Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter5 - Revision history

Js06 at 01:59, 28 March 2024

2024-03-28T01:59:11Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:59, 28 March 2024
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	“Are you telling me we already defeated them all our first time here!!!?”		“Are you telling me we already defeated them all our first time here!!!?”

			===Part 27===

			So they retraced their steps.

			It had been a month.

			The creature hadn’t been fully reduced to its skeleton, but it wasn’t fresh either. It was very much a pile of rotting flesh.

			That was all that remained of the Brain Edge Dragon.

			While this was a shiny fantasy world full of primary colors, the smell was still horrendous.

			“Ugh, urp.”

			It stung their eyes.

			It affected their stomach.

			Was this their punishment for taking lives so frivolously?

			“Where is it? Where’s the legendary treasure? Some bandits didn’t steal it away while we were gone, did they!? What is this treasure even supposed to be, anyway!?” asked Mikoto.

			“That big monster doesn’t have pockets and I certainly didn’t see it carrying around a fancy handbag, so maybe it swallowed the thing?” suggested Shokuhou.

			Mikoto endured the unpleasantness as she split open its stomach with an iron sand sword.

			Shokuhou didn’t even have the courage to approach.

			A rotting stench pushed in like an invisible wall, but Mikoto continued working while gagging until she found it.

			“?”

			It was a rectangular cuboid.

			It was about the size of a relay baton and it was colored red.

			At first glance, it appeared to be made of glass or a jewel, but at this size that would make it as heavy as a small dumbbell. Yet it didn’t feel heavy at all. It was light as a balloon. Mikoto poked it with her finger, sending it spinning through the air. Part of her wondered if it was a tangible hallucination.

			She had been expecting something like a ring or a crown, so she was a little surprised that this was known as a treasure. However…

			“So this is the treasure?”

			“There are supposed to be two more, right?”

			From the Something Kraken and the Whatever Chimera.

			After another two dizzying battles against a rotting stench, Mikoto now had a blue and a green cuboid as well.

			They had all three treasures.

			“Oh, no. I think I’m going to puke…”

			“It looks like these increase your experience ability based on how much space you occupy. In other words, the bigger you are, the greater the advantage they give you. That may be why the bigger monsters claimed them and then grew even bigger with their help.”

			Mikoto wasn’t too interested in that since she could instantly boost anyone to Level 9999. Except…

			“Hold on. These can help your body grow? I-including, the B at the start of your measurements!?”

			“Are you aware you said that out loud? And it would probably increase your weight ability ten-fold, turning you into a giant.”

			The haves could be so cruel to the have-nots.

			That said, Mikoto didn’t like the idea of trying it out when it wasn’t clear what part of her they would make grow. For that matter, experimenting on yourself was almost always a bad idea.

			So worked to calm herself.

			“Phew. Okay, Shokuhou. We’ve seen this red, blue, and green color combo before, haven’t we?”

			“?”

			“You don’t remember? Reincarnation Goddess Salinagaritina wore a white dancer’s outfit, but its ribbons were colored red, blue, and green.”

			“Are you sure that has any significance ability?”

			Looking at how names worked here, the rules of Celesaqphere did not apply to Salinagaritina. If they did, she would have a simpler name like Circlet or Reincarné. So she likely existed outside of Celesaqphere.

			But they had found something in common with her.

			Mikoto didn’t know how many other worlds there were, but what if each of them had a secret tool or technique that linked back to Salinagaritina? If so, why? Hadn’t she said she could send people from Earth to other worlds, but another goddess was needed to send people back the other way?

			(Was there anything linking back to her in that space war world?)

			They might have found something if they had looked.

			“Anyway, we have all three treasures now☆” said Shokuhou.

			“Yeah,” said Mikoto. “So now we just have to do that three treasures ceremony and return to Earth!!”

			<noinclude>
			{{Toaru_Nav\|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:MvM_Chapter4\|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:MvM_Chapter6}}
			</noinclude>

Js06 at 02:03, 26 March 2024

2024-03-26T02:03:59Z

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Js06 at 00:57, 25 March 2024

2024-03-25T00:57:59Z

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Js06 at 01:40, 21 March 2024

2024-03-21T01:40:24Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:40, 21 March 2024
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	“Call it usurping the capital. Don’t sugarcoat this☆”		“Call it usurping the capital. Don’t sugarcoat this☆”

			===Part 19===

			The battle had begun.

			However, that didn’t mean Mikoto and Shokuhou raised war cries and charged the capital with arrows and spears pouring down on them like rain.

			The change was more like a wave.

			It began with a quiet murmur of activity among the merchants in Tuonela. Expensive furniture stopped arriving in the city, food was bought up based on no apparent plan, the money and bonds the merchants possessed were exchanged for other forms, and an influential merchant who had been living in the city for 100 years suddenly vanished.

			When the guards finally noticed something was amiss, they caught a merchant trying to escape the supposedly convenient and comfortable capital and got him to tell them what was going on.

			His answer was simple.

			The value of fulgurites was crashing.



			“After all, they’re more valuable than platinum or diamonds and their value is stable too.”

			Bikini armor Misaka Mikoto grinned as she kept low and watched the chaos in the capital from afar.

			There were no bank accounts or ATMs in this world. To protect their assets, the king and lords converted their money to small fulgurites and stored those in a safe. Because even special-made safes were only so large. When paying for the construction of a cathedral that would take decades to complete, a pile of gold coins would be too bulky and heavy to transport, so major contracts would use small fulgurites instead. The same was true of deals between kingdoms, so the value of each kingdom’s currency was ultimately determined by how many fulgurites it could buy and that determined the exchange rates between kingdoms.

			But at the same time, fulgurites were no more than glass.

			When lightning struck the ground, clumps of sand would be turned to glass by the heat. That glass was the mystical jewel (in a world where people could not yet control high-voltage electric currents) known as fulgurites.

			Which meant…

			“C’mon, Misaka-san. Keep those things coming☆”

			“I’m working on it!!”

			With a brutal zap of bursting air, electricity shot out.

			Electricity was not a household technology here and there was no lightning magic. In Celesaqphere, fulgurites were only created when lightning happened to strike from the heavens above. That made them fairly rare jewels, but not so for Mikoto.

			In a single night, she could create more fulgurites than existed in this entire world.

			And of course, fulgurites were only so valuable because of their rarity. The fact that bioelectricity was experience points here may have also given a religious basis for that value, though. But even then, what would happen if someone mass-produced them to the point that she could easily be crushed to death if the pile were to collapse?

			“''Hyperinflation''.” Dancer Shokuhou grinned. “The biggest denomination of money on Earth was 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollars, I believe. And that would only buy you some soap or a towel. Producing a ton of money doesn’t make you rich – it just devalues the money itself☆”

			Then they only had to flood the market with all those fulgurites.

			If they were fake, the people of this world could gather appraisers and crack down on counterfeiting, but unfortunately the fulgurites Mikoto made were the real deal. That meant not even an expert could tell the difference. And because fulgurites were created by unpredictable lightning instead of being mined from land someone owned, it was hard to apply mining certificates to them. If lightning struck in your garden and created a fulgurite, it was authentic. Where it came from did not influence its value.

			Sparks crackled from Mikoto’s bangs.

			“Their army is around 80 thousand. That means they need to supply 240 thousand meals a day. The fulgurite crash will reduce the contents of the kingdom’s treasury to worthless glass, so they won’t be able to even think about fighting. They’ll be too busy dealing with their newfound debt.”

			“And the capital below was a problem because of all the knights, adventurers, merchants, bandits, and so on who could be hired to fight, but ''once the money is gone, so are they''.”

			On top of all that, this economic attack did the most damage to the people who had gone out of their way to convert their money into valuable fulgurites.

			The exploited elves hadn’t had any money in the first place, so this would hardly affect them.

			“Being able to target a single class for destruction is pretty funny.”

			Once it was known there was no money to be made in the capital, the visitors would quickly leave. They wouldn’t be able to pay for their own necessities and they might end up being conscripted or forced to hand over their private property to the king, so it was a high-risk, no-return situation. They would be better off setting up a tent out in the field.

			The rapid drop in population and private property would bleed the capital to death.

			It came down to arguments.

			The people wanted to leave the city and the army wouldn’t let them.

			Before, attacking the king would mean making an enemy of the world.

			But now he was a nuisance to the world around him.

			“I think the stage is set.”

			“Then let’s get going☆”

			The two girls got up from where they were hiding.

			On the way to the battlefield, they heard some voices.

			The voices came from a formerly enslaved succubus and nymph who had stayed with them after being freed from Valhalla.

			“It’s the goddesses. They’re the goddesses.”

			“Yes, the two goddesses who protect us while fighting their eternal conflict.”

			“?”

			“They must mean us,” said Shokuhou, brushing her hair off her shoulder.

			“They’re being ridiculous,” said bikini armor Mikoto with a self-deprecating smile.

			But Patissiet was not smiling.

			Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki had disagreed on what to do. They had taken separate paths, causing confusion on their side, but through that they had saved a great many people and then joined back together without any delay to their original plan.

			''They were opposing storms who had saved more people than they would have had they agreed and everything had gone according to plan.

			The two goddesses who appeared after breaking through an invisible barrier were said to eternally fight each other, but that power was exactly what kept this world turning and protected the people’s lives.

			In what meaningful way did this differ from that myth?

Js06 at 01:41, 20 March 2024

2024-03-20T01:41:45Z

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	“Lots☆”		“Lots☆”

			===Part 18===

			“I’m back!!”

			“Took you long enough.”

			Mikoto was out of breath and covered in scrapes and bruises. Shokuhou was exasperated.

			Mikoto didn’t have anyone with her.

			But if she hadn’t rescued anyone, she wouldn’t look like that. Despite how beaten up she was, there was a bright light shining in her eyes.

			The #3 girl put on a belligerent smile as she gave her report.

			“First of all, the story about suppressing Elysium was fake! But there were a few other regional cities that had started discussing freeing their slaves and the kingdom was preparing some very real attacks on them, so I went around destroying the armies sent out for that! Elysium was terrified of when it would be their turn, so ''I told them I’d saved the four regional lords’ territories and the three central cities including Elysium and asked them to gather up all the difficult paperwork and come join us''! That way, the next time the kingdom attacks, we can all work together to fight back and secure our independence and safety!!”

			Patissiet couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

			But that aside, Mikoto’s return had one very important implication.

			“We now have a justification to fight that foolish king and protect the people’s lives from his tyranny ability☆ This is a huge step forward from sneaking around winning through guerilla tactics.”

			“Hm? Isn’t the main difference there what kinds of rumors people spread about us?”

			“You’ll see what I mean later☆”

			But there was one thing Shokuhou had to confirm as a wicked strategist. It sounded like Mikoto hadn’t just rescued the people and left it at that.

			“Let’s get back on topic.” Dancer Shokuhou brushed up her bangs. “So instead of just rescuing those cities and leaving, you also told them to come join us?”

			“Right.”

			“And they will be gathering a fleet of airships to slowly travel between the floating lands?”

			“Right!!”

			The queen sighed.

			This called for a review of the basic facts.

			“We are using Valhalla as our base. The city is surrounded by a moat and a wall, meaning its land is quite limited. There is not room for the population to suddenly multiply by 7 or 10.”

			That sounded heartless, but it was the truth.

			Increasing the population ten times past the upper limits of the infrastructure was the same as leaving each person with a tenth of the living space and a tenth of the food they needed. Needless to say, that option would lead to mass death.

			Of course, even now this world ran on slave labor and actually paying the enslaved people a fair wage would leave them with quite a lot of wealth. If they were given truly equal opportunities, there could be a day when an elf millionaire hired humans to work for them.

			But change like that did not happen overnight.

			The options available right this instant were limited.

			So there was only one solution. Bikini armor Mikoto winked and explained.

			“Then let’s increase that capacity. By defeating the villain at the much bigger capital.”

			“Call it usurping the capital. Don’t sugarcoat this☆”

Js06 at 02:19, 19 March 2024

2024-03-19T02:19:21Z

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Js06 at 04:29, 15 March 2024

2024-03-15T04:29:19Z

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Js06 at 01:42, 13 March 2024

2024-03-13T01:42:43Z

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Js06 at 00:30, 11 March 2024

2024-03-11T00:30:15Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:30, 11 March 2024
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	“1000 troops is nothing. We’re used to fighting against a city of 2.3 million.”		“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!!

Js06: Created page with "==Chapter 5: Returning and Taking Over== ===Part 1=== OXXXOOXXXX. OOOOXOOXXOOXXXOXOXOXOXXXXXX XXOOXXXXXXOXOOXOXXOX△△△OXOOOOXOOXXXXX. OOOOXOOXXXXOOXXXXXOOOOXXXXXXXXX...."

2024-03-10T01:12:41Z

Created page with "==Chapter 5: Returning and Taking Over== ===Part 1=== OXXXOOXXXX. OOOOXOOXXOOXXXOXOXOXOXXXXXX XXOOXXXXXXOXOOXOXXOX△△△OXOOOOXOOXXXXX. OOOOXOOXXXXOOXXXXXOOOOXXXXXXXXX...."

New page

==Chapter 5: Returning and Taking Over==

===Part 1===

OXXXOOXXXX.

OOOOXOOXXOOXXXOXOXOXOXXXXXX XXOOXXXXXXOXOOXOXXOX△△△OXOOOOXOOXXXXX. OOOOXOOXXXXOOXXXXXOOOOXXXXXXXXX. OXXOOXOO OOOXXXXXXXX OX△△△△OOXXXOXXXXXOOXXXXXXXOXXXXXXXXXXXXe. A famous (or infamous) crabbing ship supposedly supplied its workers with plenty of white rice but only white rice.

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.”