Chapter 396: The Golden Destroyer, and the Gold Hammer.
(Author: POV changes mid-chapter.)
"[Shield]!"
I casted defensive magic enhanced with divinity from Reginleiv.
The normally-invisible barriers shone with a sublime light as they stood against the two particle beams shot by the two-headed dragon.
It's impossible for the shield enhanced with divinity to break under normal circumstances, but the other side is a dependant of the evil god. As expected, it possesses power befitting that status; the barriers soon began creaking under the pressure of the attack.
However, they somehow endured and managed to defend against the particle beams. Although, the [Shield]s immediately broke apart afterwards.
"First thing they do is that, huh, those bastards…"
I was honestly a bit panicked back there, you know. Those guys, messing around…
"Oi, Ende. I'm going to isolate those two to someplace else; I can leave them to you after that, right?"
"Ah. I'll do something together with Mel and the others."
"Got it. I'll leave that to you then. Fragarach, mode change: Chains."
The 48 daggers floating around Reginleiv each changed form into short chains, which then connected together to form one single long chain. Two counterweight-like crystal balls are attached on either end.
The chain, with divinity poured into it, circled around Reginleiv as it lengthened itself.
"Go. Catch those two ill-natured ruler-classes. [Gleipnir]."
The crystal chain moved with shocking speed and flew towards the two ruler-classes standing on top of the two-headed dragon's heads. The chain assaulted the twin ruler-classes while undulating, almost like a crystal snake.
"What is this!?"
"What is this!?"
The two counterweights on both ends caught Leto and Luto respectively, and drawing an S- shape in the air, they tightly bound the two together.
It won't last long. I sent the two ruler-classes flying towards a nearby beach together with the chains.
"This…!"
The chains binding the two of them cracked with a *piki*. Well, those ruler-classes are also holders of divinity as dependants of the evil god, after all.
Since I can't let Reginleiv's Fragarachs get broken this early in the game, I released the bindings, and dropped the two of them onto the beach below.
Leto and Luto fell onto the beach and landed with safe postures.
However, this isn't the end, you know.
"[Prison]."
This time, I used imprisonment magic to seal the two up. Normally, that [Prison] wouldn't break from anything.
However, since they're variant ruler-classes, that becomes uncertain. If they focus their all on breaking it, it isn't impossible for them to get out of the [Prison].
—Well, that's assuming they can actually put all their focus into breaking the [Prison], that is.
"Do with them what you want. We'll deal with the advanced-classes."
"Thank you, Touya." (Note: "Thank you" was in English.)
A monotone Dragoon rushed towards this direction in its high-mobility mode. The three Phrase ruler-class girls, Mel and the others, are riding in its hands.
The three of them got down from the Dragoon after it stopped, and Ende also jumped down from the cockpit.
"What, and here I was wondering who it could be; aren't you guys the losers and the runaway former [Sovereign]?"
"Ara, aren't you Nei? To see you together with Endymion who you hated so much before, what a surprise. I was sure you had run back to Phrasia while crying, you know."
Ignoring the two who laughed at them like that, Ende and the others entered the [Prison]. I've set it up so that everything besides variants can pass through them, so they're fine on that regard.
"—Leto, Luto. It's been a while."
While Mel called out to them, the four of them stood in front of the twins.
I'm concerned about their battle, but let's leave it to Ende and the others. I've got a ton of things I need to do here as well.
I returned the chain-shaped Fragarachs to their original board shapes, and made them attach back onto Reginleiv's back.
First, we have to do something against the three advanced-classes.
"Touya-san, how should we respond against the advanced-classes?"
At Yumina's question, I sank into thought for a while before sending instructions to the others.
"Suu, take your Overlord against the stag beetle. Sakura'll support her. Yae, Hilda, Elze and Linze will be on the starfish. Leen, Luu and Yumina, you three cover the knight order and attack the advanced-classes based on the situation. I'll be handling the two-headed dragon. If you managed to defeat your opponent, go and lend a hand to the others."
That stag beetle advanced-class isn't that large. It's at most 70, 80 meters long. Suu's Ortlinde Overlord is over 30 meters tall; I think it's plenty possible for her to hold it back by force.
In the first place, Ortlinde is a frame made with point defense in mind. Its defense is solid. And with Sakura's support added in, it should be perfect.
I'm a bit worried about the starfish since I can't tell what kind of attack it would use, but if it's those four, they should be able to manage.
And, the thing I'm left to do is to deal with that two-headed dragon as fast as I can, then go and help out the others.
I'm relying on you, Ende. Please don't let those ruler-classes come over here.
"Alright, let's go!"
I re-deployed the Fragarachs on my back, and headed back in towards the two-headed dragon.
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(Note: POV change. I'm pleasantly surprised; it's a viewpoint we havn't seen so far. Something like a third-person view centered on one person.)
"Alright, it's our turn-nano ja! Can't wait to show them my power-no!"
Suu shook with joy inside Ortlinde Overlord's cockpit. There's that thing about it being a defensive mech too, so in the battles up until now, there hasn't been a single time where Suu had gone out to the front lines.
However, this time, Touya has expressed his permission. It's fine to beat those enemies up without hesitation.
"And anyway, Touya's a bit too overprotective-no ja. I'm one of his wives too. An advanced- class variant or two, that's easy as pie-ja."
"No negligence. The part King-sama is worried about is that part of Suu's where you get ahead of yourself."
"Uu… T-that just now was me trying to pump myself up-ja. I'm not getting ahead of myself!"
"Then it's fine."
Sakura's calm voice came over from the speaker installed in the cockpit, making her unintentionally raise her voice.
She then regretted it a little as her attitude just now was a bit childish. Among Touya's fiancées, Suu is the youngest. She's two years younger than the next youngest Yumina and Luu.
Even though they're only two years older, Suu felt that the two of them could already deal with issues maturely. (That's only what Suu thought, and it isn't actually true.)
That thought made Suu impatient. She wanted to quickly become a splendid lady just like those two.
Recently, she had asked her mother Ellen to teach her things like sewing, etiquette and dancing. Although the results weren't really satisfactory…
"In any case, right now it's beating the stag beetle in front of me-no ja!"
Inside the customized cockpit for her personal use, Suu swiftly operated the control stick, and inputted commands using the buttons under her fingers while pouring magic power into them.
"Cannon Knuckle Spiral!"
The right arm of Ortlinde Overlord, which it held up, began spinning rapidly from the elbow down and launched off.
The golden right hand, which flew in a straight line, clashed against the dark golden stag beetle which is standing up on its hind legs.
After around two seconds of grinding against the stag beetle, the right hand bounced off, failing to penetrate its target, and returned back to the main body.
The stag beetle had large cracks in the center of its chest due to the attack, but those cracks soon began to regenerate, and before long it returned to an unhurt appearance.
"Mu. So it can't be dealt with that easily, huh."
For a normal Phrase, destroying its core would defeat it. That's the same with the variants, but since the variants aren't transparent like the normal Phrases, it's hard to tell where their cores are located.
And when it's an advanced-class, which usually has multiple cores, one can't even tell how many cores it has, let alone where they are.
Well, at a glance, it's most likely not in the thin legs or the large jaws which are used as weapons, but somewhere in its torso or abdomen area.
"If only I know the locations of the cores-no…"
"Leave that to me. Rossweisse is a support-type Frame Gear. It has that kind of powers too."
"Sakura? What're you going to do-ja?"
Song magic is released again from the white Frame Gear Sakura's piloting, Rossweisse.
The song—the main theme of a comedy movie where the protagonist went back to the past in
acar-shaped time machine—spread out vigorously, befitting its title of "The Power of Love", as it assaulted the advanced-class.
It's not damaging; the sound and light wave permeated throughout the body of the stag beetle that's trying to intimidate its opponents, and found the locations of its cores.
"Three cores altogether. One in the head, two in the chest. The chest cores are lined up vertically with one in the front and one in the back. Sending data."
"Oh."
On the sub-monitor to Suu's left, an image of the advanced-class in front of her was displayed. Three glowing dots could be seen inside its body in the image. Those are the locations of the cores, no doubt.
"With this, it's possible to aim at and destroy them-ja. Now I just need an attack that can reach the cores…"
While glaring at the screen, Suu groaned. It takes quite an amount of power to break through the thick bodies of advanced-classes and reach the cores situated inside them.
Even with Sakura's song magic strengthening, it's unknown whether she can put out that much force. Furthermore, she needs to break the three of them quickly in succession, or the advanced-class will regenerate itself, forcing her to start the process from zero again.
Maybe bet on the possibility, and combine the drill parts of the all-purpose underground tank [Mjolnir]—which makes up Ortlinde Overlord's legs—with Overlord's arm, and use "Cannon Knuckle Spiral" on top of that…
"I thought something like this might happen!"
"Wah!? Wh-wh-wh-what-ja!?"
Suu jumped in her seat due to the sudden voice which came from the speakers. The voice just now was from the maintenance chief of the Frame Gears, as well as the manager of Babylon's [Workshop], High Rosetta.
"We've made specialized tools for Overlord-dearimasu yo! I'll drop them down right now- dearimasu!"
From Babylon, standing by several hundred meters above in the sky, a single weapon was dropped down. That weapon fell down on top of the sands in front of Suu's Ortlinde Overlord while producing a loud bang.
At first, it was a deep tremor sound of *dogon*, then followed by metallic *jarararararan* sounds.
"This is…!"
A gigantic iron ball (it's not made out of iron though) with a golden sheen, connected to a long chain. This weapon, which is called a morning star elsewhere in the world, was huge beyond description, as befitting a weapon for Ortlinde Overlord's use.
"Anti advanced-class specialized giga gravity weapon, [Gold Hammer]-dearimasu!"
The retort that "Isn't this a hammer from a hammer throw athletic event instead of an actual hammer!?" was completely not on Suu's mind, since she doesn't have the required knowledge.
First, you all know Ortlinde Overlord—at least a substantial part of it—was a reference to GaoGaiGar. This was mentioned in the WN before.
Second, GaoGaiGar had a finisher called Goldion Hammer—which the Babylon group actually tried to recreate before (mentioned in passing in the WN… I think).
Third, Goldion Hammer is an actual hammer. Like, the one-with-a-rectangular-metal-weight- on-a-straight-wooden-handle kind of hammer.
Now, combine all that, and you see the point of the retort. Which is "This isn't a hammer you bloody idiot!". Whew, feels nice to get all that off.)
"The [Gold Hammer] would accumulate magi-graviton—which is created with help from [Gravity] and [Prison]—inside its hammer component as it spins around. And when that hammer collides with its target, those accumulated gravitons would be released all at once, and the resulting magi-graviton waves would crush the target into powder-dearimasu yo. As such, the more you spin it, the more powerful it would be; however, if you do it too much,
Ortlinde Overlord would become unable to handle the generated power-dearimasu. Please be careful with that."
Suu completely did not understand the meaning of the long explanation Rosetta gave with a proud tone, but she got that it's a really strong weapon.
Ortlinde Overlord's hand grabbed the handle of the [Gold Hammer], which has fallen on the beach. The attached chain's length only reaches to about its chest area. When it tried raising it upwards, it had no problems lifting the iron ball portion altogether. Seems like it's still a manageable weight right now.
In this base state, it's already good enough to be used as a weapon. However, it's lacking when the opponent is an advanced-class.
"Alright! A woman needs to be brave; I'll do it-no ja!"
Ortlinde Overlord started slowly spinning the [Gold Hammer] it's holding. At first, it swung the hammer lightly back and forth like a pendulum, but it gradually picked up momentum.
Eventually, the gold-colored ball began flying in a circle vertically as the wind roared around it, blowing up the sand underneath.
Without killing its momentum, the hammer was then shifted from a vertical rotation into a horizontal rotation. Sparks flew from the golden ball at the end as the tremendous force put huge strain on Ortlinde Overlord's arms.
Even Suu could tell that a force several times more than that are being stored in the golden ball right now. A [Prison] barrier was keeping that energy from escaping.
The stag beetle in front had begun gathering light inside its huge jaws. It's trying to release a particle beam cannon, similar to what the two-headed dragon had done earlier.
"Like I'll let you do thatttt!"
Ortlinde Overlord began rotating its entire body like a gold spinning top to add more force to the [Gold Hammer].
And, after having been accumulated to the limit, the mass of magi-graviton was thrown with a fierce momentum towards the stag beetle advanced-class.
The [Gold Hammer], which flew out like a bullet, struck the neck of the stag beetle advanced- class. At the same time, black particles flowed out of the [Gold Hammer], and began distorting the space around it.
Together with a loud rumble, a large shockwave shot out into the surroundings.
And, the body of the stag beetle advanced-class began crumbling down into sand-like particles, which were then carried away by the wind. Everything, including its cores, were broken down into tiny pieces.
"Turn into dust!"
The figure of the stag beetle advanced-class was already gone within the spherical twisted space. And eventually, when the spatial distortion subsided, nothing was there besides the gentle waves.
Complete annihilation. Contrary to Suu's words, it didn't even leave a single spec of dust behind.
Together with the thrown [Gold Hammer], on a side note. The [Gold Hammer] was, surprisingly, a disposable final weapon.
"I did it, Touya! Oop!?"
Suu rejoiced in the cockpit. However, right afterwards, Ortlinde Overlord sank to its knees on the shore. Steam and magical residues are coming out all over its body, and its arm armors are completely wrecked too.
The various meter displays inside the cockpit lost their light as if their power was cut, too, and only the bare minimum displays are left.
"Wha, what's going on!? It's not moving!?"
"No need to worry-dearimasu. The recoil from using the [Gold Hammer] was probably too large-dearimasho. It's just a temporary overheat-dearimasu yo. As expected, the current Overlord isn't good enough to handle that much decay energy-dearimash*ta na."
Suu opened the hatch manually and got out of her completely-immobile machine.
The battles on the beach are still continuing right now; in the distance, the figures of the knight orders' Frame Gears having skirmishes with lower-class variants could be seen.
"Good job."
A white Frame Gear slid into view below her. It's Sakura.
Suu, who's standing on top of Ortlinde's opened chest armor, pouted in dissatisfaction.
"It's good that I beat the advanced-class, but at this rate, I wouldn't be able to go help Touya and the others, wouldn't I?"
"Don't worry. I'll be active on your behalf too."
"That's not fair-no ja!"
She did think it was childish, but she couldn't help but shout out like that. After all, the long- awaited showtime for her had ended this early on.
"It's not. Suu already did her job. You can be proud. Monica, transfer Ortlinde Overlord back to Babylon's [Hangar] together with its pilot."
"Got it."
"A, hey! I'm not done talking…!"
The kneeling golden giant was wrapped in light, and disappeared from the beach together with Suu.
Only Sakura's Rossweisse was left at that place.
"Now then. To go to Elze and the others, or go to King-sama… I guess I'll go and support the knight orders with Yumina and the others, but…"
Inside Rossweisse's cockpit, Sakura muttered as she checked up on the battle situation with search magic.
There shouldn't be a need to worry about Elze and the others. The three martial faction girls among the fiancée members, Elze, Yae and Hilda are all there after all.
And as for Touya, Sakura's even less worried about him than Elze's group. It's impossible for him to lose. Not even if heaven and earth inversed themselves. That was the amount of confidence Sakura had in Touya, almost to the degree of blind faith.
Given that, her only option would be the knight orders supported by Yumina and the others. Rossweisse is a support-type rearguard model in the first place. Its abilities would be able to fully apply themselves in that kind of situation.
As Sakura decided on that course of action in her heart, she drove Rossweisse towards the battlefield that's still wrapped in turmoil.