Chapter 351
Chapter 351
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 351
Chapter Title: Imperial Throne War: Redburn Territory Explosion - Part 3
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The Duke of Redburn had rigged the magic circle to run wild before making his escape. In time, the human sacrifice array spanning the entire territory would accelerate to maximum speed, claiming countless souls in the process.
And for every soul sacrificed, the duke's power would grow. That was the biggest problem.
"Isn't there any way to stop the magic circle?"
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking... There is a way! If we can't control the train, we just wipe out the whole damn thing. Erase every magic circle laid across the territory...!"
"How the hell are we supposed to overturn the ones covering the entire duchy...?!"
It was like saying that since iron kept rusting in the presence of oxygen, they should just eliminate all the oxygen in the atmosphere.
"If we go all out, we might manage it! Though I'd have to hold back on using Sublimation a bit..."
Thud thud thud thud thud.
Footsteps drew closer. Armed soldiers were swarming into the basement. There were dozens of them for now, but the delay would only bring more pouring in endlessly.
Yuri Lancaster judged the situation coolly.
"If there's no gain in sticking around, we should escape first. We're trapped underground, and the duke's forces are flooding our only exit. We have to break through. Then we can figure things out once we've secured safety."
"O-okay! Yuri, step a little to the side. I'll erase every obstacle in our path."
A swirl of light danced at the tips of Yuna Yurensuto Violetiris's fingers. With the archmage's ultimate technique Erase at her disposal, no amount of enemy numbers could stop them from breaking through.
Soldiers appeared at the far end of the corridor. Heavy knights in full plate armor were interspersed among the regular infantry.
"The intruders are there! Take them out!"
"...I hope this just blinds them for a bit—Erase!"
Just as the erasing flash was about to launch at her command...
Thud.
An invisible force descended. Her fingertips twisted unnaturally off course.
"Whoa...?!"
Screeeeech—!!
Erase fired off wildly, grazing past Yuri's ear. A few strands of her pink hair got caught up, losing all information and turning dull and ashen.
Yuri Lancaster wiped away a bead of cold sweat with the back of her hand and said,
"...To claim the one and only legitimate wife position, have you finally decided to eliminate the competition?"
"N-no! Sorry! That wasn't on purpose...!"
"Just kidding. Looks like the duke's Apotheosis has kicked in. I can feel some ominous pressure weighing on my shoulders. Watch friendly fire."
Their maximum firepower was sealed.
As expected, if the duke wasn't an idiot, he'd have countermeasures for her first and foremost. With the risk of hitting allies, Erase was naturally off-limits. All she could do now was support with Illusion Magic.
That left Selbia and Yuri as the main attackers to punch through the enemy lines—
—Or so one might think. Duke Maximuss of Redburn gazed at the chessboard divination. This was how the story would unfold: Clack. The white queen retreats. He'd long known of Violet Magic Tower Master Yuna Yurensuto's instability. Concentrate misfortune on her, and she'd be out of commission. She was also faint-hearted and impulsive. After the nightmare in the old tower, her courage had withered like a snuffed candle. Faced with her own uselessness, she'd panic and waste time. No Sublimation either—fear of another runaway would hold her back. At least while Premonition Lantern held sway, she wouldn't dare try it. Then. Clack. The white knight leaps into a swarm of black pieces. Yuri Lancaster had always been fiercely independent since her Execution Squad days, preferring solo play over teamwork, according to records. With the Violet Tower Master's power bound, she'd think she had to handle it herself. But the duke had prepared personnel to counter her close-quarters brawling. Curse casters to slow her movements, the debuff from Premonition Lantern itself, plus knights empowered with superhuman strength via Apotheosis. In the narrow passage, no amount of twisting would grant freedom of movement. The moment her slowing body got grabbed by a knight, it was over. Wrestling finish. And. Clack. The white bishop freezes up. Selbia, the Crimson Tower mage, was an academy student, he'd heard. From her performance in academy team battles, she was another high-firepower type vulnerable to friendly fire. And with her fragile defenses, a sniper setup would take her out easily. Thus. Plunk. In this discordant symphony, the three women would fall to defeat. Such was the duke's divination. Vrrrrm—. The chessboard trembled. Mana surged, imposing fate upon the distant real-world battlefield. Destiny converged on defeat. They teetered on a slippery downhill slope, one misstep from total collapse. But. Crack, split. Pop!
"......"
The black knight shattered—the piece symbolizing the duke's knight. Black pawns followed, cracking one by one. Something had gone wrong. The duke furrowed his brow. According to his intel, this divination should've been near-perfect. What had gone awry?
Think simple. Sometimes the answer lies in simplicity.
"If I'm worried about missing... I'll just shoot from close enough not to!"
Short-range Erase. Press the fingertips right up against the target, and no twist of fate could make it miss. Her inner mirror Yuna whispered anxiously. -What if you get stabbed or something? Yuri Lancaster's fight with the soldiers looked like a storm of iron. Attacks deflected, chains whipping, longswords thrusting with killing intent from all sides. To fire at short range meant diving into that melee. Even with defensive magic, safety wasn't guaranteed. With Premonition Lantern active, a "mistake" in defense could happen, right? Yuna answered the worry boldly.
"If I get hit... it'll hurt!" -...... It hurt to get hurt. She hated pain. But conversely, the cost of helping her friend was just that—pain. The only punch she'd ever thrown in her life was the Yuna Punch at Mimi. Still, she'd do it. No regrets that way. -I should've never returned your courage after all. Then you wouldn't have stepped up. But what's done is done... I'll help you, Yuna. Shhhk. A pitch-black arm slithered out from inside her conical hat. Red light flickered at each fingertip. Six in total. Added to her original two arms, that made eight barrels ready to fire.
"...Hiiiyaaah!"
Yuna squeezed her eyes shut and charged into the heart of the battlefield. Some blades threatening Yuri veered toward her instead.
"Witch, die!" -The one getting erased is you. Shkk, screeech—!! The black arms bent at grotesque angles, stabbing into a soldier's chest. Light burst like a flashbang and faded, neutralizing one foe. Against enemies with no counter to Erase, point-blank shotgun blasts were unstoppable. Flashes erupted in succession. With soldiers dropping in heaps, killing intent shifted to Yuna.
"...Prioritize the short one! Crossbowmen, fire!"
"Hah."
Clank! Chains wrapped around a soldier's neck, throttling him. Yuri used the choking man as a shield, blocking Yuna's front. Thwip thwip thunk—the crossbow bolts sliced through the air but lost lethality in the meat shield.
"...Thanks!"
"Yuna, you switching to frontline duty?"
"I can't just stand around doing nothing...!"
"Then let's watch each other's backs. Cover only the enemies in your line of sight. Let's go."
Tap. Back-to-back, they faced the oncoming horde. Yuri whipped chains, tripped foes, stunned jaws with uppercuts, then kicked them away to buy time—using bodies as obstacles to stall the assault. And.
"Switch."
"Sw-switch!"
They spun half a turn, and Yuna's close-range Erase lit up the disrupted enemy lines. The board was flowing against the duke's predictions. Like a failed prophet losing authority, Premonition Lantern's power began to wane sharply. And.
"...Prep's done!"
"Wh-what prep?!"
"Escape prep!"
While the two fought, Selbia finished her long incantation and thrust out her hand. Flame wings rippled from her back.
"Flame Angel, Stage 3—Nova!"
⟨ Flame Angel ⟩
Roooar—!!
The angel's red star birthed a pillar of fire. The scorching column pierced from floor to ceiling, vertically ascending. When the flames subsided, the sky was visible.
A vertical tunnel, melted and charred, stretched from basement to mansion rooftop.
"This way we don't have to break through head-on, right?! Radiant Scatter Shower!"
"Well done, Selbia!"
Fwoosh!
Countless flame arrows rained down to suppress. As she laid covering fire, Yuri and Yuna slipped away from the hot zone.
"Up we go!"
"I lack flight capabilities, though. Mind if I hitch a ride, beautiful lady of the Crimson Magic Tower?"
"...Just grab on to something!"
Confirming Yuri's arms around her waist, Selbia whooshed her flame wings wide, blasting hot air downward.
The recoil lifted them buoyantly. Flame Angel and her passengers soared up the hole. Only the Violet Magic Tower's archmage remained below.
With Premonition Lantern's power plummeting from the disrupted plan—and no more worry of friendly fire now that the others had fled to the sky—things simplified.
Yuna Violetiris raised her hand.
"If I'm worried about missing..."
-Just fire enough that I won't.
Shkk, shkkk.
Innumerable hands extended from under her conical hat. Too many to dodge skyward or earthward. Red and purple lights alternated at every fingertip.
Desperate soldiers, shocked faces, those hunching, those bracing defenses, those fleeing the calamity, those swinging swords to the end—all of it.
Roooar—!!
Erased.
Float float. Riding a soap bubble up, Yuna landed on the Redburn mansion's roof. Yuri and Selbia, who had arrived first, were surveying the surroundings with grim expressions. Yuna glanced around too. From above, the Duchy of Redburn gleamed darkly black. The human sacrifice array had begun ramping up its absorption speed.
"Th-this is bigger than I thought..."
"It's a whole duchy."
They needed a countermeasure. Before countless people died.
"How about dismantling parts of the array first, then carving out safe zones to evacuate the residents? We can't save everyone, but we can save as many as possible."
"Or we could just set the whole territory ablaze threateningly? The residents would flee on their own. Some property damage, but..."
To dismantle the array meant flipping the entire territory. Possible, sure. But minimizing collateral damage was the trick. Then a crow flew in.
"Caw caw! Setup's complete. I've linked the communication network to everyone in the territory. Live broadcast's good to go! The sacrifice array was tracking individuals, so... it made things easy."
"...Live broadcast?"
"Yep! We can run political propaganda and brainwashing broadcasts daily, and the territory's opinion will shift easi—caw!"
"Hold up—details on the individual tracking!"
Yuna grabbed the crow and shook it. The mad bird explained while flopping around.
"Caw caw! The tattoos they got entering the territory! The array targets those with the tattoos. So I hijacked them for the comms network..."
"Then we just erase the tattoos! Should've used Sublimation sooner to wipe 'em all out!"
Yuna released the crow and prepared her spell. Mana rose, fingertips tracing a cross in the air as she declared,
"Sublimation—'Fantasy Realm: Gate Opening'!"
⟨ Fantasy Realm ⟩
Shwaaa—!
Unlike the previous crooked, unstable rift, this was a clean, steady cross-shaped fissure holding firm as a gate.
The boundary between illusion and reality blurred. The intangible became visually manifest. Tattoos on the territory's residents linked to the array as single lines.
She warped the tattoos' shapes. Stars, hearts, unicorns—whatever texture came to mind. Severing recognition from the array.
Snap.
With the sound of threads snapping, the earth's black glow began to fade. Unable to find targets, the human sacrifice array fell silent.
Bomb defused. Complete.
The chessboard lay in ruins. Utterly wrecked.
"......"
Rage boiled up. Where had it unraveled? Sloppy intel from his investigators? Or had their info changed in that brief moment? He ground his teeth. But he kept thinking. This wasn't the time. Sometimes, one had to accept defeat. Duke Maximuss cleanly abandoned his territory. He pulled out a communication orb. Zzzzzt. A moment later, connection established.
"Faceless."
"Yes, my lord Duke. Mooost preparations are complete."
"Good. Load the prime mountain sacrifices into carriages and transport them. Rendezvous at the second secret safehouse in Otr Forest."
"As commanded."
Click. Line cut. Opportunities remained. The intruders, led by the Violet Tower Master, would be tied up stopping the territory array; the capital knight order busy with his capital traps. In this precious window, take the mountain sacrifices from Faceless and perform the final ritual. Claim the evil god's power fully as his own. The final moment approached.
"We're moving."
"......Yes."
Duke Maximuss of Redburn hurried off with his loyal retainer Roderus. Roderus, hands clasped behind his back in concealment, subtly operated a communicator and sent a message.
Beep.
"...The time has come."
The recipient was Enbus Redburn, waiting nearby.
The hour to settle all grudges had arrived. He doused the campfire, rose, and headed to the destination ahead. There... the brothers would cast off the duke's oppressive shadow from the past.