In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 30 - Chapter 2.1

Chapter II: Infiltration of the Ark

Our plan of attack was as follows: first, we would infiltrate the Ark using Spatial Translocation, hopefully getting us as close to the wicked devout as possible. The Divinity Neutralization effect of the sacred treasure was to remain inactive during the start, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to teleport us in; once we were in the Ark, it would be turned on in order to seal the wicked devout’s abilities.

Our first target, the one that we absolutely had to defeat, was the guy with the diver helmet, Indigo. If we didn’t put a stop to his teleportation, they’d get away again, and another failure would only give them the chance to develop a counter to our attack. We had to view this as our only chance.

Yakumo was the first to step forward to offer to take down Indigo.

“I have crossed blades with him once before, so I believe it would make me the most suitable.”

“Hey, that’s not fair!” Linne complained. However, considering the fact that Yakumo could use [Gate] to get in a surprise attack and was greatly skilled in battle, it seemed fine to leave it to her. What posed a slight problem was that if Yakumo was to serve as our main fighter, the sacred treasure would have to take its katana form. The range of its neutralization was much reduced as a katana, reaching about five meters at most. It would be a disaster if they managed to teleport away before Yakumo could approach.

“I intended to use [Gate] to immediately close the gap between us,” she said.

“Hmm... That would work for the start of the fight, but what would you do if he managed to get some distance between you after that? He could just teleport away then.”

It would take a considerable amount of skill to maintain a distance of no more than five meters from your opponent. Even a wrestling ring had a bit over six meters of distance between its corners.

“I know, I know!” Steph excitedly called out. “I’ll use [Prison] so he can’t escape!”

If Indigo was confined with Yakumo within a [Prison], he wouldn’t be able to use his divinity, which would prevent him from taking down the magic enclosure and making his escape. But that then meant that Yakumo would be forced to fight within a confined space. Would that not be tough as a katana wielder? It felt like the enemy with their hatchet would be the one with the advantage in that scenario.

Was finishing them off with one strike the best option we had? But then we were faced with the question of if Yakumo could successfully carry out the [Gate] plan of attack and take him down in one fell swoop... If she failed, Indigo would undoubtedly make his escape. In which case, though the [Prison] tactic required more skill, the probability of success seemed higher.

“Excuse me.”

As I sat there running through the options in my head, Kuon tentatively raised his hand.

“Is there any reason we need to begin the attack with the sacred treasure in its katana form? Why not have it morph into a form with a large range of neutralization like the harpbow, and then Yakumo can fight with her regular phrasium katana? Of course, we’d still need to make sure we use the sacred treasure to deal the finishing blow, but that can come later.”

“Oh.”

Kuon’s words immediately opened my eyes.

Of course! Who said the kids could only hold their own form of the sacred treasure?

Because I’d made each form of the sacred treasure to suit each of the kids, it had completely slipped my mind that it didn’t mean the different forms were exclusive to each child. It was something I’d considered at the time of creation, so I wasn’t sure why I’d forgotten that fact.

Yoshino’s harpbow boasted a neutralization radius of fifty meters, but the effect weakened the further from the weapon the target got, so it would be best if we activated it while not too far from Indigo. Well, either way, even if the effect was weak, it would still be able to at least prevent the guy from teleporting, and the closer Yakumo got to him, the more certain it was that it would work, so I didn’t think we had to worry too much.

“The problem is that we don’t know the numbers of their forces nor if we’d be able to pinpoint Indigo’s exact location,” Leen pointed out.

“True...”

As she said, it would be best if we could target Indigo while he was alone. From the intelligence we had, the wicked devout still had the man with the plague mask, the woman with the iron mask, and the gold crown. Plus, there was always the possibility that there were more members we didn’t know about too.

I could use a divinity-enhanced [Search], but I had my limits, so I couldn’t use it over that wide of an area. At the very least, the Ark was small enough that I could do a decent job, though. If I used it the second we made it into the Ark, I should be able to find where Indigo was.

If that’s the case, then the plan basically goes like this: we infiltrate the Ark with Spatial Translocation, I find Indigo’s location with [Search], I use Spatial Translocation again to teleport to Indigo, we activate Divinity Neutralization, Yakumo launches her attack.

“What shall we do if there are other wicked devout around Indigo at the time?” Yae asked.

“The only choice we really have is to hold them back until Indigo is dealt with. With that in mind, maybe we’d be best going the [Prison] route so Yakumo can’t be interrupted.”

We did have the issue that we weren’t allowed to take down the wicked devout ourselves, so we’d be more likely to leave that to the kids, and while Yakumo held the sacred treasure to take down Indigo, we’d be unable to land the killing blow on any other wicked devout present. If it was just about buying time for Yakumo to finish him off, however, it likely wouldn’t be too bad. Once we’d prevented any chance of them escaping with a teleport, we could move on to taking them down one by one.

“I still don’t feel great about getting the kids involved...” Elze muttered as she gave Elna a pat on the head. When she did, Elna shook her head.

“If mommy and daddy are fighting, then I’ll fight too. That has to be why we were called here, so leave it to us. We’ll definitely be fine if we all fight together.”

“Oh, you’re such a good girl, Elna! I’m so proud to have you as my daughter!”

Elna was squeezed tight by a tearful Elze. The young girl had a point—if our children hadn’t traveled here from the future, who knew how much trouble we’d be in now? Our future selves surely knew that these events would happen.

Would I be able to send out my children with full faith in their success when it inevitably became my turn to have them go? It felt like I’d end up stopping them out of worry, even if I already knew the outcome.

Since our children came from the future, the logical assumption was that we successfully dealt with the wicked devout, but...given that divine powers were involved in this conflict, the future could easily distort. You would often see movies of a protagonist who time traveled to the past, and because they changed those events, their existence as a resident of the future became unstable and they ended up in danger of being erased from the world. That wasn’t what was going to happen here, right?

The time spirits would help mend any time paradoxes we caused, but even they couldn’t fix something caused by the divine. If we ended up branching off too far from the future of this timeline, would the children be unable to return to their time? If that did happen, I was sure Grandma Tokie would find some way to get us out of the mess, but...

Whatever lay in wait, we absolutely could not fail. It was important that we remained cautious.

Just as I had resolved myself, my phone started ringing—it was from Doc Babylon.

“Touya, just got word in from Albus. There’s been a response from the probes we set up around the sea of Lassei. A large number of Kyklops, including an unidentified unit, along with Rock Titans and Fishmen are heading straight for Lassei itself.”

Again with the underhanded tactics! No, wait...is this our chance?

One of the wicked devout surely had to be leading that army. That meant that right now, there was one less wicked devout on the Ark, right? Worst-case scenario, Indigo was the one leading them, but the chances of that seemed pretty low.

There was quite the distance between where the Ark was stationed and Lassei, so Indigo most likely teleported them—and that meant he had used quite the amount of divinity. There was no way he would get involved directly with the attack on Lassei in that condition. There was a very good chance that an exhausted Indigo had remained in the Ark.

What should we do...? Since we’ve got that fallen god to think about as well, I was thinking that we should take our time and be cautious, but now...

“Let us go to the Ark, father. We cannot simply stand by as a black cat runs in front of us.”

Having noticed my hesitation, Kuon gave me the push I needed. When I looked up at everyone else, they were all giving me small nods.

Having to be encouraged by my own child really was pathetic...but hey, at least it felt nice.

“All right... In that case, let our infiltration of the Ark begin!”

◇ ◇ ◇

The first step in the infiltration of the Ark was to split into two groups: the group that would take down the army attacking Lassei and the group that would infiltrate the Ark directly.

“Those infiltrating the Ark will need the sacred treasure, and that means we can’t take down whatever wicked devout is leading that army heading for Lassei. In which case, our objective will be to simply repel them,” Leen murmured as she watched the lights steadily moving toward Lassei on the world map.

If we were able to deal with the wicked devout in the Ark fast enough, we would be able to head straight to Lassei afterward, but it seemed unlikely that things would go so smoothly... We had to face the guy with the diver helmet, the guy with the plague mask, the woman with the iron mask, and their gold crown. Removing even one of them, we’d at minimum have to fight two members of the wicked devout and a crown. Plus, we couldn’t even be sure if there were other wicked devout we hadn’t met yet.

The team that would be infiltrating the Ark would inevitably have to include the children as our main force, and that was the issue... We would definitely be bringing Yakumo as the key player in our plan, but I’d rather bring the kids who were good at fighting to help support her, like Frei and Kuon.

Linne...I was a little more uncertain about, so I decided she would be good for the Lassei team. Linze’s Helmwige was good at aerial combat, so it would be good to deploy. Assuming we were to send Grimgerde and Rossweise, Leen’s and Sakura’s Frame Gears, to lead the defensive front, it would be good to have Lu’s Waltraute there to support them.

Sue’s Ortlinde Overlord boasted high defense, so I could place it there as well. Honestly, I’d feel much safer with Steph being there, anyway. Using [Prison] to encase Yakumo and Indigo was something I could do myself.

Before I could go any further with that train of thought, though, Leen stepped in.

“No, even if you assign Sue to the Lassei team, I still think you should bring Steph...or more specifically, Gold to the Ark with you. If there really is another gold crown with the wicked devout, Gold may be able to find some kind of counter to it, and we might be able to solve the riddle of why there are two of them.”

“Mother! I’d really like to join the Ark team!”

“Absolutely not.”

Quun fell to her knees in despair when her mother refused her request to swap positions with a merciless smile on her face.

This girl never loses sight of what interests her, does she?

In the end, the Ark infiltration team became me, Yae, Yakumo, Hilde, Frei, Kuon, Steph—well, Gold. Excluding Steph, it was a team of combat experts.

Yumina and Sue kicked up a bit of a fuss at being separated from their kids, but I somehow managed to persuade them. Yumina’s Brunhilde and Sue’s Ortlinde were both suited to defensive battles, so there was no way we wouldn’t deploy them.

This time we would also be deploying the Nereids, units suited to marine battle. They would try to slow the army before they reached land to limit the possible damage to Lassei. We’d yet to install a Nereid program into the Frame Units, so the only ones who could pilot them were Brunhild’s knights. Lassei’s knight order would focus on defending the coast.

Lassei’s armies were known to dive headfirst into battle, so I was a little worried. We would be at an advantage against the Fishmen if we waited for them to step onto land first, but I could already imagine the Lassei knights charging right into the ocean... Their combat Gollems weren’t even suited to battling in water or even on sand. I prayed they wouldn’t act so recklessly that there would be needless sacrifice.

“Yumina, I’ll leave command of the defensive front to you. I’m counting on you.”

“Leave it to me. I’ll make sure that not a single one gets in!”

“Godspeed, mother.”

“Kuon! You better not do anything reckless, okay? Mom’s so worried about you! Touya, please, please make sure he stays safe!” Yumina exclaimed, exerting a strong pressure on me with her gaze, as she was clinging tight onto Kuon.

Could she not worry about me a little more as well?

With me feeling that little bit lonelier, we set off on our mission.

◇ ◇ ◇

On the monitor of the Val Albus, the whale-shaped Over Gear stationed under the sea, the Ark was pictured stationed in the depths. Thanks to the probes we’d deployed inside it once before, we had a good idea of the rough structure of the vessel.

It was possible for us to infiltrate the Ark right away, but if we suddenly appeared right in the middle of the wicked devout, all of our work would be for naught.

First, we had to find a room where we could infiltrate without being spotted.

As the Ark’s name implied, it was a somewhat box-shaped ship. The bow of the ship was a little longer than the rear, where there were large engines on either side. When you looked at the whole thing, it looked a little like a big tissue box. I could see it looking like a spaceship as well.

It seemed possible to teleport into the warehouse they used to store any ores they excavated that the probe had found last time. From there, I could try to find where the wicked devout were located—specifically Indigo—and then we’d make our move and take him down.

If we were unlucky and it turned out Indigo wasn’t in the Ark, well, we’d have no choice but to retreat. Should we decide to try to defeat the devout that were present regardless, there was always the chance that Indigo could return in the middle of the battle, or someone in the ship would contact Indigo, and then they’d have every chance to escape again. If that happened, their security would only tighten; they’d never let their guard down again.

The most favorable outcome would be for Indigo to be working solo, all alone in a room somewhere. All we’d need to do in that situation was teleport to his room, neutralize his divinity, halt his movements with [Prison], and take him down in one swift strike.

Wait...I really sound like an assassin right now, don’t I? Though, given what we’re doing, maybe that’s pretty accurate...

The worst-case scenario would be if all of them were together in one place. Technically, we could quietly observe until they split up, but if the wicked devout that had been dispatched to Lassei returned during that time, we’d be done for. Even if it turned out they were all gathered, we’d have no choice but to brace ourselves and charge in.

“Father, it appears the battle in Lassei has begun. The Nereids and Kyklops are currently engaging,” Kuon reported, intently watching the monitor with the map of Lassei. If they’d started, it was time for us to start our own mission.

“Albus, be ready to attack at any time.”

“Affirmative.”

If we failed in our mission, the plan was to have Val Albus attack the Ark to give us a chance to escape. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that, though.

“Time to get this mission started. Spatial Translocation!”

The area around us distorted for a moment, and then suddenly we were teleported to a different location entirely. We’d successfully crossed the divinity barrier the wicked devout had set up and infiltrated the Ark.

The warehouse I’d teleported us to looked a little like a spacious gymnasium with the only light being the dim glow from the manastones. Boxes of ore were being loaded onto a conveyor belt and dropping down into a hole at the end.

They must have been transporting the ore they excavated from the seafloor somewhere for smelting. No one was around; the only sound filling the room was the whirring from the machinery.

“I do believe we can consider this a successful infiltration, I do.”

“You said you could detect the positions of the wicked devout from here, right?”

“Yep. [Search].”

At Yae and Hilde’s insistence, I activated a divine [Search]. Divinity spread out like a small ripple on the water’s surface, gradually widening and increasing its range. I managed to detect the locations of the wicked devout and the not-Gold gold crown, and came to the unfortunate realization that our worst-case scenario had occurred: they were all gathered in the same area. What was worse, there was one more devout than I had been expecting.

I could detect Indigo, the woman with the iron mask, the gold crown, and then the unfamiliar devout. In other words, we’d have to take them all on at once...

I told everyone what I had discovered.

“I think we can view this as a good thing, at least—the one who can teleport remained in the Ark, after all,” Hilde said.

“Indeed. The only problem now is that we need to decide who will take on the remaining enemies, we do. We know Yakumo will be facing that Indigo fellow, but...”

Hilde and Yae both dropped into thought, most likely trying to decide who would be best to match up with who. Even if we put [Prison] up, there was no guarantee that the other devout wouldn’t try to interfere with Yakumo and Indigo’s battle.

Since Yakumo had experience with the iron mask woman, I asked for her opinion on what we should expect.

“The woman with the iron mask uses a mace to deliver attacks that act like gravity magic. I think that may be her wicked vessel’s ability, so I doubt she’ll be too dangerous while Divinity Neutralization is active.”

Well, at least she didn’t sound impossible to deal with. The duos of Yae and Kuon and Hilde and Frei could deal with the other wicked devout, while I would take on the gold crown together with Steph and Gold. That felt like a good balance, right?

It didn’t help that I had no idea what would happen when the two gold crowns met. It was probably natural to assume that since they were the same unit, they’d have some kind of synchronization function. With Steph on my side, it would account for the possibility that Gold may end up losing control and turning against us.

I felt bad for Steph, but if things turned out that way, I fully intended to forcefully put a stop to Gold’s functions using [Cracking]. According to Doc Babylon, Gold should have something that acted as his black box. If that was a device to have him synchronize with the other gold crown, then...

It would be best that I be the one pit against him just so I could respond to whatever happened.

“Mother, we should take on that iron mask lady with the mace,” Frei said while pulling a large shield out of [Storage].

Hilde nodded at her daughter’s suggestion. “Good idea. I think that would be smart.”

Yae and Kuon would likely struggle with the mace’s gravity magic, so that was a good move. Even though the neutralization would be in effect, if they ended up too far away from Yakumo—the locus of the effect—the gravity magic would still work.

“Yakumo, do you have the sacred treasure ready?”

“Yes, father. I’m ready at any time.”

Yakumo had tied the transformed sacred treasure harpbow to her back with a tasuki sash. She had attached it to herself in a way where she could utilize the neutralization without using it as an actual weapon. It would have to be used to destroy Indigo’s wicked vessel, but until then, the divinity of the other two wicked devout needed to be sealed. If we could hurt the devout to some extent, or take away their weapons from them, we’d have this battle in the bag.

“Not being able to fight with divinity sucks, though, I’ve gotta admit...”

“I agree, I do... Surely just one slash would be okay...”

“What would you do if that one slash ended up nearly killing the wicked devout, Yae? That would mean that you had pretty much killed them,” Hilde cautioned her.

“I-I do not think they are so weak...”

Neither did I. In fact, we were clueless about their HP, so it was hard to consider holding back with them. It was like that thing you’d see in games a lot where you had to weaken the monster before you could catch it. Some characters could kill the monster you wanted to catch in one shot, so you’d keep them on the backlines. That was essentially the situation we were in now.

“You can worry about things like that because you’ve actually awoken to your divine trait... I still struggle to use divinity. What’s so different between the two of us? It isn’t a difference in Touya’s love for us, is it?”

“Everyone wonders if that’s the difference, but it’s not, okay?! It’s just natural personal differences!”

Yae awakened to her divine trait in the last battle we had with the wicked devout; she’d acquired the ability Dimensional Cleave. They always trained together, so it frustrated Hilde that Yae had awoken to hers so much sooner.

I needed everyone to wake up to their traits quickly, or I couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be some domestic strife... The only ones that were left were Sue and Hilde.

“Mom, your divine trait is— Mmmph?!”

Before Frei could finish what she was saying, Yakumo came up from behind and put a hand over her mouth.

“Frei, isn’t Grandmother Tokie always telling us we should be careful how much we say?”

“Oh yeah...”

“Yae, your daughter is too diligent!” Hilde cried, frustrated at Yakumo having prevented Frei from spoiling them about the future. Yakumo looked a little lost at the unreasonable complaint.

“To think Hilde-dono would be the one to call someone else diligent...”

“Um, do we really have the time for this?” Kuon spoke up, bringing everyone back to attention.

Right, we need to stop messing around.

When I looked at Steph and Gold, I noticed that they were both clapping their hands and singing while they waited. They weren’t nervous whatsoever.

I cleared my throat and returned to pointing out the lights on the map; there were two solid red dots, one flashing red dot, and one yellow dot all gathered in one area. “The wicked devout are in this pretty big room right here. The red dots are the wicked devout, the yellow one is the gold crown, and the one that’s flashing is Indigo, our main target.”

The room itself looked about the size of an office room. I wasn’t sure if it was a break room, their tactical command room, or some sort of lab, but whatever the case, it was more than big enough for us to fight in.

“I’ll teleport us all to this area here, a little bit away from where they’re standing. I’d prefer if we were able to get the jump on them, but that would be going against the rules. It’s okay if they detect us. Yakumo, you charge right at Indigo. The rest of us will engage our own targets while providing support.”

“It looks like there are two ways in and out of the room. What will we do if they escape?” Kuon asked, looking at the map.

Good question. Honestly, right now, it was probably fine if the other wicked devout escaped so long as we took down Indigo. The only problem with that was if they got far away from Yakumo, they’d be able to use their own wicked vessels again. We knew that the iron mask lady’s mace manipulated gravity, but the other was a complete unknown. If it turned out they had teleportation similar to Indigo, we’d be done for. All our hard work would’ve been for nothing.

You know what, maybe we shouldn’t let them get away.

“I’ll seal the exits with Earth magic,” I said. “At the very least, I doubt they’ll try to damage the ship. We’re underwater, after all.”

If the Ark did end up flooding, we’d be fine so long as we used [Prison]. We’d be able to breathe, and worse came to worst, I could summon Sango and Kokuyou.

“All right, let’s get this party started. Spatial Translocation!”

We appeared inside the large room instantaneously. It turned out it was something akin to an observation deck, with a glass front and ceiling. Oddly enough, even though we should’ve been on the seabed, it wasn’t pitch-black outside—we could clearly see what was outside. I wasn’t sure if it was some magic artifact, or if the glass itself was actually a monitor displaying what was outside, or what.

There was a console along the wall in front of which Indigo stood, still wearing his diver helmet.

On a sofa a short distance away from him, the woman with the iron mask sat with a glass in hand, and a woman with a gaudy green feathered mask was right next to her. That had to have been the unknown wicked devout. The gold crown of the wicked devout was by the complete opposite wall away from Indigo.

“HUH?!”

The first one who noticed we were suddenly in their midst was the iron mask woman. She dropped her glass, shattering it on the floor, which alerted the others to our presence. We had already started making our move by the time they’d thought to act. Like an arrow fired from a bow, Yakumo shot straight toward Indigo.

“Shit. Deep Blue!”

A blue liquid gurgled under his feet, but the most it did was spread out a small touch.

“What?!”

“It’s useless.”

Yakumo pulled her phrasium katana from its sheath and slashed at the wicked devout. Though he’d been caught off guard, Indigo pulled out his metallic blue hatchet and blocked Yakumo’s strike moments before it slashed skin.

“[Prison].”

The moment she’d made contact, I erected a [Prison] with a five-meter radius with Yakumo as the center, preventing Indigo’s potential escape.

“Come forth, Iron! Barrier of the Dark Metal: [Iron Wall]!”

I immediately followed that up by blocking both exits with walls of iron. Now our enemies were ripe for the picking.

Indigo attempted to break the barrier surrounding him with his hatchet, but with his divinity sealed, it was futile.

“Like I said, it’s useless. Father’s [Prison] is unbreakable.”

“You’re the brat I saw in Orphen!”

“This time, I won’t let you get away.”

When Yakumo slashed her blade down, Indigo deflected it with his hatchet. Put so thoroughly on the defensive, the other wicked devout rushed in to assist, but that was where we stepped in, preventing them from getting anywhere near the [Prison].

“Your opponent is us, miss!”

“Get outta the way, kid!”

The woman unhesitatingly swung her metallic orange mace down toward Frei, but it was more than easily blocked by the shield that the small girl held.

“I can’t crush it?! What’s going on?!”

“The cause is unknown, but it appears the wicked vessels have been sealed. Not entirely, but... Hm?!”

The gold crown calmly analyzed what was happening as the iron mask woman panicked, but the moment his red camera eye noticed Gold standing behind me, he came to a stop.

“There’s more than one Gould?!” the feather mask woman exclaimed in surprise. With such a reaction, it appeared they hadn’t known about our Gold. The wicked devout’s crown appeared to go by “Gould” instead... Had he simply not told them of the existence of another gold crown, or...?

Gould was staring at Gold, Gold also frozen where he stood.

“Is this the same unit as myself...? No. I can confirm differences,” Gold remarked. Those differences must have been the two small swords and the cape-like part on his back. Gold had those, but the one on the wicked devout’s side didn’t. Gould’s eyes were red, while Gold’s were blue. Besides those differences, the two were practically the same unit.

“A second Seraphic?! What is the meaning of this?!” Gould exclaimed with the exact same voice as Gold.

A Seraphic? Was he referring to Gold? It was in that moment that I realized I was detecting both panic and surprise, two very human emotions, in Gould, something that should’ve been impossible for a Gollem.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Impossible! This should be the only Seraphic! Why? Why does another one exist?!” Gould’s mechanical voice trembled as he looked at Gold.

Based on his reaction, it seemed he hadn’t known about Gold. Had he lost his memories in the way Gold had? No, that would make no sense—if he’d lost his memories, he wouldn’t have said those words.

“I don’t know what’s got you so rattled, but I need you to stay still for now. [Prison]!”

I cast the confining magic as I’d done on Indigo. Now there was no escape.

“Hm?!”

Gould took one of its tiny fists and tried to break the barrier.

It’s useless. This barrier isn’t so flimsy that a pathetic little punch like that will damage it.

“Veraenderung.”

“Huh?”

After Gould muttered some short word, the armor of its right hand began to warp like melted candy. The soft gold plating enveloped his right hand and then morphed into a conical shape, almost like an ice pick.

“Lanze.”

Gould turned and tried to stick his gold ice pick into the [Prison]. The sound of metal striking rang out, and then suddenly, my [Prison] cracked.

“No way!”

As surprised as I was, Gould paid me no mind as he thrust his ice-pick arm back into the barrier again. This time, my [Prison] shattered into pieces.

You’re kidding! Is there wicked divinity in that thing’s body?!

We were the furthest away from the sacred treasure, but the distance was about ten meters at most. Even if its power wasn’t completely neutralized, he shouldn’t have been able to destroy my [Prison]! He’d have to have the same amount of divinity as a mutant to do that!

We knew for a fact that our Gold contained no divinity—the research team examined him and found nothing.

That means Gould’s been modified in some way, huh?!

Now free of the prison, Gould charged toward me with his ice pick.

“Envelop, O Wind! Gentle Embrace: [Air Sphere]!”

“Mmm?”

Gould’s right hand lost its momentum about fifty centimeters away from me, coming to a stop against the air cushion I had created. The next moment, his small body was sent catapulting into the opposite wall. My [Air Sphere] broke at the same moment.

That was close!

If he’d been charging any more fiercely, I’d have been turned into a shish kebab.

“Veraenderung: Axt.”

Gould stood back up, turning his ice pick into an axe.

Ugh, he’s got more forms!

I took out my Brunhild and changed it into Blade Mode, using it to block the golden axe he swung down toward me. The strike was so heavy that I couldn’t help but wonder where such strength was hiding in such a small body.

“[Power Rise]!”

I increased the power of my muscles and pushed the axe away from me. Gould was once more flung toward the wall, but this time he kicked his feet into it and spun around in the air as he landed lightly on the ground like a cat. His red camera eye fixed in on me, and then it turned to Gold behind me.

“Tell me. Are you the master of the Seraphic?”

“No. Gold’s master is someone else.”

It wouldn’t be good for him to learn that Steph was his master, so I tried to avoid the topic.

“Gold... Seraphic Gold? High Master, Code 1876239. Unlock: emergency shutdown, Seraphic Gold.”

Suddenly, what came out of Gould was a smooth male voice. Not a mechanical one, but one much closer to a human’s. Was it some recorded audio?

Before I could stop and wonder what was happening, the same voice spoke to us.

“High Master, Code 1876239. Unlock: emergency shutdown, Seraphic Gold... No reaction. Probability of initialization process activation having occurred: ninety-eight percent.”

Initialization process? As in, the initialization process that Steph had accidentally activated in Gold? Did that mean he was saying some sort of command code toward him?

God, this could’ve turned out much worse if Steph hadn’t wiped his data.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do anything too crazy here. If you make Gold’s master cry, then I won’t let you get away with it,” I threatened.

“I do not care.”

Suddenly, a loud bang, as if a metal ball had collided with something, rang through the room. When I turned around, the inside of the [Iron Wall] I had put up was all warped. Another similar sound rang out and the wall further warped, caving in toward us. Was someone trying to enter the room?!

Don’t tell me there’s one more wicked devout!

No, there was no way. I’d searched the whole Ark, so there shouldn’t have been any more of them around. That said, there was a chance [Search] didn’t pick them up because they looked nothing like the wicked devout!

I stayed on high alert as the metallic wall I had created came flying inward. What flew in was a golden bird with four wings. A mechanical one, at that. Was it a bird Gollem?!

“Come, Cherubim.”

The gold bird Gollem twirled in a drill movement as it maneuvered through the room toward Gould. It then circled behind Gould, tilted its head against his back, and its feet then folded into its body as it attached to the enemy crown.

Is this what the research team was talking about?! The Gluttony Slime that was turned into orichalcum and used to craft gear for the gold crown?!

With his four wings spread out, Gould floated into the air. Due to the glass ceiling, he could only go about two meters, however.

“Gluttony Feather.”

Four golden feathers, one from each wing, shot out toward me like missiles. I was about to strike them down with Brunhild, but suddenly, I was hit by a sense of unease that made me change my weapon to Gun Mode at the last minute and shoot them down with phrasium rounds instead. The moment my bullets hit the feathers, they began to morph and wrapped around the bullets.

No, rather than “wrapped around,” it was more like they ate the bullets whole. If I’d tried to strike them down with Blade Mode, Brunhild might’ve been consumed by the feathers...

Good thing I realized something was off.

The slimy gold substance plopped to the ground, wriggled about for a moment, and then took shape as feathers again and returned to Gould’s wings.

They’d definitely eaten the bullets—there was nothing left where they had been.

“Is that something you made with a Gluttony Slime that you turned into orichalcum?” I asked the Gollem directly. He looked slightly surprised at my question—what a humanlike crown. Even Gold struggled to express that much.

Was this the difference between a Gollem that had been initialized and one that hadn’t? Well, assuming that they were both the same kind of unit, of course. If that was the case, just how many experience points were in those parts that were wiped? Whatever Gold had lost, Gould still had. There was the chance he could fight like a human with sneak attacks, feints, and rear assaults.

We’ve definitely gotta be careful here...

“You are dangerous. You will interfere with our plans. I will now eliminate you. Gluttony Feather.”

It seemed he’d decided to stop holding back, since this time several feathers detached from two of the wings and homed in on me again.

Hmph, now that I know what it is, I can deal with it easily!

“[Gate].”

I deployed a gate in front of me, teleporting every last feather he threw my way. I’d sent them to the uninhabited wastelands of Isengard. Gates couldn’t be opened through a barrier, but if it was somewhere that was visible, or if you yourself were inside the barrier, it was perfectly possible to open one.

“What a shame, you’ve run out of so much of your ammo. Why not fire the rest?” I taunted. Most of the feathers were now missing from those two wings. I’d thought to myself that he wouldn’t be able to fly if he used the rest of them, but when I paid closer attention, I noticed that he wasn’t even flapping the wings to stay afloat to begin with, so it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Just then, the wings on Gould’s back began shining a dark gold.

“Reverse.”

“What?”

Suddenly, the [Gate] that I’d closed opened back up, and the feathers shot back through and returned to Gould’s wings. I felt like I was watching a movie in reverse.

“No... Is that your crown skill?!”

Crown skills were the abilities inherent to the crown Gollems, a power that required their master to pay a price. Doc Babylon had said that a gold crown made of a Slime that’d been turned into orichalcum could take the price of a crown skill like a mana tank. If what was on his back was what we suspected, then it must have been taking the price for him.

But Gold said that the gold crown didn’t have a crown skill. What was going on? Did his memory of it disappear together with the initialization process?

Well, whatever the reason, Gould could clearly use a crown skill, and it was the exact same type of time manipulation as the black crown, Noir. I was pretty sure he couldn’t use it at will, however. If he could, he’d have used it plenty of times before now. It was also worth noting that I wasn’t personally affected by the reversal of time.

Either he could only use it on himself, or there was a limit to its range. Or...he didn’t want to pay too big of a price. As if to confirm my theory, several of the golden feathers lost their sheen and fell to the ground before crumbling into dust. Was that the price of the crown skill?

In other words, each one of those feathers was a substitute that paid for the use of the crown skill. Without those, the only thing left he could use to pay the price with was his own body. No wonder he had to be careful about how he used it.

“Still, time manipulation is a scary beast...”

I could use all kinds of space-time magic; [Gate], [Storage], and [Accel] all came under that. If I asked the time spirits nicely, they might be willing to fiddle with time a bit for me as well, though I was pretty sure the range would be limited to the area around me. That said, it went without saying that the only one who had the power to affect the whole world was the goddess of space-time herself, Grandma Tokie.

It was likely Gould could only affect time related to his own body, or any area that he had control over. There was no way he’d be able to stop or slow down my time, right? Even without thinking about the range he could control, I knew he couldn’t use it so freely when he had to consider the price as well. The only reason he’d used it here was because he’d weighed the possibility of losing a large number of feathers against losing a few and decided it would be much better to rewind time.

Still, if we inflicted a fatal blow on him and he just turned back time, it would be as if we never did a thing to him. Though, if we were stubborn enough about it, he’d eventually run out of feathers to use...

“This one’s gonna be a hassle to take down.”

I tightly gripped Brunhild and glared at the small gold Gollem floating in the air.