Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase4 (section)

===Part 7===

Ayato did not have a projectile weapon like a sorcery gun. Henrietta in the other tower also specialized in close-quarters combat. To support Teleria and Mamilis, they would have to cross the plaza and reach the third tower.

There was no time to spare.

He stripped off his blue blazer, wrapped it around the thick cable car wire, and hung down from it. He took a running start and jumped out into empty air.

Fortunately, this tower was the tallest, so the wire connected to Teleria and Mamilis’s tower was angled down.

“…”

He was too far away to make out what was said, but he could hear the beautiful Demon Lord saying something with her lips twisted in a smile.

Then she aimed her anti-dragon rifle away from the girls and toward him.

“!!”

He accessed every firework he could and launched them between himself and Nirvelphany with enough intensity to possibly catch himself in the blast. White smoke and loud booms stole away his and her senses.

With an even greater roar, his skin felt a massive heat source pass by right next to him as he slid down. But the sweat on his back was icy. With an attack that powerful, it would have vaporized half his body if it so much as grazed him.

Nevertheless, he could not turn back now.

He overcame that deadly journey, passed above the plaza full of people, and arrived at the tower where the two girls waited.

Once his feet landed, he let go of one side of his dirty blazer and swung it around to put it on. And once he readied his Linkage Plug sword again, a heavy metallic sound rang from the top of the tower.

The thick barrel of Nirvelphany’s giant anti-dragon rifle crossed and collided with Ayato’s trigger-equipped sword. But she had the greater reach. It was like a sword versus a spear. If she pulled the trigger, his upper body would be vaporized, but he could not yet reach her skin with his sword. Not to mention that it was a tool for Sorcery Hacking, so it was not meant to be used that way.

“Quite the show you’re putting on here! Only a ‘coincidental failure’ will be considered a benevolent coincidence, so should the backstage magician really be standing out in the open like this!?”

“None of your business, troublemaker. If you want to enjoy the magic show, you don’t climb onto the stage and try to figure out the trick! You sit down with the audience!!”

She did not hesitate to move her trigger finger.

The only reason he was not annihilated then and there was Teleria aiming her two suppressor-equipped handguns at his feet while she lay on the tower rooftop.

“I won’t let that happen…no matter what!!”

She must have had used Secondary Cold. The roof below his feet instantly froze, his shoes lost their grip, and he tumbled backwards, allowing the destructive beam to pass by directly above him.

The torrent of light continued on to stab into another tower partway up. It was the one he had come from. That one attack broke it apart and it fell toward the crowded plaza along with the loosened wires and upside-down spider cable car.

“!?”

(Dammit, Nirvelphany, this is insane! If there’s bloodshed in the middle of the ceremony, they’ll call off the public execution. And then you’ll lose any chance to sabotage the guillotine and save that old man!!)

“Did you forget?” That calamity condensed into human form gave a thin smile. “This is the king’s castle. Their defenses will never be so weak.”

That was when time stopped.

No, it was just that the rubble was pinned in midair instead of pouring down onto the plaza. A blob of something like dark mud had done it. His sorcery knowledge told him what this distinctive stench was. That extremely sticky dark gray liquid was…

(Asphalt!? Did they use Quaternary Road!?)

Something large passed by overhead.

Several bat-like wings had been combined to create a broad isosceles triangle silhouette that was curved in places. Those artificial wings were about 30 esoule<ref>Approximately 36 meters.</ref> wide as they circled calmly through the sky.

“Those are apparently called Armored Dragons. With the Free Audience Restriction down, they apparently wanted to beef up security with a more traditional fighting force.”

“…”

His eyes met someone else’s. Knights were hanging upside down from the underside of the thing like bats. Instead of using air currents, it was probably gravity that was being manipulated there.

Their magic had pinned the collapsing tower in place.

“And of course, they will have more than one barrier. I’m sure they will see me as an enemy, but what about you? We live in a cruel enough world for an enemy of an enemy to not be considered a friend, don’t we?”

“…!!!???”

The deafening sound of wings pursued him.

The “bats” hanging from the underside dropped down one after another.

They were smaller than the Armored Dragon overhead, but the people in the distinctive dark gray protector armor of the knights were wearing personal flight devices as they approached his level. Some used rotating wing crafts with large propellers on the top and back of the exposed cockpits. Some wore large triangular winged gliders on their backs. Either way, the aerial knights used countless gears and gemboards carrying mist mana to shatter the chains of gravity and attack both sides of the fight atop the tower.

The first wave alone was more than twenty strong.

“Ah ha ha!!”

Nirvelphany laughed while resting her anti-dragon rifle on her shoulder and making a seemingly suicidal move. Of all things, she jumped out onto the floating archipelago of rubble forcibly pinned in the air by the hardened asphalt. Despite her high heels, she moved as lightly as if she were skipping.

Her intent was clear.

(Is she putting some distance between us to take us all out with that ridiculous sniper rifle!?)

Ayato had no other choice.

Moving directly to Nirvelphany’s floating island would have been too dangerous and he had no projectiles, so he called to the two girls on the same tower.

“Miss Teleria, Miss Mamilis! Drive the knights away from here!!”

“Kh!! Okay, I guess!!”

“Understood, Coach.”

They aimed their two water element handguns and one fire element full-auto shotgun at the flight devices attempting to surround them from all directions. With gunshots and muzzle flashes resembling red and blue fireworks, the true sorcery battle finally began.

Teleria first fired at their feet to create several thick ice walls as cover. Meanwhile, Mamilis’s barrage of explosive flames shot down the knights soaring through the sky.

Since the knights had used the forbidden asphalt, they probably specialized in the earth element. Ayato could think of some magic from the Quaternary line that would be useful here, but that was when a sorcery gun gave a roar from one of the rotating wing crafts using its two propellers to fly. A black liquid was scattered overhead.

It happened just as the Dark Elf hiding her long ears with jeweled earrings had sent out fire magic in a fan shape.

The danger signal in his mind passed the limit.

“Wait, Miss Mamilis!! That’s ''rock water''!!”

“?”

Mamilis lived in a modern sorcery society where the mana spread thinly throughout the atmosphere was condensed into an energy source, so that word may not have meant much to her.

That was a toxic liquid hidden below the ground.

No living creature could drink it, but it burned with incredible intensity if it came in contact with fire. A heretical scientist theorized that sinister toxic sludge had once been the corpses of animals.

It was also known as petroleum.

As soon as Mamilis’s Primary Blaze fire magic touched it, the falling ceiling of black liquid blossomed red. The sunny starry sky was filled with flames.

“Kyaaah!?”

“Get down!!”

Mamilis screamed and Teleria’s dual handguns gave a roar. She had been in the middle of creating shelter out of thick ice walls, so she added more ice on top of that to quickly construct a dome-shaped shelter for them.

Then the falling ceiling reached them.

The sound that erupted all around them was much like animal meat being stir fried in a metal pot coated in oil. That was the sound of the flames and ice struggling for supremacy, but even if it had been triggered by mana, the flames themselves were only an oil fire with no willpower residing in it. Teleria’s handguns used properly formed magic, so if she focused on extinguishing the sea of flames, she would not have difficulty doing so.

However, focusing on one task meant neglecting all the others.

(Dammit.)

While they dealt with this, Nirvelphany was enjoying a midair stroll on the other side of the thick ice barrier. She jumped between pieces of tower rubble pinned in place by the torrent of asphalt and twirled around to look back.

And while aiming her ridiculously-powerful anti-dragon rifle, of course.

“Dammit!!!!!!! Keep your heads down, Miss Teleria, Miss Mamilis!!”