Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter5 (section)

===Part 3===

The change came without warning.

The rolling green field outside the village continued all the way to the horizon, but that horizon was suddenly annihilated.

Yes, annihilated.

An area of the horizon several kilometers across exploded. But this wasn’t just one explosion. Countless bombs – more than just 100 or even 200 – exploded simultaneously, creating a wall of explosions stretching left to right. It was like an approaching printer of death.

“Eek!”

The elf shrieked in terror.

It was like going over the area with a fine-tooth comb, except with bombs. The long row of explosions slowly approached them. The entire land would be obliterated and it was obvious what would happen once it arrived at the village.

It was important to remember that Celesaqphere was made up of floating land.

These bombs were not being launched from a distance. They were being dropped from above. A floating land was passing by a layer above the one Mikoto and Shokuhou were on. Soldiers were lined up on the edge of that higher land and dropping bombs.

That was enough to set up a carpet bombing.

“I-it’s like they’re plowing the entire floating land from one end to the other,” said Patissiet. “If they continue this from the west end to the east end, the entire floating land will be blown away – and this village along with it!!”

“''Misaka-san, what do you think?''”

“''Hm. They’re not very smart, are they?''”

Those two didn’t sound concerned.

They sounded more like they were looking at the shape of the clouds and discussing whether it would rain overnight.

Maybe it was an improvement that the elf could actually pale at the thought of her impending doom. At the very least, that was more than those clone girls had been able to do. Her mouth flapped wordlessly, so Mikoto rubbed her head to comfort her while making a few observations.

“If they can drop bombs on any part of this land, they could have dropped their first bomb right in the middle of the village. The only reason to bomb the entire land from one end to the other is to inspire terror. Telling us the village will be bombed if we wait around is the same as telling us we have some time before the village is at risk.”

“And a carpet bombing also tells us they can’t send in any of their human troops until they’ve finished flattening everything. How many soldiers do they have up there? 500? Maybe 1000? Bringing all their armed troops to the front line and then having them sit around is like asking us to demonstrate our preemptive strike ability☆”

The enemy was on a higher layer.

An ordinary human would have no way of reaching another land 30m above them. Having the high ground was a decent advantage. Dropping things down was easy, but sending things up was a lot more difficult.

But those rules did not apply to the #3 Level 5.

“Don’t worry, Patissiet.”

“Why not?”

“1000 troops is nothing. We’re used to fighting against a city of 2.3 million.”