Brrm-brrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmm!!!!!! A massive quaking struck the Russian lands.
✦ ✦ ✦
Carissa had gritted her teeth, but sticky, fresh blood spurted from between her lips.
Her entire spine groaned in agony.
She’d stopped the attack using the Curtana’s power, but caught between the pressure from above and the earth below, she’d very nearly spit out her organs like a full can of soda getting crushed.
But that wasn’t even the most terrifying part.
Blood fell from the second princess’s palm.
The fragment of the Curtana itself, which had created that sword of flashing light, had shattered, unable to withstand the immense force.
“bndoEFFECTIVENESSlgCONFIRMEDbsdog”
Misha Kreutzev calmly observed her.
And then:
“bguzsegbCONTrlgINUINGvbATTACKrgb”
Vwah!! The hundred wings attacked once again.
As if to say that it planned to repeat any effective attack as many times as it needed.
But Carissa had already lost the sword of flashing light in her hand.
She didn’t have the Curtana fragment, either, that had created it.
It came at her.
An attack of absolute wings that would destroy all things.
✦ ✦ ✦
And this time.
Even sound itself went away.
✦ ✦ ✦
Everything was frozen.
The French faction, starting with the Femme Fatale; the British faction, represented by the Knight Leader; and the Academy City and Russian forces, who didn’t even have a proper recognition of the thing called sorcery. With what just happened before their eyes, they all had stopped in their tracks.
However.
It wasn’t because of the destructive force Misha Kreutzev had unleashed.
“…Sure, my sword borrowed the power of all of Britain by routing it through a fragment of the Curtana Second. And it would make sense that it would lose its power once destroyed.”
They heard a voice.
It came from the one in the red dress.
From the princess of the queen’s nation.
From the woman with mastery over military affairs.
“But I never said I only had one Curtana Second fragment, so.”
Kzzt!! Flashing pure-white light burst forth.
And not only one.
One in each hand. And then, as if to adorn her dress skirt, ten more swords floated behind her waist.
“…I’m still a princess with her nation on the line, so. Did you think I’d bite the dust that easily?”
“hdtrnDAMAbGEgurgCONFIRMEDhtr”
Skreeeek!! With a shrill noise, Misha repositioned its icy wings.
“bauoCONTINgrlnUINGjjATTACKyhBASEDfvgASSUtgseagREDtrrhgsDESTRUCTIONr”
Carissa snorted.
Even as her legs trembled from the effects of sustaining severe injuries, her grin never wavered.
She spoke to the Femme Fatale, who had landed next to her in a single leap.
“…How much longer until our true goal is complete, do you think?”
Preparations for withdrawal were progressing.
Academy City and Russian military alike—currently they were being made to swiftly retreat as directed by the forces of Britain and France. Soldiers were being dragged from broken powered suits, and the wounded were being loaded onto still-operational tanks.
“It depends on how far they need to run before they’re safe. If not even the other side of the world will help, then it’s over anyway.”
“How laid-back of you.”
“Do I seem that way?”
The archangel and the two women clashed once more.
Neither Carissa nor the Femme Fatale, each wielding their blades, was unharmed. Misha’s ice wings were already moving at incredibly high speeds—and their timing was off thanks to the feints. They’d avoided taking lethal damage, but smaller cuts and scrapes were beginning to accumulate on their bodies. The wounds weren’t from direct hits from the ice wings, but rather from the icy shards that broke off when their weapons clashed.
Even so, it didn’t change the fact that they were being whittled down.
If this kept up, Carissa and the Femme Fatale would surely exhaust themselves, decisively dulling their movements, and end up taking a mortal blow.
But still.
Neither had confronted the archangel because they wanted to commit suicide.
So swinging her flashing blades in wide, sweeping arcs, Carissa, along with the Femme Fatale, created distance for now.
“Anyway,” said Carissa, taking a small communicator from her dress’s chest. “I would like to keep my life intact. I think it’s time I used the next best plan.”
“…Would you please not take things out of there? As another woman, I find it quite improper.”
Carissa ignored her and spoke into the radio.
✦ ✦ ✦
“All Pellet Crossbow vehicles on standby. Fire your SAMs at once.”
✦ ✦ ✦
About five kilometers away from the battlefield, behind a hill, was a group of over thirty parked vehicles: some for firing missiles, others for providing targeting assistance via radar, some trucks loaded with additional ammunition, and still others with cranes for loading it all.
The main vehicles were irregularly shaped, like trucks with caterpillar treads. And instead of truck beds, they had beehive-like missile-launching containers on them, each comprising twenty cylindrical tubes.
And nobody said to conserve their ammo.
Starting with one vehicle, twenty flames spurted out in rapid succession. Missiles also fired simultaneously from the other vehicles lined up next to it. The white, stringy smoke began to fill the skies. Over a hundred missiles tore through the heavens.
At first, Misha Kreutzev didn’t even bother looking.
It must have decided it could let them all hit it without a problem.
But immediately after, it realized the truth of the matter.
Those projectiles were surface-to-air missiles. In other words, they weren’t aiming for Misha, who was on the surface—they were aiming for the Star of Bethlehem, floating high in the sky.
“I don’t know if you understand human words, but I’ll ask this anyway.”
As Carissa swung her flashing swords, she mustered the most wicked smile she could.
“You sure you should be wasting time here? I’d think defending your base has a pretty high priority itself.”
“buigbsuiezgsLOSEutrsethtsrth”
“Don’t get mad at me.”
The second princess casually brushed off even the bloodlust pouring toward her.
“I’m only doing what you did before.”
Bchhheeee!! came the explosions.
Carissa and the Femme Fatale were repelled backward simultaneously.
They didn’t have time to reestablish themselves.
Misha Kreutzev looked directly upward before using its wings of ice to take immediate flight into the air with the force of a rocket—to intercept the cluster of SAMs aimed at the Star of Bethlehem.
As the Femme Fatale lowered the Durandal, she looked up into the sky. “…I doubt that’s enough to bring the fortress down.”
“Twisted, distorted, or whatever, angels are angels. They’re just slaves that determine requirements programmatically, controlled by a superior’s instructions. If the mastermind is trying to do some sort of ritual in that temple up there, it’s perfectly easy to predict he would have put together a list of commands so it won’t fail.”
After Carissa spoke, her body swayed.
…I must have taken more damage than I thought.
She’d just fought an irregular enemy, after all: an archangel. And continuing to draw out power using only the Curtana fragment was a strain in the first place.
Still, that didn’t mean she had to retreat now.
The militaristic second princess knew well that war wasn’t so simple.
“The SAMs are national resources, too. We can’t fire them endlessly, so. Now’s our chance to evacuate the wounded. That target won’t keep tying it down forever.”
Even as Carissa commanded her subordinates to “just keep firing,” she thought, Damned monster.
She spat out the blood in her mouth.
The flashing sword in the second princess’s right hand still had immense power within, enough to properly command a nation.
But it was a power for man, created by man.
A true archangel would be one dimension higher than that.
Fact of the matter is: We’re up the creek. Couldn’t even find a clue as to how humans can beat this thing.