“So, we should just break this and teleport straight to Kansukay, right?”
“Now wait just a second, squirt. We might be tough, but going in without weapons is crazy. Don’tcha have something for us?” Sheesh, this guy sure is the demanding sort... Old man Baba was completely right, though. But the only weapons I had on me were the New Model Army and my gunblade, Brunhild. Neither of them were something I could give to them...
“Well. Guess I’ll have to make some.”
“Make some?” The Elite Four looked at me like I was a lunatic. I ignored their stares and used [Storage] to take out the steel I kept from when I was making bikes.
“You okay with a spear? Do you have any requests or preferences?”
“Hm? Yeah, I’d like a spear. Naito does best with two short swords, and Yamagata likes his greatswords...”
“Sure thing.” I used [Modeling] to reshape the steel. First, I made the two short swords. Then came the greatsword, and last, but not least, the spear. The three took their weapons and tested out how they felt and handled.
“To make something like this in such a short amount of time... You are amazing, Touya-dono.”
“The whole thing’s made of steel, so I thought this spear would be heavy... but it’s surprisingly light. Balance is a little strange, though." I had made the hilt hollow solely to make it lighter. It was basically a steel pipe with a spearhead on top. That gave it more endurance than standard spears, but I had no idea if it was any sharper as a result.
“So, we ready?” Everyone nodded in response. I unholstered the New Model Army and loaded it with bullets from my waist pouch. Specifically, the bullets imbued with a small explosion spell.
I aimed at the jizo statue in front of me. It seemed like an action that would wind up getting me cursed, but there was no other option. Once I pulled the trigger, the jizo shattered into countless pieces.
With the barrier destroyed, I took out my smartphone, turned on the map app, and ran a search for the oni mask soldiers.
Yup, it works. I can use my phone’s functions again.
I locked on all the oni mask soldiers, planning to take them all out.
“H-Hey, what’s that?!” Yamagata and the other two looked up at the night sky with wide eyes. They were staring at the small [Multiple] magic circles. Leen was looking over at them as well.
“You’re doing that again?”
“It’s a good idea to get rid of all those who could get in our way, right? Things would get pretty bad if we teleported there and instantly got surrounded.” I raised my hand to the sky, focused my magic, and activated all of the [Multiple] magic circles.
“Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” Light rained from the skies for the second time in recent history. The dead of night made it a beautiful sight, much like a meteor shower.
But man, I wasn’t among the enemy forces last time, so I had no idea it was so loud and made the ground shake this much...
Spears of light fell all over the stronghold, destroying the oni mask soldiers one by one. It didn’t matter if they were outside or indoors, the spears reached their targets even if they had to pierce through roof tiles. Crap... I didn’t really think this through.
Once the rain of light stopped, I could hear the normal soldiers start to shout that they were being attacked, so I locked on to all the ‘enemy Takeda soldiers’ and cast [Paralyze], making the area turn quiet.
“Okay, let’s go.”
“Hey... Did you really just do all that?!” Old man Baba looked around while blinking in disbelief. For a brief while, the other two’s mouths were open wide due to the shock, but they soon spoke up.
“Dear me... This is unbelievable...”
“Okay now, don’t you think you took care of Kansukay with this?” It was a possibility, considering that ‘enemy Takeda soldiers’ included him, as well. I didn’t expect him to be harmed, though. Not only was [Paralyze] weak against anyone with talismans, but it didn’t have much of an effect on anyone with high magical aptitude.
“I think Kansukay’s just fine. It’s not a problem, though. Just means we have to take him head-on. Let’s go finish this.” I opened a [Gate] to the central quarter, where Kansukay was.
Once I was through the portal of light, I saw a one-eyed, swarthy man standing in the large garden. He was surrounded by immobilized Takeda soldiers. The eyepatched man noticed our sudden appearance and looked right at us, his shadow dancing due to the two bonfires next to him.
“I see. So the Elite Four are responsible for this, then? You’ve truly surprised me. How did you accomplish this?”
“You don’t need to know that. Now shut up and die!” Yamagata brandished his greatsword and charged at Kansukay. Whoa, damn! Now there’s someone who’s quick to act! But I guess his appearance isn’t exactly hiding that. Yamagata Massakage — the captain of Takeda’s shock troops — swung his blade straight toward Kansukay’s neck. However, it was blocked by the katana of an armored samurai who jumped out from the side.
“Wha—?!” He was clad in red armor and a helmet with a lion decoration. The samurai’s white hair danced around as he deflected Yamagata’s greatsword.
A red oni mask was covering his face. He was almost two meters tall and had muscles so large that it looked like they were going to burst. Wait... it can’t be...
“M-Milord...?” The hoarse voice that somehow escaped old man Baba’s lips confirmed my assumption about the armored samurai.
That was Takeda Schingen. He who was once the lord of Takeda. Now reduced to a mere puppet under Kansukay’s complete control.
“Kansukay, you filth! You’d dare to use Lord Schingen as a shield?!”
“A shield? I would never. Lord Schingen merely protected me. That’s all. Though, I do regret pushing him into a situation that made it necessary. I shall call for a replacement.” Magic gathered around Kansukay, forming a large circle in the middle of the garden. That circle’s element is... Darkness! He’s summoning something! “Come to me, O Darkness. I seek the service of bones: [Skeleton Warrior]!” A skeleton crawled out of the magic circle. It was wielding a curved sword in its right hand and a round shield in its left. Man, this Kansukay guy sure seems to have a thing for undead-related powers.
“Blade Mode.” I took out Brunhild and instantly transformed it into a longsword. The skeleton charged at me, so I swung horizontally and split it in half.
But the skeleton slowly began moving and regenerated, seemingly shrugging off my lethal blow. Its split spine shifted back in place and it got up, prepared to charge me again. What the heck?!
“Come forth, O light! Shining Duet: [Light Arrow]!” I heard Leen casting a spell, and a moment later, an arrow of light pierced through the skeleton in front of me. The bones shattered into fragments, never to regenerate again. Huh? Why’d that work?
“Surely you know that undead are weak to Light magic, right? Pointless slashing gets you nowhere, dummy.” Oh, right. I returned Brunhild to gun mode and reloaded it. I elected to use Light magic bullets.
I aimed at the skull of another skeleton coming toward me and pulled the trigger. The gunshot was accompanied by a burst of light that splinted the bones, preventing it from rising again.
I looked to the side and saw Tsubaki, old man Baba, and Naito valiantly fighting the living bones, whose regeneration made the struggle look fruitless.
“This is annoying. I’ll just end it all at once.” Leen released her magic, causing a magic circle to appear below her feet. It began to widen until it was large enough to cover the whole garden.
“Come forth, O light! Shining Exile: [Banish]!” Right after she spoke her spell, all the skeletons in the garden burst into particles of light and vanished. What the hell was that? That was awesome! Guess I shouldn’t have expected any less from the clan matriarch of the magically-adept fairies.
“Hmph... Light-element purification magic. Not bad at all. However...” The red armored samurai stood before Kansukay, re
ady to protect him. He aimed his katana at Yamagata, blocking his path and preventing him from moving forward.
“Milord! Please move aside!”
“Schingen-sama! Blast it all, that slimy wretch!”
“Look at how he treads over our feelings… What scum!”
“Heheheh, it’s useless. Our dear lord protects me. I know full well that you are unable to cross swords with the leader you are so grateful to. That means you cannot lay a hand on m—” Before Kansukay could finish his sentence, Schingen’s mask suddenly shattered. Things were dragging on a bit, so I shot it with my gun.
The armored samurai dropped to the ground face-down. The puppeteer no longer had any hold over it. Cool. Destroying the mask really did stop him. With the deed done, I spun Brunhild in my hand.
“Wh-Wha—?!” With a surprised expression on his face, Kansukay looked between Schingen’s still body and me.
“Squirt, you...”
“Hey, I didn’t even know him.”
“That’s true... Still, I would appreciate it if you considered our feelings, too...” Old man Baba and Naito both looked at me with shocked expressions, but I really didn’t know how to react.
“H-Heheheh, impressive. But I still have this!” Kansukay took off the eyepatch over his left eye. There was a red, shining eye — no, a jewel — inside the socket. It shone in a mystifying, ghastly, ominous manner, as if beating like a heart. Is that the jewel we were told about?
“As long as I possess the ‘Jewel of Immortality,’ I cannot die! You can even behead me and still, I will instantly recover!”
“So you used the jewel’s power to grant immortality to the oni mask soldiers?”
“Heheh, that I did! The negative side is that I can only give the simplest orders when the soldiers are too far away from me, but this Artifact more than makes up for it with the great magic power and immortality it provides!” Kansukay proudly answered Leen’s question. It was becoming very clear that that thing was the cause of this whole troubling situation.
“Hoo-ahhh!!!” With a mighty war cry, Yamagata swung his greatsword down on Kansukay. The attack neatly cut off his arm, but it quickly turned into a black mist and vanished into nothingness. Moments later, Kansukay’s shoulder grew a perfectly new arm.
“Wha—?!”
“I told you it won’t work! I can regenerate no matter how many times you cut me! And it’s all thanks to this jewel!”
“[Apport].” I cast a spell, and a small round object appeared in my hand.
Well, he just said he wouldn’t regenerate without the jewel, right? I threw the shining red jewel into the air and caught it, just in case Kansukay hadn’t realized what just happened.
“N-No!” He hastily placed his hand against his left eye. Obviously, the jewel was no longer there. Wait. It occurs to me that this thing was in his nasty old eye socket for who knows how long... Ew. Ew. Ew. This is gross!
“Y-You bastard! When did you—?!”
“My my, talk about having sticky fingers. Is that another Null spell?”
“Yeah. [Apport] allows me to instantly bring small objects to me. Useful in situations like this.” Leen took a look at the jewel in my hand, quickly took it between her fingers, and examined it with squinted eyes. Her brow furrowed as her glare turned intense. That thing’s pretty gross, honestly.
“Hmph, this one’s really bad. It has a curse that gathers the negative energy from the surroundings and makes the owner’s heart impure. It was likely applied by some weird wizard. Either way, it’s the reason this man lost his sanity. Though, considering that a clean heart gets in the way of controlling corpses, I can’t help but call it practical.”
“I’m impressed that you can tell that much just by looking at it.”
“Don’t underestimate the eyes of a fairy.” She proudly puffed out her chest.
Guess I shouldn’t have expected any less from the clan matriarch of the fairies. I keep forgetting that she’s kind of a big deal...
“Artifacts are magic tools from ancient civilizations. They’re all extremely precious, but this one has absorbed so much malice that it’s now safe to call it a concentrated disaster. It’s best to destroy it.” Leen raised her right hand, still holding the jewel, and aimed at a nearby wall.
“What are you doing?! Stop that!”
“I won’t.” Leen maliciously smiled at the desperate Kansukay. Man, she really likes doing things that people don’t want...
Leen threw the jewel with all she had, making it hit the wall and shatter into many pieces.
“GHaahgHGHhh!!!” With a blood-curdling scream, Kansukay fell to the ground. After a writhing for a while, he stopped moving and began gradually drying up into a twisted, mummified form.
Soon enough, he became dust, and the gentle wind blew him away into the night sky.
“Thank... you...” Huh? Did I hear a voice just now... or was it my imagination?
“What... What just happened?”
“This means that Yamamoto Kansukay already died. Interacting with the jewel probably absorbed his magic, willpower, and stamina, among other things.” After Kansukay vanished and left nothing but his clothes behind, Yamagata asked a pretty good question. Luckily Leen was there to clarify. So, with the jewel destroyed, the body was unable to sustain itself? That meant he was undead himself, huh?
“Ah, Lord Schingen!” Just like Kansukay, the oni mask soldiers turned to dust and disappeared into the night sky. I could only hope that this would allow them to rest in peace.
The Elite Four and Tsubaki put their hands together and sent their prayers off for the dead. Maybe it was because I was Japanese, but I couldn’t help joining them.
Chapter II: The Legacy of Babylon
Three days had passed since the incident with Kansukay.
Things were reasonably hectic at first, but the land of Takeda quickly regained stability and found a new lord. Apparently, Kousaka — the one from the Elite Four who asked for our help — was hiding Lord Schingen’s child from Kansukay.
The necromancer was fully aware of the boy’s existence, but with Lord Schingen himself already being his puppet, he probably just didn’t give much thought to the child. At least, that was how it seemed at first glance. There was no doubt that this chaos was caused by none other than Kansukay, but I couldn’t help but question whether the sorcerer we fought in the garden was acting out the man’s own will.
I could’ve been overthinking things, but a part of me believed that even after the Artifact robbed him of his sanity, Kansukay subconsciously tried to avoid hurting the child of his late lord.
Regardless, the son in question, Takeda Khatsuyohri, became the new feudal lord, and the Elite Four were once again the closest advisers to Takeda’s head.
Just to be on the safe side, I told them to avoid picking fights with Oda. Then again, considering that my previous world and this one weren’t completely in sync, my worry and the warning might’ve been unnecessary. But I decided that if a few years passed and I was suddenly informed that Takeda had been annihilated, I wouldn’t be very pleased, to say the least.
With the war between Tokugawa and Takeda settled, we decided to make our way to our original destination, the Ruins of Nirya.
We were told they were at the edge of Shimazu’s territory, toward the southernmost part of Eashen. Luckily, old man Baba visited the place when he was young, so all I had to do was have him share those memories with me.
In all honesty, holding hands and touching foreheads with a burly old man felt like a weird party game punishment or something.
“Father, Mother, Brother, Ayane. I am taking my leave, I am.”
“Alright, take care of yourself.”
“Touya-san, please look out for my daughter.” As we were giving our goodbyes to Yae’s folks in her house at Oedo, Nanae bowed her head to me. Not knowing how to react, I bowed back in the same manner. Jutaro and Ayane stood alongside Nanae, smiling at us all.
“We’ll come visit you ag
ain when we have the free time. You’re welcome to visit my place in Belfast, too.”
“We look forward to it.” I gave Jutaro a handshake and opened a [Gate] to the ruins.
After we walked through, still saying our goodbyes to Yae’s family all the while, we were greeted by a beautiful sandy beach.
An endlessly wide sea gently caressed the white sand. I could see a rocky area and a small forest in the distance, but that was about it as far as scenic diversity went.
With a single look at the map, I found out that we were on a small desert island. Well, desert might’ve not been the right word, considering that the mainland was only a two-hundred meter swim away.
The emerald green sea dazzled us with the sparkling sunlight it reflected. I recalled reading something about white sand being white because a lot of it was coral and shells that had broken into tiny pieces.
“Wow, it’s so beautiful...” Yumina walked across the white sand, her eyes fixed on the sea. Kohaku was right next to her, clearly having trouble walking, while Paula the autonomous bear was frolicking about as if it was nothing. Seriously? What the hell is up with the [Program] on that thing?
In contrast to the bear, its master was gracefully walking on the sand with a parasol in her hands. Wait, where did you even get that?
“It’s been a while since we’ve seen the sea.”
“You’ve got that right, Sis.” The twins embraced the salty sea breeze and went on ahead, leaving footprints in the sand behind them.
Yae started after them, but before she could catch up, she stopped to remove her sandals and socks. Probably full of sand, that’d annoy me too...
“Ouch! Hot! Hothothot!” Come on, Yae. With sun like this, what did you expect? It wasn’t even midday, and yet the sun, hanging high in the clear blue sky, was already blazing down upon us. All the heat from the light turned the sandy beach into a minor inferno.
Yae opted to avoid the heat by hopping on one leg and then the other, hastily making her way to the sea. It looked like a weird dance.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 3 Page 4
