Volume 31 - CH 8(3/4)
Perhaps the strongest enemies from the USNA military storming Miyakijima were in an assault boat led by Captain Orlando Rigel, captain of the Stars Sixth Unit.
During the platoons formation for this surprise attack, the USNA military didn’t evenly divide the available military forces. Rigel’s men from the Stars’ Sixth Unit (Lieutenant Ian Bellatrix and Lieutenant Samuel Alnilam) were also present in his current platoon. All of ?them originally specialized in fighting together as one battle group ? this was probably taken into consideration, but they also decided to gather together the only Stellar -class members of Stars ?who joined this mission . The result was an overwhelming superiority in fighting strength compared to the other attacking platoons .
Despite that, the landing party commanded by Captain Rigel failed to advance further along the coastal road.
Because the path of Rigel, Bellatrix, and Alnilam got blocked by Shibata Katsushige.
“..So strong.”
Mikihiko expressed his admiration while watching the footage on the display that had been switched to another place.
“He’s definitely not your average fighter..” ? Muttered Leo after him.
Erika just stared at the display silently.
At the moment, the display was showing a battle involving a defense squad commanded by Katsushige, who had left the mobile base.
“..Sakurai. Who is this man? Does the Yotsuba family have such strong people?”
“Shibata Katsushige-sama is the next head of one of the Yotsuba’s branch families. It’s said that his power is in the top ten among the whole clan.”
“Woah! Someone from the Yotsuba top ten. That makes sense. I can feel a little relieved.”
Leo responded to Minami’s answer with a relieved voice.
“You say it so casually. ?His power is in the top ten? means there are nine more people in the Yotsuba family that have at least the same power level as that man. I don’t feel relieved at all.”
But the relaxed atmosphere disappeared in an instant with Erika’s words, which broke her silence . The reason why Leo didn’t argue was probably because he agreed with Erika’s comment.
“..But I still don’t get it. With such strength, they could’ve repelled the enemy before they even approached the shore. But they didn’t ? why?”
Or maybe his thoughts focused on another point.
“Perhaps, it was done on purpose.”
This time it wasn’t Minami who responded to Leo’s question, but Erika.
“I also think so.”
Mikihiko supported Erika’s speculation.
“Why?”
“To establish an alibi.”
“What?” — Leo responded doubtfully to Erika’s reply .
“After all, we were specially left as witnesses to attest that they counterattacked in self-defense only after the unlawful invasion.” — Mikihiko turned around and explained to Leo. Mikihiko’s expression was so serious like he was boxed into a corner.
“But hadn’t we ourselves volunteered to be witnesses? Although this is really annoying, it’s not like we can complain.”
Erika replied with a dry laugh. She didn’t avert her eyes from the footage for even a moment. Leo and Mikihiko from this moment on also didn’t turn away.
Rigel failed to suppress his impatience because the [enemy’s] fierce resistance exceeded all expectations.
As a Parasite, his agitation was transmitted to Bellatrix, Alnilam, and the other Parasites.
It’s unacceptable for a commander to show such feelings to his subordinates. Even knowing that, he felt more and more impatient.
Instead of the closest landing site on the assault boats’ course, which was the west coast of Miyakijima, he chose the road along the north coast. The target of their current mission wasn’t the plant construction area on the island’s east side, but the assassination of the magician, who was supposedly on the west side of the island.
If they landed at the harbor on the east coast, they would have to pass between many buildings (constructed as well as under construction). There would also be many obstacles that could hide an interception unit.
However, landing on the west coast wasn’t a good idea either. The buildings on the west coast were previously known to be used as a prison for magicians, so it had been fortified and completed with guns as measures against escapes.
On the other hand, the north coast was only a roadway connecting the old prison facility on the west with the Stellar Furnace plant on the east, which provided good vantage points. If one lands there, they wouldn’t need to worry about ambushes or facing the artillery bombardment from the naval defense system. It was also highly possible that the target himself would come to intercept them.
Taking that into consideration, Rigel had chosen a point on the west of the north coast as the landing site. It was hard to pass through the wave-breakers, but they weren’t confronted with barrage fire or any magic [attacks], so their boat safely reached the shore.
Prior to disembarking, everything went too smoothly. At this point, they should have suspected that it was ?somehow too easy?.
The moment when the whole landing party (except the boat’s operating crew) went down the embankment and stood on the road, shock waves mixed with gravel struck them.
What was released towards them was the most popular attack magic ? compressed air bullets. But there were small pieces of solidified lava mixed into the mass of compressed air. When the compressed air bullets ?collided with the ground, the compression was canceled [the air expanded at an explosive rate]. ?There appeared to be blasts of gravel being blown away by the shock waves.
On the battlefield, they often used similar techniques to increase their magic attack power . ?Most often, nails or small pieces of scrap metal are added to the air mass. This island for the most part was made of solidified lava; therefore, it was possible to prepare any amount of gravel. And the use of already solidified, rather than molten, lava could even be called a humane act.
However, with this attack, about half of the landing party lost their combat effectiveness. The ones who remained were the magicians who sensed the signs of magic in time and raised their shields, as well as the Parasites who were capable of ignoring injuries from blows with gravel. Although, the non-magician soldiers were completely incapacitated. There were few killed, but all the wounded, who received multiple hits with pieces of solidified lava throughout the body, lay there and moaned while bleeding.
Rigel, however, didn’t care about the killed soldiers . As mentioned earlier, this place was an excellent vantage point. During the landing, there were no visible enemy figures because they were hiding in a hole dug out beyond the hill. But now, after the enemy got out of the trench to attack, they could already be seen.
Rigel ordered the platoon to counterattack, and he himself also released magic at the enemy.
However, his magic was stopped by a tall young magician who stood in the vanguard of the intercepting squad.
Rigel’s height was about 175 cm, while one of his subordinates, Lieutenant Alnilam, was 183 cm, his other subordinate, Second Lieutenant Bellatrix, was 184 cm .
But the young man who stopped his magic was even taller. Perhaps his height was close to 190 cm. He was noticeably taller than the rest of the enemies. Besides, the enemies stood on a hillside that towered above their current position. For Rigel, it undoubtedly looked like some ‘insurmountable obstacle’.
“What damn magic power!”
Bellatrix’s cursing reached Rigel’s ears. Rigel was now experiencing exactly the same feelings.
Now, Alnilam also joined their attacks, and already 3 of them were firing at the enemy with magic. However, the protection of the young magician wasn’t letting up. On the contrary, despite being three against one, Rigel, Bellatrix, and Alnilam were constantly forced to interrupt their attacks and switch to defending themselves from the magic of the young magician who regularly found the right time to shoot something at them during pauses.
(I / we will use ‘Thunder’. Together.)
(Roger.)
(Roger.)
Synchronizing their actions through the Parasites’ shared consciousness, Rigel, Bellatrix, and Alnilam shoot at the young magician ? Katsushige ? with a Systematic Release-type magic called ‘Thunder’.
Unlike Mimas (a Satellite-class member of the Stars), these three weren’t significantly affected by the negative effects of being infected by one of the Parasites ?(must be because they were members of a higher, ?Stellar-class) and weren’t as severely limited in the types of magic, which they were able to use.
Well, they were affected negatively, but only a little. Perhaps that disadvantage had almost no effect [on them] because all three were originally able to use many types of magic.
Anyway, those three chose the same magic and were able to not only avoid any reduction of power because of the interference of Magic Sequences, but were also able to amplify its power.
Unfortunately, the combined effect wasn’t multiplicative ?in power, but simply added together. Even so, the lightning strike, with power almost 3 times higher than a single attack, came at Katsushige from above.
Katsushige diverted the lightning strike.
Without moving a single step or shifting his torso aside, he altered the distribution of the air’s electrical resistance, causing the electron beam to divert and flow into the ground some distance away from him.
Then, at the moment when the lightning disappeared, Katsushige’s counterattack reached Rigel’s team.
All three of them suddenly felt the sense of pressure on their entire body. After each of them reflexively deployed a pressure-resistant shield, they realized why they had felt pressure ? the atmospheric pressure surrounding them was increasing.
Immediately after they deployed the shields, as if reacting to this, the atmospheric pressure sharply rose even higher.
(Deploying ‘Cooling Zone’.)
(Deploying ‘Cooling Zone’.)
(Deploying ‘Cooling Zone’.)
Thanks to the cognitive synchronization , the trio released identical magic on Rigel’s command.
They formed the field around themselves in order to lower the air temperature, which had risen with ?the pressure [23] .
At that moment, heat was more dangerous than pressure. The threefold increase in atmospheric pressure is within the limits of adaptation of the human body and can still be tolerated. However, the temperature had risen to over 600 °C due to the atmospheric pressure increase (since the world adapts to the situation), ?which was something that the Parasites’ physical body couldn’t endure.
Katsushige’s specialty was ‘Density Manipulation’ magic. The full name of the magic is ‘Pressure / Density Manipulation’. This magic can separately manipulate pressure and density by proportionally altering those parameters in a natural environment. This magic can be applied in 3 different ways: by controlling the density without changing the pressure, controlling the pressure without altering the density, and controlling the density and pressure at the same time.
At the moment, the atmospheric pressure was increased [by Katsuhige] ?without ?changing its density.
Compared to Tatsuya’s ‘Decomposition’ and Miyuki’s wide-area cooling ?magic, it looked very simple at first glance. However, only a threefold increase in pressure demonstrates such a killing power. No wonder Katsushige was considered as ?the strongest representative from the Yotsuba’s branch families when compared by combat strength of simple magic?.
To avoid the extreme heat, the three Parasites concentrated most of their magic power into the ‘Cooling Zone’. As a result they were able to maintain the temperature of their surrounding air at about 30 °C, which corresponded to the normal ambient temperature at that place.
But it goes without saying that Katsushige’s attack didn’t end there.
The pressure on them suddenly disappeared.
Which meant that the increased pressure wasn’t simply canceled. The atmospheric temperature and pressure returned to normal due to the effect caused by the termination of magic, but right afterwards, [around the Parasites] a decompression ?was ?created ?by ?an instant decrease in density.
The density reduction resulted in the subsequent air expansion, causing the explosion with Rigel’s team in the epicenter, which also scattered the members of the landing party closest to them. In a small radius around the epicenter, atmospheric pressure and temperature sharply decreased.
The pressure became a third of what it normally was and the temperature dropped below minus 50 °C. The three Parasites, who had been maintaining the ‘Cooling Zone’, failed to cope with such a temperature change.
Their physical bodies, covered with small water drops, got frozen.
But Rigel was still alive.
Next, there was a group of boulders, about 50 centimeters in diameter, that rained down on Rigel’s landing party ? Katsushige’s subordinates carried out the barrage, taking advantage of the enemy’s disorder.
One of the boulders flew right at Rigel, but he managed to repel it a meter before collision, while being frozen. It also allowed him to protect Bellatrix, who was standing next to him.
And that’s not all. Rigel managed to defrost his frozen body. He was probably able to because the freezing stopped on the surface of the body [without penetrating too deeply]. He was able to start moving quite quickly, and hastened to ascertain the status of his subordinates.
Following Rigel, Bellatrix was also able to get rid of the freezing on his own.
“Ian!”
Seeing this, Rigel called out Bellatrix’s first name with his voice, instead of using the Mind Link.
“Thank you, Captain.”
Bellatrix replied with words of gratitude. Even being frozen, he perceived that he was protected from the stone projectiles thanks to Rigel.
Rigel nodded to Bellatrix and turned in the opposite direction.
“Sam!” — Shouted the former in a heartbreaking voice.
Because the head of Sam ? Samuel Alnilam ? was crushed by a boulder.
He was unfortunate to get hit directly with the stone projectile. There was no need to ascertain his status. It was an instant death.
Only after seeing the scene with his own eyes, Rigel finally noticed that Alnilam was out of the shared consciousness. The Parasite’s True Body, that which lost the assimilated host, also loses its ability of human thinking. The Parasites that had assimilated with humans could sense only some instinctual signals of Pushion Waves emanating from its [Parasite’s True Body] presence.
“Ian, let’s go!”
“Yes sir!”
Perhaps they communicated with their voice because they didn’t want to feel the loss of Alnilam’s consciousness.
Rigel and Bellatrix started running simultaneously.
The fighting style, in which the so-called ‘Orion Team’ from the Sixth Unit specialized in, was essentially close quarter combat utilizing high mobility via self-acceleration magic. Up until now, they had to go with medium-range attacks because they couldn’t ignore coordination with the rest of the landing party.
But with the loss of Alnilam, Rigel and Bellatrix abandoned any consideration for the other members. Thirsty for revenge, they targeted Katsushige alone. Although it wasn’t Katsushige who released the magic that directly killed Alnilam, it was he who created the situation that led to that outcome .
Rigel and Bellatrix reached Katsushige in no time. Katsushige’s subordinates weren’t standing idly by watching this, but no one could keep up with Rigel and Bellatrix.
However, about 5 meters from their target, the two Parasites suddenly lost their balance.
They did not fall, but their steps slowed sharply, as if they got bogged down in something.
There were deep footprints appearing on the surface of which they were running on. Upon closer examination, it was possible to see that the semi-circular surface of volcanic rock, in the center of which stood Katsushige, had turned into soft sand.
This was also the result of ‘Density Manipulation’.
Having lowered the surface density of the basaltic volcanic rock in the area around him, he achieved the instantaneous ‘weathering’ in the sand.
Immobilized, Rigel and Bellatrix were bombarded with a variety of attack magic from the Shibata family’s elite - magicians directly under the command of Katsushige.
Even for the Stellar-class members of the Stars, it wasn’t possible to defend against all those attacks.
Bellatrix was the first to collapse to the ground which had become a sandy plain; next was Rigel who fell to his knees due to the accumulated damage.
The decisive blow was dealt by Katsushige’s magic.
The Parasites’ bodies got sucked into the sand, the density of which had been even further reduced, after which the density was restored to its original value, and they were crushed by basalt rocks.
“So brutal.. It’s like ‘ Antlion Prison ’ [24] ?magic.”
Leo muttered in a shocked voice and with a stunned face, while watching through the display how Katsushige killed the Parasites.
However, his ‘shocked voice’ in this case could be called a manifestation of outstanding fortitude.
Mikihiko, who was watching the same scene, looked like he was going to throw up, and even Erika had a deathly pale face.
The footage on the display switched to another place on the battlefield.
Covering his mouth with both hands, Mikihiko somehow managed to avoid his gag reflexes, after which he casually turned to Minami [as if he suddenly remembered something].
“Speaking of which, what happens with the True Bodies of the Parasites- If the True Body isn’t sealed after it leaves the destroyed physical body, it can’t be said that the Parasite is really defeated.”
“Tatsuya-sama is personally getting rid of the True Bodies of the Parasites.”
Minami answered Mikihiko’s question without hiding the truth.
“Oh, right, using ‘Seal Ball’. Indeed, he does have that magic, so everything will be fine.”
“Seal Ball?”
“What’s Seal Ball?”
Leo and Erika raised these questions with doubt in their voice.
While Mikihiko answered them, Minami remained silent.
She gave an honest answer about who is dealing with the Parasites, but made no explanation about how Tatsuya does it ? following the order from the Main House.
9:30 AM.
The fierce battle on Miyakijima was still going on when the situation offshore changed.
Giant clouds of hydrogen plasma formed in the sky over the destroyer ‘Hull’, anchored 30 kilometers east of the island, and over the destroyer ‘Ross’, stopped at a point 30 kilometers west of the island.
Needless to say, this wasn’t a natural phenomenon. Those were artificial phenomena created by two magicians. The plasma cloud in the east was created by a magician named Miguel Diaz. And in the west, Antonio Diaz. These two magicians were identical twins.
The magic formed by the brothers, who looked like two peas in a pod, hadn’t been completed yet. First, the plasma clouds grew to 50 meters in diameter, after which they decreased.. or rather compressed to about 5 meters in diameter within seconds.
The plasma clouds compressed into a perfect spherical shape and simultaneously began to move at exactly the same speed.
The plasma cloud in the sky above the destroyer ‘Hull’ flew to the west and the plasma cloud above the destroyer ‘Ross’ flew to the east.
The two plasma clouds started moving on a collision course at speeds more than 10 times faster than the speed of sound.
Tatsuya noticed the activation of magic in the east and west of the island at the moment when he had some breathing space between the ‘cleanup’ of the True Bodies of the Parasites.
(They are trying to force the [two clouds of ] high-density hydrogen plasma to collide in the sky above Miyakijima?)
(Approximately 6 seconds until collision.)
(Nuclear fusion doesn’t occur in a collision at such a speed. But if they continue to apply pressure from the east and west, then that’s an entirely different story.)
(This is.. ‘Synchronized Linear Fusion’!?)
Those thoughts took him about 1 second. There were 5 seconds left before the collision.
There was no time for an accurate assessment of the explosive power, but given the precedent in Brazil, it could reach several kilotons of TNT, or maybe even a few tens of kilotons.
Tatsuya didn’t hesitate to use ‘Gram Dispersion’ to nullify it.
(The components of this Magic are: plasma generation, preventing its diffusion, and moving it.)
(Two completely identical sequences of magic are used, only their directions of movement are different.)
- The first step was ?the analysis of the Magic Sequence that needed to be neutralized.
(Based on the nature of this magic, it can be prevented from activating if one of the two Magic Sequences are erased.)
(But in this situation, it’s better to erase both sequences.)
- The second step was to aim at the magical sequence that needed to be neutralized.
- And the final step.
(‘Gram Dispersion’, activation.)
A moment later, ‘glowing objects’ flying at supersonic speeds in the sky in the east and west of Miyakijima disappeared.
.. As a small departure from the topic: it was worth noting that there was some commotion due to the ?unexpected appearance of UFOs? at a meteorological observatory that was monitoring the vicinity of the Izu Islands via satellite.
Whereas the turmoil on the USNA destroyer ‘Hull’ wasn’t so carefree as the commotion at the meteorological observatory.
“‘ Synchronized Linear Fusion’ has been nullified!”
“ Nullified? Maybe it was just an unsuccessful attempt?”
“ No! It was definitely nullified by someone else’s interference!”
Miguel Diaz argued in an elevated tone with the magic technician, who was assisting him with the operation of ?his CAD.
At that moment, Miguel received a transmission from the destroyer ‘Ross’.
“ Miguel, it’s me.”
“ Antonio?”
The person who sent the transmission was Antonio Diaz - Miguel’s younger twin brother and his partner for casting ‘Synchronized Linear Fusion’.
“ Miguel, w hat’s that ?supposed to mean? I didn’t know that our magic could be nullified.”
“ Neither did I. Antonio, let’s do it again!”
“ Without even knowing the cause of the nullification?”
“ Precisely because we don’t know. This time, have the technicians carefully monitor the whole process.”
“ You mean that even if they neutralize us again, we can at least identify and study the cause of it, right?”
“ If we find out how the neutralization is carried out, we can prepare countermeasures.”
Speaking of countermeasures, Miguel Diaz didn’t mean ensuring success for the current operation. It was for their next battlefield.
If there’s a method to nullify ‘Synchronized Linear Fusion’ and they don’t find any means of neutralizing that ‘nullification method’, then the meaning of their existence will be called into question.
“ Right.”
Antonio thought the same thing and immediately agreed with Miguel’s proposal.
“ For the sake of our future, we..”
However, his next words were cut short unnaturally
“ Antonio?”
There was an unintelligible noise heard from the speaker, which meant that the transmission wasn’t interrupted.
“ What happened, Antonio!?”
“ Major Diaz..”
The voice which responded to Miguel’s shout wasn’t his younger brother Antonio.
Miguel, who was overwhelmed by an ominous feeling, held his breath and waited for the next line.
“ How to say it.. Mr. Antonio suddenly disappeared.”
“.. What do you mean?”
“ Mr. Antonio Diaz vanished in an instant, leaving a small shock wave!”
Miguel couldn’t understand what he was being told right now.
“.. Do you mean that my brother was killed with a bomb?”
“ No, I don’t think that’s the case. There were no body parts nor a drop of blood left. At first it seemed like the silhouette of his body blurred and then disappeared, scattering in the wind! As if he himself turned into the wind!”
“....”
“ Major Diaz. What is happening? Was that your magic? Have you invented the magic of teleportation!?”
“.. No, nothing like that. I also have no idea what it was..”
Everyone involved in this process, on both destroyers, were perplexed.
Although the phrase from the technician from the destroyer ‘Ross’ ?disappeared, scattering in the wind? accurately described what happened, nobody on either ship believed that something like that had really happened.
(Erasing of the target confirmed.)
After eliminating Antonio Diaz with ‘Mist Dispersion’, Tatsuya returned the Silver Horn from his right hand to the holster on his hip.
(So, ‘Synchronized Linear Fusion’ was a magic activated by two people at once.)
There was a fierce battle still going at the island, it was not a situation for a leisurely analysis of magic.
Even knowing that, Tatsuya simply couldn’t help but think about this newly-discovered secret of the Strategic-Class Magic ‘Synchronized Linear Fusion’.
(Plasma clouds are launching towards each other using absolutely identical magic for a head-on collision.)
(If there happens to be a small mistake in the course or timing, this magic will fail.)
(Maybe even the Interference Strength of the two magics should be at the same level.)
(In fact, the Interference Strength levels of the magic of Miguel & Antonio Diaz that I observed were exactly the same.)
(Are there any magicians I know who can meet these conditions..? Hmm..)
(..Perhaps the double team of Kasumi and Izumi would be able to take advantage of this.)
“ Tatsuya-sama.”
At the very moment when he came to a certain conclusion, Miyuki contacted him.
“ What is it, Miyuki?”
It was the right time to get out of his thoughts. Responding to Miyuki, Tatsuya made a note in his mind to think about a magic technique based on ‘Synchronized Linear Fusion’, after which he refocused his mind on the ongoing battle.
“ I felt strong magic power on the two destroyers that stopped east and west of the island. That was probably an attack against us, and Tatsuya-sama prevented it, am I right?”
“ You are absolutely right. The ‘Synchronized Linear Fusion’ released from both destroyers was nullified by ‘Gram Dispersion’.”
“‘ Synchronized Linear Fusion’! That means Miguel Diaz from Brazil joined this battle, doesn’t it!?”
“ Yes, but don’t worry. Diaz as a Strategic-Class Magician has already been neutralized.”
“ Thank you. As expected from Tatsuya-sama. Amazing skills, as usual.. By the way, what about immobilizing those two destroyers ahead of the amphibious assault ship? Just in case.”
“ I think it’s a good decision. Do so.”
“ Then, I will take care of it immediately.”
“ Yes, please do.”
“ Happy to help.”
After those polite words, communication with the command room was cut off.
Ten seconds later, Tatsuya sensed the activation of a powerful magic from the command room located on the west coast of the island.
Miyuki had already deployed the aiming assistance arm out of the commander’s desk.
The compact specialized CAD was installed on the arm.
The main screen of the command room displayed a view of the USNA destroyer ‘Hull’ captured from above. It was an image from a place 30 kilometers east of the island, but the resolution was perfect.
Until a while ago, the question of ?where was this taken from?? was stuck in the corner of Miyuki’s consciousness, but now she didn’t have any unnecessary thoughts . After the words ?please do? were transmitted from Tatsuya, her consciousness completely focused on the magic that she was about to activate.
You could even say that Miyuki was in a kind of trance. The extreme mental focus made her already surreal beauty look even more inhuman and transcendental.
There was no wind in the command room. For air-conditioning , the room was equipped with ?a method of cooling the walls and ceiling from the outer side. Nevertheless, while Miyuki was sitting ?on the Commander’s seat without leaning on its backrest, the tips of her long hair slightly swayed, as if in the wind.
The CAD was aimed at the destroyer displayed on the screen. While maintaining a perfect posture with her back extended in a straight line, Miyuki grasped the CAD handle with a laid-back motion of her hand and silently pulled the trigger.
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