BXBX NOVEL Chapter 416: The Signal of War, and Full Burst.
Chapter 416: The Signal of War, and Full Burst.
“[Gladius].”
Forty-eight glittering meteors attacked the Fakes in the surroundings.
The daggers which have pierced through the Fakes’ cockpits switched their targets to the golden skeletons that have fallen out of them.
“Mode change: Sphere.”
The daggers morphed into spheres, and proceeded to crush the golden skeletons whole. The skeletons were smashed together with their cores with the strike made heavier by [Gravity], and melted down into nothing together with the Fakes that were housing them.
“As expected, they really are more troublesome compared to regular variants. It’s helpful that we don’t need to look for their cores like this, though.”
I breathed out lightly inside the cockpit of my exclusive machine, the Reginleiv.
In the distance, some Chevaliers were beating down the Fakes with battle hammers in their hands. Blunt weapons like hammers are proven to be more effective in attacking them since the impact can reach the golden skeletons inside too.
“Search. A distribution map of the purified land inside Eisengard.”
“Search complete. Displaying.”
A map of Eisengard was displayed from my smartphone placed in the front of the cockpit. The blue parts are places that have been purified, while the red parts are places that still have [Godslaying Poison] remaining in the ground, I guess.
According to the map, the purification has already reached all the way to the golden palace. In this state, it should be fine to treat the [Godslaying Poison] as nonexistent around here.
It’s about time I called Moroha nee-san and the others over, leave the defense of the “Sacred Tree” to them, and proceed with our evil god subjugation.
I got out of Reginleiv, contacted Moroha nee-san’s group, and used [Gate] to bring them over here.
Moroha nee-san, Karina nee-san and Takeru ojii, who appeared through the [Gate], lightly moved their bodies a bit while looking at their surroundings.
“Fumu. Well, I don’t feel perfectly normal, but this much should be doable.”
“You can still feel the effects of the [Godslaying Poison]? Even though it’s almost completely purified around here?”
Ibecame a bit worried at Moroha nee-san’s words. Looking at my expression, Karina nee-san and Takeru ojii laughed lightly.
“It’s because this place is connected to lands that are still poisoned. Even though we’re in our human forms, we’re lower-ranked gods. We’re sensitive enough to feel the slightly speck of impurity in the atmosphere. Don’t worry, it’s just some unpleasant feelings, it won’t actually do anything to us.”
“I can manage something like this with spirit. Leave this to us, and you go do the things you’re supposed to do. The World God-sama is also looking from the castle, you know.”
Seems like they’re alright. The three of them patted my shoulders to encourage me. As long as Moroha nee-san’s group is here, this place would be absolutely safe. All that’s left is for me to do my own thing the best I can.
From [Storage], I took out a great sword and a long sword for Moroha nee-san, a bow and some arrows as well as hand axes for Karina nee-san, and the same kind of gauntlets I gave Ende for Takeru ojii. They’re all made with crystal materials, as usual. I made Takeru ojii’s gauntlets to have the same looks as Ende’s as well. That guy should be happy about this, I think. Probably.
The moment they got their weapons, they rushed off towards the battlefield as if they couldn’t wait any longer. Fast. Just how much do you guys wanna fight?
They’re probably gonna be fighting those Fakes with their own bodies as usual… Un, I guess we’re alright here.
I put Reginleiv back into [Storage], and returned to where everyone else were.
“Are we sortieing-degozaru ka?”
“Are we sortieing?”
When I entered the tent, Yae and Hilda stood up simultaneously with Yae holding her beloved sword [Touka], and Hilda holding the crystal sword I gave her as a present when we first met. So there are people who wants to fight here as well, huh.
“Un. I called Moroha nee-san’s group here just now. The ‘Sacred Tree’ should be fine now. All that’s left is for us to head to the golden palace and beat down that evil god.”
Everyone nodded. They don’t look like they have any sort of weird anxiousness, and are behaving normally. Should I say as expected of them? They’re pretty calm. Please don’t tell me I’m the most nervous one here.
I called Ende’s group out with a phone call, and also passed the message that we’ll be marching on the golden palace after this to our knight commander Rain-san.
“I understand. Please return safely.”
“Un. Then, I’m off.”
Opening a [Gate], we transferred to the capital of Eisengard, Industrial City Eisenbrook.
The ones coming with me are the fiancée group, Ende and the three Phrase girls, Mel, Nei and Rize, for a total of 14. Apologies to Pola, but it’ll have to stay back this time.
As we come out of the [Gate] and stepped foot on the streets of Eisenbrook, we were shocked into silence for a while on the scene we saw in front of us.
The place we arrived at was a desolate street, with thick, dark clouds overhead, and covered by countless dead bodies.
The city that was once called the mechanical capital, ruled by the Magicraft King, was long gone, and what remained here is only a city long abandoned.
“I did hear the stories, but this is pretty terrible…”
Elze muttered while looking through her surroundings.
Just like Bastet’s reports said, the bodies have almost no damage to them. However, the clothes they’re wearing looked very worn out, and was proof that they’ve been exposed to the elements for a long period of time.
Every one of them had died with expressions of agony on their faces. Umu, this is a bit scary…
“Touya-san!”
“Uoh!?”
When I turned around after hearing Linze’s shout, I saw the figure of a man, who was just a body lying on the street moments ago, charging towards me.
That figure, with the whites in his eyes showing and his tongue dangling out of his mouth, was the picture-perfect definition of a zombie, and I felt a deep spike of fear seeing it.
“[Slip]!”
“Ugo, gaa!”
Raising a groan, the zombie slipped and fell face-first onto the ground.
Ah-, that scared me. It really is scary when you’re assaulted out of nowhere like that, isn’t it.
“[Come forth Fire, a swirling spiral, Fire Storm]!”
Without pause, Linze released fire magic towards the zombie. The zombie, which was rolling about on the ground, was swallowed by the flames and burnt up into nothing… Was what I thought, until a dark golden-colored skeleton rose up from within the flames.
“As I thought. Becoming golden skeletons is what awaits people who had their souls eaten, after all. Look at the heart’s location.”
When I followed Leen’s words and looked at the chest portion of the golden skeleton, I saw a red golf ball-sized core hidden behind the ribs. Without a doubt, this one has already completely turned into a variant.
“Lestia-style sword technique, Fifth · Spiral!”
The tip of Hilda’s sword immediately plunged into the chest of the golden skeleton.
The strike, which had rotational force added to it, easily destroyed the rib bones together with the core underneath them.
The skeleton, after its core was destroyed, started emitting black smoke and melted down into nothing.
So as expected, this place was where they were replenishing their golden skeletons, huh.
“Seems like we were a bit too noisy, Touya.”
“Eh?”
When I turned my eyes away from the melting-down golden skeleton at Elze’s words, the corpses around us had all risen up and started heading in our direction. Uuo, disgusting.
“Does purifying magic not work on them-no ka?”
“Normal zombies would perish from that, but the reason why those guys are moving is the bones inside them so… It’s probably useless.”
“Muu.”
Suu grumbled when Yumina denied her idea. Since Suu’s a light-attribute holder, against a normal undead army she would’ve been able to wipe them out with a flick of her wrist but…
“[Entwine O Ice, curse of the freezing cold, Ice Bind].”
The magic Sakura used froze the feet of the zombies rushing towards us, sealing their movements. Right afterwards, Leen’s magic was released.
“[Come forth Wind and Fire, a whirlwind ablaze, Ignis Hurricane]!”
With our group as the center, a huge tornado of fire swept through the surroundings, burning down everything. It’s a composite magic Leen learnt from a grimoire in Babylon’s [Library].
Its power was fearsome to behold, as the zombies rushing towards us had their bodies burnt to ashes within moments one after another.
Still, even magic as strong as this can’t do anything besides destroying their flesh. Those bones carry the same “magic immunity” trait that the Phrases have, after all.
However, that’s where Yae, Hilda, Luu, Elze as well as Ende jumped in and went around breaking the cores that are their weak points. I felt bad not doing anything and just standing, so I also used Brunhild to shoot through the cores of several skeletons.
“I guess it would be safe to assume that all the corpses in the capital had turned into golden skeletons.”
“Still, why did they attack us all of a sudden? Even when they’ve clearly never moved until now…”
Sheathing her twin swords, Luu murmured as she looked at the melting golden skeleton before her. The one who answered her question was, surprisingly, Ende.
“It’s because they’re fundamentally similar to the Phrases. They probably reacted to the sound of your heartbeats. In fact, they didn’t pay any attention to Mel’s group, if you didn’t notice.”
Now that he says it, there really were no golden skeletons that charged towards the three of them.
In order to not let the variants notice their locations, Mel, Nei and Rize all have a small [Prison] around their cores that shut out all sounds. So that’s why they weren’t noticed by the golden skeletons. It’s because their heartbeats, or rather, their special resonance sounds as Phrases were covered up.
“To put it into perspective, we’re basically walking while playing a bunch of drums right next to a whole bunch of sleeping magic beasts. They would obviously wake up and start attacking us.”
I see. Well, if you woke up due to someone drumming away next to your ear you’d want to hit them too, I guess.
“In any case, our goal isn’t here. Let’s quickly head to the golden palace.”
I called out Reginleiv from [Storage]. Everyone else also called out their Frame Gears, and got into the pilot seats.
Nei and Rize were riding on the hands of Ende’s Dragoon though. Since the Dragoon is a lightweight model, its cockpit is also small; fitting Mel inside is probably the most it can manage.
It would’ve been fine if they got onto Linze’s Helmwige in flight mode, but the two of them apparently doesn’t want to be away from Mel.
With myself and Linze in the sky, and everyone else on the ground, we headed towards the golden palace.
“How nice, getting to fly in the sky. Can’t you make my Dragoon fly too?”
“That’s solved easily with a Flight Gear though.”
“I’d lose all my mobility if I was carrying a stupidly big shield like that… Our compatibility’s too bad.”
Ende complained, but I can’t help you with that. The base concept behind the two are too different to begin with. The Dragoon is a model designed for high land-based mobility. On the other hand, the Reginleiv is a model made by combining the know-how gained from everyone else’s model.
After passing through the suburbs and getting out of Eisenbrook, we came out in a plain that stretched all the way off into the horizon.
The dark clouds overhead blocked the sun’s light, and even though it’s midday the surroundings are dark, almost as if the sun has set already.
As we proceeded on the plains, the figures of several crystal clusters with an eerie golden luster showed up straight ahead. The fact that they’re visible from here even though there’s still a fair bit of distance between us means that those clusters must be very big. They really do kinda look like a palace.
We stopped our advance some distance away. Now then, what to do from here on.
“There’s no way they still havn’t noticed us after this, right?”
“Nope, they noticed. The golden skeletons in front of the palace are coming this way.”
When I zoomed in my camera after hearing Yumina’s words, the golden skeletons that were shuffling around in front of the palace were indeed marching towards us.
“I suppose this is where I take the stage.”
Leen’s black frame, Grimgerde, took a step forward from among our group.
“Let’s raise the signal of war. It’s gonna be a flashy show.”
The chest armor of Grimgerde, who’s standing imposingly, opened to reveal two Gatling cannons. Two large cannons attached on its back moved themselves over the shoulders.
The six-barrel Gatling gun equipped on both arms, the head mounted Vulcan, as well as the sixteen-pack rocket pods on its shoulders, waist and legs all started revving up and aiming towards the front.
The anchor in its heels dropped down into the ground. Preparations complete.
“Full burst.”
Together with Leen’s announcement, a storm of projectiles was launched from Grimgerde’s body. The shooting systems on Frame Gears generally can’t run out of ammo. Their ammos are replenished via spatial transfer from Babylon’s ammo storage, after all. Although it will actually run out if that ammo storage becomes empty, Grimgerde will probably overheat long before that happens.
The golden skeletons were blown to bits by the bullet storm unleashed upon them. Whether the attacks actually hit their cores are unknown. The skeletons are simply smashed together with the ground beneath their feet.
In the midst of the sounds of explosion and destruction, the golden skeletons flew in the sky in glittering little pieces between the never-ending rain of bullets.
“Showy indeed-degozaru na…”
“It’s amazing how it can pull off a sustained firing like, that.”
Well, that’s true. It’s basically an endless barrage of [Explosions] if you think about it. Plus, the power is different for each shell it shoots. A full burst to that degree probably can’t be maintained by anyone except Leen and me.
The rain of projectiles doesn’t show any sign of stopping. Their fearsome power gouged out the earth, and easily changed the landscape of the target area.
The annihilation-specialized bombardment-type Frame Gear that wields overwhelming destructive power over a wide area. That is Grimgerde.
Several minutes later, the bullet storm finally ceased. White smoke came out of Grimgerde’s body, and its movements completely stopped.
A weakness of Grimgerde’s is the requirement to have a cooldown time for a while after it used a full burst.
In order to cool down the heated frame, the engraved magic circuits on its armor activated cooling magic. Numerous blue lines of light ran down the black body, producing steam that rose upwards. It takes around 20 seconds before the temperature reaches a safe range. Until then, Grimgerde is completely defenseless.
Due to this weakness, Leen doesn’t use full bursts in normal battles. It’s only usable when there’s several friendly units around her that can serve as protection, or when she’s firing from an absolutely safe location.
When the huge dust clouds that were blown up cleared away, around 80 to 90 percent of the golden skeletons that were charging at us were lying on the ground in pieces, dissolving into nothing while raising black smoke.
“King-sama, I can hear something… A cracking sound… Directly ahead, from that crystal mountain.”
The same moment Sakura’s ears caught that sound, a crystal pillar at one corner of the golden palace broke off at its base, and from the hole that formed there, a swarm of Fakes rose up and came towards us.
They held various kinds of dark golden weapons in their hands, and their movements are uniform and disciplined; the sight of that brought a weird feeling of incongruity to me.
“Touya, it seems Mel’s caught the resonance sound of General Zeno. He’s in the middle of that group there.”
“What did you say?”
I switched my camera to zoom mode when I received Ende’s report. Among the Fakes horde, there are ones with spiked armors different from normal mixed in. Within them, there’s an especially big one with a rooster comb-like structure on the top of its head, which obviously looks like the commander. That’s the one?
“There’s no doubt. Zeno’s riding in that one. And the spiky Fakes around him, those are probably piloted by Zeno’s subordinates called in from Phrasia too. Their movements are different from the rest.”
The Phrase’s combat-class, and the one said to be the strongest among them, General Zeno. A new enemy stands in our path towards the evil god.
- Pixel