Editing Unlimited Fafnir:Volume 3 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 4===

Ever since NIFL's failed operation on that day, all semblance of a vacation vanished completely.

The battle to protect Tia, laying our lives on the line, was approaching second by second.

Using the data sent by Major-General Dylan, we devised a new plan. Spending every day on pre-operation drills, we stopped having regular lessons.

The new data regarding Basilisk was quite despairing.

When the eye on its back opened, the range was roughly 10000 m. Exposure to the light caused time to fast forward on the order of hundreds of millions of years.

In light of that, Shinomiya-sensei and Mitsuki thought of an exceedingly simple plan.

Launching attacks capable of piercing diamond scales, with speed faster than it could react, from a blind spot outside Basilisk's attack range—This was what the new plan was about.

NIFL's beam weaponry did not have enough firepower, but Midgard had Ds who met requirements.

On a flat piece of unused land roughly a ten-minute walk from the pier, they were practicing nonstop today as well.

"Well then, Ren-san, let us begin!"

"Mm."

Lisa summoned her fictional armament while Ren placed her hand on Gungnir.

Immediately, Lisa's fictional armament grew in size with astounding speed, turning into a giant spear dozens of meters long. It was so large that one could not even wrap their arms around it, but Lisa and Ren were able to hold the fictional armament up simply through touch.

Fictional armaments were formed by altering the shape of dark matter, hence they could be manipulated through imagination alone. Furthermore, there was one fact, namely, dark matter had the property that it could be passed onto other Ds.

Right now, Lisa was borrowing Ren's dark matter to enlarge her own fictional armament.

However—

"Ah!?"

Lisa cried out in panic.

The spear's outline suddenly distorted then as though melting into the air, the fictional armament disappeared.

Borrowed dark matter ultimately belonged to someone else, hence controlling it was difficult and it would collapse like this immediately if one were to lower their guard for a moment. Hence, it was believed that using dark matter from more than two people was impossible.

When creating anti-dragon weaponry, I had borrowed dark matter from Mitsuki and Iris in the past, but in the actual process of transmutation, what I used was not my own imagination but blueprints downloaded onto my brain. Hence, I did not need to worry about such matters despite using other people's dark matter.

But delicate control was required in the case of Lisa and Ren.

"One more time!"

"Mm!"

Ren nodded in response to Lisa and they formed the giant fictional weapon of a spear again.

The school curriculum also included training on the transmission of dark matter. However, this technique was definitely unstable even with daily practice. Unless for exceptions like me, it would not be used in actual combat.

Nevertheless, there was no alternative but to rely on this technique to perform the attack needed for this operation.

—I had to work hard myself too.

I stopped watching them and returned to my own training.

In this operation, I was not assigned a clear task. Even if I wanted to attack using anti-dragon armaments from the island, the projectile firing Megiddo would get intercepted before the hit connected whereas Babel's supergravitational discontinuity probably could not be fired from outside Basilisk's range.

If there was something I could do, that was providing more options when everyone ran into an emergency. For this purpose, I kept training my control of antigravitational matter.

I raised my fictional armament—Siegfried—which had the appearance of an ornamental gun, then shot three bullets of antigravitational matter that had been adjusted to three different levels.

"Half Gravity."

The bullet fired upwards turned into brightly glittering white particles, falling on me. Then my body instantly felt lighter.

By covering myself with low-density antigravitational matter, I could reduce my weight by half. This technique lasted a long duration and its effects could be adjusted by increasing or decreasing the transmutation mass. In actual combat, this might be the most convenient transmutation to use.

"Gravity Zero."

The next bullet was shot into the ground ten-odd meters away. A sphere of antigravitational matter appeared with a bright white glow. All the pebbles in its surroundings also floated upwards. Then the sphere gradually shrank and when it disappeared, the floating pebbles fell down as well. Although this technique could create a temporary space of weightlessness, it would affect everything in a specific range, hence there were difficulties in using it.

"Antigravity."

The final bullet was transmuted into high-density antigravitational matter. Giving off blindingly bright light like a camera's flash, it caused nearby objects to fly away radially.

I had pretty much mastered the key principles, but I could probably control the Antigravity bullet better. During the battle against Kili, while under Fafnir's control, I was using antigravitational matter with greater skill than right now.

Using the Antigravity bullet with directionality to repel gunfire, distorting space to block attacks—If possible, I wished to reach that level.

The Fafnir that Major Loki had implanted into me and cultivated was a monster existing for ''murder''. Hence, its responses were sluggish when fighting dragons instead. In the battle against Hekatonkheir last time, even when I was in a crisis, Fafnir still did not heed my calls. The same would probably happen in the case of Basilisk.

Precisely because of that, I must become adept in using antigravitational matter even my normal state, otherwise it would be pointless.

Since Siegfried disappeared after firing three shots' worth, I exhaled for now and looked around my surroundings. The others were keeping sufficient distance away, engaged in their own training.

Mitsuki, Firill and Ariella were part of the support team to take action if the first attack wave failed. They were practicing nonstop their task of protecting Lisa and Ren while switching to launch the second attack.

Meanwhile, Iris was standing alone at a cliff on the edge of the clearing, raising her Caduceus towards the sea.

Several buoys with red flags were floating on the sea, extending on a cord tied to large rock protruding out of the sea surface.

"—O holy silver, explode!"

Iris caused silver explosions, destroying the buoys one by one. She was carrying out sniping training. Point blank explosions of mithril might possibly be effective against Basilisk.

It was highly likely that lethal damage could be inflicted if she could aim from outside Basilisk's range.

However, aiming required the target to be within view, which meant she must enter Basilisk's line of sight as well. Even if she could be positioned outside Basilisk's range, such a high-risk plan could not possibly be approved.

Hence, Iris was in the same position as me, without any assigned task for now. Even so, because this was the only thing in her ability, she was honing her skills like this.

Currently, she had perfect aim as long as it was within 200 m, but her accuracy would decrease in stages the farther she got. Hence, aiming from outside Basilisk's attack range was probably impossible no matter what.

"O holy silver, explode!"

Just as I was thinking that, a buoy near the rock exploded. Its location was probably close to 1000 m away.

—No, if it's Iris, perhaps it might be possible after all.

I corrected my thought.

Iris always created explosions no matter what she made, hence, by applying that special trait to offense, she had acquired a strong advantage unique to her and no one else.

But what I wondered recently was whether the true nature of Iris' power might be something else?

For example, machines normally broke down when used incorrectly. Hence, perhaps Iris' ability was malfunctioning and causing explosions because her method of usage was incorrect?

If she used it correctly, perhaps something extremely amazing might result.

But this was just baseless fantasy.

Still, watching Iris working hard, I could not help but get this feeling.

—Perhaps Iris might turn out to be an amazing person far surpassing my imagination?

Maybe she noticed my gaze, Iris turned around and waved to me.

"Mononobe! Did you see that just now?"

"Yeah, I saw it!"

Iris asked me loudly and I shouted back.

—It's time I kept my promise to visit her room.

No one could predict what might happen on the battlefield. Anyone could easily lose their life, myself and the others included.

That was how things went on so-called battlefields. One would surely regret not doing things when the chance was available.

"Everyone! It's almost time for lunch!"

At this moment, Tia arrived, flying with her fictional armament, a pair of wings. Skillfully controlling the transmutation of air, she landed on the ground then ran towards me.

"Yuu, Tia helped with lunch today!"

"Then I definitely have to try it. I'm looking forward to it."

"Yeah!"

Tia nodded happily.

While we were training, Tia attended classroom lessons according to a separate timetable and sometimes helped the crew.

Since Tia was Basilisk's target and could not go on the frontline, she was working hard to do what she could do.

No one in Brynhildr Class was wasting their time.

Although under heavy surveillance, I must pay Iris' room a visit before the operation.

I committed this determination of mine firmly in my heart.