Antimagic Academy 35th Test Platoon - Volume 01 - Eienherjar wakes

by YANAGIMI Touki

  Takeru, not as a captain but a human being called Kusanagi Takeru said what he wants to do.

  "Ootori is now... Hero... no, for the sake of defeating the witch she is heading back to the academy. She will definitely ignore my order. Inside her there's only hatred for witches. Her hatred is all she has."

  《"............"》

  "To me, Ootori is already a member of the 35th platoon. I don't want her to die the same way I don't want you to die. But she... you can't stop her the normal way."

  《"............"》

  "That's why in order to stop her..."

  He stopped speaking and shut his mouth tightly.

  This decision might be wrong, if the captain analysed the battle situation he shouldn't ever make such a decision. Even if he intended to go alone.

  "——Well then, I think I'll go hunt down a Hero now."

  Takeru said it with a clear tone. It can be understood without thinking at all. Such a thing was impossible. What would be his chance in percentage? 0.1%? 0.01%? 0.001%?

  No no, it was probably zero from the get go. Even though the Kusanagi-style was created for the sake of eliminating evildoers, the fact that it's outdated didn't change.

  That's why it was reckless and foolhardy. It's like being defeated before even starting.

  Even so, Takeru still intended to subjugate it.

  He declared that, with a sword in his hand.

  《"...Kusanagi, you... pulled out your sword didn't you."》

  "Yeah."

  《"When you were talking about hunting or whatever, at that time. I don't know what happened, but you aren't in a situation where you need to draw it are you? I mean that drawing sound?"》

  "No, you can tell that I'm calm right? I'm calm alright? Though I pulled it out indeed, I'm different from my old self."

  Ikaruga sighed. While Takeru kept silent not knowing what to say as an excuse.

  《"Well I won't say anymore. Our preparations here are done, we also have a sword made for you. I'm not a swordsmith, I specialize in firearms so don't expect too much."》

  I'm ready to fight, that's what Ikaruga said to Takeru.

  Takeru opened his eyes wide at this unexpected development.

  "...Ikaruga, you..."

  《"Ah——please don't misunderstand. I don't care about Ootori Ouka, but, I'm interested in the HeroEienherjar. In the current age, that thing is a precious sample. If you guys are going to collect data, I'll lend you all of my strength."》

  In the end, Ikaruga was Ikaruga after all. A little bit of embarrassment betrayed her.

  It really seemed like she was preparing and moving on her own.

  《"Hmph! I don't care about what happens to Ootori Ouka, but punitive expedition against that legendary magical being Hero『Eienherjar』 is a different matter! The honour of subjugating that is appropriate for me... there will be no other chance as good as this to make my name famous throughout the academy!"》

  Said Usagi with her high-pitched voice interrupting.

  《"It's not convincing at all when you're trembling with a blue face."》

  《"Whaa?! I-I'm not trembling! I might be shaking with excitement though!"》

  《"For a while now, your rifle is making clattering noises as you tremble"》

  《"I-It's a lie Kusanagi! Suginami is just jealous of my courageous self, there's nothing to be scared off!"》

  《"She ran to restroom four times within the last 20 minutes."》

  《"I didn't! I told you not to say anything to Kusanagi!"》

  A loud clattering sound could be heard from the device's speaker.

  Kusanagi laughed wryly at those two like usual.

  "Listen, Captain's orders."

  While hearing voices of his noisy comrades, he muttered.

  "...thanks, both of you."

  It probably wouldn't be heard, but he finished the communication saying that.

  "Sorry for making you wait——eh?? What?! Where did she go?!"

  The figure of the girl in front of him was nowhere to be found. Takeru looked around in haste and scoured the nearby places briefly, but couldn't find her.

  She should have been standing here a while ago... where did she go to?

  "Speaking of which... why did that child know my name..."

  As if he had met with a ghost, Takeru stroked his back.

  Part 3

  AntiMagic Academy, main gate.

  The first line of defence were guards compromised of test platoon members and a few of KnightSpriggan troops.

  The shooting rifles leaned from the barricade intercepting the corpse eating demons.

  "This is easy, we alone are enough if it's just this much."

  "Right? I don't know about Hero, but this is a piece of cake. S-class or whatever, ancient weapons cannot stand up to us who are armed with modern weapons."

  The students shouldering assault rifles, comrades from the same platoon that responded positively to Chariman's request. For them who bravely stood up, the corpse eating demons were not enough. The students were seizing Magical Heritages on a daily basis as part of the test platoon system, they were always threatened by Magical Heritage, they stood against that darkness armed with guns.

  With a genuine witch as an opponent, for them who were really tense because of that, it was quite anticlimactic. Corpse eating demons, when you compare them to the threat a person armed with a gun poses, it was like heaven and earth. A corpse eating demon is at most like a stray dog that is hard to put down. They are really hard to kill, but just hitting them with Inquisition's anti-magic bullets was enough to get rid of them.

  The corpse eating demons hit by bullets turned into ash and got swept by the wind.

  Students seeing a corpse eating demon turn into ash smiled relaxedly.

  "At this rate Hero won't be a big deal either. It's just a product of witch's magic, hardly an opponent for us——"

  The moment he said that to his comrade beside him.

  In the front, from the other side than the one corpse eating demons invaded. A dazzling light was emitted.

  Just beside the students, *shuu*... a sound of something evaporating.

  After they faced in that direction, there was nothing there anymore.

  No barricades, no KnightSpriggan troops, nor comrades from their own platoons.

  Everything was blown away, and turned into pile of rubble.

  "......ha?"

  Everyone stopped thinking, the guy that was talking just now disappeared in an instant. An empty scenery. Emptiness spread right beside them.

  Just, a right hand of the guy who was speaking until now was lying by their feet. Like a mannequin arm.

  Students in front of such absurd slaughter looked up to the sky trying to escape from reality.

  Cloudless sky dyed orange by the setting sun offered good visibility.

  While feeling the wind on their cheeks, they lost their nerve and were inclined to escape.

  But of course it didn't go well.

  From their toes up till their heads, they trembled suffering irresistible fear. Students couldn't help but look at the one who took everything from them.

  At the slope near the school gate, in the middle of the corpse eating demons' ashes dancing. A big shadow was moving up calmly.

  It was an awe-inspiring figure coloured with gold and platinum. That form was sinister, evil.

  It's skin, or maybe armour. They were unsure how to classify it, looked like bone or a carapace.

  But that's it.

  None expected for Hero who was called in by 『Hero Summoning』, to be a variant that looked like that.

  An outdated weapon summoned by ancient magic.

  That was the way students imagined the Hero, that's how they imagined it'll be.

  But the figure that came walking in, rather than being described as outdated, it looked futuristic.

  "...hyaaa!"

  It approached while making heavy sounds.

  In his right hand he move
d his large sword——no, a large gun which he pointed at them.

  Ouka took a bike from KnightsSpriggan without asking and came back to the Academy, she was shocked by the devastation.

  The beautiful AntiMagic Academy.

  The school building's fully equipped inner courtyard, that looked like a part of a western palace.

  All of it was gone without a trace.

  The school building was partially destroyed, the garden has become scorched earth. Fallen students with serious injuries everywhere and between them were dead people.

  Looking all over the place, everyone had guns in their hands. They must have been defeated in battle.

  "...what happened... why... did students participate in battle?"

  She approached the fallen students in a hurry and checked if they're breathing. She tried to contact Sougetsu but couldn't get through. Ouka bit her lower lip.

  Why didn't the Witch HuntersDullahan mobilize. Why are students participating in this battle. In the first place, what does this plight mean.

  Ouka didn't have enough information to understand the current situation.

  Just——there was one thing sure.

  Far ahead of them, there was a huge figure leisurely walking.

  That was the culprit responsible for this devastation. A product of magic. The hateful abomination definitely set up by the witch.

  Ouka discerned the enemy's nature. Her pent up rage overflowed.

  Her sworn enemy walked leisurely through the courtyard which has turned into an inferno. Ouka saw the figure of Hero for the first time.

  She knew it was a human who became a legend, summoned and called a hero. To think it was a human being like that. A monster just as she imagined.

  She didn't feel an ounce of intelligence from the Hero. He looked like a machine that destroys everything in front of it.

  "...you...want to fight it...?"

  A voice came from the shadows, Ouka moved her gaze towards the source.

  Hidden behind the pillar of the corridor that connects school buildings, was a shaking male student suffering a knee injury, there were many other students trembling under a rock, either in a school building or in the shade of a roadside tree.

  Seeing the enemy's might, they completely lost the will to fight. All of them regretting being so faint-hearted.

  Ouka ran towards one of the students unnoticed by the enemy.

  "Tell me what's the situation. Why didn't the Witch HuntersDullahan come? Why are students participating in combat?"

  "Fighting...or running away...with that opponent students couldn't do neither..."

  "Answer me!"

  Ouka grabs the frightened student's uniform and drags him closer.

  While breathing out painfully, he said to her.

  "N-no idea...we participated because we were told we'll become Witch HuntersDullahans if we defeat that thing, that's all..."

  "...isn't that insane? ...enemy is an S-Class hazardous product of specialized magic right? Who would say such a thing..."

  "...didn't you hear the Chairman's speech...?"

  When she heard the contents of speech from the student, she started grinding her teeth.

  "...to bait in the students like that."

  "We couldn't even scratch that monster! W-we ran away, we had no chance of winning!"

  The student got slapped and fell behind towards the wall. He fell silent with tears in his eyes. Ouka asked him with a thorny tone.

  "You, did you see the intrinsic magic of Magical Heritage that Hero used?"

  Intrinsic magic, a secret magic contained within Magical Heritage. Magical Heritages have spells concealed within them, although they are limited to a single effect. The ones that can activate a magical procedure without an owner are qualify as at least an A-Rank when it comes to risk evaluation.

  "I don't know, from the very beginning we couldn't put a scratch on him, everything was repelled by a barrier."

  "...a magical barrier."

  Magical barrier, for a barrier that's not penetrated by Inquisition's bullets, it must be a really powerful one. In order to deploy such a barrier, there's a need of huge amounts of magical power that can't be generated by a modern witch. She realized that without a doubt, the barrier is being generated by Magical Heritage.

  However, academy's students aside, for the forces to be annihilated in such a short time can't be because of the barrier's threat. Moreover, the shape of Magical Heritage is a... gun. Is its body used for original attacks, and a magical procedure that grants the protection? Ouka thought there has to be something else too.

  "The enemy is a Hero. It should not be able to use multiple Magical Heritages. Did anything else change before? He took out only this much people, there definitely has to be something else."

  The grabbed student's face goes pale at once.

  He saw something, Ouka intuitively understood.

  "...we couldn't defeat it no matter how hard we tried. Even bombardment didn't affect him so I was trying to withdraw, and then..."

  "............"

  "Then suddenly, under his feet a magical circle appeared...and then...in an instant...everyone that was fighting in front, all the Inquisitors...became...slabs of meat."

  "Tell me what did you see at that moment, it might become a clue that helps us defeat the Hero."

  The student held his head in his arms, and muttered towards the ground with eyes bloodshot.

  "The knights... 11 of them... inside enormous explosion of light, I saw it for a moment, when it increased they attacked... he...!"

  The student spoke until then, and cried out as if he was in agony. Ouka's face displayed dread. Summoning 11 knights and a magical barrier.

  "...the Hero is Arthur Pendragon... and the Magical Heritage is Excalibur..."

  At the same time as she guessed. "Is that possible?" Is what she wondered about.

  Excalibur written down in history had originally the form of a sword. But that Hero's possession is not a sword, but a gun. Its shape is close to a modern mass produced railgun.

  Railgun... impossible.

  There's no precedent for magical power to dwell in modern weapons like a railgun. The relatively small number of Lost Type Magical Heritages in shape of a gun, were made and used during Witch Hunt War and these are the only ones. Although there are the irregular types, it's impossible for them to draw out such destructive power.

  And above all——

  Excalibur should have been destroyed by Inquisition a hundred years ago.

  It shouldn't exist anymore, it's not supposed to be here.

  However, a Magical Heritage with unique magic allowing to summon 11 knights, there's no other in existence. Above all, Ouka had an idea.

  During the 『Trackless Psalms』 case the traded objects were pieces of Magical Heritage.

  If they were pieces of Excalibur, she couldn't rule out that possibility.

  At present, restoration of destroyed Magical Heritage is not possible, the possibility is equal to zero... however.

  If Illusory Cult『Valhalla』』 is involved, then the possibility is no longer zero.

  "............"

  Ouka covered her mouth slightly scared . She narrowed her eyes as she resolved herself.

  She borrowed a magazine and a small assault rifle placed beside the student. She also confirmed the amount of bullets and pulled the cocking lever.

  If that gun is really Excalibur, is the documentation wrong? ...the barriers definitely exist. Excalibur is not only the sword itself, its supposed to be one heritage together with the sheath. King Arthur was invincible thanks to the sheath rather than the sword itself. In other words, sword for attack, and the defence... is supplied by the sheath.

  Holding a gun, Ouka faced forward.

  Well then, first sheath... unless we destroy the holster...

  Ouka couldn't leave that monster unchecked as it is, her hatred... was not the reason.

  She raised her hips, going to chase after Hero.


  "Hey, don't run away."

  "I will buy time, you guys treat the wounded."

  These students will never forget the expression on Ouka's face at that time. With poor equipment and baseless guess, going against an opponent who is a monster that can't be taken down by an entire battalion, Ouka was undaunted.

  On the contrary, it seemed like she was laughing.

  Ouka hid in the shadows lurking around the Hero and checking his waist.

  Indeed, there was something like a holster for accommodating a gun there.

  "...no choice but to bet on it, eh."

  While holding a gun, Ouka calmed her feelings as preparation for battle. She pressed the gun against her forehead and closed her eyes as if praying.

  The moment the enemy stopped walking, she jumped out from the shadows holding her gun.

  Aligning the sight with her eye, she continued to fire in three-shot bursts.

  Just as the students said, the bullets were stopped by invisible barrier before reaching Hero's body.

  Ouka focused her fire on a single point in the barrier applying force in the same spot.

  Hero turned towards her already, his body was about three meters away. He had one hand on the Excalibur and pointed its muzzle halfway towards Ouka.

  ——Thirst for blood.

  Ouka jumped to the side.

  The impact made a huge crater in the ground——a mass of magic power passed right beside her.

  "———!!!"

  Her nerves froze. If she kept sitting there, Ouka would become just a lump of flesh. And that's not the only thing causing her fear, the shockwave just now was an intrinsic performance of Excalibur. It wasn't magic.

  The blows hit like cannonballs. Bullets are not products of magic, the frame itself contained powerful magic. It was the original Excalibur! It was consistent with legends. King Arthur released spirit magic by slashing with the sword, he was said to be an unmatched warrior. Even when used by witch once before being destroyed, it was written in the data bank that it was used in a similar manner.

  And now it changed its shape to a gun, allowing it to be used at a perfect distance.

  "I can't fight it too long...!"

  In front of such ridiculous destructive power, she showed a glimpse of fear.

  This chance, was not missed by the mighty warrior, the Hero.