Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 45

Chapter 45: Sign Givers at the Starting Point

Wait, wait

Did this all

Get really weird at some point?

Point Allocation (Seen as a Big Shot)

●

Musashi’s descent occurred nearly due south of Honnouji. Their initial altitude of 10km above ground was not their maximum altitude, but it was beyond what the primary ships of any other nation could reach.

Their distance was more than four times that. Their descent was done in stages alongside their turning and, thanks to the temperature differences between the layers of atmosphere, the Musashi’s virtual sea became an ejection of mist.

And, after firing its cannons once, the Musashi suddenly advanced.

This acceleration was only possible thanks to removing the primary hulls along with the other lightening and reinforcing procedures.

The sudden velocity pushed the mist surrounding the ship outwards.

A series of torii-style gravitational thrusters and acceleration lights emerged below the white scattering mist.

As the eight massive ships dropped down, they pursued their own shells to slip below the interception attacks aimed higher up.

Honnouji could not readjust the angle of their cannons in time. Only the ships and cannons that happened to be in a good position managed to fire shells with kinetic homing or guidance applied. But among those…

“This spot should work!”

Several shapes passed north to south by Honnouji’s pillar of light and approached the Musashi.

They were transport ships. A total of 32 had been converted into unmanned projectiles. They had all been used to transport materials to Honnouji and had been converted after completing their duties.

To increase their accuracy and stopping power, the bows had been given log shapes. They pushed at the air with a deep rumbling, but they completed their long midair approach run to charge toward the Musashi.

However, at the very instant it was all to hit, the Musashi was bathed in the color white.

All eight of the ships had concentrated their virtual oceans on the starboard bow.

This applied a powerful braking effect to the starboard bow. And the port stern on the reverse side slid forward thanks to the acceleration.

While the eight ships advanced at high speed, their rear ends spun left to the west.

A moment later, the Musashi’s starboard thrusters launched their acceleration light outwards.

That was the gravitational cruising system. While the light condensed and the area around the thrusters darkened, the compressed light finally scattered as shards of light while blasting the great mass in the opposite direction.

This applied a massive 8-ship drift to leftward-swinging Musashi.

The wobbling kick of acceleration was powerful and all eight ships entered the drifting trajectory nearly instantaneously.

They moved nimbly.

And while it rotated through the sky like that, something happened at the point it had just vacated.

“Damn!”

The 32 transport ships and all the artillery fire passed on through.

The guidance and homing couldn’t keep up. Everything missed its mark and flew on through the moonlit sky.

“Defense!”

To counterattack, the secondary cannon fire the Musashi had released earlier detonated on the anti-air weaponry on the front side of Honnouji.

But that wasn’t all.

“Watch out to the west!”

While the Musashi rotated from the western sky to the northwestern sky, they fired from their side.

The sounds of artillery fire came from much too close. The sound of the air splitting was a lot like thunder, but the blasts did hit.

They scored a direct hit.

●

Suzu was managing all of the maneuvering from the Musashino bridge she had hurried to.

The high-speed drift was based on the records from entering England. That had been done while damaged by the San Martín, but conditions were different this time.

“We’re in much…better condition!”

They were unharmed and they had no central mass.

She had done some joint drifting with transport ships during the Kantou Liberation and this was a lot like that.

She held the Musashi model and checked its balance as she thought to herself.

…This will…work.

“I’m…starting!”

She had to hurry. Hurry a lot.

First, she drew out the maneuver lines for the Musashi’s 8 ships. And at the same time…

…The wind!

Honnouji was located atop a wide, flat hill-like mountain. In the Kyou region, most of the wind arrived from the northern sea during the day and passed over Lake Biwa to leave to the east or south.

The opposite happened, albeit less strongly, during the night.

Honnouji on its hill was a lot like the parting point for the wind. The weak winds moving from south to north would split to the east or west around Honnouji and then rejoin to continue on north.

“U-um.”

The drift had already begun.

Circling Honnouji from south to west was easy.

By riding the wind avoiding Honnouji to the west, she could get the general course needed. Of course, the Musashi was moving a lot faster than the wind, so when “riding” it, they would fly on past it.

Circling to the north was a lot harder because the wind coming around from the east fought against them. So…

“Ahead!”

She had the wind drawn out with her fingers move out ahead. The Musashino bridge’s processing power and her own senses worked together to read in and draw out the massive winds up to 20 seconds into the future. It all moved exactly as drawn, so the world of 20 seconds into the future was constantly produced by her hands.

The future was in motion. The as-yet-unseen time took shape and the winds she created washed over her.

When the air movement she drew circled around Honnouji’s hill, some of it followed the slope around and some of it moved away from the hill. Where did it split and where was it rejoined? She reached out her drawing fingers to search for the answer.

…Here.

Probably here. No, definitely here. This is where everyone can say “see you later” as we split apart, but the delinquent winds will try to climb the hill.

Delinquent.

Mitotsudaira-san used that word earlier. It’s kind of cool. Yes, I’d never thought about it before, but I’m a delinquent too. I wonder what mom and dad would think if I told them? But…

“I’m…a delinquent.”

Just kidding. If I said that and struck a pose, I’d be just like Neshinbara-kun.

●

Musashino: “Attention, all ships! Suzu-sama has declared herself a delinquent! Over!”

Asakusa: “Is that a top-down declaration that the Musashi as a whole is to be a delinquent, ‘Musashino’!? Over.”

Kokubunji: “Just out of curiosity, I will ask even though I am not part of the Top 9: which one of us is a delinquent exactly? Over!”

Tama: “ ‘Kita-Senju’? Over.”

Kita-Senju: “H-hey, stop that! I am on Asakusa, so that is beyond your authority to declare, ‘Tama’! Although it is true the nonhumans play strange sounds in the public squares of my jurisdiction to keep the delinquents from gathering there at night. But ‘Tenmacho’ is way worse in that regard if you ask me! Over.”

Tenmacho: “Wh-why would you say that, ‘Kita-Senju’!? I contain the prison, so my people are criminals, not delinquents! Those are not the same thing! Over!”

Murayama: “If Suzu-sama has declared herself a delinquent, wouldn’t that make the biggest delinquent either ‘Okutama’ or ‘Musashino’? Over.”

Okutama: “Eh? N-now wait just a second! I have a lot of students here, so that policy will turn me into a lawless hell ship! Over.”

Musashi: “Calm down. You all are captains and navigators, so run proper simulations. For example, if I were to become a delinquent, I would not serve Sakai-sama his tea promptly, I would feed him nutrition-focused foods he dislikes, and I would fail to wake him on time in the mornings. And I am confident I could carry out these delinquent duties quite easily. Over.”

Almost Everyone: “You already do those things! Over.”

●

Suzu found it odd that some of the automata on the bridge held their hands behind their hips and stood tall while others began hopping in protest in front of the others, but she continued her work.

She had read the wind.

When the wind moved from north to east, it would rise, but it would ultimately complete the circuit back to its original location.

That meant no deceleration thrust was needed, which would make the Musashi’s fuel calculations a lot easier.

So she swept her fingers along the blow line of the semicircle of wind moving from north to east and then south, confirming it. Once that was converted into data, the automata would provide the optimal maneuvering and fuel usage.

She wanted to cheer on the wind rising along the hill, but she couldn’t touch it. It was already confirmed. So after that, she drew in the locations of the enemy cannons and ships she had picked up along the way. And…

“Fire!”

●

“Oh, wow,” said Asama as she watched the Honnouji-centered footage on her Branch and Leaf Connection targeting divine protection spell opened in a hemisphere in front of her.

Branch and Leaf Connection had originally been created for air defense of the Ariake, but by resizing it, it could be opened as a visualization spell. By projecting an image on the interior of the hemisphere, it could display a 3D image, so she primarily used it to show the area around the Musashi.

Currently, it was displaying the model data created by Suzu on the Musashino bridge.

The Musashi’s high-speed drift allowed the ship to stably move around to the north of Honnouji. Suzu was doing a great job.

Uqui: “The trailing clouds she drew overlap nicely.”

Urquiaga was right. As the clouds spread out like ripples, they overlapped into a multilayered image. The shape appeared to obey some kind kind of geometric law, which meant Suzu was doing a good job piloting.

“Heh heh. She did get some exciting practice with transport ships during the Kantou Liberation.”

“I seem to recall some transport ships colliding near Edo Bay,” added Narumi.

That comment brought the memories back.

…Mito’s mom was something else.

Asama realized most everyone was looking Mitotsudaira’s way. The wolf was munching on some portable food and viewing the diagram of Honnouji, but she eventually noticed the attention.

“Wh-what do you all want!?”

“Oh, well, just thinking that a lot’s happened.”

A lot really had happened. And a lot was probably going to happen in the future, but…

…This should be a major break point.

The Honnouji Incident.

The Genesis Project.

The state of the world and a way to stop the Apocalypse. They should learn so much about it all here.

And right here at the entrance to all that…

“Oh.”

The Musashi’s movement changed. Asama knew a lot of buffering spells had been applied, but she could still sense the movement pushing them starboard.

“We have circled to the north of Honnouji and now the wind is passing us to continue north,” said Tenzou.

The pillar of light rising from Honnouji was visible past the bow. They were sunken into the Musashi’s hull, so while it felt like nothing was moving around them, Asama’s Branch and Leaf Connection showed that the Musashi had completed the half-circle of its drift and attack.

A report from the Musashino bridge said Suzu had declared herself a delinquent, but what was that about? It was cute to imagine, but even if she were to start carrying around a hammer or that nail bat that Persona-kun kept in his locker, it probably wouldn’t amount to anything more than a fashion statement. But when is Persona-kun going to use that?

At any rate, with the half circle complete, it was time to circle around from the enemy’s back to their side, but…

“They’re going to respond soon.”

As soon as the words were out of Narumi’s mouth, red warning sign frames appeared next to the officers’ faces. Another one opened by Asama’s hands.

Asakusa: “A Honnouji defense fleet is ascending off the port bow! Over.”

●

Mitsunari thought up several excuses.

Excuses for why she was here at Honnouji.

…Will they work?

To start with, the Testament said the Honnouji Incident came as a surprise for Nobunaga.

So Nobunaga only had a few people with him and there had been little, if any, defense.

That meant there shouldn’t have been a defense fleet here, but there were conditions that allowed it.

First, the defense fleet was unmanned.

Second, the defense fleet was OS controlled.

Third, the control OS had a single personality.

“Thus, if I am controlling every ship, I am the only one participating.”

Furthermore, Ishida Mitsunari didn’t appear at Honnouji either, but she had an out there.

…Because Sassa-sama showed up!

She hadn’t seen him yet, but Hashiba had greeted him earlier.

A name inheritor of Sassa’s level was participating as an ordinary warrior. Whereas I’m more or less unknown at this point in the Testament, so it has to be okay for me to be here too, right!?

AnG: “Nari Nari, are you using a really forced excuse?”

Nari Nari Nari: “H-how is it forced!? And aren’t you fighting a battle right now!?”

Kimee: “We’re on a thirty minute break. After getting some rest and making some repairs, we have to decide who’s going to duel Shibata-senpai and Oichi.”

Black Wolf: “So how are things on your end?”

Nari Nari Nari: “T-to make a long story short, I’m in recovery mode!”

Now was the time to rearrange her fleet and fight back.

●

It wasn’t that Mitsunari hadn’t expected Musashi to circle around to either the right or left.

She had records of the Musashi’s maneuver when entering England, as well as how their transport ships moved during the Kantou Liberation. She just hadn’t fully understood what led up to those actions.

It all happened too fast.

As the Musashi purged their primary hulls, a similar policy had been underway for the Azuchi.

But the Azuchi was a warship. Structurally, there were parts that could not be removed. How did the Musashi compare there? She had run simulations, but its actual movement had differed.

She had understood up through its charge straight toward Honnouji. It was after that that things changed. The Musashi had demonstrated excellent determination and their nimbleness had exceeded her expectations.

The records said the acting captain was an ordinary student named Mukai Suzu.

It made no sense for someone who was neither an officer nor a name inheritor to have the role of acting captain for such a large ship.

So Mitsunari had dug deeper and discovered a certain fact: that girl’s family ran a bathhouse.

…Does that have anything to do with anything!?

That she had congenital visual impairment seemed like a more understandable explanation.

But Mitsunari had been too slow to react to the speed and variety of the Musashi’s maneuvering. Of course, there had only been two options: left or right. Once she knew which one they had chosen, she had decided to get a fresh start.

She made some adjustments.

There were a few more issues she had to watch out for. Based on those, she decided to place her interception fleet in the center.

The Musashi circled around from the west, destroying her fleet. That had been her mistake. She would accept the responsibility for that, but she would also make what maneuvers she could and fire when possible.

She wanted to wear down the Musashi as much as she could. And more than that…

…I must challenge them!

There was one thing she needed to do in order to protect Honnouji. And to do that…

“The defense fleet is ascending east of Honnouji. I am preparing a counterattack on the assumption the Musashi will be facing me from the south!”

●

The first to notice was “Asakusa”, the 1st port ship at the leading edge of the drift.

Based on a scan by “Ueno” below her, the rising enemy fleet had begun to move and line up. Suzu confirmed that fleet consisted of two P.A. Oda ironclad ships and eight M.H.R.R. battleships.

Of the eight M.H.R.R. ones, four were positioned east of Honnouji and rapidly turning toward the Musashi.

They were acting as a diversion to give the two ironclad ships and the remaining four battleships time to turn and face the Musashi. That was clearly the plan.

Asakusa: “ ‘Musashino’, at this rate, the two ironclad ships and the four battleships will be facing us in 32 seconds. What shall we do? Over.”

Musashino: “We will continue as planned. This is not a problem. ‘Musashi’-sama. Over.”

The final decision was left with the executive captain. And everyone heard the decision “Musashi” made as their leader.

Musashi: “Judge. We will now begin the firing sequence for our Large Kanesada main cannon.”

●

“Musashi” continued speaking.

Their drift had shifted into braking and the ships fired on the enemy ships as her voice rang out.

Musashi: “This request was made by Musashi Ariadust Academy Chancellor Aoi Toori-sama and Vicereine Horizon Ariadust-sama. Musashi Ariadust Academy Vice President Honda Masazumi-sama will act as intermediary. The objective is to temporarily destroy the ley line pathway in order to prevent the Honnouji ley line reactor from overloading.”

“Listen,” said “Musashi”.

Musashi: “All hands, prepare to activate ACC-GC0021 Kanesada aerial-city-class gravity control cannon. The main barrel shall be in ACC-GC0021L Large Kanesada mode. Over.”

●

Yasuke heard an “oh?” from Ranmaru as she looked up into the eastern sky.

Alerts currently filled all the buildings and surrounding areas within Honnouji.

Everyone was to take shelter within the sturdy Honnouji storehouses. The warriors were temporarily withdrawing to there, but Ranmaru showed no sign of hurrying and instead assessed the eight giant ships sliding through the night sky.

“That is Large Kanesada. This means the current engineers have finally begun to build ship armaments that could reach the level of those during the Age of the Gods.”

Meanwhile, the Musashi’s ships expanded the outer wings used for gravitational cruising.

“Their piloting is excellent too. It wouldn’t be a ship cannon if it couldn’t be fired while in motion.”

“Ranmaru-kun! Stop assessing them and take refuge!”

“Yasuke-sama, if a cannon of that class struck here, no refuge would save us. I must question why you are in such a hurry. Should I write ‘here lies a half-dragon who panicked in the face of death’ on your grave?”

“Ranmaru-kun! You’d have a hard time writing that when you’d probably be dead too!”

“Must you point out the obvious, Yasuke-sama? Besides, it would be the tombstone maker who wrote it.”

Fed up with arguing, Yasuke scooped Ranmaru up and dashed toward the nearest storehouse.

He did his very best to ignore his men’s comments of “oh, lucky!” Are you sure you want someone who’s very presence causes stress!? Do you really!? Regardless, he had a command to give them.

“Take shelter!!”

●

Suzu made use of the 20 seconds she had earned. While the Musashi completed its drift and faced toward Honnouji, she had to get Large Kanesada ready.

So she spent the 20 seconds on that.

After those 20 seconds, the Musashi had to be ready to fire Large Kanesada.

But how could she complete those preparations fastest?

“Give me data…on the parts being transformed!”

She received heat sources. While the Musashi model transformed, the parts that hadn’t finished transforming were given arrow-shaped points of heat indicating the direction of their movement.

Tens of thousands of numbers and shapes were instantly added in the medium of heat, so she could tell the Musashi was in a hot condition.

…Yes.

There were a lot of transforming parts, but she could tell which ones were important.

And they were still drifting.

When firing Kanesada in midair, the ship’s stability was maintained by directing the gravity thrusters downward to put the ship in vertical ascent mode.

But that was only the best case scenario and it wasn’t done when they were in a hurry. When they had hurried to Novgorod, their first Kanesada blast had been done during a side flip.

Doing it during a drift was easy compared to doing it while controlling a side flip.

The Musashi’s altitude was dropping. Different parts had to be restructured for Large Kanesada, so their gravitational cruising weakened quite a bit.

That was fine.

In 20 seconds, the Musashi would be descending in stages. But Suzu still reached for the heated points and accurately but quickly went through the firing sequence process. So…

“Starboard thrusters…point down… All ships…turn and…maintain uniform velocity!”

●

“Asakusa and Shinagawa, starboard gravitational cruising thrusters directed downwards! Over!”

“Tama and Murayama, same! Over!”

“Takao and Oume as well! Over!”

“Musashino and Okutama too! Over!”

“Judge.” “Musashi” nodded. “She stood atop Musashino’s bridge. She drew the pair of swords at her hips in the wind that reached her even through the buffering spells and confirmed all ships were prepared to fire.

“All ships, firing form confirmed. Over.”

The towing belts loudly stretched and sparks flew from the edge of the 3rd port and starboard ships.

That was fine. The drift was approaching its end. The four battleships that had ascended east of Honnouji had been broken through with concentrated fire.

The remaining two ironclad ships and four battleships out ahead were nearly untouched, but that too was fine.

…We can blow them away with Large Kanesada.

Okutama: “ ‘Musashi’-sama! Everything is in place! Over!”

Excellent timing. They had sped up the process since last time. That would be because they let Suzu determine the order of priority and they also know what they needed to do to assist.

If they studied this, they would be even faster next time.

…I have determined that makes us sound like a warship, which would probably delight Masazumi-sama.

“Tilt the bow down. Target the crust below Honnouji. Over.”

“Musashi” pulled back her swords and swung her arms into position.

A moment later, light gathered on Musashino’s bow, formed ribbons, and raced on the left and right toward Okutama. The glowing white ribbons tied together at Okutama’s stern, securing the two ships together. Musashino and Okutama were linked with an action more like bringing pieces of cloth together than machines. After checking the status of that on a sign frame, “Musashi” spoke.

“Masazumi-sama. The firing sequence is complete. Please get ready. Over.”

●

Their view tilted forward. The pillar of light rising into the center of the night sky illuminated the distant hill, the forested land, and the great roof visible at its base.

Masazumi looked out ahead and below.

The Musashi was targeting the ground below Honnouji. Once the ship tilted that far, she would only be able to see the ground.

Then their transport ship shook.

Downwards. They passed by the Asama Shrine and flew toward Okutama’s bow.

There was no need to fly up top.

Okutama had surrounded them as a barrier this long and now it was tilting like a glass spilling its water. They simply had to let that tilt take them.

“Musashi Large Kanesada – main barrel open.”

When Masazumi spoke into the sign frame, light raced back and forth through the sky. An ether barrel was rapidly forming to the front and back of the emitter below Musashino’s bridge.

At the same time, six sign frames appeared. From the captains of the port and starboard ships. They spoke as one.

“Musashi ships – beginning main barrel service. Over.”

The rear of the barrel extended this way. The great barrel forming a glowing axis jutted out toward the transport ship beginning to move forward from the Asama Shrine as the Musashi tilted.

The rest was simple. The idiot had already activated his ether supply spell. So…

“Hey.”

Masazumi called out to him and he turned around. He clapped his hands with Asama behind him.

In that moment, several ether lines shot from his back and into the sky. Twenty to the right and twenty to the left. Then ten more for each direction. After shooting out like sickles on chains, they took aim and linked with the Musashi’s ships and the cannon.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

“Contact!!” shouted the wolf just as a tremor ran through the ships and the cannon barrel and the ether light of the connections burst out.

Large Kanesada was ready to go.

●

“We will now temporarily destroy the ley line pathway below Honnouji to prevent P.A. Oda’s input to the ley line reactor!”

Tenzou nodded at Masazumi’s statement.

Destroying the ley line reactor rather than Honnouji had been the tactic they first thought up.

After all, some unknown process – perhaps part of the Genesis Project – was underway at Honnouji.

So it was best to put a stop to that and then determine what was going on.

The ley line reactor was overloading, but that was due to the ether supplied by the ley line acting as fuel. That was why Tres España had tried to destroy the ley line reactor at Mikawa right up until the last moment.

The same method would work here.

But there was one problem with that.

What if the Genesis Project was necessary to stop the Apocalypse?

Then if they destroyed the ley line reactor, restarting the Genesis Project would be nearly impossible. If the Genesis Project had to be carried out during a full moon, Asama said “starting from scratch, they might not be ready for the next full moon or even the one after that”. And if we blew it away with Large Kanesada, they would have to restart from the formation of the ground itself.

So they would target below the ground. They would fire below the structure. If they fired a Large Kanesada class of ether shell into the primary ley line, Asama said it would affect the ley line as much as an earthquake.

“That will cause an abnormal pulse in the ley line, which will also affect the supply to the extraction reactor above. That will trigger a resonance, which will stop the extraction. The mold of the abnormal pulse will acclimate to its surroundings and vanish, but secondary tremors should continue for around half a day.”

That would prevent the procedure this time, but it could be done again next full moon once the ley lines had settled down.

That would mean early October, so however it turned out, it was bound to be a hot topic at the Peace of Westphalia later on in October.

10ZO: “Then let’s get this ley line pulsing abnormally!”

Gold Mar: “Y’know…”

10ZO: “I-I get the feeling I won’t like this, so you could just keep it to yourself.”

Horizey: “Well, you see, when you went to save Mary-sama, instead of visiting her directly and grabbing her chest, couldn’t you have used a bomb or a cannon to blow up the execution tower and sever the ley line connection, rendering the execution impossible? I seem to recall some loud ‘yayyyyyyyyy!’-ing during the negotiations, but what do you have to say for yourself, Tenzou-sama?”

I knew it would be something like that!

●

Suzu made the final drift adjustments while listening to some historical levels of cannibalism.

10ZO: “B-bringing anything powerful enough to destroy the tower would have been difficult! Isn’t that right, Naruze-dono!?”

Art-Ga: “Well…now that you mention it, maybe I could have brought a bomb along?”

Worshiper: “Naruze-kun, try to be less obvious you’re setting him up.”

Me: “So whose fault was it?”

10ZO: “Toori-dono! Stop saying things that sound helpful but then ruining it by staring at me while you type them!”

Asama: “In retrospect, I went down to England shortly before that, so I could have fired a long-range shot into the tower.”

Vice President: “And we were allied with England, so their defense system wouldn’t have activated for an ally like Asama. But only if she did it before my announcement.”

Novice: “What is with you!? Stop getting carried away just because I, the one who came up with that plan, am not there with you!”

…Why would he remind us of that?

Silver Wolf: “But on that note, if Adele’s Raging Beast had flown even higher, it might have destroyed the tower when it landed and solved everything.”

Flat Vassal: “I was just thinking that. And if that didn’t destroy it, the most realistic option may have been to pack it full of sand for weight and then have the 5th Special Duty Officer attach a chain and use it like a hammer.”

Laborer: “So make it a construction project!?”

Their reminiscing of the past had turned into talk of construction. But then someone else joined in.

Scarred: “N-no, you are all forgetting something very important!”

That was…

Scarred: “You could have stopped me that way, but without Master Tenzou’s confession, England would not have backed off of insisting on the execution. And that is the most important thing for me. …Oh, th-thank you for the applause! Thank you so much! And thank those of you on the other transport ship too! Oh, and those of you on the Musashi as we pass by! I will continue to work at doing the best I can!”

●

I see, thought Masazumi. A sign frame suddenly appeared by her face, displaying Mukai making a “wrap it up” motion with her right hand. Realizing what that meant, Masazumi yelled.

“Hurry up and fire!!!”

They fired.

●

Suzu sat in a backwards-installed chair and felt the ship slide from the cannon blast.

Large Kanesada’s barrel was more than 8km long and its recoil easily launched Okutama and Musashino backwards.

The 3rd port and starboard ships absorbed that force.

The sign frame in front of her showed the three port and three starboard ships fanning out and sliding backwards about 2km. Suzu had to operate the Musashi model she held to keep the sliding of the eight ships to a minimum.

In just an instant, they moved back about a quarter of their length, but something else moved out ahead instead.

That was the warriors’ transport ships on their way to Honnouji.

Including the one Toori and the others were aboard, there were five ships in total.

They emerged from Okutama, Takao, and Oume and slipped below the other ships. They had technically been revealed when the Musashi slid back, but…

…They’re…going.

Suzu assumed they would just continue to fly forward from there, but then she realized something: Large Kanesada’s effect.

She had expected the enemy’s two ironclad ships and four battleships to be destroyed plus a large hole at the base of Honnouji’s hill.

But that wasn’t what she saw.

…Eh?

Half her expectations came true.

The ironclad ships and battleships were broken. The six ships, which had been ascending and turning while firing, had been transformed as if they had been slapped aside from the path of the cannon blast.

Their broken frames burst through the armor panels and their hulls began to expand outwards.

“Nh.”

Six explosions erupted from the top and bottom edges of the thinning ships. Their armor swelled out and ruptured like fruit, especially in the areas carrying their cannons.

But those six ships weren’t the problem.

Past the six ships burning and falling like leaves, there was no sign of any damage to the crust supporting Honnouji.

“It’s…unharmed!?”

●

“Musashi” scanned to see what had happened.

Kanesada’s targeting system had been made by the Asama Shrine, so it allowed for ether detection. The omindirectional Branch and Leaf Connection was a more advanced version of that, but the Musashi’s version was spread out before her, providing a view.

So what had just happened?

…Our cannon blast was absorbed.

That was the best summary.

Large Kanesada had fired correctly. To impact the ley line, they had used ether-style shell creation. Targeting had been precise, ensuring nothing was capable of stopping it from damaging the enemy fleet and the crust.

But that had been in error.

The instant Large Kanesada had struck, something had activated there.

It had looked like a net.

It had covered Honnouji, the pillar rising from there, the hill bearing them, and the area around that. The light had been faint, but an ether light net had appeared over that wide area just as the shell hit.

Musashi: “Asama-sama, are those…the ley lines? Over.”

She received an immediate answer.

Asama: “No, they aren’t. If they were, the shape would be much more complex and the pathways would be thicker. Large Kanesada was stopped by the ether supply pathways set up around the ley line.”

So those were the “roots”. If the pillar of light was a tree trunk, then the net that appeared when the shell hit were the roots. And if the trunk and everything else were unharmed…

“Large Kanesada’s force wasn’t able to focus on that one point. Its force was distributed evenly across the entire region and space covered by the ‘roots’?”

●

“Musashi” thought it was a simple trap.

Just like the impact distribution system seen in ballistic armor, the ether net had distributed the force of the blast.

It couldn’t fully negate Large Kanesada’s force, but the resultant damage could be reduced by spreading the force over a wide area.

Even the attack that had pierced through Novgorod would could far less damage if it was distributed over dozens of kilometers.

The defense barrier used over Magdeburg had also been the distribution type.

Of course, they had predicted the enemy would do the same thing here.

Hence Large Kanesada. They hadn’t held anything back. But it had still been blocked.

…Because of the unexpected breadth and depth of the pathways.

Instead of using a defense barrier, the pathways meant to supply ether to the ley line reactor had been repurposed as a distribution barrier. That defensive shield could be seen as a net or roots made of ether, but how far did it stretch?

Musashino: “ ‘Musashi’-sama, A level 2 quake was detected over a radius of 70km. The exact depth of the focus is unknown, but it continued as far as 8km underground at the exact same intensity. Over.”

…So it rivaled an earthquake.

That would mean a multi-layer network going as deep as 8km had distributed Large Kanesada.

“They outsmarted us. Over.”

“Musashi” honestly accepted that she had failed to achieve her job. She intended to immediately assist in making up for that, but this would still cause trouble for the Chancellor’s group.

She should have seen this coming.

“Why did they send a fleet straight out to intercept us? Over.”

Looking back, that had been to lure them in. There were only so many courses that allowed them to fire Large Kanesada as a counterattack. The enemy only had to make sure that counterattack was aimed at the center of the pathways.

This must have been the work of someone who could guide fleets, manage ley lines, and perform advanced calculations.

“Ishida Mitsunari!”

She had moved between ley lines and split into multiple copies at Nördlingen. For her, constructing such an abnormally wide and dense pathway network and then using it for defense would have been an easy task.

“I will remember that name. Over.”

●

Mitsunari had pushed herself to the limit.

…I-I thought I was going to vanish!

She had a copy on each of the destroyed ships and the ether pathways surrounding Honnouji hadn’t been easy to set up. It didn’t require physical construction work, but she had to sink into the ley lines and then rely on shrines and natural holy ground to reconstruct the underground and midair zones. She had used shrines near the center of each management zone to manage it all, but…

“The copies there were blown away by the sheer force of it all.”

And even with all that, she hadn’t fully eliminated the force of the enemy’s attack.

The first layer control system on the surface of Honnouji’s structures had been blown away. That meant the largest exterior could not systematically eliminate the enemy, so the ground troops would have to pick up the slack.

But there was good news.

“Musashi cannot fire their main cannon again.”

Musashi required their Chancellor’s authority to fire their main cannon. And he was on one of the transport ships that had moved out ahead.

Mitsunari had won them safety. And now she raised her right hand and spoke.

“Musashi’s transport ships are in descent formation! Ground forces, prepare to intercept!”

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