Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 152
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Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 152
37. Heroic Library (3)
-Wiiiiiiing!
[This fortress has been hit.]
[Penetrations have occurred in the upper and lower armor, and one lower force cannon has been destroyed.]
[The attacker is designated as an enemy. Commencing counter-fire.]
A warning sound half a beat too slow echoed through the Heaven-Piercing Fortress being used as headquarters.
At the same moment, the Heaven-Piercing Fortress began its attack, but...
-Thud!
As if proving that a Grand Master was beyond such measures, a Sword Aura imbued with Aura Blade pierced through the ceiling and floor in succession, aiming for me.
"Supreme Commander!"
"Your Highness, the Duke!"
At that, Taylor and the rest of the supreme command staff shut their eyes in horror.
But I was not an easy opponent to be felled by such a simple attack.
I stepped back a pace, tilted my head, and leaned my upper body slightly aside, evading the attacks all too lightly.
Taylor, being a Mage, looked startled at my display, but now was not the time to leisurely enjoy my evasion show.
"Deploy the teleportation interference field across the entire Heaven-Piercing Fortress except for the Vanguard units, and have everyone concentrate fire on the enemy."
"Ah, understood."
My frozen subordinates finally moved at my order.
The Vanguard, our Guard force, also came belatedly to protect me, but their help was nothing but a hindrance.
"No one approach."
And I must not forget.
The other crew members were equally threatened by the blind Sword Aura.
"Sorry. Just a moment."
Furrowing my brow, I used air booms to blast away the situation officers who were busy on comms, scattering them in every direction.
Those who were sent tumbling across the floor by my sudden attack were greatly flustered, but when the Sword Aura immediately pierced through the very spot they had been standing, they slammed their heads to the ground in fright.
"Annoying."
The surprise attacks using Sword Aura weren't threatening.
Perhaps because the enemy was far away, they weren't precise, and the attack paths were also straightforward.
An ordinary 7th Circle Mage might have been shredded by now, but attacks of this kind could never land a blow on me.
As if telling the Crimson Duke to quit his nuisance.
-Click!
Instead of dodging the Sword Aura flying at me from the front, I caught it with my bare hand and stopped it.
"Y-you caught a Sword Aura with your bare hand?"
If we had been fighting at a distance where he could put more force into it, it wouldn't have been the sword that was stopped it would have been my arm that was torn off.
My subordinates' jaws dropped at the unimaginable feat, but I stored the sword, whose Aura Blade vanished as the connection with its master was severed, into my subspace.
As a weapon used by a Grand Master, I figured it must be something special.
Was he enraged at having his weapon stolen so suddenly? The Sword Aura's attacks grew fiercer, but...
"This feels like fishing for sword hilts."
After I stored two more swords into my subspace, no more swords came flying at me.
-BOOM! BOOM!
[Attitude control controller destroyed.]
[The fortress is losing balance.]
[Main engine destroyed.]
[The fortress is falling. Crew members, brace for impact.]
Instead, the Sword Aura changed its aim not at me, but toward crashing the Heaven-Piercing Fortress.
'What an interesting world. Technology has advanced to where massive hunks of metal fly through the sky and rain down bombardment, yet a sword hilt can sink a colossal body weighing hundreds of thousands of tons.'
It was a situation that made one feel anew that the supernatural reigns above physical force.
In any case, the Heaven-Piercing Fortress has shock absorption and crash-prevention systems installed, so the people inside won't be seriously hurt.
But if the Sword Aura keeps flying about in this chaos where balance is hard to maintain, only innocent people will end up dead.
I spoke to Taylor, the vice commander.
"From now on, you, Vice Commander, will command the entire army. I'll go out and deal with this separately."
"What!? That's too dangerous!"
"Don't worry."
It wasn't as if I was recklessly showing my face to the enemy's ambush forces.
I had a plan I trusted, which was why I was making this choice.
* * *
-KABOOM!
Explosive sounds and tremors as if heaven and earth were splitting apart.
Thousands of shells, each attack at the level of a 6th Circle, came one after another in succession.
Since a 6th Circle explosion spell can produce the power of a short-range ballistic missile, it was akin to thousands of missiles raining down every second.
Naturally, the ground was scorched barren, and the dim early-evening scenery was dyed in a blue glow.
"Quite a spectacle."
The Crimson Duke, with his black hair and red eyes, looked extremely rough with his large build and wild, untamed beard.
Yet his grave expression and calm tone made it hard to believe that appearance reflected character.
He let out a series of admiring sighs as he watched a hundred Heaven-Piercing Fortresses, each no different from a small island, lined up in a long row and raining down bombardment.
Even though the target of that bombardment was none other than himself.
"Easy for you to say I'm the one blocking it, and it's killing me."
But the reason he could remain so composed was thanks to one figure blocking every attack from the front.
A girl with fox ears and a tail covered in thick, fluffy fur.
She was a beastkin with such striking features she looked like she was in cosplay.
She wore oriental robes that reeked of the Kingdom of Roberto, and was spreading a shimmering barrier that warped space itself, deflecting every attack.
No, more accurately than deflecting, she was letting them slide off.
Every shell veered away as if slipping past the space that enveloped them.
"My apologies, Lady Iris. Bombardment of this scale is not something a Grandmaster can simply block."
The Bringham Empire possesses 2 Grand Masters and one 8th Circle Grand Mage, but the nation with the most Grandmaster-level power is the Elysian Coalition.
The fox-type beastkin girl the Crimson Duke addressed respectfully as "Lady" was the supreme elder of a beastkin nation under the Elysian Coalition, and a wielder of spatial spirits classified as quasi-Spirit King-level.
She looked every bit the young girl, but in truth she was easily twice the Crimson Duke's age.
The bombardment unleashed by a hundred Heaven-Piercing Fortresses could not be easily stopped even by an 8th Circle Grand Mage, but her ability to twist space made such defense possible.
It couldn't be said with certainty that she surpassed an 8th Circle Grand Mage, but in terms of matchup, she was highly effective against this kind of attack.
"At this rate, I can only hold for five more minutes."
"Understood. I'll finish this as quickly as possible."
At Iris's curt reaction, the Crimson Duke kept an easy smile as he locked his eyes on one of the Heaven-Piercing Fortresses.
It was the fortress that had been under focused attack from the Sword Aura he had sent out.
'He dodges left and right quite well.'
His eyes precisely pierced through the fortress's armor, catching sight of Adrian inside the command room, weaving through the Sword Aura as if dancing.
It was the effect of an artifact that combined target tracking with x-ray vision, allowing him to recognize targets within a 1km range.
But the Crimson Duke's calm expression began to harden, because the longer the attacks against Adrian continued, the more he felt something anomalous.
Click.
And then, at that moment.
Adrian, who had only been evading his attacks until now, recklessly caught the Sword Aura with his bare hands a mage of all things.
At the same time, the connection to that sword was severed, and he felt Adrian's gaze fly straight into him.
No, it wasn't just that which bothered him so much.
What grated on his nerves was the sneer that had crept onto Adrian's face in that final moment.
"Hmph!"
The Crimson Duke's attacks grew more vicious, but it was futile.
He had deliberately launched the Sword Aura from a long distance for stealth, but Sword Aura naturally loses precision and power the farther it is projected.
As a result, it had become far too careless an ambush.
'This opponent is no ordinary Grand Mage.'
The Crimson Duke realized that to eliminate Adrian, he would have to pour out his full strength.
In the end, he shifted his target from Adrian to the Heaven-Piercing Fortress he was riding.
To bring Adrian down.
BOOM! BOOM!
Moments later, the fortress, struck in its vital systems, tilted, then began to fall.
"We're closing in."
"Are you insane?"
"The ambush has already failed. Now is the time to attempt a frontal breakthrough."
In truth, the ambush was as good as over the moment the first attack failed.
"As promised, I'll only provide combat support. I have no intention of trading blows with them directly, so fight as you see fit."
"I know."
With that, they approached the fortress that had begun to plummet.
But before long, their steps came to a halt.
The enemy had come to them before they could approach.
"How arrogant."
Crimson Duke, of course, and even Iris had to look bewildered.
A mage approaching a Grandmaster without a shred of fear.
That was practically begging to be killed.
And on top of that, they had more than just a Grandmaster.
Ten Aura Masters from the Empire's special operations unit, who burst up through the ground like zombies, could also be called Grandmaster-class combat power.
Right now, Adrian was essentially approaching a position where two Grand Masters had formed a battle formation.
* * *
I admired the formidable lineup of the ambush force.
A Grandmaster, the Empire's famed special operations unit, and even a Spirit Summoner from the Elysian Coalition who could be described as 8th Circle class.
To kill just me, they'd come in grand force.
"High Elder Iris, is the Elysian Coalition supporting the Croysen Empire?"
I snapped my fingers to summon the black dog.
Then, from the sky, the black dog appeared plus his two clones, three black eagles in total, backing me up from behind.
At my question, the adorable girl with fox ears and a tail, which would make Earth's otaku lose their minds, hesitated.
"No. This is my personal activity. And I'd appreciate it if you understood that I have no intention of attacking you directly. I'm only following a request to protect the Crimson Duke and his unit."
Her denial was cute.
Even if she didn't attack outright, she was already deeply involved in the battle.
But there was no need to turn a hesitant figure into a complete enemy, so I furrowed my brows in feigned regret.
"High Elder Iris is someone I'd always hoped to meet, so it's a shame to see you on the opposing side."
I'd seen her information through the Myriad Mirror and called her name, but from her perspective, there was no choice but to think I already knew of her existence.
At that, Iris was visibly flustered.
I didn't know how she'd gotten involved, but she seemed just as uncomfortable with the situation.
"Ngh..."
Iris let out a pained sound and kept wearing an apologetic expression.
And such reactions were recorded precisely by the Myriad Mirror.
[Relation: Interest / Hostile faction]
[Status: Favorable / Apologetic]
As expected, this appearance is good for dealing with others.
If someone who looked like an orc said this, it wouldn't amount to anything, but when a handsome young man speaks with regret, this is how they react.
Lookism applies just the same on Earth as it does here.
'At this rate, she won't interfere more than necessary.'
I took out a Magic Staff from subspace while taking in the expressionless Crimson Duke and the special operations soldiers.
"Why so relaxed?"
At my demeanor, the Crimson Duke reacted with wariness.
Naturally.
No matter how special I was, my publicly known level was that of a 7th Circle Grand Mage.
The gap between a 7th Circle and a Grandmaster was far too vast to be grinning over blocking a few Sword Auras that flew in from a distance.
Moreover, the enemy had stronger Support, so no matter how relaxed I acted, it could only look like stubborn defiance to him.
"Because I was waiting for this situation."
"Waiting?"
"I can see right through the Emperor's intentions. He'd certainly try to collapse our army's command structure to reverse the situation, and if that happened, it was obvious he'd move the Crimson Duke."
Meaning he'd already predicted the ambush.
Naturally, the Crimson Duke's expression twisted.
In other words, I wasn't sticking my face out for no reason.
The wide-spread bombardment from the Heaven-Piercing Fortress ceased, and floodlights poured down.
Thanks to that, the dim surroundings brightened as if it were noon, and a group of people could be seen falling from the sky.
Among them were Duke James and Arcia, who should have been commanding the 1st and 2nd armies, along with Gregory, Count Acres, former Marquis Vincent and former Margrave Ignis once part of the Second Prince's faction, now fallen and paying for their crimes.
"Now the power levels seem about even."
As I let out a low laugh, the Crimson Duke, his face tightly hardened, lunged at me.
"Attack!"
The Crimson Duke's shout carried urgency. His intent to eliminate me before reinforcements arrived was clear.
'Well, it's pointless...'
But unfortunately, I'm no ordinary 7th Circle Grand Mage.
"Welcome to hell."
Smiling pleasantly, I spun my Magic Staff around and welcomed his approach.
For an easy war, he needed to die here.