Chapter 2: Infiltration of the Ark

Our plan of attack was as follows: first, we would infiltrate the Ark using Spatial Translocation, hopefully getting us as close to the wicked devout as possible. The Divinity Neutralization effect of the sacred treasure was to remain inactive during the start, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to teleport us in; once we were in the Ark, it would be turned on in order to seal the wicked devout’s abilities.

Our first target, the one that we absolutely had to defeat, was the guy with the diver helmet, Indigo. If we didn’t put a stop to his teleportation, they’d get away again, and another failure would only give them the chance to develop a counter to our attack. We had to view this as our only chance.

Yakumo was the first to step forward to offer to take down Indigo.

“I have crossed blades with him once before, so I believe it would make me the most suitable.”

“Hey, that’s not fair!” Linne complained. However, considering the fact that Yakumo could use [Gate] to get in a surprise attack and was greatly skilled in battle, it seemed fine to leave it to her. What posed a slight problem was that if Yakumo was to serve as our main fighter, the sacred treasure would have to take its katana form. The range of its neutralization was much reduced as a katana, reaching about five meters at most. It would be a disaster if they managed to teleport away before Yakumo could approach.

“I intended to use [Gate] to immediately close the gap between us,” she said.

“Hmm… That would work for the start of the fight, but what would you do if he managed to get some distance between you after that? He could just teleport away then.”

It would take a considerable amount of skill to maintain a distance of no more than five meters from your opponent. Even a wrestling ring had a bit over six meters of distance between its corners.

“I know, I know!” Steph excitedly called out. “I’ll use [Prison] so he can’t escape!”

If Indigo was confined with Yakumo within a [Prison], he wouldn’t be able to use his divinity, which would prevent him from taking down the magic enclosure and making his escape. But that then meant that Yakumo would be forced to fight within a confined space. Would that not be tough as a katana wielder? It felt like the enemy with their hatchet would be the one with the advantage in that scenario.

Was finishing them off with one strike the best option we had? But then we were faced with the question of if Yakumo could successfully carry out the [Gate] plan of attack and take him down in one fell swoop… If she failed, Indigo would undoubtedly make his escape. In which case, though the [Prison] tactic required more skill, the probability of success seemed higher.

“Excuse me.”

As I sat there running through the options in my head, Kuon tentatively raised his hand.

“Is there any reason we need to begin the attack with the sacred treasure in its katana form? Why not have it morph into a form with a large range of neutralization like the harpbow, and then Yakumo can fight with her regular phrasium katana? Of course, we’d still need to make sure we use the sacred treasure to deal the finishing blow, but that can come later.”

“Oh.”

Kuon’s words immediately opened my eyes.

Of course! Who said the kids could only hold their own form of the sacred treasure?

Because I’d made each form of the sacred treasure to suit each of the kids, it had completely slipped my mind that it didn’t mean the different forms were exclusive to each child. It was something I’d considered at the time of creation, so I wasn’t sure why I’d forgotten that fact.

Yoshino’s harpbow boasted a neutralization radius of fifty meters, but the effect weakened the further from the weapon the target got, so it would be best if we activated it while not too far from Indigo. Well, either way, even if the effect was weak, it would still be able to at least prevent the guy from teleporting, and the closer Yakumo got to him, the more certain it was that it would work, so I didn’t think we had to worry too much.

“The problem is that we don’t know the numbers of their forces nor if we’d be able to pinpoint Indigo’s exact location,” Leen pointed out.

“True…”

As she said, it would be best if we could target Indigo while he was alone. From the intelligence we had, the wicked devout still had the man with the plague mask, the woman with the iron mask, and the gold crown. Plus, there was always the possibility that there were more members we didn’t know about too.

I could use a divinity-enhanced [Search], but I had my limits, so I couldn’t use it over that wide of an area. At the very least, the Ark was small enough that I could do a decent job, though. If I used it the second we made it into the Ark, I should be able to find where Indigo was.

If that’s the case, then the plan basically goes like this: we infiltrate the Ark with Spatial Translocation, I find Indigo’s location with [Search], I use Spatial Translocation again to teleport to Indigo, we activate Divinity Neutralization, Yakumo launches her attack.

“What shall we do if there are other wicked devout around Indigo at the time?” Yae asked.

“The only choice we really have is to hold them back until Indigo is dealt with. With that in mind, maybe we’d be best going the [Prison] route so Yakumo can’t be interrupted.”

We did have the issue that we weren’t allowed to take down the wicked devout ourselves, so we’d be more likely to leave that to the kids, and while Yakumo held the sacred treasure to take down Indigo, we’d be unable to land the killing blow on any other wicked devout present. If it was just about buying time for Yakumo to finish him off, however, it likely wouldn’t be too bad. Once we’d prevented any chance of them escaping with a teleport, we could move on to taking them down one by one.

“I still don’t feel great about getting the kids involved…” Elze muttered as she gave Elna a pat on the head. When she did, Elna shook her head.

“If mommy and daddy are fighting, then I’ll fight too. That has to be why we were called here, so leave it to us. We’ll definitely be fine if we all fight together.”

“Oh, you’re such a good girl, Elna! I’m so proud to have you as my daughter!”

Elna was squeezed tight by a tearful Elze. The young girl had a point—if our children hadn’t traveled here from the future, who knew how much trouble we’d be in now? Our future selves surely knew that these events would happen.

Would I be able to send out my children with full faith in their success when it inevitably became my turn to have them go? It felt like I’d end up stopping them out of worry, even if I already knew the outcome.

Since our children came from the future, the logical assumption was that we successfully dealt with the wicked devout, but…given that divine powers were involved in this conflict, the future could easily distort. You would often see movies of a protagonist who time traveled to the past, and because they changed those events, their existence as a resident of the future became unstable and they ended up in danger of being erased from the world. That wasn’t what was going to happen here, right?

The time spirits would help mend any time paradoxes we caused, but even they couldn’t fix something caused by the divine. If we ended up branching off too far from the future of this timeline, would the children be unable to return to their time? If that did happen, I was sure Grandma Tokie would find some way to get us out of the mess, but…

Whatever lay in wait, we absolutely could not fail. It was important that we remained cautious.

Just as I had resolved myself, my phone started ringing—it was from Doc Babylon.

“Touya, just got word in from Albus. There’s been a response from the probes we set up around the sea of Lassei. A large number of Kyklops, including an unidentified unit, along with Rock Titans and Fishmen are heading straight for Lassei itself.”

Again with the underhanded tactics! No, wait…is this our chance?

One of the wicked devout surely had to be leading that army. That meant that right now, there was one less wicked devout on the Ark, right? Worst-case scenario, Indigo was the one leading them, but the chances of that seemed pretty low.

There was quite the distance between where the Ark was stationed and Lassei, so Indigo most likely teleported them—and that meant he had used quite the amount of divinity. There was no way he would get involved directly with the attack on Lassei in that condition. There was a very good chance that an exhausted Indigo had remained in the Ark.

What should we do…? Since we’ve got that fallen god to think about as well, I was thinking that we should take our time and be cautious, but now…

“Let us go to the Ark, father. We cannot simply stand by as a black cat runs in front of us.”

Having noticed my hesitation, Kuon gave me the push I needed. When I looked up at everyone else, they were all giving me small nods.

Having to be encouraged by my own child really was pathetic…but hey, at least it felt nice.

“All right… In that case, let our infiltration of the Ark begin!”

◇　◇　◇

The first step in the infiltration of the Ark was to split into two groups: the group that would take down the army attacking Lassei and the group that would infiltrate the Ark directly.

“Those infiltrating the Ark will need the sacred treasure, and that means we can’t take down whatever wicked devout is leading that army heading for Lassei. In which case, our objective will be to simply repel them,” Leen murmured as she watched the lights steadily moving toward Lassei on the world map.

If we were able to deal with the wicked devout in the Ark fast enough, we would be able to head straight to Lassei afterward, but it seemed unlikely that things would go so smoothly… We had to face the guy with the diver helmet, the guy with the plague mask, the woman with the iron mask, and their gold crown. Removing even one of them, we’d at minimum have to fight two members of the wicked devout and a crown. Plus, we couldn’t even be sure if there were other wicked devout we hadn’t met yet.

The team that would be infiltrating the Ark would inevitably have to include the children as our main force, and that was the issue… We would definitely be bringing Yakumo as the key player in our plan, but I’d rather bring the kids who were good at fighting to help support her, like Frei and Kuon.

Linne…I was a little more uncertain about, so I decided she would be good for the Lassei team. Linze’s Helmwige was good at aerial combat, so it would be good to deploy. Assuming we were to send Grimgerde and Rossweise, Leen’s and Sakura’s Frame Gears, to lead the defensive front, it would be good to have Lu’s Waltraute there to support them.

Sue’s Ortlinde Overlord boasted high defense, so I could place it there as well. Honestly, I’d feel much safer with Steph being there, anyway. Using [Prison] to encase Yakumo and Indigo was something I could do myself.

Before I could go any further with that train of thought, though, Leen stepped in.

“No, even if you assign Sue to the Lassei team, I still think you should bring Steph…or more specifically, Gold to the Ark with you. If there really is another gold crown with the wicked devout, Gold may be able to find some kind of counter to it, and we might be able to solve the riddle of why there are two of them.”

“Mother! I’d really like to join the Ark team!”

“Absolutely not.”

Quun fell to her knees in despair when her mother refused her request to swap positions with a merciless smile on her face.

This girl never loses sight of what interests her, does she?

In the end, the Ark infiltration team became me, Yae, Yakumo, Hilde, Frei,

Kuon, Steph—well, Gold. Excluding Steph, it was a team of combat experts.

Yumina and Sue kicked up a bit of a fuss at being separated from their kids, but I somehow managed to persuade them. Yumina’s Brunhilde and Sue’s Ortlinde were both suited to defensive battles, so there was no way we wouldn’t deploy them.

This time we would also be deploying the Nereids, units suited to marine battle. They would try to slow the army before they reached land to limit the possible damage to Lassei. We’d yet to install a Nereid program into the Frame Units, so the only ones who could pilot them were Brunhild’s knights. Lassei’s knight order would focus on defending the coast.

Lassei’s armies were known to dive headfirst into battle, so I was a little worried. We would be at an advantage against the Fishmen if we waited for them to step onto land first, but I could already imagine the Lassei knights charging right into the ocean… Their combat Gollems weren’t even suited to battling in water or even on sand. I prayed they wouldn’t act so recklessly that there would be needless sacrifice.

“Yumina, I’ll leave command of the defensive front to you. I’m counting on you.”

“Leave it to me. I’ll make sure that not a single one gets in!”

“Godspeed, mother.”

“Kuon! You better not do anything reckless, okay? Mom’s so worried about you! Touya, please, please make sure he stays safe!” Yumina exclaimed, exerting a strong pressure on me with her gaze, as she was clinging tight onto Kuon.

Could she not worry about me a little more as well?

With me feeling that little bit lonelier, we set off on our mission.

◇　◇　◇

On the monitor of the Val Albus, the whale-shaped Over Gear stationed under the sea, the Ark was pictured stationed in the depths. Thanks to the probes we’d deployed inside it once before, we had a good idea of the rough structure of the vessel.

It was possible for us to infiltrate the Ark right away, but if we suddenly appeared right in the middle of the wicked devout, all of our work would be for naught.

First, we had to find a room where we could infiltrate without being spotted.

As the Ark’s name implied, it was a somewhat box-shaped ship. The bow of the ship was a little longer than the rear, where there were large engines on either side. When you looked at the whole thing, it looked a little like a big tissue box. I could see it looking like a spaceship as well.

It seemed possible to teleport into the warehouse they used to store any ores they excavated that the probe had found last time. From there, I could try to find where the wicked devout were located—specifically Indigo—and then we’d make our move and take him down.

If we were unlucky and it turned out Indigo wasn’t in the Ark, well, we’d have no choice but to retreat. Should we decide to try to defeat the devout that were present regardless, there was always the chance that Indigo could return in the middle of the battle, or someone in the ship would contact Indigo, and then they’d have every chance to escape again. If that happened, their security would only tighten; they’d never let their guard down again.

The most favorable outcome would be for Indigo to be working solo, all alone in a room somewhere. All we’d need to do in that situation was teleport to his room, neutralize his divinity, halt his movements with [Prison], and take him down in one swift strike.

Wait…I really sound like an assassin right now, don’t I? Though, given what we’re doing, maybe that’s pretty accurate…

The worst-case scenario would be if all of them were together in one place. Technically, we could quietly observe until they split up, but if the wicked devout that had been dispatched to Lassei returned during that time, we’d be done for. Even if it turned out they were all gathered, we’d have no choice but to brace ourselves and charge in.

“Father, it appears the battle in Lassei has begun. The Nereids and Kyklops are currently engaging,” Kuon reported, intently watching the monitor with the map of Lassei. If they’d started, it was time for us to start our own mission. “Albus, be ready to attack at any time.”

“Affirmative.”

If we failed in our mission, the plan was to have Val Albus attack the Ark to give us a chance to escape. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that, though.

“Time to get this mission started. Spatial Translocation!”

The area around us distorted for a moment, and then suddenly we were teleported to a different location entirely. We’d successfully crossed the divinity barrier the wicked devout had set up and infiltrated the Ark.

The warehouse I’d teleported us to looked a little like a spacious gymnasium with the only light being the dim glow from the manastones. Boxes of ore were being loaded onto a conveyor belt and dropping down into a hole at the end.

They must have been transporting the ore they excavated from the seafloor somewhere for smelting. No one was around; the only sound filling the room was the whirring from the machinery.

“I do believe we can consider this a successful infiltration, I do.”

“You said you could detect the positions of the wicked devout from here, right?”

“Yep. [Search].”

At Yae and Hilde’s insistence, I activated a divine [Search]. Divinity spread out like a small ripple on the water’s surface, gradually widening and increasing its range. I managed to detect the locations of the wicked devout and the not-Gold gold crown, and came to the unfortunate realization that our worst-case scenario had occurred: they were all gathered in the same area. What was worse, there was one more devout than I had been expecting.

I could detect Indigo, the woman with the iron mask, the gold crown, and then the unfamiliar devout. In other words, we’d have to take them all on at once…

I told everyone what I had discovered.

“I think we can view this as a good thing, at least—the one who can teleport remained in the Ark, after all,” Hilde said.

“Indeed. The only problem now is that we need to decide who will take on the remaining enemies, we do. We know Yakumo will be facing that Indigo fellow, but…”

Hilde and Yae both dropped into thought, most likely trying to decide who would be best to match up with who. Even if we put [Prison] up, there was no guarantee that the other devout wouldn’t try to interfere with Yakumo and Indigo’s battle.

Since Yakumo had experience with the iron mask woman, I asked for her opinion on what we should expect.

“The woman with the iron mask uses a mace to deliver attacks that act like gravity magic. I think that may be her wicked vessel’s ability, so I doubt she’ll be too dangerous while Divinity Neutralization is active.”

Well, at least she didn’t sound impossible to deal with. The duos of Yae and Kuon and Hilde and Frei could deal with the other wicked devout, while I would take on the gold crown together with Steph and Gold. That felt like a good balance, right?

It didn’t help that I had no idea what would happen when the two gold crowns met. It was probably natural to assume that since they were the same unit, they’d have some kind of synchronization function. With Steph on my side, it would account for the possibility that Gold may end up losing control and turning against us.

I felt bad for Steph, but if things turned out that way, I fully intended to forcefully put a stop to Gold’s functions using [Cracking]. According to Doc Babylon, Gold should have something that acted as his black box. If that was a device to have him synchronize with the other gold crown, then…

It would be best that I be the one pit against him just so I could respond to whatever happened.

“Mother, we should take on that iron mask lady with the mace,” Frei said while pulling a large shield out of [Storage].

Hilde nodded at her daughter’s suggestion. “Good idea. I think that would be smart.”

Yae and Kuon would likely struggle with the mace’s gravity magic, so that was a good move. Even though the neutralization would be in effect, if they ended up too far away from Yakumo—the locus of the effect—the gravity magic would still work.

“Yakumo, do you have the sacred treasure ready?”

“Yes, father. I’m ready at any time.”

Yakumo had tied the transformed sacred treasure harpbow to her back with a tasuki sash. She had attached it to herself in a way where she could utilize the neutralization without using it as an actual weapon. It would have to be used to destroy Indigo’s wicked vessel, but until then, the divinity of the other two wicked devout needed to be sealed. If we could hurt the devout to some extent, or take away their weapons from them, we’d have this battle in the bag.

“Not being able to fight with divinity sucks, though, I’ve gotta admit…”

“I agree, I do… Surely just one slash would be okay…”

“What would you do if that one slash ended up nearly killing the wicked devout, Yae? That would mean that you had pretty much killed them,” Hilde cautioned her.

“I-I do not think they are so weak…”

Neither did I. In fact, we were clueless about their HP, so it was hard to consider holding back with them. It was like that thing you’d see in games a lot where you had to weaken the monster before you could catch it. Some characters could kill the monster you wanted to catch in one shot, so you’d keep them on the backlines. That was essentially the situation we were in now.

“You can worry about things like that because you’ve actually awoken to your divine trait… I still struggle to use divinity. What’s so different between the two of us? It isn’t a difference in Touya’s love for us, is it?”

“Everyone wonders if that’s the difference, but it’s not, okay?! It’s just natural personal differences!”

Yae awakened to her divine trait in the last battle we had with the wicked devout; she’d acquired the ability Dimensional Cleave. They always trained together, so it frustrated Hilde that Yae had awoken to hers so much sooner.

I needed everyone to wake up to their traits quickly, or I couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be some domestic strife… The only ones that were left were Sue and Hilde.

“Mom, your divine trait is— Mmmph?!”

Before Frei could finish what she was saying, Yakumo came up from behind and put a hand over her mouth.

“Frei, isn’t Grandmother Tokie always telling us we should be careful how much we say?”

“Oh yeah…”

“Yae, your daughter is too diligent!” Hilde cried, frustrated at Yakumo having prevented Frei from spoiling them about the future. Yakumo looked a little lost at the unreasonable complaint.

“To think Hilde-dono would be the one to call someone else diligent…”

“Um, do we really have the time for this?” Kuon spoke up, bringing everyone back to attention.

Right, we need to stop messing around.

When I looked at Steph and Gold, I noticed that they were both clapping their hands and singing while they waited. They weren’t nervous whatsoever.

I cleared my throat and returned to pointing out the lights on the map; there were two solid red dots, one flashing red dot, and one yellow dot all gathered in one area. “The wicked devout are in this pretty big room right here. The red dots are the wicked devout, the yellow one is the gold crown, and the one that’s flashing is Indigo, our main target.”

The room itself looked about the size of an office room. I wasn’t sure if it was a break room, their tactical command room, or some sort of lab, but whatever the case, it was more than big enough for us to fight in.

“I’ll teleport us all to this area here, a little bit away from where they’re standing. I’d prefer if we were able to get the jump on them, but that would be going against the rules. It’s okay if they detect us. Yakumo, you charge right at Indigo. The rest of us will engage our own targets while providing support.”

“It looks like there are two ways in and out of the room. What will we do if they escape?” Kuon asked, looking at the map.

Good question. Honestly, right now, it was probably fine if the other wicked devout escaped so long as we took down Indigo. The only problem with that was if they got far away from Yakumo, they’d be able to use their own wicked vessels again. We knew that the iron mask lady’s mace manipulated gravity, but the other was a complete unknown. If it turned out they had teleportation similar to Indigo, we’d be done for. All our hard work would’ve been for nothing.

You know what, maybe we shouldn’t let them get away.

“I’ll seal the exits with Earth magic,” I said. “At the very least, I doubt they’ll try to damage the ship. We’re underwater, after all.”

If the Ark did end up flooding, we’d be fine so long as we used [Prison]. We’d be able to breathe, and worse came to worst, I could summon Sango and Kokuyou.

“All right, let’s get this party started. Spatial Translocation!”

We appeared inside the large room instantaneously. It turned out it was something akin to an observation deck, with a glass front and ceiling. Oddly enough, even though we should’ve been on the seabed, it wasn’t pitch-black outside—we could clearly see what was outside. I wasn’t sure if it was some magic artifact, or if the glass itself was actually a monitor displaying what was outside, or what.

There was a console along the wall in front of which Indigo stood, still wearing his diver helmet.

On a sofa a short distance away from him, the woman with the iron mask sat with a glass in hand, and a woman with a gaudy green feathered mask was right next to her. That had to have been the unknown wicked devout. The gold crown of the wicked devout was by the complete opposite wall away from Indigo. “HUH?!”

The first one who noticed we were suddenly in their midst was the iron mask woman. She dropped her glass, shattering it on the floor, which alerted the others to our presence. We had already started making our move by the time they’d thought to act. Like an arrow fired from a bow, Yakumo shot straight toward Indigo.

“Shit. Deep Blue!”

A blue liquid gurgled under his feet, but the most it did was spread out a small touch.

“What?!”

“It’s useless.”

Yakumo pulled her phrasium katana from its sheath and slashed at the wicked devout. Though he’d been caught off guard, Indigo pulled out his metallic blue hatchet and blocked Yakumo’s strike moments before it slashed skin.

“[Prison].”

The moment she’d made contact, I erected a [Prison] with a five-meter radius with Yakumo as the center, preventing Indigo’s potential escape.

“Come forth, Iron! Barrier of the Dark Metal: [Iron Wall]!”

I immediately followed that up by blocking both exits with walls of iron. Now our enemies were ripe for the picking.

Indigo attempted to break the barrier surrounding him with his hatchet, but with his divinity sealed, it was futile.

“Like I said, it’s useless. Father’s [Prison] is unbreakable.”

“You’re the brat I saw in Orphen!”

“This time, I won’t let you get away.”

When Yakumo slashed her blade down, Indigo deflected it with his hatchet. Put so thoroughly on the defensive, the other wicked devout rushed in to assist, but that was where we stepped in, preventing them from getting anywhere near the [Prison].

“Your opponent is us, miss!”

“Get outta the way, kid!”

The woman unhesitatingly swung her metallic orange mace down toward

Frei, but it was more than easily blocked by the shield that the small girl held.

“I can’t crush it?! What’s going on?!”

“The cause is unknown, but it appears the wicked vessels have been sealed. Not entirely, but… Hm?!”

The gold crown calmly analyzed what was happening as the iron mask woman panicked, but the moment his red camera eye noticed Gold standing behind me, he came to a stop.

“There’s more than one Gould?!” the feather mask woman exclaimed in surprise. With such a reaction, it appeared they hadn’t known about our Gold. The wicked devout’s crown appeared to go by “Gould” instead… Had he simply not told them of the existence of another gold crown, or…?

Gould was staring at Gold, Gold also frozen where he stood.

“Is this the same unit as myself…? No. I can confirm differences,” Gold remarked. Those differences must have been the two small swords and the cape-like part on his back. Gold had those, but the one on the wicked devout’s side didn’t. Gould’s eyes were red, while Gold’s were blue. Besides those differences, the two were practically the same unit.

“A second Seraphic?! What is the meaning of this?!” Gould exclaimed with the exact same voice as Gold.

A Seraphic? Was he referring to Gold? It was in that moment that I realized I was detecting both panic and surprise, two very human emotions, in Gould, something that should’ve been impossible for a Gollem.

◇　◇　◇

“Impossible! This should be the only Seraphic! Why? Why does another one exist?!” Gould’s mechanical voice trembled as he looked at Gold.

Based on his reaction, it seemed he hadn’t known about Gold. Had he lost his memories in the way Gold had? No, that would make no sense—if he’d lost his memories, he wouldn’t have said those words.

“I don’t know what’s got you so rattled, but I need you to stay still for now.

[Prison]!”

I cast the confining magic as I’d done on Indigo. Now there was no escape. “Hm?!”

Gould took one of its tiny fists and tried to break the barrier.

It’s useless. This barrier isn’t so flimsy that a pathetic little punch like that will damage it.

“Veraenderung.”

“Huh?”

After Gould muttered some short word, the armor of its right hand began to warp like melted candy. The soft gold plating enveloped his right hand and then morphed into a conical shape, almost like an ice pick.

“Lanze.”

Gould turned and tried to stick his gold ice pick into the [Prison]. The sound of metal striking rang out, and then suddenly, my [Prison] cracked.

“No way!”

As surprised as I was, Gould paid me no mind as he thrust his ice-pick arm back into the barrier again. This time, my [Prison] shattered into pieces.

You’re kidding! Is there wicked divinity in that thing’s body?!

We were the furthest away from the sacred treasure, but the distance was about ten meters at most. Even if its power wasn’t completely neutralized, he shouldn’t have been able to destroy my [Prison]! He’d have to have the same amount of divinity as a mutant to do that!

We knew for a fact that our Gold contained no divinity—the research team examined him and found nothing.

That means Gould’s been modified in some way, huh?!

Now free of the prison, Gould charged toward me with his ice pick.

“Envelop, O Wind! Gentle Embrace: [Air Sphere]!”

“Mmm?”

Gould’s right hand lost its momentum about fifty centimeters away from me, coming to a stop against the air cushion I had created. The next moment, his small body was sent catapulting into the opposite wall. My [Air Sphere] broke at the same moment.

That was close!

If he’d been charging any more fiercely, I’d have been turned into a shish kebab.

“Veraenderung: Axt.”

Gould stood back up, turning his ice pick into an axe.

Ugh, he’s got more forms!

I took out my Brunhild and changed it into Blade Mode, using it to block the golden axe he swung down toward me. The strike was so heavy that I couldn’t help but wonder where such strength was hiding in such a small body.

“[Power Rise]!”

I increased the power of my muscles and pushed the axe away from me. Gould was once more flung toward the wall, but this time he kicked his feet into it and spun around in the air as he landed lightly on the ground like a cat. His red camera eye fixed in on me, and then it turned to Gold behind me.

“Tell me. Are you the master of the Seraphic?”

“No. Gold’s master is someone else.”

It wouldn’t be good for him to learn that Steph was his master, so I tried to avoid the topic.

“Gold… Seraphic Gold? High Master, Code 1876239. Unlock: emergency shutdown, Seraphic Gold.”

Suddenly, what came out of Gould was a smooth male voice. Not a mechanical one, but one much closer to a human’s. Was it some recorded audio?

Before I could stop and wonder what was happening, the same voice spoke to us.

“High Master, Code 1876239. Unlock: emergency shutdown, Seraphic Gold…No reaction. Probability of initialization process activation having occurred: ninety-eight percent.”

Initialization process? As in, the initialization process that Steph had accidentally activated in Gold? Did that mean he was saying some sort of command code toward him?

God, this could’ve turned out much worse if Steph hadn’t wiped his data.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do anything too crazy here. If you make Gold’s master cry, then I won’t let you get away with it,” I threatened.

“I do not care.”

Suddenly, a loud bang, as if a metal ball had collided with something, rang through the room. When I turned around, the inside of the [Iron Wall] I had put up was all warped. Another similar sound rang out and the wall further warped, caving in toward us. Was someone trying to enter the room?!

Don’t tell me there’s one more wicked devout!

No, there was no way. I’d searched the whole Ark, so there shouldn’t have been any more of them around. That said, there was a chance [Search] didn’t pick them up because they looked nothing like the wicked devout!

I stayed on high alert as the metallic wall I had created came flying inward. What flew in was a golden bird with four wings. A mechanical one, at that. Was it a bird Gollem?!

“Come, Cherubim.”

The gold bird Gollem twirled in a drill movement as it maneuvered through the room toward Gould. It then circled behind Gould, tilted its head against his back, and its feet then folded into its body as it attached to the enemy crown.

Is this what the research team was talking about?! The Gluttony Slime that was turned into orichalcum and used to craft gear for the gold crown?!

With his four wings spread out, Gould floated into the air. Due to the glass ceiling, he could only go about two meters, however.

“Gluttony Feather.”

Four golden feathers, one from each wing, shot out toward me like missiles. I was about to strike them down with Brunhild, but suddenly, I was hit by a sense of unease that made me change my weapon to Gun Mode at the last minute and shoot them down with phrasium rounds instead. The moment my bullets hit the feathers, they began to morph and wrapped around the bullets.

No, rather than “wrapped around,” it was more like they ate the bullets whole. If I’d tried to strike them down with Blade Mode, Brunhild might’ve been consumed by the feathers…

Good thing I realized something was off.

The slimy gold substance plopped to the ground, wriggled about for a moment, and then took shape as feathers again and returned to Gould’s wings.

They’d definitely eaten the bullets—there was nothing left where they had been.

“Is that something you made with a Gluttony Slime that you turned into orichalcum?” I asked the Gollem directly. He looked slightly surprised at my question—what a humanlike crown. Even Gold struggled to express that much.

Was this the difference between a Gollem that had been initialized and one that hadn’t? Well, assuming that they were both the same kind of unit, of course. If that was the case, just how many experience points were in those parts that were wiped? Whatever Gold had lost, Gould still had. There was the chance he could fight like a human with sneak attacks, feints, and rear assaults.

We’ve definitely gotta be careful here…

“You are dangerous. You will interfere with our plans. I will now eliminate you. Gluttony Feather.”

It seemed he’d decided to stop holding back, since this time several feathers detached from two of the wings and homed in on me again.

Hmph, now that I know what it is, I can deal with it easily!

“[Gate].”

I deployed a gate in front of me, teleporting every last feather he threw my way. I’d sent them to the uninhabited wastelands of Isengard. Gates couldn’t be opened through a barrier, but if it was somewhere that was visible, or if you yourself were inside the barrier, it was perfectly possible to open one.

“What a shame, you’ve run out of so much of your ammo. Why not fire the rest?” I taunted. Most of the feathers were now missing from those two wings. I’d thought to myself that he wouldn’t be able to fly if he used the rest of them, but when I paid closer attention, I noticed that he wasn’t even flapping the wings to stay afloat to begin with, so it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Just then, the wings on Gould’s back began shining a dark gold.

“Reverse.”

“What?”

Suddenly, the [Gate] that I’d closed opened back up, and the feathers shot back through and returned to Gould’s wings. I felt like I was watching a movie in reverse.

“No… Is that your crown skill?!”

Crown skills were the abilities inherent to the crown Gollems, a power that required their master to pay a price. Doc Babylon had said that a gold crown made of a Slime that’d been turned into orichalcum could take the price of a crown skill like a mana tank. If what was on his back was what we suspected, then it must have been taking the price for him.

But Gold said that the gold crown didn’t have a crown skill. What was going on? Did his memory of it disappear together with the initialization process?

Well, whatever the reason, Gould could clearly use a crown skill, and it was the exact same type of time manipulation as the black crown, Noir. I was pretty sure he couldn’t use it at will, however. If he could, he’d have used it plenty of times before now. It was also worth noting that I wasn’t personally affected by the reversal of time.

Either he could only use it on himself, or there was a limit to its range. Or…he didn’t want to pay too big of a price. As if to confirm my theory, several of the golden feathers lost their sheen and fell to the ground before crumbling into dust. Was that the price of the crown skill?

In other words, each one of those feathers was a substitute that paid for the use of the crown skill. Without those, the only thing left he could use to pay the price with was his own body. No wonder he had to be careful about how he used it.

“Still, time manipulation is a scary beast…”

I could use all kinds of space-time magic; [Gate], [Storage], and [Accel] all came under that. If I asked the time spirits nicely, they might be willing to fiddle with time a bit for me as well, though I was pretty sure the range would be limited to the area around me. That said, it went without saying that the only one who had the power to affect the whole world was the goddess of spacetime herself, Grandma Tokie.

It was likely Gould could only affect time related to his own body, or any area that he had control over. There was no way he’d be able to stop or slow down my time, right? Even without thinking about the range he could control, I knew he couldn’t use it so freely when he had to consider the price as well. The only reason he’d used it here was because he’d weighed the possibility of losing a large number of feathers against losing a few and decided it would be much better to rewind time.

Still, if we inflicted a fatal blow on him and he just turned back time, it would be as if we never did a thing to him. Though, if we were stubborn enough about it, he’d eventually run out of feathers to use…

“This one’s gonna be a hassle to take down.”

I tightly gripped Brunhild and glared at the small gold Gollem floating in the air.

◇　◇　◇

“You little…! Hurry up and get smooshed already!”

A metallic orange mace swung mercilessly toward the small girl.

“[Power Rise]!”

Frei took the round shield she had pulled from her [Storage] and blocked the mace. The shield had a star drawn in the center of the double circle, almost as if it were the shield of a certain American superhero. The small girl was able to control it at will, blocking, repelling, and deflecting all attacks that came her way, no matter the angle.

Thanks to Yakumo’s sacred treasure, the gravity effect of the woman’s wicked vessel was weak enough that Frei could handle it. Though even in its weakened state, any regular person taking the attack would no doubt have their arm completely shattered. Watching her daughter take such heavy hits, Hilde couldn’t help but feel frustrated; the mace-wielding woman had presented several large openings so far, so if Hilde wanted to strike, she very well could have.

However, that would then mean that a divine ward had taken down a member of the wicked devout. Due to that issue, her role here was purely as Frei’s support—unless her daughter was on the verge of danger, she was to stay put. Even Frei had been very clear about that.

“I’ve not awakened to my divine trait like Yae has, so I think it would be perfectly fine for me to fight…”

Though when she saw Frei look so happy despite the circumstances, she also realized that she might be disappointing her if she interfered.

Hilde glanced at the other pair that was fighting a distance away. Under Yae’s watchful eye, a boy even smaller than Frei was holding a silver shortsword. A ring-shaped object was shot at the boy—Kuon—from his opponent.

The ring was a shimmering dark green chakram flying straight for Kuon like an arrow. Kuon took Silver and deflected it with a horizontal slice without showing even a hint of panic. The deflected chakram flew off in a random direction, but then it stopped midair and shot back toward its wielder. The woman wearing the gaudy feather mask caught it with two of her fingers and gave a bewitching smile.

“Not half bad, little boy. It’s not every day I find someone who can deflect Viridian.”

“I feel honored to receive your praise. I have been putting in quite the amount of training.”

“Quite the amount, you say? Are you aware that being too modest can end up being annoying instead?”

Peacock, the wicked devout now fighting Kuon, spun the chakram with her two fingers and then threw it up into the air.

The chakram split into several more chakrams that began swirling around her. “How about this, then?”

Peacock took the ten chakrams orbiting her and fired them all toward Kuon at once.

Ten simultaneous attacks—no matter how you looked at it, there was no way to avoid them all. It seemed as if a magic barrier would be able to deal with them, but in reality, Peacock’s chakrams would slice through even that. The wicked devout pictured the boy collapsing in her mind’s eye, blood gushing from his body, but then what she saw instead was something unbelievable.

At some point, Kuon’s right eye had turned an orange-gold. Kuon swayed his body to the side…and a chakram narrowly passed by his right shoulder.

He lifted his left hand a little…and a chakram passed through the gap between arm and flank.

He raised the sword in his right hand and swung to the side…and a chakram was deflected. He bent forward slightly…and a chakram passed right over his head.

“What?!”

Kuon dodged the rest of the chakrams with similar small but controlled movements, and Peacock could only look on in disbelief.

“I failed to dodge two of them, I suppose,” Kuon muttered in disappointment.

“Now hang on, kiddo, you just dodged eight of those things! That’s pretty impressive, if ya ask me!” Silver said.

As Kuon had said, he had technically deflected two of them with Silver, not outright dodged them. Even with his Mystic Eye of Precognition, there were things he simply couldn’t evade.

Since there were only two he knew he would be unable to avoid, he simply deflected them with Silver, but had it been any more, he would’ve likely used either his Mystic Eye of Compression or Immobilization.

“What a creepy little boy!”

“I apologize for disturbing you.”

Peacock split her chakram into ten and threw them at Kuon again, to which Kuon repeated what he had done, dodging all except two that he deflected with Silver.

At a glance, Kuon was the one at an advantage, but using his Mystic Eyes repeatedly would tire him out. Any time he tried to get closer to Peacock, she would simply fire her chakrams again, so he was left completely unable to launch a counterattack. He might have had a chance if he combined the usage of different Mystic Eyes, but Kuon’s goal here wasn’t to take the wicked devout down, it was to buy time while Yakumo dealt with Indigo, so he decided it was best for him not to risk anything.

Yae was also thinking similarly, keeping a close eye to ensure Peacock wouldn’t interfere with the fight with Indigo.

Kuon glanced at his older sister within the [Prison], continuing to deal with the chakrams being thrown at him all the while.

◇　◇　◇

Indigo tried to slash into the semitransparent barrier that surrounded him with his wicked vessel, Deep Blue, while dodging the crystalline katana being swung his way. Metal bouncing off the barrier was the only sound that could be heard; not a single crack was being made in it.

“What is going on here? There’s a barrier that Deep Blue can’t break…? No, has Deep Blue lost its power?”

Indigo continued to dash around the confined space as the drawn sword chased its target. Yakumo firmly pushed the harpbow back into her sash when it began to fall out. The impatience at being unable to find the opportunity for a finishing blow almost made her turn the sacred treasure into its katana form to strike the man down regardless, but she knew if she did that, the wicked devout outside of the [Prison] would no longer be in range of the Divinity Neutralization.

The only time you should do that is when you know for certain you can take him down, Yakumo told herself. Don’t get impatient. Watch your opponent’s movements and slowly but surely stop them.

“[Gate].”

“Hm?!”

Indigo bent his body back to avoid the tip of the sword that suddenly appeared from the distortion in space behind him.

“Spatial magic?! A little unfair that you can still use your magic while we can’t use our weapons, don’t you think?”

“If it means I can protect what is important to me, I feel no shame in being called a cheat or a coward.”

Yakumo knew her parents would tell her that if petty pride or a sense of justice endangered those you loved, you should just throw them away. Were it a fight concerning yourself as an individual, then of course, one should fight fair and square with their pride on the line. However, in a fight to protect someone or something else, trying to see something like that through was just a means of self-satisfaction. It was important to not get one’s priorities wrong.

What Yakumo wanted to protect was her family, the people of her country, and the people in the world working hard to live each day to its fullest. If it was to protect them, she would use anything at her disposal, even if it was deemed unfair. She felt no hesitation in doing that.

“Complaining about cheating and being a coward is but the drivel of the loser, you say? Very good. I agree.”

“Wha—?!”

Indigo took out something akin to a spray can from a pouch hanging from his waist. He then pulled out the pin and threw it on the ground where it suddenly released a plume of vivid purple smoke that filled the inside of the barrier and cut off Yakumo’s sight.

“What a crafty move…! Kokonoe Secret Style: Hurricane Storm Flower!”

Yakumo swung her magic-enhanced blade sideways with a battle cry, causing a small whirlwind to billow forth from the sword’s tip, soon transforming into a large tornado that sucked in the purple smoke.

The [Prison] that Touya had erected could freely specify what was allowed in and out of its walls. Naturally, blocking the air would cause those inside to suffocate, so it was permitted to pass through.

With the purple smoke now driven outside of the barrier, Yakumo could see clearly again.

“What?!”

And yet, it was Yakumo who sounded shocked. As she readied her sword, she suddenly realized that Indigo, the wicked devout wearing the diver suit, had vanished without a trace.

“He’s gone?!”

Yakumo was dazed by the man’s disappearance. Everyone had worked so hard to drive him into a corner, yet right at the very end, she had let him escape.

The plan has failed. Everything was all for naught because of me. What should I do? Should I ask father to release his [Prison] and have him conduct a [Search]?

“Yakumo! Calm down!”

Amid Yakumo’s panic, her mother’s voice reached her ears. She flinched, and then turned toward Yae, seeing her mother’s strong gaze aimed right at her.

Right. First, I need to calm down. These are exactly the times when I must keep a clear mind. Take a deep breath…and then think. Father’s [Prison] can’t be broken with anything but a divinity-enhanced attack, and right now, their divinity is sealed by the sacred treasure. That means his teleportation magic should be sealed. But then, how did he disappear?

“He…disappeared?”

Yakumo’s eyes widened in realization. She heightened her senses, feeling even the slightest distortions of the air from the edges to the corners of the barrier.

“There!”

Yakumo threw two kunai from her pocket. One bounced off the [Prison], but the other deflected off thin air. At that moment, Indigo’s figure reappeared.

“You’re sharp. It appears I should’ve attacked you directly rather than waiting for this barrier to be dispelled.”

Indigo’s legs were still invisible from under his knees. Whenever he moved, Yakumo could see a slight border surrounding his legs against the background. Apparently, his diver suit was enchanted with some kind of illusion magic.

“I’m glad I got those upgrades from Scarlet.”

His body once more dissolved into the background. Yakumo immediately sank back, taking position at a corner of the [Prison] to eliminate the risk of being attacked from the rear.

Suddenly, Indigo appeared in front of her, swinging down his metallic blue hatchet. By the time she’d blocked, deflected, and moved to counter, Indigo was already invisible again. In a situation like this, where she was the cornered one, she couldn’t afford to let her guard down for even a second. She concentrated all her senses on her surroundings so that she was prepared for an attack no matter where it came from.

Yakumo felt a slight disturbance in the air, and then suddenly a harpoon was flying toward her out of nowhere.

“Ngh!”

Though she’d managed to quickly swat it away with her sword, Indigo took that opportunity to appear and do a follow-up attack. Still in the middle of her swing, Yakumo was unable to bring her blade back to block the blow. She rolled to the side instead, just narrowly missing the strike. And as she was rolling, she used her arms and legs to push herself away from Indigo.

A few hairs that had been slashed off scattered around her, a cold sweat running down her cheeks. That had been incredibly close. If she had dodged the harpoon instead of deflecting it, she would’ve been able to counter Indigo. A minor error of judgment could completely change one’s fate in this battle. She had to be careful.

“That was very close. I won’t miss next time.”

There was suddenly something akin to an ejection device fitted to the armored part on Indigo’s left wrist. A harpoon was once more set in place as Indigo’s figure disappeared once more. Yakumo sharpened her senses and concentrated her spirit. Her opponent’s body had not actually disappeared—he had simply become invisible. The enemy she had to cut down was definitely there.

Time passed ever so slowly. The moment the situation changed was immediate.

A harpoon was shot out from thin air diagonally to Yakumo’s right, and at the same time, Indigo attacked with his hatchet from the diagonal left. The ejection device on Indigo’s wrist was missing. Yakumo had seen through his tactic of placing the ejection device on the opposite side of where he intended to attack to have it fire automatically so he could carry out a pincer attack. If she deflected the harpoon, she’d be slashed by the hatchet. If she guarded against the hatchet, she’d be pierced by the harpoon. Thus, the only appropriate course of action was…

“[Gate]!”

“Guh?!”

Indigo recoiled from the sudden stab from behind. When he turned his gaze down, he saw that the sharp harpoon was sticking through his stomach.

“How did you…?!”

The harpoon that should’ve hit his enemy had pierced right through him instead…and from the back of all places.

Yakumo had used [Gate] to both avoid the harpoon and attack Indigo at the same time. The harpoon had been teleported from in front of Yakumo to behind Indigo, piercing through him with the exact same momentum. Dark gold particles gushed out like blood from the wound, but it did nothing to deter Indigo from swinging down his hatchet on the small girl.

That was the moment Indigo realized Yakumo’s weapon was no longer the phrasium katana she had been using before. It was a katana with a platinum sheen that was radiating divine energy.

“Kokonoe Secret Style: Lightning Flash!”

The sacred sword was swung horizontally, cutting Indigo’s wicked vessel into two. The shattered pieces of the weapon clattered to the ground, losing their blue shine and melting into a sludge that emitted black smoke.

“Heh heh… So this is it for me, is it…? Everything’s down to you now, Scarlet… Glory to the wicked god of destruction who will end this world filled with falsehood and deception!”

With those last words, Indigo crumbled to the ground, a pile of sand spreading out from the dismantled diver suit.

Having confirmed his death, Yakumo fell to one knee.

That was close…

If that harpoon had been even a second slower in piercing Indigo, he might have dodged her blade. Somehow, though, she had won. With this, there was no need for them to fear the wicked devout teleporting away.

“We somehow managed…I think.”

Outside the [Prison], her mother was giving her a small nod, a smile on her face.

◇　◇　◇

“Enemies approaching!”

To the south of Lassei, an army of Kyklops was about to climb onto land from the coast near Isengard. Linze, who had been patrolling the coast with

Helmwige, changed direction and flew toward the allied positions the moment she spotted them.

“It isn’t just the Kyklops! There’s a colossal unit I’ve never seen before among them!”

“I can see it from here too. It really is quite big, even larger than the

Overlord… More than two times bigger, actually.”

The first to respond to Linze’s report was Leen, who spoke from inside her Grimgerde. The unknown unit was smaller than the Gigantes, the ancient weapon they had once fought, but it still seemed close to one hundred meters tall, and it was headed in their direction. Like the rest of the Kyklops, it only had one eye, but there was also something on its chest that resembled one too— most likely it wasn’t just a design, but some sort of weapon.

“Mother, it being big doesn’t mean it’s better. Each frame has its own appropriate size. There’s no point if it’s so big that it slows down its movements or puts strain on the joints and engine,” Quun commented from behind her. Leen could tell without even turning around that her daughter had a smug look on her face.

“I can’t say how much strain is on its joints, but it does seem to be walking fine.”

“Of course it is. If it couldn’t do that, there’s no way they’d send it out for battle. Either they’re using some kind of seal magic that lightens its weight or they’ve strengthened its durability. With something of that size, though, even its weight becomes a weapon, so I don’t think they’d try to lighten it… Actually, wait, if they could freely make adjustments to its weight with [Gravity] depending on the situation, then…”

Leen left Quun to mutter away to herself as another transmission came from the Helmwige.

“The Kyklops in the rear have fired divine venom into the air!”

A sound akin to fireworks exploded in the sky, and suddenly there was gold powder being scattered above them. The girls had made sure to get changed into their battle suits already, so they didn’t suddenly feel unwell, but the problem was the effect it had on their Frame Gears…

“Heh heh heh… Don’t think the same trick will work twice. War is a back and forth battle of arms development. Know that those who fail to prepare countermeasures will become the losers!”

Quun operated the console at the back of Grimgerde and confirmed the frame’s output. After a moment, the result was displayed on the monitor.

“Output decreased by eighteen percent! Take that! We managed to get it under a twenty percent decrease! That is a victory for the research squad!”

Quun let out a shrill laugh of joy. Leen let out a small sigh at her daughter’s bizarre behavior. To have managed to bring it down to such a percentage after what was previously a forty percent decrease was definitely something to be happy about, but she did wish Quun would calm down a bit.

Letting out another sigh, Leen opened up the channels to the rest of the Valkyries.

“Is it all right if I start how we always do, with a little Full Burst from Grimgerde?”

“Yes, please. It would do wonders if you could thin them out a bit,” Yumina responded.

“Indeed. We will take over while Grimgerde is on cooldown,” Sue reassured her.

Grimgerde was a heavy ordnance unit, so the strength of its Full Burst was at the top with the Overlord, but it required a several-minute cooldown period in which it was left vulnerable following usage of the weapon. As such,

Grimgerde’s role in battle was to begin it with Full Burst, enter cooldown, and then once it was back up, support everyone else from the rear.

This time too, Grimgerde was standing right in front of the incoming enemies, all weapons deployed.

“Eat this. Full Burst!”

A storm of phrasium bullets flew into the Kyklops in front of them. Usually, they would’ve been hit by the bullets and their numbers would greatly decrease.

“Huh?”

And yet, several Kyklops lined up in a row, acting as a shield for the Kyklops behind them as they took all of the rounds.

Naturally, those Kyklops that stood in front were full of holes in seconds. But even once their functions had stopped, they remained in place, ensuring none of the remaining bullets made it through to those behind them. Or perhaps it was more correct to say that the Kyklops that were both beside and behind were supporting them to make sure that they didn’t fall; they were quite literally using the Kyklops at the front as a shield, allowing them to withstand the Full Burst.

Thus, the Grimgerde only managed to defeat a dozen or so Kyklops with their initial assault. That was less than a third of what it usually managed to clear.

A puff of white smoke containing traces of the glistening ether liquid released from Grimgerde as it came to a stop. Overlord and the Chevaliers immediately stepped in front to protect the vulnerable frame.

“I’m shocked. Who knew they could manage to team up like that?”

“Could it be that even though they look the same, what’s inside is different?”

Elze and Linne—who’d swapped with Elna—observed from inside the Gerhilde.

The battle between the Nereids and the Kyklops in the sea had already begun. Sometimes, columns of water would shoot up into the air due to the torpedoes released by the Nereids.

“No, more than what’s inside…it’s like the chain of command is different. Before, their commander used to give them simple orders like ‘Advance’ or ‘Fight,’ but now that commander is gone, and there’s a new commander who’s able to give them more precise commands like ‘Advance while protecting the others’ and ‘Start attacking from whatever looks weakest,’” Quun responded from within the immobile Grimgerde. “They may be using a command system that’s even better than the Soldats. If so, should we expect them to move differently than before? Because of their new commander, they’ll be able to fight in a more skilled and logical manner, just like a real army… They could control multiple Gollems as if they’re their own limbs and—”

“Basically, this won’t be as easy as it has been in the past,” Leen swiftly said in conclusion, cutting off her daughter’s long-winded rambling.

“Put simply, yes, that is correct…” Quun relented with a pout.

“We’ve identified a unique red Kyklops that’s different from the colossal one. I believe that to be the wicked devout,” Linze notified all the Valkyries. Upon hearing that, Yumina looked through Brunhilde’s rifle scope and caught sight of it within the rear lines that were just emerging from the sea. Its metallic red body reflected the light of the sun. Compared to the other Kyklops, it was much slimmer, more like a Frame Gear in stature. That said, it still had a single camera eye just like the others, and it held a rapier the same color as its body.

She’d seen that rapier before. It was the same as the rapier wielded by the wicked devout who had intervened in their infiltration of the Gandhilis ruins and ran away with the Ark. It was the one who wore a black coat, black-shaded goggles, and a plague doctor mask.

If he was the one leading this army, then…

“Shall I try and snipe him?” Yumina asked, hovering the crosshair right over the red Kyklops’s head. It was quite far, but not so far that she couldn’t hit him. In fact, he might not even have his guard up at this distance.

She began to pull the trigger…and then stopped. Just as she was about to fire, her divine trait, her Mystic Eye of Foresight, activated and showed her the red Kyklops dodging her shot. There were times when the ability activated without her even trying. It tended to happen in situations like this, where it was impossible to do something even if she tried, or at times when she was in extreme danger.

Yumina had begun to suspect that her body instinctively activated it in order to avoid any truly disadvantageous situations. Had she fired here, the enemy would have dodged and most likely grown much more cautious. Her body had tried to prevent her from making their situation worse.

She moved the camera from Brunhilde’s rifle scope.

“Sakura, support magic, please. Engaging enemies now!”

“Okay…”

Two symphonic horns were equipped on the shoulders of Rossweise, looking like cannons, while several magic speakers were deployed from the frame.

“Yoshino.”

“Let’s do this!”

Following the lively rhythm of the drums, Yoshino’s guitar joined in. The girls in the Valkyries chuckled as they recognized the song. Written in the 1960s, the song was later used as the theme song for a megahit American romcom. The girls greatly liked the song after watching the movie themselves—had they chosen the song knowing that?

Soon after, Sakura’s singing began. The lyrics, which praised a pretty woman, stimulated the ether liquid inside the Frame Gears, increasing their output.

“Soldiers of Lassei! Advance!” the Grand Potentate of Lassei commanded his men from inside a loaned Knight Baron of his own. Upon his order, the Frame Gears began an earth-rumbling assault on the army of Kyklops.

Most of the Brunhild knights were deployed in the Nereids for this battle, so the majority of the Frame Gears on land were being piloted by Lassei knights. Lassei had always been a country that prided itself on its military prowess, and they viewed Frame Gears as just another weapon, so they had put in much training with the Frame Units.

Once they had grown accustomed to operating them, they were able to move them as if they were an extension of their bodies, their combat skills within them improving so much that even the Brunhild knights struggled against them. Such a trained knight order would have no trouble against the Kyklops.

“I got the first kill!”

The second prince of the Military Kingdom of Lassei, Zanbelt Gal Lassei, a man who had once challenged the god of combat and had his nose completely shattered, had indeed pierced a Kyklops with his Knight Baron’s spear. However, despite being stabbed right in the stomach with Zanbelt’s spear, the Kyklops’s movement never stopped, and it immediately went to swing its mace down.

“Die already!”

Zanbelt let go of the spear and instead punched the Kyklops right beside where he had stabbed it. The Kyklops’s armor warped as it lost its balance and fell.

“Punching gets the job done so much faster!”

Gripped in both hands of Zanbelt’s Knight Baron were some simple weapons made from phrasium. They were knuckle dusters, a weapon fitted to four of a hand’s fingers to increase the power of one’s punches. It seemed the people of Lassei loved fighting barehanded and had asked for weapons similar to Elze’s Gerhilde.

Those knuckle dusters were what Touya had decided on as the perfect choice. Knuckle dusters were a simple weapon—you just gripped them and then punched. In order to strengthen them even further, they had four sharp rivets, turning them into truly deadly weapons.

After having taken down the Kyklops, Zanbelt was so happy he was caught off guard by another Kyklops swinging down its mace from beside him.

“Shit!”

Zanbelt moved to sacrifice his arm to block it, but before he was hit, there was a loud crack and the Kyklops who had been moving to attack him suddenly went flying.

“Why are you getting all distracted? Pay attention to your surroundings!”

“Boss!” Zanbelt cried out in joy at seeing the familiar red Valkyrie. The one who had sent the Kyklops flying was Elze in her Gerhilde.

After being thoroughly beaten to a pulp by Takeru, Zanbelt began calling both Ende and Elze “Boss” as a show of extreme respect, since they were both Takeru’s students and all, but neither especially liked being referred to in such a manner. When they told him to stop, though, he wouldn’t, and in the end, the two simply gave up.

“Don’t just stand there, get moving! You need to be aware of what your allies are trying to do!”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!”

At Elze’s scolding, Zanbelt readied his fists again. Gerhilde’s camera eye looked up at the gigantic Kyklops in the rear.

“We need to do something about that big ol’ hunk of junk.”

“Mama Elze, I want to fight too!” Linne cried out in boredom.

“Afterward, ’kay?” Elze called back to the girl as she punched through the Kyklops.

Right now, Elna was riding in the Helmwige with Linze while Linne was riding in the Gerhilde with Elze. At some point, they’d decided that was how they’d pair up while in the Frame Gears. Elze thought it a good judgment, given if something happened to her, she wasn’t sure if Elna would be able to handle Gerhilde well in her place. Linne’s style of fighting was much closer to Elze’s, while Elna’s situational awareness was more like Linze’s.

Elze was very fond of her daughter Elna, but Linne was just as precious a daughter to her.

“All righty, time to get moving.”

Elze rang her fists together before firing them at the Kyklops charging toward her.

◇　◇　◇

“Crusher!” Elze roared as she held out Gerhilde’s arm, shooting a phrasium spike that gouged into the chest of the Kyklops in front of her. Its chest was pierced by the sheer destructive power of the shot as it fell to the ground.

Another Kyklops swung its mace from behind, but Elze easily dodged it with a duck before countering by spinning Gerhilde’s right leg backward like a sickle and sweeping it across its legs. Lu was watching Elze from directly behind in wonder as the girl showed off how easily she was able to carry out a rear kick in her Frame Gear.

“She’s very…excited, isn’t she?” Lu muttered as she watched how lively Elze was despite beating up enemies on the battlefield.

“It’s Mother Elze. Of course she is,” Arcia fired back, confused that it even surprised her mother by this point.

In fact, Lu was gracefully dodging enemy attacks in Waltraute even as they had that conversation. Thanks to the booster unit installed on the back, the Waltraute had the swiftest maneuverability of the Valkyries. Talking purely in terms of speed, that crown would go to Helmwige in its aerial form, but on land, Waltraute was far faster.

Using that speed to swiftly approach the Kyklops, she raised the two blades of the Waltraute and slashed both down at once.

“I’ll turn them all into mincerobot!”

Having been slashed from the shoulders to the waist, the Kyklops split into

three and fell apart on the ground. Lu immediately dashed up to another Kyklops and cut it down with a cross slash, splitting its torso in half. Leaving the enemy to fall to pieces, she sped up toward her next target—when suddenly, all of them were shot through with holes.

Helmwige soared past Waltraute at low altitude before changing back into its regular Frame Gear form. The double rifle in its right hand blew fire, and the surrounding Kyklops exploded one after another through the infinite loading allowed by the teleportation magic and the mana-infused shell bombardment.

After defeating the most immediate Kyklops, Helmwige morphed back into its aerial form and took the opportunity to slash through two more Kyklops with its blade wings as it soared back into the sky.

“She’s…really quite ruthless, isn’t she?”

“It’s Mother Linze. Of course she is.”

Once more, Arcia was confused that her mother was even surprised by this point.

For all the kids, the scariest mother to anger was most definitely Linze. Not because she would scream and shout, but because she would thoroughly scold them with a perfect smile on her face. She showed no mercy. She would tell them in great detail why she was mad at them. What did they do wrong, and what should they avoid? Why did they do that? Did they not think this would happen? Why had they not reflected after their previous scolding? Did they realize how much trouble they’d caused everyone around them?

Even if they earnestly apologized, she would question if they really understood what the problem was, if they’d truly reflected, and if they could prove what they would do to make sure the same thing didn’t happen again. It never ended.

Linze very rarely got mad, but after the kids invited her wrath once, they firmly swore they would never make that mistake again. Arcia had been scolded by her once before herself, and she’d greatly reflected after that moment—she didn’t want to have to go through that again.

“Mother, one from the right.”

“Got it.”

At Arcia’s call, Lu turned the Waltraute right while swinging her left sword around, slashing it right into the Kyklops’s side.

“What?”

Lu’s eyes widened in surprise. The Kyklops had firmly gripped the sword she had just embedded into it. Actually, no, it was because the Kyklops had gripped it that the sword hadn’t slashed all the way through.

Having never had that happen before, Lu’s response was delayed. Aiming right for that moment, another Kyklops charged to stab Waltraute with its spear.

“Ngh!”

Lu let go of the sword and dodged the spear, but a mace-wielding Kyklops was ready and waiting for her near her landing spot.

I can’t dodge this!

Just as Lu went to use Waltraute’s left hand as a shield, the mace Kyklops’s head suddenly exploded. “Are you all right, Lu?”

“Yumina! Nice timing!”

Yumina’s cover fire allowed Lu to collect herself. Turning on the Waltraute’s boosters to full, she stabbed her other sword right into the spear Kyklops’s chest before immediately reversing and setting her sights on the Kyklops she had failed to completely slice in two. She then slammed her sword into its opposite side and finished off what she had started.

“Whew… That was close.”

Lu breathed out a sigh of relief after narrowly escaping danger. If Yumina hadn’t been around to provide cover fire, she might have lost an arm.

“Please be careful. Unlike the Kyklops we’ve fought before, these ones can coordinate with each other, and they’re not afraid to sacrifice themselves to do it. Make sure you aren’t caught by them. The moment you are, they’ll hold you there while their allies blow you both up.”

“Understood.”

As Yumina said, all the attacks from the enemy would be coordinated, just as the one there had been, and those coordinated attacks would be incredibly reckless. She had to be careful.

Lu picked up the other sword from where it had dropped and pumped herself up again.

◇　◇　◇

“Cooldown complete. I’m going to reboot it now,” Leen said as she stood Grimgerde up after it had finished cooling down from its overheat state following Full Burst. She then immediately hovered toward the approaching Kyklops and shot at them with the Gatling gun on her right arm.

Usually, Grimgerde couldn’t attack at will while any allies were around, as they’d very likely get caught in the cross fire, but if the enemy was big enough, that stopped mattering. Leen dashed across the battlefield toward the giant Kyklops with the eye in its chest, firing her Gatling gun at its upper body as she did.

The giant Kyklops took the rain of bullets without even flinching.

“It’s so tough! It doesn’t seem to be completely ineffective, but…”

From what she could see from the distance monitor, she’d managed to shave off a bit of the outer plating, but not enough to make a real difference.

“They appear to have used quite efficient strengthening magic. I think you could break through if you focused fire on a single spot,” Quun suggested.

“And how long do you think that’s going to take me, hm?” Leen retorted. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it would take far too long. In which case…

Just as Leen went to enact her plan of attack, the giant Kyklops’s chest began to morph. The parts of the chest clattered as they moved and the central eyeball rotated and extended like a camera lens. Suddenly, the lens started sparking and a ball of light started gathering in front of the eye, getting bigger and bigger along with the sparks.

Quun gasped behind her.

“Mother Yumina! Tell everyone to pull back! Get them away from the line of sight of the colossal Kyklops!” she yelled.

“Everyone, fall back! Get away from the front of the giant Kyklops! Quickly!” Yumina immediately called out.

The Frame Gears that reacted fast enough stopped their battles with the Kyklops and scattered all at once, and in the next moment, there was a deafening roar as a massive laser shot right out from the giant Kyklops. That beam of light pierced the ground and continued all the way to the mountain range in the distance.

“Was that…an Upper Construct’s particle beam laser?” Leen wondered aloud, thinking back to her battles with the Phrase. To be precise, the Upper Constructs’ attack wasn’t a particle laser beam, but Touya had taken to calling it that so at some point, it became the default name.

“Cesca, damage report!” Yumina frantically yelled.

“There were fourteen units who failed to escape in time and were destroyed by the Kyklops. However, their pilots were successfully evacuated to the base through the emergency teleport. They are all safe,” Cesca reported from where she was observing the fight in the sky. Leen sighed in relief.

It seemed the automatic ejection was triggered the moment it sensed an abnormality in the frame. It had to have been cut incredibly close. Most likely, upon the pilot themselves realizing they would be unable to dodge in time, the thought support system installed in the Frame Gear made an independent decision and forcefully teleported its pilot.

The part that had extended from the gigantic Kyklops’s chest returned to its original position. Apparently, it couldn’t use that laser repeatedly. Leen couldn’t help but observe how even that was similar to an Upper Construct. Perhaps the part most reminiscent of the Phrase was the way friendly fire was normal, the way they had no sense of camaraderie—no, even before that, it was the mercilessness that they had because they weren’t living beings to begin with.

“Anyway, whatever’s going on, we need to take down that big hunk of metal… Linze! Could you land for a moment?”

“Hm? Oh, yes!”

Responding to Leen’s request, Linze flew back down to the ground and changed the Helmwige into its Frame Gear form.

“Cesca, transfer the Brionac, please.”

“Understood. Transferring Brionac.”

A gigantic cannon appeared in front of them. An anchor was shot out from its body, stabilizing it on the ground. The weapon, which was three times bigger than a Frame Gear, was aimed right at the colossal Kyklops. Leen’s Grimgerde and Linze’s Helmwige supported the cannon on either side.

Meanwhile, Quun’s excitement peaked.

“Th-This is the massive magic artillery, the Brionac! The ultimate weapon for use against Upper Constructs that requires incredibly precise control of magic and uses special drill bullets! I never imagined I’d get to lay my eyes on it in this time! I’m gonna cry! I’m so happy I came here!”

“Thank you for your explanation,” Leen calmly responded. Linze could only let out an awkward laugh as a reply.

It seemed Quun knew of the Brionac, but hadn’t ever seen it in person before; it must have become unnecessary in the future. Leen and Linze boasted the greatest mana capacity among the grand duchesses, but even they could only fire off one shot of the Brionac. Such a weapon was deemed far too unwieldy. In this time, however, it still had its uses.

“Charge at fifty percent…sixty… It’s charging faster than before, huh?” Linze remarked.

Despite it being a casual observation, Rosetta spotted the opportunity to give an explanation and cut in, saying, “I thought something like this might happen, ma’am! And so, I made improvement after improvement to it! Magic science is rapidly evolving! It will never stop!”

Brionac originally took much longer to charge, but the improvements allowed it to charge to full much faster.

“Ready to fire!”

“Let’s do this, then! Fire!”

“Waaait! Mother, let me fire— Ah!”

A gigantic drill fired from the cannon with a loud roar. Just as it was about to strike the Kyklops’s chest, it dodged to the side. Though it managed to avoid a direct hit, its movements were so slow that the drill still managed to hit its left shoulder.

The shrill screeching of the drill gouging into the metal plating could be heard by them all as it penetrated through the limb, the now-detached left arm falling to the ground with a massive thud.

“Ugh, we missed!”

“Only being able to fire one shot is definitely a weakness of the Brionac…”

Leen and Linze recovered their completely expended mana with their marriage rings enhanced with [Transfer]. But even with their strength recovered, the Brionac itself was completely destroyed. There were cracks all over the barrel—no way could it fire another shot.

The gigantic Kyklops’s chest began to morph again; it was going to return fire with its particle beam.

“This is bad. We have to move!”

“Not a problem, ma’am! I thought this might happen!”

Rosetta’s voice once more entered Leen’s ears. Right at that moment, another Brionac was teleported to where they were.

“I made a second one! Now that Grimgerde and Helmwige have been improved, you can fire another shot!”

“You’re the best, Rosetta! An engineer should always have a spare! Oooh, I’ve got goose bumps! I hope I can be like you one day!”

Ignoring Quun getting worked up in the back, the Grimgerde and Helmwige immediately connected to the new Brionac and began charging it with mana.

“Will we make it in time?!”

“We’ll be fine, mother. Look,” Quun reassured her, pointing at the giant Kyklops on the monitor. Since the left shoulder had been blown off, the left side of its chest was all distorted. The gun barrel was getting caught on it while trying to extend.

The Kyklops tried to pull off the part that it was getting caught on with its remaining arm. The distorted part deformed further until it was practically ripped off. The barrel from the center of the chest began extending again…but it was already too late.

“Fully charged!”

“Fire!”

The drill bullet shot out of the Brionac, sending cracks up the cannon. The Grimgerde and the Helmwige came to a stop, only their bare minimum systems still functioning, and they fell to their knees. Rosetta said they could fire a second shot, but she never said the frames would be able to withstand it. Even they couldn’t withstand two consecutive shots of the Brionac.

The all-or-nothing shot that had cost them two strong Frame Gears hit the Kyklops’s extended barrel. The drill ate through the Kyklops’s frame, spinning at high speed into its insides. The [Spiral] enhancement on the drill went wild, pulverizing the Kyklops’s G-Cube—its heart.

With a hole now punched through its chest, the giant Kyklops unceremoniously fell to the ground with a massive rumble. It seemed the fortification and lightness magic had worn off because the impact and its own weight caused it to fall apart in seconds.

“We somehow managed it.”

“I wanted to shoot it…”

Leen sighed and shook her head at her daughter’s complaint.

◇　◇　◇

Elze confirmed that the giant Kyklops had been defeated and grinned.

“Mama Elze, in front!”

“Oops.”

Elze turned her gaze forward at Linne’s insistence.

A metallic red frame was thrusting its rapier at great speed. Any normal pilot would’ve ended up as Swiss cheese, but Elze’s extraordinary kinetic vision allowed her to see each of the sword’s strikes and deflect them with Gerhilde’s phrasium knuckle guards.

“Hmph!”

Spotting an opening, Elze attempted a roundhouse kick, but the red Kyklops jumped backward to barely avoid the blows.

“To think you could even take down Balor…! Dammit, I had planned to at least take down some of the duchesses with it…”

“You should be glad. If that had happened, you would most definitely have seen hell. You’d be begging and crying to be killed.”

Elze sounded like she was making a lighthearted remark, but if any of them had died, that was definitely what would have happened. Their husband pulled no punches when it came to that sort of thing. With his powers, he could likely revive them with resurrection magic, but even if they did come back, he’d never forgive the one who killed them in the first place. He’d break their minds as completely as he could and show them absolute hell. Even if the other party was a wicked devout, someone who was already a dead person, he would inflict enough pain and terror that their soul would be weathered away.

Elze would not deny this. After all, she’d do the exact same thing if her own family were killed, and she had no intention of forgiving the idiot who was trying to do just that right in front of her.

“[Boost]!”

A residue of red magic overflowed from Gerhilde’s multilayered armor. Clad in light, Elze kicked the ground with explosive power. Having approached the enemy in an instant, Gerhilde’s shining fist swung wide.

“How are you so fast?!”

“Need you to go bye-bye for now.”

The phrasium knuckle guards smashed right into the Kyklops. A crack appeared in its frame. Naturally, this wasn’t the end.

“Intoooooo…!”

“Crusher!”

Elze and Linne shouted in unison, launching Gerhilde’s pile bunkers. With a dull thud, the spikes shot right through the Kyklops’s stomach and its back. The frame bounced and slammed to the ground.

“Since we don’t have the sacred treasure, we can’t tackle the wicked devout directly. I’ll just have to hope this is enough to make him run away…”

“If he does come back, I’ll beat him up!”

Elze flashed a wry smile at Linne’s simplemindedness. As a divine ward, Elze was forbidden from killing the wicked devout, but it was okay for her to protect herself. Well, maybe not okay per se. It was a strange gray area. It came down to whether or not it was considered an act of self-defense, an unavoidable attack to protect oneself. Elze thought she’d be able to give the excuse that the other side attacked first, but whether that would fly was a whole different question…

Anyway, the fact that no gods had come flying on over had to mean that it was overlooked. There would be no problems if Linne took the wicked devout down, but unfortunately, the sacred treasure was with Touya’s team, who were still in the middle of carrying out their plan. Even if they could give the devout a good beating, they couldn’t truly eliminate them.

“Ah!” Linne’s sudden exclamation had Elze looking back at the monitor. There, the metallic red frame was shown rising up like a ghost, stomach completely gouged out. Elze clicked her tongue.

I should’ve gone for its chest. That’s probably where its G-Cube was.

Suddenly, she realized that the enemy’s rapier was beginning to flicker with a dim red light. That creepy flashing grew faster and faster until it finally sent an unavoidable explosion of flame right for the Gerhilde.

“Stardust Shell!”

Before the Gerhilde could be engulfed by the flames, small shining starshaped shields lined up in a regulated formation to create a large shield in front of them. Blocked by those celestial shields, the flames died out before reaching them.

“Whew, that was a close call.”

“Thank you, Sue!”

Behind Gerhilde stood Sue’s Ortlinde Overlord. Had the Stardust Shell come even a second later, Gerhilde would’ve been burned to a crisp.

“Tch! If Balor’s out of commission, then it’ll be impossible to do anything more…”

The metallic red Kyklops slowly edged backward while the surrounding Kyklops moved forward. It seemed he’d chosen to retreat.

They would rather not let him go, but even though they’d defeated the big Kyklops, they didn’t have the trump card to take the wicked devout down.

Guess we need to back off, Elze reluctantly relented. But then suddenly, the space above them started to warp.

A hole opened up and something gold came flying out.

“Is that…Gold?! Wait, no!”

Elze focused her monitor on the gold Gollem that had appeared. It looked exactly like Gold, but the small gold Gollem had metal bird wings on its back and was glaring at them with its red camera eyes.

“Gould…?”

A confused voice came from the metallic red frame. Gould ignored that voice and instead sent countless gold feathers out onto the battlefield.

◇　◇　◇

Going back to moments before…

Inside the [Prison], Yakumo had defeated the wicked devout in the diver suit with the sacred treasure. With that, we could say that we’d achieved our minimum objective. Once we’d finished clearing up the other wicked devout, we could celebrate.

The problem was this gold crown, Gould. He was staring over in Yakumo’s direction despite me being poised ready to take him on.

What is he doing?

It didn’t seem like he was frozen in shock at the defeat of a member of the wicked devout or anything. “Veraenderung.”

Suddenly, Gould’s right hand changed into that ice pick again.

Crap! Is he gonna—?!

“Lanze.”

Gould flew toward the barrier and stabbed the ice pick right into it. Cracks formed in the [Prison] before it completely shattered.

“Huh?!”

“Yakumo!”

The moment the [Prison] broke, Yakumo leaped away from where Gould was about to strike.

“Veraenderung: Schwert.”

The spear-like ice pick morphed into a sword, and Gould immediately slashed at Yakumo with it as she ran. Yakumo used the sacred treasure to block it.

The two blades collided…and Gould’s sword ate halfway into the sacred treasure.

“Devour: Gluttony.”

“What?!”

Gould’s sword wrapped around Yakumo’s as if it were alive and slowly, the sacred treasure lost its platinum sheen.

What’s going on? Is the sacred treasure losing its divinity? Can Gluttony Slimes consume even that?! Wait, no…

“Hm?”

Suddenly, the gold tentacles wrapped around the sacred katana cracked and dissolved into sand. Gould jumped backward.

“The erosion was blocked…? But this is…?! What an incredible amount of energy! With this…!” “Did he just say erosion?” Is it like we thought?!

The crumbled plating of his hand reverted back to normal. Gould’s eyes were filled with delight as he opened and shut his fist.

“Who are you? Are you…the god of erosion?” I asked, noticing how Gould’s behavior had clearly changed. Had a fragment of the god of erosion that had escaped from the Divine Realm taken over this gold crown and was now in control of its Q-Crystal?

“I am both the gold crown and the one who rules the crowns. My previous name was Chrom Ranchesse, the High Master of the crowns.”

“What?!”

This was Chrom Ranchesse?! The genius Gollem engineer that created the crowns?! What was going on here?!

“With this, our wish shall be granted. I will draw out the full power of the gold crown.”

Gould—Chrom Ranchesse—stretched out his small gold hand in front of him.

“Spatial Distortion.”

The space in front of Gould began to twist. With his hand at the center, the surrounding space distorted like a whirlpool and left a large gaping hole.

Wait, no!

Gould jumped into that hole and the space immediately returned to normal. By that time, the gold crown was no longer present.

Was that not…the blue crown, Distortion Blau’s crown skill, Spatial Distortion?

Assuming that the time manipulation abilities present in his wings came from the black crown, Chronos Noir’s, then did that mean this gold crown could use crown skills after all? And those of various types? What was going on here?!

“Grah!”

Out of nowhere, there was a loud bang behind me, and when I turned to face the source, I saw that the woman with the iron mask who had been fighting Frei had slammed her metallic orange mace into the front monitor, damaging it. Was that the power of her wicked vessel? Wait, the Divinity Neutralization wasn’t in effect… Was it because the sacred treasure had its divinity stolen from it?! The weapon no longer had any energy to use its trait!

The footage from the cracked monitor disappeared, and water gushed from the cracks into the bridge like a laser beam due to the water pressure.

“What did you just do?!”

“Didn’t think I’d ever have to press this!”

The woman with the iron mask smashed through the glass cover on the console and slammed the button underneath down as hard as she could with her mace. The next moment, a bright red light began flashing in the submarine and a security alarm began blaring.

Oh, don’t tell me…

“Activating self-destruct sequence. Warning: in one minute, the Ark’s magic reactor will be raised to a critical level and the ship will self-destruct. Countdown commencing: 59, 58…”

“A self-destruct device?! Dammit, you mean it’s the same as Chrom Ranchesse’s lab back in Xenoahs?!”

Why were scientists so desperate to shove self-destruct systems into their creations?!

“Father! We must escape!”

“[Gate]!”

Yakumo reverted the sacred treasure to its original form while I opened a [Gate] to Val Albus. Yae went through first to confirm it was safe, and then the kids jumped in after her. After that came Hilde, and then finally me and Gold. Gold was still standing staring at the space that Gould had disappeared from, but when I called out to him, he obediently came through the [Gate] with me.

Just as I went to jump through myself, I caught sight of the two wicked devout making their escape through the corridor that the gold bird Gollem had created. They probably had an evacuation ship somewhere, or maybe some leftover Kyklops.

With another bang, a huge section of the monitor broke off, releasing even more water.

Shit! It won’t last much longer!

I dashed through the [Gate] into the bridge of the Val Albus.

“Albus, evacuate this area immediately! Full speed!”

“Understood.”

The white whale ship changed direction and dashed through the ocean depths at a speed it had never gone before. There was a brief flash, then a massive shock wave came from immediately behind us. The monitors attached to the probes that had been watching the Ark went dark the moment the explosion traveled through the water; they must have been destroyed in the blast.

We sent another probe toward the site of the explosion.

“I can confirm the destruction of the Ark,” Val Albus reported. “Several pieces of wreckage can be detected. Do you wish to retrieve them?”

“Hmm…”

The most important parts were probably completely pulverized, but maybe we could find something useful from the pieces that were left.

Guess there’s no harm in taking them…

“Father! Look!” Frei shouted. I turned toward where she was pointing. It was a different monitor that was displaying the fight over in Lassei. Pictured was the gold crown, Gould—or, no, Chrom Ranchesse? Well, whichever name was correct, Gould was on the battlefield. Did he teleport there using Spatial Distortion?

He really could use crown skills, and without paying any price whatsoever. I suppose you could count part of the Gluttony Slime being the price paid, but compared to the other crowns, it was much more efficient. What was worse, he’d not just absorbed a fragment of the god of erosion, but even stolen my divinity from the sacred treasure. Even an idiot could tell how bad this situation was getting.

“Father, look at that!”

“What is he doing? Wait, is he…eating the Kyklops?”

Gould had sent out the feathers from its gold wings, and they all turned into Slime as they consumed the Kyklops around them—whether they were broken or still moving. I could understand attacking the Frame Gears, but why their own allied forces? Was it to gain the divinity of the wicked god? Was he trying to absorb not just my divinity, but that of a different god as well? What could he be trying to do that would make that necessary?

“Touya-dono, it is pointless for us to just sit here, it is. Let us go to the battlefield!”

“Y-Yeah, good idea. [Teleport]!”

I teleported everyone to the Lassei coast upon Yae’s insistence. By the time we arrived, the Gluttony Slime feathers were already being recovered by Gould. The only Kyklops left behind was the metallic red one—was that the one with the wicked devout as the pilot?

“Gould? What are you doing?”

“The plan has proceeded to the final phase. I require your help, Scarlet… No,

Maestro.”

“Hm?! Heh… Heh heh. Very well, Chrom Ranchesse. I will become your arms and legs as I promised. In exchange…”

“I know.”

“Good.”

Gould held out his right hand and distorted the space again with his crown skill, disappearing into the tear in space together with the metallic red frame. All that was left were the Fishmen and Gollem soldiers. There was a lot we had to think about, but first, we needed to clean up the mess in front of us.

I took out my smartphone and connected to Yumina.

“Begin the cleanup operation. Make sure the Nereids don’t let any of them escape underwater.”

“Understood. Um… Is Kuon safe?”

I silently turned the phone over to Kuon.

“I’m safe, mother.”

“Oh, good…”

She’s such a worrywart, I thought, but I really wasn’t much different myself.

Still, what did it mean that Chrom Ranchesse was Gould? I thought the god of erosion had taken it over… Could even a god—no, a former god’s fragment not keep its consciousness once its main body disappeared? It was as if the only thing Gould had inherited was the erosion ability, which was a perfect match for the Gluttony Slime. The ability to erode anything and the ability to absorb anything…

Almost anything, at least. It seemed the sacred treasure couldn’t be completely consumed, but it did steal the divinity that served as its power source. It was the same as when the old witch-king sucked out all of our mana.

Doc Babylon had once said that my boundless mana was a godsend for a researcher, since it meant they didn’t have to pay too much attention to how much mana they were expending while experimenting. The speed at which Brunhild and the Frame Gears were developed was thanks to both my mana capacity and divine power. Having that used against us by the enemy was a bit of a sore spot, especially because they’d stolen the divinity from the sacred treasure, something that was made by condensing loads and loads of divinity into a weapon.

I wasn’t sure how much divinity had been absorbed from the sacred treasure exactly, but it was more than enough for use on the surface.

“I really messed up… It was a complete oversight to think the sacred treasure would be safe from erosion just because it had my divinity infused in it… I prepared absolutely no countermeasures for the Gluttony Slime…”

That thing absorbed not just physical objects, but energy as well. The Gluttony Slime was originally created as an Artificer that could deal with dangerous objects during the ancient magic civilization, so of course it was made to be able to absorb residual mana. It was born into an era where magic and artifacts were as common as electrical appliances on Earth, after all.

Well, because of that, the country that developed the Gluttony Slime ended up being destroyed, so it was no laughing matter.

“There’s no point dwelling on what has already happened. For now, we should focus on cleaning up what’s in front of us.”

Oof… A six-year-old consoling me feels real bad…

What Kuon said was right, though. Rather than thinking of what I could have done, I needed to think about what I was going to do from now on.

“Oh, right, Silver. What do you think about the gold crown? Is it really Chrom Ranchesse?” I asked. The silver crown was the only one here who knew Chrom personally.

“Honestly…I couldn’t tell ya, buddy. The thing spoke just like him, but it’s not enough to say for sure, y’know? And like, what does it even mean if that thing is Chrom? Ya tellin’ me Chrom’s ghost decided to haunt a robot?”

“Hmm… Do you think his brain could’ve replaced the Q-Crystal?”

“Ew.”

Silver clearly didn’t like the thought of it, but we did have an example of that with the witch-king. It wasn’t impossible. Hell, even Doc Babylon had done something very similar.

I glanced at Gold, who was standing nearby. Gould hadn’t known that Gold existed. Now assuming Gould was Chrom Ranchesse, that would mean Chrom was not the one who created Gold. But then, who made him? It would have to be someone who was as much of a genius to make a completely identical unit.

Were Gold and Gould completely different units, then? Gould had Chrom Ranchesse’s brain implanted inside it, while Gold was the Gollem that had a QCrystal installed.

I seriously have no goddamn clue where to go with this.

“If ya ask me, rather than Chrom takin’ over the thing, it feels way more likely that he copied his personality into it.”

“Hang on… Copied his personality? Did he have technology like that?”

“Well…the guy managed to create somethin’ like me. My personality is molded based on my wielder an’ all. Isn’t it super likely he could transfer his personality?”

Now that he mentioned it, Gollems usually had some semblance of a personality formed from all the memories they’d built up over the years, and crowns were no exception to that. But according to Kuon, Silver’s original personality had been that of a murderer. It was through their contract that Silver had turned into more of an obedient minion—and that meant Chrom

Ranchesse had managed to plant a moldable personality into a Gollem. With that in mind, him implanting his own personality into the gold crown wasn’t out of the question.

“So…that’s what this is all about.”

Research was being carried out into a technology that would make it possible to digitize oneself using all sorts of information like their thought processes and thinking patterns and create a replica of the person—digital cloning, I think it was called. That technology would allow us to know the thoughts of even dead people. In a way, it was research into immortality.

If something similar had been input into Gould, then it wouldn’t be so incorrect to view him as Chrom Ranchesse himself, would it? Well, the man himself was dead, so maybe it was more accurate to say it was the ghost of him.

“I just remembered… When Steph accidentally erased a massive portion of unknown data from Gold, could that have been Chrom Ranchesse’s personality data?” Kuon asked.

“Wait, it could be!”

If that was the case, then the theory that Gold and Gould were the exact same Gollem actually started to hold water.

But did that mean if Steph hadn’t mistakenly reset Gold’s data, we could’ve had two gold crowns with Chrom Ranchesse’s personality running around? Was my daughter secretly a genius? She totally prevented a disaster before it could happen!

“Hey, kiddo, uh…your papa sometimes acts a little loopy, huh?”

“This is normal. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

I didn’t like the conversation going on in front of me one bit, but whatever. More importantly, why did Chrom Ranchesse implant his personality in the gold crown to begin with? Did he want to acquire pseudo-immortality or something?

No, that didn’t seem right. According to Albus, when the white and black crowns went berserk, Chrom ended up losing his memories as a price of the white crown’s crown skill. Did he do this to keep a record of his memories? Perhaps he tried to create a copy of himself in order to fight against losing both his memories and his sense of self…

Losing one’s memories was akin to losing oneself. It resulted in the collapse of one’s identity, the disappearance of the foundations of who you were. Could there be anything more frightening? If I had to lose my memories of all the time spent in this world, could I really bear it?

It was in that moment that I truly began to understand Chrom Ranchesse’s state of mind.