“Finally the cannon has been completed! Let"s start the operation right away?”

◆◇◆◇◆

The huge weapon for the decisive battle, the 『Big Magic Cannon』, which had many people join in its construction, was completed within a month.
All that"s left is to fire this cannon, destroy the magic barrier and suppress the underground fortress with the whole army in one go.
That means the Empire"s civil war will finally come to an end with this.
The cannon has a diameter of one meter and a length of 20 meters. Supporting it is a combination of a cannon mount, aiming device, cooling device, a device that connects the magic gems which store the mana, and Luise who is working as sub-power generator.

“To use the mana acc.u.mulated in my fist as sub-power, that cannon is quite the random construct, isn"t it?” (Luise)

“Isn"t it fine as long as we can win because of that?” (Peter)

“Well, I guess so.” (Luise)

Luise agreed with Peter"s point. These two might actually have similar personalities.

“Wilma, will your side be alright?”

“We tested it several times, so it should be okay. It"s only that the cannon"s aiming device has become rather big.” (Wilma)

“Didn"t you say that there"s no need for precision at the level of the magic sniper rifle?”

“Basically it will be fine if I hit around here.” (Wilma)

Wilma looked through the installed scope and showed a detailed map of the mountainside to me.

“The previously mentioned breath-emitting devices have been set up at places which are marked red.”

Peter didn"t play around in this one month either, it seems.
He investigated the places where we will be able to cause big damage to the underground fortress" facilities at the same time of breaking the　『Magic Barrier』.

“If it"s aiming at this level, I suppose there will be plenty of leeway for you, Wilma.” (Wendelin)

“As long as I don"t become careless. It will be fine as we adjusted the measurement error of the aiming device in the test firing at the beginning.” (Wilma)

“I see. Please do your best then.” (Wendelin)

When I gently caressed her head, Wilma looked very happy.

“Wend, what about me?” (Luise)

“Huh? Didn"t you tell me before 『I"m a grown up woman, so I won"t be pleased even if you caress me』?” (Wendelin)

“Did I really say something like that? Look, being unfair is no good.” (Luise)

When I caressed her head as well in response to that, she looked delighted as well.

“Emera?” (Peter)

“What is it?” (Emera)

“Look at that!” (Peter)

“What about it?” (Emera)

“Nothing…” (Peter)

Peter tried to imitate me to stroke Emera"s head, but there"s no way that she would accept that. With her unapproachable manner, Peter was tragically shot down. I don"t think that Emera will be happy to have something like that done to her anyway, but…

“Well, we are going to fire it soon then, right?”

It"s quite casual, but Peter orders Emera to signal the start of the operation. Once she instructed the magician standing next to her, he released a flare into the sky. At last it"s the beginning of battle.

“Wilma, give us a flashy shot!”

“Roger, flashy it will be.” (Wilma)

Having said that, since it"s just taking aim and pulling the trigger, it won"t be that flashy either way.

“Beginning the mana supply from the magic gem linking device. Current capacity at 57%.” (Wilma)

The magic gem linking device, which caused the most troubles in the building phase, seems to function properly. However, since it"s getting heated up as expected, we can feel the hot air over here as well. It might be difficult to use it for an extended period of time.

“Capacity at 105%.” (Wilma)

“I will start providing mana as well.” (Luise)

Following that, Luise poured the mana ama.s.sed in her fist into a cord, sending it to the magic cannon.
It"s the duty of a sub-power generator, but to guarantee the power output of the cannon, which is a trial product, her mana was necessary.

“Confirmed charging of mana. Adjusting aim, 2 ticks up, 3 ticks right. Aim all set. Fire.” (Wilma)

After Wilma confirmed all of it with an indifferent voice, she quickly pulled the trigger.
Just as she did, the surroundings of the magic cannon were attacked by a trembling as if a major earthquake was taking place.
The huge magic cannon isn"t actually so loud that it would make windows tremble.
Since it doesn"t use gunpowder, it"s not at the level of rupturing one"s eardrums.
Because it"s a primitive cannon, the energy of the firing is released completely to the front.
That"s why no shock wave reached us, but in exchange the cooling device released huge amounts of vapor while suppressing the abnormal heating.
I protect myself and the others from the steam with a 『Magic Barrier』.

“That"s an amazing amount of steam, isn"t it?”

“No change here.” (Wilma)

“How nice, that"s a convenient protection.” (Luise)

“But it has no use except on such occasion. After all you will get immediately drenched in sweat if you move while wearing this.” (Wilma)

Same as at the time with the large magic sniper rifle prototype, Wilma wore a mithril-coated coat.
Luise acted as if she was jealous, but well, since it"s difficult to use when hunting monsters…

“Did it hit?”

“It looks like it did.”

Because I was asked by Luise, I peeked through the binoculars in a hurry and confirmed that a reasonably big hole had been drilled into a part of the mountainside.
The cannon"s sh.e.l.l smashed the magic barrier, impacted on the mountainside and pierced into it. It apparently destroyed a facility, causing chaos within the underground fortress.
It was a simple c.h.i.n.kapin-shaped sh.e.l.l made out of a tungsten alloy without fuse and without any explosive material, but since that ma.s.s had been accelerated by a large amount of mana, it should have developed a considerable power.

“What terrific output. Wilma, keep shooting as long as you can.”

“Got it.”

While looking on the map, Wilma starts to aim at the next target.
The target points and their order had been noted down on the map of the mountainside.
This is what Peter had his troops investigate for the last month.

“Loading the next sh.e.l.l! Done!” (Armstrong)

“Eh? Dous.h.i.+, you"re in charge of loading the sh.e.l.ls?” (Wendelin)

The tungsten-alloy sh.e.l.ls, which had been completed by craftsmen polis.h.i.+ng the rough shape I had created, are absurdly heavy. It was planned to have several magicians, who can strengthen themselves, handle the loading process, but for some reason Dous.h.i.+ is doing it all by himself.

“To have several magicians carry one sh.e.l.l is quite inefficient!” (Armstrong)

“I"m thankful, but at the same time surprised that you can carry it by yourself.”

“This much is light for me.” (Armstrong)

Thanks to Dous.h.i.+, the loading of the sh.e.l.ls finishes speedily and Wilma fires the cannon in succession.
It is impossible for the aim to be off.
Even if it slightly deviates from its target, it will definitely cause damage to the fortress as long as it pierces into the mountainside.

“The aiming device had a measurement error. Adjusting it, one tick down, one tick left. Fire.” (Wilma)

There are in total 25 sh.e.l.ls that had been produced by me. I couldn"t do any more as I didn"t have enough materials.
It would have been fine to use other materials too, but since the mana stored in the magic gems will run out at that point anyway, it"s all the same.
Besides, if you fire 25 of those huge projectiles, it will consume a huge amount of mana to restore the 『Magic Barrier』 each time.
On the mountainside holes so big that you can see them with the naked eye had opened up at several places.
The interior of the fortress beyond the holes torn open by the sh.e.l.ls should be crumbling by now.

“All sh.e.l.ls. .h.i.t. I think I was able to destroy a considerable amount of the breath-emitting devices as well.” (Wilma)

“That"s amazing, Wilma.” (Wendelin)

As I praised Wilma who finished her task, there was movement within the imperial army.
The elites of the imperial army that seem to be the advance unit were ordered to storm the holey mountainside.
It"s probably because the rebel army couldn"t maintain the 『Magic Barrier』 any longer due to the bombardment.

“Now that it has come to this, they might give priority to the contest for great achievements.” (Ina)

“But they have to be on their guard, don"t they?” (Erwin)

Erw rebuts Ina"s remark.
As a matter of fact the advance guard came under fire from the breath-emitting devices that survived close to the mountainside.
However…

“They should be useless since Emersan is with them.” (Peter)

Peter won"t make such a mistake a second time either.
The discharged breath attacks were completely blocked by Emera who was standing at the head. The other magicians silenced the devices one after the other by launching spells at the locations from where the breath was originating.

“Earl-sama, we have to go as well.” (Burkhart)

“True, let"s go then?”

“I"m charging in!”

“Please don"t fall behind!”

At the same time as the imperial army"s vanguard started its attack on the underground fortress, we also charged in that direction.
The number of soldiers are only 1,000 led by Erw and Haruka, but since our destination is an underground fortress, it should be difficult to command a too big number of soldiers.

“Erwin, relax without stressing yourself too much.” (Philip)

“Nii-san and I will act in concert with the Mizuho army.” (Christoph)

Given that the speed will fall if we move with everyone, Philip and Christoph, who lead the remaining soldiers, were scheduled to move together with the Mizuho army.

“Start the charge!”

We leave the magic cannon that has no sh.e.l.ls left to be fired anymore to the Mizuho craftsmen and head out towards the deepest part of the fortress.

“Wend, are you possibly targeting Duke Nürnberg"s head?”

Luise asks something strange.

“I don"t need his head. I will gladly give it to anyone who wants it.” (Wendelin)

At this point in the civil war there"s no point in taking something like that and boasting of it as great military exploit. It will only trigger good-for-nothing envy. Rather than that, the destruction of the jamming device takes maximum priority right now.

“As there will be many contenders for it, it"s out of our reach anyway.” (Burkhart)

“If I remember correctly, even a normal soldier will become a n.o.ble as reward, right?”

“Yes. It"s said that they will be appointed to the rank of Viscount, albeit not a landed one. It"s something I frequently heard on the battlefield. Erw-san, let us go at it steadily.” (Haruka)

“Since I will be busy protecting Wend, don"t do anything unreasonable, Haruksan.” (Erwin)

Erw, Ina and Haruka apparently remembered Peter"s previous motivational speech to the officers and men of the imperial army. Since a big number of n.o.bles has died, it probably doesn"t hurt to give a peerage to the person who took Duke Nürnberg"s head.

“What a large-scaled underground base.”

Once I peeked through a hole in the mountainside, a pa.s.sage of the fortress was visible.
Since I don"t think that there had been any construction work done on it since the civil war broke out, the fortress utilizes the underground ruin after all.

“Wow, what a wide pa.s.sage.” (Luise)

Luise, who is searching for enemies while standing at the front since she"s a master of the Magic Combat Style, admired the vastness of the underground ruin.

“It probably was an army base to begin with.” (Burkhart)

It"s likely just as Burkhart-san deducted. If this place is the source of the various magic tools used by Duke Nürnberg so far, all of it makes sense.

“Dous.h.i.+, where are we going to find that device?”

“Considering it normally, I think it will be in the innermost part.” (Armstrong)

While moving, we observed all over battles between the imperial army that charged into the fortress and Duke Nürnberg"s feudal army which defended it. The sounds of weapons clas.h.i.+ng could be heard regularly.

“It"s the enemy army!”

“Sorry, time"s valuable.”

Once I invoke 『Area Stun』, all members of the enemy forces, who rushed in our direction, were paralyzed and stopped moving.

“Don"t bother finis.h.i.+ng them off! We are advancing further in!”

At any rate, since time was precious, we didn"t fuss over taking our revenge by killing the enemies. Erw strictly forbade attacks against the stunned enemies. We pa.s.s through the fortress while creating a large amount of paralyzed enemies.
Once we came this deep in, we couldn"t see our allies any longer nor could we hear any battle sounds.

“It"s quiet here, isn"t it?”

“That makes it all the more dangerous.”

Luise"s premonition came true. The lower we descended, the more suicide-bombing golems and breath-emitting devices were set up.

“The method to deal with them has been already established though.”

It would probably be difficult for normal soldiers to remove them, but for a magician they aren"t such difficult opponents.
The suicide-bombing golems will explode once they receive an impact above a certain, fixed level.

“Earl Baumeister, here are the necessary materials!” (Armstrong)

Dous.h.i.+ creates a great amount of rock lumps by hitting the wall of the underground ruin. I throw those at the approaching, suicide-bombing golems.
Once they hit, the golems explode and we block the fragments with our 『Magic Barriers』. And that"s all.

“Ina, Wilma.”

“Leave it to us.” (Ina)

“I will shoot!” (Wilma)

It"s the same for the breath-emitting devices. Since only the breath-spitting part has been deployed, the device itself can"t move.
Ina throws her spears from a distance. Wilma snipes. With me strengthening their attacks with 『Boost』, the devices were destroyed easily.
Given that they don"t have any function except spitting breath installed, the devices aren"t as st.u.r.dy as the dragon golems.

“However, we are reasonably far in and still haven"t arrived at our destination.”

We stormed in aiming for that jamming device, but we can"t get to it despite being fairly deep inside.
Since it"s necessary for Peter and his forces to finely comb through the fortress, they seem to be fighting a hard battle at a floor that"s far higher than the one where we are.
On the way we found residential areas, where the soldiers and their families are obviously living, under construction.
Because we don"t have the time to explore all of them, we ignore those and descend to the floor below.

“There"s only machinery! It looks like Duke Nürnberg doesn"t trust people!” (Armstrong)

After a certain floor, there were only suicide-bombing golems and breath-emitting devices set up.
As we advance while destroying those, we ran into an obviously suspicious, huge door. A big number of breath-emitting devices has been placed in front of it. Just before I can destroy them with magic from a distance, Dous.h.i.+ draws closer to them while deploying a 『Magic Barrier』 around himself, and destroys all of them with kicks and punches.
When he was drawing near, Dous.h.i.+ was. .h.i.t by breath attacks of all attributes, but all of it was repelled by his 『Magic Barrier』 .

“Complete destruction with one blow! Doing it little-by-little is troublesome!” (Armstrong)

Nothing but the wreckage of the devices remains in front of the door.

“Now then, this is the innermost room!” (Armstrong)

Once Dous.h.i.+ opened the huge door by himself, Duke Nürnberg and a weird middle-aged man wearing a white tuxedo waited for us there.

“A chief retainer of Duke Nürnberg? Doesn"t look like it…” (Wendelin)

“Earl-sama, look at the ears of that guy.” (Burkhart)

Being told so by Burkhart-san, I look at the ears of that man and discover that they were actually pointed.
He doesn"t look like an elf. Then again, even in my former world elves and dwarves were fictional  races.
They don"t exist in reality.

“Demon…”

Burkhart-san concisely taught me the correct answer. His appearance isn"t all that different from humans. As special trait, his ears are pointed. After the collapse of the Ancient Magic Civilization there haven"t been any precedents of them being sighted, but demons are said to definitely exist.
The actual proof for the demons" existence was helping Duke Nürnberg.

“Now I get it! You borrowed the help of demons to get your hands on the mysterious jamming device and many other legacies from the era of the Ancient Magic Civilization!” (Armstrong)

For a change Dous.h.i.+ had a fit of anger towards Duke Nürnberg.
That"s because the situation couldn"t be simply excused as mere rebellion of Duke Nürnberg.
After all Duke Nürnberg, who said that he was aiming for a hegemony of the continent, proved the fact that he actually had connections to the Demon Country.
In the worst case it was a plan of the demons to divide the humans and suspicions whether Duke Nürnberg has deliberately caused damage to the Empire would emerge.

“Is there anything wrong about that?” (Nürnberg)

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”

“No matter what I use, it will be fine as long as I win in the end. Winning will justify all past actions. Isn"t this the truth of this world?” (Nürnberg)

“Wh-!”

Dous.h.i.+ becomes speechless due to Duke Nürnberg"s reb.u.t.tal.

“However, you did it, Earl Baumeister, didn"t you?” (Nürnberg)

“…”

At this point there"s no need to explain as to what it is I did.
It"s because I did nothing but being a hindrance to Duke Nürnberg.

“I merely moved for my own sake. If I win, the just Earl Baumeister will bring peace to the world by defeating the evil Duke Nürnberg. And it will be a happy end for everyone. Or am I wrong?” (Wendelin)

“Don"t spout such bulls.h.i.+t despite being nothing more than a greenhorn. You keep thwarting all my plans.” (Nürnberg)

Currently more than 200,000 soldiers on both sides are engaging in mortal combat inside this underground fortress.
No matter how elite the feudal army of the Duke Nürnberg household might be, they are in disorder due to the bombardment. It should be difficult for them to eliminate the imperial army that invaded in big numbers to attack the place.

“I guess in the end you are a person to be avoided by me, Earl Baumeister. It"s regrettable, but I have to kill you here.” (Nürnberg)

“What a very arrogant att.i.tude. I don"t remember having become your retainer and thus I have no obligation to be killed by you.” (Wendelin)

I have heard from Therese that he"s a sword master, but in that case it will be fine if I defeat him with magic.
I began to prepare the spell 『Blaze』 in order to reduce him to ash, but right after the spell finished forming, the fire vanished completely.

“Did you cancel it?” (Wendelin)

“You are correct. The forte of this esteemed me, who is a demon, as magic system is 『Darkness』. The strong point of 『Darkness』 lies in its special characteristics the other magic systems do not possess.”

The demon, whose vocal tone resembles that of Dous.h.i.+ 1, apparently cancelled my spell with a darkness spell in an instant.

——————————- End of Part 1 ———————————–

“I can also use this kind of magic.”

“Uuh!”

“Erw!”

Next Erw"s body is suddenly wrapped up by a black mist. At the same time as the mist clears up, Erw, who had the white parts of his eyes dyed black, tries to a.s.sault Therese with his sword as if he had lost control of himself.
Ina gets in-between them in a hurry and blocks Erw"s sword with the handle of her spear.

“Erw!”

“Erw-san! Please get your act together!” (Haruka)

“Ugaa—–!”

Haruka calls out to him as well while drawing her magic katana and going to a.s.sist Ina, but Erw doesn"t answer their calls and continues to swing his katana as if he had gone mad while shouting something cryptic.
It looks like he forgot all the sword techniques he had learned up until now. He"s completely acting like a berserker.

“Are you manipulating the mind of your opponent?”

“I wonder about that? However, that lad regards your group as enemies, Earl Baumeister.”

“What an annoying spell…”

If several of us are manipulated by this magic, we might get annihilated due to killing each other in worst case.
Everyone feels nervous, but the one who eliminated that danger was Elise.
A bluish-white light spreads around us. At the same time as that vanishes, Erw returned to his normal state.

“Huh? What am I doing?” (Erwin)

“Erw-san, you were manipulated by that demon.” (Haruka)

“Ooh! There is a magic user of the 『Holy』 attribute which counters 『Darkness』! This esteemed me is deeply impressed by your ability!”

It seems holy attribute owns the property to negate the darkness attribute.
However, it apparently requires ability beyond a certain level. The demon was astonished by Elise"s strength.

“Demon, it looks like your trump card, darkness, doesn"t work. Give up alongside Duke Nürnberg, and offer your head.”

“To get beheaded all of a sudden, humans are indeed savage.”

“You know…do you believe it to be possible for you to beg for your life after seeing the terrible state of this Empire?”

Just as Duke Nürnberg says, there"s no way that there will be any other punishment than the death penalty if one considers it legally and takes the feelings of the imperial citizens into account. Even if we let him live and only captured him here, the result will be him being tortured terribly while alive before getting brutally killed in the end. In that case it"s merciful to kill him right now right here.

“You are very kind, Earl Baumeister.”

“No. Capturing the owner of so much mana as you possess alive will only lead to many casualties. As n.o.ble of the Kingdom it would probably great to obtain various information, but it"s probably a luxury to ask for this much. As accomplice of a genocide, you will die together with Duke Nürnberg.”

“This esteemed me was only interested in the items of the historic ruin as archeologist.”

“Do you think that such excuse is going to pa.s.s?”

“I antic.i.p.ated that I would be told so. In that case I should fight here together with Duke Nürnberg to whom I am indebted. Maybe we might be able to win.”

After saying that, the demon retrieved some square box from the inside pocket of his tuxedo.
Once I look properly, it seems to be some remote control.

“This underground ruin was weapon and ammunition factory of the national army and a place to construct prototypes during the era of the Ancient Magic Civilization. Among them is a secret weapon I set aside as trump card. Come! 『Giant-version Mechanic Doll, Majin-kun』!” 2

Once the demon pressed a b.u.t.ton on the remote control, the wall behind Duke Nürnberg and the demon collapsed and a huge, human-shaped golem with a height of around 20 meters appeared.

“What. Again a golem?”

“This golem is capable of solving the inefficient application which is a golem"s weak point.”

Even as the demon is talking, I, Katharina, Dous.h.i.+ and Burkhart-san mercilessly hurl spells at the two, but all of them were repelled by the 『Magic Barrier』 of the demon who gave up on using darkness magic.

“Earl-sama! That demon!” (Burkhart)

“Yes. He has more mana than I do.” (Wendelin)

Until now I didn"t encounter any magicians that had more mana than me, but as expected of a demon. He boasted of an astounding mana pool.

“This Majin-kun is controlled by Duke Nürnberg and provided with mana by this esteemed me. It exhibits a tremendous power.”

“We will annihilate the imperial army after killing you.” (Nürnberg)

Duke Nürnberg boards the opened chest of the golem while being carried by the demon with 『Flight』.
In other words, that place is the c.o.c.kpit.

“Does that demon possess a 『Movement Canceller』 as owned by master…?”

Although we couldn"t fly as usual, the demon could use 『Flight』.
This is also a disadvantage for us.

“Now then, feel free to despair in front of Majin-kun"s power.”

The voice of Duke Nürnberg, who boarded the huge golem, is audible similar to a stereo broadcasting.
It seems to be a device allowing to broadcast a voice from within the c.o.c.kpit after amplifying it.
Although this should be a western-styled fantasy world with swords and magic, for some reason only that point had turned into a robot anime. Though it"s likely only me who"s thinking about such things.

“I guess I will try it out starting from the weapons.” (Nürnberg)

Having obtained a new toy, Duke Nürnberg appears to be in high spirits.
The huge golem pushed out its both hands to the front.
Thereupon the parts from below the elbows of both arms come flying at us like rockets.
It was just like the rocket punch in a robot anime which I had seen in my childhood.

“The arms are flying!”

“Are they magic tools using 『Flight』?”

Erw and Haruka are surprised, but it seems there"s no time to run away.
Dous.h.i.+ and I deployed st.u.r.dy 『Magic Barriers』 and each of us blocked one of the rocket punches.

“What amazing power…”

“They still haven"t stopped!” (Armstrong)

Even after being stopped by the 『Magic Barriers』, the rocket punches still didn"t cease moving, continuing to charge to mow us down. Dous.h.i.+ and I are slowly drawing back while being pushed, but after strengthening the 『Magic Barriers』 even further, it finally developed into a deadlock.
Ten odd seconds after that the rocket punches returned to the golem"s arms.

“Those are dangerous weapons.”

“Yes.”

Burkhart-san exposes his wariness towards the power of the rocket punches.
Dous.h.i.+ and I only prevented our 『Magic Barriers』 getting penetrated. The rocket fists themselves are undamaged and can still be fired many times. If we don"t somehow deal with them, we will be turned into minced meat by those rocket punches once we run out of mana.

“What do you think of the power of a super weapon from the era of the Ancient Magic Civilization, Earl Baumeister?” (Nürnberg)

Duke Nürnberg"s voice that was audible from the huge golem brims with confidence.
He was apparently convinced that he will be able to defeat us if it goes on like this.

“Have you become speechless, Earl Baumeister?”

“Let me say just one thing. Once it reaches the point where a military genius relies on magic tools, it means the end is near.” (Wendelin)

“What impudent talk. Ooh! That"s right! You were present here as well, weren"t you Therese?” (Nürnberg)

As if he had just remembered it, Duke Nürnberg called out to Therese who was accompanying us.

“I"ve heard you had been forcibly taken down from your position as d.u.c.h.ess Philip or such. Isn"t that an unusal mistake for you?”

“It"s not really a mistake. I"m very satisfied with the current state of affairs. From the start the paths thee and I took were different. Die without worrying about it.” (Therese)

“Even after retiring, you are a scary one, Therese.”

Duke Nürnberg continued to talk to Therese in a jesting tone.

“Certainly thee haven"t expected that I would be pleading for my life, have thee?” (Therese)

“By no means. In the end, it"s our fate that either of us two has to die.”

“The one dying is thee then, right? After all I"m still young.” (Therese)

While saying so, Therese placed a hand on my shoulder.

“…So that"s the reason. Very well. In that case, die as a woman. I"m a kind man, so I will send you to the afterlife together with Earl Baumeister.”

Finis.h.i.+ng the chat at this point, the golem entered a combat stance.

“Therese, fall back. The others from the royal army as well.”

Seeing that such huge golem had appeared, I have no other option but to have everyone except the essential battle members leave this room.
Common soldiers will be simply crushed underfoot. And even before that, they would only become hindrances standing in the way of our battle.

“Erw.”

“I"m sorry, but I won"t retreat. Haruksan, please help the soldiers leave this room.”

“Erw-san! I will stay behind as well!”

“No, being allowed to partic.i.p.ate in this will only result in you becoming a victim of Wend"s bad luck. This time you must leave.” (Erwin)

“But…” (Haruka)

“Have a look at this lineup. It"s unlikely that we are going to lose, right?” (Erwin)

“… Understood.” (Haruka)

Haruka, a Mizuho woman, makes the decision to pull back with the soldiers as she"s told by Erw.

“Erwin, I"m Earl Baumeister"s guard, so I will stay behind.” (Takeomi)

“No. Only in this particular battle Wend"s guard will be me. Can"t I have you help Haruksan out?” (Erwin)

“Got it. I shall leave it to you, Erwin.” (Takeomi)

Takeomi-san acknowledged.

“Therese-sama, you too.”

“No, I will stay back.” (Therese)

“But, Therese-sama, with your sword skills…”

She"s no magician nor is her swordsmans.h.i.+p that amazing either.
Takeomi-san tells Therese that remaining here despite that is reckless.

“I don"t believe that Wendelin is going to lose. Also, even if I die, it has absolutely no effect on the Empire. Besides, I"m useful, too.” (Therese)

Therese took out something from her chest.
Once I look closely, it"s a magic bag. From within she retrieves an object I feel I have seen somewhere before and throws it in the direction of the huge golem after pulling the pin attached to it.

“Close your eyes!” (Therese)

At the same time as everyone shuts their eyes, that object emits an intense flash in front of the golem. As expected, it was apparently something like a flash grenade.

“It has the effect of an explosive flash bullet.” (Therese)

“Ooh—! How dazzling—!”

“Therese! Are you trying to blind us!” (Nürnberg)

Duke Nürnberg, who was about to launch the rocket arms once again, was confused after having his eyesight temporarily stolen by the flash bullet.

“What an unbelievable, hidden weapon.”

“Wendelin, it"s not like legacies of the Ancient Magic Civilization only appear in Nürnberg Dukedom. There"s only few of them, but things like this have been handed down in the Duke Philip household as well.” (Therese)

It seems that the especially precious, dangerous items among the magic tools, which had been excavated in the Philip Dukedom in the past, have been stored in the magic bag in Therese"s hands.

“Why are you, who has retired as family head, holding onto those?”

“For generations the family heads have had the duty to hide the items in this magic bag. Originally I probably should have handed it over to Alfons, but I missed the chance to do so thanks to the drama over the family head change that has never happened in this way before. It"s a good opportunity, so I guess I have decided to use these items here.” (Therese)

Following that, Therese takes out something else from the magic bag.
It"s a pipe with a length of around one meter. Upon close inspection it was something resembling a bazooka.

“I have heard that it"s name is 『Sorcery Rocket Launcher』.” (Therese)

“Can you use it?”

“I have read the instruction that was found together with it in my free time.” (Therese)

Therese aims the rocket launcher and pulls the trigger.
The fired rocket hits the right elbow of the golem, tearing off the right rocket arm in the process.

“Its power is truly tremendous.” (Therese)

“Now!”

As Duke Nürnberg and the demon still haven"t recovered their sight, it"s now our chance.
I, Burkhart-san, Dous.h.i.+ and Katharina fire spells, Erw and Ina throw spears, and Wilma snipes, destroying the eyes of the golem.
The huge golem that had most of its limbs destroyed falls to the ground while causing a thunderous crash.

“We did it!”

“No, wait.”

Looking at the golem that had stopped moving, Erw was celebrating, but the magicians among us know better.
The demon"s huge mana pool is still going strong and it"s wriggling, trying to start some follow-up action.

“At this leveeel—! You won"t be able to defeat Majin-kun—! Come here!” (T/N: Come here in English)

At the same time of the demon"s yell, the golem detaches the damaged head and limbs, and floats up into the air. Next, additional parts came flying from inside the wall, which had been destroyed when the golem appeared, and combined with the torso.
The golem immediately returns to its original shape.

“Naive, naive, far too naive—. This esteemed me eagerly repaired the excavated items in the last few years.”

There"s a huge amount of spare parts for the golem. As long as the mana of the demon and the magic gem in the torso are not broken, the golem can apparently restore itself by drawing as many new spare parts as it needs.

“In a certain sense! This Majin-kun is invincible!”

“Did you see, Earl Baumeister!? The power of this doll!” (Nürnberg)

Duke Nürnberg, who had recovered his eyesight at some point, loudly laughs at us. His appearance is truly that of an evil last boss.

“What bulls.h.i.+t. Earl-sama, if you destroy it a few times, the spare parts will likely run out, too.” (Burkhart)

“That"s right, isn"t it?”

Approving Burkhart-san"s opinion, we all started to attack again and blew away the tattered golem.
However…

“Come heeere—!”

Once again spare limbs and head come flying and combine with the torso, returning the golem to its original state.

“Wendelin-san, we are going to continue, right?”

“Yes, third time"s the charm.” (Wendelin)

Once more we attack the golem with a concentrated fire of spells.
And once more it becomes tattered and then restores itself to it previous state.

“There"s no end to this.”

“How regrettable, Earl Baumeister! Demon! Deliver the final blow!” (Nürnberg)

“Well then, we shall resume attacking again!”

Duke Nürnberg gained even more confidence due to the golem"s toughness.
The rocket punches are launched from both arms and this time even sh.e.l.ls from a magic cannon that had been installed on the golem"s back without me noticing are fired.
Adding the bombardment besides the rocket punches forced us into an one-sided, defensive battle.
With the deployment of our 『Magic Barriers』, our mana is gradually depleting.

“Isn"t this bad?”

“I wonder how often we have to destroy that huge golem until it doesn"t restore itself?”

Dous.h.i.+ and I discussed what we should do from now on while defending against the cannon sh.e.l.ls and the two rocket punches.

“Therese, don"t you have some secret weapon or something like that?”

“If thou are speaking of offensive ability, it"s not that different from the magic cannon. But can I ask something else before that?” (Therese)

“Is there some kind of problem?”

“Yeah. Isn"t it better to attack the rear and destroy the structure that supplies the spare parts rather than attacking the golem"s main body?” (Therese)

“…That"s it!”

We had forgotten this obvious fact until it was pointed out by Therese.
If new spare parts come flying right after the golem itself is destroyed, then it would be best to simply destroy the structure providing those parts.

“The target is the room, from where the parts come flying, behind the huge golem!”

“Since Earl-sama and Dous.h.i.+ can"t attack right now, there"s no other option but us doing our best, huh…?” (Burkhart)

Being busy with defending, Dous.h.i.+ and I can"t partic.i.p.ate in the attack.
Burkhart-san and Katharina release a large amount of 『Fire b.a.l.l.s』. Luise and Ina throw spears loaded with mana. Wilma snipes, and Therese rapidly fires the still remaining rockets of the rocket launcher.
The spells, spears and rockets pa.s.s the golem and fly through the hole in the destroyed wall. After a short moment a huge explosion occurred.

“Whaaat—! The combination system haaas—!”

It looks like Therese"s idea was correct.
The still-functional spare parts for the limbs and similar were dragged into secondary explosions and got destroyed.

Translator"s Notes: