That person was the Gray Knight. He had used almost the entire fleet as a decoy so that he could launch an ambush when it lost. Koutarou’s side would obviously be weakened from an energy and ammunition point of view. On top of that, most of the abilities that the enemy possessed were evoked by willpower, so that moment of relief was when they were most vulnerable. The Gray Knight believed that the Liberation Army’s only chance of victory was to strike at that moment. With much of the crew having been sent to fight on the surface and the rest used as decoys, they leaked very little spiritual energy. Psychic powers were also being blocked so that thoughts couldn’t be read, but as Kiriha had thought, there were very few people on board.
“And right now, you have no way of blocking this attack!” the Gray Knight said.
He could see their auras clearly. And while they weren’t completely without vigilance, they were nowhere near as cautious as before. There was also misfortune working against them, as chunks of asteroids were still scattered across space. Just as it had worked in their favor before, the asteroid chunks were now concealing the Gray Knight’s presence instead. He was staking everything on this moment.
He was approaching in his ship, using science, magic, psychic powers, and even chaos to hide himself. It would be impossible to detect the craft he was on with all of those powers working together.
“Take this, Blue Knight! This war will be drawn out!” he shouted.
Inserting enough energy to burn out the generator, he fired the main cannon. It was meant to be an anti-ship beam cannon, but not even the Gray Knight himself knew if the beam fired was made up of heavy metal particles anymore. He had poured the power of chaos into the cannon to its limit, transforming it into a throbbing and writhing thing.
Sanae was the first to notice the Gray Knight’s attack. The three of them had noticed the explosively increasing amount of chaos near them.
“Oh no! He’s here, Koutarou!”
“He’s shooting with that disgusting power with everything he has!”
“We have to defend! There’s no time to run!”
All three said something different, but they all agreed: There was no time to run. They needed to protect themselves with everything they had, as an attack was imminent, but they couldn’t tell how powerful it would be. However, seeing that the chunks of asteroids around them were becoming hazy due to how much chaos power had been stored, a direct hit would be dangerous.
“Emergency deployment of the distortion field!” Ruth immediately activated the Blue Knight’s defenses. It was unclear if the distortion field would help against the asteroid debris, but there was no reason not to try.
“Karama, Korama!” Kiriha called.
“Deploying a concentrated Spiritual Energy Field, ho!” Karama said.
“Limiter removed; sorry, but you’ll have to change the spiritual energy capacitor later, ho!” Korama said.
The new Blue Knight had an unofficial Spiritual Energy Field generator installed. It had been set up in one of the warehouses and used the accumulated spiritual energy of the crew. But since the output would be going over the limit, the Blue Knight would end up needing repairs immediately after the launching ceremony. That is, if the ship survived.
“Signaltin, please!” said Harumi.
“Yurika, give all your mana to Sakuraba-san,” Maki instructed.
“Y-Yes, please make iiit!” Yurika cried.
Harumi hurriedly called out to Signaltin’s power to create a defensive spell, with Maki and Yurika helping her. They already knew that Signaltin’s power was effective against chaos. The problem was if the rapidly gathered mana would be enough. The trio deployed the defensive spell as if praying.
“Active distortion field engaged! Hurry, Veltlion!”
“Yeah!”
Clan and Koutarou were the last. An active distortion field had been installed in the left arm. It was technologically the same as the one Ruth had activated, but its area of effect was limited, making it more concentrated. The shield, which could block even a battleship’s main cannon, was supported by all of the girls’ power to stand against the attack. Koutarou spoke to the residential area of the ship via the comms as he protected the Blue Knight.
“Brace yourselves! Whatever you do, don’t move!”
There might have been a serious impact incoming, so it was dangerous to stand up.
We’ve done what we can, Koutarou thought. But even then...
He had a feeling that even with all these measures, they wouldn’t be able to block the Gray Knight’s attack. With the same level of technology, offense held the advantage over defense. But even if offense and defense were equal, there was a difference in quality between a prepared attack and a hastily put-together guard. He didn’t think they would be able to completely block the attack, which was why he’d warned Kenji and the others.
“It’s over, Blue Knight. Even if you survive, the Imperial Army will be weakened by the loss of another Blue Knight ship, and their hopes will be dashed. You will also lose the Kularia system, which will turn this war into hell...”
The Gray Knight felt the same. He hadn’t opened his comms, so Koutarou couldn’t hear his muttering, but they shared the same opinion.
According to the original schedule, the Blue Knight would have been moored at a spaceport while in orbit. From there, the results of the test-drive would have been analyzed, maintenance would have been performed, and they would have waited for the additional equipment to arrive. However, Koutarou and the others were busy, so they would have returned to the surface via the spaceport instead of waiting for the results. Nalfa and the others who had participated in the launching ceremony had planned to return to the surface at the same time. But with battle commencing in the Kularia system, the Blue Knight had rushed to the scene with Nalfa’s group in tow. Throughout the battle, they had been in the center of the residential area, the safest part of the ship.
“Kotori, it looks like the battle is over. They did well, and apparently, there were only a few casualties,” Kenji announced.
“Right, thank goodness... That’s better than a fight like in the movies...” Kotori answered with a relieved expression.
Kenji was equally relieved. Like Koutarou, they weren’t suited to fighting.
“There’s nothing to worry about now, Nal-chan. Wait, what’s the matter?” Kotori asked.
The Matsudaira siblings were smiling in relief, but Nalfa still had a serious expression. For some reason, she was staring at the wall, as if there were a sworn enemy there.
“Nal-chan?” Kotori prompted. She had never seen Nalfa like that. Confused, she peered at Nalfa’s face, puzzled, yet Nalfa’s attention didn’t shift to her. She was still staring at the wall, or rather what was beyond it.
Sensing that something was wrong, Kenji approached as well. “What’s happening?” he asked.
“Nal-chan is acting strange.”
“Nalfa-san?” Kenji asked worriedly.
“You are intervening too much... You cannot change reality like that... You cannot rush results... That will make all existence pointless...” Nalfa was acting like a sleepwalker. She couldn’t see Kotori and Kenji in front of her. She was just muttering in a quiet voice.
“Something seems wrong. I’ll call for help,” Kenji said.
“Please do, Nii-san!” Kotori pleaded.
Worried, Kenji left the two behind and returned to the comms on the wall panel with the plan to call for a medical team. However, before he could, the room suddenly shook.
“Whoa?!”
“Aaah!”
The Blue Knight was suddenly moving. Forthorthe had already solved the mysteries of gravity and mass, so some slight movement wouldn’t shake the ship. That meant the Blue Knight was making some very reckless movements.
“Brace yourselves! Whatever you do, don’t move!” Koutarou’s voice came through the comms system.
Realizing they were still in combat, Kenji threw himself to the ground and shouted, “Kotori!”
“I know!”
All it took for Kotori to understand everything was Kenji calling her name. She grabbed hold of Nalfa, who was zoning out, and got on the floor. However, she was a girl, and by the time she had accomplished as much, she was squeezing her eyes shut in fear.
“I can’t allow that... Koutarou, no, the people of this world are not puppets on strings...”
Because of that, she missed the rainbow light that flowed out of Nalfa’s hand and toward the wall.
The Gray Knight no doubt wanted to destroy the new Blue Knight. He had used his allies as a decoy, snuck up behind the asteroid chunks, and attacked with all his might. He couldn’t kill Sanae-nee yet, so his attack avoided the bridge, but he could expect to do enough damage to prevent the ship from functioning. However, when a rainbow wall appeared to block his attack, he was delighted.
✦ ✦ ✦
