[152] Forceful Breakthrough (7)
The squad leader's eyes nearly popped out. A steel gate that could withstand most siege engines had been breached.
"Damn it! Fire straight at him!"
The order was more of a stopgap. With the gate already broken, if they couldn't stop him here the battle would quickly tilt in the enemy's favor.
His men, understanding that, took aim directly at Shirone and drew their bows.
"Fire!"
Forty mana‑arrows launched with everything the archers had, streaking toward Shirone.
Even seeing the hail of bolts rushing in, Shirone did not move. A simple blink couldn't get him outside the blast radius.
But spatial teleportation was different.
The instant those forty arrows began to fall, Shirone's body became a flash and the space around him folded.
Kiiiiiing!
No sooner had the noise of spatial movement spread than a massive bombardment obliterated the spot where Shirone had stood.
Tess watched the bombardment in stunned silence. The thunder reverberating through the valley made it feel as if they were standing in the middle of a battlefield.
"Shi—Shirone…."
The explosion was enormous, the blast enough to disorient anyone. So no one realized Shirone had teleported.
Amy was the exception. Archers say the flight of arrows is the clearest sound to them; swordsmen hear the clash of blades most sharply.
Because of that, even under the roar of the blast, the mage Amy could hear the distinctive sound of spatial movement.
"Shirone's fine. Let's go in."
Amy cut through the smoke and moved forward. As expected, stepping out of the bombardment revealed Shirone standing before the gate.
Spatial movement bends light. The flash soaring skyward was just an illusion.
In truth Shirone hadn't launched into the air; the space had folded. From a distance it looks like a flash shoots upward, but up close it just feels as if someone vanished.
That's why mages identify teleportation by sound.
"Ha ha ha! It's over! Totally over!"
"There's not even a trace left! Nothing to fear now. Everyone, prepare to storm!"
Falcua's men lowered their bows and picked up siege tools. The mage who'd shown the greatest threat appeared dead, so they felt safe.
Tess tilted his head. Shirone stood before the gate like a reaper, yet the enemy was cheering. It looked absurd.
"What's with them? Why are they celebrating?"
"They probably didn't hear the noise of the teleport. They must think Shirone's dead."
It didn't take long for Falcua's men to correct their mistake.
When Shirone slowly stepped back and stepped out of the wall's blind spot, they all reacted as if they'd seen a ghost.
"Le-leader! Over there—!"
The squad leader's face flushed. Shirone, who should have been shredded by the bombardment, was defiantly staring up at the wall.
"You—you bastard!"
Before the real siege began, Shirone gave the enemy one last chance.
"Release Jis's sister. Do that, and we'll turn back here."
The squad leader stared at Shirone, dazed. Turn back now? Did he think this was some sort of amusement park?
"You think we'll just hand her over and let you leave? The true siege starts the moment the gate's broken. Do you know how much the magic circle you destroyed was worth? It's money you couldn't repay even with your life. I'll torment you until you beg to die."
"I don't want to fight any more meaningless battles. You were the ones who were wrong from the start. So let's end this here."
"Ha! End it? Do you know who we are? We're the Parrot Mercenary Corps—born and bred on battlefields, we die on battlefields! Men, move out! Slaughter them!"
"Uaaaaah!"
The soldiers raised their swords and roared.
Words getting nowhere, Shirone sighed and walked into the wall's blind spot.
"How kind of you to come to us! Men, go down and—huh?"
The squad leader stopped mid-sentence. A single image flashed through his mind.
That strange magic that had pulverized the rock falling over the valley. Could he really be sure these walls were harder than that stone?
"Hey—wait a minute—!"
The squad leader ran up the stairs to the gate. As he feared, Shirone had slipped into the hole in the iron gate and was bringing his fist down.
"Hey! You're kidding, right? You wouldn't—"
His voice trembled. His head went blank.
"Don't—don't do it! Do you know how hard we worked for this wall? Hey!"
Shirone finished charging his magic and glanced back once at the squad leader standing on the landing.
Meeting that look, the squad leader realized—Shirone had already decided.
"Get down! Everyone, jump!"
As the squad leader shouted while climbing the stairs, Shirone murmured low.
"Rampage."
KRAKAKAKA—KRA—KONG!
A twenty‑meter‑diameter Rampage pulsed fifteen times per second. The wall shook as if struck by an earthquake; Falcua's men lost their footing and fell.
As expected of a huge structure, its durability was substantial. But Shirone didn't stop the Rampage. Material durability has limits. If you strike until it breaks, it will break—that's physics.
The iron gate rang like a hammer on metal; cracks raced across the wall like lightning.
The fissures branched and spread, penetrating the whole structure, and finally the ground trembled with the first signs of collapse.
The squad leader was beside himself.
He was a veteran with siege experience, but he'd never seen a crude tactic that tore down the entire fortress rather than just the gate.
"Aaah! Fine! We lost! Stop it!"
He screamed, but the mass‑laden light striking the wall like a drum swallowed his voice before it traveled a meter.
Damn! This can't be!
This was truly dangerous.
If the fortress collapsed like this, the fate of the forty inside would be left to whatever gods there were.
Uuuugh!
Shirone pinched the bridge of his nose and focused the Rampage. With a steady, unchanging rhythm, he drove everything around him outward.
From where the whole wall was visible, Tess watched the scene in a daze.
At first the wall's center was partially destroyed, then hysterical cracks raced along it. The left side sagged slightly, then the right side dropped as if balancing it.
And at last—
Kruuuuuumble!
The entire fortress came down.
"My god… that's just a human weapon."
Rian shared Tess's sentiment. Shirone had usually used magic to protect someone. Seeing what happened when he truly decided to smash something showed just how different the same magic could be in intent and result.
"He's incredible. I suppose I wasn't the only one who didn't really understand Shirone."
Amy smiled and nodded. Combat might not be a mage's whole world, but pride in battle was real.
"Shirone rarely escalates things. But if he decides to fight, his combat ability is outstanding. At this rate he'd rank among the top even in the senior class."
Tess chuckled softly. He understood what Amy meant.
He'd worried about it in his own quiet way. All in all, Shirone was different inside and out.
Amy was genuinely glad to see Shirone's growth. At this pace, graduating together with him might not be such a far‑fetched dream.
You followed through, Shirone.
When the Rampage ended, the wall lay in ruins. The section facing the valley still held some shape, but the center had caved in as if a giant boulder had rolled through.
Uuuugh…
Soldiers trapped in the rubble groaned and wriggled.
None of them looked unharmed. The squad leader who'd tried to stop Shirone hadn't escaped the collapse; his arm was broken.
But he was too stunned to feel the pain.
Five years of effort building up their northern stronghold flashed before his eyes like a series of scenes.
"This can't be. All this devastation by one person? The Parrot Mercenary Corps?"
Startled by Shirone's approach, the squad leader turned his head. Facing Shirone's intense gaze, an overwhelming terror rose up.
"Bring Jis's sister here now! If you don't, I won't spare you!"
Eek!
The squad leader instinctively covered his face. His broken arm swung like a pendulum before his eyes.
Uuuugh…!
Seeing his grotesquely twisted arm, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.
Shirone's group.
First gate cleared.
* * *
"Wow. Amazing, Shirone."
Marsha watched Shirone's fight from two hundred meters away on the wall.
She sat on a handkerchief she'd spread on the ground, looking like a girl on a picnic—carefree.
It was a sad thing, what had happened to those men, but mercenaries live with that sorrow. She herself had lost hundreds after being deceived by politicians' schemes.
"He was so strong and hoodwinked them completely. Or maybe because he was strong he was so calm."
She'd known he had a knack for magic, but she hadn't expected a display like this.
Most impressive was how all of Shirone's magic was applied from his own unique field.
'An Unlocker…'
Marsha felt pleased.
She liked that Shirone was strong, and she liked that he pretended to care for others' pain. Most exciting of all was the thought that soon that pure, beautiful boy would be crushed by her hands.
"You've got at least ten years to catch me, kiddo."
She stretched and stood. Her bracelet flashed and in an instant propelled her body northward toward the cliff.
Second Encounter (1)
Shirone's group continued north. With most of Falcua's men wounded at the first gate, no battles broke out.
"This way."
Finding the path through the forest fell to Amy.
If you run through a natural maze without paying attention, it's easy to lose your sense of direction.
But that didn't apply to Amy. Tess, following behind, had realized she had a talent for reconnaissance.
'Indeed. You can even put that pretty face to practical use.'
Amy's self‑memory ability could perfectly reconstruct a recorded state at a given time. So long as she didn't lose consciousness, she could be relocated anywhere and still pinpoint orientation precisely.
"Amy, there's a mountain path over there."
At Shirone's words Amy changed direction and left the forest.
A winding mountain path led up toward the hilltop.
Tess checked the ground. It looked like time had passed, but there were wagon ruts.
"This is their living area boundary. In siege terms, we've entered the inner defenses?"
For those exhausted from running through the woods, that was welcome news.
But it wasn't yet time to relax. Though they'd taken out most of the troops, none of the commanders had shown themselves.
"If we follow this road, we'll reach the stronghold. Just a little further."
Amy spoke as if it were settled, though she couldn't be certain. She said it to lift her friends' spirits as their guide.
If she totaled the movements and curve distances recorded in her self‑memory from the start of the fight, they'd covered about twelve kilometers. Converted to a straight line on the map, that was more than seven kilometers.