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

===Part 6===

“Here they come.”

Once they reached the Unexplored-class, there was no need to build up the Material any further. Kyousuke stuck with the Lady of Purple Lightning while resting his Blood-Sign on his shoulder and looking to the massive cloud of dust covering the horizon.

North and west.

The two divisions had been deployed far apart, but that just meant he had to get them to come to him.

“Olivia, the other half have arrived. Crush them and our war is over.”

<Nweh? But I only see a few armored trucks here and there.>

“They’re sending some scouts in first and a larger group will follow. They should send a few sets of 500 to a 1000.”

Kyousuke was right.

The few armored trucks were followed by a horizontal line of tanks that looked like a wall of steel. They did not even use the hills as cover. There were probably troop transport trucks loaded with Repliglass soldiers behind them. Prioritizing personnel over equipment may have been an American trait since they wanted to minimize casualties and avoid criticism from the TV viewers. If those had been Russian troops, there may have been infantry clinging to the outside of the tanks as they charged from the front line.

“If we crush them too, the ''bizarre reports'' will continue and they won’t be able to escape the suspicions of mass hysteria, but the TV viewers will soon boil over with anger and criticize the White House for starting this war.”

<Onii-chan, won’t Rachel slap you for fighting by stripping your opponent of their honor?>

The youth had been deployed on what was supposed to be the world’s safest war, yet they had been harmed. This was not what they had signed up for.

…It looked silly spelled out like that, but that was how a superpower with absolute strength viewed war.

Because they were the strongest, they were unaccustomed to losing.

Or rather, they did not know how to accept defeat.

<nowiki><I could shoot them now if it doesn’t have to be super precise.></nowiki>

“Draw them forward some more. The closer the two units, the better for us. …Oh, so now it’s a giant laser cannon? If they’ve brought out the west division’s crucial weapon, they must be ready to withdraw, no matter what the higher ups might think.”

The tanks without turrets may have been collection trucks meant to retrieve broken vehicles. Four of them were being used to pull a giant flatcar like a horse-drawn carriage. Instead of a canopy, it carried a cylindrical cannon enclosed within a boxy metal tower. The weapon was intended to intercept missiles from space, so that was likely meant to reinforce it so it did not bend within earth’s gravity.

<Onii-chan, I didn’t realize you liked painting models with dirt and camouflage.>

“2000 meters. Yes, this should be good.”

Tank guns generally aimed in a straight line, but 2km was close range for them. They had approached so close because they were sick of the confusing reports coming from the satellites and drones and they wanted to check things out for themselves.

That might sound silly for an age of digital warfare, but there was a report saying a temperature of just two degrees higher than their body temperature would lower infantry’s attentiveness. And if they were inattentive, it increased the risk of stepping on a landmine or tripwire. That was the state of the incomplete digital warfare that had not fully eliminated humans from the battlefield. There was no avoiding the emotions that had been a part of war since BCE times.

No matter how many reinforcements were sent in, Kyousuke and Olivia only had to keep doing the same thing.

The protective circle and the Lady of Purple Lightning would not allow normal bullets or shells to harm them. Without Princess Olivia’s extremely precise control over the Unexplored-class, it would have actually been harder to avoid killing the enemy. Their one concern was that they had already used up their last Incense Grenade. That meant they had to protect the Artificial Sacred Ground they already had. If the enemy was scattered over too wide an area to reach them during the 90s Chain, this would get a lot trickier.

It was risky and they were walking on thin ice.

If the Artificial Sacred Ground vanished, Kyousuke and Olivia would return to being vulnerable humans who could lose their lives to common bullets and explosions.

Between two battles, Kyousuke spoke while stepping on a tank shell that rolled out of a supply truck.

“We’ve pretty much settled things here, so let’s go crush the reinforcements.”

<But the Chain only lasts 90 seconds! And they’re about 2 kilometers away!>

“It’s time to join civilization, Olivia. We don’t need to go on foot.”

Kyousuke sharply jabbed his Blood-Sign at something on the ground.

He detonated the tank shell he was stepping on.

The close-range blast was not a problem thanks to the protective circle. And the rules of the Summoning Ceremony stated that the Artificial Sacred Ground’s base surface was the surface on which the Incense Grenade detonated, but if that surface was broken and destroyed, it would instead be based on the surface stood on by the summoner who had thrown the Incense Grenade.

Kyousuke was propelled upwards by the blast and flew more than 10m straight up. He flipped himself upside down so the soles of his feet touched something while pointed skyward.

They touched the bottom of a large transport plane that had approached surprisingly close.
It seemed to have been trying to land on the field runway because it was low on fuel, but it must have given up upon seeing how large the battle on the ground had grown. Kyousuke designated its belly as the next foothold while it cruised at fairly low altitude.

The feeling of landing must have been different while seated in a wheelchair because Olivia screamed while existing within the Lady of Purple Lightning.

<Wah!?>

“If this is one of the new C-1092s, it uses electronic control support when landing, so it can fly at more than 300km/h even with its wheels out. It’ll carry us those 2000m in just 20 or 30 seconds.”

With that, Kyousuke ran upside-down along the bottom of the fuselage to reach the front.

The Chain was still in effect, but to set the next foothold on the ground, they would need to destroy the old one…which meant the transport plane. That was why he moved to the front, circled around the round nose, and looked through the thick reinforce glass at the pilot who looked so shocked he was about to have a heart attack.

Kyousuke viewed the pilot.

And after confirming the next 10 minutes had begun, he smashed the glass canopy with the tip of his Blood-Sign. The protective circle was in the way, so he used the end of the long stick to snag the military uniform’s collar.

“Olivia, destroy the plane.”

<You may be the strongest pacifist, Onii-chan, but all of your ideas are insane.>

With that exasperated comment, a purple beam sliced the transport plane apart.

Kyousuke carried the screaming pilot with him as they returned to the surface. He set foot in the center of the western tank unit sent in to suppress the mysterious riot.

They were outside the base.

It was a flat, featureless plain, making it a poor location for taking on tanks.

But Kyousuke shook the pilot (who had gone quiet after his eyes rolled back in his head) from his Blood-Sign and winked.

He sounded like he was reading off the warnings in a user’s manual.

“Sorry about starting with an Unexplored-class right off the bat. Even an expert would cry foul at that, but you’re the world’s strongest. I’m praying you’ll find a way to escape this.”

It only took an instant.

The sickly woman in the rickety wheelchair launched a purple beam from her fingertip.

Kyousuke thought about the state of the battle while watching as the tanks were sliced apart to leave just the soldiers behind. It was like a magic trick.

<Is that big thing our top priority?>

“They aren’t even trying to preserve it, so they’re probably planning to abandon it here. Still, destroy it just to be safe.” 

The lasers fired by the giant strategic weapon and the Unexplored-class collided, but the result had been obvious from the beginning. No matter how much firepower that thing boasted, physical methods of harm could not even scratch the protective circle or Material.

With the north and west landmark weapons destroyed and Kyousuke right in the middle of the tank reinforcements, it was clear what would become of the Silver Resource War.

After thoroughly cleaning things up here and letting their mistaken view of the situation work to its fullest, it would no longer be feasible to continue that economic activity known as war.

If it became known that 20,000 soldiers had succumbed to mass hysteria and destroyed each other, the higher ups in charge of those promising youths would undoubtedly be asked to take responsibility. And international society would be hesitant to let such dangerous units enter their borders or pass through their territorial waters. In the worst case, every last unit would have to keep a motherly school counselor or fortune teller with them at all times.

<But, Onii-chan, isn’t Government the world police? They must have a lot of subordinate groups in America, so wouldn’t some professional summoners and vessels have been deployed with the troops?>

“Some were.”

Kyousuke readily confirmed it and Olivia fell silent again.

Only her impatience and confusion reached Kyousuke’s mind.

<Wait, but, that’s bad! If our plan is to trick the world because they won’t remember us, we can’t have any professionals on the battlefield ''who can actually see what’s going on''!!>

“The ignorant TV viewers will still be angry, so it won’t change anything. I mean, the truth of the matter is that a single summoner and vessel pair defeated the world’s most powerful army and a being greater than the gods went on a rampage. …What good would it do for the military officials and IT company presidents to explain that at a press conference? People would think a mysterious war disease had spread to the US mainland and they’d be sent to a mental hospital.”

<…>

“It doesn’t matter whether or not the truth is known. We need to focus on how many people will believe it.”

<Onii-chan, I need to have Rachel give you a spanking. She’ll whip you into shape at our training ground.>

That was a frightening threat, so Kyousuke made a mental note to give her some candy later to placate her. As tiny as she was, she was a member of the royal family and could be particular about her food, so he would have be careful.

“Would this be a job for the forbidden chocolate chip cereal? It’s hard to judge that one since it’s taken a step outside the category of food, but it is overflowing with an immediate charm…”

<Onii-chan? Hm? What are you analyzing now???>

Had they finally identified the threat now that it was right in front of them? Or were they still utterly confused because a single boy could not account for all of the damage? Either way, Kyousuke wanted to defeat them before they could recover, so he did not wait around. He wanted to end this before they came up with the ''actual right answer'': have all of the US soldiers fall back and attack endlessly with drone bombings and cruise missiles. Just like with food and ammunition, depriving your opponent of time had long been used as an extremely effective method of applying pressure.

The boy snapped his fingers.

“Olivia, it’s time to end it.”

However.

That was when an unexpected voice burned into the back of his mind.

<…Nii-sama…are you there…?>

He felt a pressure in his heart.

This was the one thing that not even Shiroyama Kyousuke had been able to predict. After all, this was the Unexplored-class who had directly killed the White Queen and been broken by it. Her childishness, purity, and obedience made this monster far too different.

There was only one thing he knew.

She had suddenly appeared during his battle with War Criminal and destroyed the Artificial Sacred Ground with the touch of her fingertip. Regardless of the summoner and vessel’s skill, the Third Summoning Ceremony simply could not last until the conclusion when she was involved.

(Why now…!? If she had waited just a bit longer, we could have fully neutralized both US divisions!!)

He of course had no more Incense Grenades.

If this final Artificial Sacred Ground was taken from them, that was the end for Kyousuke and Olivia. Their momentum would grind to a halt and the stalled car would never start up again. The tension he felt now was far different from before.

Olivia’s voice was trembling too.

<O-O-Onii…chan…>

The environment that allowed her to use the Unexplored-class strength of the Lady of Purple Lightning could end at any second.

There was only one possible key to overcoming this.

“A summoner and a vessel…”

<?>

“Government summoners and vessels must have been unofficially sent here with the American troops. If there’s a way out of this, it has to be that.”