Chapter 1: Prisoners of Castle Whirlwind

1

He called it a “citadel of cyclones.”

“I bid you welcome, warrior of black and gold!” The archmage Quldald spoke boisterously and in perfect Japanese. “And you as well, Your Grace. Forgive me, for I was not expecting a princess of the old blood, such as yourself.”

Humanity was well aware of the enemy’s ethereal castles, a scourge that could cross realities and invade the Earth from the other side. But Yu Ichinose had experienced more of these portal-keeps than most. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and cleared the fog from his mind enough to be able to take in his surroundings. For a so-called “warrior,” he felt awfully vulnerable without his armor.

He was in a courtyard, presumably within the keep itself, and at his side was Ein, the Replicant elf girl.

“It looks just like the last one,” Yu whispered to her. “Are all portals like this?”

“They share the same purpose,” Ein answered. “A castle must accommodate its levies.”

The courtyard beneath Yu and the warrior queen’s clone was barren. The ground was hard, packed tight by the boots of the countless soldiers and monsters who had marched through it. Castle walls cast shadows over the dreary earth, like the fake ramparts of a dreamy palace above a theme park, only real. The imposing presence and quaint, senescent energy of a fortress that had seen generations of war was irreplicable.

One hour prior, Yu and Ein had been locked in combat against the archmage of the Great Kansai Bay, Scullchance of the Pride. After a near escape, they had made for Nayuta, a floating settlement in the waters of Wakayama Bay, with the help of the Mark III Asura Frame—a practically all-powerful Exo-Frame created with the collective wisdom of human- and elfkind for the sole purpose of combating the otherworldly forces. An artificial mad god of destruction.

But the Frame had suddenly malfunctioned, and its wearer had lost consciousness. The last thing Yu remembered before waking up was falling headfirst into the ocean. When he awoke, a handsome man in a blue robe had been waiting on them.

“How pleased I am to finally make your acquaintance. I am Quldald, Keeper of the Whirlwind and Chosen Dharva, at your service,” the archmage greeted sonorously. “Oh, but how rude of me. Your people refer to us as ‘archmages,’ don’t they?”

Quldald carried himself with inviting and friendly grace. He was brimming with charm and flashed a suitably fetching grin. “Be proud, warrior,” he said. “You very well may be the first human to have ever set foot in our domain. Twice, in fact! Unbelievable. Simply heroic!”

Yu blanched at the archmage’s demeanor. “I... What?” he stammered. “You’re the one who brought us here.”

The young man was indeed a decently pleasant individual, but he was also an enemy commander. An invader from the other side. Yu struggled to decide how much courtesy to afford such a person.

“He’s right,” said Ein, drawing close to Yu. “We did not willingly ‘set foot’ anywhere, Dharva.”

If the mage was to be believed, he had plucked them from the ocean with his magic, making Yu and Ein his prisoners. They were captives of his skyborne palace.

And yet, Quldald was treating them as honored guests.

“Nonsense!” he refuted with genuine amity. “It was your beauty that compelled my hand to act, stygian warrior! Rarely do I ever witness such definitive makings of a hero. You simply must grace me with the opportunity again. I must see that beauteous armor once more.”

“The...armor,” Yu repeated to himself.

Moments before everything went dark, as he sank into the ocean, Yu remembered the Mark III de-armorizing, disassembling itself into adaptive nanofactors and returning to his body. Recalling the sudden, intense vertigo he had felt at the time almost made his head spin all over again, although he actually felt perfectly fine now. Come to think of it, he should have been dripping wet.

“Ah,” said Quldald, noticing Yu examining his own body with confusion, “consider it a token of goodwill.” One side of his relaxed smile lifted into a smirk. “No guests of mine will be made to enjoy their stay with drenched clothing. Absolutely not. I also took it upon myself to relieve what ailed you, warrior. Now, your room ought to be made by now, I should think. I beg of you, rest your weary bodies for a spell.”

The archmage had not only gone out of his way to presumably use magic to dry their clothes, but also to heal Yu. Already he had displayed more respect and kindness than the whole of Maizuru’s military ever had.

This is our enemy? Yu thought. These are the people who destroyed Japan? The entire world?

Yu and Ein’s captor was not the evil monster that Yu had been imagining. And he had no idea how to reconcile that dissonance.

The room was very comfortable. Spacious, and the rug was pleasant to the touch. There were no tables or chairs, but the myriad of geometric patterns embroidered into the rug and the rainbow of colorful tapestries on the walls made it feel less empty. It was awfully tasteful for a prison.

Yu sat on his knees, stiff as a board, with the plush carpet against the top of his feet. Ein was sitting next to him with her legs comfortably yet elegantly off to the side. Her sharp and alert eyes betrayed her relaxed posture as they examined the room.

“Yu. Look.” She pointed out the window. “The Void.”

“The what?” Yu followed her finger. “What—What is this place?!”

A balcony extending from the room offered a generous view of the castle, and at a glance it seemed that the other side’s architectural styles were not so different from Earth’s. But more striking than that was the sky, or more specifically, what was drifting through the dull, gray expanse. Spirals. Long, narrow spirals. Circular spirals. Billowing spirals. So many spirals, drifting through the air like clouds. Yu felt dizzy just looking at them.

“It was a plain blue sky just a while ago, wasn’t it?” Yu asked.

“Because we were still in your home,” Ein answered. “Your world. The castle has dematerialized and now occupies the Void. Beyond the akasha lies our world. Param.”

Most simply called it “the other side,” or “the other world.” But it did in fact have a name.

Param. The migrant elves’ home. The Anomalies’ home. The Chosen Dharva’s home.

“So this...grayness is the border between my world and yours,” Yu deduced. “This is where the portal-keeps go when they turn aerial.”

Ein nodded proudly. “Well put,” she said. “Earth drains us of our magic. They have to return here as a precautionary measure.”

“Meaning,” said Yu, “we’re not even on the right planet.” His shoulders sagged. “That makes escaping a little difficult. We’ll have to wait for it to reappear back on—Ein, why are you grinning at me?”

“Simply basking in your nerve,” she replied. Her grin tinted her voice with a bright lilt. “We’re in an entirely alien situation, yet you’re already calculating our escape.”

“I mean, I’m not exactly planning on getting comfortable.”

“What a coincidence! We share a mind.” Ein took Yu’s hand and squeezed it. “I was just about to suggest absconding myself. You and I. Together.” Yu’s heart skipped a beat, a reaction he considered very natural for a fourteen-year-old boy in a situation like this. The Replicant girl’s powerful eyes stared deep into Yu’s, and she lowered her voice to a murmur. “You always do what’s right, when it’s right. And that makes you strong. Yu Ichinose, I can think of no better man to stand alongside the queen of the gales. In sickness and in health, I would be with you. Forevermore.”

“Phrasing! Please!” Yu hissed. His face burned. She was only a few steps away from proposing outright marriage. “Why do you have to be so suggestive?!”

“Suggestive of what?” Ein asked. “I was simply stating my desire for our continued partnership because I enjoy your company. Well, now you’ve gone and got me curious. Tell me, what else could I have possibly been suggesting?”

“Not important!”

Yu separated himself from her, ending the discussion before Ein could have the satisfaction of teasing him any further. Although, she was terribly charming in her advances. Maybe giving in to them wouldn’t be such a bad idea...

Yu firmly refocused himself. “We’re supposed to be prisoners, so why isn’t there more security?” he wondered. “No one locked the door, and the window doesn’t even have glass in it. I was expecting a few iron bars or something at least.”

“What if,” Ein said, “the bars would be redundant?”

Ein stood and paced over to the balcony. Yu jumped up and scurried behind her.

Their chamber was situated at the very top of a six-story-tall tower, providing a more than expansive panorama of the area. Races of all manner of color, stature, and anatomy wandered the enclosed grounds. Trolls, goblins and other gremliny imps, cow-headed minotaurs, and giant, blue-skinned cyclopes.

But one stood out. One particularly eye-catching creature, floating in the air.

It was an eyeball. Enormous. Easily at least ten meters across. And it hovered right in front of their room. Its pupil twitched and fixed itself directly on them.

“Warrior!” Quldald called, floating next to the monster. “And Your Grace, hello! You have impeccable timing!”

The archmage stood in the air as naturally as if it were solid ground. He was pointing his staff at the Anomaly with a smile bright as day.

A pale green light rippled from the tip of the staff, which the eye absorbed, narrowing its pupil in ecstasy. Gradually, flesh began to grow around it, enveloping the eyeball in a sphere of green scales, until the monstrous orb was complete with a protective layer. The creature’s gaze, an ocular nightmare, pierced with all the intensity as before its transformation, and more.

“I was just outfitting one of my kin, you see,” said Quldald jovially. “It is my hope that this will be a sufficient match for your armor, dear warrior.” The man’s smile never faltered. “I take it there will be no complaints. Now that you’re rested, you surely want to be on your way home as soon as possible. However, I must beseech you to indulge me. Armored one, let us see which is the better: you, or my lovely familiar!”

“Yu, he never intended to imprison us from the start,” Ein surmised. She shrugged a shoulder. “A cell could never contain the Asura, and he knows it. He means to keep you here by overpowering you.”

“In other words,” Yu said, “we beat that thing or we’re not getting back to Earth.”

Yu broke out of his frightened stupor and looked hard at the palm of his right hand. The ring of light, the mark of the nano-augmented, glowed as his nanomachines began to react. He sighed.

The Mark III Asura Frame—Rudra—was more than likely humanity’s last hope. And it was currently on the fritz. Left with little choice, though, Yu had to take his chances.

2

The settlement of Nayuta could be found floating in Wakayama Bay somewhere around 34°N, 134.5°E. The central block that formed the beating heart of the city was ten kilometers across by itself. There, water was recycled, green energy was generated via a large-scale Prayer Wheel, and food was farmed in sprawling fields. Very much like a heart, it was essential for survival.

Overlooking it all at over three hundred meters tall was a tower right in the very middle of the settlement. Among its various other functions, the sleek and modern obelisk served as a landmark for approaching ships. But its true scale could only be appreciated when viewed from the bustling docks.

Takamaru Ijuin’s hype exceeded his self-control parameters.

“Buildings!” he shouted. “And they’re not even falling apart!”

Ijuin was as big as he was proud to call himself the second Devicer Three’s best friend.

The half-elf girl with him shared his excitement. “They’ve got running water and electricity. We’ve found society again, Ijuin!”

Aliya Todo was thirteen, and if the gentle, yet strikingly beautiful, features beneath her chestnut hair weren’t evidence enough, her pointed ears made her elvish heritage plainly obvious—though her father had been Japanese.

They had crossed the Great Kansai Bay aboard a rusted old cargo ship with a large group of refugees, and at last, they had disembarked at their destination. About ten days and a journey from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific later, they had arrived at Nayuta. But the trip to the tower in the central block wasn’t exactly an easy hike.

The docks were located in Nayuta’s exterior ring, the outer block. Together with the central block, they made the circular city, in total, twenty-five kilometers in diameter.

Whereas the central block provided the infrastructure and support for everyday life, the outer block was where the everyday life actually happened. Residential housing, harbors, and all sorts of civilian buildings made up the rim of the city.

“This is probably where the refugees will hole up,” said Jurota Shiba. He was a painfully average man in his thirties and all too easy to lose in a crowd. Aliya’s uncle, Nadal—an elf of notable influence within the settlement—had entrusted him with the vitally important mission of recovering the Mark III Asura Frame, its Devicer, and his companions.

“No one allowed to live in the central area or something?” Natsuki Hatano asked the bland, bespectacled envoy.

“It’s not really that,” Shiba replied, “so much as it is that the tower’s the only real habitable structure there. It’s where the elves live, and, well.” Shiba chose his next words carefully. “Let’s just say that their lifestyle is a little...uncomfortable for the average person.”

“Hey now, Sheebs, ‘different’ doesn’t mean they don’t know how to party!”

The seventeen-year-old wasn’t one to let a silly little thing like seniority stop her from being rather—some might say overly—friendly and relaxed. She had the appearance to match her personality, with her dyed red hair, short tank top, and denim shorts. A white, peony-patterned furisode fluttered around her like a long coat. On her back was sheathed a military-made monomolecular blade, forged into the shape of a katana. In a word, “flashy” was her aesthetic.

“So that tower or whatever,” she said. “You gonna take us there? That’s where we can find out where Yu and Ein are, yeah?”

“Yeah!” Aliya interjected. “It’s been over an hour and they’re still missing!”

The excitement of finally reaching their goal was short-lived, and soon, anxiety had fallen back over the half-elf. Aliya hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off the horizon throughout the whole voyage, watching for any sign of Yu or Ein. It was only thanks to those two holding the Anomalies off that the rest of them had made it.

“There’s that military satellite you mentioned, right?!” Ijuin pressed. His voice was frantic. “If it’s supposed to be the Asura Frame’s support network, then you can use it to find Ichinose’s location!”

“Y-Yes, of course,” Shiba said. “Volonov?”

“Take it,” the large Russian man in camo pants rumbled. He held out a car key, his dour expression unchanging.

The vehicle was electric. No gasoline needed.

Shiba sat at the wheel. “Most of the cars here are of a similar make. International trade’s not much of a thing these days, and no petroleum means no gas or diesel.” The man shrugged, a pitiful gesture that suited him well. “Works pretty well, given the times.”

Natsuki was seated next to him in the passenger seat, while the two middle schoolers took the back. It wasn’t long before they came out on a relatively wide avenue. Ijuin’s eyes sparkled with glee.

“It’s an actual town!” he cried.

Shabby buildings lined the road, painting a picture evocative of garrison towns after a long war. Simple structures pieced together with corrugated iron and wood. Shops and vendors peddling wares on the side of the street punctuated the scenery. People could be seen in every direction, all walking somewhere with purpose.

Once they were through the shanty town, Natsuki noted the new surroundings and muttered, “Bunch o’ storage sheds now.”

“Prefabs,” Aliya clarified. “Modular houses you see in disaster areas sometimes.”

Further along, the buildings coalesced into what appeared to be a residential district of some kind, packed with seemingly hundreds of one-story accommodations.

“This was originally the only place for humans to stay in all of Nayuta,” Shiba explained, assuming the role of tour guide. “Anyone who wasn’t an elf could live here for as long or as short as they liked, but the more refugees we got, the more shelters we needed for them. Eventually, they grew into the areas we just passed through.”

“I thought I saw some people living on their boats at the docks,” Ijuin remarked.

“There’s not enough to go around, is there?” Aliya noted.

“Naw,” refuted Natsuki. “They’ve got all those smarty-pants elves here to look after them. Free healthcare sounds like a good deal to me!” The younger two’s gloomy expressions paled in the face of Natsuki’s vivacious grin. “Hey, Sheebs, what’s that about?”

Shiba saw where she was pointing and gave a nervous laugh. “So you noticed, huh? Let’s save that conversation for later.”

Great big signs and banners hung off of a warehouse. They read many things in plain, easily legible letters.

The elves live like kings! Let humans into the central block!

Brothers and sisters, bring glory back to the great nation of Japan!

The car hummed over a four-lane bridge. Beneath was a vast, endless chasm that seemed to extend forever.

“This bridge connects the outer and inner blocks,” Shiba said. “There’s a few of them all around the perimeter. Just try not to fall, because if you do, no one’s coming to rescue you.”

An instant later, and the world changed. Where once there were makeshift houses, vendors, stores, warehouses, and small workshops, broken only by the occasional tree or park, the inner block was a blanket of green.

Aliya breathed in wonder. “They really went out of their way to make sure the road cut right between the trees,” she said. “Classy. The elves love their nature—and I’m half, so I’m allowed to say that.”

The sun hanging over Wakayama Bay poured its rays through the mosaic of leaves, illuminating the road with verdant light. Through the wooded area, the trees gave way to views of expansive farmland. It was early April, spring was right around the corner, and the fields would soon be brimming with rice and grain.

Ijuin and his ever-insatiable appetite murmured, “Man, am I glad to see those. Maybe we can get some fresh rice when fall hits.” Then he blinked in surprise. “Hey, what’s the military doing out here?”

Five men uniformed in blue camouflage fatigues and matching caps—the Naval Defense’s dress code for onshore servicemen—stood in one of the narrow paths between the paddies. One of them was pointing to the sky, at an airborne drone. Four propellers carried a cross-shaped frame slowly along a predetermined path over the fields.

“Almost looks like one of those mech things Yu uses,” Natsuki commented. “Actually, there’s lots of them. Extra security?”

The master swordswoman, perceptive as ever, pointed to even more drones drifting across the sky. Machines that looked more humanoid stood around like metal scarecrows, occasionally walking to new positions with uncannily smooth movements. Four-legged robots resembling dogs bounded through the footpaths.

“That’s right,” Shiba said. “They’re the central block’s security droids, the latest in drone technology. We use them for farm work sometimes too. In fact, the Mark III’s droids are the same model, only more advanced, so that’s where the resemblance comes from.”

“But who were those men?” asked Aliya. “It looked like they were studying their routes. Why?”

“Oh, well, you know.” Shiba tried to change the subject with a nervous chuckle, then sighed. “I think you’ll understand soon enough. We’ll be at Central Tower soon. When we get there, we can meet with Speaker Nadal and find out more about your missing friends. Assuming he doesn’t fire me for screwing up.” An odd twinge of hope colored his voice. “One can dream.”

The road stretched on, until at last, the skyscraping tower was within reach. Inside awaited Nadal Rafthul, Aliya’s uncle and one of the seats on Nayuta’s governing council.

3

The interior of Central Tower was pleasantly familiar. The ground floor was sanitary yet tasteful, welcoming even, and a number of people paced across the room, entering and exiting the various elevators that, much to the surprise of the new visitors, were all fully functional. Lights—genuine, electric-powered lights—lit up anywhere the afternoon sun didn’t. Cool air flowed from the air conditioning.

Everything the Kanto and Kansai regions were supposed to be was right here. Modern society.

Virtually every passerby was a migrant elf. It was impossible not to notice, what with their long and pointed ears, remarkable beauty, and the grace they tended to carry themselves with. It was difficult to reliably distinguish the ages of the otherworldly people, and even the oldest of them looked not a year past thirty. But what they could be distinguished by was their clothing.

Some elves wore suits and ties, others kept to street clothes, and still others veiled their bodies beneath Islamic burqas. Saris, ao dais, and even Roman togas adorned the elvish people.

“Whoa!” Natsuki could hardly keep her eyes to herself. “Look at all the elves!”

“They’re not so hard to find if you know where to look,” said Aliya. “But for the record, I’m not very fond of anywhere the sages like to gather.” The half-elf spoke with a conviction grounded in experience. “The elves are so diverse—there are warriors, farmers—but just about the only ones who came to Earth were scholars and mages who held the rank of sage. And I couldn’t think of a more stuffy and uptight group of geniuses to cram into one place.”

“Oh yeah, they’re geniuses, all right,” Ijuin said, only half-absorbing what he had just been told. Unlike Aliya’s elvish upbringing, Ijuin had enjoyed a rather affluent childhood in Yokohama. “It’s hard to think about how far behind science’d be without them. Seriously, with all those Einsteins walking around, it’s like they’re born with brains!”

Aliya sighed. “They are generally smart, but there’s more to it than that,” she said. “There are many secret techniques used to hone the mind and soul, and only through those can someone be deemed a sage. I learned a little myself, but my point is that in their culture, being a ‘genius’ is not an inherent quality. It’s something attained through effort.”

“Yeah, you did always score highest on benchmark exams,” Ijuin said, nodding.

Shiba nodded with him. “Some of them have really astonishing abilities, like photographic memory. Speaker Nadal included.” A grimace of uncertainty twisted his face. “It’s just hard to tell with him sometimes, beneath all the...well, everything.”

The man did little to hide his misgivings about his superior as they loaded onto an elevator.

“A thousand welcomes, friends. And to you, Aliya, daughter of my beloved sister. How fortunate it is that your long journey saw you here safely.”

“Uh, thanks.” Ijuin was left bewildered by the sage.

They had found Nadal Rafthul T’ashsakharington in his office, on the fifty-seventh floor of Central Tower. His golden hair was buzzed short, and a monkish air of wisdom comprised his austere expression. He swept his all-seeing eyes over his niece and her friends.

“What’s, uh... What’s with the cosplay?” Ijuin asked. “That glowing sword you’re swinging around looks like one of the expensive models. Does it come with the Force?”

“Silence, human boy!” Nadal hissed. “If you cannot see that I simply bear a passion for the Jedi Knights and their sabers, then you are blind to the truth!”

“Okay.”

“You see, I was meditating on our settlement’s future, drawing inspiration from the Galactic Federation’s great struggle against the Sith. Therefore, these goods are a highly necessary work expense. All 26,800 yen of it. Understand?”

“Oh. Sorry. I thought you were just screwin’ around.”

“Very good,” the speaker said, eyeing the boy up and down. “It’s admirable of you to admit your faults.”

Nadal was wearing a hooded robe over an ascetic tunic that nearly every human on the planet would have recognized as belonging to a certain famous, nine-part science fiction franchise. They had entered his office to find him locked in deadly combat against an unseen opponent, complete with sound effects. The performance had left much to be desired.

“Uncle,” Aliya said with a sigh. “If you’re going to swing that thing around like a child, then at least demonstrate some knowledge of your home’s swordsmanship. Something graceful, like Lord of the Rings.”

“Foolish girl,” Nadal rebuked. “T’would be to blaspheme against the scholarly arts to pick up a sword before a pen.”

“It’s entirely possible to do both,” his niece argued. “You should do yourself a favor and just admit that you couldn’t so much as kick a ball to save your life.”

Aliya’s advice went unheeded as her uncle ignored her, shifting the discussion away from himself. “It’s truly a tragedy what happened to your mother. To my own blood,” he said. “But let’s focus on the living for now. I hear the new Devicer and the princess are missing?”

“Yes,” Shiba said at once. “The responsibility is all mine. I’d be more than willing to accept the consequences.”

“Great,” said Nadal. “I’m holding a screening of all six feature films from Star Trek: The Original Series, but absolutely no one has expressed any initiative in studying Earth’s cultural works with me. I will see you there.”

“Can’t you just fire me like a normal person?!” Shiba pleaded. “At least demote me from captain if you won’t take me off the militia!”

“And why would I divest myself of a perfectly capable subordinate when we’re already understaffed?” The sage gave Shiba a judging look. “You’re a little slow in the head, aren’t you?”

Natsuki regarded the unapologetically insolent man with a curious grin. “Ein said this guy was some kinda sneaky tactician, yeah?” she said. “I’m not seeing a lot of tact here. Just a whole lotta weirdo.”

“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” said Aliya. “But it is true that he’s a master in the art of being a snake.”

“Uh, no? It’s called retrospective foresight, and we elves have practiced it for generations,” Nadal claimed, inserting himself into the conversation. “We study history; observe the ways society shaped around the conditions of the time; analyze the sociological, circumstantial, and natural course of events therewithin; and superimpose those trends to the present day to solve modern problems.”

The speaker took a pause. “If we lose both the Mark III and our princess of the wind,” he continued, “there’s an eight-seven percent chance that civilization on Earth will regress more than one thousand years. So this search and rescue must succeed. No matter what.”

Speaker Nadal guided Devicer Three’s friends to a special room. The very top of Central Tower, where all information regarding the outside world was gathered.

The sixtieth floor of the tower was more a lounge than a data center, and the uninterrupted glass lining the circumference of the entire room afforded a complete view of the radial settlement, as well as of the ocean beyond. The central block was dotted with forests and ponds between stretches of farmland, blue and green being the most immediately prominent hues. In contrast, much of the surrounding outer block was barren and vacant, but sprinklings of simple, concentrated residences marked the beginnings of new communities.

To the west of it all, across Wakayama Bay, the shores of Shikoku could just barely be made out.

Natsuki squinted through her nano-augmented eyes. “I can see Tokushima from here.”

Nanomachine augmentations manifested in their recipients in a variety of ways, and in the samurai girl’s case, they had bestowed her with superhuman abilities. Enhanced eyesight was just one of the many benefits. Her vision was so keen that she could even make out the twinkle of the stars in the middle of the day.

Aliya nodded. “There’s Awaji Island to the north, and you might be able to see the Kii Peninsula to the east.”

“I’d love to go take a look, but I dunno how to even get the heck across this room.” Ijuin’s volume was only a whisper, which was really quite the feat for him. “It’s so pretty and quiet and...awkward. I feel like a fish outta water over here.”

A reverent and calm quiet commanded the entire floor, and combined with the many plants decorating the room, it gave the place the air of a serene hanging garden.

Elvish sages populated the room, murmuring in polite, hushed tones, maintaining a level and constant hum of conversation that never disturbed the peace. Most of what they spoke about was confusing and technical.

“Thirty minutes since the Avalo satellite transmitted the callback signal,” one said. “Results?”

“No response,” said another. “Our prodigal son has been very taciturn since his awakening. Nothing from the locator signal in case of de-armorization either.”

“We must consider the possibility that he’s sustained large amounts of damage.”

“As well as the probability that he is outside of signal range. In which case, we ought to consider that he may be within the company of a portal.”

“Communications could be magically jammed.”

At first glance, it almost looked like a gathering of celebrities lounging around, sharing classy gossip. The sages were certainly youthful, beautiful, and cultured enough to fit the role.

But they were scientists, through and through. Contributors to the development of the Asura Frame. And they referred to the Mark III, Rudra, with appropriate deference, as if it were a living, breathing human.

They referred to it as a “he.”

As the sages discussed strategies, countermeasures, and hypotheses, they would frequently make hand gestures through the air, manipulating 2D images and 3D holograms. A motion-controlled computer turned the very air into an interface. Yet another of the elves’ many scientific innovations.

“I never really thought about it before, but I guess a floating colony would be gadget city, huh?” Ijuin said. “They’re using those things like it’s just second nature to ’em. None of the labs at Maizuru had anything that advanced.”

Ijuin eyed the watches wrapped around the sages’ wrists with the gaze of an intrigued techie. Not only were the miniature computers lightweight and portable, but they were pretty dang stylish too.

The vast majority of elves in the room were swiping and staring at the data displayed on their next-gen devices.

“Oh, yay for technology,” Aliya moaned sarcastically. “Why enjoy the sights when you can take your work wherever you go?”

“Yeah, I’m getting hungry, and these guys are making it real awkward to just start snacking,” Natsuki murmured. There was genuine distress in her tone.

Ijuin nodded at her. “You and me? We’re on the same page.”

“Yeah, you get me,” Natsuki said. “Hear that, Sheebs? The cafeteria’s calling our name. Lead the way.”

“Sure, but there’s something you should know first.” Shiba paused. “There’s no meat.”

Ijuin and Natsuki’s jaws dropped as an incredulous, deafening silence came crashing down.

“The sages have to follow certain precepts.” Aliya took a bite of her skewered fish. Every fisherman with pride in his craft knew how to fillet a chicken grunt and roast it up like—well, like an actual chicken. Add a little salt and the tiny fish was pretty appetizing, bones and all. It might have been a tad out of season, but this particular fellow had eaten well, and the fat was delicious. “No alcohol. No meat. No raising your voice. And I guess they extended those rules to anyone who visits or works at the tower.”

They had returned to the more urban outer block and were near the harbor. The four of them had purchased chicken grunt skewers from a human vendor, courtesy of Shiba, and they stared out at the bay as they ate.

Ijuin had just finished his fifth when he shouted, “For real?! No fried chicken?! No ham sandwiches?!”

The boy started inhaling a sixth as Shiba nibbled slowly on his own. “No fish either,” he said. He grimaced. “I’m not much of a meat eater, personally, but even I get sick of the tofu and vegetables sometimes. I take trips out here pretty often.”

“They definitely got fish to spare,” said Natsuki, tracing the waves with her eyes. “We never could get much back at my place. Didn’t have the gas to send boats out. Just had to hope stuff’d get caught in our nets.” She snapped her fingers. “That reminds me. There was this one time when these guys were trying to sell rat and frog meat off as chicken. Honestly? The frog wasn’t half bad.”

“Isn’t there a fishery here?” Aliya asked.

Shiba’s glasses glinted as he nodded. “Yup. And we have plenty of electric-powered boats to go fishing. The real issue is red meat. Central Tower has a plant where they lab grow the stuff, but to be frank, it’s not great.”

“You mean there’s no meat anywhere?!” Ijuin shouted.

“Not necessarily,” Shiba replied. “The outer block has places where they raise broilers. Supply just doesn’t exactly meet demand, so it can be hard to find.”

Ijuin exhaled in overdramatic despondence. “Remember those pheasants Lady Ein got for us? They were so good.” The Replicant girl was a master markswoman, and she knew how to provide in the wild. She had hunted and butchered no less than two green pheasants on their journey to Osaka, the memory of which made Ijuin’s mouth water. “I wish she and Ichinose were here.”

“I do too,” Aliya agreed. “It doesn’t feel like we’ve made it without them.”

It wasn’t easy to face a war, let alone the destruction of your homeland, but it was a little easier with someone else by your side. Ijuin and Aliya missed their comrades, the ones they had weathered the storm with.

Natsuki pointed towards something. “More of the same, looks like.”

Warehouses on the coast were a common enough sight for a harbor, and these would have been no exception, if it weren’t for the wooden signs hanging from many of them. The words painted on them were nearly illegible, but the emotions behind the violent strokes were evident.

No more power curfews!

Close the city! No more refugees!

Aliya cocked her head. “I thought my uncle was going to be up all night watching those nerdy movies.”

“That’s, well...” Shiba fidgeted nervously. “That’s a privilege of Central Tower. That is, the elves. As advanced as this city is, we don’t have infinite energy, so power to the outer block stops every night at nine. But everything runs off of the central block, meaning we can’t just cut electricity there.” He glanced at the signs. “This wasn’t a problem at first. But a few rowdy individuals is all you really need to kick up trouble.”

“Trouble,” Natsuki said. “Hmm, lemme guess.” The samurai girl gave her trademark devil-may-care grin. “You’ve got a buncha refugees, they start thinking the elves are sitting pretty up in their tower, and now you’ve got problems.”

“I-It’s not everyone, really,” Shiba insisted.

But he never denied it.

4

The gargantuan, fleshy eyeball creature floated in midair, emanating malevolence. Yu stared out at the Anomaly’s green, newly grown scales from the balcony of their cell, if it could be called that.

“Rakshasa,” Ein growled. “You’ve great power at your beck and call, I see!”

“What kind of Anomaly is that?!” Yu asked.

“In more common tongues, rakshasa means demon,” she clarified. “They sometimes take the shape of people, but it isn’t unheard of for them to manifest more grotesquely, like what you see here. Make no mistake, they wield powerful magical arts and abilities. They are second in ferocity only to the Chosen Dharva themselves!”

“Warrior!” Quldald bellowed. “Don your armor. It is not my wish to see you or Her Grace meet untimely ends.”

“Then put that pet of yours on a leash!” Yu shouted back.

The eye demon gyrated, its single pupil darting down to the balcony, and a violet wave of light gleamed horribly from it, right down to Yu and Ein.

“Mark III!” Yu shouted. “Shroud!”

The nanofactors spilled out, coating his slender body in a suit of nano-armor, everywhere except for the arms he had lost in the previous battle. The Holy Shroud snaked down from Yu’s neck and wrapped around his exposed limbs.

The Asura Frame finished armorizing right as the wave of violet was upon him, but Ein was left unprotected. Rudra’s anti-magic shell didn’t extend to her.

That singular thought crossed Yu’s mind, and the Shroud shimmered, a golden light that grew brighter, bigger, quickly swelling beyond the cloth itself until a barrier enclosed both Devicer Three and the Replicant.

“You extended the shell’s power to create a protective field!” Ein breathed. “Still discovering more of the Holy Shroud’s tricks, are you?”

“I had a lot of help.”

It was a strange feeling. Yu sensed something from the Frame and the Holy Shroud. Something alive. They weren’t tools. There was life—a conscious will—within them.

“Yes!” Quldald roared in delight. “There is our hero! Oh, how I would love to rip those plates from you and have that armor for myself. And you yourself, young warrior, would make a fine trophy as well!” The archmage waved his staff. “Now kneel!”

The demon charged down towards the balcony, spitting in gravity’s face much like the Mark III could. A sharp, ear-splitting screech whined from the monstrous eye as it descended.

“My ears!” Yu groaned. “Ein, are you okay?”

“Thanks to your shield, it seems!” she replied.

Doubtless the Anomaly was aiming to kill, and the sound wave it had emitted would have surely lethally maimed them if the anti-magic shell’s barrier hadn’t dampened its intensity.

“Yes, very good,” Quldald said, satisfaction dripping from his smile. “Very good! Let the match begin! I simply love a good gladiatorial bout. It’s all I can do to keep from plucking every fine swordsman for myself, truth be told, but you! Ah, you I could not keep away from! What fortune!”

A single gust of wind blew, and the next instant he was gone. Yu and Ein were left alone with the creature, apparently toys for the archmage’s amusement.

“Gladiators? He wants to enslave us?” Yu said. “I don’t get it! He’s a decent guy one minute and now he wants us to fight to the death!”

“Yu, you come from different worlds,” Ein reasoned. “The archmage may seem amiable, and I’m almost certain he genuinely is, but I’m just as certain that he would slaughter entire nations without the slightest hint of hesitation and force slaves to cut each other’s throats for the sport of it. He would be in good company in our world. Param’s heroes are often men like him.”

“Different worlds,” Yu muttered. He took a deep breath. “I guess you’re right.”

Yu finally felt like he understood. To an extent, anyway. The enemies they fought came from a world of swords and sorcery, and they were the greats. Powerful mages who took countless lives because there was victory, conquest, in it. They were heroes who had likely committed acts of ruthless calculation that surpassed Yu’s wildest imaginings. Indeed, they were great. Depending on which side of the blade you were on.

All it really came down to was familiarity. We saw more of ourselves in a group of refugee scientists than the archmages. A Japanese middle schooler saw more of himself in the clone of an elvish queen than the heroes of another world.

They were larger than life, in both ability and character. They were alien.

“The enemy forces are probably filled with men like him,” Yu murmured.

The demonic eye continued to loose spells with its magical sight. A glance was all it needed to hex its victims, and the Mark III’s sensors identified them as they came. Gaze of Death. Gaze of the Gorgon. Gaze of Bursting. The anti-magic shell didn’t let a single curse through, but Yu still felt years of his life shed away with every new alert.

“We should test if the creature has any non-magical capabilities,” Ein suggested. “Close in for the attack, Yu!”

“Right! Come on, Mark III!” Yu kicked off the ground. But instead of lifting off, he looked down in confusion to find his feet still firmly planted. “What? This...isn’t right!” he groaned. “My body feels so heavy!”

It was as if multiple balls and chains were weighing him down. Yu heaved himself still forward, one strenuous foot at a time, his joints creaking with each tiny movement.

The demon loomed less than a dozen meters away. To the Mark III, it was a negligible distance. Yu could clear it in a fraction of a second and throw out a punch or kick just as quickly. But the Frame wasn’t right.

“It’s the same as earlier today!” Yu hissed through gritted teeth.

“Watch out!” Ein called. “It looks like it wants a brawl as well!”

Suddenly, a different sort of magic permeated the demon, and burly, humanlike arms burst forth from each side of the eyeball. They were proportioned accordingly, as giant as the titanic eye itself. A swift right hook slammed into the Mark III.

Yu wailed as he and the black-and-gold nano-armor sailed through the air, away from the balcony. For all his instincts, and for all the sensors’ warnings, the Frame simply had not moved—could not move—no matter how hard Yu tried, and continued to try, as he entered a free fall. The anti-gravity lifters refused to respond. He started to panic.

And then, he heard a voice.

“Fly, my healing prayer! By the Enlightened One’s merciful touch, by the life so safeguarded, reach out with a thousand hands! Fly to my ally’s aid!”

The voice was Ein’s, reciting a lyrical chant. To Yu, it almost sounded like the strange poetry from the Gospel Code she would incant to unlock the Asura Frame’s pseudo-magic powers.

And that was when a miracle happened.

Yu examined himself in dumbfounded confusion.

“The Dharva are not the only ones who regain their magic in the akashic domain!” Ein said. “It isn’t much compared to the sages, but I, too, know the arcane ways!”

The Mark III stopped in midair, then shot back skyward. The anti-gravity lifters had recovered seemingly out of nowhere, but that wasn’t all. The Shroud unfurled itself from Yu’s arms and returned to his neck, billowing behind him like two thin wings, restoring the Frame’s stalwart silhouette. As it did, armor began to plate itself over his shoulders, down to his fists.

“You healed the Mark III with magic!” Yu realized.

“Perceptive as always!” Ein commended him. “The Asura is a breathing organism, as much machine as it is demigod. You’ll find that restorative spells know the difference!”

Out of all the things Yu had experienced, healing magic straight out of a video game had been relatively low on the list of things that he expected.

Revived, Yu rocketed up to meet the demon eye.

He was done messing around. “Let’s see how you like this!” he cried.

The scarf-shaped cloth undulated like an appendage, and the ends sharpened into the tips of swords. Transformed into an abridged Excalibur Mode, the Shroud lashed out like a whip, rending the Anomaly in half from cornea to retina.

The creature let out a horrible shriek from some unknown orifice, one last cry of defiance against all that was natural, and the abomination fell.

“Yu! We should leave while the Asura still holds!” Ein shouted up at Yu.

Yu’s visor, apparently agreeing with her suggestion, immediately displayed an escape route on his Head Mounted Display. A render of the castle showed the way out with corresponding arrows.

“Up! Got it!” said Yu.

Four towers stood at each of the cyclonic palace’s corners. Yu landed on one of the sixth-floor balconies and quickly took his partner in his arms. The Replicant girl lay across them like a bride, lending all of her weight with complete trust, and she nodded once. Soundly.

They took off towards the ashen sky, between the gliding spiral masses, and the eerie ceiling of the Void grew nearer. As they ascended, Ein broke into a handsome, knightly grin, undaunted by the unnerving nature of their situation, nor by the danger of flying utterly unprotected.

She laughed in the face of it all. “You know, I’d love to do this again at our wedding!”

“Yeah, no thanks!” Yu shot back.

“Really?” she asked. “I think a ceremony in the sky would be very ‘us.’”

“Since when were we even—”

“I do hope you’re not leaving so soon!” a voice boomed from the heavens. It echoed across the expanse from nowhere, cutting the duo’s bickering short. Quldald’s declamation shook the very air. “There is still so much merry to be made!”

An innumerable mass of floating eyes suddenly hovered in their path.

Ein growled. “He’s trying to overwhelm us!”

They looked to be the same species as the demon before, but comparatively much smaller. Only about two meters in diameter. What they lacked in size, however, they made up for with sheer numbers. The Mark III counted 372 entities, along with their designated name: beholders.

Ein tightened her arms around Yu’s neck and frowned. “There’s too many,” she said. “The Doomsday Book is our best hope, but I fear for the Asura’s condition.”

“Then our secret weapon’s out.”

“This will be a difficult battle,” Ein admitted. “Yu, if it’s between my life or yours...”

“It won’t be,” Yu stated. “You’ve done enough. It’s my turn now.” Ein raised her eyebrows at him. A window in the corner of Yu’s view revealed a single number: five billion. Up from one-point-two billion during his prior battle with Scullchance. “Thanks to your magic, we don’t need a secret weapon. We’ve got plenty of nanomachines to pull this off!”

“Droids! Right!”

Ein began to chant.

—Witness the truth. Envision vajra.

—See, says the Enlightened One, true strength in tathata.

—Give form to invincible serenity, flawless as the full moon.

The Asura Frame’s very own support satellite—Avalo—uploaded the Gospel Code at Ein’s behest, and the Mark III’s Ars Magna Unit responded to the command in kind. Twinkling adaptive nanofactors cascaded out from the suit armoring Yu’s body, cultivating into pairs of auxiliary droids.

The first to come into being were the MUV Crow Gauntlets—humanoid yet robotic arms, nimble enough for handwork, deadly enough for offense, and pointed at the fingertips with long, sharp talons. The clawed gloves attached themselves onto the length of the Mark III’s arms. Following the gauntlets were a set of long, metal casings that coupled with the Frame’s legs. MUV Launcher Boots (complete with missiles and other firearms). Next, a pair of armored platings locked together on the Frame’s torso in the shape of an upside down V, like the wings of a jet, forming the MUV Wing Cloak.

All these droids together merged to create a reinforced suit twice the size of its Devicer, the Full-Armor Mark III—a popular toy figure and one of Ijuin’s personal favorites.

Last came the MUV Airmobile. Simply put, the thing looked like a sleek jet ski. If a jet ski had arms at the front with opposable thumbs, that is. The limbs gripped the Mark III’s shoulders and latched into place on its back while Ein swung over to take the front seat. She held tight onto the handles, a position much more secure than when she was in his care, Yu thought.

The archmage’s voice came again, an excited moan. “Vexing! So very vexing! To think you had hidden such a form from me!”

“This isn’t a fashion show!” Yu snapped.

He charged into the wall of beholders, and from the oversized eyeballs came an assailment of magic. 372 against 1. Not great odds.

“Looking at it from another perspective,” said Ein, “I don’t think you’ll need to aim your attacks. Run wild, Yu!”

“Good point!” he agreed. “Let’s do this, Mark III!”

A maelstrom of bullets and rockets ejected from the Frame’s enhanced legs all at once. Even the demons that somehow emerged unscathed from the smoky barrage met a brutal end, delicate flesh ripped to shreds by the gauntlets’ talons, meat blended by ultrasonic oscillators and charred by high voltage currents. Yu unleashed every gruesome weapon that could prove effective in the moment.

The enemy attacked chaotically and ceaselessly from all directions. Rays of light, sound waves, blasts of heat, hexes, curses. The anti-magic shell never stopped glowing for a second, nullifying spell after spell. And through it all, Yu tore his way higher and higher into the sky. The gray deepened as he did, fading into darker and darker shades of black.

“We’re almost there!” Ein shouted.

“I can see the stars!” Yu cheered.

A single moment later, and they soared through a blanket of twinkling lights. A penumbra below reflected the light on a liquidy mirror. The sea. Yu recognized where they were. It was the Sea of Japan, and this was Maizuru. The portal-keep had brought them all the way back to the start.

Yu was just thankful he knew how to orient himself, and pointed them southwest.

He didn’t bother reversing the Full-Armor state. With Ein on his back, Yu bolted straight for Osaka Bay as fast as he physically could. Right to Nayuta. Right to his friends.

The fine tones of a handsome man echoed at his back.

“I will cede the field for now, warrior of black and gold,” the archmage declared. “But I eagerly await the day we meet again. With bated breath.”