53 - Chapter 49: Invader of the SF World ~The Romance of a Man Who Still Cannot Fly~
Next time, the final episode of Part One.
In my childhood... I was thrilled by the sights I saw through a CRT monitor.
During adolescence... I fantasized through text and pictures, and even tried making things myself.
As an adult... I couldn't resist the social trend of calling such things childish, and I had to turn my back on what I loved.
To live, one must eat. To eat, one needs money. To get money, one must work. Then, what is it that one offers in exchange for work?
The answer is time and physical strength. Everyone has their own plus alpha, but these two points are common to all.
In modern society, Geoglyph was a politician until the moment before his death, but of course, he didn't run for office immediately upon turning 25. To get there, there was a period of working at an extremely ordinary company to build the necessary connections, collect deposits, and travel around to raise his name, accumulating power and experience.
To be honest, those days were so dry and tasteless that it's difficult even to try and remember them.
He simply moved mechanically, hiding his dissatisfaction, complaints, and fatigue, wasting his days just to turn them into money. Looking back, there wasn't a single interesting thing. Of course, since Geoglyph himself aspired to be a politician and this was merely a stepping stone period, there was no way he could be satisfied. Then one day, a long holiday appeared like a gaping void.
It started when a major client reduced production due to a global recession, significantly lowering their operating rate. Since they were the primary contractor and a world-famous company, the related companies, subsidiaries, and subcontractors all hit the brakes hard. From there, it was only a matter of time before it spread to other industries. The company he belonged to was no exception, and as a temporary measure, the company ordered everyone to use up their accumulated paid leave.
Geoglyph spat venom, thinking about how they wouldn't let him use it even when he applied, and how they'd cut off any amount exceeding the regulations as if paid leave didn't exist in the first place, yet he accepted the long holiday that could be called a mini-vacation. Now, what should I do? On the first morning of his break, he turned on the TV, and what was playing was a "Summer Vacation Children's Special."
At first, he felt a sense of nostalgia. He thought, there were things like that, too.
Next, he enjoyed himself while searching his memories, thinking, ah right, it was a story like this.
Before he knew it, he remembered the feelings from those days, and he searched his house with an intensity that felt like he was flipping it upside down to find the various works he had been obsessed with back then, and in the end, he spent his entire holiday doing just that.
That was when he realized it.
That men are creatures who can never forget the heart of a boy.
That is precisely why romance never dies, and the iron castle exists alongside a boy's heart.
"It's a shame that it's unfinished due to a lack of iron, and that it's a live trial without a test fire... but for an otaku, that's also stimulating! An unfinished ultimate weapon is the best!!"
As Geoglyph shouted in excitement, standing with his arms crossed in a powerful stance, the over 1,000 tons of iron ingots behind him began to change shape in response.
If Broken Reality were to be classified under existing magical studies, it would be the Zero-th Magic Formula, "Progenitor Magic." It is a magic with the characteristic of forming a field that materializes fantasies, but its use is not limited to imagination alone. Just as the nameless soldier called the Iron-Walled Fatty used his beloved spear as a catalyst, one may use existing things to omit, amplify, or reinforce the process.
What he dreamed of was a flying battleship.
To one day build a steel ship, float it in the sky, and sail that invincible battleship to the very sea of space... how many times had he had such fantasies?
Geoglyph remembers. The specs of "the strongest space battleship I thought of" that he had concocted with clumsy logic in his childhood. And he modifies and adapts them for this world.
"The hull shape is based on an old Imperial Japanese Navy battleship, but because it is equipped with a bow gun, a stored rotating ram, and six jet nozzles, the total length is 412m, total width 64m, and 87m when the main wings are deployed. The main engine is a prototype magic engine, and the auxiliary starting engine is a standard internal combustion engine..."
"G-Geo? ...Eh...?"
Latia calls out, worried about Geoglyph, who suddenly began muttering something to himself in a rapid-fire manner, but a giant tower is completed behind them as if to cut her off. Latia, who only noticed after entering its shadow, looked up at it blankly.
In terms of width, it was over 40m, and the total height was 100m. An iron tower appeared out of nowhere... that's what Latia, a resident of this world, thought. However, if there were a human here who had come from the same world, Earth, as the Three Idiots, they would have thought this.
Wait, isn't that just a cannon buried in the ground?
And if Geoglyph had heard that, he would have answered like this.
To be precise, it's the bow gun extracted from the main engine direct-link system. Because I didn't have enough iron, so it's unfinished.
That bow gun swayed unsteadily and then toppled over with a roar... no, it pointed its steel muzzle toward Delgamiride.
"Here we go, Latia!"
"Eh? Ah, wait...!?"
Geoglyph took the confused Latia's hand, moved behind the bow gun to a place resembling a bridge that he had hastily constructed, and took his position at the control panel installed there.
"Now then, let's try the longed-for firing sequence...!"
Cracking his knuckles and twisting the corner of his mouth, Geoglyph's fingers raced across the control panel.
"System, transition to bombardment sequence. Auxiliary engine start..."
Additional chanting!? Latia is terrified, but that's only half right. Magic is a world of images. This is, so to speak, a reinforcement of the image, but half of it is just an SF otaku's hype.
However, under the deployment of Broken Reality, that hype becomes an unparalleled power.
A dull metallic clank, the sound of air escaping, and then the sound of a motor drive echoed as the safety devices inside the bow gun were released. After a beat, a slight vibration was felt, and then Latia's ears caught a knocking sound at regular intervals. A heavy and slow engine sound, a 2-stroke diesel, which the people of this world have no way of knowing.
"Reached specified voltage. ...Prototype magic engine, ignition."
And at the moment of ignition, phosphorescence exploded and enveloped the bow gun.
"Hii..."
Latia involuntarily gasped at the surge of magical power, which was unlike anything she had ever felt, something that didn't seem to belong to this world. The spirits are running wild... no, they are excited. And it's not an indiscriminate or random movement, but a movement akin to joy for what is about to happen.
She is surprised by the state of their wild dancing, but Geoglyph, who cannot see the spirits, moves to the next step without particularly caring. Of course, while confirming the dance of the various instruments installed on the panel, he indulges in the pleasure of thinking that physical tachometers are indeed great.
"Prototype magic engine, pressure increase confirmed... emergency valves beginning full closure."
The closure valves to prevent pressure runaway are shut, and the steadily outputted magical power is sent into the pressure adjustment chamber.
"Line Barrel deployment. Firing lock system released. Bypass to chamber open. Direct link of all magic circuits confirmed. Gravity Anchor launched... fixation complete."
A short path of light is formed from the tip of the barrel, and the muzzle extends. At the same time, the safety of the bombardment acceleration device is released, and the energy path is established. Furthermore, anchors fly out to the left and right from the side of the barrel and pierce the plains, firmly fixing the barrel itself.
"Beginning parameter input, error correction due to weather and geomagnetism... complete. Output level set to maximum. Normal pressurization in the adjustment chamber. Rifling rotation start..."
Geoglyph hits the enter key on the control panel with a clack and watches the meter, and just before the limit zone.
"Trigger system activate...!"
Along with Geoglyph's words, an iron pedestal appeared before Latia's eyes. On that pedestal, something with a grip was installed, and even Latia, a resident of this world, could only understand that it was some kind of switch.
The other two idiots would have immediately understood, "Ah yes, the firing trigger for a Wave Motion Cannon."
"Latia. I'm busy controlling the output, so you do that."
"H-how should I?"
"Just pull the trigger there on my signal. I'll handle the aiming. I'm giving you the best part... I'm counting on you, Lati."
"...!? ...Eeeh!"
Suddenly called by her nickname in the voice of a Demon King, Latia was confused for a moment, but she braced herself and took her position at the gun mount. The elf-ski did not miss how the ears on the tips of her head stood straight up at that moment.
At any rate, the situation was ready.
"Magic output, rising...!"
The main engine roars and increases the pressure further.
But Delgamiride cannot possibly overlook the sudden appearance of something that manifests magical power approaching it. First, to scatter the Triad army clinging to it, it takes a new measure.
As it curls its body into a ball, the armor plates all over its body flip up, and hidden muzzles appear from there. Immediately after, light is fired in all directions, though on a smaller scale than the light of destruction fired from its palate.
In response to that, the Triad army.
"What the...!!"
Despite being hit, everyone evades through sheer willpower. Immediately after, they are healed by Lilitia's First Restoration Formula. However, due to the effect of that forced evasion, a slight gap is created.
The giant beast did not miss it.
Though not at maximum radiation, an aurora is fired from its palate toward the bow gun.
But.
"...Kazuha!"
At the end of Geoglyph's call... between the bow gun and Delgamiride, a fox-beastman girl was standing.
●
"Glass Steel!"
Against the approaching aurora, Kazuha takes a talisman from her bosom and throws it, immediately deploying a barrier.
Pouring all her strength into the front, a wall accompanied by honeycomb-structured phosphorescence appears. She further deploys additional layers, and a total of 12 barriers stand in the way of the aurora... and immediately 7 are penetrated. The 8th, which somehow held, soon cracks and shatters. The 9th is reached.
(As I thought, I'm just...!!)
Despair rears its head in Kazuha's mind at the sheer destructive power. As if reflecting her heart, the 9th also cracks. Squinting at the aurora, just as she was about to give up, thinking it wouldn't hold anymore.
"Yo, Kazuha. What's up, you scared?"
"Reiter-sama...!? It's dangerous here!"
A voice calls out from behind, and when she reflexively looks back, there is Reiter, smiling despite his exhausted face. He walks nonchalantly and stands beside Kazuha. In the most dangerous place on this battlefield right now. Despite having used up all his power, with nothing but his own body.
"It's fine. Sensei said it, right? That he'd grant everything you desire. ...You just have to imagine yourself reaching it someday."
"Myself, reaching it someday...?"
"A dream like, I want to be like that someday, or I want to be this way."
The 9th barrier shatters. The 10th is reached.
"Sure, there are plenty of people in the world who make fun of dreams. But you know, the people who deny dreams with a smug look on their faces just don't know, because in the end, they never reached the dreams they once held. They don't know that a person's dream, no matter what, always starts with such foolish fantasies for the first step. That's why it's fine... desire as you please."
A crack runs through the 10th. But Reiter still wears a fearless smile.
"Reiter, sama..."
"Otherwise, everyone's gonna die, right? So...!"
The 10th bursts apart. The 11th screams.
"Do it, Kazuha! In your own way! There's no way the blessings of an Inari-sama will lose to the final gasp of some evil god!!"
The 11th is penetrated, and finally the 12th.
The last one. The light of destruction is before her eyes. But Kazuha's concentration was higher than ever before.
The self she wanted to be someday. That back she had looked up to while growing up as a child. That tail her hand had unconsciously reached for.
What she desired was, yes... a holy beast like her foster mother.
"Someday... someday, I'll become a holy beast like Kureha-sama...!!"
Simultaneously with the words of determination, a change occurred in Kazuha's tail. Her tail split and transformed into nine tails. Furthermore, the skeleton of her face and body became closer to that of a fox. Her russet eyes shone gold, and the color from her hair to her tail changed to a dazzling silver fur.
It was as if she were watching the phenomenon called Holy Beastification in fast-forward.
She remembers the words of her foster mother she heard during barrier technique training in her childhood.
"Listen, Kazuha. A willow does not break under the snow. Simply casting a barrier is not the only part of barrier techniques. The depths of this are to make the formless tangible. Therefore, it is a technique that leads to all lawlessness, and eventually to the heavens. If you aim to be a guardian fox, you must never forget this."
She takes out all the remaining talismans from her bosom. At this point, even if she deploys additional barriers and increases the output, they will only be crushed. Hard wood breaks. Kazuha cannot fully stop this aurora.
Then, she doesn't have to stop it. She can just dodge it. She can just deflect it.
"Reflection of...!"
Toward the opponent.
"...Pride!!"
In that instant, the shape of the last barrier changed.
The barrier, which had been a single wall, became a U-shaped curved surface. The aurora slid along it, twisted, and returned toward the giant beast that had fired it.
●
Once again, a scream echoes across the Harvester Plains.
She had reflected Delgamiride's magic cannon back toward its firing port... namely, the giant beast's mouth. Although it wasn't at full power since there was no time to charge, it seems even the giant beast found its own attack painful, as it writhed around while blowing smoke from its entire body due to high heat and regeneration.
"The pride of a guardian fox... splendid."
Geoglyph nodded with satisfaction at the result Kazuha achieved, and his eyes raced over the instruments. The magic fill rate had already exceeded 70%. Furthermore, the output continued to rise without stopping.
"Magic fill rate 80%, 90%, 100%... reached 120%. Adjustment valve open, beginning loading into the chamber."
The internal pressure of the bow gun continued to rise, and that became sound and vibration, finally beginning to shake the atmosphere.
"Pressure circulation safety device released, final safety device released... reached the pressure limit zone in the chamber...!"
Magical power begins to gather as if converging at the muzzle.
"15 seconds to firing! All personnel! Evacuate from the line of fire!!"
At that sight, which looked like the convergence of visible light rays, and Geoglyph's call, the Triad army began to evacuate at full speed.
"Shock resistance, flash protection...!"
And then he took out sunglasses from nowhere and put them on himself and Latia.
"Let's go! Lati!"
"Yeah!"
"10 count start!"
Reiter carries Kazuha, who had used up her strength and returned to being a mere beastman, and evacuates to the rear.
Watching that, he confirms the line of fire is clear.
"5"
To prepare for the situation that was about to occur, Marianne took out sunglasses from her storage magic and put them on.
"4"
The Triad family, sensing that an idiot was being an idiot, all crouched down, stuffed their fingers in their ears, and held their mouths half-open in a defensive posture.
"3"
Delgamiride is still writhing in pain.
"2"
The light converging at the bow shines like a small sun.
"1..."
And then.
"...Fire!!"
Immediately after, a colossal comet released from the bow races, drawing a spiral and tearing through the world.
●
The first thing to arrive was a sliver of light.
The point of light that was sucked into Delgamiride's chest tore through hard scales, skin, sternum, and organs, and further passed through to the back.
Probably, if it were just that, the giant beast's regeneration ability would have seen it through without issue.
But that was merely a precursor... nothing more than a guide line, a targeting light.
The main event, the beam of the magic cannon drawing a spiral, surpassed Delgamiride's extraordinary regeneration ability and came straight forward, entraining and crushing everything like a rock drill. Its size was nearly twice that of Delgamiride's giant body, a sense of futility as if facing a comet that swallows everything.
In a time less than an instant, Delgamiride felt death as an instinct... and the arriving beam, without allowing the giant beast even a blink, blew everything of it away from this world.
●
And Latia saw it.
The moment she pulled the trigger in her hand, the world was enveloped in a silver-white color with a brilliance like a nova, and by the time it subsided, the scenery had completely changed.
The plains that had sucked blood due to the war had the earth peeled up, carving a crater that looked like a reservoir dam, the valley beyond had its width greatly revised, and furthermore, more than half of the peak of the mountain in a straight line had been shaved off, leaving it in a distorted crescent shape.
The scenery was the first thing she recognized, and that's why she was a beat late in understanding that the giant beast was gone.
"Ah..."
Yes, the giant beast that had emitted such a presence had vanished.
"...Phew, looks like it's settled."
"Geo...!?"
Being called from beside her, she looked back to find Geoglyph on his knees. Breathing heavily, his once brilliant blond hair had faded to pure white. A state of exhaustion that could be seen at a glance... typical magic deficiency.
"I mean, using up all my magic... it's been since I was a kid getting excited after starting to use magic. ...Sorry Lati, I'll leave the rest to you."
"Geo!"
Latia catches Geoglyph, who suddenly lost his strength and consciousness, but she is relieved after confirming his breathing is stable.
"...Good job, Geo."
Thus, the turmoil that began with the invasion of the Kessel army came to an end.
Next time, again next week.