Chapter 26

2 The mechanism by which pillars appeared was still unclear to humanity. A point of light would appear in the sky without any advance warning. Then it would extend vertically, bringing forth a blinding column that seemingly connected the sky and the ground. And then invaders would begin pouring out from inside the light. That same process had just occurred fifty kilometers northwest of Holm base. The only difference was that this time, there were ten different columns of light that came in varying sizes, and the number of pillars they spawned was far greater than usual. Tens of thousands of enemies surged forth in all kinds of forms, from flying ants and fireflies to snakes and frogs. And the being controlling all of them was the cataclysmic secondary, Mistletoe. With an enormous column of light at its back, an amalgamation of giant trees leisurely floated in the air. A great host raised to bring about Armageddon filled the skies behind it. It was a scene so daunting that it threatened to break the spirits of the brave soldiers shouldering the fate of humanity as they watched their enemies assemble. “” In truth, even the radio operators in the command post were speechless at the sight. The monitors tracking the battleground were covered by unbroken streaks of red from the mass of radar contacts. Everyone in the command post was taken aback by the overwhelming lack of space left unfilled by enemies— “—It looks like they’re really worried.” save a single man who refused to let the hopelessness of the scene consume him. A well-trained body, dirty-blond hair, and a ferocious, feline grin on his face, it was the commander of Holm base, the hero standing at the forefront of humanity’s defense. Alejandro Ostley, the man synonymous with miracles, who did not falter even with the weight of the world bearing down on his shoulders. “I suppose the little fledgling we’ve got incubating here at the base must be really problematic for them. They could have just come at us like normal, but they’ve decided to throw everything they’ve got at us. That’s proof enough they don’t understand war. Bunch of cowards!” Alejandro slapped his knee as he roared with fangs bared. The commander’s indomitable voice carried over the radio to everyone at the base. Every soldier whose hands had frozen, who had forgotten to breathe, whose spirit had faltered—they all regained their senses when they heard his voice. That’s our commander. Humanity’s savior. Who else could say something so bold as their instinctive first response upon seeing such a hopeless scene? But faced with that overwhelming difference in numbers, even as their heartless enemies cornered humanity’s forces, he, Alejandro, would make all of that a weapon to wrench victory from the jaws of defeat. Everyone looked up to the sky. There was an uncountable horde of invaders filling the skies. As they processed that sight, they dug in and all shared the same thought: Same as always. “Let’s do this! All of you are ready, right?! This is the day we’ve been waiting for!” “” Alejandro’s voice resounded, a manifestation of the shared dream that everyone there held. It was a thought everyone on the battlefield had. If they were going to risk their lives in combat, then they at least wanted a commanding officer who understood the value of their lives and knew how to actually claim victory if he was going to hurl them into the meat grinder. And the man who embodied all of those hopes was Alejandro Ostley— “The skies are filled with enemies, but we’re going to take them back!” “Uraaaaaaaa!!!” The soldiers’ cheers and their footsteps shook the earth. As the entire base’s morale reached a fever pitch, Alejandro grabbed the radio. When faced with your greatest foe, send in your greatest firepower. There was only one choice for the first strike. “—Do it, Rusalka! Show ’em the power of Sigrdrifa!” 3 “—Do it, Rusalka! Show ’em the power of Sigrdrifa!” A passionate, rough, entirely-lacking-in-solemnity order came flying in over the radio. Hearing that, Rusalka clenched the stick as she cut through a gap in the clouds. Seeing her reckless advance, a group of pillars that was deployed in the air swarmed toward her craft. The ants with their stout jaws, the fireflies and their projectiles made of light, the frogs and their bullet-like tongues, and the poison rain spewed by the snakes all rushed in to make the overeager Valkyrie regret her rashness. “Sorry, but…” Her pink lips moved, though the words would never reach the pillars. But the deadly intent embedded in her voice would surely bridge the gap, even though they were so incapable of mutual understanding. An instant later, the pillars swarming her were all shredded in a storm of gunfire. Machine guns roared, and the pillars rattled beneath the impacts before shattering and disappearing in fragments of light. In their place, tree after tree erupted into being and fell to earth. No matter many times she saw the phenomenon unfold, she was always moved by how strange it was for that beauty to come from the deaths of the hideous pillars. “As if they’re making the case that death itself is beautiful. It makes me sick.” As the glimmering fragments of light scattered, Rusalka’s plane cut across right in front of the enemies’ noses as she turned. Many of them tried to keep clinging to her tail, but they were shredded by the same hail of lead before shattering just the same. This was Rusalka’s attack—no, the full force of Sigrdrifa’s attack. “Raaaaaaaaaaaagh! You better not be lookin’ away from me!” The pillars were shot down by a destructive force on par with a hurricane. And the ones who had achieved that feat were the Valkyrie formation following closely behind Rusalka. Flying point, shouting boldly as she shot down the most enemies, was Lisbeth Crown. And adroitly mowing down all the pillars that slipped through her initial attacks was Leili Haltija. “Lisbeth! You’re pushing too far ahead! Watch your surroundings m—” “I am already! You’re always such a pain in the ass about it, it turned into an annoying habit! That’s why I’m expectin’ you to cover my ass, Lily.” Leili was speechless for a moment at hearing the nickname, but she quickly changed gears in the face of that brusque tone and implicit faith. “Could you please refrain from such unladylike phrases, Liz?” “Ha! So posh! But I still can’t stand that kind of crap!” Lisbeth and Leili dove into the enemy formation after that exchange. Lisbeth’s Messerschmitt BF109 was superior in acceleration and maneuverability, while Leili’s Spitfire was superior in terms of firepower and ability to climb. Despite the differences in their personalities and their machines, they tore through the enemies with refined movement and coordination, like wingmates who had flown together for years. Rusalka flew lead, and the twin stars Lisbeth and Leili trailed behind her. But that was not the end of the trials the pillars faced. “Put them through the grinder! Attack, attack, attack!” Sigrdrifa’s executive officer for the battle, Shannon Stewart, shot off an order, and in response, the Valkyries began an all-out assault that continued without rest. And amid that fusillade of concentrated fire, there was one plane that particularly stood out for the way it flew. The suspect was— “A Gladiator, Claudia Brafford.” As the enemies pressed down on them in a swarm that blotted out the sun, she was easily evading the rain of glowing projectiles, a black meteor that held Rusalka’s eye when she glanced back to check the status of the Valkyries behind her. A split second after the black flash passed, the light of pillars dying erupted in its wake. Her attacks were not just limited to bullets clad in divine light, either. She even relied on her wings to slice through the air and sever the pillars that lingered in her path too long. “” Claudia’s Deus ex Machina, a Gladiator, did not merely crush the pillars with precise gunfire. Nor did she only slash them with her wings. She was even leading them to crash into each other with her nimble maneuvers. No one who saw her performance would have believed it was her first combat mission. She was like an embodiment of death, shooting enemies down one after the other and reaping any enemies her wings could reach. The title goddess of death suited her well. “Talent is a dreadful thing.” Seeing the death that Claudia was mass-producing, Rusalka could only express abject wonder. It was a talent she would have been jealous of in the past. But now she could think only about how awful it was. But at the same time, it was incredibly reliable. Odin had said that Claudia had a potential that approached Amy’s. As someone who had actually flown with Amy several times, Rusalka could feel that in her bones. Though that was not why she was flying, flying together with Claudia like that was a view into what could have been to walk the path Rusalka had not chosen that fateful day. A what-if where she had chosen to fly with Amy— “Not that I have time to be getting sentimental like that!” Casting aside the emotions welling inside her, she suddenly shot up into a steep climb right in front of the enemy formation charging at her from straight ahead. Entering a somersault, she edged her wings around slightly to evade the flurry of light rounds coming at her as she changed paths. Escaping the swarm of pillars, she withdrew from the front line in one burst. And she was not the only one, either. All of Sigrdrifa pulled back as one. The reason was— “Alma!” The moment she called out, the focus shifted to far above the battlefield. Incredibly high up, at an altitude that even the pillars could not reach, there was a single plane flying that was larger than all the other Deus ex Machinas. Alma Conturo unleashed her most powerful strike, a Grand Slam. “” Their momentum stalled by the Valkyries’ preemptive strike, the pillars were slow to spread out, and a vast swarm of them was engulfed by the massive ensuing explosion. The erupting flames easily broke through the pillars’ defenses, scorching the hideous creatures. Hundreds or even thousands of pillars were turned to ash by that one bomb. It was surely the deadliest single strike the pillars had suffered in the entire war. The sort of attack destined for the record books and the stuff of meritorious decorations. “All that’s left is to open a path to Mistletoe…” The explosion dyed the sky red as the pillars caught in the blast scattered in fragments of light. Faced with such a vast number of enemies, their plan to take down their target was exceedingly simple. It was a two-part scheme, with one team to break through the swarm of smaller enemies protecting the target and buy time for the second team, which would attack the target itself using the path that had been cleared for them. Alma’s massive firepower could thin out the enemy formation, while the breakthrough team centered around Rusalka, with its superior maneuverability, opened a path. From there Lisbeth and Claudia and the other heavy hitters would leap into the gap and crash down on Mistletoe, using that chance to deliver a painful blow. As the fireball cleared, it became apparent that Alma’s strike had torn a massive hole in the enemy formation. The moment she saw that, Rusalka was sure they had cleared the first phase of the operation. Gripping her stick, she started to surge forward, moving on to the next phase— “Warning! Do not close with the target!” “Wh…?” Hearing the difficult-to-believe order fly in over the radio, Rusalka inhaled sharply. She was just about to query what command was thinking, but she didn’t manage to get the question out. Because the reason for the order leaped into her field of view. “” In the sky beyond where the fireball had been, the gigantic Mistletoe was floating. And centered around it were new pillars that had not been there moments ago. And they were far too large to be tertiaries. In other words— “Multiple secondary pillars have appeared! This is an unprecedented situation!” 4 The appearance of multiple secondary pillars. The shock of that report landed heavily at every major base around the world, and indeed, it was a powerful blow to all of humanity. A secondary pillar was such a powerful foe that challenging it with a fully equipped base large enough to have a flight of Valkyries was considered an even fight. More and more third-generation Valkyries were completing their accelerated training and being sent out so that every base could maintain the bare minimum deployment, but before that, the army had been helpless to do anything other than buy time for evacuating any region attacked by a secondary. And three more of those enemies had just appeared, bringing the grand total to four, after counting Mistletoe itself. Mistletoe was already a pillar so dangerous that it had become almost synonymous with cataclysm, so to add such an absurd force alongside it— “I take it back… You damn pillars are nasty strategists.” Grasping the situation from his command post, Alejandro gritted his teeth at the outrageous tactic the enemy had unveiled. Just like Odin had predicted, they must have been terrified of Gjallarhorn. Their all-out attack was proof of that, and the clash currently unfolding was proof that humanity would not go down without a fight. The pillars were fully utilizing every bit of fighting power they could mobilize to stop the completion of Gjallarhorn. Alejandro was genuinely impressed with their thorough and overwhelming deployment. It was a heartfelt bravo out of respect for whatever tactician was behind the enemy’s moves. Since— “This is exactly what I would’ve done.” “” “Come on, you’re supposed to laugh there.” As he sung his own praises, the rest of the command post’s staff continued holding their silence. Alejandro chuckled as he glanced over at Michelle. The leader of the operators, she alone understood the meaning of that look, and she nodded. “The secondary pillars that have appeared do not match any past records.” Returning to their senses at her report, the rest of the command staff began moving again all at once. Analyzing the new combatants to begin to understand their unique abilities, calculating the potential activity time limit based on the enemy’s draining effect, and preparing an antiair artillery fusillade with conventional rounds to distract the tertiaries—there was plenty that needed doing. Seeing life blown back into the command post, Alejandro crossed his arms. Operators had to be tough. Their transmissions were heard by all the soldiers on the battlefield. If there was obvious despair in their voices, the whole army would start to lose its will to fight. That was why the operators and the commanding officer had to maintain their confidence all the way to the end. “Send the order, Heyman! It’s a little early, but let’s put our cards on the table, too.” 5 “Lisbeth! Leili! Claudia! You three take one of them! Alma, maintain altitude! The rest of Sigrdrifa, on me!” “—Roger!” Faced with the never-before-seen situation of multiple secondaries deployed to the same part of the front simultaneously, every Valkyrie flying was dumbfounded. The first to return to her senses was Rusalka. Not out of some pride as the squadron leader of Sigrdrifa or the rebellious spirit of a Valkyrie who could not keep up. But because her preparations in advance were finally paying off. “I had considered it before. What to do if two or more secondaries appeared on the same battlefield.” It had been a thought more firmly rooted in extreme pessimism than a simple abundance of caution. Most Valkyries subconsciously prayed that such a hopeless situation would never come about, but in her pessimism, Rusalka had fully considered what to do if it came to pass. Humanity’s greatest enemy, the pillars, would surely go beyond whatever worst thing they could imagine. However— “Takin’ care of a rookie while fighting a secondary?! Gimme a break here, Major!” “But we don’t have a choice. We have to do it.” “Allow me to learn at your back…or your tail, I suppose.” “Is this really the time for that shit?! —Argh, don’t get left behind!” With a clamorous din, Lisbeth, Leili, and Claudia headed for the secondary to the west—to the pillar with a body constructed from an amalgamation of spheres that gave off a blue light. The three new pillars were deployed in a defensive formation with one in the west, one in the east, and one right in front of Mistletoe. Rusalka was leaving one of them to Lisbeth’s group. “We’re taking the one to the east! Don’t slow down! Stay on my tail!” “Major! What about the third one…?” “Don’t worry. The enemy always surpasses our expectations in the worst way, but…” Hearing the almost-scream over the radio, Rusalka broke into a smile. Not realizing she had a tranquil smile even in the midst of such an intense battle, Rusalka exhaled, and then she grinned ferociously, the spitting image of her commanding officer. “—Our commander is even nastier than the pillars.” The loving, trusting, heartfelt trash talk that crossed the airwaves left the other Valkyries stunned. Immediately afterward, a new transmission proved just how true her reaction was. “” A thunderous boom resounded, like the world ending, as another massive bomb exploded in the air. A crimson flame bloomed like a flower, ripping another massive hole in the pillar formation. And the ones who gave their enemies that bloody nose were— “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! What even is this?! This is crazy! Pillars, pillars, pillars, pillars everywhere you look! Ah-ha-ha-ha! This is awesome!” “Shut up already. Maybe be a little more concerned about why we were sent in ahead of schedule.” “Commencing operations nineteen minutes before planned. Considering th—” “—Hakuna matata, girls! It’ll work out somehow, so let’s just do this!” A noisy clamor filled the airwaves as Deus ex Machinas appeared out of the clouds one after the other. There was no coordination to their formation, each with their own unique personality and style that did not mesh into a coherent whole at all. But they were all Valkyries who dreamed of the same future and flew in the same sky—and they had come to Sigrdrifa’s aid for the decisive battle with Mistletoe. “We knew Mistletoe would be coming to destroy Gjallarhorn, so I used that as leverage to borrow the aces from every base I could. I had to bow and scrape so much, I’m sure my stock value is at an all-time low.” “Don’t worry, Colonel. Even if your head is at an all-time low, you are still our greatest commander.” “You’re supposed to reassure me that the all-time-low part isn’t true!” Having envisioned the worst-possible situation, she was impressed by his skill in preparing a response to overcome it. She felt a deep respect in fact, and her heart had even skipped a beat just a little bit there, to her everlasting shame, though she would never tell anyone that. In the grips of that shame, Rusalka led her group to the secondary that was divided into countless partitions with a single enormous flower. They would take the east, Lisbeth’s group the west, and the reinforcements would handle the center, methodically breaking through the newly arrived secondaries one by one. And once they wrenched open the path— “—There won’t be any escape this time, Mistletoe.” Rusalka glared at the secondary watching the battle from safety, gritting her teeth. She could not—would not—let it escape. Humanity could not afford to lose this battle. The die was cast, and the ships at port had been fired. “” Putting a hand to her chest, Rusalka reached for a small plant giving off a faint light. Mistletoe’s ability was affecting Rusalka—no, every Valkyrie in the sky. Indeed, its effect might even be reaching the base now. She had known it from the start. The battle with Mistletoe would be on a time limit. “But we won’t lose. This time, we will win…!” Moving her hand away from the plant she could not feel, she gripped the control stick tightly and danced through the sky. The battle to decide which side of the war would have the upper hand intensified. 6 There were many things the IPO still did not know about the Deus ex Machinas they relied on. In the first place, they were not machines developed by humans but sacred treasures bequeathed to Valkyries by Odin. When the ritual was performed in Mimir’s well and qualified girls awakened as Valkyries, they were given their Deus ex Machinas as well. At the same time they were granted their divine blessing, their wings appeared as well. There was no uniformity in the planes that Valkyries flew. According to Odin, each Deus ex Machina was a manifestation of its Valkyrie’s essence. Thus, Rusalka, who had yearned to fly from such a young age, received a Spitfire that gracefully danced through the blue skies. And thus Alma, who hid such an enormous rage in her small frame, received the Lancaster, with its massive, overwhelming firepower. There was no overarching consistency to Deus ex Machinas—save one. The only thing they seemed to have in common was that they all took the form of propeller planes of some sort that had seen use during the interwar period and World War II. Normally, those ancient planes could not begin to compare to modern jets equipped with the most up-to-date technology. However, Deus ex Machinas did not follow human logic. By appearances, they were almost identical to those antiques from an age long past, but their abilities did not pale at all in comparison to modern jets. In fact, they even surpassed modern fighters in certain respects, when it came to their specialties. That illogical fact was, according to Odin, due to a gap in faith. Faith. It was a term that encompassed a rough approximation of whether people would believe in something with absolute unwavering confidence. And apparently, the propeller craft from the World Wars had garnered far more of that faith than the most modern fighters. It was difficult to judge on such vague reasoning, and so the mystery of how Deus ex Machinas worked was still largely unexplained. While being a sacred treasure granted by God, they could still be repaired by human hands, and they were powered not by some mysterious energy source but by aviation fuel. They could run out of bullets and did not have any special shielding. Those inconveniences had not been hand waved, and there was no end to the list of complaints when it came to keeping these machines in good working order. But even so, they were humanity’s fangs, the one power available to them that they could use to reach the pillars. And using them to their fullest to take down all the invaders trying to drain the earth of its life force was Alejandro Ostley, the most gifted commanding officer in the world, who had established a record for getting the best results. There was no human better than him at making sure pillars died. Because of that, he was engaged in a battle to decide the fate of humanity with the cataclysmic Mistletoe. However… “Registering more tertiary pillar contacts! Combat time has exceeded ninety minutes!” The hole in the wall of tertiaries that had been opened was filled by more reinforcements, and the monitor was painted by a solid swathe of red again. The operators and analysts were frantically evaluating the ever-changing battle state, reporting the results, and scanning for new developments. Hearing their fervent voices, Alejandro’s thoughts accelerated, constantly looking for the next best move. The battle had already gone on far longer than he had expected. Ordinarily, battles with pillars were almost always settled within an hour, due to the pillars’ draining effect, which absorbed the life force from the surrounding landforms. Bluntly, the pillars were quick to run out of gas. Their lack of endurance was one of the main reasons humanity had been able to contest their dominance at all. But Mistletoe had apparently overcome that limitation. By transforming everything around it into trees, creating life force rather than stealing it, the pillars were able to extend the relatively short amount of time they could stay fighting. That was why the battle was becoming drawn out. Deus ex Machinas were capable of active combat operations in the air for between two and three hours. In that sense, they were similar to standard planes. That limit came down to the amount of fuel it was possible for them to carry as well as the physical and mental limits of the Valkyries piloting them. It was easy enough to imagine how exhausting it was to keep fighting in the skies with danger all around. On top of that, the Valkyries were young, almost all of them girls who had not fully grown into their bodies. They could not compare to a fully trained veteran soldier. The limit on their endurance was approaching far sooner than they realized. On top of that, it was generally believed that humans were not really capable of maintaining their full focus for more than ninety minutes at a time. There were individual differences, but it was exceedingly rare for someone to be able to last for hours longer than that. If their endurance or mental focus gave out, they would be far more likely to misjudge situations, and just a single moment of hesitation could make the difference between life and death when fighting the pillars in the skies. “Milene’s and Etta’s performances are dropping! They’re taking more hits!” “They can’t maintain formation! At this rate—” “C team, pull back! Crown, fill the gap!” As the operators’ voices crisscrossed, Alejandro ordered a change to the deployment. He immediately pulled the Valkyries who had sustained damage, calling them back to base for repairs and a brief break. But he had filled the gap in the formation with just a single Deus ex Machina— “That’s impossible! Even for Lieutenant Crown…” “She’s just going to have to do the impossible, then. Haltija isn’t suited for this, and Brafford doesn’t have the experience. Crown is the best… No, she’s better at least.” “—Ngh.” It was a decision that Alejandro, who was always sure of himself, could only call better, rather than the best. Hearing that, Lisbeth broke off from her team and charged into the enemy alone. And mowing down tertiary after tertiary along the way, she evaded the attacks of the secondary, shifting to disruption. Her forte: dogfighting. But even after taking the fight on her own terms so she could fight as she pleased, Lisbeth couldn’t hope to defeat a secondary all by herself. That was something no one except Amy had ever achieved. “” Clutching his chest, Alejandro clamped down on the idle thought of his lost sister. He didn’t have time to be dwelling in the past. He had already grieved, cursed, and lamented her fate more than enough. The version of him who had forgotten who she was and fought free of care was already long dead. So— “Sir, requesting permission to attack.” As he gritted his teeth, the monitor in front of him displayed a man in a flight suit—no, more than one of them. All of them were air force pilots. Anyone other than a Valkyrie who confronted Mistletoe would be transformed within a short time, so Alejandro had been cautious about letting the regular pilots take to the skies. With the right timing, they could support the Valkyries’ advance or cover their withdrawal, but it was an incredibly cruel trade-off—in exchange for the Valkyries coming back, the pilots would be sent on a one-way flight guaranteed to end in their deaths. But even knowing that, they had contacted the command post after having made all the preparations to take off. “You…” “The girls are doing great out there. But they’re reaching their limits. Pull those amateurs back, and let’s show them how professionals fly.” The pilot at the front jerked his scarred chin skyward. He was an old hand who had been with Alejandro since Lamia. A veteran who had survived that hell and rushed to join the battle with Sigrdrifa as well. “Are you willing to die like that?” “That’s a cheap price to pay to safekeep girls with bright futures ahead of them, particularly beauties like them. And, sir…no, Colonel—” “” “We should have died that day with that cute little girl who saved the world. The only reason we lived this long was all for this moment.” As someone who had experienced the same hell, the same despair, and the same regret, he didn’t need to hear any more to know who the pilot meant. And he also realized that their resolve was not something he could hold back. “Then get out there, you damned fools. You better at least buy us some time.” “Tell Major Evereska to visit my grave. Her rack’s one of the seven wonders of the world.” “If I told her that, she’d bury me alongside you.” With that last, foolish schoolboy exchange, Alejandro gave his men the coldhearted order. And there was no one in the command post who reproached him for it. There was no one in all of the IPO who could say a word about it. “Pull back Sigrdrifa as the regulars reach the pillars! Get them to resupply and let them rest for as long as we can. And hurry up with the repairs on any planes that have been hit! You’re up, Chief Technician Reever!” “I don’t need you to tell me. I’ve been on standby this whole time. If anything, it’s been so boring, I’ve been working on my skin care.” “You’re most beautiful when you’re smeared in engine grease, so go get spruced up.” “You know just the right way to get me going, playboy.” Catching Roger’s blown kiss through the radio, Alejandro regained just a little bit of his energy. Everyone around him was grinning, even in the face of such a hopeless situation. It was almost as if they were absolutely confident that he would find the narrow exit to the valley of death and wrest victory from such a hopeless battle. Argh, it pisses me off, but it’s just like Odin said. It was just like the Deus ex Machinas—their faith was like a curse that granted Alejandro strength. “A curse or magic, whatever’s fine with me. I’ve got a reservation in hell to keep once this is all over.” Glaring at the screen, his eyes were locked on Mistletoe, which was still standing there without so much as a scratch. Then he turned his attention to the three guardians protecting it. They had accumulated their fair share of damage. All that was left was to see which would be the first to fall and how to push forward— “—If we’re going to get past them, it has to be all three at once.” 7 Rusalka’s bloodshot eyes were wide-open, and she felt like she was flying in a dream or maybe an illusion. She had been in the air from the very start of the battle, holding her perch on the front lines for over a hundred minutes already. She had lost count of the times her plane had taken a hit and wobbled or when she had started streaming a trail of smoke. She had long since run out of ammunition and had no means left to take enemies down other than maneuvering to induce friendly fire and collisions. But even so, her focus was exactly the same, unchanged from the very beginning of the battle—no, if anything she was even more focused now. “I could fly through the eye of a needle—!” Even if that was an exaggeration, she had refined her technique down to an art, weaving between the pillars with just a dozen of centimeters to spare on either side until they crashed into each other. Rusalka Evereska had accepted her lack of talent and knew it was her fate to be overtaken by those who had started flying long after her. And ironically, on that most desperate of battlefields, the world’s most famous Second Valkyrie discovered the talent that lay sleeping within her. In other words, it symbolized the limits of her growth, but— “Haaaaaaaaaaaah!” Howling like a beast, she maneuvered wildly, surrounded on all sides by pillars but somehow managing to escape their grasp nonetheless. The enemies before her, or beside her, or behind her all crashed into one another and crumpled from the impacts. But did a victory await at the end of all that—? “Rusalka, return to base!” “Please don’t stop me, sir! I still have plenty of endurance! I—” “Even if you’re fine, your plane isn’t! You need fuel and ammo! Listen to me, you idiot!” “But—” That was when Michelle suddenly broke in. “But nothing. That was an order, Major Evereska!” As she was arguing with Alejandro, Michelle’s cool voice brought her to her senses like a douse of cool water. Inhaling sharply, she realized just how pathetic her Spitfire must look. The paint was flaking, and parts of the innards were peeking out here and there. The reason the wind had become oddly annoying was because the windshield shattered, and she realized long after the fact that a stray shard of it had cut her neck. Somewhere along the way, her plane had become covered in wounds. And it was not just her. All of the Valkyries, the reinforcements included, were badly beaten up. They were certainly dealing damage to the secondaries protecting Mistletoe, but they couldn’t quite seem to reach the tipping point. “Sorry, but we’ll be stealing the show here.” As she realized the situation, a spirited voice reached her ears. Looking out, she saw it was not just a single person, either. Arrow-like jets were leaping into the line of fire against the pillars to cover the fatigued Valkyries—state-of-the-art Typhoon jets were joining the fray. They were steady allies when it came to fighting pillars, and their reliability paled only in comparison to the sorrow they embodied. “Against Mistletoe…” “Yep. He’s our mortal enemy! Which makes this hero time.” There was no one in the skies who would laugh his words off as mere bravado. It wasn’t just the air force pilots, either. She could see the ground forces departing from the base as well. All of them lacked any divine blessing to protect them against Mistletoe’s power. None of them really believed they could defeat the secondary. They were all laying down their lives to buy just a second of breathing room for the Valkyries. And by adding up all those seconds they sacrificed themselves for, they believed the Valkyries would reach the enemy’s throat for them. “Go take a breather, Valk. And maybe bring us an ale when you get back.” There was an unshakable faith in his confident voice that caused Rusalka to exhale slowly. Something about it triggered a memory, a memory from when she had folded up her wings and served for a brief time as an operator. The exchange she had had with that infantry officer. Just like then, the only words she had for the men charging to their deaths was— “—I love you.” “” There was a moment of silence— “Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!” —followed by a boisterous laugh. Listening closely, it was not just the pilot she had been speaking to who was guffawing; it was all the men listening on the radio. And their response was— “Ahhh, we’ve got the blessing of the goddess with us. Forget God, men. We’ve got a goddess’s love!” The pilot howled in high spirits as the others cheered. Talk of love and being called a goddess were a heavy burden, but if that could help them in any way, if that could give them the strength to fight on just a little bit longer, then she would accept it with pride. Seconds later, the blue sky was filled with explosive fireworks. Conventional weapons were largely ineffective against the pillars. But humanity had not just been twiddling their thumbs, waiting to die before Odin revealed himself. They had developed several different meaningful, effective tactics. One of which was saturation fire—overwhelming the enemies’ abilities to keep up with a wave of constant attacks to buy time. There was a heroic tank officer who once said that it wasn’t explosives that would take down the pillars; it was guts. And he had been right. The tertiaries were assaulted by waves of antiair missiles and shells launched by self-propelled artillery. Even if they couldn’t crack the pillars’ stout defenses, the explosions and the shock waves that accompanied the flames were enough to momentarily stall the pillars’ advance and delay humanity’s destruction by a tiny amount. And as humanity embarked on that desperate tightrope walk of resistance, the pillars mercilessly bathed the soldiers in their destructive light, sending one brave man after the next to his death— “—Gh.” Gritting her teeth, Rusalka wheeled around, setting a course back to the base’s runway. Seeing her battered Spitfire land, the crews rushed out of the hangar and immediately got to work. Crawling out of the cockpit as that went on all around her, Rusalka looked for a place to get a moment of rest. Her legs were wobbling, and there was a decent chance she would have just sunk to the ground right then and there. “—Get ahold of yourself, cutie. It’d set a bad example if you plopped down here.” “Chief Reever…” She looked up as Roger grabbed her arm before she could collapse. The tall technician was covered in oil and grease, a smile on his chiseled face as he flashed her a wink. “At the very least, you’ve got to keep up appearances. I’ll get her ready for you to fly again in a jiffy.” Saying that, Roger pressed a towel and a bottle of water into her hands before quickly joining the crews working on the plane. Having come back for a brief respite at Alejandro’s orders, the Valkyries went to get what little rest they could as the emergency repairs, refueling, and reloading continued at a fever pitch. Watching the frantic rush, Rusalka leaned back against a wall and sat down on the ground. Considering her rank, it would have been preferable not to look feeble or slovenly, but the exhaustion she felt was all-consuming. The fatigue that hadn’t bothered her one bit while flying suddenly came crashing down all at once the moment she landed. And she had not had any time to worry about it while flying, but— “…Transformation…” Opening her flight jacket slightly, she could see the faint light emanating from her chest. The barely perceptible tiny sapling was making its presence known. When she tried to touch it, her fingers mysteriously passed right through it, but there was still obviously something there. And just like what Natalie experienced, there was a feeling that accompanied it of having her life force gradually sucked away. Closing the jacket, she pushed the transformation from her mind. But she could not just ignore Mistletoe’s intrusions entirely, either, since she was not the only one being affected. The pillars had begun their attack two hours ago, and Mistletoe itself had not moved even a centimeter from where it had first appeared. However, its terrible influence over the surroundings was slowly spreading. The ultimate proof of that was the repair crews going about their work—it was clear the same sort of saplings were already sprouting from their shoulders and backs. They had always known that what made Mistletoe so terrible was its indiscriminate encroachment. All the soldiers gathered at the base, the ones who were even now fighting outside, knew what would happen when they made their decisions, and they had long since accepted their fates. The aviators, infantry, and gunners, the repair crews and signal officers, and even the medical officers. Every last one of them knew. In other words, the scene before her was— “—All of humanity is truly united in this fight.” Rusalka looked up as someone said exactly what she had been thinking. Glancing in the direction of the voice, she saw a girl walking toward her, her flight cap off and her long blond hair swaying behind her. “Claudia…” “It’s quite the intense battle, Major… I knew that going in, but even so.” Wiping the sweat from her brow, Claudia took a deep breath. Even she could not hide her exhaustion, but there was a distress apart from fatigue in her blue eyes. Recognizing that the true source of that emotion was a sense of guilt, Rusalka narrowed her eyes. “…I’m sure you have your own thoughts on the matter, but you don’t need to worry that this is the fault of you or Shirin. Don’t get the wrong idea.” “…That’s surprising… Can you read people’s minds, Major?” “Your sister’s the only one with a special ability like that… No…” Shaking her head, Rusalka remembered there was one other person who seemed to have an ability like that. Amy. Thinking back on it, she had often seemed to have an oddly good instinct. Rusalka had assumed it was just the First’s top-class observation skills, but it would make a lot of sense if she could read minds. If she had been able to see into Rusalka’s heart, then what had she been thinking when she had wanted to talk that last night? “Major?” “Sorry, I got a little distracted… I cannot read minds. If I had such an ability, I suspect I would have been able to get through life with many fewer problems.” “I’m not so sure. From my perspective, it would be hard to say that Shiri has lived her life adroitly. And I was never able to understand the worries and pains that she bore through it all.” Seeing the look of shame in Claudia’s gallant figure, Rusalka felt a pain in her chest unrelated to the sapling that had taken root there. The cause was unmistakably what had happened in Hlidskjalf. Claudia wasn’t aware. She didn’t know the feelings her sister held deep in her heart, the resolve she carried as she offered herself up to restore Gjallarhorn in the ritual happening behind the scenes of this battle. Shirin had not told her sister the truth that she was the one being targeted by the pillars. Odin had said it was a lie to protect herself, to keep her elder sister from abandoning her, and Claudia had believed him. Believed that it was a lie she had been forced to tell out of a desire to remain with her beloved sister. But Rusalka knew that interpretation was false. Shirin’s goal in lying was to protect Claudia, who in turn was trying to protect her. The two sisters cared deeply for each other, and as a result, their bond had been offered up to God, only to disappear from the world. Rusalka would be the only one to know the truth. Once the ritual was complete, Claudia would forget the reason why she had chosen to take to the skies. Rusalka was unsure whether that was really okay— “—Major, I am fighting alongside you and everyone else here.” Having slipped into thought for a moment, her focus was pulled back to reality by that powerful statement. There was a fortitude in Claudia’s voice as she stood in front of Rusalka, looking out at the repair crews working on their Deus ex Machinas and, beyond them, to their comrades still fighting in the sky. She had the shortest time of service of anyone fighting that day, the least combat experience, and the weakest foundation as a Valkyrie. And yet, it almost looked as if her back bore wings clad in a radiant light. Seeing that, the thought that immediately crossed Rusalka’s mind slipped past her lips before she even realized what had happened. “Amy…” “Major? Is there…? Ah.” Claudia turned around, only for her eyes to widen in surprise when she saw Rusalka. Rusalka was going to ask what had caught her so off guard when— “Ahhh?! Th-the major’s crying! This ain’t funny!” All of a sudden, there was a loud shout that cut through the din of the hangar. The source was Lisbeth, who looked absolutely indignant. Having returned to the ground, she was pointing to Rusalka as she continued in a loud voice. “The fight’s not even over yet, so why are you crying?! Is this your fault, Claudia?!” “Stop it, Liz! I’m sure the major has her own thoughts concerning her…” “I-I’m not sure what I did, but if it is my fault, I apologize…” Leili was holding Lisbeth back as she started to reach for Claudia, who nervously raised her hands in a show of innocence. “” Watching them, Rusalka put her hand to her cheek. Just like Lisbeth said, her cheek was wet with tears. It had been a long time since she had last cried. And the last time had been— “—From my experience, you’re surprisingly prone to waterworks.” “—Ngh.” Rusalka suddenly turned around at the unexpected voice. Someone who had no business being down in the hangar was standing at the entrance—Alejandro. Why was the commanding officer, who should have been holed up in the command post, tracking the flow of the battle down there? “Obviously to light a fire under any crybabies. But looks like that won’t be necessary.” Rusalka frantically wiped her tears as the blond lion chuckled at her expense. It was likely he hadn’t been lying. He was probably worried about a drop in morale among the Valkyries who had come back and wanted to encourage them personally. And he surely understood the reason behind Rusalka’s tears. They were not a sign of morale breaking, let alone her will to fight collapsing—they were tears of joy at finally being able to fight alongside the wings she should have joined once before. “Colonel! Should you really be here? Aren’t you kinda busy?” Lisbeth wondered aloud. “Yeah, it’s pretty bad up there. I forced Heyman to handle things for a bit, so I’m sure I’ll get an earful when I get back. But seeing your faces has been a relief.” “Our faces?” Leili asked. “That’s right. No broken spirits here. You’re all still as beautiful as ever.” Lisbeth and Leili, not used to dealing with Alejandro, were slightly taken aback by his playboy-like joke and wink. But Claudia, who was unshakable to begin with, and Rusalka, who had long ago grown used to dealing with him, were different. “Depending on how we looked, would you not have been relieved, sir?” asked Claudia. “That’s right. The fate of humanity is on the line here. I can’t rely on someone who has lost their will in the key moment. If your spirits had been broken, I would have to start thinking about how to organize a retreat.” If it started to look like defeat was inevitable, Alejandro would have to consider the best way to manage the loss as the commander leading the battle. If it became clear they were going to suffer irrecoverable damage, he could not afford to just order his subordinates out on a suicide charge. He had come down to the hangar resolved to potentially make that final choice. “But all that has gone out the window. So all that remains is to win,” Rusalka concluded. “…Sheesh, just when you show a few tears for once, you’re back to being as uncute as ever.” “…Are you sure you weren’t just imagining things, sir?” Not interested in giving in to his teasing, Rusalka tried to brush off her tears. Alejandro just smiled without saying anything, and Leili covered Lisbeth’s mouth before she could say anything, either. And then Alejandro looked around at the faces of all the Valkyries there. “As you know, those bodyguard secondaries are in the way of us beating Mistletoe. But seeing how the tertiaries seem to be getting revived, we can’t assume that doesn’t apply to those secondaries, too. So if we’re going to take them out, we have to do all three at once.” Unease swept over the gathered Valkyries at that concerning statement. These were powerful enemies that had not fallen in almost two hours of fighting. Most of those listening could hardly think it anything more than an absurd pipe dream. The first one to raise her hand was the fearless Claudia. “Sir, forgive my insolence in speaking out of turn during my first time seeing combat, but is it not reckless to aim to defeat all three at the same time? They have suffered significant damage, so it’s probably not impossible, but…” “Don’t worry—it’s our job to be the tailwind that helps you carry out such a reckless plan.” “Do you have a method in mind?” “We haven’t just been twiddling our thumbs in the command center these past two hours. We’ve finished analyzing the enemy secondaries’ attack patterns. But we’re only going to get one shot at this plan.” Alejandro held up three fingers in response to Claudia’s earnest concern. But he did not mean three plans. He meant three Valkyries. Claudia, Lisbeth, and Leili. “Forget about combat experience. Right now, you three are the most powerful single fighters Sigrdrifa has. That’s why I’m giving you the job. One-on-one. You three need to take down one of the secondaries protecting Mistletoe each.” “” “And here I was all ready to break out the ‘it’s not a question of can or can’t’ line.” Seeing the three of them digest his order in their own ways, Alejandro closed an eye. “I mean, there’s nothing else to say, right?” Lisbeth said as she rustled her short hair. “We’re way the hell past the point of We can’t or It’s impossible. If you’re sayin’ we’re the only ones who can do it, then we’ll do it—we’ll save the world.” “I agree with Liz… Though I would have put it more elegantly.” “Come again?!” As Lisbeth and Leili finally managed to find some sort of balance on the ground, too, Claudia snapped to attention and saluted. “You do me a great honor, sir. I will do my best to live up to the faith you’ve put in me.” “…Who would believe she’s a newly minted Valkyrie? I guess she takes after Rusalka?” “Sir, this isn’t the time for jok—” Rusalka started to rebuke Alejandro’s response to Claudia’s earnestness, but before she could finish— “—I would like to think so at least, sir.” “Eh…” That was all Rusalka could muster in response. Claudia stood tall, maintaining her earnest gaze as she turned to Rusalka. “It is perhaps presumptuous, but I have relied heavily on your records as my model for how to be a Valkyrie, Major. Your wings in the air. The way you carry yourself on the ground. I would say that I have learned much from you, ma’am. The colonel is correct. It is just self-proclaimed, but I consider myself your student, Major.” “” “And I think the same can be said for everyone who has learned from the Second Valkyrie.” Claudia then looked to the rest of the Valkyries for agreement. Her gaze moved from Lisbeth and Leili to Shannon and everyone else who had also come over to join them. Faced with her straightforward gaze utterly lacking in malice, they glanced at one another. “I’ve respected the major for a long time. It’s not any different now.” The first to respond was Shannon, whom Rusalka had known since Hamburg. “A student of the major… If it is not too presumptuous, I would be honored to call myself that. I consider it the greatest fortune to have been able to fly with you and learn from you.” Leili was the type who never had to try to achieve the top marks at whatever she studied, but there was a certain passion in her response. “I’m the opposite from Lily. I’m always suffering ’cause of you. If I hadn’t met you, I never would have endured any of that… But if I hadn’t met you, I would have been dead a long time ago, too. So I guess I’m grateful.” Lisbeth linked her hands behind her head, an aggrieved sullenness seeping into her begrudging tone. And the other Valkyries all looking to Rusalka had the same trust and faith in their gazes. Even as they turned to the one among them who was surely the weakest there, turning their gazes onto the weak, foolish Valkyrie who had done nothing more than fly longer than anyone else. “Amy talked about it, how Valkyries are all sisters flying together to achieve the same goal.” Rusalka inhaled sharply at Alejandro’s words. “Valkyries are sisters.” Amy had told her that, too. At the time, she had not really agreed or disagreed. And she had not really thought about it again until today— “In that sense, that would make you, the one who’s flown as a Valkyrie longer than anyone else, the eldest sister of all the Valkyries here.” Alejandro set his hand lightly on her head. Rusalka could not make herself reject the warmth of his palm. A far greater shock had pierced her breast. The feeling was entirely different from when she had first heard it from Amy. Or perhaps that had been the same sort of feeling Amy had carried, trying to be everyone’s elder sister with that small frame of hers. A loving affection for the Valkyries, her fellow sisters, who were all flying with the same future in mind. “It’s a big burden being the oldest, ya know?” Lisbeth spoke from experience. “…I grew up the youngest with two older brothers, so I always wanted to have younger siblings.” Looking back, meeting the gazes of all the Valkyries looking to her, Rusalka exhaled. All the Valkyries there, and all those not assembled there as well—they were sisters who shared the same wings. What a large family. “I never would have thought I would end up with so many younger sisters.” “—Ha-ha-ha! That’s the spirit.” Alejandro moved his hand from her head and laughed at her response. Then his face hardened as he firmly planted his feet. The Valkyries snapped to attention as one. “Once the preparations are in order, prepare for a simultaneous attack on Mistletoe. Crown, Haltija, and Brafford will take down the three secondaries. Rusalka, you pry open the route to Mistletoe.” “Yes, sir.” “And once it’s open—” Alejandro turned his gaze to the back of the group. At the tail end of the line stood a girl who had been watching in silence throughout. The decisive weapon against Mistletoe—Alma Conturo. Her angelic face bore the expression of a warrior as she nodded. “I will take Mistletoe down. I won’t mess up this time.” She pressed her hand against her chest, as if crushing the sapling that had started to sprout there. Her powerful resolve was undoubtedly the will of all Sigrdrifa. Hearing that and seeing the Valkyries burning with a renewed determination, Alejandro nodded. “—I’m proud to serve with you all.” 8 The battle intensified. He could see an explosion to his right and then to his left. The bullets from his growling machine guns bounced off the enemy’s outer shell right as he just barely managed to twist his jet to avoid the return fire of light rounds. Slipping past an enemy’s lifeless gleam, he pulled off yet another miracle in a long list of close calls that he had already lost count of. “Anyone else would’ve kicked the bucket a long time ago…” In awe of the skills he had awakened to in such a dire fight, the man looked down at his hands. Gripping the stick were the godlike hands that had pulled off the miracle of surviving the last dozen minutes—though they had already lost most of their original shape. The transformation—the cataclysmic pillar’s green death, which looked almost tranquil in its aftermath. He had noticed the early signs of it even before taking off, but it had accelerated dramatically once he was in the air. The same effect was afflicting the other pilots, too. Where it started and what parts of their body it violated next came down to pure chance. There had been many jets that had already dropped out of the sky because the process started at the pilot’s head. On that point, he was one of the lucky ones, since it had started at his legs, and he could still feel his fingers. “…That said… I’m reaching…my limit…” The difficulty in speaking was because the transformation had reached his torso and upper body. His lungs and other organs were already being changed, and he couldn’t explain how he was still breathing. Or what was keeping his body moving after his heart had become wooden. “Ob…vious…ly…” What was it that was driving this brave aviator—and all the people at the base—fighting for the fate of humanity? It couldn’t be anything but the dauntless, gallant figures of the girls who conquered the same terror and flew in the same skies as them. The Valkyries were what buoyed the spirits of the men going out to fight alongside those brave girls. Fighting for the sake of the Valkyrie who said that she loved them. “Gotta…show…off…for…” Struggling to speak, the man relied on the ingrained reflexes he had harnessed in battle after battle to evade the incoming attacks as he turned his fighter’s nose straight at the pillar’s body, charging straight at it. He could not make any progress with smaller calibers, so the only choice was to smash it with something even larger— “—Gh.” Just before his final display of obstinate will, he heard a voice over the radio. His ears were apparently still unchanged. Somehow, he managed to focus on the sounds— “—Sigrdrifa is returning to the battle!” He heard the rousing voice of a Valkyrie. The same voice that had said she loved them was calling out loud and clear over the radio, signaling their return to keep hope alive. “…Ahhh…she’s…really a…great woman…” He smiled in pure admiration. And the next moment his jet crashed straight into the center of a tertiary, explo— There was an explosion as another fighter jet crashed straight into a tertiary. As the transformation progressed and they stopped being able to take evasion actions, they resorted to the final measure, at least trying to take the enemy with them when they went. They couldn’t penetrate the pillars’ shells with their weapons, so they resorted to a kamikaze attack, using their own jets as their greatest firepower. And that was how the men who had taken to the skies to buy just a few minutes for the Valkyries met their ends. The vast majority of jets that had taken off from the base had already gone down, and the few pilots remaining would join them soon. They had taken to the skies knowing that was what would happen. So at the very least— “I won’t let your sacrifices go to waste…!” Rusalka roared as she led Sigrdrifa back into the air. Getting refueled and reloaded had been a rush job, and most of their Deus ex Machinas couldn’t truthfully be said to be in perfect working order, either. But they would just have to make up for it with however much explosives, bullets, and a sense of duty they could pack into their planes. “Scatter! Stick to the plan!” “—Roger!” With a reliable response from her squadron, the battle continued anew. Weaving through the gaps in the hail of light rounds, Rusalka used herself to draw the enemies in and lead them to the slaughter at the hands of the Valkyries following behind her. She used the cracks in the pillars’ shells, opened by the men’s valiant sacrifices, to slip her own shots into the enemies’ cores, shattering the hated pillars. Meanwhile, the three strongest Valkyries flew through explosions of light that came from dying tertiaries as they turned to face the three secondary pillars. “I’m gettin’ really tired of that crap!!!” Lisbeth Crown turned into a barrel roll, acrobatically evading the incoming fire pouring down on her. In contrast to her violent personality, her plane’s movements were delicate and subtle, practically composing a dance routine as she flew through the skies. She was staring down the blue pillar that looked like an amalgamation of countless spheres. When she closed in tight to it, they exploded from the inside out, catching the surrounding tertiaries in the overwhelming force of the attack before regrouping to a different location to repeat the move and fend off the tenacious Valkyrie once more. Lisbeth had been foiled countless times because of that idiosyncratic attack— “You think you can get away from meeeeee?!” Closely following the sphere that was splitting and trying to get away, she pushed her Deus ex Machina past its limits. Her wings creaked, her fuselage cracked, and fragments started streaming away, but it did not break, and the wings held. The machine was a reflection of its pilot’s unyielding, indomitable spirit. Silencing the wails of her plane, Lisbeth transformed into a demonic bullet launched straight at the enemy’s heart. Dogfighting was Lisbeth’s specialty—there was no one in the world who could best her. Twisting her body and launching into a turn, Lisbeth aimed for the main body of the pillar that was trying to escape. Because it split into clones to hide, its main body’s defenses were not as strong as it could be. That was her target. The spheres all took aim at her as she closely followed the main body, but she had no intention of getting knocked out of the sky by some flailing. She just tore into them, cutting down on the total number of spheres even as she maintained her pursuit— “Go and apologize to my family and everyone else who’s died…!” Tears ran down her cheeks as she nailed the secondary’s main body with a blast from her guns. At the same moment, Leili Haltija was approaching her target secondary. She could hear Lisbeth’s passionate shout over the radio. In contrast to her, Leili’s heart was quiet as she threaded the needle through the enemy’s hurricane-like attacks. Less so calm and collected, her stance was one of almost detachment. She was aware that she was lacking in strength compared to the other two who had been assigned the same mission. On talent alone, she had been able to accomplish anything without trouble or effort since long ago, but that was her limit. She could be top-class, but she would never stand at the very top. It had been the same for everything she had practiced, from piano to dance to schoolwork. And it had been the same when she became a Valkyrie as well. Fate had chosen for Leili to be a jack-of-all-trades. “I’ve cursed my lot before, but…” She had also scorned herself for not being serious enough, for being unable to overcome the walls she encountered, for not being desperate enough to break out of her shell. But— “I’m glad I’m like this.” Able to accomplish anything without trouble, never becoming obsessed with anything, never getting too attached, reaching her current position by merely going with the flow and simply reacting to things that happened around her. But because she had been like that, she had been able to take part in such an important battle. She had never been best in anything—but she was able to protect the people she loved most. “” As Leili closed in, the silver secondary came spinning at high speed. The snakelike pillar that was coiled around a single support column was moving at a blistering speed in order to hide its weak point. Apparently, we’re both fond of keeping up appearances. But in that case, I can guess where your weak point is. Homing in on the weak spot that was twisting in a spiral around the column, Leili’s Deus ex Machina became one with the wind. As a sonic boom cracked in the air, the pillar’s long torso was split in half. And after she flew out of the torso, which had been severed by the sheer force of the wind, the enemy’s weak point, the vandrande, came into view. “Unfortunately, I am just a tad bit better at keeping up appearances.” And then Leili unflinchingly launched the final strike— The thoughts left to her, the hope placed in her—they all gave Claudia Brafford strength. This was her first battle. She was utterly lacking in experience. She hadn’t even been counted as a comrade of the people of the base for long, and this battle had begun because of her and her sister. Yes, not just her sister. She and Shirin both shared responsibility. Even if a god said otherwise, that did not change how she felt about the matter. That was because she and her sister had shared everything from the moment they had been born. “—Stop trying to carry everything all by yourself and rely on your elder sister a little, Shiri.” At that very moment, Shirin was with Odin, embarking on the ritual to reform a sacred treasure. She did not know the details of what that involved, and Shirin had refused to tell her. She said it was because it was embarrassing, but that was surely a lie. Shirin was masterful with her words, worldly wise, and skilled at acting like a spoiled child, but she was terrible at lying when it really counted. Bad enough that even Claudia, as terrible as she was at deciphering the subtleties of others’ emotions, could see through her lies. “Don’t worry about me, Sister. Go on now. Get out there and protect me already.” Those were the last words she had said before Claudia left for battle. She had been beautiful in the sheer white silk gown she was wearing for the ritual. It evoked a scene out of ancient legend, and it caused Claudia’s chest to tighten. There was something about it that made the sister she had known from birth feel distant and fragile. Once the fighting was over and she was sure Shirin was safe, she would have to force her to explain exactly what it was she was hiding. Even if a god had sworn her to secrecy. It was only natural for an elder sister to be desperate to protect her younger sister. She would even fight a god if she had to. So— “—I’m afraid I must insist such a vulgar enemy leave the stage!” Claudia shouted as the soft and flabby, mucus-like torso of the secondary pillar before her eyes quivered. It scattered the liquid that formed its body not at Claudia but at the tertiaries surrounding it, swallowing them up and fusing with them. The tertiaries it consumed started glowing red and swelled. Each grew to a size that practically made them pseudo-secondaries, and they were all blocking Claudia’s way. “” The enemy was a single secondary and around thirty ersatz secondaries. Unbeknownst to Claudia, her blood started racing, and she licked her lips. Her black Gladiator tore through the blue sky. The sun was still high. In a sky too bright for stars to be seen, her jet-black fuselage became like a shooting star. She drilled into her marks, shattering those before her— Following the arc her plane drew, one imitation secondary after another exploded in her wake. She kept her machine-gun bursts to the minimum, but her aim had a deadly precision, perfectly hitting the weak point that afflicted every pillar, their cores—the vandrande, which was the source of the absorption that granted them power. “If you hit the weak point, it won’t matter how large or small the enemy might be. I’ve grown tired of your tricks!” While the theory was nothing new, there were few Valkyries who could even hope to pull it off with any consistency. Wielding a natural talent that could not be held back by a lack of experience, Claudia closed in on the secondary that was still trying to resist. Sensing danger, it spread its body thin, almost as if it had exploded, sending its red core swimming swiftly through the flowing body— “Too late.” But she had already foreseen that it would try that. That it would attempt to flee as fast as it could once the tide of battle had turned against it. That was only natural. She and her sister had always been fleeing their fate in just the same way. But— “There is no escaping fate.” With that cruel pronouncement, her wing, clad in wind, bore down on the red core— 9 Three enormous flashes of light illuminated the battlefield at the same time. In the blink of an eye, massive trees blinked into existence, imbued with all the life force contained within the secondary pillars that had been there just a split second earlier. Those trees falling to the earth were proof of an incredibly difficult mission having been accomplished— “The three secondary pillars have all been annihilated! Only Mistletoe remains!” Rusalka could sense even Michelle’s iron mask cracking slightly over the radio as she reported the unprecedented feat. However, it was not just limited to her. Everyone who heard the report and everyone who saw the scene clenched their fists at the miracles those three had pulled off. With the three bodyguards peeled away, Mistletoe’s defenses had been neutralized. There were still several thousand tertiaries left, but compared to the secondaries, the difference was like night and day. This was their chance. “—Rusalka!” “I know! Converge on Mistletoe!” Rusalka aimed her wings straight toward the enemy at Alejandro’s encouragement. She needed to open a path to Mistletoe so Alma could get through. With her firepower, they could incinerate the enemy whole. If they could just manage that, they would— “” —win. But just as Rusalka thought that, she sensed the sapling in her chest pulsing. She didn’t know what it meant, but it wasn’t something she could ignore. “Evasive maneu— Gh!” She immediately shouted, pulling her Deus ex Machina into a loop—just as an intense ray of white light filled the sky, just barely grazing her wings and fuselage. It was an attack from Mistletoe just when they were about to bombard it with concentrated fire. Ordinarily, Mistletoe tended to watch over the battlefields it appeared on, but on a few rare occasions it had displayed an omnidirectional, wide-ranging suppression attack. “Gh…” The premonition she had felt from the sapling’s pulse had saved Rusalka’s life by the skin of her teeth. But it had also completely robbed her of her momentum. She immediately maneuvered to take up position again. She needed to continue the attack run as soon as possible. As she was thinking that, she prepared to order the Valkyries to form back up and execute their plan. But then she realized that the only one who had fully evaded it was her. “Wha…?” Other Valkyries had managed to react to her shout. Many had succeeded in avoiding a direct hit from the light ray. But most had lost a wing or engine function and were belching black smoke as they bled altitude. That was not the worst of it, though. The Valkyries in the air were not the only ones subjected to the ray. It had reached Holm base, too, and there were tendrils of flames rising from all the facilities. Just like at Hamburg before, the command post had taken a direct hit. The damage was almost as bad. “Command! Come in, command!” She desperately called for a response, but there was only static. Imagining the worst, she called out again, determined to continue the attack in the air at the very least. “—Gh! Alma?!” “…I’m okay. I went high. But…” The lynchpin of their attack was still safe and operational, but that wasn’t reason enough to breathe easily. Her half-finished thought was proof of the fatal position they were in. Looking around, well over a thousand tertiaries had also been scorched by Mistletoe’s attack, but there were several times that number still in the air. Meanwhile— “Lisbeth! Leili! Claudia!” The three who had each taken down a secondary solo had been caught off guard by Mistletoe’s attack in the immediate aftermath of their hard-won battles. She could see their three planes trailing smoke badly in the distance. But it did not end there. No matter how she counted it, the only ones who could continue fighting on their side were her and Alma. “Rusalka…” “—Gh. Maintain altitude! I’ll open a path for you!” “…Got it…” Nodding at Rusalka’s instructions, Alma nosed her Lancaster up, gaining altitude. With her flying far above the heads of the swarming tertiaries, they still had a chance of winning if she could just drop her Grand Slam on target. The problem was that they had just lost the fighting strength necessary to open that path for her. “” Retreat was not an option. The enemy wouldn’t retreat, either. Pulling back would only mean getting overwhelmed. But even if Rusalka resolved herself to a suicidal charge, she knew she wouldn’t achieve much. If at least one of those three were still able to fight— “—Rusalka, can you hear me?” The next instant, Rusalka almost cried when she heard a man’s voice over the radio. She turned her face to the radio, clinging to that voice. “I can hear you! Are you uninjured, Colonel?! Alma and I are the only ones still capable of continuing combat operations! I am going to open the route to Mistletoe myself so that she can—” “Even you can’t do that alone.” When he rejected the only answer that she had been able to find as she struggled to think of any answer, her mind went blank. But before despair could overwhelm her, Alejandro continued: “So I’m sending you one more Valkyrie. Make a miracle happen, Rusalka.” “…Another? Who could…?” Every Valkyrie who could be mustered should have been sent up long ago. But they had all suffered hits from Mistletoe’s attack and were unable to keep fighting. So what Valkyrie had he—? “You can’t mean—” “—Indeed, Major.” The only possibility that suddenly came to mind was confirmed by none other than the Valkyrie herself. Rusalka gasped as a silver Spitfire leaped into the fray, taking the place of the Valkyries who were rapidly approaching the ground— “Natalie?!” “Yes, ma’am. I couldn’t just stand by and watch from the sidelines, so I took to the skies as well.” Natalie Chase, who should have been in her sickbed, had taken flight. —With just three Valkyries left, Sigrdrifa entered the endgame. 10 When she was asked why she became a Valkyrie, Natalie Chase’s answer came down to pride. A sort of noblesse oblige. Natalie had a strong belief in the duty of those who were born to high standing and thought they should always behave in a manner befitting that privileged position. Because of that, when she was judged to have the aptitude to become a Valkyrie, she had rejected her parents’ objections and not hesitated to receive Odin’s divine blessing. Even as the exhaustion caused by the encroaching transformation intensified and she struggled to even breathe, she never allowed it to show on her face. She knew she was an unfilial daughter. But she hoped her parents would understand. She had been born a daughter of the Chase family, and she was proud to fulfill her duty. The silver and red Spitfires danced as one, smashing through the enemy formation. By some twist of fate, Natalie had been granted the same model of Deus ex Machina as Rusalka. However, their planes’ images were like mirror reflections of each other. Natalie, with her red hair, flew a silver Spitfire, while Rusalka, with her silver hair, flew a crimson Spitfire. Natalie secretly believed it was destiny. Deus ex Machinas were reflections of the disposition of the Valkyrie to whom they were granted. In Natalie’s case, it was aspiration. Before she had become a Valkyrie, she had encountered a disaster caused by pillars. She had been a volunteer doing disaster relief when the pillars attacked the refugee camp she was working at. She had called out frantically, doing her best to help the people around her as much as she could. But in the terrible panic, she had been powerless. It was the first true failure she had ever experienced in her life—and it might well have been the last in a life cut short. It was in that moment of hopelessness that a flight led by a crimson Spitfire had clashed with the pillars and drawn them away from the refugee camp. The instant those red wings cut through the despair that filled the skies had been seared into Natalie’s mind ever since. That image was always there, always asserting itself. That yearning more than anything else was why Natalie Chase had become a Valkyrie— “With how poorly you value yourself, I’m sure you never understood just how much of an honor I considered it to be able to fly in the same squadron as you.” Having received a matching set of wings, and having been assigned to the same base and later the same squadron, she had seen Rusalka at her worst as well as her resurrection. She could not count how many times she had felt grateful to be able to fly side by side with those reborn red wings, striving toward the same bright future. How many times she had struggled to hold in the swell of emotions that threated to overrun her defenses. How many times she had wanted to come clean, to convey just how grateful she was for that day. “Natalie! The left!” “Understood!” Natalie’s soul trembled as Rusalka’s instructions streamed in over the radio. Her gleaming silver fuselage swinging wide, Natalie let loose with her machine guns at the tertiaries pressing in from the side. Several of them were caught up in the explosion, and she forcibly twisted her plane to dive through the opening that created. The tertiaries had crafted a complex multilayered defense, but Natalie and Rusalka managed to slice through those barriers with just their two planes, pushing forward to create an opening for Alma’s lethal shot to pass. “………” Alma’s unease came through in the silence on the line as she maintained altitude. As ever, the changes in her expression were minor, but she had begun to show a wealth of emotions. Though perhaps it was just that Natalie had gotten better at reading the minute changes after getting closer to her. She had thought for the longest time that Alma had disliked her. But she had been surprised by how devoted Alma had been in coming to see her after finding out about her condition. And she also regretted that there was still so much she didn’t know about Alma, who was so kindhearted and compassionate. And she had stumbled upon several other realizations, too. She had been run around in circles so many times by Shannon since their days in training, but that was just a manifestation of how wide her perspective was and how considerate she was of those around her. And while she had been concerned about how Lisbeth and Leili would turn out at first, she had been able to see the signs of their growth already. And the newest member, Claudia. There were so many things she had wanted to talk about with her. What she liked, what she didn’t. What she hoped to do now that she was a Valkyrie. Natalie had wanted to talk with her, to understand each other. They would surely have been able to get along well. “Since we are all Valkyrie sisters.” “Natalie?” “Do you know, Major? Sigrdrifa is apparently a word that refers to the very first Valkyrie.” Spreading her wings as the enemies filled the skies, Natalie’s heart was mysteriously at peace. Perhaps that was just because Mistletoe’s encroachment had expanded and was starting to reach her heart and lungs. Not that she was in the mood to crack a joke about being in a vegetative state. She had heard the origin of the word Sigrdrifa from Odin. It was what the very first Valkyrie, the beloved eldest daughter who had received God’s divine blessing, had been called. In that sense, it assuredly referred to the First, Amy. However, having lost her, the eldest of the Valkyrie sisters still flying through the war-torn skies even now was the Valkyrie who had once been called the Crushed Crimson, someone utterly lacking in self-confidence. However, that is exactly why Natalie believed she was most deserving of that name. Rusalka Evereska, the one who had become the eldest of so many Valkyries, was— “Sigrdrifa, the wings of victory.” “” “Major, you are the manifestation of our hope. You are the guiding light of the Valkyries. You are my ideal. You are Sigrdrifa, the Valkyrie who brings victory.” She could feel Rusalka’s speechlessness over the radio when she said that. Smiling faintly at that reaction, Natalie nudged her nose through a gap in the tertiaries toward Mistletoe. Her body was in terrible condition. But she had only just started flying. Unlike Rusalka, who had been fighting for hours, she had focus to spare. In fact, she felt more focused than she ever had before. Weaving through the onrushing enemies, she clipped their wings with her machine guns. Slapping down the jaws trying to tear at her fuselage with her blessed wings, she misdirected the enemies to crash into each other before slipping through the openings they left behind. And then— “I can see it!” As she burst through the explosions of light, she saw the path to Mistletoe open before her. Accelerating, Natalie pressed in on the enormous amalgamation of giant trees. The next instant, Mistletoe unleashed the power it had been building, letting loose another omnidirectional blast of light. It also closed in on Natalie, unerring in its aim, but— “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!” With a roar, fighter jets charged out in front of Natalie, intercepting the ray of light. A small handful of brave pilots who had managed to keep flying even when so many Valkyries had been grounded. There were only six of them, but in that moment, without any signal or planning among them, they had thrown themselves between Natalie and the devastating beam of light, giving her just a split second longer to react. She didn’t let that moment go to waste. The six jets disappeared into the light in an explosion, but Natalie’s silver Spitfire escaped, bearing down unerringly on Mistletoe. “Aaaaaaaaaah!!!” The moment she reached Mistletoe, which never allowed any enemy to approach it, Natalie subconsciously broke into a ragged bellow. Controlling the stick subconsciously, she twisted through the innumerable tree trunks composing its body, dodging, evading, and eluding the branches stretching out to her that seemed to be guided by a consciousness. Her movements were superhuman, like a work of art. Having gotten that close, Natalie’s aim was a single point on the floating island. The vandrande, the weak point of all pillars and the point that needed to be hit or else they would not fall. Mistletoe was no different in that regard. Even if Alma landed her Grand Slam, if the vandrande somehow managed to escape the blast, Mistletoe would not be defeated. And with such a vast body to hide it in, Natalie and Natalie alone could tell instinctively where it was hiding. Because— “Right now, you and I are almost one and the same.” With her transformation progressing at a steady clip, Natalie was standing firmly with one foot on either side of the line. Looking down at her chest, where her heart had already ceased to beat, the pulsing green life growing there was celebrating the return to its mother. It was seeking the loving warmth of its mother. Then allow me to oblige you. The heartwarming family reunion was guiding Natalie Chase to Mistletoe’s weak spot. As if rejecting its child’s return, it flung vines and sap at her with abandon. With an acrobatic flight befitting a fighter actually flying at ground level through a forest, Natalie made her way to the enemy’s heart. —Before her stood a fortress of vegetation made of countless interwoven vines. At a glance, it seemed impossible to break through, but inside it lay Mistletoe’s fatal weakness. The red, pulsing vandrande, containing a single coin. Sensing Natalie’s approach, it extended more vines and took flight, trying to flee together with its fortress. I won’t let you go. I can’t. If I did, that would be the end of everything. “—Ngh.” That instant, Natalie let go of everything controlling her and laid herself bare. Her ragged breathing, the dozens of damaged and flaming Deus ex Machinas, the sapling’s joy at being reunited with its mother—she turned it all into fuel to propel her forward as she homed in on the fleeing vandrande, refusing to let it escape. Her machine gun tore into the vines, roaring fire until she finally ran out of bullets. The shredded plants were blown away as her Spitfire charged forward like a shooting star. There was a shock wave and a tremendous crash as Natalie’s plane was half crushed. That was the natural consequence of charging headlong into the enemy. It was a miracle her plane had not exploded. But she didn’t have time to be grateful as she hauled herself out of the shattered canopy and left the plane behind. Her legs hurt. Her vision was shaky. But— “Checkmate.” It was the catchphrase of her commanding officer, whom Natalie could not help but love and respect. —Having taken her plane’s charge head-on, the vandrande was pinned. If that could just be broken, humanity would win. Natalie pulled a gun from her jacket and steadied herself. Sensing danger, Mistletoe immediately formed a defensive wall of vines over the vandrande. However, Natalie merely smiled. Smiled and pointed the gun—a flare gun—skyward. With a distinct pop, the flare flew up and exploded in a burst of colored light, indicating her position. The position of the enemy’s weak point. And Natalie Chase’s final resting place. “Alma!” Natalie shouted, still pointing the flare gun upward. She called out to the girl flying far above where the flare exploded. To her comrade. Her friend. Alma Conturo’s heart was stuck by a heartrending pain as she saw the flare burst below her, and again as she saw Natalie standing right atop the enemy’s heart. “………” She couldn’t summon a single word because she perfectly understood what Natalie was after, what she wanted. In under a second, a slew of thoughts flashed through her mind. It was nothing short of a miracle that had brought Natalie to this point. And now Alma had been shouldered with the burden of deciding this battle, which so many people had sacrificed their lives for and might very well decide the ultimate fate of humanity. Miracle after miracle had led them to this moment, giving Alma her first and last chance—in exchange for the one person Alma most wanted to save. A second passed. The tertiaries quickly moved as one to protect Mistletoe in its exposed position. The path that Alma’s comrades had wrenched open for her was closing. And she could only watch helplessly— “I won’t let youuuuu!!!” With a furious shout, Rusalka charged into the swarm of tertiaries trying to plug the hole in their defenses. Supporting Natalie’s charge, her Deus ex Machina had surpassed its limits, too. Rushing into the enemies beginning to swarm, she stole back the second that had been lost. “—Alma!!!” In that moment Rusalka had gained with her desperation, she shouted to Alma. Alma realized this was her final opportunity to choose. She had only two options—one could live, or both could die. “Why…?” Why was she never given another choice? Why could she not find a route where they both survived? She didn’t want to die and didn’t want her friend to die. That was all she wanted, so why was that so impossible? If living, if the future she so badly wanted, meant going through hell, then what was she fighting for? Would it not be easier to just let it all end there? She would rather die there, together with the people she had let into her heart— “Alma.” It was a voice she could not possibly have heard. Her plane was over five thousand meters above the ground. There was easily more than a thousand meters between her and Natalie. She should not have been able to hear her voice. But even if she couldn’t hear her voice, she could see her. Having awakened as a Valkyrie and receiving a Lancaster for her Deus ex Machina, Alma had also acquired a certain ability—divine eyesight. In order to avoid hitting her allies with her Grand Slam, she was capable of seeing an extraordinary distance if she focused. Her divine eyes could see Natalie with the flare gun still pointed over her head. She could see her lips moving, murmuring something, and she could hear the voice she knew so well in her head. Natalie had called her name and then let go of the gun. With her now empty hand, she was holding out a finger. Her pinkie. Alma understood immediately what she meant by that. “Keep your promise.” The promise she had made before leaving to fight, that she would not let a chance to defeat Mistletoe slip away. This was that moment. “” The blood boiled in Alma’s small body. Her heart pounded like it was about to explode, pumping hot blood throughout her entire body, scorching her frozen fingertips as they finally moved. Her hands moved on instinct. It was a practiced motion she had done hundreds of times before to put a final exclamation mark on countless battles. Alma’s hell would surely continue, but that was what she had chosen. She promised to join Natalie in hell. “…I loved you, Natalie…” “Yes, I loved you, too, Alma.” Tears that should not have been possible to see streamed down their cheeks as they exchanged final words of parting that should have been impossible to hear. And just as the tears ran down their cheeks, the Grand Slam dropped. “” The ten-ton bomb fell straight down. Its aim was true, falling straight toward Alma’s closest friend. As death approached, Mistletoe howled. The secondary pillar known to the human race as a cataclysm flailed in a final attempt to avoid its impending doom, desperate to escape. An enormous tree swung upward to smash the Grand Slam falling toward it— “—I won’t allow it.” The tree was hit by machine-gun fire from a crimson Spitfire, shattering it into splinters. As the hideous tree broke into fragments, humanity’s greatest attack slipped through and went straight for Mistletoe. An instant later, there was a massive explosion as a fireball consumed Mistletoe’s heart and incinerated it. And with it, the noble girl who had served as the marker for that heart. “” The floating island and the horrific amalgamation of trees hovering in the sky plummeted to the earth.