In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 16 (Premium)

by Patora Fuyuhara

  He’d basically done something similar to Doctor Babylon, but instead of transferring his mind into a humanoid homunculus, he’d transferred himself into the mother of all legacy Gollems.

  Still, given that he needed like fifty or more artificial brains to control it, it was clear that Doctor Babylon had him beat in terms of efficiency... Then again, this was a much larger body.

  “Khakaka... Incredible, isn’t it? Such a feat like this is impossible to comprehend, isn’t it?”

  “Eh... Kinda? Not really.”

  “Whuh?”

  I was pretty surprised by the general appearance of the whole thing, the idea of his brain just being visible like that was hella gross, but... The tech itself wasn’t too shocking. I was pretty familiar with cyborgs in fiction, and all that. Though, having one right in front of me was pretty unsettling.

  “I mean... it’s cool? I guess? But it’s kind of whatever.” I loaded an [Explosion]-infused bullet into Brunhild, pointed it his way, and pulled the trigger without a moment’s notice.

  A massive detonation went off against Hecatoncheir’s forehead, but after the smoke cleared it was pretty apparent that my shot hadn’t actually inflicted any damage.

  “Bah.”

  “Khaahahaha! You fool! You cannot damage the mighty Hecatoncheir! Its armor is designed to nullify any and all magic!”

  I narrowed my eyes and looked closely, noticing that several runic patterns were engraved all over Hecatoncheir’s surface. It seemed like it had the very principles of anti-magic armor carved into its very being.

  Given that it was supposed to be deployed in an all-out Gollem world war, that function was likely to defend against Gollem skills. I was kind of getting pissed off at the old guy, since he was so proudly talking about achievements that weren’t actually his.

  “Reload.”

  I shifted the bullets to regular ones and pulled the trigger again. But alas, a pinging sound resounded as the bullets hit an invisible barrier before making contact with the surface.

  Just as I’d expected... It was enchanted with something similar to my [Shield] spell. I couldn’t even penetrate it with Brunhild, and I imagined that even Yae and Hilde would have a hard time getting through. Even if they did, their momentum would be stopped enough for it to barely do a scrape. It’d be like taking a shaving razor to a tuna. Not exactly the most efficient method.

  The loud rumbling began again, prompting me to look up at the ceiling. Stuff was falling down from above here and there. I didn’t really want to deal with any more surprises, since it was hard to figure out how to respond.

  Even though I was becoming a god, it wasn’t like my ability to process information had increased. If I’d kept [Accel] active on me at all times, I probably would’ve been able to respond before getting my magic sucked out... but there was no point thinking about it.

  Plus, it wasn’t like I wanted to live life in a constant state of acceleration.

  I heard something break and then heard various shattering and snapping sounds ring out from all over the underground facility.

  It became pretty clear that Hecatoncheir was moving around beneath the ground. It was attempting to break out from the underground and rise up.

  “Khakhaha! Time to free myself from this dull prison!”

  “H-Hey! We’re directly below your castle, aren’t we?! What about the people above?!”

  “Does a man take care not to step upon ants underfoot?! Why should I care for their puny lives?!”

  This old bastard... He really isn’t human anymore, is he? The large eye in the middle of Hecatoncheir’s forehead, along with the other eyes, all closed all of a sudden. Once they re-opened, the brain and Q-Crystals were no longer there. He’d clearly moved them to another area within the Gollem. That made sense, given he wouldn’t want his weak spots out on display.

  Hecatoncheir began to shift and move, and the underground workshop was becoming more of a wreck by the second. If we stayed any longer, we’d be in serious danger... The ceiling itself was about to cave in.

  “[Teleport]!”

  I grabbed the girls and warped to a rooftop in Isengard’s capital city. We were on the roof of the tallest building, a tower to the south of the castle. It gave us a good view of the area.

  The building that looked like a battleship’s command tower had smoke billowing out of it, and looked like it was set to collapse. I looked more closely and saw people fleeing the area en masse.

  “Set Targets! All people within Isengard Castle and the surrounding area!”

  “Acquiring Targe—”

  My smartphone’s audio was drowned out by a series of massive explosions that came up from within the castle. Amidst the sea of flame and smoke, I saw two massive wings emerge from underground.

  The witch-king, in his Hecatoncheir body, was attempting to crawl out of a pit. He didn’t care at all about the deaths he could be causing.

  “—rgets Acquired.”

  “Use [Teleport] to displace all targets to the plains three kilometers away! Apply [Mega Heal] to everyone immediately after transfer!”

  “Order Acknowledged.”

  The moment my smartphone told me it had picked up on everyone, I issued further commands. But I was too late to save everyone. There was nothing I could do for those who were already dead or those who might’ve been wearing talismans to protect themselves from magic.

  As if to mock my failure, the gigantic command tower finally collapsed into the flames. Those gigantic wings I’d seen before re-appeared, fanning the smoke and rising upward out of the ground. The earth itself began to split open... extending beyond the castle grounds and even out toward the town. I had misjudged its size... It wasn’t just buried under the castle. It was buried beneath the castle town as well. A massive, twisted metal tail emerged from the splintering earth. There wasn’t just one... A second and third appeared. And then, even more. I couldn’t even make out the former castle grounds due to the sheer amount of smoke billowing out from beneath the soil.

  “Khakhakhaaaah! This is incredible... I can’t be stopped now! I’ve gone far beyond the limits of ancient technology! By my own handiwork, the Hecatoncheir walks the earth! Khakhaah!”

  Smoke continued to plume upward as the witch-king’s insane ravings rang out across the land. The man had completely lost his mind.

  From beneath the castle, it finally made its physical debut. Its body was entirely black, save for the brass lines that ran across it. Atop its head were two monstrous horns. The eyes lining the sides of its face were open, and its mouth was twisted into a triumphant grin. Four massive, thick arms sprouted from its torso, and various other small arms jutted from its body in other areas. Two ferocious wings were sticking out of its back.

  It was hard to describe, but it basically resembled what I’d imagine a massive, multi-armed demon to look like. It also had various tails splitting off from its rear end, each tipped with a snake-like head. The tails flicked around like whips and annihilated the castle walls as if they were nothing. It was clearly packing monstrous levels of strength.

  It was enormous... About the size of an Upper Construct Phrase. I was surprised that something so large was slumbering beneath the castle town.

  Hecatoncheir’s tails continued to lash out, reducing the castle to rubble. It was like something out of a giant monster movie. The magitech fortress, Isenberg, was slowly devoured by debris and fire. I could hear the townspeople screaming as they watched the situation unfold.

  “T-Touya-dono... We must stop this, we must! Bring out our Frame Gears!”

  “Ah... Whoops. My Reginleif is in my [Storage], but yours are in the hangar right now...”

  “Oh?!”

  All the Valkyrie Gears were currently in the hangar getting a tune-up. I’d need to travel back to the regular world and pick them up... But that’d leave the people of Isengard like sitting ducks. ... Guess there’s really nothing else for it, I’m gonna have to...

  “Oopsie-doopsie!
Guess you made a little mistakey-wakey! But I’m here now, you know?! Touya’s reliable sister, taking center stage, you know? It’s me, Big Sis Karen!”

  “Augh!”

  I almost fell off the roof due to the sudden, surprising voice. I turned around and saw Karen, my sister, puffing out her cheeks and chest with pride. I had absolutely no idea how long she’d been here for. Everyone else was staring at her with wide, shocked eyes. Clearly, they weren’t used to her stupid-ass behavior either.

  “Karen, what the hell are you doing here?!”

  “My big-sis senses were tingling! I sensed that poor little Touya was about to cry, you know? So I knew I had to come and save you!”

  ...I don’t remember crying. Your senses are totally off... I bet you just realized something interesting was going down and decided to butt in!

  “Anyway, I decided to bring Babylon over here, you know? Look over there!”

  “You what?!”

  Karen pointed up into the air, but I certainly couldn’t see anything.

  “...There’s nothing there.”

  “Try looking with your divinity, you know?”

  “Oh, right.”

  I’d forgotten that Babylon had a stealth field around it. I triggered my divinity and saw the whole fortress floating up there. I was a little shocked and mortified that Karen had brought the whole damn thing over, though... That was definitely beyond my capabilities.

  I wasn’t even sure if she was allowed to do that. As far as I understood it, using divinity was forbidden if you used it to interfere in mortal affairs. I was just an exception to that rule due to my trainee status.

  “This is fine, you know? It belongs to you, so... It doesn’t belong to the mortal realm, you know?! I can move it around, so it’s all good!”

  I don’t think that argument holds up at all, Karen! You just made that up on the spot! Well, whatever. What’s done is done. If I spend any more time arguing it’ll just be a waste. I sent the girls up to Babylon with [Gate] and turned to look at Hecatoncheir. It stretched out its wings and took to the skies. It didn’t do any physical movements like flapping, so it was probably just using anti-gravity tech to make itself airborne.

  Unfortunately [Slip] wouldn’t work on enemies in the sky, and [Prison] definitely wouldn’t hold something so big. I wouldn’t be able to drop it anywhere with [Gate], either.

  “...Fine, if you wanna play it this way...” I moved toward an unpopulated area within the capital and called down Reginleif, my Frame Gear. I hopped up into the cockpit, set my smartphone down on the console, and fired that bad boy up.

  Various monitors popped up around me, giving me a clear view of my surroundings. I locked on to Hecatoncheir and channeled my magic through the controls, taking off and flying toward the rampaging Gollem.

  “Fragarach... Activate!”

  “Initializing Fragarach System.”

  The wing-like structures on Reginleif’s back unfolded themselves and broke off until there were a total of twelve crystal slabs surrounding my machine.

  “Switch to Sphere Mode.”

  The crystal slabs reformed themselves into orbs. All twelve of them surrounded my mech in a circular formation, like numbers on a clock.

  “Launch.”

  The twelve crystal spheres flew toward Hecatoncheir like several speeding bullets, but they were blocked by the invisible barrier before they could do any real damage.

  “Hm?”

  The witch-king, who was effectively the same thing as Hecatoncheir at this point, finally noticed me. I flew Reginleif to an area above his head.

  Looking at it from above gave me a real appreciation for its size.

  “Khakaka... What a peculiar Gollem you have... I wonder where you dug it up... It’s certainly rare, I’ve never seen anything of its kind before! But there’s no way something so puny can match up to my Hecatoncheir!”

  “It’s not about size, old man! It’s about how you use it!”

  “Silence!”

  Hecatoncheir’s wings shuddered as it started flying upward toward Reginleif. I dodged its swipes and flew out toward an empty field a bit away from the capital. I’d deliberately traveled in the opposite direction from the plains I’d transferred the people to earlier.

  I reasoned that so long as I was out of the way of anyone innocent, I’d be able to go all-out.

  “Switch to Dagger Mode.”

  The twelve crystal spheres around me quartered themselves, then each piece transformed into a small blade. Forty-eight crystal daggers now swirled around Reginleif.

  “Now lemme just infuse a little divinity, and... Gladius!”

  The forty-eight divinity-laden daggers launched toward Hecatoncheir in unison, assaulting the many-armed demon over and over again.

  “Khakhaah! You idiot, that’s useless! Hecatoncheir’s protective barrier is... Whaaat?!”

  The crystal daggers punctured the barrier like it was tissue paper, moving to shred the metal monster’s body apart.

  I definitely would’ve been able to penetrate it without divinity if I’d tried hard enough, but I wanted to cut out the middle-man.

  “H-How can you be doing this?! My barrier is absolute! Explain yourself at once!”

  “I don’t owe you a goddamn thing!”

  The crystal daggers targeted the shield generators on the massive Gollem’s shoulders, destroying them. That was the barrier taken care of. They then continued to rip into Hecatoncheir, punching hole after hole into the massive thing. Unfortunately, they were too small to cause critical damage, and it seemed like the Gollem had another trick up its sleeve.

  “Repair nodes!”

  A lot of legacy Gollems had the ability to repair themselves, so it wasn’t exactly an unusual skill or anything... However, the amount healed wasn’t supposed to be more than surface-level scrapes. Unfortunately, Hecatoncheir seemed to be regenerating much more efficiently than I’d expected. The amount of regeneration it was performing was easily on par with Luna Trieste and her purple crown, Fanatic Viola.

  “Is it regenerating so well because of its size?”

  My Gladius attack was basically doing nothing at this point, all of the holes opened up on its outer layer were closing in a matter of seconds, though I couldn’t be sure how well it was repairing itself on the inside. Since it had a defensive barrier up, I had an inkling that it couldn’t regenerate so well internally.

  “Don’t think so lightly of me, boy!”

  Hecatoncheir raised its arms and released beams of light from its palms. Over a hundred beams shot out, headed toward Reginleif from myriad angles.

  “Switch to Reflector Mode!”

  All forty-eight daggers suddenly combined into six massive crystal barriers, deflecting each and every beam that came toward me. The beams kept coming, one after the other, but not a single one landed a hit on me.

  As the beam assault continued, one of the smaller arms firing the beams was cut off below the elbow.

  “What the?!”

  The one to cut it down was a purple samurai mech. It was Yae in her Schwertleite. Another Frame Gear followed up the attack, slicing yet more arms off. It was Hilde in her orange Siegrune.

  The two of them were equipped with Vernier thrusters about their waists. The added gear allowed them to fly in the air.

  “Oh, they finished developing those?”

  During our battles against the Phrase, and later the mutants, only Linze and I were able to take to the skies. That meant that only we could handle the airborne enemies. Well, Yumina, Leen, and Lu could use their long-range attacks as well.

  That was why Rosetta from the workshop came up with the Vernier thrusters. They could only be used by the Valkyrie Gears and had a limited amount of operational time before they ran out, but they were definitely helpful.

  Siegrune and Schwertleite danced past the beams of light, cutting down arm after arm with each forward motion. The two of them were doing considerable damage now that I’d brought the barrier down.
It seemed like the Gollem wasn’t able to regenerate its lost limbs, either.

  Suddenly, a barrage of bullets was pelted at Hecatoncheir. The source was Leen’s Grimgerde. The endless rain of bullets started to riddle a steady stream of holes into the great Gollem’s armor.

  One of its thinner arms was suddenly blasted away at the base by a powerful sniper shot. Yumina in her Brunnhilde must’ve been the cause. She’d triggered her stealth mode, so I had no idea where she was firing from.

  “This can’t be! Hecatoncheir is the apex of Gollem technology! This is the culmination of the ancient world’s magitech, and my witchcraft! I am the witch-king! None can surpass my skill!”

  “All you did was tweak something that was already built, you old fart! Why’re you talking so proud, huh?! If you wanna talk so arrogantly, then you should’ve invented something like this on your own!”

  Elluka was trying to surpass the ancient civilizations too, but she wasn’t relying on their pre-fabricated stuff like this old idiot was.

  “Hell, I bet this thing’s worse than it was originally designed to be because you got your grubby mitts on it and modified it poorly!”

  “Y-You filthy little barbarian! How dare you talk down to me! I’ll never forgive you for your insubordination!!”

  The massive Gollem roared out in anger, I could feel the air vibrating as it yelled out.

  “Let me give you a taste of hell, you urchin! No matter how many Gollems you send at me, I cannot be defeated! Hecatoncheir is a weapon of mass destruction, and its unique skill is going to show you exactly what that means!”

  Hecatoncheir began emitting a cloud of strange green smoke. It began to drift around the surrounding area before settling in the air.

  What the... Poison?! While regular Frame Gears weren’t airtight, the Valkyrie Gears were fitted with special air filtration units. There’d be no way for poison to reach the insides of the cockpits. But I still wanted to be safe instead of sorry, so I called Yae and the others back.

  “Are you all okay?”

  “I’m fine, yes. No problems I can see...”

  “All fine here.”

  “I am fine, I am.”