Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume2 Phase04 (section)

===Part 5===

The train had a fairly plain exterior compared to the sleeper train that Ayato’s group had taken.

It was probably a freight train.

The people who had come to the platform without knowing if it would stop or simply pass through may have been hoping for a shipment of some continental ingredients that could not be found on the tropical island. Like grains such as wheat.

“Kh.”

It would have been nice had that ended things, but Ayato doubted it would be that easy.

At the instant of impact, he twirled on the spot while holding the construction sheet he had picked up from the beach. He flapped the thick material at the air.

But not because he was afraid of getting some blood on him.

The edge of that sturdy waterproof cloth, which was recycled from a ship’s sail, caught on the lock holding shut the side door of a container car on the freight train rushing past the platform. That tugged on Ayato as well and the sudden force was like a powerful blow to the back.

(Agh, ah…ghhh!!)

But it could have been worse.

Movies and plays often had scenes of people jumping onto a speeding train from a bridge, but whether you hit the side wall or landed on the roof, a train was a train. Touching it would tear off your limb.

He had needed to wrap himself in something soft to distribute the force across his entire body.

If a giant grabbed you around the torso and chucked you with all their strength, would you prefer to hit a solid brick wall or a stretchy ship’s sail? It was the same principle here.

“I should count myself lucky if that didn’t damage any of my bones or organs.”

He clenched his teeth, grabbed the window frame, and climbed up. He could not count on his aching body’s stamina reserves lasting long, so he climbed to the roof all at once.

He heard a dull sound and looked up while on all fours to see the woman in the beige and chocolate suit walking back from the front of the train, despite the train supposedly hitting her head on. Her glasses were cracked and her clothing was torn in places. He could only guess she had produced that ultracold quantum fluid just before the train hit and let that burst at her feet from the temperature difference to launch her up onto the train. That stable quantum fluid was as cold as -200 embers<ref>Approximately -220 degrees Celsius.</ref>, so it would explosively vaporize when placed in this tropical environment.

She had harmed herself to survive.

Even after nearly colliding with someone, the centipede-like train did not stop. Ayato hoped the ultracold temperature had not harmed the controls or safety devices in any way.

“Are you done yet?”

“…”

“You cannot defeat me with anything on the island, so this train from outside the island was your best bet. So just try it. Go around sticking that Linkage Plug into everything you like. Keep fighting and see how far that takes you.”

He did not have much choice in the matter.

He could not challenge Jennifer to a head-on fight when she held both the Fermiliquidio and the devil’s revolver, so he could only drag his aching body back along the train.

“Yes, you can start by resonating with the simple things – the lights, the balancers, the shock absorbers.”

He could not simply stab the sword into the roof below him. She was following along behind him, so she would pull out any Linkage Plug blades she could reach. So he went for the walls. When he saw an opening, he would lean out from the roof as if crawling and stab his sword in.

“And after building up a high enough level, you plan to aim for something larger.”

She understood perfectly.

Had she not just killed him yet because the train was too unsteady? If the wind blew in or the train shook unexpectedly when she was swinging Fermiliquidio, she would only end up destroying herself.

Her plan was to corner him at the end of the train.

“I wonder what’s in those freight containers. Ah ha ha! Seawater filters!? Well, lucky you!! You can build up your level quick with those!!”

He knew what she was doing, but he was already on the precipice.

He had arrived at the very back and had nowhere else to go. He would never survive if he dropped down to the track below.

She was grinning.

“So what level did you reach? Maybe 3000 using the entire freight train? But what good is that against my 10,000!?”

He stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the roof below him.

A high-pitched blast pounded on his eardrums.

It was the train’s whistle.

The glasses teacher looked surprised at first, but then she held her sides and guffawed.

“Pff. Ah hah hah hah hah hah!!”

“…”

“Couldn’t you have at least slammed on the brakes to try and unbalance me!? Have you learned nothing about Sorcery Hacking since switching jobs?”

“What makes you so sure I haven’t?”

The blue blazer that symbolized his position as a pupil flapped wildly in the wind as he grabbed the hilt of his Linkage Plug sword.

“The Fermiliquidio is proof that someone is 5th in line to the throne and I’m sure you’re feeling awfully proud of yourself for hacking it, but you’re just tricking it into giving you authorization, aren’t you? If control is retaken through the proper route, you’ll be bitten by the very weapon you’re relying on.”

“And how do you expect to do that!? I will admit this intercontinental spirit train is large and its cargo of filters and such might bring your level up to around 3000, but I have 10,000! I have the devil’s revolver and the prince’s sword!! You can’t lay a finger on me!!”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Ayato was still smiling. “This train is constantly on the move. And moving quite quickly along the ocean railroad, I might add. Level 5000? Level 10,000? That only applies back on the island, so what does it matter here?”

Jennifer frantically looked back at Laguntreat behind her, but it was already vanishing into the distance.

“Oh, no.”

Instead, she could see smaller dots of land moving toward them. Those would be the uninhabited islands. The bent metal tower sticking up from the vegetation of one would be what Teleria had called a lightning cloud cannon.

“You’ve proudly claimed to have stolen that from the 5th prince, but what happened to him after that, I wonder?”

“You think he’s still trying to reclaim it from somewhere? Nonsense!! He couldn’t have survived that much blood loss! Besides, do you have any idea how long its been since I set this plan in motion!?”

“Fermiliquidio manipulates an ultracold quantum fluid, which puts it on the level of Secondary Taboo Sleep, if not even higher. What if the sword put her master in cold sleep to preserve his life at the last moment?”

“…”

“Now, that’s probably much easier said than done, but that 5th prince is well-known for spending so much time messing with sorcery devices he never sets foot outside. He might not be on the level of a Sorcery Hacker, but he would understand the basic system behind it. Now, a question: what level would a royal cruiser be? He might be new at it, but with that as a starting point, he would be able to control all sorts of sorcery devices.”

“I sank that ship!!”

“Why would that matter? Hell, ''you’re'' using the Predator Island’s processing space right now and it’s sunk.”

The scales were tipping.

She could sense something major developing here.

“And the 5th prince enjoys clay target shooting. He wanted to find a hobby that got him outside more often, but he stubbornly refused to shoot live animals. …Now, maybe he is dead. Or maybe he’s frozen and asleep. But if he managed to set up a certain trick with the last of his strength, he just might have been able to do something like this.”

Ayato pointed over with his thumb.

Instead of turning that way, Jennifer Evening held the Fermiliquidio tight. She intended to end this before anything more could happen.

Which was why she failed to see it.

The lightning cloud cannon protruding from the uninhabited island’s forest slowly turned to aim toward something other than the sky. Its bent joint folded up even further to aim down at the ground.

There was no such thing as truly unmanned magic, but that giant sorcery device would function as long as someone’s mind was there to operate it, even if they were licking up every last drop of water to avoid dying of thirst and even if they were frozen in ice.

Ayato gave another blast of the train’s whistle.

He intentionally triggered the auto-attacking system.

“I’m counting on you.”

The actual projectile was an enormous hunk of ice.

It hit midway between Ayato and Jennifer, tearing up the roof, and embedding itself in the train.

That cannon was supposed to blow away thick lightning clouds, but this did not seem to be a malfunction.

Ayato had speculated the prince had remade it into an auto-sniping system that would act as a dying message upon detecting his attacker, but apparently not.

The 5th prince had instead adjusted its power.

“I see. He’s even more of an old softy than I’d heard.”

Had the triggering condition been detecting a Sorcery Hacker combating Jennifer? The ice shell launched in response to the hacked train’s whistle split open to reveal a device within and Ayato stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into that.

It was a complex sorcery key used to operate the royal cruiser.

When viewed as a single large system, hacking it would provide a level of…

“About 2500!!”

“!?”

The impact hit them both just as hard, but knowing it was coming meant a lot. Jennifer was knocked off balance and Ayato managed to rush toward her and strike with his Linkage Plug sword.

They had locked blades, but Jennifer laughed while holding her sword in just her left hand.

“So what? Adding 2500 to 3000 still won’t reach my level. 10,000 is literally an order of magnitude higher!!”

“…”

“Did you think this weapon was made so a momentary boost could overwhelm it? It’s time you were torn limb from limb by a torrent of -200 embers<ref>Approximately -220 degrees Celsius.</ref>!!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”