Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume4 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

'''(Timeline “Past”)

Defeating an opponent was simple when they had lost both their will to fight and their nerve.

In fact, it may not even qualify as a fight at that point.

“…”

After receiving the shock of seeing the god he worshiped slaughtered before his eyes, Max slowly wandered around like a zombie. As Kyousuke guided him with the tip of his Blood-Sign, the man unsteadily approached the side of Pandemonium’s thick entrance door and pulled out an authorization pad hidden there. After he released several locks, Kyousuke and Himekawa slipped inside.

“We’re inside now, but they had to have noticed that. An order was sent to the bomber and we fought inside an Artificial Sacred Ground. This clearly doesn’t qualify as covert anymore!!”

“That just means we need to change our plans. Either way, I never thought we could settle all of this in secret. It was only a matter of time.”

After all, the Repliglass structure was more than 800 meters across and even more if the “tentacles” were included. Two nuclear aircraft carriers would fit inside end to end, but unlike a ship, no thought had been given to a low center of gravity, fuel efficiency, or wave-making resistance. Its width and height had been expanded so much that it had become an unimaginably vast space.

Ships and airplanes tended to eliminate any unneeded volume, but Pandemonium seemed to be an exception. The corridors were needlessly wide and the rooms were all large. It was apparently a giant Box capable of supporting almost all of the bizarre summoning techniques demonstrated at D.R.O.K., so it had to be a largescale system.

And thus it had plenty of hiding places, so Kyousuke and Himekawa were not easily found even with search teams from Government, Illegal, and Freedom running around.

“Now that we’re inside, the rest is easy. We just have to get to the other side of the door leading to the central processor core where the 353 vessels are.”

“But how? You saw the diagram. Pandemonium’s sections are restricted at different levels, so moving between them won’t be easy. Plus, they’re on full alert and there are summoners everywhere. How are we supposed to travel safely through the facility now!?”

“That’s what makes it so easy.” Kyousuke pulled out the metal can of an Incense Grenade. “With that many summoners around, we just have to keep a Chain going while we safely break into the depths of the facility inside the protective circle. The greater the density of summoners, the easier it is to keep that Chain going. There are doors in the way? There are traps? Don’t you think we can break through all of that by summoning a high cost Material?”

Himekawa was overwhelmed by how simple he made it sound.

He was assuming he could defeat every last enemy even if there was 100 or 1000 of them, and even if that included anything from a Government Award 100 to a Freedom Award 900. But he was not being irrational or giving into wishful thinking. He had simply chosen that card as the optimal plan.

And then something like lightning dropped toward Himekawa Mika’s head.

The loud boom only sounded after a short delay.

Himekawa flinched back a half tempo later, but she was unharmed. The Blood-Sign made of ski material with a metal stabilizer had been blocked by Kyousuke’s Repliglass Blood-Sign.

It was a large man with a familiar black pompadour.

It was the summoner who should have been in a mindless state after being defeated with the Blood-Sign method.

But Max Layard showed no sign of that loss.

He made full use of his logic and intelligence for the very human purposes of winning through trickery.

“Another form of cheating with Ellie Slide’s incense, huh? I guess I should have expected that from an expert at strengthening summoners. How convenient is she!?”

As Kyousuke cursed, Max pulled a pineapple-shaped Incense Grenade from his pocket and threw it. Kyousuke could not immediately react after losing his balance protecting Himekawa, so he could only watch.

Wherever Ellie Slide was hiding, she was drawn in as the vessel when it detonated.

This time, Perfect Game had begun the battle.

And by the time Kyousuke had raised his Blood-Sign, some other summoners butted in from hiding. They sacrificed their White Thorns to enter someone else’s Artificial Sacred Ground even if it put them at a disadvantage.

Government Award 501, Perfect Game.

Illegal Award 808, Lionheart.

Freedom Award 897, Harem Collector 98.

Kyousuke smiled thinly as he viewed them as three coordinated enemies instead of individual summoners.

“I see.”

“I don’t want you complaining this isn’t fair. There’s no rule saying summoner battles have to be one-on-one, and none of us can afford to lose!!”

Perfect Game spat out that response, but Kyousuke actually liked that.

This man was willing to work toward his victory, try out any method available to him, and use his own strength to clear a path through any hierarchy or barrier a third party placed in front of him. This was the very strength of being human.

White Thorns were launched simultaneously from three directions and the boxy three-dimensional Rose shattered. The 216 fist-sized red balls of light known as Petals scattered in every direction.

The Blood-Sign method generally had a rock-paper-scissors structure.

[[Image:BloodSign_v04_117.jpg|thumb]]

So in a one-against-many situation, the multiple enemies could summon Materials from the high, middle, and low sound ranges to guarantee they had the individual’s weakness. It was rock-paper-scissors with no ties, so a group or organization had the upper hand.

However, multiple solid sounds followed.

Kyousuke had launched his White Thorn toward his enemy’s White Thorn instead of any of the Petals.

“Wha-!?”

Who was it that shouted that?

That single shot ricocheted again and again as it knocked all three enemy summoners’ White Thorns off course. They knocked Petals into Spots, but not the intended ones. The Petals a summoner had acquired could generally be rearranged at will and used whenever they wanted, but the very first Material was a different matter. Or rather, it would be suicide to not immediately use it because their protective circle would not appear, their vessel would remain human, and they would be instantly killed by the very first attack.

All three of them began with the Original Green (k). Sound Range: Middle. Cost: 1.

They were shocked to see identical three meter gelatinous Materials.

Meanwhile, Kyousuke had the Armored Beast (dr – zx). Sound Range: High. Cost: 4. As the name suggested, it was a Regulation-class shaped like a ferocious lion made of golden Western armor.

Kyousuke had the higher cost and the superior sound range.

At this rate, his enemies’ superior numbers would barely matter.

He simply had to strike the weaker sound range to mow them all down like grass.

“But it’s kind of sad.”

Kyousuke spoke just before the clash.

He honestly respected the pompadour man who would accept any cowardly or cheap method because he could not afford to lose.

But he still spoke.

“And yet this is almost adorable compared to my stubborn but futile struggles against the Queen.”

Finally, the metal lion roared and mowed everything down with its violent fangs and claws.