Chapter 4: The Osakan Escape

1

Unlike its northern cousin, Osaka Bay, Wakayama Bay hadn’t changed since the Evacuation. In its mouth, a once well-traveled strait known as the Kii Channel, situated around 34°N and somewhere on the Shikoku end of 134°E, was a city on the water. A floating settlement of elves by the name of Nayuta. Sandwiched between the island of Shikoku and the Kii Peninsula, the self-sustaining community approximately 10 kilometers wide boasted scatterings of groves, fields of grain, and a tower in the middle that touched the skies 300 meters above. Factories and residences occupied the inner reaches.

All of it was thanks to Project Dvipa, a collaborative effort between the sage-run Elvish Foundation, numerous Japanese construction companies, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

It was the first of April. Half past four. The sun wasn’t even over the horizon when the outdated cargo freighter left the artificial island’s port.

“I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to do this,” Jurota Shiba murmured.

The thirty-two-year-old man was of average height and build, but distinguished by the glasses hanging from his narrow face and his long, black hair tied into a loose ponytail, which was only kept so out of an impatience for haircuts more than as a fashion statement. Aside from those features, though, the young man was an exceptionally bland individual. All the way down to his beige blouson and khaki cargo pants.

He leaned against the ship’s rail, his eyes darting at every shadow on the water. “We’re sailing right towards a portal-keep. I swear, I might lose my lunch if those creatures show up.”

Volonov gave the unkempt man a look. “Where’re your sea legs, officer?” he said with a twinge of an accent.

After a string of unfortunate events, when Anomalies overran his home in the Kamchatka Peninsula, only for the same fate to befall him in Japan, Aleksei Volonov had found himself fortunate enough to indulge in the safety of Nayuta. His business in Japanese and Russian trade relations gave him a firm command of the local language as well, though many saw his hard-set expression and brawny upper body and assumed he was a gun-for-hire, or perhaps with the mafia. His short-sleeved shirt seemed to barely contain his chest.

“Don’t mind me, just being the voice of reason,” Shiba replied pitifully. “Osaka Bay isn’t exactly smooth sailing these days. Or is it the Great Kansai Bay now? My point is the Osaka region seems a tad unsafe to me.”

“Relax,” the Russian man insisted. “We’re giving the portal a wide berth. I’ve made the voyage a hundred times. Trust me. You’ll not catch a whiff of an Anomaly.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Worse comes to worst, we’ve plenty of guns, army boy.”

“I’m decommissioned and for good reason, thank you!” Twenty or so other passengers were on board with them. Hunters, sailors, military men, people well accustomed to firearms and the rocking of the waves. And there were enough AK-47s for each of them, replicas of the original Russian model and all courtesy of Nayuta’s workshops for self-defense purposes. “I don’t remember a lick of basic training,” the former warrant officer professed. “And I was a pencil pusher, not a combatant.”

“Elves must like pencils,” Volonov said. “Or at least Speaker Nadal does. Enough to put you in charge of a squad in that new militia.”

“Rumors,” Shiba said, hastily waving his hand in denial. “There are positions that can’t be filled. The whole thing’s dead in the water.” He took out the carpenter bee from his pocket. “Or at least it should’ve been.”

The insect almost seemed real, its metalwork intricate and impossibly detailed. It would have been even more convincing if it’d had enough power to fly around.

“What’s that?” Volonov asked.

“A Pandemonium series auxiliary droid,” replied Shiba as he eyed the machine. “Among the twelve Asuras are three kings. The King of the Land, the King of the Sea, and the King of the Storm. This particular droid belongs to the ruler of the skies. And it had a very interesting message to give regarding its liege, and a person of very special interest to us.”

Shiba had been tasked with finding her, as well as the one whom she was with.

Far away from the human vessel crossing Earth’s waters was a spectral palace perched upon the waves. The pedestal keeping it afloat was in the shape of a lotus flower and stretched over a kilometer across. The castle glistened with translucent azure quartz composing every wall and column. Such a material would normally never suffice for a structure of this size, but for the archmages, this matter was trivial.

“It has been too long, Keeper of the Pride.”

“Quldald of the Whirlwind. Always a pleasure.”

In a secluded chamber, deep inside the crystal palace, a man and a girl spoke, keepers both. The young man was sharp, handsome, while the girl seemed to be no more than twelve or thirteen. She appeared so frail that the slightest breeze might shatter her porcelain skin.

The girl tittered. “Lioness Scullchance welcomes you, though she finds it untoward that you should neglect to herald your coming, fellow Dharva,” she said. “Oh, bless our friendship, for I cannot bear to turn you away!”

Scullchance leisurely crossed one leg over the other. The cloth draped over her slender body was primarily white with flourishes of ornate, floral embroidery. Her choice of seating was similarly striking, as she lounged not on any sort of chair, but on the back of a lion. The golden-maned beast, very much alive, rumbled a low growl at the unexpected intruder.

“For that, you have my sincerest apologies. Forgive me.” Quldald dipped his head. “As you know, my nature is as the wind, and damned be us all if one can say where next it shall blow.” For an instant, the man’s body literally vanished into thin air and a cyclone whirled within the chamber, before reshaping just as quickly into bodily form. “I hope my whimsies have caused no offense.”

Yu would have recognized his blue mantle and wooden staff as belonging to the one who had been at Maizuru. The one who had stood on the ramparts above the city and cast Death upon those below.

“Very well, but do not try my patience a second time,” Scullchance replied, her expression cold. “Now what brings you here?”

“News, my lady,” the man said. “Of the black and gold warrior.”

“I take it this individual’s hue is of little importance.”

“This individual has neared your domain. I once spied them on the battlefield, but he has changed since then,” Quldald stated. “He has become one with vajra, my lady.”

“You mean to tell me,” Scullchance spat, “that a species of chimpanzees has awakened the wheel of orison?” True, she had heard that the cowards of the wood had been aiding the local primitives in an attempt to unlock the ultimate door. But had they really succeeded? Truly? A chuckle escaped the girl. “Then I suppose congratulations are in order.”

The lion rumbled once more as the dainty predator on its back curled her lips into a vicious and bloodthirsty snarl.

2

One year ago, it was the city of Toyonaka. These days it was simply the coast of the Great Kansai Bay, but refugees still called it home and had built up a small yet flourishing community. At its heart was a street in the shadow of elevated railway tracks, packed with little shops and vendors neighboring a university. Along with educational facilities, the campus was home to a forest of wild birds and even a pond. Surrounded by walls, it was like an entirely separate society from the one outside.

“But it wouldn’t be such a big deal if those old farts out there could take a chill pill!” Natsuki snapped. “You can’t even go for a walk unless you’ve got an extra leg in your pants. So it’s a good thing all the girls with no one to look out for them can hole up here with families and other folk the guys can’t keep their hands off of. We’ve got some students and professors who used to go to school here too.”

The day after the kraken attack, Natsuki, Yu, and the rest of the group were having a late breakfast in what used to be a classroom. Batter sizzled on a hot plate on the table, powered by a solar generator. The savory, pancakey goodness that was okonomiyaki was nearly done.

“Yeah, I don’t remember seeing many women around town yesterday,” Aliya said.

The feminine-dominated university stood in stark contrast to the man’s world that waited just outside its walls. Here, most of the men one could find were those with softer edges, fathers and the like, and there were people of all colors and nationalities.

“That definitely explains why these people don’t give Ein or Aliya weird looks,” said Yu.

Ein nodded. “It certainly feels more welcoming here.”

“You have no idea how hard it was to get to this point,” Natsuki dramatically groaned as she flipped the okonomiyaki. “It was like, three whole seasons worth of drama. But we got lucky. This place generates its own renewable energy, has a water purifier, the works.”

“I was wondering about that,” Ijuin commented. “You’ve got those big windmills and solar panels like the elves have at their labs. Superconductive motors, right?”

“Uh-huh. The school did some cosponsorship thing with their research.”

The advent of advanced clean energy technology in the way of water reclamation, net-zero carbon emissions, and perpetual self-sufficiency for all energy demands were some of the migrant sages’ greatest scientific contributions. Decades of such groundbreaking research were what would eventually give birth to self-sustaining grids like what was present here and at Maizuru, as well as the Asura Frame’s own microgenerator.

“We used to just pump our own water from the pond and purify it ourselves,” Natsuki said. “But then the townsfolk started picking fights over it, so we ended up putting another plant by the ocean, and now we share it.”

“I imagine you found yourself in quite a few scuffles,” Ein presumed.

“Oh, a few,” Natsuki laughed with a bashful grin. “Gave a few bad guys what for, maybe gave a few badder guys a little more.”

“Guess it’s rough everywhere,” Yu mumbled.

Yu’s group had provided the flour for the batter they were frying. They had willingly shared all of their food, seeing as it was only fair if they would be imposing on them for the indefinite future. The cabbage, sprouts, eggs, and various other toppings came from the campus’s own fields and farm hens. Unfortunately, they would have to do without mayonnaise, but the Worcestershire sauce, aonori seaweed, and pickled ginger more than made up for it.

When the okonomiyaki was done, no one waited to dig in, puffing on the steaming pancake before hissing at the heat as they stuffed their faces. Ein, meanwhile, was engrossed in the one pancake Yu had made and guarded it for herself.

“How?” Ein demanded after a single bite, her brow furrowed and fierce. “How do you keep doing it, Yu? The contrast between the airiness of the dough and the texture of the sugar, it’s...it’s divine! How do you continue to delight me so, Yu?!”

“You don’t have to be so melodramatic,” said Yu. “All I did was mix granulated sugar into the batter.”

“Sugar-fried, eh?” Natsuki casually butt in. She leaned over the table and brought her face right up to Yu’s. “I like the way you think.”

Their noses were practically touching, and Yu could see every charming feature of the red-haired samurai girl’s profile. And then she started to sniff him. Yu nearly short-circuited from sheer awkwardness, when the hairs on his neck pricked up. He could feel something from her. But what?

Ein was already pouting. “Natsuki Hatano,” she scolded like an angry mother, “you would do well to remember that Yu is already spoken for. You cannot have him.”

“Oh, chill, I’m almost done,” Natsuki said. “I knew it. You were the big strong man!”

“H-How do you figure?” Yu asked, barely maintaining composure anymore.

“You’re him. The guy in the suit. You’re Devicer Three!”

“Th-That’s a pretty lofty accusation you’re throwin’ out there!” Ijuin stammered.

“Yu?” Aliya repeated with feigned incredulity. “Devicer Three? He’s a middle schooler!”

“I see your game,” said Natsuki. The most self-satisfied smirk that anyone had ever seen was smeared across her face. “Allow me to reintroduce myself. Name’s Natsuki Hatano, and I’m seventeen years old. Ex-high schooler and proud walloper of a tenth-dan kendo swordsman. I mastered traditional swordplay like it was nothing, nearly fell asleep fighting a sixth-dan judo master, and didn’t even need two hands to whoop an MMA champion. Also this.”

Natsuki held up the ring of light glowing in her right palm. A light that belonged solely to the nano-augmented.

“So wanna commlink? It’s pretty handy, huh?”

“I can’t believe she’s nano-augmented. Definitely explains how amazing she is.”

Yu was on a walk around campus after breakfast. He headed for the main gate, Ein following close at his side.

“I, too, was gifted with prajna—the key to ultimate wisdom,” Ein said. “My being was melded with nanomachines when I was created. It is how I access the Astral Library and the Gospel within.” Yu nodded. He had more or less pieced together that the “Mantra Server” sequence was caused by Ein’s nano-abilities. “However, my power is rooted within my mind and soul. Natsuki Hatano’s seems to manifest physically.” She glanced at Yu’s scrawny form. “Perhaps yours can too, Yu. When you‘re one with the Asura, you fight as a veteran warrior. It does take effort not to swoon in the moment, I admit.”

“Wait, I thought it was the Frame making me move like that,” Yu said.

“It does no such thing,” Ein stated. “Yu, the heat of combat smolders within your very body.”

“I guess...” Yu struggled to find the words. “I guess I do feel lighter on my feet with it on. Like I can do anything. But I don’t know if I like it.”

There were techniques, stances, ways of hurting people in his head that Yu shouldn’t have known. The most violent he had felt before, if you could call it that, was when kicking a soccer ball, but when he was with the Mark III, fighting came to him like it was second nature. Assuming those abilities originated from his own nanomachines, it stood to reason that he didn’t need the suit to pull them off. But that realization only made Yu’s steps feel heavier, and he didn’t know why.

“Well, they look like they’re in good spirits,” Ein remarked.

“Yeah, they do,” said Yu. “Er, in more ways than one. They look drunk.”

Outside the campus gate, on the bustling shopping street, the men had set up tables, chairs, and rolled out picnic sheets all along the road. But it was far too late to be enjoying the cherry blossoms at this time of year.

Dozens of men, young, old, and every age in between reeked of booze. Bottles of shochu liquor and whiskey, beer cans, and canisters of what looked to be homemade umeshu and sake sat just about everywhere there were people gathered. Such rare commodities in their day and age weren’t to be consumed lightly, but today seemed to be a celebration.

Yu and Ein could hear some of the cheers.

“Damn bastard’s back at it!” a man shouted. “Three’s back, baby!”

“Which one o’ yous said he was dead?!” another slurred. “I want my money!”

One man bellowed over the clamor with laughter. “Ain’t gotta worry about no Anomalies anymore!”

Someone else took the lead over the chaos and called out, “To Devicer Three!”

“Japan’s gonna be all right!”

The men raised their drinks before downing them all in a single swig.

Rarer than anything in such dire times, even rarer than their spirits, was good news. The celebration was almost riotous, but the return of their nation’s hero had struck the people with emotions they hadn’t felt in years. While Ein watched with keen curiosity, Yu found the entire affair uncomfortable.

As they walked, they passed by a group of the rejoicing men. Yu felt none of the danger he had felt the day before, mostly on account of the enormous, drunken grins they were flashing Ein’s way.

“I know you!” one called out. “Heard you’re puttin’ in a good word for us boys, eh?”

“Get over here and have a drink!” one offered. “We owe ya one for gettin’ our sorry asses outta this place!”

“We got food! C’mon over!” another hollered.

The truth of Ein’s offer had spread and, as an unsurprising result, become twisted. They had both left their guns behind, and even still they felt completely unthreatened by the suddenly openhearted townsfolk. Ein turned the drunks down with a polite nod and Yu replied with a forced smile.

They quickly put some distance between themselves and the noise before more unsolicited invitations could find them.

“So stupid,” Yu murmured. “Like we don’t remember what they did yesterday.”

“Be they human or elf, we are all but victims to our nature,” said Ein calmly. “The man who lives a sinless life does not exist. We lie, steal, and hurt one another, sometimes even kill one another. But so, too, does the criminal sometimes commit acts of selflessness. Good and evil are simply two sides of the same coin. Or at least, that’s what I believe.”

Yu was quiet for a moment. “Maybe I should just let it go.”

Not even a full day ago, Yu had saved a town of people. Many had died, but many more were alive and well. By Yu’s hand. But his mind was heavy with doubts, buzzing with idle thoughts.

What would have happened to Aliya without Natsuki’s help?

Didn’t Natsuki say these were bad people?

Yu was glad to have saved lives. He truly was. But not all of them were lives he felt particularly compelled to protect. Among them were people he detested, people he couldn’t respect, people like the officers and soldiers at Maizuru.

Yu realized where his train of thought was heading and sighed. “I don’t think I make a very good hero.”

“And I wouldn’t make a good judge.” They had come to a quiet residential street. Ein stopped in the middle of the road and said, “But what do you say we test my theory?”

Yu turned to her, confused. “What?”

“Let’s see how well you fight without the Asura.” Ein took a tight fighting stance. “I can spar with you, if you’d like.” She held her right fist out towards Yu while she shielded her face with her left.

Yu shook his head. “Not now. I think I want me and Devicer Three to be separate people,” he answered. Then his voice quieted. “It makes it...easier.”

The slaughter. The carnage. The weapons of mass destruction. It was hard for Yu to come to terms with how easily it all came to him. He justified it as best he could, told himself it was either the Anomalies or him, told himself it was to protect his friends, but still he struggled to feel any sort of pride for the Mark III’s strength. Or for the victories it brought.

Perhaps it was guilt. The undeniable truth that, enemy or not, Yu was taking life. Perhaps it was his inability to reconcile that fact that caused him to cage the identity of Devicer Three away from his own. Yu’s emotions were jumbled, an incomplete puzzle, and he was missing pieces. And that only disheartened him more.

But Ein looked at him with respect in her eyes. “Interesting. That’s a novel idea, Yu. As many of your thoughts are, but this one especially,” she said. “The heroes of my memory were glory-seekers. Doers of mighty feats and great beacons to the world. As the saying goes, ‘ye from afar, hear and tremble. Ye who are near, behold and wonder.’”

“I think I learned that in my classical literature class one time.”

Ein chuckled smugly. “I wanted to sound smart,” she boasted. “What I mean to say is, what you just told me is entirely antithetical to those notions. When I heard those words, Yu, I felt goosebumps.”

“Why?” Yu asked. She had to be joking around, trying to cheer him up, but the bright smile on her face was anything but a jest. She stared right at him, and Yu felt himself getting lost in her eyes.

“A masked hero whom no face adorns. I am witnessing the birth of something incomprehensibly incredible,” Ein murmured. She reached out and took Yu’s hand in her own. “Yu. I have never been more certain of anything before in my life. You will be a legend unlike any other.”

Her hands squeezed tight around Yu’s, her strength comforting, her presence reassuring. Yu had no idea how powerful the simple act of being there could be for someone who was hurting. Would that he could let the mood linger.

“I feel like I should tell you that masked heroes are kind of super common in this world,” he said.

Ein’s narrow eyes opened wide. “Really? Well, where have they been hiding?!”

“I mean in like kids’ TV shows and stuff. Movies.”

“Yu, I do not know what those words mean,” Ein stated. “But now is as good a time as any to reiterate that my only purpose for seeking my elvish brethren is to stand by you. Wherever you go, I shall follow. Whatever you do, I will be there to support you. Nothing is more important to me.”

Ein’s unfaltering stare pierced Yu through to his heart. The sincerity in her words affected him deeply, and his eyes grew hot.

“Thanks,” he replied simply. “That... That makes me happy.”

“Though I do find it odd that you’ve yet to be smitten by my advances—I mean, really, I believe I’ve been exceptionally moving—I won’t rush you. Some of us are struck at once by a lightning bolt of love, but I suppose the slow, rolling rainclouds of a romantic drizzle are just as valid. I know you can be quite shy at times, so I’ll wait as long as it takes. Or perhaps you’d prefer I be more aggressive?”

“How could you possibly get more aggressive?!” Yu blurted. “Scratch that, don’t wanna know!”

Yu couldn’t put his finger on why, but although he usually preferred to be alone with his thoughts in times of distress, he didn’t find Ein’s antics all that irritating. In fact, he might have even enjoyed them.

Just then, a young man in glasses appeared, walking from the direction of the noisy street.

“Excuse me, Lady Elf,” he said. “I believe this is yours.” He produced an auxiliary droid in the shape of a carpenter bee—a MUV Bumblebee. “My name is Shiba, and I come from Nayuta.”

3

Roughly four hundred people lived in the refugee city off the coast of the Great Kansai Bay. According to Natsuki, about forty or fifty more could be found further inland. About half of them were currently gathered at the shore, a residential street of small, one-story houses where the asphalt had become a deposit for silt and sand being carried by the waves. Some watched the ship depart from the surreal beach while others looked on from the top of roofs. Some with hope. Others with doubt.

“Finally off,” the bespectacled man sighed.

Jurota Shiba stared out at those on the water’s edge from the freighter’s stern as they receded into the distance, Yu and his friends standing with him. It was three in the afternoon and the sun was beginning its descent.

“This took forever,” Yu murmured. “Three whole days of bickering just to work everything out.”

“Everyone wanted a spot, so can’t really blame ’em,” Ijuin replied.

Two hundred were aboard the mid-sized cargo ship, their attendance made possible by the fact that there was no actual cargo to take up space. Most of them were children, the elderly, or the sick. In the absence of any real port, they had boarded by painstakingly sailing a rubber raft back and forth between the shore and the freighter parked out at sea. It had taken a frustrating amount of time.

“At least some people volunteered to stay,” Aliya pointed out.

Natsuki shrugged. “No point blaming them. This isn’t the first time they’ve had their hopes let down.”

“What do you mean?” Aliya asked.

“So, we have a few boats ourselves—repaired some stuff that floated up from who knows where—and we’ve tried to take them out to find help before. Went to Awaji Island and even Shikoku. Wasn’t much we could do without radio, y’know? Didn’t have much luck, though.” Natsuki began to count the grievances on her fingers as she recounted. “The people we found gave us wussy replies and wouldn’t do jack—well, we did force ’em to take a few people. But the locals would be jerks, wouldn’t hand out food, stuff like that. Lots of people ended up coming back.”

Shiba nodded. “That sounds about right,” he said. “The provisional government is pretty much kaput, and what local administration they do have hardly has enough to keep their own people alive.”

“You mean Kyushu’s just as bad as everywhere else?!” Ijuin shouted. Anxiety for his family twisted his voice.

“You said your name was Shiba?” said Ein pointedly. “You seem rather well fed to me.”

“We are better off than the outside, yes,” Shiba admitted. “Benefits of living in a completely self-sustaining floating city. We have plenty of power and food, but that doesn’t mean everything’s perfect.” He exhaled heavily. “It’s hard to send aid when politicians, government officials, and Defense Force dignitaries who escaped from the mainland like to argue. Discussions can go on—have been going on for months without a thing getting done.”

“Does Nadal simply allow this to happen?” Ein asked. “You serve him, don’t you?”

Shiba’s smile became less tired and more cheerful. “You know the speaker? That’s right, I work for him. He’s never been one to rock the boat, but boy, when we got your message, things moved fast. Faster than I’ve ever seen. They sent out a boat to collect refugees right away.”

“Because of Ein and Devicer Three,” Aliya said. “If I had to wager a guess, I’d say he was dragging his feet, saving his energy until an opportunity arose. And when he found two more aces for his deck, he pounced on it like the fox he is! That very much sounds like something my uncle would do.”

“You’re his niece, then?” Shiba eyed the proud half-elf with mild surprise. “You definitely think like him.”

“Please, if my uncle is level ninety-nine in being a dastardly snake, I’m hardly level four. Aliya is as pure and innocent as a baby.”

Shiba gave a dry chuckle. “Speaking of names, can I ask which one of you is Devicer Three? It’s something of a matter of security.”

Yu swallowed, when suddenly, Natsuki and Ein both turned to look in the same direction.

“Beasts come,” Ein muttered.

“From up top,” Natsuki said, unfazed. “Let’s hope calamari’s off the menu this time.”

The master markswoman and the superhuman samurai girl locked their keen eyes on an indistinct threat, looming in the distance.

The freighter was near what would have been the mouth of the Yodogawa River in the past. Skyscrapers, modern monoliths of concrete and steel extended from the sunken metropolis below and through the ocean’s surface. Sea level surged and swelled nearabout four stories up. Anything smaller was buried by the waves, their roofs visible between the crests of rippling seawater.

Was Osaka Bay always so beautiful?

Yu had never been to Osaka before, but growing up in Tokyo, he couldn’t remember the waters of such a large city ever looking so clear. But now was no time for retrospection.

“Anomaly identified!” Aliya shouted. “Goblins!”

“About time we came across some o’ those. Wait, they’re riding balloons!” Ijuin hollered. “What are those? Some kinda makeshift air force?!”

Easily over a hundred tiny, child-like devils wearing nothing but loincloths were riding the wind directly towards them. Nothing seemed to be propelling them forward, and the only things suspending them in the air were fabric balloons tied to their backs, but they were approaching fast. As if by magic.

Shiba, the supposed commanding officer, looked frantically back and forth between them and the ship’s captain. “We’re taking the same route, aren’t we?!” he blubbered. “Around the portal-keep?!”

“Around the portal-keep,” the Russian man rumbled. “Looks like the wand-wavers are up to no good today. That or they’re killing anything that moves now. Either way, doesn’t make a difference now, army boy! To arms!”

“Well said,” Ein uttered, pointing her Type 89 to the sky.

Pop! A single balloon burst and the goblin fell ungracefully into the ocean.

“Sh-Should we have brought guns, ya think?!” Ijuin stammered.

“I’m going to say yes!” Aliya replied, voice shaking. “We have to get ready to help defend the ship! Yu, we need Devicer Three!”

She and Ijuin sprinted to the door leading into the ship’s hold to acquire weapons. Yu breathed deep. He had no choice. No choice but to forget the hesitation, the guilt, the people he would have rather not risked his life to protect. Because there were people who needed him, and they couldn’t protect themselves. Children, injured, elderly. And he wanted to save them.

But moments before Yu could armorize, he heard a voice. A song. There were no lyrics to it, but the voice rang out, poignant and stirring. It resonated with Yu’s very soul. A fog fell over his mind and he began to shuffle towards the source of the beauteous tones.

“Ichinose!” someone screamed. “You’re walking into the ocean, man!”

“Magic detected! Something is casting the Dazing Melody curse!”

“Be strong, Yu!” another shouted at him. “Do not let the kinnara overtake you!”

Yu could hear his friends warning him, but he did not understand why. He came up to the ship’s railing and leaned his languid body against it. All around him were other passengers mimicking the exact same mindless movements.

Above them, the goblins pulled arrows from the quivers on their waists and nocked their bows.

“Get behind something!” Shiba hastily commanded at last.

The goblins fired on the ship all at once. A storm of arrows hummed through the air, striking the deck at pure random like droplets of rain. Many people had emerged to defend themselves against the enemy, and as they took aim, those unlucky enough to be in the monsters’ line of fire quickly fell, foaming at the mouth.

“They’re poisoned!” Ein shouted. “The arrowheads are coated in toxin!”

A bluish liquid covered the tips of the arrows scattered about the deck. Before long, Ein was joined by sailors, men from the town, and even women wielding shotguns and rifles. They opened fire on the airborne goblins, but it was too little too late. The Anomalies began to descend and alighted onto the ship.

Natsuki unsheathed her monomolecular blade with delight, her sleeves fluttering in the wind. “My turn!”

The girl flew into the fray.

At the gunwale, Yu pressed his body harder against the rail. As the last of his strength slipped away, he swung over and fell headfirst. Down into the ocean below.

4

April third. Yu Ichinose should have been starting school soon. He should have been in his third year of middle school. What was he doing here, sinking to the bottom of Osaka Bay? Rather, it was the Great Kansai Bay now, wasn’t it?

Where was he? He had never been here before. Where had his home in Kita ward gone?

He had always lived at home. Even after being transferred to a nanotechnology research facility under Defense Force requisition with Aliya and Ijuin. He would commute every day.

Every day, except that day.

He had been staying at Yokota Air Base in Tama. Not far from Tokyo, but away from the twenty-three main wards. Something about helping conduct research. And it was during one such round of experiments that the first earthquake hit. Many more would follow.

That day, portal-keeps materialized above the entire Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

The ground never stopped shaking. The earth surged with a violent rage that could never be quelled. And as it did, the Anomalies decapitated Japan’s government and military. Then the rain came. Then the wind. Then the floods.

Yu only returned home once, when it was over. He was helping the Force with rescue efforts. But by then, the entirety of central Tokyo was already underwater. And Yu’s childhood home was just one out of the many landmarks of the new suburban seafloor. He remembered passing over its roof aboard a rubber raft—and then just as quickly leaving it behind.

They never found the bodies. But no matter how long he waited, Yu never heard from his family like Ijuin had. There was nothing from his parents. Nothing from his sister. Nothing from any of his relatives at all. And so things were. And so time passed.

I’m not special, Yu thought. We all got left behind. We’re all that’s left.

Yu felt the road against his back. The ocean had covered much of downtown Osaka in a bed of soil and sand. A creature was gripping his foot. The Anomaly that had dragged him down to this watery grave appeared to be a mermaid, with the alluring torso of a naked woman and the peculiar lower half of a fish. Scales dotted its dark blue skin.

What were they called again? Yu pondered calmly. Sirens? Or is this really a mermaid I’m seeing?

The gills on its neck pulsated as it continued to sing its song. Yu listened to the meaningless melody, its notes unimpeded by the water around them, and a great melancholy overcame him. One so painful that the agony of suffocation seemed utterly unimportant.

Yu turned his eyes up listlessly. The sun glittered on the water’s surface. How sad it was. Not like here. Where he lay was far more comfortable. Perhaps he would even get to see his family again.

Other sirens held victims down all over the bay’s floor. Slowly, the air began to leave their lungs and they started to drown. With blissful smiles on their faces.

Yu was about to join them in sublime surrender, when he heard the edge of a sharp and powerful voice.

“Yu! Do not heed the fae’s call!”

He could have sworn it was Ein’s, but like the waves rippling above, it passed, and he continued to gaze at the shimmering light.

But something startled him awake.

“Ein!” Yu replied telepathically. “What are you doing?!”

The Replicant girl was swimming down towards him, completely clothed and unarmed. She moved through the water with grace and skill.

Pain returning to his senses, Yu choked and inhaled a little seawater. He wouldn’t last long with the siren holding his legs.

The Shroud! he thought.

The ring in Yu’s palm glowed, and from it flowed adaptive nanofactors, solidifying into a yellow cloth. The scarf wrapped itself around the siren’s head and across its slender neck, then after a gruesome crack, the monster’s song ceased. The creature, its spine having been snapped like a twig, went limp.

Ein drifted towards Yu, and in a single, almost transient instant, she drew her face closer and pressed her lips against his.

Yu stared at her blankly, the thoughts being transmitted to Ein a mess of stutters.

She winked. “I thought this was how you humans lifted evil witches’ curses.”

As devilishly charming as she was, Yu could hold his breath no longer. The black and gold nano-armor plated itself over his body.

On the ship, a fierce battle of swashbuckling proportions was underway. The goblins had cut the tethers to their balloons and boarded, armed with small axes and swords hanging from sashes around their waists. The humans faced the wildly slashing mob with knives, billhooks, spades, and sidearms. Further back, some sniped at the monsters from afar, while others fired their shotguns madly, mauling friend and foe alike.

Natsuki had already felled over a dozen of the creatures.

“Stick close, youngins,” she said.

“I’m sorry!” blubbered Ijuin. “We’re really holdin’ ya back here!”

“I saw Ein dive into the ocean after Yu!” Aliya cried. “You don’t think they both drowned, do you?!”

Natsuki, with the two young middle schoolers at her back, gently swayed her monomolecular blade at three goblins who seemed ready to pounce. They were cornered. Ijuin shakily aimed a 9mm handgun with unsteady hands and Aliya cradled a submachine gun of the same caliber in her arms. The half-elf turned to peer timidly over the edge—and gasped.

A small whirlpool was beginning to swirl on the surface of the ocean. She could feel it in her nanofactors. The Gospel of the Asura Frame’s awakening.

—Oh, Traveler. Heed me, oh Traveler,

—Wanderer of the realm and distances vast,

—Rejoice, oh Siddha. The awakening has begun.

The whirlpool swelled to a massive size, until from the center of the spiral soared Devicer Three, donned in the Mark III. In his arms was the enchanting Replicant girl.

Ein was dripping wet, but otherwise unharmed in the hands of her knight.

“Wanna explain that kiss now?!” Yu demanded.

“I believe I already did,” Ein retorted. “Isn’t it exciting? We’ve reached a whole new level of our relationship to explore!”

“Yeah, right! That one did not count!”

“Are you implying there will be another?” she quipped back. “I like this new aggressive side of yours, Yu!”

“Okay, you’re doing this on purpose,” he moaned.

The Mark III pirouetted into the clouds, a beautiful, sprightly maiden in its arms. The sight was painting-worthy, save for the subjects’ bickering. It was through that trivial banter, though, that Yu felt the siren’s gloom fade from his mind.

The Frame ejected its nanofactors and the machines took new forms—that of the MUV Clay-Doll. The puppets were only about a meter tall and had each been crafted with simple, exaggerated features—stumpy limbs, with an oversized head and great big eyes. Spiral patterns decorated their bodies along the glossy gray finish.

“Now, Yu! Release them!” Ein called.

“It’s time, Mark III!” Yu raised his voice. “By the name of Rudra!”

The sixteen puppet droids moved out, each being powered by fifty gigajoules of energy from their father Frame and propelled by anti-gravity lifters. Straight down to the ship.

Screams, gunshots, and the sound of clashing metal filled the air of the cargo freighter’s deck.

Shiba—the envoy from Nayuta—fell backwards before a bloodthirsty goblin. The man cowered feebly, holding his hands above his head as the monster raised its axe.

“I told you I was a pencil pusher!” he sniveled.

But then, a doll-like droid descended, flying with uncanny fluidity, and took the strike in the man’s place. The attack let out an ear-splitting whine against the metal as it repelled the axe.

The droid’s chest was dotted with tiny holes.

They were, in fact, guns.

The droid’s machine guns crackled as bullet after bullet riddled the goblin with holes of its own.

“There we are,” Shiba sighed, still flat on his rear. He looked up. “The King of the Storm is on his throne.”

Devicer Three overlooked the realm below with an imposing calm, and the peculiar elf rested in his embrace. A golden sheen emanated from the dusk armor in the sun’s light. In the presence of such awesome countenance, the humans found renewed strength. A fire was lit in them, and they would not let the droids outshine their valor.

At long last, their hero was back.

The doll droids were massacring goblins all over the deck with a myriad of weapons. Machine guns in their chests, high-voltage currents emitted from their bodies, paralyzing stun guns. The meager gremlins never stood a chance.

There were those who didn’t need the help, though. Namely Natsuki Hatano. Three goblins faltered in her presence, distracted by the droids’ arrival, and that was their last mistake. A single glide of the blade along each of their bodies was enough to reap their lives.

“Those things from Yu?” she asked. “Didn’t know he played with dolls.”

“It’s me,” Devicer Three’s voice replied. “Natsuki, I need you to secure the deck.” Yu directed the transmission to his friends as well. “Ijuin, can you help Aliya guide the droids?”

“Sure, but what about you?” Ijuin said.

“I...think he’s going to deal with that,” said Aliya, pointing to the sky. There, an amber aurora billowed—a manifestation of another world, an incarnation of morbid beauty.

Natsuki narrowed her eyes at the ocean. “They don’t usually come this close,” she murmured. “Yu, can you guys really handle that?”

“We have to,” said Yu. “Ein and I will draw their attention while you all clear away the goblins and get to Nayuta.”

“We will meet you there shortly,” Ein said. Her resolute tone did not leave room for argument.

Terrifyingly close to the freighter was an ethereal fortress—a newly materialized portal-keep. The crystal palace rested forebodingly on its lotus pedestal atop the waves.

The old world stood above the embattled waters of Osaka Bay. Monuments to a lost megalopolis, growing from the ocean. Apartment complexes, hotels, even a ferris wheel and the spires of a castle that once landmarked a sprawling theme park.

Yu landed on one of the buildings, carefully letting Ein down. His screen read an altitude of 135 meters. The two stared out at the portal-keep just 5 kilometers southwest of their position—a palace as azure as the ocean, floating unhindered by the current. By all accounts, it was supposed to be further west of here, but the oddly colored aurora overhead was proof enough of the enemy’s ill intentions.

“Hm,” Ein breathed. “It seems they have more forces.”

Reptilian creatures with a single pair of hind legs and wings for arms emerged. They were barely half the size of the dragon at Maizuru, but still on a scale akin to a ferocious dinosaur. Wyverns. And a flock of twenty-seven had taken flight. Alongside them was a smaller brood. The Cretaceous period relics, with their pteranodon-esque crested heads and pointed beaks, numbered four hundred and five exactly. All were heading straight for Yu and Ein.

“I believe we’ve done our job of drawing their attention,” Ein said.

“Should we make more droids?” Yu asked.

“You can’t,” Aliya’s voice quickly refuted. “The Mark III currently has two billion nanomachines on board. You’ll never be able to put up a fight with that.”

Yu inclined his head in thought. “That sounds like a lot to me.”

“It takes one-point-two billion alone to form the Frame itself.”

Ijuin groaned. “This is why we needta get that thing looked at!” he said, frustrated.

“It ain’t so easy being the super hero, huh?” Natsuki teased. “Your dolls are helping out, though. Things are under control here.”

Yu gave his partner a knowing glance. He had once rejected the weapon despite Ein’s suggestion, fearful of what it might do. But there was little choice in the matter this time.

Ein nodded. “There appears to be only one option left to us,” she said. “Let us throw wide the gates of hell.”

Yu nodded back. “What was its name?”

“The Doomsday Book. There are several chapters to choose from, but I say we begin with the first.”

[System Now Booting Doomsday Book “VIDYA-MANTRA RUDRA1”]

Ein closed her eyes and focused her mind, her being, and as Yu watched her, windows and system text obstructed his vision, overlapping the girl before him.

She parted her shapely lips and spoke the Gospel,

—This world is but a shadow. This existence, but a bolt in fog.

—Witness it not with eyes to see.

—Ascend and know that all is fleeting. Learn and suffer life as it becomes death.

Every word seemed to trickle towards Yu, stark and cold, and the superconductive Prayer Wheel in the Mark III’s lower abdomen began to spin. Faster. Faster. The generator whirred at impossible speeds, and then, like before, a cacophony of voices chorused from it.

“Gate Gate Paragate! Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha! Gate Gate Paragate! Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!”

Above, where the clouds heaved, the winds were becoming gales, and gales became cyclones.

“What is that?!” Yu cried.

“The beast of the wind. The servant of storms. This,” said Ein, “is the first of Rudra’s mighty knights!”

Ein’s descriptions were appropriate. What they bore witness to was indeed a beast—a tempest of seemingly twelve, perhaps even thirteen meters in length, in the vague, vaporous figure of a panther. Its insubstantial form, a collection of wisps like that of a genie, bounded through the sky in a figure eight, stirring the winds into a raucous squall.

It truly was a beast of wind.

“It’s almost like the elementals Anomalies can summon,” Yu murmured, eyes wide.

“The concept is similar, but their respective capabilities are incomparable,” said Ein. “The beast of the wind can move the heavens, call rain, and conjure lightning. It is the harbinger of deluge and storm.”

“The Doomsday Book is a weather weapon?” Ijuin commented. “No freakin’ way!”

Amidst the roaring gales, Yu felt the Replicant princess’s gaze on him. He knew how this was going to end.

“Rudra,” he said. “Do it.”

The wheel at his waist continued to turn, until it could turn no quicker, and the chorus reached its crescendo. The windbeast pounced at the enemy forces. But there were no cracks of lightning, no whipping gales. As the beast came upon the flying monsters, the Anomalies simply fell dead.

And then there was silence. Horrible silence.

The wyverns and pteranodons, the hundreds of Anomalies plummeted. Every single last one. All of them. Slain in an instant.

“That’s it?!” Natsuki shouted. “You got poison gas in that thing or something?”

“No. It didn’t ‘poison’ anything,” Yu muttered. “It took. The King of the Storm rules the skies. The air. It controls the atmosphere.”

“Mom said once that the Mark III can suck virtually all the oxygen out of the air and suffocate people,” Aliya explained. “But I had no idea it could be done on such a massive scale.”

“Think I get why you didn’t wanna use that around people,” Ijuin said.

To everyone except the headlong samurai girl, the events that had just unfolded were awe-inspiring. The three middle schoolers had come to the collective realization that they were in possession of not just any weapon. But a weapon of unbridled mass destruction. A weapon meant to take life indiscriminately.

Yu shook his head and forced the thoughts away. “We’ve still got that keep to deal with,” he said. “Ein, we need a droid!”

“Right away!” she replied.

Adaptive nanofactors dispersed and coalesced into a MUV Puppeteer. The levitating titan’s limb curled into a fist and took aim.

Yu thrust his own fist out and commanded, “Turn that pretty castle into rubble!”

At once, the arm droid fired towards the waterborne palace with all the speed and precision of a missile, and more. But moments before making contact, the droid came to an immediate and abrupt stop.

“I’m detecting defense magic in play! Projectile Protection!” Aliya reported.

“Man!” said Ijuin. “They sure love that one, don’t they?”

“Careful, Yu!” Natsuki warned. “I don’t think they’re gonna stay defensive for long!”

The giant’s arm, still lingering in front of the castle, suddenly started to crumble away. At first it was fine particles of dust, but soon the droid began to lose its structure.

“How can Disintegrate work on something that big?” Aliya grit her teeth. “That’s not fair!”

A high-pitched alarm sounded in Yu’s ears. He looked down, but too late to notice the silver rope that had coiled around the Mark III’s leg.

“Yu! A spell rope!” Ein had no more time to blurt out those words than she did to hurl herself onto Yu.

The next moment, the two were in the air, pulled along by some unseen force controlling the rope. Its other end led straight to the phantom keep beneath the bewitching amber aurora, and that was precisely where Devicer Three and the Replicant girl were being drawn to.

“I can’t break it!” Yu shouted.

“No amount of strength can!” Ein said. “The spell is too strong!”

She held fast onto Yu, refusing to let themselves become separated. It was too late for the nano-suit to attempt to nullify such powerful magic, so Yu clung to Ein just as tightly.

A mere few seconds later, the Mark III landed hard against the ground, and they found themselves as ants before a towering portal-keep.

5

The courtyard upon the lotus pedestal was unlike the resplendent and garishly majestic palace it led to. The earth was bare, flat, and unadorned with so much as a single blade of grass or flower.

“You’d think they would do a little more landscaping for a place like this,” Yu remarked.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Ein. “The ground is hard and compact. This is not for decoration. The soldiers gather here. Cavalry. Monsters and fae. The function of this fortress is strictly military.”

The Mark III had absorbed most of the impact, and Ein was unhurt. They stood up and faced the translucent, blue palace. A staircase extended from the castle’s entrance down to the earthen courtyard, as crystalline and lustrous as the keep itself. A girl emerged at the top. A girl riding on the back of a ferocious carnivore. And together they began to descend.

Yu blinked. “Is that a lion?”

The girl looked frail, willowy, and almost certainly younger than even Aliya. The noble lion carrying her took each step carefully and with purposeful grace, as a steward would escort his lady. One would think she was as precious and valuable as delicate porcelain. The girl dangled both legs off one side of the beast, a haughty grin adorning her face. She was swathed in a long, rippling fabric of mostly white and embellished with floral embroidery. It resembled the traditional sari garments of India.

The lion approached and turned to the side, allowing Yu and the girl to meet face-to-face.

“Well met, Vajra One, and welcome to my radiant abode,” she said. “I am Scullchance of the Pride, the keeper and Dharva of this hold!”

Her voice was a sword, and Yu froze, as if the blade had been placed to his neck. He couldn’t believe it. The enemy was here, right in front of him, and communicating in perfect Japanese.

“How are you—”

“Speaking to you?” the girl interrupted. She let out a scornful and condescending laugh. “Please, you primitives are hardly as enlightened as you’d like to believe. Tell me, have you any understanding of bodhi?” She did not wait for an answer. “I thought not. Your tongue is a terribly simple one—I find it lacking in poeticism—but not to worry. For better or worse, I have assimilated it. I would not ask, nor expect you to engage in the impossible task of comprehending the words of Param.”

“Don’t dwell on it,” Ein told Yu. “The Dharva—the ones you call the archmages—rival even the sages in terms of intellect.”

“Intellect,” Scullchance repeated. “Yes, I do suppose your people would fall on the ‘chic’ side of sentience, shall we say.” The girl spoke as if deliberately vaunting her mastery of all elements of the language, even slang. She sneered. “But your time has passed and your mantras are silenced. You are nothing to the keepers. You should have been nothing. And yet, what do I see here?”

The girl glowered at Ein, a look filled with enough vitriol to make the lion beneath her cower. “What do I see, but the very image of Her late Majesty,” Scullchance said. “Queen Liricamaja, dynastic sovereign of one of the four—the land of tempests, Vibhram’ladri. You look just like her when she was young, girl. If her royal blood lives on,” she looked at Yu, “then it is small wonder that you have borne witness to true vajra.”

A chill ran down Yu’s spine, a rush of pure terror. Terror more potent, more viscerally instinctual than anything he had ever felt. Not from the golden-maned king of the beasts. Not even from the Anomalies he had struck down.

“Warrior of black and gold,” the girl called. “Agent of vajra and wielder of the Shroud. Awakener of the Wheel of Orison. I deem you a worthy opponent of the Chosen!”

Yu’s breath caught in his throat as he witnessed the impossible. Scullchance pulled one leg over to sit astride the lion, when her form began to morph and change, coalescing into the animal’s very body until her entire lower half became one with the beast. When the monstrous chimera finished its transformation, an equally foul axe materialized in the dainty girl’s hand. The beautiful half of the creation swung the weapon with ease.

“State your name,” she demanded. “The Lioness would know her prey.”

“I am...” Yu pried the words from his lips, dredging out the title he had refused to accept for so long, and responded, “Devicer Three.”

Scullchance cackled. “How utterly repulsive!” she roared. “But fitting enough for your tombstone!”

The archmage brought down her axe as Yu crossed his arms and caught the blow.

“Ein, get back!” he shouted. “Keep an eye out for reinforcements!”

“You insult me,” Scullchance spat. “You think I would share the battlefield with fodder? Don’t make me laugh!”

“Yu, this is no ordinary foe!” Ein said. “She means to duel you!”

Ein quickly sprung away from the fighting, and the half-girl, half-lion archmage continued to thrash her weapon against the ADAMAS armor. Blow after devastating blow, a sharp and metallic whine rang out, slowly but surely pushing the Mark III further back.

“No way,” said Yu. “She’s stronger?!” Never had he been matched in raw power. Yet, somehow, Scullchance was overwhelming the Asura Frame—a machine capable of pumping out over five hundred thousand horsepower. “You can’t be telling me mages can fight normally too!”

“If vajra be your shield, then I need only cleave it with demonic might!” Scullchance howled. “Come, fellow beholder of vajra! Show me your power!” The archmage pointed her free hand at Yu. “Crumble! Fall to darkness! Thy legs, fail! Thy arms, rot! Burn to ash!”

The incantations turned to magic and at once assailed Yu’s body. First, the Mark III glowed and creaked beneath its own weight. Yu broke into a cold sweat and fought to keep himself from heaving. Then, his vision went dark, and a swipe from the archmage’s axe across his helmet jerked his head violently to the side. His legs quivered, struggling to retain their quickly draining strength, and he only barely managed to stay standing when he felt the axe crash into his gut. An instant later, just as Yu took note of a cramping itch crawling up his arms, the Frame went up in flames. Searing agony boiled him alive.

Yu shrieked and bounded away. The Frame’s anti-magic shell at last dispelled the magic assaulting him, snuffing out the fire and returning his senses to normal. Only then did the Mark III’s sensors identify the spells: Disintegrate, Words of Power: Blind, Words of Power: Paralyze, Perish, and Incinerate. Yu felt immensely vulnerable without Aliya’s much more timely reports.

But they’re not here, Yu thought. Aliya and Ijuin are outside commlink range.

All the numbers and screens and windows were only getting in his way. The only thing he wanted to focus on was the enemy right in front of him. But then, a certain data report caught his eye. All the spells he had just endured were ranked at level-A intensity. The same as the dragon’s fire breath. And Scullchance had unleashed five in the span of a few seconds.

“Consider that a courtesy introduction,” said the archmage, smiling in terrific glee. “We’ve only just begun.”

Yu was silent. He knew that she wasn’t bluffing.

“Yu,” came a transmission from his one and only ally, “our only chance at defeating her is the Doomsday Book. I can ready chapter three if you’ll allow me.”

“You’re right,” Yu replied in his mind. “But...”

“Keen as always,” said Ein. “Yes, it will take time to prepare.”

“And that’s where I come in.”

Yu could sense the kind of weapon “chapter three” would be upon hearing its name. But there was no time for hesitation.

“Can you do it?” Ein asked.

“I’ll manage,” Yu said. “Don’t worry. I’m used to this.”

“Oh?”

“Weak doesn’t mean helpless,” he said. “We took a few good beatings back at Maizuru. Honestly, it’s felt pretty weird lately, being so untouchable.”

Those days at Maizuru already felt like distant memories. It hadn’t even been two weeks since the camp’s destruction, and so much had changed. There was no more daily bullying, no more violence at the hands of Takeda or his military cronies. But there was the anger. The resentment. The despair. The hopelessness. It was all there. As clear as day.

And yet, Yu owed his life to the soldier.

Yu grit his teeth against the tightness in his chest.

“Dance with me, boy!” Scullchance bellowed. “Come and experience me!”

“What?!”

All of a sudden, the archmage was gone. The Mark III’s sensors were picking up nothing. There were few things more crippling in a fight than losing sight of one’s opponent during a duel, and Yu knew it. Just as he was about to lose his head, he felt the scarf around his neck stir.

The Holy Shroud’s appendages knocked away the axe arcing towards Yu’s back.

“You’ve tamed the sacred sarira well!” Scullchance’s macabre weapon had been swiftly negated, even without Yu’s conscious will. The archmage tittered. “The Holy Shroud. Aerocite. The Wheel of Orison. Adamas, the aegis of sand. So many treasures of the old royalty I had thought put to waste by fools. But oh, how wrong I was! Vajra One, you have come to possess a magnum opus all new!”

“This thing’s that special to them?” Yu muttered.

He faced his opponent once more. Reaching up to the yellow cloth, Yu tore a piece off with one hand, then did the same with the other. “Protect me,” he said. “That’s all I ask.”

The fabric expanded in his grip, spiraling up and enfolding each of the Mark III’s arms. Magical runes and crests appeared along the cloth. Yu held up his bound limbs and crossed them together again, hardened his guard, and took a firm step towards his enemy. He was scared. But he turned that fear into courage and approached.

A sadistic smirk spread across Scullchance’s face. “I applaud your bravery, boy. However foolhardy. Burst! Face thunderous judgment! Thy blood, boil upon the earth! Let come the curse of winter’s chill!”

More A-level spells erupted from the archmage, one after the other. The feline lower half opened its jaws and expelled a shock wave of electricity. Moments later, Yu’s arteries, veins, and every single capillary within his body burned as his blood very literally felt near to boiling, before a frigid cold ran over him, nearly stopping his heart. And it would have if not for the anti-magic shell or the runes radiating along the Holy Shroud—which a message stated were providing thirty-two percent greater magic nullification.

Even as this was happening, Scullchance did not relent and flailed her battle-axe endlessly. The Holy Shroud’s limbs moved to block as many blows as it could, but the half-lion girl was viciously savage, and Yu endured strike after strike to his crossed arms. Never fighting back.

“You put on an entertaining act, Vajra One!”

“At least one of us is having fun!” Yu shot back.

Really, as far as Yu was concerned, actually taking hits was optional. The trick was to loosen up, relax at the moment of impact, and bend with it. Never take it head on. All the better if the shock blew him away. That was how to survive. That was how the weak fought back. Survive. Pliably. Stubbornly. Persistently.

“Let flame take thee! Crumble! Fall and await the reaper! Come frigid wind and paint the snow with thy entrails!”

Fire. Axe. Nausea. Axe. Blight. Axe. Cold. Axe.

Scullchance lent herself to pure and cruel sadistic wont, flogging and casting spells that would have decimated an entire battalion of Defense Force soldiers—from point blank. Over and over. It was like a Russian roulette of fear. At any moment, any one of the flurry of attacks could break his guard and smear his brains on the floor. It was all Yu could do to keep his thoughts on less gruesome things.

If this were the World Cup, these guys would be Brazil or Argentina, Yu thought, turning his mind to soccer, and I’m the newcomer. Iceland, or maybe Panama. I’m up against the big leagues. And if I want to make this game even remotely close, I need to be stubborn and wait for my chance!

Yu had passed his test and made the team. He’d watched the pros from the bottom up, the way the brightest athletes in the European league played and crawled their ways to the top, so he wasn’t kidding himself. He knew just how unrealistic an underdog’s chances were. A clutch was one in a million.

But anything could happen on the field.

It took patience. Tenacity. The iron will to wait, and wait, and wait for the right moment. And the smarts to know when and how to finally play your trump card.

Scullchance frowned. “You. What are you planning?”

She looked up and her mouth dropped. The amber aurora was gone. Veiled behind dark, rolling thunderclouds. Ein had bid the windbeast to gather them, but their ace in the hole was at risk of being compromised. Yu had to do something.

And then he had an idea.

“Don’t need droids to do this!” he shouted.

“Do what?” the archmage demanded.

The Mark III’s arms detached, their job as shields complete, and shot towards Scullchance’s bemused expression. Soaring as a droid might with the help of anti-gravity lifters, the arms went straight for the mage’s neck, hands outstretched. Yu’s arms were made bare from the shoulders down.

“Sorry, Mark III!” Yu said.

“You—”

Directly in front of the half-lion girl’s exposed neck, the arms self-destructed. Her body glowed with defensive magic, and when the smoke cleared, not a single injury marred her pretty skin, or her bloodthirsty grin. But it bought some time, and that was what mattered.

Yu took flight and soared over to Ein.

“That was a clever trick, Yu!” she said. “It’s almost time!”

“Hang on tight!”

Yu clutched the Replicant girl and flew straight up, bidding a more bitter than sweet farewell to the crystal palace.

—The mortal knows not what he does. The mortal knows not of the flames of hell.

—The mortal knows not of good and evil, nor of the atrocities he commits.

—The mortal is bound by illusory chains of proud ideology, and wherefore might he be freed.

Ein incanted the Gospel, and the cumulus clouds hanging over the aurora began to rumble. Lightning cracked and flared in the sky, when a single bolt snaked down and smote the palace with a great crackle. The god of thunder’s forces took to arms at the signal, and forks of electricity stormed from the swirling masses, laying siege to the crystalline castle.

The sky was alive with flashes and pealing claps of thunder. The first strikes blew the keep’s quartz walls to pieces, and it was seeming like the enemy fortress would last only a few moments more, until a spell enveloped the entire palace. Glowing, runic circles appeared all around the palace, covering it like a great tent curtain and negating the electric downpour.

Yu zoomed in with the Mark III’s scope. “Looks like that mage has her hands full,” he said.

“The Doomsday Book is not a power one can do away with easily,” said Ein. “Let’s make our escape while we can.”

Overlaying the stormy palace, in Yu’s direct line of sight, was a window displaying a close-up of Scullchance. She was looking right at him, the rage in her glower undisguised. She must have known that Yu was watching her, but she never stopped moving her lips. Reciting an incantation, perhaps. It seemed that even for a master like her, there were rules she could not disobey.

Yu took a look at one of the other displays and immediately felt his stomach churn. “Whoa. It says the magic protecting the castle is level SS.”

Ein was right. Yu had lost the Frame’s arms and now was their chance to escape. He set a course for the floating settlement.

The Holy Shroud’s appendages held onto Ein. As slender as she was, Yu wasn’t confident in his ability to carry an entire human being in his arms without nano-assisted strength.

“What— Wait, what’s going on?”

“Yu, the Asura is losing power!” Ein shouted.

The great blue of the Great Kansai Bay was growing closer. Yu panicked.

“Why? How?” he spluttered. “Did I burn it all?”

“You did use the Doomsday Book twice and eliminate copious amounts of magic,” said Ein. “Also, please tell me you remember Ijuin’s warning.”

“Oh. Right.”

Yu wasn’t supposed to stay armorized for long. Ten, twenty minutes at a time? Sure. But any longer...

Yu checked the Frame’s uptime. Thirty-nine minutes and twenty-two seconds. Certainly not very long, but clearly long enough for Ein’s admonishment to be exceedingly justified.

“Wait, then does that mean...” The world started to turn around Yu. “Does that mean I’m in trouble?”

“Yu!” Ein cried. “Yu! Get a hold of yourself!”

The world turned, and Yu’s vision began to blur. The world turned until the bay was up and the sky was down. Yu fell, Ein in his arms, unaware if they had even made it out to Wakayama.

6

“How the greatest of heroes fall from grace.”

Quldald of the Whirlwind—keeper of the portal on the Maizuru front—watched the scene unfold with eager interest. He had come all this way upon the winds, to the skies above the Great Kansai Bay, to observe the unknown Earthling champion do battle with Scullchance, and he now watched as Devicer Three and the princess of old blood plunged into the sea.

“Well, who am I to deny a fruit so ripe for the picking?”

The man radiated a handsome and whimsical curiosity. He waved his staff and called upon a familiar, bidding it to gather his new guests. Visitors were always a happy occasion, even if unexpected.

After all, what was the wind if not unpredictable?

Quldald the Chosen Dharva smiled a dapper smile. A mild and calm gesture, no more profound than the look of a gentleman about to enjoy a stroll after a long day of rain.

EXPLICATIONS

| AVALO AND THE ASTRAL LIBRARY |

Aliya: Apparently, a lot of the Asura Frames from the Mark V onward were developed with unique, specialized purposes in mind. I’m not familiar with the details, but mom told me about the Mark IX once.

Ein: Ah, the guardian of the Astral Library.

Yu: Astral... Like space. That’s the data archive on that satellite that backs up the Mark III, right?

Ijuin: Avalo! The one in geostationary orbit above the equator. It’s where the Gospel Code’s saved!

Aliya: Some say it’s more crucial to our survival than any outpost on Earth. And Devicer Nine’s the one who protects and conducts maintenance on it. The Mark IX’s particularly special because most of its combat abilities were created for fighting in a vacuum with zero gravity.

| ADAMAS NANOMACHINES, ANTIGRAVITY LIFTERS, AND THE PRAYER WHEEL |

Aliya: They might sound like fancy sci-fi gadgets, but they’re all rare artifacts created by magic in the other world. That’s why they blow Earth’s technology totally out of the water.

Ijuin: Yeah, the Mark III can do some crazy stuff. I dunno what to call it but magic.

Yu: Like the...what was it called? The Doomsday Book? I still haven’t used chapter one.

Ein: Chapter one: Vacuous Oblivion. Chapter three: Lightning Death. Rest assured, chapter two lives up to its neighbors.

Yu: I hope we never have to use it.

| ARCHMAGES : THE CHOSEN DHARVA |

Ein: But the reality is, Yu, that the Doomsday Book may be our greatest weapon against our enemy. The Chosen Dharva, keepers of the spectral fortresses, are not to be underestimated.

Yu: Urgh... You’re talking about the archmages, aren’t you?

Aliya: An elite force, composed of the greatest mages literally chosen from a fae people altogether different from the elves.

Ijuin: Well, who chose ’em in the first place?

Ein: Now that is a long story. Perhaps I’ll tell it to you one day. When the time is right.