“Plasma Smasher.” Spoke the robed figure in an emotionless voice. This was followed by a powerful beam of electricity hurtling at my direction.
I dodged the blast, only to be followed by a multitude of blood-red crystal shards. Dammit! Why am I being targeted by this girl?
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It was just supposed to be a normal day for the test-run of the new weapon I’ve developed, the Forsium Magic Cannon. I was currently in an uninhabited planet not too far from the system our facility’s situated. So far, it’s been a few days since I’ve had any news from the outside.
“Hm?”
My private communication line was beeping. Tsk, looks like I’m in for a delay. Who would call at this hou- Hayate? … Well, what do you know? I smirked and opened the video screen. “Well hello there, Yagami-Butaichou.” Greeting her formally, I was expecting an annoyed response from my self-proclaimed niece. Instead, all I received was the first one of the many shocks that I would be experiencing today. She looked like she had been crying recently. She didn’t speak, just silently looking at me in as if in pain. I opened my mouth to speak again, but closed it in favor of a more private manner of communication. After briefly searching the galaxy for the heart of the girl shown in the video screen, I secured a telepathic link. I noted with some wry satisfaction that her eyes widened in surprise, followed by a light blush on her cheeks upon the telepathic connection.
‘What’s wrong, Hayate? Had a bad day at the office? Was it those damned bureaucrats again?’
……………………………………
‘Oi. C’mon. You can’t expect me to spend the rest of the day trying to make you reply. Unlike you, I don’t have the magic capacity to sustain inter-planetary system telepathy for as long as I like.’ I don’t know what’s wrong, but I do hope my little joke about an almost nonexistent magic drain while using telepathy is helping right now.
‘Reinforce…’ She replied while lowering her eyes.
‘Huh? Something’s wrong with Small Boss? Come to think of it, I don’t see her with you. Was it-‘
‘No.’ She turned her eyes upward. ‘It’s Reinforce. The first one…’
‘...? What are you trying to say? Don’t tell me she’s suddenly been seen by someone.’
‘… It’s much more than that.’
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Damn. I’ll have to stop this small habit of concentrating too much on my devices while letting the rest of galaxy revolve without me. Reinforce, possibly alive and on the loose? And triple casting the Breaker moves?! This is really starting to be a weird day. And I just HAD to spoil her by carrying on most of the conversation telepathically, I'm sure I'd be the laughingstock of the tech facility if they saw me plainly staring at another person during long-range communication. But I guess it was worth it. She did seem to cheer up a bit after I knocked some sense into her head. Well, after crying a bit more at least. Sigh… Guess I’m not immune to the ‘Damsel in Distress’ act as I though I was. Well, with her looking so cute while depressed, her request was quite hard to put down. I ended up consoling her and giving some precautionary advice for about two and a half hours because of this. And now my schedule for the day is effectively ruined. Chuckling self-depreciatively, I turned to my second device. “Almaria.”
[Yes, Aurion-san?]
“Wake me up after four hours. I’ll be taking a nap.”
[Understood…]
I yawned loudly. Bah, who cares about a small delay? I’d honestly rather do my duties as a self-proclaimed parent figure rather than working overtime on an experiment with no deadline. Besides, I don’t want Signum and Vita suddenly going after my head because I upset their Mistress. Heh, the memory of those two making me promise in such an absurd way like a solemn oath, it makes me want to laugh at myself. In front of Hayate, no less. Well, at least Hayate’s idea of enlisting a loyal subject was a bit more original. A hug? Quite bizarre. Though seeing the reactions of her Knights when it was done made it definitely better. After reminiscing a bit more about the past, I flopped down on my mattress and closed my eyes; dozing off a few moments later.
*BANG!*
Jolted out of my approximately one-minute nap, I hurried out of my little improvised bunk to check out the noise (but not before grabbing an alarmed Almaria along the way). Only to met by an onrushing swarm of magic spheres and spikes.
“Shit!” I raised my left arm, or to be more precise, Reishiki, now unveiled, in order to conjure up a double-layer round shield. The projectiles smacked into my shield with incredible force. But luckily, it seemed that my shield held somehow. Okay, whoever you are, it’s now MY turn.
[Standing by.] Reishiki pulsated with energy.
[Ready.] My Barrier Jacket materialized in a flash of light, with my Spell Gauntlet and Boots materializing afterwards, accompanied by crackling cobalt-colored energy.
“Ready, Almaria?”
[Yes, Chief.] She replied, now using her combat-phase speech pattern.
I slotted her in, completing the combination.
[Complete.] I felt Almaria fall into a rhythm of energy similar to mine, as well as taking control of the AI applications and voice now.
And not a moment too soon, as I was immediately assaulted by the magic projectiles once again. This time, however, I was ready.
[Proton Bolt]
Releasing a fixed amount of energy, I directed my dozen projectiles at the incoming ones when they were in range of my Manipulation Field; destroying two with a single unit each. Most of the targets were destroyed. And the four that I left to rush towards me were soon converted into my own when they reached within a few meters of my location. Meanwhile, the leftover magic particles from the previous attacks swirled around myself; ready to be recycled at my command. Hmm, strange. These projectiles look and feel like Axel Shooter and Photon Lancer units.
Scanning my surroundings, I came across a robed figure a few dozen meters away. By the way it would seem; the figure’s a female. Instinctively, I reached out to communicate with ‘her’. After securing the link, I started my vehement interrogation. But the connection seems strange. ‘She’ feels different from humans.
‘Now what was the big idea attacking me like that?!’ I shouted telepathically. In response, all I received was another volley of even more powerful shots. Tsk, I guess I’m not too lucky with women after all. The next volley proved to be much more powerful than the second one; as I was able to confirm by shooting the four ‘captured’ shots at matching ones. They were destroyed easily and the opposing shots went straight for me. Possibly a power type? Hmm, let’s see what she can do. I called forth a single Stinger Blade in my right hand and sliced the offending bullets with a few quick strokes.
[Blaze Cannon]
After charging up the ball of energy, I fired it at the direction of the enemy mage.
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