The black clouds drew closer, and a giant object that looked like a cumulonimbus cloud also moved slowly from the eastern sky.
“Anomalous object detected! Estimated distance… Ten kilometers!”
Screamed a soldier from a watchtower. The strange object could be seen through the naked eye, even without the magic telescope he was using.
The strange object that seemed like a lump of black clouds came from the direction of Ethnocentria. While releasing many lightning strikes, it shook off the black clouds around it, and showed its true form. It was a lustrous black flying object in the shape of a disk.
It was difficult to tell just how big it was, but it looked like a black jellyfish with its hanging tentacles, or perhaps a mushroom and its roots.
“How big is that!? It’s like a floating island…!”
“We should name it Destroyer!”
“Everyone, primary combat formation…!”
“Oh my god, how big…!”
“Is that one of the slave sorcerers…!?”
The cold, ominous pressure was palpable. They could feel a wave of evil much larger than the slave sorcerers they faced before.
Ameriko and Himeno looked at each other and nodded.
“Is that thing their boss?”
“We just defeated three… It appears they are ready to get serious.”
The city of Berelhelm fell into chaos once again.
The flying fortress, Destroyer would reach the sky above their city in more or less twenty minutes.
It was flying slowly, seemingly even slowing down as it got closer to the city, but also flying lower.
“Hn…!? It’s transforming! The tentacles below it are spreading some sort of black pebbles!”
“What!?”
Once it reached a field five kilometers away, the tentacle shaped organs could be seen spreading some sort of black pebbles.
Once they hit the ground, they grew and started moving on two legs.
“U-uwaaah!? Monsters…! The enemy’s ground forces!
Screamed the soldier who was monitoring the situation. The black mud dolls the object spawned were very similar to a terracotta army.
They gathered slowly into what looked like a black rug, or an army of ants.
“Intercept them on land! Form a defensive line centered on the city’s fortress! All fighters assume your positions! Stop their attack!
Bring out all the weapons created from the slave sorcerer’s barrier. Everything we can use, even prototypes!”
The provisional commander of Berelhelm’s defensive army gave out orders one after the other.
“Get the citizens to safety! Get as many of them underground as you can!”
“Vice-commander Reblef! The scouting party reports three thousand enemy soldiers have descended, and the number is still rising!”
“Three thousand…!?”
A murmur quickly spread.
“There is more! The mounted unit that went ahead first engaged the enemy! They dared to do so to test the enemy’s power, and found that arrows were ineffective! Every dark doll has some sort of barrier… an invisible shield!”
“Just like the slave sorcerers…!”
Three thousand plus enemy soldiers, all using barriers. It was a dire report.
It was not an enemy that could be defeated with a simple frontal attack. A heavy silence hung over the soldiers as they gathered for an emergency strategy meeting.
“Don’t give up!”
Said Ameriko boldly. She had not lost the shine in her eyes.
She raised her arm in front of everyone, and particles of light gathered.
“O-ou…!?”
“Miss Ameriko’s magic…!”
Resolution and resolve. Ameriko could summon any gun as long as her strong will remained. What she summoned in less than a second was her biggest gun yet.
“Ameriko, you… Can summon such a large weapon so easily now!?”
“I guess so! I got a power-up thanks to you!
“I-I did nothing at all…”
Said Himeno as her face turned red.
“M240. Machine gun.”
And on Ameriko’s left hand, bullet-belts were continuously created. She had over ten thousand bullets.
“I-is that the rumored magic weapon…!?”
“The power that defeated slave sorcerers…!”
Surprised and hopeful voices could be heard among the ranks.
“Yes. It can be fired continuously from the belt, and fire over six hundred 7.62 caliber bullets every minute! Its effective range is about one kilometer, and we know the bullet’s kinetic energy can pierce their barriers. They’re nothing more than tin cans!”
The M240 under her arm felt overpowering.
“I’ll mop them up from the front. I’ll stay on the top of the fortress and won’t let them get close. Once we take out their ground forces, all that’s left is the big one up there!”
Obviously, firing for over one minute straight would risk overheating the gun barrel. She could deal with this problem by summoning more weapons in advance.
Ameriko then focused her mind, and summoned another M240.
“I see…! If that is the case, we will fight as well.”
“That sure is convincing!”
“We’ll support you from the side.”
They discussed their battle formation, and worked out a plan to deal with the enemies that slipped through.
Elite soldiers were equipped with swords made with barrier scales. Around twenty on each side.
“Well then, I will cut down the big one in the sky. I will infiltrate it as a detached force.”
Proposed Himeno.
They saw the giant Destroyer had an outer shell created from a barrier, and the actual body was inside.
The light Himeno could jump three stories and hop aboard the flying fortress.
“But it’s dangerous… Look at how many soldiers they have on the ground.”
“We could use an underground tunnel to go around to its back.”
Said Chai, and everyone turned around to face him.
“That’s it…!”
“The city does have underwater canals and hidden passages that can be traversed by people.”
Vice-commander Reblef confirmed the existence of the secret underground passages.
“Vice-commander, the enemy is not aware of these passages, so we can use them to sneak around them.”
“They are prototypes, but we may be able to use the reactionary magic explosives to cover Miss Himeno. We will take down the flying monsters with anti-air attacks.”
“Alright, we will use that as well.”
The provisional commander of Berelhelm’s defensive army formulated a strategy with his subordinates.
“The underground canals are connected all the way to the castle in Ethnocentria. There is an underground river flowing through a canal, and there are also paths large enough for horses to pass through.
People say it was commissioned by royalty hundreds of years ago. There are many secret entrances and exits.”
Explained a lieutenant.
Vice-commander Reblef seemed to be onboard with the idea of sneaking behind the enemy via the secret passages and catching them off-guard.
Ameriko would take on the army of the slave sorcerers, while Himeno would go behind the main force and take down the flying object.
“That’ll work.”
“It does look promising.”
“By the way Chai, how do you know about these underground canals and secret passages?”
“Hum… People talk about it in legend, and my brothers told me about them when we came here one time.”
“Nuh? Those two beautiful brothers you spoke of? I would like to meet them as soon as possible.”
“Yes. I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”
“Of course, we will surely rescue them.”
Himeno said while patting Chai’s head.
They explained the strategy to the soldiers right away. They would be the main force and fight together with the Alliance of Freedom.
Wizards and witches formed a support unit that would slow down their enemy, while Ameriko destroyed their main fighting force.
Fighting the ground force and defending the city would also serve to distract the enemy in the sky.
Himeno’s assault unit would be the core of the strategy. The unit would protect Himeno with their new weapons as they attacked from behind.
“Any questions?”
An adviser finished explaining everything to the soldiers and officers. In the meantime, the mass of enemies that looked like black ants was now close to five thousand.
An old soldier of the Alliance of Freedom raised his hand.
“Swords and arrows can’t reach them, and there’s only enough anti-sorcerer blades for the most elite soldiers, right? We don’t want to die for nothing…”
Soldiers all over looked at each other with insecure expressions.
The blades created using crystal barrier could theoretically cut the enemy’s barriers. However, they did not have enough time to mass produce them, and only had twenty.
The hundreds of soldiers without them were practically bare-handed.
“Don’t worry about that.”
Said a staff officer, as a young man from the magic workshop brought some sort of apparatus.
“This is a quickly put together device that uses vapor deposition with the ground up crystal barrier. With this, we can enhance everyone’s weapons.”
“Oou…!?”
A nearby soldier drew his sword, and used the device as though he was sharpening it. It took only a few seconds for the tip of the sword to turn black.
“This is a coating of sorts, using crystal barrier particles. In theory, it should be enough to cut their barriers, although the effect won’t last long…”
There were triumphant shouts. By using this coating before heading out to battle, they could easily enhance their swords into simple but effective weapons that would work in the battle ahead.
“Miss Ameriko and Miss Himeno, would you please say something before the battle?”
Said vice-commander Reblef.”
“Me?”
“I-I did not prepare a speech…!”
Himeno quickly hid behind Ameriko.
“Everyone is feeling uneasy, but I’m sure some words from the ones who defeated slave sorcerers will go a long way towards raising their spirits.”
“Alright!”
Ameriko gladly accepted the vice-commander’s request, as Himeno and Chai looked on with respect in their eyes.
The eyes of officers, soldiers, witches, wizards, and workmen all focused on the beautiful blonde girl.
“Ahem… We are about to start the biggest battle in the history of mankind.”
Her voice was quiet, but full of confidence.
“We have a right to live. A right to celebrate freedom, love, and live on with our loved ones. Our enemy is one who wants to take that away, and tramples over others’ lives. We will not allow them to do so any further!”
Everyone listened attentively to her voice.
Their enemies were closing in, bringing death with them, but they had fire in their eyes, and their ears were focused on Ameriko.
“We will stubbornly stand against them! We will be victorious and live to see another day! No one will take away our freedom! That is why we fight!”
Very loud cheers erupted, as did applause and whistling. The city’s square shook with their fervor.
“Very nice speech Ameriko.”
“I said everything I wanted to say! Now let’s win, Himeno.”
“Yes, of course.”
Ameriko and Himeno bumped fists, and the battle started.
◆
“The enemy’s forces are estimated to be five thousand strong…! It’s like a bunch of ants!”
“Wizard unit, deploy swamp trap! Stop the enemy’s advance.”
Wizards and witches riding brooms created numerous swamp traps with their magic. The legs of the dark clay dolls leading the charge were caught, and they fell. The ones that followed them advanced by stepping on them, even as clay dolls sank.
“It didn’t stop them!”
“Then repeat until our magic energy is exhausted!”
“If we can hold their advance just a little…”
But then something happened.
“The enemy in the sky, Destroyer is changing!”
“The light… Is rotating?”
The disk-shaped object was shining, and the light around it seemed to be accelerating.
The black disk that seemed to cover the entire sky had two red lights rotating around it in opposite directions.
The wizards and witches on the front line stopped and gulped as they watched this unfold.
As Ameriko set-up camp on top of the fortress, she too noticed this.
“No! It’s about to do something!”
The next moment, a ray of light was released along with a blinding shine. The defensive line of the swamps was licked by this light before being set ablaze.
The wizards and witches were vaporized in a second. The light that engulfed them was a beam of accelerated energy particles.
“Is that… A charged particle cannon!?”
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