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“You will not disturb my sacred prayers…!”
In the center of a whirlpool of chaos, the sorcerer Liu Kinfei unleashed a wave of hatred.
In the holy city of Ethnocentria, there was once a beautiful castle known as the crystal palace, but it was turned into a demonic castle. In the highest point of the castle, known as the room of prayers, the sorcerer performed a repulsive ritual. He slaughtered countless people and condensed their souls. This spirit energy was very densely compressed, and was reaching a critical point.
This vast energy could break the wall of time and space, and pierce all the way to the heavens, creating a space-time shifting gate. From there he could summon the souls of his brethren who had been drifting in the depths of space. One billion of them.
Once they were incarnated, he would create a new paradise with them, an Arcadia.
This new world would be the glorious return of old China. That was the sorcerer’s dearest wish.
But the blonde cowgirl and the black-haired shrine maiden continuously hindered him.
These two annoying beings were ‘irregulars’ just like him, and they were joining together against him.
“Unforgivable! Irritating…! Why must they get in the way of what I desire…!?”
Liu Kinfei had no memories, he was simply born in this world one day.
He did not reincarnate or was transported, he was a product of a coincidence.
All he knew was that he was an irregular, something that did not belong in this world.
The world was hollow foam.
Ephemeral foam created by collisions in the vast multiverse. Transient foam born from a clash with the border of the universe of chaos, and distorted.
There was once another world, a planet called Earth that was destroyed and disappeared. The cause was a madman controlling something called inter-dimensional wave conversion radiation system, but this was of little concern to Liu Kinfei.
But because of this, irregulars just happened to appear.
He could retain physical form due to the invincible barrier protecting his fabricated existence. The sorcerer was an empty, sad being with no true form. He was a hollow, vague being, not recognized by anyone.
And yet the two other irregulars were different. Why was that?
He would open the gate to heaven in search of answers, and bring the billion wandering souls of chaos into this world.
He would build a paradise, and ascend into a god-like being. The billion souls incarnated would worship him as the creator of their world. They would acknowledge his being as the god of this new wonderful world…
“You will not get in my way…!”
The sorcerer Liu Kinfei unleashed a dark wave, and the castle rumbled.
The floors and walls pulsated as if they were alive. Liu Kinfei unleashed the full power of his Demon Castle Barrier.
The castle of Ethnocentria changed form as it spread black particles.
The outer walls twisted and formed a trunk and arms. Its foundations rose up with a sandstorm, becoming two legs. The room of prayers turned into an ominous devil head.
The demonic castle changed into a giant, who rose up with a loud noise and a cloud of dust.
This weapon, this golem doll, was over two hundred meters tall.
“Demon Castle Barrier – Ultimate Form…! Ultimate invincible humanoid assault mode!!”
A black whirling circle appeared at the top of the giant’s head.
It looked like a crown of thorns, but it was excess energy used to open the dimensional gate given form. The power to wrench open the gates of heaven. To summon the billion souls of chaos.
“A-ahh…!”
“What is that…!?”
“The sorcerer’s castle turned into…!”
“The world is ending…”
“It’s over…”
“There’s no way… No one can defeat that…”
The few people that remained in the holy city looked up with despair and lamented their fate.
Their peaceful days would never return. Everyone thought so, until one girl heard something.
From the distance, a whistling sound could be heard.
“Look…!”
She pointed towards the western sky, where a glittering, silver arrow with wings could be seen.
It came flying from the horizon and approached them in the blink of an eye, going straight for the giant.
“That’s…!”
“The rumored witches of justice…!”
The cruise missile tomahawk launched by Ameriko traveled horizontally thirty meters above ground, on a straight line towards the demonic castle.
“Hmph, a fire arrow from the blonde irregular…! Useless, my ultimate invincible barrier rivals god himself…!
The giant stood still, with the part that resembled a mouth open. Dark red light concentrated inside this dark cave.
And then, with a flash of lightning, a magic bullet was fired.
The dark red magic bullet burned the atmosphere as it traveled on an intercept course with the cruise missile. They exploded mid-air, spreading flames and smoke to the ground.
“Ah, no good…!”
“Even the witch’s magic is not enough…”
“There’s still more!”
The girl looking up to the sky saw it glittering.
There were more cruise missiles on the way, headed straight for the giant while weaving their way close through the ground.
But one, and then another were shot down before making contact. The giant continued firing dark red magic bullets.
The magic bullets that missed blew away houses and caused big explosions that left large holes in the ground.
“Hahaha! Your weak fire arrows will never reach me!”
Said a voice brimming with confidence, as the giant stepped forward. The ground rumbled and the town around it was crushed. The giant walking castle began to kick around the holy city.
“The captured irregulars will become vessels for the reincarnation! Irregulars with such massive energy can birth the billion souls.
Yes… That will quench my thirst and heal my aches…!”
No one could stop the giant from heading west and attacking Berelhelm. The black-haired irregular was on the verge of death, and he saw the limit of the blonde haired irregular’s power.
There was no such thing as miracles.
The piercing sound of a scramjet engine was heard again.
“Give up. The result will be the same no matter how many times you try it!”
A cruise missile was launched, which could accurately hit its target with GPS guidance and image recognition seekers.
The giant fired another magic bullet, but the cruise missile suddenly stopped and went upwards, dodging the bullet.
“Nu!? You impudent…!”
The missile ascended using a pop-up maneuver, going all the way up to fall on its target almost vertically.
“Your tricks will not work!”
The giant faced upwards and fired a magic bullet, causing an explosion of fire and metal that blocked its vision.
The next moment, a cruise missile hit it directly.
The pop-up maneuver was a distraction.
“Ugooo…!?”
The chest of the giant burst as a pillar of fire pierced it. The fortified warhead was capable of piercing high density targets. The kinetic energy of the impact added even more power to the explosive energy of the high-explosive warhead.
The Demon Castle Barrier was pierced, and the structure of the castle began to crumble.
With a big hole in its chest, the giant stumbled.
“Uoooooh!”
“S-she did it!”
“She pierced the giant…!”
The people watching cheered, but the giant did not go down.
Rather, its chest area began to regenerate, as if a film was being rewound.
“Gufufu…! That was a little surprising but…! Useless! My Demon Castle Barrier is invincible… Invincible! Inviiiiiincible!!”
★●
“Impact of tomahawk missile confirmed…!”
Even a direct hit was not enough.
Ameriko was surprised when the castle transformed into a giant, but that actually made it easier for her to know its exact position.
With the aid of the coordinates from the GPS, she corrected any errors in the trajectory.
“Miss Ameriko! We have secured Miss Himeno!”
Her comrades fought bravely and rescued Himeno from the remains of the mushroom headed woman.
She was covered in blood, but Himeno’s vital organs were not hit.
Chai and other witches began using healing magic.
“Thanks! Now I can focus…!”
Ameriko focused on her scope with a new found determination.
She stood on top of the fortress of Berelhelm next to a weapon that looked like a sniper rifle. However, its gun barrel was so large it reflected sunlight.
The gun barrel of this weapon fixed on the solid fortress was three meters long, was hexagonal when looked at from the front, had a stainless polish, and its silhouette looked very straightforward while at the same time Neo-futuristic.
Ameriko connected the electric scope and the control unit with many cables, which looked like vines that connected all the way to the ‘ring of light’ behind her.
“…Voltage rising. 120% loaded!”
The weapon emitted a high frequency sound, and the large capacitor received super high voltage.
It was a railgun.
This cutting-edge weapon applied electromagnetic force to its body, accelerated via Lorentz force. It required immense electric power to fire, and was usually attached to turrets of warships.
Its carbide warheads were fired at an initial velocity of 6000 meters per second, as opposed to a bullet fired from a normal gun which traveled from 500 to 1000 meters per second. Its kinetic energy could cause immense destruction.
Its effective range was around a hundred kilometers, meaning it would have no trouble hitting the sorcerer from thirty kilometers away.
She knew the exact coordinates of her target after hitting a cruise missile. She input this feedback into the railgun and it corrected itself in accordance to the gravity and rotation of this planet automatically.
On the railgun’s scope, the head of the giant was locked-on. She wanted to end it all in one shot.
“Iron Hammer of Justice!”
Ameriko silently pulled the trigger.
There was a flash of light, or rather, a violent explosion of light, followed by an incredible impact and recoil. Parts of the fortress crumbled, and the soldiers and the vice-commander crouched.
The fired projectile shook the atmosphere as the carbide warhead turned to plasma due to friction with the atmosphere. It looked like a beam as it flew straight into the giant.
“…Direct hit!”
It did not take long for it to reach the giant’s head, which exploded and crumbled.
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“What… Happened?”
The sorcerer saw a shining light, and suddenly his body and head vanished. Liu Kinfei and his Demon Castle Barrier were pulverized.
In a silent world, his last shred of consciousness realized what happened.
The arrow of light pierced his barrier. It was much more powerful than the arrows of fire, and much more destructive. The blonde irregular jumped from one to the other with her seemingly limitless power.
The sorcerer wondered where the irregular got such a weapon that surpassed anything he ever imagined. Surely an unimaginable dark world stained with blood. A horrific hell.
“Damn those… Terrifying…”
The Demon Castle Barrier crumbled, as did the sorcerer’s dreams of becoming a god. He knew his life was ending.
As his consciousness was thinning, the invincible barrier that made him who he was turned into black particles, being sucked into a whirlpool.
His irregular energy drifted into the black whirlpool.
The whirlpool became faster.
A black void appeared in its center.
The gate to heaven was opening.
“Ah… I see. I have become… The key… How ironic…”
Liu Kinfei’s consciousness vanished.
★●
“The demonic castle… Is crumbling!”
Said a witch using magic to see far away.
“Ooooh!”
“The sorcerer is finally defeated…!”
“You did it Miss Ameriko! Finally…!”
Cheers erupted around Ameriko.
The railgun was destroyed by the impact of its own shot, and quietly turned into particles of light.
But Ameriko had no time to listen to the cheers. She quickly ran to Himeno.
“Himeno…! Hang on!”
She looked the same as before, lying while covered in blood and with her eyes closed.
Ameriko asked herself why it was always like this. Did she have no problem with self-sacrifice? She should imagine how sad the people who loved her would be.
“…Be quiet. I can feel your voice in my wounds…”
“Himeno…!”
Himeno opened her eyes. The hard work put into healing her saved her life.
Chai also had blood all over his face, and was being held by the witches.
“Thank you Chai!”
“…Ehehe… I promised…”
Chai lost a lot of blood to stop the blood flowing out of Himeno’s chest.
“Yes.”
Ameriko held Chai and Himeno’s hands.
“The black whirlpool isn’t going away…! Why!?”
Said the witch looking into the distance.
“What!? Why!?”
“I don’t know…! But an ominous dark power is swirling in it!”
The giant collapsed with the death of the sorcerer, but the crown squirming above his head, the black whirlpool remained. In fact, the waves of evil energy were becoming increasingly stronger. Even from a distance, black clouds could be seen being sucked into it.
“Did he… Perform some sort of ritual using his own life as a payment…?”
“My god…! No way…!”
“…I can feel it… That is… The gate to another world. It’s trying to summon something more terrifying…”
“Himeno? How do you know?”
Himeno struggled to smile, but did so while winking.
“Because there is always… A true final boss.”
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