Electric Civilization (2)
The refugees packed on three hundred ships looked around in bewilderment.
"Alive?"
When Budron flew in, no one had expected to survive, but a strange phenomenon occurred.
The spatial veil rippled, and in an instant it was as if thousands of bombs had detonated all at once.
Shirone felt a private, secret relief.
'It's really tricky when you actually try it.' Sleight of Hand wasn't magic so much as a kind of trick.
Because that trick happened at the quantum level, it only appeared to override the Law.
Poine's eyes sharpened.
'That method… If a magician fools the eye, Shirone fools perception.
'The instant every spectator is certain of the future, their minds become something predictable — a Law.'
And if it's a Law, Shirone can twist the events those people perceive.
'Still, it's a trick because once people's perception snaps back, the event itself regains logical plausibility.'
He laughed.
If even one person had doubted the future, the three hundred ships would never have vanished.
"A gamble with twenty thousand lives." It had been a flash of art that focused everyone's perception into a single blind spot.
"He's clearly lost his mind."
That aside—
"What'll you do? Kill me now, or wait until the Messiah shows up?"
Poine looked toward the pirate ship. Jakra's face on deck creased.
"Hmm."
"Captain, what should we do?"
If your opponent was a first-rank dragon, the humane thing was at least to pretend to deliberate.
"Need we wait?"
Electricity ran through Jakra's eyes and a powerful magnetic field wrapped him in a sphere.
"Let's go, lads!"
When the crew realized he was serious and activated the machinery, the pirate ship began to turn transparent.
"Stealth? Pathetic." It was a high-level technique, but not something a dragon couldn't handle.
"Kraaaargh!"
Poine tucked her wings and dove toward the ship that was now only a hazy outline.
But what met her teeth was not the pirate ship — it was the salty sea.
"Puh!"
Soaked and shaking off water, Poine scanned the horizon; horns sounded in the distance.
"Hahaha! Over here, over here!"
Jakra's pirate ship had already moved six kilometers and reappeared.
"Come on then, lizard."
Jakra, standing on the deck, taunted with a flick of his hand and raised his middle finger.
Probably some kind of electric energy.
"Grrr…"
It must be a technology handling energy at a level no existing human had produced, but—
"Kraaaargh!"
Poine, eyes aflame, blasted into the sky and traced magic circles in every direction.
"Melting."
From the glyphs formed by the power of the Word, an extremely toxic acidic fluid shot out under tremendous pressure.
Jakra exploded with laughter.
"Puhahaha! Look at that—lizard's gone mad!"
A pirate ship that used electricity for spatial movement was nimble regardless of size or mass.
"Captain! Over there…"
"Enough! Open fire! Permit maximum output on the energy guns! Today's a lizard party!"
"No, that's not it!"
The crew shouted, covering their noses.
"The ship is melting!" Jakra narrowed his eyes and looked around; the nearby sea had turned completely green.
Hundreds of thousands of fish floated to the surface, like a shore carpeted with corpses.
The vice-captain approached.
"Think it's time to pull back? We've saved face enough."
"...Where's Rangi?"
Jakra turned toward the Arakne galleon and pressed his temple; the scene snapped into focus.
The knights and the pirates were in the thick of battle.
"Hahaha! Too easy!"
The stealth-equipped pirates were cutting the knights' throats from unseen places.
"Damn it! Fight where I can see you!"
The knights were being driven back across the deck, pushed to the inner chamber entrance that Kearns guarded.
"You idiots! And you call yourselves knights of Arakne!"
If the enemies reached the inner chamber, it would be only a matter of time before the gold and silver inside were looted.
'No — more important is Rangi…' He thought of the single offering King Kalt of Dionas desired and it hit him.
'Where did she go?'
When Shirone had been on the pirate ship, Rangi had been on the deck; now she was nowhere to be seen.
"Hah! Hah!"
Rangi ran down the corridor lined with countless rooms and, glancing back, wheezed.
"Ugh!"
Seeing something ghostly still stalking her like an apparition, her legs went numb.
'Not a room. It's a dead end.' Even if she ran the length of the corridor, it was still only a ship trapped on the open sea.
"Eek!"
Turning, Rangi felt a dull blow to her face and collapsed.
"You Rangi?"
Startled, she looked up and Jakra — who had disabled stealth — revealed himself.
"This'll make your brother happy."
"P-please spare me."
Rangi had faced many villains, but Jakra's look while staring at her was not right.
"And now begging… If you just come quietly, nothing will happen to you, alright?"
Rangi nodded.
"Hmm."
Jakra, watching her desperate expression, grabbed her wrist and opened a door.
"Nope. Let's have a little chat first."
"Eek!"
Rangi struggled but could not overcome Jakra's raw strength.
'Shirone.'
A name popped into her head.
"Heh heh, today's a windfall…"
As Jakra opened the door, a fast-congealing smoke of light began to gather before him.
'Photon Cannon.'
Shirone, arriving via quantum transmission, cast a spell and Jakra's body was hurled backward.
As Jakra's grip loosened, Rangi clutched her head and sat down, glancing behind.
The inner chamber's wall had been pierced; the mark of someone having flown through it was spread out before them.
"Rangi, are you all right?"
When the voice came from ahead, she turned; Shirone stood there with a worried hand extended.
"H-How did you—?"
Of all places, Shirone shouldn't have been able to appear inside an enclosed room.
"Get up for now. I'll take you to a safe place."
Shirone took her hand and helped her to her feet, and Jakra's shouts echoed through the hole in the wall.
"You filthy—!"
The voice was close.
"You brat!"
Jakra, who had reappeared in front of them, swung his fist; Shirone retreated with Rangi.
'Spatial jump ability.' It was close to a mix of Flicker and Spark, but the problem was it wasn't magic.
"An artifact of Maika, perhaps?"
Jakra raised an eyebrow.
"Heh heh, want to know? If you want to know, hand over that woman."
No sane person would negotiate with pirates.
"Refuse? You really refuse? If so…"
Jakra pressed his temple and his body went transparent, vanishing in an instant.
"Shi-Shirone."
Rangi clung to Shirone's arm as voices echoed from all around.
"How about it? Don't know where he is, do you? Shall I cut your throat? Or the woman's wrist?"
Shirone watched the front coldly.
"How about sinking the ship? Load all the treasure under the sea and we'll make a killing."
The voice was bait, and Jakra — mouth set hard — drew a knife behind Shirone's back.
"Die."
At that moment Jakra's eyes popped wide.
'What the—?'
In the vision linked to his brain, Shirone's image shimmered and multiplied.
Random numbers rapidly counted, indecipherable ancient characters blinked.
-Formalization level, electronic grade.
'What do I care.'
As the blade fell for the crown of his head, Shirone twisted his waist.
'He dodged?'
It was, precisely, probability.
Shirone floated the Photon Cannon in his hand and, using the momentum, drove into Jakra's abdomen.
"Ugh!"
A magnetic defense barrier deployed, and unreadable characters rose again.
-Defense: disabled. Electromagnetic field allowance exceeded.
"Damn it! What the hell…!"
Jakra, once more sent flying through the opposite wall, let out an irritated roar.
"What are you bellowing about!"
He smashed through the final wall with a thud and cold seawater swallowed him.
As the fresh surge of water sounded like a squall, Shirone grabbed Rangi's hand and pulled her along.
"Get out. The outer hull's been breached."
"What about the treasure if the ship sinks? There's over twenty tons of cargo here."
"It's not ours. Why worry? Didn't you say that earlier—?"
"...Yes."
Shirone gave a hollow laugh.
"If we act quickly we can prevent capsizing. Priority is to catch Jakra."
Maika's artifact.
'A civilization that uses electricity. There's certainly a chance it's linked to the outside world.'
They came out onto the deck holding Rangi's hand; most of the knights were already dead.
Kearns' face lit up.
"By the stars! You saved us—!"
Before he could finish, Shirone cast Rampage and sent the pirates flying off the ship.
"Where's Jakra?"
Across the sea, Poine was sending much of the pirate fleet to the bottom.
'There's nowhere to go back to. Only the open ocean.'
If Jakra had spatial jumps capable of crossing the sea, Rangi wouldn't still be here.
As if answering the question, a scream rose from the galleon where Shirone lived.
"Please! Save me!"
Drenched, Jakra staggered with a knife at a middle-aged woman's throat.
'Ugh, annoying. Damn machine.'
He tried to spatially jump, but only sparks flashed in his head — no response.
Shirone rose into the sky.
"Give up. Surrender and I'll see you face lawful judgment."
"Shut the hell up."
Jakra strode to the rail with the woman, peering toward the sea.
'No poison here.'
If he used his long-held diving ability, he could escape the danger.
"Nobody move. The moment you chase us, I'll slit this woman's throat. Understand?" Jakra smiled with grim satisfaction.
'Heh heh, too easy. Human lives are just currency. How many hostages do they have?' He edged along the railing, holding the woman, and then leaped into the sea.
"Bye?!"
Even as he stuck his tongue out and plunged, Shirone held back.
"Gurgle! Gurgle!"
The woman struggled underwater but Jakra calmly swam.
'Diving record: twenty-three minutes.'
He could exceed human limits because he was a Schema mimic.
'Ordinary people can't hold three minutes. This woman's the same. But in those three minutes…'
If he hid in the deep—
'Please hold out. Let me live.'
"Gurgle! Gurgle!"
The bubbling from the woman's throat sounded like music to Jakra.
"Hah! Hah!"
The woman drew a deep breath and cried out.
"Please save me!"
"Haha! You idiot!" Jakra only began to realize something was wrong when he looked around: a barrier of water had formed.
"Huh? Uh—?"
A two-hundred-meter patch of surface had sunk endlessly until they reached the deep-sea floor.
The sea bulged outward and took the shape of a transparent hand.
Hand of God — Elemental Hand.
A liquid hand, with abyssal fish swimming like in an aquarium, lifted the woman up toward the surface.
Shirone came down behind them with his hands clasped.
"Any last words?"
"Uh, well, I mean…"
Still dazed, Jakra raised his hands.
"Surrender?"
A massive surge of water poured down and slammed him into the deck.