Still, the barrel had split open like a railgun due to the sudden burst of purple lightning, and then released its thunder magic as it returned to normal, like the sort of powerful beams that can be seen in sci-fi movies.
The dazzling shot of light makes my field of vision disappear. But I keep my aim firm and straight, shooting the light of destruction at the cockpit that Lily has pointed me to.
Until the very moment the tip of the lightning that burst through the sky in a straight line pierced through the golem’s large build, I could see what was happening. The flash of light that resulted after that turned everything to white.
“…Ugh!”
The recoil is worse than what I had anticipated. My arms, no, my entire body seems to be shaking. And my feet feel like they’re floating, almost as if I had been blown away.
Now I understand why the Greed-Gore had used iron sand to anchor its feet to the ground. This feeling of being blown away by recoil… Regretting my own thoughtlessness, I somehow recovered my strength and managed to press on.
The firing itself took about a few seconds, but it felt much longer to me. By the end of it, I had lost control of it, and the burst of lightning strayed off into the sky. But I was certain that it had been enough to finish off the half-functional golem.
“Hah… How did it go…?”
The flash had only blinded me for a short moment after I finished shooting. After I recovered my vision, I could see the wreckage that had become of the ancient golem, whose upper body was now gone. Making a shrill sound, the remains of the golem plunged on the snow.
With a thunderous tremor, the steel giant had collapsed to the ground. One down.
“So it took three attacks to defeat it, huh?”
“There was no other way, after all, it wasn’t made out of mere steel.”
On top of being armored with ancient metals that cannot be refined in this day and age, it wouldn’t be strange if it had been reinforced with a spell such as ‘Harden’. That single golem was probably sturdier than a small fortress. A single person should not be able to take one of these down on their own.
Even if they didn’t know about that, Lily and Fiona weren’t talking like they had just brought down a gigantic ancient walking weapon. How should I put it? They seemed almost unimpressed. Me? I was secretly thinking to myself, “Hey, we really did it! Awesome!”. It was a bit embarrassing.
“… Well, what do we do next?”
Creating an unthinkable atmosphere, I coolly asked that question to the two of them. By the way, I didn’t have a plan. The only thing I could come up with as a next step was a basic idea of getting inside one of those golems, which cannot even be considered a proper strategy.
“Kurono, I have a great plan.”
The expressionless Fiona raised her small hand and said that, completely brimming with confidence.
“If things go on like this, the remaining golems are going to reach the walls.”
All we had accomplished so far was destroying a single golem. Before the threat of these golems, the castle walls had already withstood their fair share of attacks… but naturally, they wouldn’t be able to stop the golems’ marching.
The golems mercilessly continue their heavy march. It would have been better if their huge bodies had been burned or cracked to some extent.
Even though we may not speak as full of confidence as Fiona, everyone here can guess that the ancient golems will arrive at their destination.
“That’s right. They don’t have any weapons there. At this rate, these golems are going to tear the walls apart.”
It’s an easy and straightforward offensive, but with their size, a simple punch can wreck entire buildings. We should see them as tools with enough destructive power to tear down the castle walls.
“We’ll have our chance as soon as the golems reach the walls.”
“I see, we stop them at the walls at the last minute, right? And then?”
“Then, we jump on the golems.”
“… And then?”
“And then with a ‘bang!’, the golems go ‘boom!’”
There you go, a perfect strategy. Fiona’s seems to hear her own voice coming out of her heart as she puffs up her chest in self-confidence.
How should I put it…? I can’t help but feel Fiona is sometimes more muscle than brain. In fact, I wonder if she’s even more of a crazy warrior than I am.
“… Listen, Fiona… that’s hardly a ‘great plan’.”
“That’s right! It’s pure genius, right?”
“Umm… not like that. It’s actually the other way around.”
Why did she think I was complimenting her? Nevermind, now there’s no time to tell Fiona that we’re not understanding each other.
“Hey, Lily, what do we do? The golems will reach the castle walls any minute now!”
“Yes, but it’s all right. I’ve just come up with a great plan myself.”
“Oh, I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Lily…!”
As I was starting to give my words of praise, a voice urged me to wait. Needless to say, it was the Great Magic Teacher’s voice.
“Umm, Kurono? What about my plan?”
“I’m sorry, Fiona, but we’ll have to leave it as our last resort.”
“After trying what?”
“Anything at all.”
“I see. Well, if you put it that way, I guess it can’t be helped.”
The misguided Fiona, who had actually thought that she was onto something with that ‘plan’ of hers, looked at me expectantly as she dropped the topic.
Oddly enough, the conversation continues rather smoothly. I still fail to understand Fiona’s plan.
“So, Lily, what’s your plan?”
Responding to my enthusiasm, Lily gives me a cute smile, trademark of a beautiful girl from another world. Then replies,
“Well, I’m planning to jump on the golems too.”
“What? Not you too, Lily!”
“Hehe, don’t worry, Kurono. I haven’t finished.”
“So you’re not planning to give it a good ‘bang!’?”
“That’s right. My plan is a little more concrete than that. Unlike you, Fiona, I won’t betray Kurono’s expectations.”
“I’m sorry? When exactly did I betray Kurono’s expectations, Lily?”
The nonchalant Lily continued talking to the now clearly dissatisfied and offended Fiona.
“First of all, wouldn’t it be better to close your eyes and ears before I explain?”
“Oh, I see…”
Lily suddenly started suggesting things as if shooting flashing and acoustic bullets from her mouth at the same time, but both Fiona and I nodded to show that we could understand her without asking for too much of an explanation.
“Ah, that awesome thing will be released soon.”
As a matter of fact, some strong magical power has been making me feeling goosebumps on my back for a while now.
Looking behind, I can see the giant castle tower of Galahad Fortress and its four defensive towers, so tall that they seem to pierce the heavens. A tremendous flow of magical power is concentrated to the top of the towers, whirling intensely like a tornado.
In short, the Spada Royal Palace’s sorcerer seems to be trying to deliver a single blow with all of his might. This is definitely the Spada Army’s ultimate attack.
“No wonder, the real fortress is on a whole different level…”
If only Alsace Village was equipped with one tenth of that defensive power… I slowly closed my eyes while thinking such useless thoughts, feeling an immense amount of magical power instantly exploding in the sky.