Part 4 of 8
The puppet spiders could take on any number of those robots without a problem. They proved that in the underground ruins.
But the tanks were a problem for them.
A single tank destroyed almost half of Sael’s body, and the other three’s attacks didn’t work on it.
I don’t think it’s impossible for them to win in a similar fight, but they lack both the offense and the defense.
The tank’s main gun can tear through the puppet spiders’ defenses, but their attacks don’t work on it at all.
Their only option for defense is to dodge.
But that still leaves the issue of offense.
Riel and Fiel’s attacks definitely hit the tank, so if they had some way of breaking through its armor, they should be able to win.
But that’s easier said than done.
The tank’s armor is covered in the same mysterious barrier Potimas used, which renders magic totally useless.
It would probably negate any buff effects, too, so destroying the armor requires brute physical strength.
For some reason, my scythe was able to rip right through it without a problem, but that doesn’t help much, since I still have no idea what’s going on with this thing.
It does point me in the right direction, though.
They’d need better weapons.
That’s the only way.
There’s no point trying to raise the puppet spiders’ own attack power at this stage, so our only hope is to give them stronger weapons.
But even that isn’t so simple.
The puppet spiders’ current weapons are incredibly sharp swords.
They’re strong and sturdy enough that they don’t break even when whipped around by the puppet spiders’ powerful arms.
It wouldn’t be easy to find weapons that outclass those.
But if we can’t find them, we’ll just have to make ’em!
That’s how I got my scythe, so this can totally work!
As far as the kind of weapon, I don’t think blades are a good option.
Trying to break through that armor with a blade is kinda stupid to begin with.
When you’re trying to break through crazy-strong armor, the obvious choice is always gonna be blunt weapons. It’s better to try to punch through than to try to slice it up.
That way, even if you don’t break the armor, you have a chance of busting up the mechanisms inside with an attack.
For the materials, I’m using ancient metal.
It’s high-quality stuff, at least as strong or even stronger than the metal used to make the tank’s armor.
Huh? Where did I get that stuff, you ask?
From the underground ruins, duh.
I went back down into the ruins via the former ant nest.
Then I tore off the metal that was used for the walls of the actual ruins and went on my merry way.
I mean, that stuff kept its original shape even after those crazy flames ran through it.
All I had to do was a little tampering with Repellent Evil Eye and Warped Evil Eye to compress it.
Then I squished it together and made a handle, and voilà, a simple blunt weapon.
I made six of these for each of the four puppet spiders, for a total of twenty-four.
They’re a little haphazard, but they should still do more damage than the puppet spiders’ usual swords.
Since they’re new weapons, the puppet spiders are waving them experimentally, getting used to their weight.
Hopefully they’ll get the hang of it by the time the battle begins.
Now the puppet spiders should be all prepared.
Meanwhile, the Demon Lord was…summoning queen taratects.
Four of them, no less.
I couldn’t believe my eyes at first.
These are queen taratects we’re talking about, y’know?
They’re the same species as Mother. Can you imagine how I felt seeing four of them right before my eyes?
I was so shocked, I couldn’t even react!
I guess Mother wasn’t the only queen taratect serving the Demon Lord.
Four crazy-strong beasts like Mother? The Demon Lord’s scary when she gets serious.
“I figured this isn’t the time to be stingy. I’m pulling out all the stops.”
The four queens form an imposing line.
And then there’s the dragon-wyrm army, led by the wind dragons.
Looks like all the dragons and wyrms in this wasteland have gathered here.
What’s up with this monster army? I kinda feel like they could easily destroy the world by themselves.
Shoot. I did think about bringing the spider army from the Great Elroe Labyrinth, but I figured it was better to leave them there to guard the bloodsucker duo and all.
Giant spider monsters, dragons, and wyrms, oh my.
“Pardon the wait. I have returned with the Word of God army of thirty thousand.”
The pontiff shows up to add his army to the mix.
The mage who undertook this huge Large-Scale Teleport to bring the army all this way died in the process.
Several of them, in fact.
I didn’t actually see the bodies, but I heard the pontiff mention it in his speech to the Word of God army after they appeared in the wasteland.
“Give thanks for the sacrifice of the brave men who gave their lives to create a gate to this place for the holy war!”
Large-Scale Teleport is so tough that even I have trouble with it.
If you tried to do it with a human body, I can see how that would mean literally putting your life on the line.
This method sacrificed the lives of several valuable Spatial Magic mages.
That’s how determined the pontiff was to bring his forces here.
To be honest, I’m not sure how much help they’re going to be. They might have big numbers, but they’re still human.
To the Demon Lord or me, they just look like an army of weaklings.
But they seem determined to join the fight.
I can sense that they’re willing to lay down their lives with a fervor that borders on madness.
I don’t know what the pontiff told them before we got here, but they seem perfectly willing to team up with us, and it looks like they understand what kind of enemy we’re facing.
They even seem to realize that most of them won’t be coming back alive.
And yet, none of them seems to be afraid, and their morale only keeps getting higher. I guess they’ve been trained well.
That’s what’s so scary about religion.
There’s nothing stronger than that kind of faith.
“It appears I am the last to arrive.”
Finally, Potimas shows up with his mechanical army.
There aren’t that many, probably only about two thousand soldiers.
But instead of humans, these are machine soldiers.
They’re over fifteen feet tall, clad in tough-looking armor and wielding several weapons each.
The machines are sorta freaky to look at, too: It’s like if you shoved a humanoid upper body onto a multi-legged lower body.
But as freaky as it is, they look efficient, too.
The upper body seems like it was designed to wield weapons as effectively as possible and only happened to come out resembling a human.
It’s sorta like the product of a design focused purely on making a functional, elegant weapon, not a cool-looking robot like you’d see in a mecha anime.
Not exactly romantic but definitely promising as a fighting force.
I just hope I’m never up against these things instead of with them.
“Looks like we’re all ready,” the Demon Lord remarks.
Yeah, unfortunately.
Güli-güli didn’t make it back in time after all.
If only he’d gotten here sooner, I wouldn’t have to deal with this stupid UFO.
“So White here, I guess Potimas, and I are gonna assault that thing, okay?”
“Right.”
It’s not really okay with me, but I can’t run away at this point—and even if I did, it might mean the end of the world.
So I just nod, albeit very reluctantly.
“So? How do we get inside?”
“We’ll use this to make a hole in the outer wall.”
Potimas indicates some kind of massive tube thing.
Hmm? Is that like a giant bazooka or something?
“It’s a single-use gun, but it’s extremely powerful. It should be able to make a hole in the G-Fleet’s exterior without a problem.”
Hey, I was right. It’s a bazooka.
Still, the term “infiltration” had me picturing us entering through some secret air vent or something, not just busting our way through.
I guess it’s more like breaking and entering, huh?
“So? Who’s going to bring it?”
“I’ll have you or that ‘White’ creature carry it. This body can probably lift it, but it isn’t quite powerful enough to take aim properly.”
“All right. Here you go, White.”
What? Why?
Looks like I’m the one stuck carrying this bazooka.
Why do I have to take such an important role, huh?
I glower at the Demon Lord in protest.
“You can use Spatial Magic to put it away and take it out whenever you want. Besides, you’ve got a better physique for it than I do anyway.”
Dammit. She’s right.
I can put it away in Spatial Storage until I need to fire it, and the Demon Lord’s childlike body is hardly suited to operating a bazooka.
And Potimas says he can’t do it, although I don’t know if that’s true or not, so that leaves only me by process of elimination.
But I reeeally don’t wanna be given such an important task.
If I miss or something, we won’t be able to get inside anymore, right? He said this was one use only.
I can’t afford to mess up.
Rationally, I know it’d probably be harder to miss that giant thing than to hit it, but that doesn’t stop me from being nervous.
Should I get as close as I can and shoot it from point-blank range?
That would involve flying, then.
Of course, since I have Dimensional Maneuvering, that’s not a problem for me.
Dimensional Maneuvering uses magic power to create footholds in empty space, allowing me to run through the air or whatever like I’m on the ground. That means I can move through the air without a problem.
But isn’t that UFO gonna have the mysterious barrier?
If it activates that barrier while I’m using Dimensional Maneuvering, it’ll cancel out the skill and I’ll fall.
I don’t like that one bit.
Since the tank used that barrier, there’s no guarantee the UFO won’t use it.
I have to come up with a way to fly without using skills.
Just then, I make eye contact with a certain someone who’s been listening with a meek yet relaxed attitude, as if none of this has anything to do with it.
Aha. That’ll do.
I beckon to the wind dragon.
Making a “?” face, the wind dragon putters over.
I quickly move around to its side, jumping onto its back.
“What the—?!”
Great. The size is perfect.
My upper body is the same size as a normal human, but my lower body takes the shape of a gigantic spider. Luckily, the wind dragon is just big enough to fly with me on its back.
Without further ado, I wrap my spider legs around the wind dragon’s body.
There, that feels nice and secure.
This is perfect!
“The hell are you doing?!”
“Ooh, I get it. Good idea.”
“Agreed. Perhaps Ariel and I should ride some dragons, as well.”
“You said it.”
While the wind dragon throws a fit, the Demon Lord and Potimas figure out my logic and actually agree with me.
“You heard him, wind dragon. You guys are gonna transport us up there.”
“‘You heard him,’ my ass!”
The wind dragon keeps complaining and trying to throw me off, but it’s already been decided.
“Shall I take charge of matters on the ground, then?”
It’s already starting to get chaotic down here, so the pontiff offers to rein things in.
“Might as well, right? Although I do kinda feel like our forces should just do our own thing.”
“I concur. Their methods and abilities are simply too different.”
Oh, I guess they have a point.
It’d probably be harder to control this mixed-up army than to just let them run wild.
In fact, these guys would normally be fighting one another, so it’s a miracle that they’re even on the same side in the first place.
And now you want to say, All right, let’s all work together and win this thing? Forget it.
“I’ll tell the queens and the puppets to listen to your orders, but don’t get your hopes up too much.”
“Seconded. I shall grant you the authority to give orders, but my soldiers will be the ones to decide whether to listen.”
Huh?
Does that mean there are people inside those machines?
It doesn’t look like there’s enough space in there, so I just assumed they were preprogrammed on autopilot.
…Maybe it’s best not to delve too deep into this.
I’m afraid I’ll learn something I’m better off not knowing.
“Very well. I only intend to provide minor adjustments. No doubt it is better to let each force act at their own discretion.”
I guess the pontiff wasn’t looking to take direct control of this crazy army anyway.
Maybe he suggested this only to get their consent in case of an emergency?
If you don’t establish the chain of command early on, it can lead to disputes down the line, after all.
“The G-Fleet is slowly making its way toward us. It has deployed a force of approximately a hundred thousand on the ground.”
Silence follows that number.
A hundred thousand.
Our forces number about forty thousand in total.
And thirty thousand of those are humans, who are weaker than the robots that make up most of the opposing army.
The queens, the puppet spiders, the dragons, and most likely the machine soldiers are all considerably stronger than the robots, but this will probably still be a difficult battle.
“Well, our main goal is getting rid of this bomb anyway. As long as we can do that, we’ve basically won, even if we can’t wipe out their forces. Then we’ll just let Gülie take care of the rest.”
The Demon Lord’s unconcerned comment lightens the mood a little.
She’s right.
If we take care of the bomb that could very well destroy the world, the rest of the problems are a whole lot less urgent.
Then we only have to wait for Güli-güli to get back and finish the job for us.
“Dustin.” The Demon Lord turns to give orders to the pontiff. “Please focus on slowing the enemy down and buying as much time as possible on the ground. Try to avoid any unnecessary sacrifices, okay?”
“Understood. I shall handle matters as carefully as I can.”
“Wind dragon. We’re gonna have you carry White, but have the rest of the dragons fight in the skies. It might be the toughest job, but don’t let them steal control of the air. Otherwise, we’re all doomed. Prepare to risk everything if you have to.”
“Huh? Why do we gotta work twice as hard as the goons on the ground, eh, spider lady?”
“There’s no way around it. If you don’t give it your all, we have no hope of winning.”
“Argh! What the hell?! Fine, we’ll do it!”
The wind dragon complains some more, but it seems to understand her reasoning.
The dragons are our only ally who can move freely through the air, so they’re very important.
They’re the only ones who can put up a fight against the UFO’s fighter aircraft.
Giving the enemy air superiority would have a devastating effect on the fight on the ground, so we really need the dragons to put their backs into this.
“And Potimas… Don’t betray us, got it?”
“Hmph.”
It’s hard to tell whether the Demon Lord is joking, but Potimas only responds with a snort.
Uh, are we sure this is gonna be okay?
He won’t betray us, right? Right?!
At any rate, this means our anti-UFO strategy has been decided.
The Demon Lord, Potimas, and I are going to infiltrate the UFO.
The dragons, led by the wind dragon, will carry us to the UFO, then fight in the air to keep our escape route open.
There are about eight thousand of them. Most of them are wyrms, though, with only twenty-four dragons.
Normally, twenty-four dragons would be a huge number, but in this situation, it doesn’t feel like nearly enough.
Our ground forces include the pontiff’s Word of God army of thirty thousand, Potimas’s two thousand machine soldiers, four queen taratects, and the four puppet spiders.
The UFO’s army, on the other hand, has about a hundred thousand robots.
A thousand tanks.
I see about five thousand fighters in the sky.
And then, there’s the supreme commander, the UFO itself.
There might even be more forces inside the UFO, so their total could be even larger.
Our forces are made up of some of the strongest troops in this world.
But even then, we don’t know for sure if we’ll win.
The fate of the world hangs in the balance.
If we lose, everything might be destroyed, so we have no choice but to win.
The curtain has violently opened on a battle against relics of the past.
THE VAMPIRE MISTRESS AND HER SERVANT DISCUSS MACHINERY
“Young miss, may I ask you a question?”
“Yes?”
“Could you tell me more about these ‘machines’?”
“Machines?”
“Indeed. I cannot quite grasp what exactly a ‘machine’ might be. And so I was hoping you could impart your wisdom unto me.”
“Okay. I don’t know the finer details, though.”
“That is quite all right. If you can share what knowledge you do have, I would be very grateful.”
“Very well. But it might take a while. Do you mind if I use Telepathy?”
“No, please go ahead.”
“Thank you. You want to know about the kinds of machines that were in those ruins, right, Merazophis?”
“Yes and no. I have very little understanding of machines in general. Please share anything that comes to mind, young miss.”
“All right. I’ll talk about the machines from my old world, then.”
“By all means.”
“To put it simply, a machine is something that exists to make life easier.”
“Is that right?”
“As far as I’m concerned anyway. Of course, there are weapons like the ones we saw in those ruins, but you could say that those, too, are meant to make life easier in a broad sense, right? By protecting people from enemy attacks.”
“Ah, I see.”
“So machines make life easier. Since you were in charge of a mansion, you know how taxing even everyday life can be, right? Cleaning, cooking, laundry. It’s a lot of work.”
“Quite.”
“Machines are supposed to help with that. In my world, for example, we had a machine called a vacuum cleaner, which gathered up dirt and garbage much more easily than a broom.”
“More than a broom?”
“Yes. I don’t quite understand the principles behind it, but you could say a vacuum cleaner was like an evolved form of a broom. Machines are basically evolved tools—more convenient, often able to do their work automatically. I think that’s a decent way of looking at it.”
“So the machines in those ruins were the same?”
“Yes, even those. Swords and such are weapons for fighting, yes? It’s just like if those evolved. Weapons that can move and fight on their own. That’s what a mechanical weapon is.”
SKY BATTLE! FANTASY VS SCI-Fi
NYOOOOOM! The sound of something tearing through the air zips right past my ears.
You know, the kind of sound that an F1 or whatever would make.
I’d only ever heard that noise on TV before, but it turns out it’s really freakin’ loud when you hear it up close!
I feel like my eardrums are gonna burst!
In fact, it wouldn’t be that unusual if they really did burst in this situation!
I mean, we’ve gotta be a good ten thousand feet up in the air.
That’s at least as high as the peak of Mount Fuji, maybe even higher.
If you’re doing acrobatic maneuvers that high up, you might bust an eardrum or two!
Although I don’t think mine have actually burst just yet.
That’s right. I’m flying in the sky right now.
Clinging to the back of a wind dragon, locked in the middle of a not-very-fun dance with a giant swarm of fighters.
“Whooee! Now, that one made my blood run cold for a second!”
The sound I just heard was the aircraft I shot down, hurtling right past us on its way to the ground.
The wind dragon’s Telepathic message is so lighthearted, I even heard it whistle, but that’s just its tone—in reality, it’s deadly serious.
This dragon is doing some insane high-speed evasive maneuvers to dodge the fighter jets’ attacks while firing back at them with Wind Magic.
It can’t let its guard down for a second or we’ll both be shot full of holes.
That’s how intense the battle against these fighters is.
While the dragons have taken off, the ground troops are still staying in place.
Their main job is to keep the UFO and its army occupied, so instead of charging forward, it makes more sense to wait and intercept the enemy instead.
The dragons are our air forces, though, and they have the job of bringing the infiltration team up to the UFO.
That means they have to break through the UFO’s defensive line of five thousand fighter planes, so they have no choice but to go on the offensive.
We’ve got to detach that bomb from the UFO as soon as we possibly can.
Since the UFO activated with no clear purpose, we have no way of knowing when it might drop the bomb.
According to Potimas, it’s not supposed to drop the bomb unless certain conditions are met, but we don’t know if it’s actually going to follow those rules.
I mean, this UFO is a relic from waaay back.
How do we know if it’s even functioning properly?
As it is, it’s already half on a rampage here, so it wouldn’t be that surprising if it decided to drop the bomb while it’s at it.
And another weapon, the octopus thing, is already on its way to space to try and drop a meteor on this planet.
So we can’t leave just this one hanging around with a literal ticking time bomb.
We were right to start the charge once our preparations were complete.
But we underestimated the fighters’ power.
I don’t think we were making light of them, but whatever the reason, we still assumed we could get past them easily enough.
But that illusion is about to be blown to pieces.
So the battle ten thousand feet above the ground is unfolding explosively.
Dragons versus fighter aircraft.
Fantasy versus sci-fi.
It’s a surreal scene.
I mean, should this really be happening outside of a superhero show?
However, my five senses are all screaming at me that this insane battle is quite real.
The aircraft’s automatic weapons are spraying light bullets all over the place.
Looks like they have the same kind of guns as the robots and the tanks.
One of the wyrms fails to dodge the barrage of light completely, and the bullets pierce right through its scales, cutting into the flesh and spraying blood everywhere.
The wyrm lets out a shriek of pain and plummets toward the ground.
I don’t think I need to tell you what happens after that.
But the wyrms are fighting back, too.
They dodge around the trajectory of the incoming fire, zooming toward the planes as they do so.
Then they damage the wings or the engine, sending the fighter crashing to the ground.
Compared to the fighters, which move in simple straight lines, the wyrms can maneuver around freely and organically, sneaking into the fighters’ blind spots.
And then there are the dragons, assaulting other aircraft with magic.
Like the tank, these fighters have the mystery barrier around their armor, so normal magic would just bounce right off.
Luckily, these dragons have the right kind of magic for the job.
As wind dragons, they obviously use Wind Magic.
And Wind Magic basically moves the air.
When this magic hits the aircraft’s exterior, it does indeed dissipate—but the air keeps on moving.
Spells like my Dark Magic use magic that didn’t have any physical form before, so of course they become useless once the effect is destroyed by the barrier. But since Wind Magic moves something that’s already there, it doesn’t really make a difference if the magic is canceled out after the fact.
They just lose control of the wind after it hits the barrier.
Violent airflow created by magic speeds toward the fighters, which spin out of control, plummeting to the ground.
The dragons can’t control the wind after that because of the barrier, but since they’re still wind dragons, a little turbulence isn’t going to affect them.
In fact, they use that to their advantage and keep going after the aircraft.
It’s a midair melee, with neither side budging an inch.
Unfortunately, if it drags on like this, we’re the ones who are gonna suffer.
Even the leader of the wind dragons is under so much pressure in this fight that it can’t let its guard down for a second.
The fighters can fight indefinitely, but we’re living creatures.
Even dragons get tired eventually.
And that’s especially true in this world, where our energy is strictly controlled by SP.
Most stats tend to work in our favor, but that’s not always the case with SP.
If you run out of yellow SP, which indicates immediate energy, then it gets hard to breathe. Worse, if you run out of the red SP that indicates your overall stamina, you’ll die on the spot.
We have to get through this situation on the limited SP we have.
And yet, even the head wind dragon has to put all of its strength into this battle.
The fighters have no such disadvantage.
I’m sure they can run out of energy, too, but their performance won’t suffer from exhaustion or anything like that.
They can display their best fighting abilities right up until the second their energy runs out.
So we’re getting more and more tired, but they can keep fighting at max power without rest.
The more time passes, the bigger our disadvantage gets.
That’s all too clear from the way that the number of wyrms shot down by the fighter planes is steadily increasing.
The weakest wyrms that couldn’t keep up with the aircraft’s speed to begin with dropped out of the fight pretty quickly.
The ones that are getting shot down now are the wyrms that are too tired to maintain their top speed, and therefore unable to dodge the aircraft’s aim any longer.
The dragons are all still intact.
But who knows how long that’s going to last?
Because the biggest problem is that the number of aircraft isn’t getting any smaller.
We’ve brought down a whole bunch of them already, yet it doesn’t look like their numbers have decreased in the slightest.
If anything, it seems like there are even more of them flying around than before.
That might actually be the case. Because more aircraft keep coming out of the UFO.
The UFO must be some kind of flying base.
It’s carrying tons of aircraft inside.
No matter how many we destroy, more reinforcements just keep pouring into the sky.
It’s like an endless bullet hell game out here.
We’re definitely damaging them, but since it doesn’t feel that way at all, the wyrms are clearly starting to panic.
I can’t blame them. We’re getting more exhausted by the minute, yet our enemies’ numbers don’t seem to be going down at all.
There must be a limit to their numbers, of course.
But we have no idea what that limit might be.
Their mother ship, the UFO, is huge, so it’s impossible to tell how many aircraft might be inside.
The only silver lining is that they’re coming out steadily to replace the fighters we destroy, instead of all swarming out at the same time.
That seems like a stupid strategy to me, but I’m guessing it must be some kind of control issue that prevents the UFO from sending them out all at once.
These things don’t have pilots. They’re totally controlled by a computer.
So I suspect there’s probably a limit to how many the computer can control at the same time.
There must be, or it wouldn’t make any sense.
If the UFO did unleash all the aircraft it has in one big push, we’d be doomed.
We’re barely holding them off to begin with.
This guy I’m riding on and the other dragons can still fight, but even the middle-range wyrms are starting to show warning signs at this point.
They’re the ones making up our front line right now, so if they go down, the upper wyrms and even dragons might start taking damage, too.
I’m providing backup with Wind Magic of my own, but the situation doesn’t look good.
Besides, if I use my Wind Magic to its maximum power, the wyrms will get caught in my attacks, too.
In this jumbled-up battle with allies and enemies on all sides, my wide-range magic would hit both friend and foe.
The wyrms have the Wind Nullification skill, so they wouldn’t die from my magic. But that technically just protects them from the magic itself, not the aftereffects of the spell.
Just like the fighters, they’d get caught up in the resulting wind and fall to their deaths.
And with the power of my magic, that’s the only outcome I can possibly imagine.
So instead of using any big spells, I have to shoot down each aircraft one at a time.
Between my power and the Demon Lord’s, we could probably wipe all of them out with magic.
Maybe we should have the wyrms and dragons withdraw for now so we can hit the aircraft with one giant blast?
“Damn these chumps! They stay on my ass no matter what I do!”
The wind dragon lets out an aggravated yell.
Ah, I guess not.
The wind dragons are able to avoid the fighter attacks because they specialize in speed, but the enemy is still locked on to us.
They’re staying hot on our tails, literally.
At this point, there’s no way the dragons could retreat.
“Hang on tight, girlie! I’ll show ya speed you’ve never even imagined!”
Despite the situation, the wind dragon is boisterously picking up speed.
It shakes off the aircraft chasing us, then spins around and knocks it out of the sky on its way past without even slowing down.
Whoa, cool.
That was flashy and all, but…sorry, pal.
My speed stat’s actually higher than yours.
I have experienced speed higher than this.
I know you were trying to show off, but…yeah, sorry.
Still, I guess it’s only natural that a wind dragon would be so acrobatic in the sky.
It’s carrying me on its back, but it still keeps pulling these amazing moves as it dodges the fighter attacks.
Guess its thirty-thousand-plus speed stat isn’t just for show.
And its other stats are all at least ten thousand, too, which isn’t too shabby.
Despite the fact that this guy acts like a lackey, its stats are pretty impressive.
Even the puppet spiders wouldn’t be able to take it one-on-one.
Four-on-one, maybe, but even then, it’s hard to say.
If anything, I’m left questioning why this guy talks the way it does when it’s so crazy strong.
Shouldn’t you be a little more dignified, dude?
What, me? Pshhh, I’m the heroine. I don’t need to have a personality like that.
Okay, fine, sorry. That was over the line.
Anyway, having a personality or not doesn’t make a damn difference against our current opponent.
They’re emotionless machines.
They don’t have feelings or even thoughts.
Just programming that’s optimized to destroy the enemy.
More dangerous still, their programming seems to be capable of learning.
They’re taking very precise strategies against these crazy fantasy creatures, after all.
They turned this into a chaotic melee so we can’t just blow them all away with magic.
They raised their altitude as well, reducing the amount of air available to weaken the effects of Wind Magic.
We’re higher than ten thousand feet right now, but this battle started a lot lower.
And yet, they’ve been gradually leading us higher without us even knowing.
Deliberately leading us into thinner air, where we’re at a disadvantage.
With less oxygen, the wyrms and dragons won’t be able to perform as well.
On top of that, Wind Magic moves the air around, so it’s obviously weaker if there’s less air to move.
They led us onto a field advantageous to them.
The only way they could do such a thing is if they are able to analyze their opponents.
At first, I stupidly assumed they were just machines that could move only in designated ways.
But the more of them I destroy, the less effective those same methods become.
They’re learning and adapting.
This is bad.
At this rate, it’s only a matter of time until the wyrms get wiped out.
I’ve got to come up with some kind of plan, and fast.
“Hey, White lady.”
As I start to panic, the wind dragon sends a telepathic message in a strangely calm voice.
“Take out that thing from before.”
That thing? You mean the giant bazooka Potimas gave me?
“Things aren’t lookin’ good here, sweet cheeks. I gotta get you onto that ship, at the very least. If we move on our own, I can shake off these suckers long enough to get you over to the big guy there, no problemo.”
…What is this guy saying?
If the wind dragon and I leave now, the front lines will seriously buckle.
Even if the wind dragon puts me on the UFO and turns around right away, it won’t change the losses we’ll incur in the meantime, not to mention that I won’t be there to help anymore.
Is this guy so stupid that it doesn’t even realize that?
“I know what you’re thinkin’, lady. But at this rate, we’re all goin’ down. The least I can do’s carry out the mission I was given in the first place, see?”
For a second, the wind dragon flashes me a grin.
I mean, I can’t read a dragon’s expression, but for some reason I could definitely tell it was smiling.
A cheerful smile totally unsuited to the situation we’re in right now.
Come on—you’re just a grunt, so why would you pull such obvious foreshadowing?
Are you planning on dying or what?
“See, you oughtta know something about dragons like me. We’re all here because we got some kinda job to do.”
Hey, cut it out, stupid.
Don’t you know that suddenly talking about yourself is like one of the top ten signs that you’re about to die?!
Seriously, is this guy getting ready for a suicide mission or what?
“My job was cleanin’ up this here wasteland. Around the same time this big fella was made, the whole area was hit with a nasty bomb that sprayed a cloud of poison all over the place. It was my job to get rid of that poison. And damn, did that take a long time. I had to chase all that damn poison up into space, bit by bit, see?”
A bomb that produces a toxic cloud?
…No way. Could he mean a nuclear weapon?
In that case, was the poison radioactive or what?
I mean, I don’t know for sure, but that could be the case.
That explains why wind dragons are here, though.
I’d been wondering that for a while. Since it’s a wasteland, earth dragons seem more natural, right?
But if they wanted to make sure the poison didn’t seep into any other areas and wanted to send it out into space, it makes sense that wind dragons would be the right ones for the job.
“The poison made it so’s not a single blade of grass grows in this here wasteland, but it was our job, so we watched over it right.”
I see. I see…
Hoo boy. I feel like I might’ve realized something I probably shouldn’t have.
Was this so-called poison bomb dropped here on purpose?
To hide the ruins where that UFO was?
Or maybe the bomb was even supposed to destroy the underground ruins?
The truth is lost to time now, but either way, I don’t think that bomb was used for any wholesome reason.
“So we finished getting rid of all that poison. Give it a whole lotta years, and plants should even start growin’ in this here ground again. But we don’t gotta be the ones to see that happen. Our job here was done as soon as the poison was all chased out.”
The wind dragon’s tone sounds pensive.
“When ya think about it, ain’t this the perfect place for us to kick the bucket? Our roles are complete, and now we get to die on the battlefield with the fate of this whole damn world hanging in the balance! Ain’t that just about the best thing you ever heard?!”
Uh-oh. This dude really is planning to die.
Since when are lowly grunts supposed to die in the coolest way possible?
But its determination is coming through way too clearly.
“All right! Hang on tight, girlie! I’ll show ya the fastest flying around!”
The wind dragon puts even more speed into its flight.
We’re heading straight for the giant UFO up ahead.
It’s planning to use up the last of its strength to charge through and get me there.
Countless aircraft stand between the UFO and us.
The wind dragon is going to scatter them, leaving behind even our wyrm allies, to clear a path to the UFO.
Then, as if in deference to its powerful determination—
—the fighters around us start to explode.
The huge number of aircraft suddenly starts decreasing.
Some of them explode, while others simply nose-dive to the ground.
Looking closely, I can see a tiny black shadow jumping from one aircraft to the next.
Not flying. Jumping.
Some wingless being is destroying the fighters right here in the air.
It’s the Demon Lord.
She’s jumping on one aircraft, neutralizing their ability to fly, then using it as a foothold to jump onto the next one.
And since she’s doing it at a crazy speed, it looks from my angle like the fighters are just dropping like flies.
If I didn’t have such good eyesight, I might not even be able to tell that it’s the Demon Lord.
She was riding on a dragon before, but I don’t see it anywhere now.
Checking around, I spot the dragon far in the distance.
She must have left it behind.
I guess to the Demon Lord, even a dragon is just one more thing holding her back.
So she shook it off and started jumping around, defeating fighters ten thousand feet above the ground. No big deal, right?
Ha-ha. Boy, this just shows all over again how crazy overpowered the Demon Lord is.
Maybe we should just let her deal with the rest?
“……”
“……”
The wind dragon, who was all ready to make a cool, dramatic sacrifice, is stunned into silence.
It’s kinda awkward, to be honest.
I guess a grunt is just a grunt in the end.
Characters like that aren’t allowed to have cool deaths.
See? The universe is telling you you’re not supposed to die here.
“All right, then! Looks like the way’s all clear! I’ll carry ya there nice and safe!”
Okay. I guess we’re just gonna pretend you weren’t being all “I’m gonna die for my duty!” just a second ago.
Pretty anticlimactic, but is that really such a bad thing?
It’d be a waste for this guy to die here.
I gotta make sure it lives a good long life.
Grunt or not, it’s got guts.
Guess I better put in a little effort myself so that Hyuvan the wind dragon lives to see another day.
The UFO produces more aircraft, but we ignore that and keep moving forward.
Phase two of our air battle has just begun.
THE VAMPIRE MISTRESS AND HER SERVANT DISCUSS MA ENERGY
“Did the machines in your world run on MA energy, too, young miss?”
“Of course not. Most machines in my old world used electricity. You know, like lightning? The energy from that, basically.”
“You were able to manipulate the power of lightning?”
“Mm, not exactly. The energy that forms the basis of lightning, I guess? I’m sorry—I can’t explain it very well myself.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine. Whatever you know will be more than enough, young miss.”
“All right. But explaining it to someone else makes me realize I actually didn’t know much about how these things worked, even though I used them all the time in my old world. I really didn’t study enough.”
“I’m certain you had far more to learn in your old world, so much that you couldn’t possibly remember all of it. The more you tell me, young miss, the more painfully aware I am of my own ignorance. If you say you did not study enough, then residents of this world like myself have not studied at all.”
“Thank you for comforting me. But I don’t think being truly wise is based on the amount of knowledge you have.”
“How do you mean?”
“I think it’s all about whether you can make the right decisions or not. That shows how wise you are. Of course, there’s certainly no harm in having more knowledge on which to base your decisions. But if you ask me, wisdom is about what you come up with on your own, not how much you’ve learned.”
“To have pride and confidence in what you feel is right…”
“Hmm? That’s a nice phrase.”
“Indeed. A certain someone once said it to me while admonishing me.”
“I see. If you have pride and confidence in your beliefs, maybe that does make you wise.”
“I certainly hope so.”
“I wonder what in the world those people were thinking when they decided to harness MA energy all those years ago.”
“Nothing at all, most likely. They probably just set out to take whatever the world would give them, never thinking any further than that. Otherwise, I doubt they could have gotten their hands on MA energy in the first place.”
“I don’t think you need to be that hard on them. They didn’t know what MA energy really is, after all.”
“Perhaps, but they must have at least felt that something was strange about it. Yet, they ignored that intuition, fell prey to the allure of MA energy, and went on using it.”
“True. I mean, it’s a boundless source of energy that never runs out no matter how much you use it. I understand why they would want to keep using such a dreamlike source of energy.”
“Even though limitless energy is the stuff of dreams alone.”
“Well, that’s why they were woken up from the dream eventually. And when they did wake up, reality was waiting with the truth of the energy they’d been using.”
“That must be when they found out. That MA energy is the life force of the planet, and the more you use it, the closer the planet comes to destruction.”
THE ENEMY IS EVERYWHERE!
The second phase of our air battle against the fighters is proceeding so smoothly that the first phase feels like a distant nightmare.
There are several reasons for this, but the biggest is that we opened with a preemptive attack.
Along with the dragons, the Demon Lord and I helped unleash an enormous Wind Magic attack on them.
Before, the wyrms and aircraft were so mixed together that this would’ve been impossible, but once the Demon Lord eradicated a whole bunch of fighters, it became a lot easier to separate friend from foe.
And we’d have to be morons not to jump at that chance.
So we smashed a giant mass of air right into the swarm of fighters that were flying toward us.
A “mass of air” might not sound all that impressive, but trust me, it was crazy.
Picture the big hurricanes you sometimes see on the news and stuff.
If you’ve seen trees getting uprooted and whole houses blown away, you’ll understand just how destructive wind can be.
We controlled that wild force with magic and even compressed it to make it stronger and stronger before hitting the planes with it.
Wind Magic might make you picture sharp, cutting whirlwind attacks or whatever, but in reality, it’s a lot bigger and blunter than that.
I mean, we were hoping it might even damage the UFO while we were at it, that’s how big it was. Those stupid little fighters didn’t stand a chance.
As a result, more than half of the second swarm of aircraft was brought down by that one blast.
Wary of being rounded up again, the aircraft started spreading out quite a bit after that, so we didn’t get to use the same move again.
Kind of frustrating, since we probably could’ve really wiped all of them out in one go if they stayed close together.
Still, it was extremely effective.
With the momentum of that preemptive attack behind them, the wyrms have been taking down the remaining aircraft one by one.
Although unfortunately, even that giant spell didn’t damage the UFO one bit.
The barrier protecting the UFO is so damn strong that even though the magic definitely hit it, it didn’t budge an inch.
Will the bazooka Potimas gave me really be able to bust through that thing?
I’m definitely worried.
Still, things seem to be going in our favor for now.
The amount of fighters is finally getting sparse. Either the UFO figured that we’ll just blow them away again if it sends out the rest of the aircraft all at once or it’s finally running out of spares.
Since they’ve got the advantage in numbers now, the wyrms are dealing with the aircraft no problem.
The aircraft seem especially cautious of the Demon Lord, who was wreaking havoc on them not too long ago.
Wherever she goes, they’re giving her a wide berth.
They know if they get too close, she’ll jump on them and destroy them.
So for now, the Demon Lord is staying on top of her dragon, firing off little spells from time to time.
Although each time she does so, another aircraft goes down, so I guess they’re not really “little.”
Still, it’s not nearly as flashy as the way she was jumping from plane to plane before, so we’ll stick with “little” for now.
“Heh-heh! Outta my way! Wind dragon Hyuvan coming through!”
And then, of course, there’s a certain someone who’s getting super carried away.
I don’t need to tell you who, I’m sure. Especially since it just said its name itself.
Cut it out, will ya, Hyuvan?
If you keep doing stupid stuff, it’ll make me look stupid, too, since I’m riding on your back.
I can see how it’d want to get carried away, though.
Not long ago, things were going so badly that it was fully prepared to die, but now the tide has thoroughly turned in our favor.
Yep. It probably has to get this amped up if it wants to forget all the corny lines it was saying before.
I get it. I really do, bud!
Sometimes you say something that seems appropriate in the moment, but when you look back later when you’re in your right mind, it seems really embarrassing in retrospect!
That happens to me all the time!
I mean, like, all the time!
That’s why you always gotta keep yourself in check, or you’ll say something in the moment that you might regret!
But then something hits me.
Aren’t things going a little too well?
I mean, there are plenty of factors as to why it’s going this well.
There’s a good reason that we’re pushing forward like this.
But if I step back and look calmly at this forward-moving situation, I can’t help but feel like something’s wrong.
Things were going so poorly for us before, so how did the tables turn so fast in our favor?
It’s almost like we’re being guided this way on purpose.
For just a second, I get goose bumps.
I check the wyrms’ current state with Detection again.
The fighters and the UFO, too.
Those guys exist outside of the system, so skills like Analyze don’t work on them.
That means I can’t find out their exact strength and abilities, but there’s an even worse effect: My Future Sight doesn’t work on them.
I don’t know what they’re going to do next.
In this case, however, I think I can take a good guess.
The UFO is preparing something big.
“Take evasive action—now!”
I send a warning to all the wyrms via Telepathy.
If I tried to shout, it would only come out as a garbled shriek.
That’s why I used Telepathy, although I’m not sure if it helped at all.
Since my panicked warning startled a good amount of the wyrms into obeying, I’d like to think it did some good.
But there were still significant losses.
For just a moment, the sky is completely filled with light.
The UFO just fired a huge laser beam.
It swallows up anything it touches, aircraft and wyrms alike.
When it dissipates, there’s nothing left in its path.
It’s all been evaporated into nothing.
Dammit!
We’ve been had!
The reason there were fewer fighters was so that they wouldn’t get caught in the sights of the UFO’s main gun!
It was trying to catch the wyrms off guard, too.
So that it could wipe them all out!
We were aiming to take down the fighters in one big blow, so it’s only natural that our opponent would try to do the same thing.
Why didn’t I notice?!
The fighters are just one of the UFO’s weapons.
No matter how many of them we take down, it doesn’t really solve anything.
I should’ve realized that. Our real enemy is the UFO, not those stupid planes.
The UFO, the one that withstood that giant wind spell without a scratch, is our opponent, and the aircraft are just extras.
But I forgot about that and assumed things were going well just because we had the fighters under control.
And this is the price we pay for that: half of the wyrms’ numbers.
We even lost a few dragons, too.
Looks like they got even for the hit we landed before.
The UFO is a giant superweapon, so of course it would have powerful equipment.
Especially since it’s also carrying a bomb powerful enough to blow up an entire continent.
“Ahhh, dammit! They got us good. We really screwed the pooch!”
The wind dragon Hyuvan howls with rage.
“Gotta thank you, though. Any later, and we would’ve been up in smoke, too.”
I make a gesture at it not to worry about it.
Since I’m riding on its back, I don’t know whether it can see me or whether it’d understand even if it could, but whatever.
It’s the one who responded promptly to my warning and took evasive action.
Thanks to it, we didn’t get blown away.
If Hyuvan had gotten hit, then obviously I would’ve eaten it, too, since I’m on its back. It doesn’t need to thank me for saving both our lives.
Although I do have the Immortality skill, so I probably would’ve survived even if we did get blown to smithereens.
But I’ve got bigger fish to fry than thanking each other right now.
We have to get the wyrms back in line, or the UFO will come after us.
If I were the UFO, I know I wouldn’t miss a chance like this.
Sure enough, the UFO deploys a whole bunch of fighters.
I guess it still had plenty of them in store after all.
If all those fighters attack our side right now, the wyrms will scatter and get picked off one by one.
I’ve got to get them back into formation to take on the aircraft.
As I look around in a panic, I see an even less welcome sight.
The UFO’s main gun, the one that just fired on the wyrms, is slowly changing its angle.
Now it’s turning toward our troops on the ground.
Damn that UFO. It figured out that the wyrms were too quick a target, so it decided to go after something easier.
Since the dragons are all scattered, it knows it can do more damage by firing on the tightly packed troops below.
Clearly, this UFO is equipped with some top-notch AI.
Seriously, enough already.
Aircraft coming after our guys in the sky, the UFO’s main gun pointing at the ones on the ground.
Part 4 of 8