CHAPTER 7

Princess and Queen: Fabulous Villains
Curtana_Original.

1

3 AM.

Kamijou, with the members of the Puritans, stormed into London.

Still, for once, they didn’t just walk in like naïve fools. To swiftly head for Buckingham Palace, they split up into over twenty large trucks.

Even now that they’d entered London, they faced no real inspections of any sort. But that struck Kamijou as eerie. No knight inspections awaited them, nor even any that made use of the police or the military. Born Again Amakusa had prepared spells for breaking through those inspections, and now Itsuwa and the others seemed to be frowning at it.

“(Perhaps there are no knight inspections because all their forces have been assembled at Buckingham Palace,)” murmured Kanzaki apprehensively.

Unable to think of an answer, though, they saw no point in adhering to the question. They had no choice but to feel relieved that their forces hadn’t been whittled away before they clashed with the main enemy camp.

Kamijou sat in an uncovered truck bed, the cold autumn wind hitting his face.

There were no other people or vehicles on the main streets in London, perhaps attributable to the level of takeover. Because of it, the truck they were riding in was ignoring the speed limit. Empty cars seemed to be sitting in the middle of the road in places, as though the people had fled quickly when the takeover happened, and the truck sometimes had to weave among them like a snake, rocking Kamijou and the others back and forth.

Kamijou cast a furtive glance at the Puritan faithful riding with him.

None of them seemed very interested in who held political power. It didn’t matter who tried to get their hands on the country’s reins, as long as the people of the United Kingdom could go on living like normal. However, it also didn’t matter who wanted to become leader—if they tried to build a new order that bluntly permitted acts of homicide using the military, the Puritans wouldn’t allow it. Their determination to fight Carissa would never waver.

To extend the hand of salvation to lost lambs.

In that sense, the Puritans’ goal was pretty explicit.

“I’ll do a final briefing,” said Kanzaki, who was riding with them. “Our goal is to speed into Buckingham Palace as quickly as possible, then suppress the coup d’état’s leader, Carissa. As for the fastest way to do that—I propose that we destroy her Curtana Original.”

“…Right, so if the knights lose their leader and they even lose control over the Curtana, they won’t be sure anymore whether they believe in the second princess’s strength, right?”

Kamijou wasn’t quite grasping it, but Vilian, sitting elegantly nearby, nodded. “…The Curtana Original is the very symbol of her coup. If we destroy it before their eyes, the knights’ spirits will crumble. My sister’s monstrous power is supported by the Curtana. If she loses the sword, she should go back to being a regular person.”

“Let us assume there are terrorists who wish to change the country with nuclear warheads,” suggested Kanzaki. It was an incredibly frightening example. “If they lost the warheads, the centerpiece of their plan, who would try to continue it?”

“Well, I guess that’s true, b-but…” stammered Kamijou.

Index, sitting next to him, added, “The coup d’état will end with the Curtana by itself. But I think it’s easier said than done. After all, inside the all-British Continent, the head of state using the Curtana Original acts as the angelic leader Michael and can wield powers far beyond that of normal humans.”

“…Yes. Even with all our remaining forces in one place, it might be hard to break the sword through normal methods.”

Kanzaki’s words had a weight that went beyond their meaning. Was it because she’d personally experienced a battle with the angel Misha Kreutzev before?

“So if our enemy is out of the ordinary, we’ll have to rely on someone out of the ordinary, too.”

“Y-yeah, I thought so.” Kamijou winced slightly under her straightforward gaze. “My right hand might be able to bust up the Curtana Original, since it’s just an object made with magic. But Carissa is probably stronger than you and Acqua, right? If you guys are all whooshing around superfast, I won’t be able to touch it.”

“Yes, we understand that. I’m not saying that a normal high school student should come with us for a battle with someone stronger than a saint.” Kanzaki nodded. “Instead, we will use you as a slow-moving, high-power mobile battery. If Carissa tries to confuse us with high-speed movement for her attack…Amakusa and I, a saint, will respond with our own speed, then try to repel her in your direction.”

The Puritan remnant forces consisted not only of the Born Again Amakusa but the former Agnes unit and independent sorcerers such as Sherry. However, the Born Again Amakusa, which was centered around a saint, was still the most suited for matters of speed.

Now, the match would be decided on whether or not the speedy Born Again Amakusa could coordinate successfully with the long-range attacks and support magic used by the other members.

“You don’t need to think so hard about it,” said Kanzaki to Kamijou, who had fallen silent. “Survive until the end. That is the most important mission given to you.”

Everyone shared that mission.

To settle things without losing anyone by the end.

Touma Kamijou, his gaze falling to his right hand, asked again, “…But will we be all right? There are, like, five hundred of us all moving in. But there haven’t been any knights, and that bothers me. Carissa controls this city, so if she notices us…”

“Yes. She has probably detected us by now,” Kanzaki confirmed smoothly. “At this rate, a large battle is bound to start before we arrive at Buckingham Palace.”

Kamijou looked at her, startled.

“But even if she has,” she went on, “if she can’t pull off an actual interception, we won’t have a problem.”

“Ah?” Kamijou frowned.

Inexplicably, Kanzaki pointed to one of her ears. “It’s starting. It would be wise to cover your ears.”

2

The Atlantic Ocean.

The aerial fortress Coven Compass had moved farther northwest from Islay, and now it waited above the water just outside the UK border.

By exiting the UK, it had temporarily cut off the attacks from the knights, who received extra support from the Curtana and the all-British Continent.

Black smoke billowed from several spots on the giant disc-shaped fortress, and the whole thing was tipped diagonally, as though the balance-controlling Soul Arms had taken damage as well. Still, in defiance of the laws of physics, the fortress still floated in the air. Its major systems were still working.

On the midnight-black sea floated an island made of steel.

It was the sea fortress the knights had prepared. But unlike the Coven Compass, its cruising functions were completely destroyed, and it was almost ready to sink. The Puritan witches had certainly gotten their two cents in.

The witches protecting the smoking Coven Compass and the knights trying to capture it glared at one another.

Many of the knights who left the national borders and went back to normal had been shot down by the broom-riding witches. Several of the defeated rocked about in the waves even now, sending out strobe-like distress signals and waiting for rescue.

Outside the border were the witches—and inside it were the knights.

Two forces, struggling against each other, separated by an invisible line defined by man.

Meanwhile, Smartveri, one of the witches, cautious of the long-range spells intermittently flying at them from the other side of the border, had turned her attention to her communication Soul Arm.

The operator’s voice continued.

“Preparations beginning for large-scale flash bombardment at Buckingham Palace. Designated witches are advised to move out of its firing trajectory and be cautious not to lose control of one’s broom during the spell’s preparations or the chaotic airflows caused by its firing.”

After listening to the businesslike words, Smartveri unthinkingly whistled to herself. “Over five hundred kilometers of straight-line distance…Over one and a half times the range according to its design specs. And this will be a direct attack, so we can’t use the relay points for mana guidance, either.”

Smartveri’s tone was relaxed.

“And with the jumble of stuff in the way that could cause interference, like the ruins on the Isle of Man, at that…I’m surprised those stubborn bastards approved of it,” she muttered to herself.

Another witch, her colleague, interrupted her via a different communication line. “What’s more unbelievable to me is that we got permission to fire on Buckingham Palace.”

“But the third princess seems to have used her royal family influence to railroad the annoying paperwork through. Well, guess I’ve gotta hand it to the gung-ho authorities in a situation like this.”

“…Speaking of gung-ho authorities, the coup d’état’s leader, the second princess, is pretty similar.”

“Hey, maybe they’re more alike than anyone thinks, eh? They just face in different directions.”

Gzgzgzgzgzgz!! Her communication Soul Arm made a strange noise, interrupting the conversation. At the same time, Smartveri’s broom rocked. She hastily regained control, then heard her colleague’s surprised voice from the Soul Arm:

“Zz, zz…Has it—started…?!”

A light, so impossibly white it couldn’t have been part of the natural world, drove the darkness away from the Atlantic waters.

The Coven Compass’s top surface. From the middle of the disc-shaped aerial fortress, at a point about twenty meters above in the sky, a pure-white orb of light appeared. The enormous sanctuary had created a massive ball of energy, which then expanded the air around it, which made changes in air pressure give way to storming winds. The Coven Compass, also the witches’ carrier, had begun to start up its other trump card.

A carrier below and artillery on top.

The extensive flash bombardment, which actually possessed half the giant fortress’s power and role, creaked and cracked into position, aiming at the capital of the United Kingdom.

“Zz, now that it’s…aiming, do you…think the knights…zzz-zzz…will interfere?”

“A bit, probably, but I don’t think any stupid heroes will jump right into the firing line. If they had that much guts, they would have brought their entire army outside the border to attack us.”

Actually, had the Knight Leader still been in the fight, they might have done just that.

When Elizard was still in power, many would probably have done so gladly.

…And that’s the limit of how far violence takes you, eh, new queen?

Smartveri let out a short, scornful laugh as she watched the unmoving knights.

Then, the operator’s voice reached her ears.

“Commencing bombardment. Destroying Buckingham Palace!!”

3

Boom!! All the windowpanes in the buildings around them shattered.

In the night skies above London, above the racing truck, a beam of light over five meters thick pierced through the air.

Even with both of his ears covered, Kamijou felt his sense of equilibrium threaten to overturn as the impact rattled the very core of his brain. Either the driver, Itsuwa, had been surprised by the thundering sound, or the truck itself had been physically shocked—its huge frame skidded unnaturally sideways.

There wasn’t only one shot.

There was a second, then a third…At intervals of a few seconds, shots fired one after another in the direction of Buckingham Palace.

Kamijou shouted at the top of his lungs at Kanzaki, who was right in front of him, hoping to be heard over the din. “Hey…?! Is this what you meant when you said, Even if she detects us, as long as she can’t intercept us?!”

“Yes. If Carissa’s side is tied up defending against the bombardment, we will be able to cross the battlefield in the meantime. Artillery support from afar is a fundamental component of ground combat,” said Kanzaki, her expression calm and unchanging amid the booms and bangs.

Then, from a different direction, another bombardment assailed Buckingham Palace. This time, it was like a thin, sharp darkness, piercing through the starry sky and nightscape. But there were a lot of them. Curtain fire, containing anywhere from one hundred to two hundred shots, arced through the air and plunged toward the palace area.

“You had more than one fortress?!”

“That must be the Silkie Aquarium, currently cruising on the seafloor near Dover. I heard that four silkies withstood the knights’ assault and remain operational—one, two, four, and five. Three and eight are operational, too, but they seem to be concentrating on fighting back against the knights and the Royal Navy commanded by Carissa.”

Apparently, it was like a submarine mothership for the sorcerers, who were active underwater like mermaids. When there had been decisive movements at the British-French border, they’d been standing by so they could act on a moment’s notice. Now, they seemed to have come here to provide artillery support.

I mean, I’m glad they’re helping us with these humongous attacks, but…

“…Honestly speaking, if anyone was in Buckingham Palace like that, they might seriously die, wouldn’t they?”

“Actually, you’d do well to assume that even this bombardment isn’t enough to take down Carissa. That’s the sort of enemy we’ll be crossing swords with.”

“Freaking monsters,” muttered Kamijou in wonder.

Concentrated fire with something like a battleship cannon wouldn’t take her down. And they wanted a total amateur to run in with just his fist? He was headed to a reckless battlefield, even by his standards.

“…Anyway, there’s not gonna be any collateral damage with all that shooting going on, is there?”

“The area around Buckingham Palace is basically a great big park, so I don’t think we have to worry about any stray bullets,” answered Index, as though matching it up to her own perfect memory.

Kanzaki agreed with the statement. “And Carissa’s side is probably guiding the populace to specific places to make the residents easier to manage. They’re gathering everyone in the city into hotels, theaters, and churches. Even if they accidentally blow up a house, there’s little chance of anyone getting hurt right away.

“…Still, we obviously can’t let ourselves be inattentive,” she finished, as though she’d even given thought to unexpected tragedies.

But that meant the chances were still high that Buckingham Palace itself would be destroyed. Kamijou didn’t know how much the buildings or artwork were worth, but everything in that palace, as well as the palace itself, was probably a mountain of national treasures.

As he thought about it, Kamijou glanced at the third princess’s profile.

“…It doesn’t matter,” she offered in a steady tone. “Everyone—all over the United Kingdom, not only London—is sharing the pain. We would be pushing our luck if we wanted the British royal family alone to emerge unharmed…And if it meant calming this nationwide disturbance, we would smash that sort of palace into little pieces.”

Kamijou sensed something off in Vilian’s voice and expression. He’d just met her, so he didn’t know the details, but he felt as though she was different from that time in Buckingham Palace when she’d been so jumpy and withdrawn.

“Yes—I have been made to realize something,” said Vilian upon the boy’s gaze going to her, as she checked the parts of the crossbow she held. While it was a crossbow, it wasn’t made of crude metal. Instead, it could have been a custom-made item for the royal family, fashioned out of wood that gave off a caramel luster, the sort that might be used over a bar counter. The scope attached to it had an antique impression, too. If someone had told him it was something da Vinci had used regularly, he might have believed them.

“Those servants and cooks can’t use any sorcery, but they put themselves in harm’s way to let me, someone who fears battle, escape. And I’m sure that mercenary fought that group of knights to ensure my own safety, too.”

The crossbow was large, over a meter long. It looked difficult for her slender, feminine arms to pull the string. However, perhaps in consideration of that, a slide was attached to the underside, like the kind on a pump-action shotgun. It probably used gears and pulleys to make it easy to draw it back.

“If running away from the fight would protect them, I would hide myself wherever needs must. But if doing so won’t change the danger they face…then fighting is my only path.”

Vilian, who had tied up her sleeves and slung a quiver over her green dress like a hunter from ancient times, returned Kamijou’s gaze with a modest but firmly rooted one of her own.

“As for you…what will you do? I doubt you have the obligation to risk your life for the crisis facing our nation, and you’ve also rescued your acquaintance from the disturbance for the time being. There would be no issue if you were to withdraw to a safe zone, as they call it. Why do you still go to this deadly battleground?”

“…I don’t have a crazy reason or anything,” began Kamijou, looking up at another pure-white flash streaking through the night sky. “I mean, I don’t like going to dangerous places if I can help it. If I could abandon this stuff, believe me, I would. If everyone who got caught up in this conflict was just disposable cannon fodder, I’d abandon them and find a way to get back to Academy City, too.”

Unlike Vilian, he didn’t have anything to prepare. All he had to do was tighten his right fist, and he was ready.

“But they’re not, are they?”

She might not have been able to hear him over the continuous booming, but he pressed on anyway.

“I don’t think anyone is that easy to understand or that convenient, you know? Everyone carries stuff heavy enough to break them, and they’re running all over the place just to hang on to it…Can’t just leave them and go home, can I? It’s not an issue of some crazy reasons or obligations or anything. I think that if you want to stand up for something, you might as well do it.”

Vilian watched Kamijou for a time. Eventually, she said, “…Even without a perfect set of principles or ideology, you can hear everyone around you, no matter where you are. And no matter what the situation, you’d spare no effort to find the best choice…”

“?”

“You’re a mercenary…like William, but a different kind.”

Kamijou opened his mouth, intending to repeat the unfamiliar name to her.

But before he did, something happened.

Fwup-fwup-fwup-fwup-fwup-fwup-fwup! A continuous chopping noise rang out overhead.

A helicopter…?! wondered Kamijou at first, but he was wrong.

White.

It was a giant object, without any color, like an unfinished plastic model. The huge fan-shaped thing gained buoyancy by spinning very quickly.

As for its size, it was fifty meters in radius, and the fan angle was about ninety degrees.

Kamijou remembered the odd color of this absurdly large structure.

“…A remnant of the omnidimensional slice from the Curtana Original…?!”

Right after he shouted, it happened.

The giant fan, which had been staying parallel to the ground and spinning at a high speed, suddenly went clunk…and tilted sideways. With all its buoyancy gone in a flash, the spinning object began to descend toward the ground in much the same way as a helicopter crashing.

Yes—it fell, as if aiming for the large truck Kamijou and the others were riding.

With its giant whirling blade, it could chop down trees in an instant.

“Shit. We didn’t have any inspections on our way here—is this what she was after?!”

“…Gzz-gzz…Please hang on tight…!!”

The voice of Itsuwa, who was in the driver’s seat, echoed through the radio tied onto the truck bed.

Then, a moment later—

The whirling blade was essentially one hundred meters in diameter, with its axis anchored to its bottom tip. The transport truck swerved violently to avoid it, tossing everyone around in the back. The spinning blades sank about twenty meters in one swipe, ripping out not only the asphalt but even the underground subway structures and throwing them all over the place.

They just barely managed to avoid a direct hit.

But then an impact struck the side of the truck.

The giant spinning blades had changed direction after hitting the ground. They had run into the side of a building and bounced above the ground, squirming and writhing without regularity. The top of one of the whirling blades, veering randomly, had caught the truck in the side.

It had been a sideswiping blow.

The ten-ton truck was sent flying away from the road and over the sidewalk before crashing into a building wall.

“Gwaaahhhh?!” Kamijou shouted as the heavy impact ran through him.

He wasn’t thrown out of the truck bed, but the truck itself was now bent in the middle. It would be impossible to start driving again.

And then even worse news came.

Fwup-fwup-fwup-fwup-fwa-fwa-fwa-fwa-fwa-fwa! The booming noise was like helicopter rotors.

But not only one.

When Kamijou, his entire body tensed, nervously looked up, he saw four, no, five of the hundred-meter-plus fan-shaped spinning blades flying at them like Frisbees.

“Shit!! Run away!!”

The others didn’t need Kamijou to shout it—they’d all jumped down onto the destroyed road, trying to run as far away as possible. Dragging his stinging body, Kamijou grabbed the hand of Index, who was at a loss, and jumped off the truck.

That was when it happened.

As the many whirling blades flew at them, tightly packed, they crashed into one another. The group bounced around in midair, setting them on trajectories that were random and thus even harder to avoid as they soared down at them.

…???!!!

He couldn’t even manage to make a noise.

Countless blades tore away the asphalt and mercilessly ripped down building walls. Index’s hand, which he was sure he’d grabbed, fell away…and as soon as he realized it, his own body was launched into the air. He avoided a direct hit from them, but the asphalt had burst upward, sending him flying.

He had no time to take the fall gracefully.

He slammed into the ground so hard he nearly suffocated.

Guhhfh?! Sh-shit…

“In…dex…? Kanzaki, Itsuwa!! Damn it! Where is everyone?!”

The landing impact had sent clouds of dust into the air, and he couldn’t get a good view of anything. Hacking and coughing irregularly, he shouted his friends’ names, trying to get his voice above the surroundings.

Only the sound of an explosion came back to him.

A whirling blade, having achieved buoyancy and dancing in the night sky at a fixed speed, had collided with a thick ray of light shooting in from afar, causing an immense flash of light in the air.

Hopelessly casting about, Kamijou heard a frail voice.

The words belonged to someone he knew.

“Over…here…”

“Itsuwa?!”

“Y-yes…”

Kamijou tried to run to her, but it was a dead end. Or rather, strictly speaking, the entrance to the back road was blocked off by a collapsed building wall. Her voice was coming from the cracks among the rubble.

“In any case, could you follow Her Highness? Right after everyone scattered, I saw her heading to Buckingham Palace by herself.”

“?!” Kamijou looked around, but he couldn’t spot anyone who looked like Vilian. Had she really gone ahead at a time like this?

Damn it!! He glanced toward Buckingham Palace out of reflex, but then he realized something and returned his gaze to the pile that housed Itsuwa. Then, on the other side of the wall, Itsuwa, possibly guessing something from a subtle sound or his pause, spoke to him.

“Ah-ha-ha. I’m not buried alive or anything, so no need to worry. We’ll take different roads to get to Buckingham Palace. I doubt we’ll be able to find you soon, so let’s meet up again at the palace.”

“But hey, are you okay? You’re actually okay, right?!”

“Everyone else must be finding their own routes to get to Buckingham Palace…For now, please get moving. Staying in one place will only get you sniped.”

She left him with that, and he heard footsteps running away on the other side of the debris. It looked like Itsuwa really was trying to get to Buckingham Palace by taking the alleyways.

What about everyone else…?! Kamijou looked around.

He saw several figures running farther down the main road. One was jumping from rooftop to rooftop—probably Kanzaki. Index, in her arms, was shouting something in his direction, but it didn’t reach his ears.

Kamijou felt relieved for now after seeing her familiar face…But a moment later, his face drew back again. There was a green scrap of fabric on the jagged edge of a piece of destroyed concrete, as though it had caught Vilian. The small, violently torn cloth seemed an awfully ominous metaphor…but Kamijou quickly shook his head to drive away the groundless premonition.

According to Itsuwa, Vilian had gone on ahead by herself. So for now, all he could do for the mission was run to Buckingham Palace.

He was pretty sure it wasn’t even two kilometers away in a straight line. However, those two thousand meters had changed into a path of hellish suffering.

Bonk!! came a dull sound.

By the time Kamijou looked up, startled, a sphere over twenty meters in diameter was falling toward him—a smooth white sphere without color. Once it made landfall about a hundred meters in front of him, blocking his path, it sank unnaturally deep. It had probably even crushed a subway line underground.

But then it appeared to bounce and rise into the air again.

It crushed passenger vehicles abandoned on the road, caused them to burst apart, slammed into a building wall, then rolled off in the other direction…It was heading for Kamijou with random motions, like a living creature.

“Damn it!!”

Kamijou immediately pressed himself against the wall of a road-facing building.

That was when the giant twenty-meter sphere charged in.

In pitching terms, it was a fastball. It flew straight at the ground on a course that would roll him over, crushing him.

But Kamijou made it out without dying—all thanks to the principles of geometry.

When a sphere is put into a cubical box the same size as its diameter, there will be gaps at the edges. By backing up against the building wall, he’d slipped into that gap.

But the destruction didn’t end there.

The building wall overhead, which the giant sphere had pushed into, came crumbling down. Kamijou outran the rain of debris, moving only forward. A rumbling rang through the ground all the while, pieces ever chasing him, about to crush him from behind.

He had no time to rest.

Several more spinning, fanlike blades were shooting at him.

With their centers of gravity skewed, the giant pillars writhed unnaturally, like self-righting dolls, and smashed the road.

Several buildings collapsed, blocking Kamijou’s way.

None of these structures by themselves has a very complicated shape, he considered, gritting his teeth as he ran desperately forward. But they’re absolutely enormous! They’re basically like battleship cannons at this point!!

Even after pouring all his energy into dodging one or two “cannon shots,” he couldn’t rest easy. He had to close the distance as fast as he could and stop the “shots” themselves, or else he and all the others who had been separated from one another would remain in this crisis.

Maybe the fact that there were none of the knights in London, and the fact that the other residents had all been confined elsewhere, was in preparation to let her attack like this whenever she wanted.

Kamijou dodged among piles of debris, plunged through a curtain of dust, jumped over the fissures in the collapsed road he could see the subway line through, and continued to run on and on through the London night.

Itsuwa had said Vilian went on ahead, but no matter how far he ran, he could never see her. He even started to wonder whether she’d actually gone through this fierce battlefield to begin with.

In the meantime, the Buckingham Palace property finally came into view.

The big fence surrounding the park had caved in and been blown away, possibly thanks to the magical bombings from the Coven Compass and the Silkie Aquariums. The entire short-cut green lawn had been turned up and exploded, like a giant had missed a golf club swing—it was now a crater.

Kamijou slipped through what remained of the broken fence, charging onto the palace grounds without hesitation.

And then something chilled him to his core.

He almost stopped running for no reason.

It was past three in the morning, but the palace, bathed in illumination from the ornamental lights on the ground, stood out very clearly against the midnight dark. The bombings from afar had taken out about a third of the palace’s right side, and he could see the extravagant furnishings inside from all the way back where he stood. It was such an unrealistically gorgeous building that any sense of tragedy was gone. It looked like someone had removed the roof and wall from a giant dollhouse.

Yes.

As Touma Kamijou stepped onto the palace grounds, the sight of the half-destroyed palace wasn’t the main attraction.

He was looking at the garden that surrounded the place.

They were probably creations of the Curtana Original. Several giant, mysterious, white objects, created as an aftereffect of omnidimensional slices, were buried in the ground like stakes. And since they’d fallen onto their sides, the grass and the asphalt both lay in overturned ruin.

Two women stood amid it all.

One was Third Princess Vilian.

A white-skinned, blond-haired woman wearing a green dress with a widely spread-out skirt, like a princess from a picture book. In her hands she held a fairly large crossbow, but it had a shotgun-like slide on the lower part to allow even the delicate woman to pull the firm string.

The other was Second Princess Carissa.

A woman wearing a red dress interwoven in places with leather. In her hand was a sword without blade or tip. On her cheek were bits of black soil and dirt, which must have hit her in the process of defending against the bombing by some way or another. But it didn’t look the least bit disgraceful. The mud mixed with her own sweat only increased her intimidation.

“…!”

“……”

They were arguing about something—no, it was more one-sided than that. Vilian was snapping at her, and Carissa seemed to be smoothly brushing it off.

Despite the crossbow Vilian held in both hands, she hadn’t pulled the string or aimed it yet. She held it like a trophy from an awards ceremony, a weapon that didn’t function as an actual weapon.

In contrast, while Carissa was letting the blade-less, tip-less sword dangle at her side, her hand never quivered. Her muscles were perpetually prepared, and she looked as though she could fling out an attack this very moment.

And perhaps it symbolized their stances.

Vilian neglected her weapon in favor of pushing dialogue to the forefront, whereas Carissa was completely focused on handling her weapon and passing off dialogue out of hand.

Which meant it was clear what was about to happen.

Kamijou couldn’t tell what they were talking about from where he was, and he didn’t have the time to hear them both out.

That idiot…!!

He ran full speed, then jumped at Vilian from behind to push her away.

A moment later, without hesitation, Carissa’s Curtana Original moved.

Ga-bam!!

With a roar, every dimension in the spot Vilian had just occupied was cleft through.

A belt-shaped, unnaturally white object appeared, a hundred meters long in total. It was the three-dimensional “cross section” cut away from every dimension in that spot that could be expressed with a whole number, and after a few moments, it slammed down onto the ground.

Getting up from on top of Vilian, who was flabbergasted at the sudden event, Touma Kamijou glared at their powerful enemy.

The second princess of the United Kingdom.

The coup d’état’s leader and the one with the most military prowess of the three sisters.

And the one who’d used the Curtana Original and the all-British Continent—the one who wielded the power of an angelic leader.

“Carissa!!”

“Congratulations. Your fine actions are worthy of a medal. I’d even like to show you to my own weak-kneed knights. My sister’s virtue really does show up in the strangest places. I need to stop making light of it.”

Carissa answered Kamijou’s shout with a steady expression.

All the lights that were normally for making the extravagant palace stand out in the dark were now bathing the elder sister in their luminescence. She reigned within that light as though the effect were natural.

Touma Kamijou kept his eyes on her body.

His gaze wasn’t caused by her body, however. What would happen if he let his attention slip, even a tiny bit?

The young amateur could physically sense the answer.

“What of the others, by the way? Is your whole army buried under rubble?”

Kamijou’s face drew back into a scowl, but he fought the terrible idea out of his mind with a growl.

They were safe. They would come for sure. His only choice now was to act on that assumption. After all, drawing Carissa’s attention would stop the giant structures’ cannon fire and get them out of danger.

But then, as if to stamp out his optimistic hope, Carissa put the Curtana Original on her shoulder and grinned a broad, wicked smile.

“If they are, then the Puritans certainly disappointed me, too. They’re making me look like a fool for having gone through all that preparation, so.”

“Preparation…?” muttered Vilian, as though a bad feeling had bubbled up from her heart and made it out her mouth.

It was a moment later.

Boom!!

Some sort of incredibly huge object passed overhead.

The object had a hang glider–like form.

But it was big. Close to eighty meters long. It rivaled the Skybus 365, a jumbo jet, in length. And after it passed over their heads once, it looped back around in a wide arc, aiming its nose at them.

“Oh, don’t act so surprised. Did you think the Coven Compass and the Silkie Aquariums were the only two mobile fortresses we had? I’m sure you at least know that most of the major facilities of the UK are in my hands. The knights, especially. They have all kinds of Soul Arms, big and small, for engaging in direct combat, so. I very much doubt it will bore you.”

As if to interrupt the grinning Carissa’s words, several more booms and bursts streaked through the night sky. Like before, they were eighty-meter “fortresses” that looked like hang gliders—twenty of them, slowly circling over Buckingham Palace. Silver-colored metal parts were attached to reinforce certain areas, looking like armor or protective gear.

The second princess gazed up at the fortresses, painted in the same crimson red as her own dress, and said, “The mobile siege fortress Gryphon Sky.”

Kamijou looked up at the mobile fortresses. He had no idea how they’d attack, and as he stood there dumbstruck, only Carissa’s voice reached him.

“They can’t fly at high altitudes like the Skybus 365, since they’re made for attacking castles on the ground, and they don’t have the flexibility or adaptability the Coven Compass has, thanks to their being unmanned Soul Arms, but their coordinated attack patterns are number one of all our nation’s fortresses, so. They’re stupid but obedient. Truly the best option for someone engaged in military affairs.”

Is that…all of them?

Kamijou gaped at the sight, which far exceeded the scale of person-to-person combat.

They’re mobile fortresses like the Coven Compass…and there’re twenty of them…?!

He brought his gaze away from the night sky and back to the battle before him.

On top of the floating arsenal, the actual enemy, Carissa, had overwhelming attack power in the form of the Curtana Original. And the Knights’ forces must have been standing by somewhere close, as well.

He could maybe break the sword with one hit with his right hand, but could he and Vilian fight alone in this situation?

Unconsciously, he remembered the Soul Arm called Robin Hood that had shot the New Light sorcerer Lesser. He glanced into the surrounding darkness, his caution mounting by another degree.

But Carissa had this to say about that: “No, nobody’s going to ambush you. I mean, I did use that little live-relay tactic already, so.”

“…?”

“Having the Curtana Original run out of control after defeating the Knight Leader and getting the knights to doubt my legitimacy as head of state…Several coincidences may have helped you, but I still have to say it was a pretty brilliant psychological tactic.”

Carissa whirled the Curtana Original around and rested it on her shoulder.

“The knights were on the verge of collapse, and you forced me to reignite their passion, so. Though I did use somewhat rough methods.”

A live relay. Rough methods.

Kamijou had a bad feeling about this—and then he saw it. A few drops of dark-red liquid clinging to the Curtana Original’s blade-less body.

“You…You didn’t…”

“Mm, it was a bit of a punishment. The security level around Buckingham Palace will drop, but it’s still better than the whole Knights faction collapsing after taking control of the entire nation and losing their very support structures, so…Besides, the head of state uses the angelic leader’s powers. To be honest, I don’t need a royal guard anyway.”

“You killed them?! You killed your own allies?!” yelled Kamijou in shock.

Vilian’s shoulders shook, as though she’d remembered it happening.

But the second princess’s answer went even beyond that.

“Don’t worry about that. Killing someone too quickly doesn’t give the imagination time to catch up, so…I made it a bit of sport—to give them the greatest performance with the least amount of mana spent.”

A fate worse than death.

That was the phrase that came to mind, and Kamijou couldn’t even visualize it. He gritted his teeth. “…The knights had things they believed in, too, and that’s why they were following you this whole time. They’re the comrades who fought at your side—and you’re talking about ‘spending’ them?! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

There was a dull creak…!!

It was the sound of Touma Kamijou’s right hand tightening unconsciously.