“Sister Angelene, are you alright?”
Lucia causes the broken pieces of the exploded wooden wheel to gather in her hand and heads off in the opposite direction as she said this.
“…Mn.”
Angelene leans on the ice pillar. As her bags were torn, she uses her nun cap and stuffs it with coins, wanting to fight on.
Normally, she would be unable to fight. Even on a real battlefield, she should retreat to the back. Even though Lucia got the escape ship spell from the leader of the Amakusa, the nuns won’t allow them to do this. In order to get away from them, Lucia is unable to carry the injured Angelene at all.
Lucia places the large wheel in front of her to scare the enemy.
Seeing her do this, the enemy’s barricade slightly backs away. There are about 30 nuns, and consider that they’re facing just one enemy, this may be the most intense battle area. To attack the weaker side, and then slowly defeat everyone else one by one, this is their strategy. Lucia and Angelene are both clear about this.
(How do we get away from them…)
As this group of nuns knows about Lucia’s attack power, they don’t dare to approach her so easily. However, because this group of nuns know how she attacks, Lucia can’t bluff them into retreating.
“All personnel on ships 12, 17 and 19 are to retreat immediately. If you can make it, jump! Like the previous ships, we’ll rebuild it after sinking it!!”
It’s the audio broadcast that they’re so used to.
At the same time,
“What a hassle! You shouldn’t fight alongside the injured!!”
There’s a wooden bridge linking here to the neighbouring ship, the Amakusa members, with Tatemiya leading them, get onto the ship. The situation changes drastically. The circle surrounding Lucia’s group is gradually breaking. The girl named Itsuwa is fighting alongside Lucia, using a Friulian spear that the Navy uses.
If they want to change the situation, now’s the time.
“Sister Angelene!”
“Ah…yes!”
Angelene shakily leaves the pillar. Lucia’s standing in front of her, and explodes the wheel at the nuns, cutting a way out.
Kamijou Touma is definitely not some whiz kid.
Because he’s more or less used to fighting in the night, he roughly knows his ability. He definitely knows that he can win if it’s a one on one fight; it’ll be dangerous if it’s one on two, and he should run away without hesitation if it’s one on three. This isn’t because he’s exceptionally weak, but rather, in a fight without rules, numbers are more important than skills.
If he’s to fight seriously, it’ll take about 5 seconds for him to be defeated.
But.
That’s just for a human vs human fight.
“WOOOOHHH—!?”
Kamijou’s fist rips the air.
If the enemy’s a human, both sides would probably fight until one loses consciousness. But if it’s an enemy that will disappear on being touched, Kamijou still has a chance.
The numerous golems continue to squeeze into the narrow path. Kamijou’s right hand is almost swinging about and hitting the incoming enemies. He doesn’t care how strong is the fist, no matter how light it is, as long as it can touch the enemies, it’s good.
The golems move like their gears are dropping.
Before Kamijou can confirm it, the golems behind are using their spears and hammers to smash the ice that has become an obstacle in order to move forward.
“WHAT!!”
Kamijou frantically moves back. Even if the golems stop moving, the ice remains there. If he’s to stay there and fight, he’ll be buried alive under the ice.
But,
“A DEAD END!?”
Kamijou, who continued to back away, finally realises that his back is against the wall while confirming his path behind.
He turns to look back.
The golems look like humans packed together as they continue to stuff the entire corridor and close in.
This is unpreventable.
Though he can defend a hit, the pursuers will not let up.
“WOOOHHH!!”
Kamijou suddenly jumps sideways. The aisle is extremely narrow, and there’s only a wall formed by ice.
He extends his right hand out.
There’s a pit in the wall.
Like what Index and Orsola guessed, the walls of the flagship are different from the escort ships.
Kamijou leaps inside, and at the same time, the numerous golems crash into the dead end. With the huge momentum, the golems that crashed into the wall are broken into pieces that scatter all over the place.
The little bits of ice dance about like smoke.
However, Kamijou has no time to confirm this.
He looks around the room and tries to grasp the landscape, only to stop midway.
This place is like the second level seats of a theater. In contrast to the glowing translucent seats that extends several metres, the depth is only about several centimeters. Near the carefully crafted pillar, one can see the bottom. It look like a grand ornate Opera house, but far below, it’s not a stage or an auditorium, but a fan-shaped array of many tables and chairs. It’s like a Parliament meeting that one sees on television.
This obviously doesn’t fit a navy ship; these kinds of things aren’t needed for a command relay system. Maybe the situation with the magic side is different, or maybe this is just a symbolic magic symbol, and they don’t use it as a meeting place. Either way, Kamijou can’t tell which is it.
And he has no time to check this out.
With a loud bang, the ice golems rush into the hole that Kamijou opened.
“…!!”
If this keeps up, he won’t be able to escape. After realising that his back is against a pillar, he clenches his fist before leaping towards the ice golems.
The ice golems swing their ice swords horizontally.
Kamijou discovers that a block of ice more than 3m tall is hacking towards his abdomen from the right.
“WOOOHHHH!!”
In order to counter, just as Kamijou is about to use his right hand to knock the broadsword away—
The ice golem’s legs crumble on their own.
From the thighs, the golem start to tilt backwards greatly.
The trajectory of the broadsword that’s swinging over changes.
The broadsword, which is aimed at the abdomen, tilts as it swings up, aiming at Kamijou’s neck.
As if it’s about to avoid the right hand that’s protecting the abdomen.
(Damn…!!)
The wind pressure caused by the broadsword causes cold sweat to emerge from Kamijou’s face.
“WOOOHHHH!!”
Kamijou tries his best to dodge. Maybe the hair touched the broadsword, but it doesn’t get cut without any resistance. He feels a sharp pain of his hair being ripped off, and can even hear a terrifying cracking sound.
However, he still managed to dodge it.
Kamijou endures the pain as he maintains his ducking position, as if he wants to stay down before swinging his right fist again. After that, before the ice golem can land backwards, he slams a punch into the chest. The golem, which stopped moving and had its legs broken, crumbles as it lands.
“…It’s…over?”
Kamijou alertly assesses the situation and tries his best to adjust his breathing. Seems like this is the last one, but considering the possibility of an ambush, he carefully moves towards the exit, but he didn’t really need to.
Kamijou enters the hole that he opened and ends up back on the aisle.
(Damn it, is Index’s group alright? I feel that breaking the walls and floors will be a lot quicker if I want to meet up with them.)
On the other hand, this kind of destruction may reach the enemy. The ice golems appeared because of this feeling. According to Index and Orsola, this ship’s regenerating ability is extremely slow, and because of the ship controls and ritual facilities, they can’t fire cannons or send the nuns over to stop them. But that’s only the current situation. If the flagship is really about to sink, they have to send people over no matter the risks.
Kamijou considers the situation.
(No matter what, the main thing is…if I can get near Agnese, the leader of the enemy will deal with me as the priority, and this would be a matter of time. There’s no reason to hesitate about using my right hand!!)
He quickly makes this resolution, and just as Kamijou’s about to smash the wall with his right fist, an electronic noise can be heard from his pants pocket. It’s his handphone ringing.
(…My handphone?)
Kamijou surveys the surroundings, confirming that no one is around before taking the handphone out. He’s somewhat astonished that he can use his handphone out at sea. How far away is this place from land?
As he looks at the screen, what surprises him even more is that the call’s from Index.
He presses the button and places the phone near his ear. As he has to defend himself with his right hand, he can only use his left hand. Though the handphone has ordinary functions, his fingers feel unfamiliar with the phone.
After that.
“Ah, it’s connected.”
“…Is that Orsola? Why are you using Index’s phone?”
“I thought the fastest way to contact you would be to use this. Where are you?”
“Even if you say this, I don’t know…”
He turns around to look, but there doesn’t seem to be anything that he can use as a landmark. It’s more like there are some extravagant art pieces all around, and there’s even the possibility that he’s buried by them.
“I was fighting off 20, 30 ice golems, now I’m not sure where exactly I’m at now.”
“…You can still say such scary words so casually. I’m…escaping with Index. There seem to be more of those ice guardians at the other places…”
“—”
Index and Orsola don’t have Kamijou’s power, the Imagine Breaker. Also, they don’t seem to be able to excel in magic combat. If they’re to take the ice golems head on, it’ll be tough for them.
“Orsola. I’m…at the road where I broke off from you. Which direction did you two go?”
“Direction?”
“Yeah. Just a rough one will do. Tell me.”
“About that…I suppose, north.”
“Got it.”
Kamijou replied.
“I’ll go over.”
He holds the phone with his left hand and swings his right hand about at the walls. With the sound of things breaking, a square-shaped hole appear on the wall and the decorations inside. Kamijou passes through the wall that he destroyed, and continues to destroy the walls inside, ignoring the sight of paths or walls.
“Hold up, Index got something to say to you…”
“Gimme gimme! Touma, can you hear me?”
That familiar voice can be heard from the phone.
“Touma, I just heard from Orsola that the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ requires some other spell called the ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’, is that true?”
“That’s supposed to be it…wait, didn’t I mention it during the strategic meeting?”
“Maybe I didn’t hear it. Do you suspect my memory?”
Hearing the other party say this, Kamijou is speechless. This is the girl who managed to memorise 103,000 girmoires flawlessly, so there shouldn’t be a mistake.
Kamijou again destroys the ice walls as he gets onto another path.
“This…I didn’t ask. I heard that Lucia and Angelene weren’t certain on this as well.”
After saying this, Index’s voice can be heard.
“I heard they said that to activate this ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’ to crush Agnese’s mind.”
At this moment, Index, who’s on the other side of the phone, lets out a frustrated voice.
It’s rare for her to let out such a voice because of magic.
“…Touma, the activation of the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ doesn’t need such an additional spell.”
“What?”
Kamijou inadvertently stops.
He cautiously looks around while still focusing on the phone call.
“The ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ is an ancient level spell, and I explained before that that’s originally a large scale spell that can suppress an enemy and was created in case Venezia the seaside country decided to revolt.”
“And after that?”
“Just think carefully. In other words, they can’t spend some time just to activate it. To select a suitable person and preparations would take quite a lot of time. Would they be able to defend against Venezia’s attacks if they’re to wait about like this?”
Kamijou can’t help but let out a surprised ‘Ah’.
Now that she mentioned it, it really seems so. He was tricked by the size of the fleet, and basically, this is a counterspell. It’ll be useless if it can’t react to the enemy’s attacks and can’t fire immediately.
“The ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ can already fire on its own. If so, does that ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’ really exist? At least according to the 103,000 grimoires, not one mentioned the need for it. Basically, I can’t think of any reason why the Roman Catholics would attack Venezia now.”
Index pauses for a while, then continues.
“From the time it was completed, the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ was said to be a large scale spell too powerful. As it affected Venezia heavily while Venezia was the world’s trading landmark, they could have caused a huge commotion within. But in the beginning, when it was needed the most, it’s really hard to think of who would do such a thing.”
“But Lucia and Angelene don’t look like they were lying.”
That’s right.
Right now, the Roman Catholics are planning to use Agnese as the crux of their plan. If the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ can be used anytime, the reason why they would be delaying is because the ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’ isn’t ready.”
The ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’.
Though Lucia and Angelene said that this is the key activating it, even they aren’t too sure about the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’.
“What do you think they’re trying to do by using that with the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’, Index? Do you know what kind of spell is the ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’?”
“Mm…instead of saying that it’s the official name of the spell, it’s more like the name of a plan that’s limited to the inner group of the Roman Catholics. It may be hard to understand with just that, but ‘Appointed Time’ and ‘Cross’ are just basically timing.”
Kamijou steps on the small fragments of ice and uses his right hand to destroy another wall.
“The Cross, you’re talking about the Cross that nuns wear on their necks, right?”
“Actually, besides the Cross, the necklace is also important. There are 59 beads on the rope chain, and this is something of old Catholicism. People who travel to all kinds of Holy places would use these beads and count how many times they have prayed.”
“…In other words, regarding this ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’, isn’t it something like a countdown? Or something like that?”
It’s unknown whether Kamijou’s muttering reached Index and Orsola’s ears.
The reason is,
BOOM!!
With a sharp sound, the ceiling collapses.
“Eh!!”
Kamijou instantly backs off.
But just this alone is unable to let him escape from the falling ice. The area around the centre of impact is also affected, and the surrounding ceiling becomes a huge weapon that’s like an inverted pyramid.
“DAMN IT!!”
Kamijou moves his right hand up from the side of his abdomen.
Seeing the ceiling that’s carved out in a square shape and about to crush him, Kamijou tilts his body slightly to avoid it. The ceiling slams hard onto the floor, the impact affects his ears and the tiny fragments hit his back. The force was a bit unexpected, and the handphone in Kamijou’s left hand lets out a weird sound.
Right now, he doesn’t have time to even press a button.
Kamijou violently folds the phone back into his pocket and takes 2, 3 steps back.
The tiny frost-like pieces of ice replace the smoke as they sway about in front of his eyes.
At the centre, there’s a man standing there. He just swung a sledgehammer down at where Kamijou just stood at.
It’s a 40-plus year old white man who’s wearing a luxurious Holy robe.
Though his clothes are luxurious, they don’t have the cleanliness that Index’s clothes have. All the clothing gives off an upstart presence. The four necklaces on his neck are overlapping each other like age rings, and there’re ten Crosses on each of them. The Crosses that are shining really brightly should be made of highly polished gold or silver. The shine of these Crosses are really persistent, like thick fat that seeps into meat.
Like a psychotic move, the man strokes a Cross that’s hanging on his neck.
Though he’s staring at Kamijou, his black pupils are moving about.
“…That right hand.”
Unexpectedly, he said some Japanese.
“Ha, are you envious?”
Hearing Kamijou’s reckless response, the man frowns. He silently shows some slight disgust and anxiousness.
“You’re not convinced ? If rejecting God’s grace is your nature, then using that as a weapon is even more of a sin. If you have heard of God’s teachings, you should cut off that hand immediately and immediately beg for God’s grace.”
Such chilling words.
What’s scary isn’t the content of the words, but the concentrated amount of emotion, that’s like crushed yellow fat, in those words.
“Besides, Pagan monkeys can’t understand human words. I specially spoke in your language, and yet this is the answer I get? Then let me, Biagio Busoni, open your eyes, you enemy of God. I really can’t stand monkeys acting like humans.”
“You’re Biagio? Then, you should know where Agnese is, right?”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean I’ll tell you.”
The man called Biagio folds his arms.
A little metal sound can be heard.
Each of his hands is holding a Cross that was just hanging on his neck.
He tosses the Cross in front of Kamijou’s abdomen.
“The Cross reveals the rejection to evil.”
BOOM!! The two Crosses expand.
The rate they are expanding is like a cannon firing. They instantly became 3m long and 40cm thick as they attack. It’s like a storm of metal muscles and bones attacking.
“WOOHH!!”
Kamijou uses his right fist to knock aside the Crosses that have become a wall, but he only manages to destroy one side. Meanwhile, the sharp end of the other Cross on the other side, that’s like granite, sends him flying back.
The blunt sound caused by this intense impact can be heard.
Kamijou is knocked onto the ground, and rolls back about 2 to 3m. Just as he’s about to use his hand to support himself off the floor, the ice wall reacts to Kamijou’s right hand. With a cracking sound, the floor is carved up in a square shape, and Kamijou falls onto the path on the floor below.
As he’s inside a ship that’s completely made of ice, there’s nothing to cushion the impact. Kamijou grits his teeth as he endures the pain, carefully using his left hand to support himself.
From the large hole above his head, Biagio’s voice can be heard.
“When St. Margaret was swallowed by the evil dragon, she expanded the Cross to stab the evil dragon’s stomach from the inside. The Cross that the Church erects can also be used to eliminate enemies and create a safety zone—just like this.”
From the hole in the ceiling, there are 2, 3 Crosses that are tossed down like grenades.
The Crosses immediately expand in the air.
Instead of saying that these are Crosses, they’re more like laser weapons flying all around. Kamijou immediately gets onto the floor and rolls, as the Crosses that have changed into metallic muscles and bones scrap past the tip of his nose, the four sides of the Crosses stabbed into the floor and walls. As the arrangement is really messy, it’s hard to tell which direction is the attack coming from. Just like this the straight path is sealed off.
(Damn it…got to find an exit before my movements are sealed—!!)
Just as Kamijou’s about to swing his right hand, another sound can be heard from above.
“On the other hand, the Cross has the ability to correct people’s prideful nature, no matter the weight of it. The Virgin St. Lucia was pulled with ropes by 1000 men and 2 bulls yet didn’t move. And the young St. Christopher who was famous for his strange powers, yet fell under the weight of the ‘Son of God’—that’ll be like…this.”
CRACK!! The ceiling split apart.
What’re falling down from the broken ceiling are several Crosses that are only several centimetres long. However, they’re as fast as a cannon shot…not only that, they’re rather heavy, as if gravity has increased by several thousand times.
Kamijou uses his body to slam into the giant Cross and extends his right hand out. Before confirming whether there are any obstacles breaking, he rolls to the front, and the huge weight of the Cross narrowly grazes past Kamijou’s shoulder. Just like this, the joint feels painful, as if it nearly popped out, and the pain immediately spreads around.
“…! GYAAAHHH!!”
Even so, he continues to use his right hand to destroy the walls, jumping from the aisle into a cabin. He intends to take action and try to avoid Biagio’s aiming.
“Don’t destroy it too much. It’ll take quite some time to repair it.”
The ceiling breaks again, as numerous Crosses falls down from above Kamijou. The unexpectedly heavy Crosses turn into metal stakes as they destroy the Cabin. Kamijou didn’t really jump aside, but rather managed to avoid it by pressing his back against the wall.
Biagio leaps down the hole in the ceiling.
Small pieces of ice fly like frost when he steps onto the cracked floor.
Kamijou keeps his back onto the wall.
“Saying what about ‘don’t destroy’, aren’t you the one destroying it recklessly?”
“I know which parts need to be destroyed, and which shouldn’t. Your method is too messy. Oh yeah, it’s like letting an amateur without knowledge take care of some antiques. I know you’re working hard, but you have to learn.”
Biagio’s proper and speckles expression is starting to show some signs of anxiety.
Index said before that this flagship controls the other ships. Once the ice decorations continue to change shape, the escort ships will move with the signal given…if so, Kamijou’s right hand has more or less done some damage to the controls of the ship.
“Humph. Looks like this broken ship repairs itself a lot slower than the other ships. Worked so hard to get into this main ship, yet this place is weaker than the other ships. So disappointing.”
“The ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ original defense is a good 200 times stronger than the other escort ships. But because the power got separated to the other ships, it affected the completion rate there.”
“The ‘there’ you’re talking about is?”
“The ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’. It’s so soon already, stop acting dumb.”
“…”
The ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’ again.
Index said before that this additional spell is unrelated to the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ spell that was meant to suppress Venezia. Though Biagio’s words may not be completely true, to continue to try and do such a disadvantageous thing, is there any important significance behind it?
“No matter what, as long as I beat you and save Agnese, it’ll be all over. I’m not thinking too much, so let me settle this simply.”
“These words show that you’re going against God’s will, this is so outrageous.”
Biagio pulls off 7 Crosses from his neck,
And tosses them into the air like he’s saying farewell.
“—Then, my Cross will reject this evil.”
On the same ship, nobody can stay put for even one minute.
Tatemiya Saiji uses the wooden bridge that he made to get off one sinking ice escort ship onto a neighbouring ship. Before his eyes, a newly formed ice ship emerges from the water, replacing the ship that was just destroyed.
“Ah! Damn it! Why is it endless!!?”
He uses the side of his Flamberge to knock down 2, 3 nuns from the Agnese Forces as he shouts out, pulling out some bundles of paper from his pockets. After using the paper bundles, boards that look like surfboards appear out of nowhere. The number of boards match the number of people, as they stick onto the back of the nuns.
The ship quickly gets sunk by the cannon fire. Even so, considering the number of people, it’s impossible to carry all the unconscious nuns and move about. Thus, the Amakusa can only prepare such a ‘floating ring’ to prevent the unconscious nuns from drowning. If they’re to create a huge wooden ship, it’ll end up being fired at.
(Though we would definitely save them, it’s really unsettling to leave the sinking ships like that.)
Tatemiya lowers his jaw as he hears the audio broadcast echoes throughout, saying that they’re about to bomb this ship.
Seems like most of the controls of the ship is automatic.
Thus, no matter how many people they beat, it’s ineffective on the fleet itself. In terms of pure fighting power, the nuns that total more than 200 is terrifying, but the large number of cannons is even worst. If they can’t settle this current problem, they won’t be able to change the situation.
The Amakusa can only endure this until the end.
(Cheh, if possible, I want to hurry up and destroy that flagship, even if it’s a little bit.)
But Tatemiya doesn’t do so.
If the main forces of the Amakusa move towards the flagship, the nuns will come after them as well. The battleground would be changed, and Kamijou’s group will end up getting involved.
The base under the floor is the real base.
Tatemiya gently swings his wave-bladed longsword.
“Can’t be helped. I can only take care of this side, and let the proceedings be smooth!!”
With this cry, he rushes towards a group of nuns gathered in a corner.
“—Then, my Cross will reject this evil.”
The seven Crosses suddenly expand as if they’re exploding.
The metal sparks that the Crosses make fly about freely in the air.
Kamijou uses his right hand to forcefully press onto the wall behind, and immediately, he falls through the square hole and onto the other side of the wall.
The thick and huge bone-like Crosses stab hard into the floor, walls and ceiling. Kamijou continues to roll on the floor.
“To think that you’ll come up with such a thing, damn it!! You guys don’t have any right to do this to Venezia!?”
“A pity, you’ve guessed wrongly. That isn’t my target.”
From where the barrage is coming from, Biagio smiles.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY!?”
“Then, I’ll say it to you for free. What’s the point of me doing that? But never mind…at least it’s a lot more interesting than what you thought.”
“!!”
Kamijou grits his teeth as he uses the momentum caused by rolling to get up.
He clenches his right fist, retraces his escape path back, and rushes at Biagio.
However, before that,
“All sorts of meanings exist for the Cross, and most of them were added after the ‘Son of God’ was executed. The Cross itself already existed before that, but all the purposes that existed before that time was wiped off by Christianity, because those were of evil pagan beliefs.”
Biagio continues on.
He choose a favourite Cross of his from among the numerous Crosses in front of his chest, psychotically stroking them with his fingertips, and says,
“Among them, only one has the remaining meaning that exists from the ancient times. That’s the most important thing to Christianity, and the most ancient use that has relation to the ‘Son of God’. That’s—”
Kamijou uses his right hand to destroy the huge Crosses that are between him and Biagio. Just as he’s about to leap at Biagio, the man in a luxurious Holy robe pulls the Cross down as if he’s pulling his clothes up, and raises it above his head.
“—a tool of execution.”
Biagio uses a low yet mocking sound that lacks seriousness to say,
“—Simon bears the Cross of the ‘Son of God’.”
CRACK.
Hearing this, Kamijou’s vision suddenly changes drastically.
“…Ah?”
Somewhere near his right shoulder got hit, as a sense of pain strikes. After shaking his head, he finds that his vision is tilted upside-down, as if his body got hung upside-down by the tail. After his face touched the floor, Kamijou realises that…he’s upside down. It took him several seconds for him to realise this phenomenon.
(What just…)
He’s been attacked?
But he doesn’t understand what just happened.
In the past, he knew that ‘he was attacked’, so he can defend and avoid. But this time, it’s different. He can’t even tell when he’s going to be attacked.
A sure kill.
In Kamijou’s confused mind, this phrase sticks tightly into him.
Even if he wants to get up, he doesn’t have any strength in his hands. Even if he lays down and tries to get up, he’ll be crushed in an instant.
His mind starts to go blank.
At this moment, a little metal sound can be heard, turning Kamijou’s consciousness outside.
The thing that’s letting out this sound is the numerous Crosses that are colliding in mid-air.
“—The Cross reveals the rejection to evil.”
With a low sound, the sounds of flesh being hammered and the ice floor being destroyed continues to echo throughout.
Index and Orsola are running about on the aisle of the flagship ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’.
From the outside, the flagship looks more than 2 times larger than the other escort ships, yet the width of the pathways don’t seem different…this isn’t the case. There are ordinary statues of Angels on both sides of the path, and even a door is intricately carved in the form of a fairy tale scene. The huge number of art pieces suppresses this originally wide aisle.
Not even a deluxe palace and majestic palace are enough to describe this scene. Only an exaggerated comparison like a palace made of gold or a diamond pyramid would be suitable in describing it. In reality, this scene makes one feel really uncomfortable.
Orsola holds onto the silver Angel Staff with both hands as she runs down the path, looking around as she says to Index,
“…This place is so quiet it’s scaring me.”
“That’s because their work was already assigned.”
Index softly replies,
“Nobody expected the enemy to get inside the flagship in the first place. Before that—the enemy has removed all the enemies, thus the enemy ship has to specialise for the escort fleet to work smoothly…or something like that.”
“If that’s the case…”
Orsola continues to let out sounds of footsteps while she continues to run.
“The other nuns aren’t here because even though they’re of the same kind, they’re not allowed to step onto the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’. This is to prevent the nuns from defecting.”
After running for a while, they reached the entrance to a staircase.
The staircase leads both up and down, yet Index runs downstairs without any hesitation. Orsola seems rather panicky as she follows her.
“Wait, do you know where Agnese is?”
“Of course!”
Index immediately replies,
“I roughly know the functions of this ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ ship. Though I don’t know what kind of thing is this ‘Appointed Time of the Cross’, the place most suitable for the spell in the ‘Queen of the Adriatic Sea’ is fixed. Thus there’s only that place!!”
The stairs are extremely long, as if they’re surrounding a large tower.
After running down the stairs for a long while, both of them finally reached the bottom of the stairs.
“This is…”
Orsola lowers her voice.
The place is like a hall. In this overly spacious place, what are in front are double doors that are twice the size of Orsola. Its unknown how thick is the doors, maybe even thicker than Orsola’s body.
The entrance to the hall doesn’t just link to the staircase Index’s group came from. There are numerous staircases linking here, as if all of them are linked here.
What an intriguing design.
Someone completely ignored the basics in shipbuilding. Assuming that to even barely get past this design, one has to swim around all the pillars and beams, if they really have to do this—
“Instead of saying that they prepared a room in the ship…”
“It’s more like they decorated the surroundings of this room in the shape of a ship.”
Index gets near the main door.
She places her face near the door, and wants to touch it, only to stop midway.
“The door here…has a defensive spell placed on it. Most likely, it’s based on the legend of St. Blaise. When the pagan army chased after the Saint who crossed the lake, they weren’t able to walk on water, and sank into the water.”
“This means…you’re saying that those without entry permit would be dragged into the water once they touch the door?”
Even on the flagship, Index and Orsola didn’t meet anyone.
Looking through the entire situation, the only ones who can open this door are Agnese and Biagio.
Index glances at Orsola.
“Hm, if it’s a direct method.”
“That should be the case.”
Index is the keeper of 103,000 grimoires, while Orsola is a grimoires and spells analyst. Facing this difficult scenario, both of them first thought of the same thing.
Index brings her nose close to the door and reinvestigates it. She’s analyzing the components of the thick ice wall. Orsola continues to stand aside, holding the Angel Staff, wary that Index may be taken down by the defensive mechanism.
But,
On the floor around them, there are ice pillars that are larger than humans. There aren’t just one or two, but 10 to 20 of them. The ice pillars start to form shapes as if an invisible blade is carving them out.
“This…”
“They’re here to replace those nuns!?”
Besides the ice golems, there are two carriages with cannons on them. The golems and even the cannons are slowly aiming at them.
“!”
Orsola immediately raises the Angel Staff in front of her.
Though she’s not used to combat, Index doesn’t have a weapon with her, and can’t use magic. Thus, Orsola feels that she has to fight against the golems.
“Aim at the centre!!”
Index shouts before leaping sideways.
The golems and cannons turn towards her. It’s more like they’re forcefully pulled by magnetism rather than it being a defensive mechanism.
Index jumps into a lane, and says,
“Go and save Agnese! I’ll divert their attention here!! Don’t worry, these guards can sense a person’s will, so I can use my ‘Spell Intercept’ on them!!”
According to Index’s hypothesis, these ice guards are made from the ‘keeper’ of the ‘Queen’s Fleet’. Thus, they can’t let their guard down completely. Approximately after every few minutes, the keeper would prepare a ‘battle report’ and ‘point of intervention’ to see whether there’s a need to correct it.
Just like Sherry Cromwell and the stone golem that she controls, Ellis.
If it’s not completely automatic, she can intervene.
No matter how advanced is the magic, the one operating it is still human.
“But!!”
Before Orsola can rebut, a strong wind blows.
All the guards pass by Orsola and rush after Index, who disappeared in the lane. Like a gravel truck rapidly moving past, the air is compressed to form wind.
With this BOOM!! Sound, Orsola instinctively closes her eyes.
When she opens her eyes again, she can’t see Index, the golems and the cannons.
“INDEX!!”
Orsola, who’s holding onto the Angel Staff with one hand, shouted.
But no matter how long it took, there’s no reply.
2010-10-27, 08:05
). And Flere821 was kind enough to do Vol 15 chp 4 (but I suppose you know that).
unlike our Amakusa pontiff, i am not that naive, being a guy and all
