I wasn’t sure if Natsumi had actually followed me properly, but after we made it to the shelter entrance, we linked up with [Fraxinus].
"Those DEM bastards..."
The giant monitor inside [Fraxinus] showed a satellite marked with the DEM logo falling from the sky.
"Where’s Rio?"
"Miss Rio is sleeping in a room inside [Fraxinus] right now."
I felt a little relieved at Kyohei Kannazuki’s words.
Rio would probably be better off in the quiet of [Fraxinus] than in the crowded, chaotic shelter.
Rinne was probably with her too, so all we had to do was make sure Itsuka-kun got evacuated safely.
And I had to stop that thing.
"...Seriously insane bastards."
DEM were definitely bad news, but they had never crossed the line this far before.
At the very least, they had never caused damage to ordinary people.
But now they were trying to launch an attack on such a scale that there was no trace of morality left in it at all.
They didn’t even seem human anymore.
"A giant corporation pulled this shit?"
"I’m just as stunned."
The commander, who had been sitting there listening to me, agreed and dropped her head with a sigh.
"Haa... And there’s even a destruction spell engraved on it."
"So that’s why you said if it fell, Tengushi City would be wiped out."
It was basically the same as dropping a bomb that size. If the city didn’t get annihilated, that would be the real miracle.
According to the commander’s plan, they were going to stop it with Mistilteinn, the cluster magic cannon.
"Yeah. If it’s powerful enough to destroy an entire city with ease, I guess we have to trust it."
From what I’d heard, one shot from Mistilteinn could easily erase a city.
I decided to trust the commander’s plan.
That said, there was still no such thing as too much preparation, so I was already fully armed just in case.
"[Mistilteinn]! Fire!"
A tremendous beam of light shot out from [Fraxinus].
The beam was Mistilteinn, fired by the [Realizer] installed on the massive aerial ship [Fraxinus], condensing an enormous amount of mana and unleashing it all at once.
But when the beam reached the satellite, we had no choice but to stare.
"No way!"
"Why...?"
"[Territory]!?"
A green barrier, a [Territory], had been deployed around the satellite in a way that deflected Mistilteinn off course.
The problem was that the only thing capable of deploying a [Territory] around a satellite was the [Vandersnatch] attached to it.
"That’s strange. It’s hard to imagine a [Territory] from a [Vandersnatch] being able to deflect [Mistilteinn]."
As Kyohei Kannazuki said, it should have been impossible for a mere robot’s [Territory] to stop Mistilteinn, which boasted such overwhelming power.
Not just difficult. Flat-out impossible.
So how had it pulled that off?
Just as I started to get lost in that question, [Fraxinus] suddenly shook.
Boom!
"Wha—!"
"What now!?"
"Incoming fire from twelve o’clock! Bringing up the video!"
Another aerial ship appeared on the monitor.
It was easy enough to guess who was attacking us.
"Those DEM bastards...!"
DEM. Those bastards weren’t satisfied with dropping a satellite, so they’d moved in directly to interfere with us stopping it.
And they’d been hiding the whole time using the same [Invisible] as [Fraxinus].
There wasn’t enough time to gather up another shot of Mistilteinn and fire it, and the DEM aerial ship beside us would obviously interfere anyway.
"...Commander."
Crunch!
"I’ll go."
The commander bit down and crushed the lollipop in her mouth, then stood up.
"Kannazuki, I’m leaving this to you."
"...Understood."
After hearing Kyohei Kannazuki’s answer, the commander punched the red button sealed behind glass.
The glass shattered, the red button was pressed, and the commander moved to the transfer device and went outside.
[All right. Let’s get started.]
Along with the commander’s voice coming through the screen, flames rippled over her body and her outfit changed.
White horns appeared where the ribbons had been tied, and the sleeves of her uniform-like outfit lengthened as a veil-like cloth similar to a celestial maiden’s wrapped around her.
The commander drew on spiritual power and began [Incarnation].
[<Kamiel>.]
As she reached out into the air and softly called its name, flames flickered at her fingertips in response and became a massive halberd.
Holding the angel Kamiel, the commander pointed it forward and changed its form once more.
[【Megido】!]
At the commander’s will, the blade of the halberd transformed into the shape of a huge cannon.
I knew that form well.
It was the same form I’d seen when the young lady unleashed the castle that devours time at school.
It was a form so powerful it could burn up the young lady’s angel.
Even in its current limited-incarnation state, it should be more than enough to turn that satellite and the [Territory] around it into scrap.
The commander aimed Kamiel in its Megido form straight at the satellite.
[Here I go... Gungnir!]
Gungnir.
[Fraxinus]’s trump card, a weapon so powerful it couldn’t even be compared to Mistilteinn.
From what I’d heard, the principle behind the weapon called a spirit spiritual-power cannon was basically to draw out a speck of the commander’s spiritual power, amplify it, and fire it.
Even though it drew on her power while she was already in [Incarnation], its output still far surpassed Mistilteinn.
[Fire.]
That weapon was now being fired at the falling satellite.
It pierced through clouds that were practically worthy of being called pillars and struck the satellite.
KWA-GA-GA-GA-BOOM!
A huge explosion erupted with a deafening blast, and the light it spewed out was so intense it could have blinded us.
The shockwave even made the air itself seem to tremble, so there was no doubt the satellite had been erased.
"We did it!"
"Yeah!"
"Target destroyed! Success!"
Everyone was celebrating the fact that we’d stopped the satellite, but only for a moment, because a bad feeling crept over me.
Was there any way DEM would only prepare one of those?
Wouldn’t those evil bastards at least prepare for the possibility that one would get destroyed?
I prayed that wasn’t the case, but life never went the way you wanted.
Beep! Beep!
Warning alarms began sounding inside [Fraxinus].
And another massive shadow appeared in the sky.
"Damn it! Another satellite has appeared!"
DEM’s gift wasn’t just one.
"Kami... ngh!"
Just as the commander tried to summon her angel again at the sight of satellites appearing one after another like sausages, she suddenly cried out in pain.
No, that wasn’t pain. It was the reaction right before being swallowed by madness.
"Commander!"
Seeing the problem immediately, Kyohei Kannazuki stopped her from drawing out her angel any further, saying it was too much.
"Hoo..."
But I had already finished gearing up while assuming the worst-case scenario.
If I didn’t step up here, then who would?
"Please transfer me."
"What? But Hieta-kun..."
I knew exactly what Kyohei Kannazuki was worried about.
I didn’t have the ability to fly, so I had no way to deal with it, right?
Even if I could deal with it, the satellite would already be close to the ground by then.
It would be too late.
[Hii... ]
[Do you have a way?]
As Maria and Marina’s worried voices came through the intercom, I grinned.
"Of course."
I wasn’t sure whether to call it a janky method or just a weird one, but there was definitely a way for me to fly.
The last time I dealt with Lahat Haelev, I fought in the air by being launched with help from Kyohei and the Yamai sisters, but this time I had a method that worked even without that kind of help.
"...If you say so, then understood."
Kyohei Kannazuki trusted me completely when I said I had a way, and transferred me using the transfer device.
"All right, let’s go."
After being transferred, I rolled my shoulders and finished preparing to shoot that satellite down.
"Then... huh?"
When I looked up at the sky, I saw something else besides the satellite.
Red beams poured down at me from them.
[Hii! It’s another Vandersnatch unit!]
"Shit!"
With artillery fire raining down from all sides and nowhere to dodge, I was about to get hit when an ice wall suddenly rose in front of me and blocked every shot.
"Hii, you son of a...!"
"Yoshino!? And everyone else too!?"
All the spirits who could fight, including Yoshino, were coming over to my side.
"Hieta! We came to help!"
"How could we not help when our Yamai’s retainer is giving it his all!"
"How...?"
"Explanation. After Hii heard that you were going to wipe those things out, she asked us to transfer over so we could help."
"Kotori’s group is fighting another aerial ship, so we can focus on this one."
Now I knew why they’d come, and with such reliable reinforcements too.
All that was left was to take care of those things completely.
Those tiny dots floating in the sky.
According to Marina, all of them were Vandersnatches.
I was sick of DEM’s plan to cling on until the very end, but in the end, there was only one choice left to us.
‘Break all of them, and break the satellites too.’
Keeping that goal in mind, I spoke to everyone.
"Let’s go."
Let’s go wreck those damn things.
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