Ishura - Volume 8 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9- Central Assembly Hall First Communications Room (United Command Center)

Jelky the Swift Ink was esteemed as a brilliant civil servant.

With a precise, machine-like grasp of the economic activities carried out through Aureatia’s vast borders, he was able to have a complete vision of his command to ensure continued economic growth at regulated speeds, all while ensuring no one noticed it was being closely managed.

This wasn’t all thanks to his natural-born talents. These results were in part thanks to his own efforts, constantly learning from the many who came before him.

Jelky wasn’t only blessed with his own talents, but also excelled at understanding the skills of others. Studying under bureaucrats he picked out as talented, regardless of their position or age, he had inherited their capability and personal connections.

This was not for his own promotion and social success. It was because he had always held regrets. The age of the demon king had produced countless monstrously powerful fighters, but conversely had killed too many noncombatants who possessed the strengths needed in peacetime. Those individuals, Jelky understanding their true worth, were pulled into the flames of war and revolt caused by True Demon King’s terror and died like ragtag common soldiers.

He couldn’t let the world regress back into a time of war and strife. He needed to protect Aureatia and the royal family that his predecessors had risked their lives to preserve. He thought that he had this duty, having survived and inherited their strength.

Jelky the Swift Ink believed that he was brilliant.

Therefore, this battle on the day of the tenth match needed to be possible too.

Iriolde’s camp had revolted. Fights were breaking out in all corners of Aureatia.

Every single bit of information surged toward him in a deluge.

In response to it all, Jelky gave the same answer.

“We’ll deal with it immediately.”

Faced with the unrealistically large workload, Jelky established a mechanical priority order.

For problems that required immediate decisiveness, Jelky would take responsibility for making a decision, even if it went beyond his authority.

For problems that could be solved by others, he passed them on to other bureaucrats at the trade ministry, or immediately assigned them to other ministries.

Requests for his appearance from the various trade associations and other ministries would all be handled at a later date, and if necessary, he would send a representative in his stead.

Focusing as much as possible only on the problems that specifically required his abilities to solve, he continued processing the enormous, still overflowing, workload.

I still can’t let this amount of work defeat me.

Exhaustion. Confusion. Resentment. Drowsiness. Intense pressure. Fear.

He needed to kill the normal reactions and functions of a living creature.

The problems cropping up everywhere were all emergencies, but as the greatest bureaucrat charged with Aureatia’s internal affairs, there shouldn’t have been any problem that was completely lacking any previously encountered precedent. He didn’t need to spare considerable willpower or laborious decision-making on such things—and yet, following past examples alone would lead to failure.

Needing to respond to everything went for those on the scene as well. While they had fully prepared for this day to come, there was always a limit on how they could distribute their manpower and materials. To ensure the orders he gave himself didn’t clash with those in the field, he planned to make them work together like cogs in a machine, always handling things even more appropriately than in past precedents.

He couldn’t hope for anyone to help him.

“Urgent report! The battle in the sixth borough of the Western Outer Ward appears to be a civilian riot! I repeat, the battle in the Western Outer Ward, sixth borough is not the rebel army, but civilians! The protesting activities surrounding the cancellation of the tenth march are—”

“Notres Gina Craftsman Guild is declaring their support for the rebel army! Around ninety of said guild’s private forces are joining in the battle in front of the guild headquarters, and with this—”

…If only Rosclay could act in this situation…

This was the greatest difference in all the precedents Jelky had overcome.

There was no need to mobilize a large force and overpower the enemy. If Rosclay the Absolute stood on the scene, the needless bloodshed and the citizens’ hostility could be pacified like the closing of a poetic tale. From the eyes of those in charge of domestic administration, this superpower could be seen as far more unfair than any of the shura’s masterful abilities of combat and destruction.

This day was the one time when they couldn’t expect that power.

“The citizens’ riot was projected to happen! We can mobilize a public safety squad instead of the military! Get in contact, and ask about how things are being handled on the ground! For the Craftsman Guild’s revolt, I estimate that the military already had a handle on it from their own reconnaissance! However, continue monitoring the situation, and report immediately if another issue is about to crop up!”

“Urgent report! Lord Jelky. The royal palace has been attacked.”

…It’s reached there, has it?

He didn’t believe that a man like Iriolde the Atypical Tome would aim to make such a short-sighted move as attacking the palace.

However, in the middle of the intensifying chaos and rage of the battle, both sides must have predicted that something like this was likely to happen.

“The defense structure around the royal palace is flawless. We don’t need to take any steps from here. When we get a request for help from the Palace Guard Bureau, then—”

“Lord Jelky. It appears that Soujirou the Willow-Sword escaped from Romog Joint Military Hospital early this morning. We currently do not know his whereabouts.”

“……”

Soujirou the Willow-Sword. They had planned to eventually dispose of Rosclay’s opponent in the tenth match, but not today. At a later date, in the officially delayed tenth match, Rosclay was supposed to get all his preparations in order and engage Soujirou in front of the eyes of the public. However…

“How is Sabfom the White Weave?”

“He engaged with Soujirou and is in cardiopulmonary arrest. Currently he is trying to normalize his heart activity… That is something we are unable to handle ourselves, so I will postpone the report for later.”

“…That’s fine. Thank you.”

This meant Soujirou had attacked Sabfom in his attempt to escape.

We can interpret Soujirou the Willow-Sword’s actions as treason against Aureatia.

Soujirou must have understood this for himself. He must have had some clear and convincing reason. Right now, even the slightest bit of thinking time was a precious resource, however…

Aureatia’s current situation…is somewhat similar to when Alus the Star Runner attacked, but very different. In the midst of this chaos, we can’t mobilize the other hero candidates. Most of the hero candidates would end up interfering with our own maneuvers simply by fighting. Today is the one day when we can’t designate Soujirou as a self-proclaimed demon king. If Soujirou is making his move now with that in mind, then—

“Lord Jelky… Th-this is urgent.”

The new report came not with a shout but sounded almost like a moan.

“Kadan Third District was…destroyed. Not only the Aureatia army squads deployed there, but the civilians…and likely the rebel army as well…”

“What happened? What evidence is there to determine that?”

“I-it’s…estimated to be from some sort of lethal weapon attack, engulfing both friend and foe alike as they engaged with each other. All schedule reports from field have stopped…and we asked for observations from the Tenth Fortress to report on the situation on the ground. They said that all life in the Kadan Third District died…from having all their skin stripped off. What appears to be a hitherto unseen type of glowing plant life has grown thick over the area.”

It was one of the situations Jelky had feared. Before precise information or countermeasures, there was something else that needed to be done first.

“What’s the state of the surrounding evacuation?!”

“In the final report, they said that since the area was expected to have fierce fighting, fifty percent of the residents in the directly adjacent sections were evacuated. Shall we send in personnel to guide the evacuation?!”

“No… We don’t have time to send in personnel capable of managing the remaining fifty percent of the residents, persuading them, and leading them to safety! Depending on the nature of this enemy weapon, there’s a chance it could cause secondary casualties among the personnel we send to lead the civilians! Have them consider isolating all of Kadan District and move to blockade the town!”

“But, if we do that…”

It will lead to far too many casualties.

They were absolutely right.

This level of responsibility was something he needed to shoulder.

Jelky and the others didn’t possess some supernatural power that upset logic and reason. If they had anything close to such a thing, it was…

“I’ll go.”

There came a refreshing and cool voice from right in front of the door.

It was the voice of a champion who signaled relief and peace of mind, known to all in Aureatia.

However, Jelky questioned him, half astonished. He didn’t turn around.

“…Rosclay. Why are you here?”

“I was the one who mapped out this operation. I can’t push all of the burden onto you.”

“However much we’re able to minimize the scale of the damages will depend on our own efforts here. If you go out on the front lines, the entire goal of this operation itself will be turned on its head. I can’t approve of any mobilization. You need to be kept unharmed.”

“I’ll approve it on my own authority. This is all to spare the citizens’ lives.”

Rosclay’s tone was calm enough to send a shiver down one’s spine.

“Right now, you’ve hit a deadlock for the first time. Isn’t that right? For a little while now I’ve checked on the orders you’ve been giving through the radzio. In order to continue handling other problems, you’ve got into a situation where you will be forced to abandon many citizens to die. Let me solve that. Keep your mind working and make the next move.”

He had known from Jelky’s tone and the frequency of reports. There was a large amount of material beyond the content of Jelky’s orders that made it possible to reach this judgment. Simply by hearing the uproar in the command center, and through a radzio at that, he had been able to understand the limits of Jelky’s ability to process the situation.

“…I can’t approve of it. We don’t even know the truth behind this enemy attack.”

“The report said that Kadan Third District was destroyed, right? If it was destroyed all at once, I believe that the enemy’s attack is wide-reaching and instantly effective, like a dragon’s breath. As long as we know that it will be prove lethal the moment one gets in range, any insights on the nature of the attack are unnecessary. In fact, the vital information here is the signs of an incoming attack. Please have the reports from the observation points in the vicinity come through to my radzio as well. The advancing direction and speed of this threat should be easier to grasp through long-distance observations away from danger.”

“…Why?”

His mumbled question wasn’t searching for an answer. He thought that Rosclay’s thinking made logical sense.

Rosclay the Absolute’s deduction was correct. Jelky could say it was almost too balanced, miraculously so.

He was able to take action to save the greatest number of people while maintaining a minimal level of safety for himself.

Why can he do that…? This is what makes him so dangerous.

Like it was with Iriolde the Atypical Tome, those gifted with ingenuity and a talent for self-preservation always put others in the line of fire and never exposed themselves to danger. However, Rosclay was capable of choosing to act heroically to save citizenry he didn’t know, all while truly being terrified of his own death.

It was as if he loved each and every one of the citizens like his family. Or rather, as if he was terrified that his family was among the anonymous civilian masses.

This was what Jelky had apprehensions about.

When the people of Aureatia needed Rosclay the Absolute, he was bound to head out on his own volition to save them.

“I will agree on one condition. In a worst-case scenario, I want you to prioritize your safety over anyone else’s.”

Jelky’s remark meant abandoning the citizens when necessary.

“I intend to.”

Jelky knew that Rosclay was answering from the heart.

An artificial champion in and of itself was a balanced contradiction.

“Champions are those who save the people. Thus, they cannot be allowed to die.”

There was a bacterium by the name of hemolytic streptococcus.

In everyday life, this was nothing more than a harmless everyday germ. One that commonly inhabited the pharynx, digestive tract, and the epidermis. Very rarely it could cause an upper respiratory tract infection, or a skin infection.

However, the infectious diseases caused by hemolytic streptococcus could suddenly turn fulminant. The skin and muscles of the limbs underwent necrosis in a little over a day, leading to death from multiple organ failure. The symptoms would progress so rapidly that it could be already too late for a patient if the necrotic tissue wasn’t swiftly amputated, and they didn’t undergo antibacterial treatment.

The trigger to this advance in severity was unknown. There were times when someone who had been perfectly healthy one day would suddenly come down with an infection. The difference between fulminant hemolytic streptococcus and regular hemolytic streptococcus was said to be the fact that it would bypass the immune system by producing lipids to hinder the effects of immunoreceptors, but the specific cause that triggered this mutation was yet to be identified.

In short, with a very slight idiopathic mutation, an everyday commonplace bacterium could change into an unknown lethal pathogen.

The events that occurred in the Kadan Third District were close in nature to this example.

The corpses lying here and there in the road all had all their skin melted off from head to toe, exposing their fat and muscles. Several ribbons of blood were engraved alongside many of the corpses. They were the tracks left behind from their last gasps, writhing in agony and clawing hard enough to dig into the ground and buildings.

“B-beautiful. All too beautiful.”

There was only one who was writhing about, still alive.

Of course, when it came to this man, it was more accurate to say he was squirming around on the ground because he was overwhelmed with excitement and intense emotion.

A white lab coat, worm-eaten patches all over it, and hair turned a garish color by chemicals.

He was a self-proclaimed demon king by the name of Yukis the Ground Colony.

“Nectegio, Nectegio, Necteeeeeeeegio! Tell me, how are you so flawless and so beautiful?! Actually, maybe it’s hopeless…? I mean, whether I want to or not, I can’t help but understand the gap in perfection between us as living organisms! I want even more people to witness how wonderful Nectegio is…! I want their feedback. I want everyone else to feel pushed to the limit like this, too!”

Yukis’s incomprehensible motivations energized him, and he sprung his feet.

Then, he shook the melted corpse laying nearby him.

“W-wake up! Wake up, please! Strange. Anyone with a normal mind should be left screaming after witnessing the beautiful biological theory behind Nectegio… A clear scientific anomaly… Something else must have happened…”

After continuing this for some time, he released his grip on the corpse, as if suddenly remembering something. The corpse fell once more to the ground.

“Oh, right. Every other organism besides me had their resident bacteria mutated when Nectegio showed up, and died on the spot. Real selfish lot, aren’t they…? They’re getting the chance to witness Nectegio themselves, the least they could do is build up a minimal amount of resistance! Isn’t there someone who’s still conscious…?”

“Br-brzzzzz. Nectegio, is, awake.”

Together with a flickering light, like a starry sky, there was a terribly quiet voice resembling the buzz of an insect.

Yukis fell on his back.

“Uwaheeee?! What a gorgeous voice!”

“Brzzzzz. Colonization, of city, environment, is satisfactory. Nectegio, is succeeding, at experiment.”

The creature talking to Yukis was not an animal. It wasn’t even a plant—it was the colony of strange fungi sporocarps that had overgrown the Third District. The stalks, growing taller than a minia, had broken through residential windows and towered overhead. Transparent gelatinous globes covered the fallen corpse. Pallid luminescent spores continued to flitter through the air.

The grotesque biota that was composed from it all was itself the fungi known as Nectegio the Ravenous Rot.

“Ahhhh, how wonderful…! Theoretically, of course, I knew it was possible for you to live in urban areas, too, but… Still, given these latest circumstances, I had no choice but to drastically change your environment! It seems that some number of people died, but what a lucky end result! We’ve proven that even in a metropolitan area with little exposed soil, you can maintain your stable form by using a large number of minians as your bedding! A chance turn of events and the experiment is a success! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee! Ah, Nectegio, so beautiful, and so strong as to be nigh inevitable!”

Nectegio’s attack had even engulfed its own allies in Iriolde’s army and killed them. Yukis’s presence here had nothing to do with Iriolde’s camp’s operation.

Just like Kuuro the Cautious, Yukis also disappeared into the confusion of the hostilities and severed the yoke of his camp’s influence himself. He ran away to keep his own greatest work, Nectegio the Ravenous Rot, from being used in battle, and conducted a colonization experiment in a non-laboratory setting—in short, the mass slaughter of Kadan’s Third District.

No one would have imagined from his behavior, but Yukis the Ground Colony may have been equipped with, in some senses, an above-average risk management ability. Even with his ferocious ego and heretical talents, he didn’t fight against an enemy he had no hopes of beating, while conversely, he didn’t hesitate whatsoever to separate himself from a force whose defeat seemed imminent.

Yukis wasn’t a self-proclaimed demon king with a defined history of hostility toward Aureatia. While he repeatedly murdered others and performed reckless fungal experiments out on the frontier, the scale of the incidents themselves never went beyond the mold of a regular, run-of-the-mill criminal. Up until now.

Now he held in his hands the most fearsome biological weapon of all.

“Brzzzzzz. I, have identified, a weapon being, dropped.”

“Whaaat?!”

Yukis looked up at the sky in surprise. He could see several lines of fiery rain, like meteors, through the buildings.

They were falling slow enough to see with the naked eye. The goal wasn’t destruction based on their speed or quantity. Since the shells were ignited and then cast toward them, they were likely incendiary rounds that utilized fats and oils.

It was an attack from Aureatia’s army. The observation towers in various places dropped the incendiary rounds with the intention to burn down Nectegio and the entire district the unknown fungus contaminated with it.

“I am, ana-lyzing the target. Analysis. Destruction. Disassemble.”

The fungal colony that occupied half of the town’s airspace exhibited steady bioluminescence, as if breathing.

Several mushroom caps slowly opened up, and the lichen covering the soil surface began to change its color.

“Understood. Brzzzzzzzz. Vege-table oil. Petroleum. Lead. Zinc. Phosphorous. Will incorporate into Nectegio’s system, and perform, stabilization.”

“N-not just beautiful, but clever, too…! So unbelievably precious!”

The incendiary bombs landed in a circle, surrounding the central part of the area where Yukis stood, and exploded.

The incendiary swiftly spread, kicking up a conflagration—before immediately being extinguished.

The incendiary weapon was designed to rapidly steal all of the oxygen in the area at the point of impact. It also could not be extinguished with water. It was triggered the moment it made contact with Nectegio’s deployed colony, and combustion never happened.

“That didn’t have any effect at aaaaalll! This would be the Suppression Species, Triskus Nitanieh…”

In the middle of a sea of fungus, Yukis the Ground Colony laughed along.

“Brzzzz—Six species, of compositional organisms, eradic-ated. Three, reborn.”

The popping sound of bubbles bursting echoed.

A purple sporocarp, equipped with a rodlike basidium, had been developing out from the roof of a building. All of these sporocarp were turned toward the high-rise buildings that had a chance of being hit by the incendiary bombs.

“Dissemination Species, Listanokazma.”

Together small pop, the purple sporocarp burst open and scattered.

Likely due to the aftershock of the spores being released rapid-fire at supersonic speeds, the building where the sporocarp was embedded collapsed.

An observation tower collapsed far off in the distance.

One tower. Two. Three.

Nectegio the Ravenous Rot was a poisonous fortress that could kaleidoscopically attack and defend at once.

“Now do we move here or… Hmmmm, that’s quite a stumper! While I don’t really want to force any sudden environmental changes for Nectegio’s sake, on the other hand, it’s not my intention to get in the way of everyone in Aureatia, either… Well, for me, Nectegio is unequivocally an absolute priority…but part of me doesn’t want to expose my oh-so-beautiful Nectegio to even the slightest hint of danger! Such a perplexing predicament! Alas, love-born apprehensions!”

As he led the evacuation of the citizens from Kadan Fourth District, Rosclay received reports on the monster in the Third District.

Contamination that caused instant death on approach. Precision counterattacks against artillery attacks.

Currently accompanying Rosclay were only two squads who had been positionally able to reach the scene in time. They weren’t Aureatia army troops. There were many young rank-and-file in their ranks.

“You’re not going to move on yet, right, Rosclay?! Right now, my mom and uncle, they’re calling all their customers and gathering people together!”

“Is Aureatia okay?! All morning there’ve been nonstop shelling sounds… There were some just now…!”

“All righty then, just sit tight in here in this plaza! We’ve sent out all the guild’s youngest guys at once! We won’t let a single person who hasn’t evacuated yet get past us!”

“Ahhh, Master Rosclay… Thank you so very much for sparing the effort to save a senile old fool’s life…”

“Rosclay! Please help, Rosclay!”

However, the ones Rosclay was motivating were the citizens. From the beginning, they all possessed more than enough power to motivate themselves. The catalyst that made them manifest this strength to its fullest potential was Rosclay’s strength as a symbol.

“Thank you, everyone, for your cooperation. Against this rebellion, the Aureatia army maintains a dominating position… Nevertheless, our victory wouldn’t be complete if we were to lose the lives of all you citizens. Work together with me and let us finish this evacuation without a moment’s delay. Martel the Fortune-Viewer will be tasked with directing the situation from here on out. Please leave the rescue work in the Third District and the northern part of the Second District to us.”

He had already transferred the work regarding the neighborhood’s residential registry, and their action policies going forward. Entrusting the bureaucrat that accompanied him from the Construction Ministry to lead things, Rosclay was going to immediately move to the next area.

He couldn’t stop for a moment. Although his wounds from the fourth match were healed, he needed to keep thinking over how to deal with the imminent threat without ever letting his guard down against any attack.

By going out into the field, he had gained several pieces of eyewitness information from the people.

Short of mobilizing the hero candidates, there was no method to deal with Nectegio the Ravenous Rot.

Rosclay connected to Jelky in command headquarters through his radzio.

“Jelky. I propose that we don’t deal with the disaster in the Third District.”

<…What are you saying?>

A slightly haggard voice came back to him.

Now that their arsonists’ plan to torch the entire area ended in failure, the only option to preserve Rosclay’s safety would be to shift to a strategy that would cost a certain number of lives. Jelky must have been thinking along these lines.

<The offensive power of this enemy is extremely dangerous. I could say that it is as if you and the evacuated citizens are walking across a marshland inhabited by wurms right now. Even the slightest mistake could make everything end in failure.>

“Yes. That’s exactly why. This attack was made against both Aureatia’s army and Iriolde’s forces. Both camps recognize the danger that this enemy poses. The one who is too hasty in making their move will be the ones to suffer lethal consequences… This enemy has no intention of moving out from Kadan Third District.”

<The reason behind your conclusion?>

“First of all, there are no signs that the range of the threat is spreading since we first got confirmation on this fungi. That means that sabotage is not its goal… Also, the fact that it appeared out of nowhere, and didn’t go along with the enemy’s movements. Wouldn’t that mean that Yukis the Ground Colony chose the most advantageous area solely for the initial surprise attack and occupied it?”

<Based on the surveillance reports, the multitude of fungi growing en masse in the Third District is the true form of the attack itself. It isn’t a mobile construct like the fungi soldiers attacking the city, and is instead a construct that takes root, spawned by some manipulation on Yukis’s side of things.>

Jelky thought through the situation on the other side of the radzio.

<In other words, does that mean he needed a base of operations?! He captured himself a base in the Third District, and plans to turn it into a dungeon… The reason he made it wipe out both camp’s armies all at once was to prevent any interference until the work was done…! Rosclay, we really do need to deal with it now, or it will be too late.>

“That’s why we’ll abandon it. This area has become a no-man’s-land for Iriolde’s camp as well. Which then means that the only one left we’re meant to deal with is Yukis the Ground Colony. If we make a move, we risk that he’ll choose to move somewhere else or counterattack, but if we maintain the current position, we can finish the evacuation of the surrounding areas without issue.”

The most important point wasn’t to completely protect all of Aureatia. It was to end the day without any lives lost.

Yukis the Ground Colony could be taken down by mobilizing the hero candidates after this current battle, poised to be vital for everything Rosclay’s camp had worked for, was over.

“Prepare for the possibility it might move, and closely observe Yukis’s movements. One possible route the damage could spread is by using the water channels to contaminate other areas. I ask you make use of Liquified Rampart. We need the perspective of a Life Arts specialist. If we can deploy Ekirehjy the Blood Fountain, get in contact with me.”

<…Thank you. I was too hasty to solve the problem. I’ll return to other matters. I’m fine letting you handle that.>

Jelky’s reply was brief, but there was a relieved tone to his voice.

Though Jelky may have been known for his rational, calm composure, it was still impossible for him to escape the guilt of abandoning something. With countless options piled up in front of him and an enormous amount of work imposed upon him, he had needed someone else to shoulder the great sense of guilt.

To fight. Or not to fight. This question has continued to trouble me day in and day out.

Rosclay was determined not to fight.

He knew that choice in it of itself was the strongest of all.