Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume2 Phase04 (section)

===Part 3===

Ayato’s vision went dark.

He somehow managed to remain conscious and picked up Florence’s small body.

A direct hit from that would have killed him instantly.

He immediately stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the machinery meant to repair the lobby wall and then actually chucked the machinery backwards. It was instantly frozen, but the distortion in the heat distribution caused a portion of the ultracold liquid to explode. It had taken a straight and stable course like water from a hose, but now it curved sharply.

Pain clutched at his heart, but it was too soon to breathe a sigh of relief. He could not rely on Florence’s limping pace, so he held her under an arm and ran for Oceavita’s exit.

“Take aim.”

He heard a voice from behind and frowned as he focused on that devil’s revolver, but…

“On second thought, this would be faster.”

With that casual comment, she once more released a torrent of liquid that refused to freeze even at 0 embers<ref>Approximately 0 degrees Celsius.</ref>.

Ayato immediately jumped to the side in front of the exit. The door and wall no longer mattered. The ultracold stream missed him and instead froze the wall, which cracked and then shattered like an ephemeral crystal.

Now was not the time to let it entrance him.

He carried Florence outside while being very careful not to touch any of the frozen wreckage. He hacked the various sorcery devices in the area while fleeing into the tropical forest.

That bespectacled teacher was on another level.

The Queen Astaroth Revolver would kill its wielder with a curse if they failed to kill their target within 6 shots. If she had already hacked such a powerful sword, she should not have had to show off such a dangerous gun, but maybe he should have expected that kind of excessive power from someone connected to the Academy Towers.

“That’s right. You need to think, Ayato Criminaltrophy.”

He heard a very teacher-like comment coming from Oceavita behind him.

He flicked one of his crystal tarot cards just as she stepped out from the hole in the wall there.

The nail gun at her feet activated.

But she did not even glance down at it.

Several sharp nails shot out with the sound of compressed air, but their trajectory made no sense. They all veered off course.

(Did she rapidly cool the air to change the density? I can’t get a stable ballistic course like that!!)

It could be hard to imagine, but the air you breathed could be converted from a gas to a liquid or solid if cooled far enough. At the Academy Towers, that liquid air was further separated into oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and other elements for use in experiments.

That meant the density and traits of the air could be changed.

Since projectiles tore through the air to fly, they were greatly affected by the air’s density. Think of it like placing a thick water tank between the weapon and the target.

With a sinister shattering sound, the nail gun covered in white frost and then shattered without her so much as touching it. She was singlehandedly rejecting the tropical climate.

“Why do you think this revolver continues to appear before you? Do you really think you can escape it? There is no leaving the path set out for you.”

“…”

“Ah ha ha. Fermiliquidio really is a piece of junk. Maybe I should have been less modest and aimed higher. I might have had better luck if I had the Butterfly Effector at my disposal.”

Giving away their position would be a bad idea all around, but Florence almost casually spoke up from his arms.

“What happened to the continental prince that sword belongs to? Y’know, the 5th in line to the throne. I had heard he loved traveling and often came here in secret.”

“Don’t be silly, little girl. Wielding this is proof of one’s position in the line of succession, so this means I am 5th in line now. I’m a little embarrassed the number is so pathetically high, though.”

“(You’re the one that damaged my outer shell.)”

“I know what you are thinking, but ''I am honestly surprised it only affected your right side.''”

The conversation had taken an odd turn.

It felt like listening to a record when the needle skipped, so Ayato gave the girl in his arm a puzzled look.

“Miss Florence?”

But he did not have time to pursue that question at the moment.

The next attack came without hesitation. The ultracold stream branched irregularly each time it pierced a tree since that disturbed the heat distribution, but that also tore up the thick palm trees and mangroves from their roots. Despite the sun beating down on them, a salty stream instantly froze over.

If the 5th prince had a habit of sneaking away on his royal cruiser, then the royal guards and servants in the castle would not have always known where he was. That opened up the possibility that he had indeed gone missing in this southern sea.

“Are you sure you want to spend all your time focused on this second-rate sword that’s never winning first place in anything? You haven’t forgotten about this devil’s revolver here, have you?”

“Kh.”

Ayato clenched his teeth and tensed while carrying Florence.

As a category of sorcery gun, magnums forcibly amplified the power of the magic ''without taking recoil into consideration''. And if that one did belong to the devil Ayato knew, it could be even more destructive than the Predator Island’s main cannons depending on what magic was used.

Jennifer was a magic specialist capable of easily taking over the Fermiliquidio.

She was no amateur.

Amplifying the magic that far was liable to tear her body to pieces with the recoil, but she might know some trick for suppressing that recoil.

Ayato finally understood why Micha Angelos had guided him to that train and this island even though it meant paying him twice back to back.

This woman was from the Academy Towers.

Now, Ayato was not one to talk since he was officially still a student there, but could one of the teachers really take things this far? This seemed excessive even for a den of freaks and obsessives. She had hacked a system involved in the royal line of succession, so this was more than the Combined Royal Family could control. This also introduced a risk of Micha herself being hacked, so it would be difficult for the dual-wielding Minotaur to solve this himself. It made sense that he was so desperate to get some help from a Sorcery Hacker.

(That poker face in a purple bikini can go straight to hell. She just put all our lives at risk ''again''. If only I’d realized how desperate they were sooner. Then she couldn’t have said no to the sun oil.)

Ayato was very serious about that. He had risked his life each step of the way: the train, the shooter, the hermit crabs, the warship, the Four Lord, and now a prince’s sword and a devil’s revolver. A rough estimate said 40 gold<ref>Approximately 400,000 yen.</ref> was nowhere near enough to cover it all. And since he also had to divide that sum four ways, he would probably have made more money working part-time at a souvenir shop.

(But how much processing space would you need to hack something equivalent to Micha Angelos? It would have to be 5000 or even 10,000. She might have established herself here on Laguntreat, but where did she get that many sorcery devices?)

“Wait, don’t tell me.”

“Oh, finally catching on? I really didn’t expect to be able to hide it after all this.”

Ayato gathered his thoughts while pushing Florence behind cover.

Jennifer Evening had used the island’s underground as a base.

And what had been stored down there?

(The Annihilator-class Predator Island. Is she using that as Sorcery Hacking boost server?)

However, not even that would be enough to reach quintuple digits. He could guess that warship was only somewhere between 4000 and 5000.

But he just had to think back to what had happened in the sky city. What had he done at the end there to strike back at the greedy high priest?

He had jabbed the end of his Linkage Plug into the forehead of Level 9999 Demon Lord Nirvelphany.

Or more accurately, into the local network embedded into her body via various parts. That acted as the antenna and safety device for accessing the Zodiac Bright Eater sorcery cannon floating in satellite orbit.

The control system built into a powerful demon’s body could be used to raise one’s level when hacked.

“The Predator Island’s main cannons…no, the wreckage of the broken ship function as a Linkage Plug, don’t they?”

“Yes, and I have your efforts to thank for stabbing it in there so deep.”

“Are you saying you used that to hack into Water Lord Fleurelisia!?”

“''And that is why that girl there is limping.''”

The girl jumped at that.

Jennifer did not bother explaining her strange comment.

“The warship provided 5000 and the Four Lord provided 5000 more. Well, I really only hacked the outer shell that protects the core, but I didn’t need the core to reach the level I needed. The local mastermind didn’t seem to understand her value, so I made sure to corrupt the entire island myself.”

“The ship wasn’t enough?”

“This is the 5th prince’s sword after all. Stealing her was easy enough, but she went into randomized hibernation. I couldn’t break the encryption and fully hack her without doubling my level using the Four Lord.”

Ayato dodged an explosive torrent and the palm tree he had been hiding behind was blown away.

Fleurelisia had sunk the warship, but were its sorcery systems, including the spirit engine, still running?

It was fortunate Fleurelisia herself had been damaged a fair bit by the splintered wood and artillery. If either the ship or the Four Lord had been unharmed, Ayato would have been exposed to several of these attacks simultaneously.

His time was finally up.

With the devil’s revolver, Fermiliquidio, and a Sorcery Hacking level of 10,000, Jennifer was untouchable on this island.

“Miss Florence.”

“Yes?”

“Be honest with me.”

“You mean about ''my right leg''?”

“I can tell you are hiding something, but the reason does not really matter.”

The mysterious Florence actually looked taken aback.

But Ayato continued nonetheless.

“Your life comes first and everything else comes second. So tell me – how much can you move? Can you run like normal?”

“I can.”

He had no way of knowing if that was true or not and he did not have time to argue, so he had to trust her.

“Then on my signal, you run left while I run right. It might be worrying with seemingly nothing around, but if you keep going without looking back, you will find a cave. My friend is waiting there, so you have nothing to worry about. She has a truly powerful drive for justice, so if you ask for help, she is sure to protect you.”

“I don’t like that plan.”

“I do hate having to scare a young lady like you, but like I said: I really do not have it in me to accept any requests beyond your survival.”

“But.”

She started to argue, so he lightly flicked her bright right leg.

That seemed to send an unpleasant tingling through it.

“Nyah!?”

“Again, I will not ask what caused this, but you cannot possibly remain on the front line like that.”

“A-ahem! I can’t let my guard down around you for a second, can I?”

She must have been embarrassed she jumped like that since her face was bright red and she cleared her throat unnecessarily. Ayato smiled and continued.

“And once you do arrive at the cave, there is something I would ask of you. The situation could hardly be worse, but I would like for you to give me some small chance.”

“What can I do?”

He summed it up as simply as he could.

It was not that difficult a thing for her, but…

“But what will you do?” she asked.

“I will defeat that.”

Still crouched down in his blue blazer, Ayato pointed his thumb at the monster in the tight skirt.

“That rapier controls a quantum fluid that remains stable at -200 embers<ref>Approximately -220 degrees Celsius</ref>, but no matter how extraordinarily powerful it is, it is still technology being boosted with Sorcery Hacking. Unlike that Four Lord, Jennifer herself is not especially powerful.”

“…”

“Get ready. I will give you a count of three, so you focus on what you need to do. Three, two, one.”

Ayato used his Linkage Plug sword to rustle the underbrush and branches around him as he took off running.

He drew the predator’s attention while the little girl favored her left leg as she limped off into the forest in the other direction.

“Oh, such valiance.”

(You know I’m luring you away from her and you still follow me!?)

A horizontal geyser shot toward him. The attack was made in the opposite direction from limping Florence. Maybe Jennifer did not want to lose sight of him and maybe she had someone else who could search out Florence for her.

It did not really matter which.

As long as he could defeat that glasses teacher during this turn, that stolen sword could not take anyone’s lives.

“Ha ha. You’re wide open☆”

“!?”

She sniped at him with the ultracold quantum fluid.

He practically rolled along the sand to dive behind the overturned boats lined up in the forest for use in the river.

“Why bother dodging? You’re only drawing out the pain.”

“…”

“This forest has very few of the artificial devices you need to fight. Not that hacking a bunch of household appliances would help you when I’m at Level 10,000. Do you enjoy chess, foolish king? If you really have it in you to challenge a full set of pieces with only your king, then bring it on.”

Nothing he was doing here would save him.

Sorcery Hackers fought by hacking devices and resonating with the gathered processing space to increase their level and expand their options. His opponent had reached the quintuple digits, so hacking everything on the island would not be enough to fight back now.

He had no chance as long as he remained on the island of Laguntreat. And Jennifer was not going to let him leave the island to try again later. This isolated island was surrounded by the southern sea on all sides. He had no idea how far it was to the next closest island and that island would be uninhabited anyway.

So was it over?

Was he out of options?

Jennifer Evening was still only using her left hand. She had yet to even place her finger on the revolver’s trigger. What would happen if she killed Ayato here? Was there any guarantee that Teleria, Mamilis, Henrietta, Florence, and the other islanders would be safe? When she had so readily decapitated Leonardo Halleys, the influential old man who had been helping her?

He could not just sit idly by and watch.

He also had that previous promise to keep, so he had to focus on any chance he had, no matter how flimsy.

(Yes.)

He looked up while still hiding behind cover. He thought he had no chance on this isolated island, but was that really true? How had all this begun? What was the very first landmine he had stepped on at the bidding of that cruel intermediary Micha Angelos?

He looked up at the sun.

He was interested in its angle.

“Which direction is that uninhabited island?”