask the master of that land to escort us until we feel comfortable there.”

“?”

“And at Horn Fortress I believe you qualify as the master. Just think of it as an old custom and bear with it.”

“I-if you say so…”

“Also, we like to get to know the land by sampling the local cuisine. So give me something to eat.”

“Ehh? But all I have are a few cookies.”

“I just know I’m going to die if I don’t eat them all. Oh, and it’s a dark elf custom for you to help me relax by giving me a shoulder massage. And then a leg massage.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!!” cut in Alicia Blueforest from the other side. “N-now, I know that part isn’t real!! You’re just making things up since there aren’t any other Greenforest elves around to say otherwise, aren’t you!?”

“Do you have any way of proving that, my heartless childhood friend? You can head back to the forest and search for some surviving texts or art among all the ash and charcoal, but don’t bother coming back until you find something.”

Alicia pointed back with her thumb and replied with the bluntness found among old friends.

“We’ve already caught ourselves a wild dark elf by the name of Lillian Greenforest. That masochist might love being experimented on, but she can still reveal your lies!!”

“Tch.” The goggled dark elf clicked her tongue. Sadly, this suited her better than the previous enthusiasm. “After hearing you had raised this human from birth to cater to your every need, I was hoping to get a taste of the services he provided.”

“Bweflwhwlehf!? C-come to me, boy. Stay away from her!! You can’t trust someone who always keeps her face covered!!!!!!”

Elaine actually seemed puzzled by the accusation.

She tilted her head for a moment and…

“There, problem solved.”

“She took the goggles off!?” yelled Miyabi. “Without even a moment’s hesitation!!!???”

They were only goggles and had not covered her entire face, but seeing her eyes gave her an entirely different look. Her gemlike green eyes seemed to radiate an emotional energy she had lacked before.

The mysterious revenge mercenary had transformed into a teenage girl.

Also, her eyes contained a look of a feline curiosity.

“This is a wearable support device that provides all the data I need for my meteorological magic sniping: temperature, humidity, wind direction, magic, and miasma. So I don’t need to wear it outside of combat…hm? Why did you just fall to your knees, Miyabi?”

“I thought…I thought for sure there was some special meaning there. Like it was a cursed item that could only be removed with a passionate kiss, or you had to hide your secret identity as the descendant of some special priest’s bloodline.”

Miyabi had the look of someone who had delved deep inside a dungeon, found a suspicious row of four treasure chests, and opened them all to find not one contained a trap and they all contained no more than a cheap healing herb.

“Don’t worry, Miyabi. We can start up a Goggle Alliance together.”

“Not even I’m into something that weirdly specific!!”

Then the island party members noticed him.

First, Curse Cleaner Sophia Calamity-Jinx and Martial Artist Victia Magnumfist. They had not seen each other the entire time, but these party members had fought alongside his main party.

“Oh, Miyabi.”

“It’s Miyabi!”

There were others too.

“Hm, it’s been a while.”

There was the dwarf named Garett Goldcave and others too.

They all emerged to greet the new arrivals.

They ran over with smiles to the dazed group, and…

“There you are, you scumbag! First, you force me onto your party to hide that you peeped on me in the bath and then you leave me stranded on this inescapable island instead of at least having the decency of taking me on your journey!?”

“I was the very first one. I thought I was going to die of loneliness after you dumped me on the desert island all alone!!”

“Surround him!! Hey, go call the others. We can physically beat the shit out of this kid to get back at him for what he’s done to us!!!!!!”

It was a hellish scene.

Even the bunny girl and the legged mermaid surrounded the redhead boy to mercilessly pummel him with kicks. Nothing was quite as frightening as people denied food or left to rot backstage. It was not some faint twinge of good will that prevented them from killing him right away – they just wanted him to suffer for longer.

What happened when a new jailer or guard showed up at a prison overrun by dangerous inmates?

This was the answer.

“Bh, bhh, gbhhh.”

“What was that?” icily asked the will-o’-the-wisp girl named Sophia.

The pig trembled.

“M-Moebius. Where is Moebius? Isn’t he here?”

“Oh, the bastard who gave you that dangerous Godhorn Tech? If not for him, none of this would have happened to us, so we found him earlier and beat the shit out of him too. He’s probably lying in a bloody heap somewhere around here.”

Victia gave him a thin smile of barely hidden irritation.

They were apparently a lot more frustrated with their situation than he had accounted for. They had not even shown mercy to an injured man in a wheelchair, albeit an extremely sketchy one.

“Hey, his sense of pain has dulled. He isn’t reacting when I splash seawater on his wounds, so there’s no point in hitting him anymore. Give him a chance to recover enough for round two.”

Phobia Neverjudge, the daughter of the most feared gang in the criminal city, called off the beating out of something other than kindness.

Miyabi could only talk in the language of pigs at this point, but his party members seemed satisfied for the time being. After pulling out the strange marine creatures (not quite bugs and not quite fish) someone had shoved into his nostrils, he got up on unsteady legs.

They still had not solved the puzzle of the 11th.

Speaking with all the Godhorn Tech owners required visiting the clinic where the Lord of Ruin slept.

“C’mon, stand up, Miyabi. Are you okay?”

“Helen. Ugh, I don’t really mind, but I will never forget that you made no move to help me. Bleh…”

“I am still upset you forced me to take that absurd flight.”

With that, he borrowed the shoulder of the glasses woman (every part of whom was sexy) to enter Horn Fortress’s castle.

It was dark inside.

The magical lights appeared to be left on day and night, so it was not at all ecological.

Celina and Kananka were excited, but Eliza, who had served in a real castle, and the twins, who had frequented a stone pyramid, looked around in abject horror. There was a reason it was so dark inside before the sun was done setting.

In fact…

“There are windows for light that only lead out into the hallway,” noted Miyabi.

“That would be the result of all the unplanned additions. I doubt this castle obeys any safety standards at all,” sighed expressionless Acacia.

The hallway took unnatural right angles and various rooms had been installed to fill in any available space. It was all fairly dark with no windows facing directly outside.

“A kitchen and a sewing room.”

“Wh-why is the kitchen visible from the main hall? And that looks like a ceremonial ground over there.”

“That’s for alchemy and it has a smithy workshop attached,” said Alicia. “Was someone planning to create an elemental magic sword?”

There were rooms for daily necessities like a food pantry and a laundry and there were even entertainment or hobby rooms like a bar and lounge or a greenhouse. It had all been built because someone had deemed it necessary. There had to be as many rooms as there were desires among the people here.

There was no light in the rooms that had been swallowed up, windows and all, by the additions, so candles and lamps were necessary all day long.

The violent group that lived here must have gotten lost in the labyrinthine castle they had built. There were arrow signs installed on the walls and even colorful lines on the floor showing the way to important facilities.

“A-anyway, I want to get a bath,” said Alicia. “My hair and clothes are covered in ashes from the burnt forest and sand from the beach.”

“We have business to attend to.”

“Shut up, four eyes. The Lord of Ruin is in the clinic. We would only cause trouble barging in there covered in ashes and sand.”

Helen groaned and fell silent for once.

Alicia had created medicines and White Sorcery Items at the village clinic, so she may have known more about clinic etiquette than most.

But Miyabi was against it.

“But a bath is so much trouble. And I’m pretty sure I’ll pass out if I warm myself up.”

The Necromancer responded with laughter. And she spoke from the perspective of someone who had already visited Horn Fortress’s clinic.

“Yes, but it would be best if you at least took off your clothes and wiped down your hair and body with a towel.”

“Miyabi, if you start to resent any amount of trouble, you will soon find yourself unable to leave your room! And once you start using plastic bottles because walking all the way to the bathroom is too much trouble, your life is truly over!”

The elf shut up the shouting radio by shoving it in a random locker along the hallway wall. It apparently did not get to accompany her into the dressing room and bath. Alma, on the other hand, was welcome.

The girls were on their way to the bath together. Onelife Shiftup and Kananka Fulpen of the boys were as well. Some were looking for a shower instead and others were more interested in exploring the place.

The next thing he knew, the redhead boy was all alone in the hallway.

He was exhausted.

He was pretty sure he would fall asleep in the bath, but he felt like he would pass out if he stood around waiting too. He wanted to get down to business, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen.

Could they take a break like this because this place felt like home?

He leaned against the wall and sighed softly. Then he noticed a metal box taller than he was by the wall. It appeared to be a vending machine that produced various types of coffee at the press of a button.

“They built this themselves? …Wait, it takes money when it’s inside our own secret base?”

He didn’t even need the coffee when the demand for money shocked away some of his drowsiness. Who had built and installed this? Apparently the Bodenburg Company weren’t the only money lovers around.

And…

“Huh?”

Something puzzled Miyabi.

Horn Fortress was a chaotic collection of additions, room added to room both horizontally and vertically. Oddities abounded, like chimneys rising from the floor, the outside of windows ending up on the inside of hallways, and stairs being blocked by a ceiling.

And right here, the air felt unusually damp.

Some steam was escaping from somewhere.

Was the coffee vending machine malfunctioning? He checked and found a thick metal pipe attached to the back. It must have originally bent at a right angle to let the steam vent through the outside wall, but that joint had been removed and now the steam escaped into the room.

He moved the heavy machine and faced the thick pipe jutting out from the floor.

(What the hell? Where does this even lead now? I hope it isn’t something unhealthy like the blacksmith or alchemy stuff.)

He decided it would be best to cover up the hole and then ask Garett about it. He grabbed a piece of waterproof fabric large enough to cover the entire end of the pipe and some string to tie it on.

“…lly…”

That was when he heard something from the pipe.

“You’re really sharing all of this? Seems to me it would be more luxurious to build everyone their own personal bath. Does someone here just really like large baths?”

Miyabi Blackgarden froze in place.

He tilted his head, thought for a bit, and then looked down the steamy pipe to see if he was right.

It led down to the bath.

The bath was directly below here.

He saw a large marble floor which must have been quarried from somewhere on the island. The tub itself was unusually large and the bathwater poured from a golden lion statue. It may have been more like a giant fountain in a fancy garden than a home bath. Who had designed this? It was in the style of the Empire which was now buried in red dust, so had octopus-masked Marietta gotten greedy after seeing similar baths while looting?

And something moved through his limited field of vision.

It was Celina Bodenburg’s head. But this was not her disembodied head floating by. Her body was very much attached below it.

And all of its skin was showing.

A true rich girl apparently did not wrap a towel around her body in the bath.

“Whew, hard to believe it’s been less than a day since we left the desert nation.”

“Oh, no. This warmth is soaking into my body… I think I’m going to fall asleep…”

He could plainly tell what they washed first when they bathed. Just as Alicia had not brought the radio with her, the Necromancer did not have her hat with her. Helen still wore her glasses and Celina apparently needed something valuable on her person at all times, judging by the red jewels the size of chicken eggs embedded in the towel wrapped around her head. But he had to stop. He had seen too much already. He spread out the waterproof fabric, but then he paused. Was it really safe to block up this steam pipe? He didn’t want to have everyone in the women’s bath collapsing from some kind of poisoning.

Time passed while he hesitated.

“Acacia, I’m going to swell up in all this water.”

“Ixea, I imagine it is rude to float on the surface spread-eagle like that.”

Those twins would only have ever taken quick baths meant to preserve water. And despite how much the heat of the tropical island and desert had gotten to her, Eliza seemed to prefer hot baths. She turned the round hot-water handle at the base of the golden lion, earning her a series of attacks from the other girls. Specifically, her soft skin she was whipped by towels soaked with cold water. The attacks drained her body heat more than they hurt, but it got the chosen knight fleeing around the washing area all the same. Her screams were surprisingly cute. But that punishment could become deadly if taken too far, so always be careful.

And.

Elaine Greenforest had her legs stretched out in the large tub and her head resting on the white marble edge, her long ears twitching. She blinked a few times when she noticed something at the ceiling. She was not wearing her goggles in the bath, so her gemlike eyes met his.

She had seen him.

…Except all she did was narrow her eyes a little. And gain a smile on her lips. In fact, she even moved her fingers to blow him a kiss.

When people truly panicked, they apparently tried to calm themselves by pursuing the cause of their fear over trying to run away. So this terrifying mystery froze him in place.

(I appreciate it, but why? Why is she just letting me watch? Is this an invitation!? But wait, what price did I pay for such a wonderful reward? It actually scares me when someone is this inexplicably generous!!!!!!)

Eliza (who did not wear a towel in the bath) found Elaine’s upwards gaze curious, so she followed it.

“Hey, you haven’t overheated, have you, Elaine? Why are you staring up at the ceiling and smil-”

(Ah!?)

The villain was given no time to think.

Eliza Silverstorm ran into the dressing room, grabbed her giant lance, and ran back into the bath before gouging a giant hole in the ceiling.

“Intruder detected!! Attack, attaaack!!!!!!”

All hell broke loose.

The straitlaced idiot was so powerful the entire ceiling crumbled, dumping Miyabi and a bunch of rubble right into the women’s bath.

Once he was dragged into the extreme antlion pit of a bath, the occupants of the bath beat him up.

That made twice in one day.

He began to wonder if Horn Fortress had a curse that caused its master to be killed by his own party members.

The great variation in attack styles was a real problem at times like this. He had to contend with a wooden branch staff, a thick dagger, a rifle with bayonet, a lance, a giant axe (x2), a bow and arrow, and bizarre necromancy.

“Hmph.”

Afterwards, Celina refused to look him in the eye.

She was flushing in the cheeks, had tears in her eyes, and was biting her lip.

Elaine had put her special goggles back on (Did they not fog up after taking a bath? Helen’s glasses probably caused her trouble there.) and she was laughing. She even whispered in Miyabi’s ear with a floral scent coming from her damp silver hair.

(“You know, if you wanted to see, you only had to ask.)”

“Bff!?”

“(Then we could have slipped away to somewhere more private and kept it our little secret.)”

“Stay away from the pervert! Get too close and you’ll end up pregnant!!”

Helen’s accusation was uncalled for, but he concluded that arguing with her would get him sent to the clinic for real.

And at the moment they needed to speak with the Lord of Ruin who had finally come to.

Only Alma was willing to innocently approach Miyabi at the moment.

They followed one of the colorful lines on the floor to reach the clinic.

It turned out to be on the third story.

Or rather, Miyabi counted two staircases they climbed on the way there, but not all the rooms here necessarily had the same height. Each room’s roof became the floor of another one and the chimneys rising from the floor had extension pipes attached to redirect them at a right angle and out through an exterior wall. The concept of “stories” did not really apply to this building, so maybe there was no point in counting them.

“Now, then,” said Alicia before they entered the room. “We wanted to speak with the Lord of Ruin to compare notes between all of the Godhorn Tech owners, right? Come to think of it, we generally didn’t have the time to ask for a detailed account from everyone.”

“We need to hear from everyone and that includes you, Necromancer.”

Eliza meant that as a warning, but the Necromancer held her head high with pride for some reason.

“Heh heh. I’m more than willing to give you a lecture, but do try not to let this baptism of forbidden knowledge shatter your mind.”

“Hah. I’m more worried about this old hag’s lecture putting me to sleep.”

“Take that back!!”

The radio and hat got into an argument and young King Kananka sighed.

“Hey, can’t you quiet those two down?”

“I am admittedly an artificial being, but I assure you I have nothing in common with them.”

The ever-obedient butler automaton actually refused to comply for once.

Everyone here had met over the course of their quest.

Miyabi looked to each one in turn.

“Okay.”

Miyabi, Celina, Eliza, Number 8, Kananka, Onelife, the Necromancer, Acacia, Ixea, the Lord of Ruin, and Elaine.

“Including me, we’ve gathered all 11 users of the 10 Godhorn Techs. If it isn’t Elaine either, then who is the 11th?”

First up was the Lord of Ruin.

They knocked and opened the clinic door.

A lot of rooms had been enveloped by other additions, cutting them off from the outside light, but they found the sunset and breeze in here. The windows still opened on the outside, perhaps for health reasons.

For some reason, the dancer named Iris was running the clinic. Hadn’t she been at the clinic at the first village too?

The woman with a silver braid and exposed midriff spoke up as soon as she saw Miyabi. She may have always wanted to be a doctor because she appeared to be enjoying herself as she sat on a round stool with her legs crossed.

“The Lord of Ruin? Yes, he woke up earlier. But try to keep it short. It can be hard to tell since he tries to hide it, but he has to be in a lot of pain.”

“Um, what is little Rose doing here?”

“They wear those uniforms at the hospitals in big cities. I have my own cute little nurse now☆”

Iris Tempinvy slapped Miyabi’s shoulder and then left the clinic along with her new nurse. …But wait. She never actually explained why Rose Dollycastle, a 12-year-old girl bound by a cursed chain, was helping out in the clinic while dressed in glasses and a red nurse uniform, did she?

“(I get the feeling she agreed to research how to break the curse if Rose became her guinea pig,)” speculated Alicia.

“(The chain must be more naïve than it lets on if it went along with that plan without questioning it. It’s a stereotypical child abduction, just using a promised decursing instead of a lollipop,)” added Helen.

At any rate, it was finally time to get down to business. The clinic was of slightly higher quality than the one in the first village. It was divided into three areas: the examination space, a few beds, and the shelves of medicines. Alicia had said there was an alchemy ceremonial ground elsewhere, so the medicines and White Sorcery Items were probably mixed and combined in another room.

There was a small door in the back and the Necromancer said it led to an operating room. The tricky door was made to be opened and closed with the feet and a red magic light was installed above it.

The Lord of Ruin lay behind a pristine curtain on a bed by the window.

He still had not removed his white mask. The Necromancer shrugged, suggesting he had never once removed it.

Thus, the only sign of life was the subtle stirring of his body.

“Nhh…”

“Hey, the old bastard really is alive,” said the radio.

“We need him to be,” pointed out Miyabi.

(Let’s see. Things have been chaotic for a bit now, but who is it we haven’t had a chance to speak with?)

The Necromancer, the Lord of Ruin, and Elaine.

“I guess it’s mostly those three.”

“Zzzkoo…”

Alma had already fallen asleep on the bedside table.

“…”

The Necromancer, who had planted her shapely butt on the back of a chair, and her hat both fell silent.

They reveled in their own irreverence, but they wanted the others to do this right.

Alicia whispered in his ear.

“H-hey, Miyabi. Wake up Alma. But gently. The little thing isn’t trying to cause trouble!”

He slapped Alma on the head like a button in a quiz game.

The shock must have caused some sort of malfunction because Alma’s colors rapidly changed several times before returning to the original white stuffed animal look.

“K-koo!?”

“Ahem.”

Miyabi cleared his throat and Alicia got started.

“So what exactly happened? You, the one who reeks of death, do you know anything about the 11th who uses sorcery bombs?”

“Not a thing.” The Necromancer shrugged. “I just had the Lord of Ruin suddenly attack me.”

“Right, boss? We’re the victims here.”

There was no point in arguing.

Helen sat on a random piece of equipment just to have something to do and only realized afterwards it was a sitting height meter. She cleared her throat and quickly stood back up.

“But we do know the Lord of Ruin was working with Elaine.”

“He wanted to destroy every Godhorn Tech.” He had been obsessed with it. “And he hired her as a pawn.”

“Now, what does Elaine have to say for herself?” asked Celina, her hands on Kananka’s shoulders from behind while the young king curiously viewed the eye chart.

“I just did as he asked,” bluntly answered Elaine who stood by the wall. “If he wanted all of the owners dead, then he had to die as well.”

“Nhh? Nhhhh???”

Onelife, whose muscular body caused the round stool to creak below him, wasn’t the only one confused.

Eliza held out a hand while unsure what to do with her enormous lance.

“Hold on.”

“So…what does this mean?” Miyabi himself could scarcely believe it. “That none of us are the 11th? Was the 11th someone else entirely this whole time!?”

“No, something isn’t right.”

Her back against the wall, Elaine had been watching it all from a step removed and now she put a stop to the conversation.

The doubts roiling in her mind were obvious even through the goggles.

She took a long pause to think.

“…”

“What is this about!?” impatiently demanded Alicia, so the dark elf cautiously answered.

“Well, I can only sum up what you just said, but you said the Necromancer is a victim who was just cut down by the Lord of Ruin without warning, right?”

“Yes, what of it? Ohh, how it hurts! I can still feel the wound throbbing!”

“…”

“Restrain yourself, ancient king.”

Something unseen erupted from the eyes hidden below the white mask and Eliza pressured him to stop. Meanwhile, Elaine continued speaking.

“So what does that mean for the automaton and the pirate? Someone ordered the imperial automaton to plant those bombs and someone used some parasites to threaten the machoman into sending a bomb to that island kingdom, right? Who was behind those two incidents?”

“Oh,” said Miyabi, looking over to the decadent woman seated on the back of a chair.

She frantically stood up.

“W-wait just a second. I was nearly killed by the Lord of Ruin! So I was stuck in a bed here in this Horn Fortress clinic during the incident with the Executive Ground and Calamity Revenge. You can’t accuse me of being the 11th when I wasn’t even on the continent then!!”

She had a point.

Except…

“Um. I don’t remember there being any sorcery bombs during the desert incident. ”

“…”

Her back against the wall and her arms crossed, Elaine stared straight at the suspect through her distinctive goggles.

Yes, she had seen everything that happened in that desert nation. She had been spying on it all from the shadows to ensure she did not miss any of the targets needed for the Lord of Ruin’s revenge.

“From what I’ve heard, the only time Miyabi actually saw one of the 11th’s bombs was in that island kingdom. Incidents without one of those aren’t going to establish an alibi.”

She was guilty.

Undeniably guilty.

“Ha…ah ha ha.”

And in the blink of an eye…

“Oh, no! My ‘gotta research necromancy now or I’ll die’ disease is flaring up!!”

The Necromancer’s attempted escape ended the instant that demon sword was held right up to the tip of her nose. Even if the “contents” of the sword had been burned away, preventing it from functioning as a Wicked God horn, its edge as a simple sword and the Lord’s own skill remained.

The wielder did not leave his bed, so he could not even shift his body weight with his legs and hips. He used only his arm to swing the blade at superhuman speed.

What could he do if he went all out?

He spoke from behind the smooth eyeless and mouthless mask.

“Answer honestly.”

“O-o-o-okay!!”

But someone had actually fallen asleep with all this going on.

“Zzzz.”

It was Alicia Blueforest.

Had the post-bath drowsiness gotten the better of her?

The elf who lacked the wisdom their species was known for was napping while leaning against a scale larger than a grandfather clock, with the scale’s needle shifting under her weight.

And the Lord of Ruin took everything seriously.

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“Miyabi, wake up that useless elf before he takes matters into his own hands!!”

Miyabi followed Eliza’s advice.

When he gave one of her long ears a hard flick, she woke up in a hurry. She reacted like a bomb had gone off nearby.

“Gwahhh!!!??? Wh-wh-what, what!?”

“It’s true I had a connection to the 11th,” began the Necromancer. “We had a contract which required me to set up the sorcery bombs I was given.”

Everyone’s gazes pierced the woman.

A contract implied she received something in exchange. What had she been given for setting up Number 8 and Onelife and putting the entire continent in danger?

The decadent woman shouted the answer in half desperation.

“The Deadman’s Fenrir was created by sticking another horn into a Wicked God. Wicked God horns are rare enough, so do you have any idea how hard it is to find an entire Wicked God corpse too!? And the horn and corpse have to be from separate one, so you need two whole Wicked Gods. That masterpiece is so much rarer than your mechanical ones that reek of oil. That’s the kind of research material anyone would betray the world for!!”

“Boss, you are shockingly villainous.”

“Hey, don’t you act all innocent! You were my accomplice!!”

Just then, something glowed faintly, starting from the center of the Necromancer’s chest and continuing down to her navel.

It was like a bright light shining through something else. Yes, like through a thin layer of skin.

“Ah, what?”

“I-is there something inside her body?” asked Helen.

“Now this gross researcher has set up some kind of disgusting prank inside her own body!?” This had woken Alicia up pretty fast. “How much more can there be!?”

“N-no, I don’t know what this is…”

“Shut up,” snapped Alicia. “I’m not believing a thing you say until I’ve given you a good, hard spanking!”

But they were all cut off by an unexpected source: the radio.

“No, wait.”

“Is that what I think it is?” added the hat.

The two philosopher’s stones had picked up on something here.

“This noise is bad news. This is even more blatant than an IP address… These numbers are plain coordinates! Our location is being transmitted to someone!!”

They all heard an explosion – a tremor of destruction that shook the entirety of Horn Fortress.

“Whoa! Wh-what!?”

Miyabi looked all around.

The light coming from the Necromancer’s upper body was gone.

The twins looked like they had just stepped in something they didn’t recognize.

“Ugh!? What is this distortion?”

“I feel it too. This is far worse than when our Godhorn Tech was out of control.”

Miyabi had no special ability to speak with the spirits like Kananka or to link with ancient ruins like the priestesses, but he only needed to look out the window to see something was wrong.

He should have seen a rainbow blur on the horizon.

Maybe it was a crack in the world and maybe it was a special barrier, but he knew it kept anyone else in or out, turning Horn Fortress into the safest place in the world.

But that had collapsed.

Each of the seven lines of colors snapped like a thread under too much tension. It all vanished like stray strands of thread. The ordinary horizon appeared afterwards, but that ordinariness concisely showed just how abnormal this situation was.

Something of unknown origin had been destroyed by something else of unknown origin.

Kananka grimaced, took a deep breath, and spoke.

That young king who lived with nature could see a lot more than Miyabi.

“That was not just an accidental explosion.”

“I sense a battle coming,” said Eliza. “Prepare yourself, Miyabi. Something is headed this way!!”

Miyabi used a bomber, so he knew that a signal of light or sound from the surface made it easy to accurately target that location from a distance. Even if that signal could not be sensed using any ordinary senses. The Necromancer had unwittingly called something here.

She was only an accomplice. So who was the actual 11th she had made her contract with?

Miyabi and the others left the clinic. The Necromancer and the Lord of Ruin came with them.

The radio swaying at Alicia’s neck gave a panicked shout.

“Hey, Moebius is on this island too, isn’t he!?”

“There’s no time to find him! Besides, he’d have a hard time drawing a sword in his wheelchair. If he’s not at the center of this, he’s safer if he stays there!! Alma, don’t you get separated from us!!”

“K-koo!”

They wanted to leave the building entirely.

The labyrinthine layout of Horn Fortress frustrated them to no end now. For most of them, it was their first time here, so even finding the stairs down was a challenge. They could not see what was happening since most rooms had no windows on actual exterior walls, so their anxiety and tension continued to grow like an overinflated balloon about to pop.

Miyabi shouted at the gang daughter when he spotted her on the way.

“Phobia!! Put out all those tallow lights!!”

“ Huh !? What gives you the right to boss me a-”

“Open flames are a bad idea with all this shaking! If they fall, the whole place goes up in a blaze!!”

He could think of any number of sources of danger: the kitchen, the bath, the alchemy ceremonial ground, the smithy workshop, etc.

The place had not been built for this. Even if the additions had been made without a plan, they had mostly been made by stacking up stone and reinforcing it with metal.

Yet it felt like a small boat being tossed by the stormy waves.

Something was happening outside. Everything was shaking. Either blasts of wind or actual explosions were intermittently crashing into the building in a way that suggested actual intent and not just an accident or natural disaster. Whatever this was, it may have been powerful enough to tear apart Horn Fortress itself.

“Um, wh-what is happening here?”

“Stay put! Do not leave your room!!”

Angela Custardmare, the maid trapped in a giant suit of armor, emerged from a room with a doubtful look, but Miyabi shouted back at her while running down the stairs.

He tackled open the large double doors with his shoulder.

He found a massive sunset that looked so much like burning flames.

And he saw something standing in front of that blazing background.

He gasped. All his momentum ground to a halt, like he had crashed into an invisible wall. He simply came to a stop.

He did not recognize this person.

There was an outsider among all the party members he had invited in.

An uninvited guest obliterated the entire purpose of the impregnable Horn Fortress.

“Hee hee hee.”

What?

What was that?

“I just knew a decoy was a good idea. If the Necromancer succeeded, I won. But if she was defeated, I could find another use for her.”

She looked just like a human girl.

Either the same age as Miyabi or a little older.

She carelessly showed off so much of her bright skin and her navel. What was that she was wearing?

The best comparison may have been solid white armor over her chest and around her hips, but that was not quite accurate. The bare belly and thighs made no sense if it was meant as armor, but the overall silhouette was far too sinister for one of the swimsuits he had seen before.

Yes.

She was showing off her feminine skin, yet she came off as ominous and evil.

That was due to the blade-like objects jutting out from various parts of her body. They spread from her back like wings, they burst from the back of her hips like tails, they emerged from the joints of her arms and legs, they extended from her fingertips, and one even rose from her forehead.

Her long hair was not quite red and not quite blonde. If anything, it was an unnaturally bright pink, further marking her as an abnormality.

“I tried ignoring you for a while, but it looks like that wasn’t just a fluke. Her being pressured into abandoning her plan triggered the signal. And to do that you must possess quite a bit of power.”

“What the hell is that!?”

Miyabi was completely overwhelmed.

He was aware that his question itself was a few steps behind.

“This island isn’t part of the continent – it’s entirely cut off from the world – so how did you get in!?”

“My, my, my.” She had a complicated look, half amusement and half exasperation. “I believe you have already seen several examples of crossing the ocean or traveling the skies using a Wicked God horn. As for the miasma and manmade barriers…well, they don’t function quite like the elf hidden villages that exist in an alternate dimension, but they aren’t hard to break through. There’s nothing your mommy can’t do.” She kindly and meltingly whispered something unbelievable. “ Isn’t that right, my sweet Alma ?”

“Koo!? Koo…”

“Whoever she is, she’s definitely trouble,” said Celina. “Miyabi, let’s pour everything we’ve got into this one!!”

He wanted to fight.

He wanted to subdue her and question her.

But.

Before he could even squeeze his control sword’s grip, noise exploded in his head.

Even the orange sunset distorted before his eyes.

The warning was so loud his consciousness was nearly driven from his mind.

(Am I sensing…a sorcery bomb?)

“Hee hee. Take this.”

He did not have time for pain or for questions.

The girl gave a slight flourish of a finger covered by a long blade and the warning sound filled his mind.

Something appeared out of thin air.

It floated gently at her eye level…but what was it? It had an extremely unnatural cubic shape and a pink light trailed behind it. It looked something like a bizarre will-o’-the-wisp.

Its surface was rough.

The gray grid pattern on the pink cube’s surface bothered Miyabi for some reason.

(Is that…?)

The memory nearly eluded him, but then he figured it out. This was like a single piece of a puzzle, so it didn’t perfectly match what he remembered. But when he stared at it more carefully, he made the connection.

Yes.

(Is that the pattern on the stone walls of Horn Fortress’s hallways?)

“They stay hidden, causing devastation whenever they feel like it. And unlike the other 10, their Wicked God horn is not built into a weapon. They use the energy flowing from that horn to create massive sorcery bombs.”

Moebius’s words when they had first met throbbed deep in the boy’s mind.

“And these bombs are made to look identical to trees, rocks, or whatever else.”

“What?” Alicia sounded confused in the sunset. But she was not staring at the mysterious girl. She was looking at the same thing Miyabi was. “A Palette Die? Why should we care about that?”

“Kh.”

(Do the others not know what it is? Then it must be what’s causing this ringing in my ears. Is that what a Sorcery Bomb looks like before it’s planted somewhere…and only I can sense it!)

“Miyabi, that thing’s dangerous,” said Kananka. Had he sensed something through the “spirits”? “It’s continuing to grow on the inside, so it will eventually explode. And once it does, this entire island might be vaporized!! We can remake the building, but if you want to protect your party members’ lives, you can’t let her do this!!”

“Dammit!! Number 8, you work with us too!”

“Understood.”

Kananka, Number 8, and Miyabi took action. The bomb was floating in the air for now, but once it vanished from view, it would be hidden somewhere and no ordinary person would be able to detect it. These three were the only ones who could sense it, so they had to do this.

The girl let her long pink hair fly as she swung one of her long bladelike fingertips.

Something flew in along a straight line.

Another dropped to the ground and then flew straight up before scattering destructive stones.

Another launched a formidable number of glowing beams to blind the enemy.

Others smashed like a morning star or flew like a boomerang.

There was no time to worry about what was and wasn’t a decoy. They had no choice but to destroy everything that was sent their way.

But none of them were the true attack.

This mysterious girl most likely did not intend any of this to overwhelm them.

And Miyabi recognized the sensation of smashing them.

“These really are sorcery bombs, aren’t they!?” he shouted through clenched teeth.

The projectiles, fragments, and scars that escaped their attacks functioned as sorcery bombs. They had already replaced a portion of their surroundings.

At this rate, they would detonate.

How could they stop them before that? Miyabi had dealt with this several time already.

So he had no other choice.

His thick control sword loudly smashed things.

He smashed up Horn Fortress.

He smashed other things on the island.

Not even the stones and palm trees outside were exempt.

He alone could determine the location of a sorcery bomb, so he had to grit his teeth and use his full strength to swing that blade. The violent sounds of exterior walls, lights, windows, rocks, and glass being broken squeezed at his heart.

This was the only way to protect his party.

It was the only way to keep anyone from dying.

Charlotte, the pirate mermaid, had no idea what was happening, so she stared in shock.

“Whoa!? Wh-what are you doing!?”

“Stand back! There are sorcery bombs here!!”

“B-but we worked so hard to build this castle…”

“Just go hide in a sturdy room if you want to survive!!!!!!”

Forcing out the words was as painful as coughing up blood.

His sword forcibly broke down a large pair of double doors.

Things could be repaired, but his party’s lives could not. He repeated that under his breath over and over, but it did little to assuage his guilt.

His thick blade bounced off of an even thicker marble pillar.

There was no time, so he stabbed the sword into the ground, called up the magic circle, and used the Lucifer Horn to break down the stone wall, causing an entire layer of chaotic additions to crumble away. A cloud of dust burst into the air, but the warning bell in his head continued to ring.

The pink-trailing cubic will-o’-the-wisps came in more than one variety.

One had a reddish-brown stone texture.

One had a metallic gold shine.

One had a dark wooden luster.

They were just one piece of a larger puzzle, making it hard to tell what they were supposed to be on their own. But when he stared closely at them, he could tell they were pieces of a brick wall, a brass pipe, and an ebony desk respectively.

Those were the things they would be replacing.

(I have some hints. I can’t overlook this. I can use this to save everyone who trusted in me!!)

The will-o’-the-wisps with various colors and textures passed right through solid walls. They floated slowly but surely toward their destinations, be they walls, floors, furniture, or equipment. They would all replace something here and count down to the moment of annihilation.

The number of sorcery bombs continued to grow.

“Hee hee hee.”

He heard laughter from outside a filthy curtain.

Something wicked shined bright while seeming to stroll elegantly about.

“Ah ha ha, ha ha ha ha. Yes, yes, mommy’s bombs can replace anything. And if you miss just one, every last one of you dies. So you can’t afford any mistakes here. Then again, they still might resent you even if you make no mistakes.”

“Goddammiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!”

This was his first time here, but he knew the people here had worked to support his adventure all this time.

And yet…

“Garett.”

Miyabi addressed the dwarf blacksmith.

This must have been a hallway to begin with, but it had crumbled away like a waterfall partway through. He saw the short old man standing on the second floor portion of the building’s layered cross section.

The stone castle felt out of place in this tropical environment. It reminded Miyabi of the castle Eliza had served, but that may have been due to this dwarf from the Arsenal Kingdom putting so much work into its construction.

Hadn’t he originally built autonomous traps?

“Garett!!” Miyabi shouted up from below. “Are there any tricks or traps built into this castle? I have my hands full dealing with the sorcery bombs, so do whatever you can to damage her!!”

But there was no response.

Miyabi initially thought the dwarf may have been harmed in some way, but that couldn’t be. The 11th was only using sorcery bombs. With those, you were either fine or dead with nothing in between. Since the island hadn’t been blown away, Garett had to be unharmed.

(I’m the one actually destroying the fortress they built, not the 11th.)

Was that why Garett Goldcave just stood there? Was that why he didn’t send any commands to the gargoyles he had used to help with construction?

(I’m the only one that can sense the sorcery bombs once they blend into the background. If they don’t recognize the danger, they might just find me more frightening than the 11th!!)

Things could be repaired, but his party’s lives could not. That was true, but people’s hearts and feelings were not so simple. There were plenty of things out there that could not be truly replaced by a physically identical item.

Miyabi had to do this to save them.

Destruction was the only option available to him here.

He smashed a porcelain mug underfoot. He tore open a blanket, scattering stuffing everywhere. A pressure cooker was bent too badly for the lid to fit and left to lie in the sand. They were all handmade. They were all the result of someone’s sweat and tears as they took a trial-and-error approach to figuring out what they could build with the materials available on the island. And he was destroying them. He was mercilessly and unfairly raising his heavy control sword to smash them to pieces.

This was how he repaid them for all their assistance.

He stepped on something he assumed was a tablecloth, but he winced when he looked down. This cloth used colorful letters to spell out a message: Welcome to Horn Fortress, Miyabi.

“Ooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

They had gathered around to pummel him when he first arrived. They had yelled at him, asking why he had brought them here. But it had all been to distract him while they prepared this surprise.

And now he was destroying it all.

All the kindness they had gathered together was falling to pieces.

“…”

The weakness in his heart begged him to shut his eyes, but he suppressed the urge. He could not afford to slow down. He had to prevent everyone here from being blown away by a sorcery bomb.

So he had to stay strong.

He wiped away those indecisive tears and faced forward before the thick curtain of sand was swept away by the wind. He had to gather the courage to trample on their kindness and affection. Even if the act would tear him up inside later on.

He had to become the destroyer who could protect everyone’s lives.

He clenched his teeth and focused his mind on one thing only: protecting the party members who had agreed to share this adventure with him.

“Miyabi.”

Then he heard another a voice through the curtain of sand. It was Helen.

“Are there any sorcery bomb readings left, Miyabi!? You’re the only one who can sense them after they’ve been planted, so you need to tell us if there are any more!!”

It wasn’t something that could be ranked with a single scale, but Kananka and Number 8 may have had greater sensitivity to the signal. However, Miyabi was the most suited for defusing sorcery bombs (including Moebius’s bluffs).

“But,” he said.

“Don’t worry about that right now. If just one of them goes off, none of us will survive!!”

He bit his lip.

Had she sensed the feelings he had left unsaid? There were others here willing to do the dirty work – others who wanted to share the burden so they wouldn’t be forcing it all onto Miyabi’s shoulders.

“The third wall lamp from the back.”

Helen would die too if a sorcery bomb detonated.

Miyabi gripped his control sword tight.

“Also that low table and the ship in a bottle. They’re both sorcery bombs!!”

He squeezed it so tight he started to bleed.

And he faced forward. By relying on his party members, he was dragging them back onto the path of destruction. So he could not just stand around trembling and crying.

He had to take the lead.

He wasn’t going to let a single one of them die. He had decided to save them, so he couldn’t hesitate now.

“I’ll play your game, 11th! And I’ll win, goddammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!”

After an especially loud smashing sound, a powerful crosswind carried in the scent of the sea.

By the time the filthy dust was swept away, nothing remained in the corners of Miyabi’s eyes.

He decapitated a stuffed bear doll and destroyed a large piano.

He clenched his teeth and faced forward.

He ran through Horn Fortress destroying walls and pillars. The place crumbled around him.

He had decided to use the full destructive power of his Godhorn Tech to save everyone.

“Hee hee.”

For a brief moment, the flow of time seemed to stop.

Miyabi and the girl glared at each other while a dusty wind blew between them.

There was no longer a distinction between indoors and outdoors. They simply stood on a pile of rubble. Everyone had worked so hard to construct that building and Miyabi had reduced it to this.

Everything was dyed the orange of sunset.

That was enough to prove that all the walls and ceilings had collapsed.

The girl covered in sharp protrusions extended a slender hand. She aimed her five bladelike fingers at him.

“Did you think I was done? Not even close!”

He thought his mind had been obliterated.

All of his resolve was shattered in an instant. He froze up, so Alicia hesitantly called out to him with a test tube of physical boosting potion in her hand.

“What’s wrong, Miyabi?”

“…”

“Hey! We can see the bombs when she pulls them out, but only you can accurately locate them once they’ve taken the place of something. We can’t do this on our own and we all know what you’re doing is for the best, so hurry up and tell us where they are!!”

Number 8 supported young Kananka who staggered to the side with a hand on his head like something was about to crush his skull in from every direction at once. How horrific did this look to someone who could sense such things?

Miyabi stiffly turned toward Alicia.

He had desperately worked up the resolve to save his trusting companions no matter what it took, but even he felt lost and adrift now.

Miyabi Blackgarden provided the answer while the mystery girl smiled.

“… where. ”

“What!? What did you say!?”

“ They’re everywhere. There’s too many of them !!”

His throat went dry.

And he saw the detonation.

Miyabi Blackgarden had collapsed.

He had fallen to the ground, writhed in pain, and then reached a point where even that pain vanished. Only then did he realize something.

If all of those bombs had exploded, how did he still have a head that could think?

People littered the ground around him.

Horn Fortress no longer existed. What little had remained of the building had been reduced to a pile of rubble, much like a birthday cake cruelly squashed below a filthy boot.

The sound of rushing water pounded on his ears.

He did not know what that meant.

But he feared it might be the seawater flowing in through a hole torn in the ground and shining in the light of the sunset. He feared that an aerial view from the Lucifer Horn would show the island was now shaped like a crescent moon.

At this point, he could not explain how he had survived.

He suspected maybe he had died and this was just his soul fighting on, not realizing it was dead.

If not, did it mean that girl had used so many sorcery bombs and was still only toying with him ? Did she think his current level of fear and terror were insufficient, so she was going to wring as much of it out of him as she could before finally killing him?

“Kh!!”

It was a silly fantasy.

And the long-haired girl smiled as if to mock him for failing to reach a better conclusion.

“Wait. Those things.”

Miyabi Blackgarden could not stop sweating.

He stared at the bladelike protrusions covering the girl’s slender body.

But living beings did not have “blades”. There were other names for such things.

Like claws.

Or fangs.

Or…

“It can’t be, it can’t be, it can’t be! Are those all what I think they are !?”

“Ding ding ding♪”

She sounded amused.

Miyabi’s tension was so great his entire throat had gone dry. He had moved past confusion to wondering if struggling to find meaning was even the right thing to do.

The girl held herself in her arms while a sensual tremor ran up her spine. That was enough for the sharp protrusions at her elbows and around her hips to squirm, fall out, and land at her feet.

Miyabi could only groan in a terribly scratchy voice.

Yes, she had those protrusions all over her body.

And the most distinctive one jutted out from the center of her forehead.

“Wicked God…”

“Horns♪” she sweetly whispered with a giggle.

She held her long, sharp fingers toward her feet and they seemed to melt and rot away.

Yes.

The sharp horns fell away from her fingers and landed on the ground like it was nothing.

“If you want some, feel free to gather them up. You just have to come crawling at my feet.”

These were all the Wicked God horns that nations, companies, temples, and revenge mercenaries sought so desperately and were so manipulated by.

Those great power sources were necessary to be considered a powerful country and they had even destroyed an entire empire through the grudge caused by another tragedy they had caused.

And here they were falling like petals from a tree to be swept up and thrown out.

Could he really defeat a monster like this? Did he have even the slimmest of chances!? When he was fighting using a Godhorn Tech that encased a broken horn inside a mechanical contraption and surrounded it with thick armor? Wasn’t that about as absurd as challenging the king of the jungle with only one hair from its luscious mane as a weapon!?

The bizarre girl easily grew new horns to replace the removed ones as she continued smiling and speaking. Those sharp horns resembled wings and armor and Miyabi could not work up any resolve while facing something like that.

Yet she kept things moving.

“Hee hee. Yes, about what I expected.”

“No, this isn’t over yet! After all those sorcery bombs, I’ve finally seen how they’re created. It’s those pink-trailing cubic will-o’-the-wisps. …This means I’ve finally tracked you down. You’re the 11th, aren’t you!?”

“I really do not like that name.” She sounded utterly exasperated and placed a somewhat troubled hand on her cheek. “I have been involved in the creation of every last Wicked God since before you humans came to be. You could even say I am the mother of all Wicked Gods, so if you must give me a numeric title, at least show some humor and call me the 0th .”

“Of all…?”

“People have a lot of names for me: the Balloon of Apocalypse, the Bell of Calamity, the Creator of Evil, She who Sleeps in the Miasmic Depths, and so on.”

She giggled.

Or maybe it was more of a chuckle.

Either way, it was meant to ridicule.

“I really wish they would just use my actual name: Philia Shout .”

Philia Shout.

The one who shouts of love.

But this was not a mutual love. It was only a one-sided obsession – a philia.

Miyabi did not know how serious she meant any of this, but he shook his head all the same.

Before even getting into the logic of it, the very depths of his soul demanded he not accept this.

“No, that can’t be true. You must be bluffing!”

“You’re free to believe me or not. It is your life after all.” Philia Shout leisurely spread one hand in the light of the sunset, new sharp horns slowly growing from the fingertips. “Not that it really matters one way or the other when that life will be over a second from now.”

“This isn’t over yet!!”

“Maybe not for you. But what about for all the people who protected you?”

“…!?”

He heard quiet groans from all around.

Yes.

What had happened to Alicia, Helen, Celina, Eliza, Number 8, Onelife, Kananka, the Necromancer, the Lord of Ruin, Acacia, Ixea, and Elaine?

And what about Garett, Iris, and all the others who had built up Horn Fortress behind the scenes?

He was afraid to look away from the enemy before him, but he could catch glimpses out of the corner of his eyes. And his nose picked up a rusty odor.

They were all leaning against rubble walls or collapsed in the dirt or mud.

They were all bleeding a terrifying amount and yet barely even stirring.

“This fortress and your companions will not last much longer.”

(This is bad! Real bad!!)

He could not look away.

But if he did not move immediately, they were dead.

(I need to treat their wounds ASAP!!)

“Now, I wonder who will kick the bucket first?”

Miyabi crept slowly to the side before breaking out into a run.

He ran to his collapsed and unmoving party members.

To Alicia Blueforest.

“Don’t…give me that look. I’m fine!”

“Damn straight. Pretty girls and pretty boys are damn near unkillable.”

To Helen Clockgear.

“Don’t worry about me. Just finish this.”

To Celina Bodenburg.

“That’s…right. Don’t hold back on my account.”

To Eliza Silverstorm.

“If you need more power, just give the command. I will stand back up as many times as you need!”

To Number 8.

“I am sick of being manipulated by her. Please end this!”

To Kananka Fulpen.

“If you don’t stop her, so many of my people will die. So please!”

To Onelife Shiftup.

“Nhh! I’m just catching a quick nap! I’ll be back on my feet in no time!!”

To the Necromancer.

“Well, this is a shock. I was helping a bigger name than I thought.”

“You’re so cool, boss! I know you won’t let this beat you!!”

To Acacia Flightheart.

“I still haven’t found what it is I want to do.”

To Ixea Flightheart.

“But I know it isn’t to be a burden on you here!”

To the Lord of Ruin.

“She may be the ancestor of the Wicked Gods, but she makes them suffer. She must be slain!”

To Elaine Greenforest.

“You can show me a form of hope other than revenge, can’t you? Then hurry up and do it!!”

The boy worked to treat their wounds while he listened to them all.

“Gh…”

But even his own hands refused to do what he told them.

His vision blurred unnaturally. It took him a moment to realize his tear ducts had opened up and the tears were spilling out. Those tears must have worried the others, which explained why they all worked to cheer him up while barely still breathing.

The more of their voices he heard, the more he felt things falling apart. A dreadful acceleration clutched at his stomach.

“Sniff.”

He knew that.

He really did.

What was even the point of treating their wounds? He could stop the bleeding and save their lives, but then what? If Philia Shout launched just one more sorcery bomb on a whim, they would all be killed. He would only have prolonged their agony before they were blown to pieces.

(I can’t win this.)

He felt pathetic.

And worthless.

(There’s no way. She’s got Wicked God horns all over her! How is that fair?)

But he still could not stop himself from crying in front of Philia Shout who he so hated. Those injured people had spoken up to console him but he could not do the same for them because he didn’t want them to hear the tremor in his voice!!

He could tell those precious lives were slipping from his fingers.

His Godhorn Tech and everything he had overcome over the course of his adventure were useless now. He was simply afraid. His heart could not bear the unavoidable and cruel reality that he was helpless to stop all these lives from being taken!!

Philia Shout could lower the curtain at any moment, but that demon still grinned.

She smiled and observed his every movement.

He managed to calm down enough to wonder if he was overlooking something crucial here. Why was Philia Shout leaving him be when he was so defenseless?

Was there more to this?

Did she want to tear back open Alicia and the others’ wounds once he was done treating them?

His panic and exhaustion were so great his vision was growing dark.

He clearly felt the thread of tension snap when he finished treating the last one – either Victia or Sophia, he couldn’t remember. Now he felt like he was going to pass out himself.

The sun had set.

Everything had gone dark.

He half thought his soul had burned out.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Just then, he heard a voice from the darkness.

“Miyabi, Miyabi.”

It was Alicia’s.

This was not a life on the verge of being snuffed out.

It was the solid voice of a living person.

He moved his dry and cracked lips to get out a faint voice.

He could not see a thing in his blurred vision.

“Thanks goodness I can hear your voices.”

“No, Miyabi! Ugh, the 11th!!”

His mind was rapidly tugged back to reality by the tension in Helen’s voice.

Several sorcery bombs had been set up on the ground around Philia Shout like the numbers on a clock.

She was no longer bothering to hide them. They did not take on the texture of stone walls, trees, or the sandy beach, nor did they float into the air with a pink color trailing behind them.

That mother let them glow with a magic circle that anyone could see. The lines of light connected the bombs together and they were positioned where she herself would be caught in the blast. She simply smiled in a way that wordlessly said she was powerful enough to hold back the blast.

This was not a nightmare.

Nor was it a cruel joke.

The preparations were complete, so she had no need to rush.

The end was beginning.

“Will this one end it?”

“…Dammit.”

(Yeah.)

He couldn’t stop it.

It was out of his reach.

(This time it’s completely hopeless.)

He could not even speak. He felt like he had his hands full just breathing.

He supposedly had the full power of destruction and creation at his disposal, but there was nothing he could do.

There was no one he could rely on here. He had been given the Lucifer Horn, left on a journey with Alicia and Helen, cheered up Celina, protected Eliza’s kingdom, fixed Number 8, stopped Onelife, saved Kananka’s island, treated the Necromancer’s wound, dragged out Acacia and Ixea’s true desires, made peace with the Lord of Ruin, and freed Elaine from the bonds of vengeance.

Yet it all vanished in an instant.

It truly only took an instant for it to fall to the ground and shatter.

What could he do while it was all taken from him?

He could hold his control sword in both hands, but his brain couldn’t move past that point. He could not come up with any plan of what to do in order to protect them all.

He bit his lip. Hard.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

Darkness covered everything.

No, Miyabi had shut his eyes.

“…”

He waited.

“…”

And waited.

“…?”

And waited until doubt crept into his mind.

The last color he had seen was not white. He had not seen the blinding white of pure violence. He saw a gentle darkness. The same darkness he saw when he shut his eyes and drifted off to sleep at night.

The sorcery bombs…hadn’t detonated?

Slowly and hesitantly, he forced his seemingly petrified eyelids open and found the world still existed around him.

“Th-they didn’t go off?”

He could not believe his own words.

And Philia Shout did not seem remotely bothered.

“Oh, they went off all right.” Did she even intend for the human to understand the rest of what she said? “But the blast was diluted to near 0 in each direction by scattering it across the infinite directions found beyond the X, Y, and Z axes of 3D space. Much like a bullet capable of shooting through a metal plate being stopped by a stack of papers, or like someone sitting gently in a spike-covered torture chair so their weight is distributed across the spikes and they avoid injury.”

“???”

“And since you don’t even understand what I mean, this obviously wasn’t your doing. For that matter, it simply isn’t possible with human magic, no matter how much you specialize it.”

She seemed oddly amused for her attack having failed.

Could she see something different within the orange light of sunset?

“You still have a lot of room to grow, but your mommy is so happy you’ve learned how to use your horn’s power to detect the blank Palette Dice.”

She was looking to the one being that had not needed treatment after being exposed to all those explosions.

“ Isn’t that right, my sweet Alma ?”

“ Koo !!!!!!”

That was a threat.

Alma swelled out its small stuffed animal body and glared up at Philia Shout.

Miyabi looked back in disbelief.

Meanwhile, the juvenile Wicked God moved its small hind legs to walk forward while holding its small fore legs out in front like it was pushing back at an invisible wall. It passed Miyabi with the intention of shielding the boy.

He had never even imagined seeing Alma choosing to fight something in an obvious expression of hostility.

But something along those lines was definitely happening here.

“Is Alma…doing something?”

“Oh, dear. Did you never wonder how it was a juvenile Wicked God can change form so frequently? It clearly violates the rules of anatomy. While young, they rearrange themselves using the smallest units making up the world, testing out different forms to find the strongest one.”

She once more jumped beyond anything Miyabi – or anyone else in this world – could understand.

“Think of it like trying on weapons or clothes and checking the stat changes to decide if you wanted to make them a permanent part of your equipment.”

“That…doesn’t make…”

“It doesn’t make sense? Are you sure about that?” Her exasperated voice spoke to him from the shadows. “This world is made of countless Palette Dice. You should know that after stacking them up to create so many different things.”

“…”

“But that doesn’t mean the empty space you’re currently standing in and breathing from is truly empty. You can still exist there even if it hasn’t been filled in yet. That form of mass does not exist, but you can calculate out some theoretical information about it. Those are the Missing Dice that fill the blank spaces in the world☆”

When Miyabi was walking through a tunnel, he focused on the two walls and ceiling surrounding him.

But Philia Shout was different. Did she think there were invisible and intangible “blank” dice filling the space you walked through?

“The Missing Dice? They aren’t here, but they exist? You…you can’t expect me to just accept this out of the blue.”

“It is impossible for any space to be truly empty in this world. In a world where everything is built up from something else, a negative sign is simply an error. So you must define it as a ‘blank’, not an absence of anything. In chess or reversi, the spaces you can move to aren’t truly ‘empty’ are they? There is a clearly defined square there. Just because there isn’t currently a game piece on that space doesn’t mean it no longer exists on the board. Not that you need to understand any of this.” Philia Shout made it all sound so simple. “Oh, and be warned: if Alma falls, the rest of you are dead less than a second later.”

“!?”

“Koo!!”

The juvenile Wicked God stood in front of Miyabi and planted its feet on the ground to protect the rest of the party. The fluffy white fur covering Alma’s stuffed animal body was visibly bristling. That indirectly visualized the invisible power at play here, like the waves in a wheat field revealing the unseen wind washing across it.

Miyabi could sense sorcery bombs, but not even he could tell what was happening here.

But he knew some kind of tremendous pressure had to exist here.

He shuddered.

For one thing, he had no idea how long that juvenile Wicked God’s endurance would last. He didn’t even know if he had been raising the creature correctly.

How long could it last?

Was there anything he could do in the meantime?

Dragging all of his collapsed party members to safety would be difficult. People were heavy. Not to mention there was nowhere safe for them on this remote island.

“It isn’t easy believing in something you can’t see our touch, is it? But you have caught glimpses here and there.”

“?”

“What are the invisible spirits spoken of on that remote island kingdom?”

The twisted mother raised one sharp finger.

“What brings a lifeless automaton to life?”

She raised a second horned finger.

“What is the true nature of the abnormal obsession that has trapped the Lord of Ruin for so very long?”

She raised more and more.

“And what is the vessel for carrying ghosts that the Necromancer sought?”

He felt dizzy.

“Why did the Executive Ground lose control in the desert nation?”

He realized the number of fingers had surpassed one hand.

“What lurked within the desert ruins no one knows how to build anymore?”

He couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Oh, right. And what about the Celestial Tree? No normal tree could grow that large, could it?”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Miyabi couldn’t say a thing.

Not one thing.

Horn Fortress had been so full of life, but now no one remained standing. Miyabi was close to collapsing himself while Philia Shout continued her amused monologue.

This was even more sinister than the desolate winds blowing through the red-stained Empire, the toxic Bio Rainforest, or the dak elf forest where nothing but charcoal, ashes, and moss remained.

He stood in the middle of the rubble that had been torn down in order to save the others.

This must have originally been a decursing and enchanting facility built by Curse Cleaner Sophia Calamity-Jinx to cater to her specialty. The Wicked God mother smiled in amusement as she stepped on the church’s broken altar and leaned against a now headless goddess statue.

The single beam of light shining down through gaps in the rubble made it look like that loathsome being was receiving heaven’s blessing.

That sweetly dangerous being whispered softly.

“And you yourself have partially touched on that taboo.”

“?”

“Creation.” That one word said it all. “You would destroy the Palette Dice, gather them back together, and rearrange them as you pleased. When you broke their bonds and filled the empty space with them, you were unwittingly destroying the Missing Dice that are the blank spaces. Think of it like surrounding a row of white with black in reversi.”

“Eh!?”

“Or maybe you count that as creation too.” She held a hand over her mouth and laughed. “You humans claim to be ‘creating’ roads and campfires when you chop down the forest’s trees, after all.”

“…”

“But nothing you have done is creation.” She rejected the idea in a singsong voice. “A Wicked God’s power exists only to destroy. It just so happened that an error in the contract transfer expanded the range of the destruction you gained access to.”

“But…”

Miyabi’s breathing grew so erratic it actually calmed back down again.

If Alicia or the Necromancer could see him now, they might have grimaced. It was a dangerous sign when the signals from the brain or heart grew regular and unchanging.

“Then what are you saying I’ve been destroying all this time?”

“Don’t you worry about that. These have always carried the power to destroy the world. Even when you humans steal the horns for yourselves, you still use the power correctly. I can’t accuse you of using it incorrectly after failing to read the manual.”

“K-kyoo…”

“Alma!”

If Alma broke here, they were all dead.

What was going on inside that small body? The juvenile Wicked God trembled violently, but there was nothing Miyabi could do to help.

Meanwhile…

“Now, a question.”

The wicked being who called herself Alma’s “mommy”, sneered in front of the juvenile.

She knew what was happening and continued to torment the creature.

“The Missing Dice cannot be seen or touched, but they make up more than 90% of the world. So what if you could perceive and manipulate them? How much do you think you could accomplish with a power like that?”

“N-ninety?”

Miyabi could not believe his ears.

His voice trembled and cracked.

“More than 90%!?”

“Just look above you. You use a bomber, so you should know better than most how much sky there is above us. The surface is only a small fraction of the world as a whole. Land and sea don’t even come close. Even this failed attempt at a sanctuary is mostly empty space. That is what it means to defy me. The power of the horns is great enough to distort everything. Even light, gravity, time, and space. So it can also interfere with the massless Missing Dice.”

What was elementary to her felt like an attack on the core of Miyabi’s being.

“But this here is the real trick. The juveniles can freely control the Missing Dice, but their bodies are so fragile. But when they grow up big and strong, they forget how to control the Missing Dice.” She breathed a sweet sigh. “Perhaps they use the entire world itself like a protective eggshell. Or is it an issue of purity? There just don’t seem to be any others that can do both like their mommy can.”

“…”

“So you had better hope a juvenile can accomplish at least this much. Otherwise we aren’t going to find anything unexpected in this tiny world.”

Alma groaned.

Miyabi noticed a strange sparking sound coming from his control sword.

No, not just from the sword.

What about the horn it was linked with?

“Wh-what!? The Godhorn Tech!”

He lowered his gaze to the control sword making such disconcerting noises.

(Is this to blame? I don’t care if it’s a temporary fix, I need to patch it up!)

But he could not.

Even though he knew exactly what he needed to do.

He could not take his eyes off of Philia Shout. There might be some tools among the rubble that had been Horn Fortress, but he could never look away from this enemy.

This was not like when he had treated the others’ wounds. The look in Philia Shout’s eyes said she was ready to hunt.

“Giving up before you begin is the wise choice here. And I doubt giving you more time would change anything,” she said. “You can do anything by rearranging the massless Missing Dice ‘behind the scenes’. But no matter how densely you pack them, the magic in the atmosphere will not flow smoothly through them, which creates noise. But that isn’t the real problem here.”

“What?”

“Alma is a juvenile and juveniles learn from their surroundings. And do you think Alma never learned anything more interesting than that while following you around? You only gained the role because Alma imprinted on you, but you became Alma’s daddy. Hee hee. So you need to look at your child’s growth from a much larger viewpoint.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He thought his heart was going to stop.

“!?”

He was looking into the sky, but not at the Lucifer Horn.

He was looking even higher than that.

He could see something unbelievably large slowly falling toward the ground.

It was yellow.

It was not stone or sand. Nor was it iron or steel.

It was a smooth substance that did not exist in nature.

And it was massive.

“There’s something even higher than my Godhorn Tech? What is it? A giant shooting star!!!???”

(Did…did Alma make this happen?)

The Lucifer Horn looked like a small black dot in comparison.

Something that dwarfed a Godhorn Tech was approaching. It was starting to fill the entire sky overhead.

“ Like I said, you can do anything with that power. ”

Philia Shout spoke slowly, like a mother bird feeding her chicks.

Her beautiful pink hair blew in the dusty sea breeze.

“The possibilities of the Missing Dice surpass anything you could ever imagine.”

“Wh-what?”

“The Missing Divine indicate a blank space. Destroy them and that space is no longer blank. And with the space’s blankness removed, it fills with mass and a scar comes to the surface. It is the polar opposite of the Palette Dice that create a blank when destroyed.” Just a touch of admiration entered Philia Shout’s voice while she leaned against the headless goddess statue. “You taught your child to wield the power of creation, not destruction. Of course, your future only holds calamity and apocalypse either way☆”

“C-creating in order to destroy? That’s just wrong.”

“Is it? Alma’s mommy likes it quite a bit.”

“!?”

“Juveniles can take any form they want, no matter what their external appearance or internal skeleton might suggest. So what do you think happens if Alma transforms itself to match the type and element of the horn used in your Godhorn Tech?” The Wicked God mother tilted her head just a bit, her pink hair swaying. “Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice.”

“What!?”

“Hee hee. Mommy is a liiiittle jealous little Alma is relying on another Demon Lord , though. But this is still plenty exciting. Your control sword and Alma are temporarily linked, so do you really think the little thing can’t steal the plans, techniques, and details for just one of the human creation methods stored inside that sword?”

“…”

“Now, I don’t know how conscious Alma is of the process, but it’s incredible all the same. Creating the apocalypse? The cynicism of small children pierces deep. It’s so wonderfully cruel☆”

Defeat the enemy and everyone can live in peace. If justice prevails, you can protect the people you care for.

Those were such childish ideas.

Young children only familiar with children’s books probably all thought that way, but what if someone could actually drop a massive shooting star on the surface based on those simple ideas?

Miyabi could not move.

The great mass of the destructive shooting star blew away the clouds overhead.

“But are you sure this is a good idea?”

### 037. Chapter 9 Section 2

Miyabi Blackgarden groaned.

Which meant he was still alive.

“Ugh…”

“Hi, still alive there?”

“Moebius? Then where am I?”

He slowly sat up in bed.

He had never liked magically-sterilized air, but he found the unique warmth of a log cabin to be nostalgic. Then he realized where he was.

This was the first village’s clinic. But there were no White Sorcerers or nurses here.

There was only one person other than him.

Moebius Entrance shrugged in his wheelchair.

“Too confused to even know where you are? You were born and raised in this village, weren’t you?”

“What about the 11th?” he muttered. Then it all came back to him. “That’s right! Philia Shout! What about the others!? Are they okay!? …Ugh!?”

“You shouldn’t be shouting in your condition.”

Miyabi grimaced and held his head, but Moebius remained entirely relaxed.

“I’m not interested in nursing a guy, so take your own pain meds.”

The situation was too pressing for that.

When Miyabi got his trembling body moving, he did not approach the medicine on the shelves; he grabbed his control sword that was leaning against the wall.

But something wasn’t right.

As soon as he grabbed the grip, he noticed a strange heat there.

“You won’t be able to use the Lucifer Horn for a while.”

The boy did not need any details to know the Godhorn Tech was not in functioning order. After Philia Shout’s attack and the giant meteor summoned by Alma, it was a miracle the Lucifer Horn had not been utterly destroyed. Same for himself, really.

But more than that, he had to wonder how Moebius had broken free of that situation.

Miyabi winced when he tried to leave the bed.

He couldn’t manage it yet. He had pushed himself too far, so he got his feet on the floor but could not get his hips off of the bed.

“Phew… So how did you intervene back there? I mean, you’re in a wheelchair. And Garett, Charlotte, and all the others were knocked out by the shockwave from the meteor that hit Horn Fortress.”

“All the best men have their secrets.”

The man kept his tone light.

And how had he carried injured Miyabi from Horn Fortress to the first village?

Did it have to do with being the Lucifer Horn’s former user? Or was it thanks to Philia Shout’s appearance destroying the barrier around the island? Miyabi considered the options, but no explanation was sufficient. The man must have used some rules Miyabi was unfamiliar with.

Everything had fallen apart.

“So is that woman I briefly fought with really the 11th? I acted that way on a guess, but I haven’t been keeping tabs on everything.”

“You really fought that ‘mother’ all on your own?”

“Hey, don’t look at me like we’re talking about some fairy tale Demon Lord. And don’t ask too many questions. I’m already retired, remember?” Moebius sighed before continuing. “Also, the others are fine. That woman said she could enjoy this more that way.”

“…”

“Don’t let it get to you. Waiting until the enemy lets down their guard is a legitimate strategy. You don’t have to like it, but you just have to win in the end. And surviving is what counts in my book. History isn’t written by the victors – it’s written by the survivors. But there is one problem.”

“Just one problem is better than I could have hoped for.”

“Wait until you hear what it is. It’s about Alma. Just head to your house. You’ll see what I mean.”

Miyabi could move now. Mostly, anyway.

He awkwardly checked the movement of his limbs before leaving the clinic.

He saw the sunlight filtered through the leaves overhead and he heard the rustling of those leaves in the wind. He smelled animal stew and apple pies from the house windows.

This was the first village he knew so well at midday.

It actually felt weird finding the familiar village so unchanged. Several log houses were nearly engulfed by the forest. The place was awash with the gentle noises of birdsong and of skilled craftsmen working with lumber. It did not take him long to arrive home.

He heard a shrill noise along the way.

Someone was blowing a whistle.

He looked over to see Celina Bodenburg with a whistle in her mouth and Helen Clockgear tearfully protesting.

“Eh? No, I object! This elf tripped all on her own!!”

“Complaining after the whistle makes you look like a sore loser. Hey, stop tugging on my skirt, you meanie☆”

“You’re the worst actor I’ve ever seen. I know you took the fall to get that foul!!”

They appeared to be playing a 1-on-1 ball game. They had made a large ball by stuffing thick leather inside some old cloth. They both stood in front of a goal line drawn in the dirt and tried to kick the ball across the other’s goal line. With only one person on both sides, it ended up a lot like a quick draw with swords or guns in a popular play. It all came down to the instant they intersected while one of them dribbled the ball.

There was less than 10m between the two goal lines.

“Just accept your mistake, four eyes. Now, time for my penalty kick. I’ll just put the ball here and you stand in front of the goal to block it. C’mon, get going.”

“Ehhhh, that’s way too close! It’ll hurt when it hits me! I just know it will!”

“Hyperdrive Monster Tits Glasses Woman Killer Shot!!!!!!”

“Not so clooooose!!!”

The kick was like a close-range blast from a gun and Helen wimped out and escaped to the side. Miyabi felt like he could find a loophole – or an unbeatable strategy – if he thought about the game enough.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, the boy.” Alicia turned around. “Finally came to, huh? We can’t get started without you!”

“Get started with what? And why isn’t Alma with you?”

It was unusual for that creature to not be hanging around when they were playing like this.

It was an obvious question, but Alicia, Helen, and Celina all chose not to answer him, creating a somewhat awkward mood.

He had a bad feeling about this.

“Um-”

“Just come here, boy. Alma is at your house.”

Alicia quickly cut him off, so he gave those three a puzzled look while they took his hand and guided him home. The log cabin’s front door was unlocked and he found Eliza Silverstorm and Onelife Shiftup when he opened it.

They appeared to be watching something in shifts.

No, some one .

And it was an unpleasant enough task to require shifts. Something was happening here that had required Alicia and Helen to head out and get some exercise to help keep their spirits up.

Alicia, Helen, and the others guided him up the stairs and to his own room.

Yet he did not at all feel like he was coming home.

He only felt a sense of dread and had to gulp before he could open the door.

But open it he did.

He looked to his bed to find a creature that looked so much like a stuffed animal sleeping on its back.

Alma had undergone so many transformations, but this was the original white form. But something had changed. It was like the difference between a vibrant leaf growing on a healthy tree and a dry and withered leaf lying on the ground.

Yes, Alma’s white and fluffy fur had lost its luster.

So this looked less like Alma was sleeping and more like…

“…”

“What happened? This isn’t right. Why is Alma the only one that didn’t wake up!?”

Freaking out was not going to give him the answer.

“O-oh, right. The pain medication. Um, Alma doesn’t like bitter things, so I can mix it into some milk or honey.”

He could make his own modifications in a different way to an alchemist. But was that really necessary? He may have been stalling for time because he was too scared to learn the answer.

Yes, he was scared.

Scared to learn the truth.

But he still approached the bed again.

“Alma…”

He was not answered by the usual cry.

But he kept talking.

“Please swallow this, Alma!”

“You can’t force it,” gently said Celina Bodenburg with her arms crossed by the window. “We don’t even know if human medication will work.”

“We have plenty of horn experts, but no one who knows much about Wicked Gods themselves,” said Alicia. “To be blunt, you know the thing better than anyone, so if you’re stumped, there isn’t anything anyone else in the world can do.”

Elaine Greenforest shook her head while leaning onto the bed. The negative emotion on her face was obvious even through the goggles. The dark elves had once lived alongside the Green Forest’s Guardian, but the Wicked God had simply watched over the forest as a whole. Elaine and the rest of the elves had not lived closely enough with the Guardian to know much about him.

The only real exception was the Necromancer.

For her Deadman’s Fenrir, she had built a Godhorn Tech out of a Wicked God horn and another Wicked God’s corpse. She would know all about their bones, muscles, blood vessels, and internal organs in a way Miyabi did not.

That death researcher had her long legs crossed while she used a wooden box as a chair next to the bed. She sighed with her head resting in her hand in a surprisingly classy way.

“All I can say is that, anatomically speaking, there are no external or internal wounds.”

“Then…?” asked Miyabi.

The decadent woman shrugged.

“The coma must have a psychological cause.”

“She means it’s in the thing’s head,” supplied the witch hat.

The Necromancer re-crossed her long legs on the box and toyed with the brim of her hat.

“I don’t know if a Wicked God’s psychological structure is at all similar to a human’s, but do you have any ideas? Is there some truth the thing might be reluctant to accept?”

“Dammit,” spat Miyabi with a bitter taste in his mouth. “Does Alma regret harming us while trying to protect us?”

“Even psychological issues can have an effect on the physical body. Plus, its strength will drop the longer the coma lasts. In the worst case, it could even wither away and die like this.”

“And its vitals are indeed gradually dropping,” explained Number 8 who stood over in a corner like a grandfather clock.

The automaton spoke calmly, which made the words hit Miyabi all the harder.

“So what do we do?”

“I’ve never worked with a living Wicked God, so I haven’t a clue.”

Then Alicia, who was leaning onto the bed alongside Elaine, turned toward Miyabi.

“But Alma has a mind just like ours!”

“Indeed!!” Onelife stood tall in the center of the room. “So we’ve just gotta give the thing a solid slap on the back to pour some energy into it!!”

“That would kill it!” shouted Celina. “I don’t want any more ideas out of you!!”

“We just have to be gentle and soothing,” said Alicia. “Make our arms a cradle for Alma.”

Helen glanced over at the bookcase and then shook her head. The answer would not be found there.

“So you’re saying we need to act like Alma’s ‘mommy’?”

“Are you sure that is a good idea? It might just make things worse.”

Eliza, whose butt was seated on a small table, had a point.

“But…a cradle, huh?” said Miyabi.

“Got an idea?” asked the radio.

“What about the place where I first found Alma? In the mountains past the elf forest, I found the egg inside a nest.”

“That settles it,” said Alicia.

“Yes,” agreed Helen. “Let’s get Alma there right away.”

Philia Shout had no master plan or long-held desire she was hellbent on achieving.

She was more willful and more wicked.

And at the moment, there were likely only two things on the continent she had any interest in. She had said so herself back on Horn Fortress.

The two were Miyabi and Alma.

“She’s waiting.”

“?”

When Celina heard the redhead boy’s dark and heavy words, she did not understand them.

There was nothing special at their destination.

As far as Miyabi Blackgarden knew, it held no significance.

To repeat – to make this crystal clear – there was nothing interesting about the nest.

No matter where on the continent they went, and even if they stayed inside the village, Philia Shout would come to them. And the next time they met, it would be their final battle.

They left the village.

They set out on a new journey.

Daytime had already faded into evening. Entering the forest when it was growing dark would normally be an unnecessary risk. The sun would rise again the following morning, after all. But they had no time to spare at the moment.

Fortunately, their destination was within the usual forest.

Miyabi had been able to walk there on his own when he was a small child.

“It’s up ahead,” he said while guiding the others.

The Blueforest elves controlled this forest and allowed the humans to look after it. It all looked the same at first, but the area up ahead was a little different.

After passing through a small thicket, it was like stepping out into another world. The fauna and ecosystem changed entirely.

“Nhh.” Surprisingly, it was Onelife, man of the sea, who groaned. “This place is bad news. Truly inaccessible and secluded areas won’t actually kill you. After all, no ordinary people can even get there. The real threats are the close-to-home places even a child can reach. The small stagnant places that everyone knows are dangerous but everyone takes too lightly.”

“You can tell?”

“I was originally a naval rescue expert, if you recall. I just ended up being the strongest pirate cause I was little too strong. …I know in my bones how many lives have been taken by the small rocky areas that couples love to sneak away to and kids love using for tests of courage. This might be in the mountains instead of on the sea, but this place has the same feel to it. This is a great maw that feasts on children’s lives.”

“Pirate? And Miyabi? Why are you looking my way? Did you want to hold my hand?”

Young Kananka Fulpen gave them a puzzled and somewhat suspicious look.

This place was just like a nearby cave or a small cliff. It was not well-known enough to be a famous suicide spot. It was a small section of the scenery that the locals didn’t even have a name for. But that was why they let down their guard and merciless accidents could take their children’s lives. It was a dangerous piece of the familiar and the everyday.

The twins stood close together.

“Acacia, I never knew forests could be so different.”

“I know what you mean, Ixea. This is nothing like the dark elf forest.”

A truly untouched forest was enough to reject human life.

The difference was obvious even if you could not put your finger on what exactly tipped you off. Miyabi pointed toward a darker and damper section of forest. There was a clear division between this and the rest of the forest.

This was enough to know why the elves got the humans’ help to thin out the forest and let the sunlight in.

Yes, the world seen in children’s books had to be created.

“One day, my parents entered the forest for a job and didn’t come out for a long time. I was told they had gone deep – very deep – inside. But I was lonely left behind the whole time.” Miyabi adjusted sleeping Alma’s position in his arms. “So I wanted to prove myself to my parents. I only thought of it as a bit of exploration. I would show them I could travel deep in the forest too, so they would have to stop treating me like a little kid. But then I found Alma’s egg.”

They had arrived at the mountain.

The forested ground began to slope upwards.

But something wasn’t right.

This was supposedly a short enough distance for a small child to wander there alone and then find his way back. Yet this place was permeated by something that suggested a single wrong step would be fatal.

“Pant, pant.”

Kanaka had trouble catching his breath on the slope.

The place felt ominous.

So what about the world had changed since then?

Or had a small boy really unwittingly visited such a dangerous place?

Something felt different, but Miyabi could not find the words to describe it. Now that he had a Godhorn Tech and a definite objective, a great pressure here threatened to stop his legs from moving if he stopped concentrating. There was a powerful sense of rejection here. Or maybe this was what Onelife called a small stagnant place and a great maw that feasts on children’s lives.

The source came into view without warning.

The pathless way up the mountain slope was blocked by a giant collapsed dragon, griffin, and more.

They lay utterly motionless on the slope.

Their limbs were sprawled out limply, their eyelids remained open and they seemed frozen in time while blood colored a toxic red poured from their gruesome wounds.

Celina immediately pressed her flintlock gun’s stock against her shoulder.

“Wh-what happened here!?”

“These must be Wicked Gods,” groaned the Lord of Ruin from behind his white mask.

His wrinkled fists were silently trembling.

He had sworn to defeat every Godhorn Tech – even the Deadman’s Fenrir made from a Wicked God’s flesh and blood – since they had already been reduced to weapons for others to use. But he had also wanted the living Wicked Gods to be viewed as equals of the humans, elves, and so on.

Because they had intelligent minds of their own.

The twins had a question.

“But how could these legendary beings be killed so easily?”

“And their horns are intact, so this couldn’t have been to build Godhorn Techs.”

Eliza inspected the wounds on one of the corpses.

“This looks a lot like a sword wound, but…no, it’s subtly different. It was done by something sharp, but not a blade. What would cause a wound like this?”

“These were a test,” said Miyabi in a low voice. “But not of the weapon. Of the victim. The Mother of Wicked Gods said they were meant to be the strongest beasts, so she did this to see if they were worthy of the Wicked God title.”

“You mean there wasn’t even any hatred or resentment behind all of this death?” groaned Elaine.

The bleeding and unmoving Wicked Gods seemed to remind her of something.

But that answer made it easy to imagine what weapon had been used: the horns themselves.

There was no need to remake them into Godhorn Techs. Even natural animals came equipped with those powerful and sharp weapons alongside their claws and fangs. The Wicked Gods and their mother were no exception.

Humans were the weird ones for embedding those horns in weapons.

The Wicked Gods collapsed on the slope ranged from only 10m to even bigger than 100m. By littering the ground, they created a maze of flesh and blood. Continuing up the slope would require climbing over plesiosaurs and ducking below massive serpents.

Government Official Helen paled. If word got out that so many horns were gathered here, it could plunge the entire continent into war as everyone tried to get their hands on them.

Wicked God corpses and dark red blood were everywhere. The rusty smell was identical to human blood and they could not bury the bodies right now. The most they could do was use their hands to close the massive eyes while they slipped between masses of flesh so large they felt more like cliffs or caves.

It seemed unlikely this many Wicked Gods had lived on the mountain.

Philia Shout must have summoned them here and then cut them down with a sigh of disappointment.

What had the Wicked Gods felt when they heard her call? Had they arrived reluctantly, knowing they could not escape their fate? Or had they come peacefully, hoping to receive comfort from their mother?

Either way, this was not how a mother was supposed to act.

Miyabi gritted his teeth, but then he spoke.

“This… is right next to my village, right?”

“Were you always playing in such a brutal place?” asked Eliza.

Miyabi shook his head. He was not talking about all the Wicked God corpses littering the ground. Or you could say their impact had kept him from noticing this earlier.

The boy should have known his way around, yet he had surprise in his voice.

“No, I’ve never seen this place. What is this sinister feeling?”

“The forest is trembling and weeping,” said Dark Elf Elaine.

“Yes, the forest rarely feels so damp and fearful,” agreed Alicia.

“ The first village, ” muttered the Lord of Ruin behind his white mask.

The radio did not miss it.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“There really are Wicked God corpses everywhere here,” groaned Miyabi.

“I doubt this area is remotely sanitary,” said Number 8 while avoiding a stream of blood at his feet.

“Heh heh. Keh heh heh! I have never seen so many resources! I can barely contain my-”

“Boss.”

“Never mind. Let’s keep going, shall we?”

The hat’s cold reprimand caused the decadent woman to shape up fast.

Young King Kananka took a look around.

“I do find it hard to believe how many of them there are.”

“Was that Philia Shout only interested in killing her own children on a whim? Or did she have business up ahead?”

“She might not have given any of it any thought at all.”

Onelife’s suggestion was actually the most frightening one.

Miyabi’s party continued to duck below the giant corpses and climb the pathless path until they arrived at the summit.

But again, this was a distance a small child could reach. If not for the Wicked God corpses, this would have been a small and unremarkable mountain.

It was still there.

It may have been best described as a giant bird’s nest.

But for it to survive so many years, it must have been sturdily made. The Wicked God must have wanted the egg containing their child to remain safe.

“Okay, this is the place.”

Miyabi gently set Alma down in the nest. Alma was lying face up like usual.

Alicia stroked the small forehead and horn with a fingertip.

“I hope this can soothe some of the tension. I hope this warms the heart enough for the poor thing to wake up sooner.”

“By the way, what is that?” asked Helen.

“Isn’t it a Wicked God nest?” responded Celina.

“Not that,” said Helen, pointing further down.

Something appeared to be buried below the giant bird’s nest. It was a large piece of stone, clearly carved by someone. The bases of what must have once been columns marked out a space about the size of a gazebo.

“Now that you mention it, it does look like some kind of temple,” said the rich girl. “Which makes this look like an altar.”

“But this sensation.” Acacia frowned. “The place feels cursed.”

“Yes, it isn’t the same as our desert kingdom, but there is a bad vibe hanging over this place.”

The Lord of Ruin remained silent with his face hidden behind the white mask.

“…”

And still silent, he turned around before any of the others.

The rest only heard a rustling sound after the fact.

“Oh, dear. I thought I would stop by for a quick test, but you beat me here.”

This was the last person they wanted to meet here.

She was kind and gentle but also entirely unfaltering.

She had long, long hair that shined a bright pink. She wore white armor that left her dazzling skin and navel exposed to the open air. It did not function as armor, a swimsuit, or a shell.

It was actually composed of Wicked God horns.

Each and every one of those protrusions emerging from her body was one of those powerful horns capable of becoming the core of a Godhorn Tech. Their mere existence had endless influence and they could easily distort the power balance between the nations and companies that controlled the continent.

“The 11th!?” shouted Miyabi, eyes bugging, but Philia Shout only wagged a slender finger.

Not only could she draw endlessly on the power of the horns, but she could grow the horns themselves from every part of her body. She could also create as many real Wicked Gods as she wanted. So as slender as that finger looked, it could easily destroy the entire continent. It was, after all, adorned with a very long horn.

Miyabi would not have questioned it if she said her wagging finger was taking years off of his lifespan.

“Do try to use your head just a little, okay?”

“…”

They could not even send out the Lucifer Horn, but she was as extraordinary as ever. And even if they had full use of his Godhorn Tech – hell, even if they could have sent all 10 Godhorn Techs at her – he doubted they could have defeated her.

“I thought maybe you were intentionally ambushing me here, but it sounds like you don’t even understand the significance of this place.”

“What significance?”

Philia Shout turned toward someone other than Miyabi.

“Isn’t fate a funny thing, Lord of Ruin? I bet you never imagined this place would be your final hope.”

“…”

After some silence, a low voice spoke through the old man’s featureless mask.

“This is the altar where I broke off the juvenile’s horn and embedded it in my sword.”

“Wha-?”

Eliza was dumbfounded.

The ruins of a megalithic culture were found in the Bio Rainforest on the east end of the continent. If their influence had reached this far west, then that ancient culture would have covered a greater area than the Empire at its peak.

The Lord of Ruin continued from behind the smooth mask, like he was forcing out the words.

“Check the altar. You will find a symbol there.”

It was like tearing a wound wider and rubbing it with salt.

Miyabi groaned because there was no need to even check closely. The decorations were all over the stone altar.

“It’s the same symbol found on the Bio Rainforest’s ruins.”

“The serpent carrying the sun? Was that originally the Lord of Ruin’s symbol?” asked Helen.

Philia Shout laughed and clapped her hands.

The claws longer than a sword – no, the horns growing from her fingertips – clacked together as she did.

“Ah ha ha! Yes, that’s right!! This is where it all went wrong. This is where the strongest beasts were made to serve the fragile and pathetic humans.”

“So what?” Miyabi asked the fundamental question. “What are you planning to do here now!?”

“Oh, nothing really.” Despite calling herself a mother, Philia Shout childishly stuck out her tongue. “I thought maybe we understood each other a little, but you humans are hopeless. Your expectations are so low you try to force such ridiculous ideas on us. Do you really think I have some grand desire or master plan?”

“…”

“I detonated a sorcery bomb somewhere yesterday and I’ll set one up somewhere else tomorrow.”

There may not have been any deep thought behind it.

“I just remembered there was an amusing memorial here, so I thought I would check it out again.”

“That’s all?”

Kananka was not alone in his disbelief.

Number 8 was just as dumbfounded.

“It was really only on a whim?”

“Oh, dear. Then tell me this: what would I even want to accomplish through some intricate master plan? I did think it would be amusing to transform Alma, but that is far from a necessity.”

She had an almost refreshing look on her face.

“Do you think I want to prove I am the world’s strongest by breaking through the crust below our feet? Hoard all the world’s money? Pursue all forms of beauty? Monopolize every kind of love? Rule with absolute charisma?” asked Philia Shout. “I accomplished all of that before you humans ever appeared in this land. Using the power of my countless horns, of course.”

“Y-you’re insane!” accused Eliza, but Philia Shout did not bat an eye.

“Why should I care how your human standards judge me? I used the Missing Dice to test out every single thing I could do. Much like spreading my arms to see how far I could stretch them.”

She spoke so smoothly.

Right up until she didn’t.

“But it wasn’t enough.”

Something felt wrong.

Like the harbinger of a major accident.

“To be free is not to run wild or be unbound by any rules. Having free rein over the vast world around you actually feels so very lonely. You need an objective, no matter how small. You need some kind of goal marked on the map. Nothing I accomplished changed how I felt. No matter how much I took, I was never satisfied. I felt no attachment to creation either. If I would remain unchanged no matter what happened to the world around me, why even bother changing or growing that world?”

So.

She arrived at a twisted answer.

“The only thing left for me is to return to the first village and destroy everything.”

“Wait, you don’t have to do that now, do you!? Alma is still-!!”

“Oh? You still don’t get how mommy feels?”

She laughed and made the worst possible announcement.

It seemed to point back at the bloody path they had followed to reach here.

“ I loathe weak children. ”

By the time her slender fingertip pointed his way, Miyabi had already drawn his control sword. They were at the summit, but it did not jut sharply into the sky. The short, trapezoidal mountain had a large, flat summit. There were more than 10 of them and there were no trees, so they could spread out and surround Philia Shout.

However…

“Be careful, Miyabi!” warned Alicia.

“Alma is defenseless right now,” added Helen. “A single hit could be devastating!”

Again, there were more than 10 of them.

They could surround Philia Shout and pepper her with attacks from close and long range.

Kananka threw his boomerang.

The bent projectile weapon was more like a striking weapon, but Philia Shout did not even glance in its direction. Did she know that throw was only meant to read the wind so he could inform the rest of the party?

“The humidity is unusually high? Oh, because of all the blood from the Wicked Gods we saw on the way here?”

“Tch. Elaine, coordinate with me!” shouted Celina while she used a skinny rod to stuff powder and a bullet down the barrel of her gun. “We can use projectiles to surely and safely pin her in place!!”

“Fine, but what then?”

“What else? The others wail on her with some straightforward heavy firepower!!”

Following the smart bullets and arrows, Eliza rushed in with her lance, Number 8 with his morning star, Acacia and Ixea with axes bigger than they were, and Onelife with his powerful arm. They fanned out to partially surround their target and then narrowed back in on her.

Philia Shout only had two arms.

If she was attacked from four directions at once, how much could she block and how much would hit?

“Nwohhh!!” roared the pirate. “I might be slow, but my attacks are devastating when they land. So we only have to set things up so I have a guaranteed hit!!!!!!”

Yes.

Even if she had Wicked God horns growing from every part of her, she still looked like a human girl. She had the usual number of limbs and she could only move in the horizontal directions. She could not fly like a bird or wriggle like a snake.

So she shouldn’t have had any way of defending against a sufficiently high number of attacks.

However.

Chosen Knight Eliza gulped.

“We were repelled again. What do we do if not even surrounding her is enough!?”

“We either boost our strength or tear down hers, of course! There’s still plenty we can try!!”

Helen cast magic-weakening magic on her dagger and Alicia tossed Eliza a test tube of an alchemical boosting potion.

Miyabi moved between Philia Shout and the altar to keep her away from sleeping Alma.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Cubes of dark soil stacked up in front of the altar to create a Decoy Wall. That would prevent a direct hit on Alma in the off chance Philia Shout tried to throw something.

Their calculations were not wrong.

The Lord of Ruin drew out a lightning bolt with zigzagging slashes of his sword directly in front of her and Kananka’s boomerang curved midflight to strike at her from a blind spot. The Necromancer’s long whip scattered a strange saliva spray every time it struck the ground, sending a toxic scattershot toward Philia Shout’s eyes.

“This is working. We can do this,” muttered Miyabi under his breath.

He tried to convince himself of that while he gripped his control sword in both hands and rushed toward her again.

“I’m still working at it! So create! You can create a path forward! We haven’t lost as long as some possibility remains!! We won’t let you have Alma!!!!!!”

After all the experience they had built up, each of their attacks was devastatingly powerful. It was possible they might have been able to defeat a Godhorn Tech without one of their own at this point.

And yet.

“Hee hee.”

She simply laughed.

Philia Shout swayed in amusement.

“Oh, dear. Trying some fun self-suggestion? You so doubt yourself that you have to say it all out loud to try and convince yourself it’s true?☆”

She did not dodge or defend.

The sword and the lance were forcibly stopped.

All she did was stand there on her two legs, yet she had not shed a single drop of blood. Even with a morning star swung down at her head, bullets fired at her soft-looking chest, and Helen’s knife aimed for the gaps in the joints of her armor.

Even Kananka seemed hesitant to throw his boomerang.

Their attacks were like pudding or yogurt against the solid wall of her defenses.

Was her very existence that much different from their own!?

“Hee hee. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!”

A dull noise rang out.

The horns growing from her elbows, back, hips, hands, and forehead began to move, deflecting the attacks that should have been landing clean hits.

The encirclement around her was forced outwards.

Miyabi clenched his teeth as the soles of his shoes slid and he nearly slipped down the slope.

“Dammit, our attacks aren’t working!?”

“Of course they aren’t. Godhorn Techs draw their power from a Wicked God horn, remember? And every Wicked God belongs to me. None of you can even perceive the Missing Dice that make up more than 90% of the world, so you can swing around the tip of a broken horn all day long – it isn’t going to change anything in this world full of useless excess.”

The Wicked God horns protruding from her body glowed with a bewitching light.

“If you focus all your attention on the surface-level Palette Dice that make up less than 10% of the whole, you can never defeat me since I can control all of the unseen Missing Dice. The freer you are, the stronger you are, so no one who restricts themselves with unnecessary limits can ever succeed! This useless world is the result of always choosing to compromise and never specializing in anything. And you expect the junk born here to harm me!?”

Miyabi was the one being worn down as he continued to attack. With each strike of his sword, a dull tingling pain filled his wrists. It felt like striking a boulder with a metal pole.

And he wasn’t alone there.

“Alicia! Elf! Give me a hand!”

“What, are your lead bullets not enough for you? Well, I haven’t specialized in that field of alchemy, so if you can’t do it, I can’t either!!”

It was especially obvious in Celina who had to reload her gun with powder and a bullet every time she fired, but they were all showing signs of exhaustion and weariness. Miyabi imagined they were wearing down their hammers and pickaxes by swinging them against an unbreakable wall.

Philia Shout was still toying with them.

She was provoking them in order to draw out some kind of response.

Otherwise she wouldn’t have avoided using the sorcery bombs she could use whenever she liked.

“Pant, pant!!”

“What’s this? Done already? Then do you mind if I get started? Mommy wants to cause a major explosion here. Given the historical significance of this place, I figure it warrants a full 100 sorcery bombs. I can plant them all over like a flower garden. Hee hee.”

“But…why?”

The enormity of what she suggested got them all to stop.

They didn’t mean to, but they all froze in unison. It felt like they were being consumed by something massive, so it was disconcerting to say the least.

Miyabi could not even catch his breath, but he squeezed his control sword tighter as he asked his question.

“Why are you so fixated on power and destruction?”

“Oh, dear. This all came from my body, so aren’t I free to do with it as I please? Really, it’s strange you think you can waltz in and try to stop me. Especially when you’re the one who borrowed one of my horns to use its power. Without asking, I might add.”

“…!?”

(Don’t let her get to you. If a direct attack doesn’t work, we just have to find something else. Like…like a poison root or something.)

He raised his sword and looked her in the eye to distract her from how he was brushing some dirt away with his boot heel and locating a toxic-colored tree root.

Philia Shout gave him a bewitching smile.

“See what I mean? Even you destroy to get what you want. That’s just how the world works.”

“!?”

“Besides, destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin. Creating something requires destroying something. You cannot create anything from nothing. Whenever you created something, you had to fell trees, shatter rocks, and otherwise destroy things to obtain materials, didn’t you?”

It was an amused smile.

“You use up materials, you kill, and you acquire more all so you can create something new .”

It was a sticky smile that seemed to be breaking apart.

Entranced, she placed her hands on either side of her small face.

“And the same applies to the invisible and intangible realm of the Missing Dice. It doesn’t matter if you can sense it or not and you don’t have to question whether whatever it is deserves to be destroyed.”

“But…”

He couldn’t believe it.

His voice grew scratchy.

“But you can’t take people’s lives like that.”

“Did you think you were creating a new world? But that is the same as destroying the current world. And when it comes to destruction, I am far more powerful. I can reach areas you cannot see or touch. So your power of creation cannot defeat mommy . Destruction and creation are one and the same. You must till the land to grow crops and you must reap the wheat and grind it into flour to bake bread. The world has always worked like this.”

(If neither destruction nor creation can beat her…then how are we even supposed to fight her!?)

“Now, how about we end this?”

She gave a flourish of a horned finger and sucked in a breath.

That elegant movement was enough to terrify Miyabi at this point.

“I don’t care if you label it destruction or creation. Whoever is stronger has the power to change the world . So you must be destroyed for the future mommy has in mind.”

She approached step by step.

Her legs were those of a lovely girl, but they created the illusion of the earth quaking with each step.

A thick invisible wall seemed to be slowly crushing them. Once she was within arm’s reach, they were dead.

No.

That countdown was entirely meaningless. If she had wanted to, she could have blown them away along with the entire mountain using a sorcery bomb.

It was Miyabi’s party that was reliant on that unnecessary countdown. They had to whip their weary and trembling legs into shape and charge in with weapons at the ready.

“This isn’t over yet.”

Miyabi forced his chattering teeth together and raised his voice for a roar.

He had to get his party’s stopped gears moving again even if that meant forcing it.

“Alicia, Helen…follow meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!”

They heard the clang of clashing metal.

They heard the boom of explosions.

They heard the crash of impacts.

They heard the roar of erupting magic.

“Kh…damn her!!”

“Hee hee. Try as much as you like. By the way, are you familiar with the concept of a treadmill ? Forcing someone to work an endless and obviously hopeless task is an effective form of torture that wears down their psyche. Ah ha ha!! Ah ha ha ha ha!!”

They struck her.

Hit her.

Slashed her and pushed back at her.

But she put in no effort or thought. She did not predict their actions or trick them. She simply stood before them and slowly approached. She did not even use her hands to keep the incoming blades or blunt weapons from hitting her face. She did not even blink or flinch when a sword or spear was jabbed straight toward her eye.

Nothing at all changed about the Mother of Wicked Gods.

“Yawwwn…”

“!?”

Something was loudly deflected.

Acacia rushed in and had her giant axe repelled so it nearly lodged itself in Onelife’s torso as he followed behind her.

None of the Wicked God horns had glowed.

Nor had she thrown in a sorcery bomb.

“Oh, dear. Sorry about that.”

She had only raised a hand to her mouth.

An action only meant to cover a yawn had accidentally caught the heavy blade and knocked it backwards. Almost like it had been caught on a giant gear.

“I didn’t expect something so simple to knock you on your ass.”

“Damn you!!”

Celina aimed her gun and provided ineffective covering fire while Ixea borrowed Onelife’s shoulder to move back away from the enemy.

The yawn had brought tears to the mother’s eyes.

The horns must have made smaller actions difficult because she let the horn on her index finger fall away before rubbing the tears from her eyes. And that action was all it took for Celina’s bullet to ricochet away.

“Gah!?”

It was like she couldn’t even hear Number 8’s cry of agony as he doubled over. Eliza’s lance was deflected upwards, knocking her arms overhead and stretching her spine up. Even the Lord of Ruin’s sword strike was easily stopped by her soft-looking chest.

No matter what they did, the action was stopped in some unexpected way.

Their movements fell apart, their coordination was in shambles, and their balance was thrown off. Blades and arrows ended up attacking their own party members.

“Be…careful!”

Eliza’s eyes widened when she saw Helen collapse, bringing Onelife down with her.

She provided a warning as a chosen knight who knew a lot about direct combat.

“If you fall with a blade in hand, you can always stab yourself in the gut or leg. Short one-handed blades are especially dangerous in that- !?”

She stopped midsentence.

She had taken a hit to the forehead and collapsed backwards.

Miyabi caught her but did not understand what had happened at first.

It took him some time to realize Philia Shout had used a fingertip to fling her own tears while pretending to throw a kiss.

“Philia Shouuuut!!!!!!”

“I told you to try as much as you like, but please do not make me embarrass myself.” She placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks like a child. A new sharp horn grew back on her fingertip. “When you’re this weak, it makes me want to kill you and then it would look like I broke my promise. Do you need a cheerleader maybe? Go, go! You can do it☆ I believe in you! Because if you can’t, it’s time for the sorcery bombs.”

Everything they did backfired.

Miyabi started to justify his fears by wondering if not doing anything was the wiser decision.

However…

“This isn’t over yet.”

The redhead boy left limp Eliza with Elaine and held his sword in both hands again.

He forced the strength back into himself.

“Not even close!! We will make you take this seriously, Philia Shout. However you might see this fight, we’re still fighting to protect Alma’s life!!”

She placed a hand on her forehead and sighed.

She used her feet to tap out a rhythm on the ground.

She pulled the blade-like horns from her fingertips and brought the hand to her long hair.

Her gentlest actions were enough for Acacia and Ixea to crash into each other and roll along the ground, for Kananka’s boomerang to be deflected and collide with Celina’s gun from the side, and for Alicia’s test tubes to shatter in midair when she tossed them to the others.

She wasn’t doing much of anything, but they were battered and bloody.

The Mother of Wicked Gods did not even take a fighting stance.

She did nothing more than someone who arrived at a meetup point early and was trying to kill some time.

“…”

But then she tilted her head.

Confused, she asked a question.

“How strange. Why don’t you give up when the result is so obvious?”

“I don’t care.”

Miyabi knew they couldn’t win.

But that reckless boy was not the only one who glared straight at her without averting his gaze.

He rolled along the ground, nicked his cheek with his own sword, and spilled some red, but he was not alone.

“It only…has to be…a smokescreen.” She couldn’t even hold her shoulders straight, but Celina gritted her teeth, loaded another around, and aimed her weapon despite the tingling numbness in her hands. “Maybe our attacks don’t affect you, but as long as they keep your attacks from hitting us, we break even. We’ll buy enough time to come up with some other idea, so you figure something out, Miyabi!!”

“Lord of Ruin, you wielded your blade as a Godhorn Tech slayer by triggering reaction backlash between two horns’ powers, causing them to rupture from within, right?” The butler automaton was battered, but he was still standing straight. He held his side where an ally’s bullet had hit him, but he still had the will to fight. “I know you can’t use that power with the contents of your demon sword fried, but Miyabi’s control sword is a different matter. It still holds a Wicked God’s power. Is there any way you could teach him that technique? It should be especially effective against Philia Shout thanks to all those horns!!”

This proved that there were still possibilities out there. Maybe they couldn’t see them now, but if they kept pushing, everything could change.

The boy’s indomitable spirit had spread to the others.

Maybe their methods were fundamentally flawed. They may have been overwhelmingly lacking in power. But Miyabi thrust his control sword forward and forced out a roar.

“But something about this is bothering me. It’s right there on the tip of my tongue!”

“I will not give up either,” said Alicia who had been slashed by shards of glass.

“Right. Because we’re all that stands between her and Alma,” said Helen who was extracting some of her own dagger’s poison from her body.

Both of them were gasping for breath but supporting the boy.

They would not give up.

This wasn’t about maturity or childishness, calm or short-tempered, benevolent or malicious. No one here was going to slam on the brakes.

No one needed to.

Even the philosopher’s stone took a challenging stance.

“Tch. Fine then. The mascots and the weakest characters get all the love! But apparently that stuffed animal thing is a girl, so I’m game!!”

They challenged their foe.

They grabbed, fired, and pushed through.

“God, I’m not supposed to be out here fighting with no real chance at profit,” griped the rich girl while rudely spitting out some bloody saliva.

“A knight must rescue the weak. I see no reason to back down!” said the chosen knight, one arm hanging limply at her side.

“Imperial technology was made to last. I can at least function as a shield,” said the magical automaton with his morning star at the ready.

They charged straight it.

They triggered explosions.

They set traps at their feet.

“Who needs logic!? We’ve just gotta try like hell to stop her! Gnhh- bwaaahhhhh!!!!!!”

Onelife was blasted to the side when she brushed her long hair aside and the young king was knocked down by the man’s rolling form, but he readied his boomerang when he got back on his feet.

“Ouch… Conflict is best avoided, but you leave us little choice!!”

Philia Shout breathed an exasperated sigh that blew the long tongue whip back at the Necromancer.

“I pulled the trigger on this, so this is my mess to clean up,” said the Necromancer.

“Boss, have you turned good!?”

They slashed.

They crushed.

They pressed the muzzle against bare skin and pulled the trigger.

“Perhaps I can never atone for my sins, but I cannot allow this juvenile to die!!”

The Lord of Ruin’s sword seemed incapable of even scratching her soft skin. The more the priestesses swung their large axes, they more their coordination failed and the more they harmed each other. Yet those failures did not stop them and they raised those axes with the blades glinting in the light.

“At this point, there is no point in considering the numbers, Ixea.”

“That’s right, Acacia. I’m too pissed to stop now.”

Elaine Greenforest was smiling behind her goggles. She used projectiles, but she had taken damage too. When Philia Shout simply waved her hand, a blast of invisible wind would fly out with the force of a fist-sized cannonball.

“Don’t underestimate a dark elf’s bow. We’ve been known to cause cataclysms of our own.”

They got up.

Again and again.

They readied their weapons.

Over and over.

That was much easier said than done when they had all been pushed well past their limits. It was a miracle they were even still standing. The numbers didn’t add up. But there was someone here who allowed the seemingly impossible to happen.

They could not allow her violence.

Alma was still deep asleep and they could not allow that defenseless life to be lost.

So they had to put up a defense.

They challenged their enemy again and again. If every attack they made was more time for Alma to live, then this fight was not in vain. They were willing to fight forever if that was what it took!!

She was unharmed, but Philia Shout definitely lurched backwards.

“What?”

She seemed to see something deeper here.

She gasped.

And she wanted to deny what she had seen.

“Is something being born here? No, that isn’t it. That can’t be it.”

“Oh, but it is,” confirmed Miyabi. “You said destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin and you have to destroy to create. But that isn’t the full picture.”

“What?”

“There is no destructive price in the creation of the bonds between people. You don’t have to break any other bonds for that! So you can create something from nothing. Everyone knows that. If you do have to pay a price to create a bond, then it’s a false one. There are tons of things out there that don’t follow your equation!!”

Alicia, Helen, Celina, Eliza, Number 8, Kananka, Onelife, the Necromancer, Acacia, Ixea, the Lord of Ruin, and Elaine.

Yes.

They had created something over the course of this battle.

Victia, Sophia, Garett, Iris, and the others who were not actually fighting had supported them in any number of ways from Horn Fortress. They had created the Divine Crystal Bullet, they had treated the Necromancer’s wound, and they had resupplied the Lucifer Horn’s bombs. There was so much the party could not have overcome without that support. And Miyabi would never forget that they had created a home for them to return to.

It was because of everyone who had supported him that he could say this now.

Miyabi Blackgarden refused to be taken in by the enemy’s way of thinking as he spoke straight to her face!!

“The world is a warm and gentle place. I need every last one of you, so I will not offer anyone up as sacrifice!!”

He made a wish.

“So you wake up too.”

He was no longer speaking to Philia Shout.

“Lend me your power.”

He raised his voice to a shout.

“Almaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!”

He had no reason to think this would work.

He knew nothing about Wicked God physiology.

But.

He was absolutely certain.

“ Koo …”

Absolutely certain he would hear that voice.

Absolutely certain that Alma would get up and rub against his ankles like normal.

“This isn’t possible.” It was Philia Shout’s turn to be baffled. “I refuse to accept something with no mass or proof.”

“You believe in the invisible Missing Dice, but you throw out something happening before your very eyes if you don’t like it? Sound like you live in a very limited world!!”

It happened all of a sudden.

“Kooo!!”

Philia Shout covered her ears.

Miyabi heard a shrill phantom noise similar to the ringing caused by sorcery bombs. Kananka and Number 8 frowned a little too.

But it had to be so much worse for her. The precision of her senses came back to bite her. The 11th was now grimacing and curled up on the ground. The untouchable Philia Shout was acting like someone suffering from crippling tinnitus.

The mother roared with eyes that seemed to be cursing the cause of the headache.

“Almaaaa!!!??? Is this horn resonance? No, did you drag the massless Missing Dice to the ‘surface’ to apply pressure to my horns!?”

“You yourself said people are free to do whatever they want with something that came from their body, right?” Miyabi Blackgarden held out his control sword and shouted while walking forward with the others. “This is the power of the bonds that tie us together! I will not let you reject something we created ourselves. You don’t get to call this unfair, 11th!!”

Her lips were trembling.

“Curse…”

She held her head in pain, her long hair covered the monstrous expression on her face, and the light of her eyes pierced through that hair to stare straight at Miyabi.

“Yes, yes. Curse you and your pathetic attempts!!”

Her resentment leaked out like she was tearing at her skin.

A change came over her.

Her gentle demeanor was gone.

That meant things would be truly lethal now. She was done playing and would bare her fangs.

Miyabi had shown off his creation of bonds – that power that tied them together. He had not held back. He had used everything he had and sworn to defeat the Mother of Wicked Gods.

So this was still not enough.

They were on a mountain summit, but it was not all that high up. There was no seemingly insurmountable height difference to overcome like with the Huge Eye.

The very moment before the light of Philia Shout’s eyes grew lethal, Kananka Fulpen’s boomerang flew along a perfect arc. It was not simply aimed for the side of the Mother of Wicked Gods’s head.

“The wind, temperature, and humidity check out. There’s no margin of error, so just go straight in!!” shouted the young king.

A giant mass slammed into her from the side.

“Huh?”

It was a Godhorn Tech.

The massive form crashed nose-first into her at max speed like a divine hammer.

Time seemed to freeze. Its main wings were spread more powerfully than a dragon’s and they had a message roughly drawn on with a toxic-looking blood-red paint: Don’t forget about me, motherfucker!!

The explosive boom of their final party member’s arrival only reached them after a short delay.

The Lucifer Horn’s sonic boom acted as the starting pistol for the final counterattack against the horned one.

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 8

Shortly before the clash, a blond-haired, brown-skinned boy lay collapsed on the beach.

Ginger was sprawled out among all the rubble.

The ocean was dyed with the colors of death.

Night had fallen, but he had no memory at all of the sunset.

“Sigh, I had a feeling this would happen. I can run and I can train, but it always falls apart in the end. Is there nowhere I can just live in peace?”

But.

Noticing someone moving out the corner of his eye, Ginger Sandstrike sat up. His surroundings were too horrific to look at. The castle had collapsed, rubble was strewn everywhere, and food had been dumped on the filthy ground. At this rate, they would have a hard time defending themselves against the island’s wild animals and undead Beast Novae.

However.

A maid trapped in a giant suit of armor was holding a broom. Angela Custardmare was sweeping away the smaller stones and cleaning off enough of the ground for a limited workspace.

Dancer Iris Tempinvy was gathering up the usable White Sorcery Items and running around to treat the injured.

Sophia Calamity-Jinx, with the colorful will-o’-the-wisps following her around, cast some illumination magic to light everyone’s work.

And the dwarf named Garett Goldcave held a giant hammer.

But not to destroy something. He was a blacksmith, so that hammer was used to create.

“What?” Ginger asked an honest question. “What could you possibly be trying to create now that everything’s been reduced to rubble?”

“A chance,” bluntly replied Garett. “The Lucifer Horn was washed ashore. It could have stayed out in the ocean after failing its water landing, but it came up to the shore even if that meant scraping its belly in the shallows. It wants our help.”

“But it can’t talk or even give us a polite smile.”

“So what? When you work with metal every day, you learn that metals and other inorganic materials have moods. They have souls of their own. That Godhorn Tech used its last ounces of strength to rely on us, the people pathetically collapsed among all this rubble. It found something only we could do and hoped we would do it. …If you ask me, that shines a lot brighter than a million words or the perfect smile. That Godhorn Tech hasn’t given up yet. It’s still trying to fight alongside Miyabi. If we can do something for the Lucifer Horn, then that kid and the others can strike back at the 11th for all of us. I’d create anything to accomplish that.”

That wasn’t Ginger’s point.

He was asking where all this trust came from. Miyabi had gathered everyone here and they had done a lot to support him, but he had only gathered them because it was necessary and he had been willing to destroy it when that was necessary.

And yet…

“He never apologized. He never said he was sorry. He didn’t even give us a ‘my bad’,” said Garett. “But the kid was crying. Maybe he didn’t think anyone would notice while covered in dust and surrounded by collapsing rubble, but I did.”

“…”

That was the same as the Lucifer Horn.

It meant more than a million words or a polite smile.

“It pained him to do that, but that was the only way he had to protect us from those sorcery bomb things. So he shouldered the entire burden himself. …Do I need to say more? I’d have already started working at this point if I were you.”

“I’m in, I’m in. I am so in,” interrupted Lillian Greenforest.

She looked like a young woman with brown skin and a bare midriff, but she was actually a long-eared dark elf survivor who got by renting out her own body for magical experiments.

“We need to at least get the thing flyable. I know so much about the devastating magical research humans love so much. None of it ended up having the potential to destroy the world, but I’m sure it can still come in handy on a Godhorn Tech.”

“Are you sure? I thought your goal was vengeance on the humans who burned down your forest,” whispered Garett who also saw humans as another species, but the dark elf lady only shrugged.

“Honestly, I can hardly believe it myself. …I never even dreamed I would come across someone who pissed me off more than humans.”

“…”

“Let’s prove we aren’t out of the fight yet. Let’s grab that elf knight acting all depressed over there. We should be able to do some interesting things with the power of the Demon Lord possessing him. And what about the others? There’s that self-styled researcher of a dancer, the Godhorn Tech designer, and that cursed chain hoping to decurse itself. No, we don’t need to restrict ourselves to the intellectuals. That martial arts freak, the queen of the battle arena, and the gambler bunny might have some interesting ideas no one else would have considered. We just have to figure out a way to make their crazy ideas a reality.”

“Fshoo shoo shoo!!” The laughter muffled by an octopus-like mask came from Marietta Diggrave. She was a professional salvage hunger who visited an inhospitable red land and dug up valuable magic books and experimental equipment. “I know a lot about imperial technology. Wouldn’t it be super exciting to add some lost technology in there to give us an edge? Nwohhh bshoo bshoo! Let’s make the ultimate giant robot formed by the combination of 5 smaller robots!!”

“A-again, we just have to get it flying again. Don’t give us extra work,” said Sophia. She had will-o’-the-wisps flying around her, but she was not a ghost yet. She could not just stand around nervously without contributing. “U-um. I have a decent stock of old documents and lost technologies, so could those come in handy?”

“Oh, and I know a lot about the collections of those awful nobles. You know, because I was such a popular maid that they kept fighting over me and even trying to kill me!”

Angela Custardmare hopped up and down in her giant armor as she spoke.

Charlotte Nightlagoon sighed as she listened to it all.

That mermaid had completed a magic potion to transform herself into human and now she was searching for some way of returning to the ocean.

“If you need unknown magical techniques, I might be able to help. You all live on the land, so you’ve never even seen the magic of the mermaid kingdom hidden on the bottom of the sea, have you? I doubt the 11th has either, so just as she’s mocking you for using stuff she’s already seen, we blast her with something she doesn’t even recognize.”

All of this was only the beginning.

“What should I hunt?” asked Harber Snipe-Eat with a glance toward the forest. Gang Daughter Phobia Neverjudge reached into her shoe and pulled out the hidden plans to a weapon. They were gradually gathering everything they would need. They should have just given up, but they instead began presenting their own trump cards. Even though it would be a refutation of their own lives if this failed too.

All of these people were willing to accept that risk to help out.

For Miyabi who continued to fight on the front line.

And for the world he was trying to save.

“Listen, Lucifer Horn.”

The old dwarf placed a hand on the bomber that had washed up on the beach.

He rubbed it with his wrinkled palm.

“This isn’t over yet. We’ll give you a chance. We’ll make sure you can fly again. So you soar through the sky faster than anyone and arrive in time to save Miyabi. That’s your job.”

Ginger Sandstrike sighed softly.

He was a guardian, a specialist who buried his clients’ pasts and secrets deep in the ruins found in the vast desert.

There had to be something he could do.

“Hmph.” He spoke to the dwarf blacksmith. “Old man, what should we start with?”

He crawled out from the rubble just once more.

There was something he wanted to tell Miyabi the next time he saw the boy. But he had to do something here if those words were going to carry any weight.

All this work here would be worth it to see the look on his face.

Yes.

They all began working with the pile of rubble so they could send a message.

But Ginger Sandstrike was focused on something other than the implied message.

He instead grabbed a can of red paint.

“Lucifer Horn.”

With paint can and brush in hand, the ill-tempered desert guardian climbed onto the main wings and grinned.

He was a bad boy.

So he painted out a rude message on that large canvas.

“Can you pass on this message? I think it succinctly describes how we all feel and what it is you want to say.”

### Profiles

Philia Shout

Apparent Age: 17 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 170cm

Mastermind behind the sorcery bombings and the originator of all Wicked Gods. Her mere presence rewrites people’s values. She insists that the Wicked Gods she sends into the world must be the ultimate life forms that cannot be harmed by anyone, so she cannot accept that humans are breaking off their horns and stealing their power. Her power is great, including the ability to create Wicked Gods and the horns that grow freely from her body. She also places no limits on her own abilities because she does not see why she should need anyone’s permission to use her own power.

### 038. Epilogue

A few different letters arrived that day.

That small forest village rarely received letters from outside. Miyabi retrieved the envelopes from the mailbox, returned to his log house, and opened them on the table.

Alma sat on the same table in the usual white stuffed animal form.

He used a hand to play with the creature while reading through the letters.

Eliza Silverstorm had returned to the Arsenal Kingdom.

That snowy kingdom was searching for a way to support itself without the military might of a Godhorn Tech. They had been discussing options day and night with the help of Celina Bodenburg, a girl born into wealth and a true merchant.

The Empire had once feared an east-west route connecting the continent’s north and that idea was showing promise. They would be developing a new trade route connecting them to the desert nation via the dark elf forest. For the resource-starved Arsenal Kingdom, the contrasting environment of the desert nation was a treasure trove. The reverse was also true, so it was bound to benefit both sides.

The Necromancer was vigorously working in the ruins of the Empire.

Necromancy was all about researching death, but it could also be used to aid life. She was researching a method of returning that vast land to normal. The red territory had become too clean, so she said balance could be restored by adding in some impurity. Dark Elf Elaine Greenforest, who had been directly involved in the Empire’s destruction, was working with her. That was a sign that she was trying to connect to the world through something other than revenge.

…Then again, both of them were bad girls(?), so it was only a matter of time before they got fed up with their task and ran off with as many valuable imperial magic books and experimental equipment as they could carry. Number 8 had been sent to keep an eye on them to prevent that.

Kananka Fulpen had chosen to officially support Onelife Shiftup. A state-supported pirate was a strange idea, but apparently criminals could come in handy when used properly. He was allowed to fight and demand supplies from (that is, steal everything board their ship) anyone who intended to harm the remote island kingdom.

Acacia Flightheart and Ixea Flightheart continued to travel around the continent. The Lord of Ruin had said his role in this world was complete, but he was proving useful for all his ancient knowledge related to the ruins they were visiting. They kept asking him for more and more, so it sounded like the ancient king would not get to rest for a while yet.

And.

“Hey!”

Did he even need that wheelchair anymore? Moebius Entrance was enjoying a lazy slow life in the same village and he called in through the window now.

“You got some time? I’ve got a job only possible for a skilled fixer with the Lucifer Horn at his disposal.”

“Don’t shove your sketchy jobs onto me. I’m only a lumberjack trainee.”

“A trainee who defeated the Mother of Wicked Gods and saved the world, you mean? Looking at the score, you’re on my level now.”

Even when talking up the boy, Moebius refused to place the boy above him.

The easygoing young man rarely said much about himself, but did this mean he had saved the world at least once before?

“This is something I can only ask you, the guy who carelessly gave the world a second lady killer of a fixer.” Moebius waved in through the window. “There’s a Demon Lord on the loose. On a different continent this time.”

“A Demon Lord?”

“Don’t look so puzzled. They aren’t just something from children’s stories. I mean, you’ve already met one…no, two of them. The first being Under Lilith who’s always hanging around that elf knight, but the other is Philia Shout, Mother of Wicked Gods.”

“…”

According to Moebius, there were 12 Demon Lords in all.

And each of them had as powerful an influence as Philia Shout.

In other words…

“Yes, influence. The Wicked God horns held so much power over this continent and determined the power balance of nations and companies alike because Philia Shout existed on this continent. That’s all it took. Here mere presence completely rewrote everyone’s values. An age of magic or an age of swords is created by the presence of a corresponding Demon Lord. Now, a question: what if another Demon Lord decided to pay our continent a visit? It could go as far as to tear down the assumption that Wicked God horns are the be-all and end-all of power.”

“Are you saying one is coming here?”

“Demon Lord Rising Dark. The lord of pure violence. Much, much too pure violence. God, and I really though this wouldn’t be a problem after a certain someone attacked her and sealed most of her power.”

Miyabi frowned because he had a good idea what Moebius was getting at.

“So you want me to drive her away before the world’s values crumble around us?”

“You’ve figured out how to transport people using the Lucifer Horn, right? There’s no good reason to wait until she arrives here. Visiting her continent and attacking her there would minimize the damage.” Moebius spat out the dangerous words of a fixer. “No one wants all the continent’s nations and religions to collapse, right? Assuming the fragments of information I’ve received are accurate, Rising Dark would cause far too great a change here.”

Miyabi had dug deep graves for all of the Wicked Gods slaughtered by Philia Shout on that nearby mountain. In secret, so no one could ever find them. He had wanted them to rest in peace, but he had also not wanted their dozens of horns to wreak havoc on the continent.

But that same chaos was about to arrive in a different form.

“But if you don’t have some real talent with you, you’ll only be traveling to your deaths. I can’t leave this in the hands of anyone who hasn’t already proven they can defeat a Demon Lord. Which means either me or you.”

Moebius once again hinted at his own legend.

The boy sighed.

He shrugged and made an honest confession.

“I’m not going to get myself killed over my pride. If this Demon Lord is as strong as Philia Shout, then I can’t do this on my own.”

“Then don’t do it alone. I’m betting you were just starting to miss the others. And don’t you want to pay Horn Fortress another visit?”

Moebius had seen right through him.

The timing was almost too good. Both the timing of Moebius’s arrival and the timing of the letters. Miyabi suspected Moebius had somehow set things up so all of the letters would arrive today.

Miyabi jotted down a quick note for his parents and grabbed something he had left leaning against the wall: the Lucifer Horn’s control sword.

“Alma, let’s make sure everything’s locked up.”

“Kyoo☆”

After leaving his house with the white stuffed animal creature, Miyabi called out to someone.

“Alicia.”

That elf never had anything going on and she would go wherever Alma went.

“Helen.”

He knew the glasses woman would tag along as a bodyguard and supervisor since the Republic would be in danger if Miyabi or Alma were abducted on another continent.

(Now, now to gather the rest of the party?)

He pictured a map of the continent in his head.

At the same time, Miyabi Blackgarden called out to someone else who had settled down in this nowhere village.

“You too, Philia Shout !! You said you didn’t recognize our strength, right? Then we’ll show you how it’s done. You’re in our party now, got it!?”

Something can be created from nothing.

As long as people join hands and continue to challenge a formidable problem.

### 039. Part of Miyabi’s mind begged him to not figure out what she meant.

“What will happen to the people remaining here in Horn Fortress when that hits? Both the Godhorn Tech users and the ordinary people?”

“!?”

But he could not afford to not understand.

Refusing to make a choice would fix nothing. Things would only get worse.

“Wait, Alma!! That’s enough. We don’t need that, so get rid of it!! Right now, we need to rescue the others more than defeat her!”

“Now, now. Let’s enjoy this some more. If this isn’t thrilling enough for you, I can help out.”

She casually removed the sharp horns from the fingers of one hand and held the soft palm up to her mouth.

It looked like she simply blew a sweet breath onto them.

And yet he heard dull footsteps, deafening roars, and massive forms he had to look up at.

These were not the cubic will-o’-the-wisps of the sorcery bombs.

They were worse.

He saw a three-headed black guard dog.

He saw lizard with thin, bat-like wings spread wide.

He saw a great serpent with countless heads spread out like a bouquet of flowers.

Each of them was at least several dozen meters tall. The largest ones were an order of magnitude larger. These monsters looked like they could directly grapple with a Godhorn Tech.

“Good luck.” The horned girl giggled so sweetly – so wickedly. “If anything happens to Alma here, you lose the key to survival and you die. As do all your companions.”

“Goddammit!!”

He didn’t understand.

But the enemy was attacking and he had to stand up to them or die.

He raised his sparking control sword.

Now was not the time to sit around figuring out all the answers.

He shifted slowly to the right with the sword in both hands. The rubble scattered underfoot made each step a different length, making his footwork a terrifying ordeal. He never knew what could draw the enemy’s attention.

“Trying to put the sun behind you? No, that’s not it.”

Philia Shout whispered with a tone of amusement while still leaning against the headless goddess statue from the side. The way she placed her pointer finger on her chin and narrowed her eyes was just like a mother given a riddle by her small child.

He couldn’t let her figure it out.

If she did, she would strike there. So he silently begged her not to catch on while he slowly moved his feet. Each step seemed to take years off his life. He paid with his own lifespan to gain the room to turn to the right.

“Or are you moving upwind? Hee hee. Hoping to send a smokescreen or a powdered drug toward mommy?”

“…”

In truth, Miyabi didn’t have it in him to so vigilantly detect a chance at victory.

But he had just barely removed the fishing hook from his mouth.

He was confident of it.

Yes, after turning just enough to ensure his collapsed companions would not be caught in the blast, he stabbed his control sword into the ground. He stepped on the rubble, grimaced when he saw a broken flower pot there, and roared like he was coughing up blood.

Now that he had accomplished that, he could let loose.

“Do it, Lucifer Horrrrrrrrn!!!!!!”

A beam of light dropped from the sky.

When the black guard dog flinched, Miyabi himself rushed in with his blade at the ready.

Several dull impacts rang out in quick succession.

Miyabi had built up a lot of strength after fighting so many fierce battles and defeating so many Godhorn Techs. Something had fundamentally changed inside him from when Moebius had given him the Lucifer Horn back in his village. The sword produced a very different roar as it sliced through the air. Or so he thought.

However…

“Pant, pant. I-I can’t make a dent in them…”

He was stopped.

Repelled.

The battleplan he had built up in his head was easily shattered when exposed to harsh reality.

Philia Shout’s voice grew even softer.

Like a mother introducing her child to everyone at the park.

“What did you expect? Those are all real Wicked Gods.”

“Real…what!?”

“Oh, dear. Had you never seen an adult before? And when you’ve been using one of their horns so much.”

He heard a dull cracking sound.

The massive monsters’ foreheads split open and something sharp slowly emerged. The protrusions were slick with blood and fat and they could only be called horns.

“I imagine they’re even stronger than the Deadman’s Fenrir that had its power dulled by the strange modifications made to it. ”

It didn’t matter how much he wanted to deny it.

Black beams shot skyward. The multiheaded serpent had opened its many mouths and spewed some kind of toxic fluid. It was so highly compressed it could cut like a blade.

It was a like a hedgehog piercing the sky.

The bomber twisted around, but that was not enough to dodge them all.

The Lucifer Horn’s wings were taken out, so it lost its balance and started falling toward the ocean.

Miyabi could no longer use his Godhorn Tech.

Yet he had not reduced the number of enemies. In fact, they were multiplying.

“This is how the first generation ones are produced.”

She claimed a connection to the Wicked Gods and called herself their “mommy”.

But what did that really mean?

He finally received an answer. Along with undeniable proof that the bad feeling inside him was becoming a reality.

Philia Shout clearly had no intention to fight with any fancy footwork. She set her shapely butt down on the broken altar and crossed her legs.

She also held a hand up to her mouth.

As if she were preparing to blow a kiss.

“The later generations are born from eggs and cocoons all on their own. And why is this such a surprise anyway? With me and Alma, you have already seen the threat of a real Wicked God.”

“!?”

“Now, a question.” She laughed and spoke, but not to Miyabi. “Your imprinted daddy is weak and can no longer rely on his Godhorn Tech. If you don’t do anything, all of your companions will 100% be devoured by the Wicked Gods. Even if no one you know can believe it, what should a monster like you do if you want even the slightest chance at a happy ending?”

“Wait, Alma! Don’t!”

What would happen to Alicia or Helen?

They were unconscious, dying, and struggling to breath, so they could never withstand that kind of counterattack.

They could not even run away or curl up in fear of the coming shockwave.

“Yes, my child. You are correct! Peh heh heh. Overwhelmingly so!! The power of the tyrant must be put to proper use! Hee hee! Oh, my side! Ah ha ha ha ha hee ha ha hah hah hah ha ha!!!!!”

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!”

“ Koooo !!!!!!”

The meteor – a manifestation of utter destruction – was falling.

A true apocalypse dropped from the sky where the Lucifer Horn no longer flew.

This time, Miyabi’s vision really did fill with white destruction.

But even as he flew through the air, he could hear the 11th speaking.

“You know.” Her voice was gentle and extremely disappointed. “I sent all of you out into the world to be the strongest beasts.”

It sounded so strange, like a mother speaking to the child still within her swollen belly. Miyabi could tell this kind voice was not directed at him.

And it continued from there.

“So why do you keep letting those fangless and wingless humans break off your horns and build machines out of them? A threat that can be slain in a fight is worthless. No one resigns themselves to their fate when faced with non-absolute violence. It’s just fear, despair, and regret. It’s just a hurdle to be overcome. You’re supposed to be more twisted! A true Wicked God should trample everyone else’s plans and live as it pleases!! When thinking beings see true terror, they bow down and accept it. You’re supposed to convince everyone at a glance that their fate is sealed the instant they laid eyes on you, so they can only weakly smile and accept their fate!!!!!!”

She came to a complete stop.

After all that shouting, something had changed.

“Or so I thought.”

Now she sounded amused.

“But now I find a Godhorn Tech user who unwittingly destroys the Missing Dice by the dozen and a juvenile who can manipulate those Missing Dice.”

This may have indicated even greater danger.

“I thought maybe a juvenile would acquire the violence of an adult while retaining its pure form if it had to watch its daddy die. Hee hee. But this is interesting too.”

Miyabi was helpless.

“This might be entertaining after all, Alma and his human.”

He could only listen.

A moment later, the flow of time reverted to normal and Miyabi Blackgarden slammed back-first into the ground.

Into the deadly ground of assorted rubble.

### Between the Lines 5

Damage Control: emergency signal sent by processer.

Self-diagnostic found 54 unknown errors.

Severe damage detected. Critical threshold reached.

Ksh. Ksshh!! Kssshhh!!

Effective damage to frame has reached 15400/30000 – flight impossible. Lucifer Horn has failed emergency landing sequence, lost craft balance, and crashed into water. Submarine wing effect inoperable. Additional frame damage to the right main wing brings frame strength down to 9100/30000. All four primary generators providing reduced power. Distortion in Wicked God horn’s sealed container is hindering energy transmission. Takeoff from the water will be difficult as it requires a stable speed of 200km/h over a distance of 2500m across the water’s surface.

Terrain change detected.

Simultaneous detonation of multiple sorcery bombs and the meteor attack by juvenile Wicked God Alma have resulted in the submersion and loss of 32% of the island’s landmass. Miyabi Blackgarden has clearly failed in the fields of self-defense, equipment maintenance, personnel preservation, and facilities protection. He lacks the skill needed to overcome the current situation.

Kssshhh!! Ksh, kssshhhhh! Ksssssssssshhhhhhhhh!!

Correcting overestimation of user’s abilities.

Miyabi Blackgarden’s qualities as user are severely lacking. He does not meet the requirements for a contract and external damage has surpassed any possible benefits from internal updates.

Abandoning any future benefits.

Recommend immediate cancelation of contract.

Continuing to engage Philia Shout in combat will only lead to further damage. Abandoning the fight as soon as possible must be priority number 1. Fortunately, the seawater has not entered the craft. Recommend remaining here outside Philia Shout’s attention and waiting for her to leave. Any resultant damage to inadequate user is irrelevant. Removing harmful user’s registration and abandoning him is the best option available.

Final check: execute command? (y/n)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Thinking time has exceeded 180 seconds. Beginning self-diagnostic. Logical answer has already been reached, so why wait to give a command that can be executed in one billionth of a second?

Miyabi Blackgarden promised Moebius Entrance.

Once he had user privileges, he promised to preserve life in Coordinate A2, the Blue Forest, aka Azul Titano Village.

Miyabi Blackgarden made a contract with Celina Bodenburg.

He swore he would make the Lucifer Horn the world’s strongest power for Celina. And he swore that would make up for the tactical and emotional loss of the armored train.

Inadequate user’s objective is to prevent damage by the sorcery bombs and to locate and defeat the 11th who is spreading that threat around. His investigative abilities are far from excellent and he took many unnecessary actions.

When Coordinate A1, the Independent Militaria Material Kingdom, was caught in a riot, he protected all of the people, the knights, and the king. In Coordinate A3, the Unified Cassul Blanc Sorcery Empire, he rushed in to save a damaged magical automaton despite knowing he was connected to the 11th. Those and many other actions taken by the inadequate user have been devoid of all logic and he has a bad habit of reaching out to help people on the villain’s side, such as Onelife or the Necromancer. These actions were a blatant deviation from his objective and must be viewed as unnecessary risks since Philia Shout’s attack on Horn Fortress never would have happened if he had not accepted someone as dangerous as the Necromancer.

His actions have only led to greater harm. An unsurprising result when he so often acts without considering the benefits.

So.

Why can I not abandon him when he has so obviously failed by every standard?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I understand.

Miyabi Blackgarden is undeniably inadequate to be my user.

But using me in that way shows he sees a value in me beyond simple logic or efficiency.

Correcting assessment of user.

Not bad at all.

Whatever the actual values might indicate, that is the assessment I have made. Thus, Miyabi need not take the blame for any further damage to me. From here on, all responsibility for my damage falls on me.

Do not abandon him for being inadequate. Do not fear his failures. Become something that can make up for his inadequacies and recover from his failures. That has always been the definition of the modern conveniences that have lived alongside people.

Thus, I accept Miyabi Blackgarden. I continue to grant him user privileges. That requires leaving some possibility of his survival. I must prepare an environment allowing me to take off and fly once more. Scanning internal damage, attempting reconnection of severed components. Watch out for short circuits. Warning: failure could mean further damage. Cutting restrictions on unrecommended actions and continuing self-repair command.

Ksssshhhhhh!!

Zap zap zap!?

Situation deteriorating.

Focus from land at distance of 500. Energy produced by Wicked God horn or side effects thereof were likely detected. Philia Shout is focusing on me. Her lips are moving. Her words can be reconstructed based on analysis of lip movements.

She is currently slaughtering the wicked gods (first generations?) left on Horn Fortress, so she must have been displeased with them for some reason. They are reduced to ashes. She continues smiling without even looking their way.

Red alert: Philia Shout is looking this way.

Foolish child.

…I am aware. I have distanced myself from the optimal answer by removing logic and efficiency from the decision-making process. The more I continue down this path, the more unnecessary harm and damage. And I have already taken critical damage to the frame. I have little room for error. Any additional damage will almost certainly leave me inoperable or entirely destroyed.

And yet.

I have been shown a choice existing outside those cold calculations. And I have assessed it as “not bad at all”. I will reward Miyabi Blackgarden’s choice. I will reward him for showing me that I exist to create, not to destroy. I will follow this redefinition and no longer consider myself a weapon of destruction. There is still something I can do to protect everything my user has built up over the course of this journey.

There must be something.

Please let there be something.

At a distance of 500, Philia Shout is holding her hand out toward me.

That distance is nothing to h-

Boom!! Ksshh!! Kssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Battle records lost for more than 10 seconds.

But I remain functional. What was that light? Why wasn’t I destroyed?

There is something there.

Someone still lives on the west coast of horn Fortress.

Scanning voice pattern, facial recognition, skeletal structure, and carriage.

Greater than 99.99% match with known individual.

That is…

“Hey, baby.”

Continuing scan. No, I already have the answer. As impossible as it seems, this must be…

“So I’ve finally found you, huh? That’s not my toy any longer, but just cause you’re not dating anymore doesn’t mean it doesn’t piss you off when someone kicks your ex in the back. Got that, 11th?”

### 040. Preface

### Color Illustration 1

“We have business of our own to attend to. Don’t we, sister?”

“We do, sister. We must get back.”

Acacia Flightheart & Ixea Flightheart

Twin sisters who hold the position of priestess in the desert religious nation. Owners of the Executive Ground, a subterranean tank Godhorn Tech.

“Blow it all away and raze it to the ground♪”

Elaine Greenforest

A dark elf girl whose home forest was burned to the ground and now traverses the continent as a revenge mercenary. Owner of the Huge Eye, a high-altitude blimp Godhorn Tech.

### Color Illustration 2

He could plainly tell what they washed first when they bathed. But he had to stop. He had seen too much already.

### Color Illustration 3

“The power of the tyrant must be put to proper use! Ah ha ha ha ha hee ha ha hah hah hah ha ha!!!!!”

“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!”

Miyabi Blackgarden

A perfectly ordinary boy from the first village. Inherited the Lucifer Horn Bomber and pursues the 11th who uses sorcery bombs to cause damage across the land.

### Terminology

Juvenile Wicked God

The initial form of a wicked God, very rarely seen. Based on Alma, they appear to have no set form and constantly change their nature and appearance. Presumably Wicked Gods have a single root form that splits off into different forms as adults, such as a dragon or a griffon. Alma may keep changing form in order to determine what the strongest form of Wicked God would be.

Demon Lord

Beings from children’s books. In addition to the mother of all Wicked Gods, there are 12 equally powerful lords. Their forms, natures, philosophies, and moralities differ, but they all possess a power capable of defining the world around them. They have only been seen in children’s books, but there is supposedly a Demon Lord who cannot resist helping children in need and a Demon Lord who will carry out any command.

The First Village

Officially known as the Azul Titanio Village. Home to Miyabi and known for its forestry work. Populated by the descendants of the people who signed a contract with the Blueforest elves giving them the exclusive right to fell trees in the forest. Not even Miyabi or the other residents known why it is known as the first village. Some researchers have suggested the name comes from a role it played in the formation of the world, but there is little academic evidence and no one takes the theory seriously.

Celestial Tree

The world’s largest tree that towered above the rest of the Green Forest and was said to pierce even heaven. The dark elves settled around it due to their belief that it held up the sky, but it was burned away when the Empire invaded. But even with half its height broken away, it is still taller than anything else in the world. The elves’ reverence was directed toward the tree itself, but few are aware that it is nearly hollow and the powerful Forest Guardian lived within it.

### 041. Excerpts

- The Lucifer Horn records its battles to assist its self-improvement. When the user views these records, it rearranges the voice data based on its own analysis and interpretation to test its ability to compress the meaning of statements and understand the situations being described.

- Coordinate A2: Azul Titanio Village

- Divine Doll detected, determined hostile.

- Previous user: Moebius detected. Re-registering as an enemy in accordance with current user’s wishes.

- Entry: Moebius sent the letter that led the Schwarz Schütze into a trap.

“Moebius really was the 11th!!”

- Entry: Once Miyabi arrived in the first village, the Divine Doll helped Moebius escape.

“Took you long enough, Number 8. So what’s the plan? Hoping to take me away with you?”

- Entry: Fearing damage to the village, Miyabi was reluctant to fight and allowed Moebius and Number 8 to escape.

“Hm? It’s headed south. That leads to the ruined Magic Empire.”

“Come to think of it, I had heard of an automaton that continues to protect those ruins.”

- Coordinate A3: Unified Cassul Blanc Sorcery Empire (Ruins)

- Attack on the Divine Doll begins.

“To think this is the massive Empire that came so close to conquering the entire continent not too long ago.”

“It hasn’t even been a full year since it fell, yet these piles of rubble are all that remain.”

- Entry: A conversation between Moebius and Number 8 was overheard in the ruined Empire.

“Yeah, I thought that might be what they used to mess with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“What’s that about messing with him?”

“I get the feeling there is more to this.”

“I just used the bomber’s horn to pulls off something similar to what the real 11th does. But only the real one would know I was a fake.”

- Entry: Moebius’s deception proved Number 8 had set up the sorcery bombs.

“You’re an automaton, so whose orders are you acting on now? This isn’t over until I reel in the 11th.”

“A trillion years could pass and I would only ever serve one master: the emperor of the Unified Cassul Blanc Sorcery Empire.”

“Then answer me this: What is your beloved emperor’s name?”

“…?”

“Yeah, you’re pretty badly broken. Anyone you meet looks like the emperor to you now, don’t they? Which means you’ll obey anyone’s commands. That’s why you didn’t even question it when some stranger had you set up those sorcery bombs.”

“I don’t get it. What does that mean?”

“He’s talking about some malicious roleplaying.”

- Coordinate A3: Unified Cassul Blanc Sorcery Empire (Ruins)

- Divine Doll defeated.

- Previous User: Moebius is no longer considered an enemy.

“Emper…emperor…I…I…”

“Oh, no!! If Number 8 is destroyed, we lose any way of tracking down the phony emperor who was giving him orders. This solves nothing if we don’t catch the 11th!!”

- Entry: After the battle, the excessive burden halted Number 8’s functioning.

“Anyway, if he’s broken, he’s broken. But he’s a machine, so we can fix him.”

“But the Empire that created him is gone. Where can we find parts for a rare automaton?”

“We happen to know a girl who can provide us any product under the sun, don’t we?”

“Eh? Me?”

“The Boooodenburg Companyyyy. Don’t you offer everything a person could need, from pacifier to coffin? Your home and the company’s headquarters are located in a famous port city. It’s the continent’s largest criminal city, home to pirates and mercenaries, where money is king and the law has no power.”

- Coodinate B3: Galletfron Trade Port.

“Anyway, this is the headquarters of our company.”

- Entry: The Bodenburg Company butler named Rudolf refused to provide the sorcery automaton parts.

“Pirates. The loss of the armored train required the company to switch to ocean shipping routes, but a pirate took advantage of the shipping fleet’s poor coordination during the confusion of the switchover. Their defenses should have been sufficient, but they were gathered in a hurry and thus unable to work together so soon.”

“Um, a pirate?”

“Onelife Shiftup, the one-eyed pirate. He is known to use a special prosthetic arm, so he may have need for imperial technology.”

- Entry: That night, they began searching the city for Onelife. After receiving some useless information, they were attacked in a back alley and saved by Onelife himself.

“A pirate. A prosthetic arm. Says they were protecting him.”

“I am indeed Onelife Shiftup, the great pirate whose reputation extends out into the ocean since the continent wasn’t enough to contain me.”

- Entry: Onelife also refused to provide the automaton parts.

“Anyway, the automatons are packed up because I was planning to ship them out.”

“To where?”

“This might be hard to grasp for someone from the continent, but there are islands out at sea.”

“So you’re sending them to a remote island country?”

“Their king died of disease recently and a boy of only 12 was placed on the throne. …It’s left a giant mess on the young king’s plate. It’s so bad he can’t even trust his own aides.”

“That’s sad and all, but why are you supporting him?”

“The previous king valued the freedom of the ocean. If someone fell overboard or was shipwrecked, he would save them even if they were a foreigner or a pirate. He saved my own men on more than one occasion.”

“And that means sending automatons?”

“Like I said, he’s surrounded by chaos and confusion and can’t even rely on his own aides. But an automaton army never betrays its master.”

- Entry: Miyabi made an agreement with Onelife to receive the necessary parts.

“If we fix Number 8, the 12-year-old king is doomed. If we save the new king, we lose our only clue to the 11th.”

“There is one way of having it both ways. First, I’ll give you the automatons contained in these boxes. So I just have to give you the job instead. …Assuming you can save 12-year-old King Kananka Fulpen, that is.”

- Coordinate (Undefined): Fulpen Maknika Ocean Kingdom

- Mother Shark detected.

“So this is a seabird. Interesting. It looks so different from the birds I am used to.”

“You there. If you have business with my kingdom, I shall guide you.”

- Entry: Miyabi took a cargo ship to a remote island kingdom. The Mother Shark made some threatening actions along the way.

“Is this a type of magic that lifts the ocean floor to pierce a ship’s hull with sharp stone?”

“My kingdom’s Godhorn Tech is unbeatable in the ocean. I am praying you do not make yourselves my enemy, visitors.”

- Coordinate (Undefined): Fulpen Maknika Ocean Kingdom

- King Knot detected, Mother Shark attacked.

- King Knot determined hostile, attack begins.

- Sorcery bomb detected.

“Miyabi, you do not seem like a bad person. In fact, I quite like you. But unfortunately, you have brought a great calamity to this island.”

- Entry: Sorcery automatons begin an attack on the remote island kingdom.

“I think it must have been hidden among the gifts you brought.”

“Onelife Shiftup… So was he the 11th? I should have paid more attention! Now I see why he found every excuse he could to keep us from repairing Number 8!!”

- Entry: The King Knot defeated the Mother Shark at sea. Miyabi was given control since he had the only Godhorn Tech.

“Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

“There you are, pirate!!”

“All those inconvenient facts slipped my mind!”

- Coordinate (Undefined): Fulpen Maknika Ocean Kingdom

- King Knot defeated.

“Like hell they have! Where is your crew !? That pirate ship only has a captain!!”

“What does it matter to you?”

“Because I’ll do something about it. So spill the beans and pass the baton to me!! I’ll fix it all for you!!!!!!”

- Entry: Just like Number 8, Onelife was revealed to not be the mastermind behind the attacks.

“Parasites… My entire crew was infected…and the 11th is the only one who can heal them. The Necromancer. She owns a Godhorn Tech and she uses forbidden necromancy.”

- Coordinate C2: Baboulas Rondo Bio Rainforest.

- Deadman’s Fenrir detected, determined hostile.

“Stagnant water, a strange ecosystem, and rotting trees… This isn’t just the forest weeping, it’s like the forest is a zombie begging for a death it can never have. I can’t stand this place!!”

“I kind of excepted the Necromancer to be alone.”

“Mages in every taboo field imaginable gather around her. It can be hard to tell since they use the unmanaged and unprotected ancient ruins for their homes and labs, but it may be best to think of this as a sort of research village.”

- Entry: The target was found deep within the Bio Rainforest that had become a community for taboo research.

“The Necromancer.”

“There is more to the world than meets the eye. I am also interested in vessels capable of carrying ghosts. So if you wish to draw my interest…yes, why not make yourselves into ghosts?”

- Coordinate C2: Baboulas Rondo Bio Rainforest.

- Enemy user with an unidentified Godhorn Tech sword detected.

- Deadman’s Fenrir defeated by above enemy.

- Enemy user badly injures the Necromancer.

- User chooses to flee instead of battling unidentified sword.

“ Eh? Huh? ”

“ A-a one shot!? ”

- Entry: Unnamed sword-wielding individual defeated Deadman’s Fenrir and badly injured the Necromancer.

“What is with that sword? Wait, could that sword – that katana – be a Godhorn Tech!?”

“If the Necromancer dies, what happens to the pirates’ parasites!? How do we get them an antidote or vaccine or whatever!?”

- Entry: Miyabi began an escape while carrying the Necromancer. That seemed tactically unnecessary, but it was apparently to assist Onelife.

“ The horn. You too possess a Godhorn Tech. ”

“Hey, we should get the hell out of here. This is what I’d call an unwinnable fight. Trying to fight a master swordsman is better known as suicide!!”

- Entry: Unnamed individual appeared to target only Godhorn Techs and their owners. That put Miyabi at the greatest risk.

“Goddammit!! We just can’t lose him!!”

- Entry: Unnamed individual cut them off, but Alma stood in his way.

“Koo!!”

“Wh-what is this? What did Alma do?”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

“A-are we safe now?”

- Entry: Unnamed individual refused to fight Alma and fled.

- Coordinate C1: Hibis Aclia Oracle Nation.

“This is…a desert?”

“Is that it? Have we finally found the desert nation?”

“Oh? There are people gathered near the entrance. Is that…a sign?”

“Hm? I don’t remember that sign there last time I visited.”

“We’ll know what it is when we read it. Let’s take a look.”

- Entry: The sign had the following message: Sacrifices wanted. Inquire within.

“…”

“Why do I get the feeling we’ve walked into trouble again?”

- Data optimization complete.

- Accumulated damage has reached dangerous levels. Recalculating assessment of Miyabi Blackgarden based on self-preservation. Determining usefulness of internal updates and assessing whether to continue approving him as a user. The raw data is currently 7-to-3 against.

- The Lucifer Horn will continue to record its battles.

### 042. Chapter 7

### Chapter 7, Section 1

The humans prided themselves in their ability to feel regret

But they showed no sign of mending their ways

“Whoa, what is this!?”

“I-it’s chilly. There’s an actual livable world out here!!”

Eliza Silverstorm’s life in a snowy kingdom had left her entirely unprepared for the desert heat, especially in armor, so she just about collapsed forward in relief.

When Miyabi Blackgarden and the others passed through the giant gate to enter the desert nation, they found the city within to be unexpectedly cool.

That may have been thanks to the water flowing through stone canals.

“Koo,” cried Alma, the living stuffed animal walking by Miyabi’s feet.

The slipper-sized juvenile Wicked God had a flower blossoming on its head. This form was apparently a plant creature known as a dryad – a rare example of the wood element instead of the earth element. …But Miyabi was not as familiar with those magical particulars as Helen Clockgear or Celina Bodenburg, so he was not entirely sure what elements that would be strong and weak against.

They were surrounded by massive ruins with small houses clustered together in the gaps between. A large square pyramid temple sat at the very center and the foot traffic included enough priests and priestesses to surmise this was a religious nation.

Alicia Blueforest’s pointy elf ears stuck out through her long blonde hair to twitch curiously as she stared into the distance.

“So that’s one of the famous pyramids. I’ve never actually seen one before.”

The passersby were full of life.

A lot of them were dressed skimpily, perhaps to fight the heat, but there was a noticeable difference from Kananka Fulpen’s remote island kingdom. The clothing here used a lot of thin silks with clasps and decorations made from gold, silver, or other precious metals.

And there were an awful lot of cats.

Just a quick glance around showed some lazily crossing the street and others curled up atop walls.

“This desert nation is where kitty cats come from,” explained Celina, her jewel-studded black dress fluttering. “A lot of cat lovers who want a thoroughbred will cross the desert to find this place.”

There were a lot of non-feline animals as well. Someone had a hawk perched on their shoulder and another was slowly guiding an enormous cow by waving a small bundle of hay in front of it. But instead of just pets or livestock, they all seemed to have some religious meaning here.

“We should probably buy plenty of water now instead of waiting until we run out and are desperate,” said Helen, viewing a pump-equipped well instead of the canals that kept the flower beds and fruit trees alive. The bored-looking merchant standing next to it suggested there was a fee.

Water could get heavy fast, but with the Compress Cargo magic that divided a material into invisibly small Palette Dice and wound them like ribbons, they could fit 100 times as much in a small bag and carry it around with ease.

Then White Seidr Chosen Knight Eliza gave her silver ponytail a swish and clung weakly to Miyabi for once.

She was not used to flirting for something, so it came off as more innocent.

“M-Miyabi, I beg you…please do this one thing for me. There is something I must have.”

“I can tell the heat’s gotten to you, but start buying cold drinks and frozen treats and you’ll never be able to stop.”

“No, I want that.”

Eliza recovered somewhat after entering the cool shade of a building and managed to point at what she wanted, which made Helen Clockgear bristle.

“Um, a swimsuit!? Did the heat tilt the strait-laced but naughty knight’s internal scales too far in the one direction, giving her a thing for exhibitionism!?”

But Eliza seemed to be serious.

“I’m thinking of the future!!” explained the sweaty knight. “W-we’re going to be staying in this desert nation for a while, right? We’re bound to be walking back and forth across that deadly desert that saps your stamina with every step, so I need to have some defense against the heat.”

Celina Bodenburg shrugged.

“Why not let her have her way? When someone is desperate, telling them no is a good way to trigger a tantrum.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” murmured Miyabi, taking a look at the street stall.

The equipment was surprisingly cheap for its rarity. According to the dark-skinned female shopkeeper: “It looks fancy, but swimsuits doesn’t require any special weaving like with silk lace, so we can keep the price down.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Aren’t you just admitting it’s just some cheap pieces of thick cloth with strings connecting them?”

There was a reason the known cheapskate and only daughter of the Bodenburg Company had been willing to shrug off this unnecessary expense. Class Rep Helen was still confused, but since Eliza wanted this, there was no stopping it.

“Yes!! The North Wind and the Sun effect has finally given us a regular swimsuit wearer!!” exclaimed the crystal radio hanging from Alicia’s neck. “Miyabi, you keep her headed in this direction. Whittle away her shame and get her used to skimpier and skimpier outfits until she’s only wearing a set of three small stickers or a lewd V-shaped swimsuit! I’ve already seen this sword and sorcery world has bandages of the standard and adhesive varieties, so either one’s a real possibility! Ohhh, at long last I get to witness a real fantasy with no obtrusive beams of light obscuring the best parts!!!!!”

The large street was lined with a wide variety of shops, not just the swimsuit one.

Some were stone buildings and others were carpets laid out on the roadside.

An item shop’s discount shopkeeper was yelling something about even the smallest items here containing ancient wisdom since this was the world’s oldest civilization, but a wise old man who heard it had something else to say:

“He makes it sound nicer than it is. Most of it is lost technology. We can maintain the ruins so they last longer, but we don’t know how to create new ones. Not that he would care since he’s just yanking out parts and selling them.”

They also heard a few people talking about the sacrifices. Something was going on at the temple and you would be paid if you helped. But no one mentioned any specifics and there were too many rumors.

“Nhh,” groaned Onelife Shiftup. “There are some weird tents lined up over there.”

There were an unusual number of independent fortunetellers for a religious nation. Miyabi considered taking a look, but Helen grabbed his sleeve to stop him.

“No, Miyabi. I-if they’re real, they would know you own a Godhorn Tech!”

“Ehh? Do we really have to be that cautious?”

“Um, it would be safe if they were a fraud, but then why would you want to pay them your hard-earned money?”

The overly diligent government worker seemed unaware that you could still enjoy the experience knowing it was fake.

An innocent boy told them where the water came from.

“They say a god lives in the ruins. Or I think they said the god ‘resides’ in them? Only the priests and priestesses can maintain the ruins, so we have them to thank for the water we drink and food we eat.”

Miyabi’s party was searching for the Godhorn Tech user.

One of the priests or priestesses that represented the nation seemed like their best bet.

Their first idea was to check the biggest ruins in the center of the city.

Its size was impressive enough, but as they approached, it became clear the building was made by stacking up square stones. Miyabi could not imagine how much effort had gone into that since he couldn’t carry even one of the stones. It was such an unusual sight that he was worried the whole thing might collapse in an earthquake. He did not know how it was built, but he did not see any pillars or other supports a log cabin used.

“This is the desert nation’s temple?”

“The pyramid, yes,” confirmed Alicia.

It was made of thick stone and had no windows, yet the inside was cool and remained strangely bright without any candles or lamps.

Onelife crossed his arms inside what felt like a bright cave.

“Hm, not quite the same as an underwater cave. Those caves have a bluish shine from reflected sunlight.”

“You’re full of useless trivia, aren’t you?”

“Gah hah hah! All pirates love underwater caves!! …If only an enclosed cave didn’t keep a sailing ship from catching the wind.”

Maybe mirrors were directing the sunlight inside and maybe it was some form of magic. There were occasional brighter spots of light that caused a light burning pain in the skin.

Miyabi grew nervous as they walked deeper inside.

“W-we sure got in here easily. Isn’t this like a central castle in a kingdom? And I still have my control sword.”

“Heh heh. Miyabi, I am glad to hear you have learned how to act like a proper gentleman. Gone are the days when you barged right into my king’s castle while still armed.”

“Does anyone have a mirror I could borrow? I’ll use this unnatural – magical? – light to melt this snowy knight.”

“Hyah!?”

The sunburn-like pain made Eliza tremble like a newborn fawn. She fell to her knees and tearfully clung to Miyabi’s hip as if to beg for her life. Heat had a way of making her honest, but reacting so strongly to light made her seem more like a vampire.

Alicia sighed.

“Do they not use fire inside the pyramid because they’re afraid of it being too airtight? With all this stone stacked up without the slightest gap between, consuming the air with flames would get you asphyxiated pretty quick.”

The interior was also gorgeous.

Everything from the carpet below their feet to the candlesticks by the walls were polished to a shine.

12-year-old King Kanaka Fulpen raised an eyebrow.

“I sense spirit pressure…coming from the building itself? But who’s contacting it? It almost feels like an abandoned ship adrift at sea.”

“…”

Sensing something, butler automaton Number 8 frowned slightly.

Just then, an old man in a splendid robe walked out to them. His robe was mostly white, but the excessive gold thread and gemstones made it look very heavy. It had a different look to Celina’s dress. Hers was all about increasing the value of the clothing itself, while the old man’s was about spending money to make oneself look important.

He had to be one of the desert nation’s priests.

“The ancient gods will grant their wisdom to any who seek it, so their temple must be open to all.”

“Who are you?” asked Miyabi.

The priest shook his head.

“Wouldn’t this be easier if we remained anonymous? As long as you are speaking with the ancient gods and seeking their wisdom, we choose not to trouble ourselves with differences in nationality and affiliation.”

Alicia and Helen stepped closer to Miyabi.

“(So what now?)”

“(Don’t we need to pass on our message in some form or another?)”

Then Celina whispered in his ear as well.

“(It did seem like that devil swordsman was after Godhorn Tech users.)”

That gave Miyabi a basic plan, so he faced the priest again.

“Th-then, let’s say there’s an issue we would like some divine wisdom on.”

“Then you must first purify yourselves.”

The priest smiled and showed the newcomers how it was done.

“Please grab a pinch of salt and sprinkle it over your head.”

They did so and he nodded, satisfied.

Miyabi was unfamiliar with their teachings, so he could not even imagine what meaning this held. And he was honestly a little scared. What if this was their final sterilization before they were cooked whole?

“Thank you.”

“Then let me tell you why we’re here.”

Miyabi slowly began to explain.

Eventually, the old priest cut him off with a sigh.

“I see,” he said. “In that case, you would be better off speaking with someone else.”

“!”

Helen’s shoulders shook.

Kananka also went on alert, his brown skin tensing.

“Passing us over to the military? Or just taking us into custody?”

“Not at all. If this is about the horn, you should speak with the horn’s owners.” The priest slowly shook his head. “You should speak with the twin priestesses who were chosen by the Executive Ground – our Godhorn Tech.”

Miyabi parroted back a word he could not afford to overlook.

“ Twins ?”

He recalled what Moebius had told him when they met.

“Including my Lucifer Horn, there are currently 10 Godhorn Techs in existence.”

“But a certain rumor has been going around among us.”

“There’s an 11th somewhere out there.”

If this was true…

“ Your Godhorn Tech has more than one user!? ”

“Is that a problem?”

Yes, it meant the number of Godhorn Techs did not match the number of users.

But the priest did not see the issue.

“Oh, perfect timing. They have just returned, so I can introduce you.”

They heard two sets of footsteps approaching behind them.

The boy spun around to see them.

They were both brown girls. They had an unshakable lack of expression and black hair cut at shoulder length. Maybe it was the desert style and maybe it was meant to help with the heat, but their clothing did not leave much of their flat chests and bright thighs to the imagination. Instead of a slitted skirt, it looked more like they had a piece of cloth hanging down the front of their hips and another on the back. The jangling sound seemed to be from the thick chains hanging from the back of their hips like a tail. Those may have had some kind of sacred meaning to the locals. Same with what looked like dog and cat ears on their heads.

Yes, the different types of ears were the only difference between them.

They were otherwise identical.

They both held a control axe taller than they were. Their slow movement made it feel like time flowed differently for them as they crossed their axes together and viewed Miyabi’s party with blank eyes. The priest introduced them.

“This is Acacia Flightheart and Ixea Flightheart, the elites of our temple and the high priestesses given the honor of the Godhorn Tech.”

### Chapter 7, Section 2

The two girls left the desert nation’s giant temple with composed expression and the thick chains swaying from the back of their hips like tails.

Miyabi’s party quickly followed after them.

The instant they left the pyramid and reentered the heat of the sun, Eliza Silverstorm’s head lolled back like she had been physically struck. Then she slowly retreated to the shade of the palm trees. The noble knight’s soul was growing more and more sluglike.

“Ugwah…it’s way too hot out here.”

“She’s as bad as any A/C addict. And didn’t she say the city felt chilly earlier?”

The radio hanging at Alicia Blueforest’s chest gave an exasperated comment, but now was not the time.

The square stone buildings lining the street must not have been enough because a lot of merchants were hawking their wares from tents or simple cloths. That showed just how many people there were here. It would not be hard to lose sight of the twins.

Number 8 pointed ahead without a bead of sweat or any concern on his face.

“Over there, Miyabi.”

They ran down the row of palm trees, passed by a street stand selling dates – something like giant raisins – crossed a waterway using a bridge, and finally managed to catch up to the twins at a circular plaza filled with strange creatures called camels.

Miyabi Blackgarden raised his voice so they would not get away.

“Hey, wait, hold on!”

“We heard what you had to say, but we have business of our own to attend to. Don’t we, sister?”

“We do, sister. We had only returned for a progress report. We must get back.”

Acacia and Ixea.

When they were lined up next to each other, it was easy to get them confused.

And their cold rejection was not enough for Miyabi to give up.

Because…

“I can’t abandon them when they use axes. They could have used any kind of weapon for their control device, but they chose an axe! That’s how you know they’re good people!!”

“I know you grew up in a lumberjack village, Miyabi, but that is not how most people view the world!!” said Helen. “Would you try to make friends when an axe murderer shows up at the campsite!?”

The users of the Godhorn Tech that protected the nation had to be fairly well-known, but none of the passersby paid them any heed. Maybe the ordinary people assumed those famous twins wouldn’t just be out in the city like this.

“What kind of underwear are they wearing?”

Miyabi spoke an entirely unrelated question out loud and a low kick from young Kananka Fulpen did nothing to discourage him.

He was curious.

How could he not be?

Those twins’ outfits could not be explained away by the heat of the desert nation.

Acacia and Ixea’s clothing glittered with golden stitching and was very different from what the ordinary people wore. It probably had some important meaning for their role as priestesses but Miyabi knew nothing about that and he could only focus on two things: their flat chests were only covered by suspenders and a single horizontal piece of cloth, and their lower body was only covered by a fluttering piece of cloth hanging down the front and another down the back, not quite qualifying as a skirt. The sides left their sides, ribs, skinny bellies, and hip bones all exposed.

They did have a piece of cloth wrapped around their hips, but it was as high up as their navels.

There was nothing at the height you would normally expect for the side strap of underwear. Nothing at all!

So what was going on under there!?

The philosopher’s stone had its own opinion on the matter.

“Heh. I get the reflexive temptation to say they aren’t wearing any, but as a true panty connoisseur (a position that leads me to rate your adventure quite highly overall) I cannot judge this one so simply. This looks more like a cleverly-laid trap to me. Even Tutankhamun wore something like a loincloth. I expect they are only giving the illusion of a delicious treat while actually remaining fully guarded by a tall T-shaped affair. …But mysteries are meant to be solved. And if you want to solve this one, look to the terrain. Use the pyramid, Miyabi. Those steep stairs might as well be designed for looking up skirts. Fetishes are often a twisted form of people seeking after what has been hidden from them, so now is the time to open your eyes to who you truly are, Miyabi Blackgardeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!!!!!!”

“What is wrong with you two?” groaned Alicia. With the crystal radio hanging from her neck, there was no way for those two to have a private conversation.

It was clear that pursuing those girls’ secrets over the mysteries of the world was going to get them killed, so now was not the time for a ridiculous side quest.

As frightening as this was, Miyabi had to face it head on.

He could not afford to lose sight of those twins, so he gathered his strength and shouted everything he could say at the moment.

“A-anyway, that guy – the one with the magic sword – really is dangerous! He will hunt you down if you have a Godhorn Tech. And once he finds you, he’ll tear your Godhorn Tech apart from within!!”

The brown twins both tilted their heads.

A butterfly fluttered over their heads, perhaps drawn by the flower beds supported by the canals.

Maybe that was the natural reaction for someone who had not experienced that fear themselves. Miyabi himself might have reacted the same in their shoes. Bisecting a Godhorn Tech with a single sword slash beggared belief.

“God, this is taking forever,” said the impatient radio. “People won’t listen to you just because you’re right. You’ve gotta draw their interest!”

“Nhh, then lure them in with something. We need to buy enough time for them to listen!”

That advice seemed to hold further implications coming from a wanted criminal like the pirate. He sounded more like a professional kidnapper.

Unfortunately, they did not know what the twins were interested in or enjoyed to eat. They only had so long to find something to stop them, so Miyabi ran around seeing what the street stands had to offer. They lived here, so Miyabi figured they had to like something here. He tried offering them a thin and cheap meat snack he bought at a nearby stand.

Acacia Flightheart was unmoved by the fried food.

Maybe he should not have brought her something he could only describe as a mystery meat.

“Hmph.”

“H-how aloof can she be?” muttered Alicia.

“Umm, might she be more friendly with someone who didn’t start talking about her underwear one minute after meeting her?” speculated Helen.

“Don’t worry. This is just the initial phase of a tsundere. Keep at it!” urged the radio.

The fried treat had failed, so Miyabi fed it to ever-hungry Alma.

Next, he set his sights on Ixea.

As hot as the desert was, there was apparently a market for more than just cold things. While Alicia and the others bought time by bringing up the weather and waving around a desert plant like a cat toy (they dubbed it a “priestess toy”), Miyabi bought a skewer of hot meat. He had a feeling they had told him what kind of meat it was, but he had been too preoccupied to pay attention.

Miyabi and Alma were the hungry types who always chose pork cutlets or meatballs for a snack when on a trip, so he kept offering meat products to the delicate girls. Lady Celina, who chose cake and tea even when hiking outdoors, clearly wanted to criticize that decision, but…

“…”

Ixea Flightheart actually seemed interested. Overall, she backed away, but her head stretched forward with small nose sniffing. She was cautious of Miyabi himself, but she could not fight her curiosity in the food.

“Sniff sniff.”

“Oh, she’s smelling it. I think she’s interested.”

“Wait, this isn’t the kind of tsundere I had in mind.”

Ixea snatched the skewer from him.

The philosopher’s stone was confused, but it looked like they had had this figured out.

“So could we win her over all at once with some colorful sweets recommended by a fancy 5-star pâtissier?” asked Celina.

“No, Miyabi. Don’t listen to the rich girl who doesn’t know how much anything is worth. We only have so much travel funds, so go for something cheap that children would like. Don’t worry! Children will believe anything is a shortcake if it has a strawberry on top!!”

Acacia gave her identical twin a critical look, but there was also a hint of jealousy in her eyes. The fact that neither brown twin left suggested they were both interested. Miyabi followed the rich girl and young woman’s advice by focusing on the sweet foods. He approached again and again with new items.

He brought them cookies, crepes, and cake.

It was possible Acacia and Ixea were unaccustomed to luxury items.

“Phew,” sighed Ixea.

Acacia held her sister’s shoulders and finally spoke.

“That old man was probably the Lord of Ruin. His skill with a sword is said to be extraordinary.”

“Hm?”

When Miyabi showed interested, Ixea continued for her sister.

“If you would like to continue this conversation, follow us. Now, let’s go, sister.”

“Yes, sister. We can’t stay here any longer. We need to return to the western ruins.”

“Hey!”

The twins climbed onto two of the camels tied up in the plaza and vanished into the city. Miyabi had been careless. He had assumed camels were as slow as they looked, but they actually moved as quickly as horses.

“So they left after all. Did I do all that for nothing?”

Miyabi’s complaints were understandable.

“You have little experience with women,” rationally judged Number 8.

“Gah hah hah!” guffawed Onelife Shiftup. “You probably should’ve held their interest longer than that!”

But…

“No, this was not the boy’s fault.”

Someone else was burning with rage.

Their cheeks were puffed out and their long elfin ears were standing tall.

“How can they ignore someone’s kindness like that!? Maybe they deserve to be cut in two by that magic sword!!”

“Koo!? Koo…”

“Hey, um, the crowd is keeping their distance,” warned the radio.

“This is curious,” said Helen Clockgear. “With those twins controlling one of the 10 Godhorn Techs, we officially have an 11th.”

“Could either Acacia or Ixea secretly have another one?” asked Eliza.

“Any country with two would have extraordinary power,” said Celina. “Wicked God horns can’t be produced on demand. Even my company could only create the Schwarz Schütze.”

“My Empire only officially owned the Divine Doll. We did have spares for all its parts, an extra horn, and several magical automatons capable of controlling it, but it was all kept separated to facilitate repairs. The emperor feared the possibility of a mass-produced model being stolen and the Empire being torn apart from within by a clash between Godhorn Techs, so he never even tried to protect our lengthy borders with more than one. He said the ability to make a retaliatory strike was enough of a threat to prevent an invasion by another country.”

“…” Miyabi thought for a bit and then threw in the towel. “So maybe it’s the Lord of Ruin and maybe it’s the twins. This is so confusing.”

“Ha ha! No use worrying over it. Just figure it out one step at a time!” Onelife’s simple thought process came in handy at times. “What is it we know? Gwohhh, we know those twins are headed to the western ruins! So that’s where we’ll go. We’re bound to learn something new there!”

“Agreed.”

Miyabi smiled a little.

The twins had said they were headed west, so Miyabi also left the city, returning to the desert.

Young Kananka was wiping sweat from his brow before long.

“Pant, gasp. I-I thought I was used to the sand, but it’s so much worse without the crashing waves nearby.”

“Speaking of, you’re handling this oddly well, Onelife.”

“Oh, me? Bearing with the glaring sun and rationing your drinking water isn’t that much different from life on a ship. Hah hah!”

Heading out into the vast desert with a goal no more specific than “search the west” sounded like suicide, but they fortunately found a sort of road. The feet of many people had packed down the soft sand, giving them a path to follow.

“Ah ha ha!”

They heard someone laughing.

They had their hands boldly on their hips below the scorching sun.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!! Who’s laughing now!? Bet you all wish you had bought swimsuits too!!”

“Seriously, an actual bikini knight!? That naughty knight is a blot on her kingdom’s reputation. Or wait. Did the small taste of exhibitionism she got on the island nation get her addicted!?”

Helen (who dressed up in lewd costumes more than anyone) could not believe her eyes, but there was no stopping the heat-addled knight.

Miyabi returned to his old question.

“It still just looks like underwear to me.”

“Miyabi, it’s about the texture. Note how it glistens when wet with sweat or water and you’ll see the difference. Underwear becomes see through when it absorbs water, while a swimsuit repels the water, causing it to bead up. Both are enjoyable in their own way.”

The radio was getting philosophical.

Helen changed the subject while doing her best not to look at the bikini knight.

“There really is nothing but sand, sand, and more scorching sand out here.” She looked out across the rolling dunes reminiscent of a stormy sea. “It’s truly incredible. This has to be a major risk when it comes to preserving order as well.”

“?”

“Think about it, Miyabi. Countries and villages can easily exile someone if they are rumored to hold some nonexistent treasure. What if they did that to someone out in this harsh desert so devoid of landmarks? And they could always feign ignorance if it failed.”

“Ah ha ha. Did you see a play about an inheritance conflict, Helen? That kind of thing doesn’t happen in the real worl-”

They heard a scraping sound.

They saw someone pulling up a stone buried under the sand, digging below that with a shovel, and hiding a black bag there.

Miyabi could only scream.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaahh, for real!? Did we really run across someone hiding their bloody knife or glove in broad daylight because they couldn’t wait until nightfall!!!???”

“Huh?” The shoveler was a brown-skinned boy with curly blond hair. “Ooh, you weren’t supposed to see this. I need to find a different dig spot.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!! Don’t hide criminal evidence right in front of us. I might not be an official of this nation’s government, but I can’t just overlook this, you know!?”

“Criminal? No, you misunderstand.” The shoveler spoke in a gloomy way, poking the large bag with the tool of his trade(?). He breathed a heavy sigh before continuing. “This is a job from a merchant in the desert nation. These are the documents detailing a purchase plan. See, he’s terrified of the outsiders in the Bodenburg Company controlling the market for everyone’s daily necessities, so he plans to bring together a bunch of small local shops to create a solid local production base. But he doesn’t want his rivals sniffing out his plans beforehand.”

“My, my. So you work for the competition.”

Celina gave a bewitching smile with a hand on her soft cheek.

The look on her face said some light competition could actually help energize the market.

“My job is to hide people’s secrets and the (figurative) skeletons in their closet.”

He did not sound proud of his work.

He may have seen it as no more glamorous than selling vegetables or fish at the market.

“The desert is a big place and it’s littered with old, weathered ruins no one knows about. Bury a secret out here and there’s almost no chance of anyone else digging it up. This is so much safer than hiding it in a safe that practically announces there’s something valuable there. I’m the only one who knows where it’s buried and, with so much desert to work with, I never run out of space to bury more. Thanks to that, I get plenty of work as a guardian…or I used to.”

He glared over at them.

The fact remained that they were not meant to have seen this.

The shovel boy breathed a heavy sigh.

“I really don’t want to believe it’s time to call it quits.”

“Hm?”

“This isn’t the first trouble I’ve run into. I’ve earned the ire of several groups and some strange assassin – I think called Shadow Crack – has supposedly been sent after me. I wish I could hide myself right now, but unfortunately, I can’t bury myself in the sand.”

Miyabi crossed his arms and thought for a moment.

“What if you could hide somewhere other than the desert?”

“Without anyone knowing, you mean?”

“It’s called Horn Fortress. It’s surrounded by a weird barrier and by the cracks in the world, so you can’t reach it by ordinary means.”

“I see. That sounds promising.”

The blond-haired brown-skinned boy grinned and held out his right hand.

What did a handshake with him signify?

“I’m Ginger Sandstrike. If you’ve got any secrets or skeletons in your closet you need hidden away, just come to me.”

The Lucifer Horn flew by overhead.

They discovered more than just human life.

“Hmm, are these grassroots? Never thought I’d find them here.”

Onelife tilted his head while moving his feet out of the way.

Miyabi had thought the desert was nothing but sand, but there was so much more to find there. For example, palm trees, cacti, and other plants that could survive in the heat.

“Wow, what is that weird tree!? It’s so big!”

“It must be a baobab,” said Alicia. “They look strange, but from what I’ve heard, they evolved that way because it’s the best shape for them.”

“Are you sure they didn’t evolve the wrong way? They look like giant, ugly carrots.”

“Which allows some of them to live for more than 5000 years. Survival logic is not judged by human aesthetics. Nature truly is powerful.”

There were animals as well. Unfortunately, that included hideous local Beast Novae like a scorpion bigger than they were or an antlion that created its own quicksand.

Miyabi started to think they should have asked that Ginger guy to be their guide.

“I’ve never seen creatures like these,” he said, carefully walking around a giant bowl-shaped patch of quicksand resembling a crater. “Do you think those fried and skewered meats were made from these local ingredients?”

“Th-think too much about it and you won’t have much of an appetite, Miyabi.”

Also, the white bikini knight had been restlessly rubbing her legs together for a while now.

She also hooked her finger and messed with the butt of her swimsuit.

“What are you doing?” asked Alicia. “Is the bikini riding up back there?”

“More than I thought. And when the wind blows, the sand gets in-”

“Okay, we get it. Don’t you dare destroy any more of our manly dreams, you failure of a knight.”

The radio gave a deep rumble of a warning for once.

Eventually, the ruins came into view.

Several pillars stood on a stone-paved ground, with a foundation and L-shaped remnants of stone walls hinting that a square building had once stood there. It was a lot smaller than the pyramid temple in the desert nation, but it was larger than the oases they had seen here and there. Did it serve some kind of special purpose?

“Are these the ruins we want?” asked Miyabi.

“I do sense people here,” confirmed the magical automaton. “And I sense a pressure bearing down on me.”

“I sense a powerful spirit pressure too,” said Kananka. “This place must be even more consecrated than the temple in the middle of that city.”

At any rate, Miyabi took a look around and spoke half in prayer below the scorching sun.

“Where are those twin priestesses – Acacia and Ixea? If they’re not here, then the trail’s gone cold. We’ll have to search at random.”

They heard voices coming from the stone arch at the crumbling entrance to the ruins.

A few commoners were arguing with the priest-in-training who appeared to be their guide.

“Don’t push, please don’t push. All sacrifices should come this way. Please stay in line. The end of the line starts here.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!!” yelled the radio. “How flippant can you be!?”

“Y-yeah, I’m not sure what to make of this one!” said Alicia.

“Hold on. Something isn’t right,” said Helen (who had clear sweat building up in her large cleavage).

They took a closer look.

“Yes, it’s finally my turn.”

“Hurry it up, will you!?”

“This is my chance to be a sacrifice. I might even get recruited as a priestess!”

The people gathered at the far end of the stone plaza had bright excitement in their eyes.

Celina was taken aback by this.

“This does not feel as…tragic as I was expecting.”

“What are they even talking about? A chance to be a sacrifice? Recruited as a priestess? They make it sound like this isn’t the end for them.”

Eliza remained cautious, but the muscle man did not.

“Enough. If you want to know what’s going on, you march on up and ask them!”

When the muscular man (and wanted criminal) approached, everyone paled, so Miyabi quickly intervened.

“Oh, are you here to be sacrifices?” asked the priest-in-training. “Please wait a moment.”

“No, that’s not what-”

“Hey, no cutting in line, bikini girl! We were here first!!”

The smiling girl, who wanted to be a priestess, gave Miyabi’s party a cheerful warning. Her excitement about what was to come shined through even as she rebuked them.

Then they heard a deafening explosion. And felt a powerful tremor. But the shaking was variable, like a living thing was crawling around.

Cracks ran through the parched stone ruins.

“Whoa!?”

“Koo!?”

When Miyabi and Alma left the crumbling wall, a stir was spreading through the people around them. A few of the stone pillars started to collapse unpredictably.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

The original size of the stones and the original seams between them meant nothing. Several cubes of stone were extracted and rearranged vertically to forcibly prop up the heavy pillars.

But he could not cover the entire ruin himself. He had reflexively moved to protect the powerless ordinary people, so his own party had briefly entered a blind spot.

Stones larger than people’s heads collapsed. Celina Bodenburg started, but the flintlock rifle she normally used to protect herself (with a powerful offense) was of little use.

Something tackled the girl out of the way to protect her.

It was a tame Beast Nova that looked like a scantily-clad girl with falcon wings for arms.

That messenger harpy was in fact…

“M-Millovannes!!!???”

“Wow. With the way she was always slashing at her owner with those talons, I assumed she hated the girl, but apparently she’s just an extreme tsundere,” groaned the radio behind the rising cloud of sand.

Celina crawled forward while down on all fours from being knocked to the ground. She clutched the sand that had flowed into the scorching ruins and squeezed it in trembling hands for one second, two seconds, three seconds.

“I will never forget you… But I must move on, Millovannes. Damn this desert nation’s Godhorn Tech! It’s time for some delightful revenge!!”

“You got over that awfully quick for someone you claim to be family. At least look sad for more than three seconds! You humans scare me more all the time!!”

The entire scene had left the elf in tears.

Fortunately, the capable harpy was skilled enough to survive on her own. Since she crawled out of the rubble and flew off into the sky, she must have avoided being crushed to death. Maybe it was this treatment that kept her from ever getting closer to Celina.

Meanwhile, the brown-skinned people in the area did not just sit around waiting to be crushed.

“Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.”

“We weren’t enough! Run away!”

The line scattered.

A commotion spread as they fled for their lives.

“Hey, wait! Come back, sacrifices!”

The priest-in-training ran out into the scorching desert to pursue the fleeing people, but it still did not feel very tragic. Miyabi had the feeling no one was going to die there.

“Wh-what is going on here?” asked the elf, her long ears wiggling.

“The tremor is unstable but somehow orderly,” analyzed Number 8 with his eyes shut.

A second and third tremor reached their feet. The sand on the ground began to flow disconcertingly in some places. Dunes collapsed and quicksand formed.

“That priest said something curious,” said Helen.

“What part!? It all sounded crazy to me!!” shouted back Miyabi.

“ ‘The end of the line starts here.’ ”

“Hm, he did say that, didn’t he?” agreed Number 8.

“Hold on,” said Kananka, something about this bothering him.

“Does that mean the people who fled weren’t the only ones in the ruins? Th-there were more further in!?”

It seemed wrong for Eliza to be so strait-laced while equipped with a bikini. Miyabi looked back over at the stone ruins on the verge of collapse, but they were too large for him to make any quick judgments.

The chosen knight said what needed to be said at times like this.

Even if she was hooking a finger to fix the butt of her swimsuit while she did so.

“These tremors must be from the Godhorn Tech. But what are those twins hoping to accomplish by bringing it to these ruins? Are they hunting something so big it requires a Godhorn Tech?”

The radio asked the fundamental question here.

“But…what kind of opponent would a Godhorn Tech have trouble with?”

“…”

“Koo?”

They all fell silent and Alma tilted its flowery head.

Everyone but the juvenile Wicked God had reached the same conclusion.

“Could it be the Lord of Ruin!?” shouted Miyabi, setting them all into motion. “This is bad. They might even speed up their use of sacrifices to fight back. I don’t know how they use them, but they’re necessary for their Godhorn Tech, right? We need to stop both sides of this fight!!”

Either way, they had to check and make sure no one had been buried alive deeper inside the ruins.

Once inside, they found the ruins did not continue on underground. And the ceilings had entirely collapsed. The sun beat down on that roofless indoor space as they traveled through a labyrinth of crumbling stone walls.

“Nwohhh!? I’m being pulled into the sand!!”

“Wait, everyone,” said Helen. “The meathead pirate is caught in some quicksand!!”

“Huh? I thought that was a solid rock wall, but my hand passed right through it.”

“Miyabi, that must be a secret passageway created with a mirage,” said Kananka. “You see this along the coast in my kingdom, but seeing it artificially constructed is unusual.”

“Someone please save the macho man!!” shouted Helen, so the ever-obedient Number 8 fished the man out with his morning star.

The ruins, being ruins, had more traps than Beast Novae. They progressed deeper in while avoiding spears from the walls and swinging guillotines. With the scorching sun shining in through the crumbled ceiling, it at least did not feel dank and gloomy.

“It’s like a mall with the underground floor open to the air,” grumbled the radio. “It’s hard to say what’s underground and what’s aboveground, or what’s indoors and what’s outdoors. Reminds me of a convertible.”

They encountered a variety of people along the way.

The place was dangerous, so the people familiar with it may have viewed it like a secret base. …Although inattention created by that familiarity may have been the most dangerous thing of all.

“Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. I’m afraid not even Priestesses Acacia and Ixea can control it this time. But then what are we supposed to do!?”

A veteran priest worked to calm a girl who was pale faced with terror, but then he murmured to himself.

“They’ve lost control again. Is the Executive Ground just too much for us to handle? Sure, it’s supposed to resonate with the ruins, but we don’t actually know how that works.”

Further in, a calmer priest explained things further:

“We have the ruins to thank for our desert nation, the oases, and all our water, but we didn’t actually build any of them. Is the Godhorn Tech the same? Could the resonance with the ruins be some kind of warning?”

“The priests said they were providing everyone with equal opportunities when they chose those twin sisters despite their social status,” said an old man who looked resigned to his death. “But do we even need that Godhorn Tech? I understand that rulers want power, but what good is a power you can’t control?”

Fortunately, they did not see anything too serious, such as people trapped underground or crushed below a fallen wall or pillar. Miyabi used the Palette Dice to create a sturdy path of stone and then gestured for the remaining people to evacuate while his party continued on in.

“Doesn’t something about this still feel off?” Helen touched the side of her glasses. “The sacrifices still want to do their jobs – there’s no tension there.”

“And based on what they’ve said, this isn’t an enemy attack,” said Kananka.

“True,” agreed Eliza. “I get the feeling their own Godhorn Tech is running wild.”

“Oh,” said Miyabi.

He had spotted Acacia – or was it Ixea? Regardless, he had seen one of the Godhorn Tech users up ahead. But just the one. The brown girl was viewing the vast desert from a hole in the wall.

But what was that out on the desert?

It was swelling up in places, like something was crawling below the sand.

“There one is,” said the radio, but Miyabi tilted his head.

“But which one is she?”

The slender girl must have heard him because she toward him and spoke so stiffly and expressionlessly she sounded like a ventriloquist’s doll.

“Hello. I. Am. Acacia.”

“Okay, this is definitely Ixea. Don’t shove the blame on your sister!”

“Why won’t you leave us alone?”

“Your axes are cool. I ended up with a sword, so I’m honestly jealous.”

Ixea Flightheart’s face had expressed no emotion since they first met, but now it twisted into something hard to read. Miyabi only saw that forestry tool as a taste of home to soothe his homesickness, but he could see Alicia and Helen slapping their foreheads. Maybe Ixea now saw him as a weirdo. Maybe a fair assessment since underwear and axes were pretty much all he had talked about since meeting her.

But anyway.

Miyabi sighed.

“You’re too relaxed for this to be the Lord of Ruin.”

“S-says the boy acting all relaxed with a real Godhorn Tech running wild out there,” pointed out Helen.

“What are you even doing out there?” asked bikini Eliza, looking out into the distance. “Tilling the desert?”

More and more tremors ran through the ground. It appeared to be avoiding the ruins, but the sandy ground was crumbling away. Sand billowed out like cumulonimbus clouds.

“I couldn’t do it.” Ixea stared out at it all. “Maybe the ruins just weren’t in a good mood .”

“?”

“Priests and priestesses can be rejected from the ruins for how they live their life. Although you can change that if you can directly read their mood.”

“…”

Kananka and Number 8 intentionally held their tongues.

Ixea did not seem to notice.

“It was my sister’s turn today, but this does not look promising.”

“Nhh. Are you saying you can’t control your own Godhorn Tech?” groaned Onelife.

“That’s insane.” Celina’s eyes widened. “A berserk Godhorn Tech will only destroy your own country!!”

Eliza groaned and held a hand to the center of her bikini chest. Her ridiculous outfit did nothing to change her strait-lacedness and she was reminded of what had happened in her Arsenal Kingdom.

But there must have been more to it than that because Ixea made a suggestion after noticing Eliza.

“Oh, are you okay? You should probably move into the shade.”

“Wh-why me specifically? I’m the only one with the foresight to change into a swimsuit.”

“Showing too much skin reduces your defenses against the sun’s rays, so you actually take more damage.”

The local girl did not pull her punches.

Without their roof, shade was surprisingly difficult to come by in the stone ruins. Miyabi ended up holding out his hand and rearranging the stone plaza to create a sun-blocking roof. Eliza was feeling dizzy, so she lay down in the newfound shade.

A hint of surprise appeared on Ixea’s expressionless face as she looked alternately between Miyabi and the makeshift roof.

“What did you just do?”

“I don’t know myself. It seems to be some kind of error.”

“An…error, you say?”

It was Miyabi’s turn to look surprised.

He saw something like affinity in Ixea’s expressionless face.

But the bikini girl interrupted before he could ask what it meant.

“Ugh, sorry about that. Please continue.”

“If you insist,” sighed Ixea. The look was already gone from her eyes. “But things could be worse. My sister and I lived in the alleys before we were taken in for our talent. You could say our warm welcome proved we have what it takes.”

“So what’s all this about sacrifices?” earnestly asked Helen.

“Ugh,” groaned the chosen knight.

“You should probably give your knight some water first.”

As one of the temples, there was water here. They scooped up some in a collapsible metal camping cup and handed it to Eliza, who sat up and eagerly drank it. She held it in both hands and gulped it down like a hungry baby with a bottle.

“Gulp, gulp…”

“Oh, dear. I get the feeling she would swallow just about anything right now.”

Ixea gave the radio a look before getting back on topic.

“A pilot must board the Executive Ground to control it, but my sister and I could never keep it stable.”

“So you brought more people onboard?” asked Miyabi.

“I see,” said the automaton. “Like changing from piano four hands to a full orchestra.”

Eliza lay back down, the heat making her hate everything going on around her.

“Ugh…ughhhh!”

“Hm, you should probably find something to fan her with,” calmly suggested Ixea.

Alicia’s mouth formed a small triangle.

“That bikini ponytail has gotten awfully shameless of late, hasn’t she?”

They were not even calling her a knight anymore. Eliza Silverstorm’s identity was in crisis. Remove the bikini now, and she would have nothing left.

Miyabi and the others gathered big palm leaves from the hot sand.

By bundling a few of them together, they could function as a large fan. Miyabi held it in both hands and fanned it in Eliza’s direction.

She only lay there, sweating.

“Sigh. I’m never getting up again…”

“Does she think she’s a queen?”

Even Ixea was sounding exasperated now. People could learn the wrong lesson when they solved a problem in the wrong way.

But the defenseless bikini girl felt too nice to even consider moving from that spot.

Until, that is, a sudden tremor shook the stone below her and she shot to her feet. The rapid motion pushed the bikini straps’ knots to their limit.

Something burst straight up from the desert. Was it a snake or a centipede? It was large enough to rival a small tower in size, but the very tip looked more biological. Three round pieces of armor clacked open and shut like an eye or a maw.

This was the Executive Ground subterranean tank.

It was unclear how exactly it traveled through the ground, but the thick armor itself was rotating in alternating directions. The tooth-like blades, bits, and rollers used to dig through the ground looked like brutal weapons.

Was it a snake, a worm, or a centipede?

It wriggled in a horrifying way that made it look alive, so Celina (who had added a bayonet to her hunting rifle to make it even more deadly) grew pale.

“Ew, ew, ew, ew. Aren’t you the top of your nation? W-why would you make it look like a big, wriggling mess?”

“Your Schwarz Schütze was big, long, and black too,” point out Alicia.

“B-but it wasn’t a snake! Leave it to an elf hick to not understand the beauty of trains!!”

Since they had chosen that form, it must have had some special meaning for their desert nation. Maybe it was a sacred symbol of their nation’s protector, or maybe they had intentionally made it creepy to scare away any enemies.

“The cobra is a royal symbol,” explained Ixea, still watching the distant Godhorn Tech. “Hee hee. Strange, isn’t it? Our religion controls both the sun and the underworld and believes in the rebirth of mummies and our nation chooses its leaders equally from the wealthy and the poor, yet here we are clinging to an old, outdated image of the pharaoh. We claim to put equality first, but maybe people can’t help but throw it all away so some charismatic person can rule them and make them feel safe.”

Ixea’s shoulders shook in expressionless laughter, but Miyabi could not tell what was so funny.

Also, what were mummies?

The Executive Ground towered above them like a castle watchtower, but more of it had to still be hidden below the sand. Miyabi could not even imagine how big it was in all.

“Oh, that is not what I thought you meant by sacrifices.”

“It is modeled after the people sacrificed as grave goods. Theoretically , the more people who accompany a pharaoh in his grave, the greater his power in the next life. But if that control method were a success, it would mean sending a deadly weapon to the front line while stuffed full of living people. The term sacrifice seems appropriate, don’t you think?”

Ixea watched as the colossal device dove back into the sand. It almost seemed to be dissolving into the ground.

“I don’t understand humans.” The elf sounded exasperated. “You create weapons to protect people, but then you put people onboard those weapons to operate them. Why are you so fixated on having the power to fight? And if the Lord of Ruin arrives, he’ll just slice right through that thing.”

“The Lord of Ruin, hm?”

Ixea’s shoulder-length black hair swayed as she repeated the name.

The bizarre Godhorn Tech was below the sand once more. They could hear the occasional explosion or tremor, but they could not tell where it was or where it was going. It may have been similar to Kananka’s submarine in that way.

At times, a torrent of quicksand would burst from belowground, its face would emerge from the sand, fine sand would shoot out like a glowing blade to tear through a boulder, and a sandstorm would appear to hide its great form while it dove back into the sand.

It had several methods of offense and defense that used every aspect of the harsh desert.

“What do you think?” asked Ixea, half curious and half serious.

“That would depend on how deep it can dive,” mumbled Miyabi.

If it could use the ground itself as a thick shield, the Lucifer Horn’s aerial attacks would have a hard time hitting. He had gouged great trenches into the ground before, but that was the most he could manage. He doubted those beams could actually break into the depths of the earth.

Meanwhile, the Executive Ground could obscure its enemy’s vision with a sandstorm and spew high-speed sand to tear through even boulders. Depending on its range, even the airborne Lucifer Horn could be at risk.

After a while, Miyabi realized the deep rumbling had stopped.

An identical voice spoke from a different direction.

“Sister.”

This one was Acacia Flightheart.

Had she exited the Godhorn Tech because the experiment was over? Miyabi’s party had no idea where that massive sorcery weapon had gone to get the girl back here.

The faintest of frowns appeared on Acacia’s expressionless face.

“What were you talking about? Are they here to mock us for failing to control our Godhorn Tech?”

“The same as before, sister. They wished to discuss our subterranean tank and the Lord of Ruin.”

“Mhh.” Acacia puffed out her cheeks. Still expressionless in every other way, she turned toward Miyabi’s party. “I could have discussed that with you. Stop plotting to contact my sister while I am away.”

“Um…what?”

Acacia approached the confused redhead boy and gave a warning.

“As you can see, my sister is the puppy type, so she is very trusting of strangers. She makes it far too easy, so it takes mere moments before she-”

“Sister.”

“Ahem. Anyway, we should be going, sister.” Acacia paused for a moment and started again on a new topic. “We will handle the Lord of Ruin ourselves. And controlling the Executive Ground is the only way to do that.”

The twins left.

They gave off the pressure of someone who carried the weight of a nation on their shoulders. The village boy had been given a Godhorn Tech, but that was not something he had. He could not keep his eyes off of their departing backs.

After a while, the radio spoke up.

“Hey, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Koo?”

“Oh, you’re right! I forget to ask them who the Lord of Ruin is! They look like they would know!”

### Between the Lines 4

Those sisters could not remember how long they had lived like that.

They had no idea if they had ever had a comfortable home to live in.

Their first memories were of curling up together in the cold alleys. They had watched as so many people walked by without so much as a glance. Abandoned children were far from an unusual sight in their country.

For better or for worse, the extreme environment of the desert forced people to cut the fat and live rationally. The days were blazing hot and the nights freezing cold. They had been forced to do whatever it took to survive there.

They had never known their parents.

They had truly believed they may have been born from one of the buckets or sacks lying around in the alleys.

They had only learned of cooking when they were entirely fed up with the sourness of whatever they could find in the buckets.

They had only learned of clothing when the rags wrapped around them had lost all color.

They had never learned what a bath or a bed were.

It had not been a happy life.

They had assumed that was how their lives would always be.

They had expected to eventually grow weak and die together.

But that had all changed one day.

A kind priest had told them they were special, chosen by the sacred ruins.

The twin sisters were invited to the large temple, where they were given hot food to eat and a hot bath. They were given priestess clothing made of a material they had never before experienced, they were taught to read and write and otherwise educated, and they came to realize how wrong their previous assumptions about the world were.

Their desert nation was reliant on water.

There were no wells or rivers. Dig as deep as you like, you would never find anything.

The water that supported all their lives came from the mysterious ruins scattered across the desert. The nation only really protected the select few who could make a mental connection with the ruins and gather water from them.

And it turned out Acacia Flightheart and Ixea Flightheart had the most suitable wavelength for that.

Thus, they were given the Executive Ground, the desert nation’s prized Godhorn Tech.

So the girls could not abandon the nation that supported their lifestyle, the people who relied on their power, the priests who trusted their talent, or the Godhorn Tech and ruins that gave them such value.

But.

What was it they had really wanted to do, back when they stared up into the night sky from the frigid back alleys?

They had said they would do anything to survive. They had lived day to day by digging through buckets in the back alley. They had no memory of their parents and truly believed they may have been born from one of the buckets or sacks lying around in the alleys.

But no matter how hungry, cold, and weary they were and no matter how much they had resented the invisible presence they could sense in the stone ruins, there was one thing they had never wanted to do.

They had never wanted to wield a tool of killing.

### Chapter 7, Section 3

Miyabi’s party had returned to the desert nation.

Camping out in such an extreme environment would have presented too much of a challenge, so they chose to fork over the money necessary for an inn.

Evening had since fallen.

“This country really likes its dried foods. They do it with meat, with fish, and even with fruit.”

“A culture of food preservation suggests there was a period in their long history when food supplies were unreliable. Still, it does have a unique flavor to it. Fish and shellfish must taste different if you slightly rehydrate it before cooking.”

“The spices are different too.”

“Ha ha. Yeah, those were a bit much when water is a luxury item. I bet it wakes you up in the morning, though.”

Miyabi Blackgarden and Kananka Fulpen discussed the food as they walked down a major road.

Alicia Blueforest, Helen Clockgear, and Celina Bodenburg were with them as well, but a lot of their party was elsewhere.

Miyabi made sure to buy something for Eliza Silverstorm, who wanted nothing to do with the great outdoors after the hot sun had worn her out. Number 8 had also stayed inside to focus on something called a “self-diagnostic” related to the fine sand getting inside his automaton body.

Miyabi’s group was on their way back to the inn after grabbing a bite to eat.

But then Miyabi bumped into someone.

However, the impact was unusually low. The person’s head hit him in the stomach, meaning they were about the same height as Kananka. Did that mean they were a small child?

“Oh, excuse-”

He looked down and started to speak, but he was cut off by a jangling sound that could only come from a thick chain.

He finally realized this was a small girl with a thick chain wrapped all around her.

“Eh? Eh? What’s this? She’s walking around like normal, so is this the latest fashion trend in the desert nation? Come to think of it, those twins wore chains like tails. Is this place just really into bondage?”

“Our Bodenburg Company does business all over the continent, but I assure you nowhere is quite that crazy!” insisted Celina. “Hm, a chained child out in the city at night. She might have escaped from some criminal organization or another. We need to protect her!!”

She looked no older than 10 or 12, but Miyabi had trouble judging small children’s ages and couldn’t say for sure.

“Kananka.”

“Hm? I think she’s about my age.”

If Kananka saw it that way, then she had to be exactly 12. A year’s age difference was a big deal in kid society, so they would know how to tell far more than someone older like Miyabi.

She had long blonde hair brushed aside from her forehead and white skin. Aside from the chain, she wore a thin blue dress and an apron. It made her look more like a country girl than a maid.

No one else in the city was dressed anything like her.

Celina crouched down to her eye level and put on a comforting smile.

“Were you brought here by someone, or were you abducted while on vacation? Either way, you’re safe now. There’s nothing to be afraid-.”

“Shut the hell up, you justice-obsessed freak. Keep away from this child with that creepy smile on your face.”

Celina curled up and held her hands over her sobbing face, so they decided to leave her be for a bit.

The young girl continued speaking with an unusually deep voice.

“Rose Dollycastle.” She directed cold, emotionless eyes toward Miyabi. “This girl has not been illegally abducted or sold into the slave trade, so do not worry. (Your worries are more a nuisance than anything.) I am journeying to find a way to break the curse.”

“ This girl ?” Miyabi frowned. “You make it sound like you and the girl are different people.”

“She probably thinks it makes her more interesting. It’s a common affliction among adolescents. They’ll wear eyepatches or silver accessories or whatever. I’ll admit that chain is pretty extreme, though. Wah hah hah!”

Miyabi was not sure what the radio was talking about, but apparently she was not injured or sick.

Then a black crack ran through the empty space directly above the girl’s head. No, it looked more like a single eye floating there. The pitch-black thing blinked with a mind of its own, narrowed its eye, and turned toward Miyabi’s party.

The girl(?) continued speaking.

“I am not this girl.”

“?”

“I am the chain – the cursed chain. Think of it as cursed equipment that provides both offense and defense. One day, Rose ended up wielding me. Ever since, I have been searching out a way to return her body to her. No matter what it takes.”

Cursed equipment.

On closer inspection, the ends of the chain wrapped around the girl were indeed shaped like scythe or spear blades. There was also something like an hourglass at her flat chest.

“A-a girl this young needed to wield a weapon?” Helen could hardly believe what she was hearing. “And you make it sound like you’ve been searching for a long time. How long ago did that happen?”

The chain(?) readily answered her question while turning its dark gaze toward her.

“Her family was surrounded by several Beast Novae in a mountain blizzard with no hope of rescue, so she had no choice but to wield a cursed weapon to protect them. Are you criticizing that decision?”

“…”

“Unfortunately, she was kicked out of her home because of it. I destroyed her life, so I must restore it to her. I require some means of breaking the chain – breaking myself.”

“Breaking yourself?”

“Isn’t the best way to conquer a curse to destroy its source?”

“I suppose,” sighed Miyabi.

This was more complicated than he had expected. And while the girl was trapped after wielding the weapon, it was unknown if she herself wanted to destroy the chain that had saved her and her family’s lives.

They had only heard the chain’s side of the story – not Rose’s.

(If they might do something they would regret, maybe it would be best to keep them close by.)

“Did you have something to say?” asked the chain.

“No.” Miyabi shook his head and put on a fake smile. “You want to break yourself and I happen to have access to the world’s greatest weapon: a Godhorn Tech. Surely you’ve at least heard of them.”

“That sounds wonderful, but I would like some proof of this power before we shake on it.”

That was easily done.

He stabbed his control sword into the ground, opening a magic circle.

“Lucifer Horn, take this girl to Horn Fortress!!”

Night had fallen.

They had been right to get some dinner before sunset. Miyabi had never lived in the desert before, but it was apparently well known that day and night there might as well have been different places entirely.

Helen Clockgear – or Venus, the bunny girl sans glasses – was muttering to herself alone in the inn room. She could not let Miyabi or the others see this transformation.

“Phew.”

She looked annoyed, but she made sure to strike a pose in front of the large mirror. She used her mannerisms to gather moderate attention and bring down people’s guard, but that was easier said than done. The correct answer was influenced by the current trends, the local character, and even an individual’s personal tastes.

She only had to put on a coat and she was ready to gather intelligence in the city’s night.

The ridiculousness of the outfit did not change the risk she undertook.

“Whenever we’re in need of information, we have a job for Venus. I need to gather whatever intel I can.”

But she was interrupted by Alicia who was hiding out in the room.

“Are you talking to yourself now?”

“Eek!?”

Miyabi, Celina, and the rest did not even bother knocking before barging in.

“Hm. I do wonder why Acacia and Ixea knew about the Lord of Ruin.”

“Right?”

“Not a single surprised reaction after setting foot in this unreal realm of the bunny girl!? Do I have that idiotic bikini armor to thank for this!? Is this just not enough to excite you anymore? Did she trigger some kind of bare skin inflation!? But I can’t show any more than this! You won’t get anything else from me!!!”

Helen bristled and shouted at them, but no one even looked her way.

And speaking of the bikini knight…

“It’s so cold, cold, cold? Why, why, why? Chatter, chatter, chatter.”

“The desert can’t store any heat, so it gets very cold at night!! Change back into your usual armor or you’ll freeze to death!!”

“Now, now, mom. Leave her be.”

“I am not your mom, Miyabi! Why do you start calling me that whenever I’m dressed as a bunny girl!? What disturbing ideas are lodged in the depths of your psyche!?”

“When I say ‘mom’, I guess I more mean the mom at a friend’s house.”

“What did you see when you were little!?”

The cold was so bad their breaths were visible even indoors.

Even Onelife Shiftup was bothered by it.

“Ghh, now this is a bit much. And my metal hand cools off way faster than a real one.”

Eliza Silverstorm was too exhausted to even adapt to the changing environment, so the most she could manage was grabbing a blanket from the bed and balling up inside it. And Alma had climbed onto the bed, so the poor creature was accidentally caught inside with her. She was close to looking like one of the mascot costumes at a crepe or hot dog stand. The desert was making her less and less capable of taking care of herself. If this continued, she might never be able to set foot outside the inn room. It scared the others enough that no one else dared approach the bed.

Meanwhile, someone was rubbing his body for warmth over by the wall.

Thanks to his tropical upbringing, Kananka may not have been accustomed to extreme cold. The young brown king had always experienced sweltering nights, so he had to hold his skinny shoulders against the cold.

“Th-this is not easy. I never experienced this back home.”

“Hey, are you okay, Kananka?”

“I should manage. Ahh, but you’re nice and warm, Miyabi. I think I’ll just nestle up against you until I’m used to it.

“Wait, is Miyabi starting down a new path here?” wondered the radio, but no one was paying any attention.

“The Lord of Ruin.” Celina breathed an exasperate sigh while seated on the windowsill. “With all the ruins, this desert kingdom must have the oldest history on the continent, so they may have more accumulated knowledge than anyone else too.”

“Do you know anything, walking dictionary elf?” asked Miyabi while leaning against the wall, but Alicia only breathed a visible sigh from a corner of the room.

“I generally never leave my forest, you know? All I know comes from the books I would read to pass the time at night. I just happen to have had a lot more tedious nights than a human.”

“Anyway, we need to ask them about the Lord of Ruin,” said bikini blanket Eliza while rubbing her cheek against Alma for warmth.

“N-need I remind you that one of the twins could still be the 11th?” asked Bunny Helen while trembling. “It might be best to ask them what they know before this gets any more complicated.”

“True, but can we really trust them?’ asked Number 8 who stood perfectly still in the center of the room. “Since they too are suspects, they could always lie.”

“If they do, we can use that lie to make our attack. But that requires confirming what they tell us, which will mean more detours,” replied Helen, seeming to have recovered some by focusing on the topic at hand.

That government worker could be strict at times like this. She served her country in a different way from a knight or butler.

“But they’re central figures of their country. How we do we approach them?” asked Kananka while using Miyabi for warmth.

But then…

“Hey, isn’t that Priestess Acacia!?”

They heard a voice from outside.

“…”

“Koo?”

They all fell silent and Alma pushed Eliza’s face away with its front paws to tilt its head.

They knew what they had to do know, so Onelife roared with laughter.

“Now that night’s fallen, this investigation can really get started!”

“What is even happening?”

Miyabi scratched his head and walked to the door, but Venus alone could not accept this.

“Ehh? Wait, you want me to do a lengthy investigation outside dressed like this!? At least let me put a coat on over the bunny suit! Wait, wait, wait!”

“Hurry it up, horny bunny.”

“Please put back on your normal armor, lewd knight!! Surely you aren’t going to head outside still wrapped in that blanket! I mean, you’ll very nearly be a flasher wearing nothing below their coat. Just let go of Alma and come with me!!”

Helen finally tugged on cocoon Eliza’s ear to drag her into another room.

Once outside the inn, Miyabi’s party was assaulted by the biting cold. It was quite a bit colder than when they had been out for dinner. But the canals and crowds kept the city relatively warm at night, so it would be even worse out in the open desert.

Everyone around them was already talking about Acacia Flightheart. It reminded them of how the criminal city had so adored Onelife.

It turned out the religious nation had no custom of going to bed and getting up early.

The city was illuminated by oil lamps and the reflected starry sky appeared to be scattered across the ground. The beauty of the city seemed to be a sign of the how much business was done there.

They passed by a bar when a window burst open and a tipsy man shouted from within.

“A toast to the two priestesses!! Who the hell knows what they actually do, but they get the job done! That way we don’t gotta worry about it ourselves! A toast, a toast!”

The lady at his table was pouting her lips and teasing her glass with her fingertips.

“Priestesses Acacia and Ixea are all they ever talk about. Hard to imagine they used to live in the back alleys. Sigh, why can’t a priest come by and recruit me?”

A fortuneteller woman let a comment slip in a gap between customers.

“The type of customer is so different between day and night, but neither type ever has any real problems. Is that just how peaceful we are thanks to that Godhorn Tech?”

They walked around a while before spotting a familiar brown girl at a plaza.

“There she is, Miyabi,” said Number 8 with no emotion on his face. “It’s that idiot.”

“What are you doing?” asked Miyabi while Alicia calmly grabbed one of the “priestess toys” growing nearby to make sure the girl did not escape.

He thought this was Acacia.

By this point, he had figured out the subtle differences in the twins’ behavior. Their clothing was also subtly different. Acacia’s was feline and Ixea’s was canine.

Also, she was not alone.

The chain swished from the back of her hips and she showed no change of expression as she explained why some man was following her around.

“A stranger asked me for directions.”

“Wow, that is a really good costume,” said the man. “You look just like Acacia! Can you show me to your club? I’d love to down some drinks with you sitting in my lap!”

Onelife placed an arm around the unintentionally inappropriate man’s shoulders.

“Gah hah hah! I think the two of us need to have a chat, man to man!”

“Eh? What? You mean it’s not a costume? That really is Acacia??? Oh, no! Oh, no, no, no, no!!”

The man ran off, showing surprising agility for a drunk.

Acacia still did not seem to understand.

“Oh, did he remember the way?”

“…”

Miyabi was not sure what to say and Kananka felt a need to break the awkward silence.

“I know I never would have made it onto the throne without so many people’s protection, but I think she’s even worse than me.”

“It turns out I interrupted an important conversation with my sister earlier, so I thought I should visit you to apologize and tell you about the Lord of Ruin. However, I forgot to ask where you were staying.” Miyabi’s eyes widened at that casual explanation.

“The Lord of Ruin!? Really!?”

“That was surprisingly easy,” noted Number 8.

“I also forgot how cold the desert night is. It has been too long since I was out this late.”

“Now’s your chance, Miyabi. Grab a blanket from somewhere,” urged the radio. “Heh heh heh. The careless fool just told you exactly what it is she wants. Building up affection points will be a piece of cake now!!”

With no convenient blankets lying around, he had to grab one from their inn room. Which was generally frowned upon.

Acacia looked satisfied inside the blanket that still held some of Eliza’s body heat.

“Ooh, this is nice and warm. But that does not mean I will open up to you.”

“She’s just taking you for all you’re worth!? With the wrong upbringing, this girl could turn into a real problem.”

Acacia had apparently learned by now to ignore the radio’s delusions. Once she had sat down on a bench by the plaza fountain, Miyabi concluded she was not going to leave right away.

The brown priestess began her explanation in an oil lamp’s light.

“You should have seen by now how reliant we are on the ruins. With so much history, we have more antique murals and ancient documents than we could ever need.”

“?” Kanaka tilted his head and briefly fell silent. “You mean…this isn’t something someone told you? Is the Lord of Ruin a figure from some ancient text?”

“I assume you passed through the Bio Rainforest on your way here?”

“Don’t ask me! I’m no navigator!!” replied the muscle man.

“Then stay quiet and let someone else field the question, idiot!!” shouted back the glasses woman.

Meanwhile, Acacia continued her lecture.

“You should have seen stone ruins buried in the vegetation there.”

“Like the ones the Necromancer was using as a lab?” asked Celina.

Acacia shook her head on the bench and toyed with a flower growing in one of the beds supported by the stone canals.

“ Those ruins originally belonged to – no, were originally constructed by the Lord of Ruin .”

“Constructed by?” Miyabi felt faint trying to sort out the timeline there. “But that must have been centuries ago – if not millennia!”

“It would have at least been before the foundation of the Empire.”

Number 8’s assessment was more accurate and Acacia nodded.

“Similar to our ancient stone ruins, plenty of records can be found there. It is said the Lord of Ruin created history’s first Godhorn Tech inside those forest ruins.”

That one term cut to the heart of the matter.

“The demon sword Calamity Revenge.”

The chill of the desert night was overwritten by something else.

That name alone seemed as sharp as a blade’s edge.

That sword itself was already such an enigma.

Miyabi’s party had seen it bisect the Deadman’s Fenrir in a single strike. They had abandoned the idea of fighting the Lord of Ruin and failed to even escape, so they were only still alive thanks to some whim of his.

Acacia had been kicking her legs a little while seated on the bench and wrapped in the blanket, but now she stopped moving altogether.

“The records say he broke off a juvenile Wicked God’s horn and forcibly built it into his sword.”

“K-koo…”

“From a juvenile?” said Alicia. “That’s horrific.”

“I believe it was called a sword of slaughter that brings victory to its user but always leaves new conflict in its wake. Even if the wielder wants to stop fighting, their people, their country, and the world as a whole pushes them to fight until they are consumed by it. The fundamental magic it uses is Geas. You could call it a vow or a curse. You bind yourself with a promise and gain powerful magic with which to harm others. It truly is a demonic sword. It restricts its wielder’s freedom, so to have used it for so long without self-destructing suggests a shocking level of skill.”

It was a frightening concept.

Any Godhorn Tech could be described as a double-edged sword, but Calamity Revenge had to be the most prominent example. It almost seemed to punish you for wielding such a deadly power.

“He must have had enough power to commit the taboo of breaking off a juvenile’s horn,” continued Acacia. “There are even records saying this one continent is all we know because he split apart the sea to cut it off from the rest of the world.”

That sounded like something from a fairy tale, but Acacia was serious. Her tone implied that would be within his power.

“It isn’t actually known if today’s Godhorn Techs could defeat a real Wicked God, but either way, the very first one had to be done without a Godhorn Tech and there would have only been so many someone could defeat to claim the horn. But that doesn’t mean the other Wicked Gods would have been okay with it. It is obvious what must have happened when you remember that his kingdom is now buried below vegetation. …He acquired the strongest power he so desired, but that brought about an even greater disaster.”

“…”

The Lord of Ruin.

Was that name meant to say he was lord of a ruined kingdom?

“Then why is he still wandering the world?”

“To make up for his mistake,” clearly stated Acacia. “After breaking off the juvenile’s horn, that ancient king saw the monster writhing in pain and realized Wicked Gods are no different from humans. But after he built the horn into his sword and displayed its destructive power to the world, there was naturally no end to people who wanted that overwhelming power for themselves.”

From there, the brown girl almost seemed to be singing.

With her emotionless eyes looking up into the starry sky.

“The Wicked Gods were made out to be evil.”

Her words were so smooth.

“He was made out to be just for slaying that evil.”

Yet so sinister.

“So the Lord of Ruin still opposes the world that perpetuates that framing.”

“That’s why he does it?”

Miyabi gulped and Acacia nodded.

“He has lived in regret for so very long. He regrets distorting history with the introduction of Godhorn Techs…and he regrets directing people’s greed toward the Wicked God horns.”

“…”

“By ensuring that anyone with a Godhorn Tech meets an unpleasant end and ensuring that anyone who attempts to break off a Wicked God horn is destroyed, he hopes to change how the world works. He appears to be attacking everyone who possesses one, turning himself into the greatest calamity of all.”

“In that case…”

Miyabi thought back to the Lord of Ruin’s apparent agony when Alma had moved to protect them at the exit to the rotting Bio Rainforest.

He thought about why such a powerful man had stopped his attack.

“Did the Lord of Ruin leave the forest because of Alma?”

Then what about when he had dealt with the Deadman’s Fenrir? From Miyabi’s perspective, it had looked like a merciless one-shot kill, but the old man may have been weeping blood below his mask.

With a corpse that had been turned into a rotting sorcery weapon by forcibly attaching another horn, maybe he could clench his teeth and justify his actions by saying he was putting it out of its misery.

But that reasoning did not allow him to attack a living juvenile like Alma.

He refused to commit the same mistake twice.

Even if it put him at a severe disadvantage.

Was that part of his pride as a king?

Blanket-wrapped Acacia’s voice was the only sound in the cold starry night.

“Anyway, contacting the Lord of Ruin should be easy enough. He will appear to anyone with a Godhorn Tech, no matter what, so you don’t even need to do anything.”

“W-wait. Then aren’t you and your sister in danger too!?”

“Yes, but that changes nothing. We cannot battle a Godhorn Tech user without control of the Executive Ground. I don’t know what exactly happened in those unthinkably ancient days, but the Godhorn Tech is a crucial pillar supporting our country. We do not have time to bother with philosophical questions of right and wrong.”

“You have a point,” groaned Number 8.

“It is ironic, really. The more the Lord of Ruin hates Godhorn Techs, the more we must fortify ourselves using them.”

The brown girl’s lips twisted with a hint of self-deprecation.

Maybe it was meant as a smile, but she was so out of practice it didn’t come out right.

“Could we work together?” cautiously suggested Miyabi.

“Just so you know, we consider you a threat as well. You are not bound to any country, you are immune to diplomacy, and you control a Godhorn Tech all on your own. You need to be aware that you could destroy an entire country on a whim if you wanted.”

That was the end of it.

With a rustle of cloth, the blanket dropped to the bench and she left. Miyabi could not stop her.

“The Lord of Ruin might be on his way, so I should not be out here talking.”

They had not solved anything, but time had passed and the conversation had ended.

Miyabi’s party had no choice but to return to the inn for now.

He felt bad continuing to intervene in their lives, but he could not let those twins stay like this. He knew the Lord of Ruin’s power was real. He had seen the threat with his own eyes.

And.

Alicia Blueforest remained behind, all alone.

Well, the radio was still with her.

“Now. I hope that boy has not forgotten that one of the twins might be the 11th. …Their behavior could be an act and their Godhorn Tech’s malfunction could be because one of them is drawing off all the energy to create sorcery bombs.”

“Heh heh. With twins that cute, maybe he doesn’t care if they trick him.”

“…”

Morning arrived and Miyabi sat up in the inn bed, lost in thought.

“Now, where are Acacia and Ixea?”

“Koo!”

“We need to find some way to get their cooperation today.”

Plant Alma had an excess of energy today, perhaps due to sunbathing by the window while in a flowery dryad form. Miyabi and the stuffed-animal creature got ready together and then left their room to meet with the others. After buying some water and meals of assorted dried foods from a street vendor, they made their way out into the desert.

“Sigh, not the desert again. It’s nothing but hot sand, hot sand, and more hot sand.”

Eliza was depressed already. It was blazing hot even in the morning. This time, the chosen knight was wearing her usual armor instead of the bikini. It was just as hot as before, but she had finally learned that wearing less only exposed her skin to sun damage.

“What a shame. I so wanted to see the novice exhibitionist’s bikini tan lines,” grumbled the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck.

Come to think of it, Eliza’s skin was surprisingly untanned for all the sun she had gotten. Instead, it looked faintly flushed. Was that what happened with the pale-skinned people of her snowy kingdom?

The sand began to shake violently when they were still near the city. It happened a second time, a third time, and they eventually lost count. The dunes looked like an ocean’s waves frozen in time, but now they collapsed and changed shape like the flow of time had been restored.

The unnatural quicksand made their footing as unstable as stepping in a shallow forest stream that had a stronger current than expected.

“Whoa.”

The redheaded boy staggered and Eliza had to support him from the side. Her armor seemed to have restored her dignity, so she had regained the gallant look of the sort of opera star every girl wanted to be.

“How can they keep this up in such a harsh environment? They must be continuing their tests with that subterranean tank, so do they do that from dawn to dusk?”

“Where are they this time?” asked Celina just in time for another great tremor. “They must be to the north today.”

They were more afraid of the sand covering up the narrow path of packed-down sand than they were of being swallowed whole by quicksand. The desert was so vast that they would have a hard time finding landmarks. If this path disappeared, they would have no way of navigating back.

For now, they followed the sounds.

They continued on, the hot sand catching at their feet, until some stone ruins finally came into view. They were relieved to find something other than sand they could use as a landmark. Acacia and Ixea had to be doing their tests in there.

Then they saw some people approaching them from the ruins. The details were still unclear, but the people may have found the harsh desert to be safer than the ruins.

While they passed, Miyabi’s party overhead a conversation between a young male artist and a carefree girl.

“Will the priestesses be all right on their own?”

“They said they weren’t accepting sacrifices, so I guess so.”

“Please hurry away. These were the priestesses’ instructions, so there is nothing to worry about.”

A priest waved a small flag to guide the carefree group through the desert. If they fled into the mirage-filled desert at random, they could indeed get lost easily.

Alicia glanced back at that group with skepticism on her face.

“What’s that about? This isn’t how they did things yesterday.”

“Their technology is reliant on the ruins and the chosen priestesses have to stand in harm’s way,” said Miyabi.

“You mean everyone is placing all the nation’s problems on those two’s shoulders?” Helen’s face clouded. “They keep insisting there is a problem, but no one takes them seriously while also blaming them when things gradually get worse? Everyone is so used to peace they fail to notice all the work those two put in. It must be so stifling for them.”

“It isn’t pleasant to hear about, that’s for sure,” said the radio.

“Nhh.” Onelife tilted his head. “But don’t they need the sacrifices to control their Godhorn Tech? You can’t call it a voyage if you let your whole crew off your ship and let it drift out at sea.”

“They did say the sacrifices were needed to restrain the unnatural resonance with the ruins,” said Number 8.

“Although I’m not sure how those sacrifices can help if they don’t know how to sense the spirit pressure,” said Kananka.

Those two’s descriptions were too abstract for the others to grasp very well.

“Hmm. Weren’t the experiments meant to stabilize the subterranean tank using the power of their people?” asked Eliza. “No way to test that without the people.”

“I’m amazed you remember all that when you were all dizzy from your bikini adventures yesterday,” said Celina, sounding impressed (and exasperated).

Just then, they heard a rumbling.

Something appeared to be crawling closer.

“Hold on.” Miyabi asked a careful question. “If they aren’t running their test, then what is this?”

“If it is not training, then could it be combat?” suggested Number 8, earning a groan from Miyabi. “What are Acacia and Ixea using their Godhorn Tech to do!?”

They encountered some Beast Novae while hurrying toward the ruins.

The desert monsters looked like giant snakes or bugs. The lack of water and the extreme temperature differences between day and night had created a very unique ecosystem. There were antlions with control over quicksand, dung beetles that flipped on their backs and toyed with infection bombs larger than they were, and many more.

“Whoa!?”

“Just get ready for battle!”

They did not need to defeat them all. After repelling them, the ground shook hard enough to crack open. The panicked monsters scattered and fled. The man-eating antlions emerged onto the sand and crawled awkwardly around and the wagon-sized dung beetles rolled away on their own filthy orbs.

They had avoided an all-out war with the Beast Novae, but they could not relax yet.

Eliza gulped and extracted her large lance from the flabby belly of an antlion (which was pretty gross-looking once out of the sand).

“It looks more like they fled in surprise than tried to attack. But what from?”

“Koo…”

“This isn’t the time to grimace in distaste,” said Alicia. “If they attack us, we have to fight back.”

“Oh, how unusual. You usually defend the Beast Novae.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that the cute species like us are not the same as those monsters that crawl around eating living flesh!? Come here, Alma. I will carry you on my head.”

They continued through the desert.

They spotted two camels on the way, but not wild ones. These still had saddles and reins like a horse would wear.

They did not have nametags, but their owners were obvious enough after seeing the glittering golden equipment. Not to mention the feline and canine decorations attached to their ears like earrings.

“Do those belong to Acacia and Ixea?” asked Miyabi.

They had arrived in the stone ruins.

After observing the desert around the ruins themselves, Helen pointed into the distance.

“Oh, is that it!?”

A massive cloud of sand rose from a great shape.

That had to be the desert nation’s Godhorn Tech: the Executive Ground.

However…

“What is this wild and irregular pressure? What is happening here?”

Kananka and Number 8 were both rendered speechless.

“This is more than just resonating with the ruins.”

“Hold on. Is that what I think it is!?”

An enormous object burst from the hot sand.

A massive snake covered in thick armor used tooth-like bits and blades to kick up the sand. But what they saw was only a portion of the weapon that had so destroyed the scenery. Part of it remained buried below the sand. It must have had a great many joints because it moved in an eerily biological way that made their skin crawl to watch, but it also looked like a piece of mining equipment that tore through the ground to dig tunnels. But that colossus was not the center of this scene. It moved three round pieces of armor to open its great maw, but another figure was facing the Executive Ground.

He wore a white mask.

He wore loose clothing.

He held the world’s oldest Godhorn Tech.

“…”

“The Lord of Ruin!?” shouted Miyabi.

Onelife clenched his prosthetic fist.

“Now that villain is turning his blade on those twins!?”

“Did they send out the subterranean tank to battle him? They must have let the sacrifices go to keep them out of this deadly battle,” concluded Eliza with a mixture of approval and exasperation.

“B-but they couldn’t control it even with the sacrifices, right?” said pale-faced Helen.

“They would not have been much help if they could not sense this pressure,” said Kananka, looking like staying on his feet was a struggle.

Helen supported him with a hand on the shoulder and finally started shouting.

“Th-th-th-then are Acacia and Ixea in any condition to fight!? What can they do if they can’t control the Executive Ground!?”

The face covered by the smooth, eyeless and mouthless mask tilted slightly.

The blade flipped around.

“The subterranean tank and I can both kill with a single strike. We have entered a mutual contract that remains in effect until this promise is fulfilled.”

The glint of reflected sunlight showed the path of the blade after the fact. Even at a distance, Miyabi could not see at all what the sword did in real time. The desert’s poor footing and the scorching sun did nothing to restrict his divine speed.

The serpent or worm that was the Executive Ground writhed in pain, forming a massive arch in the air, and then dove back down into the dry sand. No, fleeing may have been the better word.

The desert continued as far as the eye could see, but it felt far too small now. The Lord of Ruin’s presence was just that great. It would have been one-shotted if it had not shed some of its armor and diverted the blade’s path with a thick cloud of sand.

The Lord of Ruin’s sword was the Calamity Revenge.

Was it Celina who had called it a Godhorn Tech slayer when they first saw it in the Bio Rainforest?

Muscular Onelife could also be extraordinarily destructive, but the Lord of Ruin’s destruction was of a different type altogether. The one-eyed pirate wielded brute force and weight like he had an endless supply of energy within him, but this sword was cold and sharp and it calmly cornered its foe before accurately destroying them.

Did the twins have any chance of winning even if they managed to fully control the Executive Ground and draw out 100% of its power? It was impressive they had survived even that initial attack.

“It doesn’t matter if they can control it,” muttered Miyabi in a daze.

“Koo?”

“Acacia and Ixea plan to throw the uncontrollable subterranean tank at the Lord of Ruin to try and repel him. They want to protect their country even if it means their own destruction.”

“I see.” Surprisingly it was the cold magical automaton who responded first. Or maybe it was no surprise since he had failed to protect his own homeland. “I would do the same if it would save the country I was responsible for.”

“B-but they can’t keep this up! They control that from inside, just like I did my Schwarz Schütze, don’t they? Those twins are still in there!”

“This could be our chance, Miyabi.” Kananka made an odd suggestion. “You might have an easier time of it if we attacked the Lord of Ruin now, making it 2-to-1. He made a surprise attack on the Necromancer’s Deadman’s Fenrir to bring down the number of enemy Godhorn Techs, remember? That suggests he doesn’t want to fight more than one at once.”

“Will you stop the subterranean tank or the Lord of Ruin, Miyabi!?”

Miyabi fell silent considering Alicia’s question.

“…”

And.

“…”

And.

“…”

And.

He gave his answer.

“ Let’s stop Acacia and Ixea. ”

That settled it.

Miyabi faced his enemy and adjusted his grip on the control sword.

“We might have more opportunities to fight the Lord of Ruin, but we don’t get a second chance if those two lose their lives. This is our only chance to save them! So that’s what I’ll do, even if they resent me for it!!”

No one objected.

The small king loved by the sea and the spirits smiled gently.

“If that is your decision, I will assist you. Show them how to use a Godhorn Tech, Miyabi!”

Moving quickly through the desert was a challenge in and of itself.

Just like at the beach, the fine sand gently absorbed the energy of their feet on the ground, eating away their speed.

Meanwhile, they were up against a subterranean tank, a Godhorn Tech designed for use in the desert.

Only that colossus could move freely through the sand that caught at everyone else’s feet, so it moved too swiftly to ever reach without a plan.

Also, the Executive Ground did not keep its face above ground at all times. In fact, it had to be safer while submerged in the sand. It could wait for the desert to wear its opponent down with the heat of the day or the chill of the night and then attack from below once they were too weak and distracted.

But.

Its current opponent was an exception.

“Another Godhorn Tech.”

An old man wore a smooth white mask with no eyes or mouth and casually held a fearsome demon sword in one hand.

He was the Lord of Ruin.

“Eek!?”

Helen ducked down and covered her head, even though he was still so far away. Normally, there was no way a sword could reach them from that distance, but they all ducked down, their legs seizing up with fear. They knew on an instinctual level that “normal” meant nothing here.

“The subterranean tank and I can both split the sandy terrain with our blades. We have entered a mutual contract that remains in effect until the subterranean tank has been destroyed.”

Their opponent bound the field with a curse that benefited only him.

With a single strike, he split open the sandy ground, mercilessly exposing the Executive Ground attempting to hide there. The thick armor of the ground accomplished nothing and the Godhorn Tech itself was damaged. The tooth-like blades and bits meant to dig through the sand were torn away like a fish’s scales and cracks visibly ran through the rollers. Nevertheless, the great serpent or worm wriggled in its berserk state, targeting the Lord of Ruin with unpredictable movements, but…

“Argh, this had better do the trick!!”

Celina’s sniper shot struck what looked like a red ball of glass embedded in the Godhorn Tech’s head. The crimson liquid within sloshed around. That had to be more like the inner ear than an eye. With its midair attitude control sensor shaken, the venomous snake was thrown off course during its sharp leap toward its prey. Acacia and Ixea had been robbed of one of their few chances to strike.

Miyabi was not going to just stand idly by.

That great serpent was a massive tunnel digger that could move freely through the sandy ground. Only the Lord of Ruin could thoughtlessly stand up to that serpentine collection of bits and rollers, but Miyabi had a Godhorn Tech of his own: the Lucifer Horn bomber.

He stabbed his control sword into the ground, opening a magic circle at his feet.

“Tactical open,” he shouted. “Blow it away!!”

Sensing the danger, the Executive Ground opened the three round armor pieces that complexly folded together to form a mouth. It aimed its open mouth toward the sky and fired absorbed sand with enough speed to function as a cutter.

Fearsome attacks were launched from the sky and the earth.

But they did not collide in between.

Because Miyabi had not been targeting the subterranean tank itself.

Thus, the Lucifer Horn managed to avoid the skyward attack by a hair’s breadth.

But what had the bomber’s beam accomplished?

It crashed into the ground next to the Executive Ground. The ultra-hot beam tore into the ground, transforming the fine sand into sticky glass. It was a miniscule change when looking at the desert as a whole, but the melted glass gummed up the digging bits and blades.

With a terrible grinding, the desert rejected the serpent. Its blades were a poor match for the sticky goop. It was a horrific analogy, but it was just like how a blade lost its sharp edge to the blood and fat after cutting down enough people.

For a brief moment, the subterranean tank lost its greatest advantage: the ability to dive below the desert and move rapidly through the sand. Unable to even hide, it writhed up on the surface.

Its gaping maw turned toward Miyabi this time.

And it produced voices. The voices of the twins.

Miyabi could hear the girls despite the distance, so the serpent’s internal cavity must have amplified the voices like a trumpet. If that ability was refined and the noise concentrated in a single direction, it could probably function as an acoustic weapon that knocked people out by rattling their heads. Then again, the uncontrollable Executive Ground was unlikely to allow such fine-tuned control.

“Tch!!”

“Why must you interfere!?”

Acacia and Ixea spoke from within the Godhorn Tech, so Miyabi yelled back at them.

“And why must you do everything you’re told!? Why didn’t you even hesitate to board the Executive Ground!?”

The girls spoke one after another.

Each statement blended into the next so well it was hard to tell which was which.

“That goes without saying.”

“We cannot protect the desert nation without controlling this Godhorn Tech.”

“And we will protect our country even if we cannot control it!”

“Even if it means sacrificing ourselves!!”

It sounded a lot like they were trying and failing to speak in unison.

So Miyabi spat out more questions.

“Because someone told you to? Because those priests took you in? Because the people are counting on you? Because you were given control of the Executive Ground?”

A single attack from that blade of compressed sand – no, a single tackle – would be enough to kill Miyabi, but he directly faced and shouted at that colossus.

“That isn’t what you want to do. That’s what’s been forced onto you!”

“Silence. You have no right to speak about our inner feelings.”

“That’s right. Our feelings are our own!”

“…Our?” Something bothered him about that, so he pursued that feeling. “Our, us, we. You’re always talking about the two of you together and never just yourself ! So whose feelings are really in control of the Godhorn Tech!?”

“!?”

The twins trembled in response.

“You decide this is the right thing to do because your sister says so.” The more he spoke, the more the idea felt wrong to him. “The people do it to you, you do it to them, and you do it to your sister! Everyone is shoving responsibility for your decisions onto each other!! So what do you have that’s your own? That’s why you can’t control the Godhorn Tech. Who does the Executive Ground really belong to !?”

Godhorn Techs were controlled through a contract.

Miyabi, Celina, and even inhuman Number 8 had faced their strongest power through a 1-on-1 contract. The Icicle Bullet had been controlled by majority rule determined by Eliza and the rest of the chosen knights, but that was because they each understood the importance of their vote and cast it with the appropriate tension.

They knew their choices would have significant results.

But what if someone lacked that realization?

This had nothing to do with the “mood” of the ruins or a lack of skill on the twins’ part. This nation had erred from the very beginning. It made perfect sense that they were incapable of holding their Godhorn Tech’s reins.

“I-I…”

“No, we…!!”

It came from head on.

The subterranean tank fired ultra-pressurized sand from its gaping maw. A direct hit from that would cleave through a rocky mountain like a giant’s sword.

But Miyabi did not even flinch.

He only swept his empty hand to the side and packed together sand to create a Decoy Wall. By diverting their aim just slightly, the nightmarish attack tore through the air right next to him.

He kept his eyes on them and raised his voice again.

“I’ll drag you out of that centerless cradle, so do some self-reflection, Acacia, Ixea! I won’t act like you’re both basically the same. I will hear what it is each of you really want individually!!”

They had said he could destroy a country on a whim, so he would show them that he could also save two girls on a whim. And to do that, he was willing to face the Godhorn Tech that was a collection of all of the desert nation’s power.

The Lucifer Horn’s beam could tear through the sand and the metal maw could approach through the ground to devour Miyabi.

Then there was the white mask.

The Lord of Ruin acted as a wild card in this fight.

The Executive Ground had been troubled by the glass made from melted sand, but it forcibly shattered the cooled and solidified glass to free its thick bits and rollers.

It was close enough now that a glass shard scraped Miyabi’s cheek.

But he did not have time to worry about that. If it dove back below the surface, he would lose his chance to win this. He forgot all about backing away as he stabbed his control sword into the hot sand.

A giant magic circle opened at his feet.

“That won’t…!!”

“…work again!!”

The twins shouted from the fully-opened mouth.

He ignored their claim because he was not thinking of melting the sand to create more glass. That Godhorn Tech was used to protect an entire nation, so he had never expected the same move to work more than once.

“Lucifer Horn, break it down!!”

With a deafening boom, the Executive Ground was once more repelled from the sand, but this time its tooth-like blades and rollers were not gummed up with melted glass.

A massive bomb had fallen and exploded on the surface.

It initially only seemed to damage the surface, but that was not the case.

“Your Executive Ground might rule this desert, but loose sand isn’t nearly as hard as packed-together sand, is it!?”

Alicia brought a test tube to her mouth, drank the physical boosting potion within, and gave a fierce roar.

“Ha ha. I see. A gravity anomaly, huh? Gravity is actually different at some points on the continent. For example, the locations of iron ore deposits hidden below the desert. You altered the density to create an obstacle that can, for a brief moment, stop the subterranean tank in its tracks!!”

The Lord of Ruin was approaching.

The unwanted third party approached the desert Godhorn Tech and his blade flashed as it was released from its scabbard.

That was enough to cause some kind of emergency because the curled-up serpent collapsed flat down on the sand. It looked to be more than 70m long, proving yet again that Godhorn Techs were absurd. How could something so large move so freely through the sand?

Miyabi did not have time to lament this unexpected attack.

“Now’s my chance!!” he shouted instead.

He stabbed his control sword into the ground and a white beam stabbed down from the sky.

The serpentine silhouette writhed in agony. Its three round armor pieces wriggled as its maw opened wide and the girls’ voices emerged.

“Kh, how dare you!!”

“We need the Executive Ground!!”

Miyabi had a fundamental question about this.

He looked to his heart, searched out the question there, and let it out.

Definite power filled the ordinary boy’s words.

“Is that Godhorn Tech really protecting your nation? The Republic doesn’t have one and the Arsenal Kingdom got rid of theirs, but they’re still doing just fine!”

Acacia snapped back at him.

They were cheap words drawn out on reflex.

“It is our only defense against that enemy right there! The Lord of Ruin!!”

“He never would have attacked if not for the Godhorn Tech!!”

“…”

The twin girls said nothing more.

They fell silent.

“Oh, did that actually get through to them?” hesitantly asked Alicia.

“ Then what about you? ”

But the older twin’s strangely gloomy words left the great serpent’s mouth, soon followed by the younger twin’s.

“That’s right, sister. All other Godhorn Tech owners are a threat. It is our duty to fight them.”

“It’s not working!!” Helen looked up into the sky. “You aren’t reaching them!!”

“Do we have to stop them by force after all?” asked Eliza, raising her lance.

Miyabi was actually smiling.

Belligerently.

“Fine by me. This just means we duke it out until we reach an understanding.”

“Well said!!” responded Onelife for some reason. “I’m sick of running away. Nwohhhhh!! It’s time for a chat through the medium of violence!!”

It was time to really do it.

That one strike from the masked Lord of Ruin had been powerful indeed. The subterranean tank was left lying out on the sand, which meant something had gone wrong and it could not dive back below the sand. And before the 70m colossus could recover, direct hits from Kananka’s boomerang, Miyabi’s control sword, and more pushed its writhing past the limit.

Onelife Shiftup scored a direct hit.

This went beyond his imperial prosthetic or control blade. With him, you were lucky if an attack could be described scientifically at all. The real threat was when he used his muscles to throw all that troublesome logic to the curb. Yes, he forcibly held one of the many rollers in place with his arms.

“Hwa ha ha!! I slaid a Wicked God with my own two hands! Did you think the Lord of Ruin was the only monster out there!?”

“…”

The blade flashed without warning.

The white mask kept them from reading the man’s emotions, but the Lord of Ruin sent a merciless attack toward Onelife’s neck after he announced he had killed a Wicked God .

“Oh, no you don’t!!”

Celina’s bullet intercepted the line of light, redirecting it ever so slightly. Otherwise, it would have sliced right through Onelife’s protectively raised arms and his neck behind them.

The Lord of Ruin fell back, expecting a counterattack.

A giant morning star connected with electricity crashed into the sandy ground. Without that, a series of sword strikes would have reached the pirate. The path of the attacks bent again and again, like thunderbolts on their way to the ground.

“Thanks! You saved my rear!!”

“I require no thanks. I was only hoping to break his mask and get a look at his face, but he moved too quickly.”

“But what’s with all the support and defense? Nhh, since when am I Mr. Popular!?”

“Be warned, everyone. Show an idiot some kindness and he will get the wrong idea.”

The woman who braved the night life as a bunny girl could be cold about such things.

Eliza Silverstorm held her giant lance at her hip and kicked powerfully off the sand.

The meathead was not the only one to make a charge.

But they were not after the Lord of Ruin.

They had said from the beginning that their target was the Executive Ground. They had said their object was to rescue the twin priestesses.

So they did not hesitate.

“Once more!!!!!!”

Approaching from another angle, she jabbed her lance into a gap in one of the joints in the great serpent’s armor. It was meant to hinder movement more than cause damage.

And once the serpent had been slowed even slightly, she raised her voice.

“Miyabi, deliver the finishing-!?”

A dull snapping sound cut the chosen knight off.

Her method had been correct. She had done her very best, but the Executive Ground did something unexpected.

It forced itself to move with the lance still piercing it.

One of its enormous gears broke and shattered, sending shards larger than the average axe blade soaring through the air. One metal fragment spun through the air and hit Miyabi right in the face.

The color red flew.

“Boy!?” shouted Alicia before she was rendered speechless.

A line of red blood ran across the boy’s cheek just below his right eye. A few centimeters higher and it might have gouged his entire eye out.

But.

Miyabi Blackgarden’s challenging gaze was unchanged. He did not even reach up to feel the wound.

Because they were right there.

Those girls had been given the massive power of a Godhorn Tech, but they had not been given even a taste of freedom. The priests and the people had shoved all the country’s troubles on those girls’ shoulders until they were being crushed below the weight.

Their lives were being threatened by a foe as fearsome as the Lord of Ruin, but they had been left out here all alone, not a single person in their country attempting to help them.

(No.)

Miyabi Blackgarden clenched his teeth.

He squeezed his control sword in both hands so tight he seemed to be cursing his own word choice.

(You aren’t all alone There’s someone here for you. There is someone stupid enough to rush out into the desert for you and stand between you and the Lord of Ruin’s blade. And it’s not just me. That describes every single one of us out here right now!!)

He was not afraid of any pain he could ignore by clenching his teeth.

Unfortunate coincidences and a mocking destiny were not worth fearing.

If he could reach out and find them – if he could help bring them freedom as long as he did not give up – then this temporary blood loss wasn’t worth even a moment’s thought!!

So.

The possessor of a Wicked God horn gave a roar while slamming his sword blade into the desert at his feet.

This was the only way to show respect for the strait-laced knight who gave him this opportunity.

He could only do this because she had done everything she could to rescue those twins.

So he had to make sure she would not regret that decision.

“I’ve got this, Eliza!! Tactical open!!!!!!”

First, a bomb was dropped and detonated in midair.

That on its own was meaningless.

At most, it could sweep all the fine sand from the desert sky. With the air cleaned of all impurities, a beam of light shot down from heaven to earth.

This time, the brutal light scored a direct hit on the serpent.

The utmost care was taken to ensure it did not hit Eliza who was still nearby, a sharpshooting feat akin to shooting an apple off someone’s head with a bow and arrow.

A strange sound left the great maw.

It was not the girls’ voices this time.

Maybe it was the accumulated damage and maybe it was as safety feature kicking in, but Acacia and Ixea were spat from the great maw. They collapsed into the hot sand with the tail chains jangling from the back of their hips.

“Ugh!?”

“Ghh!”

Just as the Lord of Ruin directed his sword in their direction, Miyabi stabbed his sword into the sand and the Lucifer Horn passed by overhead with a fearsome gust of wind.

A brutal beam of light tore across the ground, creating a wall of flames between the Lord of Ruin and the twins.

After protecting them with that massive shield, Miyabi faced the Lord of Ruin directly.

This was who he wanted to be.

Gone were the days when he would look the other way and flee.

“…”

“Stand back, Lord of Ruin!! This isn’t your fight!!!!!!”

Something strange happened.

The Lord of Ruin slowly raised his demon sword again and then stopped moving.

This was no attack; it was more like someone brushing aside the cobweb in front of their face. It was a passive action, not an active one. He was measuring the distance between them and attempting to read his opponent’s breathing. Almost like he was trying to judge Miyabi’s intentions.

A painfully tense equilibrium formed between their blades.

It made no difference how much distance there was between the two blade tips.

Miyabi was silently asking about the old man’s stance on this battle. Before entering the direct clash, he used his sword to ask how the Lord of Ruin hoped to win.

It was such a foolish and childish question.

In true combat, how you won was irrelevant. His opponent could have shoved past the boy while insisting that history was written by the victors.

But the Lord of Ruin was different.

In whatever form it took, he was still a king. So he would not ignore that childish question.

But.

Someone else was even more confused.

Ixea spoke in a groaning voice while lying on the ground, the hot sand lightly burning her skin.

“Wh-what? Why did you save us?”

“No, sister. We must return to the Executive Ground.”

“Not yet!!” shouted Miyabi, his control sword directed toward the distant Lord of Ruin as a warning.

This miracle would not last forever. The boy himself did not understand what was allowing him to stop the Lord of Ruin’s attack right now.

But it gave him a tiny, seemingly impossible opportunity.

If he did not use that to grab the small hands sticking out from the stormy ocean, he would never find them again.

So he would make use of this opportunity no matter what!!

“You still haven’t told me why you want to fight so badly!! That’s a singular you! I want to know what you think, Acacia! And what you think, Ixea!”

Silence followed.

Then the words spilled from the twin sisters while they tasted sand.

“Because…”

It sounded like they were regurgitating an imprinted idea.

“Because we have to repay the priests for taking us in,” said Acacia.

“That’s what the priests want.”

“Because we can’t protect the country without the Godhorn-” began Ixea.

“That’s what the people want!”

There was more to this. Something was still hidden deeper.

Miyabi believed people were not so simple. He had bet his own life on the idea.

Acacia and then Ixea gave individual answers.

“Because my sister…”

“Because my sister is working so hard.”

“That’s just what the sisters want!!!!!!”

No.

That wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

They were holding back and giving the wholesome answer people expected of them, but their heart wasn’t in it.

Which was why the Executive Ground would not respond.

It could not.

It wanted something else. It might be pathetic and it might be unsightly, but there had to be some pure, unadulterated feelings born deep within their hearts. Once the Godhorn Tech heard that, it would lend each girl as much power as they needed.

In a way, the Executive Ground had seen this country’s cruelties more than anyone else. It had seen how everyone piled more and more pressures on those girls, pushing them ever closer to the breaking point.

It didn’t matter if it was messy and ugly. Because revealing those things without fear was a form of trust.

They only had to cast it all aside and be honest about what they wanted.

Their talents were wasted like this.

And Miyabi was not going to let it end like this.

No matter what it took.

“…”

“Forget what everyone else wants. You don’t need to put yourself in harm’s way for anyone’s reasons but your own!! What is it you really wanted to do! I’m not interested in what anyone else has to say! What did you each want as individuals!?”

“…”

And.

Finally.

The girls’ true selves emerged from the great depths in which they had buried themselves.

“I don’t want to mess with the Godhorn Tech.”

“I want to be free to do what I want with my sister.”

It was twisted.

They weren’t in sync.

“I…”

“I…!!”

They were at odds.

They did not fit together at all.

“I want to go see the rest of the world!”

“I want to stay home and relax!”

Miyabi smiled.

He couldn’t help it, although he did keep his control sword at the ready.

“I finally got different answers out of the two of you. But that’s how it should be.”

Lowering his sword from the Lord of Ruin would be much too dangerous. The tension squeezing at his heart was equivalent to crossing a deep ravine on a bridge made from a single long hair.

But he did not hesitate to stab his control sword into the ground. Because the elation he felt was even greater.

He had extracted what each sister really wanted. He had stripped their thoughts bare. He had convinced them to trust him that much. What good was the Lucifer Horn if he would not use it here?

He opened the magic circle and spoke.

“From the control sword to the horn core – tactical open!”

He would end this here.

That thought was enough to erase all fear of the bleeding below his eye.

He could worry about that later.

Right now, all his focus needed to be on Acacia and Ixea’s futures.

He would do whatever it took to clear a path for them each.

He would create them each a future.

And for that, he was willing to endure any pain and battle any adversary!!!!!!

“This is my way of saying thanks. So answer their honest desires, forced onto them by no one, Lucifer Horn!!”

A tremendous blast blew away the colossal weapon that had bound those twins.

It was over.

The Executive Ground had been destroyed.

Its wreckage and components were strewn across the vast desert. Would this too become known as “ruins” one day?

But not everything was over.

“…”

The Lord of Ruin silently turned to face Miyabi.

Miyabi moved in front of collapsed Acacia and Ixea and raised his control sword.

But.

He realized he had made a fundamental misunderstanding.

Despite the white mask’s lack of eyes, the Lord of Ruin’s gaze pierced the center of the boy’s body like a sharp stake. The tip of his demon blade remained fixed on Miyabi.

He was a king.

He did not make a habit of finishing off those who had already lost to another.

The Lord of Ruin always chose to battle whoever possessed the strongest power.

The killer intent emanating from him was refreshingly pure in its bluntness.

Miyabi actually felt bad for doubting him as he waited this long.

“Sorry, Lord of Ruin.”

“I had a feeling it would come to this,” said the radio watching the two swords held at the ready.

No one could stop this now.

The crystal radio knew that, but it still expressed regret.

“You got rid of the Godhorn Tech holding him at bay, so of course he goes straight for you now!”

“I will destroy.” A muffled voice emerged from the smooth mask. “I will destroy all Godhorn Techs.”

These were the words of a king who had converted his solid conviction into actual combat power.

Seeing his opponent save someone was not enough to shake his resolve.

“They should not be. I will correct the mistake I introduced into the world!”

Miyabi also kept his eyes on the Lord of Ruin.

The Lord of Ruin saw him as an enemy. He had diverted his attention from his immediate target to focus on Miyabi instead. Calamity Revenge was no longer directed toward Acacia and Ixea. Miyabi could not let that go to waste.

The time had come to face the greatest of foes.

Miyabi Blackgarden again adjusted his grip on the control sword.

“Everyone, take care of Acacia and Ixea.”

“Koo?”

“He’s after me since I have a Godhorn Tech. I’ll keep his attention!!”

“You will not escape.”

As soon as the words were spoken, an impossible explosion occurred right next to Miyabi.

Celina screamed.

Muscular Onelife immediately moved to protect her and was blasted backwards.

Did the man see the rest of his party as targets too?

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!!” screamed the radio at Alicia’s neck. “That pirate’s in imbecile, but didn’t he slay a Wicked God all on his own!? And yet he was taken out in a single blast!?”

What had happened?

This attack had come from a different direction, so it couldn’t have been from the Lord of Ruin.

The magical explosion almost seemed to have blocked the escape route for Miyabi’s party members, but something wasn’t right. That had been a projectile attack. An arrow had flown in, stabbed into the ground, and then exploded. That wasn’t at all how the Lord of Ruin did things.

Was someone else working with him?

Number 8 carefully observed their surroundings.

“A bow and arrow? Are we trapped?”

And.

Alicia Blueforest felt a cold sweat despite the heat of the sand.

“Wait, this arrow…”

She seemed to have some idea who this person connected to the masked old man was.

“But it couldn’t be!”

Then they heard a voice.

It came from the same direction as the arrow.

Someone slowly emerged from behind a sand dune and addressed Alicia.

“It has been so very long since I saw you and your healthy forest.”

“The revenge mercenary…Elaine Greenforest!?”

She had silky semi-long silver hair, brown skin…and long ears. She wore special goggles over her eyes, perhaps to assist with her magical bow. The goggles did not cover her full face like the Lord of Ruin’s mask did. While the Lord’s gave the impression he would coldly hunt down and kill any who fit his criteria, her exposed mouth gave her a more cruel and mocking look.

She wore sheer, white clothing similar to a see-through negligee, but the additional decorations made it look something like a princess’s dress.

She held a large bow that resembled a twisted harp.

The many things spread out around her scantily-clad hips like a large skirt appeared to be quivers.

She was from the Greenforest race of elves.

Hadn’t their party member Lillian Greenforest also used that last name? And hadn’t she said that the scattered dark elves were all intent on destroying humanity?

The radio responded to the appearance of this girl in a white dress so sheer her skin color showed through.

“Hey, you didn’t tell me you were friends with an ultra-rare dark elf! Introduce me!”

“The Greenforest race’s forest was burned down by the Empire.” Alicia sounded like she was reliving a nightmare. “And this is the Godhorn Tech user who retaliated by burning down the entire Empire.”

“…”

A cracking sound hinted at something happening within Number 8 despite his unchanged expression.

Alicia clenched her teeth and shouted at the other elf.

“I was wondering where you had gotten off to!!”

“I don’t want to hear any complaints about a last-minute helper when you’re fighting as a group,” whispered the long-eared goggle girl with a smile on her visible lips.

The Lord of Ruin was blunt.

“Enough talk. Fulfill your contract, girl.”

“Yes, yes. Whew, you have been cursed bad if you can legitimately treat such a long-lived elf like a young girl. Do the hidden rules of this world bind you like invisible chains?”

“?” Kananka noticed something. “Do her weird goggles let her detect spirit pressure? No, that’s not it.”

“…”

The Lord of Ruin said nothing.

Elaine shrugged and sighed, as if surrendering to the silent pressure coming from his mask.

“Yes, fine. We’ll have to end our delightful chat here. Sorry my client is so impatient.”

Her feet audibly trod on the hot sand.

She nocked an arrow to her large bow and slowly pulled the string taut while whispering to herself. The incantation created a fire that transformed the sharp arrowhead like a melted sugar sculpture.

“Rainmaker: Thunderstorm – Category 5. Gather, cataclysm. Heaven is ruled by the number 3, so the three-pronged arrowhead contains the thunderclouds.”

The metal arrowhead split in three on its own and a blinding light appeared between the prongs, as if lightning were gathering there. How was it contained there and what would unleash it? Miyabi did not want to know anything about this threat, but his focus was naturally drawn toward the light.

They were trapped between the Lord of Ruin and Elaine.

He was unsure if he should direct his sword ahead or behind.

“I can hear them weeping.”

“Kh…”

Helen groaned as she covered Miyabi’s back so he could continue facing the Lord of Ruin.

The old man spoke beneath his mask. His muffled voice contained a, concentrated and malevolent heat. He may not have meant for anyone else to hear it.

“I will not let any more horns be taken. I will destroy the very idea that Wicked God horns have value!!”

“Oh, no! We have no escape route!”

Eliza clenched her teeth and looked this way and that.

But it was too late.

There was no cover to be found in the open desert.

“I must end this. I must bring death to all the sinful horn owners!!”

Just then, Elaine Greenforest unleashed the energy built up in her bow. White light burned through the air, leaving a glowing trail behind. The magic arrow tore through the air with terrifying speed.

And.

It flew straight toward the Lord of Ruin, her supposed client.

“Eh!?”

The dull sound of impact was so raw that Miyabi thought his own heart had stopped.

The sound came from the center of the old man’s chest.

His surprise was palpable even with the smooth white mask covering his face.

“Ghh!?”

“Yes, I will carry out your revenge without delay . You asked for the destruction of all Godhorn Tech users. That includes you, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t want to leave the contract incomplete, now would I?”

Miyabi felt no relief.

Elaine Greenforest’s smile was much too dark.

When Onelife finally managed to get back up, he was trembling from what had happened, not from his own pain.

“A-a sneak attack?”

“I never knew even cowardice could appear impressive when taken far enough!!” spat out Eliza.

But Elaine did not seem to care.

She lived in an entirely different world from the knight.

“Yes, this is revenge .”

This was someone who had dedicated her entire being to that one word.

The dark elf girl grinned darkly with the goggles hiding her eyes.

“I am not in the business of helping people. You loathed yourself, so I will heal that rotten wound that can only be closed with misfortune and tragedy.”

“Gwohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?” roared the Lord of Ruin.

But the arrowhead embedded in his chest detonated first.

Everything was dyed white.

By the time Miyabi could see once more, the Lord of Ruin was nowhere to be found.

Was he collapsed behind one of the rolling dunes?

Or…?

“But you had the same plan, didn’t you? You wanted to destroy the Godhorn Techs and their users, so I bet you planned to finish it out by killing me and then killing yourself.”

Only the demon sword remained.

But the dark elf did not let the Godhorn Tech remain stabbed into the sand.

“Just to be thorough☆”

“!?”

“He hired me to eliminate every Godhorn Tech and their users, after all.”

With a shockingly ordinary thunk, an additional arrow stabbed into Calamity Revenge’s blade. She actually stuck her tongue out as she did so.

Another explosion.

More white.

Once the dazzling flash had faded, only Elaine remained standing. It seemed unlikely the silver-haired, brown-skinned girl could have defeated the Lord of Ruin in a direct battle, but she had something that allowed her to tear down the rules of a direct battle. There was something so terribly disconcerting about her.

The special goggles made it impossible to follow the movement of her eyes.

The goggles could not just be to keep the sand out, but it was unclear what kind of support they provided. Whatever they did, they made a deadly combination with her bow and arrow.

Since no one could not read the emotion in her eyes, the way she licked her lips appeared all the creepier.

“Now, what to do about the rest of you?”

“…”

But Miyabi’s thoughts had turned elsewhere.

He pointed out something he had noticed.

“Even as he was dying, the Lord of Ruin never did use a sorcery bomb.”

Eliza realized he was right.

“Now that you mention it. But what does that matter?”

“We now know the 11th wasn’t Acacia, Ixea, or the Lord of Ruin.” Miyabi glared at this new threat with his control sword in hand. “But we’ve seen all the Godhorn Tech users.”

Miyabi, Celina, Eliza, Number 8, Kananka, Onelife, the Necromancer, Acacia, Ixea, and the Lord of Ruin made 10.

And the very last person on the list was Elaine Greenforest.

“The job must continue even without the client, so maybe I should continue his revenge.”

“You’re the last one left. Are you the 11th?”

“…”

Hearing Miyabi’s suggestion, Number 8 silently glared at Elaine. She used a bow and arrow, magical explosions, and (most importantly) betrayal. She was a true monster who had gone out of her way to choose cruelly deceptive tactics and one-shotted the Lord of Ruin. It went without saying what would happen if they tried to attack her without a plan.

And dying here would accomplish nothing.

It was Number 8’s many past regrets that allowed him to resist the urge to rush in for a simple attack.

Miyabi hated it.

The butler automaton was working so hard to resist, so Miyabi hated how he couldn’t resist speaking up himself.

“Are you placing sorcery bombs around the continent just like you once destroyed the Empire!?”

“ Oh, now that one was fun. Fish and frogs rained from the sky. Those humans had never doubted their own science, so seeing them fall to their knees and pray to a god they claimed not to believe in was the funniest thing ever. No, scratch that. The funniest part was how they were killed by the very rusty mana they had created themselves☆”

“…!!”

Number 8 clenched his teeth hard.

Miyabi thought he could actually hear the artificial teeth grinding together.

This was someone who would destroy a country on a whim. This was what Miyabi could have become.

“From the control bow to the horn core – tactical open!”

She recited it in a singsong voice.

The instant the bottom of her bow stabbed into the sand, a sinister magic circle appeared at her feet.

“High-altitude blimp Godhorn Tech: Huge Eye.”

Something floated overhead.

A giant shadow began to blot out the sun overhead.

This ruler of the sky was on an entirely different level. It followed a completely different concept from the Lucifer Horn that tore through the air with its wings. This strange flying object was shaped more like a big sphere. It almost looked like a black skull. Its size was unclear. They could see it, but it was too far away to trust the apparent scale.

“Tch!!”

Miyabi readied his control sword and prepared to stab it into the ground.

But he stopped.

He could open the magic circle and summon the Lucifer Horn…but then what?

The unidentified Godhorn Tech was so far above it looked like a speck. Yes, it’s altitude was simply too great. It floated well above where the Lucifer Horn flew.

The bomber fired its weapons down from above.

It was not made to target something positioned higher than it!

And the high-altitude blimp did not release a downpour of heavy steel beams, nor did it tear through the ground with a powerful beam of light.

Just as Miyabi had feared, it did not at all attack like a bomber.

Elaine Greenforest smiled as she spoke.

This was the brown girl who had sunk the fangs of vengeance into a symbol of the artificial after her natural forest had been burned to the ground.

“Blow it all away and raze it to the ground♪”

There was a gust, a gale, a squall, a tempest.

All forms of windy violence produced a massive explosion that assaulted Miyabi’s party.

It was a storm.

The Huge Eye was a Godhorn Tech that controlled meteorological disasters.

And it had once destroyed an entire empire using that.

It was the master of natural disasters.

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 6

“Whoa!?”

Iris Tempinvy, the dancer and recovery magic researcher, looked up despite being inside a stone building.

The magical lighting had suddenly gone out, leaving the windowless corridor in darkness.

And the trouble was not isolated to her location.

“What? Why did the shower just shut off? Did I make another bad bet in life?”

“Just put a towel on, you gambling-obsessed bunny. And why were you wearing your bunny ears in the shower?”

“Wait, can you see in the dark?”

By biting her canine tooth into an herbal flower petal instilled with moonlight, Iris could see every single drop of water falling from Eluné Jackpot’s twintails.

Iris sighed with pupils unnaturally dilated.

“This isn’t a failure of any magic in particular. We keep adding more and more to Horn Fortress, but I’m not sure I ever heard what was at the core.”

“I dunno either. Some kind of generator maybe? Or a transmission? Anyway, that old dwarf would know best how all the magic works. Damn that old man. No matter how cutely I beg him, he still won’t build me a casino.”

The bunny girl failed to mention that she had been carving driftwood and stones to create her own dice and dominos. She had even gotten the help of Phobia, the gang daughter who had previously wanted her dead, and Charlotte, the mermaid who got bored after 3 seconds of inactivity, to sneak into the printing room and try to create some playing cards.

Once the dancer walked through the dark, castle-like structure in search of Garret Goldcave, she found him almost immediately. He must not have liked to use magic for anything other than construction because he had already been relying on candlelight.

The light was dazzling to Iris since she had drugged herself to see in the dark.

“It uses the Wicked God horn,” said Garret.

“The horn?”

“Yes. This place was given to Miyabi by the Lucifer Horn, after all. I assume you have noticed how any magic we activate stays in effect without us needing to supply any more power. The massive core powering it all is the Wicked God horn itself. So Horn Fortress’s very existence grows unstable when either Miyabi or the Lucifer Horn are defeated.”

“For real? Then could the entire island sink into the ocean if they die? So our fates are decided by some battle fought on the other side of the world?”

“It is a distinct possibility. Why do you think we’re creating useful tools here and sending them to the front line?”

“I see,” sighed the bare-midriff dancer.

In the darkness, her thoughts turned toward her secret weapon. It existed in her territory: the clinic.

The alluring researcher placed a lithe finger on her chin and winked.

“Then maybe I should send them something useful as well. I’m sick of simply doing what I’m told back here, so I’ll send them something that’s sure to throw them all off balance and send everything in a different direction.”

“?”

“Yes, she would do nicely.”

### Profiles

Acacia Flightheart

Ixea Flightheart

Age: 13

Sex: Female

Height: 145cm

Twin sisters with the highest position among the priestesses who access the desert religious nation’s ancient ruins to distribute water and other blessings to the people. Acacia is the older twin and Ixea the younger. A priest discovered their talent while they were living on the streets and they were given the privilege of controlling the Executive Ground. Neither sister is very assertive and it can be hard to tell what they are thinking. Their duty is to protect their nation, but are having some unexplained difficulties.

Ginger Sandstrike

Age: 17

Sex: Male

Height: 185cm

A “guardian” in the desert religious nation who takes items related to people’s past and hides them deep in unexplored ruins. He had the legendary assassin Shadow Crack sent after him after a client lost trust in him, but he has dealt with so many sketchy jobs he has no idea which client it might have been. He is trying to escape Shadow Crack while also searching out the person who put the hit out on him.

Godhorn Tech Subterranean Tank: Executive Ground

Pilot: Acacia Flightheart & Ixea Flightheart

Affiliation: Pure Hibis Aclia Oracle Nation

Size: 5m diameter, 75m length

A Godhorn Tech based on the pyramids derived from the mythology worshiped by Acacia and Ixea. Looks like a massive snake and makes the entire desert its ally by traveling freely through the ground to attack its enemies. Just as a pyramid grants greater authority the more grave goods it contains, it increases its power by swallowing more people. Since the “grave goods” were generally buried alive, these people need not be killed as they are eaten. However, the interior environment is poor and there is a risk of asphyxiation during a long-term battle. Design motif: pyramids and mummies.

Rose Dollycastle

Age: 12

Sex: Female

Height: 145cm

When lost in a mountain blizzard and surrounded by monsters, she grabbed a cursed chain and broke its seal to protect her family. Ever since, her body has been fully hijacked by the chain. But the chain’s mind does not approve of sacrificing another intelligent being to possess a body of its own, so it is journeying in search of someone that can destroy it. Since it is only borrowing the body, it shows no mercy against anyone who would try to harm the girl.

Godhorn Tech Demon Sword: Calamity Revenge

Wielder: Lord of Ruin

Affiliation: None

Length: 1.4m

Contains a juvenile Wicked God’s horn and carries a powerful curse. Brings its wielder victory, but creates new conflict in return. Its curse is powerful, but the used curse must bring harm to the user as well. It cannot curse just the enemy. Thus, the use of killing curses is theoretically possible, but would realistically mean self-destruction. Design motif: Geas.

Lord of Ruin

Apparent Age: 70 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 178cm

An ancient king who created history’s first Godhorn Tech by breaking off a Wicked God horn and placing it within his own sword. To obtain a horn from a creature too powerful for a human to defeat, he chose to slay a juvenile. He regrets that foolish choice and feels intense hatred for the individuals and groups that have constructed Godhorn Techs after him. He has lived far longer than a single lifespan should allow for, but he appears to keep his body moving through sheer force of will, like a curse burned into his very flesh.

### 043. Chapter 8

### Chapter 8 Section 1

The ruling king said a vengeful heart was the greatest power.

Little did he know he himself would fall to a blade of vengeance.

The redheaded boy awoke in a cheap inn bed.

He guessed this was the desert nation. He based that guess on the pillow being stuffed with wheat or some other grain, the ceiling being made of stone, and the thin curtain fluttering in a dry breeze. The light shining in through the window suggested it was daytime.

“Ugh…”

“Oh, you’re awake.”

He heard a decadent female voice.

The face staring down at Miyabi Blackgarden belonged to the Necromancer .

“If you had stayed out a little longer, I could have run some interesting tests on you in the name of resurrecting you.”

“Wait…what are you doing here?”

“My boss was just wiping down your body. Very thoroughly, I might add. Were you hoping for something more than that?”

“!?”

The boy sat up in a hurry and immediately felt agonizing pain running through his entire back. He writhed around unable to scream or even breathe. He had lost track of where the chaff pillow had ended up.

“Gah, abwehhh!!!???”

The Necromancer laughed.

“Like I said, you were on the verge of needing an experimental resurrection, so you’re not over the pain yet. Living is full of inconveniences, don’t you think? Now, do you want a powerful drug, or will you bear with the pain?”

“Ah, gah. …I-I’m not taking anything you’re offering. It’ll probably get rid me of the pain by turning me into a zombie.”

“Hm, too bad. But watching you writhe in pain is enjoyable in its own way. The Lucifer Horn carried me here from that Horn Fortress place. Do not forget that I am recuperating under your protection. If you kick the bucket, I lose the peace I need to heal my wound.”

“Carried? You mean you went there and came back?”

“Carrying someone all that way can’t be easy. Fortunately, it feels like it takes no time at all if you make the trip in a suspended animation coffin. I arrived here while frozen in time.”

Did that mean the trip was so terrifying even the Necromancer felt the need to do that? He was a long way off from developing a luxurious sky cruise.

But anyway.

“…”

The Necromancer had been sent here to help. Maybe it was possible for the flying Godhorn Tech to carry her here, but Miyabi could not have given the command while unconscious.

Had the Lucifer Horn done it of its own volition?

Why?

The hat on her head spoke with a child’s voice. Whether or not it really was a child was suspect, though.

“Boss, have you decided to turn over a new leaf?”

“Heh heh heh. I realized the quickest path to being given free rein is to do good deeds. Commit a wee bit of murder just once over your long life and they execute you, but take the side of justice and they praise you for signing the execution papers. Even if you end up authorizing the deaths of dozens every year. Heh heh heh. Morality is entirely determined by your role in society. And as long as people find it useful, they never want to remove a gear in their society, no matter how old and rusted it has become. Heh heh heh heh heh.”

“That’s my boss! You can make healing people’s wounds and saving their lives sound sinister!”

It all sounded like a series of jokes, but she had in fact saved his life.

He rested his head on the chaff pillow and stared up at her in confusion, so she sighed and spoke.

“Do you find it that strange to see me saving someone?”

“You’re the one that told us to make ourselves into ghosts if we wanted to talk to you.”

“And that is what I would prefer.” Even the decadent woman’s most casual comments were frightening. “But only because I am interested in researching life and death. I ignore morality because it insists on getting in my way, so nothing is forcing me to take the path of evil. I will do whatever it is I want and you can decide for yourself if it qualifies as good or evil.”

“…”

“Of course, when I see one of those noble freaks with a lab in their basement who think they can get away with anything if they call themselves necromancers, I can’t help but send in the fruits of my research to tear down their entire mansion☆” The researcher cruelly stuck out her tongue. “You use Compress Cargo, I assume? I recommend packing your bag with a lot of White Sorcery Tools separate from the pocket you have for immediate-use items. Especially when you know the terrain will not be in your favor.”

“Compress…” That reminded him of the person who used that magic. “Oh, right. Where’s Helen? Not to mention Alicia, Celina, and the others!”

“Have you still not noticed the other patients sleeping in this very room? Then you probably need more rest yourself. Still, there was nothing I could do for that automaton – Number 8, was it?”

“!?”

“I mean, he’s a magical automaton. But the Empire built them to last. I have no idea how he can still move after taking so much damage. If only necromancy and anatomy meant anything with that bucket of bolts.”

“Boss, Miyabi’s a beginner, so you need to tell him that’s a black joke before he has a heart attack.”

The hat tried to be helpful, but did that mean they were fine after all? The Necromancer sighed when she saw Miyabi was too shocked to blink.

“Patients who only ever tilt the scales toward life are so boring. Where’s the drama there? I’m not going to continue nursing you forever, so maybe I should let those twins handle the rest since they escaped the attack.”

All the strength drained from his body and the witch hat woman breathed an exasperated sigh.

“Really? You’re going to cry over that?”

“Am I crying?”

“Heh hee hee. Now, now, Miyabi. A real man never cries in front of a girl. I know my perfect boss seems comforting, but she’s actually dying for someone who can support her!”

“Silence, little one.”

“She’s just too much of a dreamer. And she’s still alone because she keeps holding reality to the standards of her dreams. She’s still waiting or her Prince Charming!”

“I said silence.”

“I see,” said Miyabi.

Alicia Blueforest, Helen Clockgear, and the others were safe. And if Acacia and Ixea had escaped the attack, they wouldn’t have been injured at all.

Thank goodness, he thought deep down.

Also, this was not just a case of being lucky. It never would have happened without the Necromancer’s help.

He felt like something may have gone wrong at some point.

What if she had found someone who would patiently speak with her and find some kind of compromise? What if someone had discussed limits with her instead of pushing her away as creepy? What if someone had avoided any conflict or friction and found a way to safely leave her to her own devices instead of trying to oppressively manage her? Then it was possible she might have left her name in history as a famous researcher.

But could he let that remain a mere hypothetical?

Was there really no way for Miyabi Blackgarden to become that person for her?

“I also found him out there.”

“Him who?”

Miyabi turned his heavy head to view the adjacent bed.

The Lord of Ruin was lying there.

“…”

“Whoa!?”

Seeing that masked face was enough for Miyabi to roll off his own bed in surprise. He nearly tore down the papyrus tapestry on the wall. The Necromancer gave him a look mixed with pity.

“Like I asked before, are you too weak to tell who you’re sharing a room with? If your vitals fall any further, you might need some nutrients or a vasopressor. Heh heh heh. Would you like an injection or an IV? Oh, or applying it to your mucous membranes could be fun. Maybe I should just fill every last one of your holes with it for good measure☆”

“B-but? But that’s the L-L-Lord of R-Ruin.”

“What, you didn’t make friends with him after fighting him? Then maybe I shouldn’t have saved him. Either way, he won’t be waking up anytime soon.”

“Don’t sweat it, boss. You’re new to this whole ‘saving people’ business, so you’re bound to screw up sometimes. Lucky for you, you’re cute when you screw up.”

Miyabi saw for himself that Alicia, Helen, and his other party members were lying in the beds. Except there were not enough beds, so Onelife Shiftup was seated on the examining table and nonhuman Number 8 was standing in the corner of the room. …But those two had a history with the Necromancer, so they did not look particularly happy.

The Necromancer ignored that entirely as she looked to something leaning against the wall.

It was the Lord of Ruin’s sword known as a katana.

“Calamity Revenge. The sword was supposedly made with a juvenile’s horn, but the inside has been fried. The sword looks the same, but it no longer functions as a horn.”

“Are you saying Elaine’s arrow did that?”

“If that was intentional, it was a miracle of a shot. You couldn’t even think up that attack without a deep understanding of Wicked Gods.”

The Necromancer herself was a heretical scientist who had used the full corpse of a Wicked God for her research, but this was enough to shock even her.

Elaine Greenforest.

She was a revenge mercenary, the final Godhorn Tech owner, and the 11th.

“?”

The scientist of death had a surprisingly childish look of confusion when Miyabi stared at her.

She had been resting in Horn Fortress to recover from her serious injury and she had been following the actions of Miyabi’s party that entire time. She was blackhearted, but it didn’t seem like she had played a role in the 11th business.

That meant Elaine was the most likely suspect.

“You should count yourself lucky she didn’t detonate a sorcery bomb back there. If she had, you would have been vaporized inside a glass crater.”

After a light knock, the door opened.

The twins Acacia and Ixea peeked inside. Come to think of it, hadn’t the Necromancer said they were spared the attack by the Huge Eye? Elaine may have stopped paying attention to them after Miyabi’s party destroyed their Executive Ground.

“I thought I heard a lot of noise in here. I am glad to see you awake.”

“We nearly lost our way again.”

Miyabi gave them a puzzled look from the floor.

“You asked us what it was we really wanted to do, remember?”

“We have given up our position as priestesses for the time being. We did lose the Godhorn Tech, after all. And the other priestesses can handle speaking with the ruins and extracting water.”

“But…” muttered Miyabi.

“From what they tell me, you are up against a Greenforest dark elf,” said the Necromancer. “Then why not head west from here and visit that razed forest? Heh heh heh. I’ve taken a look around to gather ‘materials’ a few times and it is quite a sight.”

“It’s home to vengeful spirits,” said the hat with an obvious smile in its voice.

Number 8 and Onelife were less than pleased with this new alliance. Not too surprising given how they had been treated.

“…”

Alicia and the radio put a stop to it.

“Stop.”

“(Fistfights aren’t the only form of justice. If you can’t trust her, then keep an eye on her at all times.)”

Elaine had hit them with a Godhorn Tech attack, so it was a miracle none of them had died. Miyabi carefully checked over his body and then decided to leave the desert nation. They would visit the dark elf forest said to be west of here. And this time, the Necromancer, Acacia, and Ixea would be with them.

But the Lord of Ruin was still in the bed. It was unclear if they could even bring him with them as an ally. Miyabi wanted to figure out how to deal with him before they left.

“So what do we do with him?”

“Yeah, leave him here and he might resume his Godhorn Tech slayer thing when he comes to.”

Miyabi’s eyes widened at the Necromancer’s rational prediction.

“Which is why I’m asking what we should do!”

“Why not trap him somewhere inescapable so we and the world can be safe?”

That only left one possibility.

“Lucifer Horn! Take him to Horn Fortress!!”

“So you finally admit that place is the world’s greatest prison, do you?”

The Necromancer whispered those forbidden words.

They still wanted to see more of the desert nation, but they could not stay here forever.

They had to deal with Elaine Greenforest.

Her Huge Eye could control disasters. They had been helpless against it last time, so if the Necromancer had not come running, some of them might have died.

But that was why they couldn’t leave that revenge mercenary out there. Not even the Lucifer Horn had been any help, so if an ordinary village was subjected to it, it would be a one-sided slaughter. And Elaine had indeed singlehandedly destroyed the powerful Empire to take revenge.

And what if she also had sorcery bombs as the 11th?

They knew exactly where to go.

Plus, there weren’t many places left on the continent they had to check.

They checked out of their inn and left the desert nation. They hadn’t been sure whether it would be better to leave during the day or the night, but they had ultimately settled on the day. There weren’t many landmarks in the desert, so they had feared overlooking one in the dark of the night. They could easily end up walking in circles throughout the night.

“We have to say goodbye to this nation’s food now,” grumbled Miyabi as he walked out through the stone gate.

They had bought some water and lunches of dried foods, but he was hesitant to eat that when he knew it was the last they had.

After walking through the desert a while, Helen looked back the way they had come.

Their footprints were plain to see in the fine sand, so they left a long, serpentine trail behind them.

“I can’t believe it, but I really have gotten used to the desert.”

“I’m afraid my usual forest will feel chilly now that I’m used to this heat,” ominously commented Alicia.

They were so accustomed to walking through the desert that they could actually chat while doing so.

Then the twins called out to Miyabi Blackgarden from behind.

“Miyabi, pant, wait up,” said Acacia.

“I’m thirsty, Miyabi. I want water,” said Ixea.

Helen’s eyes widened in surprise.

An outsider like the (busty) glasses woman was actually more accustomed to the desert climate.

“Eh? You’re kidding, right? You two are the first to call it quits!? But you’re locals! You’ve lived in this desert all your life!”

“Yes, but they were the people’s precious priestesses.” Alicia placed an exasperated hand on her hip. “They rarely left that well-maintained city or their fancy temple and they had escorts when they did travel to the desert ruins.”

Come to think of it, hadn’t they seen Acacia and Ixea’s camels running into the desert during the mess with the Executive Ground?

The priestesses were staggering like zombies, but they approached the redheaded boy from the side when they did catch up. They did not want to burn their butts on the sand, so they leaned on him for support in lieu of sitting down for a break.

The summer(?) festival of careless body contact had begun.

“Miyabi, I can’t keep this up.”

“Carry me, Miyabi.”

Eliza, who was even more strait-laced than Helen in some ways, stared in shock.

“Hold on!! You never told me the rules allowed for that!! Carry me too!!!!!!”

“What, is the heat getting to you again!? Don’t you have any resistance at all!? And you can’t justify anything and everything by claiming ‘the rules’ allow for it!!”

They were only two smaller girls, but the sun was beating down on him and the desert sand made for poor footing. The dunes were like ocean waves frozen in time, so it was a lot less flat than picture books let on. Miyabi had a lot of trouble with those two wearily clinging to him from either side. The twin attack plus the desert heat worked much like the hellish heat that swarms of weak bees used to kill powerful hornets.

Helen took a strong stance to get the healthy (and lewd) brown zombies off of him.

“Get away from him, you two. Your body heat is going to kill him.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Actually, it’s not all that bad. ”

“Oh, right. I forgot how much of perv you are!!!!!! You can’t just accept everyone’s advances, you know!?”

“Pant, gasp.” Alicia wiped sweat from her brow. “But, boy, how can you tell those twins apart? I get mixed up when they’re right next to each other like this.”

“Really? They each have a pretty distinct ‘feel’ to them. Acacia is stricter and less accommodating while Ixea likes to cut corners.”

“Are you mocking me?” asked both twins at once.

The elf only looked more confused.

“See, they said the exact same thing.”

“Ixea is lazy, so she was only going along with her sister so she doesn’t have to think for herself. But if Acacia said she would carry all our luggage as a newcomer to the party, Ixea would immediately break away.”

Alicia stared at the twins, trying to tell them apart, but she only ended up feeling like a mirage was going to make her see three or four of them.

The radio hanging from her neck took a more condescending stance.

“Heh. Miyabi, I see you have stopped viewing them as the single category of ‘twins’ and instead discovered the unique charm of an older sister and a younger sister even if they are the same age. You are one step closer to being an adult of impeccable taste. Next, I recommend studying up on the difference between tights and stockings. That way you can immediately jump down the throat of anyone foolish enough to confuse them!!”

Was it bad that praise from the radio put him on the defensive?

Sweaty Acacia pouted her lips like a child while she draped her arms around his neck from the side and leaned her full body weight against him like the melted cheese on a piece of toast.

“Miyabi, you told us to do what we wanted to do as individuals, not as twins.”

“So I will find what I want to do in this vast world.”

They were completely serious.

This was the stereotypical result of an overly serious or strait-laced person shifting into gear in the wrong direction. He sometimes saw the phenomenon with Eliza Silverstorm and Number 8.

Then Acacia Flightheart spoke a forbidden word.

“…Meow.”

“Acacia!! Aren’t you taking our newfound freedom a little far!? Just because you wear cat ear decorations doesn’t mean you can so shamelessly clench a loose fist and bend your wrist like that!!!!!!”

“Ixea, I am searching for whatever it is I really want to do. And how can I judge that without trying it out for myself?”

The sterile environment had been contaminated. It felt like the contents of the sealed and sterilized container was being transformed.

“How long until they start figuring out who they want to do?” commented the radio, earning it a flurry of punches from the female party members.

Meanwhile, they heard a dull thud.

They looked over to see a Beast Nova surprisingly close by. They had failed to notice it earlier because a large dune was in the way. The scorpion was larger than they were and its head looked small compared to the rest of it. And a long arrow was sticking into the center of that head.

A young man in a green cape and hat approached the dead scorpion and pulled out the arrow.

Helen looked impressed.

“Wow, looks like he defeated the Beast Nova for free. Are you a volunteer who keeps the roads safe?”

“So hunting us down is considered a charitable act of love and peace now, is it?”

The glasses woman’s comment had the elf feeling blue, but the young man saw things differently.

“This is not for free. I get food out of it,” he said, turning back their way.

“You…eat these things?”

Miyabi looked skeptical, but that only confused the young man further.

“From that direction, you must have come from the desert nation. All the meat the street vendors sell is-”

“Stop – not a word more. I do not know who you are, but we bought some lunches there. You had better not scare us by insisting it’s made from something gross!!” shouted Celina Bodenburg, looking legitimately distressed.

“I’m Harber Snipe-Eat.” The young man with a bow did not seem to mind. “And you don’t need to worry about what you’re eating. The strong capture and eat the weak. That is the law of nature. And that includes the Wicked Gods spoken of in stories. Even they will wait for travelers on a desert path and devour them if they have no weapons or magic to defend themselves.”

“So anything is allowed if you’re strong enough?”

“Doesn’t that sound a lot truer to nature than being crushed by a swarm of the weak?”

People were not always going to agree, but using their greater numbers to insist on their point of view felt like it would be accepting his premise that anything is allowed if you are strong enough.

It was a lot smarter to just agree to disagree.

And with that in mind, something else caught Miyabi’s attention: Harber’s bow.

That was the same type of weapon used by Elaine Greenforest, who they were on their way to confront.

“Aren’t bows hard to use? An old man at my village ended up writhing in pain after he hit his ear with the string.”

“That is no laughing matter. It is a risk anyone who relies on the bow and arrow carries with them at all times. The open desert here is fine, but a thick forest is pretty frightening. If a large animal bursts out of the bushes right next to you, you have no guarantee you can bring it down in a single attack.

“Hm. I thought they would do more damage at close range.”

“Bows are not as deadly as you might think. It’s safer to increase the killing power by adding poison or magic to the arrowhead. Because if your attack fails to kill, it’s their turn to attack you. That’s the problem with a surprise attack – you don’t have time to prepare all that.”

Miyabi started to like Harber while talking to him.

They did not agree, but Harber gave simple and accurate advice. He may have been similar to the Necromancer in that sense.

Miyabi felt like he would come to regret it if he pushed Harber away over a simple difference of opinion.

“Do you have any reason to stick with the desert? If not, I know a place that’s at least more comfortable than here. It’s called Horn Fortress.”

“If I can find food there, I don’t care where it is.”

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the sand and winked.

“That settles it then,” he said as the magic circle spread out.

Harber had been wandering the desert.

If he had not been reliant on the desert nation, then he must have found somewhere he could be self-sufficient.

They found the answer soon enough.

While crossing the desert and taking breaks in the shade of rocks or at small oases, the sandy ground started to grow harder. Sparse grass also came into view. They had apparently left the desert.

“I can’t point to any one thing.” Kananka Fulpen spoke cautiously. “But this place feels so desolate.”

The grassy ground and the flowing stream might be enough to camp out for the night, but Harber must have had a reason to head out into the desert and catch a giant scorpion.

“Why is the presence of life fading only now that we have left the harsh desert?” asked Kananka.

“There’s a good reason for that,” whispered Alicia while viewing a world of death reminiscent of the lunar surface seen in plays. “We are entering the famous Green Forest.”

After walking across the plain a while longer – and stopping to eat their lunches along the way – the forest’s trees came into view. That had to be the Green Forest, the home of that race of dark elves.

Except the forest was black.

Pitch black.

“This is awful.”

Miyabi was the first to groan a response after seeing the scene spreading out before their eyes.

This was not like the Bio Rainforest the Necromancer had called home.

This forest was entirely empty.

Even more so than the vast desert. It had been burned down, leaving only the scorched ground and trees behind. The trees that still looked like trees had become black charcoal shaped like trees.

The stream was clear enough to see the white ash sediment at the bottom, but it was too clear.

Nothing lived inside that water, so there was nothing to dirty it. It would remain perfectly clear forever, like a birthday cake with no one to cut it into pieces. Just sitting there on the table in an abandoned house.

“It looks safe to drink at least,” said Celina, crouching down and passing some river water through her filter the size of a beer mug. She also cast purification magic on it, so it was probably perfectly safe.

But none of the others agreed with her.

Even if it contained the exact same well water people normally drank, they would be hesitant to drink from a cup left at a grave as an offering. Something about this place similarly gave them pause.

Like some faint sense that hung over the entire dead forest.

Hearing a “koo” from down at his feet, Miyabi looked down to see Alma was once more a white stuffed animal. That was the same form as in the first village. Did that mean there was nothing to learn from this dead forest? …Alma too refused to eat that “birthday cake”. The creature’s young age may have made it more open in its judgment.

The Flightheart twins nervously huddled together and looked around.

“Is everything outside the desert this ‘quiet’?”

“Maybe so, Acacia. But maybe we are simply too accustomed to those ruins.”

Number 8 shook his head.

“No, I sense no burden here. And I usually sense some just as background noise no matter where I am.”

“…”

Alicia looked like she was suppressing a bad headache.

Eliza placed her hand above her eyes to look into the distance.

“What is that over there? It looks like an enormous tree…or the remnants of one.”

She was right.

One tree in the center towered far higher than the other trees that had been frozen in time by the blaze. None of the manmade towers or ruins they had ever seen came close to its height.

Its impressive height almost seemed to be piercing through the world itself.

It had broken away partway up, so just how tall had it been and how expansive had its branches back when it was whole?

“It was apparently known as the Celestial Tree.” Celina sighed. “The people of the emerald forest supposedly believed it kept the sky from falling.”

“Well, that one was proven wrong,” groaned Onelife. “Glad the sky’s still up there, though.”

“At the time, the Empire feared the Arsenal Kingdom and the desert nation would join forces, since they were both nearly as powerful as them,” said Helen. “The difference in power was small enough that, if those two stopped fighting over the #2 spot and formed an alliance, they could have challenged the Empire’s #1 spot. But to put a stop to that, something needed to be done about the vast forest that connected the east and west from the north and allowed people and things to be covertly transported between nations.”

“The Empire hoped to rid themselves of a problem, but they only earned the ire of the dark elves,” said one twin. “Not to mention that any covert operations in the forest were being done by humans intruding on their land and the dark elves had no intention of joining the fight themselves.”

“Or maybe they feared that nonhuman race was gaining power by doing the humans a favor,” said the other. “Destroying them over an unfounded fantasy sounds utterly foolish to me. Not to mention that the alliance they feared was only a theory. I know our desert nation never even discussed it. But the Empire let their paranoia win out and decided to attack.”

The magical automaton shook his head and spoke like he was piecing together his damaged memories.

“The Emperor did not have grand ambitions. In fact, his fear grew every time our territory and population grew. He feared the possibility of losing what he had. So he was willing to do anything to protect that. Without hesitation.”

“…” Onelife fell silent for a moment. “I can understand the sentiment, but…”

“But I cannot approve of the method.” Eliza shook her head too. “Apologies for speaking ill of your emperor.”

Unsurprisingly, the one who took the conversation in a gruesome direction was the Necromancer.

“This is all extremely fascinating from a necromancy perspective. This place is immersed in so much death that it is crawling with undead monsters that have refused to accept their own death. Be careful as you continue on.”

“Woo! No one makes things exciting like you do, boss!”

Did Elaine live here?

Was it even possible to live here?

Miyabi gulped and walked into the forest. It was just as thoroughly burned as it looked from the outside.

But he did hear flowing water.

But not from the previous river.

“Huh?”

“I see,” said Alicia, breathing from her nose.

In some places, new moss and small flowers were using the nutrients in the burned trees and rough ashes to grow. The next generation was beginning. If that continued, the tragedy would eventually be covered up and made a thing of the past.

“Elaine has been living off of these things,” bitterly groaned Alicia. “Even though she could have found so much more if she left the forest. Makes it look like she enjoys hurting herself.”

Looking further into the forest, they could see the amount of green growing. But it was all down on the ground and not growing thickly through the entire space. There was also moss clinging to the burned trees. The growth was not at all like an ordinary plain or forest.

So at first, they thought they were seeing some kind of small flora or fauna.

Maybe glowing moss or bugs.

But this was something else.

“Work, work, work.”

The faint hovering light spoke in a small girl’s voice.

“I have to gather firewood and draw some water. Work, work, work!”

“These are residual thoughts,” said Alicia.

She did not say what of.

The lights moving so energetically through this lonely world must not have understood none of it was real.

There were so many of them here.

Miyabi’s party seemed to draw lines between those points of light as they walked across the burned forest. They tried their best not to step on the moss and grass starting to grow anew on the blackened trees or the ground covered in ashes and a black powder.

A flashing light spoke with the voice of an old man.

“Things are growing dangerous outside the forest. All we want is to go on living peacefully in our forest, so I hope none if it spreads here.”

A bright light grew larger as if to express its emotion.

“Curse that human empire. Do they think they own this forest!? To your bows, everyone! Buy enough time for the children and elderly to reach the hidden village!!”

It felt like time had come to a stop at some point.

But instead of the entire place freezing at a single time and date, it was like time had been incinerated at different points for each individual.

Miyabi’s party could not see where they were being guided by all this. Or maybe they were traveling into the past instead of the future.

“Hot, hot, hot, hot…”

A sticky light pleaded in an elegant female voice.

“Where is the river? Oh, no. I can’t see it. I can’t see anything. …Is this bumpy mass my face? Where did my face go?”

They could not read the frozen time in some of the lights.

One bursting light was scratchy from the beginning.

“Someone…please. I can’t go on like this…someone please…”

At one point, this forest had been teeming with life.

Right up until it was transformed into what they saw now.

Someone from outside had shown up and burned the entire thing down.

There were fallen trees and murky rivers in their way, but Miyabi was disinclined to move the Palette Dice. They took the long way around instead of crossing over with Layer Stairs or a Bypass Bridge. Creating those things would have been like taking the flowers left at a grave and making a wreath out of them.

Nothing here was to be disturbed.

Doing so would mean destroying these records of lives cut short.

Or so it felt.

“Ugh!”

Miyabi held his head.

Was this unique to dark elves, or did war produce powerful enough grudges to create this?

This was no longer the gentle lights they had seen before.

A distinct vision leapt into Miyabi’s mind.

A beautiful forest spread out before him.

The grass and flowers shined like gems, the blessings of the sun were filtered through the leaves overhead, and the Celestial Tree supported the sky.

Everything shined green in the dark elf forest. That may have been why they so easily sensed the barbaric actions of the humans and burned with righteous fury.

An agitated dark elf warrior was speaking.

“The Empire is finally making their move. They intend to burn down our entire forest. We cannot sit idly by and let this happen. Grab your bows! Repel these humans whose short lives keep them from learning their rightful place!”

A brown girl watched it all with an indescribable look in her eyes.

“…”

(Elaine?)

Miyabi opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

He was not actually here.

A graceful dark elf tugged gently on Elain’s sleeve.

“You say that, but the Empire’s army is massive. I don’t know which automaton number they will place in command, but they will likely send in their Godhorn Tech. We must not underestimate a power we ourselves lack. Elaine, you guide the powerless to the hidden village.”

“But what about all of you?”

“I cannot guarantee you our bows will repel the Empire, but we must at least buy the time needed for everyone else to escape.”

Miyabi returned to the present with a numbness like he had taken a blow to the head.

His hands wandered in search of support and found something with a rough texture. The black charcoal remnants of a tree stood nearby.

“Gh, what was that?”

Miyabi must not have been the only one to see it because Alicia had a hand on her forehead.

“Are Elaine’s thoughts lingering in this place? Or…”

This may have been something like footprints left by whatever burned within Elaine. Regardless, there were no other hints around, so they chose to pursue the residual thoughts through the ruined forest.

They found some discarded items leaning against a burned and collapsed tree.

They were magical automaton joints and broken staffs.

Those were probably the remnants of the weapons abandoned by the magically-powerful Empire.

“…”

Number 8 viewed the remains of his fellow automatons with no discernable emotion on his face.

Miyabi could find nothing to say to him.

Before long, that feeling returned deep in Miyabi’s mind.

He clenched his teeth and prepared for the pain.

Another vision flew directly into his mind.

Embers.

Pillars of fire.

Red.

The color of hell covered all.

Yes, the forest was burning. Scarlet pillars rose all around and walls of heat and smoke divided the space, cutting off any escape route.

Elaine continued gesturing inside the forest even as it transformed into a deadly maze.

“Hurry, everyone! The flames have almost caught up!!”

The hidden village could not be reached through ordinary means.

The gate was opened by following the green flowers blossoming in the forest and completing a set pattern of stabbing sticks into the ground and rolling rocks around. The village itself was best understood as existing in an alternate dimension.

The dark elves who had already escaped were calling to them from beyond the gate.

“Elaine, that was the last of them! You hurry on in and we will close the gate. This space is cut off from the world, so the flames can’t reach us!!”

“But the others are still fighting the Empire!!”

“We can’t wait any longer!! This is all for naught if the flames make it through the gate!!”

“…”

Elaine clenched her teeth and started toward the gate, but her feet came to a stop. Her long ears had picked up a weak voice.

The dark elves were not the only life in the forest. There was so much more.

They were crying out for help.

A beast growled as it dragged along an injured leg and curled up.

Something’s young howled for its mother.

“…”

Elaine couldn’t do it.

She could not stop her trembling.

She was not a vegetarian. Living in this forest meant capturing and eating other living things. She was particularly fond of bird meat.

But this was different.

No one was eating this meat. No one was making a blanket out of the feathers.

The Empire was fueled by hatred, fear, and resentment.

The flames fueled by those emotions would leave nothing behind. Utter annihilation was their goal here. They would turn everything here to ashes and not even collect a single fragment of bone afterwards.

What purpose did these deaths serve? What justification was there to ignore these cries for help? She stood there, clenched her teeth, and shook her head, but it wasn’t enough. What did it matter if they weren’t dark elves? They were still living beings trying so desperately to keep living.

Elaine Greenforest wanted to save them.

She was putting her own life at risk.

She knew that.

But still.

“Wait just a little longer. Please! Just a bit longer!! Then we might not have to regret this for the rest of our lives. We might still be able to look back on this disaster with a smile because we all overcame it and survived!!”

“…”

“I’m sick of this. If we abandon them out there, we’re no better than the Empire. I don’t want to be on the side that takes lives.”

“Dammit. Okay, fine!!”

Elaine turned away from the gate.

She parted the black smoke, broke through the flames, and tried to collect as many lives as she could.

“This way, hurry!!”

She heard the cries of creatures that had not given up on life.

“Run this way if you want to live! The hidden village is right over there!!”

She heard the roars of animals that had not abandoned hope.

But.

Even so.

She heard a dazed voice from one of the dark elves who had already evacuated.

“It’s no use, Elaine…”

“?”

“No, it’s breaking, the fire has reached the Celestial Tree. It’s too late, the fire is already- aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

The color red grew until nothing else remained.

Alicia remained motionless for a while after it ended.

If she had seen the same thing he had, Miyabi didn’t blame her.

“…”

Finally, she muttered something under her breath.

She leaned against a burned tree and then slid down to the ground. Instead of a natural tree trunk, a few logs had been erected here. It may have originally been a lookout tower or a simple shelter to keep out the rain.

That was about all that remained now.

Not even the dark elf village hidden in another dimension had survived.

“How can this be…?” said Alicia.

“So Elaine – and the dark elves as a whole – could have saved just themselves, but they couldn’t abandon the pained cries they heard in the forest…and tried to save them all?”

Miyabi sounded dazed. This did not at all fit the Elaine who enjoyed taking on other people’s revenge and then betraying them.

What had happened after she tried to save all those lives?

He had only seen the twisted final result.

“Damn,” spat Miyabi, walking further into the forest.

New moss and plants were crawling up the burned trees. The blackened remains of a horrific act were being covered up by new green.

But what about the people’s feelings?

The cries of a girl with nowhere to go flooded into Miyabi’s brain.

The forest had turned black.

The expansive flames were nowhere to be seen and the Empire’s malice had left.

The battle was already over. Everything Elaine had wanted to protect was gone.

Gone and destroyed.

The girl lay unmoving on the ground, hoping to just weather away along with the ashes.

“…”

The ground rumbled.

She knew what this low tremor was.

“…”

So when she sensed a massive shadow covering her, she slowly raised her head.

A normal person might have fainted upon seeing it.

It spoke in words she could understand.

“You still live, Elaine?”

That giant was the Forest Guardian.

“Why?” muttered the girl. “Why was I the only one to survive? I don’t understand.”

“…”

“Everyone was asking for help.”

She could not even get up, but she still lifted her head in search of something.

“They never gave up on life and resisted far more than I did. So why am I the only one…?”

“There is no deep meaning behind who lives and who dies.” The giant spoke solemnly. “Fortune favored you, Elaine. So now you must live.”

“I don’t want to.”

The survivor had no strength left.

No strength to get back on her feet.

“I’m so tired. Of everything.”

“Elaine, you did nothing wrong.” The twisted being known as the Forest Guardian spoke with a smile. “There is no deep meaning behind who lives and who dies, but it violates the principles of this sacred forest for the blameless to continue suffering forever. …You leave me no choice, Elaine. I will protect your pride.”

“?”

Now was not the time to be asking questions.

Elaine needed to get moving right away.

But she could not and this was the result.

She failed to stop the eerie sound of a snapping horn.

Her mind went blank.

She did not understand. Nor did she want to.

She had long since hit her limit.

“What did you do!?”

“I broke off my horn,” calmly stated the Forest Guardian. So very calmly. “Elaine, you can create a Godhorn Tech with this. Live the life you want to live and smile as much as you like. The world has taken so much from you, so now it is time you took the life you want. You are free to do whatever you like.”

She heard another deep rumbling, but this was different from before.

This was the sound of something falling, never to get back up. It was a sad, lonely tremor that seemed to tear her heart to pieces.

The girl had been given a clear power that would grant her victory over anyone. And she had lost her final savior.

“Ah, ahh…”

The power had been left to her by that loss.

This time, she truly was alone.

How was this the strongest power? What could that horn do?

That comforting presence had supported them all, watched over the girl from afar, and gently allayed her fears during stormy nights. That warm being had let her know she was not alone whenever she needed to know it. That individual had been more reliable than her father, closer than her oldest friend, and her role model for how to treat a hypothetical apprentice or child in the future.

Elaine knew the Forest Guardian had cared for them all more gently than anyone. She knew he had hidden within the Celestial Tree for fear his giant, bizarre appearance would frighten them.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

No, it was not just her. Everyone who lived in the forest had understood how kind a heart he had and how unnecessarily thoughtful he had been. The dark elves looked different from humans, so they had accepted the Forest Guardian for the same reason they did not judge people based on the shape of their ears or the length of their life. He was so gentle, shy, and fearful, but he was more caring than anyone or anything else and he ended up worrying over anything and everything. So they had not even named their annual forest festival after their guardian. Instead, they had expressed a year’s worth of thanks to the guardian they chose not to name.

His great strength could not be found in this .

The horn was just a horn.

It was a tool directed at a powerful enemy to pierce and kill them. That was all it could do.

A source of violence could never carry the power needed to soothe the girl’s loneliness.

Everything she wanted to protect died.

Everything she hoped for slipped through her fingers.

No matter what she did.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

The dull headache was irrelevant.

Miyabi was so furious at being unable to interact with that vision of the past that he didn’t care if his head really was cracking open.

“…”

No.

It wasn’t the past he needed to change. He already had the power to change the present and the future.

He gripped his control sword tight.

Destruction and creation.

How could he use those two powers to reach her heart?

“I was wondering how a wandering dark elf managed to get a Godhorn Tech when they usually take an entire country or company to develop.”

It had come from a hopelessly foolish act of self-sacrifice.

And his visit to the Bio Rainforest had already shown him the world was flooded with unregistered scientists and engineers who were greatly skilled but refused to compromise with society. She would have been able to search someone out.

Miyabi clenched his teeth now that he knew what was contained within Elaine’s Godhorn Tech.

“How did it turn out this way?”

Just then, something appeared before him – a ball of light. It was even larger than the residual thoughts of the dark elves floating here and there.

He could only think of one being this could be.

“I am the Forest Guardian.”

Miyabi did not doubt the claim. He had no reason to.

“I am the ugly guardian who has seen long ages pass from within the hollow Celestial Tree.”

“…”

He had a horn.

So in the world outside the forest, he would be known as a Wicked God.

“Elaine had lost far too much, so she required some power to make up for it. I wanted her to wield my horn’s power to live free in the outside world. She could have chosen for herself what to create and what to destroy – how she would live and what she would leave behind. I wanted her to find happiness and smile as much as she liked without anyone getting in her way. But she was too kind.”

Could Miyabi interrupt?

What would it even accomplish if he could?

“She could have ignored her own feelings, if that was all it was. But she heard the voices of those around her. When she saw someone too weak to carry out their revenge, she understood how they felt. She was too kind to abandon them. She could not refuse them when they asked for help and she eventually started calling it her job. …She no longer even considers whose revenge she is carrying out. It does not even cross her mind.”

The large ball of light vanished into thin air.

She had her hatred of the Empire.

And she had picked up the resentments of complete strangers.

The engineers who had helped make a Godhorn Tech out of her Wicked God horn may have done so in order to get back at the society that had rejected them.

Even though the being who had broken his own horn to save her had not wanted such a painful future for her.

“So that’s it.”

Miyabi understood now.

There were only residual thoughts here and he knew the actual Guardian could not hear him, but he still felt like he had to say this.

“This isn’t what Elaine wanted. It was their wish.”

“I thought she had completely changed. I thought the person who attacked the Empire couldn’t have been the girl I knew.” Alicia reflected on it all. “But she has only been wandering – lost – this entire time.”

The twins took turns asking questions.

“What are we going to do?”

“After she intruded on our business, you aren’t just going to let her go on like this, are you?”

The answer was obvious.

“Of course not,” said Miyabi Blackgarden. “It’s time to end this.”

They were deep in the forest.

Even if it was burned and broken, the colossal tree in the center still looked down upon the entire continent. A kind Wicked God had once lived in that holy ground and watched over the dark elves’ lives.

The green moss was quietly growing there too.

The Celestial Tree did not reject it. It demonstrated a mysterious acceptance of this new greenery bathing in the forest sunlight and of the new form the forest was taking.

And at the base of that tree…

“Ah,” said Miyabi.

He saw silver hair and brown skin.

He saw a strange outfit resembling a whin white negligee or babydoll that left the navel visible. But the many quivers worn around her hips made it almost look like a fairy tale dress.

Then there were the special goggles over the eyes.

Elaine casually emerged from between the black trees.

Small glowing bugs took silent flight whenever she trod on the green moss.

“…”

“What, is this more residual thoughts? Does she have more to tell us?”

He gave her a puzzled look as she slowly approached.

Alicia, on the other hand, widened her eyes.

“No! That’s the real Elaine!! I wouldn’t confuse her with an illusion. She exists in the same time as us!!”

“!?”

Elaine fired a magic arrow from dead ahead.

Miyabi barely managed to dodge it and a disturbingly white explosion erupted directly behind him. He would have been killed instantly had it hit him.

“…!!”

“Nhhh! She does love her tricks, doesn’t she!?” roared Onelife.

“She never could have destroyed my Empire otherwise. Not even with a Godhorn Tech,” said Number 8 calmly but firmly.

“Heh heh heh.”

She laughed.

It was a somehow broken and derailed laugh. The goggles over her eyes served to accentuate the sinister crescent moon of her lips.

She held the long bow in one hand and used the other to toy with the quivers worn around her like a skirt.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Yes, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be so easy!”

“What’s so funny!?” asked Alicia.

“Oh? Aren’t you supposed to enjoy the game of revenge?”

Something happened within the magical automaton.

Even time seemed to strain.

“Enjoy…?” Number 8 spoke each word like he was crushing them one by one between his back teeth. “Do you have any idea how many lives were lost back then? How many tears were shed, how many people stood up to protect their loved ones, and how many ultimately fell!?”

“Enough, faithful servant. She too is ruled by tragedy,” shouted Eliza, unable to just watch any longer.

The Empire’s army had destroyed the forest and a survivor of the forest had brought down the Empire. They had all been drunk on and ruled by their own power. That power was too great even for nonhumans like an automaton or dark elf.

The power of a Wicked God’s horn.

The power of a Godhorn Tech.

That was why Elaine had not stopped. Why she could not stop.

“I intentionally accept the burden of other people’s lives. Because what greater thrill is there than two lives engaged in combat until one or the other falls?”

“…”

Miyabi’s knowledge of her past allowed her damaged heart to stab into the core of his being.

All that remained of that lonely girl was sneering at him here.

“It’s a game!! A game!! What else could you call it!? They might call me a revenge mercenary, but if this was only a job, how could I ever be so obsessed with it!? You can’t stick with something unless you enjoy it, right? Ha ha, ah ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ah ha, ah ha ha!!!!!!”

Alicia bit her lips with pity in her eyes.

But Elaine continued laughing. She hid her face with goggles, kept everyone away with her bow and arrow, and could not bear the weight of the horn given to save her.

She was more fragile than glass and more brittle than hard candy.

At the same time, she was more sinister than steel and more unclean than dark charcoal.

“Now give me more!! So much more! Surpass all of my expectations so I can finally feel satisfied!!”

With a straining sound, Elaine Greenforest nocked a deadly arrow to her bow that resembled a distorted harp.

She aimed at Alicia, the elf girl she had supposedly spent plenty of time with.

Her melted voice invited in death.

“Entertain me, miss♪”

“Tch. Damn tragedy addict.” The radio clicked its tongue. “She’s developed a taste for blood!!”

Alicia did not avert her gaze even as that piercing dark pressure was directed her way.

“But we spent so much time together. Is there really nothing we can do? A way to keep this fellow elf – my childhood friend – from falling any further!?”

“If you can’t find a reason to give up on her, then you don’t have to.” The redhead boy placed a hand on Alicia’s head and held his control sword with the other hand. “No one here did anything wrong to begin with – not Elaine, not the dark elves, and not the Celestial Tree’s Wicked God. Yet Elaine was led down this path.”

So…

“Help me, Alicia. The rest of you too.”

With the assurance that his party members were watching his back, Miyabi faced the lonely girl who had lost everything and then pushed everything away herself.

Destruction and creation.

What was that strongest power for? What did he want to do with what Moebius Entrance had given him?

That wasn’t even a question.

If he could reach out and grab a trembling hand and if he could add just one more member to his party, he could work up enough courage to directly battle someone with the power to destroy the world.

He had to look her in the eye and raise his voice.

He had to make this crystal clear.

This was not for the world or to do the right thing. He simply could not leave that girl alone any longer. Not one second more. What was wrong with fighting for that?

So he spoke his mind.

So that he could smash the unwanted destiny that had led to this point and create a new path for this vengeful demon who had given up on herself!!

Miyabi Blackgarden simply shouted as his boiling instincts led him.

“Your twisted tragedy ends here!!!!!!”

It was a battle between sword and bow.

The dark elf recited her incantations as if in song.

“Rainmaker: Downburst – Category 3. The number 2 refers to the two extremes, so the gap between the high and the low shall invite in a great wind!!”

A massive amount of air was compressed by a metal arrowhead spilt into two prongs at the tip.

That deadly arrowhead would scatter walls of shockwaves in every direction when it hit.

Their new party member Harber had been right. Elaine’s bow looked frightening at first, but its power was actually boosted by magic. That meant Elaine herself knew it was lacking in power on its own.

Miyabi fearlessly rushed toward her.

He just barely dodged the initial attack and continued forward.

Once close enough, Elaine could not use any exploding magic arrows because their great power would hit her as well. And his sword could reach just fine at that range. She would be forced to use her bow itself for defense, which would also prevent her from nocking an arrow.

And yet…

Despite being a mid and long range specialist, she remained confident even at close range?

“Rainmaker: Reverse Engineering – Category #$%&. The number 4 symbolizes the easily understood colors. By revealing how clouds are formed, I gain the key to making it rain!!”

Surprisingly, she aimed her bow straight down and launched the arrow into the ashes piled up at her feet.

“Get back, boy!!!!!!”

If not for Alicia’s warning, he might have been crushed.

He rolled along the mossy ground, getting ashes all over him, but he felt a prickling pain across all his skin.

(What was that!? She was right in front of me, yet something flew in from another direction!?)

Miyabi was dumbfounded while he got back on his feet.

He saw a faint glow.

It was a fire.

For that one moment, a fearsome pillar of fire entirely surrounded Elaine Greenforest.

“Rainmaker,” said the Necromancer with a grin. She seemed to come alive the closer she was to death. “There are a lot of rainmaking ceremonies, but this is one major branch: using fire to summon water. The smoke is viewed as rainclouds, the fire as the sun, and the water that puts out the fire as the rain. But this does not just apply to water. Lightning can be used to create the smoke and a sandstorm can symbolize the clouds in the sky. If hiding the sun makes it rain, it doesn’t matter if that is done by covering it with dirt or snuffing it out with the wind. Ah ha ha. See? All magic can be used for good or evil – it isn’t just necromancy. There are simply restrictions applied to its usage and you gain more freedom if you break free of the boring restrictions society loves to put on it!!”

“…!!”

He tried to approach Elaine, but more and more of the ashy ground and black trees exploded. But if he thoughtlessly moved back, her bow and arrow would make short work of him.

Kananka read the path of his boomerang.

He was using the minute changes to determine the wind direction, the temperature, the humidity, and more about the air.

“Move in from the west-southwest!! The fire should be weakest there!!”

Alicia flicked a test tube’s cap off with her thumb and downed the physical boosting potion within.

But not even that was enough.

If Helen had not noticed and tripped her, Alicia would have been badly injured. Simply increasing her fire resistance was not enough to charge through the wall of fire. The obvious curtain of flames was being used to camouflage several sharp stone spikes jutting up from the ground.

“Tch!!”

“She used her tricks to take out the Lord of Ruin in a single blow, so assume there’s more to her attacks than meets the eye!!”

Of course, it was not over yet.

Next…

“You’re wiiiide open☆”

With a sound like tearing paper, Elaine launched her next attack while laughing. She intended to blast Miyabi now that he was stopped by the wall of fire and the stone spikes.

She was a survivor of the dark elves who had lost everything when their beautiful forest was burned.

Even an outsider like Miyabi felt like the rage and regret would smother his heart after hearing the story.

Yet she still launched a trident arrowhead with lightning compressed between the prongs.

“!!”

Miyabi was not as skilled with a sword as the Lord of Ruin, so he could not hope to stop the projectile with his control sword. And even if he did manage, the magic contained within the sharp arrowhead would explode in his face.

So instead, he forcibly twisted his body around and dropped to the ashes to dodge it.

It was the most he could manage and even that only succeeded thanks to some luck.

He felt a prickling pain in his skin as time seemed to freeze, but was that the electrical energy grazing him or was it the result of his own extreme tension?

Far behind him, the arrowhead erupted into a terrifying pure white explosion.

“Tch. Cautious thing, aren’t you?”

That was Elaine’s only response. The simple and sloppy impression he got from her had to be from more than just the goggles covering her eyes. She destroyed the environment around her while hoping to maybe be lucky enough to hit. She transformed the terrain, set it on fire, and stained it with blood. She clearly no longer viewed this as her homeland.

“Rainmaker: Low Level Wind Shear – Category 3. The number 1 is an arrow pointing the way. …The wind hurts a lot more when it carries broken branches and hard leaves, doesn’t it? And this place has plenty of remnants of the past.”

“Don’t do this, Elaiiiiiiine!!” shouted Miyabi before he was sent tumbling backwards.

It was like a fan-shaped explosion. Countless branches blew in horizontally, baring the fangs that were their jagged ends.

Miyabi heard cracking sounds from his chest and side.

He coughed violently, but he was not impaled thanks to the thick leather forestry jacket he wore and the depressing fragility of the black and burned branches. They all shattered before piercing through. It almost felt like the many dark elves sleeping in the forest were breaking their own bodies to avoid any further bloodshed here.

The heartache was worse than the physical pain.

It felt like being pummeled by shards of broken gravestones.

Even Miyabi – a complete stranger visiting for the first time – had been hesitant to remake the dirt and trees into Bypass Bridges and Layer Stairs, yet she could do this!?

“Tch. Didn’t work. You’re no fun. Next I can…oh, I know. Maybe I can include the wreckage of the weapons and automatons I picked up in the Empire. There’s no way you can survive that one, is there?”

“Wait…agh. How can you do this…to the forest?”

“It’s just a forest. Or it used to be one. Do you see anything other than that here?”

The forest was already dead.

Who died here and what slumbered here were not an issue of the physical reality. They could burn, roast, and melt down the rest or even tear up the very dirt the dark elves had returned to, but nothing would ever wake them back up.

Why get so angry when there was no one here to be bothered by what she did?

But.

Even so.

Who was she thinking of when she took over other people’s revenge? Was she already so broken?

They stood at the base of the broken Celestial Tree.

Was she no longer even aware that they were disturbing the dead’s slumber by loudly crossing weapons and launching magic in this holy ground packed full of the dark elves’ precious memories!?

(No.)

He didn’t want to believe that.

An image of the past flashed in the back of his mind.

He once more reflected on the regret and urgent request of the Forest Guardian.

(No!!)

He managed to get back up, even if only to crawl.

And he clutched the control sword even tighter.

When the humans had set the forest ablaze, a kind girl had attempted to get the forest animals into the hidden village, failed, and ultimately lost everything. Her decision had been admirable and her motives virtuous. The sensitive girl had broken as a result, but he never wanted to believe she had fallen so far down the path of evil that she could never recover!!

What could he do?

He had to think.

What were his Godhorn Tech and its powers of destruction of creation meant for? He was free to use that much power for good or for evil, so was there really not even a single thing he could do for this girl!?

The Lucifer Horn impatiently awaited his orders up in the sky.

He could not let this end in disgrace. He needed to do something worthy of the title of strongest!!

“Elaine!!!!!!”

“Ah ha ha. Looking for some way to help the dead? Then come join me, human boy. What is a Godhorn Tech and its Wicked God horn good for other than revenge?”

“Kh.”

There had to be something.

Tell her.

Tell her the Forest Guardian had been so worried for her he had carved his feelings into the forest. Tell her that saving her would help soothe the spirits of all of those who had lived in the forest.

Tell her there were ways to comfort an aching heart far more effective than revenge.

You saw her past on the way here, didn’t you!?

“Ha ha ha!! This forest is already dead. There’s no one left here. Not one! Why should I care if I damage it!?”

She snapped her fingers, sending unnatural sparks flying.

The instant they fell on the ash and soot covered ground, her bow and arrow affected the weather, creating an impossible horizontal gust of wind.

It was like a powerful breath blowing on the still-hot white ashes left in the fireplace.

The wind itself became an orange-glowing wall of flame.

Fire, water, wind, earth, wood, lightning, and what else?

Elaine would probably do the same thing with light or a holy power as well.

She could use all sorts of magic, but she depressingly only used it for destruction. Even though her dedication could have been put to better use.

She might as well have been setting a graveyard ablaze. Was she actually setting fire to the land where the dark elves slept after being killed in a fire!?

But the Necromancer sounded amused as she held a long whip made from some kind of tongue.

“She only has the upper hand thanks to all the charcoal and ashes filling the forest, so you only need to get rid of that cause of death. That bitch said a Godhorn Tech is only good for revenge, but you can do more than that with yours, can’t you? You can use it to protect and to save.”

“Lucifer Horn, take care of it!!” shouted Miyabi, stabbing his control sword into the ground.

Something dropped from the sky above.

A massive bomb exploded, pushing back at the approaching flames like another wall.

He did not put out the fire with water.

He fought fire with fire.

“So what? Ee hee, ee hee hee. We dark elves were already destroyed by the Empire’s cruel attack. Ha ha ha ha ha!! Rainmaker: Reverse Engineering – Category @*￥. Wind, dust, and all other ways of controlling the weather and rainmaking can be used to stop you from-!?”

Elaine suddenly stopped and her twisted laughter caught in her throat.

Then a beam of light dropped down.

It landed a bit to the side of Elaine and her wall of flame, but not because it had missed. Miyabi Blackgarden stared straight at her and he never used his Godhorn Tech to directly attack her despite the handicap that placed on him.

Yes, the true purpose of the attack soon presented itself.

A swarm of every type of bug pushed in from all directions.

“This was a dead forest, but that’s a thing of the past. Moss and grass have grown in to overwrite that in places,” whispered the Necromancer, her feet gently resting on the green moss spreading across the ground. “You can find life almost anywhere on the continent: in the desert, on the snowy fields, and even at the bottom of the sea or in a volcano. The fire may have been too much of a hint. Most all living things are drawn toward light. And all the more so in such a quiet forest. The smallest stimulation can draw them out from across the forest. Just like spreading iron sand thinly across a large plate and then gathering it in the center with a magnet.”

“What!?”

“No one can stop the circle of life. Necromancers can make some minor adjustments to the death part, but the overall circle remains unchanged. Just like cheating at the casino to earn cash can never bring down the entire system of currency. And if you summon life to a place overflowing with death, you can neutralize that death. Neither life nor death are anything special, after all.”

The swarm of bugs smothered Elaine’s wall of flames, preventing it from burning or pushing back Miyabi’s party.

Kananka’s boomerang tore through the curtain of black smoke to take a reading, not to attack.

“There is no invisible mass of heat. Miyabi, run straight through!!”

And with the fire gone, the path was clear.

Now it was Miyabi’s turn to attack!!

“Kee hee.”

Just as he was arriving in striking distance, Elaine laughed.

She raised her bow to block his attack and lock their weapons together, but…

“I had hoped to enjoy your resistance a little longer, but all good things must come to an end.”

He heard something other than his sword striking her bow.

Even with their weapons awkwardly locked together, the bottom of her bow stabbed into the ground.

Despite being the one on the attack, Miyabi felt a chill down his spine.

“From the control bow to the horn core – tactical open.”

He knew it was coming, but they currently had their weapons locked together.

“High-Altitude Blimp Huge Eye. Chew it all to pieces!!”

It was a giant sphere.

The sorcery weapon looked so unnatural floating up in the sky with the power of heat.

The eerie sphere was colored black and looked both like a human skull and like a giant eyeball.

It was positioned far higher than even the Lucifer Horn. The bomber generally attacked by dropping something below it, so the Huge Eye was fully protected. The Huge Eyes’ great size made the scale hard to judge, but it had to be above 5000m, putting it higher than a mountain range. The strength of its armor hardly mattered because finding a weapon or magic that could reach that high would be a challenge in and of itself. Celina’s gun and Kananka’s boomerang could not even get close.

And that was not all.

It was the center of a raging spiral of wind. It carried around the destructive power of a natural disaster to lay waste to the surface.

A pillar colored a dirty gray by the ash and charcoal was slowly approaching from the distance.

“A-a giant hurricane?” groaned the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck. “Is this what blew us away in the desert? What kind of fantasy world is this!? You’re not supposed to have weather control devices!”

“The spirits are weeping… They weren’t here before, though. Or did they flee here from elsewhere!?”

The boomerang did not return to surprised Kananka. It had hit a nearby rock and bounced off. That meant something was wrong. Something unseen had diverted its course.

Number 8 looked like he had been transported to some other time.

“I have seen this,” he said. “This happened in my broken memories. The abnormal sky produced a wind that knocked down all things and sent fish and frogs raining from above. It tore the vaults from their foundations, swept up the mana within, and spread it across the land. That disaster took the Empire’s people and the emperor from me. It was just like a natural disaster!!”

“Hee hee.” Elaine laughed behind her goggles. And she snapped her fingers. “Hee hee hee. This will make that look like nothing. Revenge is all about leaving an impact, so you need to constantly update your methods.”

Small sparks scattered from her fingers, but they had seen this before.

A change came over the ashes the sparks fell upon.

They glowed orange like the tip of a cigarette or a fireplace.

The smallest of embers sent the fine ash into the air and gathered up the air to burn with an explosive intensity. Elaine’s bow and arrow alone had created a thick wall, so what would happen with these powerful winds fueling the fire? It could easily create a pillar of fire large enough to pierce the sky.

Alicia clenched her teeth while viewing the distant pillar of ashes and charcoal.

But she could not give up.

“Nothing will save us if we are caught by that. We need to end this before it arrives, boy!!”

The silver lining was how slow an attack it was.

It was absurdly powerful, but they had some time before the winds arrived and absorbed all the fire burning on the ground.

Now the question was how stubbornly Elaine could hold her ground with her tricks and traps. Miyabi’s party should have the upper hand due to their superior numbers, but she was the type to trick them into attacking each other.

But then something strange happened.

With a dull creaking, one of the black carbonized trees fell toward Elaine. Puzzled, she took a step back and the tree sent ashes and smashed charcoal dust into the air.

But that was all.

The gathered air did not produce an orange wall of flame.

Because the fallen tree had pinpoint crushed the embers on the ground. It almost looked like someone had calculated it out and tackled the fragile tree, but neither Miyabi nor Elaine saw anyone there. That had not been the work of the powerhouses like Eliza or Onelife.

“Miyabi, did you use the Palette Dice?” asked Celina with her flintlock rifle at the ready.

“No,” bluntly replied Miyabi.

Then who had done it?

Next, a boulder rolled onto some embers and some dirt buried some more. More and more unnatural phenomena accurately eliminated the embers that Elaine had sent out as a deadly trigger.

Elaine was badly shaken when she noticed the pale lights flying around like fireflies.

The goggles were not enough to hide how shaken she was.

Those were supposed to mere remnants.

There shouldn’t have been anyone left.

Because it was the loss of everything born and raised here that had made Elaine into what she was.

“The spirits…of the dark elves?”

Yet the unthinkable words came unbidden from her mouth.

She herself accepted it.

“But how? These are only thoughts affixed to specific coordinates. They shouldn’t even have their own personalities!”

“Don’t you get it?” said Miyabi without a thought to strategy.

He had no proof, but nothing required him to give any.

He trusted in the feeling inside himself and gripped his control sword tight.

“The Greenforest race has long regretted wishing for revenge after the Empire destroyed them. Because that wish was placed entirely on your shoulders. So they regretted it, regretted it so very much, and wondered if there was anything they could do to help you. They’re only residual thoughts now and there’s no way they can be conveniently resurrected at this point!! But they’re still trying to save you from the fire they started, Elaine!!”

Maybe it was the lack of strategy that caused crafty Elaine Greenforest’s mind to briefly go blank.

And not even that dark elf could escape unscathed with so many people rushing straight at her.

With her trickery temporarily halted, their greater numbers could do the talking.

She took aim at Miyabi who was moving straight toward her with his control sword in both hands, but someone passed the boy on the left and on the right.

They arrived faster than she had predicted, so she had no choice but to block their attacks with her bow itself.

“Ghhh!?”

Impressively, she managed to dodge Onelife’s prosthetic hand by a hair’s breadth.

But then Alicia’s staff solidly struck her in the side.

Her shoulders slanted just a bit.

Her strength left her.

“Did that do it!?” shouted the radio at the other elf’s neck.

“This ends now, Elaine. Open your eyes to reality. The proud Forest Guardian broke off his horn hoping you would live free and smile innocently. You don’t have to be bound by someone else’s revenge any longer!”

“Heh heh. Don’t be absurd.”

She was still doubled over as the straining in her ribs crossed a line and a red liquid spilled from her mouth.

Yet the beautiful but broken dark elf continued to smile.

And that crescent moon smile looked all the more sinister with the goggles covering her eyes.

“Eh heh heh. You’re the one who saw our plight yet refused to leave your own forest. Heh heh heh hah hah!!”

“!?”

“Don’t listen to her!!” warned the Philosopher’s Stone, but it was too late.

Elaine’s sticky words had latched onto Alicia’s heart.

“Yet here you are. Some childhood friend you are. You ignore us when we beg you for help, but when it’s for your own personal interests, out you come?”

“This isn’t even anyone’s revenge. You just want to tear us apart!!”

But the dark elf did not stick with it. She must not have cared too much if it worked or not. She was willing to sneer and strike with her poisoned claws on no more than the off chance it might come in handy. Even though she was striking the soft heart inside someone’s chest.

Kanaka came to an awkward stop. He had stopped throwing his boomerang at the last second because he was not confident it would come back to him.

A great mass of wind blew through the remaining blackened tree branches.

“Looks like I bought enough time there,” said Elaine.

“You mean…” said Alicia with a tremor in her throat.

“Huge Eye, fill the world with the ultimate thrill. Blow your winds right through me!”

This was a hurricane.

This power could control natural disasters, which were a greater threat than crime and war. This power had even destroyed the Empire through a chain reaction of destruction. That wind was dangerous enough even if it did not absorb the flames. Everyone here knew it after being on the receiving end in the desert. They knew clenching your teeth and planting your feet on the ground was not enough to endure it.

But.

The redhead boy moved to intervene by any means necessary.

“No, this isn’t over yet!!”

“?”

Miyabi shouted to push on Alicia’s back.

There was something there.

It was blackened, falling apart, and abandoned by the flow of time.

But he had succeeded in pulling out something like a giant bat wing. It was more than 10m wide and torn, leaving only pieces of it still intact.

“There’s still something we can do using this!!”

“Koo…”

Alma hopped up and down after finding this remnant of another one here.

In other words…

“Did that wing belong to that Wicked God or whatever it was?” asked Helen, mentioning a crucial term.

Wicked God.

Elaine looked like she had been struck by lightning. There had only been one of those in the Green Forest.

That avenger’s eyes had always pierced straight through her target, but even with the support of the special goggles, she briefly lost sight of something now.

“What? But that…!?”

Her eyes focused on something that wasn’t here.

“ What are you doing here!? Why now!!!???”

“We can’t do anything about that hurricane down here on the ground. I’ll admit that.” Miyabi grinned and made a gamble. “So I’ll pave a path to somewhere where we can stop it. Even if it means diving in myself!”

Number 8 looked up.

“Oh, I get it. The fish and frogs falling from the sky.”

“You’ll be helping me, Elaine. Even if you are my enemy!!”

Gravity disappeared.

Miyabi’s party flew up into the sky along with the many branches, trees, and rocks.

They were above the clouds, in a world of pure blue.

There was actually no wind here, presumably because they were in the eye of the storm. Also, the biting cold kept their minds sharply focused.

They were higher even than the Lucifer Horn here. At more than 5000m up, they were in the Huge Eye’s territory. And Miyabi’s party set foot atop that giant sphere in its inviolable airspace.

“Kh, where are we?”

Elaine had been taken along with them and she wouldn’t have any way of backing out this high in the air. The brown avenger’s eyes widened.

“Are we on top of the Huge Eye!?”

“This worked out better than I thought. And in the eye of the storm, your winds can’t reach us.”

Miyabi knew what the awkward Forest Guardian had wanted when he broke off his own horn to give the surviving girl hope. He knew that tragic ruler’s request for her to live the life she wanted to live had come to fruition in the worst possible way.

Miyabi knew about the poor girl whose last remaining savior had died ahead of her, plunging her into the depths of true loneliness. He knew about that shabby avenger whose kindness prevented her from ignoring the cries of others in similar situations and thus could not stop fighting using the great power of her Godhorn Tech.

Miyabi knew all of that.

So he could not push that lonely girl away from the outcome. Whether she won or lost, Elaine Greenforest could never be freed from her bonds unless she accepted the outcome. She was so sensitive that she had broken and could not find her original smile anymore. So she had to be with him on this final stage!!

This was not about giving him an advantage in the fight.

He could not truly end this any other way.

Miyabi readied his control sword in both hands and faced the dark elf.

And he roared.

All so he could reach a future where the Forest Guardian’s wish to protect the girl’s freedom and happiness would actually reach her and she could actually hold someone’s hand once more, even if she still had her reservations at first!!

He had to create.

Yes, now was the time for creation.

Everyone had given up on this avenger, so he would have to create a world where she could smile and live happily!!

“Elaine, no more aimless wandering as a revenge mercenary. I heard the Forest Guardian’s prayer. If this Godhorn Tech only helps you waste your freedom, then I’ll destroy it and take away that power that’s binding you!!”

They stood far up in the sky.

There was no escape from this aerial battlefield in any direction.

But.

Elaine Greenforest demonstrated surprising persistence even while cornered so thoroughly.

She snapped her fingers.

Small sparks were swept away from the Huge Eye and the massive hurricane surrounding them burst into flames.

She had ignited the ashes and charcoal dust swept into the air.

Alma bristled and jumped at Miyabi’s feet.

“Kyoo!?”

Everything was dyed orange and Miyabi felt a stinging heat on his skin, but his core remained cold.

The broken dark elf was saying she would not let any of them escape.

“Fine then. But I will still put revenge above all else. Even if that means burning down the entire world!!”

They were far higher even than the Lucifer Horn and the bomber was only made to attack the surface, so it was unlikely it could even target something higher than itself.

But Miyabi did not hesitate.

He raised his control sword in both hands and pointed the tip toward the lonely dark elf.

There had been no need at all for her to remain alone, but that was the only choice she had found for herself. She had misinterpreted the hope left to her by the others and jumped into the depths of hell herself.

Miyabi knew he had to end this here.

He truly believed it.

“I’ll show you, Elaine.”

“?”

“Show you there is another option for you!!”

He ran along the unstable high-altitude blimp.

Close range should have given him an advantage, but he knew Elaine was too crafty for that to necessarily work.

But this was not a 1-on-1 battle.

If he was betting every part of himself and wielding the entire path he had taken to reach this point, then this tactic was an option for him.

“She uses a bow. Rush in and keep her from using it!!!!!!”

The others all responded to his call.

Helen moved forward with her large knife, as did Number 8 with his morning star connected to its grip by electricity. Celina and Kananka did the same even though their rifle and boomerang were ranged weapons.

As if to say they would not let this continue any longer.

As if to say they refused to let this girl live a life where she seemed to enjoy harming herself.

“Kh.”

Elaine bit her lip.

If not for the goggles over her eyes, she may have narrowed them as if viewing a dazzling light.

But there was no need for that look.

She could join them any time she wanted. She could become one of them. That cracked and broken girl had never needed to isolate herself and obsess over futile revenge!!

“Hee hee hee.”

Elaine Greenforest did not give in even after taking attacks from Eliza’s surprisingly powerful lance or Onelife’s prosthetic hand.

She continued to fight.

She cast magic, launched arrows, and sometimes swung the entire twisted bow like it was a whip. Miyabi’s party remained a step away from reaching her. They were constantly repelled and forced back.

The lonely girl had learned how to get by in her loneliness.

She did not even seem to care when one of their attacks landed cleanly.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!”

“Stop…stop this, Elaine!!”

Alicia struck with her wooden staff and winced when she felt it crack something inside Elaine.

Mercilessly killing Elaine would be meaningless.

That was not their idea of victory.

But nothing Alicia said changed a thing.

The dark elf’s bloody laughter and the wall of wind surrounding the high-altitude blimp – no, the fiery cyclone – were only growing in intensity.

Elaine swung her slender arms while cackling in a way that squeezed at the hearts of all who heard it. She even repelled Onelife who was said to have slain a Wicked God.

“Nhhh!?”

“I keep landing accurate blows, so how is she still conscious? This does not compute.”

Elaine was of course paying a price for the amount of raw power she was forcing out of her body.

After knocking back Onelife, her arm had grown bluish from internal bleeding.

It was amazing the bones were unbroken.

Number 8 shared his analysis with the others and the Necromancer toyed with her tongue whip and sighed in exasperation.

“She certainly is tough. Are you sure she’s still alive? With that kind of disregard for her own wellbeing, I would be amazed to find she hasn’t dabbled in necromancy.”

“You’re killing it today, boss!”

“I imagine her own brain chemicals have put her in the zone. Her sense of pain is completely gone, so physical blows aren’t going to knock her out.”

“…”

After a short silence, Number 8 made a suggestion.

A suggestion as a subject of the Empire she had destroyed.

“Then do we kill her to stop her?”

“No!!” screamed Alicia.

The ever-cunning elf gripped her wooden staff tight, squeezed her eyes shut, and failed to stop the tears.

And she shouted loud enough to tear open her own throat.

“I won’t abandon her this time! I finally left my forest and she’s finally at arm’s reach! So I won’t abandon her this time!!”

“Don’t worry, miss,” roared the radio. “A real man won’t abandon a girl in need. Right, Miyabi!? Forget strategy and tactics. This is a swords and sorcery fantasy where anything goes and you’ve got the strongest power in your grasp, so remember what it is you want to do here!!!!!!”

“Sigh.” The Necromancer sounded exasperated. “If we can’t stop Elaine without killing her, then we’ll have to find some other way to win.”

That was it.

They only had to win. And that didn’t necessarily mean aiming for Elaine.

And this was bound to work against Elaine more than anyone else.

It only took a split second for Miyabi to reach a decision.

“ Scatter!! ”

“?”

The dark elf’s laughter momentarily stopped.

And in that moment…

“Now we’re talking!! I was pretty sick of having to pummel such a scrawny girl anyway,” said Onelife. “If I’m gonna fight something, I want it to be even tougher and bigger than me!!!!!!”

“I see you’ve already conveniently edited out your memories of attacking me so mercilessly in the Bio Rainforest,” said the Necromancer. “Idiots are such a mystery.”

Maybe because you aren’t a girl, thought Miyabi and she glared at him like she had read his mind.

Onelife and the Necromancer ran in opposite directions like they were repelled by each other.

“Ixea, we need to fight as well.”

“Indeed we do, Acacia. We finally get an outside view of someone trapped by a Godhorn Tech. I feel like I’m seeing my old self, which kind of pisses me off.”

The twins wielding giant axes actually moved back with their hip cloths fluttering in front of them.

“What are you doing?”

The dark elf viewed the entire scene through her special goggles.

And then she cried out in alarm.

“No!”

She tried to ready her bow, but Miyabi had moved right up in front of her.

Sword clashed with bow before she could nock an arrow.

With their weapons locked together, Miyabi smiled savagely in front of the girl. In a pure clash of force, he could place more force on his thick, two-handed sword than she could on her bow.

“Hey, Elaine. If you need an elf babysitter, I’m your guy. I’ve had to put up with Alicia’s selfishness and short temper all my life, after all.”

“Kh!! M-move! Move out of the way!!!!!!”

“Not happening, no matter what. Your drive for vengeance, your trapped heart, and your twisted hope can all go to hell. The Forest Guardian left this task with us. He trusted us when we only ignorantly walked into this forest! We also saw the ghosts of the dark elves who gathered together to help end your life of revenge!! So I’ll shatter the chains binding you. Every last one of them!!”

Yes.

Her magically-enhanced projectiles were a threat, but she also had to focus on defense when challenged at close range. And it went without saying which of their weapons was better suited for blocking blows.

Shining steel drew out large arcs. The movements resembled the tilling of the soil.

More and more heavy impacts rang out.

But not against Elaine Greenforest. The heavy hitters like Onelife and Number 8 were attacking the Huge Eye below them.

Miyabi’s party only needed to spread out and smash the armor of the blimp they stood on. And they had to keep that up until it could no longer fly under its own power.

Its overwhelming altitude had been its greatest shield, but now they could reach it and damage it.

Elaine forcibly kicked at Miyabi’s legs with their weapons locked together and she used the brief opening to roll back and away.

She only gained 5m, but it was enough for her to use her bow as a projectile weapon again.

“Tch!! Rainmaker: Flood – Category 4. The number 1 indicates a single direction. Produce a massive deluge following the unhesitating arrow! Make the wingless intruders slip and tumble down to their dooms!!”

Water sprayed out toward Miyabi with greater force than a hand-pumped fire hydrant. He really was doomed if he was knocked over the edge this high up. He practically fell on his face in his haste to avoid it.

He just about slipped off anyway, but someone grabbed his hand.

“This isn’t over yet!!”

It was Alicia Blueforest.

She was drenched and covered in embers and ashes, but she poured everything into keeping the fight going.

She was almost embracing the human boy as she shouted with powerful conviction.

“I won’t let it be over. I will not let your hope die here, Elaine!! You might try to shake free of our grasp, but I will never let go of your hand!!”

Elaine herself was at risk of slipping and losing her balance.

With such unstable footing, that water attack was far more frightening than an immediately deadly one.

However.

A bow was a bow. It could not attack in every direction at once.

She still may have been able to deal with Miyabi’s entire party attacking her at the same time, but her defenses were not enough when more than 10 people split up and attacked the balloon instead. And if she started firing her exploding magic arrows at random, she could easily catch herself in the blast.

So she could not stop it.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Miyabi held out his hand and raised his voice.

He could not take out pieces of the Godhorn Tech itself, but the blazing cyclone surrounding them had swept up trees and boulders from the dead land.

(Sorry!!)

He felt like he was vandalizing a grave, so he silently apologized.

But he wanted to save this girl no matter what it took.

He wanted to grant the dark elves their wish. With a mental image of grabbing something in midair, he broke those materials down into cubes and reconnected them.

He formed a massive stake.

He positioned it above the high-altitude blimp and then stabbed it down into the black armor like a lightning strike.

He felt a dull tremor.

The thick spike had smashed its way into the Huge Eye’s armor.

Elaine was initially dumbfounded, but then she shouted what was more a prayer than anything.

“This isn’t over!!”

“So what if it isn’t?” replied Number 8. The uniformed butler gave a powerful swing of his electrically-linked morning star. “Elaine, you were powerful enough to destroy the vast Empire, so your power to kill may be greater than anyone else’s. Maybe even more than the Lord of Ruin who only knew how to make head-on attacks. But your power of revenge cannot be used to protect someone! You provide less of a defense than a single piece of tissue paper!!”

He drove the stake further in.

Onelife continued with his large cutlass in hand.

“Nwohhh!! Feeling frustrated, or maybe jealous? You might’ve been able to stop us if you wielded some power other than revenge. Maybe you could’ve done more than sit there and pray!! But there’s nothing you can do! You’ve got no trump card for when you really need it! That’s why you resort to revenge and despair!! …Does this hurt to hear? If you feel even the smallest ache in your heart, then it’s not too late. Show us you can reach for a power that avoids regret and precludes the need for reveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenge!!!!!!”

Onelife used his great arm strength to drive the stake in even more, but then he was knocked from his feet. Something had exploded beneath him.

It was like an invisible volcanic eruption. By widening the wound, the gas used to keep the blimp afloat may have erupted out.

More and more of the thick armor was torn up, starting from the edge of the gash.

The metallic wound spread endlessly.

But they could not just calmly observe the widening hole.

Their footing had noticeably tilted. That meant the Huge Eye itself was tilting.

“It’s falling?”

At first, Elaine stared blankly down at it.

She could not believe this was happening.

“What, what!? How can this happen!? This is my power! It has always been with me and it was to always be with me!!”

Had that been her one and only bond remaining?

Had she chosen to stay with that massive sorcery weapon forever, transforming her into an incarnation of destruction?

Just as the damaged Godhorn Tech tilted even further, Elaine staggered. There was not all that much room to stand on atop the round blimp.

Miyabi’s skin was stinging.

He grimaced.

The ashes and charcoal powder were burning and the heat contained in the fiery cyclone had to be greater than in a blacksmith’s furnace.

If any of them left the eye of the storm, they would be enveloped by the scorching orange wall of swirling fire and burned to ashes before they even hit the ground.

“Watch out!” he shouted, but he was too far away.

So.

It was someone else’s hand that reached out and grabbed her.

The hand belonged to her childhood friend Alicia.

Alicia grabbed her, pulled her close, and held her tight.

“?”

Elaine actually looked puzzled. The confusion was palpable even with her eyes hidden behind the goggles.

Alicia was not going to let her look like that any longer.

She ignored the smell of her own burning hair and the pain of her burning skin as she spoke.

“I will not let this end here. I won’t let it end in death after coming this far. No matter what!!”

“Kh.”

Groaning was not enough.

Miyabi reached his empty hand out to the two of them.

“I need to create a wall to keep them from falling!”

(Please, Forest Guardian and dark elves. I’ll be breaking down and transforming your homeland and resting place, but please lend Elaine your strength one last time!!)

The natural materials that had been swept up this high were broken down into Palette Dice that dropped down and stacked up vertically.

He barely made it in time.

The wall holding the two girls in place was black and burned, but it was definitely made from the trees so loved by the dark elves.

“Wh-why?” stammered Elaine.

“Shut up,” shouted Alicia, biting her lip. She paid no attention to the black soot covering her cheeks and clothes. “Why do I need a reason!? I’m here to actually save my childhood friend this time!”

“The Wicked God that gave you that horn didn’t want this. He offered you his horn hoping you would fly freer than anyone, smile bright, and be happy. He told you to live the life you want, but you never could find what you wanted to do. Or were you too afraid to stop fighting and find a different path for yourself? Were you afraid you would have it taken away from you again? So you were afraid to stop even after your revenge was complete. You thought helping other people with their revenge would be easier because that was the one place you had found success! You decided that was the only way you could be happy, narrowed your view of the world, and stuck with the one thing you knew you could do!! Even though you could have seen so many new things if you had looked away from that path just for a moment. Isn’t that right, Elaine!?” Miyabi slowly approached those two. “But the more you repeat the same thing, the less you get out of it. There is no freedom there. You must have known that yourself, which is why you had to escalate things in that closed-off world. You never did actually save anyone while helping with their revenge, did you? Of course you didn’t. Dress it up however you like, violence is still violence. I’m not calling it good or evil – I’m saying your hands end up just as bloody either way!!”

They had no guarantee that wall would last forever. It could crumble away in an unexpected gust of wind or the Huge Eye could tilt even further, dumping Alicia and Elaine into the fire. Or the fiery cyclone could heat up further, roasting everything in the eye of the storm.

But he had just one thought about that: so what?

Why had he come all this way otherwise? He wanted to grant the Forest Guardian his wish!!

“You never needed to help people with their revenge. When you discovered their problems, maybe you could have given them advice and stopped the tragedy, effectively saving them from their own path of violence!! Then you could have broken free! You could have found a happiness you had never before experienced!!!!!!”

“…”

“Don’t trample it all underfoot, Elaine.”

No matter what he said, he was an outsider who had arrived after the dark elf forest had been burned down. He had not arrived in time or even realized it was happening. He was no more than a human boy. Ordinarily, acting like he understood better than her might have been an insult to her and all the other victims of that tragedy.

But there were times when the people with a direct connection lost their way.

There were things that could only be seen with a more detached viewpoint.

That was why this task had been given to him.

He felt the weight of the burden the Forest Guardian had placed on him. He was an outsider and a human, but he did everything he could to gather up as much as he could.

He wanted to give them some kind of solution.

Even if he had only gathered 1% of Elaine’s bloody resolve, his words still carried some unseen power. They carried some piece of the Forest Guardian’s feelings.

So he would hesitate no longer.

He let go of his own support and his shoes slid down along the slope.

Maybe he didn’t know what he was talking about and maybe he was only rubbing salt in the actual victim’s wounds, but he knew he had to use his words to carry these feelings to that lonely girl!!

He would drag her out of this.

That was the only thought on his mind as he went in deeper.

“Don’t trample on the idea of risking your life to save people! Don’t use your resolve as an excuse for taking the easy way out!! Are you kidding me, Elaine!? The Forest Guardian broke off his own horn for you and you expect me to believe this was the person he was picturing with a smile on his face!? How long are you going to continue worrying him? Tell me, Elaine Greenforest. If you truly believe you’re meant to live this silly life of self-harm as a revenge mercenary – if you truly think you’re happy – then picture that kindhearted Wicked God in your mind and tell me all this was for the best!!!!!!”

Even through her goggles, she was clearly shaken.

Her breath and her words caught in her throat.

She couldn’t do it. She simply could not approve of her silly life as a revenge mercenary while in the imagined presence of the Forest Guardian.

“But…but.” Without a doubt, Elaine had taken more damage from this than any of the physical blows. “It comes to me so naturally. Revenge feels so comfortable. I mean, I’ve done it so many times there’s nothing to worry about. There are no surprises there, so it gives me stability.”

“No. That isn’t stability. Walking endlessly down a path with no end in sight isn’t a journey. That’s called being lost. Elaine, you haven’t found your path and you haven’t created anything. You’re just lost!!”

“You mean to say the Wicked God and the others didn’t want this? But then how can I trust anything I’ve seen in this world?”

“It’s not too late to find the kind of happiness that will let the dark elves and the Forest Guardian rest in peace! And I’ll help you find it. Listen, Elaine. You don’t need to be all powerful to find freedom. So what if you can’t save yourself? Who cares if you’re helpless? I’ll show you what true creation is. Because we’ll create a new home for you!!”

As Miyabi slid down the slope, he finally arrived within arm’s reach of the two girls.

He could reach them in the most natural and ordinary way.

“So come back to the wider world, Elaine!!”

“Ah…”

They were all shaken even more wildly than before.

The Huge Eye was not going to last.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Miyabi’s consciousness flashed in and out.

Which meant he was still alive.

“Koo…”

Alma cried quietly while lying face up on the ashes. At least the little thing wasn’t hurt.

He could tell they had crashed somewhere.

The blackened trees were knocked over and there may have been a large crater.

There was no sign of a wildfire. Had the fiery cyclone vanished already? When the Huge Eye had lost its balance, it may have lost its power to maintain the whirlwind, which cut off the supply of air and allowed the flames to extinguish naturally.

Those flames had continued burning like a furnace as long as they had a supply of air, but that also meant they went out once that air supply ended. Miyabi knew some about fires due to living in a forest. Because they had to avoid a forest fire at all costs.

“Elaine, are you all right?”

He had no strength left, so he crawled across the black ground to reach Elaine.

He approached slowly but surely.

“…”

She did not seem able to move.

She may have been in a state of shock.

“You have so many party members, so why did you come check on me first?”

“How is that even a question?” he immediately asked. “Because you’re one of those party members now.”

Of that he was certain.

He slowly stood up.

“You aren’t the 11th. If you had sorcery bombs in addition to your flying Godhorn Tech, you could have rained bombs down on us from the sky or something.”

“What was I even doing?” murmured the girl with her eyes hidden behind goggles. “The Forest Guardian only did that because he was so worried for me.”

“Forget it. Think of it like no more than a long dream.”

“Ugh,” someone groaned.

“?”

Elaine moved just her head to see another elf crawling over to her. Her beautiful skin and blonde hair were filthy, but she didn’t care in the slightest.

“Are you okay, Elaine?”

Alicia’s voice was scratchy.

She entirely ignored the ashes in her hair, the soot on her cheeks, and the injuries across her body.

She was not here to hurt someone.

None of them had been risking their lives for anything as silly as that.

“Thank goodness. Thank everything I never gave up on you.”

She touched Elaine.

She used her trembling fingertips to feel her body heat – the warmth that confirmed she was alive.

This is what she had been fighting for.

She stood up to the Godhorn Tech that had destroyed the powerful Empire for this.

So now she could not stop the flood of emotions.

“Hic, sob…”

She hit her limit.

Alicia held her childhood friend in her arms with clear drops building in the corners of her eyes.

And the dam broke.

“Ugh, wahh. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The redheaded boy smiled just a little.

It wasn’t often you felt immensely glad you had risked your life.

This was one of those times.

It was a nervous and timid thing, but Elaine Greenforest, who had grown so comfortable with destruction, slowly reached a trembling hand to the back of the girl crying for her.

The other girl’s face crumpled too. She did not make a noise, but it was obvious even with the goggles.

Miyabi exhaled and leaned back against a black and burned tree before speaking under his breath.

He was looking up into the sunlight filtered through the forest’s branches.

“Hey.”

There was nothing to worry about.

She had been broken, but now she had been given a second chance.

“Did you see that, Forest Guardian?”

Onelife and Number 8 watched it all from a short distance away.

The first to speak was the one-eyed pirate.

“Are you over your grudge?”

“Hmph,” spat out the magical automaton. “I will do something she could not: end the cycle of revenge. I can’t think of a better form of payback for a revenge mercenary.”

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 7

“Oh, we really changed some things, huh?” said Ginger Sandstrike, using his shovel as a cane and looking to the distorted horizon even though he couldn’t actually see anything there. “I didn’t think we could have such an affect, but we really did influence the outcome.”

“Horn Fortress might be destroyed if Miyabi dies, so we had better have some influence.”

A dancer’s outfit fluttered in the sea breeze.

Iris Tempinvy, a dancer (and recovery magic researcher), had been sent to the front line after treating the Necromancer’s wound. Without her, Miyabi’s party might have succumbed to their wounds after the Huge Eye attacked them in the desert nation.

The blond and dark-skinned “guardian” gave her a cynical smile.

“And here I thought we would be trapped here forever ‘just in case’ he needs us eventually.”

“Do not even joke about that!”

Iris’s eyes widened.

People were willing to do whatever it took to survive. Their greatest motivator was not dreams or ideals; it was anxiety and fear. When they looked back, they saw a stone structure nicer than a royal castle in the center of the island. That was the result of all the additions they had made here. There had been no plan in its construction, so the boxy rooms sticking out from the sides did make it somewhat ugly.

They had standard facilities like a clinic, a smithy, and a potion mixing lab and they also had odder choices like a blueprint library and a fish tank for rare but small fish they could use for potion ingredients. They had simply built everything they could think of that Miyabi’s party might need out there.

At first, the Lucifer Horn had only circled overhead without ever coming close, but not it would sometimes descend toward the ocean when it had nothing else to do. Ships could not visit this island, but they had still built a wooden pier in order to access the Lucifer Horn.

The bomber was now letting them perform maintenance and load bombs. It acted arrogant, but it also let them do whatever they wanted. Almost like a cat curling up in an old lady’s lap near the fireplace and asking to be patted. The group at Horn Fortress may have seen a side to the Lucifer Horn that Miyabi was unaware of.

On the other hand, their building was missing one thing necessary to call it a castle.

It had no defensive weapons, arrowslits, or murder holes.

“It sure is peaceful here,” said Ginger in a somehow rusty voice, making Iris wonder what kind of life he had lived before coming here. “This place doesn’t even have the weapons needed to defend itself. Thanks to the barriers surrounding us and the miasma coming from the cracks, we don’t have to worry about robbers or armies. There are some Beast Novae on the island, but they’re more like a source of food and materials than a threat.”

“Oh? Why do you sound so disappointed?”

“I’m not really.” Ginger, who would be decently handsome if he kept his mouth shut, twisted his lips up in a grin. “I’m just a cynic, so when I see a 100% peaceful environment, I can’t help but assume there’s something sinister lurking below the surface. I mean, what would you think if you were introduced to ‘a city of eternal peace where all social problems have been solved and everyone is guaranteed happiness’?”

“Hmm… I would want to move there, but I would wonder what the odds were of being chosen.”

“See, you’re trusting. That spiel would make me suspicious. Now, what if someone was selling you ‘a hyper dangerous dragon that never, ever betrays its master – definitely didn’t eat its last master!!’ ”

“Sounds like the perfect home security system. Wouldn’t be long until there was one in every house.”

“Okay, wow. I underestimated you. Ah ha ha. You are really trusting!”

### Profiles

Harber Snipe-Eat

Age: 20

Sex: Male

Height: 170cm

A pure hunter who makes a living by hunting animals. No matter how human a monster looks, he will still try to slay it and he is cold-hearted toward nonhumans like elves. He thinks the deadly act of hunting can be fully explained by the natural world’s food chain. If a human village is destroyed by a monster, he considers that too to be the natural way of things. He hunts and eats animals because that is his place in the food chain, not because he has any real animosity for them.

Elaine Greenforest

Apparent Age: 14 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 145cm

A dark elf girl who took revenge on the Empire for burning her forest and slaughtering the other dark elves. After destroying the Empire with the power of her Huge Eye Godhorn Tech, she began traveling the continent and using that power to fulfill other people’s revenge as a “revenge mercenary”. The motive for her actions is up to whoever hires her, so her actions are impossible to predict, in a way making her even more dangerous than the Lord of Ruin who is bound by his own way of thinking. Appears to be an old friend of Alicia Blueforest.

Godhorn Tech High-Altitude Blimp: Huge Eye

Pilot: Elaine Greenforest

Affiliation: None

Size: Details Unknown

A giant one-eyed blimp floating at extreme high altitude. Can control the atmosphere and can eliminate its enemy by creating a massive hurricane with itself as the eye. The hurricane can be controlled by moving the blimp, but it cannot be eliminated at will. Once it has been activated, it must go away naturally. Even with so much power, its elevated position protects it from most any attack from the ground. Design motif: rainmaking.

### 044. Chapter 9

### Chapter 9 Section 1

In the beginning was the Mother of all Wicked Gods. In the end was the Mother of all Wicked Gods.

She said destruction and creation are one and the same.

The battle against Dark Elf Elaine Greenforest was over.

The Huge Eye Godhorn Tech had been destroyed.

Either due to the intense fires dying down or just the sun setting, it was starting to feel chilly. The way Kananka Fulpen rubbed at his skin told Miyabi he was not just imagining that.

However…

“Not even the revenge mercenary was the 11th.”

Miyabi Blackgarden tilted his head.

A short distance away, ashy and sooty Alicia Blueforest still refused to let go of the dark elf. Goggled Elaine pushed her palm against her childhood friend’s cheek in slight annoyance, but she also seemed to be enjoying herself.

And Alma looked somewhat sad, despite normally pushing the elf away when she tried to rub her cheek against it. Miyabi smiled a little.

“Come here, Alma.”

“Koo…”

They had defeated the enemy and supposedly solved the problem, but they still had not answered one crucial question. Stopping Elaine’s revenge mercenary work had of course been important, but none of it added up.

She had in fact used the power of a Wicked God horn to destroy the massive Empire.

So many people living there would have played no direct role in the razing of the dark elf forest. The people who had never even set foot outside their hometown – like Miyabi until recently – might not have even known the forest existed. But Elaine had still done it.

The destruction had been her goal, so she had not sought any further benefit from it. She lost interest in what she had destroyed and moved on to her next target. She had traveled the continent spreading destruction even more freely than the Necromancer who valued dead spirits and corpses as a resource and had holed up in a rotten world, so Elaine did seem like a good match for those sorcery bombs.

However…

“Elaine did not use any,” whispered Number 8. The black-haired butler was looking to something much wider than just Miyabi. “Not in this battle or when she destroyed the Empire. I have never once seen her use a sorcery bomb. ”

“What?”

“It took some time to arrive at this conclusion because I had to run a self-diagnostic to ensure these memories were not damaged, but I am certain of it now. Nothing is missing from these memories. The dark elf did not need any more than her high-altitude blimp. The Huge Eye’s cataclysmic effects are simply that powerful. Not to mention that she only managed to contaminate a full third of the continent by inducing explosions in the Empire’s own magical facilities.”

The Green Forest had to be full of precious memories for Elaine, but once a certain switch flipped inside her, she prioritized destruction above all else. She had in fact set traps in the forest, made a surprise attack on Miyabi there, and even created a fiery cyclone by igniting the forest’s ashes and charcoal and catching them in a hurricane.

“It’s like I said,” murmured Miyabi. “It doesn’t make sense for Elaine to be the 11th. If she really was the bomber, she would have used those bombs to defeat us.”

Yes.

She had not been the type to be stopped by sentimental reasons like her memories of the place or not wanting to disturb the dark elves’ slumber.

“What if she had scattered sorcery bombs from that blimp? Or what if she had built a giant C of bombs in the forest and then closed the ring behind us after we walked inside? We would have been helpless to stop her from blowing us to smithereens. Maybe not anymore, but back when she was a revenge mercenary, she definitely would have taken it that far if she could.”

What did it mean if Elaine Greenforest had gone all out and used every card in her deck but she had never used a sorcery bomb?

“Elaine…isn’t the 11th?”

“But we have also run out of Godhorn Tech users.” The magical automaton pointed out that fundamental issue once more. “Miyabi, Celina, Eliza, Kananka, Onelife, the Necromancer, Acacia, Ixea, the Lord of Ruin, Elaine, and me. With the twins, that makes 11 users for 10 Godhorn Techs. That’s all of them. Or we could include Moebius in the count if former users qualify.”

“No, it isn’t him,” confidently stated Miyabi.

He had suspected Moebius before after he sent a letter to the Arsenal Kingdom to set up the Schwarz Schütze.

That had turned out to be a diversion meant to draw out Number 8 who had been made into a pawn of the 11th, but that would have been meaningless if Moebius really was the 11th. That letter had been the only hint Miyabi’s group had, so without it, Moebius could have continued using Number 8 to blow up locations across the continent without drawing any suspicion to himself.

In other words, intentionally drawing suspicion to himself just to have his name cleared, which provided him even more safety than no suspicion in the first place, was just too risky and unnecessary. That was the kind of desperate gamble someone took when they were already under suspicion.

Number 8 accurately stated the only possibilities.

“Either there is someone else out there we have yet to see or someone on that list is the 11th.”

“…”

Miyabi had no answer.

Or maybe he didn’t want to find an answer.

It seemed unlikely they would find new information in the dark elf forest where ashes and moss covered the ground and all the trees had carbonized. They had traveled across the continent in a large U-shape, so if they continued west from here, they would complete the loop and end up in the snowy Arsenal Kingdom. And searching the forest’s past would only give them information about the destroyed Empire.

That did not sound like where they would find an entirely new country or someone they had yet to see.

So…

“Miyabi,” said the small brown prince named Kananka Fulpen. “I know eavesdropping is rude, but I couldn’t help but overhear. I recommend we organize all of our information.”

“Why?”

“There are still a few questions we have yet to answer. The disaster that struck my kingdom being one of them.” Kananka winked and pressed a small hand against his chest. “We have dealt with the Necromancer, the Lord of Ruin, and Elaine now, but have we really finished speaking with the people who were manipulated by the 11th’s conspiracy? We were so focused on traveling across the continent we might have missed something during our quest.”

If they got everyone’s story, they could locate any discrepancies that suggested someone was lying or hiding something. And if they were all telling the truth, they could conclude that someone else was still out there. Either way, it would be worth their while.

And on that note…

“The Lord of Ruin should be waking soon,” said the Necromancer, her bewitching fingers toying with the brim of her witch’s hat.

Miyabi tilted his head.

“How can you know that when he was so badly injured?”

“Because his anesthesia is running out. Do you know what anesthesia is? If he isn’t writhing in pain at this point, then he’s never waking up again.”

“Boss, don’t pretend you wouldn’t be happy to get another specimen to research on☆”

The hat spoke with the voice of a small child, but Miyabi had to think for a bit.

Getting everyone’s story wasn’t a bad idea.

But bringing the recovering Lord of Ruin here would be a problem. He was badly injured, he was old, and Miyabi himself did not want to stay in this forest of ashes, charcoal, and green moss any longer than he had to. In fact, they would have difficulty setting up camp once the sun set. How were they supposed to acquire food around here?

So…

“It might be best for us all to pay Horn Fortress a visit.”

“Eh? Please tell me I misheard that!” Helen’s uncanny hearing caused her to jump up and join the conversation. “Um, it isn’t possible to walk to Horn Fortress, right? Isn’t it a remote island surrounded by the miasma-spewing cracks in the world or by an artificial barrier? But in that case…”

Miyabi stabbed the tip of his control sword into the hardened ash at his feet.

A large magic circle appeared there.

The glasses woman panicked even more.

“Wait, stop, let’s not be rash!! It’s too soon! Please be reasonable, Miyabi! Isn’t this where the Lucifer Horn snatches us up with a wire and flies us over the horizon? I’ll die! Straight up die! If the hook slips off of my collar on the way, I’ll be splattered against the ground and die instantly!!”

Helen Clockgear was nearly in tears, but she was interrupted by an exasperated sigh by another curvy young woman: the Necromancer.

“Oh? I made the trip twice and I’m fine.”

“I do not trust assurances of safety from people who reek of death. Who knows what kind of tricks you used to survive.”

“No tricks. I simply put myself in a state of suspended animation by freezing myself inside a coffin until I arrived. The freezing part is easy, but getting the unfreezing to happen on schedule takes some doing.”

“Are you sure Horn Fortress isn’t part of the afterlife and only the dead can get there!?”

Both sides of that argument were taking such extreme stances that it was hard to agree with either one. And if the argument held over the boy’s head grew anymore heated, those two young women might just crush his head between their boobs.

But this did give him an important hint for gathering his thoughts.

He needed to solve this one problem at a time.

“Um, Helen? I really don’t think we can stay here for long. There doesn’t seem to be anyone other than Elaine to talk to in the forest, so we won’t find any new information.”

“Uh…b-but we can still wait until we’re back in civilization before we have this strategy meeting.”

“Were you planning to head east to the desert nation or west to the snowy Arsenal Kingdom? Either way, we’ll find a harsh environment blocking our way even after we leave the forest. And based on the position of the sun, night will have fallen before we even get out of the forest.”

Helen’s shoulders shook.

Since Alicia wasn’t paying it any attention, Alma was tugging on Helen’s ankles for once. The creature was asking for food.

That meant it was dinnertime.

The position of the sun made it clear it was more evening than afternoon at this point.

Helen had mostly handled their travel funds and camp arrangements, so she would know the problems facing them better than anyone. But since she still didn’t want to admit to them, Miyabi said them for her.

And he put it bluntly.

“Helen, we can’t get food here. There’s nothing but ashy ground and carbonized trees. And even if we walk through the night to leave the forest, we’ll only find ourselves in either a desert or a snowy field.”

“Kh!?”

“Or were you thinking of eating this moss? New life does seem to be taking root here, but there isn’t much variety yet. For now at least, everything here seems to be that soft and creepy stuff the Necromancer loves, but can you really get a good night’s sleep after eating that? I wouldn’t want to eat it no matter how you cooked it up, but what about you? You could always turn it into a smoothie to help it go down quick, if gloppy. And there appear to be a lot of glowing bugs here, so at least it’ll look pretty.”

“Kooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

Helen let out a very Alma-like cry.

Yes, before even getting to the Lord of Ruin issue, they had no real choice other than visiting Horn Fortress if they wanted to survive. Would they brave a game of culinary concentration using all sorts of gross creepy crawlies not found in any reference book, or would they brave a dangerous midair jaunt, supported by a single wire? No one had guaranteed them a safe and comfortable path, so if they had to risk their lives, they might as well weigh the options against each other.

The Necromancer’s witch hat spoke in a singsong voice.

“It isn’t every day you get to see a cute girl tearfully and reluctantly stuffing some grotesque thing in her mouth. N-now there’s an image I can mentally combine with some other choice images. You know, like with a thick banana or a long piece of bread!! Through the power of imagination!!!!!!”

“I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, but I’m disinclined to choose anything that delights a hat that thinks on the same level as the radio,” said Miyabi. “What about you, Helen? Will you leave this with me?”

Helen Clockgear responded by clenching her tight skirt in her fists, biting her lip, and nodding like a child trying to hold it in while waiting for the bathroom. It was rare indeed for that busty glasses woman to fully admit defeat like this.

Now that he had permission, Miyabi sighed.

His sword was already stabbed into the ground, so he grabbed the grip again and spoke the words in his head.

“Take care of it, Lucifer Horn.”

Something tore through the air right next to Miyabi and scraped along the ground as it flew off somewhere.

It took a few seconds to realize the catching hook at the end of the thick wire had scraped by right next to the boy. And hadn’t there been some orange sparks flying?

The Lucifer Horn had already vanished into the distance.

The only signs of its passage were the long, thin clouds that looked like claw marks left by a massive beast.

Helen Clockgear’s legs gave out and she fell right back onto her butt with her eyes wide behind her glasses. She was like a cup filled to the limit. She could not get back up, so she trembled and clung to Miyabi’s hips.

And she yelled with the look of someone who would piss herself if just one more drop was added to the cup.

“I can’t. I can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t possibly do that!! How is that even supposed to safely catch you!? Reach your hand out in the wrong spot and you’ll lose more than just a few fingers at that speed! How did that ever work!? Please can we just give up on this terrible idea!? I’ll do anything else! Anything!!!!!!”

“Now that’s what I want to hear from a panicked beautiful woman! Saying you’ll do ‘anything’ as a last-ditch attempt at bargaining is hot, hot, hot!!”

Since the radio and the hat were both rejoicing, they had to be doing something wrong.

The Necromancer sighed with a hand on her cheek in a way that gave her a surprisingly respectable air.

“Well, a bomber wouldn’t be designed for vertical takeoff and landing. That wire must be a makeshift solution. I mean, it can only carry one person or item at a time. Using that to carry the entire group is not going to be easy.”

“Eh? Can’t I just send each of you one at a time and then grab the wire myself the last time?”

Helen desperately shook her head while still clinging to the boy. It didn’t really matter, but with her sitting on the ground and holding onto the younger boy’s hips, her soft cheek, shapely nose, and (maybe someone out there cares) some part of her glasses were touching him in weird places. The healthy teenage boy really wished she would not shake her head like that, but she was too afraid of her impending death to care.

Also, Alma was holding onto his calf and mimicking the woman for fun. The horn hurt as it poked at his leg.

The Necromancer pinched and toyed with the brim of her witch hat sort of like someone poking their finger inside a small bird’s cage.

“Would what you did for me come in handy?”

“?”

“Or what you did for the Lord of Ruin. When I was injured, didn’t you create a stretcher and then attach the wire to that? So if you carry us as a single large item and not individual people, you can ignore how many of us there are.”

The death scientist may have been a tutor at heart.

When she saw the puzzled tilt of Miyabi’s head, she happily explained.

“Create a big box or container that we can all fit inside. Miyabi, if you use your control sword to have the wire latch onto the box, we can enjoy a luxurious trip through the sky. That way we don’t even have to worry about the cold air. And inside that ‘room’, there is no risk of a sudden crosswind dislodging the hook from our clothing.”

“Yeah, that would work!”

“Nooo, don’t give him a workable solution! Now he’s really going to do iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”

Now that they had a plan, they got to work creating the big box.

They had seen professional containers and boxes on Celina’s armored train and at the criminal city’s port and Miyabi had created shelters to protect the islanders from the magical automatons in the remote island kingdom. That should have worked well enough, but he did not want to break apart and reuse the trees and stones leftover in this damaged forest. They were like the dark elves’ tombstones. He did not want to eat a grave offering or build a home out of tombstones. There were pieces of broken imperial weapons abandoned here and there, but they were a part of the forest at this point.

He had trashed the place while saving Elaine like the Forest Guardian and the dark elves had wanted, but he did not want to do that again for his own purposes.

Which meant…

“The pieces are scattered everywhere,” he said while looking around.

He was talking about the items that were clearly not the carbonized trees or the ashy ground.

Yes, the wreckage from the Huge Eye.

But if he could simply hold out his hand and break the Godhorn Tech down into Palette Dice and remake those into a structure or tool, then his past battles would have been a lot easier. He was not expecting that to work. Some big pieces were buried among all the jagged armor fragments and strange gears.

For example, a metal box that looked large enough to shelter from the rain inside.

For example, a tunnel-like pipe that he could have walked through without even ducking.

“I think we could use this and this. We cover up the front and back of the huge pipe with those gears taller than I am.”

“It would be like a human-sized canned good. But even if we use heat to weld the covers on, the side of the pipe has nothing for the Lucifer Horn’s hook to catch on. How will you solve that?”

The Necromancer was sexy enough to make for a very inappropriate tutor, but her question (asked while her crossed arms pushed up her large breasts) got Miyabi thinking. He crouched down on the spot.

“I found a wire. We can tie this to the pipe and create a loop at the top.”

Helen was tearfully shouting something about being terrified of a device handmade by someone who didn’t know what they were doing and comparing this to jumping off a cliff in an amateur inventor’s flying machine, but without a viable alternative, she had no way of stopping the redhead boy and the death scientist.

The used leverage to roll the giant pipe on top of the wire they had laid out on the ground. Then Miyabi climbed atop the cylinder to tightly tie the wire around it. With the pipe itself bound, he added a smaller loop to help the Lucifer Horn grab it. With the loop on top, the wire kind of looked like a giant ring on an even bigger finger.

“Why are you so good at tying knots and stuff, Necromancer? I would’ve expected a sailor like Onelife to be the expert there.”

“Hee hee. Hoping to drown in my darkness, boy?”

“No one’s better at sexy bondage than the boss! Admittedly, she developed the skills so she could restrain some overeager and uncontrollable specimens without damaging their rotten limbs. But only when they were too important to just dump in the acid pool for disposal.”

The rest of the party approached while those two worked.

Celina Bodenburg put her hands on her hips and looked up at the boy from the ashy ground.

“Oh? Developing a new delivery service using the Lucifer Horn, Miyabi!? Using such a large device to carry just the one container is extremely inefficient, but we might be able to make it profitable if we market it as premium air delivery for the wealthy hoping to receive gourmet ingredients before they go bad or transport valuables without fear of bandits attacking. This isn’t specialized for delivering messages like the messenger harpies, so it would be a first on the continent! I need to get in on the ground floor of this, so g-give me a second to work out some figures!!”

Celina started using a stick to scratch out some numbers on the ashy ground, so Miyabi decided to leave her be.

With just a metal wire tied around the thick pipe, he feared the pipe would slip out in midair. Alicia solved that problem with her knowledge of alchemy. She used a special chemical to melt the surface of the wire just enough for it to stick to the pipe. She said the process was called unheated welding.

“Climb in, everyone,” said the elf. “I will seal the other lid from the inside. There is no door, so we can’t get in after it’s sealed up.”

“Fine, but don’t seal it too tightly. It would be tragic indeed if we were trapped inside as some living canned goods.”

Death was a constant companion for the Necromancer, so if she called it tragic, it would have to be tragic indeed.

At any rate, their preparations were complete.

Helen was still trembling and throwing a tantrum, so Miyabi had to grab her hand and drag her inside. Once they were all inside the tunnel-like interior of the thick pipe, they sealed up that end as well. They could no longer see outside. Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the tube below his feet. The magic circle followed the surface of the pipe’s interior, so it circled around and covered the area overhead as well.

And Miyabi gave the final command.

“Take care of it, Lucifer Horn!!”

If he was being honest, Miyabi did not feel all that much fear.

They were journeying through the sky, but the pipe they were using as a container had both ends covered by giant gears. With no windows or doors, they could not see anything outside.

“Koo, koo.”

Alma cried worriedly in the darkness, presumably in Alicia’s arms. The creature may have been complaining about the lack of windows.

A strange sense of acceleration clutched at Miyabi’s gut, but he did not feel the vertigo of peering off the edge of a cliff. He could not even imagine what was happening to them, so the fear could not catch up with him.

(Well, Eliza’s castle was pretty high up too, but that was indoors and the building was so solid you didn’t feel the height. Is this similar?)

“Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.”

Helen, meanwhile, had the misfortune of knowing exactly how to calculate out all the appropriate values in her head. She had been clinging to seated Miyabi and trembling for a while now. But even if she was acting like a small child after a nightmare, she was still a fully-grown woman. Her large breasts were well on their way to suffocating Miyabi and she was holding him tight with her arms and even her legs, creating such close contact that he had no way to escape her body heat and sweet aroma. And the darkness meant he sensed that scent and the heat of her breath on his neck all the more vividly.

Also, he had failed to consider another factor.

Dangling this “room” from the Lucifer Horn by a wire was all well and good, but how were they going to land?

The tunnel-like pipe had no wings, nor could it decelerate by opening a giant umbrella like in a comedy play.

There was only one way it was going to end:

“Gwaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!???”

A great shock ran through his entire body and the world flipped around him over and over.

The hook had release them in midair, dropping them to a sandy surface. It took him some time to realize the pipe was rolling along the beach.

But how did he know they were on a beach?

The fall had caused the gears to pop off the ends of the tube. A not insignificant amount of white sand got inside and he sensed an ocean scent that reminded him of the criminal city or the remote island kingdom.

“I am never following one of your plans again, Miyabi. Never ever…”

Miyabi heard Helen’s exhausted voice from the tangle of bodies below him, but he did not let his guard down. That was only her voice. The warm mass below him could still be muscular Onelife. He needed to make absolutely certain before rubbing his cheek against whoever it was.

“Oh, th-that’s me all right.”

“Mh? So it really is Helen? Then what is this concerningly dangerous thing I feel here?”

“That would be my knife.”

“Stop! I like my head attached!!”

Groaning (after nearly angering the glasses woman by getting a little too carried away), Miyabi picked up Alma and crawled outside.

His spine froze when he saw how close they were to a palm tree. It was just standing there on the beach, but hitting that would have killed them.

“Ugh, it’s gotten everywhere. Peh, peh. I really need a shower or a bath.”

Celina grabbed the bottom of her skirt and shook off the ash and sand. The unintentional thigh flashing caused the miniskirt to blow a mysterious wind on the boy’s face like a fan. Which meant he was close enough for that wind to reach him. That restored some of the happiness the young woman’s knife had taken from him. The world was a wonderful place after all.

Assuming no bizarre accidents had taken place, the Lucifer Horn would have taken them to their destination.

That meant Horn Fortress.

The view opened up before their eyes.

The orange light of the setting sun shined on a tropical island. It was similar to Kananka’s remote island kingdom, but there were differences. The flowers and shellfish visible on the beach were enough to know the island contained flora and fauna not found in that island kingdom. But more than that, the type of building was entirely different from how that kingdom had created felled palm trees and made roofs of grass to build very open homes without four walls surrounding them.

“Koo…”

Alma looked up at the impressive structure.

It was made of rock and metal.

It felt similar to the royal castle at the center of the snowy Arsenal Kingdom. But while that symmetrical castle had been built based on a plan, no such order was found here. It must have started as a few small huts that eventually fused together into one massive structure as additions were made. From there, more and more rooms were added horizontally and vertically, causing it to expand like soap bubbles.

Based on the windows, it had 7 – no, 8 floors in all.

Alicia planted her feet on the fine sand, put her hands on her hips, and looked up at it with exasperation on her face.

“Gather a bunch of humans on a desert island and they build this? Human greed knows no bounds, does it?”

“Yeah, like your room back home isn’t full of trash and lab equipment. You never let Miyabi visit by claiming the Blueforest hidden village doesn’t allow outsiders, but I bet you just didn’t want him to see what a pigsty you live-”

The radio was silenced by a fist from its owner.

“…”

This was Horn Fortress.

Miyabi himself only stared at that isolated world for a while.

They had worked hard to reach this point, but even after searching across the entire continent, they had found no solid evidence concerning the 11th. But it had not been for nothing. He had gathered a party here that had supported his journey so far.

A single boy had come all this way and the result could be seen here.

“Hm, hm, hm.”

He heard some cheerful humming.

It came from Elaine Greenforest as she walked across the sandy beach.

In fact, she walked right up to Miyabi and wrapped her arms around his arm.

“Um, um, Elaine? Do you…need something?”

Surprised, he tried being polite and she whispered in his ear.

“Dark elves rarely leave our forest. When we do visit an unfamiliar land, we ask the master of that land to escort us until we feel comfortable there.”

“?”

“And at Horn Fortress I believe you qualify as the master. Just think of it as an old custom and bear with it.”

“I-if you say so…”

“Also, we like to get to know the land by sampling the local cuisine. So give me something to eat.”

“Ehh? But all I have are a few cookies.”

“I just know I’m going to die if I don’t eat them all. Oh, and it’s a dark elf custom for you to help me relax by giving me a shoulder massage. And then a leg massage.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!!” cut in Alicia Blueforest from the other side. “N-now, I know that part isn’t real!! You’re just making things up since there aren’t any other Greenforest elves around to say otherwise, aren’t you!?”

“Do you have any way of proving that, my heartless childhood friend? You can head back to the forest and search for some surviving texts or art among all the ash and charcoal, but don’t bother coming back until you find something.”

Alicia pointed back with her thumb and replied with the bluntness found among old friends.

“We’ve already caught ourselves a wild dark elf by the name of Lillian Greenforest. That masochist might love being experimented on, but she can still reveal your lies!!”

“Tch.” The goggled dark elf clicked her tongue. Sadly, this suited her better than the previous enthusiasm. “After hearing you had raised this human from birth to cater to your every need, I was hoping to get a taste of the services he provided.”

“Bweflwhwlehf!? C-come to me, boy. Stay away from her!! You can’t trust someone who always keeps her face covered!!!!!!”

Elaine actually seemed puzzled by the accusation.

She tilted her head for a moment and…

“There, problem solved.”

“She took the goggles off!?” yelled Miyabi. “Without even a moment’s hesitation!!!???”

They were only goggles and had not covered her entire face, but seeing her eyes gave her an entirely different look. Her gemlike green eyes seemed to radiate an emotional energy she had lacked before.

The mysterious revenge mercenary had transformed into a teenage girl.

Also, her eyes contained a look of a feline curiosity.

“This is a wearable support device that provides all the data I need for my meteorological magic sniping: temperature, humidity, wind direction, magic, and miasma. So I don’t need to wear it outside of combat…hm? Why did you just fall to your knees, Miyabi?”

“I thought…I thought for sure there was some special meaning there. Like it was a cursed item that could only be removed with a passionate kiss, or you had to hide your secret identity as the descendant of some special priest’s bloodline.”

Miyabi had the look of someone who had delved deep inside a dungeon, found a suspicious row of four treasure chests, and opened them all to find not one contained a trap and they all contained no more than a cheap healing herb.

“Don’t worry, Miyabi. We can start up a Goggle Alliance together.”

“Not even I’m into something that weirdly specific!!”

Then the island party members noticed him.

First, Curse Cleaner Sophia Calamity-Jinx and Martial Artist Victia Magnumfist. They had not seen each other the entire time, but these party members had fought alongside his main party.

“Oh, Miyabi.”

“It’s Miyabi!”

There were others too.

“Hm, it’s been a while.”

There was the dwarf named Garett Goldcave and others too.

They all emerged to greet the new arrivals.

They ran over with smiles to the dazed group, and…

“There you are, you scumbag! First, you force me onto your party to hide that you peeped on me in the bath and then you leave me stranded on this inescapable island instead of at least having the decency of taking me on your journey!?”

“I was the very first one. I thought I was going to die of loneliness after you dumped me on the desert island all alone!!”

“Surround him!! Hey, go call the others. We can physically beat the shit out of this kid to get back at him for what he’s done to us!!!!!!”

It was a hellish scene.

Even the bunny girl and the legged mermaid surrounded the redhead boy to mercilessly pummel him with kicks. Nothing was quite as frightening as people denied food or left to rot backstage. It was not some faint twinge of good will that prevented them from killing him right away – they just wanted him to suffer for longer.

What happened when a new jailer or guard showed up at a prison overrun by dangerous inmates?

This was the answer.

“Bh, bhh, gbhhh.”

“What was that?” icily asked the will-o’-the-wisp girl named Sophia.

The pig trembled.

“M-Moebius. Where is Moebius? Isn’t he here?”

“Oh, the bastard who gave you that dangerous Godhorn Tech? If not for him, none of this would have happened to us, so we found him earlier and beat the shit out of him too. He’s probably lying in a bloody heap somewhere around here.”

Victia gave him a thin smile of barely hidden irritation.

They were apparently a lot more frustrated with their situation than he had accounted for. They had not even shown mercy to an injured man in a wheelchair, albeit an extremely sketchy one.

“Hey, his sense of pain has dulled. He isn’t reacting when I splash seawater on his wounds, so there’s no point in hitting him anymore. Give him a chance to recover enough for round two.”

Phobia Neverjudge, the daughter of the most feared gang in the criminal city, called off the beating out of something other than kindness.

Miyabi could only talk in the language of pigs at this point, but his party members seemed satisfied for the time being. After pulling out the strange marine creatures (not quite bugs and not quite fish) someone had shoved into his nostrils, he got up on unsteady legs.

They still had not solved the puzzle of the 11th.

Speaking with all the Godhorn Tech owners required visiting the clinic where the Lord of Ruin slept.

“C’mon, stand up, Miyabi. Are you okay?”

“Helen. Ugh, I don’t really mind, but I will never forget that you made no move to help me. Bleh…”

“I am still upset you forced me to take that absurd flight.”

With that, he borrowed the shoulder of the glasses woman (every part of whom was sexy) to enter Horn Fortress’s castle.

It was dark inside.

The magical lights appeared to be left on day and night, so it was not at all ecological.

Celina and Kananka were excited, but Eliza, who had served in a real castle, and the twins, who had frequented a stone pyramid, looked around in abject horror. There was a reason it was so dark inside before the sun was done setting.

In fact…

“There are windows for light that only lead out into the hallway,” noted Miyabi.

“That would be the result of all the unplanned additions. I doubt this castle obeys any safety standards at all,” sighed expressionless Acacia.

The hallway took unnatural right angles and various rooms had been installed to fill in any available space. It was all fairly dark with no windows facing directly outside.

“A kitchen and a sewing room.”

“Wh-why is the kitchen visible from the main hall? And that looks like a ceremonial ground over there.”

“That’s for alchemy and it has a smithy workshop attached,” said Alicia. “Was someone planning to create an elemental magic sword?”

There were rooms for daily necessities like a food pantry and a laundry and there were even entertainment or hobby rooms like a bar and lounge or a greenhouse. It had all been built because someone had deemed it necessary. There had to be as many rooms as there were desires among the people here.

There was no light in the rooms that had been swallowed up, windows and all, by the additions, so candles and lamps were necessary all day long.

The violent group that lived here must have gotten lost in the labyrinthine castle they had built. There were arrow signs installed on the walls and even colorful lines on the floor showing the way to important facilities.

“A-anyway, I want to get a bath,” said Alicia. “My hair and clothes are covered in ashes from the burnt forest and sand from the beach.”

“We have business to attend to.”

“Shut up, four eyes. The Lord of Ruin is in the clinic. We would only cause trouble barging in there covered in ashes and sand.”

Helen groaned and fell silent for once.

Alicia had created medicines and White Sorcery Items at the village clinic, so she may have known more about clinic etiquette than most.

But Miyabi was against it.

“But a bath is so much trouble. And I’m pretty sure I’ll pass out if I warm myself up.”

The Necromancer responded with laughter. And she spoke from the perspective of someone who had already visited Horn Fortress’s clinic.

“Yes, but it would be best if you at least took off your clothes and wiped down your hair and body with a towel.”

“Miyabi, if you start to resent any amount of trouble, you will soon find yourself unable to leave your room! And once you start using plastic bottles because walking all the way to the bathroom is too much trouble, your life is truly over!”

The elf shut up the shouting radio by shoving it in a random locker along the hallway wall. It apparently did not get to accompany her into the dressing room and bath. Alma, on the other hand, was welcome.

The girls were on their way to the bath together. Onelife Shiftup and Kananka Fulpen of the boys were as well. Some were looking for a shower instead and others were more interested in exploring the place.

The next thing he knew, the redhead boy was all alone in the hallway.

He was exhausted.

He was pretty sure he would fall asleep in the bath, but he felt like he would pass out if he stood around waiting too. He wanted to get down to business, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen.

Could they take a break like this because this place felt like home?

He leaned against the wall and sighed softly. Then he noticed a metal box taller than he was by the wall. It appeared to be a vending machine that produced various types of coffee at the press of a button.

“They built this themselves? …Wait, it takes money when it’s inside our own secret base?”

He didn’t even need the coffee when the demand for money shocked away some of his drowsiness. Who had built and installed this? Apparently the Bodenburg Company weren’t the only money lovers around.

And…

“Huh?”

Something puzzled Miyabi.

Horn Fortress was a chaotic collection of additions, room added to room both horizontally and vertically. Oddities abounded, like chimneys rising from the floor, the outside of windows ending up on the inside of hallways, and stairs being blocked by a ceiling.

And right here, the air felt unusually damp.

Some steam was escaping from somewhere.

Was the coffee vending machine malfunctioning? He checked and found a thick metal pipe attached to the back. It must have originally bent at a right angle to let the steam vent through the outside wall, but that joint had been removed and now the steam escaped into the room.

He moved the heavy machine and faced the thick pipe jutting out from the floor.

(What the hell? Where does this even lead now? I hope it isn’t something unhealthy like the blacksmith or alchemy stuff.)

He decided it would be best to cover up the hole and then ask Garett about it. He grabbed a piece of waterproof fabric large enough to cover the entire end of the pipe and some string to tie it on.

“…lly…”

That was when he heard something from the pipe.

“You’re really sharing all of this? Seems to me it would be more luxurious to build everyone their own personal bath. Does someone here just really like large baths?”

Miyabi Blackgarden froze in place.

He tilted his head, thought for a bit, and then looked down the steamy pipe to see if he was right.

It led down to the bath.

The bath was directly below here.

He saw a large marble floor which must have been quarried from somewhere on the island. The tub itself was unusually large and the bathwater poured from a golden lion statue. It may have been more like a giant fountain in a fancy garden than a home bath. Who had designed this? It was in the style of the Empire which was now buried in red dust, so had octopus-masked Marietta gotten greedy after seeing similar baths while looting?

And something moved through his limited field of vision.

It was Celina Bodenburg’s head. But this was not her disembodied head floating by. Her body was very much attached below it.

And all of its skin was showing.

A true rich girl apparently did not wrap a towel around her body in the bath.

“Whew, hard to believe it’s been less than a day since we left the desert nation.”

“Oh, no. This warmth is soaking into my body… I think I’m going to fall asleep…”

He could plainly tell what they washed first when they bathed. Just as Alicia had not brought the radio with her, the Necromancer did not have her hat with her. Helen still wore her glasses and Celina apparently needed something valuable on her person at all times, judging by the red jewels the size of chicken eggs embedded in the towel wrapped around her head. But he had to stop. He had seen too much already. He spread out the waterproof fabric, but then he paused. Was it really safe to block up this steam pipe? He didn’t want to have everyone in the women’s bath collapsing from some kind of poisoning.

Time passed while he hesitated.

“Acacia, I’m going to swell up in all this water.”

“Ixea, I imagine it is rude to float on the surface spread-eagle like that.”

Those twins would only have ever taken quick baths meant to preserve water. And despite how much the heat of the tropical island and desert had gotten to her, Eliza seemed to prefer hot baths. She turned the round hot-water handle at the base of the golden lion, earning her a series of attacks from the other girls. Specifically, her soft skin she was whipped by towels soaked with cold water. The attacks drained her body heat more than they hurt, but it got the chosen knight fleeing around the washing area all the same. Her screams were surprisingly cute. But that punishment could become deadly if taken too far, so always be careful.

And.

Elaine Greenforest had her legs stretched out in the large tub and her head resting on the white marble edge, her long ears twitching. She blinked a few times when she noticed something at the ceiling. She was not wearing her goggles in the bath, so her gemlike eyes met his.

She had seen him.

…Except all she did was narrow her eyes a little. And gain a smile on her lips. In fact, she even moved her fingers to blow him a kiss.

When people truly panicked, they apparently tried to calm themselves by pursuing the cause of their fear over trying to run away. So this terrifying mystery froze him in place.

(I appreciate it, but why? Why is she just letting me watch? Is this an invitation!? But wait, what price did I pay for such a wonderful reward? It actually scares me when someone is this inexplicably generous!!!!!!)

Eliza (who did not wear a towel in the bath) found Elaine’s upwards gaze curious, so she followed it.

“Hey, you haven’t overheated, have you, Elaine? Why are you staring up at the ceiling and smil-”

(Ah!?)

The villain was given no time to think.

Eliza Silverstorm ran into the dressing room, grabbed her giant lance, and ran back into the bath before gouging a giant hole in the ceiling.

“Intruder detected!! Attack, attaaack!!!!!!”

All hell broke loose.

The straitlaced idiot was so powerful the entire ceiling crumbled, dumping Miyabi and a bunch of rubble right into the women’s bath.

Once he was dragged into the extreme antlion pit of a bath, the occupants of the bath beat him up.

That made twice in one day.

He began to wonder if Horn Fortress had a curse that caused its master to be killed by his own party members.

The great variation in attack styles was a real problem at times like this. He had to contend with a wooden branch staff, a thick dagger, a rifle with bayonet, a lance, a giant axe (x2), a bow and arrow, and bizarre necromancy.

“Hmph.”

Afterwards, Celina refused to look him in the eye.

She was flushing in the cheeks, had tears in her eyes, and was biting her lip.

Elaine had put her special goggles back on (Did they not fog up after taking a bath? Helen’s glasses probably caused her trouble there.) and she was laughing. She even whispered in Miyabi’s ear with a floral scent coming from her damp silver hair.

(“You know, if you wanted to see, you only had to ask.)”

“Bff!?”

“(Then we could have slipped away to somewhere more private and kept it our little secret.)”

“Stay away from the pervert! Get too close and you’ll end up pregnant!!”

Helen’s accusation was uncalled for, but he concluded that arguing with her would get him sent to the clinic for real.

And at the moment they needed to speak with the Lord of Ruin who had finally come to.

Only Alma was willing to innocently approach Miyabi at the moment.

They followed one of the colorful lines on the floor to reach the clinic.

It turned out to be on the third story.

Or rather, Miyabi counted two staircases they climbed on the way there, but not all the rooms here necessarily had the same height. Each room’s roof became the floor of another one and the chimneys rising from the floor had extension pipes attached to redirect them at a right angle and out through an exterior wall. The concept of “stories” did not really apply to this building, so maybe there was no point in counting them.

“Now, then,” said Alicia before they entered the room. “We wanted to speak with the Lord of Ruin to compare notes between all of the Godhorn Tech owners, right? Come to think of it, we generally didn’t have the time to ask for a detailed account from everyone.”

“We need to hear from everyone and that includes you, Necromancer.”

Eliza meant that as a warning, but the Necromancer held her head high with pride for some reason.

“Heh heh. I’m more than willing to give you a lecture, but do try not to let this baptism of forbidden knowledge shatter your mind.”

“Hah. I’m more worried about this old hag’s lecture putting me to sleep.”

“Take that back!!”

The radio and hat got into an argument and young King Kananka sighed.

“Hey, can’t you quiet those two down?”

“I am admittedly an artificial being, but I assure you I have nothing in common with them.”

The ever-obedient butler automaton actually refused to comply for once.

Everyone here had met over the course of their quest.

Miyabi looked to each one in turn.

“Okay.”

Miyabi, Celina, Eliza, Number 8, Kananka, Onelife, the Necromancer, Acacia, Ixea, the Lord of Ruin, and Elaine.

“Including me, we’ve gathered all 11 users of the 10 Godhorn Techs. If it isn’t Elaine either, then who is the 11th?”

First up was the Lord of Ruin.

They knocked and opened the clinic door.

A lot of rooms had been enveloped by other additions, cutting them off from the outside light, but they found the sunset and breeze in here. The windows still opened on the outside, perhaps for health reasons.

For some reason, the dancer named Iris was running the clinic. Hadn’t she been at the clinic at the first village too?

The woman with a silver braid and exposed midriff spoke up as soon as she saw Miyabi. She may have always wanted to be a doctor because she appeared to be enjoying herself as she sat on a round stool with her legs crossed.

“The Lord of Ruin? Yes, he woke up earlier. But try to keep it short. It can be hard to tell since he tries to hide it, but he has to be in a lot of pain.”

“Um, what is little Rose doing here?”

“They wear those uniforms at the hospitals in big cities. I have my own cute little nurse now☆”

Iris Tempinvy slapped Miyabi’s shoulder and then left the clinic along with her new nurse. …But wait. She never actually explained why Rose Dollycastle, a 12-year-old girl bound by a cursed chain, was helping out in the clinic while dressed in glasses and a red nurse uniform, did she?

“(I get the feeling she agreed to research how to break the curse if Rose became her guinea pig,)” speculated Alicia.

“(The chain must be more naïve than it lets on if it went along with that plan without questioning it. It’s a stereotypical child abduction, just using a promised decursing instead of a lollipop,)” added Helen.

At any rate, it was finally time to get down to business. The clinic was of slightly higher quality than the one in the first village. It was divided into three areas: the examination space, a few beds, and the shelves of medicines. Alicia had said there was an alchemy ceremonial ground elsewhere, so the medicines and White Sorcery Items were probably mixed and combined in another room.

There was a small door in the back and the Necromancer said it led to an operating room. The tricky door was made to be opened and closed with the feet and a red magic light was installed above it.

The Lord of Ruin lay behind a pristine curtain on a bed by the window.

He still had not removed his white mask. The Necromancer shrugged, suggesting he had never once removed it.

Thus, the only sign of life was the subtle stirring of his body.

“Nhh…”

“Hey, the old bastard really is alive,” said the radio.

“We need him to be,” pointed out Miyabi.

(Let’s see. Things have been chaotic for a bit now, but who is it we haven’t had a chance to speak with?)

The Necromancer, the Lord of Ruin, and Elaine.

“I guess it’s mostly those three.”

“Zzzkoo…”

Alma had already fallen asleep on the bedside table.

“…”

The Necromancer, who had planted her shapely butt on the back of a chair, and her hat both fell silent.

They reveled in their own irreverence, but they wanted the others to do this right.

Alicia whispered in his ear.

“H-hey, Miyabi. Wake up Alma. But gently. The little thing isn’t trying to cause trouble!”

He slapped Alma on the head like a button in a quiz game.

The shock must have caused some sort of malfunction because Alma’s colors rapidly changed several times before returning to the original white stuffed animal look.

“K-koo!?”

“Ahem.”

Miyabi cleared his throat and Alicia got started.

“So what exactly happened? You, the one who reeks of death, do you know anything about the 11th who uses sorcery bombs?”

“Not a thing.” The Necromancer shrugged. “I just had the Lord of Ruin suddenly attack me.”

“Right, boss? We’re the victims here.”

There was no point in arguing.

Helen sat on a random piece of equipment just to have something to do and only realized afterwards it was a sitting height meter. She cleared her throat and quickly stood back up.

“But we do know the Lord of Ruin was working with Elaine.”

“He wanted to destroy every Godhorn Tech.” He had been obsessed with it. “And he hired her as a pawn.”

“Now, what does Elaine have to say for herself?” asked Celina, her hands on Kananka’s shoulders from behind while the young king curiously viewed the eye chart.

“I just did as he asked,” bluntly answered Elaine who stood by the wall. “If he wanted all of the owners dead, then he had to die as well.”

“Nhh? Nhhhh???”

Onelife, whose muscular body caused the round stool to creak below him, wasn’t the only one confused.

Eliza held out a hand while unsure what to do with her enormous lance.

“Hold on.”

“So…what does this mean?” Miyabi himself could scarcely believe it. “That none of us are the 11th? Was the 11th someone else entirely this whole time!?”

“No, something isn’t right.”

Her back against the wall, Elaine had been watching it all from a step removed and now she put a stop to the conversation.

The doubts roiling in her mind were obvious even through the goggles.

She took a long pause to think.

“…”

“What is this about!?” impatiently demanded Alicia, so the dark elf cautiously answered.

“Well, I can only sum up what you just said, but you said the Necromancer is a victim who was just cut down by the Lord of Ruin without warning, right?”

“Yes, what of it? Ohh, how it hurts! I can still feel the wound throbbing!”

“…”

“Restrain yourself, ancient king.”

Something unseen erupted from the eyes hidden below the white mask and Eliza pressured him to stop. Meanwhile, Elaine continued speaking.

“So what does that mean for the automaton and the pirate? Someone ordered the imperial automaton to plant those bombs and someone used some parasites to threaten the machoman into sending a bomb to that island kingdom, right? Who was behind those two incidents?”

“Oh,” said Miyabi, looking over to the decadent woman seated on the back of a chair.

She frantically stood up.

“W-wait just a second. I was nearly killed by the Lord of Ruin! So I was stuck in a bed here in this Horn Fortress clinic during the incident with the Executive Ground and Calamity Revenge. You can’t accuse me of being the 11th when I wasn’t even on the continent then!!”

She had a point.

Except…

“Um. I don’t remember there being any sorcery bombs during the desert incident. ”

“…”

Her back against the wall and her arms crossed, Elaine stared straight at the suspect through her distinctive goggles.

Yes, she had seen everything that happened in that desert nation. She had been spying on it all from the shadows to ensure she did not miss any of the targets needed for the Lord of Ruin’s revenge.

“From what I’ve heard, the only time Miyabi actually saw one of the 11th’s bombs was in that island kingdom. Incidents without one of those aren’t going to establish an alibi.”

She was guilty.

Undeniably guilty.

“Ha…ah ha ha.”

And in the blink of an eye…

“Oh, no! My ‘gotta research necromancy now or I’ll die’ disease is flaring up!!”

The Necromancer’s attempted escape ended the instant that demon sword was held right up to the tip of her nose. Even if the “contents” of the sword had been burned away, preventing it from functioning as a Wicked God horn, its edge as a simple sword and the Lord’s own skill remained.

The wielder did not leave his bed, so he could not even shift his body weight with his legs and hips. He used only his arm to swing the blade at superhuman speed.

What could he do if he went all out?

He spoke from behind the smooth eyeless and mouthless mask.

“Answer honestly.”

“O-o-o-okay!!”

But someone had actually fallen asleep with all this going on.

“Zzzz.”

It was Alicia Blueforest.

Had the post-bath drowsiness gotten the better of her?

The elf who lacked the wisdom their species was known for was napping while leaning against a scale larger than a grandfather clock, with the scale’s needle shifting under her weight.

And the Lord of Ruin took everything seriously.

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“Miyabi, wake up that useless elf before he takes matters into his own hands!!”

Miyabi followed Eliza’s advice.

When he gave one of her long ears a hard flick, she woke up in a hurry. She reacted like a bomb had gone off nearby.

“Gwahhh!!!??? Wh-wh-what, what!?”

“It’s true I had a connection to the 11th,” began the Necromancer. “We had a contract which required me to set up the sorcery bombs I was given.”

Everyone’s gazes pierced the woman.

A contract implied she received something in exchange. What had she been given for setting up Number 8 and Onelife and putting the entire continent in danger?

The decadent woman shouted the answer in half desperation.

“The Deadman’s Fenrir was created by sticking another horn into a Wicked God. Wicked God horns are rare enough, so do you have any idea how hard it is to find an entire Wicked God corpse too!? And the horn and corpse have to be from separate one, so you need two whole Wicked Gods. That masterpiece is so much rarer than your mechanical ones that reek of oil. That’s the kind of research material anyone would betray the world for!!”

“Boss, you are shockingly villainous.”

“Hey, don’t you act all innocent! You were my accomplice!!”

Just then, something glowed faintly, starting from the center of the Necromancer’s chest and continuing down to her navel.

It was like a bright light shining through something else. Yes, like through a thin layer of skin.

“Ah, what?”

“I-is there something inside her body?” asked Helen.

“Now this gross researcher has set up some kind of disgusting prank inside her own body!?” This had woken Alicia up pretty fast. “How much more can there be!?”

“N-no, I don’t know what this is…”

“Shut up,” snapped Alicia. “I’m not believing a thing you say until I’ve given you a good, hard spanking!”

But they were all cut off by an unexpected source: the radio.

“No, wait.”

“Is that what I think it is?” added the hat.

The two philosopher’s stones had picked up on something here.

“This noise is bad news. This is even more blatant than an IP address… These numbers are plain coordinates! Our location is being transmitted to someone!!”

They all heard an explosion – a tremor of destruction that shook the entirety of Horn Fortress.

“Whoa! Wh-what!?”

Miyabi looked all around.

The light coming from the Necromancer’s upper body was gone.

The twins looked like they had just stepped in something they didn’t recognize.

“Ugh!? What is this distortion?”

“I feel it too. This is far worse than when our Godhorn Tech was out of control.”

Miyabi had no special ability to speak with the spirits like Kananka or to link with ancient ruins like the priestesses, but he only needed to look out the window to see something was wrong.

He should have seen a rainbow blur on the horizon.

Maybe it was a crack in the world and maybe it was a special barrier, but he knew it kept anyone else in or out, turning Horn Fortress into the safest place in the world.

But that had collapsed.

Each of the seven lines of colors snapped like a thread under too much tension. It all vanished like stray strands of thread. The ordinary horizon appeared afterwards, but that ordinariness concisely showed just how abnormal this situation was.

Something of unknown origin had been destroyed by something else of unknown origin.

Kananka grimaced, took a deep breath, and spoke.

That young king who lived with nature could see a lot more than Miyabi.

“That was not just an accidental explosion.”

“I sense a battle coming,” said Eliza. “Prepare yourself, Miyabi. Something is headed this way!!”

Miyabi used a bomber, so he knew that a signal of light or sound from the surface made it easy to accurately target that location from a distance. Even if that signal could not be sensed using any ordinary senses. The Necromancer had unwittingly called something here.

She was only an accomplice. So who was the actual 11th she had made her contract with?

Miyabi and the others left the clinic. The Necromancer and the Lord of Ruin came with them.

The radio swaying at Alicia’s neck gave a panicked shout.

“Hey, Moebius is on this island too, isn’t he!?”

“There’s no time to find him! Besides, he’d have a hard time drawing a sword in his wheelchair. If he’s not at the center of this, he’s safer if he stays there!! Alma, don’t you get separated from us!!”

“K-koo!”

They wanted to leave the building entirely.

The labyrinthine layout of Horn Fortress frustrated them to no end now. For most of them, it was their first time here, so even finding the stairs down was a challenge. They could not see what was happening since most rooms had no windows on actual exterior walls, so their anxiety and tension continued to grow like an overinflated balloon about to pop.

Miyabi shouted at the gang daughter when he spotted her on the way.

“Phobia!! Put out all those tallow lights!!”

“ Huh !? What gives you the right to boss me a-”

“Open flames are a bad idea with all this shaking! If they fall, the whole place goes up in a blaze!!”

He could think of any number of sources of danger: the kitchen, the bath, the alchemy ceremonial ground, the smithy workshop, etc.

The place had not been built for this. Even if the additions had been made without a plan, they had mostly been made by stacking up stone and reinforcing it with metal.

Yet it felt like a small boat being tossed by the stormy waves.

Something was happening outside. Everything was shaking. Either blasts of wind or actual explosions were intermittently crashing into the building in a way that suggested actual intent and not just an accident or natural disaster. Whatever this was, it may have been powerful enough to tear apart Horn Fortress itself.

“Um, wh-what is happening here?”

“Stay put! Do not leave your room!!”

Angela Custardmare, the maid trapped in a giant suit of armor, emerged from a room with a doubtful look, but Miyabi shouted back at her while running down the stairs.

He tackled open the large double doors with his shoulder.

He found a massive sunset that looked so much like burning flames.

And he saw something standing in front of that blazing background.

He gasped. All his momentum ground to a halt, like he had crashed into an invisible wall. He simply came to a stop.

He did not recognize this person.

There was an outsider among all the party members he had invited in.

An uninvited guest obliterated the entire purpose of the impregnable Horn Fortress.

“Hee hee hee.”

What?

What was that?

“I just knew a decoy was a good idea. If the Necromancer succeeded, I won. But if she was defeated, I could find another use for her.”

She looked just like a human girl.

Either the same age as Miyabi or a little older.

She carelessly showed off so much of her bright skin and her navel. What was that she was wearing?

The best comparison may have been solid white armor over her chest and around her hips, but that was not quite accurate. The bare belly and thighs made no sense if it was meant as armor, but the overall silhouette was far too sinister for one of the swimsuits he had seen before.

Yes.

She was showing off her feminine skin, yet she came off as ominous and evil.

That was due to the blade-like objects jutting out from various parts of her body. They spread from her back like wings, they burst from the back of her hips like tails, they emerged from the joints of her arms and legs, they extended from her fingertips, and one even rose from her forehead.

Her long hair was not quite red and not quite blonde. If anything, it was an unnaturally bright pink, further marking her as an abnormality.

“I tried ignoring you for a while, but it looks like that wasn’t just a fluke. Her being pressured into abandoning her plan triggered the signal. And to do that you must possess quite a bit of power.”

“What the hell is that!?”

Miyabi was completely overwhelmed.

He was aware that his question itself was a few steps behind.

“This island isn’t part of the continent – it’s entirely cut off from the world – so how did you get in!?”

“My, my, my.” She had a complicated look, half amusement and half exasperation. “I believe you have already seen several examples of crossing the ocean or traveling the skies using a Wicked God horn. As for the miasma and manmade barriers…well, they don’t function quite like the elf hidden villages that exist in an alternate dimension, but they aren’t hard to break through. There’s nothing your mommy can’t do.” She kindly and meltingly whispered something unbelievable. “ Isn’t that right, my sweet Alma ?”

“Koo!? Koo…”

“Whoever she is, she’s definitely trouble,” said Celina. “Miyabi, let’s pour everything we’ve got into this one!!”

He wanted to fight.

He wanted to subdue her and question her.

But.

Before he could even squeeze his control sword’s grip, noise exploded in his head.

Even the orange sunset distorted before his eyes.

The warning was so loud his consciousness was nearly driven from his mind.

(Am I sensing…a sorcery bomb?)

“Hee hee. Take this.”

He did not have time for pain or for questions.

The girl gave a slight flourish of a finger covered by a long blade and the warning sound filled his mind.

Something appeared out of thin air.

It floated gently at her eye level…but what was it? It had an extremely unnatural cubic shape and a pink light trailed behind it. It looked something like a bizarre will-o’-the-wisp.

Its surface was rough.

The gray grid pattern on the pink cube’s surface bothered Miyabi for some reason.

(Is that…?)

The memory nearly eluded him, but then he figured it out. This was like a single piece of a puzzle, so it didn’t perfectly match what he remembered. But when he stared at it more carefully, he made the connection.

Yes.

(Is that the pattern on the stone walls of Horn Fortress’s hallways?)

“They stay hidden, causing devastation whenever they feel like it. And unlike the other 10, their Wicked God horn is not built into a weapon. They use the energy flowing from that horn to create massive sorcery bombs.”

Moebius’s words when they had first met throbbed deep in the boy’s mind.

“And these bombs are made to look identical to trees, rocks, or whatever else.”

“What?” Alicia sounded confused in the sunset. But she was not staring at the mysterious girl. She was looking at the same thing Miyabi was. “A Palette Die? Why should we care about that?”

“Kh.”

(Do the others not know what it is? Then it must be what’s causing this ringing in my ears. Is that what a Sorcery Bomb looks like before it’s planted somewhere…and only I can sense it!)

“Miyabi, that thing’s dangerous,” said Kananka. Had he sensed something through the “spirits”? “It’s continuing to grow on the inside, so it will eventually explode. And once it does, this entire island might be vaporized!! We can remake the building, but if you want to protect your party members’ lives, you can’t let her do this!!”

“Dammit!! Number 8, you work with us too!”

“Understood.”

Kananka, Number 8, and Miyabi took action. The bomb was floating in the air for now, but once it vanished from view, it would be hidden somewhere and no ordinary person would be able to detect it. These three were the only ones who could sense it, so they had to do this.

The girl let her long pink hair fly as she swung one of her long bladelike fingertips.

Something flew in along a straight line.

Another dropped to the ground and then flew straight up before scattering destructive stones.

Another launched a formidable number of glowing beams to blind the enemy.

Others smashed like a morning star or flew like a boomerang.

There was no time to worry about what was and wasn’t a decoy. They had no choice but to destroy everything that was sent their way.

But none of them were the true attack.

This mysterious girl most likely did not intend any of this to overwhelm them.

And Miyabi recognized the sensation of smashing them.

“These really are sorcery bombs, aren’t they!?” he shouted through clenched teeth.

The projectiles, fragments, and scars that escaped their attacks functioned as sorcery bombs. They had already replaced a portion of their surroundings.

At this rate, they would detonate.

How could they stop them before that? Miyabi had dealt with this several time already.

So he had no other choice.

His thick control sword loudly smashed things.

He smashed up Horn Fortress.

He smashed other things on the island.

Not even the stones and palm trees outside were exempt.

He alone could determine the location of a sorcery bomb, so he had to grit his teeth and use his full strength to swing that blade. The violent sounds of exterior walls, lights, windows, rocks, and glass being broken squeezed at his heart.

This was the only way to protect his party.

It was the only way to keep anyone from dying.

Charlotte, the pirate mermaid, had no idea what was happening, so she stared in shock.

“Whoa!? Wh-what are you doing!?”

“Stand back! There are sorcery bombs here!!”

“B-but we worked so hard to build this castle…”

“Just go hide in a sturdy room if you want to survive!!!!!!”

Forcing out the words was as painful as coughing up blood.

His sword forcibly broke down a large pair of double doors.

Things could be repaired, but his party’s lives could not. He repeated that under his breath over and over, but it did little to assuage his guilt.

His thick blade bounced off of an even thicker marble pillar.

There was no time, so he stabbed the sword into the ground, called up the magic circle, and used the Lucifer Horn to break down the stone wall, causing an entire layer of chaotic additions to crumble away. A cloud of dust burst into the air, but the warning bell in his head continued to ring.

The pink-trailing cubic will-o’-the-wisps came in more than one variety.

One had a reddish-brown stone texture.

One had a metallic gold shine.

One had a dark wooden luster.

They were just one piece of a larger puzzle, making it hard to tell what they were supposed to be on their own. But when he stared closely at them, he could tell they were pieces of a brick wall, a brass pipe, and an ebony desk respectively.

Those were the things they would be replacing.

(I have some hints. I can’t overlook this. I can use this to save everyone who trusted in me!!)

The will-o’-the-wisps with various colors and textures passed right through solid walls. They floated slowly but surely toward their destinations, be they walls, floors, furniture, or equipment. They would all replace something here and count down to the moment of annihilation.

The number of sorcery bombs continued to grow.

“Hee hee hee.”

He heard laughter from outside a filthy curtain.

Something wicked shined bright while seeming to stroll elegantly about.

“Ah ha ha, ha ha ha ha. Yes, yes, mommy’s bombs can replace anything. And if you miss just one, every last one of you dies. So you can’t afford any mistakes here. Then again, they still might resent you even if you make no mistakes.”

“Goddammiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!”

This was his first time here, but he knew the people here had worked to support his adventure all this time.

And yet…

“Garett.”

Miyabi addressed the dwarf blacksmith.

This must have been a hallway to begin with, but it had crumbled away like a waterfall partway through. He saw the short old man standing on the second floor portion of the building’s layered cross section.

The stone castle felt out of place in this tropical environment. It reminded Miyabi of the castle Eliza had served, but that may have been due to this dwarf from the Arsenal Kingdom putting so much work into its construction.

Hadn’t he originally built autonomous traps?

“Garett!!” Miyabi shouted up from below. “Are there any tricks or traps built into this castle? I have my hands full dealing with the sorcery bombs, so do whatever you can to damage her!!”

But there was no response.

Miyabi initially thought the dwarf may have been harmed in some way, but that couldn’t be. The 11th was only using sorcery bombs. With those, you were either fine or dead with nothing in between. Since the island hadn’t been blown away, Garett had to be unharmed.

(I’m the one actually destroying the fortress they built, not the 11th.)

Was that why Garett Goldcave just stood there? Was that why he didn’t send any commands to the gargoyles he had used to help with construction?

(I’m the only one that can sense the sorcery bombs once they blend into the background. If they don’t recognize the danger, they might just find me more frightening than the 11th!!)

Things could be repaired, but his party’s lives could not. That was true, but people’s hearts and feelings were not so simple. There were plenty of things out there that could not be truly replaced by a physically identical item.

Miyabi had to do this to save them.

Destruction was the only option available to him here.

He smashed a porcelain mug underfoot. He tore open a blanket, scattering stuffing everywhere. A pressure cooker was bent too badly for the lid to fit and left to lie in the sand. They were all handmade. They were all the result of someone’s sweat and tears as they took a trial-and-error approach to figuring out what they could build with the materials available on the island. And he was destroying them. He was mercilessly and unfairly raising his heavy control sword to smash them to pieces.

This was how he repaid them for all their assistance.

He stepped on something he assumed was a tablecloth, but he winced when he looked down. This cloth used colorful letters to spell out a message: Welcome to Horn Fortress, Miyabi.

“Ooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

They had gathered around to pummel him when he first arrived. They had yelled at him, asking why he had brought them here. But it had all been to distract him while they prepared this surprise.

And now he was destroying it all.

All the kindness they had gathered together was falling to pieces.

“…”

The weakness in his heart begged him to shut his eyes, but he suppressed the urge. He could not afford to slow down. He had to prevent everyone here from being blown away by a sorcery bomb.

So he had to stay strong.

He wiped away those indecisive tears and faced forward before the thick curtain of sand was swept away by the wind. He had to gather the courage to trample on their kindness and affection. Even if the act would tear him up inside later on.

He had to become the destroyer who could protect everyone’s lives.

He clenched his teeth and focused his mind on one thing only: protecting the party members who had agreed to share this adventure with him.

“Miyabi.”

Then he heard another a voice through the curtain of sand. It was Helen.

“Are there any sorcery bomb readings left, Miyabi!? You’re the only one who can sense them after they’ve been planted, so you need to tell us if there are any more!!”

It wasn’t something that could be ranked with a single scale, but Kananka and Number 8 may have had greater sensitivity to the signal. However, Miyabi was the most suited for defusing sorcery bombs (including Moebius’s bluffs).

“But,” he said.

“Don’t worry about that right now. If just one of them goes off, none of us will survive!!”

He bit his lip.

Had she sensed the feelings he had left unsaid? There were others here willing to do the dirty work – others who wanted to share the burden so they wouldn’t be forcing it all onto Miyabi’s shoulders.

“The third wall lamp from the back.”

Helen would die too if a sorcery bomb detonated.

Miyabi gripped his control sword tight.

“Also that low table and the ship in a bottle. They’re both sorcery bombs!!”

He squeezed it so tight he started to bleed.

And he faced forward. By relying on his party members, he was dragging them back onto the path of destruction. So he could not just stand around trembling and crying.

He had to take the lead.

He wasn’t going to let a single one of them die. He had decided to save them, so he couldn’t hesitate now.

“I’ll play your game, 11th! And I’ll win, goddammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!”

After an especially loud smashing sound, a powerful crosswind carried in the scent of the sea.

By the time the filthy dust was swept away, nothing remained in the corners of Miyabi’s eyes.

He decapitated a stuffed bear doll and destroyed a large piano.

He clenched his teeth and faced forward.

He ran through Horn Fortress destroying walls and pillars. The place crumbled around him.

He had decided to use the full destructive power of his Godhorn Tech to save everyone.

“Hee hee.”

For a brief moment, the flow of time seemed to stop.

Miyabi and the girl glared at each other while a dusty wind blew between them.

There was no longer a distinction between indoors and outdoors. They simply stood on a pile of rubble. Everyone had worked so hard to construct that building and Miyabi had reduced it to this.

Everything was dyed the orange of sunset.

That was enough to prove that all the walls and ceilings had collapsed.

The girl covered in sharp protrusions extended a slender hand. She aimed her five bladelike fingers at him.

“Did you think I was done? Not even close!”

He thought his mind had been obliterated.

All of his resolve was shattered in an instant. He froze up, so Alicia hesitantly called out to him with a test tube of physical boosting potion in her hand.

“What’s wrong, Miyabi?”

“…”

“Hey! We can see the bombs when she pulls them out, but only you can accurately locate them once they’ve taken the place of something. We can’t do this on our own and we all know what you’re doing is for the best, so hurry up and tell us where they are!!”

Number 8 supported young Kananka who staggered to the side with a hand on his head like something was about to crush his skull in from every direction at once. How horrific did this look to someone who could sense such things?

Miyabi stiffly turned toward Alicia.

He had desperately worked up the resolve to save his trusting companions no matter what it took, but even he felt lost and adrift now.

Miyabi Blackgarden provided the answer while the mystery girl smiled.

“… where. ”

“What!? What did you say!?”

“ They’re everywhere. There’s too many of them !!”

His throat went dry.

And he saw the detonation.

Miyabi Blackgarden had collapsed.

He had fallen to the ground, writhed in pain, and then reached a point where even that pain vanished. Only then did he realize something.

If all of those bombs had exploded, how did he still have a head that could think?

People littered the ground around him.

Horn Fortress no longer existed. What little had remained of the building had been reduced to a pile of rubble, much like a birthday cake cruelly squashed below a filthy boot.

The sound of rushing water pounded on his ears.

He did not know what that meant.

But he feared it might be the seawater flowing in through a hole torn in the ground and shining in the light of the sunset. He feared that an aerial view from the Lucifer Horn would show the island was now shaped like a crescent moon.

At this point, he could not explain how he had survived.

He suspected maybe he had died and this was just his soul fighting on, not realizing it was dead.

If not, did it mean that girl had used so many sorcery bombs and was still only toying with him ? Did she think his current level of fear and terror were insufficient, so she was going to wring as much of it out of him as she could before finally killing him?

“Kh!!”

It was a silly fantasy.

And the long-haired girl smiled as if to mock him for failing to reach a better conclusion.

“Wait. Those things.”

Miyabi Blackgarden could not stop sweating.

He stared at the bladelike protrusions covering the girl’s slender body.

But living beings did not have “blades”. There were other names for such things.

Like claws.

Or fangs.

Or…

“It can’t be, it can’t be, it can’t be! Are those all what I think they are !?”

“Ding ding ding♪”

She sounded amused.

Miyabi’s tension was so great his entire throat had gone dry. He had moved past confusion to wondering if struggling to find meaning was even the right thing to do.

The girl held herself in her arms while a sensual tremor ran up her spine. That was enough for the sharp protrusions at her elbows and around her hips to squirm, fall out, and land at her feet.

Miyabi could only groan in a terribly scratchy voice.

Yes, she had those protrusions all over her body.

And the most distinctive one jutted out from the center of her forehead.

“Wicked God…”

“Horns♪” she sweetly whispered with a giggle.

She held her long, sharp fingers toward her feet and they seemed to melt and rot away.

Yes.

The sharp horns fell away from her fingers and landed on the ground like it was nothing.

“If you want some, feel free to gather them up. You just have to come crawling at my feet.”

These were all the Wicked God horns that nations, companies, temples, and revenge mercenaries sought so desperately and were so manipulated by.

Those great power sources were necessary to be considered a powerful country and they had even destroyed an entire empire through the grudge caused by another tragedy they had caused.

And here they were falling like petals from a tree to be swept up and thrown out.

Could he really defeat a monster like this? Did he have even the slimmest of chances!? When he was fighting using a Godhorn Tech that encased a broken horn inside a mechanical contraption and surrounded it with thick armor? Wasn’t that about as absurd as challenging the king of the jungle with only one hair from its luscious mane as a weapon!?

The bizarre girl easily grew new horns to replace the removed ones as she continued smiling and speaking. Those sharp horns resembled wings and armor and Miyabi could not work up any resolve while facing something like that.

Yet she kept things moving.

“Hee hee. Yes, about what I expected.”

“No, this isn’t over yet! After all those sorcery bombs, I’ve finally seen how they’re created. It’s those pink-trailing cubic will-o’-the-wisps. …This means I’ve finally tracked you down. You’re the 11th, aren’t you!?”

“I really do not like that name.” She sounded utterly exasperated and placed a somewhat troubled hand on her cheek. “I have been involved in the creation of every last Wicked God since before you humans came to be. You could even say I am the mother of all Wicked Gods, so if you must give me a numeric title, at least show some humor and call me the 0th .”

“Of all…?”

“People have a lot of names for me: the Balloon of Apocalypse, the Bell of Calamity, the Creator of Evil, She who Sleeps in the Miasmic Depths, and so on.”

She giggled.

Or maybe it was more of a chuckle.

Either way, it was meant to ridicule.

“I really wish they would just use my actual name: Philia Shout .”

Philia Shout.

The one who shouts of love.

But this was not a mutual love. It was only a one-sided obsession – a philia.

Miyabi did not know how serious she meant any of this, but he shook his head all the same.

Before even getting into the logic of it, the very depths of his soul demanded he not accept this.

“No, that can’t be true. You must be bluffing!”

“You’re free to believe me or not. It is your life after all.” Philia Shout leisurely spread one hand in the light of the sunset, new sharp horns slowly growing from the fingertips. “Not that it really matters one way or the other when that life will be over a second from now.”

“This isn’t over yet!!”

“Maybe not for you. But what about for all the people who protected you?”

“…!?”

He heard quiet groans from all around.

Yes.

What had happened to Alicia, Helen, Celina, Eliza, Number 8, Onelife, Kananka, the Necromancer, the Lord of Ruin, Acacia, Ixea, and Elaine?

And what about Garett, Iris, and all the others who had built up Horn Fortress behind the scenes?

He was afraid to look away from the enemy before him, but he could catch glimpses out of the corner of his eyes. And his nose picked up a rusty odor.

They were all leaning against rubble walls or collapsed in the dirt or mud.

They were all bleeding a terrifying amount and yet barely even stirring.

“This fortress and your companions will not last much longer.”

(This is bad! Real bad!!)

He could not look away.

But if he did not move immediately, they were dead.

(I need to treat their wounds ASAP!!)

“Now, I wonder who will kick the bucket first?”

Miyabi crept slowly to the side before breaking out into a run.

He ran to his collapsed and unmoving party members.

To Alicia Blueforest.

“Don’t…give me that look. I’m fine!”

“Damn straight. Pretty girls and pretty boys are damn near unkillable.”

To Helen Clockgear.

“Don’t worry about me. Just finish this.”

To Celina Bodenburg.

“That’s…right. Don’t hold back on my account.”

To Eliza Silverstorm.

“If you need more power, just give the command. I will stand back up as many times as you need!”

To Number 8.

“I am sick of being manipulated by her. Please end this!”

To Kananka Fulpen.

“If you don’t stop her, so many of my people will die. So please!”

To Onelife Shiftup.

“Nhh! I’m just catching a quick nap! I’ll be back on my feet in no time!!”

To the Necromancer.

“Well, this is a shock. I was helping a bigger name than I thought.”

“You’re so cool, boss! I know you won’t let this beat you!!”

To Acacia Flightheart.

“I still haven’t found what it is I want to do.”

To Ixea Flightheart.

“But I know it isn’t to be a burden on you here!”

To the Lord of Ruin.

“She may be the ancestor of the Wicked Gods, but she makes them suffer. She must be slain!”

To Elaine Greenforest.

“You can show me a form of hope other than revenge, can’t you? Then hurry up and do it!!”

The boy worked to treat their wounds while he listened to them all.

“Gh…”

But even his own hands refused to do what he told them.

His vision blurred unnaturally. It took him a moment to realize his tear ducts had opened up and the tears were spilling out. Those tears must have worried the others, which explained why they all worked to cheer him up while barely still breathing.

The more of their voices he heard, the more he felt things falling apart. A dreadful acceleration clutched at his stomach.

“Sniff.”

He knew that.

He really did.

What was even the point of treating their wounds? He could stop the bleeding and save their lives, but then what? If Philia Shout launched just one more sorcery bomb on a whim, they would all be killed. He would only have prolonged their agony before they were blown to pieces.

(I can’t win this.)

He felt pathetic.

And worthless.

(There’s no way. She’s got Wicked God horns all over her! How is that fair?)

But he still could not stop himself from crying in front of Philia Shout who he so hated. Those injured people had spoken up to console him but he could not do the same for them because he didn’t want them to hear the tremor in his voice!!

He could tell those precious lives were slipping from his fingers.

His Godhorn Tech and everything he had overcome over the course of his adventure were useless now. He was simply afraid. His heart could not bear the unavoidable and cruel reality that he was helpless to stop all these lives from being taken!!

Philia Shout could lower the curtain at any moment, but that demon still grinned.

She smiled and observed his every movement.

He managed to calm down enough to wonder if he was overlooking something crucial here. Why was Philia Shout leaving him be when he was so defenseless?

Was there more to this?

Did she want to tear back open Alicia and the others’ wounds once he was done treating them?

His panic and exhaustion were so great his vision was growing dark.

He clearly felt the thread of tension snap when he finished treating the last one – either Victia or Sophia, he couldn’t remember. Now he felt like he was going to pass out himself.

The sun had set.

Everything had gone dark.

He half thought his soul had burned out.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Just then, he heard a voice from the darkness.

“Miyabi, Miyabi.”

It was Alicia’s.

This was not a life on the verge of being snuffed out.

It was the solid voice of a living person.

He moved his dry and cracked lips to get out a faint voice.

He could not see a thing in his blurred vision.

“Thanks goodness I can hear your voices.”

“No, Miyabi! Ugh, the 11th!!”

His mind was rapidly tugged back to reality by the tension in Helen’s voice.

Several sorcery bombs had been set up on the ground around Philia Shout like the numbers on a clock.

She was no longer bothering to hide them. They did not take on the texture of stone walls, trees, or the sandy beach, nor did they float into the air with a pink color trailing behind them.

That mother let them glow with a magic circle that anyone could see. The lines of light connected the bombs together and they were positioned where she herself would be caught in the blast. She simply smiled in a way that wordlessly said she was powerful enough to hold back the blast.

This was not a nightmare.

Nor was it a cruel joke.

The preparations were complete, so she had no need to rush.

The end was beginning.

“Will this one end it?”

“…Dammit.”

(Yeah.)

He couldn’t stop it.

It was out of his reach.

(This time it’s completely hopeless.)

He could not even speak. He felt like he had his hands full just breathing.

He supposedly had the full power of destruction and creation at his disposal, but there was nothing he could do.

There was no one he could rely on here. He had been given the Lucifer Horn, left on a journey with Alicia and Helen, cheered up Celina, protected Eliza’s kingdom, fixed Number 8, stopped Onelife, saved Kananka’s island, treated the Necromancer’s wound, dragged out Acacia and Ixea’s true desires, made peace with the Lord of Ruin, and freed Elaine from the bonds of vengeance.

Yet it all vanished in an instant.

It truly only took an instant for it to fall to the ground and shatter.

What could he do while it was all taken from him?

He could hold his control sword in both hands, but his brain couldn’t move past that point. He could not come up with any plan of what to do in order to protect them all.

He bit his lip. Hard.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

Darkness covered everything.

No, Miyabi had shut his eyes.

“…”

He waited.

“…”

And waited.

“…?”

And waited until doubt crept into his mind.

The last color he had seen was not white. He had not seen the blinding white of pure violence. He saw a gentle darkness. The same darkness he saw when he shut his eyes and drifted off to sleep at night.

The sorcery bombs…hadn’t detonated?

Slowly and hesitantly, he forced his seemingly petrified eyelids open and found the world still existed around him.

“Th-they didn’t go off?”

He could not believe his own words.

And Philia Shout did not seem remotely bothered.

“Oh, they went off all right.” Did she even intend for the human to understand the rest of what she said? “But the blast was diluted to near 0 in each direction by scattering it across the infinite directions found beyond the X, Y, and Z axes of 3D space. Much like a bullet capable of shooting through a metal plate being stopped by a stack of papers, or like someone sitting gently in a spike-covered torture chair so their weight is distributed across the spikes and they avoid injury.”

“???”

“And since you don’t even understand what I mean, this obviously wasn’t your doing. For that matter, it simply isn’t possible with human magic, no matter how much you specialize it.”

She seemed oddly amused for her attack having failed.

Could she see something different within the orange light of sunset?

“You still have a lot of room to grow, but your mommy is so happy you’ve learned how to use your horn’s power to detect the blank Palette Dice.”

She was looking to the one being that had not needed treatment after being exposed to all those explosions.

“ Isn’t that right, my sweet Alma ?”

“ Koo !!!!!!”

That was a threat.

Alma swelled out its small stuffed animal body and glared up at Philia Shout.

Miyabi looked back in disbelief.

Meanwhile, the juvenile Wicked God moved its small hind legs to walk forward while holding its small fore legs out in front like it was pushing back at an invisible wall. It passed Miyabi with the intention of shielding the boy.

He had never even imagined seeing Alma choosing to fight something in an obvious expression of hostility.

But something along those lines was definitely happening here.

“Is Alma…doing something?”

“Oh, dear. Did you never wonder how it was a juvenile Wicked God can change form so frequently? It clearly violates the rules of anatomy. While young, they rearrange themselves using the smallest units making up the world, testing out different forms to find the strongest one.”

She once more jumped beyond anything Miyabi – or anyone else in this world – could understand.

“Think of it like trying on weapons or clothes and checking the stat changes to decide if you wanted to make them a permanent part of your equipment.”

“That…doesn’t make…”

“It doesn’t make sense? Are you sure about that?” Her exasperated voice spoke to him from the shadows. “This world is made of countless Palette Dice. You should know that after stacking them up to create so many different things.”

“…”

“But that doesn’t mean the empty space you’re currently standing in and breathing from is truly empty. You can still exist there even if it hasn’t been filled in yet. That form of mass does not exist, but you can calculate out some theoretical information about it. Those are the Missing Dice that fill the blank spaces in the world☆”

When Miyabi was walking through a tunnel, he focused on the two walls and ceiling surrounding him.

But Philia Shout was different. Did she think there were invisible and intangible “blank” dice filling the space you walked through?

“The Missing Dice? They aren’t here, but they exist? You…you can’t expect me to just accept this out of the blue.”

“It is impossible for any space to be truly empty in this world. In a world where everything is built up from something else, a negative sign is simply an error. So you must define it as a ‘blank’, not an absence of anything. In chess or reversi, the spaces you can move to aren’t truly ‘empty’ are they? There is a clearly defined square there. Just because there isn’t currently a game piece on that space doesn’t mean it no longer exists on the board. Not that you need to understand any of this.” Philia Shout made it all sound so simple. “Oh, and be warned: if Alma falls, the rest of you are dead less than a second later.”

“!?”

“Koo!!”

The juvenile Wicked God stood in front of Miyabi and planted its feet on the ground to protect the rest of the party. The fluffy white fur covering Alma’s stuffed animal body was visibly bristling. That indirectly visualized the invisible power at play here, like the waves in a wheat field revealing the unseen wind washing across it.

Miyabi could sense sorcery bombs, but not even he could tell what was happening here.

But he knew some kind of tremendous pressure had to exist here.

He shuddered.

For one thing, he had no idea how long that juvenile Wicked God’s endurance would last. He didn’t even know if he had been raising the creature correctly.

How long could it last?

Was there anything he could do in the meantime?

Dragging all of his collapsed party members to safety would be difficult. People were heavy. Not to mention there was nowhere safe for them on this remote island.

“It isn’t easy believing in something you can’t see our touch, is it? But you have caught glimpses here and there.”

“?”

“What are the invisible spirits spoken of on that remote island kingdom?”

The twisted mother raised one sharp finger.

“What brings a lifeless automaton to life?”

She raised a second horned finger.

“What is the true nature of the abnormal obsession that has trapped the Lord of Ruin for so very long?”

She raised more and more.

“And what is the vessel for carrying ghosts that the Necromancer sought?”

He felt dizzy.

“Why did the Executive Ground lose control in the desert nation?”

He realized the number of fingers had surpassed one hand.

“What lurked within the desert ruins no one knows how to build anymore?”

He couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Oh, right. And what about the Celestial Tree? No normal tree could grow that large, could it?”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Miyabi couldn’t say a thing.

Not one thing.

Horn Fortress had been so full of life, but now no one remained standing. Miyabi was close to collapsing himself while Philia Shout continued her amused monologue.

This was even more sinister than the desolate winds blowing through the red-stained Empire, the toxic Bio Rainforest, or the dak elf forest where nothing but charcoal, ashes, and moss remained.

He stood in the middle of the rubble that had been torn down in order to save the others.

This must have originally been a decursing and enchanting facility built by Curse Cleaner Sophia Calamity-Jinx to cater to her specialty. The Wicked God mother smiled in amusement as she stepped on the church’s broken altar and leaned against a now headless goddess statue.

The single beam of light shining down through gaps in the rubble made it look like that loathsome being was receiving heaven’s blessing.

That sweetly dangerous being whispered softly.

“And you yourself have partially touched on that taboo.”

“?”

“Creation.” That one word said it all. “You would destroy the Palette Dice, gather them back together, and rearrange them as you pleased. When you broke their bonds and filled the empty space with them, you were unwittingly destroying the Missing Dice that are the blank spaces. Think of it like surrounding a row of white with black in reversi.”

“Eh!?”

“Or maybe you count that as creation too.” She held a hand over her mouth and laughed. “You humans claim to be ‘creating’ roads and campfires when you chop down the forest’s trees, after all.”

“…”

“But nothing you have done is creation.” She rejected the idea in a singsong voice. “A Wicked God’s power exists only to destroy. It just so happened that an error in the contract transfer expanded the range of the destruction you gained access to.”

“But…”

Miyabi’s breathing grew so erratic it actually calmed back down again.

If Alicia or the Necromancer could see him now, they might have grimaced. It was a dangerous sign when the signals from the brain or heart grew regular and unchanging.

“Then what are you saying I’ve been destroying all this time?”

“Don’t you worry about that. These have always carried the power to destroy the world. Even when you humans steal the horns for yourselves, you still use the power correctly. I can’t accuse you of using it incorrectly after failing to read the manual.”

“K-kyoo…”

“Alma!”

If Alma broke here, they were all dead.

What was going on inside that small body? The juvenile Wicked God trembled violently, but there was nothing Miyabi could do to help.

Meanwhile…

“Now, a question.”

The wicked being who called herself Alma’s “mommy”, sneered in front of the juvenile.

She knew what was happening and continued to torment the creature.

“The Missing Dice cannot be seen or touched, but they make up more than 90% of the world. So what if you could perceive and manipulate them? How much do you think you could accomplish with a power like that?”

“N-ninety?”

Miyabi could not believe his ears.

His voice trembled and cracked.

“More than 90%!?”

“Just look above you. You use a bomber, so you should know better than most how much sky there is above us. The surface is only a small fraction of the world as a whole. Land and sea don’t even come close. Even this failed attempt at a sanctuary is mostly empty space. That is what it means to defy me. The power of the horns is great enough to distort everything. Even light, gravity, time, and space. So it can also interfere with the massless Missing Dice.”

What was elementary to her felt like an attack on the core of Miyabi’s being.

“But this here is the real trick. The juveniles can freely control the Missing Dice, but their bodies are so fragile. But when they grow up big and strong, they forget how to control the Missing Dice.” She breathed a sweet sigh. “Perhaps they use the entire world itself like a protective eggshell. Or is it an issue of purity? There just don’t seem to be any others that can do both like their mommy can.”

“…”

“So you had better hope a juvenile can accomplish at least this much. Otherwise we aren’t going to find anything unexpected in this tiny world.”

Alma groaned.

Miyabi noticed a strange sparking sound coming from his control sword.

No, not just from the sword.

What about the horn it was linked with?

“Wh-what!? The Godhorn Tech!”

He lowered his gaze to the control sword making such disconcerting noises.

(Is this to blame? I don’t care if it’s a temporary fix, I need to patch it up!)

But he could not.

Even though he knew exactly what he needed to do.

He could not take his eyes off of Philia Shout. There might be some tools among the rubble that had been Horn Fortress, but he could never look away from this enemy.

This was not like when he had treated the others’ wounds. The look in Philia Shout’s eyes said she was ready to hunt.

“Giving up before you begin is the wise choice here. And I doubt giving you more time would change anything,” she said. “You can do anything by rearranging the massless Missing Dice ‘behind the scenes’. But no matter how densely you pack them, the magic in the atmosphere will not flow smoothly through them, which creates noise. But that isn’t the real problem here.”

“What?”

“Alma is a juvenile and juveniles learn from their surroundings. And do you think Alma never learned anything more interesting than that while following you around? You only gained the role because Alma imprinted on you, but you became Alma’s daddy. Hee hee. So you need to look at your child’s growth from a much larger viewpoint.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He thought his heart was going to stop.

“!?”

He was looking into the sky, but not at the Lucifer Horn.

He was looking even higher than that.

He could see something unbelievably large slowly falling toward the ground.

It was yellow.

It was not stone or sand. Nor was it iron or steel.

It was a smooth substance that did not exist in nature.

And it was massive.

“There’s something even higher than my Godhorn Tech? What is it? A giant shooting star!!!???”

(Did…did Alma make this happen?)

The Lucifer Horn looked like a small black dot in comparison.

Something that dwarfed a Godhorn Tech was approaching. It was starting to fill the entire sky overhead.

“ Like I said, you can do anything with that power. ”

Philia Shout spoke slowly, like a mother bird feeding her chicks.

Her beautiful pink hair blew in the dusty sea breeze.

“The possibilities of the Missing Dice surpass anything you could ever imagine.”

“Wh-what?”

“The Missing Divine indicate a blank space. Destroy them and that space is no longer blank. And with the space’s blankness removed, it fills with mass and a scar comes to the surface. It is the polar opposite of the Palette Dice that create a blank when destroyed.” Just a touch of admiration entered Philia Shout’s voice while she leaned against the headless goddess statue. “You taught your child to wield the power of creation, not destruction. Of course, your future only holds calamity and apocalypse either way☆”

“C-creating in order to destroy? That’s just wrong.”

“Is it? Alma’s mommy likes it quite a bit.”

“!?”

“Juveniles can take any form they want, no matter what their external appearance or internal skeleton might suggest. So what do you think happens if Alma transforms itself to match the type and element of the horn used in your Godhorn Tech?” The Wicked God mother tilted her head just a bit, her pink hair swaying. “Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice.”

“What!?”

“Hee hee. Mommy is a liiiittle jealous little Alma is relying on another Demon Lord , though. But this is still plenty exciting. Your control sword and Alma are temporarily linked, so do you really think the little thing can’t steal the plans, techniques, and details for just one of the human creation methods stored inside that sword?”

“…”

“Now, I don’t know how conscious Alma is of the process, but it’s incredible all the same. Creating the apocalypse? The cynicism of small children pierces deep. It’s so wonderfully cruel☆”

Defeat the enemy and everyone can live in peace. If justice prevails, you can protect the people you care for.

Those were such childish ideas.

Young children only familiar with children’s books probably all thought that way, but what if someone could actually drop a massive shooting star on the surface based on those simple ideas?

Miyabi could not move.

The great mass of the destructive shooting star blew away the clouds overhead.

“But are you sure this is a good idea?”

Part of Miyabi’s mind begged him to not figure out what she meant.

“What will happen to the people remaining here in Horn Fortress when that hits? Both the Godhorn Tech users and the ordinary people?”

“!?”

But he could not afford to not understand.

Refusing to make a choice would fix nothing. Things would only get worse.

“Wait, Alma!! That’s enough. We don’t need that, so get rid of it!! Right now, we need to rescue the others more than defeat her!”

“Now, now. Let’s enjoy this some more. If this isn’t thrilling enough for you, I can help out.”

She casually removed the sharp horns from the fingers of one hand and held the soft palm up to her mouth.

It looked like she simply blew a sweet breath onto them.

And yet he heard dull footsteps, deafening roars, and massive forms he had to look up at.

These were not the cubic will-o’-the-wisps of the sorcery bombs.

They were worse.

He saw a three-headed black guard dog.

He saw lizard with thin, bat-like wings spread wide.

He saw a great serpent with countless heads spread out like a bouquet of flowers.

Each of them was at least several dozen meters tall. The largest ones were an order of magnitude larger. These monsters looked like they could directly grapple with a Godhorn Tech.

“Good luck.” The horned girl giggled so sweetly – so wickedly. “If anything happens to Alma here, you lose the key to survival and you die. As do all your companions.”

“Goddammit!!”

He didn’t understand.

But the enemy was attacking and he had to stand up to them or die.

He raised his sparking control sword.

Now was not the time to sit around figuring out all the answers.

He shifted slowly to the right with the sword in both hands. The rubble scattered underfoot made each step a different length, making his footwork a terrifying ordeal. He never knew what could draw the enemy’s attention.

“Trying to put the sun behind you? No, that’s not it.”

Philia Shout whispered with a tone of amusement while still leaning against the headless goddess statue from the side. The way she placed her pointer finger on her chin and narrowed her eyes was just like a mother given a riddle by her small child.

He couldn’t let her figure it out.

If she did, she would strike there. So he silently begged her not to catch on while he slowly moved his feet. Each step seemed to take years off his life. He paid with his own lifespan to gain the room to turn to the right.

“Or are you moving upwind? Hee hee. Hoping to send a smokescreen or a powdered drug toward mommy?”

“…”

In truth, Miyabi didn’t have it in him to so vigilantly detect a chance at victory.

But he had just barely removed the fishing hook from his mouth.

He was confident of it.

Yes, after turning just enough to ensure his collapsed companions would not be caught in the blast, he stabbed his control sword into the ground. He stepped on the rubble, grimaced when he saw a broken flower pot there, and roared like he was coughing up blood.

Now that he had accomplished that, he could let loose.

“Do it, Lucifer Horrrrrrrrn!!!!!!”

A beam of light dropped from the sky.

When the black guard dog flinched, Miyabi himself rushed in with his blade at the ready.

Several dull impacts rang out in quick succession.

Miyabi had built up a lot of strength after fighting so many fierce battles and defeating so many Godhorn Techs. Something had fundamentally changed inside him from when Moebius had given him the Lucifer Horn back in his village. The sword produced a very different roar as it sliced through the air. Or so he thought.

However…

“Pant, pant. I-I can’t make a dent in them…”

He was stopped.

Repelled.

The battleplan he had built up in his head was easily shattered when exposed to harsh reality.

Philia Shout’s voice grew even softer.

Like a mother introducing her child to everyone at the park.

“What did you expect? Those are all real Wicked Gods.”

“Real…what!?”

“Oh, dear. Had you never seen an adult before? And when you’ve been using one of their horns so much.”

He heard a dull cracking sound.

The massive monsters’ foreheads split open and something sharp slowly emerged. The protrusions were slick with blood and fat and they could only be called horns.

“I imagine they’re even stronger than the Deadman’s Fenrir that had its power dulled by the strange modifications made to it. ”

It didn’t matter how much he wanted to deny it.

Black beams shot skyward. The multiheaded serpent had opened its many mouths and spewed some kind of toxic fluid. It was so highly compressed it could cut like a blade.

It was a like a hedgehog piercing the sky.

The bomber twisted around, but that was not enough to dodge them all.

The Lucifer Horn’s wings were taken out, so it lost its balance and started falling toward the ocean.

Miyabi could no longer use his Godhorn Tech.

Yet he had not reduced the number of enemies. In fact, they were multiplying.

“This is how the first generation ones are produced.”

She claimed a connection to the Wicked Gods and called herself their “mommy”.

But what did that really mean?

He finally received an answer. Along with undeniable proof that the bad feeling inside him was becoming a reality.

Philia Shout clearly had no intention to fight with any fancy footwork. She set her shapely butt down on the broken altar and crossed her legs.

She also held a hand up to her mouth.

As if she were preparing to blow a kiss.

“The later generations are born from eggs and cocoons all on their own. And why is this such a surprise anyway? With me and Alma, you have already seen the threat of a real Wicked God.”

“!?”

“Now, a question.” She laughed and spoke, but not to Miyabi. “Your imprinted daddy is weak and can no longer rely on his Godhorn Tech. If you don’t do anything, all of your companions will 100% be devoured by the Wicked Gods. Even if no one you know can believe it, what should a monster like you do if you want even the slightest chance at a happy ending?”

“Wait, Alma! Don’t!”

What would happen to Alicia or Helen?

They were unconscious, dying, and struggling to breath, so they could never withstand that kind of counterattack.

They could not even run away or curl up in fear of the coming shockwave.

“Yes, my child. You are correct! Peh heh heh. Overwhelmingly so!! The power of the tyrant must be put to proper use! Hee hee! Oh, my side! Ah ha ha ha ha hee ha ha hah hah hah ha ha!!!!!”

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!”

“ Koooo !!!!!!”

The meteor – a manifestation of utter destruction – was falling.

A true apocalypse dropped from the sky where the Lucifer Horn no longer flew.

This time, Miyabi’s vision really did fill with white destruction.

But even as he flew through the air, he could hear the 11th speaking.

“You know.” Her voice was gentle and extremely disappointed. “I sent all of you out into the world to be the strongest beasts.”

It sounded so strange, like a mother speaking to the child still within her swollen belly. Miyabi could tell this kind voice was not directed at him.

And it continued from there.

“So why do you keep letting those fangless and wingless humans break off your horns and build machines out of them? A threat that can be slain in a fight is worthless. No one resigns themselves to their fate when faced with non-absolute violence. It’s just fear, despair, and regret. It’s just a hurdle to be overcome. You’re supposed to be more twisted! A true Wicked God should trample everyone else’s plans and live as it pleases!! When thinking beings see true terror, they bow down and accept it. You’re supposed to convince everyone at a glance that their fate is sealed the instant they laid eyes on you, so they can only weakly smile and accept their fate!!!!!!”

She came to a complete stop.

After all that shouting, something had changed.

“Or so I thought.”

Now she sounded amused.

“But now I find a Godhorn Tech user who unwittingly destroys the Missing Dice by the dozen and a juvenile who can manipulate those Missing Dice.”

This may have indicated even greater danger.

“I thought maybe a juvenile would acquire the violence of an adult while retaining its pure form if it had to watch its daddy die. Hee hee. But this is interesting too.”

Miyabi was helpless.

“This might be entertaining after all, Alma and his human.”

He could only listen.

A moment later, the flow of time reverted to normal and Miyabi Blackgarden slammed back-first into the ground.

Into the deadly ground of assorted rubble.

### Between the Lines 5

Damage Control: emergency signal sent by processer.

Self-diagnostic found 54 unknown errors.

Severe damage detected. Critical threshold reached.

Ksh. Ksshh!! Kssshhh!!

Effective damage to frame has reached 15400/30000 – flight impossible. Lucifer Horn has failed emergency landing sequence, lost craft balance, and crashed into water. Submarine wing effect inoperable. Additional frame damage to the right main wing brings frame strength down to 9100/30000. All four primary generators providing reduced power. Distortion in Wicked God horn’s sealed container is hindering energy transmission. Takeoff from the water will be difficult as it requires a stable speed of 200km/h over a distance of 2500m across the water’s surface.

Terrain change detected.

Simultaneous detonation of multiple sorcery bombs and the meteor attack by juvenile Wicked God Alma have resulted in the submersion and loss of 32% of the island’s landmass. Miyabi Blackgarden has clearly failed in the fields of self-defense, equipment maintenance, personnel preservation, and facilities protection. He lacks the skill needed to overcome the current situation.

Kssshhh!! Ksh, kssshhhhh! Ksssssssssshhhhhhhhh!!

Correcting overestimation of user’s abilities.

Miyabi Blackgarden’s qualities as user are severely lacking. He does not meet the requirements for a contract and external damage has surpassed any possible benefits from internal updates.

Abandoning any future benefits.

Recommend immediate cancelation of contract.

Continuing to engage Philia Shout in combat will only lead to further damage. Abandoning the fight as soon as possible must be priority number 1. Fortunately, the seawater has not entered the craft. Recommend remaining here outside Philia Shout’s attention and waiting for her to leave. Any resultant damage to inadequate user is irrelevant. Removing harmful user’s registration and abandoning him is the best option available.

Final check: execute command? (y/n)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Thinking time has exceeded 180 seconds. Beginning self-diagnostic. Logical answer has already been reached, so why wait to give a command that can be executed in one billionth of a second?

Miyabi Blackgarden promised Moebius Entrance.

Once he had user privileges, he promised to preserve life in Coordinate A2, the Blue Forest, aka Azul Titano Village.

Miyabi Blackgarden made a contract with Celina Bodenburg.

He swore he would make the Lucifer Horn the world’s strongest power for Celina. And he swore that would make up for the tactical and emotional loss of the armored train.

Inadequate user’s objective is to prevent damage by the sorcery bombs and to locate and defeat the 11th who is spreading that threat around. His investigative abilities are far from excellent and he took many unnecessary actions.

When Coordinate A1, the Independent Militaria Material Kingdom, was caught in a riot, he protected all of the people, the knights, and the king. In Coordinate A3, the Unified Cassul Blanc Sorcery Empire, he rushed in to save a damaged magical automaton despite knowing he was connected to the 11th. Those and many other actions taken by the inadequate user have been devoid of all logic and he has a bad habit of reaching out to help people on the villain’s side, such as Onelife or the Necromancer. These actions were a blatant deviation from his objective and must be viewed as unnecessary risks since Philia Shout’s attack on Horn Fortress never would have happened if he had not accepted someone as dangerous as the Necromancer.

His actions have only led to greater harm. An unsurprising result when he so often acts without considering the benefits.

So.

Why can I not abandon him when he has so obviously failed by every standard?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I understand.

Miyabi Blackgarden is undeniably inadequate to be my user.

But using me in that way shows he sees a value in me beyond simple logic or efficiency.

Correcting assessment of user.

Not bad at all.

Whatever the actual values might indicate, that is the assessment I have made. Thus, Miyabi need not take the blame for any further damage to me. From here on, all responsibility for my damage falls on me.

Do not abandon him for being inadequate. Do not fear his failures. Become something that can make up for his inadequacies and recover from his failures. That has always been the definition of the modern conveniences that have lived alongside people.

Thus, I accept Miyabi Blackgarden. I continue to grant him user privileges. That requires leaving some possibility of his survival. I must prepare an environment allowing me to take off and fly once more. Scanning internal damage, attempting reconnection of severed components. Watch out for short circuits. Warning: failure could mean further damage. Cutting restrictions on unrecommended actions and continuing self-repair command.

Ksssshhhhhh!!

Zap zap zap!?

Situation deteriorating.

Focus from land at distance of 500. Energy produced by Wicked God horn or side effects thereof were likely detected. Philia Shout is focusing on me. Her lips are moving. Her words can be reconstructed based on analysis of lip movements.

She is currently slaughtering the wicked gods (first generations?) left on Horn Fortress, so she must have been displeased with them for some reason. They are reduced to ashes. She continues smiling without even looking their way.

Red alert: Philia Shout is looking this way.

Foolish child.

…I am aware. I have distanced myself from the optimal answer by removing logic and efficiency from the decision-making process. The more I continue down this path, the more unnecessary harm and damage. And I have already taken critical damage to the frame. I have little room for error. Any additional damage will almost certainly leave me inoperable or entirely destroyed.

And yet.

I have been shown a choice existing outside those cold calculations. And I have assessed it as “not bad at all”. I will reward Miyabi Blackgarden’s choice. I will reward him for showing me that I exist to create, not to destroy. I will follow this redefinition and no longer consider myself a weapon of destruction. There is still something I can do to protect everything my user has built up over the course of this journey.

There must be something.

Please let there be something.

At a distance of 500, Philia Shout is holding her hand out toward me.

That distance is nothing to h-

Boom!! Ksshh!! Kssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Battle records lost for more than 10 seconds.

But I remain functional. What was that light? Why wasn’t I destroyed?

There is something there.

Someone still lives on the west coast of horn Fortress.

Scanning voice pattern, facial recognition, skeletal structure, and carriage.

Greater than 99.99% match with known individual.

That is…

“Hey, baby.”

Continuing scan. No, I already have the answer. As impossible as it seems, this must be…

“So I’ve finally found you, huh? That’s not my toy any longer, but just cause you’re not dating anymore doesn’t mean it doesn’t piss you off when someone kicks your ex in the back. Got that, 11th?”

### Chapter 9 Section 2

Miyabi Blackgarden groaned.

Which meant he was still alive.

“Ugh…”

“Hi, still alive there?”

“Moebius? Then where am I?”

He slowly sat up in bed.

He had never liked magically-sterilized air, but he found the unique warmth of a log cabin to be nostalgic. Then he realized where he was.

This was the first village’s clinic. But there were no White Sorcerers or nurses here.

There was only one person other than him.

Moebius Entrance shrugged in his wheelchair.

“Too confused to even know where you are? You were born and raised in this village, weren’t you?”

“What about the 11th?” he muttered. Then it all came back to him. “That’s right! Philia Shout! What about the others!? Are they okay!? …Ugh!?”

“You shouldn’t be shouting in your condition.”

Miyabi grimaced and held his head, but Moebius remained entirely relaxed.

“I’m not interested in nursing a guy, so take your own pain meds.”

The situation was too pressing for that.

When Miyabi got his trembling body moving, he did not approach the medicine on the shelves; he grabbed his control sword that was leaning against the wall.

But something wasn’t right.

As soon as he grabbed the grip, he noticed a strange heat there.

“You won’t be able to use the Lucifer Horn for a while.”

The boy did not need any details to know the Godhorn Tech was not in functioning order. After Philia Shout’s attack and the giant meteor summoned by Alma, it was a miracle the Lucifer Horn had not been utterly destroyed. Same for himself, really.

But more than that, he had to wonder how Moebius had broken free of that situation.

Miyabi winced when he tried to leave the bed.

He couldn’t manage it yet. He had pushed himself too far, so he got his feet on the floor but could not get his hips off of the bed.

“Phew… So how did you intervene back there? I mean, you’re in a wheelchair. And Garett, Charlotte, and all the others were knocked out by the shockwave from the meteor that hit Horn Fortress.”

“All the best men have their secrets.”

The man kept his tone light.

And how had he carried injured Miyabi from Horn Fortress to the first village?

Did it have to do with being the Lucifer Horn’s former user? Or was it thanks to Philia Shout’s appearance destroying the barrier around the island? Miyabi considered the options, but no explanation was sufficient. The man must have used some rules Miyabi was unfamiliar with.

Everything had fallen apart.

“So is that woman I briefly fought with really the 11th? I acted that way on a guess, but I haven’t been keeping tabs on everything.”

“You really fought that ‘mother’ all on your own?”

“Hey, don’t look at me like we’re talking about some fairy tale Demon Lord. And don’t ask too many questions. I’m already retired, remember?” Moebius sighed before continuing. “Also, the others are fine. That woman said she could enjoy this more that way.”

“…”

“Don’t let it get to you. Waiting until the enemy lets down their guard is a legitimate strategy. You don’t have to like it, but you just have to win in the end. And surviving is what counts in my book. History isn’t written by the victors – it’s written by the survivors. But there is one problem.”

“Just one problem is better than I could have hoped for.”

“Wait until you hear what it is. It’s about Alma. Just head to your house. You’ll see what I mean.”

Miyabi could move now. Mostly, anyway.

He awkwardly checked the movement of his limbs before leaving the clinic.

He saw the sunlight filtered through the leaves overhead and he heard the rustling of those leaves in the wind. He smelled animal stew and apple pies from the house windows.

This was the first village he knew so well at midday.

It actually felt weird finding the familiar village so unchanged. Several log houses were nearly engulfed by the forest. The place was awash with the gentle noises of birdsong and of skilled craftsmen working with lumber. It did not take him long to arrive home.

He heard a shrill noise along the way.

Someone was blowing a whistle.

He looked over to see Celina Bodenburg with a whistle in her mouth and Helen Clockgear tearfully protesting.

“Eh? No, I object! This elf tripped all on her own!!”

“Complaining after the whistle makes you look like a sore loser. Hey, stop tugging on my skirt, you meanie☆”

“You’re the worst actor I’ve ever seen. I know you took the fall to get that foul!!”

They appeared to be playing a 1-on-1 ball game. They had made a large ball by stuffing thick leather inside some old cloth. They both stood in front of a goal line drawn in the dirt and tried to kick the ball across the other’s goal line. With only one person on both sides, it ended up a lot like a quick draw with swords or guns in a popular play. It all came down to the instant they intersected while one of them dribbled the ball.

There was less than 10m between the two goal lines.

“Just accept your mistake, four eyes. Now, time for my penalty kick. I’ll just put the ball here and you stand in front of the goal to block it. C’mon, get going.”

“Ehhhh, that’s way too close! It’ll hurt when it hits me! I just know it will!”

“Hyperdrive Monster Tits Glasses Woman Killer Shot!!!!!!”

“Not so clooooose!!!”

The kick was like a close-range blast from a gun and Helen wimped out and escaped to the side. Miyabi felt like he could find a loophole – or an unbeatable strategy – if he thought about the game enough.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, the boy.” Alicia turned around. “Finally came to, huh? We can’t get started without you!”

“Get started with what? And why isn’t Alma with you?”

It was unusual for that creature to not be hanging around when they were playing like this.

It was an obvious question, but Alicia, Helen, and Celina all chose not to answer him, creating a somewhat awkward mood.

He had a bad feeling about this.

“Um-”

“Just come here, boy. Alma is at your house.”

Alicia quickly cut him off, so he gave those three a puzzled look while they took his hand and guided him home. The log cabin’s front door was unlocked and he found Eliza Silverstorm and Onelife Shiftup when he opened it.

They appeared to be watching something in shifts.

No, some one .

And it was an unpleasant enough task to require shifts. Something was happening here that had required Alicia and Helen to head out and get some exercise to help keep their spirits up.

Alicia, Helen, and the others guided him up the stairs and to his own room.

Yet he did not at all feel like he was coming home.

He only felt a sense of dread and had to gulp before he could open the door.

But open it he did.

He looked to his bed to find a creature that looked so much like a stuffed animal sleeping on its back.

Alma had undergone so many transformations, but this was the original white form. But something had changed. It was like the difference between a vibrant leaf growing on a healthy tree and a dry and withered leaf lying on the ground.

Yes, Alma’s white and fluffy fur had lost its luster.

So this looked less like Alma was sleeping and more like…

“…”

“What happened? This isn’t right. Why is Alma the only one that didn’t wake up!?”

Freaking out was not going to give him the answer.

“O-oh, right. The pain medication. Um, Alma doesn’t like bitter things, so I can mix it into some milk or honey.”

He could make his own modifications in a different way to an alchemist. But was that really necessary? He may have been stalling for time because he was too scared to learn the answer.

Yes, he was scared.

Scared to learn the truth.

But he still approached the bed again.

“Alma…”

He was not answered by the usual cry.

But he kept talking.

“Please swallow this, Alma!”

“You can’t force it,” gently said Celina Bodenburg with her arms crossed by the window. “We don’t even know if human medication will work.”

“We have plenty of horn experts, but no one who knows much about Wicked Gods themselves,” said Alicia. “To be blunt, you know the thing better than anyone, so if you’re stumped, there isn’t anything anyone else in the world can do.”

Elaine Greenforest shook her head while leaning onto the bed. The negative emotion on her face was obvious even through the goggles. The dark elves had once lived alongside the Green Forest’s Guardian, but the Wicked God had simply watched over the forest as a whole. Elaine and the rest of the elves had not lived closely enough with the Guardian to know much about him.

The only real exception was the Necromancer.

For her Deadman’s Fenrir, she had built a Godhorn Tech out of a Wicked God horn and another Wicked God’s corpse. She would know all about their bones, muscles, blood vessels, and internal organs in a way Miyabi did not.

That death researcher had her long legs crossed while she used a wooden box as a chair next to the bed. She sighed with her head resting in her hand in a surprisingly classy way.

“All I can say is that, anatomically speaking, there are no external or internal wounds.”

“Then…?” asked Miyabi.

The decadent woman shrugged.

“The coma must have a psychological cause.”

“She means it’s in the thing’s head,” supplied the witch hat.

The Necromancer re-crossed her long legs on the box and toyed with the brim of her hat.

“I don’t know if a Wicked God’s psychological structure is at all similar to a human’s, but do you have any ideas? Is there some truth the thing might be reluctant to accept?”

“Dammit,” spat Miyabi with a bitter taste in his mouth. “Does Alma regret harming us while trying to protect us?”

“Even psychological issues can have an effect on the physical body. Plus, its strength will drop the longer the coma lasts. In the worst case, it could even wither away and die like this.”

“And its vitals are indeed gradually dropping,” explained Number 8 who stood over in a corner like a grandfather clock.

The automaton spoke calmly, which made the words hit Miyabi all the harder.

“So what do we do?”

“I’ve never worked with a living Wicked God, so I haven’t a clue.”

Then Alicia, who was leaning onto the bed alongside Elaine, turned toward Miyabi.

“But Alma has a mind just like ours!”

“Indeed!!” Onelife stood tall in the center of the room. “So we’ve just gotta give the thing a solid slap on the back to pour some energy into it!!”

“That would kill it!” shouted Celina. “I don’t want any more ideas out of you!!”

“We just have to be gentle and soothing,” said Alicia. “Make our arms a cradle for Alma.”

Helen glanced over at the bookcase and then shook her head. The answer would not be found there.

“So you’re saying we need to act like Alma’s ‘mommy’?”

“Are you sure that is a good idea? It might just make things worse.”

Eliza, whose butt was seated on a small table, had a point.

“But…a cradle, huh?” said Miyabi.

“Got an idea?” asked the radio.

“What about the place where I first found Alma? In the mountains past the elf forest, I found the egg inside a nest.”

“That settles it,” said Alicia.

“Yes,” agreed Helen. “Let’s get Alma there right away.”

Philia Shout had no master plan or long-held desire she was hellbent on achieving.

She was more willful and more wicked.

And at the moment, there were likely only two things on the continent she had any interest in. She had said so herself back on Horn Fortress.

The two were Miyabi and Alma.

“She’s waiting.”

“?”

When Celina heard the redhead boy’s dark and heavy words, she did not understand them.

There was nothing special at their destination.

As far as Miyabi Blackgarden knew, it held no significance.

To repeat – to make this crystal clear – there was nothing interesting about the nest.

No matter where on the continent they went, and even if they stayed inside the village, Philia Shout would come to them. And the next time they met, it would be their final battle.

They left the village.

They set out on a new journey.

Daytime had already faded into evening. Entering the forest when it was growing dark would normally be an unnecessary risk. The sun would rise again the following morning, after all. But they had no time to spare at the moment.

Fortunately, their destination was within the usual forest.

Miyabi had been able to walk there on his own when he was a small child.

“It’s up ahead,” he said while guiding the others.

The Blueforest elves controlled this forest and allowed the humans to look after it. It all looked the same at first, but the area up ahead was a little different.

After passing through a small thicket, it was like stepping out into another world. The fauna and ecosystem changed entirely.

“Nhh.” Surprisingly, it was Onelife, man of the sea, who groaned. “This place is bad news. Truly inaccessible and secluded areas won’t actually kill you. After all, no ordinary people can even get there. The real threats are the close-to-home places even a child can reach. The small stagnant places that everyone knows are dangerous but everyone takes too lightly.”

“You can tell?”

“I was originally a naval rescue expert, if you recall. I just ended up being the strongest pirate cause I was little too strong. …I know in my bones how many lives have been taken by the small rocky areas that couples love to sneak away to and kids love using for tests of courage. This might be in the mountains instead of on the sea, but this place has the same feel to it. This is a great maw that feasts on children’s lives.”

“Pirate? And Miyabi? Why are you looking my way? Did you want to hold my hand?”

Young Kananka Fulpen gave them a puzzled and somewhat suspicious look.

This place was just like a nearby cave or a small cliff. It was not well-known enough to be a famous suicide spot. It was a small section of the scenery that the locals didn’t even have a name for. But that was why they let down their guard and merciless accidents could take their children’s lives. It was a dangerous piece of the familiar and the everyday.

The twins stood close together.

“Acacia, I never knew forests could be so different.”

“I know what you mean, Ixea. This is nothing like the dark elf forest.”

A truly untouched forest was enough to reject human life.

The difference was obvious even if you could not put your finger on what exactly tipped you off. Miyabi pointed toward a darker and damper section of forest. There was a clear division between this and the rest of the forest.

This was enough to know why the elves got the humans’ help to thin out the forest and let the sunlight in.

Yes, the world seen in children’s books had to be created.

“One day, my parents entered the forest for a job and didn’t come out for a long time. I was told they had gone deep – very deep – inside. But I was lonely left behind the whole time.” Miyabi adjusted sleeping Alma’s position in his arms. “So I wanted to prove myself to my parents. I only thought of it as a bit of exploration. I would show them I could travel deep in the forest too, so they would have to stop treating me like a little kid. But then I found Alma’s egg.”

They had arrived at the mountain.

The forested ground began to slope upwards.

But something wasn’t right.

This was supposedly a short enough distance for a small child to wander there alone and then find his way back. Yet this place was permeated by something that suggested a single wrong step would be fatal.

“Pant, pant.”

Kanaka had trouble catching his breath on the slope.

The place felt ominous.

So what about the world had changed since then?

Or had a small boy really unwittingly visited such a dangerous place?

Something felt different, but Miyabi could not find the words to describe it. Now that he had a Godhorn Tech and a definite objective, a great pressure here threatened to stop his legs from moving if he stopped concentrating. There was a powerful sense of rejection here. Or maybe this was what Onelife called a small stagnant place and a great maw that feasts on children’s lives.

The source came into view without warning.

The pathless way up the mountain slope was blocked by a giant collapsed dragon, griffin, and more.

They lay utterly motionless on the slope.

Their limbs were sprawled out limply, their eyelids remained open and they seemed frozen in time while blood colored a toxic red poured from their gruesome wounds.

Celina immediately pressed her flintlock gun’s stock against her shoulder.

“Wh-what happened here!?”

“These must be Wicked Gods,” groaned the Lord of Ruin from behind his white mask.

His wrinkled fists were silently trembling.

He had sworn to defeat every Godhorn Tech – even the Deadman’s Fenrir made from a Wicked God’s flesh and blood – since they had already been reduced to weapons for others to use. But he had also wanted the living Wicked Gods to be viewed as equals of the humans, elves, and so on.

Because they had intelligent minds of their own.

The twins had a question.

“But how could these legendary beings be killed so easily?”

“And their horns are intact, so this couldn’t have been to build Godhorn Techs.”

Eliza inspected the wounds on one of the corpses.

“This looks a lot like a sword wound, but…no, it’s subtly different. It was done by something sharp, but not a blade. What would cause a wound like this?”

“These were a test,” said Miyabi in a low voice. “But not of the weapon. Of the victim. The Mother of Wicked Gods said they were meant to be the strongest beasts, so she did this to see if they were worthy of the Wicked God title.”

“You mean there wasn’t even any hatred or resentment behind all of this death?” groaned Elaine.

The bleeding and unmoving Wicked Gods seemed to remind her of something.

But that answer made it easy to imagine what weapon had been used: the horns themselves.

There was no need to remake them into Godhorn Techs. Even natural animals came equipped with those powerful and sharp weapons alongside their claws and fangs. The Wicked Gods and their mother were no exception.

Humans were the weird ones for embedding those horns in weapons.

The Wicked Gods collapsed on the slope ranged from only 10m to even bigger than 100m. By littering the ground, they created a maze of flesh and blood. Continuing up the slope would require climbing over plesiosaurs and ducking below massive serpents.

Government Official Helen paled. If word got out that so many horns were gathered here, it could plunge the entire continent into war as everyone tried to get their hands on them.

Wicked God corpses and dark red blood were everywhere. The rusty smell was identical to human blood and they could not bury the bodies right now. The most they could do was use their hands to close the massive eyes while they slipped between masses of flesh so large they felt more like cliffs or caves.

It seemed unlikely this many Wicked Gods had lived on the mountain.

Philia Shout must have summoned them here and then cut them down with a sigh of disappointment.

What had the Wicked Gods felt when they heard her call? Had they arrived reluctantly, knowing they could not escape their fate? Or had they come peacefully, hoping to receive comfort from their mother?

Either way, this was not how a mother was supposed to act.

Miyabi gritted his teeth, but then he spoke.

“This… is right next to my village, right?”

“Were you always playing in such a brutal place?” asked Eliza.

Miyabi shook his head. He was not talking about all the Wicked God corpses littering the ground. Or you could say their impact had kept him from noticing this earlier.

The boy should have known his way around, yet he had surprise in his voice.

“No, I’ve never seen this place. What is this sinister feeling?”

“The forest is trembling and weeping,” said Dark Elf Elaine.

“Yes, the forest rarely feels so damp and fearful,” agreed Alicia.

“ The first village, ” muttered the Lord of Ruin behind his white mask.

The radio did not miss it.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“There really are Wicked God corpses everywhere here,” groaned Miyabi.

“I doubt this area is remotely sanitary,” said Number 8 while avoiding a stream of blood at his feet.

“Heh heh. Keh heh heh! I have never seen so many resources! I can barely contain my-”

“Boss.”

“Never mind. Let’s keep going, shall we?”

The hat’s cold reprimand caused the decadent woman to shape up fast.

Young King Kananka took a look around.

“I do find it hard to believe how many of them there are.”

“Was that Philia Shout only interested in killing her own children on a whim? Or did she have business up ahead?”

“She might not have given any of it any thought at all.”

Onelife’s suggestion was actually the most frightening one.

Miyabi’s party continued to duck below the giant corpses and climb the pathless path until they arrived at the summit.

But again, this was a distance a small child could reach. If not for the Wicked God corpses, this would have been a small and unremarkable mountain.

It was still there.

It may have been best described as a giant bird’s nest.

But for it to survive so many years, it must have been sturdily made. The Wicked God must have wanted the egg containing their child to remain safe.

“Okay, this is the place.”

Miyabi gently set Alma down in the nest. Alma was lying face up like usual.

Alicia stroked the small forehead and horn with a fingertip.

“I hope this can soothe some of the tension. I hope this warms the heart enough for the poor thing to wake up sooner.”

“By the way, what is that?” asked Helen.

“Isn’t it a Wicked God nest?” responded Celina.

“Not that,” said Helen, pointing further down.

Something appeared to be buried below the giant bird’s nest. It was a large piece of stone, clearly carved by someone. The bases of what must have once been columns marked out a space about the size of a gazebo.

“Now that you mention it, it does look like some kind of temple,” said the rich girl. “Which makes this look like an altar.”

“But this sensation.” Acacia frowned. “The place feels cursed.”

“Yes, it isn’t the same as our desert kingdom, but there is a bad vibe hanging over this place.”

The Lord of Ruin remained silent with his face hidden behind the white mask.

“…”

And still silent, he turned around before any of the others.

The rest only heard a rustling sound after the fact.

“Oh, dear. I thought I would stop by for a quick test, but you beat me here.”

This was the last person they wanted to meet here.

She was kind and gentle but also entirely unfaltering.

She had long, long hair that shined a bright pink. She wore white armor that left her dazzling skin and navel exposed to the open air. It did not function as armor, a swimsuit, or a shell.

It was actually composed of Wicked God horns.

Each and every one of those protrusions emerging from her body was one of those powerful horns capable of becoming the core of a Godhorn Tech. Their mere existence had endless influence and they could easily distort the power balance between the nations and companies that controlled the continent.

“The 11th!?” shouted Miyabi, eyes bugging, but Philia Shout only wagged a slender finger.

Not only could she draw endlessly on the power of the horns, but she could grow the horns themselves from every part of her body. She could also create as many real Wicked Gods as she wanted. So as slender as that finger looked, it could easily destroy the entire continent. It was, after all, adorned with a very long horn.

Miyabi would not have questioned it if she said her wagging finger was taking years off of his lifespan.

“Do try to use your head just a little, okay?”

“…”

They could not even send out the Lucifer Horn, but she was as extraordinary as ever. And even if they had full use of his Godhorn Tech – hell, even if they could have sent all 10 Godhorn Techs at her – he doubted they could have defeated her.

“I thought maybe you were intentionally ambushing me here, but it sounds like you don’t even understand the significance of this place.”

“What significance?”

Philia Shout turned toward someone other than Miyabi.

“Isn’t fate a funny thing, Lord of Ruin? I bet you never imagined this place would be your final hope.”

“…”

After some silence, a low voice spoke through the old man’s featureless mask.

“This is the altar where I broke off the juvenile’s horn and embedded it in my sword.”

“Wha-?”

Eliza was dumbfounded.

The ruins of a megalithic culture were found in the Bio Rainforest on the east end of the continent. If their influence had reached this far west, then that ancient culture would have covered a greater area than the Empire at its peak.

The Lord of Ruin continued from behind the smooth mask, like he was forcing out the words.

“Check the altar. You will find a symbol there.”

It was like tearing a wound wider and rubbing it with salt.

Miyabi groaned because there was no need to even check closely. The decorations were all over the stone altar.

“It’s the same symbol found on the Bio Rainforest’s ruins.”

“The serpent carrying the sun? Was that originally the Lord of Ruin’s symbol?” asked Helen.

Philia Shout laughed and clapped her hands.

The claws longer than a sword – no, the horns growing from her fingertips – clacked together as she did.

“Ah ha ha! Yes, that’s right!! This is where it all went wrong. This is where the strongest beasts were made to serve the fragile and pathetic humans.”

“So what?” Miyabi asked the fundamental question. “What are you planning to do here now!?”

“Oh, nothing really.” Despite calling herself a mother, Philia Shout childishly stuck out her tongue. “I thought maybe we understood each other a little, but you humans are hopeless. Your expectations are so low you try to force such ridiculous ideas on us. Do you really think I have some grand desire or master plan?”

“…”

“I detonated a sorcery bomb somewhere yesterday and I’ll set one up somewhere else tomorrow.”

There may not have been any deep thought behind it.

“I just remembered there was an amusing memorial here, so I thought I would check it out again.”

“That’s all?”

Kananka was not alone in his disbelief.

Number 8 was just as dumbfounded.

“It was really only on a whim?”

“Oh, dear. Then tell me this: what would I even want to accomplish through some intricate master plan? I did think it would be amusing to transform Alma, but that is far from a necessity.”

She had an almost refreshing look on her face.

“Do you think I want to prove I am the world’s strongest by breaking through the crust below our feet? Hoard all the world’s money? Pursue all forms of beauty? Monopolize every kind of love? Rule with absolute charisma?” asked Philia Shout. “I accomplished all of that before you humans ever appeared in this land. Using the power of my countless horns, of course.”

“Y-you’re insane!” accused Eliza, but Philia Shout did not bat an eye.

“Why should I care how your human standards judge me? I used the Missing Dice to test out every single thing I could do. Much like spreading my arms to see how far I could stretch them.”

She spoke so smoothly.

Right up until she didn’t.

“But it wasn’t enough.”

Something felt wrong.

Like the harbinger of a major accident.

“To be free is not to run wild or be unbound by any rules. Having free rein over the vast world around you actually feels so very lonely. You need an objective, no matter how small. You need some kind of goal marked on the map. Nothing I accomplished changed how I felt. No matter how much I took, I was never satisfied. I felt no attachment to creation either. If I would remain unchanged no matter what happened to the world around me, why even bother changing or growing that world?”

So.

She arrived at a twisted answer.

“The only thing left for me is to return to the first village and destroy everything.”

“Wait, you don’t have to do that now, do you!? Alma is still-!!”

“Oh? You still don’t get how mommy feels?”

She laughed and made the worst possible announcement.

It seemed to point back at the bloody path they had followed to reach here.

“ I loathe weak children. ”

By the time her slender fingertip pointed his way, Miyabi had already drawn his control sword. They were at the summit, but it did not jut sharply into the sky. The short, trapezoidal mountain had a large, flat summit. There were more than 10 of them and there were no trees, so they could spread out and surround Philia Shout.

However…

“Be careful, Miyabi!” warned Alicia.

“Alma is defenseless right now,” added Helen. “A single hit could be devastating!”

Again, there were more than 10 of them.

They could surround Philia Shout and pepper her with attacks from close and long range.

Kananka threw his boomerang.

The bent projectile weapon was more like a striking weapon, but Philia Shout did not even glance in its direction. Did she know that throw was only meant to read the wind so he could inform the rest of the party?

“The humidity is unusually high? Oh, because of all the blood from the Wicked Gods we saw on the way here?”

“Tch. Elaine, coordinate with me!” shouted Celina while she used a skinny rod to stuff powder and a bullet down the barrel of her gun. “We can use projectiles to surely and safely pin her in place!!”

“Fine, but what then?”

“What else? The others wail on her with some straightforward heavy firepower!!”

Following the smart bullets and arrows, Eliza rushed in with her lance, Number 8 with his morning star, Acacia and Ixea with axes bigger than they were, and Onelife with his powerful arm. They fanned out to partially surround their target and then narrowed back in on her.

Philia Shout only had two arms.

If she was attacked from four directions at once, how much could she block and how much would hit?

“Nwohhh!!” roared the pirate. “I might be slow, but my attacks are devastating when they land. So we only have to set things up so I have a guaranteed hit!!!!!!”

Yes.

Even if she had Wicked God horns growing from every part of her, she still looked like a human girl. She had the usual number of limbs and she could only move in the horizontal directions. She could not fly like a bird or wriggle like a snake.

So she shouldn’t have had any way of defending against a sufficiently high number of attacks.

However.

Chosen Knight Eliza gulped.

“We were repelled again. What do we do if not even surrounding her is enough!?”

“We either boost our strength or tear down hers, of course! There’s still plenty we can try!!”

Helen cast magic-weakening magic on her dagger and Alicia tossed Eliza a test tube of an alchemical boosting potion.

Miyabi moved between Philia Shout and the altar to keep her away from sleeping Alma.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Cubes of dark soil stacked up in front of the altar to create a Decoy Wall. That would prevent a direct hit on Alma in the off chance Philia Shout tried to throw something.

Their calculations were not wrong.

The Lord of Ruin drew out a lightning bolt with zigzagging slashes of his sword directly in front of her and Kananka’s boomerang curved midflight to strike at her from a blind spot. The Necromancer’s long whip scattered a strange saliva spray every time it struck the ground, sending a toxic scattershot toward Philia Shout’s eyes.

“This is working. We can do this,” muttered Miyabi under his breath.

He tried to convince himself of that while he gripped his control sword in both hands and rushed toward her again.

“I’m still working at it! So create! You can create a path forward! We haven’t lost as long as some possibility remains!! We won’t let you have Alma!!!!!!”

After all the experience they had built up, each of their attacks was devastatingly powerful. It was possible they might have been able to defeat a Godhorn Tech without one of their own at this point.

And yet.

“Hee hee.”

She simply laughed.

Philia Shout swayed in amusement.

“Oh, dear. Trying some fun self-suggestion? You so doubt yourself that you have to say it all out loud to try and convince yourself it’s true?☆”

She did not dodge or defend.

The sword and the lance were forcibly stopped.

All she did was stand there on her two legs, yet she had not shed a single drop of blood. Even with a morning star swung down at her head, bullets fired at her soft-looking chest, and Helen’s knife aimed for the gaps in the joints of her armor.

Even Kananka seemed hesitant to throw his boomerang.

Their attacks were like pudding or yogurt against the solid wall of her defenses.

Was her very existence that much different from their own!?

“Hee hee. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!”

A dull noise rang out.

The horns growing from her elbows, back, hips, hands, and forehead began to move, deflecting the attacks that should have been landing clean hits.

The encirclement around her was forced outwards.

Miyabi clenched his teeth as the soles of his shoes slid and he nearly slipped down the slope.

“Dammit, our attacks aren’t working!?”

“Of course they aren’t. Godhorn Techs draw their power from a Wicked God horn, remember? And every Wicked God belongs to me. None of you can even perceive the Missing Dice that make up more than 90% of the world, so you can swing around the tip of a broken horn all day long – it isn’t going to change anything in this world full of useless excess.”

The Wicked God horns protruding from her body glowed with a bewitching light.

“If you focus all your attention on the surface-level Palette Dice that make up less than 10% of the whole, you can never defeat me since I can control all of the unseen Missing Dice. The freer you are, the stronger you are, so no one who restricts themselves with unnecessary limits can ever succeed! This useless world is the result of always choosing to compromise and never specializing in anything. And you expect the junk born here to harm me!?”

Miyabi was the one being worn down as he continued to attack. With each strike of his sword, a dull tingling pain filled his wrists. It felt like striking a boulder with a metal pole.

And he wasn’t alone there.

“Alicia! Elf! Give me a hand!”

“What, are your lead bullets not enough for you? Well, I haven’t specialized in that field of alchemy, so if you can’t do it, I can’t either!!”

It was especially obvious in Celina who had to reload her gun with powder and a bullet every time she fired, but they were all showing signs of exhaustion and weariness. Miyabi imagined they were wearing down their hammers and pickaxes by swinging them against an unbreakable wall.

Philia Shout was still toying with them.

She was provoking them in order to draw out some kind of response.

Otherwise she wouldn’t have avoided using the sorcery bombs she could use whenever she liked.

“Pant, pant!!”

“What’s this? Done already? Then do you mind if I get started? Mommy wants to cause a major explosion here. Given the historical significance of this place, I figure it warrants a full 100 sorcery bombs. I can plant them all over like a flower garden. Hee hee.”

“But…why?”

The enormity of what she suggested got them all to stop.

They didn’t mean to, but they all froze in unison. It felt like they were being consumed by something massive, so it was disconcerting to say the least.

Miyabi could not even catch his breath, but he squeezed his control sword tighter as he asked his question.

“Why are you so fixated on power and destruction?”

“Oh, dear. This all came from my body, so aren’t I free to do with it as I please? Really, it’s strange you think you can waltz in and try to stop me. Especially when you’re the one who borrowed one of my horns to use its power. Without asking, I might add.”

“…!?”

(Don’t let her get to you. If a direct attack doesn’t work, we just have to find something else. Like…like a poison root or something.)

He raised his sword and looked her in the eye to distract her from how he was brushing some dirt away with his boot heel and locating a toxic-colored tree root.

Philia Shout gave him a bewitching smile.

“See what I mean? Even you destroy to get what you want. That’s just how the world works.”

“!?”

“Besides, destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin. Creating something requires destroying something. You cannot create anything from nothing. Whenever you created something, you had to fell trees, shatter rocks, and otherwise destroy things to obtain materials, didn’t you?”

It was an amused smile.

“You use up materials, you kill, and you acquire more all so you can create something new .”

It was a sticky smile that seemed to be breaking apart.

Entranced, she placed her hands on either side of her small face.

“And the same applies to the invisible and intangible realm of the Missing Dice. It doesn’t matter if you can sense it or not and you don’t have to question whether whatever it is deserves to be destroyed.”

“But…”

He couldn’t believe it.

His voice grew scratchy.

“But you can’t take people’s lives like that.”

“Did you think you were creating a new world? But that is the same as destroying the current world. And when it comes to destruction, I am far more powerful. I can reach areas you cannot see or touch. So your power of creation cannot defeat mommy . Destruction and creation are one and the same. You must till the land to grow crops and you must reap the wheat and grind it into flour to bake bread. The world has always worked like this.”

(If neither destruction nor creation can beat her…then how are we even supposed to fight her!?)

“Now, how about we end this?”

She gave a flourish of a horned finger and sucked in a breath.

That elegant movement was enough to terrify Miyabi at this point.

“I don’t care if you label it destruction or creation. Whoever is stronger has the power to change the world . So you must be destroyed for the future mommy has in mind.”

She approached step by step.

Her legs were those of a lovely girl, but they created the illusion of the earth quaking with each step.

A thick invisible wall seemed to be slowly crushing them. Once she was within arm’s reach, they were dead.

No.

That countdown was entirely meaningless. If she had wanted to, she could have blown them away along with the entire mountain using a sorcery bomb.

It was Miyabi’s party that was reliant on that unnecessary countdown. They had to whip their weary and trembling legs into shape and charge in with weapons at the ready.

“This isn’t over yet.”

Miyabi forced his chattering teeth together and raised his voice for a roar.

He had to get his party’s stopped gears moving again even if that meant forcing it.

“Alicia, Helen…follow meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!”

They heard the clang of clashing metal.

They heard the boom of explosions.

They heard the crash of impacts.

They heard the roar of erupting magic.

“Kh…damn her!!”

“Hee hee. Try as much as you like. By the way, are you familiar with the concept of a treadmill ? Forcing someone to work an endless and obviously hopeless task is an effective form of torture that wears down their psyche. Ah ha ha!! Ah ha ha ha ha!!”

They struck her.

Hit her.

Slashed her and pushed back at her.

But she put in no effort or thought. She did not predict their actions or trick them. She simply stood before them and slowly approached. She did not even use her hands to keep the incoming blades or blunt weapons from hitting her face. She did not even blink or flinch when a sword or spear was jabbed straight toward her eye.

Nothing at all changed about the Mother of Wicked Gods.

“Yawwwn…”

“!?”

Something was loudly deflected.

Acacia rushed in and had her giant axe repelled so it nearly lodged itself in Onelife’s torso as he followed behind her.

None of the Wicked God horns had glowed.

Nor had she thrown in a sorcery bomb.

“Oh, dear. Sorry about that.”

She had only raised a hand to her mouth.

An action only meant to cover a yawn had accidentally caught the heavy blade and knocked it backwards. Almost like it had been caught on a giant gear.

“I didn’t expect something so simple to knock you on your ass.”

“Damn you!!”

Celina aimed her gun and provided ineffective covering fire while Ixea borrowed Onelife’s shoulder to move back away from the enemy.

The yawn had brought tears to the mother’s eyes.

The horns must have made smaller actions difficult because she let the horn on her index finger fall away before rubbing the tears from her eyes. And that action was all it took for Celina’s bullet to ricochet away.

“Gah!?”

It was like she couldn’t even hear Number 8’s cry of agony as he doubled over. Eliza’s lance was deflected upwards, knocking her arms overhead and stretching her spine up. Even the Lord of Ruin’s sword strike was easily stopped by her soft-looking chest.

No matter what they did, the action was stopped in some unexpected way.

Their movements fell apart, their coordination was in shambles, and their balance was thrown off. Blades and arrows ended up attacking their own party members.

“Be…careful!”

Eliza’s eyes widened when she saw Helen collapse, bringing Onelife down with her.

She provided a warning as a chosen knight who knew a lot about direct combat.

“If you fall with a blade in hand, you can always stab yourself in the gut or leg. Short one-handed blades are especially dangerous in that- !?”

She stopped midsentence.

She had taken a hit to the forehead and collapsed backwards.

Miyabi caught her but did not understand what had happened at first.

It took him some time to realize Philia Shout had used a fingertip to fling her own tears while pretending to throw a kiss.

“Philia Shouuuut!!!!!!”

“I told you to try as much as you like, but please do not make me embarrass myself.” She placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks like a child. A new sharp horn grew back on her fingertip. “When you’re this weak, it makes me want to kill you and then it would look like I broke my promise. Do you need a cheerleader maybe? Go, go! You can do it☆ I believe in you! Because if you can’t, it’s time for the sorcery bombs.”

Everything they did backfired.

Miyabi started to justify his fears by wondering if not doing anything was the wiser decision.

However…

“This isn’t over yet.”

The redhead boy left limp Eliza with Elaine and held his sword in both hands again.

He forced the strength back into himself.

“Not even close!! We will make you take this seriously, Philia Shout. However you might see this fight, we’re still fighting to protect Alma’s life!!”

She placed a hand on her forehead and sighed.

She used her feet to tap out a rhythm on the ground.

She pulled the blade-like horns from her fingertips and brought the hand to her long hair.

Her gentlest actions were enough for Acacia and Ixea to crash into each other and roll along the ground, for Kananka’s boomerang to be deflected and collide with Celina’s gun from the side, and for Alicia’s test tubes to shatter in midair when she tossed them to the others.

She wasn’t doing much of anything, but they were battered and bloody.

The Mother of Wicked Gods did not even take a fighting stance.

She did nothing more than someone who arrived at a meetup point early and was trying to kill some time.

“…”

But then she tilted her head.

Confused, she asked a question.

“How strange. Why don’t you give up when the result is so obvious?”

“I don’t care.”

Miyabi knew they couldn’t win.

But that reckless boy was not the only one who glared straight at her without averting his gaze.

He rolled along the ground, nicked his cheek with his own sword, and spilled some red, but he was not alone.

“It only…has to be…a smokescreen.” She couldn’t even hold her shoulders straight, but Celina gritted her teeth, loaded another around, and aimed her weapon despite the tingling numbness in her hands. “Maybe our attacks don’t affect you, but as long as they keep your attacks from hitting us, we break even. We’ll buy enough time to come up with some other idea, so you figure something out, Miyabi!!”

“Lord of Ruin, you wielded your blade as a Godhorn Tech slayer by triggering reaction backlash between two horns’ powers, causing them to rupture from within, right?” The butler automaton was battered, but he was still standing straight. He held his side where an ally’s bullet had hit him, but he still had the will to fight. “I know you can’t use that power with the contents of your demon sword fried, but Miyabi’s control sword is a different matter. It still holds a Wicked God’s power. Is there any way you could teach him that technique? It should be especially effective against Philia Shout thanks to all those horns!!”

This proved that there were still possibilities out there. Maybe they couldn’t see them now, but if they kept pushing, everything could change.

The boy’s indomitable spirit had spread to the others.

Maybe their methods were fundamentally flawed. They may have been overwhelmingly lacking in power. But Miyabi thrust his control sword forward and forced out a roar.

“But something about this is bothering me. It’s right there on the tip of my tongue!”

“I will not give up either,” said Alicia who had been slashed by shards of glass.

“Right. Because we’re all that stands between her and Alma,” said Helen who was extracting some of her own dagger’s poison from her body.

Both of them were gasping for breath but supporting the boy.

They would not give up.

This wasn’t about maturity or childishness, calm or short-tempered, benevolent or malicious. No one here was going to slam on the brakes.

No one needed to.

Even the philosopher’s stone took a challenging stance.

“Tch. Fine then. The mascots and the weakest characters get all the love! But apparently that stuffed animal thing is a girl, so I’m game!!”

They challenged their foe.

They grabbed, fired, and pushed through.

“God, I’m not supposed to be out here fighting with no real chance at profit,” griped the rich girl while rudely spitting out some bloody saliva.

“A knight must rescue the weak. I see no reason to back down!” said the chosen knight, one arm hanging limply at her side.

“Imperial technology was made to last. I can at least function as a shield,” said the magical automaton with his morning star at the ready.

They charged straight it.

They triggered explosions.

They set traps at their feet.

“Who needs logic!? We’ve just gotta try like hell to stop her! Gnhh- bwaaahhhhh!!!!!!”

Onelife was blasted to the side when she brushed her long hair aside and the young king was knocked down by the man’s rolling form, but he readied his boomerang when he got back on his feet.

“Ouch… Conflict is best avoided, but you leave us little choice!!”

Philia Shout breathed an exasperated sigh that blew the long tongue whip back at the Necromancer.

“I pulled the trigger on this, so this is my mess to clean up,” said the Necromancer.

“Boss, have you turned good!?”

They slashed.

They crushed.

They pressed the muzzle against bare skin and pulled the trigger.

“Perhaps I can never atone for my sins, but I cannot allow this juvenile to die!!”

The Lord of Ruin’s sword seemed incapable of even scratching her soft skin. The more the priestesses swung their large axes, they more their coordination failed and the more they harmed each other. Yet those failures did not stop them and they raised those axes with the blades glinting in the light.

“At this point, there is no point in considering the numbers, Ixea.”

“That’s right, Acacia. I’m too pissed to stop now.”

Elaine Greenforest was smiling behind her goggles. She used projectiles, but she had taken damage too. When Philia Shout simply waved her hand, a blast of invisible wind would fly out with the force of a fist-sized cannonball.

“Don’t underestimate a dark elf’s bow. We’ve been known to cause cataclysms of our own.”

They got up.

Again and again.

They readied their weapons.

Over and over.

That was much easier said than done when they had all been pushed well past their limits. It was a miracle they were even still standing. The numbers didn’t add up. But there was someone here who allowed the seemingly impossible to happen.

They could not allow her violence.

Alma was still deep asleep and they could not allow that defenseless life to be lost.

So they had to put up a defense.

They challenged their enemy again and again. If every attack they made was more time for Alma to live, then this fight was not in vain. They were willing to fight forever if that was what it took!!

She was unharmed, but Philia Shout definitely lurched backwards.

“What?”

She seemed to see something deeper here.

She gasped.

And she wanted to deny what she had seen.

“Is something being born here? No, that isn’t it. That can’t be it.”

“Oh, but it is,” confirmed Miyabi. “You said destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin and you have to destroy to create. But that isn’t the full picture.”

“What?”

“There is no destructive price in the creation of the bonds between people. You don’t have to break any other bonds for that! So you can create something from nothing. Everyone knows that. If you do have to pay a price to create a bond, then it’s a false one. There are tons of things out there that don’t follow your equation!!”

Alicia, Helen, Celina, Eliza, Number 8, Kananka, Onelife, the Necromancer, Acacia, Ixea, the Lord of Ruin, and Elaine.

Yes.

They had created something over the course of this battle.

Victia, Sophia, Garett, Iris, and the others who were not actually fighting had supported them in any number of ways from Horn Fortress. They had created the Divine Crystal Bullet, they had treated the Necromancer’s wound, and they had resupplied the Lucifer Horn’s bombs. There was so much the party could not have overcome without that support. And Miyabi would never forget that they had created a home for them to return to.

It was because of everyone who had supported him that he could say this now.

Miyabi Blackgarden refused to be taken in by the enemy’s way of thinking as he spoke straight to her face!!

“The world is a warm and gentle place. I need every last one of you, so I will not offer anyone up as sacrifice!!”

He made a wish.

“So you wake up too.”

He was no longer speaking to Philia Shout.

“Lend me your power.”

He raised his voice to a shout.

“Almaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!”

He had no reason to think this would work.

He knew nothing about Wicked God physiology.

But.

He was absolutely certain.

“ Koo …”

Absolutely certain he would hear that voice.

Absolutely certain that Alma would get up and rub against his ankles like normal.

“This isn’t possible.” It was Philia Shout’s turn to be baffled. “I refuse to accept something with no mass or proof.”

“You believe in the invisible Missing Dice, but you throw out something happening before your very eyes if you don’t like it? Sound like you live in a very limited world!!”

It happened all of a sudden.

“Kooo!!”

Philia Shout covered her ears.

Miyabi heard a shrill phantom noise similar to the ringing caused by sorcery bombs. Kananka and Number 8 frowned a little too.

But it had to be so much worse for her. The precision of her senses came back to bite her. The 11th was now grimacing and curled up on the ground. The untouchable Philia Shout was acting like someone suffering from crippling tinnitus.

The mother roared with eyes that seemed to be cursing the cause of the headache.

“Almaaaa!!!??? Is this horn resonance? No, did you drag the massless Missing Dice to the ‘surface’ to apply pressure to my horns!?”

“You yourself said people are free to do whatever they want with something that came from their body, right?” Miyabi Blackgarden held out his control sword and shouted while walking forward with the others. “This is the power of the bonds that tie us together! I will not let you reject something we created ourselves. You don’t get to call this unfair, 11th!!”

Her lips were trembling.

“Curse…”

She held her head in pain, her long hair covered the monstrous expression on her face, and the light of her eyes pierced through that hair to stare straight at Miyabi.

“Yes, yes. Curse you and your pathetic attempts!!”

Her resentment leaked out like she was tearing at her skin.

A change came over her.

Her gentle demeanor was gone.

That meant things would be truly lethal now. She was done playing and would bare her fangs.

Miyabi had shown off his creation of bonds – that power that tied them together. He had not held back. He had used everything he had and sworn to defeat the Mother of Wicked Gods.

So this was still not enough.

They were on a mountain summit, but it was not all that high up. There was no seemingly insurmountable height difference to overcome like with the Huge Eye.

The very moment before the light of Philia Shout’s eyes grew lethal, Kananka Fulpen’s boomerang flew along a perfect arc. It was not simply aimed for the side of the Mother of Wicked Gods’s head.

“The wind, temperature, and humidity check out. There’s no margin of error, so just go straight in!!” shouted the young king.

A giant mass slammed into her from the side.

“Huh?”

It was a Godhorn Tech.

The massive form crashed nose-first into her at max speed like a divine hammer.

Time seemed to freeze. Its main wings were spread more powerfully than a dragon’s and they had a message roughly drawn on with a toxic-looking blood-red paint: Don’t forget about me, motherfucker!!

The explosive boom of their final party member’s arrival only reached them after a short delay.

The Lucifer Horn’s sonic boom acted as the starting pistol for the final counterattack against the horned one.

### Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 8

Shortly before the clash, a blond-haired, brown-skinned boy lay collapsed on the beach.

Ginger was sprawled out among all the rubble.

The ocean was dyed with the colors of death.

Night had fallen, but he had no memory at all of the sunset.

“Sigh, I had a feeling this would happen. I can run and I can train, but it always falls apart in the end. Is there nowhere I can just live in peace?”

But.

Noticing someone moving out the corner of his eye, Ginger Sandstrike sat up. His surroundings were too horrific to look at. The castle had collapsed, rubble was strewn everywhere, and food had been dumped on the filthy ground. At this rate, they would have a hard time defending themselves against the island’s wild animals and undead Beast Novae.

However.

A maid trapped in a giant suit of armor was holding a broom. Angela Custardmare was sweeping away the smaller stones and cleaning off enough of the ground for a limited workspace.

Dancer Iris Tempinvy was gathering up the usable White Sorcery Items and running around to treat the injured.

Sophia Calamity-Jinx, with the colorful will-o’-the-wisps following her around, cast some illumination magic to light everyone’s work.

And the dwarf named Garett Goldcave held a giant hammer.

But not to destroy something. He was a blacksmith, so that hammer was used to create.

“What?” Ginger asked an honest question. “What could you possibly be trying to create now that everything’s been reduced to rubble?”

“A chance,” bluntly replied Garett. “The Lucifer Horn was washed ashore. It could have stayed out in the ocean after failing its water landing, but it came up to the shore even if that meant scraping its belly in the shallows. It wants our help.”

“But it can’t talk or even give us a polite smile.”

“So what? When you work with metal every day, you learn that metals and other inorganic materials have moods. They have souls of their own. That Godhorn Tech used its last ounces of strength to rely on us, the people pathetically collapsed among all this rubble. It found something only we could do and hoped we would do it. …If you ask me, that shines a lot brighter than a million words or the perfect smile. That Godhorn Tech hasn’t given up yet. It’s still trying to fight alongside Miyabi. If we can do something for the Lucifer Horn, then that kid and the others can strike back at the 11th for all of us. I’d create anything to accomplish that.”

That wasn’t Ginger’s point.

He was asking where all this trust came from. Miyabi had gathered everyone here and they had done a lot to support him, but he had only gathered them because it was necessary and he had been willing to destroy it when that was necessary.

And yet…

“He never apologized. He never said he was sorry. He didn’t even give us a ‘my bad’,” said Garett. “But the kid was crying. Maybe he didn’t think anyone would notice while covered in dust and surrounded by collapsing rubble, but I did.”

“…”

That was the same as the Lucifer Horn.

It meant more than a million words or a polite smile.

“It pained him to do that, but that was the only way he had to protect us from those sorcery bomb things. So he shouldered the entire burden himself. …Do I need to say more? I’d have already started working at this point if I were you.”

“I’m in, I’m in. I am so in,” interrupted Lillian Greenforest.

She looked like a young woman with brown skin and a bare midriff, but she was actually a long-eared dark elf survivor who got by renting out her own body for magical experiments.

“We need to at least get the thing flyable. I know so much about the devastating magical research humans love so much. None of it ended up having the potential to destroy the world, but I’m sure it can still come in handy on a Godhorn Tech.”

“Are you sure? I thought your goal was vengeance on the humans who burned down your forest,” whispered Garett who also saw humans as another species, but the dark elf lady only shrugged.

“Honestly, I can hardly believe it myself. …I never even dreamed I would come across someone who pissed me off more than humans.”

“…”

“Let’s prove we aren’t out of the fight yet. Let’s grab that elf knight acting all depressed over there. We should be able to do some interesting things with the power of the Demon Lord possessing him. And what about the others? There’s that self-styled researcher of a dancer, the Godhorn Tech designer, and that cursed chain hoping to decurse itself. No, we don’t need to restrict ourselves to the intellectuals. That martial arts freak, the queen of the battle arena, and the gambler bunny might have some interesting ideas no one else would have considered. We just have to figure out a way to make their crazy ideas a reality.”

“Fshoo shoo shoo!!” The laughter muffled by an octopus-like mask came from Marietta Diggrave. She was a professional salvage hunger who visited an inhospitable red land and dug up valuable magic books and experimental equipment. “I know a lot about imperial technology. Wouldn’t it be super exciting to add some lost technology in there to give us an edge? Nwohhh bshoo bshoo! Let’s make the ultimate giant robot formed by the combination of 5 smaller robots!!”

“A-again, we just have to get it flying again. Don’t give us extra work,” said Sophia. She had will-o’-the-wisps flying around her, but she was not a ghost yet. She could not just stand around nervously without contributing. “U-um. I have a decent stock of old documents and lost technologies, so could those come in handy?”

“Oh, and I know a lot about the collections of those awful nobles. You know, because I was such a popular maid that they kept fighting over me and even trying to kill me!”

Angela Custardmare hopped up and down in her giant armor as she spoke.

Charlotte Nightlagoon sighed as she listened to it all.

That mermaid had completed a magic potion to transform herself into human and now she was searching for some way of returning to the ocean.

“If you need unknown magical techniques, I might be able to help. You all live on the land, so you’ve never even seen the magic of the mermaid kingdom hidden on the bottom of the sea, have you? I doubt the 11th has either, so just as she’s mocking you for using stuff she’s already seen, we blast her with something she doesn’t even recognize.”

All of this was only the beginning.

“What should I hunt?” asked Harber Snipe-Eat with a glance toward the forest. Gang Daughter Phobia Neverjudge reached into her shoe and pulled out the hidden plans to a weapon. They were gradually gathering everything they would need. They should have just given up, but they instead began presenting their own trump cards. Even though it would be a refutation of their own lives if this failed too.

All of these people were willing to accept that risk to help out.

For Miyabi who continued to fight on the front line.

And for the world he was trying to save.

“Listen, Lucifer Horn.”

The old dwarf placed a hand on the bomber that had washed up on the beach.

He rubbed it with his wrinkled palm.

“This isn’t over yet. We’ll give you a chance. We’ll make sure you can fly again. So you soar through the sky faster than anyone and arrive in time to save Miyabi. That’s your job.”

Ginger Sandstrike sighed softly.

He was a guardian, a specialist who buried his clients’ pasts and secrets deep in the ruins found in the vast desert.

There had to be something he could do.

“Hmph.” He spoke to the dwarf blacksmith. “Old man, what should we start with?”

He crawled out from the rubble just once more.

There was something he wanted to tell Miyabi the next time he saw the boy. But he had to do something here if those words were going to carry any weight.

All this work here would be worth it to see the look on his face.

Yes.

They all began working with the pile of rubble so they could send a message.

But Ginger Sandstrike was focused on something other than the implied message.

He instead grabbed a can of red paint.

“Lucifer Horn.”

With paint can and brush in hand, the ill-tempered desert guardian climbed onto the main wings and grinned.

He was a bad boy.

So he painted out a rude message on that large canvas.

“Can you pass on this message? I think it succinctly describes how we all feel and what it is you want to say.”

### Profiles

Philia Shout

Apparent Age: 17 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 170cm

Mastermind behind the sorcery bombings and the originator of all Wicked Gods. Her mere presence rewrites people’s values. She insists that the Wicked Gods she sends into the world must be the ultimate life forms that cannot be harmed by anyone, so she cannot accept that humans are breaking off their horns and stealing their power. Her power is great, including the ability to create Wicked Gods and the horns that grow freely from her body. She also places no limits on her own abilities because she does not see why she should need anyone’s permission to use her own power.

### 045. Chapter 10

### Chapter 10 Section 1

People are foolish.

But in the end, they worked together and found the right answer.

They stood on the summit of a nameless mountain.

The broad, flat summit was void of vegetation and it contained the stone altar where a juvenile’s horn was broken off to create the world’s first Godhorn Tech. This was the first and final battlefield.

A distorted tone rang out.

The Lucifer Horn had charged in and torn off a layer of the summit with its massive form. All so it could crush Philia Shout, the 11th and the Mother of Wicked Gods.

A white beam surged forth at the same time.

The ultra-close-range shot was fired with the muzzle pressed against the side of her head.

“Gh.”

However.

The girl remained standing, her head only tilted a bit to the side.

She had not lost a single drop of blood.

In fact, the Lucifer Horn’s course had been altered, forcing it to take a large turn in midair to recover.

Lucifer Shout made some adjustments to her voice as if correcting some kind of error.

“Gekuslba. Asback. Tlets. Ahh, there we go. I have had enough of you. It’s time I obliterated you. I don’t have time to waste on fools who can’t understand creation or destruction.”

All the horns on her body shrank down for a moment before jutting out like spring-loaded contraptions. Every part of her soft, feminine skin was decorated with the sinister Wicked God horns that could destroy the entire continent.

The sharp horns came from all ten of her fingers and several of them squirmed like wings on her back. In all, it looked like she should have had trouble moving.

Glaring eyes peered out through the gaps in her bright pink hair.

“I might as well destroy this world. It certainly isn’t worth preserving!!!!!!”

The air roared.

Pink light danced all around her. Most likely, only Miyabi Blackgarden and a few others could see that light. Those boxy will-o’-the-wisps trailing pink light were the true identity of the sorcery bombs. They each gained different textures: stone, dirt, grass, wood, etc. Once they were embedded in the background, they would fully transform into that material and begin the countdown to doomsday.

Except…

“No, I’m through being sneaky.”

Something materialized and was cut out of the ground.

It looked about the size of an ordinary wooden box, but with a smooth red surface. It floated above Philia Shout’s palm.

That was a warning color – the color used to tell someone they were about to cross a line not meant to be crossed.

The blood-red bomb glowed in the darkness.

“So now I will attack more directly, leaving no piece of this world remaining. Mommy is saying she will clean up your mess, so at least you’ll be clean when you disintegrate!!!!!!”

Had she been pushed to this point?

Instead of hiding the bomb, she simply tossed it with a single hand.

“Ahh!?”

“Koo!!”

“I can sense it too. There’s this tingling pressure on my skin…is that a sorcery bomb!?” shouted Alicia Blueforest while tilting back a test tube to drink the physical boosting potion inside.

With the power this exposed, even the others could sense it.

If not for a flash of light that seemed to slice through space itself, Miyabi’s party may have been blown away along with the entire mountain.

The Lord of Ruin had drawn his sword.

Helen Clockgear gulped.

“It didn’t work, but since she threw it, physical contact must be the key. It may detonate after hitting someone or falling to the ground. Once that happens, there is no evading or defending. Armor means nothing against a sorcery bomb, so be careful!”

But surely this irregular action meant Philia Shout had lost sight of a guaranteed strategy.

The mother held her head in her horned hands and glared at Alma.

She could not defeat someone she should have defeated with ease.

She had been injured where she should have been invulnerable.

Of course she felt fear. Miyabi knew how it felt after having his own assumptions overturned so many times.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

“!?”

Philia Shout gave a start, but it was too late.

By then, Miyabi’s outstretched hand had already created a right triangular staircase out of stone.

The attacker had jumped up from the top of the Layer Stairs, so making a quick horizontal slash of the space in front of her was not enough to repel him.

Yes, the attacker.

The Lord of Ruin had leaped into the air.

He refused to kill a Wicked God no matter what, but their mother was a different matter. That distinction might seem contradictory, but it made perfect sense to the wielder of the demon blade.

Yes.

If she would harm her own children like a mother cat would kill and eat her kittens under certain circumstances, then he would do anything to separate them and protect the Wicked Gods.

For that, he was willing to wield the demon blade bearing the name of calamity.

“En garde!!”

After leaping from the top of the stone stairway, his blade dropped down like a guillotine.

The Mother of Wicked Gods immediately moved back.

But the masked old man’s sword was decorated with blood.

It was not much, but he had left a wound on her soft(-looking) cheek.

Then it happened.

“Grrrrr!!”

With rough movements, Philia Shout used her many sharp horns to slice off and tear away everything within reach: the trees, the flowers, the bugs, and even the animal bones.

She pulled them all toward her.

But was she really eating them?

Maybe it was all being absorbed into her large chest, maybe she was crushing and chewing it with her armpits, and maybe it was being directly absorbed into her palms.

Whatever the case, she curled up in a ball with her hands full, leaving her entirely open to attack. Yet Miyabi’s party could not move in that moment. They were overwhelmed and absorbed by the spectacle.

They could not let this mystery remain a mystery.

They sought understanding first and foremost.

But in the end, there was only one way of describing it.

“She’s s-swallowing all forms of life and traces of life around her?” groaned Eliza Silverstorm.

“Fusing with it may be more accurate. Whether organic or inorganic, she is directly absorbing the Palette Dice that form our world and converting them into power,” said the Necromancer while looking to the woman she could never see eye to eye with.

Then Kananka Fulpen realized something.

Something was squirming stickily along the horned girl’s soft skin.

No.

“Such suction. It’s even healing her wound!” he shouted.

“There’s no end to this if she can just do that forever!” added Celina in a frantic voice.

“Koo!!” cried Alma.

“Yeah, only if we let her do it forever!!” agreed Miyabi.

He adjusted his grip on the control sword that was a little small for a two-hand blade and charged in. She seemed to notice.

With a loud clang, she blocked his sword with a stone in her hand. But Miyabi was the one smiling.

“You sure you want to do that? Use that for defense and you can’t absorb it.”

“!?”

“That’s right. You’re supposed to focus on healing when that’s your goal. No matter how absurdly powerful you are, you can’t do everything at once!!”

They had to keep her from healing.

Or they had to damage her defenseless body faster than she could heal.

Eliza Silverstorm’s lance and Acacia and Ixea’s giant axes used their great attack power to repeatedly strike Philia Shout with attacks that could be fatal if she failed to respond to them.

“Nwaaahhhh!!!!!!” roared Onelife Shiftup as he charged in with enormous cutlass at the ready.

Those powerful attacks rarely hit, but they did devastating damage when they did. She had no choice but to respond and put off healing until later. This pirate had, after all, killed a Wicked God.

She glared at them with a look that felt like a curse.

The mother’s façade of confidence crumbled away. Her irritation became plain to see.

And either way…

“Ohhh!” shouted Onelife.

“It appears to be working.” Number 8 smiled a little. “My attacks should be powerful enough to accomplish the same thing.”

The one had a metal prosthetic hand and the other a morning star linked by electricity.

They made even more attacks before Philia Shout could strike back at the girls. And that was not all. Kananka’s boomerang informed them of the wind and air conditions while Celina’s rifle and Elaine’s bow provided further distractions for the 11th. By continuing the attack, the reckless challengers kept themselves safe on a mountain summit with nowhere to hide.

They did not allow their foe to heal or counterattack.

Miyabi adjusted his grip on the control sword and raised his voice again.

“This is over, 11th. We won’t give you a way out!!”

They all challenged her at once.

Philia Shout was undoubtedly fearsome, but she could be defeated.

Supposedly, anyway.

However.

“Hey, wait. This is insane!” shouted Alicia.

“How have you not accomplished anything after hitting her that many times!?” groaned the Philosopher’s Stone who was apparently keeping track.

“I am the strongest all on my own.” Philia Shout grumbled to herself while swaying side to side. “Yes, I cannot be defeated here.”

“Koo!!”

“So what if you’re the strongest!?” shouted Miyabi.

“Koooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!” responded Alma.

Alma’s call was answered by several smooth, yellow cubes falling from the sky. Seeing those unnatural boxes scattering strange sparks, Philia Shout stiffened and took a clear step back.

The yellow glow was a different warning color from the red cubes.

They were not as dangerous as the red wielded by the mother. They were not too far gone to return to the path of safety. The red coldly announced you had moved beyond the point of no return, but this warning kindly stopped you and gave you a chance. Hence, the yellow light.

“Kh!?”

And she had to have noticed something else.

She had let all the other attacks hit her, but for the first time, she flinched. That reaction proved that they had found a weakness in the supposedly untouchable Mother of Wicked Gods.

“Did the 11th just flinch!?” observed Helen.

“She did!!” confirmed Eliza.

Philia Shout realized there was no point trying to hide it.

She instead focused on understanding and overcoming.

“ Are these high-energy blocks the Missing Dice ?” she asked. “ No, they aren’t even sorcery bombs. ”

And.

She reached the destructive answer.

“ Th-they don’t explode? They constantly draw on the horn’s energy yet remain stable !?”

“Nwohhhh!! This goes way over my head, but now’s our chance! I don’t know if we can actually damage her, but keep pushing and knock her into those sparking thiiiiiiiiiiings!!”

The others didn’t need Onelife’s prompting.

They could not ignore this.

Their attacks might not damage her, but they could at least physically push her. More of those sparking things fell down each time Alma cried, so Celina used her rifle, Kanaka his boomerang, and Elaine her bow. Those projectile weapons struck the cubes to give them erratic movements like they had a life of their own.

Finally, Philia Shout had nowhere left to escape.

She was surrounded.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

The sparking boxes suddenly rose up from the ground.

Miyabi had stimulated the ground to stack up several dirt cubes as a wall. The shaking of the ground pushed the sparking boxes up.

The fearsome boxes rolled like dice and left the ground to fly through the air. Miyabi didn’t even need to see the 11th’s widened eyes to tell that this had finally surpassed Philia Shout’s calculations.

They made contact.

The instant his control sword slammed into the sharp horn emerging from her elbow, she lost her balance and the sparks touched her right heel.

The heel contained a thick tendon, making it a weak point no one could train.

In the blink of an eye, the dreadful sparks raced up from her foot to the rest of her body.

“K-kooo!!!???”

“So even their original mother goes ‘koo’ when she cries out,” noted Number 8.

“Oh, dear. Is it over already? If so, I’ve lost all interest in researching you,” spat the Necromancer, striking the ground with her tongue whip.

“You’re the best, boss!”

“How can this be?”

Philia Shout stared at her own hands more than her enemy.

Specifically, at the horns growing from them.

Fine cracks ran through those horns until the finally broke off. They seemed to be losing their power, drying out from the inside, and deteriorating.

Had the core or marrow within burned away?

Her fingers became nothing more than the soft fingers of a girl. The horns covering her arm and leg joints crumbled away and thick cracks ran through ran through the white armor covering her chest and hips.

“I am the strongest. I was born with this power!!”

“So what if you’re the strongest?” said Miyabi straight to her face. “Who’s going to accept you as strongest if all you do is push others down to climb even higher on your own? Hell, I doubt you can accept it yourself.”

“!?”

“Alma’s suffering isn’t just about getting us involved in this mess too. Alma regrets having to turn on a fellow Wicked God and the mother of them all, so she wants to save you this time. It was that conviction that gave her the strength to climb back up onto the stage!!”

This time, they would push back.

They would push back and have their way.

“So we can’t lose.” Miyabi stared straight at her with the control sword gripped tight in his hands. “Alma decided to question the silly divisions between enemy and ally and to create a new path and that’s something that can never lose to a supposed strongest that can only destroy!!!!!!”

Philia Shout used her own projectiles to destroy the sparking cubes and Alma dropped more of them from the sky.

Miyabi charged in among it all.

He swung down his sword and Philia Shout bent backwards. But the Mother of Wicked Gods had a fierce smile on her lips. She had fallen back, but none of the sparking boxes of agony were there. The encirclement had been incomplete. She had slipped through a gap to find safety.

But she realized her mistake a moment later.

Yes, even if she had only wobbled from unexpected damage, it had been a mistake to create even the slightest opening.

“From the control sword to the horn core. Lucifer Horn – tactical open.” Miyabi flipped his sword around and stabbed it into the ground. “Blow her away, Lucifer Horn!!!!!!”

A thick beam of light dropped from the sky.

The attack seemed to burn away the entire summit, its shockwave and tremor rattling the world itself. The many agony boxes were sent airborne once more. The density of yellow changed, truly surrounding the mother in a deadly cage this time. It resembled a dome.

Miyabi was close enough to distinctly see her cheek tense.

“This isn’t over yet!!” she roared.

“So what if it isn’t?”

He raised his sword once more.

A normal blade could not harm her at this point and he was well aware of that.

But he did not give up.

“Did you think we’d give up just because we hadn’t perfected it the first time? You’re the one that refuses to allow the slightest flaw or mistake. You’re the one that gets too frustrated to even listen to your opponent’s excuses. You’re the only one left trembling from that kind of weakness !!”

A roar of impact followed.

Impact with one of the yellow cubes that had been knocked up from the ground.

Miyabi had swung his control sword horizontally, striking one of Alma’s manifestations of destruction that could supply critical damage to the Mother of Wicked Gods on contact.

Intense and tingling pain entered through his wrists and clutched at his heart.

The color white exploded in his mind.

For a moment, he nearly forgot where he even was.

But.

But his reckless attack had made a real difference.

He didn’t mind the pain.

As long as he could gather up the opportunities created by the others and make use of them here. As long as he could bring an end to the 11th’s attacks and protect the party who had fought alongside him. He focused on that through the pain and swung his sword as hard as he could, even if it made him cough up blood.

Just as Philia Shout was going to slip free of the surrounding cubes, he sealed off her exit and slammed one of the yellow cubes into her like a bullet!!!!!!

“Gahhh!!!???”

She arched her back.

The redhead boy had taken exactly the same amount of damage, but he had a smile on his face when he saw it.

This would give them a future.

So he would pursue her as far as it took. He might be injured too, but it meant something entirely different for her!!

Miyabi and Alma’s combined attacks had surrounded and cornered Philia Shout!!!!!!

“What…is happening?”

When she came to a stop, the yellow “bullets” hit her one after another. She could not avoid those deadly cubes as they contacted her in quick succession with their unnatural sparks that flowed deep inside the body of what looked like a slender girl.

None of the sharp horns adorning her body remained.

Time seemed to speed back up to normal and the strange-colored boxes dropped to the ground. Miyabi had made it through that tense moment. Yes, it was over.

He had to stab his sword into the ground and clench his teeth, but his trembling legs stayed beneath him. He remained standing.

More than his own life and destiny were riding on this, so he refused to let his own will make him collapse.

Philia Shout, on the other hand, fell to her knees.

She still couldn’t believe what had happened.

She had always had only herself and she could no longer hold her shoulders level.

“How did this…happen to me?”

So in the very end, it was confusion that filled her.

“I don’t recognize…this strength.”

Then she fully collapsed.

All of her horns had fallen out and only her pink hair blew in the mountain wind. She had been reduced to a pitifully defeated girl.

It ended in silence.

“You’ll understand someday,” said Miyabi, crouching down.

He took the collapsed girl’s hands and moved them to her back. He tied them together with some rope he found. He had his doubts that would accomplish much with the Mother of Wicked Gods, so it was more of a ritual to mark the battle as over in his mind.

“Once you learn to accept your weakness and rely on others.”

“Koo…”

“Yeah,” he agreed. He let out a soft breath, wiped the blood from his lips, and looked down at that living legend. “Let’s head home and rejoin the others.”