Chidori Kaname remembered this wide, underground space as being the Tuatha de Danaan’s maintenance dock. It wasn’t a dock now; the seawater had been pumped out, and the underground waterway that led out to the ocean had been sealed up by concrete.
It was an underground cavern large enough to comfortably house the 218-meter Tuatha de Danaan, a vessel as long as a Shinjuku skyscraper was tall. What they were building there now was a facility of a scale far exceeding that of the one at Yamsk-11.
Various cables and tubes stretched from a dome fifty-three meters in diameter. The massive amount of electricity, which was being sent from an independent generator facility several kilometers away, was enough to power a whole city. Around the dome were large devices meant to store and transform said electricity, paired up with cooling units.
This device, whose need for practicality rejected concerns of aesthetics and refinement, was the world’s largest TAROS. The project team called it TARTAROS, short for “Telechrono Alteration Reactor Transform and Response Omni-Sphere.”
Strange to name a symbol of hope after the God of the Underworld, thought Kaname, who liked to joke that the TARTAROS was like a What-if Phone Booth. It was a perfect reference, if she did say so herself, but no one around her got the joke.
The TAROS was a device found in every Codarl, Eligore, and other lambda driver-mounted AS. But the TARTAROS didn’t just exist to power a lambda driver. It was built for a grander, more sublime purpose.
Sublime... That was how Kaname currently thought of it, at least. Sublime. A grand duty. An ultimate display of love... And other such things.
How sweet it was to surrender oneself to platitudes.
“Almost there,” Kaname whispered from the observation platform near the old dock’s ceiling as she looked down on the tangle of cables and tubes. It had been six months since construction started, two months since Kaname had arrived and begun to oversee its construction. They were working at a fever pitch to complete it. “You’ve gotten it prepared so quickly.”
“Your wish is my command,” said Leonard, standing behind her. “But since we were in such a hurry, I’m afraid we left tracks... and now the enemy is on the way.”
“The enemy?” she questioned.
“My sister,” Leonard clarified. “Teletha, Sagara Sousuke, and the remnants of Mithril will likely storm this island soon.”
Leonard’s saying such odd things again, Kaname observed. He was talking about Teletha Testarossa and Sagara Sousuke as if they were still alive, but they weren’t. Kaname had shot them to death herself, so she was quite sure of that. “Tessa and Sousuke are both dead,” she told him. “What are you talking about?”
“You’ve just convinced yourself of that. They’re really—” Leonard started to say, and then stopped himself. “No, you’re right,” he said. “I must have been mistaken.”
“Honestly, you need to get it together,” said Kaname, laughing as gaily as if she’d pointed out a mistake in his math homework. She didn’t even bother to question why she was laughing. It didn’t occur to her for a moment that her mind might have been terribly damaged somehow.
“Well, one way or another, the enemy is likely on their way,” Leonard said easily. “I’ve sent Fowler and Sabina out as a diversion, so I think I’ll successfully divide their forces.”
“Will they arrive before we activate it?” Kaname asked.
“Most likely.”
“Then you know what we should do, right?”
“Send everything we have at them, of course. Come on, this way,” said Leonard, stepping out of the path. Kaname passed him by, leaving the underground dock behind and heading to the surface by means of the elevator, which was located a few blocks away.
Outside was a clear, starry sky. They arrived at the supply holding area, a large open space created from hollowing out part of a mountain. The island’s defense forces were on standby there.
Twelve Codarls were lined up like an honor guard to meet her, their spear-shaped monomolecular cutters pointing towards the night sky. Behind the Codarls stood three giants lit up by floodlights—those massive ASes, the Behemoths. They were holding their massive cannons vertically in front of them, showing loyalty to their leader.
At the end of the line of Codarls stood Leonard’s black AS, the Belial. The machine, which made use of Leonard’s limitless abilities with the lambda driver, was the undisputed strongest machine in the world.
There were also mid-sized infantry squadrons and helicopter squadrons; anti-air squadrons, as well. They were all arranged in a line, saluting Kaname and Leonard.
“All units assembled.” Their commander, Andrey Kalinin, walked out to report to Leonard and Kaname. He was currently dressed in olive-colored fatigues. He’d just returned from a long trip to England but showed no sign of exhaustion.
“Mr. Kalinin,” Kaname said by way of greeting. “You do look better that way than in a suit.”
“I agree,” Kalinin replied, seeming to find the comment rather funny.
“Are these all the forces we have to defend us?” Kaname wanted to know.
Kalinin looked out at the sea on the other side of the supply area. “There are two platoons of Leviathans on standby underwater,” he told her. “Any ship that attempts to approach the island will take heavy losses before arrival.”
“I see.”
“And even if they successfully make landfall, these squadrons will be there to greet them.”
“As will my Belial,” Leonard pointed out.
“Hmm...” Even so, Kaname was surprised to learn that these were the last of Amalgam’s forces. Of course, it was all quite impressive if you included those sent to Afghanistan and those dispatched elsewhere in the world to heighten tensions, but...
“We’ve prioritized all available resources and funding for the building of the TAROS,” Leonard reminded her. “Restocking our weapons has been a secondary matter. And also...”
“Because of Mithril, eh?” Kaname commented.
“I’m afraid so. Or their remnants, more precisely... They’ve been quite annoying to us these last six months. That ARX-8 had caused a lot of trouble as well, and they’ve done some guerrilla work on our production facilities and supply lines. As you know, lambda driver-mounted ASes require special parts.”
Kaname had read the report, so she knew most of this already. The remnants of Mithril had continued their stubborn resistance, located Amalgam’s secret production facilities and related corporations, and meticulously attacked them one after another. Dealing this kind of organizational damage had also made it harder for them to track the enemies’ remaining movements.
Allowing the Tuatha de Danaan to escape in the initial capture of Merida Island appeared to be coming back to haunt them. It remained a symbol to the regrouping Mithril remnants: a mobile command fortress operating deep beneath the sea.
“I’m impressed they managed to remain united, even with Tessa gone,” Kaname mused. “Could it be Mardukas-san leading them?”
Kalinin frowned a bit, and turned to watch Leonard’s reaction. Leonard shook his head briefly, subtly enough so as not to be seen by the others.