Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase5 (section)

===Part 3===

Forturiana High Priest Belbath Ruin Cranky was pursuing them, so Ayato’s Armored Dragon changed course again. They soared past some Dragon Knights flying small, tamed dragons and they continued to pick up speed.

Fortunately, the powerful safety measures meant none of them would be thrown from the wide isosceles triangle no matter how wildly he swung it around. So he sometimes flew just barely below a water arch, sometimes slipped between the sails of the many ships, and sometimes flipped upside down to stab his Sorcery Hacking sword into a small ship’s smokestack.

“What’s the point of that!?” shouted Nirvelphany while holding Thomas Robergin.

“You never know when it’ll come in handy!!”

Even a small boat would have a processing space of Level 20 or 30. By connecting those together, he could reach the triple digits in no time. It grew at an accelerating rate from there, so the sailing ships that read the wind direction and automatically adjusted the sails would be from 300 to 400 and the steamships with external propulsion devise that resembled giant waterwheels could be 1000 each. Ships could support themselves just by floating in the water instead of needing arms or wings, so they really were the greatest of vehicles. No sorcery devices came in greater sizes.

While Ayato stabbed his Linkage Plug sword around, separated off the blades, and let out new blades from those compressed in the hilt, Teleria asked him a question in something of a scream.

“We aren’t losing the High Priest at all! Ayato, can’t you do something with your Sorcery Hacking!?”

“…!!”

“Directly firing on him with a sorcery gun would be difficult. That artificial bell cricket on his shoulder is compressing the air over a wide area to create a soundproof space.”

“Coach, I saw the designs for that in my grandma’s room. I think it’s called the Bell Ringing. It was based on the anti-grenade nets used in trench warfare. It was supposed to be a large device for an entire base, so she had trouble figuring out how to make it the size of a slipper. It should be able to cover between 120 and 180 degrees in front of it by subtly changing the angle of its thin wings.”

They received a hint from an unexpected source. He wished all the more he could have met that engineer.

The Demon Lord’s eyes widened too.

“At any rate, we have no way of circling behind that shield while he flies straight toward us. Our sorcery guns will only be deflected!”

“Are you sure about that, Demon Lord? That Bell Ringing prototype isn’t a sorcery gun. If Miss Mamilis is right, then it was originally meant for use in a stationary land base. That means there should be some distortion in the defended area while its coordinates change during high-speed movement. Belbath himself might be covered, but we can still bring down the Armored Dragon to lose him. And more importantly!”

Something about this did not add up.

They gathered what information they had while flying around the water town on the Armored Dragon.

“When that High Priest was certain of his victory, he said I was the MVP who prevented Demon Lord Nirvelphany’s escape or return. He seemed happier about Nirvelphany interrupting the ceremony than if the execution had played out without a hitch. Why?”

“W-well, the Forturiana Church believes in benevolent coincidence, so wouldn’t capturing the top of the demons feel like a stroke of good luck?” suggested Teleria.

“You think Forturiana loathes Demon Lord Nirvelphany?” Ayato operated his floating crystal tarot cards to focus on the hijacked Armored Dragon. “Even though that church rapidly grew in power by donating to magic research…specifically, to the development of modern sorcery guns? Now, ''who is it that supports the entire system of magic''?”

Just then, a sound like erupting steam reached them from behind.

Teleria screamed while ducking her head down.

A long narrow trail of white smoke shot by directly overhead. The projectile filled empty space with pitch black darkness and then compressed the surrounding scenery toward the center of the explosion.

It looked like a giant mass of gravity, but Ayato immediately realized what it was.

“A bazooka!? Why is the privileged class swiping all these weapons!?”

The sorcery gun resting on the shoulder opposite the bell cricket looked a lot like a grenade launcher, but while a grenade would cause the specified magic to self-replicate and explosively expand, a bazooka forcibly absorbed the surrounding mana and used that energy to explosively expand. In other words, it would tear apart living creatures and machines alike before blasting the dried-out remains with the external explosion.

They had been made to destroy military sorcery devices, so it was hardly surprising they had such a brutal design. They could only count themselves lucky it was not a guided variety.

“We can’t keep dodging those forever!!” warned the Demon Lord.

“Bazookas are still a type of sorcery gun. The volume of the gunshot is linked to the effective range, so he has to bring down his puny shield to fire it. More importantly, Nirvelphany, complain if you like, but what happened to your anti-dragon rifle!?”

“Does it look like I still have it? I literally have my hands full carrying this old man, so I left everything else in that plaza!”

“Nh!”

“Don’t bother, Miss Mamilis. Shoot down the explosive within that shotgun’s range and we’ll be caught in the blast! Miss Teleria, you handle it!!”

“Oh, honestly! Do you have any idea how tricky it is to shoot down a bazooka round with a handgun!?”

The blonde girl complained, but she still readied her dual handguns. Then she fired ice spears toward the explosives flying their way. Instead of sniping them at specific points, she fired across the entire region to shoot them down and detonate them. This was all thanks to magic, but they could not exactly celebrate. The scenery would be pulled in toward a single point and then the explosion would occur. A direct hit from that would wipe them all out at once.

Ayato glanced over at the empty shells blowing away in the wind while he calmly analyzed the situation.

(This isn’t very efficient. At this rate, we’ll probably run out of ammo first.)

They needed a more fundamental solution and he wanted as much info as possible for that. Knowing what drove High Priest Belbath to pursue them like this might help them predict his actions.

He could not let the impact of the bazooka distract him. He had to calm down and recall their discussion from just before that.

(Magic…yes, magic!)

Anyone could see how out of place that word seemed here.

These people were supposedly spreading the “holy word”, so wasn’t this an odd sort of thing for them to be proudly showing off?

“What even is the Light-Dark Duality? The world only has the four elements of fire, water, wind, and earth! The colorless mana gains those elemental colors by synchronizing with the higher beings scattered in the four directions! People might not care about those old tomes now that they only need to pull a trigger, but it was Demon Lord Nirvelphany who added a bit of ‘fun’ into that perfect system, effectively ignoring those four great beings and allowing us to do whatever we want in this world!!”

And when you calculated it out, you would find that those “four directions” went well beyond the Static Continent. It was a reminder of just how small they were in the grand scheme of things.

The tricky part was how Nirvelphany’s power was not a fixed value at the top. It was an uncertain factor.

That was what allowed her to break through the upper limits of the world set by those four rulers, but it was also what left her vulnerable enough to be defeated and sealed by human hands. If they had been up against those four elemental rulers themselves, people would have realized how silly it was to challenge them with magic. No matter how many shots they fired, they could never bring them down.

“Hold on. Is that what this is about!?” Nirvelphany spoke up in displeasure while Ayato flew the Armored Dragon below a giant water arch. “There are only four elements in the world and we demons play a large role in their creation. But the Forturiana Church invented the light and dark elements ''to create an explanation where humans are on top''! That’s why they can’t allow an explanation with only the four elements! So were they trying to cover up the truth by silencing the Hero and the Demon Lord during their Temple Moving Ceremony? All to protect their cheap illusion of a nonexistent element of light!?”

“If you want to get technical, you could be seen as the one and only element of darkness or non-elemental being since your possibilities cannot be controlled by those four elemental rulers!!”

Just as he said that, Ayato forcibly lifted up the giant isosceles triangle craft. It was a lot like a horse rearing up and he used it to rapidly brake.

High Priest Belbath’s identical Armored Dragon tore through the air as it shot by.

And Ayato raised his voice just as they passed by in the air.

“Miss Mamilis!!”

“Got it, Coach.”

The full-auto shotgun produced countless red muzzle flashes. Primary Blaze was the most basic form of fire magic, but it was more than enough of a threat at that density.

Pieces tore up from the surface of the High Priest’s Armored Dragon, but it did not fall yet.

In fact, Belbath managed to escape out ahead. The Dark Elf’s distinctive long ears shook as the old man escaped beyond the range of her full-auto shotgun.

And…

“The bazooka is coming again!!”

“Perfect. Let’s move in close.”

The High Priest shot the bazooka backwards and it flew straight toward them while trailing white smoke.

“Kyahh!!”

“We’re fine!!”

Teleria screamed, so Ayato held her in one arm to calm her down while accelerating the Armored Dragon and letting the approaching weapon pass by just barely overhead.

No matter what definition you used, Nirvelphany’s presence could not be used to prove the existence of an element of light itself.

And if darkness existed without light, that would only be a bigger problem for Forturiana. Enough of one that they would lose the unifying power to pull off an event like the Temple Moving Ceremony.

That would leave no way to prove the existence of light without doing exactly what they themselves forbade: doubting the very existence of benevolent coincidence and analyzing things instead.

The two Armored Dragons moved in close.

Now it was Ayato’s turn. He focused on his Linkage Plug sword in addition to the crystal tarot cards.

“The other sects try to explain the creation of the world through harmony of the four elements, but Forturiana has gathered greater popularity through their simpler Light-Dark Duality. They can’t let it get out that the element of light doesn’t exist!”

Mamilis’s full-auto shotgun gave another roar, but there was more of a distance now. The barrage of explosive flames did not quite reach the High Priest’s Armored Dragon. However, the High Priest’s bell cricket soundproof barrier really did not seem to be working properly while moving around at such high speeds.

Ayato and Belbath glared at each other, but their voices could not reach other at this distance and among all the explosions. The Bell Ringing prototype’s effect also served to distort the sound between them.

“…!!”

“…!?”

This must have been an unpleasant surprise for the High Priest as well.

It had happened during the leadup to their delicate Temple Moving Ceremony.

All official records had been lost, so no one knew where in the Selected Kingdoms the sealed shrine was located. Also, the seal could not be broken from within. If no one knew where it was, then Nirvelphany’s slumber was essentially eternal. And yet this had happened.

They had actively oppressed the demons because they did not want the other humans to find out they were borrowing the demons’ power. They also wanted the demons themselves to forget they were lending out their power. Yes, just like an abused child or old person would become convinced it was their own fault, the long, long history of oppression was meant to make them more withdrawn and weak-willed.

The four elemental lords never made an appearance and never spoke with the humans.

So they could be silenced by crushing the smaller demons who could possibly bring their words to the humans.

But the ancient Demon Lord Nirvelphany could not be oppressed like that. She might just destroy all who opposed her, regather the scattered demons, and reclaim their strength as a great army. She had the greatest power, but she also had the ability to pour out all her efforts for a single human, so her actions were nigh impossible to predict. There was always a risk of her breaking her way directly into human society and revealing the truth instead of using the smaller demons as messengers.

Forturiana could not allow the truth to get out.

However, Nirvelphany would not be so easily captured once she was unsealed. They could not predict how she would act.

So they had stolen that freedom from her.

They had gone all in. The date of the Temple Moving Ceremony could not be changed and, because it was a setup, there was no coming back if it failed. They had needed to incorporate a conspiracy into their own precious event.

By ordering the old man arrested and executed, they had tried to redirect and guide Nirvelphany’s actions so they could capture her.

(Miss Mamilis’s shots are preventing the High Priest from firing his bazooka because he will be caught in the blast if one is shot too close to him. This is our chance to get close!!)

“Forturiana has been putting out sketchy-looking ads related to magic. Things like overuse of magic giving you a disease from the recoil, or being allergic to mana. But I’ve never heard of that happening to anyone.”

“Of course you haven’t. Mana itself circulates through all living things, so it would take an extremely high density before your body could detect it as an abnormality.”

“Exactly right, Demon Lord. That means they’re having to take desperate measures to gather followers. I bet their finances are in the red. They say they have the favor of the royals in this city, but that may be the problem. If they’ve picked up a ridiculously expensive lifestyle, they’ll start running the business into the ground. Ha ha. That explains why they needed an event like the Temple Moving Ceremony.”

The enormous sailing ships and steamboats had much higher levels than sorcery vehicles and airships. A group of ones between 300 esoule<ref>Approximately 360 meters.</ref> and 400 esoule<ref>Approximately 480 meters.</ref> were packed in close on the water’s surface. Ayato attacked them to increase his processing space like a runaway snowball, so he quickly reached the quadruple digits. If he could directly stab it with his sword, he could hack the Bell Ringing prototype on High Priest Belbath’s shoulder or the man’s large Armored Dragon itself.

(I’m not going to let this go to waste.)

He only had to get closer.

If only he could move in!!

(I’m between Level 6000 and 7000 now. No, it’s still growing! He’s earned the favor of the king to abuse the entire sky city’s infrastructure and create a tiny fortress for himself, but I’ll drag him out of there and destroy him!!)

“Nirvelphany.”

“Yes?”

“Only four elements exist. Whatever benevolent coincidences might exist, they don’t come from the element of light that High Priest speaks of. Revealing that fact would ruin him and the Forturiana Church. They might want to redo their Temple Moving Ceremony, but I doubt the king would let them at that point. This might be cruel to the ordinary believers, but I’m going to make that church pay for everything they’ve done. …So this is a personal question: would you be satisfied with that?”

She looked confused.

An then she answered him.

“I won’t be satisfied until I’ve punched him myself.”

“I had a feeling. Doing that does feel good.”

Driven by the dense barrage of explosive flames coming from long-eared Mamilis’s full-auto shotgun sorcery gun, High Priest Belbath’s Armored Dragon rapidly braked.

“I knew this was coming soon!!”

The slipper-sized bug did not function properly during rapid movement, so this was his only chance at survival. Ayato had been in the same position earlier. By braking and letting the pursuer pass you, you could switch out the positions of attacker and defender. But you could deal with that if you knew it was coming.

Ayato touched his crystal tarot cards.

His Armored Dragon shot forward, but twisted around to flip upside down. The two Armored Dragons passed by while nearly touching in an acrobatic stunt. The two 35 esoule<ref>Approximately 42 meters.</ref> crafts were a mere 2 esoule<ref>Approximately 2.4 meters.</ref> apart.

While one was upside down and the other was not, they effectively existed in the same space.

Ayato and Belbath’s eyes met.

The boy in the blue blazer remained upside down as he moved to stab his Linkage Plug sword into the creepy bell cricket on the High Priest’s shoulder.

“You think I’ll let you, traitor!?” roared the High Priest.

An intense vibration followed. He could no longer trust the slipper-sized bell cricket, so he forcibly twisted the Armored Dragon around so its wing would hit theirs.

That one second seemed to stretch out for an eternity as Ayato lost his chance and the two crafts lost their balance. Ayato was forced to pour all his attention into the crystal tarot cards to ensure they did not crash.

The next thing he knew, the two crafts were flying alongside each other.

“Living in fear of the truth can’t be fun. You’ve grown so bloated with shame that it’s impossible to see who you even are anymore, High Priest!!”

“Don’t make me laugh, sinner. The Temple Moving Ceremony will provide a solid foundation for the Forturiana Church and that old man must be executed for that. Failure is not an option here!”

“I thought churches were supposed to be divine institutions. Since when did a human like you get to call the shots?”

“The truth is preserved by the king and spread by the Forturiana Church!! You need only open your mouths and accept the truth we provide you! That will ensure happiness for all the people!!”

“The truth has more weight than that. I may be a shameless Sorcery Hacker crawling through the depths of the earth, but let me make something clear. No matter what you theatrically read from your script and no matter what anyone in the world believes, you can only alter public opinion. It might be hidden in the shadows of history, but the truth is always out there! We’ve worked hard to overcome our interspecies differences, so I’m not letting you tear down those bonds just to protect some fantasy about a nonexistent element of light!!!!!!”

It was Striker Henrietta who grimaced at that.

“(I-is this really the High Priest who supposedly wishes for the wellbeing of the people? Does he think the entire Forturiana Church belongs to him?)”

Had Belbath realized he had let this slip out in his anger, or did he think he could silence a mere Striker?

Despite their close range, the High Priest lifted the cylindrical bazooka back up onto the shoulder opposite the bell cricket. Dark Elf Mamilis aimed her full-auto shotgun at the other Armored Dragon in response.

Both weapons fired at once and crimson muzzle flashes blossomed out.

Belbath’s own bazooka shell was shot down quite near him, so his own Armored Dragon’s wing was caught in and torn off by the attack that gathered a portion of the scenery toward a central point. However, lots of shrapnel flew through the air at the same time.

“!!”

[[Image:SorceryHacker_v01_BW09.png|thumb]]

Nirvelphany immediately moved to protect the old man who had saved her.

But she felt no pain.

She hesitantly opened her eyes to see the blonde girl standing in front of them like a shield with her arms crossed in front of her.

“I…won’t let you.”

She protected her face with the two hands holding the handguns, but a trail of red could be seen on her cheek behind that.

Demon Lord Nirvelphany.

Thomas Robergin.

That girl faced forward with a powerful desire to keep anyone from rejecting the way they had lived their lives.

“I won’t let you!! Not after they’ve come this far! I’m sick of seeing people have everything taken from them at the very last moment!!”

The damage to the High Priest’s craft actually worked in his favor. The slower speed meant he fell behind. He escaped the dangerous side-by-side position and he now had the perfect position to aim at them from behind.

But for a brief moment, those realistic problems did not even matter.

The boy felt a sharp burning in the back of his mind.

“…”

Ayato Criminaltrophy had seen the wound running along his partner’s cheek. She could easily heal that with the recovery magic developed from the water magic she excelled at. There was no fear of it even leaving a scar.

But he still punched himself in the cheek with the hand holding his sword.

With a dull sound, he woke himself up further. He grabbed both his Linkage Monitor crystal tarot cards and the Sorcery Hacking sword.

If the conditions were right, he could hijack anything in which mana flowed.

“Nirvelphany, help me out here. You said you wouldn’t be satisfied until you punched him yourself, right? Well, you’re only going to get one shot at a cross counter.”

“?”

“Let’s show that bastard what hell really looks like.”