novelraw Chapter 354
Chapter 354
Chapter 354
The amplification-ability bishop must have slipped out to escort the Space Magic bishop—the sounds of our comrades in pursuit came through the artifact. I twisted the corner of my mouth as I switched off both the send and receive functions.
CLANG—
The sound of Magic Power flowing along the blade pushing away a glob of mud scratched my ears sharply. Even with my eyes closed, it felt as though my pink Magic Power was sparking before me.
"Oh."
"Oh?! Is this really the time to be impressed…?!"
His words scattered by my ear. I could feel the flow of the air. The Vitriol that touched the sword didn't vanish immediately—it spread in fine droplets. Their tips would certainly be honed to razor points.
The instant I flicked the blade tip upward to unfurl a barrier, something thudded into the entire barrier surface, followed by the sound of cracking. A barrier was the wrong call. Right, obviously. Against attacks this finely dispersed…!
CRASH—!
Against a massive attack above a certain intensity threshold, however, it was different. One more swing of the sword formed another barrier, and I heard the previous barrier—which had been fragmenting—being shoved back. Since I couldn't see, even the sound of Mecklenburg gasping in surprise was pinned into my ears with hair-raising clarity."You must have watched the school exam footage, and yet you're staying surprised awfully long."
"Did you fight in that exam? You planned strategy!"
So noisy…. Though I supposed it was better for him to fix his gaze on me and focus on picking arguments than to lose his mind staring at that bishop's face.
"My strategy must have impressed you. I'm honored that you remember me, Senior."
"……."
"Are you actually happy to hear that in this situation?"
"No!"
"Certainly, compared to this situation, things were much safer back then."
But now, opening my eyes would actually make things more dangerous.
CLANG—!
The sound of deflecting Vitriol aimed at my throat was sharp. Some Vitriol splash partially dissolved my Divine Power barrier. Honestly speaking, the effect of that bishop's ability still lingered. I wanted to look at his face right now. Anxiety kept my mouth from closing, and my teeth kept gnawing on my lower lip. Neither the stealth bishop charging at me nor the Vitriol striking sharply from all directions was sufficient to suppress the compulsion. Only the conviction I had firmly held from before—that this stand had to end here—served as the sole brake.
Something rushed at me, then instantly shifted to my left. No—from the left, from the front too, things were charging in. I ducked low and kicked off with my left foot. The sword I brought down in a full spin clearly scraped hard against the hem of someone who must have been cloaked in stealth magic. Vitriol clung to the blade's tip.
SLASH—
I heard the opponent land somewhere. They could have pressed closer, but quickly escaped my range.
Shrewd. I'd noticed it when they initially targeted Elias's team instead of ours and then belatedly switched to capturing us—they were quick at calculating immediate profit and loss, overflowing with confidence but devoid of pride.
'Well, it's no time for pride.'
Through all of this, Mecklenburg's sword blocked the attacks hitting my back. I could hear him panting and groaning. His body wouldn't be obeying him as he wished, which must have been maddening. In any case, my words about testing how much he could endure hadn't been idle talk. Even I, who merely heard mechanical sounds from Elias, was this helpless against a mental-type unique ability—so how would my friends, how would this senior, fare? I could fully appreciate how desperately Mecklenburg, with both eyes free, was pouring his all into supporting me.
Since he hadn't stolen my attention when we first engaged, the ability wasn't always active—it must be something he toggled on and off—and judging by appearances, its duration wasn't long. He must have drawn out his ace among aces. Which meant….
WHOOSH—
"Hah…."
They would try anything to restore my line of sight. The instant I bent backward at the waist against the rushing air, Vitriol blazed across the bridge of my nose. Letting out a breath that was half a scoff, I whipped my bent torso around and entrusted my sword to the flow of the air. No matter how cunning they were, having already activated their ability once, they'd naturally want to seize this opportunity—meaning we shared the same objective, and thus each held the other's weakness. They would give their all just as desperately as we did. I murmured as if to myself, addressing Mecklenburg.
"If we doused them in water… it wouldn't do much damage."
"In that state, you could throw them in a river and it wouldn't matter. And how are you going to get liquid in a situation like this?!"
In that state.
I see. Noted. At that instant, the Pleroma's voice I'd heard earlier faintly reached my ears, which had been sensitized by channeling all into Magic Power.
[Earth Spirit, you are nearer to me.]
Had my hearing not been my sole reliance, I'd have dismissed it as a murmur.
'Is that the stealth bishop? …No. The mental-type ability user keeps using special incantations in this fashion.'
Something was slightly off. This verse was from the preceding context of the incantation they'd chanted earlier—a line spoken by a different character. What they were chanting now was Faust's dialogue, but what they'd previously chanted was the Spirit's dialogue berating Faust. Used alone it might not have caught my attention, but the deliberate regression—bringing in Faust's dialogue from just before the Spirit devastates him—nagged at me.
'If the content had been entirely unrelated, it wouldn't have caught my attention at all….'
How kind of them to chant an adjacent incantation and hand me a clue. I didn't know all of Pleroma's incantations and therefore couldn't know which spell was linked to which, but given this, I could discern one thing. I let out a light chuckle, switched my sword to a Staff, and whispered.
"My powers, higher still. [If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish!]"
[My powers seem to rise, clearer and stronger, I glow as with new wine!]
CRASH—!
The Vitriol cast with an amplification formula collided with my Magic Power, to which I'd applied the same effect.
"…!"
Mecklenburg drew a sharp breath as I blocked the Pleroma's following incantation in kind.
"You're not even Pleroma—how did you know what attack was coming…?"
"You're perfectly capable of figuring that out too, Senior."
If they were going this route, it meant what they were chanting right now was not context-dependent magic. The spell formulas registered in their world might have disregarded context from the start, or they might have arbitrarily done so. At least for this passage's verses, they intended to use not the context of the verse but the imagery evoked by the words themselves to manifest magic, and considering that person's ability and the ensuing verses, it was obvious what imagery they ultimately intended to realize.
'The next verse is… the ceaselessly battering.'
[Clouds gather above my head! The moon dims its light and the lamp goes out!]
'Oh.'
CRASH—!
A curveball…. Annoying. They'd skipped a line. The spell's nature seemed different for that verse. The tremor from the impact swept through my body, disrupting my senses. I stacked two barriers to shove the Vitriol plummeting overhead back toward where they stood. I heard someone kick off the ground and Magic Power landing on the Vitriol, corroding it. The bishops' Vitriol was gradually spreading through the air, making it harder to breathe.
"The Vitriol is really choking the air…."
"Why aren't you using it?"
Mecklenburg asked quietly. Using what? Obviously, he was referring to Divine Power. I answered quietly.
"If I detonated it and this Vitriol dome melted, everyone would see, wouldn't they?"
"…Isn't that saying you're confident?"
Sharp reading. Was this, like before, a situation where I couldn't hope for anyone's help? If I used everything I had, there was no need to take unnecessary risks and reveal my hand in the heart of enemy territory. Feeling the Magic Power wrapped around my core, I snapped my fingers.
"Senior, could you find the underground water veins beneath this ground? Given the streams nearby, this can't be dry land."
"Even if I find them, making it fight gravity and breach through this thick earth is—!"
BOOM—
Vitriol clumped together from the ground and surged toward the dome's sky. Mecklenburg immediately shattered my Sound Insulation Magic and stomped. Trapped like rats. Vitriol battered our surroundings wildly.
"Did I say to make it surge up? Would I give such an order?"
[Mists swirl around me, red rays dart about my head and flicker—a horror floats down from the vaulted ceiling and overwhelms me!]
The Pleroma's incantation. An unfamiliar red light fixed on my forehead. Even with eyes closed, the light was strong enough to register immediately.
"I'll drain them. I mean collapse it, Senior."
"There's no time to find water channels right now! They're targeting you—!"
"When was I ever not a target?! Hurry!"
Had even this guy gotten unnecessarily attached? I bellowed, kicked off the ground, and ran the opposite direction. My heart jolted. Befitting a bishop with a mental-type unique ability. The fear described in that incantation locked my legs rigid. A homing projectile locked precisely on my head and followed. The instant I stopped to slam my Staff down, it would pierce me.
[The Lord Almighty will punish them with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of devouring fire.]
I poured force into my feet and kicked off once more. Beneath my feet, I could picture red Magic Power filling this massive dome.
[Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night!]
CRASH—!
I'd been saving it in case my strength failed, and sure enough. The Vitriol they were pouring out was pushed away from me, but they stood unscathed. A bishop slammed his Staff down and chanted.
[To bravely bear life's unceasing storms—]
Seeing it used now confirmed it—this had been a defensive formula. The voice had grown loud enough to hear without straining. Incantations that started quietly and grew louder shared a common trait. That commonality: when panic set in, they all sought the imagery in a louder voice, as if affirming it to themselves.
[Bearing eye-twisting grief and flashing rapture—in harmony with the charging storm, it seems I would not tremble even at shipwreck!]
CRASH— BOOM—!
"Her Excellency Albertina Hohenzollern has eliminated the amplification-ability bishop! Four total remain!"
Mecklenburg shouted. The corner of my mouth rose. Vitriol corroding my Divine Power barrier streamed down my clothes. I reinforced the barrier and spoke.
[Forgive us our sins, as we also have forgiven those who sinned against us.]
[The spirit I have summoned—.]
My words and the enemy's incantation cut off simultaneously.
'The spirit I have summoned, you are near me, reveal yourself.' That was the incantation that should have followed, and I could anticipate the magic it would have produced.
After the illusion of Vitriol slamming my entire body, the cloth over my eyes came loose and my vision flooded crimson. A hallucination followed, as if the ground were flipping over. A hallucination. My heart pounded, but it wasn't real… the verse he'd been chanting had clearly indicated this was hallucination, not reality. Now! At Mecklenburg's shout with all his might, I slammed my Staff into the void beneath the overturned earth.
CRASH—
[…Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.]
RUMBLE—! CRASH—!
Comfortable darkness blanketed my vision again. My center shook and my heart felt as though it plummeted—a sensation that washed through my entire body. That couldn't possibly be happening, so I clenched my teeth and steadied myself on the barrier. The instant I tore off the blindfold, I could see the ground had collapsed beneath the translucent red-and-yellow barrier. Familiar plant stalks were wrapping tightly around my rising and falling chest. Fast. I'd only just called and he was here already. Gratefully, these familiar stalks were still pouring into the pit below, preventing the bishops from climbing out.
"We work well together."
I turned at the familiar voice—the Vitriol dome had already been dismantled, and Mecklenburg's Space Magic had broken too. Leo had arrived here with Hindenburg. Mecklenburg, gasping for breath, let his Wand tip drop toward the floor, and with a chilling sound like a dam bursting, water flooded the pit.
RUMBLE—
Vitriol surged above the water and then, after about a minute, stopped. Nausea rose. The relief of liberation from threat melted through my body. I turned on every function of the artifact and spoke.
"All units be advised. Two eliminated. Two remain."
[Commander, the last two bishops' location has been found. I'll read you the coordinates.]
Yes, well done. With over forty people on our side outside, they'd better have found them. I breathed in the clean air outside the Vitriol dome and spoke.
"98th A Mecklenburg. And we currently have eight mages capable of using Divine Power. The moment we move there, we overlay Space Magic simultaneously. Given one has the Space Magic ability, there's a high chance of flight, but we have to try."
The instant those words ended, a panicked shout came.
[They've fled! They've fled! One of them keeps casting warp spells!]
"……."
I pressed my forehead, let out a long breath, and nodded.
"Wittelsbach, search please."
"Yes."
Leo struck his Staff into the ground once more.
"They didn't stay nearby—they moved to the outer edge entirely…. Wait."
Something seemed to have caught, because Leo tilted his head. At that moment, a New Human and an Old Human in bishop's vestments appeared before us. Before anyone could be startled, Mecklenburg flicked his Wand.
CRASH—!
"Whoa!"
"……."
I scrunched my face, wondering what was happening—and then the bishops who'd erected the Vitriol barrier swiftly threw their Wands to the ground and raised both hands.
"Please calm down. Calm down. You outnumber us, don't you? We have absolutely no intention of attacking."
"……."
I tilted my head and added force to the Wand I had trained on them. Earlier, someone had said 'one of them keeps casting warp spells.' That one would be the non-Space-Magic-ability user. The other had been conserving strength.
Having heard their voices over communications, several teams from our side who'd been engaging the other bishop warped here in droves.
[Commander. The person who was just speaking is the one who kept casting warp spells to flee.]
Someone who'd arrived here whispered into the artifact. Right, got it. The bishops surveyed the dozens of Wands aimed at them and let out a hollow laugh.
"What a terrifying sight. We came here to… meet Sir Askanian, who appears to be the person in charge. Could we create a temporary Space Magic field and talk, just the three of us?"
"Please speak here."
At that, the bishop looked around at us with a complicated expression and licked his lips. He clenched and unclenched his fist as though nervous, stretching his words out slowly.
"I have a family."
"So do I."
"Ah, yes…. Of course you do. But you see. I have a child not yet ten years old. My goal was to give that child eternal life. I understand you may not want to hear Pleroma's story. But the thing is."
"This is taking long. The point?"
"Could you give me just a little time? I know better than anyone how terrifying it is to lose family too soon. I don't want to leave my child—whom I love enough to wish eternal life upon—with the death of a parent. So…."
The bishop rambled, maddeningly slow. I let his words wash past me as I looked around. Narce wasn't here. But there were plenty of other Divine Power mages.
"If you let me go free, I won't hold anyone responsible for any of this."
"The diocese is already in this state, so how could you not hold—"
Someone began to speak, so I raised my hand to cut him off.
"At this rate, the conversation will drag on quite a while."
Let me think about this. In truth, attacking Munich-Freising as retaliation for the Brandenburg Archdiocese raid was, by my judgment, not the optimal choice. Setting aside the detailed reasons for later, I had proposed attacking somewhere other than Munich-Freising during strategy planning, and command and the imperial court had not accepted it.
'You hopeless bastards.'
But I wasn't ignorant of why they had specifically chosen Munich-Freising—it was a matter where positions differed depending on what each stakeholder prioritized—and since I and most others weren't in a position to defy them, we had come this far.
So what should I do? What was done was done—pull it up by the roots with everything I had.
By the time I'd finished thinking, the bishop was nodding.
"Yes. I understand. You can't trust my words, can you? Of course I understand…. I don't want to be misunderstood either. If you'll permit it, I'd like to be interrogated by the Papal State mage over there."
"……."
He'd request interrogation first. The instant I opened my mouth, the bishop's eyes went wide and he spoke rapidly.
"Ah! Yes. I should have said this first… I was so nervous I made a mistake. What I truly wanted to say was this. If you and His Majesty the King permit it, I wish to return to the Kingdom of Bavaria. I would be truly grateful if you'd take me to Bavaria."
Several mages exchanged glances. The bishop's voice was trembling badly, and more sincerity came through in that delivery than in any words. I almost wanted to study his technique. While I was letting his words pass through me, he kept pressing his case.
"Surely it's better to preserve one's life. Besides, I was growing sick of the Pleroma leadership's orders. Here—if you have restraints, you may put them on me. I know I must look like someone perfectly capable of causing you harm."
"……."
"Does no one have restraints? I don't want to be misunderstood any further. I've seen your capabilities amply demonstrated—I simply want to go down to Bavaria. I don't want my sincerity doubted. Isn't there anything similar?"
He said all this while standing rooted to the spot, gesturing at us. It was immediately obvious he was signaling us to hurry over with restraints.
"What do we do?"
Leo's bleak murmur. I glanced at the faces of several comrades being drawn into the bishop's words, then fixed my gaze on the bishop who kept talking and the other one standing behind him, swallowing hard with a pallid face. That bishop's gaze was directed at the bleeding members among our mages. My stomach churned. I knew exactly when that reaction appeared.
"Wittelsbach, I'm temporarily transferring field command authority for approximately one minute effective now."
"…?!"
CRASH—!
I blinked once. Kicking off the ground, I seized the collar of the other bishop—the one behind the talker. Shouts erupted from behind.
"Are you insane?!"
"Askanian!"
There was no other way. Right now, this was the only one.
Dropping a Wand was only symbolic. With hands still intact, there was no reason one couldn't cast magic. They were buying time to recover their last reserves of stamina…. The moment anyone stepped close, the Space Magic bishop hiding behind the decoy would have drunk their blood. Then, with recovered stamina, they'd planned to reconstruct the Space Magic leading back to Pleroma. Leo's command came through the artifact piercingly loud. Countless attacks converged at once, and I saw the horrified bishop's mouth fall open. The wind shifted again. Realizing the bishop had grabbed me and warped elsewhere, I saw his lips move as he chanted a formula.
"…!"
Incomprehensible agony struck from where he gripped me. It felt as though my skin, my eyes and nose and mouth, every sensory organ, were being disassembled. Yes, this was how it should go. This was exactly the kind of spot where the formula I'd been planning to use could be applied…. My mind grew hazy. Hope returned to the bishop's pallid face. His gaze turned toward the blood running down my face. Meanwhile, the artifact relayed the notification that the other bishop had been killed. I squeezed out every ounce of strength and shouted.
[If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it!]
"…! GAAARGH!"
In that instant, the bishop's face contorted. I could see his face crumpling in the same way as mine. Through this incantation, he was now sharing the pain I felt.
[Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it!]
Even moving my tongue was agonizing. I clung to the rationality that was bleaching white and chanted the reflection formula.
[For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.]
"AAAARGH! GKGH!"
[Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known!]
My entire body felt as though it were being incinerated. The heat made it impossible to think. Unlike the bishop before me, the disassembly formula had stopped working on me—but the partial magic that had already seeped in kept making everything fade. My vision, maybe—or some other sense. I couldn't even tell. But I couldn't let go here.
"You lunatic…! AAAARGH!"
SNAP—
From that moment, no sound reached me at all. Something seemed to drip from my eyes and mouth. The mage whose heart I'd been pressing lost all strength, and his arm went slack. It was quiet.
I rose to my feet. My vision swayed, so I slammed the Staff into the grass and leaned on it. It was over. The silence wasn't because my hearing had failed. There was no vibration whatsoever from the ground. The surroundings were melting, and this vast field was transforming into something else. With the ability user's death, the space was destined to follow its master into oblivion. In the pitch-black night, the archives' rear garden spread in all directions. I slowly raised my head. Bright moonlight illuminated the garden, and stone buildings and sculptures that had been invisible no matter how hard I'd looked were now visible.
Faint vibrations, light—the 91st Class Representative Mage and several of her comrades from another coordinate appeared and ran toward me. The 91st Class Representative Mage, running with a white face, propped me up, said something, and then, seeing my face show no response after a long while, slowly opened her mouth. Realizing the situation, she stepped back and gave me a hand signal.
"……."
I stared at her hand and raised the corners of my mouth slightly. Still, nothing reached my ears, and I couldn't hear my own vocal cords vibrate. But it didn't matter. Operation victory—in this situation, the message I needed to relay to receive permission to return was exactly one thing. I engraved the words I had rehearsed dozens of times into my mind and moved my tongue.
"It seems Saint Corbinian has sided with the Empire."