Chapter 5: Across Sky and Ocean

1

The docks where the Anomalies had first landed effectively became the front lines, but because water and air weren’t the only means the enemy had of transporting troops, the fighting had spread to all over Nayuta, from the outer block to the central one. Teleportation magic could send fresh meat all the way from the portal-keep to anywhere in the city. It could be cyclopes; it could be half-man, half-cow minotaurs with axes and clubs; giant, three-headed Cerberus dogs; or even five-story-tall bronze golems—constructs with literal molten bronze for blood that would scald anyone who managed to put a crack in them. Anything could appear without warning.

But they all shared one thing in common—no mere human could stand up to them. Not even in groups. The enemy was that overwhelming.

Such was the force threatening the residents of Nayuta. They shouldn’t have lasted as long as they had. A dozen or so random people with a few guns didn’t stand a chance against the behemoths, Anomalies that could have taken a tank head on, maybe even two. And yet, somehow, they did.

The droids cleaned up the invincible enemies with casual ease. Ten thousand MUV Chakrams turned the Anomalies’ flesh and bones into strips, the spinning blades dredging up fountains of blood. And although the MUV Clay-Dolls lacked hard firepower, in groups they could make ant tunnels out of their foes or paralyze them with stun guns. All the while, the three thousand arms of metal with talons like swords—the MUV Crow Gauntlets—acted with the Mark III’s own might. Slicing, crushing, shooting. Wherever they went, many fell.

“How quaint. The apes have learned to fight.”

Scullchance sat in her chamber. Not on a chair, of course—on her golden-maned lion. The beast dozed, its eyes drearily narrowed like a house cat with a full belly. The archmage, too, had her eyes closed, though not for an afternoon nap. She was watching over the battle with senses unnatural, by the ways of Kanzeon, the hearer of a thousand voices.

“Our forces are looking rather low,” she mused. “Spirits, go. Tear them asunder.”

The mage did not deign to even open her eyes to cast the summoning spell, or to deliver the order. Ijuin would have been in awe. She could do in a thoughtless second what he needed the nanomachines to do, and even then only with immense focus. Beneath the archmage’s eyes, images flitted by, delivering developments on the field. Within her ears, she could hear the voices of the settlement.

“We could really use a few more good guys on our side!”

“Aaargh!”

“Is that...Three?”

“You’re twice the warrior you were before.”

“I may not be there to save you again, but I’m glad I was this time.”

“You’re back.”

She could feel his presence. She could see him. The warrior approaching her transient castle at speeds beyond sound. The one who witnessed the truth, in all his black and gold splendor.

“I knew you could not resist, wielder of the Shroud! Come to me, oh Vajra One!”

Never would she speak that dreadful name of his—Devicer Three. Though dishonest she would be if she were to claim not to be exhilarated by his arrival. Why else would she have prepared such a special guest, if not to see the masked warrior meet a dramatic end at the hands of the bringer of Ragnarok?

Scullchance roused her lazy body and made for the top of her palace, where she could watch the spectacle with eyes of her own.

“Hey, it just me, or are our friends changing tactics?!”

“No, it’s not just you, Volonov!”

“They’re sending reinforcements that our guns don’t work against. We’re gonna be in deep shit before long!”

Shiba and the Russian man had met up again around the warehouses of the harbor, where the fighting was still the most violent. Ein was with the executive, because despite his lack of nerve, he was the closest thing they had to a commander.

The elf girl pricked up her ears, listening for the wind’s movements. “The Chosen Dharva are clever tacticians,” she said. “They can adapt to changes in the battlefield as naturally as they breathe.”

“Wish we had some of that on our side,” Shiba griped.

The wind whipped by. It was picking up, and it wasn’t a mere ocean breeze. Just then, a soldier was swept into the air by a spiraling gust. He ascended quickly, screaming as he did, before the wind suddenly dropped him. When he landed, the screaming stopped.

The gales were an army of air elementals—spirits of the wind, whirlwinds with a conscious will. Against a foe with no corporeal form, guns were useless, and they were swirling all around the settlement. The creatures flung trolls and goblins with no regard for friend or foe as they snatched everything up, then let them fall to a most gruesome death. This ironically made the droids’ jobs somewhat easier, but the dragons, troublesome as they were, flew unhindered by the tempests.

They had to stop those elementals.

“We’ll never stand a chance without the King of the Storm or his Holy Shroud,” Ein said, biting her lip in frustration. “But Yu and his allies are fighting battles of their own. We have to manage by ourselves.”

She took shelter behind one of the warehouses, carefully keeping away from the violent winds. It was all she could do, and it aggravated her.

Volonov, hiding nearby, clicked his tongue. “Yeah, I can see that thing from here. Kid’s got his hands full.”

The glowing, red colossus off the coast of Nayuta was hard not to notice, even with half its body submerged. The lava giant’s viscous torso had to measure a hundred meters by itself alone.

Ein could feel him—Devicer Three—hovering before the enemy. This was his battle.

“It’s right here, Natsuki! Mystery Weapon X, straight out of the Three Kingdoms!”

“You’re right. That wheel looks just like Yu’s!” Natsuki pointed to the bottom end of the weapon Aliya had brought down to the tower’s entrance. Apparently, she’d hacked the security system with her nanomachines, cracked open the case, and carried the Green Dragon something-or-other here all by herself.

Problem was, the thing was ridiculously heavy. She’d had to get an anthropomorphic support droid to even lift it off the ground.

Natsuki took the weapon from the droid—“Oof!”—and then promptly almost dropped it. Her nanomachines enhanced every muscle in her body, and every muscle meant every muscle. With a punch, she could launch a grown man a solid seven meters, eight if she was motivated. But this single weapon was her match.

It took everything Natsuki had to keep it in her hands. “So, uh, how much does this thing weigh?! A hundred kilos?! Scratch that, three hundred! Final answer!”

“It’s that bad?!”

“I mean, cool weapon and all, Aliya, but I’m not sure how useful it’s gonna be!” It was unprecedented for Natsuki to throw in the towel. She inspected the weapon. Its blade, curved like a scimitar, was about as long as her katana. The shaft was even longer and evocative of a naginata, but on a closer look, she noticed that it was made of metal, not wood. At the very end, where the ferrule would normally be, was a wheel. “You said this is the same as the one Yu has?”

“Something about it makes me feel...restless,” Aliya said. “It’s like I can feel people inside it. Praying something.”

“A wheel of prayers, huh? But hold on a minute,” said Natsuki. “I thought these mini Prayer Wheels were only used in the twelve Asura Frames.”

“R-Right. Which would mean...”

Before Aliya could finish, a dragon landed hard on the ground in front of them, wings spread wide. A fleshy, red gash stood out where its right eye should have been. It glared down at Natsuki with its remaining left, a gaze filled with acidic vitriol.

“Oof, yikes, this is awkward,” she said. “That was definitely me.”

“D-Do you think it wants to get even?!” Aliya stuttered.

“I don’t know why else he’d be here!” Natsuki exclaimed. “Get inside! I’ll handle this!”

“You can’t! You said yourself that your sword’s not enough!”

Natsuki tossed aside the strange weapon and unsheathed the monomolecular blade on her back, pointing it at the beast. At the sharp end stood a monster of fifteen meters in length, magnified by its vast wingspan, and on the other was a samurai girl one-tenth its size, yet no less ferocious.

Aliya quickly knelt down and held her hand out towards the Prayer Wheel at the end of the fallen Green Dragon Crescent Blade. If she was right, if that generator was the same source of power that the Mark III drew from, then it had to be one of the Asura series.

“Please, do something!” she cried. “Whatever iteration you are, you have to awaken!”

They’d spent days and days doing this exact experiment back in Maizuru, and now it was all she had. She transmitted the awakening signal from the nanomachines in her right hand, expecting it to fail, expecting this to be it.

“What...?”

But then, it began to spin. Aliya listened to the whirring in disbelief. When the noise reached Natsuki, she broke into a wide grin, threw her sword away, and opened her palm towards the ground.

“If you’re feeling up for it, I could use some help!” she yelled.

A fraction of a second later and the dragon was bringing its leg down on the girl, claws glinting and bearing all of its crushing weight. But another fraction later and its foot was arcing through the air. Blood sprayed from the monster’s amputated ankle, and it roared in agony.

“Yeah, I’m actually a bit of a pro when it comes to naginatas and polearms,” Natsuki gloated. “Unless you wanna call my bluff, lizard.”

Natsuki flourished the Green Dragon Crescent Blade and cracked a haughty smile at her new best friend.

The Green Dragon was as light as a wooden practice sword, and it owed its newfound weightlessness to the anti-gravity lifters that had come online just in time. Natsuki brandished the guandao-shaped Asura Frame with such litheness, it was as if she were handling it on the surface of the moon.

The dragon snapped at her, but in the blink of an eye she whirled the blade and struck the beast’s snout four times in quick succession.

“You’ve got some tricks up your sleeve,” Natsuki remarked to her new toy.

Somehow intuiting the weapon’s capabilities, she activated the anti-gravity lifters and floated into the air, at last eye-level with the behemoth. The bloodied beast recoiled.

“No hard feelings!”

Natsuki buried the Crescent Blade into the dragon’s forehead, and with the guandao deep in the Anomaly’s skull, she selected the electromagnetic contactor function and activated it through the nano-interface in her right hand. An electrical current flowed from the odd Asura Frame and into the white dragon. Its heart immediately stopped, and the beast collapsed heavily onto the ground.

“There’s number one! Do I see a second?” Natsuki never let go of that devil-may-care attitude, but her words carried all the weight they needed.

She landed back on the ground, before hurling the Crescent Blade at one of the white dragons mid-flight. The Asura Frame laughed in the face of gravity as it pierced the monster’s chest.

“Let’s see that zappy thing again!”

Another violent current of electricity assailed the dragon, and down the second fell. The earth rumbled from the impact as Natsuki snatched the returning guandao out of the air.

“Aw, you came back! Who’s a good boy?”

“I thought I felt something.” Ein’s voice suddenly came through over the commlink. “Natsuki, have you awakened Vritra? The Mark VI Asura Frame?!”

“Oh, this is the Mark VI, huh? I thought it was in Russia,” Natsuki said. “So Vritra’s your name.” She whirled the guandao Asura around spiritedly like a martial arts display. “I like it!”

Aliya, who had been spectating the whole performance, pointed her right palm at Vritra. “After Russia’s Eastern Front fell, it was recovered and brought to Nayuta for safekeeping. But it was dormant, waiting for its Devicer like the Mark III was. At least, that’s what I can tell from its awareness.” She took a deep breath, parsing the information she had read by synchronizing her nanomachines with the Frame. “It seems like the design philosophy for this Asura Frame was pure offense. A glass cannon, if you will.”

“Huh, sounds like we’re not so different!” Natsuki said.

“That must be why it chose you,” said Ein. “Natsuki, there’s something I need you and Vritra to do!”

There was still no end in sight for the ceaseless game of cat and mouse going on in the air around the tower. Meanwhile, the invisible air elementals had turned Nayuta into a vortex of deadly winds.

Natsuki listened to the Replicant girl’s instructions and smirked.

“It is our opening act, after all! I wouldn’t want to disappoint!”

2

When lava erupted from a volcano, it tended to flow slowly enough that most could outrun it on foot. Less than four kilometers per hour, Yu had heard somewhere. So it was no exaggeration to call the jets of molten rock spurting towards Devicer Three a little bit unnatural. They exploded from all over the massive giant, miniature superspeed eruptions, aimed straight for the black and gold warrior.

Yu groaned as he strained himself to weave through it all. The Mark III’s warning sensors blared nonstop.

The lava torrents were clocking in at over seven hundred kilometers an hour, but even that was trivial to the Frame. What gave him trouble was the fact that they were unpredictable. They could come from anywhere—the face, the neck, the shoulders, arms, chest, stomach, back. It was relentless in its onslaught.

As Yu struggled to dodge the barrage, he soon realized that things were not as bad as they could have been. Because they were about to get worse.

“You’re kidding me!” he shouted.

The lava giant raised its molten arm and threw its fist at him. Despite how beautiful a jab it was, the Asura Frame could have dodged it with time to spare...had Yu not already been preoccupied with avoiding the searing geysers.

He took a direct hit and screamed. No single word could succinctly describe how horrendously hot it was. Yu imagined Hell was rather temperate by comparison.

Rudra sank into the fist of liquid rock, and the sensors indicated the inferno boiling the nano-armor had skyrocketed to 1,069 Celsius. But still the ADAMAS suit held strong, refusing to melt even as Yu endured the pain. He couldn’t do it forever, though.

“Come on, Mark III!”

Yu activated the body-wide jet stream thrusters, and the Frame shot skyward out of the lava, returning once again to the amber curtain in the clouds. He looked down on Wakayama Bay and the giant wading within it. Its face bubbled and ejected three more streams of lava.

“Enough of this!”

Yu accelerated—fast—but he wasn’t dodging this time. He plummeted straight towards the fast-approaching geysers, picking up velocity at a speed only made possible by the anti-gravity lifters. In seconds, he shattered the sound barrier, then exploded past Mach 2, then Mach 3, 4, 5, and beyond. The jet streams hissed, and the air rolled with the deafening roar that trailed in the wake of a sonic boom.

He and the Mark III became the center of a supersonic shock wave. The black and gold armor collided with one of the lava geysers, scattering the stream of bubbling rock effortlessly. Yu didn’t slow down.

“Holy Shroud! Gimme a hand!”

Tearing off a piece of the cloth around his neck, the Shroud changed to Excalibur Mode in Yu’s hand as he plunged towards the lava giant. And then, the human, sword-wielding shock wave pierced the colossus. Yu turned back around and impaled it again, and again, and again, blasting away the Anomaly’s liquidy and fleshless form at random, perforating the monster.

“Where is it?! Something’s holding this thing together, but I can’t catch it! It keeps moving!”

Rudra’s autonomous awareness had produced several windows in Yu’s visor, including aerial shots from numerous angles. In the one depicting its back, there was a blue indicator labeled in English as “Mystical Core,” accompanied by an annotation explaining that destroying this would break the spell. But by the time Yu circled around to the giant’s back, the core had already moved to its waist. He darted down there, and then it shot to its flank, then to its right shoulder. The Holy Saber was useless without a target to plant its edge in.

“You fight as churlishly as your name, warrior!”

“That voice,” Yu murmured. “You’re the archmage! Scullchance!”

His sonic rush attack was losing steam. He exited the creature and hovered in the sky above, glancing around warily. There was no sign of the mage, but her sinister chuckle echoed across the amber aurora-tinted firmament.

“I went to great pains to provide you with a suitable welcome. Do not insult me by thinking you can fell my pawn so easily!”

“What, you’re just going to let your minions do the fighting for you?!” Yu shot back fearlessly. “Face me yourself! Let’s pick up where we left off!” He spoke boldly, with a booming voice. Devicer Three would not be afraid.

“You truly are a fool if you think me, Keeper of the Pride, base enough to stoop to such tedium! In all that I do, it is for the thrill that I act. For the exhilaration of battle. The exaltation of conquest. That is why I fight!”

“Those are some sick hobbies you’ve got there,” Yu spat.

If this were a soccer match, no doubt he would be the playmaker, or what Italian players called “fantasistas.” The person everyone counted on to handle the ball like magic and make fantasy into reality on the pitch. As one of the most well-known fantasistas famously said, “I’ll kick that ball like a rainbow after the rain.”

But this wasn’t just a game. And the rain was a war for life on Earth as they knew it.

“I need to somehow get us on the same level as last time,” Yu muttered. “Mark III—Rudra, I need you to prepare the Doomsday Book.”

More and more, Yu found himself drawn to the Mark III’s true name over the impersonal serial number. He and the Asura Frame were melding, and they’d never been closer than in that moment. As Yu came to understand Rudra, Rudra came to accept Yu.

Still, though, the Doomsday Book was a trump card. It needed time to initialize, and the lava giant was recovering. Slowly, the numerous holes in its liquefied body were already starting to close up.

The geyser attacks commenced once more, and Yu resumed his acrobatic evasive maneuvers all over again.

“Three, I think we can help!” Aliya suddenly transmitted.

“Aliya and Natsuki discovered something incredible!” Ein exclaimed. “You’ll stand alone no more, Yu!”

“Six!”

Natsuki swung the Mark VI Asura Frame with audacious confidence, and as long as she held it in her hands, the anti-gravity lifters allowed her to fly freely through the air. Although, to be honest, weightlessness didn’t actually lend itself to martial arts very well.

She dove onto the back of a dragon as it darted by the tower and plunged the guandao into its neck. The defenseless reptile’s cervical spine snapped like a twig. With Natsuki still clinging to its back, the dragon plummeted to the earth, landing with a great boom. The girl nimbly leaped off at the last second, completely unfazed.

The wheel at Vritra’s ferrule sang, “Gate! Gate! Paragate! Gate! Gate! Paragate! Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha! Gate! Gate! Paragate!”

The whirring of the Prayer Wheel had been replaced by an ethereal hymn. A chorus comprised of both men and women. A yellow cloth was tied to where the blade and shaft joined, fluttering like a long, narrow flag, and very much resembling the scarf adorned by Devicer Three. It had manifested from a surge of nanofactors that spilled from the weapon moments after her transmission with Ein ended.

“The Holy Shroud—Her Majesty the elf’s stamp of approval,” she murmured. “Just like Yu’s. It’s like we’re a team!”

Eight white dragons had attacked in total. Natsuki had knocked that number down to two, both of which were on their last ropes against the fighter jet and arm droids. She sighed and brushed the dust off herself, glancing back at her most recent kill before reeling back and hurling the Mark VI into the air like a javelin. It tore through the sky, through the rampaging air elementals and the swirling gusts.

“Don’t let that Shroud slack off just ’cause he’s new!” she shouted after her partner.

It was the same technique Yu had used about one month ago. The Mark VI soared over the settlement, around its entire twenty-five kilometer radius, dispersing and scattering clouds of golden powder—flecks of the Holy Shroud itself. Just as it was potent against the undead, so too was it the scourge of the incorporeal. Like elementals.

Purified by the sacred dust, the winds around Nayuta at last began to settle. Natsuki snatched the Green Dragon’s shaft out of the air as it returned. And it still seemed ready for more.

“All right, Vritra, show me what droids you’ve got!” Natsuki gripped the Green Dragon with both hands and pointed it skyward. Adaptive nanofactors streamed out of the edged Asura Frame’s shaft, its Prayer Wheel, and even its blade.

The droids it constructed were massive. Twice the size of the dragons it had just slayed. And they took the shape of pale white, translucent icicles—MUV Snow Crystals. Nine were suspended in midair.

“Now go!” Natsuki commanded. “Yu could use the help!”

The lava giant was still visible, and the newly created droids set out towards the flowing mass at once.

The humanoid torrent of lava punched, slapped, and lurched at the pest buzzing around its gelatinous form. “This isn’t good,” the pest groaned between near misses. “The Doomsday Book is taking so much energy I’m starting to lag behind!”

The wheel at Yu Ichinose’s waist spun furiously, all of its output being drained not by his aerial maneuvers, but by the winds. Even without the air elementals, they were picking up and approaching gale force. But speed came at the cost of the Rudra’s mobility.

If he got knocked out of the sky now, then all that time he was buying for the Book would come to nothing.

“Take heart, Yu! Aid has arrived with fire’s bane!”

“Ein!” Yu cried. “Wait, are those droids?”

Suddenly, a deployment of floating icicles appeared on the battlefield. Nine MUV Snow Crystals, Vritra’s all-purpose combat auxiliary droids. But rather than the nature of his reinforcements, Yu was more surprised by the misshapen bullets they fired, and the fact that they were doing visible damage to the lava giant.

The monster turned its attention from Yu and swung at the Snow Crystals with all its weight. All it managed, however, was to make itself an easier target. Yu listened to the hissing of steam as the crystals pelted the molten beast, bullets melting upon contact.

“And they have...water cannons?!”

“Close! They’re liquid helium bullets,” Aliya corrected.

“Like dry ice, but on steroids!” Ijuin added.

Even as they spoke, the nine mechanical icicles pounded the lava giant, giving Yu the time he needed to finally pull the ace out from his sleeve.

[System Now Booting Doomsday Book “VIDYA-MANTRA RUDRA2”]

Upon seeing the English text scroll across his screen, Yu shouted, “Ein! Doomsday Book chapter two is ready!”

“Uploading the Gospel Code now,” she replied. “The beast of the wind is yours to command!”

Following her transmission, Ein’s voice echoed in Yu’s head as clear as day.

—The sinners of the trailokya know not their sin.

—Such as the fools of the four wombs know not their folly.

—In darkness we are born, to darkness we return, and to darkness we are born anew.

The windbeast appeared before Yu, its wispy being as ghostly as a collection of white smoke, its stature that of a panther. The mightiest of His Majesty of the Storm’s knights.

“In the name of your king, Rudra, I command you!” Yu roared. “Let your tempest rage!”

Doomsday Book chapter two—the verse of Tempest Judgment. The windbeast became a great whirling waterspout that would rend all from the ocean below that dared stand in its path and cast their remains spiraling up into the sky. All that stood in the barren waters of Wakayama Bay this day, however, its passing ships gone with the Evacuation, was an otherworldly castle sitting upon a lotus pedestal like a mirage in the desert, and the vexing lava giant. Neither were spared the godly might of the windbeast.

But the portal-keep was protected by its archmage. Just like before, barrier magic was put in place, and countless runic circles manifested all around the mythical palace. Buffeted by the violent and raging winds, its walls creaked and were nearly torn off, but the SS-class defense spell held fast.

The lava giant, however, was at the mercy of the ripping flurry, and pieces of its body were plucked off, sent corkscrewing into oblivion. As the crimson colossus was torn to shreds, little would soon remain to maintain the Anomaly’s bodily structure.

Yu did not bask in his small victory. In the blink of an eye, he exploded past Mach 4 and 5, all the way to 6, and became a supersonic, armored dart headed straight for the portal-keep. A surveillance droid told him his target—the mage and her lion—stood on a balcony of the tallest tower. He cleaved through her palace’s defenses with a single swing of the Holy Saber.

Yu collided with the archmage.

“Vajra One!” she growled. “You’ve some nerve to appear before the Lioness without an invitation!”

“Ask me if I care!”

He had struck Scullchance with immense force, but a barrier of some kind kept the lion-mounted girl untouched. Still, Yu didn’t let up, and he pushed the both of them off of the tower and out of the protection of her castle.

Now it was just the two of them and the impossibly amber aurora overhead.

3

Yu set the field to match his first encounter with the archmage. He endured spell after spell—Perish, Incinerate, Suicide Curse, Mind Blast—as the anti-magic shell nullified each one while he waited for the perfect moment.

“Rot! Burn! Hear, for your demise approaches! Oh, dulcet are the tones of pain and suffering!”

The fight had taken them all the way to the ruins of Osaka Bay. Skyscraping buildings along the sunken streets of the once-thriving metropolis jutted from the water, and the roof of one such obelisk was the current setting for the battle between Devicer Three and Scullchance of the Pride.

Her lower half fused with the lion, Scullchance thrashed a battle-axe while Yu deflected the brutal edge of the blade with the MUV Crow Gauntlet affixed to his right arm. The half-lion maiden’s blows were vicious and precise, and although Yu fought stubbornly with the clawed gauntlet, it was nearly impossible for him to get a strike in. The constant stream of A-class spells only made it that much more difficult.

“Fly, crimson arrows! Halt, thy sands of time! Crumble beneath my might!”

“Hang in there, Rudra!” Yu groaned. “Your anti-magic shell’s all I’ve got!”

Flames doused the Mark III, followed by a surge of numbness, then a powerful shock wave. And while Rudra quelled each curse as best it could, the Chosen’s mystic arts were not trifling things. Yu felt everything before the spells could be silenced—the searing heat, the fluttering of his heart as it nearly stopped beating, and the impact that felt like a truck had plowed straight into him.

The plus side, though, was that he had the enemy’s full attention.

“We’re all set!” Natsuki said.

“Then let’s do it!” Yu replied.

“On it! Let’s see, so I just read this passphrase here... By order of the gods, I command thee!”

Noticing their secret conversation, Scullchance scowled. “You and your primitive ape people are scheming something, aren’t you?!”

“Pretty clever for a bunch of monkeys, huh?” Yu taunted.

Before she could respond, the 256-meter-tall roof exploded into a cloud of debris, the blast extending down and annihilating five out of the fifty-six floors below. But it wasn’t like someone had planted explosives. The bomb had come from the water.

Of course, this was far from enough to end their battle.

Following on Yu’s heels, Scullchance kicked off the collapsing building and pounced through the air with her feline legs as if it were something all lions could do. She looked down at the remains of old, downtown Osaka beneath the waves.

“A drake? An orochi?” she blustered. “Have you primitives gotten your filthy hands on a water naga?!”

Yu faced her in midair. “Not exactly, but I’ll give you partial credit.”

A second burst came from the ocean, and then a third. The rectangular objects that hurtled towards Scullchance were between twenty and forty meters long, and they were familiar. Because they used to crisscross across all of urban Japan—they were train cars. Specifically, they had come from the JR Yumesaki Line, one of the many well-traveled railways of Osaka that had once run every single day.

Nanofactors from Natsuki’s Mark VI had turned the coaches into improvised missiles, packing them with MUV Peek-A-Boo Bombers that could attach themselves to anything, even at microscopic size, and detonate at the Devicer’s command. It wasn’t just one or two, though. No, a veritable rail yard emerged from the bay. An artillery barrage of fifty or sixty train-bombs bombarded the airborne archmage.

Scullchance snarled and began to incant a spell. “Mercy, oh Great One!”

The sadistic Lioness was at last forced to defend herself. A protective light shimmered around her as she leaped out of the way of the oncoming battery, the light shielding her from the flames and explosions of any near misses. It was like a high-budget circus performance.

But what one might forget amidst the chaos was that passenger cars normally held passengers.

Dripping wet with seawater and flying straight for Scullchance, Devicer Six emerged from one of the cars. Her high-pitched yet fierce battle cry ripped through the air together with Vritra as Natsuki brought the guandao’s blade through Scullchance’s axe-wielding arm, severing it at the elbow.

“You...” the mage growled low. “What have you done to my arm?!”

“Now, Three!” Natsuki shouted.

“Let’s go!” Yu cried.

He accelerated into a sonic stream once more and threw himself against the force field guarding the half-lion mage, bearing down with the Asura’s might and the talons of the Crow Gauntlet on his right arm.

“You fight,” Scullchance bellowed, “as gracelessly as your name! Vajra One!”

“Sorry, but heroes don’t play by your rules anymore,” Yu shot back. “No one person can stand alone. These days, we fight together.” The age of the fantasista, of the Maradona and the Zico, was over. Yu stared the girl down, and from one hero to another, as both a tactician of modern soccer and resident of Earth, he spoke. “The key to victory is cracking your opponent’s strategy, regrouping with your teammates, then crushing it with a better one. And that’s exactly what we did. That’s how we won.”

Scullchance unleashed all her magic and all her might to stand firm against Yu’s supersonic charge. Met pound for pound in raw strength, Yu activated the electromagnetic heat radiator in the Crow Gauntlet’s palm as it bore into her barrier. He poured into it every spark of energy that the Prayer Wheel could churn out, and with the combined fury of both the scientific and the arcane, the scorching waves penetrated the enemy’s magical shield.

“You sully my honor!” Scullchance howled. “Curse you! Curse you, Warrior of Earth!”

Even at the very end, as the beautiful lion girl scattered into dust beneath alien skies, incinerated by the Asura’s right hand, still did she refuse to utter the name—Devicer Three.

Epilogue

1

Two weeks after the battle between Nayuta and the portal-keep...

“Ein!”

“I can always count on you, Yu!”

Yu, dressed in his kit, displayed a brilliant through pass to the Replicant girl. She was garbed in the same outfit and had skillfully slipped past the defense with a beautiful off-the-ball maneuver. Catching up with the ball in front of the opponents’ goal, she delivered a textbook-perfect kick without even trapping it first and sent it straight out of the goalie’s grasp. It was her second goal of the match.

Her teammates ran up to congratulate their new superstar, but Ein was already throwing her arms around Yu, nuzzling her cheek against his.

“P-Personal space, Ein!” he stammered.

“Do the athletes of this sport not all embrace one another when a point is scored? The others can wait! I wish to share this moment with you!”

“Soccer is a team sport! You can’t show favoritism on the field!”

“Well, I’m going to anyway!” Ein pouted. “I know you and Natsuki were doing something very similar behind my back.”

“Not this intimately!”

They owed this frivolous moment of peace to the efforts of everyone in the city who had been busy dealing with the aftermath of the battle. Only now had they found the time to resume their regular soccer matches as a bit of respite. Many talented players had scouted Yu for their teams, but ultimately he’d chosen a more casual one. One where he could play with his friends.

“Lady Ein’s known about soccer for barely a month,” Ijuin said from the sidelines. “How’s she pulling off plays like that already?”

Shiba stood nearby, holding a paper cup of watered-down shochu liquor and idling away his day off. “Her footwork could still use some practice,” he remarked. “But her game sense is impressive. And that sort of thing doesn’t come easy.”

“You’re the one who set Ichinose up with his team, yeah? You like soccer?”

“I watched it quite a bit. A lot of J1. Occasionally foreign leagues,” Shiba replied, smiling mildly as the game resumed. “Your friend’s an observant guy, you know? Solid judgment and a quick thinker too. It’s funny seeing him play soccer like he uses the Mark III.”

“I wish Her Highness would hurry and grow tired of this particular fancy,” a less enthusiastic spectator grumbled.

“Or else she’ll be dragging you outside every week, I bet,” Aliya said teasingly. “Just like today.”

Nadal grunted and quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, about the Mark VI Frame,” he muttered. “I believe we owe its awakening to you, Aliya.”

“Y-You think so too?” she murmured.

“We’ll need more data to know for certain. But it is safe to say that your nano-abilities may be coming into a new kind of power. We’ll have to investigate the Mark III’s awakening next.” The speaker stroked his chin. “My sources tell me you conducted tests by inducing a sort of artificial awakening via the previous Devicer’s ashes. But given the circumstances surrounding the Mark VI, you appear to be the common denominator.”

“Me?”

He nodded. “If you possess the power to bring life back to dormant Asura Frames, then perhaps there is still hope for...” Nadal’s words trailed off into his mind.

Aliya shrugged, more than aware that once he was gone, there was no bringing him back.

“Long story short, I’m pretty sure that means you saved the day,” Natsuki chimed in next to her. She wore her peony furisode like always, but her trademark katana was nowhere to be seen. That was because she didn’t need it anymore; her new partner was at her beck and call. She grinned lazily at the ongoing match. “A lot of people lost their lives, but even more are still here thanks to you.”

“Oh!” Aliya exclaimed. “Ein scored again.”

With her third goal, the game was set. It had been an impressively flashy volley, and now she was forcing Yu into yet another round of nonconsensual skinship. Once she had hugged him to a satisfactory degree, she went around high-fiving the other teammates.

And then she came to the last of them.

“You play well,” she complimented him. “Guard steadfast!”

“Right...” he replied.

“Show me your palm. We must share the moment!”

The young goalkeeper hesitated for a while, before softening his expression and surrendering. The two high-fived. The former captain had yet to give up a single point to an enemy team. Sakuma had indeed played well.

Natsuki nodded as she watched. “Heard the coup got brushed under the rug, and now he’s an executive for the militia.”

“My uncle and a few other people probably have some concerns about that,” Aliya said, glancing at Nadal. He was still off in his own world. “But at the end of the day, he’ll probably say we’re ‘simply too short-staffed to afford turning competent workers away!’”

Natsuki laughed. “So decrees the great Devicer Three, after all.”

“They’re still everyone’s hero, even though the military has no idea who they are anymore. Apparently that captain let Yu join the team with Ein without much of a fuss.”

The team that the two of them had joined consisted primarily of people within the Defense Force. Shiba was apparently acquainted with them from his Ground Defense days, which was how he had managed to set them up.

“People change when they’ve got a weapon in their hands, especially in chaotic times like these,” Natsuki murmured resolutely. “I’m glad no one here did.”

“Where’s this coming from?” Aliya asked.

“I’ve seen it happen a lot. People take up guns and swords ’cause they’re scared of the Anomalies, but eventually everyone tends to find an excuse to start pointing them at each other. It’s easy to make people listen through the barrel of a rifle.” She took a breath. “I’m tellin’ you. Three whole seasons. So much drama.”

“Oh... Yeah.”

“They weren’t kidding when they said you never know what you have ’til you lose it,” Natsuki said. “There was a reason we had the protectors, the peacekeepers, the criminals, the lawmakers—all these different people in specific roles. When everyone’s got a weapon, and everyone’s trying to enforce their own authority, well, that’s when you get crap like people at the end of the century trying to be supreme rulers, if you know what I mean.” She laughed again, her tone still serious. “But Yu... He’s got the strongest weapon of all, and he’s still Yu. I feel like sticking with him’s the right thing to do.”

She spoke that last part not as Natsuki Hatano, but as Devicer Six.

The boy in question was in the middle of a pass, running down the opposing team’s defense. In that moment, he appeared as nothing more than a middle schooler playing soccer. The truth, though, was that he was the black and gold warrior.

He was the one.

“Come to think of it,” Aliya muttered, “I wonder where the other Devicers are?”

2

Quldald of the Whirlwind, having ceded Nayuta to his comrade, brought his keep upon eastern Shikoku. Looming above the ocean, a mirage in the sky, his citadel of cyclones overlooked a city called Tokushima by the locals, the capital of a prefecture by the same name. The archmage gazed out, scanning the enemy territory, when he noticed something.

“Ah, is that a stronghold I spy?”

The Defense Force’s Camp Tokushima was located just by the coast, though the long campaign had left the bastion a far cry from Quldald’s own. Still, it was clear at a glance that the base was still occupied.

Thus, Quldald decided to indulge in his whimsy.

With a detachment of just a few of his Anomalies, the archmage took to the field personally. His heart was simply aflutter with thoughts of the black and gold warrior. For it was he who was indeed more fit to do battle with the great hero. Scullchance was no more, and it would soon be time for a vengeful reunion. This little distraction was but an appetizer for the main course to come.

“How disappointing,” he sighed. “It seems I chose my opponents prematurely. Perhaps they needed some time yet to mature.”

Camp Tokushima was already in flames. It was a sea of fire as far as the eye could see. Quldald found himself less than satisfied but told himself not to blame the locals for his inability to stay his hand.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a flash of white streaking its way towards him from the northeast. Almost like a shooting star.

“Oh?”

When the shining entity stopped before him, the light faded to reveal a noticeably short and young boy. He was smaller in stature than even the black and gold warrior, and his hair was pure white. He wore typical garb, customary for the locals—a long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans. The cloth he’d cloaked over himself was worn and tattered. His eyes were sunken, dead.

But all of this was secondary to what drew Quldald’s eyes first—a red scarf around the boy’s neck.

“Hello, Earth boy,” he greeted. “Tell me, why do you wield the Shroud?”

“Why the hell do you think?” the boy snapped. “I’m Devicer Seven. That’s why.”

“Well now! And what brings you before me?”

“Same reason it always is.” He stared deep. “To kill you, archmage.”

The features in his complexion appeared more defined than those of many of the Japanese Quldald had come across. And yet he spoke the local tongue fluently. What was more, the boy could seemingly fly through the air, and his eyes—they carried a darkness too deep for a boy as young as the soprano tenor of his voice betrayed.

The Chosen Dharva rejoiced. Another chance meeting for another chance experience. Simply splendid.

EXPLICATIONS

| STANDARD DROIDS VS THE PANDEMONIUM SERIES |

Natsuki: It’s pretty nice having so many droids around Nayuta.

Yu: They seem a little different from the Asura Frame’s, though.

Ein: I should hope so. The Asura’s Pandemonium swarm may be of similar construction, but they are one with the mad god itself.

Aliya: When they’re hosted by the Asura Frame, they receive power and energy from it directly, so they really are sort of like miniature projections of it. We’re not talking just hyper-advanced drone technology—this is sci-fi territory.

Ijuin: I don’t know any UAV that could fly like a plane with an actual pilot, after all.

Aliya: Actually, at least in terms of close combat, manned craft tend to be at a disadvantage against the speed and instincts of beast-type Anomalies.

| WILD GAME |

Ijuin: Remember those pheasants? Honestly, if you hadn’t told me what it was, I woulda assumed chicken.

Yu: They are sorta like free-range poultry, and they’re not very gamy.

Ijuin: Deer’s good too, but still kinda lacking, y’know?

Yu: I like the simple taste of red meat. Especially when it’s nice and lean.

Ijuin: You fool! You fatless fool! I’m dyin’ for some pork or beef! The good stuff! I want it to DRIP with fat!

Natsuki: Ha! Good luck finding either of those in the wild in Japan!

Aliya: We could find boar at Awaji Island or back on the mainland. And it’s possible some farm pigs might have escaped and gone feral.

Yu: There’s definitely a market for whoever wants to go fetch some and start up a ranch again.

Ein: I hear sheep are more suited to domestication. They’re docile, have many children, and most of all, they’re delicious.

Ijuin: You don’t find too much of that kinda meat in Japan. But man, mutton curry and lamb chops sound sooo good!

| WEAPONS IN NAYUTA |

Natsuki: So everyone in the city gets a weapon, but what’s with all the Russian guns?

Ijuin: They’re more user-friendly than Japanese makes, and easier to build. Countries all around the world copy their models. Anyone with the right tools could make ’em. As long as you’re not too worried about quality, that is.

Aliya: Nayuta’s primary concern is with Asura Frame development, not conventional weaponry. So as far as firearms are concerned, they prioritized mass-producibility and efficiency.

Yu: Ironically, that’s exactly why we came here, huh?

Ein: I hear that the war on Russia’s Eastern Front has sent no small amount of their people and resources to the settlement, seeking refuge.