Vol 3: Chapter 53
Even though it was night, the citizens of the Empire were out of their house and looking up at the sky. Many searchlights chased “Queen of the Night”, as well as a number of airships in the sky.
Nine pillars of light beamed up.
With evenly spaced distance between each light, the pillars of light circled around the Empire.
The scene was so unrealistic that people wondered if it was a show.
「Why can’t I see the stars…?」
I was on the roof of the tallest building near the place where I could see the sky well. For some reason, the five-story building’s rooftop was a storeroom, with tables, chairs, tools and wood left unorganised.
I strained my eyes to look closely at the sky. “Queen of the Night”, which passed right above me a while ago, was escaping wonderfully, while about five other airships were giving chase. Other airships were deployed from here and there. Some of them seemed like they held a faint hope that they could catch up with “Queen of the Night” if they could circle around it, and some others seemed like they had given up halfway through the pursuit.
But what caught my mind was the sky itself. Right before I entered Her Highness’ room, I saw a beautiful starry sky. But now the night sky was painted black. Even the amount of light reflected from the moon was greatly reduced, as if a fog was blocking it. And although the streetlights illuminated the direct ground, the rooftop where I stood was sunk in the dark.
(Is it some thick rain clouds? But it doesn’t rain much here except during the rainy season.)
While I was pondering on the eeriness of the black sky, the black seemed to swirl like a vortex. I thought it was an optical illusion, but I heard a voice on the ground shouting, “The sky!!!”
Meri Meri, Meri Meri Meri Meri Meri Meri Meri Meri Meriー
At that time, a sound was heard. A sound similar to breaking a live tree over time.
I felt cold chills, as if I had contracted the worst kind of influenza.
(Why can’t I discern the true nature of that vortex even though I’m looking through【World Ruler】?)
Like a drop of blood, a red spot appeared in the center of the vortex. The red flowed in parallel with the vortex. As the red spot opened up like the aperture blades of a camera, heads of big snakes came slithering down.
Not just one or two, but big snakes numbering in the hundreds and thousands. Some were spotted and some were striped. Then, something resembling the trunk of a sea anemone came down from the same spot.
「KYAAAAAAAA!!!」
The people on the ground broke into panic.
The sea anemone—or rather, snake anemone, easily exceeded the “Queen of the Night” in size. Seeing something like that descending from the sky, one or two screams is quite natural. Its appearance physiologically brought out the feeling of disgust from those who witnessed it—as if the appearance was intentionally made for that purpose.
「It’s the same…」
Even as I felt creeps and chills running down my body, I couldn’t take my eyes off the snake anemone.
I was able to analyze the snake anemone with【World Ruler】, but it wasn’t of much use. Because it only relayed information like “a living thing”, “snake with highly toxic fangs” and such.
Rather than that, I had an intuition. That the snake anemone was the same as Ouroboros.
「It’s a monster from the “Other World”!」
Taken aback, I surveyed around the snake anemone. I didn’t see the mediator.
As I was feeling relieved on one hand, the question of why this happened arose.
「Crap, think later.」
The snake anemone’s body stretched several hundred meters and was fast approaching the ground. It was about 3 kilometers away from me.
I ran using【Sprinting Technique】, and jumped from building to building using【Jumping Technique】. I ran along rooftops and roofs towards the snake anemone.
I did consider running away, but it would seem that I am connected by fate to the “Other World”. When looking at it that way, I thought to at least help with the evacuation of those who were too late to escape.
「Eh? A person?」
Lev people who were looking out the window saw me.
「Hide in a sturdy place!」I shouted.
The road below was already in a mixture of screams and turmoil. Panicked citizens pushing at each other to escape from the snake anemone.
『Citizens, we are confirming the appearance of unknown enemies. Please evacuate as far as possible. In 1 minute, we will launch attacks from the airship.』
One of the military airships returned and made an announcement from the sky, which spurred confusion.
(Are you just going to start attacking with only a short warning?)
I thought, but the big snakes had already bitten and lifted several Lev people off the ground. Casualties had already appeared.
『We strongly recommend evacuation. Please don’t hide in a sturdy building or under shelters. 10, 9, 8……』
By the time the countdown started, I was about 300 meters from the snake anemone.
The snake anemone plunged down onto the ground, crushing the buildings beneath. Intense cloud of dust rolled up and my foothold swayed.
『…3, 2, 1』
Three shells were fired from the fort of the airship. The shells drew an arc in the air and sank into the body of the snake anemone, detonating. More and more buildings collapsed as the snake anemone twisted and writhed. But the bombardment seems to be effective.
「Uwaaaaaaa! Uwaaaaaa–」
Hearing a cry near a collapsed building, I ran over there.
I saw a Lev girl standing stock still and crying her eyes out.
「What’s wrong?」
「Uwaaaaaaaaaaa—」
I couldn’t even talk to her as she just kept crying.
At that moment, my ears picked up moaning from inside the debris.
「Is there someone inside?」I asked the girl.
「M-M-Mommy…」
The girl finally responded. I nodded and activated【Earth Magic】to raise the ground. It pushed away the debris and created a gap. Inside, was a woman with an injured leg.
「Grab my hand! I will pull you out!」
「Uh, oh, th-thank you…」
「Mommyyyyyyyy!」
As I pulled out the woman, the girl hugged her. Her leg was injured—I told her to evacuate as soon as I confirmed that she could walk after I applied the minimum【Healing Magic】. And then, I started running again.
(I could’ve cured her completely, but I should probably preserve my mana at the moment…)
After that, I helped a few citizens who were late to evacuate in 3 more places, and found people who had already died in 4 other places.
During that time, the bombardment from the airship continued. And it seems that the snake anemone had recognized the airship as an enemy. It hurled its huge body and crashed into the airship.
「Ah!」
The fuselage of the airship was torn, and the airship fell from the sky while scattering metal and wood. Crushing buildings, it crash landed about 200 meters away from me. And subsequently exploded, creating a blast of dust.
「Shit!」
How many people were on that airship? How many survived? Maybe everyone is alreadyー.
Kiri Kiriーa sound was heard. It was from my mouth. I was grinding my teeth too hard out of vexation.
The airships in the sky have already shifted from pursuing “Queen of the Night” to responding to the snake anemone. Airship with turrets installed turned around and began to rain down bombardment. The unarmed airships, which seemed to belong to companies, left the Empire’s skies as if escaping.
「This place is also dangerous.」
No matter how big the snake anemone is, several of the shells missing the target is entirely possible. In fact, one missed shell fell into a nearby building and it exploded into flames.
I should escape too.
That’s what I thought, but my legs didn’t want to move.
「Shit! Shit! Shit!」
The distance to the snake anemone was several hundred meters. It was about 100 meters up in the sky and I had no way to get there.
Even though it caused so much destruction, is it not possible to retaliate without an airship?
My frustration was rising.
Even though there are people stronger than me, I thought myself to be quite strong. However, I am way too powerless to deal with a monster of that size. The monster was out of range of all offensive magic such as【Fire Magic】and【Wind Magic】. I can’t even retaliate with one shot.
「No, wait… if it’s just “one shot”, maybe I could pull it off?」
When Leon betrayed us, he used Non-san as a shield. At that time, I wished I had a magic which could be invoked similar to precision shooting.
Certainly, you can’t use magic which could pass through a needle hole. I feel that it would be possible if there were other skill orbs besides【Mana Control】, but anyway, I can’t invoke minimum magic at the moment.
However, on the flip side, I can compress maximum magic into a small size.
「【Fire Magic】disappears if blown away by wind, so its effective range is short, but if I compress a high-output【Fire Magic】, for example… it might work.」
I envisioned the maximum magic that the Mithril-rank adventurer Crysta-la-Crysta displayed. That magic that substantially chomped down even the vitality of a dragon with one shot should naturally be effective on the snake anemone.
No, if I was as proficient with【Fire Magic】as Crysta was, I should be able to fly in the sky using blasts, but I still don’t have that ability. To be precise, I do have the ability, but lack the skill to control it.
Crysta was the real life example of “A master in one art does not dabble in many arts.” On the contrary, I can do everything, but can’t do anythingーJack of all trades and master of none.
「For now, let’s think about a way to combine the “everything” I can do.」
I should be able to compress high-output magic. Next is, how close can I get to the snake anemone.
「!」
At that moment, I noticed another black shadow in the sky.
「Wh-What, the…」
It was way too big to call it an “airship”. So vast and gigantic that even if you placed 10 of Muge-san’s warehouses on it, it would still have a surplus of space left. Many small airships took off from there.
Exactly what you would call an “aircraft carrier”. Just, instead of sailing in the sea, it was flying in the sky.
