Masou Gakuen HxH:Volume 10 Chapter 1
Chapter 1 - Hayuru
Part 1
It was a world of snow and ice.
The average temperature was minus ten degrees. There was almost never a time when there was sunshine, with snow and blizzards continuing everyday.
That was Odin’s world.
A mountain range with an elevation of ten kilometers was standing in the way like a wall. A forest of needle-leaved trees with heights over a hundred meters was spreading out at the foot of the mountain. Odin’s palace stood proud and majestic with that forest behind it.
The wooden palace looked similar to Queen Landred’s palace in the Baldin Kingdom of Atlantis. But rather than the palace, what was most worthy of mention was the large fighting arena created beside it. It was a circular fighting arena with a diameter that reached even ten kilometers. It was as though it was the center of this world. Roads spread out in a radial shape from the arena, forming a city.
It was a townscape without decoration, giving the impression of simplicity and frugality. Triangle roofs and walls with wooden texture laid bare. The entrance of these buildings were located on the second floor. Perhaps as a countermeasure against the snow and cold, there were also a lot of houses with double layered window. There was also a building with a height of nearly a hundred meters among them, but all of them were made from wood.
The residents here were all people of other worlds who came because of Odin’s invitation.
The residents of this world were warriors whether they wished it or not, they were forced to fight daily at the arena. All of those battles were for the sake of this world’s god, Odin.
And then, even now, a match was being carried out in the arena.
「HAAAAAAAAAH!」
Chidorigafuchi Aine’s fist cut through the air.
Aine’s Heart Hybrid Gear 『Zeros』 struck the opponent with a severe punch. A terrific impact sound was given off and sparks scattered, the shockwave rolled up the snow on the ground.
It was a critical hit. However the enemy’s armor was thick.
What blocked the fist was the neck of a giant boar. It was a lump of steel with height of two meters in total, and its width reached a meter, stopping Aine’s fist right from the front.
That object was a magic weapon that took the shape of a boar. However it had no torso, it was like only its head was cut off. The internal mechanism was unclear, but as expected it seemed to use something that resembled a magic mechanism. Its small eyes shined blue and the light of magic power was circulated on the metallic surface.
「Chih」
Aine took distance in one go using her thruster and slid on top of the snow. The snow piled up on the arena was four, five centimeters thick. The raining down snow from the sky was currently sparse. As though recalling it, at the other side of the fluttering down snow there was a warrior that was accompanying the boar head.
That man’s name was 『Frei』.
A tall body that was nearly two meters and light armor that looked as though it was one with the body. His beautiful golden hair lengthened until his back and his well-featured face looked masculine like a Greek sculpture. His shoulder width was wide, and long legs stretched out from the splendid body build of an inverted triangle. Actually it was a splendid manly body, but the majority of that body was mechanized, Aine didn’t understand what kind of appearance he originally had.
「Fufufu, I never thought that someone ranked below a hundred like you with a divinity number around 53000, can survive more than a minute against this me. As expected from someone who attracted the attention of Odin-sama.」
「That’s really just an annoyance for me.」
Aine put her right fist to the front, and pulled her left hand before it. At her wrist was a shining silver ring. The number floating there was 113. That was the worth of Aine’s existence in this world.
「But you see Aine. You cannot possibly reach this Frei who ranks within the top ten, the so called Odin Ranker. Even if a miracle occurs, you won’t be able to defeat this me.」
He lifted up his left hand to make a show at Aine. The ring at that wrist was shining with the number 10.
Aine kicked on the ground before Frei could finish talking. She closed the distance in an instant. But in reaction to Aine’s attack, the giant boar cut in between the two of them once more. The boar stopped Aine’s fist with its nose and then it opened its mouth. That force bounced off Aine’s arm.
「Kuh!」
Aine’s arm overreached and her defenseless flank was exposed.
「Now, Gullinbursti!」
Flame was spouted out from the largely opened mouth of the boar of steel(Gullinbursti). It was a beam shaped flame that was compressed into high density. Aine defended against that flame’s pressure using Life Saver.
「tsk……you!」
The pressure of the flame was tremendous, Aine’s body was sliding on the arena’s field. Even with Life Saver protecting her, the armor of Zeros was heated up. That heat instantly vaporized the arena’s snow and white smoke enshrouded the area.
「A shield of that level cannot block my attack!」
Frei withdrew the sword hanging on his waist.
「Laevateinn!」
The blade shined radiantly and rolled up tremendous heat and wind. And then it emitted radiance like the sun, and it was swung down towards Aine. However there was more than a hundred meter distance between them. Regardless of that the shockwave and flame blew away Aine’s body like a leaf.
「KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
She rolled many times on the arena’s snow. And then, a violent spray of snow was raised and Aine’s body became unable to move. A communication window was opened beside the collapsed Aine.
『Oi Aine! Get a hold of yourself!』
The beautiful girl with blonde hair and dark brown skin projected in the window called out to her with an urgent voice.
「Ku……don’t yell like that, Gravel. I can still stand.」
Aine rotated her body as though she was turning in her sleep, put her hand on the ground, and raised her upper body with trembling hands. And then she stared at Frei and his follower Gullinbursti through the air that was hazy with steam.
「Gravel, how much is that guy’s divinity number?」
『Frei is currently at 124000. As expected from the rank 10. Although he is at the lowest seat, he is still an Odin Ranker.』
「I see, more than double of mine……indeed he has a reason to be full of confidence like that.」
Aine stood up somehow. Gravel stared at her figure with a grim look.
『What will you do? Surrender?』
「Don’t joke! If I become an Odin Ranker, I will be given the right to challenge Odin you know? I finally arrived until where I can face a Ranker through this one year!」
Gravel really understood how Aine was feeling to the degree it felt painful.
Gravel and the others arrived in this world about two months ago. However at that time Aine was already here for nearly ten months, passing her time here. During that time she had continued fighting by herself until this point.
「I……will defeat that guy, and then, defeat Odin.」
――And then, return back to the original world once more. Together with everyone, with Kizuna, once more!
「Besides, there is a rumor that this Frei imitated Odin and tried to follow the same evolution. So to speak, he is an inferior copy of Odin. This is a good training stage.」
『Then, you plan to use that?』
Aine didn’t answer that question and glared at Frei.
「Fufufu, Aine. So you plan to challenge Odin-sama?」
Frei was walking slowly with his favorite sword, Laevateinn in one hand. His face was overflowing with composure that said he could defeat her anytime.
「Yes. I’ll challenge her. I cannot stay in a world like this any longer! I’ll defeat Odin, and then, return to my original world.」
「What a fool.」
「Why? Even you were summoned from another world originally right? Don’t you want to fight Odin, win, and return to your former world?」
Frei suddenly let out a chuckle.
「I already forgot about such a past matter. Besides, I don’t have any attachment to my former world. My current objective is only to defeat god.」
He boasted so and then stared at the palace of Odin.
「But, I am still far away from god’s level. There are still more battles to come for me to repeat and evolve. I will also obtain your weapon after I defeat you.」
「I guess. Then, I’ll receive that sword from you.」
Aine stared at the shining sword Frei was holding with a fearless smile. The rule of this world was that the winner could take one weapon and authority from the loser. Like that the strong became stronger, attaching their body with various abilities.
As though to shake off Aine’s gaze, Frei readied his sword and showed an unpleasant expression.
「You can end here! Aine!」
Frei brandished his sword. Aine wasted no time to put one of her hands forward.
Frei thought whether she was begging for her life with that movement.
But in the next moment, a magic circle spread from Aine’s palm. The shining bright pattern was slowly rotating while advancing toward Aine. And then, it accelerated suddenly and pushed through toward Aine’s back, and it stopped there.
「What-!?」
Frei opened his eyes wide at Aine’s transformation. Because that figure changed instantly. Her armor was simpler than before, but it was increasing to be more beautiful and brighter. And then her shining silver hair was changing to a pink color.
「You have such an ability……wha-!」
Frei’s face warped. The divinity number of Aine that he always monitored was reflected in his eyes. The number was exceeding 80000.
「The divinity number is……increasing?」
The phenomenon that he had never witnessed until now caused Frei to trickle down cold sweat on his forehead.
――That’s impossible. It’s necessary to steadily accumulate divinity number. How is such a rapid increase acceptable……but.
In reality, the number reflected in his eyes were continuing to increase.
「Wha, what’s with that bluff……even if you raise your divinity number with some kind of method, you still won’t reach my number!」
The automatic repelling equipment that accompanied Frei, Gullinbursti came out to the front. In the case it detected the enemy’s divinity number and judged that the enemy could be a threat to its master, it would block the attack and launch an attack at that target. It was a follower and shield with absolute obedience. That Gullinbursti was trembling fiercely with intensity that it had never shown before.
「What’s wrong? Aine’s doesn’t pose that much of a threat――」
Frei opened his eyes wide.
The divinity number of Aine that was continuing to increase had gone over 120000.
「Code Breaker!」
The floating magic circle behind Aine emitted light and enveloped Aine’s body. And then with Aine as the center, a dome of magic circle was formed.
「Ku……go! Gullinbursti! We are still the one on top! If it’s now――」
Gullinbursti assaulted Aine. And then it leaped inside Aine’s magic circle. That was the area under Aine’s rule. A land of death that dissolved all magic formula.
At that moment, the boar’s charge stopped.
「!? Gullinbursti!」
Aine’s fist lunged mercilessly towards Gullinbursti that stopped moving.
The iron boar that didn’t even twitch until now from all attacks had Aine’s fist sinking into it. Its nose was smashed, and from there a crack ran through its whole body.
「It seems Code Breaker is also effective against these guys.」
After the arm was pulled back, that arm turned to the side.
「Pulverizer!」
From another magic circle that unfolded ahead of that hand, a huge cannon was pulled out. And then that cannon muzzle was put on the forehead of Gullinbursti.
At that moment, terror ran through Frei’s back.
――That’s impossible.
She was supposed to be an opponent that could be easily defeated.
Despite so……what was with this number?
Aine’s divinity number that was reflected in Frei’s eyes was over 150000.
「Fire!!」
The corruption armament that Aine readied, 『Pulerizer』 launched tremendous light. It was a ruthless light, pulverizing all time and space an existence possessed. A hole was opened instantly on the boar’s forehead, and in the next moment, Gullinbursti was smashed apart into pieces in a whirl. And then the light of destruction that was fired from Pulverizer headed straight to Frei.
「U! GOKAAAGUAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
He raised a scream of death agony and he got blown away. It was an arena with a diameter of ten kilometers. He went through the arena from the center until the end of the arena in one go. And then he crashed on the wall that faced Odin’s palace and his body was smashed apart.
「Impossible……this, me is……like this」
Frei’s body was literally crumbling. At that moment, cheers were raised from the arena’s surrounding. The warriors of Odin’s world that observed this battle extolled Aine’s victory. There were no person with the same appearance as another, stern men, female type that fought with speed, they had various appearances.
The warriors of this world were fellows who were similar to Aine, taken away from another world and brought to this place. Most of them fundamentally possessed the same shape as a human, but there were differences in little details like their body build, skin color, etc.
The warriors who were blessed with such variety were yelling and raised their arms in excitement above the fence.
They were extolling Aine, but that didn’t mean they wanted to get along with her. They were saying, fight with me next. Aine turned back her face from the crowd with a fed up face.
『You did it Aine.』
The window floating beside her face was showing Gravel’s relieved expression.
「Naturally.」
Aine showed a smile as though to say ‘how’s that’ and her left hand brushed off her pink colored hair. A ring was shining at that wrist. The number 113 that was floating there was overwritten into 10.
Aine used her thruster to float in the air. And then she flew until the wall where Frei was smashed. There she discovered the remains of Frei who only had a upper body without both his arms. She matched her window with that figure and pushed on the analysis button.
「Hmmph……even with this your divinity number is still 50. Perhaps I should say that it is as expected that it’s not 0. Do it all over again from one okay.」
Saying that, Aine picked up Frei’s sword Laevateinn that fell nearby.
「Aa how rude of me. It’s not from 1 I guess. Do it all over again from 50.」
When Aine turned on her heel to leave, a voice came from overhead.
「That was quite enjoyable for me, Aine.」
――!!
Tension ran through Aine’s whole body. The clamoring crowd was also falling silent as though they had been doused with water.
When she looked up, there was a figure standing at the palace’s balcony.
Silver hair that looked shiny. A beautiful face that looked like ice. An eye patch on the left eye of that beautiful face that gave off discomfort. And then a tight muscular body that was trained, added with largely dangling breasts that completed her feminine beauty. It was the crystallization of beauty that transcended humans.
An armor that imitated an ice dragon protected that body. However what it protected were only the arms and legs, her head and torso looked mostly defenseless. Tiny bits of plates that were shaped like crystal and dragon scales were covering her sides and groin, while the armor at her breast was in the shape of dragon claws grasping those breasts. That shape seemed to display the beauty of those breasts instead.
A huge spear that was hanging to the left and right from her back was 『Gungnir』. It was rumored that there was no existence that couldn’t be defeated by that spear, it was this world’s strongest weapon. In addition was the huge dragon head floating behind her,『Fafnir』. It was equivalent to Frei’s boar, this dragon head was Odin’s follower, but its strength couldn’t be compared with Frei’s Gullinbursti. Furthermore it was a two headed dragon. A beautiful girl like ice holding a legendary spear who was protected by a dragon. That figure was exactly a divine war goddess.
「Machine god……Odin.」
Odin flew down from the balcony and landed lightly in front of Aine.
「Fufufu, as expected from someone who caught the eye of this me. If you keep accumulating diligent training like this, perhaps a few decades later you might reach a divinity number around 500000. Aim for an even higher ranking.」
Aine reflexively clicked her tongue.
Inside her heart rage was welling up, thinking if this woman was planning to lock her up in this world for decades.
At that time when she was about to say her resentment to Odin, a pained voice could be heard from below.
「Uu……O, Odin, sama.」
Frei who became a wreck groaned with feeble breathing.
「I, I still, haven’t lost……against, this girl, against this kind of low ranking, this me who is an Odin Ranker couldn’t possibly lo――」
「The low ranking one is now you, Frei.」
Odin stared at the wreckage of Frei with her one eye coldly.
「The ranking is absolute. Know that just a rank difference of one is like the difference between heaven and earth. To say nothing of that way of talking, toward this Aine who is an Odin Ranker right now……」
Frei’s face distorted in shock.
「Then, it’s better for Aine to deal the finishing blow, so that body cannot even be repaired anymore.」
Odin’s cold eye shined blue.
Frei couldn’t say anything, he could only grit his teeth with all his strength. That strength broke his face’s construction and fluid spurted out. And then, he was simply keeping silent.
「Even an Odin Ranker is like this……the warrior that I’m looking for is still far ahead from here huh.」
Odin whispered that and then she looked around at the spacious arena.
「Average warriors cannot grant further strength to this me who has reached the territory of god. I am here waiting impatiently for the appearance of a warrior carrying even stronger power, and new abilities.」
「And then you will steal that power, and become even stronger?」
Aine’s defiant speech caused Odin to glare at her sharply with her right eye.
「……Something like that. But I have expectations of you Aine. If Aine becomes even stronger, the warriors around you will also grow stronger. They will steal the way Aine fights and surely even stronger people will appear by incorporating that. Such evolution of battle will create even stronger warriors.」
「You will only plunder from those people who are raised like that won’t you? It’s really a nice position to be a god huh, you can just exploit the harvest of the people.」
However Odin lifted the corner of her mouth and showed a faint smile.
「That’s nothing more than the result of victory or defeat. If you hate that, then you just need to defeat me. One is plundered from because they lose. I am always fair(公平), fair you know.」(TN: The second fair is said in English.)
And then Odin looked up at the sky that was covered with thick clouds.
「This world exist for the strong’s sake. The weak exist to be their food. And then there is no limit to the evolution of strength.」
Odin talked about her conviction and this world’s providence with a face that was half in ecstasy. But, for Aine it was an inconsequential story.
「Machine god Odin, I challenge you.」
Odin stared with a dubious expression at Aine who declared that.
「It’s fine even if you don’t be that impatient right? Even if you fight me now, Aine has no chance of victory. Aine will become stronger if you mature more. Even if I steal your current ability it won’t really be helpful.」
「Don’t screw around-! If I defeat you and obtain the power of a machine god, I should be able to even go back to my original world. I will absolutely defeat you, and return to my original world, to where everyone is!」
Aine faced Odin and took her stance. The magic circle on her back was also increasing in radiance.
「Geez……can’t be helped then.」
Odin sighed deeply looking disappointed.
「Then, here I go.」
At that instant, the atmosphere Odin was clad with changed. A terrific fighting spirit and wind poured out from her body which flapped Aine’s hair. It felt like her heart would break just by getting showered by that killing intent.
「Ku……so this is a machine god’s true power.」
In this one year since Aine was summoned to this world, there were two warriors that challenged Odin. Both of them were rank number one.
However the result was atrocious.
It wasn’t even a fight, they were toyed around by Odin as she pleased, and then destroyed. And then their abilities were plundered and those two were obliterated from this world.
――But, I won’t end like that.
The armor of Odin that was like ice shined and emitted sublime light. And then that light was similar like Aine’s Code Breaker, it was spreading with Odin as the center into a hemisphere shape.
This dome of light was the first obstacle in defeating Odin. The dome of light was the light of god. Just by touching that, all kinds of energy would be sucked out and then materialize impediments on the body’s functions.
