Though Schwartz shivered…
…just half a year would pass before his decision bore fruit.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nebulis Sovereignty, Queen’s Palace.
The meeting room was filled with distress.
“We’ve received a report from the eleventh dispatch squad. An Imperial tank destroyed their base. They’ve retreated and are defending the second base.”
After they finished reading the report to that point, the manager of the Astral Power Institute, which supervised the astral corps, frowned.
“What do you think, Your Majesty?”
“So, in summary, they’re having a difficult time in battle.” The tone of Nebulis VII was heavy. She looked upset, almost as though she were glaring at the air itself. “Captain Balfor, I was under the impression Growley of the Zoa had headed for the front line.”
At that time, Growley was next in line for the head of the Zoa.
He was a purebred with a counteroffensive astral power called “Vice.” As long as the conditions for his astral power were met, he should have had the power to command the battlefield.
However…
“I am afraid that the weapon the Imperial forces used was incompatible with Lord Growley’s powers, and he was not able to cultivate them to the point they could be used.”
“Your Majesty.”
Another officer next to them spoke in a hushed tone.
“This information is unconfirmed, but we’ve received a report stating a second group has been dispatched by air from the Imperial capital. I believe we should consider sending reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements…”
She didn’t like the sound of that.
Nebulis VII rarely reacted in this manner.
“If we had the ability to send reinforcements, we would have already…”
The Sovereignty’s martial power rested chiefly in its astral corps. But it took time to train astral mages to the point that they were able to join.
Unlike the Imperial soldiers, who wielded powerful weaponry that granted them equal fighting power, mages varied greatly in their abilities, due to their differences in their astral powers.
Training them took time.
And Nebulis VII had already sent out all the astral corps members she could to various stations.
Any more reinforcements would…
“My lady! Please wait, my lady!”
They heard a man shout.
The meeting room door burst open, and everyone at the roundtable turned to the entrance.
“Excuse me.”
✦ ✦ ✦
A princess in a ragged battle uniform entered.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Mira…?”
The queen, the ministers, the soldiers, and all else in the room stared at her in disbelief.
They hadn’t seen the princess for nearly half a year.
During that stretch of time, she had skipped every important meeting.
“It seems that the House of Lou has heard we require reinforcements. I have something to speak with Your Majesty about.”
The princess took long, brazen strides into the room. Everyone at the table sucked in their breath at the sight of her, lit from above by the chandelier.
Why was she wearing such filthy clothes?
She looked like a feral child; the arms of her royal garb had been slashed away, revealing both her sunburned shoulders.
Even her elegant skirt, which should have hovered over the carpet, had been torn off at her thighs.
“Princess Mirabella!” A minister stood from his seat. “H-how can you appear here while dressed so inappropriately?! Especially at a cabinet meeting in front of Her Majesty!”
“…” Mira didn’t offer a rebuttal.
She passed the ministers as though she hadn’t even heard their protests.
“Your Majesty.”
She came right up to Nebulis VII. She stared down at the seated queen.
“Unfortunately, the House of Lou will not send reinforcements.”
“…Oh?”
Queen Cassandra’s eyebrow twitched at what Mira had said. She couldn’t believe the girl’s haughty tone and attitude.
But most of all, she couldn’t stand the girl’s eyes, which appeared inhuman and robotic.
“Mirabella, do you understand the present situation? Many kindred of the Zoa and Hydra families have volunteered to protect our country. Only the Lou have—”
“They’re in the way.”
“…What?”
“You only need me.”
What was the meaning of this?
The queen and the ministers were all taken aback by her absurd statement.
“Now, if you will excuse me.”
The princess turned around. Just then, a pair of large knives appeared in her previously empty hands.
“…”
As she watched the girl turn around, Queen Cassandra broke into a cold sweat, for reasons she couldn’t understand herself. Normally, she would have scolded Mira for lacking common sense.
But now, though her throat quivered, she couldn’t get any sound out.
……It doesn’t feel like I’m facing a person.
The princess’s eyes were empty. They were more dreadful than those of an insect or a predator, lacking all emotion. It was as though the only thing that motivated her was a desire to take to the battlefield.
“Is that girl just an Automata made to fight?”
The queen’s voice rasped.
No one at the roundtable understood the true meaning of what she had said.
✦ ✦ ✦
The southwestern part of the Delta Mountain Belt.
Imperial forces, eighth survey facility.
From the cliff, which boasted a beautiful view, one had a full command of a row of white-capped peaks. When viewed through a pair of binoculars, however, the mountains were currently covered in a dense cloud of dust.
“Looking good.”
The captain tossed the binoculars to a soldier.
Captain Magnacasa nodded, his face serious, as though to encourage the soldier to take a look as well.
The director of headquarters, Captain Magnacasa Gunfight. He had demonstrated a rare aptitude for proposing directives even during his days in the Second Division. The man was a natural strategist.
“The Siren acoustic weapon. Dedicating all that money to the Imperial capital’s laboratory was worthwhile. Look, the astral corps below the cliff have already cleared out.”
“Yes, they’re probably panicking right now.”
The enemy’s astral-power automatic defenses wouldn’t activate.
Astral powers would intervene in order to protect their human hosts. Some of the enemy mages had astral powers that activated upon the firing of a machine gun.
However, Siren could nullify that ability.
In truth, the weapon was just noise. Sounds were a part of the natural world and were divorced entirely from the concept of battle. As such, astral powers didn’t register it as danger.
Though the astral powers’ automatic defenses could protect their hosts from clear attacks involving gunpowder, lasers, or bullets, they didn’t register acoustic weapons as potential threats.
“Three Siren-equipped tanks, advance.”
They had already gained control of the battlefield.
The witches fell to the ground one after another as they were assaulted by a wave of sound they could not even see.
“Continue forward from the south to the north. We’ll recapture the vortex ahead and—”
“Captain! We have an emergency report from the front lines!”
Just then, a message came in.
“We’ve lost contact with Second Division units 011 to 019… We’re only getting dead air!”
“What?!” Magnacasa couldn’t register what had just come over his comm.
The frontline units had gone silent? What was going on?
He was sure the astral corps had been fully neutralized. Had the Sovereignty brought reinforcements?
“Impossible… Siren is always on. Its invisible acoustic waves should be ravaging the entire front line!”
Even if the Sovereignty had brought reinforcements, how had they crossed through the storm of sounds?
✦ ✦ ✦
Meanwhile, something far beyond the imagination of even the astral corps was occurring.
✦ ✦ ✦
The southwestern part of the Delta Mountain Belt.
The astral corps had long since begun to withdraw from the base they had set up after being overwhelmed by the Imperial forces’ blitz.
As the Imperial tanks approached…
“We failed!”
A man in a wheelchair fell to the ground with a crash.
Growley was the second in line for the head of the Zoa.
His disability had prevented him from escaping Siren’s range in time, and even his Vice astral power wasn’t registering the weapon’s noise as a threat it could counter.
“Has it not been long enough? Has it not cultivated enough to engage?!”
In the shadow of the wheelchair, a faint purple astral light flickered. Growley’s astral power finally awakened, the light condensing to create a six-legged hunting dog.
But it was small.
Normally, the avatars his astral power created would be so large, one would have to crane their neck to see them.
“This isn’t enough…”
The creature wouldn’t even be enough to protect him from the tank’s volley shots.
At that moment, a tremor shook the earth.
The tanks rattled the ground as they advanced.
“Guh!”
The battery of tanks was headed his way. His avatar wouldn’t be able to protect him. The moment Growley accepted his defeat…