09-32 Battlefield
“Father, goodbye.”
“I’ll leave it to you, Reiko.”
“Yes!”
“Condor-1, Titan-2, takeoff.”
Reiko got on the piloted Titan-2 and Condor-11 took to the skies. Immediately afterwards, it headed behind the research laboratory to where a giant Warp Gate had been built on Hourai mountain’s side.
“I’ll send orders from here, huh.”
Jin moved to the control room inside the research laboratory.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Your Majesty, Your Highness, over here!”
A fierce battle was unfolding in Asunto castle’s third floor.
Aiming at the royalty, the three golems pushed on.
The Imperial Guard knight troops and the Imperial Guard magi knight troops rushed to defend against them.
Lotte had the tray and the mop in hand as she stood in front of the prince to protect him.
“[Wind Blow]!”
Continuously firing wind-type spells, Airi Soluz of the Imperial Guard magi knight troops was keeping the impending golems at bay.
Because fire-type and lightning-type magic would affect allies while inside, she was heavily using wind-type magic. But the reality was that wind-type magic didn’t have much effect on the golems.
At least [Wind Blow] was effective against the massive opponents, but even so the best it could do was keep them back.
Outside the castle, half of the soldiers were being driven to deal with the attacks launched from the flying balloons.
“Laila, help me!”
Airi’s breath was ragged from the continuous casting of [Wind Blow].
Her colleagues were also attacking with [Wind Blow]s but it was obvious they weren’t powerful enough.
“Bu–but, elder sister, I’m…”
“Listen up! Stop grumbling about and do it! If you’re not helping now then what will you do!?”
Laila hesitated even more, then prince Ernest spoke to her from behind.
“Laila, I’m relying on you. Father and I can’t use powerful attack magic. Although I do think it’s shameful to rely on a girl, right?”
“Your Highness…”
Now that the prince had said that much she could no longer hesitate. Having her spirit invigorated, Laila took a step forwards.
＊ ＊ ＊
Before dawn. It was too early for the sun to rise and the surroundings were filled with darkness.
At the giant lake Azul on the border between Celuroa Kingdom and Frantz Kingdom. Its longest diameter was over 100 kilometers and it was about 300 meters deep at its deepest. From its depths a man-made structure surfaced.
It was a spherical building with a diameter of 70 meters.
Coincidentally with surfacing the huge dome in its top part opened. A similarly huge Warp Gate was enshrined in its heart.
The Warp Gate was active. What warped there was a likewise huge golem and an aircraft carrying it.
“Father, I’ve arrived at lake Azul as planned. I’ll be heading from here to Tetrada.”
From the heart of lake Azul the distance to Tetrada as the crow flies was around 120 kilometers. While carrying Titan-2 Condor-1’s top speed was at most 100 kilometers per hour, so it should take a little over one hour.
Almost simultaneously, the Raptors and Falcons also arrived as planned.
＊ ＊ ＊
A life and death struggle was unfolding on top of Tetrada’s walls.
On one side, there was the Cline Kingdom’s third order of chivalry who were defending Tetrada to the last and fighting hard. On the other side, there were the mysteriously mighty golems who had been sent in.
“[Flame Bullet]!”
The magi of the chivalric order restrained them with magic, but the two mystery golems used the small shields in their left hands and easily defended themselves.
“Guh, anti-magic shields, huh!”
This was on top of the walls, and it seemed like it would take several more minutes for the magi knight troops to rush there. If in the meanwhile either of the two golems took the gate they would lose.
“Attack! Stop the golems no matter what!”
The deputy leader Nicholas Fahlheit yelled. Following his orders, five knights charged. But.
“Gyaah!”
“Uaaargh!”
“Aagh!”
Due to the lightning magic [Thunderbolt] fired from the flying balloons the five knights ended up lying on the ground.
“T-this is bad!”
Using that opportunity one of the golems reached the staircase leading down from the walls.
“Shit! [Flame Lance]!”
As a last resort, Nicholas fired the most powerful fire magic spell he could. Its target wasn’t the golem, but the stairs.
The stone staircase was smashed up by the [Flame Lance].
Even though it was a golem, it probably wouldn’t be able to jump eight meters down from the walls because of its height, was what Nicholas was thinking.
But his expectations were completely mistaken. The golem which wasn’t alive had its large body manipulated to jump.
Eight meters was a height a human absolutely couldn’t fall from safely.
There was a thunderous noise and the stones of the pavement were smashed and scattered around. The golem stood up even though the lower half of its body was crooked. But its ankles were broken and knees twisted in odd directions. It was obvious to anyone that it wouldn’t probably be able to move any more.
However, the golem’s task was to open the gate. For that, a magical blow would suffice.
“People down there! Do not let that golem near the gate!”
Nicholas yelled at the top of his lungs. The ten soldiers guarding the gate pointed their weapons towards the golem.
“Gyaaaah!”
“Uagh!”
If they paid attention to what was below, magic attacks would be fired from the sky. If they paid attention to the skies, the golem still remaining on top of the walls would come to attack them.
“Guh, to think that attacks from the sky would be this troublesome!”
It was most likely something no one had thought of before, attacking from the sky. Nicholas was experiencing it with his body firsthand.
Getting backup from the sky, the golem dragged along its body and finally arrived at the gate. Then it pointed its intact right hand towards the gate and fired a spell.
It was the same [Flame Lance] that Nicholas had used. But its power was an order of magnitude higher.
Ten times the amount of flames that had been in Nicholas’s [Flame Lance] struck the castle gate.
The bronze latches and the iron hinges were blown away.
Then slowly the castle gate fell towards the outside.
That meant the defeat of fort city Tetrada.
＊ ＊ ＊
A town in Egelia Kingdom, Storsk. Duke Blue and Earl Kuzuma had finally arrived there along with their troops. They were for defending the capital city Asunto.
Blue Land was left in the care of Earl Guarana.
“My late father also fought against Celuroa Kingdom. So for the sake of my country, I’ll fight like him!”
His fiancee’s, Beana’s, worried face came to his mind, but Earl Kuzuma had put aside his personal feelings due to the country’s crisis and had gone to war.
“Tomorrow night we’ll probably reach Asunto.”
Duke Blue muttered while preparing to depart, and at that moment.
Suddenly Earl Kuzuma who was looking up at the sky felt that something had passed in front of the sun and strained his eyes to see.
“What the?”
There was something, and it wasn’t birds. The things were in a single group flying high in the sky. The direction they were headed towards was where the capital Asunto was.
However, curiously he didn’t have a sinister feeling about it.
＊ ＊ ＊
“The castle gates are open!”
“Alright, the first and second companies…”
The moment Frantz Kingdom’s attack was about to begin.
A giant shadow blocked the sun.
Looking up, a object could be seen flying.
It had four wheels arranged in a square, and connected to the structure crosswise two ropes which came down and were holding up a plank. And sitting on top of the plank was a huge golem which had never been seen before.
The mysterious flying object slowly descended as the huge golem on it glared at both Frantz Kingdom’s army and the city of Tetrada, then it got down and stood up on the spot.