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Clash of Hexennacht:Volume3 Chapter 6

2016-11-02T05:31:42Z

68.109.50.45: /* Chapter 6: Rejection Arrives Without Warning */

==Chapter 6: Rejection Arrives Without Warning==
[[Image:Hexennacht_v03_149.png|thumb]]
''Slap the surface

''To make a nice noise

Koutarou saw an instantaneous exchange of offense and defense.

…''Has it started!?

The maids had called off their tea party and scattered to various points within the academy. A few of them continued the tea party, but that was a diversion against the surveillance from the surrounding Magino Devices. Koutarou and one of the maids (a Latina witch from South America who specialized in stealth) were rushing toward the main gate.

The maid kept her stealth spell active and held it up like a cloak as she spoke.

“This jaguar-style spell can erase my footsteps, but it honestly won’t work against something on that level.”

“That is fine. As long as I can confirm the situation-…”

He trailed off as offense and defense intersected 40 meters away.

The gas mask girl, who had a pink Normal Frame with what seemed to be a flower motif, rushed at Lisbeth.

It was timed to catch Lisbeth by surprise and Koutarou only noticed it once she stood up after landing.

She reached forward while standing and swung her hoe-shaped Device forward. But…

…''That isn’t going to hit!

The hoe could only manifest its power along the path of the swing. Mary’s scythe could slice the things on the inside edge, but a hoe only effected things along the path of the blade itself.

Why would she use something like that here?

…''Is she a reckless warrior for justice!?

As expected, the attack did not hit.

But a row of objects appeared along the path of the hoe.

They were flowers.

“What is that?”

“Please get down, Head Butler!”

Just as his head was held further down, the ether flowers that blossomed over an arc began to scatter into the wind.

Immediately, light and power appeared straight ahead.

“Those are explosion spells!”

A chain reaction of explosive light covered a radius of three meters between Lisbeth and the girl.

Kagami saw Lisbeth’s reaction.

She found it interesting because the woman did not fall back.

The European U.A.H. witch simply swung her right hand. That light upward snap brought something into existence.

…''A straight sword device!

It only took a moment.

But the blade did not hit the expanding arc of explosive light as it approached her.

The blade tip produced a path of bluish-black light.

“What is that?”

“That is Aunt Lisbeth’s spatial cutting!”

“You are a knowledgeable girl, Horinouchi!”

That was exactly what happened. The explosive light and power were sliced in two before reuniting and exploding behind Lisbeth who was covered in a slight bluish-black shadow.

…''Oh.

Kagami heard something. Power was bursting and the ground was shaking, but Lisbeth’s surroundings remained entirely uneventful, as if she were contained inside an invisible scabbard.

The explosive flowers’ ether petals scattered through the air and the wind whipped them up a little later.

Then Lisbeth moved forward. She held her sword upside down as she did so.

Immediately, the gas mask girl swung her hand.

Ashes spread gently through the air. And as ether light surrounded them…

“Flowers again!?”

Just as Lisbeth swung her sword upwards, another series of explosions occurred.

Their density was even greater than before, which meant…

…''That gas mask girl’s Phlogiston Heart is heating up!

But as the flowers scattered and the wind actually reached her this time, Lisbeth spoke.

“A flower spell…!”

After confirming that her opponent was using a spell with a flower motif, Lisbeth continued.

“That spell is Cerisier’s-…”

She was not able to finish her question.

The girl cut her off after taking a quick step back.

“The Rank 1.”

It was a quiet, restrained voice. And after a breath, she concluded her thought.

“That’s me.”

Horinouchi shuddered when she heard the gas mask girl.

…''So that really is what’s going on here!?

This girl had attacked after the headmaster’s announcement, so she was clearly working for the headmaster.

The Rank 1’s identity was not publicly known, but the headmaster knew.

That had been a worrying fact.

Horinouchi had wondered if the Rank 1 and the headmaster were connected in some way.

If the Rank 1 was a powerful individual who could act on the headmaster’s behalf when instructed to, it changed the meaning of keeping her identity hidden.

…''But…

The series of events playing out here and the headmaster’s instructions had revealed something.

The Rank 1 witch was indeed under the headmaster’s control.

“…Horinouchi.”

Kagami seemed to understand the same thing. Horinouchi knew perfectly well why she had called her name.

Horinouchi was the Student Council President.

Her job was to gather the students’ opinions as their representative, convey them to the headmaster, teachers, and administrators, and return to the students with the decision they made.

The headmaster could be seen as her enemy and the headmaster had just made her stance clear. But what was Horinouchi supposed to do as a student? Just as she began to make that decision…

“Horinouchi.”

Kagami had walked up to her side and grabbed her right hand.

“You are the final boss of the students, so you cannot be in the very front, now can you?”

Lisbeth Lueger had been a candidate for the Hexennacht representative.

She was here now as a U.A.H. representative.

She used spatial cutting, so teleportation spells were familiar to her. The power of 2000 Magino Frames had teleported half that number here, but…

…''This was the limit when starting from Europe.

That was a practical range, but it was still less than half the circumference of the earth. However, teleporting something smaller would not extend that range. In fact, the weaker the “field” of the object, the shorter the distance it could travel.

Those had been the optimal conditions.

And once she had arrived, it had looked like Horinouchi’s daughter had brought the other Rankers to see her, but…

“The Rank 1 is here to greet me!?”

“No.”

Straight ahead, the gas mask girl took a step back in her pink Normal Form and swung both arms toward Lisbeth.

“I’m not greeting you. I’m eliminating you.”

It was ash.

She threw blossoms full of ether.

The explosion spells could not actually hit Lisbeth. She used her Device’s spatial cutting to slice through the ashy smoke and push it to the left and right. But…

…''It’s spending more time in the air?

Before, it had been split and pushed away before exploding. But now, after being split to the left and right, it approached Lisbeth from behind as if the wind were carrying it.

Which meant…

“Is this ‘wind’ meant to respond to my spatial cutting!?”

“I won’t tell you.”

''Fine. I can figure it out on my own. In fact, I already understand it fairly well.'' And…

“————”

As soon as she stepped forward, the pink Normal Form flipped backwards.

Lisbeth swung her Device’s blade up toward her. But…

“Ohh.”

Her opponent had swung her hoe Device during her backflip.

They both swung their weapons up toward the heavens.

Blade clashed with blade tip.

Sparks and ether light flew and a portion of Lisbeth’s spatial cutting was negated.

A moment later, the flowers bloomed.

The ash that had been gently blown behind her was transformed into flowers which exploded.

Things had gotten quite troublesome behind her, but it was in front that required her attention.

…''She interfered with my spatial cutting.

The next attack would be dangerous.

Her opponent had created a hole in her spatial cutting, so the girl was undoubtedly planning to shove the flowers through there.

This girl was pretty good. Lisbeth could think of a few ways to deal with this, but one was more exciting than the others.

Thus, she instructed herself to take a step forward and do this in a different way from her opponent.

“Fire.”

Instantly, eight pillars of light dropped from the sky toward the pink Normal Form.

Eight Magino Devices waiting in the heavens had fired their main cannons.

Hunter saw European U.A.H.’s decision.

…''They’re eliminating the Rank 1 here!?

She had noticed the eight Magino Devices instantly turning in the air. The Rank 1 also would have noticed those giant forms directly above her.

But Lisbeth had moved in close to keep the girl from escaping.

Then the Magino Devices fired.

A hit would be devastating.

That meant two things.

One, the European U.A.H. Representative named Lisbeth was taking a hostile stance against the headmaster.

Two, she did not want the Rank 1.

This would show that she saw the headmaster’s protégé as unneeded.

…''Is she prioritizing control of this place over victory on Hexennacht!?

The Rank 1 was higher in the ranks than Hunter and the others. That meant she had higher odds of victory if she fought at Hexennacht. But…

“If you don’t do what European U.A.H. wants, you’ll be eliminated!?”

Had there even been a chance to talk this out?

No. The headmaster had been the one to pick this fight. That made Hunter think that European U.A.H. had not been given a choice in the matter, but that may have been due to her familiarity with the methods of a powerful nation like America.

If someone sought to shake your hand, you were friends. But if they made themselves an enemy, you would crush them with all your might. That was how a powerful nation did things.

What would American U.A.H. think of this when they heard of it? And…

“I doubt this is the end of the Rank 1.”

As if to agree, Horinouchi remained motionless a step ahead.

Even after those eight blasts…

“Even we could endure that much,” said the Rank 3 standing to Hunter’s side.

And that was when it happened.

The eight descending blasts were deflected by something rising from the ground. They were transformed into explosive light and knocked back up into the air. The eight strikes had been deflected by something growing up from the ground:

“An ether forest…!?”

Lisbeth saw a forest appear.

But this was not like the Black Forest of her homeland. Instead of a forest so thick it was hard to even walk through, this was an artificial forest with plenty of walking space. And…

…''A cherry tree forest…!

It covered a square of about 30 meters.

The forest let cherry blossoms scatter into the wind as it forcefully grew up toward the sky.

The eight blasts of power collided with the flowering branches that had pale enough colors to look like clouds.

A moment later, the upper layer of cherry blossoms exploded. An explosion spell blossomed across them like a burning fuse had reached the flowers and the light and sound spread faster than anyone could respond.

A great tremor reached the air and earth, and the cherry tree forest shook.

And that caused the cherry blossoms to scatter.

But they did more than just scatter as before. After being hit by that great force, the forest spread as if in resistance. The entire forest swung up toward the sky with an even greater motion.

The eight cannon blasts were hit by a fierce counterattack from the flowers.

“…”

And a chain-reaction of explosions roared through the air after the initial one.

The sky split apart.

Or it seemed to as Koutarou watched the wind whipping up and colliding with the school buildings and dorm buildings.

The immediate shockwave crashed into the buildings which had seemed so solid. The walls were scraped as if by claws and they shook from the loud noise of the explosion-resistant shutters lowering. That power also reached Koutarou where he lay on the ground.

“…Kh!”

‘'Ah, I feel like a hero forced onto the defensive,'' he thought just before a stone was peeled up from the stone paving and struck him on the side of the head.

“Raise your head and you’ll get hit, Head Butler! Oh, you did get hit! Ah ha ha!”

''Why do Latinos always have to be like this!?'' he thought as the peak of the blast passed by over their heads. It was a lot like having a steamroller of power sweeping across the stone paving.

“————”

In exchange for a moment of silence, great brightness filled their vision.

Then the blast passed them by. And…

“Head Butler!”

Hearing that, he realized a forest had appeared.

The cherry tree forest was made of ether, it covered the area from the main gate to the General Division building, and it continued to grow.

He gulped when he saw the ether rapidly fill the school building and pathway like a jungle.

There was only one thing he could say about this.

…''Is the Rank 1’s cherry tree forest an absolute defense against Magino Devices!?

After all, she was still using her Normal Frame.

A forest constructed in that form had surpassed eight Magino Device main cannons.

And yet European U.A.H.’s Magino Devices had combined the power for attack and movement, so if they focused on attacking, they should have been able to attack with twice the power of a normal Device.

She had endured ''that''.

But the situation was still underway. The eight Magino Devices in the sky moved down, and…

“Something else is coming! 16 shots from the side!”

Just as a maid shouted that and held his head down, he saw it.

It was a blizzard of cherry blossoms.

Along the hundreds of meters from Shihouin Academy’s main gate to Tokyo Bay, pink ether light blew through the sky.

''When did she do that?'' wondered Lisbeth.

The girl had not had an opening to make a firing command. After all, Lisbeth had been viewing her every movement with her one eye.

She could see every single action the girl took using a speed, strength, or movement spell.

She knew all of the movement techniques the girl used.

So as long as she saw the initial movement, she had thought she could tell what the girl was doing.

But she had been wrong.

“Was it the cherry tree forest!?”

The forest had moved, not the girl.

No, it was more than that.

The branches and petals were all moving autonomously. They would protect the girl even without a direct command from her. And…

“They use wind spells, don’t they!?”

There was no wind, but the branches were creaking and the leaves rustling.

The clouds of petals covered everything. They pushed endlessly toward Lisbeth and the girl and they all scattered at once.

“Interesting…!”

Lisbeth drew a sword.

Instead of just the one in her right hand, she raised her left hand to her eyepatch and pulled a second sword from there.

“I will be using this!”

The sky was split.

A diagonal cross stabbed through it from south to north.

The cherry blossom blizzard was growing to a kilometer in length, but an X-shape pierced it. The two intersecting strikes easily split through it all while expanding to a length of several hundred meters. The bottom edge severed the roof of Shihouin Academy’s General Division west building.

A moment after being quartered by the spatial cutting, the cherry blossom blizzard burst into light.

A largescale ether explosion began beyond Shihouin Academy’s main gate and spread toward Tokyo Bay.

Shihouin Academy’s defense barrier used its full power to stop the blast. Instead of just enduring it, reactive spells activated for an offensive defense. The impact resistant structures just below the surface and inside the building walls were purged by the reactive force. The explosive blast collided with the building materials that shot up toward it.

By counteracting the force of the explosive wave, the initial impact was weakened enough for the proper defense spells to function.

The blast hit.

With the outer walls and surface gone, the pulsating divine protection conduits and the armor were exposed on Shihouin Academy’s southern side. The blast hit there, but then the defense divine protections kicked in. The impact was distributed out to the edges of the buildings and then erased.

But the part of the blast that escaped outside the academy was a problem.

The shockwave hit the waves of Tokyo Bay and gave the water enough force to expose the shallow ocean bottom. That pressure bent the earth’s crust, and Shihouin Academy’s southern side supports, which were driven deep underground, sank by about a meter and a half.

A moment later, the reactive force sent everything hopping back up.

And this happened while the academy’s defense system was responding to the blow on the upper surface.

A few of the south side supports broke and the structure ruptured. Starting from the area cut during the former Rank 2 and the Rank 4’s battle, the academy’s foundational structure really did split from the main gate to the center.

Warning spell circles appeared here and there to warn of the danger and the thousand blades arranged in an arc in the sky were thrown out of position along the south edge.

The seawater had been launched skyward when the bottom of Tokyo Bay sprang back up, so it fell back down as rain.

But a woman sliced apart that dark, muddy rain.

It was U.A.H. Representative Lisbeth. She split the pouring rain with a cross shape and let the blue sky wash over her.

“Ha ha ha…! Yes, I thought so!”

Her enemy was right in front of her.

“That spell is Cerisier’s, isn’t it!”

Her enemy did not respond. Her small, slender form simply reached behind her as the cherry tree forest continued to grow.

Flowers bloomed, but they were not meant to explode. They decorated her neck, wrists, and head.

“Magino Frame.”

With those words, something manifested above her.

It was a great wand more than 500 meters long, but it looked something like a hoe and something like a small plant with a single leaf and a single stalk.

Horinouchi used a Shinto barrier spell for defense.

Shinto barriers “separated” the space inside and outside. Rather than defending, they shifted the internal space out of phase, so they were generally safe even if an ether explosion hit.

Or they should have been.

“Horinouchi! Is it just me or is this barrier creaking?”

“The pressure outside is too powerful, so the ground forming the foundation of this space is in a bit of trouble!”

The pouring rain was also a problem. The sand from the ocean bottom naturally had the “phase” of sea, so it was interfering with the “phase” of their temporary earth.

A barrier defense was based on the definition of its “space”, so this was a difficult situation for it. Hunter must have realized that because she summoned her servant and sighed.

“Ohh, I thought your three arrow defense was way too convenient, but I guess it has this flaw.”

“It is not a flaw! This is simply an exceptional situation!”

At any rate, something had caught Horinouchi’s attention. Mary had not taken her eyes off of the Rank 1 and she seemed to have noticed as well.

“Where is her servant!?”

The Suzaku stepped out of its spell circle and onto Horinouchi’s shoulder in a highly exasperated way, but…

…''She wasn’t talking about you.

Mary meant the Rank 1 who stood below her summoned Magino Device.

She had a pink Magino Form and the clothing likely had a flower petal motif. But…

“I didn’t see a servant even when she summoned her Magino Frame!”

A voice answered Mary’s question.

It came from overhead and from the school building behind them. They looked back and saw a spell circle in sky full of wind from the explosions.

It displayed the headmaster. She must have come outside because she stood in the center of the flower garden on the north end of the courtyard. Her flat gaze was directed at her old friend.

“Fall back, Lisbeth. You will get hurt.”

The Magino Device immediately started moving.

The wand-shaped Device looked like a hoe or like a clover with a single leaf. It should have been designed longer horizontally to help it fly, but…

…''It’s longer vertically?

That may have been to help the flower and plant motif.

But then the hoe blade of the single-leaf design split apart.

The leaf separated to the left and right. The three leaves that looked like a triple hoe had several turretless cannons on their surface.

“Is that…?”

Something arrived while Horinouchi spoke.

They were flowers. The many turretless cannons produced a great cluster of flowers as if spreading a cloud of pollen.

The pink cloud was even larger than before and it became smoke or balls as it tumbled down through the sky, but those scattered before they actually reaching the ground.

“…!”

Lisbeth responded by stepping forward to protect the witches behind her.

A moment later, everything exploded.

The explosion in the center of Tokyo Bay swept light to the southeast and triggered a chain reaction.

Each individual explosion differed in size. Some turned into shockwaves at a diameter of about a meter and others devoured the surrounding explosive light to reach several dozen meters.

The water of Tokyo Bay was consumed.

The spreading explosive blizzard detonated the water once it reached the surface.

Holes formed in the water, but the water caused the explosive cacophony to reverberate high into the sky and vibrate deep into the ocean.

A low sound much like rock being struck scattered along many levels from the bottom of the ocean. And as the many roars of noise joined together, something happened.

The ocean bottom was exposed.

By that time, the explosive blizzard in the sky was about to reach the opposite bank of Tokyo Bay.

That meant the blizzard was about 10 kilometers long and it was also about 3 kilometers wide. The flowers danced through that vast space and the explosions swept through after them.

Wind, sea, sky, water, and air were all split and detonated as long as the flowers reached them.

As a result, the sky and sea of Tokyo Bay were split from south to north.

The water was ruptured, the sea bottom was dug up, and it was all blasted into the sky in a V-shape.

And light scattered through it all. The flowers’ lifespans were only momentary. They all returned to ether light and dissolved back into the air.

All that remained were the roiling sea returning to its original form and the wind that could not blow the flowers away.

As the light decorated the vast space like mist, the girl spun her hoe Device in her hand and passed it over her hips and to her other hand.

After two rotations, she spun it with her twisted fingertips and took a breath.

She looked to where her enemy had been beyond the ether light remaining from the explosions.

“————”

The lenses of her gas mask pointed in that direction and she re-summoned the ether cherry trees behind her.

And when she faced forward, she spoke with a voice that echoed inside her mask and sounded like it had passed through a cave.

“I did it, mama…”

There was nothing in the direction she looked.

Nothing but the main gate lit by the setting sun.

The artificial crust had split apart and the spray from the waves reached as far as the main gate.

…''So this is the Rank 1’s strategy!

Koutarou watched as he moved toward the school buildings on the maid’s instructions.

The power that had split Tokyo Bay had launched the water up from the valley and changed the color of the sky.

The moisture in the air was likely being compressed and falling as rain on the shore of Chiba to the east of the academy. The somewhat darkened sky was only dark where it was raining, so it looked like a 300 meter wall rising from the ocean.

“Head Butler, is this what they call a cataclysm? Splitting the ocean and making it rain?”

Of course, Horinouchi, Kagami, Hunter, and Mary could likely do the same thing. Firing their powerful main cannon into the ocean would easily split it.

But that was simply tearing apart the ocean with their power.

Simultaneously splitting it across such a wide area was something else entirely.

The flower blizzard could hover in the air and it could produce great destructive power by detonating.

In just a short time, that girl had split about half of Tokyo Bay. Based on that speed…

“If you tried to move into a firing position, she could cover all of Tokyo Bay with that flower blizzard.”

What did that mean? The maid clicked her tongue and communicated with the other maids as she spoke.

“She uses massive simultaneous explosions over a wide area. And you can’t just defend against these bombs for an instant. They blow down on you in stages, so they keep coming even if you defend against them. And that wave-like structure is the default.”

“Do you think there is a way to avoid it?”

“A barrier that defensively solidifies the surrounding space. Although then you wouldn’t be able to attack either. Just think about it. You can’t defend against water while soaking in the pool and this is instantly spreading that pool so far you can’t escape it. Her previous opponents must have realized that and solidified their defenses, but then they couldn’t do anything themselves and their defenses were eventually worn down.”

Meaning…

“This isn’t about being shot, cut, or erased. Each individual blast might be weak, but the explosions fill the entire battlefield and place it under her control. That is the #1’s strategy.”

The girl thought to herself.

She had driven the enemy off. She had defeated the leader who was the central figure of her opponents.

She had done a good job. She wanted to be praised for that.

After all, there was no one at the split in the artificial island beyond the scattering fragments of ether light.

Now she only had to do something about the 1000 Magino Devices around the island.

But she looked forward.

The main gate was about 10 meters away. The gate itself remained, but the artificial crust had split all the way up to that entrance and the ocean waves were crashing there. There was nothing else.

But she noticed something odd.

“…It’s too close?”

The scenery was strange.

The scenery through the gate was slightly shifted from everywhere else.

The shifted area was exactly as wide as the gate and about 15 meters tall. The sky and waves of Tokyo Bay were different there. It was almost like she was looking at a screen displaying footage taken from beyond the shifted area.

A flower petal flew out.

The pink petal reached the space where the scenery was shifted one step forward.

“Show me.”

Her request was answered by an explosion.

Destruction ran through the sky. The single explosion of light destroyed the shifted scenery and the scenery split and fell away, showing what was really there.

The scenery of Tokyo Bay reverted to its non-shifted distance and the enemy stood there: the woman named Lisbeth, the witches working for her, and…

“Who!?”

Two unfamiliar witches were with them: a black executioner and a white and green karate fighter.

Hunter was sweating in her heart.

…''Thank goodness my Magino Form summoned in time…

Horinouchi had instructed them to defend European U.A.H, so Hunter and the Rank 3 had moved between the two combatants.

Hunter tended to operate the Hedgehog primarily with her left hand, so she had approached the Rank 1 from the left while the Rank 3 did so from the right.

They had approached by stepping backwards with their backs turned toward European U.A.H. to make it clear they were here to support them. Just in case, Hunter had also held her right hand behind her back and made American military hand signs.

Then they had summoned their Magino Forms.

They had needed to endure the Rank 1’s attack, but that flower blizzard had been a pain.

Even if they had summoned their Magino Devices, they would still have been contained in the space covered by the flowers. They had settled on the following plan:

“I’ll summon just the armor of my Device to defend. Rank 3, you use you annihilation spell to create a barrier cutting off the surrounding space.”

The #3 created her barrier in the same way as she had at the North Pole during the previous Ranker Battle. By annihilating the space around them, she created gaps that isolated them from the space outside that.

She had not used as complex a shape as during the North Pole battle, so from the outside, it would have looked like the isolated space was missing and the surrounding scenery was shifted.

It had been Hunter’s job to defend against the flowers already inside the barrier and that entered through gaps in the barrier. She used a simple method.

“Intentionally taking hits when you summoned the armor panels and then slamming them against my annihilation spell? That was a very violent method, Rank 4.”

“Immediately using everything available to you is the trick to survival, Rank 3.”

“You two…”

The European U.A.H. Representative turned toward them.

But Hunter did not have time to return the look. She had no Magino Device and their opponent did. The Rank 1 had also started by summoning her cherry tree forest.

Not only had the enemy taken the initiative, but they had been hit by a surprise attack.

But as the witches behind her fell back, the European U.A.H. Representative opened her mouth.

“Do you know each other?”

She did not mean Hunter and the Rank 3. She was talking about what the Rank 1 had said earlier.

“She asked ‘who’ when she saw you…”

“Oh, dear.” Mary spoke to the Rank 4 without turning around. “Miss Hunter, you are the Rank 4 and you support America, but she’s treating you like a nobody.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty amazing that a shut-in from another world is being treated like a nobody.”

After provoking each other, they named themselves.

They spoke directly to the Rank 1.

“Nice to meet you. I am a jobber.”

“I’m a stalking horse.”

Then they moved forward. Mary used her long stride and Hunter used quick steps to accelerate.

<noinclude>
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|-
| Back to [[Clash_of_Hexennacht:Volume3_Chapter_5|Chapter 5]]
| Return to [[Clash_of_Hexennacht|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Clash_of_Hexennacht:Volume3_Chapter_7|Chapter 7]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Clash of Hexennacht:Volume3 Chapter 5

2016-10-29T18:13:26Z

68.109.50.45:

==Chapter 5: That is an Illusion==
[[Image:Hexennacht_v03_123.png|thumb]]
''The world’s bonds

''Can come from anywhere

''And in any form

Koutarou saw the image superimposed on the sky.

He lay on the grass just outside the wall on Shihouin Academy’s southeast side.

Earlier, he had triggered the security system by carelessly crossing the wall and had been hit by a lightning strike, so he could not move.

The maids sat around him, but…

“Oh, tell us when you can move again. We’ll be having a tea party.”

He moved just his fingertips to send a report to academy security.

“The previous alarm and lightning strike were nothing to worry about. I was merely performing a test.”

He did not specify what kind of test.

He simply watched the spell circle next to the tea party until his body’s tuning divine protection kicked in.

He watched the European U.A.H. Wand Viewing with a few doubts in his mind.

…''What is this?

Below a colorless sky, he saw a location surrounded by forests and mountains.

It was a vast space.

More than just an airfield, an entire city’s worth of space had been cleared.

It was made of rock.

Based on the sunshine, it was an elevated region. A tall forest surrounded it on the south, east, and west while a mountain range rose to the north. The mountains formed a right angle because the cleared area had been made level.

The cutting of the mountain was strange.

A straight line had been cut into the rocky base of the mountain as smoothly as slicing tofu.

The cut had to be over 30 km long and its height exceeded 2 km in places.

But as far as Koutarou could tell from the footage, the cut was a perfectly straight line. A waterfall spilled from a gap in the layers of rock and it flowed into an artificial river below the cut, but the scale was too large to grasp.

“Lady Lueger created that on her own. She said she wanted somewhere where the other U.A.H. leaders and the politicians couldn’t interfere and the she created it in a single night,” explained a European maid who was brewing tea on a travel sheet spread out on the grass. “Lisbeth Lueger is one of the Troika and the German representative. She is also currently the strongest witch who returned to Europe and supported that land after all the other witches left.”

She seemed to remember something else.

“Oh, and she gets mad with a smile on her face if you talk about her age.”

“Precisely,” said an unexpected voice from the footage. “As long as you remember, Green Moon. Your skill was lacking, but I see you haven’t forgotten what I scolded you over.”

…''Eh?

The footage was not a two-way transmission and it was supposedly being broadcast worldwide via satellite. But the Head Maid commented while pulling a sandwich baguette out of a midair spell circle.

“Women can always hear you when you spread rumors about them, Head Butler. This is the same as Lady Kagami and Lady Mitsuru noticing when they are being monitored from satellite orbit.”

“Can she not notice you, Head Maid?”

“I am not spreading rumors.”

''Women are scary,'' realized Koutarou, but that thought was immediately thrown from his mind.

He saw movement in the footage.

Koutarou saw ranks of witches.

The witches in the clearing wore black Normal Frames as per the ancient legends.

But those ranks were spread incredibly far apart. The witches were each about 300 meters from each other while lined up in rows and columns. But given how wide the clearing was, even at that distance apart…

“We have a primary force of 2000 here.”

Blowing wind accompanied the voice from the footage. It felt like a cold wind, but that may have been because it was the north wind blowing down from the dry mountains. Now, what were those 2000 U.A.H. members going to do?

…''Will they summon Magino Frames?

That was supposedly the number of mass-produced Magino Frames they had.

And a voice spoke a single word from the footage.

“Start.”

Immediately, light appeared in the dully colored clearing. It appeared in the hands of the witches.

“Normal Devices.”

“That’s right.”

“They’re gunblades. Are they like Lady Kagami’s?”

“Single-edged? They look a bit like kitchen knives.”

As the maids commented, black blades appeared in the hands of the spread-out 2000.

They were straight, single-edged swords and they were non-transforming types with a built in cannon. But…

“They have a combined power system and it looks like the main engine has been reinforced.”

“So they can’t move while firing?”

“They’ve gotta move for themselves. More importantly…”

Koutarou knew what they were going to say next.

The 2000 had raised the swords in front of their eyes as if praying.

Then far, far more ether light than before exploded into the sky.

“That was fast…!?”

“Eh? They didn’t have to build up their mood first!?”

The maids’ surprise was to be expected.

…''They can rapidly move from Normal to Magino like Lady Hunter!?

That was exactly what was summoned into the dry sky.

2000 straight, single-edged swords were drawn into the colorless sky.

Hunter gasped a little.

…''They’re really showing off.

They had rapidly summoned their Magino Frames immediately after summoning their Normal Frames. Normally, that required heating up their Phlogiston Heart in their Normal Frame for a stepped increase.

It was possible to prepare a keyword for increasing their willpower and to keep their Phlogiston Heart perpetually and stably heated for a quick Magino summoning.

But this was different from that.

“It’s how they’ve split up the engines.”

“You know what they did, Hunter!?”

“Why pass this off to her?” asked Horinouchi while glaring at Kagami, but Hunter did not mind.

Hunter spread her arms to either side to indicate a straight gesture and then pointed near the center.

“They have a large engine here that’s probably for both firing and propulsion.”

“The same engine handles both of those?” asked Mary with a tilt of her head.

Her Magino Frame’s annihilation spell was powerful, but the Frame’s mobility was unimpressive and its armor was thin. According to Mary…

“Generally, a Device has three different engines: one for attack, one for movement, and one for defense. Which one receives the most focus determines the majority of a Device’s characteristics.”

“Right,” replied Hunter. “When the Form and Device – combined into the Frame – grow large and complicated, the power needed also grows. That means they need separate power for attack, movement, and defense. That also requires heating up your Phlogiston Heart for all three. But…”

She pointed at the base of the Magino Frame barrels on the footage.

“What happens if you only have two?”

Kagami crossed her arms and answered.

“The three categories of attack, movement, and defense become the two categories of (attack + movement) and defense?”

“Yes. Their attack and movement systems are linked. That requires only two areas for heating up your Phlogiston Heart. But since they can create an engine large enough for twice the capacity, it can really help heat up their Phlogiston Heart. …That’s probably what we just saw.”

“Why have the rest of us not been doing that?”

“If you combine your power source for attack and movement, you can’t move while attacking and you can’t attack while moving,” answered Horinouchi. “Of course, you can always send some excess power over, but that is dangerous in battle.”

“I see. In other words…” The corners of Kagami’s mouth rose. “These Magino Frames are specialized for two things: sniping the Black Witch and her minions that descend from the moon and ramming right into them without firing.”

''That is a ridiculous idea,'' thought Horinouchi.

“These were mass-produced, but I doubt they would stand a chance if they fought inside the Black Witch’s seal. Their range of tactics is too limited.”

“Then why produce so many of them?”

“You do not understand, Mary?”

When Kagami said that, she and Horinouchi turned toward Hunter.

And Hunter shrugged.

“This is what European U.A.H. is thinking: The witch in Japan can fight the Black Witch however she likes, but we will use these 2000 Magino Frames to defend Europe.”

“In other words,” said Horinouchi. “After Hexennacht, they will let Japan take the honor of having fought the Black Witch, but Europe will be the unscathed land that can rule the world afterwards. Is that what you mean?”

If so, it painted this Wand Viewing in a new light.

“Is this European U.A.H.’s way of stepping away from Hexennacht?”

“It is not,” answered Kagami.

Horinouchi turned toward her.

“What do you mean? Don’t you think it would be difficult to oppose the Black Witch with these Magino Frames?”

“Do they have an ace witch by any chance? Oh, maybe that old lady who has been speaking?”

“What did you just say?” replied the voice in question.

Hunter glared at the footage and Horinouchi raised an index finger in front of her nose.

…''That’s the kind of person she is, isn’t it?

But she was still bothered by what Kagami had said.

“Are you saying that member of the Troika is going to join the Ranker Battles?

“No, they would not need to do that. European U.A.H. has a simpler way of joining Hexennacht.”

As Kagami said that, something happened in the footage.

The 2000 black swords had their blade tips raised toward the center of the heavens and those tips began to glow.

They were spell circles.

“Yes. That is the right answer.”

Horinouchi heard Kagami speak and she saw light in the center of her vision.

The spell circles opened on the 2000 sword tips joined together to form a single giant circle.

…''They’re combining their power!?

Not all of them had done so. It was only the 1000 in the center. But the spell circle stretched to more than 5 km across and a word appeared in the center.

'''<JUMP>

It was a movement spell, but not one that carried something over a distance. All of that power was being poured into…

“A teleportation jump!?”

More than one part of that seemed impossible to Horinouchi.

Teleportation spells were well known as witch spells. They moved objects not by carrying them or by shifting their location. Instead, they altered their location. These spatial jumps or distortions were powerful movement spells, but they were also known for another factor.

Their restrictions and necessary conditions were very strict.

After all, to link two points in space, the spell had to affect both “here” and “there”.

That meant activating a spell somewhere you were not.

It meant doing something somewhere other than where you were.

“Is that difficult even for the witches of this world?” asked Kagami.

“Can you eat or study in a place you aren’t?” asked Horinouchi. “Magic is what allows us to do things like that, but altering the location of objects is very difficult.”

The accuracy and power needed grew immensely as the distance increased, so…

“Most teleportation spells are limited to the user’s field of vision or they need a ‘receiver’ at the other end.”

The former was a short-range teleportation. The latter was the stereotypical type of spell known as a “gate”. A location or partner acted as a physical focal point to link the teleportation spell.

Horinouchi herself had done something similar to a gate a few days before.

“Miss Horinouchi, when you used your Cave Opening on the annihilation spell I used for high-speed movement, you did something similar to this. I automatically acted as your ‘receiver’.”

But what they saw here was different.

European U.A.H. intended to send the 1000 blades somewhere.

“Are they bringing these identical Magino Frames together and synchronizing them to use a spell that requires immense power?” asked Kagami.

“And it required the sacrifice of simplifying their attack and mobility into one,” added Horinouchi before addressing another of the impossibilities she had thought of. “But where are they planning to send the blades!?”

“That is simple,” said a witch’s voice.

It did not only come from the transmission footage.

It descended from the sky surrounding Shihouin Academy in every direction.

“Right there. To the new school for witches.”

A moment later, 1000 blades measuring 50m surrounded Shihouin Academy.

The witches watching the footage were slow to notice.

The 1000 blades had vanished from below the teleportation spell as it burst and scattered.

But none of them imagined those swords had all arrived in the sky around them.

They first felt it as a wind.

Thick masses of air pushed in at them from every direction. And when they turned their gazes against the whipping air currents, they saw what was there.

The blades were lined up vertically in the sky.

1000 straight swords surrounded the academy as if preparing to slice into it.

“Lady Mitsuru.”

Horinouchi viewed the 1000 swords surrounding them like an open-top dome.

She also heard Koutarou’s voice over a transmission spell.

“Lady Mitsuru, you know that a number of countries have troops stationed in Japan to prepare for Hexennacht, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I think we know that.”

Hunter opened a spell circle in annoyance, but the external transmission spell circle grew distorted.

…''Interference.

The surrounding Magino Frames linked together their barriers to create a “wall” blocking any communications.

The mainland should have been visible from here, but it seemed to be shimmering.

If light was being distorted too, then it was adequate defense for a Magino Device. Their attack and movement were linked, but defense seemed to have its own independent power source.

…''Honestly.

She sensed the presences and heard the sounds of the surrounding students moving and raising their guard. Some of those witches would be from Europe.

But at the moment…

“Everyone has fortified our defenses!”

Mary had connected to the school network to grasp everyone’s actions.

Her Spell Division contained a lot of Europeans, so if they were working to fight this…

“Was this an independent action on European U.A.H.’s part?”

“Yes, Lady Kagami,” answered Koutarou.

“In that case,” said Horinouchi. “The other nations are generally in charge of protecting us here and of taking the defensive role during Hexennacht, right? Why would they be doing this now?”

Hunter took issue with that dismissive description, but Koutarou had more to say.

“Well, this is very hard to say, Lady Mitsuru,” explained Horinouchi’s Head Butler who was in charge of liaison work. “But the European nations are demanding administrative authority over Shihouin Academy. …They say it is to manage the execution of Hexennacht and the selection of the witch who will take part.”

“Ho ho?” said Kagami with a nod.

Since that did not worry Horinouchi, her thoughts were probably accurate.

''In other words,'' she added in her heart before speaking.

“Is this what you were talking about before, Kagami?”

“Hexennacht is no more than a political card to these nations.”

Kagami sounded entirely bored with it all.

…''Not that I want her to enjoy this…

Did that mean this had not exceeded her predictions?

Kagami then pointed her thumb back toward the main gate behind her.

Horinouchi knew what that meant. After surrounding them so noticeably, their opponent would arrive through the proper entrance.

“But don’t witches like using the back door?” asked Horinouchi.

“This is politics.”

Horinouchi was calm enough to shrug that off with a “well, whatever” and she picked up her pace.

But as they walked emptyhanded toward the main gate, Kagami spoke with her back to Horinouchi.

“If the Black Witch is indeed defeated, the successful witch’s country will have a large advantage over the other countries.”

She sounded just as disinterested as before, but Horinouchi responded while moving up alongside her.

“You mean in influence and military power, right?”

“Military power?” asked Mary a step behind them.

The answer came from outside the group. It was Koutarou.

“Yes, that is right. To defeat the Black Witch is to create a threat greater than the Black Witch.”

“Ever since the middle ages, the witches of this world have been accepted as a legitimate military force,” added Horinouchi.

Mary had come from another world, so it must have seemed odd to her even if she had the knowledge.

“It may not be as obvious in Japan since witches gathered here after crossing national borders and it is especially hard to tell here in Shihouin Academy, but since they still have to focus on national borders in Europe, they have a tendency of viewing a powerful witch as a weapon.”

“That is exactly right, Lady Mitsuru. …And I believe this incident comes directly from that viewpoint.”

“Then,” began Kagami. “Those nations are attempting to supervise us because we have yet to settle those issues?”

“It would seem so, Lady Kagami.”

Hunter raised her hand when she heard that.

She looked up into the sky and finally sped up her slowing feet.

“Oh, looks like my people are taking the academy’s side.”

“Are you talking about that light in the southwest sky?” asked Kagami.

“A lunar surveillance F-18 ascended vertically and is sending an optical transmission this way.”

“Morse code? Won’t European U.A.H. notice?”

“No, this is the 7th Fleet’s personal code. There’s no cracking it because it’s based on the number of letters in the behavioral standards form that changes weekly. And the standards form is handwritten by the second-in-command, so bad things will happen if an unauthorized person reads it. …Right now they’re stopped at Hawaii and they can apparently leave to hold the other nations in check once their preparations are complete.”

Hunter’s spell circle displayed the communications that had supposedly been blocked. It had been sent to her by the 7th Fleet that supported her, but…

“The header says ‘Watch this, European U.A.H.’ and the attachment is the official specs of those Magino Devices floating there,” explained Hunter. “Look at this. It says they have three main engines. And they even sent out a test wand just like that. They made us all think this was the normal design.”

''So they set us up,'' realized Kagami with a bitter laugh.

Seeing this world fighting itself like this made her wonder if her sister’s personality had grown even worse. But…

“The fact that they would set all this up to give themselves even a slight advantage in a later age may be proof of how rich a world this is.”

“I’m not sure if that’s self-flagellation or a compliment,” commented Horinouchi.

“I am merely impressed. In a way, this is a moving scene. And I take it Hunter’s people will be responding to this.”

“But won’t that just confuse the situation further?”

“Probably.” Hunter crossed her arms. “Makes you wonder why they’re just stirring up the embers.”

Meanwhile, they arrived at the main gate again. A few people were standing beyond it.

…''Witches.

The witches in black Magino Forms were older than Kagami’s group.

She realized this was her first time seeing witches not affiliated with Shihouin Academy.

She had flown over America during the battle with Hunter, but she had not run across any local witches. She had assumed that was a “gap” in the world her sister had created, but…

“There are some.”

Once she said that, Horinouchi held out her right hand to stop them.

“Do you have something to say as Student Council President?”

“No, someone else wants to speak first.”

As Horinouchi spoke, spell circles appeared all across the sky above the academy.

The witch communication devices blossomed all around them and in all parts of the academy. They were shaped like flowers.

“Lady Headmaster?”

That was exactly who they displayed: the headmaster. She was likely looking south from her office’s window. The room provided the background and the footage was shot from a somewhat low angle as she spoke to everyone.

“I must warn you.”

This was a simple rejection.

“Set foot in my academy and you will be deemed an enemy. Do you understand, European U.A.H.?”

…''She just defined her opponent.

''Defining a phenomenon to understand and grasp it is how witches use power,'' thought Horinouchi. That was why the headmaster named her opponent and warned the surrounding Magino Frames.

“My academy is inviolable. I believe we promised as much ten years ago…Lisbeth.”

She spoke a name.

Yes, Horinouchi could see that person. The witches in front of the main gate split apart and a single individual approached.

It was a tall woman.

She wore a black cape, hat, and boots. An eyepatch covered her right eye. Her hair had some gray mixed in, but her face did not look aged at all.

Horinouchi’s mother would have been the same age had she still been alive. And Horinouchi naturally accepted that fact as she spoke.

“Come any closer and you will be deemed an enemy, Aunt Lisbeth.”

“…Mitsuru.”

Lisbeth stopped as if she had only just now noticed her.

She was right in front of the gate.

“Long time no see. And do not call me ‘aunt’.”

Hunter took a deep breath behind Horinouchi and whispered a question.

“Kagami, who’s the old lady?”

“I do not know, but this woman, who is clearly past her thirties, is most likely an important individual.”

“Um, you two? Why not be nice and stick to ‘older than us, but possibly at double our score’?”

…''She can hear all three of you!

As Horinouchi thought that, a voice arrived from straight ahead. It started as a quiet laugh.

“I can hear you, Ranker girls.”

Lisbeth also held up a spell circle that displayed a document.

“I am U.A.H. Representative Lisbeth Lueger. Based on U.A.H.’s decision, I have arrived to place Shihouin Academy under our protection.”

…''So that really is what this is about.

Kagami and the others had been right.

“The witches of the world view Shihouin Academy as the site of their decisive battle and a facility to train in, so we have decided we must protect this academy while you are determining who will take Rank 1.”

This really was what Kagami had mentioned, but…

“European U.A.H. is trying to control Hexennacht like this, isn’t it?”

[[Image:Hexennacht_v03_145.png|thumb]]
Mary nodded in agreement with Horinouchi, and…

…''This means they see who controls the world as a problem in addition to the Black Witch.

Kagami stood a half step ahead and she asked Horinouchi a quiet question.

“How strong is she?”

She was referring to the witch named Lisbeth who stood in front of the main gate.

…''She is very skilled, isn’t she?

Mary could tell at a glance. And that was without any kind of observation spell.

The uniform the woman wore was likely a Normal Form, but it truly was clothing.

It was not panels as soft as cloth or something that simply took that “form”. Ether formed threads which were woven together into a uniform.

The higher Rankers could do that much, but each piece of this woman’s uniform was made differently. They all used different thicknesses and colors of thread.

“Brigadier general.”

“Yes. She is a uniform fetishist. I sense great skill in her….”

Horinouchi clenched the fist behind her back so hard the veins bulged out, but Mary understood she was not trying to tell her anything.

Horinouchi did, however, look back over her shoulder to glare at Kagami.

“She is the third witch who formed the Troika with my mother and the headmaster during the previous Hexennacht. My mother died during Hexennacht, but the headmaster created Shihouin Academy and Aunt Lis-…Miss Lisbeth helped construct the modern form of U.A.H. She is now the German representative.”

“In other words, she was the Rank 2 or 3 a decade ago? …But how strong is she now?”

A voice answered Kagami from beyond the main gate.

“Rushing to action will accomplish nothing, current Rank 2.”

Lisbeth followed up those words by looking into the sky. Her smile may have shown approval of their behavior.

And with that smile intact, she spoke to the headmaster.

“We have no time, Cerisier. Transfer control of the academy to me.”

“That will not be necessary, Lisbeth.”

Mary saw a quick reaction to the headmaster’s response.

Lisbeth’s expression changed.

The headmaster had essentially rejected her, but…

…''That wasn’t anger.

The ends of her eyebrows had lowered just for a moment.

Mary saw the shift in Lisbeth’s expression.

It looked like hesitation or displeasure at the rejection, but it soon vanished.

A moment later, she opened her mouth with her eyebrows raised. Her gaze was powerful as she glared at a spell circle in the sky.

“But Cerisier…”

Was she protesting or persuading? They never found out because someone else suddenly appeared.

“Lisbeth.”

As the headmaster spoke, a small form descended from the sky behind the spell circle.

The girl wore a pink Normal Form and wielded a hoe-shaped Device. She landed between Mary’s group and Lisbeth.

Her back was thin and slender, but the strangest aspect was her face.

…''A mask?

Perhaps to hide her face, the girl wore a gas mask.

And her movements were hard to follow after she straightened back up from landing.

Her movements were smooth and felt perfectly natural, so Mary began to speak.

“Miss Horinouchi.”

“You set foot inside,” said the headmaster at the same time.

It had likely been when Lisbeth’s expression had changed, but she had taken a half step inside the gate.

And the pink girl moved to punish that action.

“————”

She rushed forward.

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