Editing Ultimate Antihero:Volume 1 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 4===

Right after the operation’s commencement, it was Shiori who first showed the earliest movement.

While everyone else was heading to the area where battle was in progress, she remained alone in that place.

“―{{furigana|Access|Connection start}}.”

She activated her worn <Arms> that was a mechanized staff.

The sorcery core that was attached at the tip of the staff shined in bluish white, then the mechanized part at the tips of the staff opened like an umbrella.

When Shiori separated her hand from the staff, the staff raised until above Shiori’s head by itself, it began to rotate in circles, at the same time it began to display a great number of display frames around Shiori.

Shiori operated those displays with her fingers, as if she was a pianist that was playing the keyboard―

“Begin analysis of enemy force.

Simultaneously draw up the numbering and marker. Synchronization with the mission map.

Begin transfer of control of mission log. Damage confirmation. Damage data reconstruction―complete.

Enemy force’s trend analysis from the reconstructed mission log.

Adding the analysis content and reinforcement unit’s battle power, resetting the tactics table. ―Complete.

Courses all clear. System online. ―<Optimizing> the battlefield from now on.”

Saying that, Shiori hit the enter key of the display frame that was displayed using magic power particles.


―Instantly, a change occurred at the brain of all the people that were on that battlefield.


“Wha, thi, this is, what is this!?”

The one who raised that voice was a member of the seventh division that was isolated on the battlefield.

Because of the gravity attack just now, his <Air Raid> was broken and he opened the mission map in order to retreat.

Therefore he directly witnessed that change happening.
[[File:Ultimate Antihero V1 c41.png|thumb]]
The mission map had the appearance as squares that was like a chess board projected inside his brain until now. Until now it only displayed the data of the rough position of him and his allies with {{furigana|markers|points of light}} on top of it.

That mission map was now entirely rewritten, not to mention terrain data and the detailed distance between him and his allies, there was also the data about the current condition of his allies, on top of that even detailed information of enemy position and what kind of demon it was, complete with its detailed battle power, it was no exaggeration to say that everything of the battlefield was displayed there, the mission map had been transformed into a super high precision mission map that he had never seen before.

At the same time, Shiori’s voice reverberated inside the brain of everyone on that battlefield.

{My apologize for the sudden intrusion. This is the <Operator> of the 101st trainee platoon, Onjouji Shiori.

While impolite I have hacked everyone’s brain and reestablished the communication system.

It is now unified with a system of my own creation, <{{furigana|Oracle|Heaven Voice}}>.

From now on I will take on the responsibility of being the Operator of all the platoons on this battlefield.

Follow my instruction, and don’t do anything arbitrarily.

If everyone does that then I’ll promise that everyone will return back safely.”


He was dumbfounded from those words.


“I, impossible…! Even though there is not even a minute since the reinforcement came, she already hacked the brain of all the people in this place and seized control of the mind communication system…! Moreover to make this kind of system that displayed accurately every single one of the enemy force while doing all that…!”

Searching enemy, analysis, hacking, system resetting―

Just how many processes was she doing in this one moment.

That thought speed and calculation ability far transcended the performance of a human brain.

{Well then, I’ll send my ghost to everyone’s view, so the isolated platoons please follow her instructions.}

Together with those words of Shiori, an SD character that looked really similar with Shiori was displayed while raising *pon-* an oddly cute sound.

The girl appeared and flew in the air flappingly,

{This way this way―. It’s really safe.}

As if to guide the isolated platoon members, she gave instructions of direction by pointing repeatedly with her finger.

It was a route where he absolutely wouldn’t encounter the enemy and reached the ally’s location, derived from enemy’s position in real time and enemy’s movement pattern that was derived from the mission log and demon data from the past.

By using this, the retreat succeeded without anyone, even the isolated platoon members, being left behind.

It was only natural. Where was the enemy located, where were they going.

Because they knew everything there wasn’t any way they would encounter any demons.

And then, to know that kind of information, it was largely effective not only for escaping, but even for attacking.

{Ten seconds until the encou-nter, the enemy is still not noticing!}

“Yossha―!”

At a different location on the battlefield, a seventh division’s platoon that was not heavily injured yet came out to the front line in order to cover for the retreating platoon.

Following the ghost’s instruction, they jumped out from the building’s cover and concentrated fire at the enemy’s flank.

The demons died without even noticing that they had received an ambush.

That extremely one-sided encounter made one of the platoon members laugh loudly.

“Hahaha-! This mission map is just too awesome!”

After all the enemy’s position was totally exposed from this side.

On top of the nonexistent possibility of receiving surprise attacks, even in the worst case, their side could launch an ambush as they pleased.

They could always take the preemptive attack no matter what.

For the people who were fighting on the actual scene, there was nothing more they could be thankful of than this.

“Yeah, really! With this I don’t get any feeling we can lose!”

“<Operator> that can process the enemy’s movement in real time, I thought only the S-rank in Shanghai life sphere can do this.”

“Wonder is she can quickly graduate and come to our place!”

The enemy searching’s effectiveness had ascended drastically due to Shiori’s <optimization>, the defensive line was recovered in the blink of an eye.

The national defense magicians followed the ghost’s instructions and decreased the enemy marker from the mission map rapidly.

Among them there was one person that vanished three until five enemy marker from the map just in an instant.

It was Ichinotani Chikori.

“Here I go―! Sure-kill magic that I just thought yesterday―”

While the girl trampled down the rubble, she faced five two-horned <Knight class> bicorns that were charging at her, Chikori herself was also not hesitating and ran at them from the front.

And then midway, she grasped an electric pole that was entangled in ivy, then she pulled it out from the asphalt using the superhuman strength of her Hero Skill <Peerless Herculean Strength>―

“THUNDER BLADE!!!!”

She swung it at the five bicorns that were charging at her in a parallel line.

{ { {HII―NN!!!!} } }

The crowd of bicorn that was struck from the side by the huge lethal weapon that was swung by an ogre’s physical strength, was blown away until the far away sky while scattering blood spurt. Five markers were extinguished from the mission map altogether.

However Chikori’s expression turned into dissatisfaction from the feedback of her attack.

“Ah, so that’s how it is. There was no more electricity flowing through this place. Mumumu. This is a technique where I need to choose the place to use it.”

In Chikori’s mind, she expected that the instant the attack struck the enemy, electricity would run through the enemy with [biri biri] sound while they got shocked by electricity.

Chikori’s face was a little dejected that she couldn’t do that.

The isolated platoon that was saved by such a girl could only stare while gulping their saliva.

“A, amazing.”

“Five bicorns got turned into stars with one swing just now…”

“That’s something stupid but still awesome-“

“The Thunder Blade, well, let’s leave that aside. Is everyone there okay? No one injured?”

Perhaps she had given up, Chikori lightly threw away the electric pole and moved towards the platoon that she had reinforced.

But, at that time, the ghost that was projected in Chikori’s view tensed its expression ‘kii-!’,

{Kyupii―n. Chikori-chan. Three wyverns are rushing here from the sky at five o’clock!}

The winged dragon <Knight class> wyverns that were in the distance sky were heading to Chikori with their jaws opened rushing at her direction, the ghost informed Chikori of that.

If it was usually, a surprise attack of wyvern from the sky was guaranteed to succeed.

After all, humans were extremely weak towards attack from the sky.

However the system that Shiori constructed had detected that surprise attack right from its earliest stage.

“Leave it to me!”

Therefore Chikori could easily deal with that.

She gathered her magic power in front of her chest, forming a large bullet of light the size of a basketball.

And then―

“GOOOOOOOOO!”

Kicking that ball, it was shot towards the three wyverns that were rushing here from the far away sky.

While breaking through the wall of the speed of sound, the bullet rushed through the sky with absurd speed approaching the wyvern in the middle of the three.

That speed was even faster than when Chikori shot down the target this afternoon.

However, here the targets were also <Knight class> demons.

{GYAN GYAN GYAAA!!!!}

They largely opened their mouth that was lined with disordered teeth and howled something, suddenly their movements became quick.

It was likely that they were using a type of sorcery that increased their own quickness.

The wyverns possessing in estimate three times the sped-up mobility evaded the light bullet that was approaching at supersonic speed, then keeping that speed they charged at Chikori. The current Chikori had just finished her attack so she was defenseless. If she was attacked then she couldn’t dodge.

―Yet,

“Secret Technique・Multiplying Miracle Ball!”

The instant Chikori smiled daringly, the fired light bullet swelled up in the sky, and burst out.

The basketball-sized light bullet exploded, scattering in every direction ping-pong-sized light bullets.

It was completely like a firework.

Correct. This attack was a [buckshot] that had the assumption that it would be dodged from the beginning.

And then the scattered light bullet made the wyverns into bee hives from the back.

The wyverns whose bodies were now full of holes fell powerlessly to the ground, turning into dust.

“Strike! Yep. This one feels really useful!”

{Pachi-pachi-pachi~} <ref>Clapping sound effect, though this one is said literally from the mouth</ref>

“Ehehe, thank you thank you.”

Chikori smiled bashfully from the ghost’s applause.

It was the talent of Chikori that bloomed from Homura’s interference.

It was not only a pure magic power.

How to use that excess magic power. And what kind of way that could apply that magic power to be even more effective.

There was no doubt that Chikori’s battle sense that worked out one technique after another which didn’t exist in any manual that suited herself was something natural.

And then, if one were to speak of the person himself who made that talent bloom―

“Mini-Shiori. Where to next?”

Homura didn’t go to the battle proactively, instead he followed the ghost’s instruction and went to reinforce the platoon that were isolated and had heavily injured persons as his priority.

{This way this way. It’s straa―ight ahead from here.}

In the mission map at his view, there was three ally marker that was isolated from failing to retreat.

When he read the detail of the marker, it displayed the 27th trainee platoon.

“The 27th trainee platoon, so it’s the platoon of Koga and her group.”

{…Master’s acquaintance?}

“They are classmates.”

While answering the question of Vel who was in the shape of a sword, Homura recalled how Anna was saying in the afternoon that they had patrol duty today.

Marker of demons were gathering one after another around the marker of Koga and her group.

If it kept like that then they would be surrounded and annihilated.

“We are speeding up. Follow me.”

{I’m just a vision inside your brain so I’m not actually doing anything even though I’m following you around like this you know―}

“Now that you say that, that’s right huh. Then here we go.”

Saying that, Homura drove his own body into even more speed and flew through the sky.

On the other side, at the direction where he went―

“Isn’t this reaa―lly bad! ‘Cause our ally is backing down they all are gathering here ain’t it!”

The 27th trainee platoon was unable to retreat and continued to fight on the spot.

Linking up with Anna that was on top of the steel tower, they were intercepting the demons that climbed past the mountain of rubble that was functioning as a blockade.

Why were these girls not running away?

The reason was―

“Roze! You still cannot cut it!?”

“It’s no good. I can’t make even a single cut!”

Behind Anna.

There was Ayumi there whose lower body was sewed to the ground by a large amount of white strings.

It was an earth spider’s mucus string.

That string that was both far harder than steel and elastic like rubber captured Ayumi and wouldn’t let go.

Even with Rozalind trying her best to sever the string using her blade, the hardness and elasticity easily repelled the blade and not even a single cut could be produced.

While they were doing this, they were left behind.

Looking at the mission map, they could see that more than thirty enemy marker were continuously gathering aiming for their group that had been left behind at the front line.

Ayumi yelled in such a despairing situation.

“I, it’s fine already, Rozalind-chan! Anna-chan! Just leave me behind!”

“Rejected.”

“There is no way we can just abandon Koga-chi. It’s just out of the question-!”

“But if it keep like this then everyone―”

They would be dragged down with her because of her fault.

Those words that were colored by self-condemnation were interrupted by Anna’s smile.

“It’s okay. Besides, if we wait just a little more―see there, he came!”

Along with those words, Anna looked up to the sky.

Over there, Homura that was wrapped in wind literally came flying.

“Homura-san…-“

“Yo. Looks like I can’t say that you are safe huh. Looks like the earth spider got you.”

“It’s frustrating but my sword skill cannot cut this. Sorry but lend me your help.”

“I came for that even without you telling me y’know. First I’ll clean up the small fry around. Just wait a sec’.”

While saying that, Homura raised his left hand that was not holding the sword above his head―

“{{furigana|Pandora Box|A Hundredth of All Kinds of Spirits and Goblins}}.”

He invoked a dimension element fifth grade sorcery.

What appeared on top of his raised left hand was a small shining cube the size of a rubik’s cube.

That cube was suctioning the surrounding air altogether with the demons.

Whether it was the goblins moving while hiding between the building cover,

Or the gargoyles in the sky holding a lance that it was going to be thrown,

Or the earth spider pushing its way through the rubble,

Everything was indiscriminately and randomly swallowed continuously.

Finally the more than thirty demons in their surroundings were all settled inside the cube.

It was a harvest that remarkably deviated from the volume of something in the size of a rubik’s cube.

However that was a mystery of sorcery.

It could locally transform the space’s scale factor to gather a large amount of enemy into a space the size of a human palm.

And then―

“―Whoops.”

Homura used the black sword he held in his right hand to vertically cut apart that cube where the demons were stored.

Naturally, what was cut included the demons inside.

Instantly, the cube was destroyed, and then along with a flood of fresh blood from inside, the corpses of the bisected demons flew out.

The demons that numbered more than thirty were all gone in a single stroke.

With that skill and relaxed attitude, rather than calling the act a massacre it should be called as a clean up.

{In the surrounding 100 meters, noo― shadow of enemy.}

After the ghost’s voice confirmed the enemy’s annihilation, Homura slowly descended down in front of Ayumi. And then,

“You guys done well to hold out until now. I’ll help you now.”

Homura cut up the earth spider’s string that was restraining Ayumi easily like cutting butter.

“It, it’s really got cut so easily. It feels like I’m losing my confidence when I see this.”

“No need to depreciate yourself like that. If you ask which one it is, then it’s not a difference between skill, but just a difference between weapons. After all my partner is not an <Arms>, but the pinnacle of <{{furigana|Artifact|Legendary Exoteric Armament}}>. Using this thing, even Rozalind can cut something like this easily.”

At any rate the true identity of this Artifact was a part of an evil god. This was the personification of that.

Its spiritual rank couldn’t be compared to something like your everyday holy sword.

Therefore just by touching its blade a little to the target, most [divine protection] and [sorcery] would be cut.

Most of all―

“But I’ll be driven mad anyway the moment I hold that right?”

“You really get it huh.”

Homura’s shoulder shook while he was chuckling.

Just as Anna said, <Liber Legis> was a man-eating evil book that had destroyed the minds of tens of thousands of people until now. If an average human was touched even only by a fragment of that blasphemous knowledge, that human would surely live his whole life in la-la land.

It was a demon sword that could be handled by Homura exactly because he had completely deciphered the grimoire.

“C’mon, if you can move now then quickly regroup with the main force.”

“Th, thank you very much-. Homura-san has helped me so many times…-“

“It’s only obvious to save an ally. You ain’t need to say thanks or anything.”

Homura sent back Ayumi’s gratitude curtly.

―’But’, after saying that, he looked up to the sky.

“If you want to say thanks no matter what, say it to the one that right now is properly holdin’ back the most troublesome guy.”

At the end of that gaze, was the cloudy sky―there were falling stars there.

Golden and red light.

The two falling stars trailed lines of light behind them with terrific speed while crossing the sky, sometimes they collided, blinking while scattering sparks.

Correct. Homura could run around like this reinforcing other squad was because the monster that cornered the preceding squads almost into annihilation just by one attack, the <General class> demon, baphomet was being continuously held back by only a single magician.

(‘Don’t look down on me’, huh. Just sayin’ that, is something great already.)