The people inside the powered suits seemed to be listening to him in shock. Not even they knew about their machines’ issues, so how did this man? They couldn’t imagine the answer.
Meanwhile, Tsuchimikado gave a punch to a nearby powered suit’s armor and continued, fed up with them. “If you’re going to come out, hurry up. If the Avignon rioters know you won’t attack them, they’ll be all over you in a heartbeat.”
With those words, he began to hear creaks and clangs from inside the suits. They seemed to be considerably panicked. Tsuchimikado thought to himself as he watched them.
Now then…He’d succeeded at temporarily disabling the powered suits, but the soldiers themselves weren’t dead. This is where the real deal starts, he thought.
For now, they were immobile until they restored their ejection functions and came out. Once they were out of their combat states, he could talk with them, too.
Should I explain that I’m an Academy City spy first? No, wait, I’m acting out of line with the higher-ups’ intentions. Jeez, I hope I can discuss this without making things worse.
As Tsuchimikado mulled over how his negotiating should go, his thoughts came to a halt and he abruptly looked up.
A roar.
His eyes showed him jet-black bombers circling leisurely through the blue skies.
There was more than one of the one-hundred-meter-class aircraft. Over ten bombers were drawing wide flight arcs around Avignon airspace.
The sight of their unique silhouettes made Tsuchimikado clench his teeth. Academy City’s HsB-02…Our supersonic stealth bombers?!
He and Kamijou had used a supersonic passenger plane that could produce speeds of over seven thousand kilometers per hour to get to Avignon. These stealth bombers used the same technology. With their incomparable speed, it was said they could shake off homing missiles just by flying straight.
Thinking calmly, there had been just one issue: the question of where on earth all these powered suits in Avignon had come from.
This was the answer.
Bombers from Academy City loaded with powered suits had carried them to France in an hour, and they’d dropped them all with parachutes into Avignon’s outskirts. It was an incredible feat of brute force, but Academy City’s elaborate technologies had made it possible.
Of course, the HsB-02s were loaded up with more than that. They would have what they needed to do what they were meant to do: bombing runs.
Damn…, he cursed, glaring up into the sky. They dropped the powered suits first to make sure the Document of Constantine was here in Avignon. Now that they have, are they going to use those bombers to blow the entire Papal Palace away?!
It was a crude, easy-to-understand mission, but given the effects of the unique spell Terra of the Left possessed, it was hard to imagine the mission bearing any certain results.
With a bang, Tsuchimikado slammed on one of the powered suits’ armor. “Hey! How is the evacuation of Avignon’s citizens going?! When are they carrying out the bombing?! Don’t tell me they’re using the brand-new HsB-02s so they can use that here!!”
As he shouted, he felt impatience creeping into his mind. What are you thinking, Aleister? The others aside, you know full well what the sorcery world is like. If you could completely settle everything with normal military action, there would be no groups like Necessarius around. Did you not realize this wouldn’t be enough to be sure you’d destroy the Document of Constantine?
Or, he thought, a different idea coming to him, could you…have yet another trick up your sleeve?
5
Nine thousand meters above Avignon.
Inside one of the eleven HsB-02 supersonic stealth bombers rode a Level Five esper with a cane. Normally, the large space would have been loaded with bombs, but here, only the Level Five and several maintenance crew members were present.
A shrill alarm bell and messages full of static came over the speakers attached to the bomber’s interior. Hearing this, one of the maintenance crew members turned to look at the Level Five.
“Operational objective A accomplished! Now moving to operation B. When operation C begins, this partition will open. Get your parachute ready!!”
“Don’t need it,” answered the Level Five tiredly to the maintenance crew member.
The Level Five was relaxed as he leaned on his cane, staring at the thin monitor attached to the wall of the craft.
Man, this is such a pain. I’m a busy man, you know. Who told them they could start shooting things up outside Academy City? God, just let me get this crap out of the way and get back to the real stuff.
Avignon seen from the skies above was a small town surrounded by old walls. The tall buildings inside it looked crammed into a confused jumble, probably because the walls limited the amount of land available.
The Level Five saw it and chuckled. “Ha-ha. Just like a miniature Academy City.”
“What?”
“Nothing. When did the world get this convenient? Seriously, one hour to fly from Academy City to France?”
“I-it’s not all convenient,” responded the crew member to the Level Five, choosing his words carefully. “For supersonic aircraft, the drag causes the exterior surface temperature to skyrocket. At top speed, it can get close to one thousand degrees, so liquid coolant pipes have to be strung up all throughout the craft.”
“Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen?”
“Yes. Pipes with low-freezing-point coolant go through these tanks to amplify the coolant’s effects. This liquid oxygen and hydrogen is also used for space shuttle propellant, and this craft uses it as one of its fuel sources…In other words, the more fuel runs out, the more coolant effects it loses.”
“Which is why you were saying we were stopping at London on the way back instead of just making a U-turn. Can’t believe you got permission to let this bomber get refueled. Japan isn’t even allowed to have bombers in the first place,” he said, astonished, as another alarm bell came over the in-flight speakers.
After hearing the announcement, the maintenance crew member raised his voice. “Beginning operation B!!”
As he spoke, four of the bombers flying nearby veered from their circling course.
They flew some fifteen kilometers away in a turn, slowly expanding their circle’s radius. Then their noses turned, and they abruptly accelerated.
The four aircraft were tracking through the air together in a square formation, and there was a piece attached to those bombers that was different from the one the Level Five rode in:
Jet-black blades, half the total length of the aircraft.
The blades could retract and extend like police batons. Their surfaces, made to compress electricity, featured patterns and irregularities that could be controlled on the micrometer level.
The massively long and delicate blades began to swing around from the supersonic bomber’s acceleration force, slicing through the skies at over seven thousand kilometers per hour.
Just that made the generated downward-facing blades insanely destructive.
If a small amount of iron sand was also mixed into those atmospheric blades, what would happen?
The answer appeared a moment later.
Crsshwoosh!!
The four bombers carved a square into the land around the town of Avignon.
The blades’ surfaces had only scattered a few grams of iron sand.
But with their immense speed of over ten thousand kilometers per hour, the metal powder had skipped melting and vaporized. Despite being kilometers up in the air, the gaseous blades cleaved into the earth with a temperature exceeding eight thousand degrees Celsius, leaving an orange glow behind.
Guh-chunk!! The bomber the Level Five rode on shook.
A friendly supersonic bomber had passed by them, stirring up turbulence.
“…!”
The Level Five placed a hand on the nearby wall but didn’t take his eyes off the monitor.
The first thing to be created was a ditch, twenty meter
s wide and over ten deep. Immediately after, those ditches melted in the orange and collapsed. The geology itself was roiling like magma. In a flash, the ancient city of Avignon was isolated by a river of molten rock. It cut off electrical lines and water pipes, and even forced apart the flow of the river Rhone passing near the town. Flooding was already starting to occur around the town’s outskirts.
With this, the people in the ancient city of Avignon were completely trapped.
The town extended beyond Avignon’s ramparts, too. He remembered hearing that the powered suits had forcibly removed civilians from the areas that were now molten lava beforehand, but he was pretty sure nobody was about to thank them.
Hah. Just three kilograms of iron sand, and those Earthslicers can rip apart all of Eurasia in an hour. Academy City’s making some interesting stuff.
Normally, bombers had an escort of several fighter craft. Unlike the smaller jets, hulking bombers couldn’t make tight turns. If one tried, it would immediately decelerate, and if things were really bad, its momentum could crush the plane and it would break apart in midair. If an enemy got a lock on one, it had no way to dodge the missiles. It could fool the lock to a certain extent with things like chaffs and flares, but those weren’t perfect, either. Therefore, the only option was to station fighters around the bombers as an escort to help them avoid missile locks.
Those rules, however, didn’t apply to these supersonic HsB-02 bombers.
If all they could do was go straight, they’d make a plane that could shake off missiles just by flying ahead.
They would make it happen by giving it the overwhelming speed of seven thousand kilometers per hour. Air-to-air missiles fired by fighters were nothing, and even ground-to-air missiles waiting beforehand at the bombing point would barely have time to acquire a lock before the bombing run was done and the bombers were already outside missile range.
High-speed bombing tactics that defeated the old rules of air combat with brute force. Add Academy City’s own high-efficiency stealth tech to the mix, and it became virtually impossible to stop an HsB-02’s attack before it happened.
“Isolation of operational area confirmed!!” shouted one of the aircraft crew.
The bombers that fired the Earthslicers got a good twenty kilometers out and began to decelerate. Meanwhile, they stopped creating any downward wind currents, probably because they adjusted the patterns on the surface of their blades.
“Now beginning aerial bombing of all operational areas, including the objective zone!!”
The Earthslicers appeared to be an extremely unsubtle attack, but by electrically manipulating the “pattern” on the blade’s surface, the bomber could make attacks not only in a straight line, but in arcs and pinpoints as well, able to deliver surgical destruction like cutting pieces out of a jigsaw puzzle. If they wanted to, a single bomber seemed to be able to create several lines simultaneously, too.
“This bomber’s course will now change to secure a flight route for the eight units conducting the bombing. Brace for sudden impact!”
Their next attack target was the old city of Avignon itself.
The target wasn’t just a single building like the Papal Palace, but the entire region they called the “ancient city.” The powered suits that had dropped earlier were there as well, but the pilots had a sort of transmitter. That signal alone was enough for the bombers to avoid those spots while burning the rest of Avignon to the ground. The pilots would pretend to be locals and move to the nearby Mediterranean shoreline, then use submarines stationed there to leave France. It would obviously be too conspicuous to go long distances while wearing the powered suits, so they’d have to leave the irretrievable equipment on-site and destroy them.
But if the operation went as planned, the grounded forces would have to get through the sea of molten rock on their own. They probably had some kind of gear for that, too. The entire city would conveniently be turned to lava around them, and it would create something of an updraft, so maybe they planned to use portable gear that applied the principle of dandelion fluff and go for a little sightseeing flight.
“…” As far as he could tell from the monitor, there were still quite a few people in the ancient city of Avignon who were late to escape. Those lucky enough to be near the forces would be saved, but most of them would be burned down by the eight-thousand-degree blades.
“Change of plans.”
“What?”
“We’re after the Papal Palace, right? Focus your attack on that first. If you still don’t get results, I’ll go down. And if you lose contact with me, then you can go ahead and bomb the entire ancient city.”
“I, well…The Level Five drop operation is categorized under operation C. Normally defeating the enemy forces is calculated under operation B, so—”
“Change of plans,” repeated the Level Five.
The crewman’s spine stiffened. He must have just remembered why this Level Five was on the bomber.
He was their bomb.
And like a nuclear bomb or a hydrogen bomb, he was loaded on the big bomber to be dropped into the mission’s operation area.
The crew member grabbed the radio in his lap and started communicating with someone. He seemed to be negotiating with the higher-ups handling the operation, and after repeating the exchange several times, he put the radio down and quietly looked at the Level Five.
“…R-request accepted. We’re changing our plans for operation B and focusing our attacks on the Papal Palace.”
His face was clearly baffled as to why his stubborn superiors had accepted so easily. Meanwhile, the corners of the Level Five’s lips turned up. “That’s fine.”
“B-but how will you…?” asked the man.
The Level Five tsked, unamused. The monitor showed the isolated town of Avignon and the people fleeing like little grains of rice. “Maybe it’s all the same to you, but there’s different types and levels of evil.”
An electronic tone echoed through the craft—they were probably starting the procedure to open the partition. As he listened to it, the Level Five spoke to the crew member.
“And first-rate villains don’t go after honest people.”
6
A roaring sound, many times louder than sprinkling cold water on a burning-hot metal plate, reverberated through the Papal Palace.
Something seemed to be happening outside the building, but neither Kamijou nor Itsuwa nor Terra looked outside.
Kamijou got his right fist ready and glared at Terra.
About seven meters separated them; he was already inside the range of Terra’s flour guillotine. Plus, he had his special prioritization effects.
The floor was in poor shape. Fragments of the stone wall Terra had shattered were scattered about, along with several cylindrical shells that must have been from the defeated powered suit.
“I’ll ask one last time. Any intent on handing over the document quietly?”
“No, none at all. Please die the warrior’s death you desire.”
Upon hearing that, Kamijou sprinted forward.
Terra matched his movement by swinging the flour blade in his right hand.
Kamijou stuck out his right hand, taking up a defensive posture while running, but…
“Prioritize—atmosphere as lower, flour as higher.”
Shoom!! With a roar, the weapon instantly expanded.
Now a giant fan shape about three meters across, the guillotine flew toward Kamijou, engulfing a ton of air on the way.
“?!”
Kamijou couldn’t react.
Itsuwa, who had run for Terra at the same time as him, grabbed onto Kamijou’s arm. She jumped, dragging him to the side, and a moment later, the “mere air” that shouldn’t have had any hardness or sharpness to it ripped through the floor and wall of the Papal Palace. Several shells littered about the floor burst like fireworks. The blast was like a shock wave and almost made him choke.
Itsuwa gently let go of his arm.
Then, wit
h motions unimaginably quick considering that act, she put up the spear in her hands again and drove it at Terra’s throat like an iron stake.
Boom!! The sound of air splitting apart rang out.
“Prioritize—blade as lower, human skin as higher.”
With a few words from Terra, Itsuwa’s attack bounced off his skin.
Only the geen!! sound of vibrating metal echoed through the Papal Palace.
A stinging pain engulfed Itsuwa’s hands, as though she’d stabbed a boulder.
But she didn’t stop moving.
Her spear still flat, she kicked up a small rock at her feet, launching it sharply at Terra’s eyes.
Terra didn’t turn his head; he didn’t even close his eyes.
Instead, he casually swung his arm.
The horizontal sweep plunged toward the rock, Itsuwa, and Kamijou—who was charging in from another angle—as well, forcing them all back a distance.
With a dull wham!! Kamijou and Itsuwa were thrown to the floor.
As she tried to get back up, the girl grimaced. “Ow…?!”
They had fallen into a spot with a great amount of debris from the wall Terra had destroyed. She’d fallen on top of it, and it had damaged her ankle.
And Terra wasn’t about to let that go by. “Prioritize—human flesh as lower, flour as higher.”
The guillotine flew.
Itsuwa, who couldn’t move with her hurt foot, immediately brought her spear up.
Just then, Kamijou broke in from the side.
He stuck out his right hand, sending Terra’s attack scattering in all directions.
A thunderous roar!! sounded.
When Terra tried to swing his right arm again, this time Itsuwa shoved Kamijou to the side, then pushed off her injured foot to jump in the other direction.
Terra’s guillotine crashed into the spot between them.
“Oh, how valiant,” said Terra with a short laugh, staring at Itsuwa as she held in her pain. “But you’re at your limit. Dragging your heels…in a literal sense.”
A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 14 Page 15
