In contrast, the composition of the iron knight’s lance had not changed; it had copied the bullet-firing function alone. All it had stolen from the heavy machine gun was the weapon’s “information.”
The new gun barrel set into the tip of the lance opened fire with jet-black bullets. These penetrated the barrier of poisonous air, striking Iblisveil’s Beast Vassal.
The Beast Vassal recoiled, its movements halting for but a single second. Thus, a gap in the encirclement around the knight was formed—
The injured wyvern took flight. It picked up the knight of iron as it soared high into the sky, escaping beyond the Beast Vassal’s barrier with incredible acceleration.
In the blink of an eye, the sight of them shrank as they slipped into the cold, lingering mists and vanished.
“So he ran… No, he retreated in search of a more favorable battleground. Impudent knave.”
Iblisveil murmured with pointed annoyance.
The knight of iron had copied the capabilities of a modern-age weapon. Consequently, there were better places to fight than on an icy plain with nothing around him—places with numerous employable weapons where he could fight at an overwhelming advantage. Iblisveil had no way of knowing if he would have been at a disadvantage had the battle been in an urban area from the beginning.
“Can you tail him, Kira?”
Vattler spoke, seemingly, to empty space. Then, silver mist coalesced in that space, and from it, a handsome boy stepped forth. His fingertips had amber threads resembling magma tied around them that stretched high into the sky.
“Rest easy, Your Excellency. I have him.”
Kira Lebedev respectfully replied.
Eavesdropping on their exchange, Iblisveil let out a quiet “hmm” before giving a snort of dissatisfaction. “So your goal was to smoke the Cleansers out of their hiding place from the very beginning. What a crafty man you are, Master of Serpents.”
“Our Warlord commanded as much, you see.” Vattler shrugged his shoulders with a look of feigned ignorance. “As descendants of our Warlord, it is our earnest desire to see a certain sinful god destroyed. The Holy Grounds Treaty was forged for this purpose.”
“For now, I shall allow myself to believe those words.” Iblisveil met Vattler with an icy stare.
Though their words had an amiable tone, behind them lay an atmosphere of tension flowing between the pair that was as sharp as drawn knives.
It was Asagi, returning aboard the robot tank, who wedged herself into that atmosphere.
“What the heck was with that guy in the black mantle?”
Asagi posed the question to Iblisveil, her demeanor not timid whatsoever. Though she showed Vattler and Kira due respect, she did not show a single shred of fear. Her attitude drained the poison out of the air.
“He comes from the Cleansers…terrorists that worship Cain,” Iblisveil explained.
“Terrorists…? What are people like that doing way out here…?” Asagi tapered her lips, perplexed.
Iblisveil paid her a slightly mischievous smile as he said, “Their objective is to re-create The Cleansing—to destroy all Demonkind and return humanity to its proper place: a world where demons and sorcery do not exist. The key to achieving this objective likely sleeps within this land.”
“Destroy…all demons…?”
Asagi widened her eyes in horror. However, she remained shaken for only a second. Though her face was pale, Asagi raised her brows as she glared right at Iblisveil.
“How can you be so calm about this, Iblis?! If we don’t make them stop now—!”
“Make them stop…? Why would an unrelated human being like you think such a thing?”
A bewildered expression came over Iblisveil. No doubt, in his life to date, a human being shouting at no less than a direct descendant of Fallgazer was simply unthinkable. Furthermore, he could not comprehend why Asagi, a mere human being, would be concerned for the future of Demonkind.
Iblisveil’s demeanor irritated Asagi more and more. She banged a fist onto the tank’s armor and yelled, “Any normal human being would think you have to stop something like that!”
“…Any normal human being…you say?”
Asagi’s blunt assertion made Iblisveil break into laughter. Those who knew him from when he was back in his home nation would likely be greatly surprised. For him, well-known for his wild temperament, to laugh off a lecture from a little human girl was nothing short of miraculous.
“Vattler… I’m sorry. My mood has changed somewhat. I will crush the Knight of Cain.”
The prince of the Fallen Dynasty glared at the young aristocrat from the Warlord’s Empire as he issued his statement. Iblisveil’s imposing words, sounding much like a declaration of war, caused Vattler’s beautiful lips to curl up.
“Of course, Your Highness, you may do as please—however, victory belongs to the swift.”
The young aristocrat had not even finished his taunt before transforming into golden mist and vanishing.
Iblisveil, silent as he watched the man go, turned to face the robot tank carrying the wounded.
“Perhaps that was too temperamental of me… But I suppose that will be just fine.”
“What will?” Asagi asked. Iblisveil seemed to be murmuring to himself.
“Pay no heed,” said Iblisveil with a shake of his head, smiling again.
4
The cargo truck that Yuiri Haba was aboard ran along a narrow mountain road. She was accompanying the retreating Self-Defense Forces unit in the name of protecting those wounded in action.
On top of the coarse road surface, the tires had chains on them to deal with accumulated snow, making the ride in the back of the truck distinctly uncomfortable. If she was careless, she might end up suddenly flung from her provisional bench seat.
“It will be rocky for a while, Attack Mage Haba. I am very sorry. This was the only vehicle available.”
The young special staff sergeant sitting opposite her in back of the truck apologized in an earnest voice. Likely, his polite treatment of her was not because Yuiri was an Attack Mage, but because her status as Hisano’s subordinate carried weight. It wasn’t like he respected Yuiri for her official position.
Painfully aware of that fact, Yuiri’s shoulders felt very cramped as she shook her head and said, “Ah, yes, we’re all right. After all, we were stuffed in here like excess baggage… Ah-ha-ha.”
“Not at all. We are counting on you, Miss Sword Shaman.”
With Yuiri acting so self-deprecating, the staff sergeant smiled at her. Perhaps he was simply being considerate.
The truck that Yuiri and the sergeant were riding in was at the tail end of the convoy. Because her cover story was that she was their escort, guarding against demon-beast pursuit, it made sense to make Yuiri the rear guard. In that sense, the staff sergeant’s words to Yuiri may have been no more than mere flattery.
Though, of course, that didn’t feel bad from Yuiri’s perspective. She had been stuck with her own share of problems—namely, the girl with steel-colored hair who was sitting right next to her.
“Yuiri, Yuiri!”
The girl, her cheeks stretched from stuffing her face with ration biscuits, tendered both hands toward Yuiri. The Attack Mage inclined her head, desperately trying to wrap her brain around just what the girl’s mysterious words and gestures were trying to convey. The looks the SDF troops were giving her were painful—she felt like a rookie day care worker having little kids run circles around her.
“Uh, umm… You want seconds?”
“Sec…onds?”
The girl curiously blinked her eyes as if she did not understand the meaning of the word. But her face lit up when she saw Yuiri taking out a fresh biscuit.
“Seconds! Seconds!”
“A-are they tasty?”
“Tasty!”
The sight of the girl chomping the biscuit straight out of Yuiri’s hand made them look like an owner and her beloved pet. It felt less like goodwill and more like
she was brimming with affectionate attachment. Yuiri thought it looked as if she was feeding a stray.
“Hey, what’s your name…?”
With great perseverance, Yuiri waited for the girl to finish eating before posing the question.
“You see… I’m Yuiri. And you are?”
She switched poses and hand gestures, asking the question several times, when a light seemed to go on in the girl’s head as she said “Ohh,” her eyes sparkling.
“Glenda.”
“Glenda? That’s your name?”
“Daa, Glenda!”
The girl looked back at Yuiri as she nodded several times.
“Glenda…”
The girl winced as her cheeks widened into a big smile. Yuiri wondered whether Glenda was pleased that Yuiri had addressed her by name. The rhythmic swaying of Glenda’s body resembled a puppy cheerfully wagging its tail back and forth.
“—?!”
The moment her eyes met Glenda’s, Yuiri was struck by a strange hallucination. Her breath caught as powerful sadness and regret coursed through her.
“…Ah…!”
The instant those raw emotions threatened to crush Yuiri, she awakened from the vision.
It took a little time for her to remember how to breathe. For a while, her entire body shuddered as she raggedly inhaled the bitter, cold air. There was sweat on her palms. She could even tell that her lips had gone pale.
Amid intense dizziness and the ringing in her ears, the bizarre image emerged freshly in the back of her mind.
The scene was of a small city left in a sea of redness that looked like blood.
It was an artificial isle, produced out of metal and carbon fiber, constructed with unfamiliar technologies from another world.
Mayhem had left the buildings in ruin, turning the island into a barren wasteland.
A single boy stood atop a mountain of rubble.
He looked up at the crimson sky in wordless lament.
Soot-black blood coursed from a deep wound in his chest.
He clutched a broken spear—
“Wh-what is that scene…? This girl’s—memories…?”
Yuiri murmured as her ragged breaths came one after another. Her head was jumbled, and it irritated her how her thoughts were in a frenzy. The one and only thing she knew for certain was this girl had shown her the vision. Yuiri’s priestess powers had no doubt reacted to the vestiges of some memory Glenda was tinged with.
“Yuiri?”
Glenda peered into Yuiri’s blank face with a look of concern. With a gasp, Yuiri came back to her senses.
Yuiri forced a smile. “S-sorry. It’s nothing, really.”
“Mrmm…”
Suspicious, Glenda made a low sound. Yuiri laughed with the same feeble grin.
The frame of the truck rattled, bouncing up and down as the vehicle seemed to roll over a small rock.
That instant, Glenda gasped and gaped at the sight in front of her. Yuiri was a little surprised at the girl’s grave expression.
“Glenda?”
“Coming…”
“Huh? What do you…? What’s coming…?”
A moment after the perplexed Yuiri pressed the issue, they were struck by a powerful jolt that sent them lurching forward. The truck they were riding in had suddenly hit the brakes. After a powerful slide to the side that threatened to roll them over, they finally came to a stop safe and sound against the barricade at the shoulder of the road.
Glenda had nearly been thrown from her seat, but Yuiri had just managed to hold her in place. Even so, Glenda’s expression remained unchanged as she looked outside through a small, shuttered window.
“Attack Mage Haba, there!” shouted the staff sergeant in the seat opposite to hers as he glared at the truck’s rear.
There stood a monster.
A humanoid creature resembling a skeleton was closing in, seemingly in pursuit of Yuiri and the others. It was between three and four meters tall. Its internal organs had a machinelike quality; its exposed veins pulsed rhythmically. However you looked at it, this was not a living creature from the natural world. In Yuiri’s mind, it looked as if one had fashioned a living object from little more than a car frame.
The truck had rammed itself into the shoulder of the road to evade the monster’s attack.
“Automata… No, a golem…? But what’s this…icky feeling I’m getting?!”
Yuiri’s cheek twitched from the bizarre magical energy she felt swirling around the monster. The power was plainly of a different nature than any sorcery Yuiri knew of. Just looking at it gave rise to disgust, on par with looking at a wriggling swarm of noxious pests.
“Ah… Aaaaaah!”
One of the SDF troops opened fire. He had used a large caliber, anti-demon shotgun. The gunshot had been at close range, but the monster simply shrugged it off. Its cartilage-like frame squished and bent, but she didn’t sense that it was in any pain.
“This is bad—!”
The humanoid monster stretched forth its unnaturally long right arm, ripping the truck’s canopy off with ease and groping its way into the steel flatbed. The monstrous hand was pursuing Glenda.
The silver-haired girl shrank back in visible fear as Yuiri leaped in to cover her.
“Rosen Chevalier Plus, activate—!”
The silver long sword was shrouded in a shimmering ray of light as it sliced down toward the monster’s arm. With a great, weighty sound, the enormous metal arm rolled onto the truck’s flatbed.
Even if it couldn’t feel pain, that had to have made it lose its balance. The huge monster wobbled, staggering down to one knee.
“Run! Please—run while you still can!”
Yuiri shouted to the SDF troops remaining in the back of the truck. Despite being Special Attack Mage Unit troops, their current status was that of casualties. It was Yuiri’s assigned duty to buy time until they could complete their evacuation. Fortunately, Yuiri’s Rosen Chevalier Plus was a pretty good match against golems. This was because the bulwark created by pseudo-spatial slicing could completely nullify an enemy’s physical attacks, and Rosen Chevalier Plus’s blade was able to effortlessly cleave metal in two.
“A-Attack Mage Haba!!”
The voice of the staff sergeant, last to leave the truck, was distorted from fright. The frame of the truck Yuiri and the others had been riding was dissolving like quicksilver. The large truck’s matter was rearranging itself into the form of a new skeletal humanoid.
“Wha—?! What…is this? Is this alchemy…?!”
Yuiri could not conceal her distress over the strange spectacle before her.
Sorcery to turn a truck into a humanoid monster—it resembled the Make Golem spells alchemists employed. However, the effects of alchemy were unsuited to complex machinery, and in the first place, Make Golem could only make objects move if they were constructed to mimic the forms of living creatures.
However, these monsters were different. Their weight, speed, power, and automated movements—all had the character of machines.
The information contained in the man-made object known as a truck remained. Only its form had changed.
A human being living in another world would probably characterize a truck as a monster upon seeing one for the first time. That’s what I’m feeling right now, thought Yuiri.
“Yuiri!”
As Yuiri stood still, Glenda leaped to her and embraced her. With raw physical strength unimaginable for such a small frame, she jumped straight over the head of the first monster. Then, she landed gently some distance from the truck with all the grace of a bird.
A moment later, the object that had once been a truck completed its transformation into a monster. Had Glenda not pulled her away, Yuiri would surely have been trapped inside.
Behind Yuiri and Glenda, the young staff sergeant in danger of being swallowed by the transformation himself dropped to the ground. Other SDF troops were lying on the ground nearby, but the monsters cared nothing for them. The SDF
troops were not the monsters’ target. The hollow eyes of the two monsters were trained upon Glenda alone.
“We have found you…Glenda.”
Then, from behind the monsters, Yuiri heard a voice pass between them. It was a machine-modulated female voice.
The individual was shrouded in a gunmetal-colored robe, standing behind the monsters as she glared at Glenda. Yuiri couldn’t see the woman’s face under the robe because she wore a mask over it, but the sight of the woman holding a metal rod made her look like a sorceress straight out of a fairy tale.
“Glenda, could she be an…acquaintance of yours?”
Yuiri posed the question as she brandished her long sword. Glenda vigorously shook her head side to side. Yuiri had expected as much. She didn’t think a woman making monsters attack them would be on Glenda’s side.
Yuiri kept her guard up as she glared at the woman in the gunmetal robe. Even if her enemy’s numbers increased, Yuiri still held the advantage. The woman’s technique of turning a truck into a monster might have been a pain, but the monster created as a result was no match for Rosen Chevalier Plus.
However, the gunmetal magic user’s next action was beyond Yuiri’s expectations.
The woman continued to stare at Glenda as she made a statement of odd words.
“—Glenda, acknowledge code: 49 72657175657374 72656c6963 6173 737563636573736f72. We demand the relic as the rightful inheritors.”
When the woman uttered those words, she fell silent, seemingly awaiting Glenda’s response. A strange silence befell them.
“…Mii?”
Finally, Glenda shook her head, saying that while looking at Yuiri, seemingly seeking her aid.
Of course, Yuiri had no idea what was going on, either. She set her jumbled breaths in order and her eyes shifted between Glenda and the woman.
“4772656e641 646f 796f7572 64757479! Glenda! Fulfill your duty!”
Finally, the woman shouted. Glenda shrank away in fear.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but—!”
Having finally settled on what to do, Yuiri began to act. She kept the tip of her long sword trained on the woman as she fished out her Attack Mage license and thrust it toward the gunmetal magic user.
The Knight of the Sinful God Page 13
