Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter5
Chapter 5: Returning and Taking Over
Part 1
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For the moment, the elves needed to rebuild their strength even if it meant eating rolls and corn soup.
?
???
It happened so suddenly.
Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki opened their eyes to find themselves in a small village redolent of vegetation. It couldn’t have been more different from the sterile spaceship.
The unkempt elves with big collars and thick chains between their ankles were gathered there. The small girl among them was Patissiet.
They were back.
They had returned to the world of Celesaqphere.
Now they could fight to the end without having to abandon the elves!!
“Um, what’s wrong, Ladies Misaka and Shokuhou? Kyah!?”
The both hugged her on reflex.
Tightly.
Lives were taken without a second thought in this world, but nothing dangerous had happened while Mikoto and Shokuhou were away. They were thankful for that miracle.
The solid sensation at her chest told Mikoto her Tokiwadai summer uniform had become bikini armor again. Shokuhou was again in her frilly dancer’s outfit with her handbag worn diagonally across it.
Patissiet and the other elves didn’t seem aware that Mikoto and Shokuhou had even disappeared.
They hadn’t noticed anything amiss.
Mikoto and Shokuhou no longer had the electrification device and controller. They had given up their one surefire way of returning to Earth, but Mikoto didn’t regret it. She knew she wasn’t willing to give up on this before she was finished.
The hug continued for a bit as she confirmed her and this neighbor’s presence in this world and felt the solid ground below her feet…but then Shokuhou ruined the mood.
She must have noticed the elves’ food.
That health nut chose this moment to glare over at them.
“Carbs with carbs?”
“How do you enjoy life when you’re so picky about your food?”
Thinking back, they had been snatched away by Reincarnation Goddess Salinagaritina after they had freed the elves from the village and begun preparing the bone-weary elves some food.
The elves were eating rolls and corn soup.
That should have been about right since they needed to rebuild their strength as quickly as possible.
The lady who was apparently the elf elder bowed her head.
The way she refused to let go of her bowl as she did made her look rather cute.
“Patissiet told me everything. As I told you before, I am the elder. My name is Bakerian.”
“So from baker? Another dessert maker name.”
“?”
The head tilt suggested she wasn’t aware where her name came from.
Elder Bakerian, who had a strong girl-next-door vibe, cleared her throat before continuing.
“You are interested in the three treasures ceremony, correct? And so you wish to know about the three Demon Lords who guard them?”
“Yes!!”
This was exactly what they needed to know.
Mikoto and Shokuhou needed to do things the Celesaqphere way now. After rescuing the elves, they needed some clues to that ceremony that could return them to Earth.
But Elder Bakerian’s face clouded over.
“I apologize for getting your hopes up, but I do not have the answers you seek. I did have a grimoire that collected such myths and legends, but the cursed humans- oh, sorry. That is, the humans took it from me when they captured me. I imagine it is buried in the local king or lord’s collection now.”
“So we’d have to go there?”
“Yes.”
That meant they needed to visit the lord of this region. That lord would hold the key to returning home.
The elder nodded once and…
“But the scope of your fight changes drastically with a lord. A single territory includes over a hundred towns and villages and the lord manages and controls them all. Your brute force tactics will not work forever.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Bikini armor Mikoto sighed softly and dancer Shokuhou winked.
They already knew where this was going.
So they wanted to make it work, even if that meant deceiving both sides of a great space war fought across the entire Solar System.
Even if it meant giving up their one ticket home.
“Besides, even if we stopped here, this lord wouldn’t leave us alone, would they?”
Part 2
The change in the mood was obvious.
The travelers and merchants moving between the eggshell shards of floating islands were nowhere to be found. They wouldn’t be protected by the village, so they were sensitive to danger. And they had started to see more of the adventurers who could sniff out that kind of danger and the bandits who saw it as an opportunity.
Mikoto sighed.
They were holding a strategy meeting in the inn’s kitchen.
But she hadn’t wanted to just sit around, so until anything actually happened, she was making a variety of desserts (in the strange outfit of an apron worn over bikini armor). This world didn’t allow any enjoyment in its food – it was all about nutrition. She wished she could leave some recipes for them, but while they could understand each other’s speech, could the people here read Japanese text?
“Liberating the one village was a good thing,” said Mikoto. “It’s obviously good for the enslaved elves, but there also had to be some humans who only went along with it for fear of being ostracized from the community they need to survive.”
“But the lord isn’t just going to let this stand,” said Shokuhou. “An entire village in their territory has fallen. They are going to move to suppress this rebellion or uprising.”
The unfamiliar system of technology known as magic was frightening, but Mikoto and Shokuhou had proven their ability to easily take on an entire small village.
But they had no answer to a more fundamental question.
How many people were in this kingdom? A war against a kingdom of ten thousand was nothing at all compared to a war against a kingdom of a billion. They were facing the troublesome fact that Celesaqphere had an entirely different social structure to Earth. It was entirely possible that kingdoms here were superpowers with a population of ten billion.
“This is so good,” said a smiling Patissiet while trying a small cubical dessert a little more solid than gelatin. It was commonly known as nata de coco.
Mikoto had made them, but even she was a little surprised.
Why?
“P-Patissiet? N-nata de coco is, well, a really old-fashioned kind of thing, so you really don’t have to eat it.”
“Eh? But it’s the best thing you made.”
“S-surely you’d prefer these colorful donuts or this sumptuous cheesecake.”
“Look, the elder and the others are all eating it too. That proves it’s the best one.”
Mikoto had made the nata de coco more as a joke and something simple she could eat herself without depriving the elves of anything good, but you could never predict what would explode in popularity among people with no preconceptions. Like how the axe murderer under the bed or the woman from hell became trendy in Japan long after they had become tired clichés overseas.
But anyway…
“Starting a strategy game before you know the map or the balance of power is a mistake,” said Shokuhou.
“But if you win anyway, you can get really hooked,” said Mikoto.
“Still, we can’t just let that slaver freak of a lord attack us.”
“Dammit, then let’s prepare for battle! The first wave of this endless battle is about to begin!!”
Their prediction was correct.
Unfortunately, this was the kind of prediction they really wanted to be wrong.
Part 3
The change came without warning.
The rolling green field outside the village continued all the way to the horizon, but that horizon was suddenly annihilated.
Yes, annihilated.
An area of the horizon several kilometers across exploded. But this wasn’t just one explosion. Countless bombs – more than just 100 or even 200 – exploded simultaneously, creating a wall of explosions stretching left to right. It was like an approaching printer of death.
“Eek!”
The elf shrieked in terror.
It was like going over the area with a fine-tooth comb, except with bombs. The long row of explosions slowly approached them. The entire land would be obliterated and it was obvious what would happen once it arrived at the village.
It was important to remember that Celesaqphere was made up of floating land.
These bombs were not being launched from a distance. They were being dropped from above. A floating land was passing by a layer above the one Mikoto and Shokuhou were on. Soldiers were lined up on the edge of that higher land and dropping bombs.
That was enough to set up a carpet bombing.
“I-it’s like they’re plowing the entire floating land from one end to the other,” said Patissiet. “If they continue this from the west end to the east end, the entire floating land will be blown away – and this village along with it!!”
“Misaka-san, what do you think?”
“Hm. They’re not very smart, are they?”
Those two didn’t sound concerned.
They sounded more like they were looking at the shape of the clouds and discussing whether it would rain overnight.
Maybe it was an improvement that the elf could actually pale at the thought of her impending doom. At the very least, that was more than those clone girls had been able to do. Her mouth flapped wordlessly, so Mikoto rubbed her head to comfort her while making a few observations.
“If they can drop bombs on any part of this land, they could have dropped their first bomb right in the middle of the village. The only reason to bomb the entire land from one end to the other is to inspire terror. Telling us the village will be bombed if we wait around is the same as telling us we have some time before the village is at risk.”
“And a carpet bombing also tells us they can’t send in any of their human troops until they’ve finished flattening everything. How many soldiers do they have up there? 500? Maybe 1000? Bringing all their armed troops to the front line and then having them sit around is like asking us to demonstrate our preemptive strike ability☆”
The enemy was on a higher layer.
An ordinary human would have no way of reaching another land 30m above them. Having the high ground was a decent advantage. Dropping things down was easy, but sending things up was a lot more difficult.
But those rules did not apply to the #3 Level 5.
“Don’t worry, Patissiet.”
“Why not?”
“1000 troops is nothing. We’re used to fighting against a city of 2.3 million.”
Part 4
Bam!!
The sound of incoming destruction was awfully dull.
It came from Misaka Mikoto’s feet landing on the upper floating island after using magnetism to leap straight up 30m with Shokuhou Misaki clinging to her hips.
The armored soldiers turned around in surprise while rolling heavy bombs measuring more than a meter across into position on the edge of the cliff.
“Wha-?”
“Oh, don’t mind us.”
Before they could recover from their shock, bikini armor Mikoto shoved one soldier over the edge with an arm and sent out a lightning spear to pierce through a large ball packed with gunpowder sitting a short distance away.
The one explosion triggered a chain reaction that blasted the soldiers into the air.
“This world’s magic is honestly kind of impressive since I can do all this without worrying about killing them.”
Little Patissiet and Elf Elder Bakerian had already explained that the soldiers wore armor designed to protect against the fire and impact elements to shield them against accidental explosions. The soldiers wouldn’t be killed by the 30m fall either because that would count as the impact element. They would probably be incapacitated for a while, though.
Mikoto didn’t expect this skirmish to settle anything.
The explosions were only a distraction.
This was only laying the groundwork to attack the enemy’s main force while they were still confused.
Mikoto lowered Shokuhou to the ground.
They stood side by side.
Yes.
Celesaqphere’s defense magic did not have an element to protect against lightning or brainwashing.
Bikini armor Mikoto sent lightning spears shooting from her bangs and dancer Shokuhou aimed her TV remote. At this point, the knights and soldiers’ thick armor was only a hindrance to their movement. Some had high-voltage currents pierce their steel armor and others were brainwashed into grabbing at their allies.
When Shokuhou saw the especially strong and muscular armored soldiers, she actually licked her lips alluringly. She could brainwash anyone into being her pawn, so a formidable foe wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for her.
“So many to choose from☆”
Although the way the scantily-clad dancer viewed the group of sweaty, muscular men with such eager delight could easily lead someone to misconstrue her intentions.
A great storm of chaos followed.
“Vanguard, escape to the sides!! We’ll blow them away with our artillery!!”
One soldier raised his unsheathed sword vertically.
That might seem like a cool ritual, but he was in fact taking an estimated measurement of the distance and angle to the enemy for aiming purposes. Behind him were siege weapons that looked like crossbows of more than 2m mounted on wheeled pedestals larger than a light car.
They were ballistae.
The stationary weapons used the elasticity of wood or animal tendons and the torsion of twisted rope to launch giant bolts. The bolts were more than 2m long and some of the ballistae were loaded with thick, wrapped chains measuring several meters long. When launched while spinning, that would be like shooting a giant version of that thing at the end of a weed cutter. A direct hit could probably slice right through a human torso. If their rotation could also stabilize their trajectory, they might also be able to fly like a frisbee.
(The projectiles are made of bronze. I can’t stop them with magnetism!!)
But…
“Shokuhou, charge ahead!!”
“Huh?”
“We’ll be killed if we fall back. I can’t stop the first shot, so the best plan is to not give them enough time to load the second shot!!”
The air was compressed.
Mikoto ran in with an iron sand sword in hand and Shokuhou stepped on one of her dancer outfit’s frills and tripped as something sharply scorched the air between the two of them. It was close, but it wasn’t too fast for Mikoto to dodge with her microwave radar.
“Hey!! Does that mean it was just dumb luck that I survived that!?” protested Shokuhou.
“(Tch. I’d really rather not accept that luck is an aspect of skill.)”
The ballistae were extremely powerful weapons, but it took multiple muscular soldiers to load a bolt, making this a battle of physical strength.
(They have plenty of ballistae, so why aren’t they splitting the work into phases so they can keep a constant stream of shots flying? Are they just stupid?)
Now that the enemy had screwed up, it was Mikoto’s turn.
“Ahhhh!!” she shouted, swinging her iron sand sword horizontally.
She sliced through the base of the targeting soldier’s sword. When he froze up in surprise, she kicked the him in the gut, sending him tumbling backwards. The armor must have shifted his center of gravity unusually high. And before he could get back up, Mikoto aimed her palm down and sent a few high-voltage jolts into him to silence him.
A griffin larger than an elephant puffed out its wings and glared at her. The soldiers must have released the reins of the monster they had used to drag in the ballista carts that rivalled two-story buildings in size. Bikini Mikoto used the bright light and loud noise of the high-voltage electricity to keep the griffin away while she shouted.
“Get up, Shokuhou! I’ll deal with the monster, so you hurry up and brainwash the ballista soldiers!!”
“Argh. Misaka-san, why don’t you – pant – take care of it all – gasp – on your own? Ugh…”
“Don’t just give up and wilt there, you weakling Queen!! None of this is over yet!!”
That was when Mikoto and Shokuhou heard a dull thud.
The sun was hidden overhead. By something around 200m above them.
Another floating island had joined the battle.
But the Railgun’s range was only 50m and lightning spears and iron sand swords would have a hard time attacking and destroying the underside of a floating island that had to be measured in kilometers.
At this rate, the enemy commander would escape.
In fact, they would be killed by falling bombs with no way of fighting back!!
Part 5
Before the fighting actually began, Mikoto and Shokuhou of course held a strategy meeting.
They sat around a table in the dining hall on the 1st floor of the village’s inn with snacks in hand. Patissiet and Elder Bakerian joined them.
Something had been low-key bothering bikini armor Mikoto for a while now.
(How many layers of floating lands overlap each other? How do we even hold a briefing for a battle fought in three dimensions?)
“Um, this is a map of the Poseidon Lakes where we are now.”
Little Patissiet spread something out on the table.
And she continued, “And this is the floating land above us.”
The maps were not on parchment. They were on some kind of transparently-thin paper and they were placed on top of each other. If this village was on the bottom layer, then you could apparently place the maps for the middle layer, top layer, and whatever other layers were needed on top of it.
“Hm. That’s hard to read. I get why it has to work this way, though.”
“We aren’t done yet. This finishes it up.”
Bakerian held out her hands and muttered something under her breath, causing a buzzing sound. A 3D image of the terrain shown on the thin maps appeared above the table.
“Oh, that’s neat,” said Shokuhou. “Now this is really feeling like a fantasy world☆”
“?”
The ordinary elf tilted her head at that one.
“We are in the Poseidon Lakes, but there are two floating lands approaching above us from the west. The middle layer is the Hades Plains, famous as a necropolis. The top layer is the Zeus Mountains. The Zeus Mountains are so high up they often collide with the clouds, altering the weather and sending frequent lightning down toward the Poseidon Lakes.”
“…” “…”
“Um?” said Patissiet giving them questioning looks.
Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus. Even residents of science-obsessed Academy City recognized those names. The names in Celesaqphere continued to be extremely lazy. Anyone with any experience with myth-based manga and anime would know these ones.
The worst part was that the Poseidon Lakes was apparently dotted with seawater springs, meaning the name actually kind of fit.
(Someone from Earth didn’t visit here long before we did, did they?)
“Most of the soldiers and bombs will be deployed to the Hades Plains in the middle. As that land travels from west to east, they can drop their bombs to achieve a complete carpet bombing of the Poseidon Lakes where we are.”
Needing to view multiple lands to understand the win conditions for this battle was annoying. If the floating lands were on a set course, the enemy could take a higher layer of land long before it arrived, wait until that floating land was on top of the target, and then send in all their soldiers.
“But the bottom layer and middle layer are only 30m apart. I can make a direct attack there,” said Mikoto.
“That is a wondrous thing to hear, but the real problem is the Zeus Mountains at the very top.” Elder Bakerian pointed up toward the ceiling. “The distance between the middle layer and top layer is 200m. Even your power will have a hard time taking you that far, won’t it?”
“Well, yeah…”
“And it goes without saying their top commander is going to be watching everything from up there,” said Shokuhou. “Is there any way we could take over the middle layer and ask for a truce?”
“The Zeus Mountains will be prepared for at least a bombing. But less for dropping on an attacking enemy and more for threatening disobedient troops into continuing the attack from the Hades Plains.”
So even if they took the middle layer, they would have bombs raining down on them from the top layer.
They could not win this battle without directly attacking the top layer.
Part 6
The Zeus Mountains’ Frontline Command Garrison was really just a name. It was more of a luxurious villa made to be dismantled and moved to the battlefield in pieces.
“I am detecting explosions on the Hades Plains instead of the bottom layer. This is highly unusual,” reported Mind, a young blond butler.
Lavender, a female knight in intricate silver armor, curled up on the sofa with her arms hugging her knees.
She hung her head and muttered to herself.
“No, no, no. Now we’re going to lose and I’ll be captured and they’ll definitely make me their slave. Please no. Wait. I’ll do anything. I’ll do any job, so just don’t use my body for fertilizer in your field after I die. If you’re going to kill me, at least give me a dignified and painless execution. Don’t make a public show out of it either. Please, my parents will be watching…”
“Milady, this is a minor problem. Viewing the big picture, our victory is still all but assured.”
Lavender’s head immediately shot up.
Her face shined bright.
“Yes, of course I will win this!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Those rebel fools deserve no rights. Why even bother counting them as they march to their own doom? We can just count the scorched heads blown from their bodies after the dust has settled. Hee hee hee hee ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”
“Of course, even minor problems can lead to complete disaster in war.”
“No, no, no, no…”
Lavender was said to be the local lord’s right hand and was feared by the people, but she was usually like this. She could only hold her head high when she had an absolute advantage in battle. Even though the true mettle of a commander was seen in their ability to turn around a losing situation and even though the difference in power was so great here that even a bored old retiree could command a force to victory.
But that aside…
“Are you sure this was a good idea?” asked Mind. “I know it was necessary for victory, but the Poseidon Lakes contain a village known for its fulgurites. The carpet bombing will kill the villagers as well.”
“H-hmph! The rebels have taken the village for themselves, so its destruction is unavoidable. Those villagers only have themselves to blame for just handing their village over to those wretched rebels in the first place! Heh!!”
She really was a carefree knight when she was winning.
Mind sighed.
(But if any of the villagers survive, they could easily become true insurrectionists. To prevent that, we must slaughter every last one of them, including the old, the infirm, the women, and the children.)
His mistress likely had not thought through what her decision would mean and she would probably blanch if he did tell her.
So the butler kept those thoughts to himself.
Lavender was never outstanding in anything she did.
But that was no reason for her butler’s affection for her to waver. He accepted that she was in fact second-rate and then did whatever it took to prevent the great gears of society from tearing her apart.
The world of Celesaqphere was endlessly cruel.
Mind had sworn he would protect Lavender from that world no matter what. So he did not limit himself to elf slaves. He would use anyone he could as a card in his deck. If he made sure someone else always paid the price for his mistress’s second-rate decisions, Lavender could live the life of a first-rate leader.
He was prepared to deceive his mistress until she died of old age with a smile on her face.
He was willing to go to hell as long as she was bound for heaven.
(Ideally, I can blame this on a rival whose skill outmatches hers so I can get her promoted and defeat her enemies at the same time. What a pain.)
Just then, Mind heard a dull explosion rising from below.
Lavender hugged her knees up on the sofa, her shoulders shaking.
“Wh-what just happened? I’m still winning, aren’t I?”
“It would appear some insurgents have made it to the Hades Plains. The barracks there appear to have been destroyed. I do not know what kind of magic they are using, but a mere two insurgents are tearing the place apart.”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Heh heh, eh heh heh. Why can’t we all just get along? Because we can’t, that’s why. Oh, I just know they’re going to strip me naked and march me around the public square with a collar around my neck…”
She was holding her head and wallowing in pessimism again.
This knight’s mood was influenced far too much by the changing situation.
“Didn’t you leave some weapons in the Zeus Mountains for just such an occurrence?”
“Oh, yeah! Which means I can win!! Hah, and the Zeus Mountains are 200m above the Hades Plains. Ah ha ha ha ha!! Sending troops down that distance is one thing, but sending an attack back up is another thing altogether. Now we just need to drop bombs from here to blow those insurgents to smithereens! I’m so smart!!”
(Of course, this will mean our bombs deliver the finishing blow to our own defeated soldiers down on the Hades Plains. If any of them survive, they will hold quite a grudge.)
But it was a butler’s duty to obey his mistress’s command.
The Zeus Mountains’ Frontline Command Garrison was in fact a luxurious villa, but there was no one there who could handle explosives other than the knight and her butler. The rest were chefs, sommeliers, and the like. So Lavender and Mind walked to the edge of the floating land, pounded a stake into the ground, and attached lifelines to their hips.
“Where are the insurgents!?”
“I seriously doubt they are staying in one place. With everything going on, anyone still on their feet and moving nimbly about will be the enemy.”
On that direction, Lavender looked down again.
A Warrior Woman was swiftly moving around (with a Dancer in tow) in search of cover. She left a brick wall still standing among the wreckage of the griffin stable and appeared to be rushing toward anotherlarge piece of cover.
There were a few crossbow-like ballistae left.
One of them changed direction. And for some reason, it was tilted as far up as it would go, aiming toward the upper layer.
The ever-calm butler shouted in a rare panic.
“That is not good. Get down, milady!!”
Part 7
The deafening explosion happened so far away it barely seemed connected to anything Mikoto had done.
It felt more like she was watching a fireworks show in the distant sky.
She had stuffed one of the massive straw-like bolts with strong drinks and explosives and then launched it from a ballista.
A height of 200m was too far for her Railgun’s 50m range. Her lightning spears couldn’t damage the upper floating land either. Magnetically leaping that far would also be a challenge.
But the large stationary weapons the enemy had brought were a different story.
There was some debate about the firing range of a ballista, but it was thought to be roughly 300-400m.
The explosion might seem too far away to matter to her, but it had to be a disaster indeed for the Zeus Mountains. Mikoto could even hear a bunch of secondary explosions going off.
Dancer Shokuhou leaned her back against side of the convenient toy called a ballista.
“Can we bring this back with us?”
“Whether we’ll use it or not, we need to take everything we can get. That’s a basic rule of adventuring.”
