Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume2 Phase03 (section)

===Part 1===

With a great crash of parting water, the giant gray warship named the Predator Island emerged into the bright sunlight. It was not all that different from the beetle-shaped autonomous weapons or the self-driving sorcery taxis. It moved on its own, so Ayato’s group was actually helpless to stop it while the only ones onboard. Tugging on the rigging to affect the sails or grabbing at the wheel while shouting “hard to starboard” would accomplish nothing.

The Kraken and Cetus feared by human navies for their great size fled the region of sea to avoid being caught in this conflict.

Ayato’s group climbed up to the deck to see what was going on. They found themselves at the center of the port side.

“Hey, dangerous individual! Can’t we just jump overboard!?”

“Not so fast, Miss Henrietta.”

Ayato grabbed a metal screwdriver from the deck and tossed it from the side deck.

The instant it made contact with the water, bluish-white electricity surged out.

“Wha-?” Henrietta was speechless.

“That is excessive even for a ship still under construction. I bet they are intentionally letting lightning energy, a subset of the wind element, leak out to transform the ship into a cage,” explained Ayato.

What would happen if the salty seawater was exposed to lightning? As a combat professional, Henrietta would understand the implications. Her oxidized mana-conducting silver armor would not be enough to survive that. Not to mention that a military swimming style would only get you so far while so heavily equipped.

“This ship has not lost control; an unknown mastermind is controlling it. We should expect to find several layers of countermeasures against us.”

The wheel-like propulsion device spinning nearby was parting a large area of water below. A truly enormous waterwheel was needed to push such a heavy warship forward.

“We are at risk on the ship, but it also functions as a temporary safe zone. You can think of it like a cage dangling over a precipice.”

“…”

He could not see any small uninhabited islands around here. Teleria had said the lightning cloud cannons were also located on a few uninhabited islands and controlled from Laguntreat, but they must have been located in a different direction.

“Jump into the ocean and you will be electrocuted. While that might not kill you, the cannons or the entire ship ramming you will. Your thick armor should weaken the magic to some extent, but is that equipped with a highly-specialized anti-electricity system equivalent to a 4-star rating from the Static Continent’s Armament Distribution Common Standards Board? And do you think you can outswim the Predator Island while so heavily equipped? If not, I recommend coming up with another method, Miss Henrietta!”

Ayato looked up to see the rows of anti-aircraft guns and autocannons glaring at the sun and the right triangular sails catching the wind created by the spirit engine smokestacks spewing phosphorescent smoke.

“U-um, Ayato? Um.”

The fluffy blonde girl in black tights clearly wanted to say something, but she could not get it out.

This was a head-on clash between a colossal warship and one of the Four Lords. Whichever one emerged victorious, anyone caught in the crossfire would never survive. Not Ayato’s group on the ship and not the people on the nearby island. Ayato knew he had to stop this no matter what.

(Why wouldn’t Fleurelisia be able to attack?)

That was of course the first thought on his mind.

But the Sorcery Hacker rationally chose to adjust his priorities.

(No. I don’t know what size or shape it is and this ship is too big, so I would never find it right away. Besides, the villain freely gave us that information. I probably shouldn’t assume it’s even true.)

Speaking of the villain, the ship’s Media Summoners had fallen silent.

The largescale spirit engine apparently absorbed the manaflow from the atmosphere to force a connection, so that connection should not have been broken yet, but the communication records had been erased, including the hidden logs. Without a record of their address, he could not contact them.

Right now, it all came down to securing a processing space to resonate with.

The level he had used back on the island was nowhere near enough to take on a warship of this size. The scale of this problem was rapidly snowballing out of control.

(The only hints I have are the fragments of names remaining in the system: Iron Gain, Leonardo Halleys, Jane Dresser. I need to save all of these.)

“Coach, we can use the Media Summoners to inform the island of the danger, right? We need to get them to evacuate.”

“It’s no use. That would only trigger a needless panic and get people trampled. They’re doomed no matter what if a 0.5 esoule<ref>Approximately 60 centimeters.</ref> cannon is fired on the Four Lord at the summit. We’re not talking about blasting a crater in the island here; a few shots from those will erase the entire island from the map. They might be firing pure explosives instead of magic, but even fleeing underground won’t save you. It’s hard to believe this ship was really created for the island’s demons.”

Did the self-styled privileged class think the island’s population could recover as long as they survived? If so, then the demons were just as shitty as the humans.

“Dangerous individual, this is a product of sorcery, is it not? Can’t you hack the entire ship like you did with that Dextral Mk. II!?”

“What’s this, Miss Henrietta? I am glad to see the proud and pure knight has finally learned to rely on the filthy Sorcery Hacker. This is a memory I will truly cherish.”

“…”

“Do not offer me your head while letting it hang so sadly, Miss Henrietta! I do not know how to respond to that!!”

Just then, a powerful inertial force pushed at them from the right and they would have fallen without grabbing onto something for support. The ship was lined with so many cannons of varying sizes that the entire ship looked like a hedgehog and the decks were stepped to secure a line of fire for them all, making each individual deck not all that large. At the very least, they would not have to worry about finding nothing to grab onto and being tossed out into the electrified sea.

This seafaring cage was a temporary safe spot for them.

If they were thrown from the ship, the lightning energy leaking from the ship would kill them. Even after it stopped their heart, they would end up convulsing like a frog’s legs.

After sailing out to sea, the Predator Island was apparently making a wide turn to face Laguntreat again.

Its actual target would be Water Lord Fleurelisia on the island, but precise aim was meaningless when using enough firepower to kill her. If the shells hit, the entire mountain would be annihilated and the secondary shockwave would obliterate the village at the base.

(I’ll estimate it’s at Level 4000 to 5000. Hacking the entire warship before it can attack simply isn’t realistic.)

“What do we do, Coach?”

“We destroy as many of the cannons as we can. The fifteen 0.5 esoule<ref>Approximately 60 centimeters.</ref> main cannons in particular. If they remain operational, Laguntreat’s destruction is unavoidable!”

The slender Dark Elf looked alternately between her full-auto shotgun and the distant main cannons before giving Ayato a troubled look.

“Is that really possible?”

“Warship guns aren’t as scary as you would think. Miss Teleria. And Miss Henrietta too. I will show you how it is done, so come with me!!”

“Okay, fine! But only because it is an emergency!”

“…”

He received no response from the blonde girl who was his constant companion, so he gave her a puzzled look.

“Miss Teleria?”

“What are we supposed to do?” She looked on the verge of tears. “The ship is moving on its own and the Four Lord will strike back when attacked. Either Fleurelisia, the island’s lifeline dies, or the ship we’re on is sunk! There’s no other option!”

“Teleria, it’ll be okay.”

That response came from Mamilis rather than Ayato.

What had allowed her to respond sooner than him?

“Because Coach is fighting to make sure of it. So we will not have to choose between those two options.”

“…”

“Teleria, jumping into the sea won’t change anything, right? This isn’t a normal ship. Even if you revealed your ‘true form’, the electricity in the water would probably still zap you.”

Mamilis gave her a gentle hug and whispered in her trembling ear so Ayato and Henrietta could not hear.

“(And if you did that, I doubt anything could stop Fleurelisia, not even herself. So you need to avoid that no matter what. If you want to protect your mother, then find another exit with us.)”

“Uhh,” she groaned.

Nevertheless, she gave a nearly imperceptible nod while clinging to Mamilis’s chest. She grabbed the Dark Elf’s slender shoulders to slowly push her away and then wiped the fearful tears away with the back of her hand. She parted ways with those feelings and turned toward Ayato while drawing the twin handguns from their holsters.

The barrels had built-in suppressors, they were equipped with a dot sight and a laser sight below the barrel, and the magazine had been made extra long. She gripped those customized weapons tight.

“We need to stop this. Ayato, please tell us what we can do!”

“Will do.” Ayato peered into his partner’s eyes. They were still wavering for some reason or another, but she was considerably more stable than before. “The people of Laguntreat have set an odious plan in motion. We need to figure out what to do about that eventually, but we cannot let them slaughter everyone just because we have yet to find an answer. Do you agree with that?”

Teleria Nereid Aquamarine gave a solid nod in response.

Then they just had to do it.

“I will demonstrate on the closest main cannon. We have no time to spare, so ask any questions you have since you need to memorize exactly how to destroy those things with this one demonstration. This way.”

As a ship, the Predator Island shook a lot despite its great size. On the port side deck near the center of the gray warship, the four of them ran toward the bow.

“I should build up my level while I can. You three stay on this side deck!”

Ayato drew his Linkage Plug sword from his hip and climbed to the next level up. He stabbed the blade into the anti-aircraft guns and autocannons to hack them. He had to build his Level up as much as he could now. He stole as much obvious power as he could in this short time. The anti-aircraft gun turrets contained two guns each and the autocannon turrets contained three each.

Short Teleria shouted up from the lower side deck.

“Ayato, they’ll shoot you if you get that close!”

“He’s fine, Teleria. Those guns look like they have a pretty limited range of movement. They’re meant to aim up into the sky like a fishing rod, so I doubt they can fire horizontally.”

“You have a good eye, Miss Mamilis. Okay.”

The boy in the blue blazer hopped back down to the side deck and returned to leading the girls.

He could not hijack the entire warship, but he could change some of the smaller customizations.

“Hacking those is all well and good, but shouldn’t we be destroying them?”

“Those are primarily interception weapons, so they can wait until later. Our top priority is the main cannons that can blow away the entire island!”

Three sets of three massive cannons were arranged in a stepped formation on the bow. Running up from the center of the ship brought them right up to the highest set. They arrived behind them, on the opposite side of where they were aimed.

Just one of the cannons was the size of a small cabin.

Tall and slender Mamilis’s jaw dropped as she came to a stop and viewed the back side of that cannon.

“Wow.”

“It is tall, isn’t it? Probably the same as three or four story building.”

“That could prove a challenge for you, Miss Henrietta, since you can only fight close range. But Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis can manage just fine. You only have to fire on them.”

“B-but a single shot in return would destroy us,” said Teleria.

“Do you remember what Miss Mamilis said earlier? The cannons have a limited range of movement. They probably only cover the 150 degrees in front of them since their purpose is to fire away from the ship. They wouldn’t want a design that allowed them to accidentally fire on their own bridge when pursuing an enemy that circled behind them, right?”

Dark Elf Mamilis fired a burst of bullets from her full-auto shotgun. Those disintegrating lead bullets produced red muzzle flashes and the mana piercing those created the standard explosive flames of Primary Blaze. Several small explosions slammed into the round back of the cannons. The set of three main cannons circled a bit to the side, but they could not actually aim at a target on the deck directly behind them.

However…

“Those things are tough! I don’t think this is going to work, Coach!!”

“You must not fire randomly at a large target. Their thick armor will deflect all your shots. But take a closer look, Miss Mamilis. Do you see the metal rails on the deck below this set of three?”

“I do.”

“There is no escaping the law of action-reaction. Especially not with 0.5 esoule<ref>Approximately 60 centimeters.</ref> cannons. Fire those without thinking and the recoil will tear the turret from the deck. There are a number of ways to eliminate the recoil of firing, but the Predator Island apparently uses the back guide method. That means explosives are detonated to send a weight out in the opposite direction of the cannon shot. It looks unnaturally patched on, so I’m guessing this was something extra they added after realizing the recoilless method of sending mist mana in the opposite direction of the shot was not enough to fully suppress the force. If we attack that to rattle the entire cannon, either the explosive warhead or the liquefied mana will detonate inside the cannon. Your rapid-fire weapon is perfect for that!!”

Mamilis fired some more with her long silver hair blowing in the sea breeze. She slowly walked along the side deck below the giant cannons and persistently attacked at the bottom of the three barrels lined up like a fork’s tines.

Once her attacks crossed a threshold, the turret at the base of the barrels swelled out like a balloon.

“Defense, Miss Teleria!!”

Suppressed gunshots rang out, blue muzzle flashes appeared, and a thick roof of ice covered Ayato’s group.

But even that was not perfect.

Just as black-haired Ayato ran over and grabbed at Mamilis’s skinny waist, the entire turret exploded like an erupting volcano and countless shards poured down like rain, slicing through the barrier of ice.

“Kyah!!”

“As you can see, you should keep your guard up throughout. This is a warship made by attaching chloride-treated mana conducting silver armor to a wooden ship to both strengthen it and prevent rusting. It holds up well against external attacks, but it should be resistant to internal fires. So be on the lookout out for fires and explosions lest you be caught in the flames yourself!”

Blowing up the one turret eliminated all three of its cannons. This just left the other two turrets on the bow and the two at the stern. This was looking very doable.

Except…

“Hey, dangerous individual.”

Henrietta was looking somewhere other than the turret with a gaping hole blown in it.

She was looking at a waterproof hatch that should have been perfectly ordinary on a warship.

However, it opened on its own and something silently swarmed out. They looked something like crocodiles with torsos made of clear glass, giant jaws on the front, a stomach and a thick tail on the back, and four short legs for walking. Except they looked somehow familiar. There were 10, 20, 30…no, even more than that. They flooded out like sewage regurgitated from the drain on an especially rainy day. Anything looked creepy with numbers like that. From head to tail, their artificial bodies measured at 1.5 esoule<ref>Approximately 180 centimeters.</ref> long, so Teleria felt a tremor down her spine as she aimed her twin handguns at them.

She also identified what these military sorcery devices really were.

“Th-the baby incubators!?”

The crocodile parts had been hidden before by curling up like an armadillo to provide the incubator’s base.

“Did they build their greatest treasure as a weapon to protect itself? Anyway, Miss Henrietta, you protect us since your close-quarters combat is no use against the cannons.”

“Why should I protect a dangerous individual?”

“Leave a filthy criminal like me to die if you like, but Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis are defenseless! A striker like you carries a sorcery gun to protect those in need, so do not tell me cannot do it!!”

The blonde braid Striker groaned with a lopsided frown on her face, but she still pulled the bolt-action carbine from her hip. The two of them were like water and oil, but Ayato was figuring out how to make use of her.

Fortunately, the incubators were not yet in use.

Without babies in them, there was no need to hold back.

These crocodilian sorcery devices with transparent torsos were designed after amphibious predators, much like the Dextral Mk. IIs. Electricity flashed from their mana-conducting silver fangs and artificially-created acid dripped from between their glass scales, creating disconcerting smoke wherever they landed.

“Self-buff: Primary Ex Massive!!”

Just as Henrietta firing a single deep gunshot straight up, the onslaught of crocodiles rushed in. Instead of keeping a safe distance and picking off the enemy with magic, Henrietta strengthened her own body and wielded her axe-like bayonet to directly crush the enemy with physical force.

Ayato readied his Linkage Plug sword while Henrietta transformed herself into a heavy metal tornado.

“Miss Henrietta! I can only guess, but those crocs probably fight by burning holes in your armor using the acid capsules in their scales and then directly zap your exposed flesh to knock you out!! Do not rely too heavily on your armor!!”

“That just means I have to beat them down before they can move.”

“Now, Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis, you need to attack the remaining main cannons! This enemy’s presence is proof that our attack is working. Stopping will only give them what they want!!”

Ayato stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the gut joint of one of the incubators and found it surprisingly easy to take control. Each one had a low level, so he spread out his crystal tarot cards in the air, flicked them with his fingers, and moved the four creepily stubby legs.

(These are known as Crocodilia Mk. VII? Hm, other than pinning you down and biting you, they can…yeah, that’s what I wanted.)

“Hyah!?”

He heard a shriek.

Scattering the scales as anti-personnel mines just to try it out may have been a mistake. A few of the capsules of powerful acid hit the latches on the back of Striker Henrietta’s armor and the chest of her armor fell away.

She blushed, covered her chest with her left arm, and glared at him.

The tears he had not expected.

“I don’t know what made me think I could trust you to watch my back even for a second, but thanks for the reminder of just what kind of dangerous individual you are.”

“Wait, I am not the one you should be aiming that sorcery gun at!! Also, this taught us exactly how the Crocodilia Mk. VIIs’ projectiles work! Aren’t you glad it happened in this nonlethal fashion!?”

Meanwhile, Mamilis seemed worried about Ayato and Henrietta who were putting themselves in greater danger by moving closer to the dangerous waterside predators.

“(They melt through thick clothing and zap your bare skin to knock you out? Even those jaws are meant to pin you down, not to tear you to pieces. Those things were not designed to kill. I don’t know when we were set up here, but whoever did it was clearly focused on you, Teleria.)”

“…”

Teleria said nothing.

She dedicated herself to the job given to her, as if that would let her forget all about the fundamental problem here.

The pillars of ice created by Teleria’s twin handguns struck the back guide portion located below the distinctive gray cannons on the middle level of the bow and that safety feature was blown away.

But they must have taken too much time.

Before they were done, the turret on the bow’s lowest level rotated with obvious intent.

It was aimed at…

“Laguntreat!? Dangerous individual, they are preparing to attack!!”

“Miss Teleria, aim straight down! Blast the float on the side!!”

Ayato shouted instructions while using a hacked incubator to attack the other crocodilian sorcery devices that used electric jaws and acid capsule scales.

The blonde girl placed her navel on the side deck railing and leaned over dangerously far. She was aiming near the ocean surface. With a muffled gunshot, an ice spear popped a waterproof leather bag larger than the average bus and the entire giant ship tilted.

A moment later, their world was thrown into chaos.

Ayato had known it was coming, but he was still thrown to the side deck. A shockwave slammed into him and he gathered strength in his trembling fingertips to desperately keep a grip on his Linkage Plug sword lest it slide across the floor and fall into the sea.

“Wah!”

“Miss Teleria!!”

The blonde girl had already been leaning over the railing, so she was about to fall into the ocean. Ayato clenched his teeth and forced himself to rush over to her. In the nick of time, he got his arms around her hips and the long skirt Expansion Armor, so the two of them rolled along the side deck together.

As a direct combat expert, Henrietta clicked her tongue but managed to stay on her feet throughout. Her legs and hips were a lot stronger than the others. In fact, she had apparently used the shaking of the ship to take a step toward the enemy. A huge chunk of the dangerous Crocodilia Mk. VIIs were gone. Instead of destroying them, she had used the tilting of the enormous warship to send them tumbling over the railing. They now littered the once pristinely beautiful ocean. The giant waterwheels and the lightning energy leaking out into the sea must have been destroying those unmanned weapons.

She used her bayonet axe to split the glass tube crocs.

“What happened to the island? Hey, dangerous individual!?”

“It’s fine. Popping that float threw off its aim just before firing. But that method will not work again.”

“Coach, the Four Lords are directly connected to the magical elements, right? I thought our ordinary magical attacks were powerless to defeat them.”

“Come to think of it, Teleria mentioned that earlier.”

Henrietta was far from a magic expert, so she was confused by that point.

It was true the colorless mana flowing through the atmosphere was transformed into one of the four elements when one of the four peaks gave it color. So a human or demon manipulating that mana as magic could not defeat one of the Four Lords who gave it that color.

“This isn’t actually attacking with the magic. A magical explosion is triggered in the thick barrel to launch a giant shell filled with explosives and lead. It’s a ridiculously inefficient method, but since the direct hit is nonmagical, it can harm one of the Four Lords.”

“Hey, dangerous individual. How about we pop all of those floats? This ship can’t balance itself without them, right?”

“Go for it if you want, but do you have the stamina need to swim back to the island if you’re thrown out into the empty ocean in that heavy armor? And unless we deactivate the ship, it might continue filling the ocean with lightning as it sinks.”

The surviving main cannons were of greater importance.

Given how many incubators they had seen lined up within the ship, the crocs they had seen had to be a small fraction of the total available. The next wave of Crocodilia Mk. VIIs would arrive before long.

With Teleria supporting her, the long silver-haired Dark Elf held a hand to her head as if dealing with a headache and then she readied her full-auto shotgun. With the cacophony of her rapid-fire, an attack slammed into the recoil-restraining back guide, causing the bow’s last main cannon turret to swell out from within and explode. Knife-like shards sliced through the air.

The straitlaced Striker held a hand to her head to hold her hair down against the blast.

“Ugh, I hate how I’m getting used to all these explosions.”

“That finished the bow, but there’s still the two turrets to stern. The main cannon attack has already begun, so don’t let your guard down!”

The ship was 950 esoule<ref>Approximately 1140 meters</ref> long, so moving from one end to the other was an ordeal. They ran along the side deck as if heading back they way they had come.

One of the waterproof hatches opened nearby even though none of them had touched it.

“Dangerous individual!” shouted Henrietta when Ayato immediately kicked the door to hold it shut.

“We don’t need to deal with all of the Crocodilia Mk. VIIs! Don’t destroy the door, Miss Henrietta!!”

They may have been designed as guards for the ship because they showed no sign of breaking through the walls or hatches to attack. If the terrain or layout of the ship could be used to avoid a fight, there was no reason not to take advantage of it. He stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the hatch’s handle and removed the grip. Hacking the door’s controls was bound to make a difference.

“There were five turrets in all and we’ve already destroyed three.” Teleria was talking more to herself than anyone else. “We’re past the halfway point. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing, so we’ll be fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”

(I wouldn’t be so sure about that.)

The blue blazer boy did not say it aloud, but he remained highly cautious. At the very least, they could not just keep doing what they were doing. The situation had changed. Even if their interference had thrown off its aim, the Annihilator-class Predator Island’s main cannons had fired with the intent of crushing the island of Laguntreat.

It had provoked ''her''.

He could not imagine Water Lord Fleurelisia letting that slide.

“Taking out the main cannons is all well and good, but how do you intend to actually end this, dangerous individual?”

“That is up to what the Four Lord does. If she does not attack, then we will need to consider providing a finishing blow to the spirit engine that serves as the core of the ship.”

Just as he said that, a great shadow was cast over them.

That was not a cumulonimbus cloud.

[[Image:SorceryHacker_v02_BW06.jpg|thumb]]

“But if she decides to attack, just focus on not getting caught in the crossfire!!”

That giant winged fish slithered along the land like a serpent.

Her 450 esoule<ref>Approximately 540 meters.</ref> form was attacking from the sky as if to break the extraordinary warship in two.

Something like a gargantuan ice spike jutted from the end of the giant fish’s nose.

Yes.

To directly pierce the ship.