Volume 7, Chapter 12

This chapter is updated by Novels.pl

By 4:30 PM local time, the battle was starting to turn around.

Originally, the invading army never planned to get bogged down for a long fight.

There was only one invading vessel in the shape of a camouflaged cargo ship; they were not working very closely with the soldiers who infiltrated ahead of time. The initial objective of the surprise attack was the National High School Magic Thesis Competition, but due to the fact that insufficient forces were committed, only partial damage was caused to the building. Even so, they originally anticipated only police resistance as they took control of key objectives and kidnapped civilians, hence they only invested a small force. However, a major miscalculation came from the fact that the Magic Association organized volunteers for defense much faster than they expected.

Of course, there was also the fast reaction time from the JSDF. One hour after mobilization, a battalion of reinforcements had appeared to shield the fleeing civilians.

Since the nearby enemy started retreating, the battle turned into a peace-keeping sweep. Beyond verifying the identities of evacuating civilians, the situation was improving rapidly.

However, the young men and women stuck in the heart of the maelstrom had no inkling of this.

◊ ◊ ◊

"Kurosawa-san? ...Yes, OK. ...Yes, thank you."

After speaking with someone, who must have been the butler from her home (Kitayama Family), Shizuku removed the transmission device from her ear. Simultaneously, the sound of a helicopter's engine could be heard.

"Saegusa-senpai, the company's helicopters will be here shortly."

Hearing Shizuku's report, Mayumi raised her face from the messaging terminal she was staring at with a grim expression and put on a cool smile.

"I got it. Kitayama-san, you go ahead and take the women and families with children first. Inagaki-san, please accompany her and provide support for Kitayama-san on board. Also, Inagaki-san, could you please coordinate and direct the people who haven't evacuated yet? Ichihara and I will also lend a hand. Mitsui-san, please monitor the surroundings."

Crisply giving out a series of orders, she quietly heaved a small sigh. The already fussy civilians who were being evacuated slowly would undoubtedly be displeased.

There were a lot of people who balked at having a child controlling the evacuation process.

So far, they hadn't encountered anyone creating a scene because they were afraid that they couldn't board the helicopter in time, but if there were any delays from the incoming helicopters, then tensions and anxiety would definitely rise.

Originally, two helicopters arriving at the same time would have been ideal, but she couldn't tell the helicopter that arrived first to just wait overhead.

"What are you doing wasting time here? Seriously."

Looks like Mayumi first needed to wrestle down her own anxiety.

◊ ◊ ◊

The CO of the invasion force didn't bother to hide his grim visage at the continuously worsening situation of the battle. In order to succeed, this operation called for a solo ship to blitzkrieg the enemy nation, accomplish all the objectives, and evacuate before the enemy could respond. According to this design, the first phase of the mission was a complete success. While the enemy's fast response time was within predictable parameters, the strength of the civilian resistance surpassed all prediction. Based on the original plan, they should already have shifted to the withdrawal phase, but while they were bogged down with the resistance from the volunteers, the enemy's encirclement was complete.

The route along the coastline to the north had been barred by forces coming from Tsurumi. It was now impossible to catch up to the civilians fleeing by sea and take hostages.

"Lost contact with all unmanned observation drones!"

Upon his subordinate's report, the CO couldn't help but bitterly smack his lips. Even the last unmanned drone had been shot down. Now, he could only issue orders with the intel he had on hand. He mentally railed at Chen Xiangshan, who was currently deep in the enemy formation and still had yet to send the signal, before ordering the troops headed north to retreat.

At the same time, in the inland direction — there was a plaza in front of the bus station waiting for helicopters to arrive.

◊ ◊ ◊

The wheeled APC that turned the corner on the intersection skidded and started spinning.

Isori's "Road Extension" successfully broke through the vehicle's suspension and caused the APC to flip over, only coming to a stop after the spinning wheels collided with a traffic light.

"Kanon!"

"Leave it to me!"

Since they were on the outer perimeter of the defense line, Kanon no longer had to worry about the students in the underground shelter, so she could activate the Chiyoda Family's far-famed "Mine Genesis" with impunity.

A titanic vibration originated from beneath the APC as if mocking the shock resistant devices attached to each wheel. The shock wave spread throughout the vehicle's interior and caused untold damage. The outer armor of the APC survived, but the insides were a complete mess.

Thanks to the shock delivered to the brain and semicircular canals, the pilot must have been concussed into unconsciousness.

Bullets from an autocannon turret tore chunks out of the building's wall that the two of them were hiding behind. That was retaliatory fire from the APCs following the lead vehicle.

Isori hugged the screaming Kanon into his chest and protected her with his body while he erected a reverse momentum field along the wall.

Taking advantage of the opening created by the reflected bullets impacting the APC, Mari activated magic that lowered oxygen density from her hiding spot on the other side.

However, to defend against Bio-Chemical weapons, the excellent air filtration system within the vehicles resisted the change, so her magic didn't achieve any noticeable effect.

Clucking her tongue, Mari disengaged the magic that interfered with the oxygen density's Eidos and instead increased the temperature of the air surrounding the Howitzer.

The Howitzer was just about to fire, and the ensuing explosion took out the neighboring autocannon turret as well.

Seeing that the APC had lost all combat capabilities, Kirihara charged forward on the attack.

The armor was penetrated easily.

Sonic Blade stabbed into the pilot's seat.

The rear cargo doors opened and soldiers armed with rifles appeared. A bolt came flying.

Immediately afterward, Kirihara's sword sliced through the throat of the soldier whose right arm was pierced by that bolt.

"Mibu, you alright?"

Sayaka was the one who shot the right shoulder of the soldier taking aim at Kirihara. Sayaka insisted that "she was coming along no matter what," (that alone was sufficient to sway Kirihara) to which Kirihara presented the condition that "she was not to use her sword techniques to kill anyone." The only times she was allowed to use the sword was against nonhuman targets or in cases where she was forced to defend herself against other humans; all other situations were strictly forbidden. For this, besides her kodachis, Sayaka was also equipped with a small mechanical crossbow device.

"I'm fine. This is the battlefield, and I've already made up my mind." Sayaka's face was a little pale, but her answer was resolute.

At this moment, the ground started to shake again.

This time, it was the incoming bipedal tanks that suffered under Kanon's magic.

Unfortunately, the enemy vehicles retreated to reduce taking damage.

Wary of further attacks from the Howitzers, they were forced to take cover.

The slowly growing enemy formation locked their sights on Kanon's group.

Miyuki's interference strength did not allow any enemy magic to exist. Even those amplified by Boosters.

The frozen APC was under attack from "Usuba Kagerou".

The length of the ultra thin blade made of carbon nanotubes tucked within the hammer head could increase up to 20 meters. In other words, Leo was holding a sword that could stretch out to 20 meters at will.

Still, the longer the blade length was, the greater the difficulty of the Fortifying Magic to sustain it. That being said, Leo easily formed a 10 meter long blade and neatly bisected the APC from the side.

"Enemies on the right flank! Core is in the same position!"

Mizuki was the first to catch wind of the enemy bipedal tank rounding their flank while Mikihiko provided the magic to break the enchantment.

As if the bipedal tank ran straight into an invisible wall, both arms draped downwards.

There, Erika struck with a speed that the eye could not follow. Yamatsunami.

Orochimaru's large blade smashed the mechanized weaponry that was twice its height.

Miyuki and Mikihiko provided covering fire, which allowed Leo and Erika to take down the enemy vehicles one by one.

"Mizuki."

After things settled down for a while, Mizuki turned her head when someone unexpectedly called her name, only to find Miyuki inquiring about what the other groups were doing.

"How is Chiyoda-senpai's side doing?"

Miyuki did not know about the reinforcements headed in Mari's direction, nor did Mizuki mention this. (She never had the leisure to do so.)

"Hm... There's still no change. They're still locked in combat."

The team of upperclassmen took up a defensive position slightly ahead of them. It was the second of two important positions leading to the bus station.

"What is it, Miyuki? Why are you thinking about that at this point in time?"

Seeing Miyuki frown slightly as she spoke to Mizuki, Erika asked with Orochimaru hanging over her shoulder.

"Don't you think this is a little strange? Why is the enemy specifically coming for our area?"

Erika also furrowed her brows at Miyuki's question.

"If they want to get to the bus station, don't they have to pass through our location?"

The two locations where the upperclassmen and Year 1 student teams were dug in were based off of Suzune's estimations using the local map.

However, Miyuki was unable to accept Mizuki's response at face value.

"That would be under the assumption that the enemy advanced along open streets, Mizuki. The enemy is at least equipped with communication devices.

We only have a paltry 10 people on defense; the enemy could easily circumvent us by secretly advancing through areas we have no one defending."

"...They must be blocked off."

Erika's words prompted a look on Mizuki's face that said "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Incoming!"

Yet, with Mikihiko's warning that new enemies were inbound, their speculation was forcibly put on hold.

◊ ◊ ◊

Once the twin-engine helicopter piloted by Kurosawa — this female butler seemed to know how to pilot helicopters in addition to taking the wheel of a vessel — appeared overhead and prepared to lower the altitude, an incident broke out.

Suddenly, a black cloud appeared and rolled through the air. Without warning, a swarm of locusts came barreling down out of season.

Even if they were only locusts, flying into the active intake was extremely dangerous.

Also, this unnatural timing hinted at their supernatural origins.

About to greet the helicopter, Shizuku immediately made the decision to pull out her CAD.

A handgun-shaped silver CAD.

After the Nine Schools Competition, she purchased the second generation Silver Series.

On it, she had installed "Phonon Mazer" under the Loopcast System. Pointing it at the sky, she pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Rays of sound cut swathes through the locusts. "There's, too many...!"

The locust swarm wasn't being burned to death, merely disappeared upon being burned, but that was only a portion of the entire swarm.

Despite the repeated Phonon Mazers striking the rapidly approaching locusts, the swarm continued to close in on the descending helicopter.

Honoka noticed this as well, but since her magic was unsuitable for meeting the enemy, she held back in fear that her magic would interfere with Shizuku's own.

Just as the locust swarm was about to engulf the helicopter.

A hurricane of annihilation swept across the swarm.

Like a dream, the black cloud of locusts lost cohesion and swiftly vanished as their colors died away.

Honoka and Shizuku both looked skyward.

Half a step late in detecting the anomaly, Mayumi and Suzune also swept their gazes skyward.

There, a black figure hovered in the air with a silver CAD in hand. "Tatsuya...?"

There was no way to tell if Shizuku or Honoka said this.

More combat personnel wearing the same black suits appeared and formed a protective barrier around the helicopter.

The cargo helicopter began to descend once more.

◊ ◊ ◊

"Successfully denied enemy chemical congregation attack; commence escort for helicopter landing."

"Leave the escort to other personnel. Special Lieutenant, hunt down the Magician and eradicate them."

"Understood."

Acknowledging Yanagi's order, Tatsuya activated the "eye" used to locate the Magicians who sent the familiars.

When he struck, he wasn't aiming to decompose each individual locust's body.

The target his magic was aimed at was the Magic Sequences that formed each locust's chemical congregation.

After decomposing the magic holding the chemical congregation together, the locust dissolved back into psions.

During this process, he also caught the trail where the Magic Sequence was coming from.

At this distance and taking into account the time already spent, even while continuing to maintain Flying-Type Magic, finishing the S&D mission was a piece of cake. [Search & Destroy]

(There, is it?)

Although he could take them out from here, using magic within sight range was significantly easier.

Tatsuya flew towards the skies above the fleeing Magician.

◊ ◊ ◊

Wielding large caliber silver guns — gun-shaped CADs — the soldiers in black garb flew like comets towards the skyscrapers.

Comrades toting rifles formed a circle in the sky as the helicopter descended to the plaza in the middle.

The pitch black figures with completely obscured figures gave the impression that they were the harbingers of disaster.

However, regardless of whether it was Honoka or Shizuku, Mayumi or

Suzune, none of them felt uneasy in any way. "Who are they?"

Inagaki walked over and asked warily. "Comrades."

Mayumi replied succinctly with a smile.

They could be said to be Tatsuya's comrades, Fujibayashi's comrades, or a unit from the JSDF.

Mayumi wasn't familiar with the details, but that was sufficient.

While the civilians were boarding the helicopter, they carefully guarded the area from up high.

They had been continuously in flight for ten minutes at least. Even so, there was no sign of magic exhaustion.

All of them must be high class Magicians. There was once such a rumor.

The JSDF selected powerful Magicians from specialized fields and formed an experimental unit.

Their individual rankings as Magicians were nothing special, but once in combat, they were a combat Magician unit capable of unimaginable carnage.

Thinking along those lines, they fit the criteria perfectly. "They're reliable reinforcements!"

Mayumi added this as she watched the helicopter load up on civilians.

The helicopter with Shizuku and Inagaki on board successfully lifted off and once it reached a height safe from hostile fire, the flying units from the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion on guard scattered towards the surrounding skyscrapers.

The remaining citizens were considerably settled now. The JSDF was on guard, and although there was that sense of foreboding because their faces couldn't be seen, at the very least it was better than leaving everything to children. As for their current feeling, there was little point in demanding anything further from.

"They're finally here..."

There was no longer any danger of a panic settling in thanks to the reinforcements, but Mayumi yearned to escape from the pressure exerted by the citizens, so there was nothing fake about using the word "finally" to describe her current mood when the long sought for sound of engines came to her ears.

A military twin-engine helicopter had arrived.

It was a whole level larger than the normal helicopter Shizuku arranged for.

This way, the remaining civilians could all be brought on board with no difficulty.

Also, the helicopter didn't arrive alone.

There was another combat helicopter escorting the first one. "Mayumi Ojou-sama, are you safe?"

Her bodyguard Nakura's voice came across the transmission device tucked in her ear.

"I'm fine, Nakura. Where are you?"

"I'm aboard the combat helicopter. The master ordered Ojou-sama to also board this helicopter."

"—I understand."

Mayumi already gave up on asking to "stay behind". Unfortunately, Nakura was better at close quarters combat too. Even so, she couldn't just attack the helicopter that came to rescue them, hence she had abandoned all ideas of resistance.

"Anyway, please hasten the boarding process."

After ending the transmission, she made the request to Suzune. In response, Suzune turned her head.

At this time. "Don't move!"

A young man put an arm around Suzune's neck from behind while a glimmering knife appeared in the other hand.

Although the rifles on the neighboring skyscraper pointed in the man's direction, another man rushed in front of him holding a grenade.

"...I see, so this was the plan all along?"

The one who quietly spoke up was the one being threatened by the knife, Suzune.

"You certainly think quickly on your feet!"

Although that steadiness warned him something was awry, the guerrilla who pretended to be one of the fleeing civilians still replied in the affirmative to Suzune's words.

"The mechanized units drew our forward firepower so you could ascertain the target once the number of fleeing people decreased."

"We never planned on letting them flee in the first place, but even if they did, that wouldn't impact the mission in the slightest."

Suzune spoke as if completely ignorant of the danger, whereas the man also seemed to be affected by this and replied back.

"You selected me as the target because of a reliable source of energy?"

"Not just that. Several of ours were captured in this battle, and you are the hostage necessary for their release."

"I'm not that big of a bargaining chip."

"I'm not so sure about that—I thought I said don't move!"

Keenly aware that Mayumi was operating her CAD from behind her back, the man waved the knife in his hand.

Mayumi gave up and put both hands up.

"If you're the hostage, there's no way the Saegusa Family would just abandon you. Compared to taking their daughter as the hostage, taking the daughter's friend as a hostage is far more effective."

"That's true, since Mayumi is a naive person."

Why was she watching me with such critical eyes; despite how unreasonable those words were, Mayumi couldn't interfere.

Maybe she was being "naive", but certainly not to the degree that deserved a scolding.

"Next, you're going to abduct me to your home country, correct?"

"Exactly."

"But shouldn't you perform the exchange beforehand?"

"That's... You! What have you done?"

The man finally realized he said far too much. While he did have a hostage in hand, even he couldn't believe that he just shot his mouth for so long while surrounded by enemies.

"Your combat capability isn't too bad."

Suzune easily pushed aside the hand holding the knife. "But your target selection is poor."

She deftly got free of the arm around her neck.

"I'm nothing special casting magic with a CAD, but my magic without a medium surpasses even Mayumi and Juumonji-kun."

She turned to the man holding the grenade and plucked the grenade from his hand.

"I can numb your muscles and nervous system at will. For a time, your bodies cannot move freely."

As she said, no matter how they tried to budge a muscle, their hands and feet were unable to consciously move.

"Magic that directly interfered with the human body was once forbidden. The very nature of this magic was essentially a form of human experimentation, hence it was forbidden on the surface. The disadvantage is that this requires a certain amount of time to activate, but your ceaseless tirade certainly proved to be a huge help. Oh yes, speaking of which, your verbosity had nothing to do with magic. You were simply too careless."

Suzune said this with a chilling smirk on her face.

◊ ◊ ◊

The enemy attacks on the side branch of the Magic Association intensified. Reaching the limit of their attack, the invader force committed their forces to get a decisive victory.

In the side branch, Katsuto kept overhearing reports coming in.

The JSDF were beginning their counterattack from Sakuragi-chō, but the volunteers formed by the Magic Association were barely holding the enemy at China Street in Ishikawamachi.

"—Have you prepared a combat uniform?"

At Katsuto's question, the female employee looked aghast. "Do you mean to sortie yourself? You can't do that!"

"You have prepared a combat uniform, correct?"

Still, Katsuto's determined follow up question overawed the female employee into nodding.

"But, you're the heir of the Juumonji Family..."

"Please lead the way."

Katsuto cut short her stuttering words.

The female attendant stiffly rose to her feet.

◊ ◊ ◊

The other scion of the Ten Master Clans joined the volunteers at China Street. Amid the enemies running to and fro, one man passed through them accompanied by blossoming crimson flowers and made contact with the unit fighting against the invasion force.

The protective gear he wore was obtained from one of the wounded.

Pressed against cover, his left hand tightly gripped the glowing red CAD as Masaki panted loudly.

This was the exhaustion caused by repeated use of Rupture.

In addition, the enemy's attacks switched from mobile armors to magic, causing exhaustion to set in earlier.

Phantoms advanced in waves. They were called phantoms because they didn't have an actual body and were illusions created by Ancient Magic.

Masaki didn't use the Specialized CAD in his left hand and operated the Generalized CAD on his left wrist. Interference strength expanded outwards.

With only a wooden idol left behind, the phantom illusions vanished.

In order to create a wide area interference strength and dispel all the phantoms, this exhausted a lot of Masaki's reserves.

His "Rupture" magic was used to evaporate fluids within the target's body. If the target did not contain fluids inside its body, then that magic would have no effect.

The enemy's response was incredibly swift. Seeing the first force of bipedal tanks fall under attacks from Rupture, they immediately threw phantom units onto the battlefield.

Against illusions created by Ancient Magic with no physical body, Rupture held no meaning.

Even without a physical body, the illusions still possessed attack power.

They worked in the same way as hypnosis.

Humans cut by the illusions would die from the red welt that appeared on their body.

While Magicians who applied Data Fortification to themselves could nullify the phantom strikes, volunteers who were not Magicians were not so fortunate.

Mixed in with the volunteers, Masaki could only continue to clash against the phantoms while his specialized magic was sealed, while desperately searching for the location of the enemy Magicians.

◊ ◊ ◊

On the side of the cargo helicopters, the civilian boarding was already complete.

"Rin-chan, it's all up to you now."

"Mayumi, don't push yourself too hard." The helicopter took off.

The soldiers in black accompanied the helicopter into the air and flew escort.

After seeing the helicopter ascend to a safe height, the flying soldiers flew towards the coast.

"Let's go as well. Let's find Miyuki and Mari's groups and get out of here."

"—Got it."

Nakura seemed to have something to say upon hearing Mayumi's orders, but ultimately chose to respectfully bow his head and return to the co-pilot's seat.

The combat helicopter Mayumi and Honoka boarded began to ascend.

Along the way, Mayumi noticed one of the soldiers watching them leave from atop one of the skyscrapers.

In his right hand, he held a silver Specialized CAD.

Honoka was facing the other direction, so she didn't see him. On the helicopter, Mayumi stuck her tongue out at that soldier.

◊ ◊ ◊

Beneath his gray mask, Tatsuya clearly beheld Mayumi making a funny face at him.

(...What a cheerful individual.)

Beyond that, Tatsuya had no other thoughts on the subject. (Speaking of which, so Ichihara-senpai used to be "Ichihana", eh.)

The magic that Suzune used was the other reason why the Ichihana named had been stripped.

That magic relied a great deal on the Ichihana Family's natural innate qualities.

Magic that directly interfered with the human body was forbidden at the time, so besides medical reasons, usage of that sort of magic was heavily restricted.

Although he had no idea whether Suzune was aware of all the details, the truth of the matter was that she inherited the Ichihana bloodline.

However, Tatsuya also thought.

(If that's the case, then my magic wouldn't result in something so easy as being stripped of my number.)

Instead of chuckling wryly, he was silently contemplating this in the privacy of his mind. Tatsuya activated the transmission device on his helmet.

"Saegusa Mayumi-san has boarded the helicopter and is flying towards the coast at low altitude. She is expected to rendezvous with her peers and underclassmen before evacuating from the area."

"Understood. After verifying that the VIP has departed from the combat zone, return to the main unit."

"Understood."

So it's finally starting, Tatsuya thought, after he cut the feed.

Yanagi may not have said it, but the counterattack was about to begin even if he did not.

Thus, the first priority was to ensure that Mayumi's group safely escaped.

Standing on the roof, Tatsuya pointed his CAD downwards and simply pulled the trigger.

One corner of the building burst into flames before abruptly disappearing.

Besides the guided missile launcher that fell to the ground, nothing else remained.

Modern day weapons would not detonate because of such a trivial impact.

The same occurrence happened five times.

After double-checking that there was nobody else taking aim at the helicopter, Tatsuya turned his head.

Only to find a man holding a sword standing there. "—Who are you?"

The question came from the man before him.

To be able to climb up here — and not using any orthodox method at that since he took the odd approach of leaping between the walls of skyscrapers. He was definitely a man of considerable skill.

"JSDF 101st Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion Special Lieutenant, Oguro Ryuuya."

"What?"

The man — Inspector Chiba Toshikazu, didn't expect Tatsuya to frankly answer his question.

Tatsuya's sudden reply along with that unheard of unit designation caused Toshikazu's stance to waver slightly.

Tatsuya lightly stepped off the rooftop.

Rather than jumping in Toshikazu's direction, he flew off the building. Tatsuya's left hand tapped his belt.

His body was released from gravity's control.

The CAD in his right hand keeping Toshikazu at bay, Tatsuya roared to a height where bullets could not reach.

◊ ◊ ◊

The volunteers from the Magic Association were forced to retreat step by step.

The enemy's amphibious unit was plainly their main force.

The unit advancing to the north was a mixed unit of APCs and bipedal tanks though the primary force composed of APCs, but the enemy force assaulting the Magic Association branch was composed of special bipedal tanks designed for close combat along with multiple Magicians alongside.

Wild beasts that looked like dogs turned into fiery bombs. They were chemical congregations created by Ancient Magic to mimic the monster called the "Wazawaito".

Just when they thought that was all there was, a one legged crane-like bird dispersed flaming ash and vanished. They were chemical congregations also formed by Ancient Magic that imitated the form of monsters called the "Hitzukata".

Ancient Magic from the mainland swarmed the volunteers.

The enemy was no longer an army of "unknown nationality". Abandoning all pretense at hiding their identity, they were applying unique magic and bipedal tanks with enchanted defenses to crush the volunteer unit's formation.

The Magicians from the Magic Association quickly retaliated with modern magic that was swift to cast with instantaneous effect, but they simply couldn't handle the overwhelming enemy numbers.

"Damn it, retreat!"

"Fall back and reestablish a new defensive line!"

It sounded like their morale had not broken, but in the face of such force, the only ones who could say so were the ones who fell back within the new protective line.

"Do not retreat!"

At this time, a roar shattered the volunteers' cowardice.

The avian chemical congregations that spewed fire were smashed to the earth and faded into ash.

It was as if they had been swatted aside by a giant hammer.

"Arise, ye who wield magic. Protect our homeland from falling into the clutches of these wretched invaders!"

Ahead of the volunteers, a bulky figure walked before them.

It was Katsuto, fully armored in protective gear and helmet like the samurais of old.

Katsuto raised his arm and swung it forward. Although the swing was not made with great force,

But at the same time as the swing, one of the enemy's bipedal tanks collapsed.

The implication of this action was blatantly clear in everyone's eyes. The same thing happened once more.

The mechanized weaponry with magically fortified defenses were being destroyed like toys.

A thunderous roar sounded all around him.

That was the triumphant shout of the volunteers who were previously in an inferior position.

Katsuto hid the feelings of shame deep in the pits of his heart. He was not childish enough to believe in absolute justice. Nor did he only seek personal advancement like an adult. But he was very clear on the role that fell to him.

The enemy didn't take very long to recover their wits. They were not very clear on exactly what Katsuto did.

Still, even the dullest of their men knew that Katsuto was the one who launched the magical attacks.

The bipedal tanks leveled their weapons at Katsuto with the churning of treads. Not one, but three tanks attacked as one unit. Apparently, the enemy was nothing more than inept soldiers who could only rely on their equipment.

However, the result was that none of the three bipedal tanks could advance a single a meter, nor could they fire a single bullet.

The only thing Katsuto did was to simply reach out with his right palm.

That alone was enough to render the bipedal tanks into scrap. Multi-Layer Barrier Magic "Phalanx".

This magic was not only used to block the enemy's attack.

Its true value lay in its ability to annihilate the enemy and it existed for this purpose.

The magic behind Phalanx lay in constructing multiple barriers, so even if the initial barrier faltered, the one behind would simply replace it, to be continued ad infinitum.

The barriers were in constant motion within set boundaries.

The barrier was not set in front of oneself, but rather dozens of barriers were sent crashing at high speeds into the enemy.

This was the true usage of Phalanx on the offensive. The offensive barrier that possessed the sole function of being impermeable to all attacks could even be spread out within another person's magic. The magic barrier that set matter as its target possessed an interference strength that simply disallowed any other magic to exist.

Although there were disadvantages in that the firing range was limited and it could only be used against existing phenomena, this magic that combined attacking the enemy, anti-object, and anti-magic properties had powerful applications at short distances in group combat.

Defensively, there were multiple barriers being erected simultaneously.

Offensively, multiple barriers with a single characteristic could be fired successively.

As befitting the name "Phalanx", this was a magic that combined offense and defense together.

Fire and thunder came crashing down on Katsuto.

Ancient Magic attacks that had to go through various procedures and could not affect the Eidos without physical phenomena changes were the easiest opponents for Katsuto.

In the air, he erected heat resistant and lightning resistant barriers to protect himself and the volunteers surrounding him.

Along with the escorting soldiers at the front, he sent the enemy Magicians flying.

The appearance of a single person completely turned the battle around.

◊ ◊ ◊

Exhausted by constantly having to deal with phantom attacks, Masaki changed his mind.

He stopped hunting or the enemy's Magicians and decided to massacre all the enemies around him.

Until now, he was afraid of dragging the average citizen into the crossfire so he had relied on magic that targeted individual enemies, but if the situation continued progressing the way it had, more and more citizens would suffer. — He was not going to deny that he was getting enraged.

Masaki set the area where the enemy was most densely congregated in three man squads as the square shaped execution site.

Each side measured 15 meters. Just in case, he kept a 2 meter buffer zone (until now, there was no sign that the enemy forcibly entered the nearby buildings).

He operated the CAD on his left wrist and activated the magic.

Unrelated to physical obstacles, this was a power that devoured cover in order to alter the phenomena.

The initial change was gradual.

The enemy soldiers would only feel a slight increase in body heat.

However, this would quickly turn into burning hot pain that led the victim to roll around on the floor. Thirty seconds later, their eyes would turn murky and they would be rendered a corpse.

This was Heat Magic that relied on the oscillation of fluid molecules, "Kyokan Jigoku".

The Magicians of the Ichijou Family specialized in Dispersal-Type Magic that evaporated fluids, but that certainly did not imply they could not use any other magic.

With apologies to his friend, Masaki actually suspected the veracity of the "Cardinal Code Hypothesis". If the Four Great Systems and Eight Major Types of Magic were flawlessly interconnected, then weren't they by nature the same entity? This was his gut speaking and not a logical theory. He felt that using systems to categorize magic was simply a matter of convenience.

Currently, the magic that Masaki was using, "Kyokan Jigoku", could be described as an inferior version of "Rupture".

Compared to "Rupture" that could instantaneously evaporate fluids, "Kyokan Jigoku" required time (nothing more than 30 seconds to a full minute) to increase fluid temperature. By paying the price in sheer firepower, this magic expanded the range from "target object" to "a wide area".

Within the summoned cauldron of hell — needless to say, this was a metaphor — rapid destablization spread throughout the square shaped area.

"Kyokan Jigoku" was a magic that directly affected the human body within the targeted area. Thus, it was very difficult to affect Magicians who applied Data Fortification to themselves.

On the other hand, that also meant that Magicians were the only ones who could survive the execution site.

(Found you!)

There were many enemies, but Masaki's instincts told him that this Magician was the one who was responsible for the illusion magic.

He charged out from behind the building and sprinted into the "execution site" that was suddenly wide open.

The guns pointed in his direction were silenced by allied covering fire.

Once more, he raised the handgun-shaped Specialized CAD at the Magician who attempted to flee.

He pulled the trigger before the other man had a chance to turn around.

A crimson flower blossomed.

Masaki eliminated the enemy Magician before he even had time to surrender.

◊ ◊ ◊

Small thunderbolts danced wildly across the street as the enemy gunfire came to an end.

Miyuki's company still encountered sporadic resistance from the enemy, but they no longer saw any bipedal tanks or APCs coming to reinforce the enemy.

After Mikihiko's lightning magic rendered the enemy infantry impotent, the five of them gathered under the cover of one of the large buildings.

"Saegusa-senpai appears to be coming by helicopter to pick us up. Unlike the ones used for the civilians, this helicopter is specifically reserved for our evacuation."

Receiving Mayumi's communique, Miyuki relayed the details to everyone else.

"As expected of Saegusa, how generous." Erika was moved in a rather odd direction.

"I think this has nothing to do with generosity... It must be so that the upperclassmen can safely escape."

"Even so, that's something worthy of thanks."

"Indeed. Thanks to that, we also have a chance to evacuate."

Mikihiko, Leo, and Mizuki were only able to chat so leisurely because the enemy attacks had gone silent.

"Ah, is that them?"

Even without Erika pointing this out, the distinctive sound of a propeller could be heard. Originally, they picked a location that wouldn't take very long to walk back from. Besides the time spent lifting off and setting down, this was a negligible distance for a helicopter. Yet after a few moments passed, the helicopter still hadn't arrived. Plainly, the noise was traveling down from above, but there was no sign of the helicopter.

Miyuki received a ping indicating that a new message had arrived, so she moved the transmission receiver to her ear.

"Miyuki? I'm sorry, but the area is too narrow to land. We'll let down the ropes for you, so can you grab hold of them?"

Before she could respond, five ropes came trailing down from nowhere above them.

Upon closer inspection, the highest point of the rope showed a heat signature that was hovering back and forth.

"...Invisibility, no, more like optical camouflage. Nicely done, Honoka."

Murmuring to herself, Miyuki grabbed hold of the rope and put one foot through the step at the bottom end.

The other four hurriedly followed suit.

After boarding the helicopter, everyone else in addition to Miyuki were also aware of what Honoka was doing.

Honoka was projecting images of the sky using a hemispherical display and was so intensely focused that she could not even spare energy to speak. If this wasn't the sky and was a more dynamically changing scenery, there was definitely no way she could keep up the optical camouflage while moving.

"Even so, this magic can also be used when setting ambushes."

"Seriously, trying to maintain such a complicated process isn't something that can be done with a little imitation here and there."

"Even Miyuki can't do it?"

She could only do her best to ignore her friends' conversing voices.

"We're almost there, but if you feel tired, it's OK to disengage it as well."

"I'm fine."

It was all Honoka could do to muster a response to Mayumi's encouragement.

However, when the time came to extract Mari's group, the situation could not proceed as planned.

Perhaps it was more accurate to say that the enemy was engaged in their last desperate struggle. Watching the scene develop from on high, Mayumi and the others could see that the center of the battle had moved to the area surrounding China Street and the enemies in the immediate area had almost been entirely eradicated.

Nevertheless, Mari's squad of 5 was still under furious attacks that primarily came from rifles and grenade launchers from infantry units that had Magicians mixed in. Not knowing that Toshikazu was holding off all the attacks from the rear by himself, Mayumi and company did not waver because of their limited numbers and immediately provided cover for the five people below.

Correction, "Mayumi and company" would be the wrong term, since Mayumi was the only one who unleashed supporting magic from the helicopter.

Hail descended on the enemy soldiers.

Rather than small grains of ice, dry ice pellets rained down at supersonic speed to penetrate armor, a phenomenon utterly impossible in nature.

This was the "Magic Shooter" using dry ice as bullets.

The crossfire from the bullets came from all sorts of different angles to strike the enemy soldiers' head, back, and flanks. They were struck down without even knowing where the magic came from.

Using air to ground fire and aided by the advantage that the attacks came from unknown directions, Mayumi's magic pacified the scene in less than 5 minutes.

"Sorry for the wait, Mari. We're letting down the rope, so grab ahold."

"Ah, thanks."

The overwhelming firepower — she wasn't sure if this was the right way to put it — that Mayumi provided easily suppressed the enemy forces, which irked Mari somewhat as she called for the Year 2 students.

Isori and Kanon, Kirihara and Sayaka ran forward in pairs.

They forgot to be wary of their surroundings, but this was a hard charge to lay at their door.

Up until now, they were knee deep in the maelstrom of battle.

Also, the helicopter overhead had disengaged its optical camouflage, providing a lulling sense of security.

Except, the true value of guerrillas was shown here when conducting surprise attacks. "Watch out!"

The shout came from Mari.

The first to hear this and move was Kirihara. Sprinting towards Sayaka, he whirled his blade.

Although the frantically activated Sonic Blade miraculously deflected the bullets aimed at the chest, that only protected his torso.

His leg was struck by bullets.

The right leg beneath the thigh was in tatters. "Kirihara-kun!"

"Kei!"

On the other side, Isori pushed Kanon down and covered her with his body.

Fresh blood flowed down his back.

The wound was caused by grenade shrapnel — it looked to be a fatal injury.

"Kei! Kei!"

"Kirihara-kun! Hang in there!" Two girls were sobbing.

Mari unleashed magic against the irregulars who launched the surprise attack.

However, her magic was drowned in the overpowering interference strength that covered the scene and fizzled.

She frantically looked to the side — and her gaze fell upon the source.

There, leaping down from the helicopter was Miyuki, landing lightly on the earth as if entirely free from the bounds of gravity. Fearlessly, she raised her right hand.

Miyuki had lost her temper.

For her, Isori and Kirihara were nothing more than acquaintances.

Yet, using despicable means to hurt people she knew was enough to ignite the furnace of wrath within her.

Despite her rage, her brain remained calm as usual.

Even if she jumped down on reflex, she had a perfect grasp on the gravity that pulled her down.

There was no need to use a CAD.

Now, with her magic territory released, the only thing she needed to consider was how to construct her favorite unique magic.

Miyuki wasn't just sealing Tatsuya's power.

In order to seal Tatsuya's power, Miyuki spent half of her own magic on her brother.

The fact that Miyuki's magic went out of control was a side effect of suppressing her brother's magic.

Now, with Tatsuya's might unleashed, Miyuki's personal power was also released.

The Yotsuba Family did not have a signature appellation.

That was because each individual possessed a unique ability that could not be categorized, though no one deviated from the principle that 'magic is inherited'.

Miyuki's mother possessed the unique Outer-Systematic Magic that could interfere with another person's mental makeup.

Thus, it would be no surprise if her daughter inherited some sort of spirit interference magic.

Also, she was able to serve as Tatsuya's limiter precisely because she possessed spirit interference magic.

Indeed — her Freezing Magic, which originally derives from it, is the manifestation of her innate magic interfering with the physical world.

She stretched her right hand out.

By this action alone, the world froze.

It was as if the world centered around Miyuki had frozen solid. The surface of the road and the walls were not covered in frost. What was frozen was the world of the consciousness.

There was no change from Mari, Kanon, Sayaka, as well as the critically injured Kirihara and Isori when they brushed against that wall.

However, the enemy soldiers who were pointing guns or getting ready to throw grenades, regardless of whether they were regular troops or guerrillas, all stood there stiffly without moving a muscle.

They weren't frozen, merely halted in place.

Rather than their physical bodies freezing, their minds were frozen.

Outer-Systematic·Mental Interference Magic "Cocytus".

The frozen mind shall never awaken.

The frozen mind cannot comprehend death. There was no way to even inform the flesh that death was upon them.

The bodies bound by their frozen minds could not even die. They could only collapse like a row of statues, forever captured in the postures before the frost came.

No one could explain what Miyuki did.

But all beheld the image of the frozen world.

Everyone's instincts informed them that Miyuki did something. Even without words, they could feel that mind-crushing terror.

Miyuki turned to one side before gazing skyward and drooping her head once more with traces of a lonely smile lingering on her face.

However, she immediately raised her head and cried out while waving her hands.

"Onii-sama!"

Directly in front of her eyes, everyone besides Isori and Kirihara could see this.

There, the figure of a soldier in pitch black descended to ground level. He landed near Miyuki and removed the protective visor and goggles. Tatsuya ran to Isori's side with a grim expression on his countenance. "Onii-sama, please!"

By his side, Miyuki grabbed hold of Tatsuya's right hand.

Tatsuya nodded and pulled out the CAD on the left side of his waist. "What are you doing!?"

And pointed the silver CAD at Isori. There was no time to stop him.

The only thing Kanon could do was scream at him. He pulled the trigger.

On reflex, Kanon closed her eyes.

[Commence Retroactive Eidos Tracking]

Tatsuya's expression did not change.

[......Confirm Restoration Point]

The time required for this magic was overly minuscule.

Yet during this instant, Miyuki knew that her brother was suffering unimaginable pain. Miyuki's eyes deftly caught the trickle of sweat running down Tatsuya's face.

Unconsciously, Miyuki averted her gaze.

Nevertheless, in the eyes of the biological machine casting magic that Tatsuya embodied, no trace of extraneous information was reflected.

[Restoration Commence]

The other magic that Tatsuya could freely wield, "Regrowth", activated.

He backtracked through the changes in the Eidos and obtained the one an instant before any injuries occurred and then copying that.

He copied that information onto the Magic Sequence and applied it to the Eidos.

Events were accompanied by information,

And information can alter the event.

In accordance with the basic rules of magic, the injured flesh began to change.

It was regenerating back towards its uninjured state.

Rather than healing the injury, the truth called injury was being erased.

The restorative power of the world was cooperating with the changes being cast on Isori's flesh.

The shrapnel was "devoured" by Isori's body.

The fragments in Isori's body disappeared.

Rather than being decomposed, they somehow fell by his side.

Isori's body seemed to glow with light.

In the next instant, there wasn't even a trace of a wound on his body. Not only that, even the bloodstains on his clothes were fading.

[Restoration complete]

In a state unharmed by any shrapnel, Isori's flesh and body stabilized within the world.

Tatsuya didn't even have time to confirm the results of "Regrowth" on Isori before turning to Kirihara and pulling the trigger on his CAD again.

Visually speaking, this was even more dramatic.

Seeing the shredded leg and thigh reconnect, Kirihara's body also began to glow.

Next, a hale young man with all four limbs was lying there.

Tatsuya returned the CAD to his left waist and wordlessly embraced Miyuki.

"Ah...!"

Both of his arms encircling the wide-eyed Miyuki, Tatsuya softly whispered something in her ear before releasing her.

Stepping back, he put on the protective visor and pulled down the goggles.

Returning to a completely black form, Tatsuya thumbed the power switch on his belt and returned to the skies.

Miyuki could only blankly follow him with her eyes.

Her brother's words "Well done" continued to reverberate in her ears.

Wearing a skeptical expression, Isori started examining his own body.

Utterly astounded as she watched her lover's body, Kanon suddenly burst into tears and threw her arms around Isori.

On the other side, Kirihara tilted his head slightly as he repeatedly alternated between hopping on one foot and standing on one foot with Sayaka smiling through her tears as she watched him.

Miyuki turned her head when she heard the light footsteps behind her. Behind her stood Erika, who also leaped down from the helicopter and was still carrying the odachi that was taller than she was.

"Nice work. That magic was incredible."

Seeing Erika strike up a conversation just as usual, Miyuki let out a reserved smile in response. — A smile that smacked of some sort of fear.

"...Before Onii-sama, even Thanatos must bow. But that magic..."

"Hm? No, I know Tatsuya's magic was amazing too, but I was talking about Miyuki's magic. As expected of Miyuki, magic that only targets and strikes at enemies is simply awesome."

Erika's expression was not an act, nor was it forced in any way. She was simply praising Miyuki's outstanding ability.

There was no sign of horror. So,

"—Thank you."

Miyuki also replied with a typical, natural response.

◊ ◊ ◊

After being repulsed from the northern face of one of the hills near the Magic Association side branch, the invading forces looped back to launch their last assault from the south.

They had completely abandoned any idea of taking hostages.

Currently, they did not possess the troops to occupy the area for any duration of time.

At the current rate, the only thing they could do was retreat empty- handed. At the very least, the invasion force decided that they needed to seize the documents related to modern magic stored at the Magic Association side branch and kill as many Magicians as possible to decrease this country's available firepower.

Grasping the appropriate time to retreat was extremely difficult.

Retreating was difficult enough after winning an advantage, but without any clear signs of imminent defeat, they couldn't simply abandon the field without anything to show for themselves.

They would blunt the enemy attack then counterattack as they were retreating.

This tactic firmly placed all the momentum on their side, the CO of the maneuvering unit believed, hence morale remained high.

The mobile force that only consisted of APCs and bipedal tanks had yet to encounter the enemy.

This operation was devised under the assumption that the defending forces lacked mobility. The CO riding in the APC believed this assessment to be correct.

Exactly at that moment.

The soldier on guard who poked half his body out of the rear of the APC raised his head when he noticed black shadows flying overhead.

However, this soldier was unable to discern the identity of these black shadows before a bullet fired from the sky hit him in the head.

Amid panicked communication between the invading vehicles, all their weapons raised skyward.

The unit in black descended rapidly from the sky as if mocking their paltry response — the flying detachment from the Independent Magic- Equipped Battalion dropped onto the roof of the skyscraper next to the side of the road and started firing from above.

Rifle bullets empowered with increased penetration fell like rain and pierced the bipedal tanks whose magic defenses had already been shredded.

Concentrated explosions from grenades also took out the wheels on the APCs and burning hot shrapnel ignited the fuel into an inferno.

It's not that the invaders offered no resistance on their part.

Heavy autocannon turrets fired along the wall and took down the flying soldiers peering through their firing spots.

Yet, the firepower from the unit in black never slackened.

Rolling flames danced across the rubble, but atop the perforated roof, the incoming shots only intensified.

The invading soldiers in the APCs and bipedal tanks now knew the terror of fighting undying monsters.

Immediately, they had the opportunity to witness this unique ability in action.

One of the flying soldiers crumpled and fell on the roadside.

He managed to avoid instant death thanks to the bulletproof properties of the pitch black armor, but that was undeniably a fatal injury.

At this time, an obsidian demon dual wielding two silver CADs descended next to his body. The one in his left hand pointed at that soldier and the soldier's wounds vanished.

The CAD in his right hand locked onto one of their bipedal tanks.

Noise suffused the machinery covered in armor, then the entire 3.5 meter tall mobile weapon faded into dust.

"...Mahesvara!"

[One of the principal Hindu deities, worshiped as the destroyer and restorer of worlds and in numerous other forms]

A terrified scream tore across the radio.

Some attempted to flee in terror while others chose to resist in horror. These two conflicting urges completely destroyed any semblance of order in the invasion force.

Amid the panic, the only ending that awaited them was eradication.

◊ ◊ ◊

The bridge of the camouflaged amphibious vessel, also known as the command center of the invasion force, was covered by a solemn and heavy atmosphere.

"The mobile force was completely destroyed...?"

The tactician had just finished giving his full report to the CO who was staring at him, but he still fulfilled his duty as an advisor.

"Based on the reports we received, an aerial unit using Flying-Type Magic attacked and destroyed our entire force."

"..."

"...Also, there is an unconfirmed report..."

"Of what?"

"Communications from the mobile forces mentioned "Mahesvara"."

"Did you say "Mahesvara"!?"

Over half of the crew on the bridge widened their eyes so much that it was incredible none of them popped from their sockets.

"There were troops in the mobile force who participated in the battle 3 years ago."

"..."

"...Did something happen?"

One of the remaining staff members questioned the tactician who made the report rather than the commanding officer.

"—What a pack of lies!"

However, the one who replied was the CO himself.

Three years ago, an unidentified demon smashed them at Okinawa.

Among the soldiers who returned through prisoner exchange, none dared to utter that title.

The upper echelons of the Great Asian Alliance military officially denied his existence.

They forbade the soldiers from mentioning that name. It was a nightmare better left buried.

Yet, no matter how they denied him with their lips, the nightmare had become reality and was baring its fangs at them.

◊ ◊ ◊

Fully utilizing the mobility of the flying detachment from the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion, they swept to the rear of the enemy forces engaging the volunteer forces and outflanked them.

Only 40 soldiers were committed to the front, which was only the size of a small company, but the movement speed of troops that defied conventional wisdom practically multiplied their numbers 2 to 3 times.

Also, there was no need to worry about casualties.

The pitch black armor that they wore — the Mobile Suit, prided itself in its bulletproof properties.

In addition, all troops in combat were highly capable Magicians, so their magic defenses from interference strength were also solid.

Even so, they couldn't block everything the enemy threw at them. Personal armor brought along its own weight limitations no matter what, and when compared with the armor on tanks or combat vessels, there was plainly going to be a durability difference. Hence some of them occasionally took hits.

Or were injured in explosions.

Sometimes their torso or abdomen was shot through.

However, so long as they did not die instantly they could not be stopped. Soldiers who fell in a pool of blood because of enemy fire would get back to their feet in the next instant as if nothing had happened.

There was no sign of injury on their bodies, nor were there bloodstains on their equipment. Not only that, there weren't even holes in their armor.

The tall soldier dual-wielding silver CADs pulled the trigger of the CAD in his left hand and the fallen soldiers would recover.

Released from the clutches of death, the soldiers attacked like Asura made flesh.

The invading troops could not believe their eyes.

They plainly dealt fatal damage, but that truth no longer existed.

They even suspected if they were daydreaming, or in the vilest of nightmares.

Their sense of reality was being eroded by the cause and effect relationship they beheld with their eyes.

The left hand holding the silver CAD was reviving the soldiers in black — even though they had no idea what was going on, all of the invading troops instinctively aimed their weapons at the soldier wielding the silver CAD.

However, not one shot struck their mark.

Bullets and shrapnel dissipated like mist in the air. Anything that the right hand pointed at faded away into dust.

— Divine Left —

Soldiers on the brink of death would revive when the left hand fell upon them.

— Demon Right —

Man and machine faded into oblivion before that right hand.

Three years ago, soldiers from Hong Kong used English phrases to get around the gag order from above. Today, that term spread like wildfire through the invading forces.

— Mahesvara! —

Their morale drowned in a rising tide of horror.

◊ ◊ ◊

The enemy's attack slackened at an unnatural time.

Based on Katsuto's estimation, there should be some time left before the enemy broke away and fled.

Still, even though this was ahead of schedule, Katsuto was not one to let this opportunity slip away.

"The enemy is falling back!"

Among the volunteer units formed primarily from the Magic Association, he definitely belonged to the youngest strata.

Irrelevant to this, Katsuto naturally held the command for this position.

There were people present with keen eyes that could see past his appearance to discern his true age.

Yet, no one objected to the leadership qualities that he possessed.

Of course, the fact that his Magic Power utterly surpassed anyone present played a dominating role in that decision.

Everyone present knew that had he not joined the battle, the side that would be pushed to the brink of disaster would be their own.

Nonetheless, it wasn't through his power alone. Power was actually the secondary reason.

The volunteers acknowledged Katsuto as their commander because his roar dispelled their weakness. In reality, supply lines were integral to winning a war, just as the degree of training for soldiers was also important. Highly efficient troop transportation, delivery of supplies and communication were all vital in war.

However, after excluding all of those, the bottom line still came back to morale.

The soldiers' fighting spirit sometimes led to victory despite inferior conditions.

At least for land based battles, the fact that morale was integral to victory will likely remain unchanged for a long time.

Thus, it was up to the commander to access that rare ability to evoke the soldiers' fighting spirit.

"Press forward together!"

Complying with Katsuto's orders, an array of magic was released together.

There was no mutual interference that led to magic nullification because everyone was using Gravity-Type Magic to bombard the enemy.

For the invading troops that were frantically trying to retreat, this attack was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Most of the infantry and Magicians who had not boarded the mechanized units were taken out.

The APCs and bipedal tanks that managed to sustain the barrage began to flee with a small group of soldiers and Magicians.

Standing on top of an overturned bipedal tank, Katsuto continued to use Phalanx to attack while swinging his arm forward.

"Advance!"

That was the order to pursue and deny the enemy any chance to regroup.

The volunteers' morale reached the high water mark.

◊ ◊ ◊

Just like Katsuto, Masaki had no idea that the enemy was starting to collapse because of the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion's attacks from the rear.

Still, he too grasped that the winds had changed and seized the opportunity almost at the same time that Katsuto did.

Just as Katsuto served in the leadership capacity for the volunteers, Masaki also proactively directed the battle and was standing at the forefront of battle to protect his comrades.

Currently, he was standing at China Street's north (Black Tortoise) gate. This street was the result of redevelopment after the war with large buildings that could serve as walls, leaving only the four gates in the north, south, east, and west for entry. This wasn't a disorganized redevelopment and probably was the result of meticulous planning.

This might be for closing down shop, or to seal the gates for defense. The latter was more probable.

The four gates that were usually open because of an endless stream of tourists were currently shut tightly.

Masaki didn't plan on being picky. Still, he was a little irked that they were blatantly living on foreign soil, yet were only protecting their own people and even turning this into a stronghold (?).

Still, the reason he stood before the northern gate wasn't because he wanted to vent his frustration.

"Open the gate! Otherwise, we will assume you are in league with the invaders!"

The reason Masaki stood there fully prepared for battle was because the enemy had fled into China Street.

There was no telling when bullets would fly in his direction. They might even be accompanied by grenades or magic.

Nor was there a guarantee that powerful explosives or magic that could break through these magical defenses wouldn't come flying from above.

Hence he stood alone while on heightened alert and was ready at a moment's notice to unleash his magic.

Even though he said otherwise, Masaki had long since made the decision to forcibly breach the perimeter when the time came.

If the gates opened immediately upon request, then surely they wouldn't have fled to this street in the first place.

Even if the people living on this street weren't in cahoots with the enemy forces, then the enemy troops must have seized the door mechanism first when they entered. It was highly unlikely that the unarmed civilians could offer anything beyond token resistance.

However, after his cry, the doors gradually opened before Masaki's astounded gaze.

A small group of people came out led by a young man with an aristocratic air about him who was five to six years older than Masaki.

They were bringing the bound invaders with them.

"My name is Zhou Gongjin." [A famous military general and strategist during the three kingdoms]

The young man announced his name. "...Zhou Gongjin?"

"That's my real name."

Young Zhou was used to this sort of reaction. Seeing Masaki tilt his head, the young man laughed pleasantly.

"My apologies. I am Ichijou Masaki."

Ignoring the older man's self-introduction too long was discourteous, so Masaki panicked a little, but after considering their mutual positions, he cautiously identified himself.

In response, the young man bowed deeply and gestured for the prisoners of war (strictly speaking, they were captives and not prisoners of war) to be handed over to Masaki.

"We are not in league with the invaders. In fact, we are also victims. To prove our point, please allow us to offer our assistance."

The young man wore a sincere expression as he pleaded his case.

Here, at least on the surface, there appeared to be no trace of falsehood.

Yet Masaki didn't entirely believe him.

Still, he didn't sound like he was putting on an act.

Young Zhou insisted that they allowed the invaders to enter solely to lower their guard before capturing them.

This logical argument certainly had its own weight.

On the other hand, exactly how did they manage to subjugate fully armed soldiers?

He definitely couldn't lower his guard.

This was the impression Masaki had of Zhou.

That being said, Masaki did not have the authority to comprehensively investigate any random individual.

In addition, on the surface, their assistance would put an end to the conflict in this sector.

Masaki expressed his thanks to Zhou and cooperated with the other volunteers to take possession of the bound enemy soldiers.

However, Masaki did not notice that this action would remove him from the front lines.

◊ ◊ ◊

The interior of the helicopter that was flying inland along the coast was completely silent.

For some reason, the atmosphere was one where everyone was afraid to speak.

Still, there was no way they could just sit there and withstand that unnatural silence.

"...Despite this happening to my own body... Even now I still find this hard to believe."

The one who started muttering to himself was Isori.

"...What the heck just happened? What did he do to achieve such a result?"

Not directed towards anyone in particular, the other person who expressed his own bemusement was Kirihara, the other person in question.

"Why not simply see all of that as a hallucination. That might be more persuasive."

"But, that wasn't a hallucination. I almost died, your leg was torn to shreds, those are the indisputable facts."

Silence descended once more. Once more coming to grips with those profound facts, the atmosphere was even heavier than before.

"...Shiba, just tell me this."

Finally, that was probably the right way to describe this.

Mari asked a question of Miyuki, who was the only one among them who knew the truth.

"What would you like to know?"

The tone of the response was incredibly calm.

Yet, she was unable to disguise the stiffness of her expression. No, maybe she never intended to hide it in the first place.

It was possible that Miyuki was intentionally wearing a chilly, crystal expression.

"How long will Tatsuya-kun's magic last?"

Using magic to heal was only a temporary measure. That was the basic rule of healing magic.

By constantly recasting the magic during its effective period and repeatedly cheating the world, this was the only way to finally stabilize the illusion of healing in the actual world.

If the effective time was short, then a fresh application of healing was immediately necessary.

"It's perpetual."

However, her answer was completely unexpected.

"There is no need for recasts like conventional healing magic."

Miyuki's response encompassed all of Mari's concerns and was voiced specifically for Isori and Kirihara to hear.

"There is no restriction in motion. They are able to completely function as normal."

"Is such a thing possible?"

Mari wore a skeptical expression at this reply. "You don't believe me."

"It's not that I don't believe you..."

Mari wasn't the only who couldn't comprehend this.

"I am very thankful that he saved Kei... But I've never heard of healing magic that results in complete healing after one cast. This runs counter to the basic laws of healing magic. Is he really healed? Does that even qualify as healing magic? What the hell did Shiba-kun do!?"

"Kanon-chan, calm down."

Mayumi gently coaxed Kanon to rein in her excitement.

"Miyuki-chan, please don't think poorly of her, OK? Kanon-chan is just really worried about Isori."

Hearing Mayumi's interjection, Miyuki smiled slightly in response.

"Still, I am very intrigued by exactly what he did. Since this isn't healing magic, what exactly..."

"Mari! Inquiring about other people's magic is forbidden!"

Just when the atmosphere turned a little congenial, Mari's statement immediately disrupted the balance and prompted a severe warning from Mayumi.

"Thank you, Saegusa-senpai. However, I think it's fine."

Yet Miyuki expressed her gratitude towards Mayumi's concerns but also mentioned that there was no need to worry on their behalf.

"I believe that it's only natural to think I would mind. Nonetheless, if it's only to explain this to everyone here, I think Onii-sama wouldn't object."

This was also a subtle hint to keep this to themselves. If they could not keep this a secret, then this would be as far as the conversation proceeded.

"I'll keep my mouth shut."

"I won't tell anyone."

With that, both Mari and Kanon replied in this manner. The other members also swore likewise.

"I will keep anything I heard confidential, even towards Nakura." In the end, even Mayumi spoke up.

"Oh, it's hardly anything that outrageous..." Miyuki revealed a rare, wry smile.

No matter how Mayumi swore to keep her secrets, in the end, this would still flow into the ears of the Saegusa Family.

Even then, Miyuki judged that this would be OK.

At the end of the day, it's not like anyone could replicate this anyway. "The magic that Onii-sama used was not healing magic."

Sitting in an upright posture, Miyuki quietly began. This way, even the listeners reflected her posture.

"The name of the magic is "Regrowth". Changes in the Eidos can be rewound up to 24 hours in the past, copying and rewriting the Eidos from before any damages or harm from external sources were incurred, then using Magic Sequences to rewrite the current Eidos. The rewritten target will adhere to the updated information and restore itself to before any harm was suffered."

Miyuki paused for a moment after saying this and looked over everyone else.

"Now that I mention it, does everyone know why the effects of magic are only temporary?"

After asking the question, Miyuki continued without giving anyone a chance to respond.

"The effects of magic are not eternal because the restorative powers of Eidos are at work. The restorative power of the Eidos tries to revert itself to before any external alterations occurred. However, the rewritten Eidos from "Regrowth" is only the target's own information from before. If you're being rewritten by your own Eidos, there is no need to revert to the time of injury and will remain in this world in a state where the injury never happened. All of this becomes as if nothing had ever happened."

Mari and Kanon exchanged a glance. Mayumi blinked several times.

Isori's body went stiff and Kirihara wore a gobsmacked expression.

There were all sorts of expressions, but the sentiment being expressed was all the same.

"...Then, Tatsuya can heal any injury in one try, is that it? That's almost impossible to believe. Even for Tatsuya, this is..."

Mikihiko was the one who verbalized his internal monologue. "Not in one try, Yoshida-kun."

Miyuki smiled and denied his words.

"It's practically instantaneous. In addition, the target is not restricted to biological organisms. Onii-sama can restore anything, regardless of whether it's the human body or a piece of machinery."

Miyuki was highly entertained by Mikihiko standing there with his jaw doing its best to reach the ground, but at the same time, a lonely smile appeared on her face.

"Because of this magic, Onii-sama cannot freely wield other magics. Since his magic territory is dominated by this divine ability, there is no room for any other magic."

Although she described it as divine, no one present believed that was an exaggeration.

This was no exaggeration, this was a "miracle".

"...That's why Tatsuya-kun seems so unbalanced."

"Ah... With such a high class magic on hand, it's not surprising that other magics would be obstructed..."

Miyuki only told them half the truth. She opted against revealing the other half.

That was why she only wore a lonely smile as she watched her easily misled senpais converse with one another.

"...But isn't that amazing. He can eliminate any major injury suffered in the past 24 hours, right?"

Kanon's sudden interjection broke through the doom and gloom.

"Indeed. It doesn't matter if it's a disaster area or battlefield, there are countless people who need help. He could save thousands, even tens of thousands of lives."

As he finally grasped the meaning behind all this, Isori warmly agreed with Kanon.

"Yeah! Compared to that, not using any other magic is only a minor hassle. Why is such an incredible power kept under wraps? You see, he could save so many more people with this. Rather than becoming infamous through taking the lives of others, he would be renowned for saving others. He could be a true hero!"

"Is that so... The power to erase any injury, no matter the severity. And you dare to insinuate that such a magic would come at no cost?"

A complete contrast to Kanon's excitement, Miyuki was terribly calm, her face devoid of any expression.

Her chilly, piercing gaze seemed to root Kanon to the spot.

Although this was the first time they saw this, no matter if it was Kanon, Mari, Mayumi, it suddenly dawned on everyone that Miyuki was using that crystalline expression to cover her wildly rampaging emotions and forcibly projecting an aura of calmness.

She, was in the throes of grief. She, was furious beyond all reason.

"Onii-sama reviews the catalogue of changes in the Eidos to completely copy the Eidos. To do this, he must read all the stored information regarding the Eidos."

Miyuki's voice was still ever so calm to the point of being objective.

Yet, Mayumi and Mari, Kanon and Isori, everyone present who heard her words felt a chill crawl up their spine.

"And that, of course, includes the victim's pain." Someone sharply inhaled.

"Pain is not read from an intellectual perspective. The feeling of pain, the signals of pain that travel through the injured body's nervous system, are directly transferred to your own side as direct information. That information does not pass through the brain, but is directly imprinted on your mind."

Cough, someone began hacking. This was not intentional, merely a biological side effect of being unable to breathe.

"Furthermore, all of that is condensed into an instant as it is transmitted. For example... In this situation, the time elapsed between Isori-senpai being wounded and Onii-sama arriving to use magic was approximately 30 seconds. Onii-sama used about 0.2 seconds to review all the changes in the Eidos. In that brief instance, the condensed pain that weighed on Onii-sama's mind is about 150 times Isori-senpai's suffering."

"One hundred and fifty times..."

A surprised gasp spilled from Isori's lips. He couldn't even begin to imagine that degree of pain.

In addition, Isori was also questioning whether he could master himself in the face of that sort of pain.

"The longer the duration of the wound, the greater the condensed pain. In order to erase an injury suffered one hour ago, the caster must suffer pain 10,000 times greater than the original."

While Miyuki was not channeling her rage at anyone other than herself, her gaze still drifted towards Kanon.

"Onii-sama must pay this price each time he heals someone else. With that in mind, do you still wish for him to wield this power for others?"

She was exceptionally calm, but also in a towering rage.

She was more enraged at herself than anyone else.

That was because the willful individual who requested her brother to use "Regrowth" was none other than herself.

◊ ◊ ◊

"Captain, allied forces are retreating!"

"Is that so."

Hearing his subordinates report, Great Asian Alliance Special Ops Captain Chen Xiangshan's voice did not betray a hint of surprise or regret or anything else at all. He merely nodded his head, not because he had already predicted that there was a high probability of allied defeat, but because he had already taken into account this possibility when plotting out his objectives. There was no correlation between achieving combat objectives and victory in battle. He had climbed to his current position because he had always followed that creed.

"Currently, we will now begin Plan B."

There were 20 soldiers accompanying him. Although their numbers were few, each one of them was a specialist at disrupting enemy assets from the rear gathered from back home. They were of an entirely different sort than the infiltrators he originally brought with him.

"Lieutenant Lu."

Despite his mishap earlier, after taking into account his raw fighting ability, Chen still called out the name of his most trustworthy subordinate.

"I know you may think otherwise, but do not consider taking vengeance. Fixating on a relic of unknown value was a misstep from the outset."

"Understood."

No matter what his own thoughts on the matter were, Lu Gonghu perfectly modulated his voice when he responded to his superior officer. He was wearing his original equipment, the enchanted armor called the "White Tiger Armor".

"Move out."

In accordance with Chen's order, the unit quietly began to advance.

Their target lay ahead of them, the Kantou branch of the Japanese Magic Association in the Yokohama Bay Hills Tower.

◊ ◊ ◊

The heavy atmosphere on board the helicopter that Mayumi and the others were riding on was broken when Mizuki suddenly gasped.

"Mizuki, what is it?"

Miyuki, who was the center of the foreboding silence, gently asked the first question probably because she felt that it wouldn't do to keep going like this.

"Well, near the Bay Hills Tower, I thought I saw the flare of a bestial soul..."

Despite sitting in the helicopter, Mizuki occasionally removed her glasses to scan the ground. Although she only did so because she thought there might be the off chance she would catch something, this time she was definitely on the right track.

"Bestial? As in a bloodthirsty, violent sort of way?"

While directing his question to Mizuki, Mikihiko pulled out a talisman from his breast pocket before getting a reply. Mikihiko activated the spell, put it up to his eye and looked through the talisman at the Bay Hills Tower.

"Enemy attack!?"

Surprise caused his voice to hitch. "Is that reliable?"

"I thought the enemy retreated before the volunteers' attack?"

Erika and Kanon immediately followed up with their own questions. Mikihiko nodded at Erika's question, but shook his head at Kanon.

"A small number of enemies launched a surprise assault from the rear with a terrifying amount of spell power. We have to turn around quickly, the Magic Association is in danger!" The last comment was directed towards Mayumi.

A hint of indecision floated across Mayumi's eyes as she looked to Mari.

"Mayumi Ojou-sama."

Nakura's voice came from the co-pilot's seat.

"There's an emergency call on the line reserved for the Ten Master Clans from the Magic Association."

"Patch it through."

Mayumi seized the ear set from Nakura.

Through the ear set, she heard the Magic Association member report the same dire situation that Mikihiko spoke of. Although the enemy numbers were few, there were limited Magicians at the Magic Association at this moment. At this rate, they wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.

Mayumi swiftly made a decision as if hesitation never crossed her mind.

"Nakura, turn towards the Magic Association."

Without waiting for a reply, Mayumi operated her own terminal and established a connection.

"Saegusa, what's going on?"

Katsuto's anxious voice that came down the line contained traces of frustration and confusion. Mayumi knew that Katsuto must have received the Magic Association's plea for help as well.

"Juumonji-kun, we will head towards the Magic Association." Mayumi skipped the preliminaries and spoke quickly.

"The helicopter will immediately turn around, so we won't take very long. Juumonji-kun, you focus on defeating the enemy forces."

Katsuto didn't know that Mayumi's group was evacuating by helicopter, nor did Mayumi know that Katsuto was leading troops at the front line.

However, Mayumi believed that Katsuto definitely wouldn't sit idly by while the situation worsened. In addition, she knew that he would enter the battle and would serve as an essential part of the armed forces.

Even Juumonji Katsuto was not someone who could be in two places at the same time. He could not possibly defeat two enemies that came from different directions at the same time.

"I'm relying on you!"

"Leave it to me!"

After cutting the feed, the helicopter turned around and advanced forwards.

The surprise attack from Chen's detachment completely caught the Japanese forces unprepared. This wasn't because it was a surprise assault using a small detachment of troops, but because they had kept so many elite forces in reserve.

The Great Asian Alliance troops attacking along the coastline are currently (estimated) to be in a completely inferior position. The hillside forces were crushed by the volunteers under Katsuto's command and the inland forces had all been captured because of the betrayal at China Street. The troops at Sangechō were in complete disarray because of the flying troops in black. There was simply no additional troop strength left.

And yet, they were definitely being attacked by a small group of elite soldiers. Their size did not surpass one squad in strength, yet every single one of them was incredibly capable in battle. Especially that warrior garbed in white, Chinese-style armor who didn't even flinch at machine gun fire from APCs and broke through barricade after barricade until he reached the summit of the hill.

Alighting from the helicopter, Mayumi and company caught sight of him.

"That guy!?"

Seeing that soldier in white armor, or to be more precise, after feeling the aura he was giving off, Mari made a sound of pure astonishment.

"It's that man from before... I think he is called Lu Gonghu. Guess he managed to escape."

Mayumi squinted her eyes as she used Sensory-Type Magic to inspect the man's face.

"Lu Gonghu!?"

"Erika, do you know who he is?"

Erika nodded in raw excitement at Leo's inquiry. "He's a strong one!"

"Eh~"

Still, upon hearing Erika's concise answer, Leo didn't seem cowed in the slightest and his eyes seemed to glow even brighter. Because of this, the pair of upperclassmen felt a headache eclipsing their initial worries.

Catching sight of the approaching enemy unit, Miyuki pulled out her CAD.

"Miyuki-chan, STOP!"

Mayumi was completely focused on Erika, but managed to catch wind of the danger in time and frantically stopped her.

"Do you want the Magic Association members' magic to fail as well!?"

Miyuki's favored magic targeted whole areas. Magic with weak interference strength would fizzle away when Miyuki unleashed her magic. If she could identify each individual situation, then she might be able to differentiate them enough to avoid interfering with allied magic, but Mayumi considered this to be impossible at a range where men looked to be the size of ants.

"Don't worry, I will end this in one strike!"

Sure enough, Miyuki's response implied that she was about to unleash a cruel attack that paid no heed to allies in the line of fire.

How could she say something so horrifying despite that adorable appearance, Mayumi felt her headache worsening.

"No, if something goes sideways, is Miyuki-chan the only one who will pay the price?"

While Miyuki's thoughts on Mayumi's comment revolved around

"there's no way I would miss any of them", Miyuki still obediently put her CAD away since Mayumi was concerned on her behalf after all.

"Miyuki-chan, please protect the branch headquarters itself. I know this seems like I'm leaving all the responsibility to you, but the only one who can hold the fort is probably Miyuki-chan."

"Understood."

Although Mayumi's "request" strategy was plain to see, Miyuki still accepted her new mission.

"Kirihara-kun and Mibu-chan will accompany Miyuki, and can the two of you protect Shibata-san as well?"

This arrangement was blatantly taking Kirihara's recent injury into consideration, but Kirihara didn't object as he accepted his charge.

"Isori-kun, Kanon-chan, and Yoshida-kun, you three take care of the enemies besides the warrior in white."

After saying this, Mayumi glanced at Mari. "Mari."

"Ah, we'll handle that guy. Erika, Saijou, you two are with me." Mari nodded at Mayumi and looked towards Erika.

"I was going to do that even without you saying so!"

Leo chose to forgo saying anything, but he nodded gravely as he stood next to the combative Erika.

The White Tiger Armor that Lu Gonghu wore was a device enchanted through the Chinese Ancient Magic Daoism and could amplify his Steel Qigong. When wearing this White Tiger Armor, Lu Gonghu's world-renowned might as a close combat Magician could be put on full display.

The APC that replaced a standard barricade opened fire with its autocannon at Lu Gonghu with shells equivalent to high powered rifles, but Lu Gonghu brushed them aside easily. Not only were the areas covered in armor like so, even the uncovered portions were also the same. That was the result of amplifying Steel Qigong. The White Tiger was closest to "Gold" in the Five Phases. In this white armor, the Steel Qigong that covered Lu Gonghu entirely was strengthened further. With him in the vanguard breaking through every obstacle in their way, the ambush troops were drawing closer to the side branch of the Magic Association.

However, in front of the final barricade, Lu Gonghu caught sight of that accursed young woman. Lu Gonghu was thankful for this unexpected opportunity to avenge his earlier shame. Although he had acquiesced to Chen's order, the desire for vengeance burned fiercely within his bosom. Both his injuries across the ribs and back were fine so long as he wore the armor. Lu Gonghu charged towards the young woman twice responsible for his failures — Mari.

Holding her favored triblade that she received from the Magic Association — Mari always carried this hidden weapon on her, she prepared to meet his charge. Mari held the blade in her left hand while her right hand carried the CAD that was normally in her left hand. There were two kodachis attached to her belt along with many bottles of chemicals. The female combat uniform she wore was also lent by the Magic Association. Mari's equipment could cover all the bases, but Mari was clairvoyant on how long she could last against Lu Gonghu operating at peak capacity.

Completely indifferent to Mari's ability, Lu Gonghu took a slashing attack from Erika on his flank.

Yamatsunami. The speed was too quick for Lu Gonghu to dodge. No, if he had noticed Erika from the outset he still could have pulled it off, but tunnel vision prevented Lu Gonghu from doing so.

The speed was too quick for Lu Gonghu to dodge. No, if he had noticed Erika from the outset he still could have pulled it off, but tunnel vision prevented Lu Gonghu from doing so.

Forced to respond to the sweeping odachi, Lu Gonghu raised both wrists to parry Orochimaru's attack. Rubble scattered everywhere at Lu Gonghu's feet from the impact. After the force from Yamatsunami was transferred into the ground, Lu Gonghu's Steel Qigong repelled the blade's attack.

"Ha!"

Someone let out a roar behind Lu Gonghu.

Synchronized with Leo's roar, Usuba Kagerou came sweeping in. The stroke was aimed towards the lower half of the body where Lu Gonghu's legs were.

If this was a full frontal assault perpendicular to the ground, Lu Gonghu might have ignored the attack completely based on the thickness of the blade. However, since it was an attack that ran parallel to the ground, the black shadow of the carbon nanotubes was reflected in Lu Gonghu's eyes.

Lu's body flew through the sky. He sent a flying kick with the force of a cannon ball at Leo and although Leo aimed at Lu's body and tried to turn his horizontal slash to a vertical one, there was no way he was going to make it.

"Heh?"

A short "hmph" came from Lu Gonghu's mouth as he slid through the sky.

While taking a shot at Leo, Mayumi's magic caught up to Lu Gonghu. Each of the shots carried little weight, but several hundred shots impacting on him would definitely send him flying. Lu Gonghu's flying kick was diverted from its course and just managed to miss Leo's side. The moment he landed would be a perfect opening for an attack. — Except no one was in position.

"Armor!"

Just as Leo's voice activated sequence ended, Lu Gonghu's twin fists impacted directly on Leo's chest.

It was a Tiger Claw launched with eye dazzling speed.

Leo's body flew sideways and crashed into one of the cars that acted as part of the barricade.

"Damn it!"

Erika's Orochimaru swung downward.

This time, Lu Gonghu easily dodged the downward swing of the sword.

The downward swing of the odachi did not violently impact on the ground, but bounced upwards and sliced towards Lu Gonghu's abdomen. Inertia was not restored upon the swing downwards, but rather, concurrent with the slice upwards. This was one of the alternate techniques of Yamatsunami.

"Yamatsunami Tsubamegaeshi".

Nevertheless, while the weight of the blow was maintained, its speed was not; therefore, it was unable to break through Lu Gonghu's Steel Qigong. The blade slid across Lu Gonghu's abdomen as he bore down on Erika.

Erika's left hand released Orochimaru and used her forearm to eat Lu Gonghu's attack.

Both Orochimaru and Erika were sent flying.

For a tiny instant, astonishment crossed Lu Gonghu's features.

There wasn't much sense that his blow connected, so in that instant, Erika must have activated Orochimaru's inertia cancel ability.

Yet, unlike Leo, Erika crashed into the roadblock and didn't get back up. If the inertia was entirely canceled, then even running into the barricade itself should yield no injury. This must be because the ability wasn't able to completely absorb the blow.

Lu Gonghu immediately concentrated everything on Mari.

However, that tiny fraction of an instant was enough to present a golden opportunity.

By the time Lu Gonghu's eyes rested on Mari, her right hand shifted to reveal three thin, circular containers held between her fingertips.

Lu Gonghu immediately held his breath. He had not forgotten the magic that caused him to suffer so much. If he only held his breath while in the throes of oxygen deprivation, the air with lower oxygen content would still pass into the lungs and ravage the body. Hence Lu Gonghu plugged his esophagus and physically held his breath.

Yet on Mari's side, she wasn't using the same tactics either. Her advantage over others lay not in overwhelming magic power or swift activation speed, but her versatility in multiple magics and the ability to combine them to simultaneously chain multiple magics, a high class technique that was extremely difficult for her opponents to defend against. At First High, Hattori might possess a similar ability, but in terms of anti-personnel combat, Mari's complexity and versatility put all others to shame. Her expertise lay in striking at exposed sensory organs, such as auditory, olfactory senses in order to take away the enemy's fighting ability using magic. Thanks to these skills, Mari was able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Magicians who were direct descendants from the Ten Master Clans like Katsuto and Mayumi. The three of them together were known collectively as the "Triumvirate".

Lu Gonghu's White Tiger Armor was a traditional piece of Chinese armor and was not airtight, which was something that couldn't be helped for magical devices enchanted with Ancient Magic. Traditionally, airborne weapons were not used in the heat of combat where friend and foe were locked in close quarters, which was why the execution of the White Tiger Armor did not take that into account.

Yet, there was a Magician here who used airborne attacks in close combat range with nary a regard to the "traditional" way of doing things.

Manipulating the air flow, Mari combined the chemicals wafting from the three small containers and sent a smell that induced drunkenness into Lu Gonghu's nose that led directly to the olfactory organ.

Lu Gonghu's body had undergone poison resistance training, so he was able to overcome the chemical's effects. However, just as his physical body was recovering, the triblade was bearing down on his throat. Seeing the black string attached to the blade — "Pressure Slash" closing in, Lu Gonghu chose evasive action over parrying the blow.

Thus, Lu Gonghu flipped backwards while kicking his feet outward. Although this was a kick with no technique and pure force, he easily sent Mari's body hurtling through the air.

While taking evasive action to avoid the incoming repulsion field blade, he relaxed his wind pipe.

His eyes that were facing skyward caught sight of a white block flying towards his head.

The size was about a child's fist and the dry ice was dropping at a speed that the eye could follow, so Lu Gonghu used his right fist to meet the block.

The second Lu Gonghu's palm came into contact, the dry ice block reverted to carbon dioxide and began to condense as it rushed towards Lu Gonghu. The high density carbon dioxide rushed into Lu Gonghu's wind pipe and filled his lungs.

That was Mayumi's anti-personnel finishing strike "Dry Meteor". It was a magic that combined all four processes of carbon dioxide convergence, condensation, acceleration and release. The magic relied on the shock wave and carbon dioxide poisoning to render the enemy immobile.

One of the finest close combat Magicians fell before the onslaught of the young woman nicknamed the "Magic Shooter" for her prowess in long-range precision shooting that ranked in the top 10 in the world.

"Mari, are you hurt?"

"Erika! Leo! You guys alright?"

Kanon and Mikihiko came running forward. Isori was following behind Kanon with an exhausted visage. They appeared to have taken care of all the other enemies besides Lu Gonghu.

"I'm fine, thanks to the armor."

"Kanon, I think they're OK."

Mari immediately replied. Mayumi turned her eyes toward the barricade's side.

"Leo looks to be fine as well."

Leo clumsily clambered off the ground and was joking with Mikihiko. The armor created by Fortifying Magic must have kicked in in time.

"...I'm OK too."

The last person, Erika, lay on the ground while grumbling. "Erika!?"

Mikihiko frantically hurried over while concern flooded Leo's face.

Just as Mari turned her gaze to her, Erika leaped off the ground to her feet.

"Erika, are you well enough to stand?"

Erika's surprising action rendered Mikihiko and Leo speechless as their jaws dropped whereas Isori asked her in concern.

"I'm OK. Just a mild concussion, so I lost consciousness for a bit there."

Following that, Erika sighed deeply. "Man, I still lost."

Rather than being pleased that the enemy was defeated, she cared far more that she was beaten in battle. Such a comment that befitted Erika's personality perfectly caused Mikihiko and Leo to relax and break into laughter.

◊ ◊ ◊

Chen Xiangshan was walking along a corridor leading to the Magic Association side branch by himself. Although this was a special operation, he was making no attempt to hide the sound of his footsteps and was just walking normally. Although he had not taken the elevator or escalator from the first floor and was only taking the stairs, he had yet to be discovered by anyone.

All of those watchful gazes were concentrated on his subordinates drawing all the attention by the hillside. He knew of this and never doubted that for a second, because he had arranged for this to happen from the very beginning. In his conspicuous white armor, Lu Gonghu was the perfect bait.

Ghostwalker was a magic that selected positions based on fortune. Still, much like how ninjutsu was seen as solely a physical attribute despite its nature as a high class ability, the Ancient Magic - Ghostwalker also had a side of its own.

It was a magic that manipulated the vectors. Based on the user's wishes, this secretive magic could redirect other people's attention to the desired location.

People with their vectors scrambled would never locate the target. Much like someone who intended to walk straight forward but was actually walking in circles, or maybe seeing a carriage plainly in walking distance but never able to catch up. Ghostwalker was a specialized branch of mental interference magic.

Unrestricted by physical parameters, consciously manipulating the target's direction was the basics of Ghostwalker. Thanks to the assistance of his subordinates, Chen easily reached the Kantou branch of the Japanese Magic Association.

He pushed against the door only to find that the door was locked. This was within his calculations. Chen quickly removed a terminal and pressed it against the key pad. He was using Gold Electron Silkworms to break through the locking mechanism and bypass this physical barrier. Although the alarm sounded because the locking mechanism was breached, Chen didn't mind in the slightest because he had plenty of time before the Association members returned. The moment Chen stepped into the side branch of the Magic Association — he was surrounded by a surreal, chilling air.

"So that is Ghostwalker. I learned something new today."

A delightful and charming voice traveled to Chen's ears. He was unable to move freely despite the fact that he wasn't frozen, so he had to force himself to look towards where the voice came from.

Standing there was an impossibly beautiful young woman, and she was no artificial projection that could only be found in the realm of the fey. And she was smiling coldly at him.

"Shiba Miyuki..."

"Since you already know my name, that means you are the ones who have been troubling Onii-sama recently."

For some reason, Miyuki's voice contained a feeling of assurance.

Despite the questions Chen had on the subject, he opened his mouth to ask another question.

"Why are you here? Did my magic not take effect...?" Miyuki's smile seemed to raise the temperature somewhat. Just this alone was enough to send Chen's heart beating wildly. "That's because I received a warning. Be careful of the vectors." Chen's eyes widened. That implied that someone had already seen through his magic.

"Honestly, just this warning alone was rather hard to comprehend. Since I was warned to watch the vectors, I might as well as be on guard against all 360 degrees. I know I'll get something this way."

That's complete bull crap, Chen thought. If that alone was sufficient to break Ghostwalker, then the technique would have gone extinct long ago. Yet — the reality was that his spell had been broken. Just as he was considering this, Chen's body detected a different chill than the cold air that was surrounding him.

"Fortunately, we have a Magician on our side who can see the unseeable, so we could catch your figure even if we couldn't see your magic."

That was entirely different from guarding every vector! Chen wanted to point this out, but his mouth was unable to utter a single sound.

"Regardless, since you are the perpetrator, I'm sure everyone would be more relaxed if you disappeared."

Miyuki revealed an adorable smile as if she was incredibly pleased. Within that smile, Chen realized what his fate would be.

It was only now that Chen discovered that his body temperature was dropping at an unnatural rate.

"You can take a small nap. I've made great strides so I guarantee you will not sleep forever."

Accompanied by that voice, Chen's consciousness was submerged in darkness.

◊ ◊ ◊

At the same time that Miyuki captured Chen Xiangshan, Tatsuya and Yanagi were closing in on the enemy's jugular.

Although Katsuto and the volunteers under his command were also aggressively pursuing the enemy, they were doing so by foot and didn't possess the sheer mobility of Tatsuya's group.

Under the conditions where soldiers were capable of independent flight, the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion fully utilized this revolutionary application of flying troops to its utmost as they outflanked and cut off the enemy from the flank and rear.

Originally, the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion was an experimental unit meant to test the newest magical techniques for military purposes.

Using Mobile Suits to achieve maximum flexibility on the battlefield was right up their alley.

Since the modern era, offensive weaponry continued to outstrip defensive weaponry in performance. Tank armor could be destroyed by infantry carrying guided missile weapon systems, and infantry had long since learned to adopt scattered formations.

With the enemy in a scattered formation, each detachment could be taken out one at a time with sufficient mobility and attack power.

Rather than destroying each unit, they were taking out the troops that made up each of the scattered units.

Using a new tactic only made possible by the Mobile Suits' mobility and firepower from their equipment, the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion routed the enemy invaders.

Rifles with increased penetration.

Guided missiles with warheads tipped with gas that only expanded in flammable directions.

The Electromagnetic Particle Cannon that used electromagnetic power to fire high temperature metallic particles.

Weapons that could not be created without magic due to component or design issues were demonstrating their might.

Of course, magic was equally active.

Of all the magic present, one of the most noteworthy was Captain Yanagi's "Thousand Tatami".

And Tatsuya's "Mist Dispersal".

Certainly, the sight of a metallic block weighing several tons repeatedly flipping over was awe inspiring, but no matter how impressive, Yanagi's "Thousand Tatami" was only support magic and lacked the power to deliver the finishing blow to the enemy.

In contrast, "Mist Dispersal" was considerably more mundane and quiet.

There was no sound or emitted light.

To reduce the chance of triggering a gunpowder or fuel explosion, he raised the degree of decomposition so that the easily flammable materials would not ignite.

All he did was erase them all.

Dissipated to dust, transformed into steam and then scattered. That was all he did.

Just like that, the very existence of the enemy and their machines faded.

The magic that did not even leave behind a corpse completely shattered the enemy morale.

They had only been in contact with the enemy for 15 minutes.

That was already the enemy's limit.

Unable to bear the loss in manpower and the even greater collapse of morale, the invading army broke completely.

Translator's Notes and References

1.↑ BC = Bio-Chemical, in case you are wondering

2.↑ S&D = Search & Destroy, in case you are wondering again.

3.↑ One of the principal Hindu deities, worshiped as the destroyer and restorer of worlds and in numerous other forms

4.↑ A famous military general and strategist during the three kingdoms