Standing in the center of the junction, Kuroyukihime pulled up the system menu from her own health gauge and checked the time. “It’s been exactly an hour since we dived. So far, everything’s going as planned.”
That meant that 3.6 seconds had passed in the Arita living room in the real world. The amount of time it would have taken Utai waiting there without diving to take two breaths or so. But he was sure it felt several times longer than that.
Kuroyukihime whirled around. “All right, then,” she said in a clear, echoing voice, looking at each of their faces in turn. “Now we carry out phase two of the Armor of Catastrophe Purification Plan: Rescue Ardor Maiden.”
The other four shouted, “Yes!” together.
Nodding once, the Black King continued, radiating a dignity befitting her title. “Let’s confirm the details of the plan one last time. The initial positioning is me, Black Lotus, at the very edge of the bridge base. Immediately behind me is Lime Bell. Farther behind, about two hundred meters down Sakurada Street, will be Sky Raker and Silver Crow.” She paused to allow everyone to draw out these positions in their minds. “I advance, signaling the start of the operation. I proceed to the center of the bridge and make Suzaku appear. When it does, Raker takes off with Crow on her back, using the Gale Thruster. She flies full speed toward the gate at an altitude of thirty meters. During this time, I hit Suzaku with a long-distance Incarnate attack and make myself its target, then immediately start to retreat. Is everything clear so far?”
“Yes!” the four responded.
Kuroyukihime nodded once more before looking at Fuko and Haruyuki. “Immediately before Raker in flight reaches the space above myself in retreat, Crow disengages. Adding the propulsive power of your own wings, you pass above the advancing Suzaku at full speed, aiming for the south gate. Raker lands in my position and deploys a defensive Incarnate. We retreat together while guarding against Suzaku’s fire breath. I intend to keep a minimum distance of a hundred meters from Suzaku’s position, so we shouldn’t die immediately, but we will likely take a considerable amount of damage. Bell will heal this from behind us on the bridge with her Citron Call Mode One. When Raker and I have retreated to a point near the foot of the bridge, Crow should have reached the altar of the Four Gods directly before the south gate. Ardor Maiden will appear in the center of that, so you pick her up, then a sudden ascent and a reversal of one hundred and eighty degrees. Go south over the bridge again, overtake Suzaku, and escape outside its territory. That’s all.”
The unfaltering explanation complete, Haruyuki expelled the breath he’d been holding.
This was the optimal solution, after careful consideration of the situation and their fighting abilities. Simple, ingenious. Once the operation began, there was no need for them to check in with one another any further. But there was one step and one factor missing.
The step was how they were going to coordinate Haruyuki’s full-speed charge with Utai’s dive when she was still in the real world. And the factor was one name that she hadn’t mentioned in her instructions.
Having reached these questions, Haruyuki still couldn’t bring himself to say anything, but almost as if she had read his mind, Kuroyukihime said, her voice dropping noticeably, “I’m sure you’ve all already realized this, but for this strategy to work, we need to control Utai’s appearance in the Unlimited Neutral Field down to the second. And the only way to do this is for someone to leave the field and tell Utai the timing. For that role…Cyan Pile, I’d like to ask you.”
“Understood, Master,” Takumu replied promptly. But Haruyuki noticed that this reply was just the tiniest bit delayed compared to his usual swift reaction time.
Takumu’s role of messenger to Utai in the real world was an essential element of the operation. But it was undeniable that the person selected for this would be the “last man standing.” Clever Takumu must have guessed this long before Haruyuki, probably even before Kuroyukihime had begun to explain. That he alone would not be able to remain on the battlefield where their lives were going to be risked against a God.
Haruyuki wasn’t sure if he should say something or not. But he understood that no matter what he said, he would just be hurting Takumu’s pride. Chiyuri, who always smoothed things over at times like this, was similarly silent.
“Our opponent this time is a flying type, right?” Takumu broke this momentary quiet with his own words. “I secretly thought this might be a bit tough for me, given that I’m so rigidly a close-range type. I gladly accept the role of messenger. But, Master, when we challenge Genbu or Byakko or some close-range type in the future, please give me a chance to fight, too.”
“Yes.” Kuroyukihime nodded, calm as usual. “At that time, I’ll name you leader of the shock corps, Pile. I’m counting on you. Get strong enough to beat them down.”
“Yes, I will. I definitely will,” Takumu replied, as if trying to convince himself, and nodded deeply.
Kuroyukihime turned back and took a deep breath. “Now then, any questions? Anything you want to say? Anything is fine. We do have plenty of time. I told Maiden that we’d likely make her wait five minutes at most, so if we felt like it, we could chatter away here for three days.”
“What? We can’t make Miss Mei wait that long. It’s sad, Kuroyukihime!” Chiyuri cried. Apparently, she had settled on that nickname for Utai in the Accelerated World. She would no doubt soon come up with a name full of fondness for real-world use as well.
Lucky. I wish I could call her a cute nickname instead of Shinomiya. Wonder if she’d get angry if I called her “Ui” like Niko…These thoughts flitted through his mind, but Haruyuki hurriedly brushed his mental chatter aside.
There was one thing he should probably take this opportunity to say to everyone there. Something that was likely equally, if not more, important than the plan to purify the Armor of Catastrophe. Naturally, this was the matter of the mysterious parasitic object that was quietly spreading throughout the Accelerated World—the ISS kit. However, after struggling with it for a few seconds, he decided not to say anything.
At that moment, they needed to focus solely on rescuing Ardor Maiden and muster up every bit of strength they had to do so. He couldn’t bring up something that was not directly connected with her and carve away even the tiniest bit of their concentration.
And he wasn’t the only one who had seen the ISS kit close-up. Utai, who had exchanged Incarnate attacks directly with Bush Utan, the owner of a kit, was actually closer to the true nature of that parasitic object than he was. In which case, discussion on this matter should happen after they rescued Utai’s avatar and Nega Nebulus was completely restored.
Thinking this way, Haruyuki kept his mouth closed, and Chiyuri, Takumu, and Fuko similarly did not move to speak.
“Good.” Kuroyukihime nodded sharply, slowly looking at all of their faces. “It seems that you’ve all made your mental preparations. Now, before the start of the operation, I have just one instruction for Lime Bell. If some unexpected situation should occur and everyone on the bridge is defeated by Suzaku, you absolutely must not try to save us. You have to return to the real world via the nearest portal and pull out the cable connecting Crow’s Neurolinker and his home server. Understood?”
A possibly cruel order. If they were forced to rely on this final safety, that would mean that not only Utai, but also Kuroyukihime, Fuko, and even Haruyuki had fallen into a state of unlimited EK.
But Chiyuri lifted the brim of her pointed hat resolutely and nodded firmly. “I understand, Kuroyukihime.”
“We’re counting on you. All right, then, shall we get started?” Kuroyukihime said casually, as if they were about to dive into the weekly battles to protect their territory.
She then turned to Takumu. “Now, Pile, there’s a portal immediately after the main gate of the police station there,” she instructed smoothly. “As the starting gun for the start of the operation, shoot off one blast of your Lightning Cyan Spike toward the sky before leaving for the re
al world. On the signal of your awakening, Utai will immediately dive. This relay will take approximately a second of real time, so the calculation is that sixteen minutes and forty seconds will pass here. During that time, Crow and Raker will drop back two hundred meters south on Sakurada Street and prepare for takeoff. A minute before Utai’s appearance, I will enter the bridge. When you see Suzaku appear, Raker, take off. From there, we proceed as planned.”
“Understood, Master. Okay, Raker, Bell, Crow. It’s up to you now.”
Instead of replying, Haruyuki thrust his right fist into the air, and Takumu met it with his left before whirling around. The blue avatar ran off without looking back and disappeared through the gates of the police station.
A few seconds later, a single bolt of lightning rose up toward the sky heavy with snow-filled clouds. Beyond the station was the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and beyond that, a forest of large buildings and the Tokyo High Court, so this light shouldn’t have been visible from any position other than that of Haruyuki and his companions.
With that, in sixteen minutes and forty seconds, Utai Shinomiya—Ardor Maiden—would appear on the other side of the large bridge. Whatever happened, Haruyuki had to grab her and escape to this side of the bridge.
“Well, Crow. Shall we get moving? Bell, Lotus, good luck,” Fuko said, and patted Haruyuki’s shoulder.
“R-right! Kuroyukihime, um, uhh, I’m gonna do everything I can.” He managed to push these few words out of a throat tight with nerves, and Kuroyukihime stared at him with violet-blue eyes.
“I know you will,” she replied briefly.
The following fifteen minutes felt almost infinite and yet incredibly fast, like a raging river.
Standing next to Sky Raker equipped with her Gale Thruster, Haruyuki intently tried to focus his mind, but he couldn’t even tell if he was succeeding in that or simply drowning in the random noise of his brain. Snowflakes danced down in the now-silent Unlimited Neutral Field; time itself seemed to have frozen.
Even at this distance, the massive castle gate to the north of Sakurada Street, enshrined another seven hundred meters beyond the length of the bridge, had lost almost none of its imposing presence. It obstructed Haruyuki’s view almost as if it locked away the world itself.
“Two and a half years ago, you tried to break that gate down,” he muttered, almost unconsciously, and Fuko immediately next to him let slip a faint smile.
“Not just the gate. We tried to attack the castle on the other side.”
“Oh, r-right.”
There was no doubt that the first Nega Nebulus had been a much more fearsome group than it was now. Haruyuki sighed at the thought and then gave voice to the question that abruptly popped up in his mind.
“But during the fight then, why did you decide to take on all four of the Gods? I know Kuroyukihime said yesterday that the Four Gods are four parts of one body, but there are four gates, so wouldn’t it have been better for the entire Legion to attack one of them?”
“That’s exactly what some people thought a long time ago, and so they tried it. And what they learned was that the Four Gods are linked to one another. Whenever one of them alone is attacked, the other three send healing spells and it ends up being quite the battle. But today, we’re not trying to defeat it, so that doesn’t matter right now.”
“Oh, th-that makes sense.”
Thinking about it, if Haruyuki could come up with that idea, then it was only natural that it had already been tested. Bobbing his head up and down, he continued. “Right. There must be a ton of Legions who’ve challenged the palace. And not just the Castle. They dug around in unexplored areas; they came up with all kinds of battle techniques. They’re lucky. If I had become a Burst Linker sooner—”
“Hee-hee-hee, what are you talking about, Corvus?” Fuko cut him off with a smile and words like a sigh, and suddenly hugged Haruyuki tightly. He froze, while a somehow playful whisper reached his ear. “It starts now. Your Brain Burst—all of it starts now, Corvus. For me and Lotus as well. The road we thought was ending really goes on and on. It spreads out infinitely. And you’re the one who made me realize this.”
The hands circling around his back held him even more tightly. The voice that rose up in his ear also was tinged with a warmth to melt the chill of the Ice stage. “In your silver wings is the power to open the world, Corvus. Your future spreads out in every direction. I want to see where those wings take you. I’m sure Lotus and Maiden feel the same way. Now then, shall we go rescue her? It’s time.” Gently, she released him from her embrace.
At some point, Haruyuki’s mind had become completely clear, filled with a single, firm purpose.
Fly. He would simply fly. That ability was the reason for the existence of Silver Crow, this avatar that Haruyuki’s heart had given birth to.
“Yes!” Haruyuki assented firmly.
Sky Raker kneeled down, back turned to him. He set his knee down in the center of the two rocket boosters of her Enhanced Armament Gale Thruster, and grabbed tightly onto her shoulders.
“I’m ready.”
Fuko nodded and stared intently at the large bridge before them.
There were two small shadows at the foot of it: Black Lotus and Lime Bell. Ten seconds later, Lotus brandished high the sword of her right hand and brought it down sharply.
11
The Black King advanced, a single soldier.
She stepped onto the bridge stretching out five hundred meters from the Castle’s south gate. She spread both arms out diagonally to her rear and, in a form that had her body pitched forward as far as it could go, she charged, carving deep ruts in the ice at her feet.
Bomf! Beyond her, in the center of the square altar that lay on the other side of the bridge, a bright red flame appeared. Swirling, vortex-like, the flames grew in intensity before Haruyuki’s eyes. Soon, the entire twenty meters of one side of the altar was transformed into a sea of fire. In the center of that, something—a terrifyingly enormous something—was beginning to materialize.
“Here we go!” Fuko shouted back to Haruyuki, the instant they saw it.
The Gale Thruster howled beneath him. Its pale flames shot out and illuminated their surroundings, instantly vaporizing the ice on the road. The incredible thrust shot the two duel avatars off the ground like a catapult.
Air howled in his ears; to resist the roaring wind pressure, Haruyuki pressed himself as close as he could to Fuko’s back. The details of the buildings on both sides melted into flowing lines of pale blue. The sound of the Thruster grew louder and louder and louder.
Their two-hundred-meter runway was very rapidly approaching its end. In the blink of an eye, they had flown by Lime Bell, the bell of her left hand readied, in the center of the large intersection. The pair charged on, into the sky over the bridge, racing forward at maximum speed and an altitude of thirty meters.
Ahead of them, the something that was born from the sea of flames was taking on a clear shape.
First, two massive wings spread out to both sides, scattering glittering droplets like molten metal. Their span was essentially the width of the bridge; each and every feather, a devil’s flaming sword. Snowflakes dancing in the atmosphere evaporated long before they touched those wings.
Between the outstretched appendages, sturdy shoulders appeared next, followed by a long, arched neck jerking upward, and then a head began to materialize. Decorative feathers extending sharply like a dragon’s horns. Long, pointed beak. And even more dazzling than the flames, glittering more redly than rubies: two eyes.
The massive bird shrouded in flames—guardian of the Castle, super-level Enemy, the God Suzaku—turned its open beak toward the heavens and released a tremendous roar.
The moment this war cry and the infinite rumbling of piercing thunder coiled around it shook the world, Haruyuki saw it. The thick clouds blanketing the sky rippled and shuddered and briefly ripped outward in circular waves.
What was this thing?
No. That…that bird was alive. Angry at having its slumber disturbed, it rampaged to burn up the intruders. It seemed to be made of nothing but rejection and the intention to attack, the very concept of an unbelievable titan…
It was a pure aggregate of the will to destroy.
The moment he realized this, Haruyuki was aware of his own resolve to fly wavering inside himself.
He cowered. This presence in the Accelerated World he had once wanted to see, this manifestation of absolute power that eclipsed even the Seven Kings of Pure Color, who Haruyuki had found so overwhelming only a few days earlier, burned into all the channels of his five senses, and his breathing stopped.
…We can’t. That’s…I can’t go near that thing…The thought pierced the center of his numbed consciousness.
But Sky Raker’s flight did not stop. On the contrary, the noise from the Gale Thruster grew louder and louder, and the flames jetting out seemed to stretch on forever. The enormous flame bird in the distance flapped its wings and began to move forward from the altar. Even with the sensation of acceleration pressing down on him, the distance between them and it decreased with terrifying speed.
Haruyuki’s hands shook and unconsciously, he began to pull his fingertips from Raker’s shoulders.
Instantly.
Black Lotus, standing less than a hundred meters below him up ahead, abruptly began to gush dazzling rays of light from her entire body—the overlay of her Incarnate. The color was a pure red, rivaling that of the flames enshrouding the massive bird.
“Aaaaaaaaah!!” Kuroyukihime’s fierce battle cry ripped open the heavens. The ghostly light of her Incarnate doubled in intensity. From her avatar, starlike in its brilliance, a crisp voice was released: “Overdrive!! Mode Red!!”
It was a command Haruyuki didn’t know. And the phenomenon that it brought about was also unknown to him.
Vivid red lines popped up on Black Lotus’s jet-black armor. At the same time, the design of the sword of her right hand changed. It grew 50 percent longer, the tip constricting into a diamond shape. It was no longer a sword; it was a lance.
Shrine Maiden of the Sacred Fire Page 21
