Sunday, July 28, 2047. On this day, the second of the interworld war, a meeting of the seven Kings would be convened for the first time in a week if coordination between the Legions proceeded without issue.
But Haruyuki’s slumber had been interrupted by the dry thunder of a skreeee before dawn arrived.
“Whoa! What?! What?!” Still half-asleep, he leapt up and looked around. “Aaaaaah?!”
The bed he had supposedly been asleep in, and even his bedroom itself, had disappeared, with only a gray sky spreading out for as far as he could see.
I’m falling!
The second he had this thought, his right shoulder was yanked upward hard. When he looked back, the Archangel Metatron was there. Hanging in the sky, wings spread, she held on to the armor of Haruyuki’s shoulders with her left hand.
Shoulder armor?
There, he finally realized that his body was not his physical body, nor his pig avatar, but his duel avatar. Only one health gauge was displayed in the upper left of his field of view. Which meant that this was the Accelerated World, the Unlimited Neutral Field. He threw his head back, and on the other side of the cumulus clouds covering the sky, he saw the red hexagonal tile pattern faintly.
“…I didn’t call out the command, though,” he murmured, stunned.
“I brought you here,” Metatron said smoothly, and he was once again speechless.
Actually, if their link had grown so strong that she could appear in the real world in her true form, then it was maybe possible for her to force him to accelerate. But in that case, what about the ten points he would have used up with the Unlimited Burst command?
This thought popped into his head suddenly, and Metatron shook him lightly.
“Would you please focus?” she demanded. “Keep yourself in the air.”
“Oh. Right,” he said slowly. “No, actually, wait! My special attack gauge’s empty. I have to fill it somewhere.”
“Now that you have accepted my wings, you should be able to fly without this gauge.”
“…R-really?” Further taken aback, he nonetheless deployed just the upper pairs of the twelve wings on his back. When he vibrated them hesitantly, the thrust generated lifted his avatar several centimeters.
“Y-you’re right,” he half gasped. “So can I fly forever like this?”
“As long as the link with me exists,” she agreed. “But actions that do not consume your gauge are limited to maintaining position in the air, as you are now, or to flying slowly. To fly at full speed, you will need to charge your gauge as you have done thus far.”
He noticed that she had returned to her usual white robes from the school shirt and pleated skirt. He wanted to ask her why she had been dressed like that, but this was not the time for that.
When she took her hand off his shoulder, he slowly flipped around and asked, “…So those guys—Urocyon and Complicator—they infiltrated a dungeon somewhere?”
“Oh-ho!” Metatron said, sounding impressed. “For once, your intuition is sharp, servant.”
“Wh-which dungeon?!” Haruyuki demanded, drawing about ten centimeters closer to her. “It’s not yours, is it?!”
She gently pushed his forehead back as she replied, “It is not my castle, and it is unclear as to whether or not the intruders are the Drive Linkers. However…the issue may be easier to handle if it is them.”
He frowned. “…What do you mean?”
“Amaterasu was on observation duty on the Highest Level, and she sent me a notification. Approximately ninety minutes ago in this time, the sealed door of the Sanctuary of the Evening Star—the Shrine of Vesper—was opened, and some person entered it alone.”
“Shrine…? Where is that?” He cocked his head to one side at this unfamiliar place name.
Metatron raised a hand and pointed to the left behind Haruyuki.
He once again flipped around and narrowed his eyes. At the same time, a gap opened up in the thick clouds hanging below him, revealing the scene on the ground.
The tall pillar rising up about two hundred meters below was the mixed-used condo building where he lived. On the west side of this was Kannana Street, on the south, Koenji Station and the overhead Chuo Line. The terrain was as it had been in the real world, but everything was covered in pure white snow and blue ice. A water-affiliated Ice stage.
Metatron’s finger was pointing to the southwest. The large dungeons in that direction were the Shinjuku Government Building Underground Labyrinth ruled by Goddess of the Dawn Ushas and…
“Yoyogi…?” Haruyuki murmured, and Metatron nodded gently.
“Yes. Yoyogi Park Underground Labyrinth. The castle of Night Goddess Nyx.”
✦ ✦ ✦
To be continued…