Invaders of the Rokujouma!? Volume 8.5

by Takehaya

  “Look out, Koutarou-sama!”

  “Whoops!”

  Immediately after Alaia’s warning, Alunaya’s flame breath passed by right next to Koutarou. It was so close that it singed his hair.

  “Please be careful, Koutarou-sama! It’s all over if that hits you!”

  “Sorry, I was a little lost in thought... Wait a minute...”

  Seeing Alunaya’s flame breath fly off into the distance, Koutarou was struck with a wild idea. He quickly ran it by Alaia.

  “Your Highness, can the sword cut through those flames?”

  Alaia nearly gasped at what Koutarou was suggesting.

  “It might be possible... But if it fails, there’s no going back.”

  Alunaya’s flame breath was really just magical fire. In other words, Signaltin might be able to dispel it.

  Alunaya had to stop moving in order to spew flames, and the flames themselves partially obscured his vision. So even if it was only momentarily, he left himself open when he attacked that way. If Koutarou purposely took the flame breath head-on, Alunaya would lose sight of him. He could then use Signaltin to protect himself.

  But if things went wrong—if he screwed up the timing or came in at a bad angle—Koutarou would be swallowed by the flames. Considering that risk, Alaia couldn’t agree to such a plan. Hearing her answer, however, Koutarou smiled and called her name.

  “Princess Alaia.”

  “What is it?”

  “Which do you believe in more? The fire breath? Or me?”

  “...Kou...”

  Alaia was at a loss for words.

  “K-K-Koutarou-sama! That’s not the point! That’s unfair!”

  Alaia raised her voice and scolded Koutarou. To her, that question only had one answer.

  “Stupid Koutarou-sama!”

  So instead of answering him, she continued to criticize him like a child.

  “That’s poor manners, Your Highness... Clan, do you have any advice?”

  Koutarou smiled and asked Clan for her input over his comms. He wanted to hear the scientist’s opinion.

  “...I don’t, stupid. But if there’s anything you should know, it’s that the flame breath is practically plasma. So by using an electromagnetic field, you might be able to protect yourself a little, stupid...”

  Clan’s actual advice would have been to abandon this plan altogether. However, knowing Koutarou’s personality, she knew that he’d already made up his mind by the time he asked her. So she gave up on trying to stop him and instead gave him information she thought might be helpful.

  Normally when plasma came into contact with an electromagnetic field, a complex reaction would occur. In this case, the plasma breath should diffuse and the barrier field would serve as a sort of umbrella, much the same way Earth’s magnetic field protected against solar winds. However, if the momentum was too great, there wouldn’t be much of an effect at all. That was a very real possibility against Alunaya’s breath.

  “All right, I’ll give it a try.”

  Koutarou grinned and pointed Signaltin towards Alunaya’s face.

  “Koutarou-sama, please reconsider.”

  “Your Highness, I still haven’t heard your answer.”

  “I...”

  Alaia was hesitant to answer. After several seconds of silence, she quietly mumbled something.

  “...Make sure you come back, Forthorthe’s Blue Knight...”

  “As you wish, my princess.”

  In the end, she still never answered the actual question.

  Alunaya liked to use his flames to keep Koutarou at a distance because he knew that Koutarou was stronger at close range. Because of that, it wasn’t that hard to bait a breath attack.

  Alunaya opened his large mouth and began inhaling. Seeing that, Koutarou positioned himself not too close, but not too far away either. The balance of that was actually quite tricky. If he was too close, Alunaya would swipe at him instead, and if he was too far, he wouldn’t be able to use the flame breath as cover for his approach. Koutarou had to find the perfect spot for this to work.

  “Now, Koutarou-sama!”

  After confirming that Alunaya was gathering mana in his gullet—a sure sign he was about to spew flames—Koutarou set his boosters to maximum thrust and charged straight forward. As long as he could close the distance in time, the rest should be easy, so he was willing to use the last of his propellant on this if he had to.

  The next moment, Alunaya exhaled a white-hot pillar of fire. Flames hotter than even the surface of the sun were coming straight for Koutarou.

  “How about thiiiiiiiisss?!”

  While using his boosters to adjust his angle of approach, Koutarou thrust Signaltin out in front of him. He also generated an electromagnetic field around it to shield himself from the plasma that Signaltin couldn’t dispel.

  In a flash, all Koutarou could see was white. Signaltin’s mana covered Koutarou’s entire body as everything else around him was engulfed in plasma. And while the sword might have been capable of dispelling the plasma, it couldn’t do anything about the superheated air that swirled around it. The surrounding temperature spiked immediately and Koutarou felt like he had been thrown into an oven.

  “Tch...”

  Fortunately, his armor was designed to be used in space and could withstand extreme temperatures. The AI reported several warnings, but there was no major damage. The outside shell of the armor was scorched and discolored, which, all in all, was an excellent result for having just survived a blast of straight plasma hotter than the sun.

  Koutarou dove out from under the flames and circled around to Alunaya’s back. Since Alunaya couldn’t see Koutarou because of his breath, he had no idea that he was being flanked.

  “Taaaaakeeeee thiiiiiiiis!”

  Without letting up on his boosters, Koutarou charged straight at Alunaya. His target was the blue crystal attached to the dragon’s neck. Signaltin pierced through Alunaya’s barrier and struck its target. As the mana inside the crystal was dispelled, it shattered and scattered all over.

  “ROAAAAAAAR!”

  Alunaya immediately screamed out in pain. His wailing voice was so loud it felt like it was shaking the entire world.

  “Did that do it?!”

  “Koutarou-sama!”

  As Koutarou looked on, Alunaya plummeted towards the ground. The moment the crystal shattered, he lost control of his body. He repeatedly tried flapping his wings to regain control, but in the end, the dragon slammed into the earth below.

  Maxfern blankly stared as Alunaya crashed into the garden, but then fell into a fit of quiet laughter. It was a dark, frightening sound. It sounded like the laugh of a demon coming up from the depths of hell, and it was enough to make all who heard it shudder.

  “Heh... Heh heh heh... Splendid... Truly splendid... Even with the holy sword, to think you’d be able to defeat Alunaya...”

  As Maxfern’s laughter creepily echoed through the garden, the demons surrounding Alaia and the others moved to form a defensive formation around Maxfern. His loyal alchemists as well as Grevanas and his court magicians were already by his side. They would follow Maxfern until the end.

  “Just give up already, Maxfern.”

  After landing, Koutarou approached to within a few dozen meters of Maxfern, but the small army surrounding Maxfern showed no sign of attacking. Perhaps it was because they feared Koutarou, or perhaps it was simply because hadn’t been ordered to yet. Either way, they didn’t get in the way of Koutarou and Maxfern’s conversation. The eight girls well behind Koutarou watched as the situation unfolded as well.

  “You’ve lost.”

  “...That’s true. I’ll admit to that. It’s your victory, Blue Knight.”

  Surprisingly, Maxfern seemed to accept his defeat. He’d failed to obtain the sword he was after, and his ace in the hole, Alunaya, had been defeated. His plans had all gone awry, and now the only thing he had left to show for himself was a few dozen subordinates and a horde of monsters willing
to protect him. Even his chance to take the country of Forthorthe had slipped through his fingers. There was no coming back from this, but he was reasonable enough to acknowledge that.

  “But I still have no intention of letting you take this country, Blue Knight! This world is mine! I won’t hand it over to anyone!”

  Before anyone knew it, the demons were all holding bottles filled with black liquid. But they weren’t planning on attacking Koutarou and the others with them. No, they poised to take off into the sky.

  “Do it, Grevanas!”

  “Maxfern-sama, do we really have to go this far?”

  “Shut it! Are you willing to accept such a miserable defeat?! That everything we’ve done has been for naught?!”

  “I-I didn’t say that, but...”

  Grevanas, who had so far calmly obeyed Maxfern’s orders, was now showing hesitation. It gave Koutarou a sinking feeling.

  “Then just do as you’re told!”

  “I understand...”

  “What are you planning, Maxfern?!”

  Koutarou demanded answers. The sinking feeling in his gut was rapidly getting heavier and heavier. He couldn’t tell what, but he felt like something bad was about to happen. He couldn’t just sit still.

  “Like I told you, Blue Knight! I have no intention of just handing this country over to you!”

  “So that’s how it is, Maxfern?!”

  In that moment, Alaia suddenly raised her head. She wore an expression of astonishment and fear. She’d realized exactly what Maxfern was plotting. Exactly what he was going to have the demons do.

  “That black liquid! It’s that poison from before, isn’t it?!”

  “That’s right! Well spotted, wise Princess Alaia!”

  The bottles the demons were carrying contained the same fatal virus that Dextro had used on the village during the harvest festival. The alchemists had gathered, studied, and reproduced it in mass quantities. Maxfern was planning on using the demons to distribute it throughout Forthorthe and sicken the entire country.

  “Are you planning on destroying Forthorthe?!”

  A chill ran down Koutarou’s spine when he realized Maxfern’s goal. The virus might wipe out more than just Forthorthe. Viruses didn’t respect borders, and there would be nothing stopping it from spreading across the entire continent or even the entire world.

  “Hahaha! Isn’t this how you’re supposed to seize a country?!”

  Maxfern laughed tauntingly at Koutarou. He looked like a raging madman, and that rage was directed at one person in particular: Koutarou. When his smile faded, the crazy look on his face betrayed just how insane he really was. There was a dangerous gleam in his bloodshot eyes.

  “This country— No, this world is mine! That sword might be yours, but I will never hand over this world! I’d rather turn it over to darkness!”

  Maxfern was filled with hatred and envy. Not only had the holy sword rejected him, it had accepted Koutarou instead. If the holy sword chose Koutarou to be king of the world, then Maxfern would ravage the world to make Koutarou’s title meaningless. All out of spite and bitterness.

  “Ahahaha! Muahahahaha! Nobody can stop it now! This world will end! And you, Blue Knight! You will reign over nothing but a dead land of corpses!”

  “Maxfern, you bastard!”

  As Maxfern’s mad laughter filled the garden, the demons took to the sky carrying the black bottles. In total there were over fifty of them, and Koutarou had no way of defeating all of them while making sure the bottles didn’t break in the process.

  “Clan, can’t you do something?!”

  “I can’t come up with anything on the spot! If just one of those bottles shatters, something terrible will happen. There’s no way to keep them all whole...”

  The odds were fixed against them. If just one of the bottles were to shatter, the virus would pollute the entire area. From here, it would probably spread to Fornorn, the heart of the country. And once the capital was infected, there was no way of keeping it from spreading to the rest of Forthorthe.

  “Uncle! Please stop it!”

  “Shut it, Lidith! You don’t deserve to address me as family after you chose the Blue Knight over me!”

  “Maxfern! There’s no meaning in this!”

  “That’s exactly right, Princess Alaia! The goal is to make it meaningless, after all!”

  Their only hope seemed to be to make Maxfern call the demons back. But there was no way such an insane man would ever listen to reason. He was dead set on his revenge against the goddess who’d erred in her judgement.

  “It’s no use, Veltlion! Forthorthe will be ruined!”

  Clan could create a cure for the virus, but the country would be ravaged before she could administer it to everyone. There just wasn’t enough time. This would be on a completely different scale than saving a single village.

  “Blue Knight! Please do something! You must have something you can do, right?! Please say there is!”

  “Princess Charl...”

  Koutarou gritted his teeth.

  Damn it, is watching this all happen all I can do?!

  Koutarou would have loved to tell Charl that he had an ace up his sleeve. Something that would save them from this crisis. But he didn’t. He was just as lost as everyone else.

  “Caris-chan, can’t you use your magic to do something?”

  “It’s impossible. They’re too spread out.”

  “Flair-sama, what should we do?”

  “I’m sorry, Mary. I don’t know.”

  The demons flew off one after another as Koutarou and the others watched on in horror. They were literally watching the world end.

  This is my first time ever seeing something so truly frightening... No, wait, is it really?

  Something was tugging at the back of Koutarou’s brain. Something about this sight was familiar to him.

  When was it? Where have I seen this? What am I remembering?

  Koutarou desperately scanned through his memory banks. Something in there might be the key to solving this problem, and right now, he was willing to try anything.

  “Ah...”

  Before long, Koutarou stumbled across what he was after. In his fight against Clan during the play, just as she was about to unleash her final attack, Koutarou had heard a mysterious voice. He also had a vision of strange, monstrous creatures taking to the skies with black bottles in their clutches. And―

  “Clan!”

  Koutarou’s eyes lit up and he rushed to Clan, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her back and forth. Having found a solution, he lost sight of himself in the excitement.

  “Wh-What is it?!”

  Being so shaken, Clan’s eyes rolled in their sockets in bewilderment.

  “We’ll use that! You know, that thing!”

  “Please slow down! What are you talking about?!”

  “Obviously, I mean that bomb that brought us here in the first place! Use the second one to blow away these demons and those bottles!”

  That bomb, the Super Space-time Repulsion Shell, was Clan’s ultimate weapon. She’d developed it herself. When activated, it shunted everything caught in the blast outside of the very universe. Koutarou wanted Clan to use it to cast the demons out of this world.

  “R-Right, that! But it’s still being adjusted. We don’t know where―”

  “You idiot! Now’s not the time for worrying about things like that! Just hurry up and do it before it’s too late!”

  “I get it! Cradle! Prepare to launch the Super Space-time Repulsion Shell.”

  “As you wish, my princess.”

  Right beside the now desperately shouting Clan, a black hole much larger than what she normally used to call out weapons appeared. A rounded cone emerged from it. It was the missile’s warhead. Clan had created two such missiles, the first of which had been destroyed by Koutarou. That made this the second and final one. She’d intended to use it to return to her own world, but she didn’t have much of a choice now.

  �
��Fire it as soon as it’s ready, Clan!”

  “At least let me do a final check!”

  “No!”

  “Fine, fine! I got it! Jeez!”

  The repulsion shell was already fully charged. Since Koutarou had said beforehand that he was willing to use any means necessary, Clan had made sure it was charged just in case.

  “No matter what you’re planning, it’s too late now! Just sit back and watch!”

  Maxfern boasted triumphantly. He had no way of knowing what Koutarou was planning or what Clan was about to fire. Convinced that whatever they were up to wouldn’t make a difference, he decided to let them struggle in vain.

  “What are you trying to do, Koutarou-sama? How can we help?”

  Unlike Maxfern, Alaia sensed something serious in Koutarou and Clan’s behavior. She asked him for instructions.

  “Get down! There’s going to be a big explosion!”

  “I’ve finished inputting the target coordinates and parameters! Target is locked! Here we go, Veltlion!”

  “Fire!”

  “Everyone, get down!”

  “Firing!”

  The girls listened to Alaia and threw themselves to the ground. The next moment, a missile as tall as Clan came flying out of the black hole. The missile’s rocket engine sputtered a trail of flame behind it as it headed straight for the flock of demons above Maxfern.

  That’s right. This is what it looked like...

  The sight unfolding before Koutarou was exactly what he’d seen in his vision. Maxfern and his subordinates were stunned.

  “What?! Grevanas, what is that?!”

  Seeing something unknown flying towards them, Maxfern demanded an explanation of Grevanas. He believed it was some kind of magical tool.

  “I don’t know! It might be some variety of weapon, but something like that couldn’t possibly defeat all the―”

  Grevanas quickly started his explanation, but he wasn’t able to finish. The missile travelled far faster than his mouth could move. In a matter of seconds, the Super Space-time Repulsion Shell activated at its target location.