Meanwhile, a deformed shadow appeared off the coastline of Barcelona, crashing against it.
An aberrant, golden form, about one hundred meters long, like a giant arm or an enormous snake. A hand, reaching toward the sky—its five fingers half opened, standing tall, grasping nothing.
The populace watched in trepidation. After all, this area was relatively far from the flames of the great war; the region wasn’t even in a state of alert.
As all the civilians looked on, the golden arm changed.
Brk-brk-brk-brk-brk-brk-brk!!!!!!
From the ground to its fingertips, the golden arm began to swell explosively from within. Within moments, the palm’s form broke down, changing shape like a huge balloon.
The distorted sphere made a creeeak-greeeak noise as it reached its limit.
And then…
✦ ✦ ✦
Simultaneously, a massive hand burst out of the Sea of Japan. It clenched tightly, as if to crush itself.
What emerged a moment later was a rupture. A massive shock wave spread out in every direction, crushing even the gargantuan hundred-meter arm itself to pieces.
Boom!! It was as though a huge space station had crashed into the water’s surface. A radial wall of seawater over thirty meters tall spread out in all directions.
Carriers, escorts, amphibious assault ships, battleships, cruisers…It engulfed Academy City and Russian forces alike as their myriad ships of metal stood lined up in battle formation.
“What’s going on…?”
Seeing the massive catastrophe closing in on them, a navigation officer belonging to an Academy City affiliate let out a groan.
In this situation, he couldn’t even decide: Was it better to seek shelter inside the ship or put on a life preserver and jump into the sea?
“This isn’t even a war anymore! What the hell is going on with the world?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
At the same time, a similar golden arm had exploded on the eastern European front as well.
What happened there, however, was not a high wave.
Radiating out from the ruptured arm was a thundercloud at zero meters above sea level. The deep-black mass of water vapor licked explosively over the surface, and at the same time, the entire space rang out in a freakish sound. Sparks. Over a billion volts…The extreme high-pressure current would cause those swallowed in the thundercloud to burst into many pieces, and it would fry all the electronic devices loaded on board with their weapons.
“No way…,” muttered an Academy City man to himself, bewildered at the approaching dark cloud.
The scale of this calamity was just too big. The thunderhead spread out to the sides, extending several kilometers; at this point, he couldn’t avoid it no matter where he ran. And if it engulfed him, his body would explode in a matter of seconds.
The man donned a thin smile at the insane situation—but then, somebody grabbed his ankle. It was from the underside of a wrecked Russian armored car. He lost his balance and got pulled inside.
A moment later, the black cloud rushed over him from forward to back.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!! There was a series of eerie noises, like train tracks shorting out. Even under the vehicle, he wouldn’t emerge unscathed. Part of the electric current, traveling through the ground and climbing up to him, zapped through his entire body without mercy.
But he didn’t die.
As the Academy City man moaned, it finally dawned on him.
“You…,” he murmured, seeing the female Russian soldier who had pulled him in. “Do you understand this? We’re enemies. From your point of view, I’m an evil invader.”
“An invader who would go to such lengths to stop the Kremlin Report? Anyway, this isn’t the time to be squabbling over the war anymore. Our chain of command is in shambles. We’re getting unconfirmed reports of things like this happening all over the world.”
Glaring at the snow, blown up from the ground and still tingling with purple lightning aftereffects, the woman spoke as though spitting the words out.
“I’m fighting to protect my family, too. Like hell I’ll sit by after coming this far just because we’re facing down the apocalypse or the extinction of humanity or whatever this is!!”
Crack-crackle-crack-crack. They heard a sound like water suddenly freezing over.
Immediately after, there was a massive wha-bam!!
Some sort of huge ring had appeared on the surface of the ground visible from underneath the armored car. A material like pure gold with a radius of over a hundred meters—the giant ring was wider than a four-lane highway, and it was stuck into the ground at an angle.
It’s almost like an angel’s halo, thought the Russian.
More than that had changed, however. As if to follow along with where the thundercloud had just licked the surface, a bundle of riblike parts connected to the huge ring drew arcs through the air as if they were sharpened tips. Following that, bundles of cloth traveled in curved, riverlike lines, appearing one after the other and gouging out the ground and blowing away nearby parts of the conifer forest. Pushing themselves into this world by force, it looked like a giant toy box being overturned.
It was a flood of enormous structures spreading out in all directions. Each and every one was a ridiculous size.
Attempting to speak despite his throat suddenly drying out, the Academy Man whispered hoarsely, “…What the hell is going on?”
“Damned if I know,” answered the Russian soldier as if to push him away. “The only good thing about this is that we’re on a snowfield. If this thing happened in a city area, it would topple all the buildings around it.”
“Also…”
A huge roaring vibration tore through the air.
The black cloud had withdrawn, but the dangers hadn’t ended.
There was no rule saying there could only be one golden arm.
As long as those giant arms kept bursting out of the ground like this, there was no telling what dangers awaited them next.
“Another one. What now?!” demanded the man.
The female soldier ran a finger over the antitank rocket launcher. “Should be obvious. Finish things before it ruptures!! Give me a hand, Mr. Academy City. I need your city’s firepower!!”
“Shit. I had my hands full stopping the Kremlin Report, you know!!”
“Your end goal’s the same. Doesn’t matter if it’s a bacterial wall or some occult bullshit—we just have to wipe off the face of the earth every last thing that’ll needlessly kill people!!”