“Now, Blue Knight!” Alunaya cried.
Koutarou yelled out a battle cry as Signaltin struck Acturus. The beautiful silvery blade, which had the power to break up mana, pierced the magical barrier on Acturus and ripped up its armor.
“Let’s do this, Uncle!” Shizuka exclaimed.
“Come out, flames of purgatory! Roar, burst flames! Dwell in my arm as an apocalyptic wedge that will burn the heavens and earth!” Alunaya was the supreme ruler of flames. He didn’t need an incantation to control normal fire, but that wasn’t the case when creating special flames. By incanting, he could add additional properties to the fire, and he created a powerful flame that dwelled in his right arm.
Normally, it was impossible to attack while chanting. But Alunaya and Shizuka were one in body and soul. While Alunaya chanted, Shizuka attacked. It was an impossible move made possible by their special circumstances.
Shizuka thrust Alunaya’s right fist forward in the basic seiken of karate. And because of that, it was a movement Shizuka had practiced endlessly. Alunaya’s body created a powerful blow, and the kinetic energy was slammed into Acturus’s body, right where Koutarou had ripped up the armor. The fist easily slipped through the opening.
“Hear my oath! Ultimate Flame Wedge!” In that instant, the mana dwelling in Alunaya’s right arm was released. The power within his fist destroyed Acturus’s interior. At the same time, the fire burned it all. Naturally, these were no normal flames. For a moment, the fire was tens of thousands of degrees, and a blinding flash was unleashed.
The strike pierced not just the generator and computer, but all of Acturus. It was a beautiful strike that loudly declared the presence of Fire Dragon Emperor Alunaya. The hole in the frame was a perfect circle, and Koutarou worried about the flames that passed through.
“Good thing there’s a mountain over there...although it has a new cave now.” Koutarou sighed.
“I’ve still got it, don’t I, Blue Knight?” Alunaya said proudly.
“Could you please hold back a little, Alunaya-dono? That was gut-wrenching.”
“Impossible. I didn’t know how strong it was, so I went all out.”
“I suppose so...” Koutarou relented. He was covered in a cold sweat, but Alunaya was in high spirits.
Meanwhile, Shizuka was in the dumps. “I’m definitely not stepping on a scale for the next few days,” she cried.
“Hmm, your feet are sinking into the ground, so you definitely weigh a few tons,” Sanae replied.
“Don’t say that, Sanae-chan! I don’t want to hear it!” Shizuka shook her head. She understood the situation and wouldn’t complain. But that didn’t mean that it wasn’t painful for her.
“Sheesh, it’s finally over,” Koutarou said with a wry smile. The battle had ended a moment ago. Once Acturus was destroyed, the Forthorthe Liberation Army had begun its retreat, although some had missed their opportunity and surrendered. There had been casualties, but at least the Liberation Army soldiers hadn’t been killed by Maxfern.
“Satomi Koutarou,” Kiriha began.
“Kiriha-san,” Koutarou answered.
“It looks like everything has safely ended.”
“Do you know what I want to tell you?” Koutarou asked.
“A proposal?” she jested.
“You idiot! Don’t you move from where you are! I’m coming over there right now to scold you!” Koutarou shouted. “I have a ton of things I want to say to you!”
“I gladly accept.”
“I said it’s not a proposal!” he retorted.
Most importantly, Kiriha, Clan, and Ruth were all safe. They had managed to escape Maxfern’s assassination attempt. When Koutarou had first heard that their craft had been shot down, it had felt like his heart had stopped. Relief washed over him as everything ended safely, but his rage was intense.
When Kiriha and the others consulted Harumi, the latter immediately shook her head. “You can’t. That is too dangerous for you. I can’t help you. If anything, I would prefer you didn’t do this...”
Kiriha’s group was going to leak information to the enemy and be shot down on purpose. They wanted Harumi, Maki, and Yurika to gather information during that time. But naturally, Harumi couldn’t accept it.
“I know how you feel...but I can’t agree either.” Maki had the same opinion. She understood why the others wanted to hurry and gather information. Fighting an enemy without enough knowledge was dangerous. As a former member of Darkness Rainbow, Maki was well aware of that. But the risk to Kiriha, Clan, and Ruth was too big. If things went poorly, they would die.
“But...why do you have to do something so dangerous?” Yurika was troubled. She wasn’t very knowledgeable in this area, so she didn’t know what to do. She wanted to hear a more detailed explanation.
“There are two primary reasons,” Clan answered. “If we fight the Forthorthe Liberation Army upfront, the war might last months or even years. That is why we want information on the location of their stronghold even if we have to get reckless, so that we can have a decisive battle right away.”
At the moment, they still didn’t have information on the main base of Maxfern’s band of knights or the location of the Forthorthe Liberation Army’s main force. Conversely, Maxfern did have some information on the Imperial Army. It was similar to fighting a guerrilla organization, so the conflict would follow the same sort of flow, which meant they would have to slowly fight an enemy they didn’t fully know. In order to avoid that, the trio was prepared to take on a massive risk to get a lead on their enemy.
“Moreover, we have only just started recovering from last year’s civil war. If a long war was to begin now, the people would be forced to make sacrifices, and it would take decades to recover. We have to avoid that at all costs,” Clan continued.
The civil war that Vandarion had started last year was still a burden to Forthorthe. If another war began just as they were starting to recover from the fallout, Forthorthe could take some fatal damage. The economy was shrinking, and the people would be stuck in poverty. Moreover, a lot of people would die in the war, soldiers and civilians alike. Maxfern wasn’t the sort of man to care about that.
“There’s also another serious problem,” Ruth added. “But this one is more personal.” She explained the second reason, which ultimately moved Harumi and Maki. “We don’t want Master to fight in a war for years,” she concluded.
“That’s...” Maki’s eyes opened wide.
“That might...certainly be a problem...to consider...” Harumi muttered, equally shocked.