With a hole open through its middle, Eten Four lost its ability to stay afloat.
“Grr! What a mess! How could the ship of an ephemeral world bring down one of our ships?! What happened to the castle walls?!” Kaltinas roared at his subordinates.
“We weren’t in a defensive formation, so we couldn’t get them up in time...”
“It’s the castle lord’s job to do something about that! Useless fools!”
With Teoboros Ijelia wrapped around it, the Demon King Express continued charging straight into the castles.
“Badirahier.”
A giant magic circle was drawn, forming a rampart-shaped magic barrier before the next Eten. Badirahier and Teoboros Ijelia collided with each other with a crackling noise, sparks of magic flying from the collision.
“Yes! Good job, ship six! Now crush them!”
Eten Six released magic on both flanks. But the Demon King Express had more power.
“What are you doing? Do you want to lose to an ephemeral world?!”
“Immovable King. That’s probably the power of the chief god of Militia’s World. Maybe the train itself is the chief god, and the Demon King Academy is just adding their magic to it.”
“What...?”
“If so, even though they may be from the shallows, a single Eten might not be enough to overpower them.”
Judging from their words, not every resident of the deep-level worlds could easily defeat someone from the shallows. Regardless of level, it seemed the chief god of a miniature world was still considered powerful. If anything, a single sky fortress withstanding a frontal attack from a chief god was only possible because they were from the depths.
“Hmph. So that’s their trick,” Kaltinas muttered. He observed the Demon King Express as it struggled to break through the Badirahier barrier. Although Eten Six was gradually losing its power, it had succeeded in at least slowing the train’s speed. “So what if they took down one ship? Now that we know their trick, we can deal with it accordingly. Change formation and surround them. Give them a taste of the Balandias Fleet’s shell bombardment!”
“Roger!”
A group of eight Eten ships left the one struggling against the Demon King Express and accelerated, deploying a formation around the train that blocked our escape.
“Prepare the Veylonbosm cannons,” Kaltinas ordered. The gunports of the sky fortresses opened one after another, all taking aim at the Demon King Express while avoiding Eten Six. “Blow them apart.”
A rain of magic shells fired from all eight ships’ cannons. These shells were much stronger than the shells they had fired before; each shot effectively whittled away at Teoboros Ijelia, weakening the barrier around the train. The Demon King Express’s wheels turned furiously in an attempt to move past them or have them bounce off the barrier, but ultimately we could only back away slowly from the castle walls before us.
“First and second layer of Teoboros Ijelia destroyed. Estimated one minute until barrier reaches limit,” Misha reported from the overseer room.
Teoboros Ijelia was a holy barrier of white smoke that had thirteen layers. Created by combining the Cogs of Fate with Ennessone-Eleonore, the resulting magic barrier was stronger than the collective form of Equis I previously fought. Not even a thousand Jio Grazes could have opened a hole in it. But again, it appeared the deep-levels world were something else entirely.
“Bwa ha ha! We’re sitting ducks out here!” Eldmed said with a laugh. “If we don’t do something about that rampart blocking our way, the Demon King Express will soon be full of holes. Whatever shall we do?”
“I’ll go cut it then,” Lay suggested brightly, from his position in the projectile carriage.
“You make it sound easy, Great Hero, but that Badirahier appears to be deep magic. It’ll be at least as sturdy as Equis.”
“Wouldn’t it actually be more than that?” Lay quietly looked at the Sword of Three Races, now repaired. Misha had created a new hilt to replace the broken one.
“Are you saying you can still cut it?” Eldmed asked, grinning gleefully.
“Evansmana is saying it. This sword is probably just like Anos.”
“Teoboros Ijelia destroyed up to the fifth layer. Enemy spellfire is increasing. Twenty seconds until complete loss of defenses,” Misha reported.
“Fire Lay Grandsley,” Eldmed ordered.
“Roger that!” one student said. “Opening projectile carriage!”
The doors to the projectile carriage opened. Lay jumped on a large cog and got into position, the Sword of Three Races held in one hand.
“Firing Lay!”
The large cog with Lay on it fired from the projectile room, sailing through the air and crashing into the sky fortress before us.
“Be careful!” Eleonore called, sending white smoke to wrap around his body. The smoke was Reart, a barrier-tuning spell that synchronized with Teoboros Ijelia and allowed Lay to slip through it unharmed.
“I can feel your power, Evansmana...” Lay muttered. “Will you show me your true strength, here in the depths?”
The Sword of Three Races glowed with a radiant shine, a sun suddenly emerging over Second Balandias, the burst of light like a release of power previously sealed away—
“Enemy aerial unit incoming!”
“How many?” Kaltinas asked.
“Just one! He’s armed with a holy sword!”
“Only one? Fools. A sword from an ephemeral world stands no chance against Badirahier—”
Kaltinas’s mocking sneer was interrupted by Eten Six being split right down the middle, magic barrier and all.
“It can’t be,” Kaltinas spluttered in shock. “That holy sword... There’s no way...”
“Comparing magic wavelength!”
The surrounding Eten ships immediately distanced themselves from Lay warily. But the movement caused their formation to loosen, creating a slight gap that the Demon King Express instantly charged through to break out of the Balandias Fleet’s encirclement. Eten Six, now in two pieces, fell to the ground in a flashy explosion.
“Comparison complete! There’s no mistaking it! It’s the symbol of the Holy Sword World Hyphoria, the Sword of Three Races Evansmana!”
“Evansmana... Why would the resident of an ephemeral world be in possession of such an outrageous artifact?” the Immovable King’s astounded voice muttered through Leaks.
In that brief lapse Kaltinas had used to think, the Demon King Express turned its turrets towards a nearby sky fortress. Nine cogs turned and a wooden wheel rotated.
“Cannons ready!” the Fan Union girls declared. “Boros Hetheus!”
Nine ancient wheels spun through the air, colliding with the ship’s magic barrier. The wheels creaked loudly as they carved into the Badirahier barrier with each grinding turn. The wheels were only meant to keep the ship in place—for Lay was flying over towards it with Fless.
“Hiyah!” Lay shouted.
One flash later, the Sword of Three Races had sliced the giant castle diagonally in two.
“Bwa ha ha! Wonderful! How utterly wonderful! If the sword had been used in Milita’s World just now, the world wouldn’t have survived. No wonder it was once hailed as the holy sword to defeat the Demon King! Just like the Demon King of Tyranny himself, it seems Evansmana was also unable to live up to its full potential in the shallows!” Eldmed rambled in praise, all while steering the train to evade shells and buying time for Teoboros Ijelia to be repaired.