Gakusen Toshi Asterisk - Volume 17 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

THE FINAL BATTLE I

Haruka drew back just in time to avoid a huge hammer swinging down at her, and then, with a single stroke of her sword-type Lux, she unleashed a blinding strike of her own.

The Valiant, its body sliced clean in two, crumpled to the ground—only for yet more units to step over the wreckage in pursuit.

“Haah… Just how many of these things are there?”

She was on a small airship landing strip not far from the commercial area in Asterisk’s central district. Most of its facilities, used for things like tourist flights, commutes to and from the lakeside cities, and commercial transport, had already been destroyed. They now lay burned and ruined around her.

An army of autonomous puppets—of Valiants—had popped up seemingly out of nowhere, sowing chaos and destruction.

Haruka and her team were already in the area to deal with another matter, and had rushed to the scene, but they didn’t have enough manpower to deal with everything alone. Most of the Stjarnagarm officers in her unit were busy rescuing the injured and directing evacuations, so she was left to hold off the Valiants by herself, at least until backup arrived. She might have been a rookie officer, but her fighting ability was still the best on her team.

At least there doesn’t seem to be a lot of injuries, considering the scale of the destruction…

The Valiants appeared to be focused on destroying public facilities and transportation infrastructure rather than directly attacking people. That said, as soon as someone tried to interfere, the machines would designate them as additional targets, summoning fresh units to lash out.

…Just like right now.

“Seriously…? Bind and seal!” Haruka murmured under her breath. A huge chain emerged from a void, binding the Valiants before they could reach her, and snagging ten more farther off in her line of sight.

The next moment, the machines exploded, pieces of metal raining all around.

The Amagiri Shinmei Style, Hidden Technique—Captive Carnage.

The Valiants seemed to be capable of deploying defensive fields, but unfortunately for them, the targets of Haruka’s chains were quickly drained of their power, and so posed little threat.

At that moment, an air-window snapped open before her.

It was a compulsory transmission from headquarters. It opened automatically with no opportunity to decline the call.

“Amagiri, report,” urged Helga Lindwall, Stjarnagarm’s commander. Judging from her tense expression, it was clear that the situation was desperate.

“Casualties have been kept to a minimum, but the airships here are almost totally destroyed. There might be one or two that can still fly…but we don’t have enough manpower to secure them, let alone deal with the Valiants. How about on your end?”

“The Valiants have launched simultaneous attacks throughout the city. They’ve taken out most of the ferries in the harbor, too. Looks like they’re trying to rob those in the city of any means of escape.”

“…If they’re trying to close off Asterisk, they must have some end goal in mind.”

“I agree. I’ve contacted the authorities in the lakeside cities, and it sounds like they’re dealing with the same kind of attacks. Not on the same scale, mind you, but we can’t expect any relief from them for now. That being the case, we need to secure a means of escape—a route to leave the city—even if we can only keep it open for a short period. Even just one or two airships could make a world of difference. Do whatever you can to protect them, Amagiri.”

“I’ll do my best…,” Haruka murmured as she brought her blade around to cut down a nearby Valiant.

But beyond the flames, she could see the silhouettes of countless more.

“How are there so many…? If they’re rampaging all over the city, there’s got to be more than a thousand of them…”

After all, she had already defeated several dozen units.

If the other attacks were on a similar scale, the number reported earlier had to be considerably off the mark.

“Oh, about that—”

“Yes indeed! Allow me to explain!” exclaimed a different woman, pushing Helga out of the frame of the air-window. The newcomer spoke with an alacrity that felt wholly out of place.

“…Ernesta.”

Haruka had met the woman on the other side of the air-window only once, back when she had first appeared at Stjarnagarm’s headquarters claiming to have valuable information. But this was her first time speaking to her directly. Apparently she was being kept at headquarters for protection and surveillance…

“As you know, I’ve got a whole lot of free time on my hands, so I’m happy to help out. Judging from the data I’ve received from your officers, it looks like other Valiants that I didn’t develop have been thrown into the mix.”

“Meaning?”

“Well, to put it simply, they’re copies. We used the facility provided by the client for the Valiants’ development and production, but naturally, we refrained from sharing any design data. It’s not an easy feat to replicate a completed product. I wonder if someone from Pygmalion or the like is giving them a hand. Nya-ha-ha-ha.”

Ernesta finished with a nonchalant laugh, but Haruka knew such a thing was more than possible with the power of the Varda-Vaos.

“Anyway, they aren’t up to the specs of the genuine product made by yours truly. Most importantly, they’ve got fairly low durability. From the looks of it, they’re disposable, only meant to see action this once. If left alone…let’s see, they’ll probably wear themselves out and self-destruct in a couple of days.”

“We don’t have that long to wait!” Haruka cried while summoning up fresh chains to block the attacks of yet more Valiants.

“No, of course not. Which is why, well, I’d like you to accept a small present from me.”

“A present…?”

Just then—

“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

—she heard a loud, raucous bale of laughter.

“Wooolniiir Haaammmeeerrr!”

Out of nowhere, a mass of light burst into being, smashing the next Valiant as it prepared to strike Haruka.

“Ruinsharif Mode Wolkenbruch—maximum output!”

At the same moment, more bullets of light than she could possibly count poured down like rain, stopping the swarm of Valiants already encircling her.

“It can’t be…”

Haruka watched, stunned, as two autonomous puppets landed before her with a deafening thud.

The first was a beautiful female-bodied puppet; the other had a large build and was almost identical in design to the Valiants, except for its white-and-blue armor—the opposite of the mass-produced units’ red and black.

“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” The larger of the two laughed. “My brothers, so pitifully devoid of ego! It pains me to destroy you this way, but if this is my master’s command, then so be it!”

“Oh?” the other said. “There’s no conflict in my heart as I lay waste to these dim-witted idiots made in your image! No, this is a wonderful form of stress relief!”

“…I wish you felt a shred of remorse, at least.”

“That would be physiologically impossible.”

Haruka, of course, easily recognized the two bantering puppets.

“Um…Ardy, right? And Rimcy?”

They were the very same machines that her brother Ayato had fought during the championship match of the Phoenix.

“Precisely!”

“That’s us. On our master’s orders, we’re here to help.”

The puppets were quick to answer, maintaining a state of heightened alert as they checked their surroundings.

At that moment, Ernesta’s voice sounded through the air-window once more: “Well, what do you know? I just got a call from the student council president. He was furious when he heard the news. Anyway, he asked me to cooperate with the city guard and to gather as much intel as possible to prove our innocence.”

That was little wonder.

No matter how you looked at it, Allekant Académie was in dire straits. Not only would Ernesta be held personally responsible, but the whole school would undoubtedly be placed under heavy scrutiny. No matter how many excuses the school council president made, it wouldn’t be enough.

“So that’s how it is. Use these two to your heart’s content. Oh, and I had Ardy’s external armor replaced so he won’t be mistaken for a Valiant, but it might still be a bit hard to tell from his silhouette, so be careful, please.”

“…I see. In that case, I’ll put them straight to work. Ardy and I will block the main gate to stop more Valiants from breaking in! Rimcy, you’re to clean up any remaining units still in the area!”

“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! On it!”

“Understood.”

It was unlikely that she would receive any more support from headquarters, so Haruka had no choice but to make do with the forces she had.

Just as she was about to lead Ardy to the main gate, Helga whispered through the minimized air-window: “Right, Amagiri. One more thing.”

“Yes?”

“I can’t reach them.”

“…Tch.”

Needless to say, by them, Helga meant Ayato and the others.

With one hand, Haruka motioned for Ardy to keep going, while she came to a stop.

“I just heard from Isabella. The leaders of the integrated enterprise foundations have been moved to a saferoom accessible from the special viewing lounges in the Sirius Dome. The Valiants don’t seem to be very active near the stadium, but considering the amount of personal security those executives have, they’re probably the safest ones in all of Asterisk right now… And Isabella doesn’t seem to have heard from them, either.”

“…I…see,” Haruka muttered, biting her lip.

Her brother, Ayato, was more important to her than anything else. The same went for his friends—though strictly speaking, with the exception of Saya, she still didn’t know them particularly well. To be perfectly honest, she wanted nothing more than to go and make sure they were all okay.

But she had responsibilities as an officer of Stjarnagarm, and she didn’t have the faintest idea where any of them were or what they were doing…

Suddenly, she noticed a message on her mobile. She hadn’t thought to check it before, as she tried not to use her personal device while on duty.

The sender was Ayato, the timestamp just before all this began.

She hurried to open it, and a short message of only a few words popped up on the screen: Pulling out the weeds by their roots, no need to worry.

“…Heh-heh!”

“What’s wrong, Amagiri?” Helga asked with a suspicious frown.

Only then did Haruka realize that her sour expression had given way to a broad grin. “Oh. No, it’s nothing,” she answered hurriedly before closing the air-window.

Yes, Ayato and the others were nothing if not reliable.

Her younger brother, who had always tagged along behind her as a kid, was now standing on his own two feet.

But that was exactly why she’d passed her family’s hidden techniques on to him, wasn’t it?

If her brother said he was going to eliminate the source of this calamity, and that she didn’t need to worry, then it was her duty as his elder sister to trust and support him.

“Hang in there, Ayato,” Haruka murmured as she ran after Ardy to do her part.

“You, me, Varda, Ayato Amagiri, the integrated enterprise foundations, everyone in this whole shitty world. I hope we all end up dragging each other down into an ugly, miserable pile, none of us ever winning… That would make me feel ever so slightly better about everything,” Dirk Eberwein said, spitting the words out like a curse as the air-window snapped shut.

“Dear me. Looks like we have more trouble on our hands,” Madiath Mesa said with an exaggerated sigh. He’d been betrayed at the last minute. “I thought he was a little more sensible than this, but I suppose there’s no acting against your own nature. Well, I’m not one to speak, so I can’t honestly say I blame him.”

His voice rang hollowly amid the deserted ruins of the Eclipse arena.

“…What’s the meaning of this?” Ayato demanded.

“Hmm? You mean him?” Madiath grinned as he shook his head. “Who’s to say? His gambit has played off splendidly. You’ve already reached me and Varda, and I, at least, have no means of killing him.”

With those words, he activated the Raksha-Nada. The atmosphere turned suddenly tense.

“But you all are partly responsible for this, wouldn’t you say?”

“…Why are you dragging us into it?” Saya called back with an angry glare.

“You’re the one who had the city guard unearth my past wrongdoings, no? Thanks to you, I had to leave the public eye sooner than anticipated. I was forced to entrust him with total command of the plan. This is the result.”

It was true that Ayato and Haruka were the ones who precipitated Stjarnagarm’s investigation after Minato gave them her father’s old diary. Though it was unfortunate that they had been used by Dirk, their efforts hadn’t been in vain.

“But there’s no point moping about it now. Besides, our plan isn’t ruined yet. Once I dispose of you here and Varda eliminates Enfield and her lot, everything will be back on track… Though I have to admit, I’m a little worried about Varda. That Orga Lux is prone to underestimating her opponents. Probably because she’s always looking down her nose at those from this side of the world.” Beneath his mask, Madiath visibly knitted his brows. “Well, in that case, we’ll just chalk it up to bad luck. It’s a pity, but it can’t be helped. It doesn’t particularly affect my goals.”

“You say one thing, the Tyrant another… Are you all working toward different objectives? What exactly are you hoping to achieve after Erenshkigal destroys the city?”

Ayato wasn’t surprised that the Golden Bough Alliance’s members had disagreements, but he hadn’t imagined that its members were this at odds with one another. After all, they had been advancing such a grandiose plan in complete secrecy for ages. Even with the abilities of the Varda-Vaos, that would have been nigh impossible without some degree of unity.

“Hmm. You haven’t worked it out?” Madiath said, his body filling with prana. “Well, there’s no point keeping you in suspense at this late hour. Yes, the three of us do have different goals. But none of them are particularly elaborate.”

Suddenly, the countless air-windows scattered around them slid shut one by one.

“Miss Orphelia will slaughter every human here, and in response, Genestella supremacists, carefully indoctrinated using Varda’s powers, will launch a series of terrorist attacks all across the world. In other words, it will be a decisive showdown between Genestella and the common man—that is our shared objective.”

“…!”

Ayato knew what they planned to make Orphelia do, but this was the first he was hearing about simultaneous terrorist strikes. His body stiffened, and Saya gasped beside him.

“The Varda-Vaos wants to create a world ruled by Genestella, a world fueled by conflict between them and regular humans, with the former emerging victorious,” Madiath continued. “As for Dirk Eberwein, the Tyrant…as you just heard for yourselves, he wants to turn society upside down, to turn those who have always been winners into losers. I’m guessing he means the integrated enterprise foundations specifically. I’m sure they both have their own plans for whatever comes next, but it’s not my place to get involved.”

“…What exactly is your goal, then?”

The air-windows continued to snap shut, one after the other, until only a single window was left—a live video feed showing Julis struggling against Orphelia.

“Haven’t I already answered that question? To accelerate things!”

The next moment, Madiath’s figure swayed.

“…!”

The slash was lightning fast.

Ayato’s body responded to the wave of bloodlust, moving reflexively at the last minute to block the Raksha-Nada with the Ser Veresta.

That speed…! And the strength behind his strike!

Ayato felt the impact deep in the core of his body. He braced his legs and clenched his teeth.

“Hmm. I didn’t hold back with that one. A young man’s growth and development truly is something to behold.”

Percival, whom they had encountered en route to Madiath’s location, had also been unusually strong. But in terms of agility and physical prowess, Madiath was even stronger, almost monstrously so.

Ayato had anticipated this, however.

During their last encounter, he hadn’t been able to hold his own against Madiath—even fighting alongside Haruka. Ayato was confident he had improved considerably since then, and was proud of his accomplishments, but he had to admit that Madiath’s fighting ability was still head and shoulders above his own in almost every respect.

…But Julis was even better!

Using her Queen of the Night ability, Julis’s power had been like something from another dimension. Just as she had boasted, for a full twelve seconds, she had indeed been the strongest entity in the world. In terms of speed alone, Ayato could barely keep up with her.

Madiath, as he was now, might have been close to that level, but he hadn’t quite reached it.

If Ayato hadn’t faced Julis back then, he probably would have fallen to Madiath’s last attack.

“Unfortunately for you, I’ve faced someone even faster…!”

He pushed back against the Raksha-Nada with all his strength, but the opposing blade refused to budge.

“Ah, I see. That semifinals match…! How about this, then?”

Madiath suddenly withdrew his sword, disrupting Ayato’s stance.

Uh-oh!

Just like their previous encounter, Madiath was adept at throwing off Ayato’s timing.

In fact, it was difficult to read his moves at all—there seemed to be no pattern behind them.

What’s more, a human fighter ought to have a unique tempo and rhythm to their actions—but there was no sign of one here.

Madiath broke into a leisurely grin just as the Raksha-Nada gleamed eerily.

This was bad. Given his current position, there was no way that Ayato could dodge this.

And yet—

“Ba-doom!”

“Ah!”

Instead of plunging into Ayato’s neck, the Raksha-Nada changed trajectory, slicing through the huge bullet of light coming in from behind him.

“…Don’t forget about me,” Saya called out to their foe, her Helnekraum at the ready.

“Saya!”

Ayato took advantage of the brief lull to fall back. Under normal circumstances, it would have been pointless to put distance between himself and the Raksha-Nada, as it was fully capable of long-range attacks—but since he couldn’t read Madiath’s movements, he figured close combat to be even riskier.

If he could observe his foe a little more, maybe he could grasp just enough of his fighting style to—

“I haven’t forgotten you. You’re simply beneath my notice,” Madiath said with a sideways glance as he swung his weapon at Saya.

“Ack!”

A crimson shimmer passed through the air, headed straight for her.

It was a cloud of fragments from the Raksha-Nada, launched toward Saya at blinding speed. One of the Four Colored Runeswords, the Raksha-Nada was said to be impossible to defend against. Its user had the ability to divide the blade into smaller pieces and manipulate them at will. It could be broken up into the tiniest fragments, such as the one Madiath had previously planted in Haruka’s abdomen, and when the whole sword was broken up like this, it could be made to rain down on its target like an eviscerating hail.

Saya swiftly dodged the onslaught, but the airborne shards changed direction, following her like a school of tiny red fish.

She sped over a field of rubble, climbing up a huge collapsed pillar that lay diagonally across her path, but the pieces of the Raksha-Nada continued their pursuit.

“I won’t let you!”

Saya had saved him from a close call earlier, so now it was Ayato’s turn to come to her aid.

Without wasting a second, he poured his prana into the Ser Veresta to activate his Meteor Arts techniques. Then, once the weapon had extended to a full ten meters in length, he swung it around, ploughing through the battlefield.

If he could distract their foe for even a split second, it might be enough to slow the shards chasing after Saya.

“Ha-ha-ha! There’s no need to rush! I’ll take care of you, too, in due course!”

Madiath leaped away from Ayato’s blow, then turned the hand gripping the Raksha-Nada his way. The remaining blade, reduced to half its normal size, split into myriad pieces, coursing straight for him.

“What?!”

How on earth could Madiath divide the weapon into two separate plumes and freely manipulate the both of them?

Ayato returned the Ser Veresta to its original size, spinning around to dodge the fragments streaking down from above and piercing the ground like a heavy rain. The area where he had just been standing was left covered with holes.

Then, as soon as Ayato landed, the fragments rose up once more in pursuit, though he managed to avoid this strike, too, by reflexively leaping backward. The shards must have dug their way back to the surface after penetrating the ground beneath him.

They weren’t so fast that he couldn’t avoid them if he focused on evasion, but that last attack would certainly have ensnared a less capable fighter.

At this rate—

“Saya!”

A bad feeling coming over him, Ayato glanced around to his friend—just as she leaped from atop the fallen pillar and a swarm of crimson blades struck her in midair.

“Ngh…!”

Using the Helnekraum as a shield, she only barely managed to avoid a direct hit.

But while her Luxes were equipped with high-powered defensive fields, they weren’t designed to hold up against the likes of an Orga Lux.

The next moment, the core of the Helnekraum burst into flames. Saya was thrown violently backward by the force of the blast.

“Saya!”