The dim corridors of Asterisk’s underground block were illuminated at regular intervals, but the total amount of light was far from sufficient to see properly. In that darkness, three shadows pushed forward, their footfalls echoing around them.
The lead shadow—Ayato—came to a stop once more. Staring straight ahead, he lifted his hand to urge Saya and Kirin to likewise come to a halt.
A short distance ahead, the passageway split into three.
He zoomed in on the air-window displaying the map that Claudia had prepared in advance. Comparing the layout of the passages to their current location, the rightmost one looked to be the most promising.
And yet—
Slowly, he closed his eyes, calmed his nerves, and used the Amagiri Shinmei style’s perception-increasing shiki technique to explore his surroundings.
Then, concentrating his attention on the middle part between two of the passages, he realized that what had seemed at first no more than a blank wall was in reality a stagnant flow of concentrated mana.
Cutting through that mass with the Ser Veresta, he felt the air become suddenly lighter.
Then, checking the map once more, he saw the correct route to be the one on the left.
“Phew…”
Exhaling deeply, he sheathed the Ser Veresta. Saya spoke up in exasperation behind him: “Good grief… Another one?”
More than an hour had passed since the three of them had entered the underground block. If they were where they thought they were, this was close to the elevator leading up to the Festa stage.
The underground block, with its mesh of passageways and drainage channels, was a veritable labyrinth. Yet in spite of that, the area was well maintained, and with the help of a map, they weren’t likely to get lost, even if the journey did take a little time.
Unless, that was, traps had been set up to mislead and misdirect them, as had been the case just now.
These were probably—well, almost certainly—the work of the Varda-Vaos. At first, they had failed to notice these diversions, set at seemingly every crossroads, and had been sent meandering all over the place.
“Let’s go…!” Ayato took off at a run. Saya and Kirin nodded in agreement and followed after him.
For a while, the path proceeded straight ahead. Ayato wasn’t about to let down his guard, but he doubted this was another ruse like the previous ones.
“W-we need to hurry…!” Kirin exclaimed anxiously as she glanced at the time. “The match has already started…!”
It was already noon.
“Don’t worry…! Once we get through here, we should be just about…!”
Before Ayato could finish speaking, the path ahead of him opened up.
“Huh…?”
Grinding to a halt, he took in his surroundings.
They had reached a huge domed space, an area around ten meters high and fifty in diameter that didn’t resemble an underground cavern in the slightest. It wasn’t quite as large as the Festa stage, but it was still immense.
There was no indication of this area on the map. Instead, the evidence of its recent construction was piled up along the walls in mounds of rubble. It could only have been formed by merging three separate levels—and indeed, glancing up, Ayato saw higher passages opening out onto the walls, and water cascading down from drainage channels whose paths had been severed.
“This place…!”
Ayato and Kirin immediately went into high alert.
And then—
“So you came after all,” a bright, knowing voice echoed.
Stepping out from one of those many broken passageways was a young woman dressed in a men’s black military uniform—Agrestia, Saint Gallardworth Academy’s fifth-ranking fighter and the wielder of the Orga Lux the Amalthean Goat, part of the Life Rhodes’s Team Lancelot, whom Ayato had fought in the deciding match of the Phoenix.
“…Percival Gardner,” Saya murmured.
Ayato had heard that Percival was now working for the Golden Bough Alliance from Kirin, who had fought her in the lakeside city. But seeing it for himself…
“There are three elevators leading up to the Festa stage that still function. You won’t be able to reach any of them without passing through here,” Percival said plainly as she continued her approach.
A huge chalice-shaped Orga Lux was floating in the upper-right corner of the hall, growing brighter by the second.
“But it will be quite impossible for you to take even one more step forward.”
“We don’t have time for this. We’ll force our way through,” Ayato said, readying the Ser Veresta while Saya activated her Helnekraum and Kirin readied her Hiinamaru sword in a fighting stance.
Percival was looking their way, but her eyes were black and stagnant, reflecting nothing at all. She seemed completely different than she had during their previous encounters—empty, as though a deep darkness lurked beneath the surface…
“…Ayato.” Saya, no doubt having noticed it too, tugged at his sleeve.
“Yeah, I know.”
This had to be the work of the Varda-Vaos. Its habit of turning people into puppets was nothing short of horrifying.
“There was something strange about her when I fought her last time, but she wasn’t like this…” Kirin, though on guard, seemed pained by the sight before her.
Percival closed her eyes. In a cold, mechanical voice, she intoned: “I am your gun and nothing more. I will take the sins of destroying your enemies unto myself.”
When her eyes finally snapped open, a burst of golden light spilled forth from the Amalthean Goat.
“A halo of mercy and atonement I give unto thee.”
That light would deprive its targets of consciousness with the slightest touch, so Ayato was forced to lash out against it with the Ser Veresta.
“Auuuuurggggghhhhh!”
With a terrible roar from Ayato, the Ser Veresta caught the torrent of light and tore straight through it.
The last time he had tried this, the strain had taken a considerable toll on the weapon. Now, however, he had attained a new level of mastery with the Orga Lux. He wasn’t about to be outmatched, not even by the Holy Grail.
Eventually, the light dissipated, and Ayato swung the Ser Veresta once more to dispel any remaining residue, before turning it next on Percival. “Sorry about this, but it’s three against one. We’re going to push past you!”
Percival was a tough opponent and, according to Kirin, much faster on her feet now than she had been during the Gryps. But even so, she was alone against Ayato, Kirin, and Saya. She couldn’t hope to stop all three of them.
And of course, the Amalthean Goat, while certainly powerful, needed to be charged for a certain length of time between each use. She wouldn’t be able to keep on attacking with it in rapid succession.
Nonetheless, Percival didn’t seem to be in any hurry. “It isn’t three against one,” she said, raising her right hand into the air. “It’s a hundred against three.”
“…!”
At that moment, more autonomous puppets than one could count emerged from the various broken passageways.
“Valiants…!”
Just as Kirin had reported, they did indeed look like Ardy—and while individually, their specifications weren’t quite so impressive, together…
“I wasn’t expecting this many of them…” Saya, standing back-to-back with Ayato, furrowed her brow as she took in the scene.
The three of them were already completely surrounded.
In that case, it was probably safe to assume this whole cavern had been constructed to provide a space to overwhelm them through force of numbers.
He hadn’t been able to count the puppets himself, but if Percival was to be believed, there were a hundred of them in total. Ernesta claimed to have delivered a thousand units overall, so this would constitute a full 10 percent of their numbers.
“No matter how many you are, no one goes any further,” Percival’s voice echoed from beyond the Valiants.
At that moment, the puppets themselves each activated hammer-shaped Luxes, readying themselves for combat.
“Uh-oh…! This could be a problem…!”
Dodging the first oncoming swing of a hammer, Ayato lashed out with the Ser Veresta to cut the Valiant down, then kicked away two more that came rushing toward him in tandem to take advantage of the momentary opening. Their defensive barriers blocked his attack, but he used those shields as footholds to leap higher, twisting in midair as he swung the Ser Veresta to remove both units’ heads.
“Ba-doom…!”
Saya’s voice was more spirited than usual as the bullets of light firing from her Helnekraum exploded on impact with the multi-layered defensive barriers deployed by the Valiants.
“Nggghhh…!”
Though not as robust as Ardy’s defensive shields, when deployed in layers from multiple units, not even Saya’s immense firepower was enough to break through them. Nor did the Valiants themselves leave any openings to counter. There were simply too many. If the three of them were separated somehow and this battle devolved into a melee, they would be at a severe disadvantage.