Leviathan:Volume 6 Chapter 1
Chapter 1 - Aboard Solomon's Ark
Part 1
The spaceship Anastasya was equipped with many astounding capabilities.
First of all, one must introduce the miraculous properties of the QX metal serving as the power source.
Just by exposing molten QX metal to special radiation then letting it come into contact with "copper," the copper would start flying away at super-high speed in a straight line.
This allowed for impressive flight capabilities, sufficient to escape the Earth's surface, break past the atmosphere and fly to the farthest reaches of the universe.
This massive force of propulsion was generated using the unique properties of QX metal—restricting the motion of the constituent copper particles to a fixed vector.
Hal—Haruga Haruomi—was an adventurer and scientist who had traveled throughout the universe.
His spaceship, the Anastasya, was fitted with a QX engine. Using the same underlying principle, the QX cannon was able to fire super-high performance nuclear bombs with yields of twenty-thousand kilotons, sinking even the large spaceships of space pirates in a single strike...
"Senpai, this is my first time hearing about a spaceship that uses metal for fuel."
It was inside the Anastasya's control room.
Shirasaka Hazumi was sitting in the co-pilot's seat in front of the navigation sheet.
She was dressed in Kogetsu Academy's uniform. Hal wondered if he should ask her to change into a form-fitting pilot suit to accentuate her bodily curves.
Devising a plan with ulterior motives, Hal was in the pilot's seat. He was also wearing a school uniform.
"In the past, this would've been a very high-tech setting. After all, it's a retro system capable of flying between the stars for a science fiction journey without using stuff like antimatter or degeneracy reactors."
"S-So much difficult jargon."
"Hmm. During a time when it was possible to communicate without using this slightly complicated jargon, like in science fiction or space operas—those space novels serialized in pulp magazines—they frequently used copper as a propellant to fly spaceships into the universe."
Sitting next to his junior/assistant, Hal explained talkatively.
This was clearly a story set in the distant future, yet he was talking about an ancient, more modest age.
"They would purchase copper ore and copper products in bulk from hardware stores in town."
"How long ago was this?"
"From the 1920s to the 40s... America during the era of Lovecraft, the writer of horror fiction that I mentioned before. He would comment on other authors' works of science fiction and once wrote 'the only flaw in this story is its use of other planets as the stage'."
He offered positive comments for the overall story but concluded with that sentence.
"If I had to use modern Japan as analogy, it'd be like a fantasy novelist at M● Bunko J criticizing a peer's romantic comedy 'using a school as the stage is too lowbrow.' His own novels were clearly published in pulp magazines, in particular, the horror magazine Weird Tales as well as Amazing Stories and Astounding Stories both of which specialized in publishing science fiction novels."
"I don't quite follow, but it does sound a bit strange."
Incidentally, H. P. Lovecraft also seemed to have changed his mind while writing the Call of Cthulhu, a space horror novel.
He even used extraterrestrial planets such as Kadath to serve as the stage for stories.
"Old Mr. Lovecraft wasn't a bad guy, but he often said one or two things that he shouldn't have. He seemed like a delicate man who was hard to get along with. By the way—"
Hazumi nodded and even began to take notes.
Seeing her so innocent, Hal felt his mood brighten up while he continued to make inconsequential conversation.
"Among readers who enjoy Japanese light novels, there are occasionally people who want to know more about the Cthulhu mythos after seeing references in games or anime. I think it's pretty interesting to read more works from the past and not rely only on searching information from the internet. Lately, there have been books taking old classics to add explanations and comicalize them. Also, author circles have risen up where experts can come together in their efforts to research Lovecraft, or even someone arguably more important than the experts—like Mr. Derleth—have been able to discover information that one wouldn't learn just from reading catalogs of the Old Ones that are no different from monster picture books."
"O-Okay."
Hazumi moved her pen hastily, writing the knowledge into her notes.
It was a different matter when interacting with his childhood friend or Luna Francois, a bird of the same feather as him, but contrary to what appearances may suggest, Hal actually kept himself under pretty good control when in the presence of Hazumi or Orihime.
However, he accidentally revealed some of his true depths today.
"If you're interested in the Cthulhu mythos, you can dig deeper by reading books written by authors from the same period like R. E. Howard, E. E. Smith, Edmond Hamilton, or works dating earlier such as E. R. Burroughs—Doing research on American science fiction and fantasy novels from that time period can be very fun. Recently in Japan, a bunch of novels popped out inexplicably, revering Burroughs as their 'orginator.'"
"Mr. Burroughs, is that right?"
"In simple terms, he's the guy who created Tarzan the king of the jungle. He's the one who wrote the original novels in the Tarzan series."
"I've heard of Tarzan!"
"A Princess of Mars is also considered one of his signature works and Di●ney recently made a movie out of it. The granddaddy of adventure stories set in another world, it's an exemplary masterpiece of 'this is where it all began'... The story is about Captain John Carter, a wounded Confederacy officer during the American Civil War, who looked out into the sky one night and was somehow sucked away to Mars."
Speaking of which, Hal had casually flipped through a similar novel before.
Champion? Campiote? The title was something along those lines. In a similar manner, this book kept bringing up scholarly knowledge about mythology from all over the world—Or more accurately, drivel of no particular importance.
Since it was a different publisher, doing that once in a while was probably harmless.
While thinking about inexplicable matters on his own, Hal continued, "Look, you've probably seen it before, the kind of plot about a Terran getting summoned to another world. Then Captain Carter, who was already a powerful man on Earth, became even more powerful after arriving in Mars. You can even consider him the strongest hero in Mars. Thus, he embarked on a great adventure across war-torn Mars, driven by his sense of justice to extend a helping hand to people in need. He even rescued an imprisoned princess and fell in love, marrying her. Finally, he became Martian royalty. Leading armies on the battlefield in magnificence, he became the great hero who united Mars."
Summoned to a life of adventure in another world and making it big—
This pattern had always been very popular in juvenile adventure novels.
Recently, there was apparently a revival of this trend in Japan, centered in the internet.
In fact, as the granddaddy of them all, the Mars series practically included all the delicious flavor and essence found in similar stories.
"Stories of Terrans running over to another world probably existed as far back as two thousand years ago. Still, I believe that Burroughs should be seen as the originator based on the criterion of attaining popularity through novels whose only objective was entertainment of the masses. Descendants and distant descendants continue to show up endlessly even now, subconsciously emulating his works or making minor changes. This might actually be a bit similar to the relationship between progenitors and their kin in vampire novels. Nowadays, there are already many people in the publishing industry who have never even heard of the Mars series..."
A strange phenomenon took place when Hal reached this point in his explanations.
The Anastasya was a ship with the highest specs in the solar system.
Namely, Hal and Hazumi's spaceship. Reaching almost thirty meters in length, its streamlined teardrop-shaped fuselage shook violently.
Until now, it had been cruising smoothly on an orbit around Venus.
The shaking did not happen just once. After that, the fuselage continued to vibrate mildly!
"D-Did an accident occur?"
"No, we ran out of fuel. This ship is a total glutton..."
This spaceship could be operated by a crew no bigger than the number of people needed to run a personally operated small business.
Yet this tiny craft was the fastest in the universe and equipped with firepower that could only be described as overspec'd.
This was a tradition tacitly accepted ever since the earliest space novels. Custom made inventions created by genius scientists were innumerable.
However, there were occasionally stories that would impose weaknesses upon them.
Hal and Hazumi's beloved spacecraft, the Anastasya, was one of them.
"Anyway, this ship is a big eater. Using a human analogy, it needs to be served five snacks and four special meals in addition to the three staples of breakfast, lunch and dinner, not to mention a smoothie before breakfast and dinner has to include a serving each of ramen and chazuke. That's why it suddenly ran out of fuel and couldn't continue flying..."
Hence, the Anastasya began to crash.
One might consider it fortunate that after losing control, the ship did not end up as scrap metal floating in the endless universe.
The spaceship crashed into the Venus atmosphere nearby.
In this time period, the various solar system planets including Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter had been terraformed by future technology to make them inhabitable by mankind.
However, that did not mean they could be equated to "safe lands."
The Venus situation was such that the majority of the land was covered by jungle or filled with marshes. Dangerous beasts and monsters inhabited these jungles.
The Anastasya made an emergency landing at one of these jungles near the equator.
"It finallys stabilized..."
"L-Let's go outside to have a look, Senpai!"
Hal and Hazumi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Their energy source, the QX engine was completely silent.
Even electricity could not be produced, much less propulsion for a spacecraft to take off. Carrying flashlights, Hal and Hazumi opened the hatch manually and exited the ship.
After that, they walked in the jungle for about three hours.
Using sizes on Earth as a reference, it would not be strange for the giant trees growing in the jungle to have lived as much as centuries.
The sky and the sun were obscured by the foliage of the towering trees growing on Venusian soil. It was currently daytime yet the inside of the jungle was dark.
The air was humid and stuffy.
The Kogetsu Academy uniforms they were wearing soon became soiled by sweat and mud.
While exploring under unpleasant conditions, they sent out flying devices equipped with tiny cameras to get a grasp on the surrounding geography.
They also measured the terrestrial magnetic field to determine their latitude and longitude. This allowed them to confirm on the map that there was a Venusian settlement roughly fifty kilometers ahead.
Then they took a break at a lake flowing with clear water.
The great jungles of Venus were all dark and gloomy environments like this.
However, Hal felt incredibly satisfied amidst all this.
"Mm-hmm. Speaking of Venus, it's the planet of giant jungles after all as well as the headquarters of the solar system library or the Galaxy Patrol."
"Really?"
"Yeah. This is functional beauty as defined by retro science fiction. Also, Mars is basically a planet that's one big wasteland, which feels like there maybe ruins left from the extinction of a super ancient civilization or remnants of canals."
"Fufufufu. That's wonderful, Senpai! Say—"
After smiling like an angel as always, soothing Hal's heart and soul, Hazumi asked, "I'd like to take a bath here. May I?"
"What did you say!?"
Hal jumped in shock and alarm and instantly shook his head.
"No, absolutely not."
"I can't...? I'm all sweaty and we finally found clean water, so I'd like to rinse myself."
Having lost power, the Anastasya could not activate its water purification system either.
Hazumi should be allowed to make use of nature's blessings to take a bath as desired. However, Hal still replied mercilessly, "Listen carefully, Shirsaka. Bath scenes offering legal fanservice definitely are the highlights elevating B movies to top-class entertainment, but there's a common pattern. Heroines who go off alone unnecessarily will most likely meet a fate to please the audience. If you go take a bath on your own, you might get attacked."
"Ehhh!?"
"Just in case, I'll stay on guard next to you. Otherwise, I won't allow you to take a bath."
Hal took out his gun from his hip holster.
But instead of the magic gun he always kept with him, this was a large-caliber blaster, bigger and more in line with retro sci-fi settings.
In an adorable tone of voice, Hazumi said, "...Excuse me, Senpai. Even for you, that is still 'naughty naughty!', you know?"
"Why do you say that?"
"Because you will see me in the nude, Senpai. Please leave this lake for now, Senpai."
Hal went "hnng!"
Simply hearing Hazumi, the obedient girl younger than him, gently scolding him "naughty naughty!" wa enough to fill Hal's body and soul with indescribable contentment. So adorable. Too adorable.
He wanted to take the easy way out, but that would not guarantee his protege's safety.
Hal did not back down.
"Then I'll turn around and look away from the lake and you, Shirasaka."
"......"
"That way, even if enemies attacked, I'd still be able to take care of them quickly. If no one shows up, of course I won't take a single peek at you. What do you think?"
"Fine... I guess that'll have to do."
After some hesitation, Hazumi chuckled and agreed to Hal's suggestion.
"On further thought, it's not like you'll do anything weird, Senpai."
"That goes without saying!"
Hal turned his back to the protege who trusted him completely.
Then he heard the sound of friction between clothing.
Hazumi was currently removing her uniform. Then the splashing of water implied she had entered the lake.
Immediately after that, a sinister beast's roar was heard.
GYUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
"Kyahhhhhhh!?"
"Just as I predicted!"
Hazumi screamed loudly. Hal immediately opened his eyes and looked back.
A giant squid, roughly four meters in length, had appeared out of the water, extending one of its tentacles towards Hazumi who was standing in the lake's shallows.
Naturally, Hazumi was unclothed.
Completely naked, she gave off vibes like a lake fairy that were amplified by the location of a jungle on another planet, and a jungle spring at that.
Her limbs were so delicate that it seemed like they would break under the pressure of a hug.
Even so, she was still showing volume in all the right places.
Only fourteen years of age, her body traced out beautiful curves that made the viewer look forward to her growth. Still, Hazumi's body was "maidenly" from head to toe without giving anyone the impression of excessive maturation.
One tentacle had tangled itself around Hazumi's wrist.
(...I think I've seen this giant squid before.)
It was identical to the monster they had encountered at the Izu waters before.
While thinking that, Hal fired four times consecutively from his blaster. One of the shots struck and blew away the tentacle entangling Hazumi's wrist.
All that was left to do was shooting and destroying this mysterious giant organism that had appeared in a freshwater lake even though it was a squid.
My shooting skills are faster than the eye can follow.
As the hero of this action scene, Hal was virtually unstoppable across the entire universe.
"Thank you, Senpai!"
This was followed by what would be a staple scene.
Utterly grateful, Hazumi threw herself into Hal's embrace.
Hal caught his protege's wet body. Her appropriately bulging breasts was pressed against Haruga Haruomi's stomach.
This included those pink parts adorning the front tips of her breasts.
Ack!
Crap, crap, form is no different from emptiness, and emptiness is no different from form...
To suppress thoughts of lust, Hal summoned his sage's mind that was immovable as a rock.
Speaking of which, it was not too long ago when he had grabbed Shirasaka's breast in his right hand to inject magical power directly into her heart.
Just as Hal's vivid memory of that sensation were revived—
He suddenly came to his senses.
The impressions and memories of physical contact, branded upon the palm of his hand—They made his consciousness reconnect with his body's sensations.
Hal instantly became wide awake.
"Where am I...?"
He looked around him.
There was nothing. If anything, it was just a gray space.
The background was gray. The was also gray. Before his eyes was just endless "gray."
There was clearly no floor or ground, yet Hal remained sitting firmly in this gray space. Rather than "sitting," it was more like hovering in the air.
He was holding Shirasaka Hazumi in his arms.
In the final moments of the retro sci-fi farce that seemed like a weird dream, he had been holding Hazumi like this—His current posture was identical to that.
Hazumi's eyes were tightly shut. She was sleeping soundly. However, she murmured in her dream, "Sorry, you warned me beforehand, Senpai..."
She must have experienced the same dream as Hal.
She was still inside that farce, imprisoned by magic in a strange realm of sleep and dreams—
Hal suddenly noticed.
Hazumi was not wearing her school uniform but casual clothes. This was the same set of clothes she was wearing during the battle against dragon king Hannibal at New York during the summer vacation.
"What on earth happened?" Hal muttered to himself.
Part 2
"Let's see..."
Hal took a deep breath and began to organize his memories.
"I remember after the fight with Hannibal, Solomon's legacy, the Rune of the Ring, had appeared together with the seventy-two serpent souls and they were releasing magical power over our heads."
His thoughts grew more and more lucid.
"Next, the Ring said to us in an extremely deep voice..."
Something about accepting King Solomon's invitation.
As one would expect, the reason why the attack struck Hal directly without him being able to defend against the magical power released by the Ring was because an instant before that, his deathmatch against the strongest dragon king had just concluded.
Right now, he was imprisoned inside a mysterious gray space.
A world of gray as far the eye could see.
The scenery remained constant all the way to the far end of the horizon. Nothing resembling an exit was in sight.
"Is this a prison for locking away Shirasaka and me?"
Hal muttered quietly, holding his sleeping junior in his arms.
But he mustered his determination and deliberately laid Hazumi's delicate body on the ground.
Like Hal, who was sitting on gray air, the sleeping Hazumi also floated in the air. She happened to hover at Hal's feet.
Given this incomprehensible situation, the space must have been created by magic no matter how you looked at it.
In other words, I should use this to counter it—Hal summoned his "magic wand" to his right hand.
Rather than a retro sci-fi blaster, it was his usual steel-colored magic gun.
"I wasn't killed in my sleep—" said Hal to the magic gun.
"I guess that's because Solomon-senpai doesn't have enough power to do that?"
"You are probably correct."
Residing inside the magic gun, the former dragon queen, Hinokagutsuchi, replied.
Her tone was slightly sarcastic as usual and sounded quite malicious.
"What a wise idea, ambushing a fierce tiger in its sleep... However, if one were to step on the tiger's tail by accident, they would be torn apart by the awakened tiger's claws in a single swipe."
"In that case, might as well let it sleep—Is that what he's thinking?"
"Precisely. Solomon has a trickier captive. He cannot afford to spend all his power on you."
A trickier captive?
Hal tilted his head then had a flash of insight.
"Hannibal!?"
On further thought, the red dragon king should be exhausted just like the rest of them.
This meant that Hal had to take the strongest dragon's presence into consideration when planning his escape and counterattack...
While Hal was putting his mind to work, Hinokagutsuchi said, "Have you noticed, brat? Your trump card was stolen again."
"Huh?"
Now that she mentioned it, Hal hastily focused his consciousness on his own chest.
The heart beneath was specially crafted. It was the organ created by merging with the heartmetal belonging to Hinokagutsuchi—the dragon queen—in the past.
It was also linked to her dragonoid body...
Indeed. The dragon king-class husk of the Crimson Queen which obeyed Haruga Haruomi's orders.
However, Hal could not sense the queen's presence at all right now.
"Solomon-senpai got me again."
During the battle against Hannibal, Solomon's ghost and the Ring had stolen the Crimson Queen from Hal, taking perfect control of her. The same situation had happened again.
"A practically equal opponent is such a hassle."
It was a back and forth battle with both sides taking advantage of each other's openings.
The thrill and experience was different compared to an intense showdown against a dragon king, far stronger than himself.
However, Hal was not really the type to indulge in the pleasures of battle itself. He grumbled and bit then sighed lightly.
No matter what, he had to escape this place and awaken Hazumi.
"Although fighting a second round isn't really my thing..."
No helping it. Hal touched the magic gun and used Dispel magic.
It was definitely no easy task to overcome the magical power belonging to Solomon, the great ancient sorcerer, but with Haruga Haruomi at a comparable level right now, it should not be impossible—
Certain of this, Hal extracted magical power from his own heart.
In the next instant, the surrounding scenery changed.
Hal's location was no longer the unnatural gray space.
He had moved to a stone hall with gigantic pillars of white stone standing upright all over the place. Described using an experiences from Earth, it looked very similar to marble.
"It reminds me of Islamic mosques..."
The architectural style was unlike any in modern Japan.
The ceiling glowed faintly, serving as illumination.
Hal's official assistant was lying on the stone floor. The girl went "mm..." adorably and slowly opened her eyes.
"Senpai... Where on earth are we...?"
"Probably Solomon-senpai's ark that we awakened—Somewhere inside it. Anyway, we need to start planning our escape."
He nodded at the still drowsy Hazumi.
"It's like a temple..."
Hal said quietly.
Several minutes earlier, after explaining the situation to Hazumi, he had decided to take a quick tour.
This was inside the building made of white stone. There was not a single person nor did he encounter any wild beasts or monsters. It was quite all around.
Precisely because of that, this place felt rather holy.
While the two of them were walking aimlessly along a passage like this—
"Well, this is the mansion belonging to Solomon-senpai the great sorcerer of legend. Calling it a temple wouldn't be wrong."
"Umm, Senpai..."
Walking next to Hal, Hazumi asked, "I remember that King Solomon was the king of Israel... Wasn't he?"
"Yeah. But that Israel refers to the ancient kingdom founded by the ancestors of the Jews, the Kingdom of Israel. Of course, it's different from the Israel in the modern Middle East."
According to the Old Testament of the Bible, the first monarch of this kingdom was King Saul.
The one who succeeded Saul was not his son Jonathan, but Jonathan's best friend and the great hero who had defeated Goliath the giant—David.
Solomon was the son of David.
During King Solomon's reign, the Kingdom of Israel reached an unprecedented height in power.
However, after the great sorcerer king's death, the kingdom fragmented into two pieces, one north and one south, never recovering again—
"But somehow, something doesn't feel right."
After walking for an hour or two, Hal felt doubt rising in his mind.
They had discovered almost ten rooms including small rooms resembling studio apartments as well as great halls where one could hold dance parties.
One would definitely not consider this an exceptionally extravagant arrangement.
Most Japanese people would probably understand if the analogy of "pretty much the same as a community hall you can find anywhere" was used to describe the building's floor area and number of rooms.
However, this was the strange part.
Solomon's ark had been summoned from the other side of the sea of stars.
This ship was definitely huge. Reaching thirty meters in length, it was definitely big enough to serve as a coffin for a giant, but even so—
In terms of interior space, wasn't it a bit too vast?
"Senpai! There's an exit!"
While Hal was feeling puzzled, Hazumi said to him in elation.
She pointed ahead in the passage with her right index finger. There was a wide exit where dazzling light was streaming in from the outdoors. It looked like sunlight...
Hal and Hazumi quickly walked to the bright exit.
They were finally outdoors.
Overhead was a vast blue sky.
Hanging high above, the sun was radiant.
The land underfoot was a small island floating in the air. The island had only one building, the stone temple they had just exited.
A more careful look revealed several—no, hundreds—of similar islands floating in this blue sky.
Every island featured at least one temple of similar appearance.
"What's with this place!?"
"This doesn't look like this ship's interior!"
Hal and Hazumi were shocked, but Hinokagutsuchi said in boredom, "This trick isn't actually that amazing. That guy Solomon simply used magic to expand and contort space. He probably set up some kind of barrier inside the ark."
Residing within the magic gun, the former dragon queen spoke calmly.
So far unable to give up an ordinary person's sensibilities, Hal whispered in a hoarse voice, "So this place is still inside Senpai's ship huh..."
"Amazing..."
Hazumi was dumbfounded in astonishment next to Hal, sweeping her gaze in a circle to look at the endless blue sky before her.
Part 3
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Part 4
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Part 5
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