Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume8 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

Now.

What does it mean to win a war?

Different people would think of different situations and phases: destroying the radar facilities and securing air superiority, cutting off the supply line and isolating the enemy troops, destroying the computers to prevent the enemy from approving their operations, etc. But Kyousuke decided none of those would work here. He wanted something more immediate. Given the difference in strength between the two sides, America would have put together a timetable where they completed their invasion of Kingdom F in just a day or two. Simply tripping them up a bit would only end with them forcing their way through the defensive line. Just like a freight train, a large nation could not be stopped by the average brakes once it had gotten moving. Sparks would fly from the wheels, but it would still plow through anything on the rails.

So…

“Let’s go, Olivia.”

<Okay, Onii-chan!!>

Olivia Highland had already given her body over to an abnormal being. She was a red translucent slime, one of the Original Series that was a necessary starting point no matter how the Material was built up. It had a Cost of 1 and belonged to the low Sound Range. It was the bottommost foundation and the weakest of the weak, but it still held great meaning.

First of all, Materials existed beyond human understanding and normal military might was useless against them.

This army may have been the strongest in the world, but that meant nothing to a resident of another world.

“That thing is hostile! I repeat, that thing is hostile!! We can fire!!”

“Don’t be stupid! If we fire into the center, we’ll just hit each other!! Arnold, ignore as much of what that inexperienced Captain says as we can without actually disobeying orders. We need to form our ranks first!!”

“Yes, sir. This is on you now. I’ll draw back the tanks since they’re too powerful and use the infantry to buy some time. After they’ve been fanned out, we can eliminate this thing with the combat vehicles. Get started.”

Tanks and armored trucks were lined up as neatly as the parking lot of a mall on the weekend, but those armored vehicles were trying to move gradually away from Kyousuke and Olivia. Infantry wearing thick Repliglass appeared as they weaved their way through the gaps in that “moving wall” which would cause a disastrous scene if someone’s clothing got caught on one. They had likely sent in the Snapping Turtles because they could survive a direct hit from an autocannon or a grenade launcher. Instead of securing cover, they started by aiming their assault rifles at Kyousuke and the Original Red (b).

They provided no warning.

In fact, the red slime started it by tackling one Snapping Turtle that failed to escape and flipping over an armored truck by pushing up on it from below.

The endless ear-splitting popping noises were a lot like having all the firecrackers in Chinatown go off at once.

But those were no more than the back dancers that complemented the star dancing below the spotlight. The otherworldly Material and Kyousuke in his protective circle could not be harmed by normal bullets.

<Um, where should I aim in general?>

“Focus on the maintenance bay to the northeast. Destroy the landmark weapon being constructed inside.”

He gave her some quick instructions, but they did not head directly there.

A large force was already approaching them.

“Olivia, sweep away the 30 directly in front of us.”

<Right.>

“After that, take out the bazooka unit at four o’clock. Those are powerful enough for friendly fire to kill the Repliglass soldiers, so deal with them quickly.”

<You sure are nice, Onii-chan.>

They must have decided this was not going to end as things were because some Repliglass soldiers wielding heavy machine arms rushed directly in while receiving covering fire, but they could not get any closer to Kyousuke thanks to the protective circle. As the arms strained with effort, the Original Red controlled by Olivia crashed into the thick Repliglass’s sides and then followed Kyousuke’s instructions by charging into the group starting to use shoulder-fired anti-tank weaponry.

They could ignore the 10-minute restriction in this case.

After all, 10,000 people were crammed into a small space here. By opening the Artificial Sacred Ground based on one person, defeating them, and opening another one based on someone else during the 90 seconds of the Chain state, they could fight almost indefinitely. The strength of the built-up Material was carried over, so Kyousuke and Olivia’s advantage only grew.

Olivia’s form changed again and again.

A giant rotting dog crushed a group of four Repliglass soldiers along with their heavy machinegun fixed to the ground with a tripod.

A man-eating plant with countless blades instead of petals launched steel seeds with the force of bullets to neutralize the snipers lying atop the barracks roof.

A beautiful Western doll with round and fat maggots wriggling in the cracks covering its body slowly shifted its aim toward a soldier attempting to lend a shoulder to a Repliglass soldier who could not move due to a malfunction.

“…I guess not every member of the world’s most powerful army can be a veteran hero.”

<What do you mean?>

“It’s common for people to enlist because they need a job during a recession or for immigrants to enlist to contribute to society and gain the right to citizenship. Being the world’s most powerful army is another way of saying its soldiers die a lot less than other countries’. ''They don’t send in their true elites without good reason.'' I bet they leave the annoying groundwork to the rookies and the kind of machos seen in movies and games show up later for the part that gets their names in the history books. Because as long as they have Repliglass, even rookies can perform adequately.”

<…>

The silence contained a strained tension.

This was a war fought with just one hand and interspersed with yawns. Although that was no solace for the people of Kingdom F.

Still, it was fortunate for Kyousuke who wanted to stop the war.

He heard a voice from a radio that had fallen at his feet.

“We have had some success with the losses still in the acceptable range. The vehicles have been moved into place. Lieutenant Stallone?”

“—————”

“Attention, everyone. We have lost contact with the Lieutenant. I will take command from here on. Fire!!”

The tanks and armored trucks had moved a certain distance away.

Tank guns and howitzers were fired though the newly-opened gap to hit Kyousuke and Olivia. The explosive booms were accompanied by filthy dust blossoming up like overlapping flowers. In addition to the simple blast and shockwave, a horizontal downpour of small metal balls and sharp fragments assaulted them. The storm of destruction filled the entire space, so it was well beyond the point that any kind of martial arts could hope to dodge it. The blasts were occurring at such close range that orange sparks occasionally flew from the armor of the tanks themselves. Steel claws flying at supersonic speeds were wearing down the composite armor.

However…

“Olivia.”

With that one word, the cloud of dust was blown away from within and a great form stood upon the battlefield.

Divine-class. Cost: 8. Sound Range: Middle.

That giant being that looked down upon the cutting-edge tanks was a great black dog with three heads. It was the faithful guard dog of the underworld in Greek Mythology whose original Greek name began with a K. The orange sparks spilling from the gaps in its violently uneven teeth were reminiscent of the heat at the depths of the earth.

Its great size caused the Artificial Sacred Ground to expand outwards so that it now contained the tanks which had supposedly fallen back.

Before beginning its fierce attack, it howled once toward the heavens. The tanks were controlled by an electronic network, yet they still froze in place for just a moment.

“He might seem frightening since he belongs to the underworld, but he’s no more than a guard dog. It’s true he shows no mercy to those that try to break the rules and crawl out of that land of the dead, but that isn’t all.”

And.

Kyousuke rested his Blood-Sign on his shoulder and used his other hand to point at the group of targets.

“He will never allow the living to wander blindly into the underworld and needlessly forfeit their lives. He’s a kind guard dog.”

There was no hesitation whatsoever.

Whose lives was that guardian of death protecting: Kingdom F which was relying on it, or the US Army which was opposing it?

They shared the one body, but the three heads roared at each other in competition as the giant guard dog charged in at the helpless tanks. Before the treads could dig into the ground, a mass of composite armor was held down from above and had its gun grabbed and yanked off by giant jaws. The soldiers inside were now exposed, so they stared blankly up at their enemy. They did not have time to hurriedly don their Repliglass.

As soon as the stolen tank gun was chomped through like an aluminum can, they raised both their hands even though no one had ordered them to.

That was the end of the damage wrought by the three-headed guard dog.

It moved on to its next target without devouring the flesh-and-blood humans who had lost the will to fight.

“Olivia, attack at three o’clock.”

A tank next to the one turned into a convertible was aiming its gun at the Divine-class. If the shell exploded, it would harm their own exposed allies, but they apparently were too panicked to think it through that far.

The guard dog’s giant foreleg dropped down and bent the entire tank gun at a right angle before it could fire.

When she shell was launched, the tank itself was pushed backwards. The explosion opened the gun barrel like a flower, so that one had been knocked out of the fight.

After a short break, Kyousuke raised his Blood-Sign once more and used White Thorns to gather Petals. Olivia changed form a few times before he settled on a Cost 8 from the middle Sound Range. It was a giant from Mayan Mythology whose 8-letter name began with C and referred to earthquakes. That colossus began kicking the tanks around like soccer balls.

Why was Kyousuke meaninglessly building up the Material?

The Original Series at the very bottom would be enough to simply “defeat” this enemy, so he had to have some other reason for building it up like this.

Reaching the Divine-class required summoning 100 Regulation-classes.

Reaching the Unexplored-class required summoning 50 Divine-classes.

So what was Kyousuke aiming for?

(Here we go.)

“Olivia, focus on the sky overhead! Cruise missiles are being fired on Kingdom F. We can’t target them with the Artificial Sacred Ground since they’re unmanned, but they’re top priority targets!!”

Unexplored-class. Cost: 19. Sound Range: Middle.

The Lady of “Purple Lightning” that Separates Good from Evil (iu – ao – eu – ei – kub – miq – a – ci – pl).

A sickly-thin beautiful woman sat in a battered wheelchair. Her purple hair blew in the wind, her unhealthily skinny naked body only had some purple cloths halfheartedly wrapped around it, and she was as limp as a doll someone had tossed aside. But her power was undeniably real. Her head was still hanging down, but a withered branch of an arm was lifted just enough for the slender index finger to point into the empty air.

A dreadful purple beam shot out and that sword of light accurately sliced through the four cruise missiles using GPS to carry explosives at Mach 1.9. Materials normally could not leave the Artificial Sacred Ground, but projectiles could pass right through its walls. To deal with aerial explosives flying overhead, it was fastest to summon a Material that specialized in ranged attacks.

When it rang directly in Kyousuke’s head, Olivia’s voice contained an impatience separate from that overwhelming accomplishment.

<Is the Phase 1 information attack over, so they’ve started the Phase 2 bombing? Th-there really will be victims now!!>

“That’s why we’re stopping it. Warning to ten o’clock. Altitude: 25 thousand meters. The drones flying there ''have babies''. Shoot them down before they can drop the bombs in their bellies.”

As he had pointed out before, they could not contain unmanned weapons in an Artificial Sacred Ground. But they could destroy anything that existed outside of Alice (with) Rabbit’s no-killing rule.

…The most frightening nightmare scenario was to be left alone in a deserted location, being attacked with countless missiles and rockets from 3 or 4 kilometers away while unable to use an Incense Grenade, and have the explosive blast fill the entire area. Summoners and vessels could be killed by normal firepower if it was used correctly. That was why the veteran warriors like Kyousuke and Biondetta did not take normal soldiers lightly. That fact had permeated them to the bone since it had been normal people managing the children in the Queen’s Miniature Garden located deep underground.

Riding down on the space station had not been a meaningless performance. As a summoner, the center of the most populated area was the one safe area where he could keep the Artificial Sacred Ground and protective circle going as he fought. If he had tried to reach the center along the surface, he would have been shredded into mincemeat in an empty field.

The Lady of Purple Lightning specialized in surefire projectile attacks.

There was no need to approach their top priority target.

“Olivia, the northeast maintenance bay! Slice it apart!!”

<Will do!>

The roofed maintenance bay was larger than a school gym, yet it crumbled before their eyes.

But not from the Lady of Purple Lightning’s attack.

Something had broken out from within before the shutter covering the one wall could fully open. A gigantic mass of steel rolled out from the rubble. The giant gun barrel looked like a steel bridge and far surpassed the category of mobile artillery. The fortress cannon had been forcibly loaded onto a 32-wheeled special transport vehicle meant to carry 7000ton frigates at shipyards.

“The Grad Killer 500mm heavy cannon, huh?”

<What’s that?>

“It’s a large weapon that fires special liquid container shells into the bedrock to intentionally cause a deep-seated landslide and destroy natural fortresses. A deep-seated landslide is normally a largescale landslide caused by underground water veins, but that thing shapes that liquid into a shell and injects it into the ground. Mountains can be structured in a number of ways, but the Grad Killer can destroy any of them.”

To put it another way, it took an environment surrounded by mountains for the weapon to display its power.

It was not an easy weapon to utilize, but weapons were always designed and refined for the convenience of those who would use them. An island nation surrounded by ocean would develop its navy, while a desert nation surrounded by sand would develop its army.

And a look back in history showed a time when the US and the Soviets were staring each other down with enough intensity to destroy the world.

It was not that surprising to find an outlandish weapon had been designed for use in Eastern Europe in order to pry open the Warsaw defenses and directly reach Moscow via a European route separate from the Alaskan route.

However.

Its appearance only sped things up.

Shiroyama Kyousuke spoke two simple words.

“Do it.”

It took just one attack.

The Lady of Purple Lightning lowered her skyward-pointed finger of destruction and aimed toward the surface.

It did not matter if this weapon used 500mm shells which were even larger than those used by a battleship’s guns. That movement was all it took for the mass of steel to be sliced through like a boiled egg pressed against a taut wire.

It ended far too easily.

But Olivia Highland sounded concerned despite having done most of the work herself.

<But how is this supposed to ''end it'', Onii-chan?>

“Don’t worry.”

<We’re in the north, but there was another big unit along the western route, right? We’ve already used our last Incense Grenade. If we travel across the empty space between units, the Artificial Sacred Ground will disappear after 10 minutes. And wait. Aren’t they supposed to have another 5000 troops in reserve!?>

The destruction was already complete.

When the Lady of Purple Lightning pointed her finger at the remaining enemy forces, the Repliglass soldiers must have decided their tanks and armored trucks would not function as shields because they scrambled out of them. They raised their trembling hands in surrender.

<And that’s not even the main point. Even if we do defeat the full 25,000 in this first battle, it won’t defeat the superpower beyond the sea. The Grad Killer? Destroying that extraordinary landmark weapon doesn’t change a thing. Defeat the first wave and they’ll just send in a second and a third. And they’ll only respond with even greater force once we’ve damaged their pride! This might end the battle, but that’s not the same as ending the war!!>

“Good girl, Olivia. So you do understand. ''That’s why the wind is blowing in our favor.''”

Olivia’s voice ground to a halt.

For some reason, she had the lady in the wheelchair turn to face Kyousuke and aim her slender finger toward the summoner. Even the US soldiers poking their heads out of their convertible-ized tank tilted their head in confusion.

<…Say what?>

“Calm yourself down, Olivia. This isn’t Normandy or Stalingrad during World War Two. Nor is it the swamps of Vietnam. No one in the world wants this to develop into a head-on battle where blood is paid for with blood.”

Kyousuke gave a thin smile.

The boy who had defeated even a revenge demon did not hesitate to speak.

“This is a war that a superpower started under the assumption that it would be a 100-to-0 perfect game. That alters the victory conditions into something quite unique.”