Chapter 140

The reason no one had acted on this theory, despite it being deemed very plausible, was simple. There were no astral veins inside the Mechanical Society. No Guiding Force source existed that could provide enough power for a ceremonial conjuring strong enough to combat the Mechanical Society, which had grown large enough to be considered a world of its own. In most cases, the energy needed for a large-scale ceremonial conjuring was sourced from the Guiding Force that flowed beneath the ground: the earthen vein. When one human being’s Guiding Force collided with that of another, there was always a strong negative reaction. Because of this, individuals couldn’t combine their Guiding Force for a large-scale conjuring. The only people who could form Guiding Force connections with one another were pairs with incredibly strong bonds of trust, or a special human with a sense of self so weak that there was barely a border between them and other people. Of course, Momo and company chose to construct a ceremonial hall for a reason, even though the lack of an energy source had always been an issue for this approach. Momo entered the church, still under construction at the heart of the rapidly building town. “Helloooo!” “…Momo.” Michele was there in the inner sanctum. She had been spending most of her time there since the construction of the ceremonial hall began. Momo gave her a friendly smile as she approached. “Sooo how does it feel?” “A bit boring, really.” Michele closed the book she’d been reading, looking up. “I know it’s necessary to ensure that the Guiding Force pathways are connected, but being cooped up in here is still a downer.” Despite her complaints, her voice was as strong as ever. The ceremonial hall, being built to erase the Mechanical Society, had Michele herself as its core. Michele could supply enough Guiding Force to power an entire town. As long as she was on their side, they no longer needed to worry about having an energy source for the ceremonial hall, even without the astral veins. The ceremonial hall was being constructed assuming that Michele would provide the Guiding Force. “If this ceremonial conjuring succeeds, we could eliminate every last trace of the Mechanical Society. They’ll have nowhere left to run.” Momo and company had come into the Mechanical Society pursuing Menou’s party. With the conjured soldiers on her side, Menou had the advantage, which was why Michele decided to blast the entire space out of existence. “But you knooow, the Mechanical Society does have another exit on the Grisarika side…” Momo’s concern was a rational one. In fact, the Mechanical Society had only recently been connected to the northern continent through the White Night barrier that separated it from normal space. For years, the hole in space from which conjured soldiers assaulted humanity had existed in the eastern part of the continent. That was where Menou and her accomplices had their base of operations. If they erased the Mechanical Society and sent the fugitives running back to Grisarika Kingdom, they’d be returning to the stalemate that had only broken a few months earlier. Michele’s lips curled at Momo’s question. “If they run to Grisarika, that’s even better for us. I’ve already come to an agreement with that side.” “I see…” Momo didn’t ask what the agreement was, or with whom. She could already tell from Michele’s tone that she wasn’t going to get any more information out of her superior. “But I’m sure they won’t just sit back and watch us do this, either,” Michele added. “Nooo, of course not. If they were that stupid, they wouldn’t have managed to escape from my daaarling Michele for this long.” The biggest drawback of the ceremonial hall was that, since Michele was providing the Guiding Force, she could no longer move from that spot. If the enemy saw that they were building a ceremonial hall where no Guiding Force power source was available, they were likely to guess what was being used as the core. Since this plan put their strongest player out of action, it was the perfect opening for their enemies to attack. As if to underline Momo’s prediction, a loud rumble came from nearby. Next came the sounds of a gun firing and the sensation of conjurings being constructed to counter those gunshots. The chaos outside was clear even from within the church. “They’re here.” Michele looked utterly unshaken by the sudden attack. She leveled her gaze at Momo. “Take care of it.” What intentions were hidden in that piercing gaze, which seemed to see through to Momo’s innermost thoughts? Whatever it was, it didn’t change Momo’s goals one bit. She beamed back with her brightest smile. “Yes, ma’am! I won’t let them trouble you at all, darliiing!” As annoying as it was, she had to agree with just one of Nono Hoshizaki’s statements. “Joining forces” really did mean both sides were trying to use one another. Even on a battlefield, there are positions where one can avoid being exposed to danger. While the soldiers fight in the dirt and grime of the front lines, someone else can stay behind, perhaps even enjoy a cup of tea. That is the unique position and privilege of a commander on the battlefield. Sahara, too, was staying far away as she sent the conjured soldiers into action. Her job was simple: to direct the conjured soldiers while remaining in a safe place. Usually, being a commander would come with its own burdens, like the pressure to win or the guilt of letting lives be lost. However, since the only ones at risk in this battle were mindless conjured soldiers, she felt zero guilt no matter how many were destroyed. “I was trying to figure out how to get out of it when they told me to fight Michele, but this isn’t so bad.” She used a palm-sized communication soldier to display the far-off enemy grounds—the ceremonial hall—and to choose positions to set up the attack. The conjured soldiers moved on her commands; all she had to do was sic them on the buildings. The ceremonial hall Michele and her lackeys were building was remarkably large. An entire village was being built by the railroad tracks, with Michele inside the church at its center. While Faust priestesses were stationed at its most important points, they couldn’t possibly cover everything at once. There were plenty of gaps in their defenses. Not bad. Really, this position wasn’t bad at all. “Excellent. This is how all battles should be.” Sahara was pleased to have evolved from close combat to sniping and finally to giving commands from nowhere near the battlefield. She used the map information from the communicator conjured soldiers as a guide to position the weapon conjured soldiers like chess pieces. They came in categories of Red, Blue, and Green, making it easy to distinguish their special traits. She set up a main force to destroy the ceremonial hall while deploying a smaller force to target the railroad track, the source of their supplies. Ginoum had given Sahara permission to use the single-color conjured soldiers, who had no minds of their own, however she pleased. “I could’ve used a few more of these Blue Spiders. They’re easier to use than the Red soldiers. The Green ones are only useful in certain situations, since their abilities are sort of weirdly specific…” As Sahara attacked the railroad tracks, muttering to herself all the while, she managed to bait a few of the priestesses away from the town. She’d already sent in scouts to make sure there weren’t any powerful priestesses of note there. If she focused the conjured soldiers on the railway, she should be able to beat them. She figured it would be good enough to knock the priestesses out and was just starting to yawn when she felt it—murderous rage directed right at her. Immediately, she tumbled forward. A large white box went flying through the air that Sahara’s head had occupied seconds before. The white box hit the ground with a boom, sending up a cloud of Primary Color dust. “…Tch.” On the other side of the billowing cloud, someone clicked their tongue irritably. That sound alone was enough to tell Sahara who had attacked her. “…I guess they have wild super pink gorillas out here, too.” “You really do have a death wish, don’t you?” The dust cloud cleared as the voice rang out, dripping with annoyance. It revealed a girl who looked very displeased. It seemed she wasn’t a fan of the nickname Sahara had given her. There was only one priestess with pink hair held in pigtails by two scrunchies. It was Momo. Sahara saw that Momo’s priestess robes had evolved from white to indigo, and clicked her tongue as well. “Wow, you’ve moved up the ladder. Congrats. If you keep it up until you get a management position in an office somewhere, we might achieve world peace.” “Why, thank you. In fact, I intend to work toward world peace by exterminating vermin like you.” Sahara scrabbled backward as Momo’s death glare grew even more intense. It wasn’t because she was intimidated by Momo’s attitude and sudden attack but because she’d noticed the armband Momo wore that indicated she was an Inquisitor. She had the same position as Michele, who was chasing Sahara and company. “Okay, well… How did you even find me anyway?” “That conjured soldier.” Momo pointed at the small communicator displaying the area around the ceremonial hall. “It uses Guiding Force to relay far-off images. All I had to do was find the conjured soldier broadcasting those images, then follow the direction of the Guiding Force it was sending until I reached this place.” “Follow it…? Since when is it possible to trace the source of a conjured soldier’s broadcast?” “Wow, you’re behind the times. Is your brain stuck ten years in the past?” As far as Sahara knew, the Guiding Force used by communication conjured soldiers to broadcast information wasn’t strong enough to be detectable to humans. But Momo only sneered at Sahara, then removed her glasses and flaunted them. She’d been wearing cog-lined glasses all along, though Sahara was too disinterested in such changes to Momo’s appearance to notice. “You can see it if you know how to look. And if you have a crest conjuring developed by some nerd, I suppose.” They were Hooseyard’s glasses, of course. Momo had pilfered her extra pair. “I guess all those boring lectures about distinguishing between the types of Guiding Force you see with these were worth the trouble after all.” Guiding Force: Connect—Coping Saw, Crest—Invoke [Anchor] Using the solidified form of her coping saw as a handle, Momo transformed her suitcase into an enormous hammer. If she undid the Anchor, it would probably work as a flexible flail. It was a powerful transforming weapon made by combining her crest-carved coping saw and her pure white suitcase. Seeing Momo so much more heavily armed than she had been six months ago, Sahara let out an impressed whistle. “Wow, that really suits you. It’s the perfect brute-force weapon for a gorilla.” “And I see that cute little arm of yours hasn’t changed one bit…!” As she spoke, Momo stepped toward Sahara. She swung her suitcase with its coping saw handle, lashing it through the air. Momo could produce incredible force by swinging a heavy weapon while using her Guiding Enhancement. Now that she was no longer in the secretive position of an Executioner, she’d no doubt decided to wield her superhuman strength to its fullest potential. If Sahara had ducked a second later, her head would’ve been blown clean off. She dropped and rolled back, getting some distance from Momo, before standing up and assuming a battle stance. Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Prosthetic Arm, Inner Seal Conjuration— Sahara sent Guiding Force flowing into her right arm, itself a Guiding prosthetic, to transform it into battle mode. Invoke [Silver gggg— The Guiding prosthetic utterly failed to activate. “Wha…?” Sahara was caught off guard, unable to believe her own blunder. It was unthinkable that she would fail at activating her Guiding prosthetic’s battle mode. But, of course, Momo wasn’t going to wait around for her to get it right. She swung the suitcase sideways with the coping saw handle toward Sahara. “Whoa!” Sahara jumped back, far out of the way. Six months ago, Momo fought with a coping saw alone, using the crest conjurings Anchor and Oscillation. The way she used her weapon had certainly changed, but when it came down to it, she’d just stuck a white box onto the end of her saw. That was nothing Sahara couldn’t handle. While the additional weight gave it more power and range, it was less accurate. It had its shortcomings, and there were bound to be openings left by Momo’s inexperience with it. Sahara watched eagerly for her chance to escape. But then Momo undid the Anchor and put the suitcase down, opened the lid, reached inside—and pulled out a scripture. “…What? You put a scripture in there? In your suitcase?” “That’s right. I’m allowed to put whatever I like in here, last time I checked.” Still, a scripture was normally carried in a priestess’s left hand at all times. It was considered a symbol of their faith, so it was rarely hidden out of sight. Undeterred by Sahara’s surprise, Momo charged her scripture with Guiding Force. Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 13:13— Momo was comparatively slow at constructing conjurings. She certainly couldn’t compete with Menou, who could invoke complex scripture conjurings as quickly as a crest conjuring. Momo was probably still faster at it than Sahara, though that wasn’t saying much. The problem was the particular scripture conjuring Momo was trying to invoke. Invoke [The spirit of a martyr is so precious, it is almost foolish.] As she invoked it, Momo chucked the scripture right at Sahara. “What th—?” Sahara scrambled and dived forward just as the scripture exploded behind her. The heat and impact of the explosion washed over her back. Looking teary-eyed over her shoulder, Sahara saw a small crater carved out in the spot where she’d been standing just moments before. The conjuring Momo had just used was one of the least useful of all the many scripture conjurings: a self-destruct conjuring. It was intended as a last-ditch method of destroying the scripture to maintain confidentiality, since it was expected that the owner would blow herself up along with it. It was also quite powerful. And since it would destroy a priestess’s highly essential scripture, it was never used for an attack. In theory, that would only happen in an emergency, like if the scripture was about to be destroyed anyway. Yet Momo had just used such an unlikely conjuring purely to turn her scripture into a moderately powerful bomb. “Th-that’s blasphemy! You just threw away your scripture like that?! I thought you were supposed to be a proper priestess!” “So? The scripture is boring to read. I’ve never once felt inclined to take good care of it. Isn’t this a perfectly reasonable way to treat a bundle of old papers praising a ‘Lord’ who’s just some human that lived a thousand years ago? …Besides, all the images of my darling got erased already.” “Y-you pink-headed maniac! I guess your common sense got turned into muscles, too…!” Though it certainly had the element of surprise, it wouldn’t happen again. Momo had just blown her own invocation medium to smithereens, so she wouldn’t be attacking Sahara with any more scripture conjurings. Sahara was already flustered enough by her Guiding prosthetic not working. This was a small relief—and an unfounded one. “Here comes the next one.” “……Next?” As Sahara frowned in confusion, Momo opened her suitcase again with a brisk snap, and pulled out her next scripture. Two of them, in fact. She didn’t throw them at Sahara this time. Instead, she stuck them on the outside of the suitcase attached to the coping saw, swinging the whole thing around like a flail to build up momentum. Sahara stiffened at the weighty whooshing sound of the suitcase. “Um… How many scriptures do you have in there, exactly?” For once, Momo smiled brightly at Sahara. “It’s crammed full. Why do you ask?” She had stuffed the whole suitcase, which might have fit a whole person inside, with scriptures, each big enough to explode and leave a crater. In other words, the contents of Momo’s suitcase were essentially mega-bombs.