The wheel at Vritra’s ferrule sang, “Gate! Gate! Paragate! Gate! Gate! Paragate! Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha! Gate! Gate! Paragate!”
The whirring of the Prayer Wheel had been replaced by an ethereal hymn. A chorus comprised of both men and women. A yellow cloth was tied to where the blade and shaft joined, fluttering like a long, narrow flag, and very much resembling the scarf adorned by Devicer Three. It had manifested from a surge of nanofactors that spilled from the weapon moments after her transmission with Ein ended.
“The Holy Shroud—Her Majesty the elf’s stamp of approval,” she murmured. “Just like Yu’s. It’s like we’re a team!”
Eight white dragons had attacked in total. Natsuki had knocked that number down to two, both of which were on their last ropes against the fighter jet and arm droids. She sighed and brushed the dust off herself, glancing back at her most recent kill before reeling back and hurling the Mark VI into the air like a javelin. It tore through the sky, through the rampaging air elementals and the swirling gusts.
“Don’t let that Shroud slack off just ’cause he’s new!” she shouted after her partner.
It was the same technique Yu had used about one month ago. The Mark VI soared over the settlement, around its entire twenty-five kilometer radius, dispersing and scattering clouds of golden powder—flecks of the Holy Shroud itself. Just as it was potent against the undead, so too was it the scourge of the incorporeal. Like elementals.
Purified by the sacred dust, the winds around Nayuta at last began to settle. Natsuki snatched the Green Dragon’s shaft out of the air as it returned. And it still seemed ready for more.
“All right, Vritra, show me what droids you’ve got!” Natsuki gripped the Green Dragon with both hands and pointed it skyward. Adaptive nanofactors streamed out of the edged Asura Frame’s shaft, its Prayer Wheel, and even its blade.
The droids it constructed were massive. Twice the size of the dragons it had just slayed. And they took the shape of pale white, translucent icicles—MUV Snow Crystals. Nine were suspended in midair.
“Now go!” Natsuki commanded. “Yu could use the help!”
The lava giant was still visible, and the newly created droids set out towards the flowing mass at once.
The humanoid torrent of lava punched, slapped, and lurched at the pest buzzing around its gelatinous form. “This isn’t good,” the pest groaned between near misses. “The Doomsday Book is taking so much energy I’m starting to lag behind!”
The wheel at Yu Ichinose’s waist spun furiously, all of its output being drained not by his aerial maneuvers, but by the winds. Even without the air elementals, they were picking up and approaching gale force. But speed came at the cost of the Rudra’s mobility.
If he got knocked out of the sky now, then all that time he was buying for the Book would come to nothing.
“Take heart, Yu! Aid has arrived with fire’s bane!”
“Ein!” Yu cried. “Wait, are those droids?”
Suddenly, a deployment of floating icicles appeared on the battlefield. Nine MUV Snow Crystals, Vritra’s all-purpose combat auxiliary droids. But rather than the nature of his reinforcements, Yu was more surprised by the misshapen bullets they fired, and the fact that they were doing visible damage to the lava giant.
The monster turned its attention from Yu and swung at the Snow Crystals with all its weight. All it managed, however, was to make itself an easier target. Yu listened to the hissing of steam as the crystals pelted the molten beast, bullets melting upon contact.
“And they have...water cannons?!”
“Close! They’re liquid helium bullets,” Aliya corrected.
“Like dry ice, but on steroids!” Ijuin added.
Even as they spoke, the nine mechanical icicles pounded the lava giant, giving Yu the time he needed to finally pull the ace out from his sleeve.
[System Now Booting Doomsday Book “VIDYA-MANTRA RUDRA2”]
Upon seeing the English text scroll across his screen, Yu shouted, “Ein! Doomsday Book chapter two is ready!”
“Uploading the Gospel Code now,” she replied. “The beast of the wind is yours to command!”
Following her transmission, Ein’s voice echoed in Yu’s head as clear as day.
—The sinners of the trailokya know not their sin.
—Such as the fools of the four wombs know not their folly.
—In darkness we are born, to darkness we return, and to darkness we are born anew.
The windbeast appeared before Yu, its wispy being as ghostly as a collection of white smoke, its stature that of a panther. The mightiest of His Majesty of the Storm’s knights.
“In the name of your king, Rudra, I command you!” Yu roared. “Let your tempest rage!”
Doomsday Book chapter two—the verse of Tempest Judgment. The windbeast became a great whirling waterspout that would rend all from the ocean below that dared stand in its path and cast their remains spiraling up into the sky. All that stood in the barren waters of Wakayama Bay this day, however, its passing ships gone with the Evacuation, was an otherworldly castle sitting upon a lotus pedestal like a mirage in the desert, and the vexing lava giant. Neither were spared the godly might of the windbeast.
But the portal-keep was protected by its archmage. Just like before, barrier magic was put in place, and countless runic circles manifested all around the mythical palace. Buffeted by the violent and raging winds, its walls creaked and were nearly torn off, but the SS-class defense spell held fast.
The lava giant, however, was at the mercy of the ripping flurry, and pieces of its body were plucked off, sent corkscrewing into oblivion. As the crimson colossus was torn to shreds, little would soon remain to maintain the Anomaly’s bodily structure.
Yu did not bask in his small victory. In the blink of an eye, he exploded past Mach 4 and 5, all the way to 6, and became a supersonic, armored dart headed straight for the portal-keep. A surveillance droid told him his target—the mage and her lion—stood on a balcony of the tallest tower. He cleaved through her palace’s defenses with a single swing of the Holy Saber.
Yu collided with the archmage.
“Vajra One!” she growled. “You’ve some nerve to appear before the Lioness without an invitation!”
“Ask me if I care!”
He had struck Scullchance with immense force, but a barrier of some kind kept the lion-mounted girl untouched. Still, Yu didn’t let up, and he pushed the both of them off of the tower and out of the protection of her castle.
Now it was just the two of them and the impossibly amber aurora overhead.