Our plan of attack was as follows: first, we would infiltrate the Ark using Spatial Translocation, hopefully getting us as close to the wicked devout as possible. The Divinity Neutralization effect of the sacred treasure was to remain inactive during the start, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to teleport us in; once we were in the Ark, it would be turned on in order to seal the wicked devout’s abilities.
Our first target, the one that we absolutely had to defeat, was the guy with the diver helmet, Indigo. If we didn’t put a stop to his teleportation, they’d get away again, and another failure would only give them the chance to develop a counter to our attack. We had to view this as our only chance.
Yakumo was the first to step forward to offer to take down Indigo.
“I have crossed blades with him once before, so I believe it would make me the most suitable.”
“Hey, that’s not fair!” Linne complained. However, considering the fact that Yakumo could use [Gate] to get in a surprise attack and was greatly skilled in battle, it seemed fine to leave it to her. What posed a slight problem was that if Yakumo was to serve as our main fighter, the sacred treasure would have to take its katana form. The range of its neutralization was much reduced as a katana, reaching about five meters at most. It would be a disaster if they managed to teleport away before Yakumo could approach.
“I intended to use [Gate] to immediately close the gap between us,” she said.
“Hmm... That would work for the start of the fight, but what would you do if he managed to get some distance between you after that? He could just teleport away then.”
It would take a considerable amount of skill to maintain a distance of no more than five meters from your opponent. Even a wrestling ring had a bit over six meters of distance between its corners.
“I know, I know!” Steph excitedly called out. “I’ll use [Prison] so he can’t escape!”
If Indigo was confined with Yakumo within a [Prison], he wouldn’t be able to use his divinity, which would prevent him from taking down the magic enclosure and making his escape. But that then meant that Yakumo would be forced to fight within a confined space. Would that not be tough as a katana wielder? It felt like the enemy with their hatchet would be the one with the advantage in that scenario.
Was finishing them off with one strike the best option we had? But then we were faced with the question of if Yakumo could successfully carry out the [Gate] plan of attack and take him down in one fell swoop... If she failed, Indigo would undoubtedly make his escape. In which case, though the [Prison] tactic required more skill, the probability of success seemed higher.
“Excuse me.”
As I sat there running through the options in my head, Kuon tentatively raised his hand.
“Is there any reason we need to begin the attack with the sacred treasure in its katana form? Why not have it morph into a form with a large range of neutralization like the harpbow, and then Yakumo can fight with her regular phrasium katana? Of course, we’d still need to make sure we use the sacred treasure to deal the finishing blow, but that can come later.”
“Oh.”
Kuon’s words immediately opened my eyes.
Of course! Who said the kids could only hold their own form of the sacred treasure?
Because I’d made each form of the sacred treasure to suit each of the kids, it had completely slipped my mind that it didn’t mean the different forms were exclusive to each child. It was something I’d considered at the time of creation, so I wasn’t sure why I’d forgotten that fact.
Yoshino’s harpbow boasted a neutralization radius of fifty meters, but the effect weakened the further from the weapon the target got, so it would be best if we activated it while not too far from Indigo. Well, either way, even if the effect was weak, it would still be able to at least prevent the guy from teleporting, and the closer Yakumo got to him, the more certain it was that it would work, so I didn’t think we had to worry too much.
“The problem is that we don’t know the numbers of their forces nor if we’d be able to pinpoint Indigo’s exact location,” Leen pointed out.
“True...”
As she said, it would be best if we could target Indigo while he was alone. From the intelligence we had, the wicked devout still had the man with the plague mask, the woman with the iron mask, and the gold crown. Plus, there was always the possibility that there were more members we didn’t know about too.
I could use a divinity-enhanced [Search], but I had my limits, so I couldn’t use it over that wide of an area. At the very least, the Ark was small enough that I could do a decent job, though. If I used it the second we made it into the Ark, I should be able to find where Indigo was.
If that’s the case, then the plan basically goes like this: we infiltrate the Ark with Spatial Translocation, I find Indigo’s location with [Search], I use Spatial Translocation again to teleport to Indigo, we activate Divinity Neutralization, Yakumo launches her attack.
“What shall we do if there are other wicked devout around Indigo at the time?” Yae asked.
“The only choice we really have is to hold them back until Indigo is dealt with. With that in mind, maybe we’d be best going the [Prison] route so Yakumo can’t be interrupted.”
We did have the issue that we weren’t allowed to take down the wicked devout ourselves, so we’d be more likely to leave that to the kids, and while Yakumo held the sacred treasure to take down Indigo, we’d be unable to land the killing blow on any other wicked devout present. If it was just about buying time for Yakumo to finish him off, however, it likely wouldn’t be too bad. Once we’d prevented any chance of them escaping with a teleport, we could move on to taking them down one by one.
“I still don’t feel great about getting the kids involved...” Elze muttered as she gave Elna a pat on the head. When she did, Elna shook her head.
“If mommy and daddy are fighting, then I’ll fight too. That has to be why we were called here, so leave it to us. We’ll definitely be fine if we all fight together.”
“Oh, you’re such a good girl, Elna! I’m so proud to have you as my daughter!”
Elna was squeezed tight by a tearful Elze. The young girl had a point—if our children hadn’t traveled here from the future, who knew how much trouble we’d be in now? Our future selves surely knew that these events would happen.
Would I be able to send out my children with full faith in their success when it inevitably became my turn to have them go? It felt like I’d end up stopping them out of worry, even if I already knew the outcome.
Since our children came from the future, the logical assumption was that we successfully dealt with the wicked devout, but...given that divine powers were involved in this conflict, the future could easily distort. You would often see movies of a protagonist who time traveled to the past, and because they changed those events, their existence as a resident of the future became unstable and they ended up in danger of being erased from the world. That wasn’t what was going to happen here, right?
The time spirits would help mend any time paradoxes we caused, but even they couldn’t fix something caused by the divine. If we ended up branching off too far from the future of this timeline, would the children be unable to return to their time? If that did happen, I was sure Grandma Tokie would find some way to get us out of the mess, but...
Whatever lay in wait, we absolutely could not fail. It was important that we remained cautious.
Just as I had resolved myself, my phone started ringing—it was from Doc Babylon.
“Touya, just got word in from Albus. There’s been a response from the probes we set up around the sea of Lassei. A large number of Kyklops, including an unidentified unit, along with Rock Titans and Fishmen are heading straight for Lassei itself.”
Again with the underhanded tactics! No, wait...is this our chance?
One of the wicked devout surely had to be leading that army. That meant that right now, there was one less wicked devout on the Ark, right? Worst-case scenario, Indigo was the one leading them, but the chances of that seemed pretty low.
There was quite the distance between where the Ark was stationed and Lassei, so Indigo most likely teleported them—and that meant he had used quite the amount of divinity. There was no way he would get involved directly with the attack on Lassei in that condition. There was a very good chance that an exhausted Indigo had remained in the Ark.
What should we do...? Since we’ve got that fallen god to think about as well, I was thinking that we should take our time and be cautious, but now...
“Let us go to the Ark, father. We cannot simply stand by as a black cat runs in front of us.”
Having noticed my hesitation, Kuon gave me the push I needed. When I looked up at everyone else, they were all giving me small nods.
Having to be encouraged by my own child really was pathetic...but hey, at least it felt nice.
“All right... In that case, let our infiltration of the Ark begin!”