If we just took our time, eventually it might be impossible to use magic anywhere. And if that happened...
“They use magic to heal illnesses and injuries around here, right? What if a magical void appears where they’re doing that—we’re talking fatalities, right?!”
“That’s...” I could see Minori-san looking lost behind her glasses.
“So we have to hurry up and do something!”
There was always the possibility that Garius and the others were trying to do something, something different than what I’d come up with.
But there was also the possibility that they wouldn’t be able to do anything at all.
If I hadn’t known about the extinguishing-oil-fields-with-bombs thing, I would never have thought to fight a magic-sucking whirlwind with a magical bomb. And what if this really was the only way to deal with that thing?
“All right,” Minori-san said with a sigh, my urgency at last bringing her around. “But if this all goes south, don’t come crying to me.”
“You got it!”
“Lauron, put that thing on the luggage rack in the back! Use the clay doll to keep it in place!”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Now that she was convinced, Minori-san acted quickly—that military resolve again.
So our carriage headed for the menacing black whirlwind, with Imarufe Bisurupeguze on board.
Fresh, green grass spread out as far as the eye could see. The breeze sent lazy ripples through it, like waves on a verdant sea. Under any other circumstances it would have been downright idyllic—but at that moment, everything felt tense and nervous.
That had to do with what was directly above the virtually curative beauty of nature spread out before us.
It hung there like some bad joke. Like a tear down the middle of a photograph. The vast, black thing loomed dauntingly in the air, seeming to come down from roiling, ash-colored clouds.
This was bad, bad news. It looked like it had gotten several times bigger since we spotted it from the school.
I could hear shouting in Eldant. There, beneath that great black tower, a whole crowd of people was rushing around as if their lives depended on it. Most were armed knights, but I could see the palace mages too, all wearing matching robes like some kind of uniform. The wizards kept trying to use magic, but it didn’t look like it was working. They did have items that looked sort of like Lauron’s magic tank (?), but no sooner had the magic been woven into a spell than, in the blink of an eye, it was broken back down into magical power and whisked away into the whirlwind.
Apparently, normal magic wasn’t going to do it. This was the first time, though, that the people of Eldant—in fact, anyone in this world—had experienced anything like this, and they weren’t sure what to do. The only way to proceed was by trial and error, but they didn’t have nearly enough time for that.
Mixed in among the knights and mages, I spotted camo-clad JSDF soldiers.
“Oh...”
I could see one of them firing a rocket launcher, a 110mm LAM like Minori-san had used once. The missile left a white smoke trail as it flew into the storm. An LAM is an anti-tank weapon, so it isn’t equipped to explode in the air. It must have met some kind of physical resistance, though—or maybe it had something to do with being sucked into the clouds—because the projectile exploded in a burst of light.
We could hear the roar over our heads... but that was it. The black pillar didn’t look any the worse for wear.
“No good, huh,” I groaned, watching from the bird-drawn carriage as we drew closer. “I guess conventional weapons really aren’t going to do it...”
“Doesn’t look like it,” Minori-san agreed, squinting behind her glasses.
This was awful. I could feel a tragedy coming on. If you’d told me this was the last day this world would ever see, I would have believed you—and I think most of the people around me would have, too.
“So... what exactly is it that you plan to do?” One of the knights directed the carriage to a stop, and Minori-san took that moment to quiz me on my idea.
“Well, obviously, I’m going to use Imarufe Bisurupeguze on that thing. The way I remember it, this bomb releases highly pressurized fire sprites, which are already inside, to create an explosion. So I’m thinking that unlike a magic spell that works on magic in the environment, this thing won’t fizzle out.”
“But isn’t that pillar supposed to be a shade?” Minori-san said. “And wouldn’t that mean that bombing it wouldn’t have any effect on anything?”
“If you pull the stopper out of a bathtub, you get a little whirlpool around the drain, right? If we put the bomb in that black pillar, I bet it’ll get carried right to the source.”
“Okay... But I was thinking on the way here...” Minori-san’s expression turned grim. “What if the drain in your metaphor turns out to be the hyperspace wormhole?”
I didn’t answer immediately. I’d been wondering the same thing in a corner of my mind.
The magic power was being sucked away. But sucked away to where?
Presumably, to a place where there was no magical power.
A place like the other side of the wormhole.
And we still didn’t understand much about how the wormhole worked. If we tossed a powerful magical weapon in there...
“If we block off the wormhole, the magic might stop draining away, but we’ll lose our only way back to Japan,” Minori-san said. “Or the wormhole might be unaffected, but that would only mean we were back at square one.”
“That wormhole’s basically always been open, right? And from the way the magic power turns into sprites, we can tell that a lot of different things influence it. If we can clear this pillar—this whirlwind—away, I think it’ll be a while until we see another one. It should buy us some time to think of a solution.”
“Shinichi-kun.” Minori-san narrowed her eyes at me behind her glasses. “We might never get back to Japan.”
“...I know.”
Whether likely or not, the risk was there.
“Every member of the JSDF who was sent over here was warned they might not come back, and we’re all ready for that. What about you?”
I didn’t say anything.
I was born in Japan, the country of anime and manga and games and light novels. To be unable to go home, to lose my link to it—being confronted with that possibility was enough to make me feel faint with despair. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool otaku. My parents were both otaku, so I’m an otaku twice over. Worst-case scenario, I would sell my soul for my beloved entertainments.
And yet...
Myusel... Romilda, Loek, everyone...
The way things were going, a whole bunch of people I knew were in a whole lot of trouble. The elves and dwarves might never wake up again. Even half-elves like Myusel might be affected in the long term; we didn’t know. For that matter, in the long term, the Holy Eldant Empire, built as it was on the assumption of magic, might crumble.
And then what would happen to Petralka?
As for me...
“I’m ready,” I said firmly. “I’ve already got so many books and games and DVDs piled up that I could never get through all of them in one lifetime! I’ll survive, even if that portal to Japan closes!”
After a long moment, Minori-san’s expression softened. “Shinichi-kun,” she said. I think she knew I was just trying to act tough.
“Look, Minori-san,” I said. “I’m the one spouting hackneyed cool stuff about being ready for anything or whatever, but if our supply of BL books gets cut off, you’re the one who’s going to be in trouble, right?”
“......Heh...!”
She just snorted, as if to prove how little it mattered to her.
Huh? I’d expected her to be more upset.
“If that happens, the girls at school and I will just have to collaborate on a little book about you and Minister Cordobal and Hikaru-kun.”
“Don’t you dare!”
Suddenly, the situation seeme
d even more dangerous.
But anyway...
“So we take Imarufe Bisurupeguze. I assume we have to detonate it right near the bottom of that black pillar.”
“Right there... hm,” Minori-san murmured, glancing back at the bomb riding on the luggage rack behind us.
“For starters, Lauron, help us get Imarufe Bisurupeguze down from there,” I said, turning to the dwarf.
Lauron, though, just blinked at me, not saying anything. It was like she hadn’t understood what I’d said. And—
“Lauron?”
Was it just my imagination, or did she look pretty uncomfortable? Could it be...?
“Shinichi-kun. I’m guessing our magic rings aren’t working.” Minori-san indicated the rings we were both wearing.
“Huh? But...”
Back in Eldant Castle, the magic on the storeroom door had disappeared, but I had still been able to communicate normally with Lauron. It made sense, I thought, that the magic rings would stop working. But why here?
“It’s got to be a question of how much magical power they need,” Minori-san said. “The vacuum is especially powerful here, so even magical items like our rings stop working.”
Thinking about it, I realized that even lizardmen, who allegedly had hardly any magic, could still converse using the rings. That suggested how little magical power the rings needed to do their job, whereas the magical seal on that door had probably required a significant and constant flow of magical energy.
“Oh no...”
I looked at the crystal “magic tank” Lauron kept at her hip. The light glowing inside it was getting weak—it looked like it might disappear at any moment.
This was bad news. Not only had our magic rings abandoned us, it looked like Lauron might not hold out much longer, either. Maybe she’d only fall asleep when her magic gave out, but...
“Mino—”
I was about to suggest to Minori-san that we get Lauron out of the carriage, when I was interrupted.
“...Shinichi, rekaeto...” Lauron pulled on my shirt.
Rekaeto was the Eldant word for “teacher.”
Lauron nodded at me with obvious difficulty. She seemed to be telling me she was okay.
What was I going to do?
No... There was no time to hesitate. If Lauron said she was okay, then I had to trust her. The important thing was to do something about that pillar.
“Shinichi-kun, get ready,” Minori-san said, then she tugged at the driver’s collar and pointed to the whirlwind. Our magic rings might not be working, but it was pretty clear that she was saying Go over there.
The driver shook his head repeatedly—Don’t make me!—but Minori-san pressed her point, and the carriage started moving.
“Shinichi-kun, interpret for me!” Minori-san shouted.
As much as we normally relied on the magic rings to communicate, I had been here long enough that I could actually speak a bit of the local language. I could get across some simple ideas, ring or no ring.
“Everyone fall back, then brace for impact!” Minori-san shouted to her friends in the JSDF. “We’re going to detonate a bomb in the target of your attack!”
“Ia uooto shigamu bumobbu! Ekafu, nuuodo-rura!”
Everyone—the soldiers, the knights, and the mages—turned when they heard Minori-san and me shouting. We rode past our shocked audience, our carriage heading for the base of the pillar.
At the same time, we started to get a look at the fissure in the earth, which we hadn’t had a good view of before. That had to be the hyperspace wormhole. A fence, apparently put up by the Eldant forces, ran around it. And the pillar did indeed tower over that spot, as if emanating from a place just slightly above the gulf.
Then we crossed some invisible line, and suddenly we were close enough to the pillar to find wind hitting our carriage with astonishing force. It swept inward in a rush; I’ll bet even sound couldn’t escape it. I could see blinking lights around us, too. The magic density around the pillar must have been high enough to create sprites or other physical phenomena.
“Yikes...”
The carriage stopped.
Minori-san shoved the door open, refusing to be bested by the wind. Then she reached out to me. I took her hand, then held onto Lauron with my free hand and stepped outside.
In my peripheral vision, I could see the driver wrapping the reins around himself and hunkering down on the driver’s bench, shaking. I had the distinct impression that if we hadn’t been clutching the carriage, we would have been blown away.
And then what would happen?
Was this gale simply revolving, forming the center of the pillar? Or was it really a whirlpool that would ultimately suck us, along with the magic, down into the wormhole?
There was no time to investigate, and I sure didn’t want to find out firsthand.
“Hrgh...”
The wind was getting stronger and stronger.
I squinted, looking up above my head. The huge black pillar hung in the air as if it were bearing down on us. I craned my neck, trying to see how high it went, but quickly found myself in danger of falling over backward. It was so massive that simply by being there it made a human like me feel laughably trivial and small.
It was practically the picture of despair. Part of me wondered whether, if space elevators really existed, this was what they would look like. Okay, so it was totally irrelevant, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Quick!” Minori-san shouted. I nodded, and we worked our way around the back of the carriage. We had to activate Imarufe Bisurupeguze. Obviously, Lauron’s clay doll had long since turned to dust, and the wind had blown the dust away, leaving no trace.
“Argh...” When we reached the bomb, I groped for the small slot the card went into. With the wind pulling at my clothes and blowing my hair into my face, even this seemingly simple task was a major job. I couldn’t even open my eyes properly. With my left hand I felt over Imarufe Bisurupeguze’s surface—and finally found it.
“There it is!” I exclaimed, and with my other hand I went to put the card in the slot.
Except my finger slipped, and the card fell out of my hand.
As I watched the card flutter away like a leaf, I felt the blood drain from my entire body.
A split second later, though, someone reached out—and grabbed the card.
“Lauron?!”
Lauron had caught the card.
She had jumped through the air to get it, but now the wind threatened to carry her small body away into the void. I managed to reach out, though, and just hook my fingers around her belt.
“Ngggraahh!” With all my might, I struggled to pull her back. Instead, though, I started to feel myself being lifted up off the ground—until a second later, something grabbed me by the collar and pulled me back down. It was Minori-san.
“Shinichi-kun! Lauron!” Minori-san was using all her strength to drag us back to the ground. I felt like we were being pulled straight toward her chest—her cheeeest! Ohh, the sweet softness! No, no, of course I didn’t have time to be thinking about that.
“Quick!” She all but flung me and Lauron toward Imarufe Bisurupeguze, and Lauron jammed the card into the side of the globe.
Perfect. Now all we had to do was recite the activation spell, and Imarufe Bisurupeguze would go off like... well, like a bomb.
If possible, though, I wanted to get our magical weapon closer to the black pillar...
“Huh?”
All of a sudden, Lauron was grabbing the weapon with both hands. She seemed to be in danger of floating away again, and Minori-san and I both latched onto her to weigh her down. Still holding the globe, she stretched out her arms and began to spin in a circle...
She shouted something, a very long stream of Eldant that I couldn’t understand. Then she gave a great, howling yell.
Remember this about dwarves: they may look small, but they’re immensely strong. Lauron was spinning so fast she looked like a propeller. Even for a dwarf, her stren
gth seemed incredible. Maybe it was, you know, how people seem to get stronger during a crisis. Imarufe Bisurupeguze must have weighed thirty kilos at least. Lauron spun like a discus thrower...
...and with another stream of Eldant, she flung it away.
The bomb went flying toward the black pillar. Minori-san forcefully dragged Lauron and the driver inside the passenger compartment of the carriage, then reached out and pulled me in, too. I tried to follow Imarufe Bisurupeguze with my eyes as the door closed.
“Rofu a esuakudouugu! Ia esu shisu reuoppu! In the name of justice, I invoke this great power!” I shouted as loud as I could.
Fly, my voice!
An instant later, light washed over us.
The roar, and the shockwave, followed after.
“Nrrghh!”
The carriage was lifted into the air. It felt like being inside a giant saltshaker as we were thrown up and down.
Owowow—argh! What was what?!
I cried out, completely confused...
A few minutes later, as I regained my bearings, I realized I was draped over Lauron on the floor of the carriage.
At least it was the floor. That meant the carriage hadn’t been turned over. Or maybe it had done a full 360 and just happened to land back on its wheels. I didn’t know, and frankly, I didn’t care. The shaking was over, and I didn’t hear any roaring.
“I feel sick...” I said, clapping my hands over my mouth.
I looked to the side and saw Minori-san fallen on top of our driver, also on the floor. It looked like she’d made it through all right; she sat up and looked over at me. The driver, for his part, was still shaking.
“Ex... Excuse me...” I heard from the floor. “What happened...?” It was Lauron whispering. Her face was still pale, but she looked way better than she had a few minutes ago.
“Hey...” I suddenly realized I had understood her. That meant... “Minori-san!”
Outbreak Company: Volume 8 (Premium) Page 17