by Dojyomaru
“And you don’t have Madam Carla and Madam Kaede with you this time, either. If I let myself lose to you when you’re not on Ruby’s back, I will never be able to defeat that man.”
“...Fuuga, huh? Then I can’t lose, either!”
Halbert desperately held out against Aisha’s fierce attack.
“““Whoa, whaaaaaaa?!””” The nearby soldiers were blown away by the shock waves of their battle.
“When the time comes, it’s gonna be my job to take that bastard down! So...”
“It is my duty to defend His Majesty from that man! So...”
““I can’t afford to lose!””
“Hey, hey, you two sure are getting worked up.” In the middle of their test of wills, an easygoing voice came down from above. “Ookyakya! Let me in on this, too!”
Kaching! As a cudgel swung down from behind together with those words, Aisha blocked it without turning back, using only her gauntleted left hand. The music had already changed from that of the undefeated general to a jaunty tune from something that might have played in the original monkey’s great adventure.
Aisha glared behind her and said, “If that was meant to be a surprise attack, you shouldn’t have shouted first, Sir Kuu.”
“In this festive atmosphere, it’d feel boorish to launch a sneak attack. That’s why I gave you a shout, Bro’s wife.” His attack parried, Kuu did a flip to land beside Halbert. “I’m gonna take the redhead’s side. That should be a fair handicap, right?”
“Be my guest. It will make this better training for me.”
“Wait, did you get permission from Souma? You’re not from this country, right?”
When Halbert asked, Kuu let out a hooting laugh.
“There’s no way I could stay out of something so fun. I appealed to Bro directly, and got his permission to participate. He gave me some condition about staying away from the experimental observation posts, and the data gatherers, and a bunch of other stuff, though.”
Halbert, who had been having a hard time alone, grinned. “Oh, yeah...? Well, give me a hand then, would you?”
“You got it.”
“Heheh. Very well. I will smash both of you.”
As Aisha boasted, Halbert and Kuu both kicked off the ground towards her.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile...
In another place, amidst a raging thunderstorm, the sparks of an intense battle were spreading. It was clear skies a moment ago, and now this sudden thunderstorm? And mixed with sparks? The viewers might have been left wondering, but there were, in fact, sparks flying on the battlefield as it was pounded by the tempest. In the middle of all of it...
“Tahhhhhhhhhh!”
“Daryahhhhhhh!”
Zukabakidokozubashucchuindokan!
In the middle of all of it, the hero with a red and silver scarf traded blows with the Emperor of Evil. It was the protagonist of the Kingdom’s popular tokusatsu show, Overman Silvan, and his ultimate nemesis, the Great Evil Ogre Emperor, Akki Taitei. It seemed like a good opportunity to see how music affected Ivan and Moltov’s illusions or performance.
In addition, because Ivan was known as the actor who played Silvan, we decided it would confuse the children if he was seen fighting normal soldiers instead of monsters and villains, so we had his father Moltov face him in the guise of Akki Taitei. It meant father and son would be fighting for real, but they fought all the time, so that was no issue.
The song currently playing on the battlefield was the Silvan theme song, sung by Nanna. Thanks to it being their own theme music, the two of them were fired up, and sparks flew as their fists collided; their moves left afterimages, and countless phantasmal Silvans and Akki Taiteis appeared around them then vanished. It looked like they were moving at high speed, fighting one another all over the place, and it may have made Souma whisper, “What kind of warrior race are these people from...?”
Rain fell when they stared each other down, and when they collided, sparks flew and lightning struck. Even knowing it was all an illusion, the storm of intense special effects made soldiers on both sides stay away. No, actually, it wasn’t so much fear as a feeling they shouldn’t interfere that kept them from approaching. Sort of like how people feel bad walking in front of a person who’s trying to take a photograph.
There was no reinforcement magic on their bodies, by the way. Though the effects were flashy, all they were really doing was beating the crap out of one another. With no magical armor to decide the winner and loser, their battle had turned into a quagmire.
As Souma thought, The one who runs out of stamina first loses...
The music changed to an ominous melody.
It sounded like a piece that heralded the coming of a one-winged angel, and Silvan and Akki Taitei both stopped. They looked up as the section that celebrated the arrival of a warrior played, and red wings alighted on the wall in front of them.
“Why...? Why?!” the figure cried out.
That person slapped the wall with the reptilian tail that protruded from her rump, clenching her fists as she spread her wings wide. Her highly revealing, swimsuit-like outfit, which was open in the middle, exaggerated her cleavage as she puffed her chest out and shouted.
“Why do I have to dress like this agaiiiiiiiiiiin?!” The cry of her soul echoed across the battlefield, and Ivan and Moltov’s eyes widened.
“Is that Miss Dran?!”
“...Young Miss Carla?!”
The one who had landed on the wall was Carla, in the sexy villain costume of Miss Dran. Her face was red with shame, and her eyes wet with tears.
“Here I thought... I could participate in a training exercise for the first time in so long. I was happy to be able to serve as a warrior once more, so why do I have to wear this getup?! Urgh! I hate myself for underestimating that person. I thought she wouldn’t be so unreasonable while she was pregnant, but I never expected her to have already ordered the other maids to block my escape...” Carla muttered to herself, her eyes like those of a dead fish.
The person Carla was talking about must have been the head maid, Serina. Incidentally, though she just sort of threw that out there like it was nothing, Serina was pregnant with Poncho’s child.
Being the capable woman she was, Serina had predicted the coming baby rush, and taken action immediately, so this was to be expected. As for what action she had taken, please understand that everyone was concerned by Poncho’s sudden weight loss. This was why Komain, who had become pregnant like Serina, had stayed behind in the capital with her.
Given the family of workaholics she came from, it seemed Serina didn’t intend to go on maternity leave until the last possible moment, and the way she was working at the castle, even now, had Poncho and her maids worried.
With all this, Carla had expected to be able to fight without Serina’s eyes on her for the first time in so, so long. However, the next thing she knew, the other maids had hidden her clothes as she slept, and the only thing she had to put on other than her underwear was Miss Dran’s sexy costume.
Her colleagues had put their hands together, begging her forgiveness, as they explained this was on Serina’s orders—who was probably watching the broadcast from the capital with a smile.
Carla looked at Ivan and Moltov with muddy eyes. “I’m sorry, but... I will be taking this sadness out on you.”
“W-Wait, Carla... No, Miss Dran!” Ivan pleaded.
“Calm yourself, Miss Dran!”
They made a point of calling her Miss Dran for the viewers’ benefit, but that ended up enraging Carla.
“Don’t call me that naaaaame!”
Countless balls of fire launched forth from Carla’s arms, and they rained down with a Boom, boom, boom.
These were real fireballs, not illusory ones. Getting hit would leave no trace behind. Ivan and Moltov broke into a sweat as they looked to one another with a nod. They extended their hands forward and shouted in unison, ““Deploy illusion!””
When they did,
countless Overman Silvans and Akki Taiteis appeared. At a glance, there had to be hundreds of them. It was almost like a duplication technique. They hid among the illusions as they tried to escape the area. However, it wasn’t going to be so easy.
“Heheheh, we’ve worked on the same program, so of course I know about your abilities. That the illusions you make are without form, and lack the presence of a living person.” Carla narrowed her eyes as she looked around. There were countless Silvans and Akki Taiteis, but she only felt life from two of them. She formed a fireball in the palm of her hand, and the corners of her mouth turned upwards. “...Heheheh, I fouuuund you.”
The ball of fire shot straight toward Ivan and Moltov.
““Nwahhhhhhh?!””
The direct hit blasted both of them into the air. With the originals gone, the illusions vanished, and only Carla’s flames remained.
“Hahaha, burn! Burn away, along with my memories!”
The image of her as an evil queen was burned into the viewers’ memories instead. No one approached the scorched earth, and for some time Carla’s desperate laughter echoed through the area.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, behind the scenes of that intense fighting...
“Sire. I’d like the records of that battle just now.”
“Hm... Does listening to your own theme song increase the power? Maybe I should make theme songs for Aisha, Hal, and the other powerful warriors. Like the themes that play when a pro wrestler enters the ring.”
Souma and his group were carefully recording the results of Ivan, Moltov, and Carla’s battle. When he finished recording, Souma looked up at the simple receiver which showed images of Carla going wild.
“She’s gone too far,” he sighed. “The evil female commander won.”
Both the hero and his nemesis were blown away by Miss Dran. Souma was wracking his brain over how to explain this development to the viewers.
Incidentally, this utter domination by Carla would go on to be discussed by the viewers as the one episode where Miss Dran awakened and, unable to control her great power, went out of control, and even defeated her master Akki Taitei along with Silvan. Silvan would undergo intense training to defeat her in the next episode. But that’s another story.
◇ ◇ ◇
Now, let’s get back to the battlefield.
Maybe because the battle had been engineered to produce a stalemate, the attacking and defending teams pushed back and forth, neither side achieving dominance.
In the main camp of the attacking team, Excel Walter watched the proceedings unfold with boredom. It might have been hot out, because she was sitting in a chair beneath something like a beach parasol, fanning herself as she watched the battle on a simple receiver.
“Because the focus of this event is on the magic experiment, we haven’t been allowed to use any tactic other than pure force. I have nothing to do. It’s such a pain to be in this position now. If only I could leave someone else to be commander, and go out to fight as one of the common soldiers... Hold on?”
The hand holding Excel’s fan stopped. Looking like she had come up with an idea, she clapped her hands and folded up her fan before rising from her seat.
“Now that I think about it, I was never told, ‘The commanders must sit quietly in their main camps.’ Well, then. I suppose that means I can participate!” With a devilish smile, Excel opened her closed fan once more. “Hee hee, they said the ones who stand out the most win, so maybe I’ll give this battlefield a little more flair.”
“Wh-What is that?!”
“The water’s rising?!”
The soldiers fighting on the south side of the fortress all gulped, regardless of which side they were fighting on. The water in the river south of the fortress suddenly surged upwards. Then the vast amount of water transformed into a great five-headed snake, its heads all poised to strike the fortress.
“I-Is that...?! There’s no mistaking it, it’s the same as from back then!”
“It’s Duchess Walter! Duchess Walter’s magic!”
“I-If we stay here, won’t we attackers get caught up in it, too?”
The water snake was familiar to those soldiers that participated in the battle in the Union of Eastern Nations to divert the incoming monster assault. However, now, standing at the base of the snake, Excel looked dissatisfied.
“I knew it... It looks a little thin. It would be better if it had the volume of water that the Dabicon provided, but I suppose this is the most I can expect from a river like this.”
It was true that the serpent she had given birth to was a size smaller than the one from the Dabicon. The river running by the forest was little more than an oversized stream, and it did not have that much volume. Even so, from the point of view of the soldiers, it was no less of a threat.
Excel refocused, and looked towards the fortress. “Well, if I try to control too much, my magical power will run dry in no time. This is fine. Now... What will you do, defending team?”
As she said that, Excel pointed her fan toward the fortress. When she did, one of the five snake heads rushed towards the fortress like a water cannon.
The song playing at that time came from the most famous kaiju movie in Souma’s old country. Hearing music that seemed to stir terror in people, the defenders felt as terrified as if a massive creature were attacking them. However...
“There’s not much that needs to be done.”
Bwoooooosh...!
Flames suddenly rose from the battlefield to evaporate the snake head in an instant. The next thing she knew, there was a girl in a red scale dress that looked out of place on the battlefield standing in front of Excel with a defiant look in her eyes. Her red hair streamed behind her, and a reptilian tail protruded from her rear.
Excel’s eyes narrowed as she regarded the girl and said, “I believe you’re... from the House of Magna, yes?”
“Yes, Duchess Walter. I am Halbert Magna’s wife Ruby.” As she introduced herself, Ruby produced flames in the palm of her hand. “Sir Ludwin predicted this. Knowing how capricious you are, it seemed likely you would want to come out and play. That’s why I, who have power to rival your own, was ordered to keep you under control.”
“Hee hee, Lord Ludwin understands me well. But you on your own won’t be enough to stop me now.” Excel was smiling, but her eyes shone like a raptor that had sighted its prey. “It’s true that you have considerable magical power as a member of the dragon race. However, under current rules, you must fight in human form. Because using air power is forbidden. And the amount of force you can exert in that form is limited, right?”
“...You know your stuff.”
“I am Commander-in-Chief of the National Defense Force, after all. I am well acquainted with this country’s strengths in war. So let me ask you again. Do you truly believe you can stop me in that form?”
When she said that, Excel turned the remaining four snake heads towards Ruby and had them lunge. Ruby loosed flames from both her hands as she stepped back, causing two snakes to evaporate.
“How naive.”
Before Ruby knew it, one of the water snakes had circled around behind her. Then the last snake came from the front, threatening her with a pincer attack. Ruby dug her heels in, spreading her arms wide, and threw fire at both snakes.
Hisssssssssss...!
“Urgh...!” she grunted.
However, Ruby couldn’t fully evaporate them. That was because Excel kept up the supply of water to them. The power of the flames kept things at a stalemate, but Ruby couldn’t knock the attack aside.
The steam hung in the air around the two of them. Then...
“Do you know they call me, ‘the mage who is unbeatable anywhere there is fresh water?’” Excel said, creating a new snake head to menace Ruby, who was unable to move. Its lips were upturned in a crescent shape. “That’s because, in any place where there is fresh water, I can wield my magic more efficiently. Now, let’s have you step aside.”
&n
bsp; “Urgh... To think you can control this much magic when in a human form. It’s not fair...”
“Call it whatever you like. Now, I’m going to strike the final blow.”
The water snake assaulted Ruby from above, when...
Crack!
Lightning flashed through the sky, and the water snake was blown away.
“Huh?!”
Excel took a huge jump back in surprise, and two bolts of lightning came down where she had just been standing. This broke Excel’s magic, and Ruby was finally set free. A black figure who had a tail on her rump and a pair of antlers that were even larger than Excel’s growing through her glossy black hair landed, then turned to Ruby.
“Looks like you’re having some trouble. Want help?”
“...You’re being a busybody, Naden.”
Naden already looked ready for battle, her hair standing on end, and sparks crackling around her as she slapped the ground with her tail.
The sudden intrusion of Naden made Excel chuckle. “Oh, my. The second secondary queen is joining the fray, too?”
“For the same reason as Ruby over there. Souma asked me to stop you if you came out to play. You did help me with those lessons of yours, but I won’t let you go any further.”
“Hee hee, now this is interesting. Both of you come at me together.”
Excel spread her arms and created more snakes. Eight of them this time. When she witnessed Excel’s incredible magical power, Naden spun her arms in circles with a resigned sigh.
“...This is going to be tough if I can’t take ryuu form. Ruby?”
“I know. I’ll take you up on your offer to face her together.”
“Don’t get in my way, stupid Ruby.”
“I could say the same, dumb Naden.”
Even as they argued, they readied themselves for the fight, and then ran towards their joint foe.
Excel sent two water snakes at them, but they nimbly dodged. Ruby launched a great ball of fire toward Excel, who had a water snake coil around her, forming a wall, and blocking the attack. Piercing through the steam created when they canceled each other out, Naden rushed in close to Excel, her body wreathed in electricity.