Foul Weather - 3

The series of battles that broke out after the New Principality's bombardment of Mage City was tilting in Aureatia's favor.

From an onlooker's perspective, this was the result of two factors—the command of Hidow the Clamp, who had anticipated the fall of Mage City's military installations and split up his forces ahead of time, and the Mage City soldiers following Harghent the Still into a counteroffensive against the wyvern army's raid, which normally would have annihilated the city's defensive forces.

The New Principality had been quickly drawn into a decisive land battle, faster than they could set up their primary strength—the wyvern army's air- defense network.

However, the greatest elements upsetting the tide of battle were two Shura who far exceeded any of the New Principality's expectations.

The powerful rogue Alus the Star Runner, forcing his way into the battle and crushing a massive chunk of the wyvern army, together with the flock leader, Regnejee. Additionally, the construct weapon, Nihilo the Vortical Stampede, who single-handedly collapsed the defensive lines on the ground, inviting the enemy military force mustering behind her into the city.

Supposing this were the world of the Beyond, an individual with enough power to overwhelm a nation's military wouldn't be allowed to exist.

Even in this world—the place where impermissible deviants drifted as Visitors—during the twenty-five-year dark age of the True Demon King's existence, there had been threats scattered across various regions lying dormant.

However, this was no longer the case. The Dungeon Golem destroyed Nagan, Vikeon the Smoldering died, and the newest self-proclaimed Demon King had assembled strong warriors of peerless strength together for the New Principality of Lithia.

The age that had been built on the terror of the True Demon King was, through the death of the former monarch, beginning to awaken.

"You know, I really liked that fountain, too."

Dakai the Magpie lingered on a roof, looking down at the collapsed and smashed plaza fountain.

The smoldering fumes coming from the northwestern part of the city were visible even this close to the central stronghold. The self-propelling flames, stemming from the magic item Alus the Star Runner had let loose during his melee, continued to spread, abnormal in their disregard for the city's structure, with a section of the conflagration making its way toward the city's military facilities.

Looking at the sky, he saw a group of the patrolling wyvern soldiers cut apart and begin crashing down to earth. Nihilo the Vortical Stampede, continuing her advance toward the central part of the city, shot down the airborne threats without end.

"We've really lost."

He lit his hand-rolled cigarette. The thin puff of smoke was carried on the winds of the New Principality. The taste of ruin.

Despite being proud of his supreme insight, even he hadn't predicted that the intervention of two massive threats would have such an effect on the battle plan. He didn't believe the New Principality was weak. In the face of Alus the Star Runner, average non-wyvern soldiers wouldn't have been able to scratch him. This was even truer for the defensive line attempting to hold back Nihilo the Vortical Stampede, which would have been unable to defeat her even with technology from the Beyond.

The spire he had his sights set on let out a shrieking crack and crumbled at

its base. The ground-shaking collapse continued. Even among the vibrations, the barefooted Dakai's stance didn't move a muscle.

…Finally, the enemy appeared.

An enormous black arthropod leg stepped forward out of a gap in the debris, splitting the stone pavement under it. The red eyes, sparking clearly even in the dark of night, nightmarishly flickered.

Dakai tossed the radzio he was operating to his feet and confronted the horrifying monster.

"The unit here's already withdrawn. Just me."

"Is that so? How kind of you to inform me, thank you." The dead tarantula replied with the voice of a young girl. "You should've done the same."

"What're you talking about…? That'd be such a waste."

He'd ordered the soldiers to fall back because he didn't want them getting in his way.

His sword blade was shaped similar to a bistoury—the Magicked Blade of Razhucort. Taking initiative against any and all attacks, it was a sword with absolute agility. It was a vessel that defied the logic of the Beyond and those exiled here. Prior to coming to this world, no one existed who had survived a fight with Dakai the Magpie.

"—In a world this fun, everything's mine for the taking."

"Tee-hee… Oh? Then be sure to get a good look before you die."

A percussive blast echoed as the sound barrier was broken. Dakai instantly swung the Magicked Blade and evaded the deadly salvo of string. The incredible tensile strength forcibly repelled his arm.

At that moment, the colossus's charge halted. The organic tank Helneten had crushed the entire house Dakai had been standing next to under its overwhelming speed and weight.

The young girl chuckled amid the echoes of the destruction. "Everything ends up smashed to tiny pieces."

Dakai had evaded the rush with the slightest motion and landed back on the ground. He observed his enemy.

…A construct, huh. Same as the ones I saw back in Nagan. That means this tarantula sucker's gotta have a core keeping it alive just like those golems did.

The nefarious red light left a trail in the dark, getting a fix on Dakai's

position. The tarantula wasn't solely reliant on its strength and speed. Its sense of perception was extremely acute, which had allowed it to lock and fire accurate long-range attacks at wyverns overhead.

The eight legs moved. Keeping his offhand in his pocket, Dakai observed its movements. One leg would begin its windup motion, and another would follow it. Then the next. Its chest joints moved. Head. Neck. Stomach. The deviant's perception was able to grasp the flow of muscles and nerves even through the monster's thick armor.

So it's inside, huh?

He concluded the tarantula had a pilot. If there was a single reason why the minia supremacist nation of Aureatia had been able to throw an embodiment of carnage like this on the front lines, it was because there existed a pilot who could control its fighting power.

A vibrating tremor rang through the air. Dakai dodged with a half step. The stone wall behind him was sliced by the cutting thread and began sliding diagonally to the ground. He moved the fingers on his swordless left hand.

I gotta kill the person inside this thing. Now, how to do that?

The next charge pressed him back. He averted his upper body downward, as if falling. Diving underneath the tarantula's body to dodge the charge, he simultaneously slashed with his enchanted saber in between its eight legs, utilizing the speed of his opponent's attack.

"…Ha-ha-ha. C'mon now."

He could tell from his saber's feedback. He hadn't notched a single scratch. The slash from the Magicked Blade of Razhucort, its speed making it always outpace its opponents, had simply slid right off the armored surface.

"Isn't that a little too hard?"

"You're quite skilled, aren't you, Mr. Swordsman?"

His enchanted saber had targeted the joint connecting the leg to the body. "But you can't win against me."

"…Swordsman? Swordsman, huh. Hmmmm…"

There was another attack Dakai had attempted during the previous exchange. By tangling the ultra-hard tarantula string from the last attack into a ringlike shape, he'd tried to use Nihilo's own charging force to twist her neck and sever it. The movements in his left hand had been to draw the threads for the attack.

From what he could see, this, too, had proven ineffective. Despite

focusing the brunt of his attack at one point on the head bearing those five glowing red eyes, only a single blemish was noticeable.

…Swordsman, huh…

The tarantula Nihilo piloted had had half its head sliced off.

Dakai the Magpie didn't have the means to destroy his enemy's armor with any of the attacks available to him, but if that was the case, who had managed that slash wound?

"Oh, over there… See that fountain?"

Dakai chattered idly as he moved into a position facing the organic tank head on.

"I was pretty fond of it actually. I like buildings and scenery, see. 'Cause you can't steal them."

Another long-range string attack grazed him.

"Ha-ha-ha."

Dakai laughed. He was observing his enemy's status.

Nihilo the Vortical Stampede's armor was wet. Her last charge had destroyed the fountain's water channel.

Initial preparations for another forward charge. He had seen them a number of times at that point, but there was a subtle difference to the motion.

…Planning to use her strings, then.

Strings stretched ahead of her as she struck. All the threads she had fired were a part of her web. Even if he dodged the initial attack, the recoil from her threads would send target his back. The tarantula's string, durable enough to repel the giant's weight, also served to reinforce its trampling power.

"Now…time to die."

Just before the tank's charge—Dakai made a hand signal behind his back. "For whom, now?"

Suddenly, a beaming light from above caught Nihilo, sending the stone pavement into a boil. Her black arthropod legs sunk into the melting earth. While enduring the fierce heat, she tried crawling up with her front legs, but without footing, they, too, sank. The air sizzled in the heat, and the whites and blacks mixed into a gray haze.

The radzio communications Dakai had been sending right before the start of their fight were to prepare the salvo.

It was the strongest piece of firepower in the New Principality's arsenal.

A magic item used to bombard cities from long range. The Cold Star.

"...…Hrgnk."

The all-destroying beam of light, launched from a spire dedicated to magic item artillery, continued to shine mercilessly on the New Principality's enemy. Even before the first blast had finished, the young girl's cries of pain ceased.

"Tee-hee. Hee…hee-hee-hee."

Because they had given way to laughter.

The cold stone pavement where her legs were sunk split open. With her monstrous physical strength, she extracted her body.

Immediately after, she fired threads into the sky, annihilating the artillery spire that had tried to kill her.

"Did you think that would be enough…"

Her armor was made from deep celestial charsteel, a supernatural magic gem. It was a material that average amounts of heat and force couldn't scratch. Not swords, arrows, or bombardments could break it.

Even the transcendental Cold Star was no exception. "…to kill me?"

The hard truth that the Cold Star was completely ineffective wasn't what sent Dakai the Magpie into a true crisis.

Immediately before the bombardment, he had lured Nihilo to spray her with water from the fountain. Once she was hit with the beam of light, the air inside should have swelled up with the heat and formed bubbles in the cracks of the invincible armor shell.

However, even with Dakai's peerless eyesight, he observed no such reaction.

Completely sealed. There aren't even air vents? How's the person inside still alive?

The lack of any gaps in the armor meant that the defect Dakai had intuited

—an effective method to injury the pilot—didn't actually exist.

I can't try to suffocate her. Flooding is useless. My enchanted saber has no effect. Even if she's buried, she can pull herself free. Tricks to twist her threads, aiming for her joints, a direct attack from the Cold Star—none of it does anything.

He could only accept that destroying the tarantula was impossible.

He was sure this construct far outstripped the Dungeon Golem he'd witnessed in Nagan. This world's ultimate weapon even surpassed the wildest imagination of a deviant from the Beyond.

"Seriously… Ha-ha. How the hell did someone even cut this thing…?" "You're in my way."

With both arms at his sides, Dakai looked at the tarantula drawing near him. The cross section carved off its head looked like a smooth mirror's surface. The magic-gem armor appeared to permeate into the flesh within, given how well-preserved the shape was despite its nerves and inner flesh being burned raw.

It raised its chela. Faster than the average person could finish a single

breath, Dakai's eyes were able to perceive the movement. He watched the glowing red eyes. Observed them. An attack came at him from the left. With a subtle move, he parried and—

"…Hngaaah!"

The overwhelming impact sent Dakai flying. He collided with an iron pole that had survived the fire in the plaza.

His supernatural Visitor martial skills enabled him to deflect most of the damage, barely keeping his left arm from breaking from the impact of her rush. An average person would have felt the energy travel through their whole body and been scattered to pieces.

"…Okay."

It was fun. Dakai the Magpie enjoyed this world. Before he'd arrived here, no one had been capable of standing up to him in a fight.

"All right. Let's go… Time to give it a shot." "…You're still alive?"

The young girl's voice was suspicious. If he'd been able to react this way, he should have been able to dodge the strike entirely from the start. It meant he'd wanted to take the hit.

"Why doesn't…koff, anyone ever believe me?"

Dakai spun his enchanted saber in his hand. His opponent was already right before his eyes.

"I'm a bandit, you know…? I'm not actually a swordsman or a doctor, see?"

"I see. I think we'd get along, then."

Nihilo readied her next attack. She knew that Dakai's current stance meant he was prepared to evade her string. Her kicks to send him flying would be similarly ineffective. She needed to stomp him into the ground or pinch him between her two chela and crush him.

"I want to be friends with minia, too, but no one will believe me."

"Ha-ha-ha. Really now. First time we've been able to have a chat. I'm quite the talker, see."

She approached. Before Dakai had finished speaking, the colossus's legs were a blur. It was an instantaneous offensive, too fast to be dodged in time, taking her opponent's reaction speed into consideration.

The attack cut through the air. Dakai moved, with speed faster than his physical body could manage.

"See, like this…"

…The threads! Nihilo realized. He had utilized the threads she had been stretching around the battlefield during their fight. He used their elastic recoil to slip right into Nihilo's bosom.

"I steal weapons…"

The tarantula's injured face—the deviant bandit pulled a sword out of the monster's sole laceration.

"I pick locks, too."

This was not the Magicked Blade of Razhucort. It wasn't a long sword, either. In fact, it was Dakai's first time using it at all.

With her mount unexpectedly stabbed, Nihilo backed off and tried to regroup. Even if her head was attacked, it would have no impact whatsoever on the undead's functions. It could attack, defend, and execute maneuvers.

"...What…?"

The young girl was flustered by what she was sensing. "...What did you do?"

She felt the night air on her bare skin. The sensation was being sent to her through her mount, Helneten, but she was feeling her own skin.

"Well now, just as I predicted—quite the pretty face."

She could still control the tank, just as before. Its mobility hadn't been impacted at all. However.

Helneten's cockpit was open, and Nihilo's body packed inside was exposed.

"I thought about it." "...!"

The deviant bandit's figure was right before her eyes. Nihilo—her actual form—was face-to-face against an enemy who had climbed inside her cockpit.

"If this tank's made from organic material, then it uses its nerves to move. So if someone's piloting it, then it must be relaying commands via the nerves spreading through its muscles… And I thought, well, if that's the case, then I destroy those nerves, right?"

In his left hand, Dakai the Magpie held a nondescript short sword. "With nerve-rendering mandrake poison."

It was a dagger from Higuare the Pelagic.

When they first met and he'd seen Higuare slice up the hawthorn berry,

Dakai had already given one of the numerous daggers concealed within Higuare's body a once-over—in his own hands. Right before everyone's eyes, with such dexterity that no one even noticed, he had already stolen one of the deadly poisoned blades.

The observational power of an otherworldly deviant, able to perceive even the flow of another's nerves. He had confirmed through his observations that no matter which part of the brain the nerve-tracing poison infiltrated and paralyzed, he would be able to unlock the opening and closing functions. He had purposefully taken a direct hit so he could observe from point-blank range.

The small wound that Soujirou the Willow-Sword had carved into her was, to Dakai the Magpie, a keyhole.

Comprehending her own demise, the undead Nihilo laughed. "Tee-hee…hee… You do love to chat, don't you?"

"I tell a good story, don't I?" "…Perhaps you're right."

Nihilo's back tendrils flashed, their metallic terminals aiming for Dakai's neck.

Just a few beats faster than her attack, the Magicked Blade and its absolute speed sliced the girl's head from her neck.