Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 45 - Chapter 4

Technical Difficulties

Monday, November 21st

The horde of zombies that rushed into the hangar attacked the soldiers of the Dawn Corp of Taurus Cobon. The soldiers were unarmed—since they’d been planning to go through health checks and registration, they hadn’t brought any equipment with them. Their weapons and armor were in personal lockers, and the soldiers had been ambushed. Without any training, the outcome was unsurprising. It was a one-sided slaughter, and the fallen soldiers soon stood back up as zombies to attack their former comrades in arms. It was a nightmarish sight.

Deaths were piling up, and fear and panic were swelling, worsening the situation. The soldiers tried to push everyone else away and scramble for safety, but there was nowhere to run. All exits had been locked. The hangar had been sealed ahead of time, and there would be no escape until everyone was a zombie. Even so, they desperately tried to escape. They stepped over their fallen comrades and pounded on doors, screaming for help. They just wanted to survive, yet the doors wouldn’t open. The increasing number of undead were killing the soldiers from one edge of the hangar to the other. Calling it a nightmare wasn’t enough to describe the situation. The sight was a scene straight out of hell.

“You were right, Mackenzie,” Koutarou muttered. “Hesitating for even a moment in front of Maxfern will cause something like this to happen...” Resolved, Koutarou stood up and put his hand on the sword at his waist.

“Hold on, Satomi-san! What are you going to do?!” Nana put her small hand over Koutarou’s, trying to stop him from drawing his sword. She understood the purpose of his action, but there was still something she wanted to confirm first.

“I can’t let this happen! I’m going to save the people who are still alive!”

“But then our presence will be exposed!”

The problem was that if Koutarou did something, their infiltration would be discovered. It would mean that everything they’d done to get there would be for nothing. Naturally, they were in danger too. If the only thing they wanted to do was beat Maxfern, then escaping without ever being discovered was what they should focus on.

“I know that! They’re the enemy, and this might just be strategically wrong. But I still can’t leave it like this! It’s not fair! And there’s no time to hesitate!”

The Dawn Corp was their enemy, and they needed to focus on the mission. Even so, Koutarou wanted to save them. Some soldiers dying in battle was inevitable—he wasn’t happy about it, but he could understand—but this was different. They were suddenly being assailed by an irrational death, not to mention it was their supposed allies who had sent that death their way. No one could comprehend what was going on. To Koutarou, Maxfern and Grevanas were trampling over people’s lives and dignity.

“And I’m sure that those precious to me wouldn’t say it’s okay to overlook this! Isn’t it the same for you, Nana-san?!”

Theia, Clan, and Elfaria probably agreed. No matter how much time passed, they had the same ideals as Alaia. They would protect their citizens against pointless deaths, even those who were enemies. Sanae, Shizuka, and Kiriha wouldn’t rejoice over their deaths. Consequently, the Blue Knight and Koutarou himself had the same desire. So the only thing left was to step forward without hesitation, even if it was a mistake. Just like Kenji had said.

“So lend me your strength, Nana-san!” Koutarou pleaded.

“Hehe, as long as you understand. Let’s do this!” Nana replied.

Nana pulled out her beloved gun, Over the Rainbow, and threw away her disguise. There was a strong will present in her profile. Like Koutarou said, she wanted to help too. But she didn’t want to let emotions get the better of them and push them into making a mistake. So she had needed to confirm that it wasn’t a choice they would regret.

The result was precisely what she had expected. No, Koutarou’s answer had exceeded her expectations. His answer had filled her with motivation.

“Aren’t you going to say something like that to me, Satomi-kun?” Maki asked mischievously. Her clear eyes told Koutarou that she understood everything, thus her reply.

“I don’t have to say anything for you to. Well, no, that’s not right.” Koutarou drew his sword. There was no longer anyone who would stop him.

Nana readied her gun next to him, and Maki faced him with her staff in hand.

“Come with me, Aika-san,” he said.

“Yes. Anywhere you go...” Maki firmly nodded with her clear eyes staring at Koutarou. Sure that their mission would fail, they resolved to save the Dawn Corp.

Since the soldiers were unarmed at the moment, it made sense for Maxfern and Grevanas to strike now. But there were exceptions to everything. Some slouches had kept their guns in their holsters instead of putting them away, so they weren’t entirely unprepared. For the same reason, some were still equipped with distortion fields. The majority of those “slouches” were relatively skilled soldiers. Being armed was a daily thing for them, so they would never remove their weapons. Because of that skill, they were able to take action despite the danger.

“Those aren’t humans?!”

“What are those monsters?!”

“They’re moving too fast! They must be clocking in at over a hundred kilometers per hour!”

“Quit talking and start shooting! The people in the front won’t be able to hold out!”

Most soldiers were panicking, but some were starting to focus. They gathered together and took up formation. Those armed with metal pipes and hammers were given distortion fields and stood at the front. Those with guns stood behind them, firing at the undead. And those who were totally unarmed were even farther back. The Dawn Corp might have been a lackluster organization, but they treasured their allies, and they were desperate to make it out of the situation together.

“It’s no use! I can’t hit them!”

“I should have practiced shooting more!”

“Quit complaining! If you stop now, we’ll be overrun!”

But the situation was terrible. The undead were attacking the panicked soldiers, so not many had joined the formation, and as expected, making noise made them bigger targets. Even so, they were just managing to keep the enemy away. The corpses were strong and the bullets fired were few. Anyone could tell that the soldiers were at a disadvantage.

Will we run out of bullets first, or will the enemies increase first? What do we do after this?! How are we going to survive?!

The squad leader giving directions was racking his brain. The situation was awful. Their unarmed comrades were checking nearby hatches, but all of them were sealed. Despite the nightmare before them, they were unable to retreat. At this rate they were going to be wiped out.

The Liberation Army planned this from the start! They brought us here to turn us into those monsters!

The squad leader could vaguely guess why this was happening. He knew that they weren’t particularly skilled. He had wanted to join the Forthorthe Liberation Army to fix that. But that wasn’t what the Forthorthe Liberation Army wanted. Looking at the monsters in question, he could understand that they were something like a biological weapon and the Dawn Corp was being used to increase their numbers.

As the squad leader was about to fall into despair over that realization, a lone soldier shouted out, “You can’t be serious! Is my life going to be this useless?! At least let me die fighting enemies! Why do I have to be food for monsters!”

The soldiers had all kinds of reasons to fight. Although some held their ideals close to their hearts, others struggled to live and had joined to survive. But they were all prepared to die. They knew it was all the more likely to happen because they were weak. But this kind of death wasn’t what they had been prepared for. They had never imagined dying while turning into monsters. They had envisioned more meaningful deaths.

The soldier raising his voice wasn’t the only one who felt that way. It was the shared feeling of all those present.

“Good. Looks like some of you still have some pep in you.”

A lone young man appeared before them. He was very young, likely just having come of age, maybe even a little younger. In his hand was an old-fashioned knight’s sword. Shockingly, a single, graceful swing of the blade mowed down several zombies that were approaching. At that moment, the decoration on the sword lit up from a reflection of light.

When he saw that, the squad leader’s eyes shot wide open. “Impossible! You’re—”

The ornate but subdued decoration was recognizable to every Forthorthian. The squad captain immediately looked at the face of its owner. Just like the decoration, every Forthorthian knew it.

“The Blue Knight! It’s the Blue Knight?!”

“There’s no way the Blue Knight would be in a place like this!”

“Then come over here and see for yourself!”

As the soldiers noticed him, more and more voices sounded, but they were confused. They didn’t understand the situation or why the Blue Knight was there. Logically, they could conclude that the Blue Knight had come to attack them, and after reaching that conclusion, they turned their guns on him.

“Calm down. If you shoot me, you’ll run out of bullets! Use them to defeat those monsters!” Koutarou instructed.

“But you’re the enemy!”

“Yeah!”

“Is now really the time for that?! Do you want them to eat you alive?!” With those words, he managed to stop the soldiers. They understood how bad the situation was; even if they took Koutarou down, the undead would still be there. Even if they succeeded in killing Koutarou, it would be for nothing.

“If you don’t want that fate, then lend me a hand! We’ll take them down together!”

“Who would want to team up with you?!”

“Yeah, you’re just the royal family’s dog!”

They could understand reason, but their emotions got in the way. The Blue Knight telling them to cooperate wasn’t going to convince them so easily, and the soldiers voiced their objections.

“You don’t have the time to say something like that!” Koutarou said and slashed with Signaltin. When he did, the hatch to the ship was split in two. The hatch the soldiers had been unable to budge was easily opened. “Decide who you’re going to fight right here! I can’t let those things get outside! So they have to all be defeated here and now!” He raised his voice once more, turning his back to the hatch and facing the soldiers again. “What are you going to do?! You didn’t come to join the army just to die here, did you?!”

“Fine... We’ll cooperate with you.” The squad leader made his decision in place of the soldiers, who had frozen where they were. He decided to work with Koutarou.

“Squad leader, are you serious?!”

“Calm down! I feel the same way you do! But he’s right, we can’t let these things get outside! Nor do I even want to think about becoming one of them!”

He didn’t want to entertain the idea of working with the Blue Knight, but right now it was absolutely necessary. The soldiers had joined the Dawn Corp for all kinds of reasons, but they worked to free Forthorthe from the grasp of the royal families and create a better world. Considering that, they couldn’t afford the zombies—not that they knew what they were—getting outside. If they multiplied, it was clear the world would be a worse place. Moreover, the Dawn Corp dying and becoming part of that catastrophe was out of the question. Though it was a difficult decision, joining forces with the Blue Knight was preferable to that.

“However, I will tell you this, Blue Knight! Our cooperation will only be temporary! Once this is over, we will return to being enemies!”

“That’s fine. I won’t hold back when that happens either,” Koutarou retorted.

“Then it’s decided! Men, go get your weapons! We’re fighting back!”

“Yeah!”

The soldiers made up their minds as well and lowered the weapons they had trained on Koutarou. They then entered the hatch he had cut open. Inside the ship were the weapons they’d stored. As they entered, their expressions were somewhat brighter than before. If they got their weapons and worked with the Blue Knight, they might be able to succeed. A small hope budded in their chests.

After Koutarou joined the soldiers, their defense fell for a while. Soldiers at the front had left to get their weapons ready, but the enemy wasn’t going to wait. Manpower was necessary to fill the holes the soldiers left, which was what Maki and Nana were doing.

“The soldiers are coming back.” Nana glanced behind her and confirmed while she repeatedly fired Over the Rainbow and defeated the undead. Soldiers with distortion fields and laser rifles were starting to gather.

“Satomi-kun too.” Maki nodded, having transformed her staff into a great sword, which she used to cleave through their foes.

That was when Koutarou ran over to them. “Sorry to keep you two waiting! You’ve been a huge help!” he said.

He had been protecting the hatch, since if the zombies got in, the soldiers would be wiped out. But once they had managed to arm themselves, Koutarou left the defense to them and headed for the two girls.

“And this is the squad leader for these men... Um, I didn’t get your name yet.”

“It’s Barklane. Nice to— No, never mind.” Barklane stopped himself from telling the girls it was nice to meet them. He had quickly realized they were originally his enemies and swallowed his words.

“Nice to meet you, Barklane-san. I am Nana.”

“Hello, you can call me Maki.”

The girls, however, had no problem being friendly, greeting him with smiles. They no longer thought of him as an enemy.

Are these people sane? Barklane was puzzled by the situation. The Blue Knight and the two girls serving him had easily welcomed him and his men. However, the Blue Knight was the symbol of the royal families’ military force, and Barklane’s group was part of an anti-government force that was drawing its blade on the royal families. They were enemies by nature and therefore had to be wary of one another.

“Does it strike you as strange?”

Maki’s words sent a chill down his spine.

Can this girl read my mind?!

Barklane’s bearded face twisted in shock. Maki could only read his hesitant surface feelings, but through good timing and a careful choice of words, she had surprised him.

“I was the same. In the past, I was Satomi-kun’s—um, His Excellency the Blue Knight’s enemy.”

“What?!”

Her words surprised him even more. Like him, Maki had once opposed the Blue Knight. That was a big shock. But what shocked him the most was what she said next.

“To be honest, the princess was too.”

“Impossible!”

If Maki was speaking the truth, the Blue Knight had opposed the royal families at first. But Barklane had no idea how he had then become their protector.

“Barklane, how is the situation on your warship?”

His surprise lasted only for a few seconds as the Blue Knight in question called out to him and he remembered their dire situation. Now wasn’t the time to worry about relationships.

“I just received a report from my men who went inside. It seems it is still locked under the traffic control’s authority. We won’t be able to move it anytime soon.”

Like Earth airplanes, Forthorthe spaceships had automatic mechanisms for landing and entering ports. Control of the craft was temporarily given to traffic control. Normally, that control could be returned with the press of a button, but it had been locked down when control was handed over, so it would be a lot of work to unlock it. It wasn’t something that could be done in the middle of a battle.

“Then they really were planning on doing this from the start...” Koutarou’s expression turned severe as he heard the report. Measures had been taken to keep the Dawn Corp from escaping.

“We’ll need to make a bold move. What are you thinking, Blue Knight?” Barklane asked.

If left alone, the unarmed soldiers would die and the enemy would only multiply. He wanted to use the warship’s weaponry to deal with the undead, but it had been disabled ahead of time, so some other plan was necessary.

“We will lock them down, and you guys finish them off,” Koutarou stated.

Using his and the girls’ strength to stop the enemy and having the soldiers’ firepower finish them off was a simple diversion tactic, but it would be effective here.

“We might shoot you, though,” Barklane warned him. They might have temporarily become allies, but they still had strong feelings about Koutarou, so some might turn their guns on him and the girls.

“Do whatever you want. But in return, you’ll have to take responsibility for it by wiping out the rest of these.” Koutarou was well aware of the risks, but he didn’t have time to worry about it. Their top priority was saving the soldiers who were in danger and stopping the zombies from escaping. Trying to care about anything else right now would just increase the number of victims.

“Understood. We’ll take down as many as we can,” Barklane conceded.

“I’ll leave it to you. Now let’s go, you two!” Koutarou said and started walking with Signaltin in hand.

The horde of zombies had grown by absorbing a lot of the soldiers, and they were gradually shifting their focus to Koutarou and those working with him. The horde needed to be stopped no matter what.

“This is where it gets serious,” Nana remarked. Her beloved gun in hand, she followed after Koutarou. Right now he wasn’t wearing his usual armor, so he needed someone to cover his back more than usual, and Nana would do exactly that even if it cost her her life.

“We’ll leave the rest in your hands.” Maki slightly bowed her head to Barklane and then followed the other two.

The Blue Knight seems quite different from what I’ve heard...

All kinds of rumors had floated around in the Dawn Corp. Like how he was a merciless monster who slaughtered all who stood in his path, or a demon that specialized in trickery. In general it was nothing but negative rumors. However, the Blue Knight in front of him gave off a completely different impression. If anything, it felt like the good rumors that Barklane and the others had dismissed as propaganda were closer to the truth.

“All hands, move forward in attack formation! The Blue Knight will stop our enemy! You will shoot them when they’re stopped! Whatever you do, don’t hit our allies!” Barklane shouted.

“Does that include the Blue Knight?” a soldier asked.

“As much as I hate it, he is on our side for now. If you shoot him, we will die here too.”

“I understand. Registering the Blue Knight and the other two as friendlies on our identification signal.”

Having met Koutarou directly, the other soldiers felt some confusion, just like Barklane. At the very least, it didn’t seem like most of them would shoot at Koutarou regardless.

The zombies had been created by the waste that Grevanas had. Upon coming into contact with living or dead people, it created negative spiritual energy in their bodies, transforming them into undead. More waste was created inside the corpses, which would increase in number as they came into contact with different people. Since that was how they multiplied, they had a tendency to be attracted to positive—in other words, normal—spiritual energy. They wanted to infect living creatures with positive spiritual energy, and overly powerful spiritual energy had the power to destroy the waste. For those two reasons, those with positive spiritual energy were easily overcome. Essentially, those with strong psychic powers could serve as a lure to draw the undead in.

“We should put the spiritual energy generator in my body into overdrive.” The first thing that came to Nana’s mind was using the spiritual energy generator in her artificial limbs. They typically ran on batteries, but they had a generator as a supplemental power source. By putting that into overdrive, they could generate a large amount of spiritual energy which should attract the zombies.

“It’s dangerous for you to be the decoy when your weapon is a gun. Not to mention the strain it puts on you is dangerous. I will do it.” Koutarou rejected her proposal. With a horde of enemies pressing down on them, they needed someone who could cleave through them, which Nana would struggle to do with a gun. Moreover, when the generator was in overdrive, it was unstable. He was worried about her body.

“But...” Nana had largely suggested she be the decoy because she didn’t want Koutarou to do it. So she wasn’t backing down. She was being very emotional for a genius.

“I know how you feel, but Satomi-kun is right. It would be better for you and me to protect him.”

When Maki, who made protecting Koutarou her top priority, told Nana the same thing, she realized that she was being unreasonably selfish.

“Okay, let’s go with that,” Nana relented. She regretfully dropped her shoulders before slapping her cheeks and pulling herself back together.

After seeing Nana ready her gun, Koutarou stepped forward. “I’m going. I’ll leave the backup to you!”

“Be careful, Satomi-kun!” Maki pleaded.

“We have your back, so don’t worry!”

Maki and Nana kept some distance from him as they followed. Having Koutarou at the front with the two girls backing him up was the most stable formation.

“They’ve multiplied a lot... We have to stop this before the soldiers are wiped out...”

There were a lot of zombies in front of them. Most had their backs to him, attacking the defenseless forces. The panicked soldiers’ screams were attracting them.

“Come at me!”

The zombies suddenly turned around to look at Koutarou, or rather, the spiritual energy that was gathering in his left hand. In the blink of an eye, they started dashing straight at Koutarou. From ten to twenty, their numbers increased. More than half of the undead attacking the soldiers began running toward Koutarou.

“How about this!” Seeing them gather, Koutarou detonated the spiritual energy in his hand. To a normal human it merely looked like a little light, but to zombies that saw everything with Spirit Vision, it was like staring straight into the sun.

“Gyaaaaaaaaahh!”

Deprived of their vision, they screamed, although they didn’t stop moving.

“Summon Strangler Vine - Modifier - Area Effect - Large.”

Maki’s spell put a stop to them. They had run into vines that had suddenly sprouted in front of them. The vines were thorny and slithered like snakes. The undead were entangled by the vines and immobilized. If they hadn’t been blinded, they might have been able to avoid the magic, but since they’d been blinded, the majority of them were caught.

“Good job, Aika-san! Keep it up!” Koutarou praised her.

“Yes!” Maki had conjured the vines with her spell, and combined with Koutarou’s detonation of spiritual energy, the enemy had been stopped just as she’d hoped. Not all of them had been entangled, though. Some were still outside of the effective area, and as they got their vision back, they headed straight for Koutarou again.

“The rest is up to me!” Nana was in charge of taking down those that hadn’t been caught. Zombies moved fast, but they were still partially blind. Moreover, she fired spiritual energy bullets, which could home in on targets to some degree. Coupled with her skills, she was able to take down their foes one after another.

“That’s a former genius magical girl for you...”

Koutarou smiled and swung Signaltin. Since Nana was taking down the enemies to his sides, he could focus on the ones in front of him. With the shock wave magic imbued into the sword, he could send the zombies flying. Normally, Saguratin would be more effective, but that wasn’t going to work this time. Since there were a large number of them, Koutarou needed to be able to defeat entire groups, and Saguratin was also constantly releasing spiritual energy, which would make him stand out too much, making it difficult to be a decoy. If he only wanted to draw in the enemy when he desired, he would need to wield Signaltin and use his left hand to gather spiritual energy.

“Fire all at once! Don’t let this chance go to waste!”

The soldiers helped to make up for the lack of firepower. They were finishing off the zombies caught in the vines, as well as the ones Koutarou and the others had missed. Their cooperation was exceedingly effective, and the enemies were dropping like flies.

As more of the zombies were wiped out, Koutarou’s group was able to rescue some survivors. There were only a dozen or so at the moment, but more and more were being saved. Combined with the soldiers from the start, there were now several dozen soldiers. But it wasn’t all good news. As the rescue proceeded, they caught the attention of a certain individual.

“Well, this is indeed looking interesting. You did well to notice, Grevanas.”

“Ohohoho! I checked the cameras after realizing that the processing hadn’t been completed as expected and discovered them.”

Once Koutarou had defeated a number of zombies, a large monitor installed in the hangar they were trapped in lit up, revealing two people. When he saw them, he forgot that he was in the middle of a battle.

“Maxfern?!”

On the screen was Ralgwin, but even through a monitor Koutarou could immediately see the hatred and desire burning in his eyes, which didn’t belong to Ralgwin, but to Violbarum Maxfern, a man whose ambition had led him to almost destroy Forthorthe.

“How nostalgic! Blue Knight? How long has it been, two thousand years or so?”

Maxfern laughed with Ralgwin’s face. Yet it didn’t feel the slightest bit like Ralgwin to Koutarou. If anything, it only strengthened his impression that Maxfern really was back.

“It’s not the slightest bit nostalgic for me,” Koutarou retorted.

“Apparently it hasn’t been more than a couple of years for you. How irritating. I would love to give you a taste of the hardship we endured.”

Maxfern’s twisted face distorted into a terrible, evil, and abhorrent expression. Whether that was from the hardships they’d endured or the influence of being forcibly resurrected two thousand years later, Koutarou had no way of knowing.

“So you’re going to challenge me and the royal families again?”

“But of course! I have longed for this moment for so long! Ever since arriving in the wasteland you banished me to with no way of returning home! The dream of trampling your corpse and forcing the royals to the ground was the dream I clung to until the day I died!”

Maxfern’s eyes shone with his dream. But it was anything but a positive dream. It was a terribly dark dream that clung to him and burned.

“After two thousand years I finally have a chance to fulfill that dream! Yet you think you can avoid challenging me, Blue Knight?!”

Maxfern and his alchemists had been banished by Koutarou and Clan to Earth ten thousand years in the past. The despair they’d felt had been overwhelming. Earth had still been in the remnants of the Ice Age when winters were harsh. Used to living in luxury in a castle, they had been forced to live in a cavern to survive the cold. They’d had no decent food and were frequently attacked by wildlife and locals. For people from a developed civilization, it was an overly harsh world, and many of them had perished. Yet they’d still managed to survive through the power of technology and alchemy—the beginning of spiritual energy technology.

Even so, they’d found no way to return home. At that point, they had put their focus on trying to survive in this new world, but Maxfern was different. He never abandoned his wish to return. To take revenge on the Blue Knight and the royal families and steal Forthorthe for himself. His wish had endured, even as he grew old and sick, unable to walk on his own. Until he drew his last breath. He’d died cursing the royal families, and especially the Blue Knight. His dream of trampling his enemies had lasted until his death.

“I will never let you fulfill that dream.” Contrary to Maxfern, who was having an emotional outburst, Koutarou’s words were quiet.

I understand, Satomi-kun. We just need to defeat this guy... Maki thought to herself while mowing down zombies that were trying to jump on Koutarou. Maki knew that the angrier Koutarou was, the quieter he became. And it was rare to see him this angry. Seeing that, she was convinced that Maxfern was exceedingly dangerous and couldn’t be ignored.

“Can you stop me this time, Blue Knight? Unlike last time, there’s no difference in strength now! Hahahaha, no matter how you try, Forthorthe will be consumed by the flames of war!”

“No, nothing about you has changed. Including your end.”

“Then try it, Blue Knight! This time, I will steal everything from you! You will not be able to protect anything!”

So far, every enemy had had a line they wouldn’t cross. Even the brutal Vandarion had treasured Ralgwin and his family. But Maxfern was different. He could do something others would hesitate to do without a care in the world. That much was clear just from looking at the state of the hangar. Maxfern—the greatest enemy of Koutarou and the royal families—was back.

Barklane had been watching the two, but what confused him was how Maxfern, who he saw as Ralgwin, was acting completely different from when he had publicly declared war. It was like a whole new person was displaying his hatred for the Blue Knight. What confused him even more was the truth of their current battle, which Maxfern himself spoke of.

“Why would you do something like this, Maxfern?!”

“Haha, we were struggling with how to handle these anti-government forces. Sure, we need soldiers, more than anything. But training takes time and money, not to mention their security is lax, as shown by your presence here. It is clear what would happen if they were taken to an important base, don’t you think?”

“So you’d turn them into monsters?! To save on time and money?!”

“It’s two birds, one stone. We will save on effort, and there is no fear of information leaking. No, now that they’ve brought you here, it’s three birds with one stone.”

Barklane had been suspicious that the air conditioning had been shut off so quickly. Not to mention that if an enemy was attacking, there would have been no need to lock down the destroyer. So he’d had his suspicions, but he had assumed that his allies would never do such a thing. Hearing the truth from Maxfern’s mouth, his trust for his allies was shattered. There was no longer any doubt that joining the Forthorthe Liberation Army had been a lure to draw in the Dawn Corp and turn them into biological weapons.

“I need to decide who we are supposed to fight...” he mumbled.

“Squad leader?”

“No, it’s nothing. Let us survive this, men!”

“Hear, hear!”

“We’ll pass on dying in such a stupid fight!”

One more thing was clear. Maxfern’s words meant that he planned on killing everyone present. Having revealed such a fatal truth, the only way to keep the secret was to kill everyone who had heard it. Barklane and his men were well aware of that and resolved themselves to an even fiercer fight.

Barklane’s prediction was spot on. After Maxfern revealed the truth, more biological weapons broke into the hangar. But they looked quite different from what one might expect. At first glance, they looked like fully armed modern soldiers to Koutarou.

“What are those soldiers...” Koutarou was perplexed by their appearance. He couldn’t understand why normal soldiers would be sent in after the waste. Zombies didn’t distinguish between friend and foe, so these new arrivals would be attacked too.

“Excellent things are often simple, Blue Knight. Just like that PAF that uses force fields for artificial limbs,” Grevanas laughed, satisfied with their reaction.

At those words, Koutarou took another look at the new soldiers. “What?! Those are living soldiers?! You armed them?!”

He could see negative spiritual energy squirming inside of them. They were also zombies. But he didn’t understand the point in arming ones that moved purely on instinct. Even with guns, they would use them as makeshift clubs at best.

“That’s not right, Satomi!” Maki corrected Koutarou. As an excellent magician, she could see something else. “He is using magic to control them! They used mind manipulation magic to burn the model of a soldier’s movement into them!”

Maki could see the indigo mana of the spells she specialized in. She could also see the purple mana of necromancy. Being able to move on instinct meant that these undead had an ego. So unlike zombies made from magic, mind manipulation spells worked on them. That meant their movements could be modeled on the behavioral patterns of a soldier, just like skeletons. Maki couldn’t make a detailed analysis at the moment, but she was convinced of it after seeing how the mana flowed.

“You are correct. It would appear that you have a knack for this,” Grevanas confirmed. He seemed to be enjoying that a magician had been able to see through his spell. But that was all the more reason for him to act fast, and he moved to attack. “Go on, give the Blue Knight a grand welcome!”

The undead soldiers spread out and prepared to fire. Seeing that, Koutarou’s eyes opened wide.

“They’re fast! What is with this speed?!” He was shocked by how quickly they spread out. Despite being fully armed, they moved just as fast as the zombies. It took no time at all for them to enter a stable firing position.

The undead soldiers opened fire without hesitation. Their timing was perfectly synchronized, and Koutarou was caught in their assault.

“Dammit, they’re using special bullets too!” He hadn’t worn his armor because it would have gotten in the way of their infiltration, but he did have a military-grade PAF. However, its guard was broken in an instant. Their aim was abnormally accurate, and they perfectly tracked him. The bullets were also special, using spiritual energy and magic. So even a military-grade PAF only bought him enough time to dodge. If Koutarou’s reaction had been just a little slower, he would have been killed then and there.

“These soldiers are pretty good, aren’t they?”

Grevanas was being more talkative than normal, like a child bragging about his toy.

“Not many soldiers can react as fast as these. They also have some consciousness left, so they can be flexible when new situations arise.”

Grevanas had a reason to brag. It sounded simple to use magic to make zombies behave like soldiers, but it was exceedingly complicated. Magic was used to combine a zombie’s speed and reaction with the obedience and cooperation of soldiers to make the best of both.

“Moreover, they use human equipment, so the logistics are unchanged. But their biggest flaw is their inability to infect their victims with the same fighting power.”

These undead soldiers could use weapons and armor without needing them to be specially made. They could use the same weapons the Dawn Corp’s soldiers were using and become powerful soldiers. Because the equipment was compatible, logistics could continue as normal, making them easy to deploy for a long time on the front. If they had a weakness, it was that even if they touched a human, they would only create a normal zombie. The additional magic wouldn’t spread. But it wasn’t like equipment multiplied, so that wasn’t a big deal.

The undead soldiers opened fire once again. But this time they weren’t after Koutarou. Realizing it would be disadvantageous to go after him, they were aiming for the Dawn Corp behind him instead. By eliminating them first, the number of zombies would increase faster.

“Whoa!”

“Dunbark! Are you okay?!”

“They’re hitting from this distance— Agh!”

The zombies made use of cover and were extremely accurate. So the unskilled Dawn Corp was being one-sidedly defeated.

“Dammit, at this rate the soldiers will be wiped out!”

Koutarou, Maki, and Nana could fight against the undead, but the Dawn Corp soldiers couldn’t. The undead’s abilities were on a different level. They surpassed the living soldiers in every regard, and there was no way of reversing the situation. That made it an exceedingly difficult scenario for Koutarou and the girls.

“How does it feel, Blue Knight? This is how we felt whenever we fought against you. It fills you with despair, doesn’t it? Hahahaha, ahahahaha!”

Maxfern laughed in satisfaction as he watched them struggle, just like when Grevanas had resurrected and fought them, or in the final battle two thousand years ago, or when Dextro had captured Alaia with a steel giant. Despite foolproof plans that had been sure to bring them victory, they had never worked against Koutarou’s side. But this time was different. If they set up for victory, they could expect to win. The large gap between the two sides in the past had finally been bridged after two thousand years. The fact excited Maxfern and he couldn’t stop laughing.

“Satomi-kun, let’s go back the soldiers up!” Maki suggested.

“I will go and crush those zombies,” Nana offered.

Koutarou responded, “All right, don’t force yourselves, you—”

“Not so fast,” interrupted Grevanas. “ I figured you would do that. So I have prepared a different opponent for you. Well, it is very much a failure as a weapon...”

The actions they wanted to take were the same ones Maxfern and Grevanas had taken, providing backup to keep the front from collapsing. It was only natural, which was why Grevanas could predict them.

A large hatch in the floor of the hangar opened up to reveal a metallic wall ten meters high. With large fixtures, it was supporting a metallic dragon.

“What is this... The mechanical dragon from back then?” Koutarou asked.

“It is pretty small for that. It looks more like an antipersonnel weapon?” Nana suggested.

The mechanical dragon looked like the one that Vandarion had controlled in the past, but it wasn’t as big. And the weapons it had equipped weren’t meant for mobile weapons, but for people. The mind naturally turned to helicopters or tanks.

“I can sense mana from it too. I have a bad feeling about this, Satomi-kun...” Maki said anxiously. She sensed something abnormal about the dragon. There was mana, but the way the dragon was fixed was bizarre. Rather than being put up for maintenance, it was more like it was chained up to be restrained.

“You really do have a good eye, girl.” Seeing Maki’s reaction, Grevanas laughed in satisfaction once more. “No matter how strong it may be, I have no interest in a weapon that can’t be controlled. Without control it is meaningless. We are trying to lay claim to Forthorthe, after all. But in the process of making controllable weapons, some failures that are only useful in particular situations occur,” Grevanas explained.

With that, the fixtures were released and the dragon’s generator started up, filling its body with energy. Before long, its eyes started glowing red and it opened its mouth and roared.

“I put it in contact with the waste in order to gain control of its nervous system, but that was a complete failure. It is unable to distinguish between friend and foe. But it can differentiate between the undead and living, which is why I had it appear here,” Grevanas explained.

The dragon had been made in the process of creating undead soldiers. It was a test model for the creation of weapons using the waste. The dragon had magic enhancing it, but no magic was used to control it. It had been a test to enhance machines with the waste. Or, more specifically, directly connecting the mind of a human infected by the waste with the fire control system in an attempt to use its advanced recognition and reaction speed. It had been made in the hopes of faster tracking and faster actions, but in the end it had been rejected.

Since it used a special dragon series as its base, its performance was above expectations. But using the nervous system of a zombie had backfired, as it was unable to distinguish between friend and foe. What one wanted from a weapon was destruction that could be controlled. If everything was destroyed, there was no point in battle, in which case they might as well just use bombs. It had been chained up because it couldn’t be controlled. Originally the dragon had been intended to remain sealed until its nervous system rotted, without ever activating.

“The cause of its failure is that it prioritizes those with large amounts of spiritual energy as targets. It doesn’t care whose side the target is on. But right now, it will only target one person,” Grevanas gloated. In just this moment, he knew who the dragon would target, which was just what he hoped for as he released its seal.

“ROOOOOAAAAAAAAR!” The giant dragon stared at Koutarou and roared once more. It rejoiced over finally being freed, having found prey.

“Me...” Koutarou sighed.

“Indeed! You have the most spiritual energy out of anyone here! In other words, at this one moment, it will function as a weapon, Blue Knight!”

If there was someone on a battlefield with a lot of spiritual energy that they wanted removed, that was the only time the condition for the dragon to function as a weapon was fulfilled. Once that target was eliminated, the dragon could self-destruct. All they had to do was attach a bomb to the nervous system. In other words, the mechanical dragon’s sole purpose was killing psychics. But it cost far too much unless it was a very important target. For example, the Blue Knight.

“Now, run wild, Elder Dragon Type Zero! I will witness your final battle!”

“ROOOOAAAAAAR!”

Released from all restraints, the giant mechanical dragon, Elder Dragon Type Zero, attacked Koutarou. It moved at terrifying speed. If a normal person had been riding it, the acceleration would have knocked them out.

As Koutarou was being attacked by Type Zero, the Dawn Corp was in a critical situation. Barklane was desperate to escape.

“Fall back and use cover! You will only get sniped in the open!” he shouted.

“But if we move away our accuracy will—”

“Now’s not the time for that! What good will accuracy be if you’re dead?!”

“Understood! You heard him! Everyone fall back! Get some distance!”

While under fire from the undead, Barklane made the decision to fall back. They had advanced to wipe out the zombies, but if they stayed in a place where there was no cover, they would just be easy targets. First they had to fall back to cover and protect themselves. The soldiers immediately followed orders and retreated while dragging their injured comrades.

“What about the Blue Knight?!”

“He is being attacked by the dragon-type mobile weapon and can’t move!”

“Looks like we can’t count on him for reinforcement.”

Barklane glanced over at Koutarou while falling back. Koutarou was fighting a mechanical dragon with just a knight’s sword. The situation looked grim. It was clear to anyone that he was being overwhelmed.

“If anything, it’s hard to believe that he’s still alive...”

“Did you say something, sir?”

“No, it was nothing. More importantly, have those with nothing else to do find any kind of launchers! We won’t be able to beat those soldiers with a weapon we need to aim with!”

“At once, sir!”

Barklane and his soldiers had avoided using explosives. As their comrades were being attacked by zombies, there was a chance they could get caught up in the fight. But in their current situation, they needed to be prepared for that. Now that the Blue Knight couldn’t help, if Barklane and his men were wiped out, so too would be their allies. So the undead soldiers needed to be taken out before that happened. He didn’t know if explosives could take out the undead, but he resolved himself to use them.

Ever since the battle had begun, Koutarou had been stuck on the defensive. The enemy’s attacks were coming too fast, and it was a little different from the Type One Revised that he had fought in the past. The Type One Revised had analyzed information to predict his moves, but Type Zero read Koutarou’s spiritual energy to make the first move. So Type Zero was even faster, and Koutarou was stuck merely blocking its attacks.

“ROOOOOOAAAAAAR!”

The Type Zero roared and opened its mouth wide to fire a laser cannon. The light-based laser attack hit at the same moment the target could see it. It was a fitting weapon for Type Zero, which had excellent reflexes and tracking abilities.

“Ugh, I’m counting on you, Signaltin!”

Koutarou was unable to dodge and instead unleashed the mana within Signaltin. The sword answered his wishes and activated a defense spell and a smoke screen. The barrier protected him while the smoke screen greatly weakened the laser. Through that, the PAF’s defenses were able to hold up.

“Information Message. PAF’s remaining battery at sixty percent,” the rabbit at Koutarou’s feet reported. Since he didn’t have the time to check the battery himself, he was grateful for the report.

“I won’t be able to deal with that attack many times!”

Thirty percent of the battery had been drained by a single attack. And that was with two spells adding to the defense. As expected, going up against a ten-meter-tall giant without his armor was difficult.

“Grevanas has made a real monster!” Koutarou exclaimed.

“I take offense to that. There are not many monsters quite like you. We are desperately trying to make countermeasures for you,” Grevanas stated.

To him, Koutarou had used forbidden moves first. Koutarou was armed with science and spiritual energy technology that hadn’t existed two thousand years ago. So it was only natural that they would want the power to stand up against him.

“That’s your one-sided interpretation!” Koutarou yelled.

“Satomi-kun!” Maki called out.

“Whoa!”

There was more than just Type Zero targeting him. The zombies were still charging him, and the undead soldiers would shoot at any opening they saw. This time a group of them attacked Koutarou, which required that he use his sword to deal with them. Koutarou’s blade sent them flying. But that was only the beginning of the problem.

“ROOOOOAAAAR!”

The instant his attention shifted to the zombies, Type Zero spun around to attack with its tail. Koutarou was struck hard by the tail whip and struggled to breathe.

“Ugh!”

“Satomi-san!” Nana yelled.

“Alert Message, PAF’s defensive functions have seized. The remaining battery is almost at zero percent,” the rabbit reported.

“Ugh, dammit...”

Fortunately, he’d been protected from instant death in exchange for the PAF’s remaining battery. But he wouldn’t get another chance. After following his will and forcibly pushing Koutarou’s body up, the PAF quietly ceased to function.

This is bad... To think they had a secret weapon like this...

Koutarou readied his sword while clicking his tongue in his mind. Not even they had imagined this was a factory for biological weapons with hidden test equipment. They had underestimated how evil Maxfern and Grevanas really were. But it wasn’t a miss on their end. Who could imagine someone taking such wicked means in a modern war? It went against the rules of engagement, be it on Earth or Forthorthe.

“Hahahaha, it’s finally time to pay the piper, Blue Knight! I never imagined the conclusion would come this quickly!” Maxfern laughed. He had figured that the battle against Koutarou and the royal families would be drawn out. One of his goals was to hurt the people through a long war. Yet, he hadn’t even set a trap; Koutarou and the others had walked into danger themselves. Maxfern couldn’t stop himself from laughing. At the same time, it did feel like a bit of a letdown.

“But I would be very grateful if you died here. You can leisurely watch our domination from hell!”

Maxfern was convinced of his victory. They were even on a technological level, and Koutarou had committed a strategic blunder. With those two factors, he was certain of success. Even Koutarou had to acknowledge that. But that was only if the circumstances remained the same.

“I’ve kept you waiting, huh, Koutarou?”

“You’re finally here!”

At last the moment Koutarou had been waiting for came as Theia’s voice sounded through the comms. The base was being jammed in order to keep the Dawn Corp from being able to send any messages. Because of that, radio waves and gravity waves had been jammed from the start, and mana and spiritual energy had been blocked once combat had begun. So Koutarou had been unable to use Signaltin to contact Harumi. Yet despite that, Theia’s voice could be heard because she was close enough to get through the jamming.

“Impossible! How did you do it?!” Grevanas’s expression twisted. He couldn’t believe it. There was no way that anyone from the outside should have been able to know Koutarou’s group was in danger.

“It was simple, really. Something managed to escape this location. That is all there was to it.” Clan shrugged as if to say it was nothing.

The small rabbit drone that Ruth’s rabbit had ejected had managed to get outside. And while they hadn’t been able to directly communicate, Harumi had felt that Signaltin’s mana was being used. The contract of the sword connected them through dimensions. With those two sources of information, the girls had been able to determine that their friends were in danger.

“You again! The Blue Knight’s servant!” Grevanas spat with a bitter expression. Clan had gotten in his way both two thousand years ago and in the current age. She was also the one who created the bomb that had banished him. To Grevanas, Clan was just as hateful of an enemy as Koutarou.

“Be quiet, you filthy slaughterer! You should already know who I am!” Clan shouted.

“Clariossa Daora Forthorthe! You won’t get away with this, especially since you are royalty!” Grevanas exclaimed. He was normally calm, but right now he bared his true emotions.

That was when something pierced through the roof of the hangar and entered.

“What?!” he shouted in surprise.

“I have made a new weapon,” Clan explained.

What had entered was the five-meter-tall mobile weapon Warlord III Rev. Its armor had been painted a vivid blue just for Koutarou’s use, and its backpack had an indigo stripe.

“Warlord III Rev, Navy Line...this craft will banish you again!” Clan triumphantly said.

“You little brat, watch your mouth!”

Although Warlord III Rev had undergone significant modifications that had almost completely changed it, it was technically a weapon made by Elexis and not Clan herself. But there was no reason to tell that to Grevanas and Maxfern, who were raging at her words.

After launching Warlord III Rev at the location Sanae had pointed out, Ruth launched a drone that originally accompanied infantry. Its job was to deploy a distortion field to close the hole opened by Warlord III Rev.

“Ohohohoho, I wonder how long that dragon of yours will last!” Clan laughed.

“Grevanas, destroy that thing and shut her up!” Maxfern commanded.

“As you wish!” Grevanas said.

“Your Highness, the hole has been sealed! There is no fear of the waste getting through,” Ruth reported. Fortunately, she was able to do her work thanks to Clan attracting all of the attention. That was in part due to Maxfern and Grevanas being elsewhere and unable to get a full grasp of the situation. While reporting to Theia, Ruth lightly waved to Clan, who waved back without saying anything.

“Good job, you two! Ruth, pass the weapons control system to me! We have guests! Leave things below to Koutarou and the others, and we’ll handle this!” Theia said.

“As you wish, My Princess!”

Although Maxfern and Grevanas were using the base to create biological weapons, it was still a military base. And it had weapons for intercepting enemies. Of course, since they were using the hangars to create zombies, they only had antiair guns. But with the Hazy Moon appearing above the base, fighters had been sent out from other places. Theia and the others would need to deal with those.

Koutarou, there might be no end to your worries...but continue forward, together with us! Theia thought.

Thanks to Sanae, she could tell what the others were fighting and what terrible things were happening. She also knew how much it bothered Koutarou. Even so, he had to fight. Her feelings were directed toward Koutarou, but they were also meant to rouse her too.

Koutarou had been dumbfounded when Warlord III Rev had come flying through the roof. They had been fighting to keep the waste contained, so he had never expected such a thing. But he was relieved when a distortion field quickly covered up the hole.

“Koutarou, Maki, fall back!” Shizuka shouted.

“Satomi-kun, hurry! The big thing is going to attack!” Sanae added.

The biggest relief was seeing Sanae and Shizuka come out of the ship. Since it could fit two people, Kiriha had sent them over as a bonus. It wasn’t their strength that relieved him, but their energetic appearance.

“Still, the other side isn’t going to let themselves be defeated so easily.”

Warlord III Rev had been sent in with Sanae’s Spirit Vision as a guide, but they couldn’t tell exactly what was going on and had ended up landing in a kneeling position some distance away. Because of that, it had landed among the zombies and undead soldiers. In order to get on board, Koutarou had to break through.

“Those of you with the strength, forward! Back up the Blue Knight’s advance!” That was when unexpected reinforcements appeared. Barklane led the Dawn Corp’s soldiers to eliminate the enemies in front of them. If they hadn’t retreated and preserved their strength, they wouldn’t have been able to provide backup. Of course, there was a price to pay. Enemies started turning on them, and they started losing men.

“Thank you, Barklane!” Koutarou called out.

“It’s not for your sake!” Barklane wasn’t overly happy about helping him. Losing comrades to provide backup was vexing. But in order to save more lives, he believed it was necessary.

“That’s it! That’s what it means to protect your country!” Koutarou nodded and ran toward Warlord III Rev. Thanks to the backup, the enemy wasn’t able to get in the way as much. Before long, he reached the craft.

“Protecting your country, huh?” Barklane muttered. “You’re saying that to an anti-government force like us...” He had been so irritated just a moment ago, but right now those feelings were starting to wane.

Koutarou got into the cockpit and sat down; Maki jumped over him and sat down in her own seat. The Navy Line had a special seating, and once seated, Maki had her back against Koutarou. She needed space to chant and make gestures, so it was a trick to create more space for her.

“All ready, Satomi-kun!” she said.

“All right. I’m bringing up the machine!” Koutarou closed the hatch and grabbed Warlord’s control stick. Warlord was already on after entering the hangar, so moving the stick made it stand up.

“Go get him, Koutarou! Beat that dragon up!” Sanae cheered.

“Hurry up and help, Satomi-kun! This dragon is as extreme as always!” Shizuka shouted.

Sanae and Shizuka had been fighting Type Zero in Koutarou’s place. No one aside from them could handle it. Even so, it wasn’t looking good for them. The Type Zero was moving too fast.

“Aika-san,” Koutarou called her name, omitting everything else.

But that alone told Maki everything she needed to know. “Yes, you can focus on fighting, Satomi-kun,” Maki said. “I will match you.”

“I’m counting on you! Now let’s go!”

After checking on Maki, Koutarou pushed Warlord forward. In its hand was a huge sword. Signaltin was placed within the sword so that Koutarou could wield its power even inside the machine. He unleashed its power, covering the blade in a powerful electric field and causing it to glow.

“Eagle Eye, Lighting Reflex, Raven Wisdom.”

Maki cast spell after spell on Koutarou. Since she was just going along for the ride, she didn’t need the spells’ effects, so she was just focusing on casting. Maki cast spells to improve Koutarou’s eyesight, his reflex speed, and his thinking speed, all spells that were part of the mind manipulation magic she specialized in. The plan was to defeat Type Zero with the wide range of enchantments and Signaltin’s electricity expanding the sword’s range.

“ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAR!”

“Whoa now!”

As soon as Type Zero’s mouth began to open, Koutarou started evading. So by the time the mouth was open, Warlord was already outside of the line of fire, and the laser hit nothing but air.

“GRRRRRRRRR!”

“Don’t expect it to work time and time again!”

Koutarou also dodged the follow-up tail attack. With his enhanced eyes, he didn’t overlook the moment the Type Zero’s center of gravity changed while it spun.

“You’re in range! Go get it, Satomi-kun!” Shizuka unconsciously cheered.

Type Zero was ten meters tall and Warlord was five meters tall, so there was a big difference in size, which also affected their effective ranges. By dodging two attacks, Koutarou successfully closed the gap.

“Right there, Koutarou, take him down!” Sanae cheered him on.

“How about thiiisss!”

Warlord swung down its sword on the Type Zero that still hadn’t stopped spinning. The giant sword draped in lighting approached the Type Zero. The tip cut into the armed carrier resembling a giant wing and cut it in half. Once detached from the dragon, the wing took all of the electricity in the attack and exploded.

“I can do this! I can fight!”

The Type Zero used the momentum of its spin to slash with its claws, and Koutarou psyched himself up while blocking it. However, Maki warned him.

“But you have to hurry, Satomi-kun! We don’t have that much time!”

“Alert Message. The pilot’s inputs exceed this craft’s response time. The strain on this machine is great, and serious damage has been detected in the structure.”

Warlord was unable to keep up with the enhanced Koutarou’s control. While it could fight on even footing with the Type Zero, it couldn’t withstand its own speed, causing it damage. Moreover, Warlord’s AI was unable to learn everything from Koutarou’s controls at this speed, and its responses ended up being delayed. That said, even with the strain, if Koutarou were to slow down, the Type Zero would overpower him. He needed to keep it up even if it put him at a disadvantage.

“Can you see this, Clan-san?” Nana, who was covering Warlord’s back, let out a sigh.

“Yes, it is quite dreadful, Nana...”

Warlord was already damaged to the point that the damage could be seen with the naked eye. Smoke was coming out from all over, and the joints were heating up. The cooling wasn’t enough, causing the moving parts to burn. Warlord hadn’t been made to move at speeds beyond the human limit.

“This will need some serious modifications,” Nana said.

“To think that it wouldn’t be able to keep up with the two of them...” Clan said in astonishment.

The problems were probably a result of the difference between one person’s design and someone else’s. Warlord III Rev had originally been designed by Elexis. A general purpose weapon had been customized for personal use. In comparison, the Blue Knight had been made with Koutarou in mind, and it could survive his reckless handling. It was an inevitable problem, but since Clan saw herself as Koutarou’s partner, she could only admit defeat.

“Now’s not the time to cry about it! Do something, Clan!” Koutarou shouted. He commanded Warlord to swing its sword, but the movements of its arms were slightly delayed, causing it to miss Type Zero. The heat from the engine room was spreading to the control system, slowing down the computer’s processing speed. It wouldn’t be surprising for it to shut down at any moment.

“Hahahaha, you won’t be able to defeat the Type Zero with some stopgap measures!” Grevanas laughed.

“Grevanas!”

“I was surprised when that giant appeared, but in the end it’s a weapon made for humans! My Type Zero wasn’t made with frail humans in mind from the very start! You have lost, Blue Knight!” Grevanas boasted. He had worried for a moment when Warlord began its counterattack, but he was once again convinced of his victory.

Type Zero was a test bed that didn’t have anyone piloting it, and it had been given the nervous system of a zombie. It exceeded human limits in both ways. Naturally Warlord III Rev, which had its abilities forcibly increased, would lose.

“You are taking more damage than you can deal with your increased firepower. It’s unfit to be a weapon. It’s over, Blue Knight,” Maxfern added.

While the armed carrier had been destroyed, the main part of the Type Zero had barely taken any damage. Meanwhile, smoke was rising up from all over Warlord. The difference was clear to everyone.

However, Clan had a different opinion. “I suppose I don’t have a choice; I will have to be reckless!” She used her computer at blistering speed, causing something unexpected to happen. The mobile weapon plugging up the hole above Koutarou and the others stopped moving and entered a free fall assisted by gravity.

“That girl again?! What is she planning now?!”

“You have less than ten seconds, Veltlion! Finish it within that time!”

Koutarou didn’t know what Clan was planning, but he readied Warlord’s sword once more. “Ten seconds is enough! Do it, Clan!” He was convinced that after Clan said that, he would definitely have his chance.

But Grevanas wasn’t going to sit quietly waiting for something to happen, and he had the Type Zero attack the falling mobile weapon. “Don’t let her do anything, shoot it down, Type Zeroooo!!!” A laser was fired, opening a hole in the center of the weapon.

“And then I do this!” Clan wore a fearless smile. She had expected the enemy to do that. After that it was a battle against time.

There was an explosion, but it wasn’t from the mobile weapon. The small explosion was a result of the mobile weapon following Clan’s orders, detaching a large tank on the outside of the craft next to Koutarou.

“Now go, Veltlion!”

“Got it!”

Koutarou charged forward. At that moment, the large tank erupted, spreading its contents everywhere.

“Information Message. The craft’s temperature is out of the danger zone,” the AI reported.

“Good job, Clan!” Koutarou continued his charge. Since he had been prepared for it, there was no delay.

“Impossible, what is happening?!” Maxfern had been looking forward to tearing Koutarou apart, so he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and he couldn’t understand it on a technological level.

However, Grevanas, who had been alive for longer in this world, could understand. “It was a tank filled with coolant?! As an unmanned craft specialized in defense, it came equipped with a large tank. We’ve been had!”

The mobile weapon that had been deployed to set up a distortion field and block the hole in the roof was made for defense and came with a large generator, which in turn was equipped with a large tank of coolant for use in space. Clan had used that tank to cool down Warlord. That said, its effects wouldn’t last for long, so Koutarou only had one chance. However, he had waited and believed in Clan, so he didn’t hesitate.

“Looks like the difference in engineers is showing, Grevanas! My princess is a genius!” Koutarou shouted.

“Curse you! Not agaaaiiin!” Grevanas’s expression twisted. But then something that further distorted his expression happened.

“Mending, Cooling, Reduce Friction!”

“Temperature for all parts has reached normal levels, operating at stable levels.”

Sensing what Clan was doing, Maki cast several new spells to repair, cool, and reduce the wear on Warlord. Of course, her scientific knowledge was limited, and so were the effects of her spells. But the support she provided was necessary. Thanks to her and Maki’s efforts, Warlord was moving like normal again.

“Impossible! How did this happen?! I was just one step away!” Maxfern yelled.

Type Zero repeatedly attacked Warlord as it approached. Lasers, missiles, beam shotgun—all firearms to destroy highly mobile weapons, but they all missed.

“Mirror Image! Blink!”

Warlord wasn’t just moving fast; there were also clones of it, and it was teleporting. All kinds of methods were being used to protect it. Meanwhile, the Type Zero had no way of stopping the approaching Warlord.

“Haaaaaaah!”

“Shield!”

Finally, Maki cast a defensive spell, which Warlord kicked off from to make an almost right-angle turn in midair, appearing right in front of Type Zero.

“ROOOOOOOAAAAAR!”

Bewildered by Warlord’s movements, all the Type Zero could do was deploy a distortion field. But when faced with Signaltin glowing with lightning, it was far too unreliable.

“Go, Koutarou! Hit a home run!” Sanae cheered.

“It’s oveeerrr!” Koutarou shouted.

Warlord approached like a bolt of lightning, swinging the sword down. In the next moment, fire shot out from the Warlord’s right knee, and the machine tilted. The final turn had put too much strain on it, and it was at its limit.

Following that was a singular explosion. The Type Zero had been destroyed, as Warlord’s last attack had cut it in half. The explosion seriously damaged the hangar, knocking out the power. Fortunately, the chamber retained its shape, and the hole was quickly plugged up again to keep the waste from escaping. But it wasn’t all good news. Maxfern and Grevanas disappeared from the monitor, and even after the emergency power was turned on, they didn’t return.

“Satomi-san, we’re done over here too,” Nana reported.

“Phew, we’re finally done...” Hearing that, Koutarou returned Signaltin to its sheath, then sat down on a nearby box with a sigh.

“I will be making my way over to you,” Nana said.

“Do be careful,” Koutarou warned her.

“Thank you. See you soon.”

The battle had ended in their victory. Once Type Zero had been destroyed, the battle had proceeded at their pace. Once Theia had shot down the fighters, more and more reinforcements had come from the Hazy Moon. Maxfern and Grevanas had also lost any means of communication. Without commands from Grevanas, the undead soldiers were greatly weakened, and alongside the Dawn Corp, Koutarou’s group had taken them all down. Nana’s report was telling them that the final zombie had been defeated.

“Blue Knight.” Barklane, the Dawn Corp’s squad leader, came up to Koutarou. He knew the battle was over as well, but his expression was still very serious.

“Barklane, how many remain?”

“Fifty-eight.”

“I see...”

The Dawn Corp had been two hundred strong when they’d arrived and had been reduced to a mere fifty-eight. Most had been turned into zombies, the rest killed in battle. Many of the survivors had been seriously injured. Considering the circumstances, fifty-eight was practically a miracle. But neither Koutarou nor Barklane felt like celebrating.

“Why are you grieving? The battle is over. We are back to being enemies.” Barklane wasn’t attacking Koutarou because he wanted to make things clear. They weren’t allies, so Koutarou had no reason to be in pain over the soldiers’ fates. If things had gone according to plan, he might have been the one to kill them.

“Maybe. But...Her Majesty Alaia wouldn’t be happy with this outcome.” Koutarou understood that Barklane was back to being his enemy. But he believed that the kind girl he had met two thousand years ago would grieve over their deaths.

“So this is what it means to protect your country...” Barklane muttered as he saw Koutarou’s self-deprecating smile.

“What?” Koutarou had heard Barklane mutter, but not what he’d said.

“It’s nothing. I was talking to myself.” In the end, Barklane didn’t tell Koutarou. Instead, he bid him farewell. “We will be leaving now.”

“I see. See you—no, if possible, I’d like it if you didn’t appear before us again.” Next time, they would meet as enemies and Koutarou would need to defeat him. Like with Fasta, he wouldn’t be very happy if they met again.

“Shouldn’t you be capturing us?” Barklane asked. The Dawn Corp hadn’t attacked yet, but they were at least guilty of preparing for conflict. That was enough to warrant an arrest.

“I’ve had enough fighting for today. Besides, I want to stay true to myself.” Koutarou’s suggestion that they cooperate hadn’t included him arresting the survivors afterward. Barklane must have felt the same, and Koutarou wanted to respect their intentions, just like with Fasta.

“I understand. Farewell,” Barklane said.

“But leave the warship, okay?”

“Don’t worry, we don’t have anyone left who can pilot it anyway.”

“I see...” Koutarou answered.

With that, Barklane and the Dawn Corp left. Oddly enough, their hostility had waned. Even the tone of Barklane’s voice and the look in his eyes when glancing at the Imperial Army wasn’t hostile anymore.

“Is this okay with you?” Maki, who’d been next to Koutarou, asked as she watched Barklane and his men leaving.

“Yeah. Like I said before, I’ve fought enough.”

“I see.” Maki didn’t say much. Instead, she took action. Koutarou was still sitting on a box, and she hugged his head.

“Aika-san?”

“It’s not your fault. You did your best.”

“But I was only able to save fifty-eight...”

“Yes, that is a real shame...but it’s not your fault. Nobody can save everyone.”

“I know that, in my head...”

Maki started crying in place of Koutarou, who was just sitting on the box and staring at the hangar.