Warped Aspirations

"...Time we got going, then," I said as I walked through the [Gate] and set foot

in Isengard.

Yumina, Sue, Elze, Linze, Yae, Hilde, Sakura, Lu, and Leen all passed through

alongside me. Paula toddled along too, of course. We all gazed up at the

puretree.

The sight was something to behold.

"Well?"

"Mmm... I don't feel anything, so I think we're good."

"I do not feel anything strange, I do not."

Elze and Yae did a small warm-up motion as they confirmed their status.

Nobody else felt ill or tired, either. I didn't really know why Paula was testing

her range of motions, given she'd be completely fine, but it wasn't really an

issue...

I certainly felt no ill effects. A minor sense of nausea hit me, but it was just the

kind of feeling you'd get after eating something funky. That meant the

purification was coming along nicely. I had a feeling that my sisters needed to

stay back a bit longer, though.

"Wow... It sure is big!" Sue exclaimed as she stared up at the puretree with

amazed eyes. It certainly didn't resemble the tiny sapling I had originally sent

over. In fact, it was now so big that I had to crane my neck. I wondered just how

many meters into the sky it stretched.

It was far beyond the size of our Frame Gears, even... Plus, it gave off an

intimidating atmosphere, making it clear that it was the grandest tree in the

forest.

"The sparkling is nice..."

"It is..."

Sakura and Linze looked at the magic particles being released from the

puretree's leaves, which were quite beautiful.

"Grand Duke, miladies. This way," Nikola, who had come here earlier, came to

meet us by the tree.

We entered the command tent that they'd set up, only to be greeted by

various commanding officers from countries around the world. Our own

commander, Lain, was also present.

There were no tense discussions or frantic arguments. The atmosphere was

quite relaxed overall. They were all just sipping tea and making casual

conversation with each other. I was a bit surprised, honestly. That being said,

the moment I entered the tent, they all stood to attention.

"What's the situation?"

"No problems so far, really. Those Frame Gear constructs, er... Fake Gears?

They've been attacking us fairly frequently, but they're few in number, so we've

been beating them back on a rotational schedule," Belfast's deputy general,

Neil, spoke up. The vice-commander of Lestia, Franz, also came over to talk

shortly after that.

"We were concerned about Upper Constructs going on the offensive,

however..."

"Oh, right. I don't think there'll be any Upper Constructs coming all the way

out here. They definitely won't show up out of nowhere like they used to, at

least."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"The Upper Constructs we've fought so far popped in from a space between

worlds. That's why they cropped up in random locations during previous

battles. We detected their emergence point and then hosted the battle in that

area to intercept them. Basically, they can't pick and choose where they

emerge, it was just wherever they happened to come out. But now the mutants

attacking us are ones that you could consider native to Isengard. If they

attacked us, they wouldn't be coming in from a space between worlds, they'd

have to physically walk across the land to reach us."

I did not doubt that they'd come from the direction of that golden palace near

Isenberg. The Upper Constructs were massive, so they moved pretty slowly in

general. Not to mention the fact that Bastet had left a surveillance drone on the

giant tower in Isenberg, which was set to notify us well in advance if something

that large came lumbering in our direction.

The enemy might have been sending Fake Gears over in quick succession

because they knew sending an Upper Construct was pointless.

"That being said, we can't slack off. We'll need to keep regular perimeter

patrols, and send out scouts as well."

"Aye. We've got the Red Cats doing just that, so you needn't worry," Lain

spoke clearly, but I was a bit surprised Nia's group had decided to take on that

role. I had a feeling they'd probably ask for extra compensation later...

"They actually asked for something in exchange. They wanted you to create a

bathhouse once you arrived," Nikola continued speaking as if reading my mind.

Pssh, extra compensation later? Never mind, they want it right now!

"A bathhouse, huh? I mean, that's not a bad idea... I get why you'd want that

if you're over fighting for so long."

"This is a fairly humid place, so it's hard for sweat to even form to begin

with."

"I guess that's fair... We do have a lot of female knights, so I should take their

hygiene and cleanliness into account..."

Ugh, fine... I'll make it... The commanders and sub-commanders of the other

nations also expressed their support for the idea, so I decided to finish building

a public bath before dinner. It'd be harder for them if they couldn't sweat off

the heat.

"We'll help with the cooking, then!"

Yumina, Lu, and Sue trotted off to the canteen tent.

"We will participate in the battle, we will."

Yae, Hilde, and Elze called their Valkyries from their [Storage]-enchanted

rings, then charged off to the battlefield.

"As for us, we'll erect a barrier around the camp. There aren't just mutants

here, after all."

Leen, Linze, and Sakura flew off on Linze's Helmwige. Considering the fact

that the divine venom would affect them if they strayed too far, I couldn't

imagine they'd be erecting a very large barrier.

All that was left was for me to make a bathhouse. Mixed bathing didn't really

sound too relaxing, so I decided to separate by sex.

I walked a bit into the forest and looked for a suitable spot... I was pretty

spoiled for choice, to be honest. The battles in the area had wrecked so many

trees that most of the area was usable. I sighed quietly and started to clear the

fallen tree trunks.

"This'll do, I think."

I dug a large pit for the bath using Earth magic. I'd already made a public bath

at the Silver Moon in the past, which gave me knowledge of how to make the

proper pipes and drainage system.

Well... there are a lot of guys here... Guess I'll make the male bath a bit bigger.

I'll pay a bit more attention to the female bath, though... Don't really want them

fussing about it not being up to scratch later...

"Alrighty, time to get to work."

I rolled my sleeves back and started chopping some nearby fallen trees. I'd

decided to recycle them into materials for the bathhouse.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Ooh, looks great! Real home-like! Good job, Touya!" Nia, who'd just returned

with the other Red Cats, said that as she looked at the public baths with glee.

That's right! Go ahead and praise me a bit more, why don't you? I worked

hard here!

"Oh, but wait... Since it's an open bath, wouldn't the whole place be visible

from a Frame Gear cockpit?" Est raised a fair point as she glanced upward from

the open-air bath. She was right, but luckily, I'd already created a solution.

"There's a special kind of visual magic I've enchanted the entire bathhouse

with. When someone's in the bath, the whole place looks like a mass of trees

from anywhere other than the entrance. It's all good."

The girls were clearly suspicious of my words, since they all went and

confirmed that by themselves. And just like I said, they only ended up seeing a

mass of reddish-orange, leafy trees. I didn't like the idea of them thinking I had

ulterior motives, to be honest.

"This isn't some setting you can toggle on or off, right?"

"Obviously not! If I tried to pull something like that, my life would be in

danger," Norn, who'd come along with Noir, asked me that ridiculous question.

Did she think I was suicidal or something? If I pulled something like that with my

fiancees so close by, I'd be done for.

"If you're still worried even after all that, I have towels available. There are

also some swimsuits."

This wasn't like a hot spring back on earth. It was fine if they wanted to wear

stuff in the bath. After all, I'd enchanted the place so [Clean] triggered every so

often.

"...Why exactly do you have so many female swimsuits just ready to go,

anyway...?"

"Yeah... I was wondering the same..."

"Well, you guys have fun! See ya!"

I dashed away before Euni and Euri asked any more weird questions.

Don't get the wrong idea! They just got mixed into a batch I got from Fashion

King Zanac! I didn't buy them specifically or anything!

The area around the puretree had become a fully established garrison. There

were tents scattered around, and knights walking about. It was pretty unusual

to see knights from different countries fraternizing so casually. I saw some

arguing, some talking about their homes, and there were even a few hitting on

some women together.

A lot of the knights from the eastern side of the world were showing knights

from the former Reverse World how to ride Frame Gears properly. But even so,

this place was on the edge of a battlefield. Sometimes, the sounds of Frame

Gears clashing against mutants could be heard in the distance.

I entered one of the nearby tents.

"Any news?"

"Negative. Mutants are attacking as usual, but they're just mutants from the

surrounding area. There is no reaction at all from the golden palace," Cesca, still

wearing her maid uniform, turned from a monitor and removed her comms

headset to reply.

"Do ya think they've noticed us yet?"

"I, like, totally think that's the case, yes. They should be aware by now that

the divine venom is disappearing in this area."

Rosetta and Monica muttered amongst themselves as they stared at the

monitor. The monitor showed a feed from the surveillance camera drone we'd

set up at Isenberg's tower. The creepy sight kind of gave off a bad Zombie Bmovie vibe, but it was a bunch of golden Skeletons instead of Zombies.

"They may be coming up with a plan, you see."

Flora had a point. They very well could have been biding their time. Our

enemies had to know what would happen if we were left unchecked, so I

couldn't imagine them not retaliating.

"Just keep up the surveillance for the time being. Rosetta, Monica, you two

handle Frame Gear maintenance."

"Aaah... Stern as ever, sir!"

"She isn't incorrect. You should, like, totally let us watch some anime as a

reward. I wanna watch some anime and stuff!"

I sighed a bit and gave in to the demands of the booing duo. I said I'd let them

watch a mecha anime after all this was done. They kind of forced me into it, but

it wasn't really that big of a compromise for me. The two of them then bolted

out of the tent with smiles on their faces.

"Master, if you're giving out rewards, then I'd like a hardcore S&M maid—"

"Enough out of you, you demented gynoid."

I glared over at Cesca, who was looking at me and breathing heavily. She was

much harder to deal with than the rest.

After that, I called over Ende from Brunhild, since I figured the environment

was tolerable enough for him at this point. I felt a little bad, though, since he'd

probably get a bit sick. He was Uncle Takeru's beneficiary, so he obviously had

some divine blessing in him, but I needed him on the front lines.

He was also the one I was counting on to deal with that Phrase General, Xeno.

After I ended the call on my smartphone, I opened up a [Gate] to pull him

through. Ende walked right on over, followed by Melle, Lycee, and Ney. The

three Phrase girls were in their human disguises, since I didn't want to cause a

ruckus.

"Yo. You called us in sooner than I thought. Are we charging them?"

"No, not yet. I just wanted you guys on hand just in case."

Ende seemed a bit puzzled, but I caught him up to speed. Originally, I'd given

him the impression they'd be coming in a bit later, but that was my bad.

"Oooh, what a lovely scent!"

"Lady Melle, this must be curry!"

"Oh... I smell fried pork... It must be katsu curry."

As I spoke with Ende, the three girls zeroed in on the pleasant scent in the

area. Even I wasn't sure the smell was katsu curry, so I was a bit frightened by

how adept their senses were. Lu was probably making it in the cafeteria. Given

that she had divine taste buds, I had a feeling she was making an incredible

dish.

"I've set a tent aside for you guys already. You can basically do whatever you

want until the battle starts, but try not to get into any arguments."

"I got it. Oh right, Touya... Sorry and all, but can you..."

"...Cafeteria's down in that direction."

"Yeah. Sorry, the girls will be restless until they've eaten a bit... Okay, ladies,

we'll head to the— Huh?!" Ende turned around and found that the three girls

were already well on their way to the cafeteria tent.

"H-Hey! Wait up!" Ende roared, running after them in a panic.

...You know, Ende... when I first met you, you had this stoic and mysterious air

about you. You were super cool, actually. I kinda thought you might be a

credible threat to me if I got on your bad side. When did you turn into comic

relief? Same goes for the rest of them, really. But I guess because I got to know

them, they've become a lot more human in my eyes.

I watched the four of them run off before I heard the sound of a mechanical

whirring and looked overhead. Linze's Helmwige was above, lowering itself

slightly. Sakura and Leen jumped out of the cockpit, while Paula just kind of fell

out.

...P-Paula? Your neck's bent at a weird angle... I know you're a stuffed toy, but

are you sure you're okay?

Linze's Helmwige had a wide cockpit, since it contracted during the

transformation sequence. As such, there was room for the two girls (and a

stuffed toy) in the rear seats.

"We've set up several barriers. There shouldn't be any magical beasts near

the camp, now."

"There were some flying mutants as well... We shot them down..."

"We? I was the only one doing any shooting," Linze hopped down and cut in

after Sakura.

"There are dozens of Fake Gears headed our way from Isenberg. They'll

probably be here in around thirty minutes or so."

"Copy that. I'll be sure to relay the info. Thanks again, girls."

I heard Linze's basic report, then opened up my smartphone map. The map

had previously been blocked by the divine venom, but now it was usable

because the atmosphere was less saturated with it.

"Run search. Use my location as the focal point. Find all mutants and Fake

Gears."

"Searching... Search complete. Displaying."

The map ended up being projected into the air. It showed that there were

quite a few enemies left. We needed to defend the puretree until Moroha and

the others could come through to take over defense, and we could begin our

attack on the palace.

I decided to ask Ende to help in his Dragoon. It was time to fight.

◇ ◇ ◇

"[Gladius]!"

Forty-eight glimmering projectiles attacked all the Fake Gears around me. The

daggers busted the cockpits, then went after the golden Skeletons that had

fallen out from inside.

"Sphere mode."

The daggers transformed into spheres and began to crush the Skeletons to

bits. The [Gravity]-infused spheres were able to crush the Skeletons along with

their cores in no time flat, melting my foes into mush alongside their Fake

Gears.

"They're more annoying to deal with than regular mutants, but I'm glad we

don't need to trace their cores or anything."

I sighed quietly from inside Reginleif's cockpit as I watched some of our

Chevaliers smashing a few Fakes Geats with battlehammers. Hammer-based

weapons were more effective, since they could smash the Skeletons inside with

the raw blunt force trauma.

"Run search. All purified territory within Isengard."

"Search complete. Displaying."

My cockpit projected a map of Isengard with the purified areas displayed in

blue. The red areas were places that were still steeped in divine venom.

The map showed that the purification zone had reached the golden palace,

which basically meant we didn't have to worry about the venom anymore. Now

all I needed to do was call Moroha and the others to have them defend the

puretree, then begin my march on the enemy.

I hopped out of Reginleif, contacted Moroha, and used [Gate] to bring the

group through. Moroha, Takeru, and Karina all flexed and stretched after

walking through the portal.

"Mmm. I don't feel like I'm at my best, but it'll do."

"You can still feel the venom? I thought we'd purified most of it."

Moroha worried me a bit, which made Takeru and Karina laugh.

"It's just because this whole territory is connected to parts that are steeped in

the venom. We're in our human forms, but we're still full gods. That makes us

sensitive to even the tiniest bit of atmospheric impurity. Don't sweat it, though.

It won't actually hurt us. Just makes us a little queasy at worst."

"Aye aye! I got guts to power through, no big deal! Leave this to us, and you

go do your mission, kid! God Almighty is watching from home, don't forget it!"

It seemed like they'd be fine, thankfully. All three of them gave me a

motivational pat on the back. I knew that the puretree would be completely

safe in the hands of the trio, so I just had to make sure that the rest of my

mission went off without a hitch.

I pulled out a greatsword and a longsword for Moroha from [Storage], then a

bow, quiver, and hand-axes for Karina. Lastly, I pulled out the same kind of

gauntlets Ende was wearing and gave them to Takeru. All the weapons were

made of crystal. I'd even made sure that Takeru's gauntlets were the same

design as Ende's, which I had a feeling he'd appreciate. Probably, at least... The

moment they took up their weapons, they charged off to the battlefield. They

really ran off quickly, so they must've been itching to fight.

It was pretty amazing that they were going up against Fake Gears without

anything other than their weapons and bodies, but I knew that they'd be

capable of handling it.

After all that, I threw Reginleif into [Storage] and headed back to my fiancees.

"Are we heading out, are we?"

"Indeed, is it time?"

The moment I entered the tent, Yae and Hilde stood up. Yae had her blade in

hand, and Hilde was wielding the crystal blade I'd given her on our first

meeting. Seemed like they were itching to go, too.

"It's time. I called Moroha and the others out, so the puretree's fine now. We

just need to advance on the forest and take out the wicked god."

Everyone nodded at once. None of them looked the least bit apprehensive. I

was pretty amazed by their calm attitudes, but part of me was worried, since I

felt like I was the only concerned person there.

I called up Ende's group and told Commander Lain that we'd be beginning our

mission at any moment.

"Very well, Grand Duke. I wish you the greatest of luck."

"Thanks. We'll be off, then."

I opened up a [Gate] that took me and the others to Isenberg, the former

capital. The ones joining me on this mission were my fiancees, Ende, Melle,

Ney, and Lycee. It was a grand total of fourteen people. Sadly, Paula had to stay

behind.

As we stepped through the portal, the scene that unfolded around us stunned

us into silence. The place was positively desolate. Dark clouds loomed

overhead, and corpses piled up in the streets. The city that was once the witchking's greatest achievement was no more. Isenberg was basically just a mass

grave.

"I'd heard the stories, but seeing it in the flesh is awful..." Elze shook her head

quietly.

Bastet's report indicated that the corpses had no physical signs of damage,

and that was definitely true. The only proof of their exposure to the elements

was their worn-down clothing. Each one of them had died with expressions of

twisted agony and grief on their faces. It was a little unsettling just to look at...

"Touya!"

"Huh?"

I turned in response to Linze's shout and saw a man charging toward me. A

man who had been a prone corpse mere moments ago. His tongue lolled out of

his mouth, and his eyes were perfect whites. He was the spitting image of a

Zombie, and I was honestly frightened.

"[Slip]!"

"Gruuugh!"

The Zombie slipped, moaned, and fell face-first into the ground.

Geez, that was freaky. It's scary as hell when you're attacked out of nowhere.

Linze didn't skip a beat, casting [Fire Storm] on the Zombie. It was consumed

by the swirling flames and burned to ashes... Or at least, that was what I

thought before a golden Skeleton emerged from the inferno.

"I knew it. Those who have their souls sucked out are fated to become these

golden Skeletons. Look at its chest," Leen spoke up, and I glanced over at the

Skeleton's ribcage. There was a mutant core nestled inside, around the size of a

golf ball. This body had already become a mutant, well and truly.

"Lestian Sacred Sword: Fifth Swirl!" Hilde roared and plunged her blade into

the Skeleton's chest. Her rotating strike shattered both the Skeleton's ribs and

the core they were housing.

The Skeleton melted into nothingness, letting out black smoke as it vanished.

It was likely that they'd been building their Skeleton army from the dead here.

"We've raised a bit of a fuss, Touya."

"Hm?"

Ende's comments made me turn around, and I noticed that all the corpses in

the vicinity were now shambling toward us. It was gross.

"Will purification magic work on them?"

"On ordinary Zombies, yes... But these ones are just Crystal Skeletons wearing

skin... so I doubt it would do a thing."

"Hmph..." Sue seemed unsatisfied with Leen's response. She was probably

annoyed because she could've easily wiped out an undead horde with her light

spells.

Sakura used [Icebind] to freeze the feet of the approaching Zombies. This

allowed Leen to cast her own spell as a follow-up.

"Burn forth, Wind! Gale of Flames: [Ignis Hurricane]!"

A massive whirlwind started blowing through the area, incinerating

everything it touched. The spell Leen had unleashed was a compound spell

she'd learned from Babylon's library.

It was truly a terrifying force, reducing the Zombies around us to Skeletons in

an instant. But sadly, even powerful magic could do little more than burning

away the flesh. Their bones still had the Phrase's anti-magic attributes, after all.

Luckily, we had Yae, Hilde, Lu, Elze, and Ende to make up for that. They

charged in and started shattering cores. I didn't want to seem like I was just

standing there, so I took a few potshots with Brunhild as well.

"Seems like all the corpses here are Skeletons, then."

"But why did they attack us? They hadn't moved at all before now..." Lu

muttered to herself as she sheathed her blades. Much to my surprise, Ende

came over with the answer.

"They operate similarly to the Phrase, so I'm willing to bet they reacted to our

heartbeats. Look at Melle and the other Phrase girls. They haven't reacted to

them at all, see?"

He was right. There were no golden Skeletons near that trio at all. Melle, Ney,

and Lycee all had a small [Prison] enchanted around their cores that prevented

sound from escaping. It was a countermeasure that prevented them from being

detected by the other mutants. Their heartbeats, or rather, their wavelengths,

weren't audible.

"Let me put it this way. If you walked past a group of magical beasts while

playing loud musical instruments, they'd obviously wake up, right?"

He had a point. If someone woke me up by playing loud instruments, I'd

probably want to attack them too.

"Well, let's not waste our time here. We should head to the palace."

I opened up [Storage] and pulled Reginleif out. Everyone else summoned

their Frame Gears and climbed into the cockpits.

Ende's Dragoon was built for speed and maneuverability, so it didn't have

much space in the cockpit. Melle managed to squeeze in with Ende, but Ney

and Lycee had to ride outside on its hands. They could have easily ridden along

with Linze in Helmwige, but the two of them said they wanted to stay as close

to Melle as possible.

Linze and I took to the skies, hovering above the others as we began our

march to the palace.

"Must be nice flying up there, Touya. Can't you upgrade my Dragoon so it can

do that, too?"

"Why not outfit yourself with one of our flight gears?"

"You kidding me? This is a machine built for speed! A big-ass shield like that

would just slow me down... Guess it's a no-go, huh?"

I had nothing to say to Ende's grumbling. He was right. The ideas behind the

Dragoon and the flight gear were fundamentally incompatible. The Dragoon

was built for land speed, so it was pointless making it fly. My Reginleif was the

culmination of Frame Gear tech, combining the knowledge gained from every

different version we'd built, so I wasn't just about to let him have one too!

We headed out of Isenberg and came to a vast plain. The dark clouds in the

sky blotted out the sun, making it seem like night had fallen despite it only

being noon.

We carried on across the plains until we could see a muddy golden mass of

giant crystals on the horizon. The fact that it was visible despite the distance

meant it must have been massive... It really did seem like some kind of palace.

At that point, we decided to stop our advance in order to figure out our plan of

action.

"Is there a chance they haven't noticed us yet?"

"They've definitely noticed us. The golden Skeletons that were surrounding

the palace are inbound."

Yumina's words made me zoom in my camera, and I saw the mass of

Skeletons making their way in our direction.

"Looks like it's my turn."

The black Frame Gear, Leen's Grimgerde, stomped forward.

"Guess it's war, eh? Might as well start it off with a bang!"

Grimgerde's chest armor slid open, revealing two gatling guns. Two cannons

atop its shoulders also slid forward and angled upward. The six-barreled gatling

gun on both arms began revving up, as did the head-mounted vulcan cannon

and the sixteen-shot rocket pods on the shoulders and waist.

Grimgerde's heels dropped a deep anchor into the ground, fixing it firmly to

one spot.

"Volley primed! Full Burst!" Leen yelled out, and a veritable storm of bullets

went flying toward the approaching Skeleton army. Frame Gears couldn't

technically run out of ammo, since they automatically replenished themselves

using teleportation magic connected to the ammo storage on Babylon, so

Grimgerde was more likely to overheat than anything.

The golden Skeletons were smashed to smithereens by the incoming

projectiles. It was hard to say whether or not any of the bullets or rockets hit

the Skeletons in their cores, since they were obliterated along with the

landscape at their feet.

The Skeletons were blown sky-high, glimmering as they flew through the air in

several pieces.

"That is certainly a bang, it is..."

"I can't believe it... It just keeps on firing..."

I was pretty amazed as well. It was basically a non-stop barrage of the

[Explosion] spell. Plus, the power fluctuated depending on which type of ammo

was being launched, so it was variable. I had a feeling that only Leen or I could

sustain this kind of attack.

Shell after shell landed on the enemy, but the artillery fire showed no sign of

stopping. Each explosive blast dug another chunk out of the ground, reshaping

the plain's very landscape. This was the true power of Grimgerde, a Frame Gear

that had been designed for overwhelming mass destruction.

After many long minutes, the hail of bullets came to an end. Grimgerde

stopped moving entirely, and white smoke vented from every port on it.

Grimgerde's main weakness was that it needed to enter a cooldown period

after unleashing an attack like that. The machinery would heat up to an

extreme level, so the magic engravings would begin cooling the armor. Several

blue lines ran across the black armor, generating more and more steam that

rose upward and dissipated. The entire process took roughly twenty seconds,

but Grimgerde was extremely vulnerable during that period.

That was why Leen never just used the full burst attack in regular battles. It

could only be used when there were allies around to keep her safe, or if she

was firing from a completely defended area.

When the smoke finally cleared, roughly ninety percent of the Skeletons were

on the ground in fragmented chunks, dissolving into nothingness as black

smoke plumed from their parts.

"Grand Duke... I hear something... Cracking and splitting... right ahead... from

the crystal mass..."

Just as Sakura spoke, a crystal pillar broke off one of the golden palace's

corners, and a group of Fake Gears came swarming out toward us from the

massive hole. They were moving to our location at high speeds.

They all wielded dark gold weapons and moved in unison. Their

synchronization was confusing to me, since I hadn't expected them to be so

organized.

"Touya. Melle just registered General Xeno's wavelength. He's among that

group."

"Seriously?"

Ende's words made me zoom my camera in on the group of Fake Gears. There

were several spike-armored versions mixed in with the crowd, with an even

more unique one among those. It was larger than usual and had a comb-like

plume atop its head like a Roman helmet. It was likely the one that belonged to

their commander.

"No doubt about it. Xeno is inside that one. And those spiked Fake Gears

around him are likely being piloted by his subordinates from Phrasia. They're

moving very differently from the others."

Just like that, a new enemy stood in our path. He was the Phrase's ultimate

combat-oriented lifeform. The strongest of their species. General Xeno.

◇ ◇ ◇

A high-pitched voice resonated across the battlefield. It was vocal magic being

released by Sakura's Rossweisse. Her song had the effect of increasing all our

agility when fighting against the enemy.

The French pop song rang out as we clashed against the Fake Gears.

I switched the twelve Fragarach boards on Reginleif's back to form an

enormous lance.

"[Accel Boost]!" I roared as I charged ahead, my Frame Gear infused with my

magic. Then, I speared Fake Gear after Fake Gear with my lance, charging

through their ranks like Moses parting the Red Sea.

"Take this!" Sue, in her Ortlinde's Overlord form, said as she brought a

hammer smashing down on incoming foes. It wasn't a throwing hammer this

time, but a regular old warhammer. It wasn't anything special at all, just a huge

hunk of metal that was only good for smashing. However, in the hands of the

enormous Ortlinde Overlord, it was a brutal weapon of mass destruction.

The golden Skeleton pilots that had fallen from the Fake Gears I'd smashed

were turned into paste by Sue's furious hammer attacks. Those that tried to get

out of the way were trampled by Ortlinde's feet. It was an utter massacre; none

of them managed to escape.

Sue's Ortlinde may have shimmered a similar gold to the Fake Gears, but it

was clearly leagues ahead of them in terms of might.

"Hiyah!"

Ortlinde swung its hammer like a golf club, sending several Fake Gears flying

into the distance. The airborne enemies were promptly dispatched with pinpoint accuracy by Yumina's Brunnhilde. Thanks to her precision, we were able

to press on without worrying about what was behind us.

"Gaaaaaah!"

Elze, presumably emboldened by the knowledge of that safety, had her

Gerhilde charge into the enemy ranks and started brawling. At least, I hoped

that was why she was being so reckless. Gerhilde shattered each and every Fake

Gear that dared to step near it.

"SMASH!"

Gerhilde's fist smashed into one of the Fake Gear cockpits, following it up

instantly with an [Explosion]-propelled pile bunker blast that completely

annihilated the Skeleton inside. Just to be certain, Elze stomped on the fallen

Skeleton fragments. It would've been a waste if the core survived, after all.

"Kokonoe Secret Style: Bee Stinger!"

"Lestian Sacred Sword: Fifth Swirl!"

The purple samurai and the orange knight stood back to back, shattering Fake

Gear cockpits on either side of them. Yae masterfully handled her Schwertleite

alongside Hilde's Siegrune. The two of them slashed foe after foe, staying back

to back in perfect tandem. With each flash of their blades, more muddy-golden

fragments fell to the ground.

Bullets flew in from afar to finish off the Skeletons in the wreckage. They were

fired by Lu's Waltraute, which was equipped with the C-Unit for long-range

engagement. The emerald-green Frame Gear launched payloads that exploded

above the enemy, bursting into a shower of [Gravity]-enchanted phrasium

fragments that rained down on the fallen foes. The attack worked much like the

cluster attacks I employed against Upper Constructs in the past.

Leen's Grimgerde, which had recovered from its cooldown period, was

launching similar attacks.

High up in the air, Linze's Helmwige soared across the battlefield. She was

relaying real-time intelligence about battlefield changes to us. Linze was also

casting [Ice Wall] from above, blocking off enemy groups as necessary, and

luring them into traps. It was pretty amazing.

I looked to the side and saw Ende's Dragoon veering away from the battle. Of

course, I knew that he wasn't fleeing. I could see that he was luring several of

the stronger, spiked Fake Gears away with him.

Since I left the Phrase General Xeno to Ende's group, I released the [Prison]

spell I'd placed around the three girls' cores. That effectively meant they were

broadcasting their position to the mutants in the area.

Thus, Xeno would be able to see that the Sovereign was right before him. In

effect, that turned them into bait. I was still a little worried about the size of the

group Xeno had with him, though...

"Hey, Ende. Seems like you're pretty popular right now. You gonna be able to

manage?"

"Pfft. Don't give me that, Touya. You're way more popular. But don't worry,

the ones chasing us aren't mutants. They're Dominant Constructs, regular ones,

just like Melle and the others. Pure Phrase from the homeworld."

That information confused me. I wondered if there was some reason they

hadn't been converted.

"Elze, Sakura. Sorry for the trouble but can you lend Ende some help? Just

stick to supporting him, don't charge in."

"Mmh... Fine... Guess I can help out my useless fellow disciple..."

"Are they slowing you down, Grand Duke...? They deserve to be

reprimanded..."

"Touya... Your brides-to-be are a little bit..."

"A-A little what? W-Wonderful? I know!" I answered quickly, since Elze and

Sakura were still on the line. I couldn't exactly say anything bad about them

while they were in earshot!

There were about twenty of the spiked Fake Gears heading after Ende's

Dragoon. Gerhilde and Rossweisse came up from behind them, hot on their tail.

I decided to entrust them with handling that situation, so I could focus on the

battle at hand.

◇ ◇ ◇

"This'll do," Ende proclaimed as he spun his Dragoon around, ready to face his

pursuers head-on.

"Are you ready for this?"

"I am. Who else could put an end to this but me?"

Ende's lover, the Sovereign that once reigned at the apex of Phrasium life,

nodded solemnly. And, after hearing her resolve, Ende didn't hesitate to press

down on the button that opened the cockpit hatch.

The monitor in front of them rose upward, and dim, natural light shone down

on to them both. Melle stood proudly atop the opened hatch, silently staring

across the plain. Her visage was an imposing one, in all honesty. She shone with

the majesty that suited the title of Sovereign. Ende couldn't help but think she

was far more regal than a certain grand duke they both knew. She'd already

removed the illusion pendant that she'd received from Touya. She chose to

stare down the incoming enemies with her true body, with her ice-blue eyes.

Ney and Lycee, true to their roles as her personal guards, stood in their true

forms as well. Each stood atop one of the Dragoon's hands, lying in wait.

Once the Fake Gears made it a certain distance from them, they stopped

moving. Then, following suit with the Dragoon, the Fake Gear hatches opened

as well. The comparatively tiny forms within were revealed to be crystal-clad

beings of pure phrasium, Dominant Constructs.

The hatch of the largest Fake Gear opened up, revealing a much more

imposing Phrase lifeform. He stood with his arms folded, prompting Melle and

the others to narrow their eyes. He was a Dominant Construct with jagged,

blood-red crystals clumped around his body. The Phrase were not a species that

aged. They grew from cores, manifested a physical form, and at a certain point

they reached maturity and no more physical changes came about. It wasn't too

dissimilar to how elves and fairies aged.

The man who stood before Melle and the others looked to be in his early

twenties if viewed through a human lens. His eyes were sharp and narrow, like

that of a hawk. His face was plastered with an arrogant grin. Back on Phrasia,

this powerful creature had served as general, leading countless Phrase soldiers

into battle against their enemies. His name was Xeno.

"Been a while, Sovereign. You're looking plenty healthy."

"I am Sovereign no more. I don't need your false pleasantries, General... No,

Xeno. Answer me this. Why did you leave Phrasia? I left you orders to stand by

the new Sovereign's side, did I not?"

There was a fair bit of distance between the two, but communication didn't

appear to pose any problems. It seemed that Dominant Constructs had some

form of intuitive understanding in that regard.

The conversation extended to Ney, Lycee, and even Ende. The only ones who

wouldn't be able to understand the conversation were Elze and Sakura. They'd

have been able to hear that some kind of noise was being transmitted, but

they'd fail to grasp the intricacies of the conversation.

"The next Sovereign, you say? Sorry to say it, ma'am. That little runt doesn't

have what it takes. Hell, don't those two weaklings next to you agree? They left

Phrasia to look for you, didn't they? It's only natural we wouldn't want our

species to suffer under such weak rule."

Xeno's words prompted Ney and Lycee's ire. Just as Ney was about to speak

up, Melle stopped her.

"You believe my younger brother to be weak, Xeno?"

"No shit. He was talking about things like peaceful cohabitation and making

amends with our foes. Do you think such weak thoughts are appropriate for our

species? If there's an enemy in your way, crush it. If they have some kind of use,

then employ them as a tool. I can't even bear to entertain the thought of

serving such a cowardly little priss. Fighting is in our cores, Sovereign. I can't

serve one who rejects his base instincts," Xeno said with a grin on his face, but

Melle remained composed.

He couldn't think of anything other than battle. He truly was Gila's brother in

that regard. He was bred for war and thrived in war. Even if he didn't

indiscriminately fight on a whim like his younger brother, they were

philosophically similar people.

"To be honest, I was thinking about killing the little twerp. But I didn't really

feel like that would be satisfying, you know? No fun in smushing an insect.

That's when Yula showed up with a tempting little offer, you see. He told me

he'd be able to prepare a situation where I could fight you, Sovereign. I gladly

accepted. I didn't want anything to do with that weird golden shit, though."

"I see... So it was Yula pulling the strings all along. Where is he, anyway?"

"Beats me... Been a while since I've seen him, don't really give a shit. Enough

prattling, Sovereign. It's time you quenched my thirst for battle," Xeno smiled

wide as he said that, his carnivorous teeth flashing over the distance. He wasn't

leaving without the fight he'd been craving.

"Very well. It seems further discourse would be wasted on you children. As

the former Sovereign, I will take it upon myself to send you to the next life."

"Pah. Nice of you to finally attend to your duties properly," Xeno sneered, but

gave a respectful bow nonetheless. He then returned to his cockpit.

Ende closed his cockpit and picked up a comm call from Elze.

"So? How'd the talk go?"

"Not so good, not that we were expecting a peaceful solution. Still, we

wanted to know why they were here, and we found out. Now we can proceed

as planned."

"Got it. I'll take out the ones on the outer rim, okay?"

"Go for it."

When Ende finished speaking, Sakura's singing voice rang out from

Rossweisse's speakers. The song had a great, upbeat flow, it grooved through

the battlefield in a jaunty manner. She was singing the song with its original

lyrics, so nobody in the area had any idea what it was about. It was a famous

song by an English pop duo, with lyrics like, "don't leave me hanging on like a

yo-yo." The title was actually a bit different for its Japanese release, but it was

still a great melody.

The song spurred the magical reactors inside the nearby Frame Gears and

improved the agility of Sakura's allies by extension.

"Let's do this, Gerhilde!"

The crimson reaper charged into battle, kicking off from the ground as it

activated its back-mounted boosters. Before anyone could blink, Gerhilde was

right in the middle of the fray, smashing its mighty fist into a Fake Gear's

cockpit. The pile bunker came seconds afterward, driving through the enemy

pilot and obliterating them entirely.

"That's one down!"

Another Fake Gear came in to fight Gerhilde, but it simply backed up and

delivered a swift roundhouse kick in response. A blade popped out of Gerhilde's

leg, bisecting the Fake Gear at the cockpit, and splitting the pilot in two.

"And that's two!"

Ende couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding dread as he watched his

fellow disciple gleefully smash the Dominant Constructs to bits.

"...W-Well, I guess it takes a very special kind of girl to match pace with

Touya."

Ende thought all of Touya's fiancees were a little bit weird, but he certainly

knew better than to say that out loud. He had a lot of sense in that regard. No

matter the era or world he was in, angering a fair maiden was a one-way ticket

to getting your ass beat.

"Alright, let's deal with our enemy."

Ende turned the Dragoon to face Xeno's Fake Gear head-on. Their enemy

wielded a large sword and shield. He requested Ney and Lycee jump down from

the Dragoon's hands, lest they get in the way.

"Hey, Endymion! If anything happens to Lady Melle, don't think I'll forgive

you!"

"In the worst-case scenario, sacrifice yourself to save Lady Melle."

"Th-Thanks for the emotional support, guys... I appreciate it."

Ende slumped his shoulders slightly. Melle giggled softly and opened her

mouth.

"Oh my, did you want them to cheer you on?"

"...Nah. Not quite, I guess. Your support's good enough for me, Melle."

"Hehe... Thank you, Ende. Do your best. You are my champion, after all. I'll be

rooting for you."

"You can count on me."

The Dragoon released its heel anchors, prepared for a high-speed clash. The

miniature magic motors in its leg began to whir, roaring like a dragon. Ende's

precious machine was itching for a fight as well.

"Let's roll, Dragoon!"

The Dragoon, housing the Phrase Sovereign and the wanderer of worlds,

charged forward at full power. The ground rushed by beneath their feet. The

Dragoon accelerated even faster, thanks to the vernier thrusters on its waist

and back.

The Dragoon drew two phrasium blades from its back, meeting General

Xeno's muddy-gold broadsword head-on. A heavy clang rang out as the

weapons clashed.

"Gh!"

Ende was stupefied. His weapons were made out of phrasium, and they'd

been strengthened by Touya's absurd magic. The fact that Xeno had managed

to parry his attack was baffling. He swung around with the second blade, but it

was blocked by the muddy-gold shield. It was clearly made from the same

material as the sword.

"That's no normal Fake Gear, is it?"

"Heh... Took you long enough. I made this thanks to Yula, even if it pains me

to owe such a sniveling weasel a debt."

More interestingly than that, Ende couldn't help but notice the strange chilike aura emanating from the sword and shield. He couldn't quite place it, but

something was unsettling about the aura wrapped around that Fake Gear.

"...I don't remember being able to see energy so clearly before..." Ende

mumbled to himself. He wondered if this was perhaps one of those traits, like

the ones Touya's fiancees had. If this was such a gift from the divine, he'd likely

gotten it from his master. He couldn't be sure if he was happy about having that

power or not, but he put it out of mind and backed up from the Fake Gear in

front of him.

"Guess we should get him out of there first."

Ende charged forward full-throttle with his Dragoon, moving in to attack and

then falling back, repeatedly. The Dragoon was built for this kind of speedbased offense. It would slowly get in small hits while looking for a chance to

land a massive one.

"Baha! Pathetic! You think such half-assed attacks are gonna work?! You

better learn to take this seriously!" Xeno screamed as his shield came rushing in

toward the Dragoon's incoming weapon, bypassing it and striking the Frame

Gear right on the arm.

The Dragoon was staggered due to the sudden impact, allowing Xeno to bring

his massive blade down on to the mech's head.

"Gah!"

Ende just dodged the strike by a hair's breadth. He didn't escape fully

unharmed, though. The blade had sliced off one of the mech's decorative

horns. Ende remained crouched and switched the wheels on the bottom into

reverse mode. He sped backward.

"You won't get away, brat!"

The Fake Gear being piloted by Xeno hurled its shield toward the retreating

Dragoon. The projectile blasted forward and knocked one of the legs hard,

shattering one of the wheels to bits.

"Ghah!"

The Dragoon completely lost its balance, tumbling to the ground. Xeno rushed

in, wasting no opportunity, and brought his blade high into the air.

"Ghh!"

Ende raised his weapon up, straining hard against the weapon above. The

Dragoon was more agile, but this meant that its body wasn't as sturdy as a

standard Frame Gear. Unfortunately, a mech designed for speedy combat was

in no state to hold its own up close against a powerful foe.

"What's wrong?! Is this all you have?! I want to fight even more!"

"Ghh... Doesn't matter if it's Gila or this guy... Fighting against the combat

strain is rougher than it should be. Sorry, Melle... Can you lend me your

strength?"

"Of course I can, Ende. This isn't just your battle. It's mine as well."

"Hm?!"

The Dragoon suddenly dropped its weapons. Icy crystals began to form on the

Dragoon from the elbow upward, covering both forearms and fists entirely. The

phrasium took the shape of two heavy, spiked gauntlets. It also formed from

the knees down, covering the shins.

"Hoh. So she's using her crystal fortification? That's much more up my alley!"

Dominant Constructs could harden their bodies with crystal material. But that

was something they could only do to themselves. The ability to harden external

objects was a power unique to the Sovereign. Even Phrase like Xeno could make

basic crystal structures and use them offensively, but he couldn't freely

manipulate phrasium and give it unique shapes or purposes.

Melle was a prodigal genius when it came to the art of crystal manipulation.

Ever since he started serving her, Xeno held a tiny ambition within the depths of

his heart. His little brother wanted to take the Sovereign's power, but Xeno had

no such aspirations. He simply wanted to annihilate the Sovereign, a genius who

had managed to unlock the secret of traveling across worlds. He wanted to

prove his might to the universe, to show that his martial prowess exceeded her

magnificent talents. He wished only to grind her core to dust and let it fade

away.

He did not hate her, far from it. Xeno admired Melle. He found her beautiful.

She was a supreme being, something far beyond him. That was exactly why he

was filled with the burning desire to break her. But the Sovereign vanished from

Phrasia one day without any real warning. The sense of grief and loss that Xeno

suffered that day was hard to put into words. That's why he was truly thankful

to Yula, for giving him the chance to meet the Sovereign again on the

battlefield.

Now there was only one obstacle between Xeno and his target. He needed to

wipe out this troublesome brat in the machine, so he could have his true battle.

Xeno's Fake Gear swung its blade down toward the Dragoon once more. A highpitched sound rang out as the mech punched the weapon away.

"Mnh?!"

"Now then... Hand-to-hand? This, I like. I'll be using the abilities my master

taught me. Better watch out, Xeno."

The Fake Gear's sword hand was suddenly seized by the Dragoon's left. It was

dragged forward, allowing Ende to punch the muddy-gold thing in the elbow. A

cracking sound ripped upward through the Fake Gear as it lost its right arm.

Even the Fake Gears were weak around the joints. They had to be if they

wanted to be as mobile as the Frame Gears they were imitating. But they were

still made up of mutated phrasium, so they could regenerate. For regular Fake

Gears, they'd just regenerate using the cores of the Skeletons inside, but these

ones used the cores of Xeno and the other Dominant Constructs.

The mutants were offshoots of the original Phrase, after all. Dominant

Constructs were more than capable standins for basic mutant Skeletons.

Though, obviously, the mutants and the regular Phrase weren't completely

compatible. Thus, the regeneration was a little slower than it should have been.

And Ende wasn't about to let that opportunity pass him by.

"Combat God: Almighty Palm Strike!"

The Dragoon's palm strike, which was infused with just a bit of divinity,

loomed toward the Fake Gear's cockpit.

"Gaugh?!"

Xeno guarded himself with his left hand. It was an instinctive reflex in

response to danger, one that had kept him alive several times on the

battlefield. The noise of the impact was insanely loud, but Xeno only felt a small

impact on his Fake Gear's left arm. However... The arm crumbled away into

dust.

"Damn, I missed."

"Wh-What was that power?!"

"That's a secret."

Even though Ende had some control over divinity, he was barely even a

beginner in the grand scheme of all things. It wasn't his own power, but more

like power he'd borrowed from his master. The God of Combat was a master of

controlling chi, and Ende had followed suit in picking up that art as well. He was

beginning to make that kind of power his own, just a little.

"I've never been much of a weapon wielder, honestly. I only used the swords

with the Dragoon because it's built for that kind of combat style."

If he'd used his hand-to-hand style with the Dragoon in its regular state, its

fists would have broken to bits. There was a world of difference between the

speed-oriented Dragoon and a Frame Gear like Gerhilde, after all. If he wanted

to brawl, he'd have to do considerable remodeling to his Dragoon, and he was

actually pretty fond of the Frame Gear as it was. He didn't want to remodel it.

But with Melle supporting him, he could bring out his true power. Her crystal

could even survive the slight divinity he was leaking.

Ende determined that it would be fine for him to brawl a little recklessly.

Though, to be honest, he'd probably only be able to use a divinity-infused

attack one more time.

The Fake Gear's right arm regenerated into a jagged blade. Xeno had

optimized the regeneration speed by simplifying the limb's shape. The blade

arm slashed forward, but it was easily caught by the Dragoon's gauntlet-hands.

However... This was exactly what Xeno wanted.

"Get a load of this!"

The Fake Gear's visor released a blinding flash of light.

"Gwuh?!"

The monitor display was bathed in white, causing Ende to lose sight of his

enemy. When the light cleared, Ende was greeted by the sight of the Fake Gear

thrusting its right arm toward the Dragoon like a spear. It was aiming for the

cockpit. Ende took evasive maneuvers, but the muddy-gold blade still sank deep

into the Dragoon's shoulder.

"Tsk."

Xeno tried to yank the blade out, but he found himself unable to. He glanced

and noticed that Melle's ice-blue crystals had bonded the mutated phrasium to

the Dragoon.

"Now, let's try this again. Prepare yourself!"

"Shit—!"

"Combat God: Almighty Palm Strike!"

Another palm strike came forward, this time landing squarely on the Fake

Gears' undefended torso. Xeno's Fake Gear finally broke free, falling backward

as it crumbled to pieces. The pieces of the Fake Gear rolled along the ground,

breaking up into debris until there was nothing left.

"Little bit sneaky to blind me, don't you think?"

Ende wheezed slightly, his borrowed divinity surely expired. His Dragoon was

in tatters. He knew that his master was definitely watching the fight... which

worried him. He couldn't consider this a proper victory, which meant his master

wouldn't view it that way either. That meant there'd definitely be an intensive

training course waiting for him a bit later on. The thought of it was unsettling.

But the battle wasn't over. The monitor displayed Xeno's figure, clambering

out of the cockpit debris. He was unharmed.

"Sovereign! You who forsook our homeworld! Come out, Sovereign! Come

out and grant my wish!"

The red-crystal clusters on Xeno's body began to grow until they coated his

entire body like sturdy armor. This was Xeno's special fortification. To Xeno, the

fight was far from over. Or rather... the fight hadn't even begun yet. The

Dragoon was just the warm-up.

"I will handle this, Endymion. Please watch me from the sidelines."

"Doesn't really feel very chivalrous leaving it to the lady I'm supposed to

protect, but... I respect your wishes."

Ende did as he was told, and opened up the cockpit hatch. Melle leaped into

the air. She descended gracefully, almost as if she had some kind of control over

the fall, and landed just as properly. Ney and Lycee ran to her side.

"Ney, Lycee. You mustn't interfere. It is my duty to finish things myself."

"B-But... Lady Melle!"

"I am the former Sovereign. I cannot turn a blind eye to this. And... if I must

be truthful, part of me longs for this battle as well."

Melle smiled softly and began to walk forward. Xeno stood before her, clad in

crystal fury. As Melle moved forward, ice-blue crystals began to coat her body.

A thin, elegant armor wrapped itself around her body. It was almost like a dress,

from the way it flowed. A thin vine of crystal began to curve its way around her

as well. The mere sight of her brought to mind the vision of a blue rose

personified.

Melle stopped walking. She was the serene blue, facing down a fearsome red.

"No more talk, Sovereign! I'm gonna smash you to bits!"

"If you believe yourself capable. I may have thrown away my status as

Sovereign, but that does not mean I discarded my power. I hope you can enjoy

what I have to offer... as I tear you limb from limb."

Xeno's grin only widened. Melle's expression remained neutral.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Xeno laughed like a madman, wildly

stomping toward his target. He shifted his arms into two crimson blades, intent

on slicing Melle apart.

"Prisma Rose."

The thin vine contorted around Melle's body, weaving into a protective net

that blocked Xeno's strike. The vines she wielded could serve as offensive and

defensive tools. They continued to move, snaking their way up Xeno's bladearms, then raised his body into the air and slammed him into the ground. His

right arm had been snapped off. The vines wrapped themselves around the

severed arm, discarding it like simple trash.

"Gahahahaha!"

Xeno clambered to his feet, laughing with renewed vigor. He fired several red

projectiles from his left hand. Melle, expressionless as ever, used her vines to

strike the projectiles down from the air. But, to her surprise, they exploded on

impact with the soil. The ground ruptured, bursting open with Melle right in the

midst of it. Dust clouds were kicked up, obscuring the battlefield around her.

A gust of wind blew through, clearing the dust. Melle was still standing,

unfazed. Xeno's right arm had regenerated, and he wasted no time reshaping it

into a spear. He charged once again at the Sovereign, aiming to impale her in

one fell swoop.

"You're mine!"

Xeno felt the tip of his spear sink into Melle's chest, but only for a fraction of a

second. She vanished and reappeared behind him in a flash. Her myriad vines

seized Xeno and bound him tightly. The thorns along the vines extended,

piercing into his red crystalline body. A single vine raised itself high into the air

above his head.

"Prisma Guillotine."

The vine grew a sharp blade at the tip and fell downward, cleaving Xeno into

two halves. Once again, her vines picked up his bisected pieces and discarded

them like trash. When his body was split, Xeno's heart burst with excitement.

The fear of being killed by such an overwhelming force as the Sovereign caused

ripples of pleasure to run through his body.

"Gahahaha!! This is the good stuff! Battles gotta be like this, or what's the

point?! It's gotta be life or death! A desperate struggle against a fearsome

enemy, but holding out hope for your own win! This is fantastic! I was born for

this!"

"I can't put myself in your position at all, Xeno."

Xeno regenerated his lower body as he pulled himself up by his arms. Melle

just stood there and watched him recover. Xeno's body completely regenerated

after a few seconds, then started to expand slightly. He was now a touch taller

and broader than he had been a minute ago. His features became a little more

fierce, almost like he was a crystal beastman. His throat began glowing,

exposing the location of his core.

Despite the lack of blood flowing through his nonexistent veins, Xeno's eyes

were clearly bloodshot. Ende understood Xeno's rampage as he watched from

inside the Dragoon. Xeno had been seeking an appropriate death. Melle

understood as well.

"You've decided to don your Zenith Armor? Very well, then. Come at me with

all you have."

"GRAAAARGH!" Xeno roared like a wild animal, charging furiously toward the

Sovereign. The core in his throat emanated an immense amount of light. Xeno's

very lifeforce was being channeled throughout his body. He'd focused

everything on this gamble. He was staking every iota of strength inside him on

this final shot.

A shrill noise rang out, cementing the destruction. And then... Silence. When

Ende and the others looked up, they saw Melle standing tall, Xeno's fist caught

in her left hand. There wasn't even a single crack of damage running through

her crystal body. Melle then began to squeeze, crushing the entirety of Xeno's

arm without any change in her demeanor at all.

"I hope this battle brought you satisfaction."

Xeno had no response to Melle's words. The Zenith Armor was a last-ditch

effort for the Dominant Constructs. It was an armor coating that shaved away

their very lives. After his last attack, Xeno was barely even conscious.

Melle closed her eyes, and a thorny rose stem jutted out from her body. It

flicked forward and pierced Xeno's throat. The tiny little core was obliterated in

seconds, crumbling to dust. The rest of Xeno's body followed suit, turning to

fragments on the ground. The single-minded Phrase, who knew only battle and

war, had finally met his match.

Melle turned around, wordless. She didn't bother looking back at the

crumbled remains of her former subordinate.

◇ ◇ ◇

My [Gladius] pierced through several mutant cores, causing them to break

down and let out black smoke. There weren't any mutants remaining. A few

Skeletons were scuttling around, but Ortlinde Overlord swiftly mopped them up

with a couple of stomps.

"Looks like there aren't any more coming..." I said as I turned toward the

golden palace. It was oddly quiet. I didn't think that we'd wiped them all out...

so I wondered if they were waiting for us to approach.

"Touya, Elze and the others are returning."

In response to Yumina's words, I turned to see Sakura's Rossweisse, Elze's

Gerhilde, and Ende's Dragoon coming back our way.

Hm? What happened to Ende? Holy crap, the whole Frame Gear's kind of a

mess... I zoomed in my camera on the Dragoon. One of its antenna horns had

been snapped off, one leg was missing its wheels, and there was a big hole

punched through one of the shoulders.

Welp... Rosetta's gonna have her work cut out for her. Repairing that mess

won't be a small feat.

"Looks like you got your ass beat."

"The enemy was stronger than we expected, but we took him out."

I opened up comms and heard Ende reply right away. Seemed like the man

himself was completely okay. Elze's voice suddenly interjected.

"We took him out? Don't you mean Melle took him out? I was watching the

whole thing. Don't think our master wasn't, either. He's gonna put you through

hell later!"

"Touya... Why are your fiancees so..."

"So what? Perfect? I have no idea, they're so great, aren't they?!"

Don't come to me for support against my brides-to-be, you idiot! I'm obviously

gonna throw you to the wolves if it comes down to it... I sighed quietly and

turned my sights back to the golden palace. Even though we'd been calling it a

palace, it was more like a crystal mountain. It certainly wasn't made of gold, just

muddied phrasium. It had protrusions here and there, with steep angles jutting

outward.

We found something that looked vaguely like an entrance, but it was only

four meters tall. Going in with Frame Gears wasn't really an option.

"Let's dismount for now," I ordered as I hopped out of Reginleif and stashed it

back in my [Storage]. Everyone else did the same, using their rings to store their

Frame Gears. Ende put his Dragoon into one of those microscope slides he

owned.

We clambered up the cliffside towards the entrance... is what I would've said

if I hadn't just used [Levitation] and [Fly] to bring us all up there.

The entrance was cleanly cut into the side of the crystal mass. It was about

four meters tall and two-and-a-half meters wide. The path led straight into the

crystal structure, a dull glow emanating from within. Honestly, it smelled way

too fishy. There weren't any enemies around at all. The whole thing just felt like

a trap. Still, we had to move forward. I decided to set up a couple of

contingency methods, just in case.

"[Prison]."

I summoned a barrier with myself as the center.

"Alright, let's roll. Ende. You watch the rear."

"Gotcha."

We walked down the hallway as a group. It was so silent that we could hear

our footsteps ringing out with each push ahead. We didn't know where we'd be

attacked from. It created a sense of unease, but we still continued onward.

"Th-This is a long hallway..." Linze timidly muttered as she glanced around. I

looked back and noticed that the entrance we'd come through was now so far

away that I could barely make it out. The path was on a slanted decline,

meaning we were headed downward.

It had gotten darker, so Linze summoned a [Light Orb].

"I wonder if they plan to collapse the crystal mass while we are underneath it,

I do."

"H-Hey, don't say that!"

Yae's words clearly made Elze uneasy. I reminded them that we'd be

unharmed thanks to the [Prison] I summoned, and they seemed relieved.

"Mm?" "Oh." "Ah?" Melle, Ende, and I suddenly stopped. Seemed like they'd

both felt the sensation I'd just felt.

"What is it?" Lu tilted her head in curiosity. I didn't want to stay silent and

intensify anyone's anxiety, so I just explained it right away.

"I felt space kind of like... distort, just now. I think this place is connected to

another area of space."

"Another area? Like the hangar?"

"Sort of. It's kind of a pocket space that exists next to your world, but doesn't

really exist at all... I believe you guys have been calling this a gap between

worlds..." Ende explained the rest. I remembered what God Almighty had told

me. That the gap between worlds was a space that connected different worlds

across long distances, and it was from there that the Phrase had originally

invaded.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Now then, Touya... How might I explain this to you? Ah... Let me put it in

these terms. Do you remember attending school while you were alive? Let us

use that as a metaphor. Your individual classrooms would be all the different

worlds, and I would be the principal."

"O...kay..."

Huh? What's the old man talking about now? Then again, I guess he does

remind me of a certain wizarding world's headmaster.

"Thus, the walls that separate the classrooms from the corridors would be the

world boundaries. And... climbing the stairs in the corridors would be like

ascending tiers of worlds... Yes, that works nicely. I suppose that would make

this place the rooftop? But I digress. Though I have the highest authority in the

school, I do not know everything that happens within the school. Each class is

independent study and does not always have supervision. Though I suppose if a

school did that it would be promptly shut down... But do not think about it too

hard, this is just a metaphor."

I could understand what he was getting at. No headmaster could keep track

of countless classrooms, especially when some of those classrooms didn't even

have teachers assigned to them.

"Now, to continue... Those beings known as the Phrase would be akin to flies

or mosquitoes that buzz around the hallways. When the classroom door opens,

however briefly, they will try to enter the classroom. Then the people inside the

classroom would move to destroy them."

"Yeah, makes sense."

"So the corridors would be the space between worlds. To travel through

worlds, you would ordinarily have to go through that space. Only the gods can

travel through classrooms without using the corridors. That is the unique ability

to travel through dimensions we have."

That explained things. It seemed that each world was connected to the space

between worlds. It was this space that the Phrase, and people like Ende, used to

hop between worlds. Kind of like how the school troublemakers would always

hang out in the hallways.

"It's kind of annoying, huh?"

"Indeed it is. We cannot just indiscriminately spray insecticide in these

hallways, either. Doing so would kill the good insects."

I couldn't help but picture the mental image of Ende rolling around on the

floor and foaming at the mouth alongside a bunch of dying phrasium lifeforms.

God Almighty was right. Indiscriminate murder wasn't the solution. I sighed

quietly as I sipped some tea.

◇ ◇ ◇

That was how the conversation with God Almighty had gone down. And now

we found ourselves in a space much like that gap between worlds.

"They're luring us in here, right?"

"Probably. But we don't have much of a choice but to continue."

We pressed on. Eventually, the corridor ended. We came out into a wide

area. The place was too dark to see the high-placed ceiling. The whole area kind

of gave off a vibe of some kind of temple... A fitting place for the wicked god.

"Touya... Look at that!"

"Ah...!"

Yumina's voice caused me to look straight ahead. There was an enormous

golden mass, kind of like an egg or cocoon, sitting silently before us. It was

huge. Far larger than any Frame Gear. It was shaped like an upright egg, with a

silky, golden substance reminiscent of spiderweb wrapped all around it. It kind

of reminded me of an insect's pupal form.

A lone figure sat atop the stationary mass.

"Yula..." Melle couldn't help but speak his name.

The cold-looking man, adorned in muddy golden crystal, stared down at us

with icy eyes.

"It has been some time, Sovereign. I didn't expect to meet you ever again. Ah,

and it has been some time since I last saw you as well, Mochizuki Touya."

"Surprised you remember me. You sure look different from last time. Almost

like a whole new guy."

His blue crystal body was now a muddy-gold, metallic substance. He'd

mutated. His thin, scholarly face had been overtaken by dark gold crystals. This

ambitious fool was now completely kin with the wicked god.

"I have discarded my meager existence as a phrasium lifeform. I have claimed

this new body, and new abilities. This is an evolution of my base form. Are you

not much the same, Mochizuki Touya?"

"Don't group us together, asshole. I'm not the same as you."

I didn't want him to compare himself to me.

"Oh? Well, no matter. You can feel it, can't you? The divinity emanating from

the cocoon! Can't you see it? The glimpse of utter perfection from within?!"

Yula's words were true. I'd been feeling a foreboding divinity in our

surroundings for a while. I could see that the source was the strange eggcocoon in front of us. It was a far deeper divinity than what the NEET god had...

I wondered just how many negative emotions this thing had feasted on. And so,

I raised Brunhild and pointed it right at the egg.

"Sorry to put a damper on your day, but that thing is the wicked god. I'll need

to get rid of it. It has no place in the future of our world."

"You pathetic little creatures don't get to decide what is necessary in the new

world I'm creating. That honor falls to me."

Yula snapped his fingers, causing a ringing sound to emanate through the

area. Several golden pillars rumbled up through the floor before immediately

melting down and taking the form of a small skeletal army. Some of the

Skeletons were wearing powered suits that resembled the dwarven-made

Dverg. They were probably made by reverse engineering Isengard's Gollem

technology. I wasn't surprised that we'd been ambushed.

More and more Skeletons rose up from the ground, attacking us with their

scimitars. But each of their weapons were deflected with a clang. The [Prison]

I'd set around them was an impenetrable defense, after all.

"What an annoying obstacle."

"Wh—?!"

The sound of shattering glass echoed out, and the barrier around us

crumbled. Yula had shot out a small laser from his finger, obliterating my

[Prison].

Shit. Muddy or not, divinity's still gonna work. The Skeletons won't do much,

but I can't reliably defend against Yula... Realizing we were undefended, the

golden Skeletons continued their assault.

I dodged an attack, using Brunhild's blade mode to pierce an incoming

Skeleton's core. Then, I quickly shifted to gun mode, popping a few shots into

some Skeletons behind me.

"Kokonoe Secret Style: Woodpecker Chain!" Yae unleashed several

consecutive strikes, shattering core after core without missing once.

Yae, Hilde, Lu, Elze, Ende, Ney, Lycee, and I stared down the Skeletons ahead

of us. Yumina, Linze, Sue, Sakura, Leen, and Melle supported us from the back.

"Prisma Rose!" Melle's hands unleashed a flurry of crystal vines, wrapping

them around the golden Skeletons in the area. She squeezed them until they

were crushed into little pieces. Their cores fell to the ground, where the tips of

those vines mercilessly pierced them.

Holy crap. That's terrifying... Sakura sang, supporting us with her magic. Linze

used Ice magic to freeze the enemy at their feet. Ende and Elze charged in,

punching open their rib cages. Lycee and Ney used their divine weapons to wipe

out foe after foe, while Sue and Leen focused on defensive magic to prevent

any getting through to us.

"Grugh."

One of the Skeletons in the powered suit came over with a mighty punch. The

mechanized, sixty-centimeter-wide fist came flying right at my face.

"[Power Rise]!" I roared, fortifying my body with magic, and catching the fist

in one hand. I was just about to rip it off, but a bullet from Yumina's Colt Army

Model 1860 pierced right through the mech-mutant's core.

Hot damn, that's some fine shooting... The Skeletons definitely weren't

enough to defeat us, but it was getting a bit tedious.

My grandpa once told me that the best thing to do when fighting a group was

to find a way to take out the boss in as spectacular a fashion as possible. He told

me that the wisest way to fight was to just find the guy in charge and punch the

hell out of him. I agreed.

"Ende, keep up the work against the Skeletons."

"Huh?"

I didn't waste any time and cast [Fly]. Then, I kicked off the ground and bolted

toward Yula, morphed Brunhild back to blade mode, and swung it down toward

his head.

Yula morphed his arm into a blade and stopped the attack. It was kind of

annoying that he'd blocked me so easily. It was even more annoying that Yula

flashed a smug grin while he did it.

"I had a feeling you'd attack me."

"Huh, is that right? What, did you prepare something to beat me with?"

I was a bit pissed off at this guy's smug attitude, so I tried sneering back at

him.

"Actually, yes."

"Huh?"

Yula smirked again, and several magical barriers triggered with him as the

focal point. That wasn't too unusual, since Ende and I often erected magic

barriers to defend ourselves. The strange thing about this barrier was... I was

inside it as well. I could barely even finish my confused thoughts before I was

swallowed up in a flash of light.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Tou...ya?" Yumina, who was still in the throes of battle, couldn't help but call

out in confusion.

Touya had charged up toward that Yula person, but he was suddenly engulfed

in a golden explosion... and then he disappeared.

Yumina thought maybe Touya had used teleportation magic, but the effect

seemed very different. That mutant, Yula, must have been the cause. He'd

successfully removed Touya... The strongest obstacle in his path.

Yumina... No, not just Yumina. All of the fiancees in the room were visibly

shaken by what had just transpired. They were his fiancees, but they were also

linked to him through his divinity. Through that link, they could feel him

wherever he was. No matter how far away Touya was, there was an absolute

connection binding them. But right now? That connection had been severed.

They couldn't feel his presence anywhere. Touya had been eliminated from

their subtle perception, creating a confusingly deep sense of loss within them.

"What just happened to Touya-dono, what happened?!"

"T-Touya?! Touya?!"

"G-Grand duke..."

The girls were quickly plunged into uncertainty. But they couldn't afford to

lose their cohesion this deep into enemy territory. Even though Yumina knew

that, she couldn't come up with a way to resolve the situation. Their attention

was drawn away, resulting in their attacks becoming dulled.

Slowly, the golden Skeletons began to gain the upper hand. Tears welled up in

Yumina's eyes as she lost sight of what to do. But suddenly, she heard the

sound of a pair of hands clapping together.

"Okay, calm down! Calm down! Hold it right there, you know?"

"H-Huh? Karen?!"

Yumina glanced around in confusion upon hearing the familiar voice, but

Karen was nowhere to be seen. Ende and the Phrase girls hadn't heard the

voice, either. Only Touya's fiancees had heard it.

"Touya's going to be okay, you know? He got separated from everyone else,

but it'll only be for a little while. He'll be back soon, you know?"

Those words eased Yumina's heart. It was true that Karen liked to tease and

mess around, but she wouldn't lie about something of this magnitude. If she

said Touya would be coming back, then it had to be true. Yumina believed in

Karen whole-heartedly. Everyone had their confidence restored by her words,

leading them to take the advantage over the Skeletons again.

"It's a little dangerous over there right now, you know? I think you should

make a break for it."

"Huh?"

Just as Yumina was about to question what Karen meant, the ground began to

rumble and shake.

"An earthquake? But how?"

"Gh... The space is breaking down!" Ende grumbled as he smashed another

Skeleton.

"We need to get out of here. This whole pocket dimension is about to

collapse. If we're still in here it'll crush us with it. Melle, can you take us out of

here?"

"I can. But what about Touya?"

"He won't be beaten by something this small. I'm sure he'll be back before we

know it," Ende proclaimed. He did not doubt that Touya would be okay. Touya

was a dependent of the god of worlds, a being far above his incredible master.

Ende knew that Touya wouldn't die even if he was killed. It was basically a

waste of time to worry about his odds of survival.

Melle spread out her crystal vines on the ground by Ende's side. They formed

a wide circle.

"Everyone! Get in the circle!"

The girls all entered the circle, bashing a few Skeletons on their way. Ende

hopped into the circle last, and the circle spread out, producing more vines that

pierced through several Skeletons.

Melle took that opportunity to trigger her dimensional transfer ability, taking

the entire group with her. But... within the rumbling, collapsing dimension,

another sound rang out. The sound of a shell splitting open.