Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 12 Episode 6 (section)

===Part 3===
「This place……where in the world──!?」

Lux woke up from his interrupted consciousness.

Even though he should be in the Academy’s practice ground just a moment before, he wondered just what had happened.

A spherical space that was surrounded with silver colored metallic wall.

The space was as spacious as the Academy’s practice ground. There was no one there except Lux with his Bahamut.

But, there was a gigantic mechanical pillar in the middle of the room.

At first Lux thought it was the main pillar of this room, but something was different.

The pillar changed shape with complicated and mysterious gears’ movements. It grew limbs and took a stance like a fortress.

「-……!? Don’t tell me, this thing!」

「That’s right you damn idiot. Deus Ex Machina──I called it here using the Moon’s instructions. It’s the Ragnarok that protected the Ymir Theocracy’s Hall!」

The mysterious voice echoed inside the space.

When Lux searched for the voice’s origin with his gaze, he found a small glass window from viewing at a room above.

「──Airi!?」

Lux glided with Bahamut and looked inside the neighboring room that could be seen through the glass. He unconsciously raised his voice.

Airi in her uniform was unconscious while being tied at the corner of the room.

Furthermore, beside her there was also Soffice who was in a worn-out state.

Her usual expressionless face that was like a mask had crumbled. She was sweating while looking uneasy.

Someone wearing a robe with hood that was hanging low over her eyes was standing before the two girls. That person abruptly snapped her fingers.

Then the wall of the room where Lux was at was projecting an image with a window frame of light.

The window frame was showing the students running riot inside the girl’s dormitory on the night of the Holy Night Festival, and the predicament of Lisha along with the others who were surrounded by a great amount of the Abyss.

「This is, the happening in the Academy!? What is going on!? Why am I──why is Soffice beaten up like that?」

「That is, because she is not needed anymore desu.」

「……!?」

Inside the room at the other side of the glass, the Automata Re Plica was muttering with eyes that had lost their light.

And then, she grabbed Soffice’s neck with both her hands and lifted her up to the air.

「This place is inside the Moon that is floating above the Academy desu. Following {{furigana|my|watashi}} master’s command, it moved for the sake of getting rid of the Arcadia siblings.」

The abundant emotional expressions from Re Plica until now were vanishing.

She only coldly carried out her order and completely changed into a pure machine.

Soffice who guessed that bit her lips in frustration while her usual blank expression crumbled.

「How……. Why did Dragon Marauder betray me!? We should have a contract!」

「That’s obviously because you became unnecessary desu, fool.」

「──!?」

Re Plica who was manipulated by someone told that with her mouth splitting open into crescent shape.

[[File:SaijakuBahamut v12 08.jpg|thumb|right]]

「Just like how you didn’t seriously believe in them, just how you had no intention to hand over Avalon to them, the three Dragon Marauders also weren’t trusting you. If there is another person who can move the Moon, then the rest doesn’t matter for them, do you understand desu?」

「Uh, a……!」

Soffice endured the pain from having her throat constricted and she barely shook off Re Plica’s arms.

After she coughed *geho geho*, tears oozed out from the pain.

「You can feel happy desu. Your name will remain in history as the villain who declared war on the world. This New Kingdom will perish……you can be useful as a pawn of this {{furigana|me|ore}} in obtaining this world!」

Re Plica’s voice was mixed with a strange nuance of a male way of speaking.

It sounded to Lux as though she was speaking as proxy for someone who wasn’t here.

「I, won’t……let you. What I wished for, isn’t such conclusion──uah!」

「Soffice!?」

Soffice’s face was kicked by the Automata. Lux raised his voice seeing that.

When he drove his Bahamut to help her right away, the gigantic steel pillar suddenly moved and thrust its huge arm that was like a lump of iron.

In contrast with its slow and dull appearance, the fist attack launched with a speed that the eye couldn’t follow.

Different from the fifth Ruin Gigas, its size was only a fragment of it, but in exchange its speed was incomparably fast.

The attack that was launched like a battering ram instantly smashed Bahamut’s solid barrier.

The moment Lux barely parried it by using his great sword as a shield, the pillar suddenly circled behind Lux and swung down its huge arm like an iron hammer

「Tsu……!? ──Reload on Fire!」

Lux activated his Divine Raiment not on himself, but on the Ragnarok, Deus ex Machina that was attacking him.

The Divine Raiment was deployed in wide range, enveloping the gigantic mechanical body.

It was a battle technique called Violent Strike that compressed the next five seconds, dealing continuous strikes during that compressed time, and then in the remaining five seconds the amassed slashes would be liberated all at once, increasing the destructive power.

Lux swung his great swords and concentrated ten slashes into one point, but the impact was deflected and the enemy didn’t even twitch.

「Wha-!?」

When Lux was taken aback, the counterattacking iron arm punched through the air and mowed him down.

The barrier of Bahamut was easily smashed and Lux crashed onto the far away metallic wall behind.

「Guh……! What, hardness……!」

It wasn’t that Lux’s attack didn’t work.

The surface of Deus ex Machina’s body had thin lines carved on it like countless scratches.

It showed that the answer was the enemy’s hardness was merely in a different dimension.

The hidden technique that boasted the greatest offensive power even among all his skills──Recoil Burst, surely damage wouldn’t be inflicted without using it.

(Everyone isn’t here. I have no choice but to do it alone……!)

All the Ragnarok he had faced until now were all similarly mighty without equal, but at those times his reliable Syvalles comrades shaved the enemy’s strength for him.

But this time he had no such support.

Could he win against this unprecedented monster alone, by himself?

「Ku-ku-ku……. So you still have some leeway there. Is it okay that you are resting your attack like that?」

「What……?」

Lux took distance while forming a strategy, but the mocking laugh of Re Plica who was speaking as a proxy for someone else came from above.

「If you hesitate and stop attacking, Deus ex Machina will assist with the battle below y’know?」

「──!?」

The countless light frames floating on the surrounding walls──inside the images that were showing the sight of the ground below, he could see the figures of Lisha and the others under attack.

It seemed, Deus ex Machina was using its instant teleportation ability to back up the battle of Dragon Marauder.

Even though there was also Iblis below there, the battle would be unmanageable if one other Ragnarok was helping out.

He had no time to run away.

He could only continue attacking in order to not let the Ragnarok before him assist with the battle below.

「──That’s right. Come.」

Lux let out a heated sigh and glided towards the Ragnarok.

He put his strength into the fingertips holding the control stick and threw his body into a reckless fight for the sake of diverting the enemy’s attention.