Chapter 7: The Storm(5)

MISTERLP

The one I wore before was the type you enter from a hole in the back,

but on this one, the head opened upward like the lid of a rice cooker. It was

markedly easier to put on and take off than the previous ones. I was

working on even more simple upgrades to it even now.

"Even if it looks like this, I spent more money than I should have to

make it out of good materials, so it's sturdier than your average piece of

armor, you know? It's highly bladeproof, bulletproof, cold-resistant, heatresistant, and acid-resistant. You can fight dungeon monsters in this thing.

My Living Poltergeists works on it, too, so it's easy to move around in."

"Still... Sigh, I feel stupid for worrying." Liscia was holding her head.

Wow, we hadn't done this in a while. When we first met, I felt like

Liscia was always being dragged around by whatever I was doing, and she

was constantly holding her head.

Well... she had company now...

"Something is wrong," Naden muttered when she saw me in my

kigurumi equipment. "I dreamed of having a knight ride on my back, so

why do I have to let this mysterious creature (?) fly with me...?" She held

her head.

"No, no, I don't want to hear that from an actual mysterious creature

like a ryuu."

"I'm going to fly with you wearing that thing?! Isn't it a little too

silly?!"

"..."

Dendera, dendera, a ryuu flies through the sea of clouds. On its back is

a deeply satisfied Little Musashibo.

...Yeah. Just imagining that, I felt the sense of mysterious fantasy

running wild.

"W-Well, this is an emergency," I said. "Just bear with me, please."

"Urgh... Fine, I get it."

"Aisha, are you ready, too?" I called.

"Any time you are!" With her usual greatsword over her shoulder,

Aisha gave me a firm nod.

Because we would be going through wind and rain, Aisha was wearing

a rain-repelling cape that covered her whole body over the top of her usual

light equipment.

Now then, with our preparations ready, it was time to go. To meet

whoever was in those thick clouds.

And so, the ryuu flew into the storm. On her back rode a dark elf in a

raincoat, and a roly-poly mystery creature (?).

The wind roared by our ears.

Naden pushed forward as if it was no big deal, but the wind and beating

against our bodies was as strong as ever.

"Aisha, are you okay?!" I called.

"Just fine! The shaking isn't as bad up here as it was in the gondola!"

Unlike with me, Naden's protection didn't cover Aisha, so she was

experiencing the full effects of the wind, rain, and gravity. That was why I

had Aisha sitting in front of me, tied down with rope, just like Little

Musashibo. Though, with the way Little Musashibo was built, it did look a

bit like she was strapped into a first class seat.

"Still, do you suppose we can find whoever it is out there in this

storm?" Aisha asked, protecting her face from the rain with her arms. "The

rain is making the visibility terrible."

True enough, searching for anything in this rain was going to be hard.

...Actually, now that I was already wearing it, I realized this kigurumi

suit left me with a really narrow field of vision. You might be thinking this

should have been obvious, but because my ability, Living Poltergeists, let

me look at things with an overhead view, it never bothered me before.

However, in this storm, I couldn't get the overhead view to work properly.

I mean, yes, I could see, but it was like looking at the static on an old

TV with bad reception. I hadn't noticed it before because I never tried

moving things around inside a storm, but did my ability have other

weaknesses like this?

With no other choice, I snapped open Little Musashibo's head. There

was a sudden, powerful gust of wind in my face, but if I couldn't use my

ability, I was going to have to rely on my own eyes. Like Aisha said,

visibility was still poor, but there might not be any need to search to begin

with.

"If they're the one causing this storm, they're sure to be in the center of

it, Naden," I said.

"I know. We'll be at the center of the storm soon."

Then, all of a sudden, the sound of wind and rain lessened. Had the

storm weakened?

The feeling of raindrops striking my face was gone now. The wind was

still strong, but the lack of rain made things much easier on me. Still, we

were surrounded by clouds here.

Nah, if we were inside a cloud, it would feel like we were enveloped in

fog. If I could tell there were clouds surrounding us, that meant that this

spot was the one place without any clouds.

"This is..."

"Sire! Look up!" Aisha called.

At Aisha's urging, I looked up, and there...

"What is that thing...?"

There was a huge, gray mass floating there. It was more or less a cube,

with around ten meters to each side. Naden, in her current ryuu form, was

around forty meters long, so it was questionable whether it would be

possible for her to wrap herself around it once. That massive cube was

ignoring gravity and floating there.

"Is that what you saw, sire?"

"...I'm not sure. I could only see its shadow."

"But that's definitely the thing that's at the center of this current!"

Naden said, glaring at the cube.

That was... what caused the storm? Kaede's reasoning was that it was a

demon, but was that thing even alive? Whether I judged it by the standards

of this world, or the standards of my former one, that thing was bizarre.

Then...

"Why.... you... not... answer..."

I heard that voice again. It sounded broken up, and was hard to make

out, but it was high, like a woman's voice, only something felt off about it.

Was it coming from that cube?

"Aisha, Naden, did you understand that language?" I asked. "It was

saying something about an answer."

"Was it, sire? I couldn't hear a thing."

"I could tell it was saying something, but that's it..."

Like we expected, they couldn't understand the words they were

hearing. I repeated the words I heard for their benefit.

"Tiama... you destroy... my children... so why..."

"Let's see... 'Tiama, you destroy, my children, so why,'" I translated.

"Why will you not des... I have no... left..."

"'Why will you not des, I have no, left.'"

Naden and Aisha both groaned.

"Tiama... That's Lady Tiamat, right?" Naden asked. "It's gotta be."

"It certainly does sound like they have something to say to Madam

Tiamat," Aisha said.

I agreed with the two of them. Did Madam Tiamat know something

about this cube? Come to think of it, hadn't Madam Tiamat predicted this

storm?

Could it be... this object was in contact with Tiamat before? While I

was thinking that, the quality of the voice suddenly changed.

"Even after... still you... don't resp..."

"'Even after, still you, don't resp'... huh."

The voice I was hearing was level, with no intonation. But, from the

choice of words, I sensed something like anger. The full picture of things

wasn't clear, but it felt like it was criticizing her harshly.

"I feel like I get it, but I don't," said Aisha, twisting her head to the

side. "I wish it would come out and say it more clearly."

Naden was thinking, too. "'You' is... probably Lady Tiamat, right?

Does that mean..."

"Hold on! They're still saying something." I cut Naden off, and

listened.

"In that case..."

"'In that case,'" I repeated.

"I... will destroy... your children's world."

"Wha?!"

"Whoa, Souma?! What'd they say?!" Naden shouted, but I couldn't put

it into words immediately.

I will destroy your children's world?

If Naden was right, and the "you" here was Madam Tiamat, then her

children were Naden and the dragons, and the world they lived in was

Dracul. Did that voice intend to destroy it? It was a clear warning of

destructive intent.

Is this... not something we can resolve with dialogue...?

"I... destroy. So that you... destroy me..."

"Wha?!"

I will destroy. So that you will destroy me. That was what it sounded

like to me.

Destroying, in order to be destroyed? The owner of this voice didn't

want to destroy Dracul, it was trying to get Madam Tiamat to destroy them

by doing so. They were mad because Madam Tiamat refused to do it? In

other words, this storm was being produced by the owner of the voice's

desire to be annihilated.

"Souma!" Naden called, snapping me back to my senses.

"Ah!"

"Get it together! You're the only one here who understands what that

thing says, you know?!"

"Sorry. It seems like that thing is trying to destroy Dracul because it

wants Madam Tiamat to destroy it."

"Huh? It's the one who wants to be destroyed, but it's destroying

someone else's land? I admit I don't understand the desire to be destroyed,

but aren't its objective and method somewhat disjointed?" Aisha looked

perplexed.

Even I didn't understand the reason.

"Well, whatever the case, that thing's come all the way to Dracul

looking to be destroyed. But Madam Tiamat seems to have refused, maybe

for a good reason. That's apparently why that thing caused the storm. It

seems to think that if it puts Madam Tiamat's children... that is to say, the

dragons... in peril, Madam Tiamat will be forced to destroy it."

"That's a lot of 'seem's' and 'apparently's', don't you think?"

"Hey, it's not like I can help it. I'm working with fragmentary

information."

Madam Tiamat knew all the details, probably, but, like Hakuya said

before, she told me she lacked the "authority" to tell me about it, so that

was the end of that.

Could the reason Madam Tiamat chose not to destroy that thing have to

do with this "authority" business, as well?

"I... destroy. So... you... will destroy..."

The voice repeated those words again. Then around twenty small

spherical objects flew out of the upper half of the gray cube. Well, I called

them small, but they were only small relative to the cube. In terms of size,

they were probably a meter in diameter. Those spheres didn't float, and

were pulled downward by gravity.

Seeing that, Naden asked in a panicked voice, "Hey, Souma, are

those...?"

"Yeah. They look like bad news to me, too."

Countless mystery spheres had appeared after it talked about

destruction. I had a bad feeling about this.

"Naden! Can you shoot them down without getting closer?!" I called.

"I'll do it!"

Roaaaaaaaaaaaar!

Naden roared, unleashing an electric strike on the things that had flown

out. The electric strike branched out as it went forward, piercing through

the scattered spheres. Then...

Boom!

The moment the electricity struck them, those spheres let out a brilliant

blue and white flash, and swelled up to become balls of light. Following

the light, we heard a rumbling sound, and the wind pressure that slammed

into us after that told us all too clearly how incredible the explosion was.

I knew it... Those black spheres were something like bombs!

Aisha turned back to me, as if she just remembered something. "This is

bad, sire! Liscia and the others are down there!"

"I know. Naden, I'm counting on you! Shoot them down, no matter

what!"

"That was the plan all along!"

While swimming through the sky, Naden unleashed electric shock after

electric shock, shooting down the falling objects one after another. But

there were just too many.

"Madam Naden! I will assist you!" Aisha undid the ropes fixing her in

place, and stood up. "Sire, hold me in place, please!"

"L-Like this?!" I pulled my upper torso out of the Little Musashibo

doll, and wrapped my arms around Aisha's hips. At the same time, I

controlled the Little Musashibo doll, having it hold Aisha's ankles to keep

her in place. Aisha, who was now riding on Naden's back in a standing

position, readied her usual greatsword.