Chapter 99

That Divine Lightning is a problem. That was an eventuality Shishi hadn’t anticipated. Jade had accused him of being a bumpkin, but Shishi had been in the empire until recently, and he knew of Divine Lightning. It was the Seven Luminaries’ ace in the hole. Gustav’s Rage Soleil had burned a full fifth of Yamato to the ground, and Divine Lightning boasted more range and superior power—enough to obliterate everything the moment it detonated. “Divine” was indeed the only way to describe its might. However, after Shishi learned that the Seven Luminaries were helping the Resistance, he’d believed they wouldn’t use it. Divine Lightning had only been used in retaliation for Gustav’s use of war magic. By doing so, the Seven Luminaries forced the empire to acknowledge that neither side could use their excessive destructive capabilities without the other retaliating in kind. Coming to Yamato—a self-governing dominion of that same empire—and employing Divine Lightning violated a rule the Seven Luminaries had established. It would throw the whole relationship between the Freyjagard Empire, the Seven Luminaries, and the Republic of Elm into chaos. Divine Lightning was a trump card, but one that could not be played. The empire wouldn’t hesitate to return in kind with war magic. Destruction would devour the continent, and countless lives would be lost. That horrible possibility could come true very soon. I had thought them too wise to make a mistake like that. Shishi had once seen the Seven Luminaries’ angels for himself, and the look in their eyes was beautiful. They came across as strong-willed, kind, and sagacious all at once. And because of that, Shishi had assumed they would never act so rashly for short-term gains. In a sense, he’d trusted them. Shishi had believed that, to the angels, trivial matters like borders and race were unimportant. It was clear to him that their goal was true salvation for as many as possible. But now… Did I overestimate them? …Shishi couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. The notion seeped its way into his heart and refused to yield. No point worrying about that now. Fort Steadfast was fast approaching, ever bathed in the moon’s glow. The cannon barrel towered above the fort’s walls, and the pale light from above threw it into stark contrast, drawing the eye. Just below it, a mass of Resistance forces stood atop the wall with their bows at the ready. The moment the two armies made contact, and the arrows began flying, Shishi abandoned all hesitation. Jade was right. The situation was what it was, and if he wished to save as many people as possible, he had to end the battle swiftly. “Follow me! I will clear a path!” Shishi roared. Then he dashed forward as quickly as he could. He pulled ahead of his men and practically soared toward the fort. “H-holy shit. He’s faster than a horse!” “The Resistance is so thrown off that they can’t aim at him!” Sure enough, Shishi’s sudden acceleration had caused the archers on the wall to lose their aim. All the countless arrows they let loose slammed into the ground and the evacuated camps. Not one of them struck so much as Shishi’s shadow. They hurriedly nocked their next round of arrows, but it was no use. Before they had time to fire their second volley, Shishi arrived at the fort’s main gate… “HRAH!” …and with four consecutive slashes so quick it was as though his hands had vanished, he carved the gate into pieces. Yet again, it was reduced to so much scrap metal. One of the lumps came tumbling for his head, but Shishi kicked it away before it made contact, then stormed into the fort. It was a straight shot from the gate to the courtyard where Divine Lightning stood. That was the Resistance’s greatest asset. They would surely guard it with everything they had, and there was no doubt in Shishi’s mind that the courtyard would be crawling with Resistance soldiers. He was prepared to meet them, though, and charged in, intent on ending this battle swiftly. “” Upon entering the courtyard, Shishi fell silent. It wasn’t from astonishment at the many foes—quite the opposite. The enclosure was vacant. The only people were the archers atop the walls. As Shishi stood baffled at the fact the Resistance had left their mighty Divine Lightning completely undefended… “We meet again, that we do.” …he heard a voice from above. Shishi looked to the cannon barrel. It was held aloft by ropes and pulleys affixed to the fort’s steeples, and sitting atop it was a young woman with her hair tied back. Shishi knew her. She was the Seven Luminaries angel he’d crossed blades with back in the empire—Aoi Ichijou. Aoi watched Shishi as she rose slowly. She drew Byakuran’s long blade in one fluid motion and descended. Thirty vertical feet separated her and Shishi, yet she landed before the man like it was nothing. The cannon barrel swayed. Aoi had cut the ropes suspending it. The cylinder, robbed of its support, collapsed upon its incomplete platform… …and as Aoi hit the ground, the barrel shattered to pieces. Slabs of wood that had been lacquered black with tar flew in all directions. “!!!!” It can’t be, Shishi thought. He reexamined the Resistance archers up on the walls. They were dressed impressively in helmets and armor, but he recognized now that the majority of them were women and the elderly. That was when Shishi finally understood it was a ploy. The Resistance had played a trick, and the dominion army had fallen for it headfirst. Mayoi was in danger. “I ask that you not turn your back on me,” Aoi stated. “” “It brings me no joy to cut down a fleeing foe.” Upon grasping the actual situation, Shishi had instinctively turned to leave, but Aoi would not permit that. “My task is to bind you here. I will give no chase to the others, but you alone shall not be leaving.” Without showing so much as a shred of trepidation, she faced the samurai who trounced her once before… “Come, stay with me awhile. To end on a defeat would stain the good name of Ichijou.” …ready for a rematch. Shoutou Byakuran, the blade Aoi had borrowed from Shura, was drawn and ready. “” Aoi’s talents were such that if Shishi turned away for a moment, his head and his neck would part ways instantly. Surely this encounter would not be a repeat of the last. Aoi finally had a weapon capable of withstanding her techniques. Shishi had to fight. And so… “STAY OUT OF THE FORTRESS!!!!” …he shouted an order to his troops with such incredible might that his words might well have reached the moon. “The fort was a diversion! The Divine Lightning is a fake! It cannot fire! Their forces make for Azuchi! Return to the capital now!” “What? A diversion?!” “H-h-hey, take a look at the Amagi Pass!” “I see torches! There are people going up the mountain!” “W-we screwed up! Turn back! TURN BAAAAAACK!” The soldiers caught on quickly once they heard Shishi’s roar. A procession of glowing specks had emerged from the woods and was proceeding up the mountain pass. Unfortunately, recognizing what went awry didn’t change the fact that Shishi’s troops numbered three thousand. A swift about-face wasn’t possible, and because not everyone understood what was going on, the soldiers’ ranks quickly descended into chaos. The dominion army had nobody to lead them. Tantalized by the thought of how much better things would be going if he were back there leading them, Shishi brandished Ounin. Striking down the angel and returning to Mayoi’s side was the only option. Every minute—every second—mattered. The plan Tsukasa devised was simplicity itself. Resistance forces pretended to marshal at Fort Steadfast, while the bulk of their army secretly moved through the surrounding woods. Then, when the enemy troops attacked the garrison, they slipped behind them and marched up the pass. Including noncombatants, the Resistance was a thousand strong, while the Yamato dominion boasted four thousand ready soldiers, and that was excluding those stationed on the outskirts of the nation. Every Resistance fighter was outnumbered four to one. The fact that their enemy had a man who could match Aoi’s tremendous combat prowess made things bleaker still. Between that and the lack of supplies in Yamato crippling Ringo’s contribution, the Resistance had no chance of winning a fair fight. In a sense, it was logical that their plan revolved around not engaging. However, there was a condition if the plan to use Fort Steadfast as a diversion was going to succeed—the enemies of the Resistance needed to view the fort as an immediate, deadly threat. And against an army of four thousand, a mere one thousand was never going to do the trick. As things stood, the dominion army would’ve been pleased to hold their position atop the Amagi Pass to block the Resistance forces from reaching Azuchi while they waited for their reinforcements to arrive from the rest of Yamato. Retaining Fort Steadfast wasn’t enough to make the plan work. Not on its own. To make up for that, Tsukasa concocted a pair of bluffs. The first had to do with the size of the Resistance. If it appeared that the organization numbered more than it did, its encampment at Fort Steadfast would seem more threatening in turn. Plus, accomplishing that was very simple. Tsukasa didn’t need to hire mercenaries from abroad or ask Elm for help. All it took was sending the same people in and out of the stronghold. By leaving unseen and returning in plain view, Tsukasa could fool the enemy scouts into thinking the Resistance was growing. Back on Earth, the tactic dated back to the Records of the Three Kingdoms era, and the Resistance was able to execute the tactic with ease, thanks to Ringo’s all-seeing military satellite revealing the locations of the dominion scouts. And as the same people went in and out, the rest of the Resistance slowly moved into the nearby woods. The dominion scouts became convinced of a growing army at the fort, but the truth was the exact opposite. In the end, the Resistance left behind a mere four hundred people, the vast majority of whom were civilians. A false show of numbers would only go so far, however. To goad the enemy into a reckless offensive, Tsukasa needed to give another push. That was where the second bluff came in—Divine Lightning. Divine Lightning was the tool the Seven Luminaries had used to land the decisive blow against Fastidious Duke Gustav and force the Freyjagard Empire to acknowledge the Republic of Elm’s independence. Word of its might had spread across the empire, and there was no way that Jade—the man entrusted with all true authority in the Yamato self-governing dominion—was unfamiliar with it. Thus, Tsukasa had instructed Ringo to build a massive fake cannon. They lacked the materials or equipment to recreate the actual Divine Lightning, but its image had become a symbol of annihilation. Whenever someone saw a “♡,” they associated it with affection or a heart. Whenever they saw a “♪,” they associated it with music or enjoyment. And when they saw a gigantic cannon, they couldn’t help but associate it with unbelievable destructive power. It would only be a matter of time before Jade connected the dots between that cannon and the Divine Lightning the Seven Luminaries had used. The real Divine Lightning was a missile, yet the people of this world lacked the background and context to comprehend that. And Jade was no exception. Jade’s big weakness was Mayoi. The entire basis for his position was the relationship he’d fostered with the one person who could control Yamato, and he needed to keep her around if he hoped to continue ruling the dominion successfully. If it became apparent that Fort Steadfast housed something that could threaten her safety, he’d be powerless to ignore it. Stopping the danger would be his top priority, and doing so required him to mobilize his entire army. There would be no other options available to him. The results spoke for themselves. As soon as the dominion army learned of the fake Divine Lightning, it immediately abandoned its fortified defensive position on the pass and launched into a poorly planned attack, discarding its unbeatable position. After all the calculated moves, Jade had committed a fatal error, enabling Tsukasa to make his move. As the enemy army descended the mountain, the Resistance got to work. Its people raced up that same peak the army attacking Fort Steadfast had occupied and broke through the once impassable defensive position without suffering so much as a scratch. The Resistance fighters let out astonished whispers as they reached the discarded fortifications at the top of the pass. “Th-this is incredible…” “I can’t believe it all went so smoothly…” It wasn’t excitement that colored their voices. They were too awed and bewildered for that. A similar sense of incredulity filled Kira’s heart as he gazed at the two angels and the elf-eared girl walking at the front of the group. This was the power that had allowed a revolution that began in an impoverished mountain village to end with seizing independence from the Freyjagard Empire. All that said, though… “I can see them! There’s the Resistance!” “Stop ’em! Don’t let the bastards reach Azuchi!” …shouts from behind twisted Kira’s expression into a frown. “They’re coming for us.” Hibari, the young woman beside him, looked back. “Whoa, I didn’t expect them to turn around so fast.” Innumerable torches bobbed after the Resistance, pushing through the darkness. Their foes were giving chase. Naturally, the diversion was never going to keep the dominion army fooled for long. Aside from Aoi and the handful of fighters left behind to sell the illusion, the only people left in Fort Steadfast were women, children, and the elderly. They were dressed in armor the Resistance had taken from Fort Steadfast’s arsenal, but they were no use in a serious fight. Between that and Shishi’s presence among the enemy’s ranks, it was no surprise the opposing troops had breached the fort’s walls so quickly. The bluff had fallen apart the moment an enemy soldier breached the wall, and with nothing to keep it there, the dominion army had turned around and given chase. “Just like we planned, I’m going to take five hundred of our men and storm Azuchi. Kira, Hibari, the rest here is up to you.” As soon as the situation changed, Tsukasa looked back at the pair with his heterochromatic eyes and issued their new orders. It had always been clear that the enemy would pursue, so before the battle, Tsukasa put together an intercept squad led by Kira and Hibari. “Leave it to us!” Hibari replied. “Commander Kokubu, keep the angels safe for us.” “Aye, ma’am. I’ll protect them with my life.” “Eyeballing it, it looks like the main enemy force that attacked Fort Steadfast totals just shy of three thousand,” Kira noted. “I suspect they still have troops in reserve protecting Azuchi. Take care down there.” “Thanks for the warning,” Tsukasa answered. “Commander Kokubu, let’s go.” The young prime minister cast his gaze over Hibari, Kira, and the hundred-odd Resistance members who would be staying behind to defend the pass, then took the five hundred fighters that made up the main force and began the march down for the capital. That was where Mayoi, the enemy ringleader and the source of everything wrong with Yamato, was. And that was where they were going to strike her down. Kira watched the bulk of the Resistance leave. “His expression never broke. It was resolute to the end.” It was the dead of night, yet Tsukasa had seemed so radiant that Kira found himself squinting all the same. Kira and Hibari’s group was going to stay behind on the pass to prevent the dominion army from giving chase, but the enemy army dwarfed their numbers. It was an impossible task. Sure, they could slow the enemy’s advance, but they had no chance of actually stopping them. In a sense, those who’d remained at Fort Steadfast were reasonably safe. Once the attackers realized the stronghold was irrelevant, they would surely abandon it. Those one hundred Resistance members protecting the route to Azuchi were going to get slaughtered, however. Every person on the pass knew they were being sent to their deaths. They were sacrificial pawns, and Tsukasa Mikogami understood that full well. How could he not? He was the one who’d devised the tactic. Yet he hadn’t apologized. Not once did he beg for forgiveness; his expression had remained dignified and commanding even as he left Kira and Hibari’s squad behind. Few were capable of that. It was an expression of Tsukasa’s determination to keep those left behind from regretting their sacrifice. Yet it was also a symbol of his resolve to accept the resentment of those who would die for his plan. Tsukasa accepted full responsibility for his actions. “He’s incredible…” Like Tsukasa, Kira was a leader, so he felt that keenly. Could I have done the same thing? he wondered. Not a chance. Were it he, he would have ended up crying and apologizing. As much as that might have seemed like a kindness, it was an act of base cowardice—one that robbed those who were about to die of their right to resent him. The only person Kira would have saved by doing that was himself. How could he ask forgiveness of soldiers he sent to die? What gave him the right? Nothing, and Tsukasa Mikogami recognized that. He understood, so he said nothing. He refused to permit himself the chance to seek absolution from those he was killing. “He truly is strict on himself…,” Kira muttered. “You’re right. He judges himself more harshly than anyone else and never shows weakness, no matter the situation. That strength reminds me of our imperial family.” “Hibari…” “That’s why I think it’d be pretty shameful of us to take advantage of that strength.” “……!” Hibari gave Kira a mischievous smile, and when he looked around, he saw that the rest of the Resistance fighters were wearing similar grins. The sight reminded Kira of what manner of people the citizens of Yamato were. They hadn’t depended on their imperial family’s self-sacrificing ways, nor lazed about as generations of rulers put in the hard work. The Yamato imperial family had a rule: In order to prevent the kind of strife that arose from succession disputes, the emperor’s siblings always took their own lives. That was how far the family was willing to go to ensure that its subjects lived in peace, and the populace responded to that devotion in kind by offering their selfless loyalty. Each side supported the other, and that unity was the cornerstone behind three centuries of domestic peace. As such… “You’re absolutely right.” …leaving nothing for their savior but curses as they met death just wasn’t their style. They refused to be so craven. A debt of the sort they owed to the angels ought to be repaid with gratitude, not contempt. “Now, let’s do whatever we can to make it through this alive. That’s the only way to keep him from carrying our nonexistent grudges.” Kira’s timid heart swelled, bolstered by the infectious morale… “The enemy’s vanguard is fast approaching! It’s the empire’s Dragon Knight bombers!” …and the hour of reckoning arrived. The first foes to appear were the Dragon Knights, the fastest units in the entire dominion army. In total, there were ten riders. “They flew to Azuchi, then went back to Fort Steadfast, and now they’ve turned around again. I can’t deny they’ve put in an honest day’s work,” Kira remarked. “Leave this to me.” While the fearsome enemies cut menacingly across the night sky like a fell wind, Hibari was the first to step forward. She drew an arrow from the quiver on her back… “Archers, forward!” …and shouted to her subordinates in the same breath. Upon hearing her order, everyone in the company with a bow advanced, set their arrows ablaze in their campfires, and drew their bowstrings back, training their eyes on the dark air above. “Will your arrows reach them?” “Dragons normally fly well beyond our range.” Hibari answered Kira’s question with all her usual quiet modesty… “But it’s a different story when they drop bombs.” …then shot a look into the sky far sharper than her standard demeanor would have suggested she was capable of. Hibari was right. Under normal circumstances, Dragon Knights soared at too great an altitude for projectiles to reach them. During a bombing run, though, they had to descend significantly for a brief moment to ensure that their payloads struck true. Dragons could only carry a small number of explosives at once, so it was important that they made every bit count. Under calm skies, they had to drop down to an altitude of about six hundred feet, and in places like the Amagi Pass, where winds were fierce, they had to descend to three hundred. And at such a close distance to the ground… “…a Yamato archer can snipe them with ease.” As the words left Hibari’s mouth, the fire arrows soared into the night and left burning trails in their wake. Those glowing streaks raced toward the ten diving Dragon Knights as though sucked toward them… …and massive blasts of flame blossomed in the air. When the arrows struck the Dragon Knights’ explosive, it caused them to detonate early. Suffice it to say, getting hit by blasts from point-blank range left the Dragon Knights in poor condition. All ten riders and mounts fell from the air, ribbons of smoke behind them as they hurtled lifelessly toward the ground.