Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume3 Phase02 (section)

===Part 10===

Mana-conducting silver wreckage poured down like rain. Globs of fire followed, moving like a sticky fluid.

Down further than the surface, a boy and some girls had felt the deep tremor shaking the ground. Henrietta looked up.

“Wait, dangerous individual. What was that?”

“The second rocket was shot down. ''As expected,''” Ayato replied, voice muffled. “Two plans are not enough. When dealing with that Student Council President, it can’t hurt to assume he will strike back with three times the force you would expect.”

“…”

Teleria fell silent.

She took a look around at the dark space. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all covered in crude, dark oxidized mana-conducting silver.

A thick metal door sat before them.

Instead of a knob, the door had a large round handle in the center.

“Coach, what is this for?”

“The Academy Towers provides a more comfortable life than in any city or kingdom beyond its walls. Heated floors, dishwashers, special steam ovens that can also restore vacuum-packed premade foods. But what technology is behind all of these things?”

Ayato pointed up.

“Hot steam. Heat, pressure, turbines – whatever the towers might need, the steam provides. And that steam is created in a giant boiler and distributed to each floor of the towers. Cool it and it can even produce water. Simply put, it runs through the towers, out of sight. Using thick pipes running straight up from the bottommost floor to the topmost.”

This was the boiler in question.

The pipes filled with hot steam were of course a harsh environment. Both from the heat and the pressure. To oversimplify it, a raw chicken would boil in a count of three and be crushed down smaller than a die. Unlike the elevators which were interrupted every 10 floors, these pipes continued all the way to the top, but that was because no one could survive trying to ascend them.

So…

“Another change of clothes? The Academy Towers have the weirdest fashion sense, I swear.”

“These aren’t meant to be fashionable, Miss Henrietta. This special space armor is made to function outside the planet’s atmosphere. It can reflect the sun’s heat, withstand immense pressure differentials, and let us breathe within a fully enclosed space. We can survive within the steam pipes using these,” casually replied Ayato, stabbing his Linkage Plug sword into the safety valves and thermostat to earn a level of about 20.

He turned the handle, opened the door, and entered the boiler.

Ayato’s group entered an environment in which no ordinary lifeform could survive.

Henrietta looked up with wonder on her face.

There was a large hole in the ceiling. The four of them could move through it without bumping into each other and it continued on and on with no end in sight. However, they could not even reach the edge of the hole in the ceiling from where they were. There was no ladder.

“What now? Didn’t you say the area beyond the Grade S zone is the 101st floor? And the tower’s top floor is supposed to be more than 1000 esoule<ref>Approximately 1200 meters.</ref> up. We can’t possibly climb that smooth tube in these bulky space armor things. Especially not without any rest spots along the way.”

“I don’t expect us to.”

The way she implied she ''could'' scale a 1000 esoule<ref>Approximately 1200 meters.</ref> cliff if the conditions were right was just like strength-obsessed Henrietta.

Ayato’s tone remained light.

“Miss Henrietta, did you forget what I said? This pipe is used to send hot steam to each floor of the tower.”

“What about it?”

“Now, there are two ways that steam is used: for the heat and for its ability to push objects.”

Henrietta didn’t have time to yell at him.

Ayato stabbed in his Linkage Plug sword and placed something under his control.

With the door shut, the heat within the enclosed space rapidly rose. As did the pressure. If not for their special armor, they would have died before counting to three.

And to repeat, the door was shut.

The immense pressure rushed toward the only way out.

That meant toward the large hole in the ceiling. Their bodies slowly rose as if their weight and gravity no longer mattered. Once their feet left the metal floor, there was no stopping it.

“Waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!?”

The righteous Striker’s cry of regret was sucked into the hole.

A new path had opened.