Chapter 413: The Purple's Invasion, and Suppression.
The sky is turning bright.
Since this place is deep in a dense forest, the sun is not visible anywhere, but it's definitely beginning to approach morning.
The attack of the variants, which had recognized them as enemies, were still continuing.
They did not attack altogether in a large group, but came with continuous waves of 5-6 variants at a time. Even Bastet felt weary after facing the never-ending battle that only golems which don't require sleep could've endured.
However, there is one human (it's highly suspicious whether she even is a human anymore at this point) here who calmly faced the variants from beginning to end.
"Kitty-chan~, it's morning you know~. Are you not going to call To-yan yet~?"
While piercing through the core of a variant with her right arm transformed into a gold spear, Luna opened her mouth.
Luna was apparently able to accurately grasp the location of the variant cores; it might be something she got as part of her variant-like abilities.
"Bastet ane, it might still be a bit early, but we also have to talk to King-sama about this ane- san here, so…"
"Right…"
Bastet sent a glance to the white golem beside her; Albus also nodded lightly in response.
The "Sacred Tree" behind Bastet had already grown to nearly 4 meters tall.
The surroundings were filled with tree stumps due to the sweeping slashes unleashed by Luna and the purple [Crown] Viola against the attacking variants. The fallen trees were picked up by Anubis using the collar's [Storage] and thrown away a distance from here in order to not be obstructive.
Just like what Anubis said, it's still a bit early to head back for the report, but they're dealing with a lot of uncertain factors too. It shouldn't be a bad idea to move early.
"… I understand. It'll take a bit of time, but I'll call King-sama over here."
"That's what I wanted to hear! Ah-, I can't wait-. Together with To-yan, piercing each other, cutting each other, gouging each other, crushing each other… I can't get enough~."
Bastet and Anubis drew back slightly, no, very much away from Luna, who uttered extremely disturbing words with hazy eyes.
"Anubis."
"Aye aye sir."
Anubis took out a full-length mirror around 1.5m tall and 40cm wide from his collar enchanted with [Storage].
Albus then took it and propped it up on a nearby tree.
"Alright. I'll be back with King-sama in about an hour."
"Got it. Make it quick, please~"
Luna waved with a smile, but Bastet could only feel unease. She turned to Anubis with a look that said "I leave this to you", but the person himself could only feel he was being glared at and went "Did I do something!?", completely missing the intended meaning.
Bastet sighed once, and passed through the [Gate]-enchanted mirror while still worrying about this side.
The other side of the [Gate] is connected to the Brunhild castle, in a room called the "Mirror Room".
Mirrors that are connected to other places like the Brunhild embassy in Belfast and the villa on Dracliff Island are installed on the walls over here. It's mainly used by the maids and knights working in the castle. (People like Suu travel to Belfast from inside their own rooms.)
When Bastet heard a sudden voice and looked up, she saw a single painting on the wall directly facing her up a flight of stairs.
It's a painting of a young girl with pink hair braided into three braids and wearing a white one piece dress; what's surprising is the fact that the painting's upper half is sticking out of the frame.
"Artifact creature, was it… I am Bastet. I'm a golem belonging to Elka Patolaqshe, who's been in the care of this kingdom. Please contact the sovereign as soon as possible. It's an emergency."
"Hee, so this is To-yan's royal castle. He's got quite the good sense."
"Wha!?"
Bastet felt the impossible sensation (for a golem) of having her heart grasped by a hand when she heard the voice coming from behind her. When she spun around, there stood Luna in the "Mirror Room", having passed through the full-length mirror.
"Why, are you…!"
"Since I wanted to meet with To-yan, here I am."
As Luna made an oopsie expression, behind her, a small purple golem appeared from the mirror carrying a large reaper's scythe. Bastet bit down on her teeth; the worst scenario has come to pass.
"Intruders! Notify everyone in the castle right now!"
Ripple answered and immediately returned inside the painting frame.
Ripple is a magical lifeform. Her main body is a picture frame displayed in the main hall, and duplicates exist everywhere in the castle. All of them serve as Ripple's eyes and ears, and she serves as a living surveillance camera system in the castle.
And, she also serves as the alarm as she is capable of projecting copies of herself from those picture frames.
Ripple sent out her copies to everywhere in the castle, while she herself headed towards her master's bedroom.
"Munyu…?"
I woke up to someone's voice calling me. I rubbed my sleepy eyes and raised my body from the bed, and saw Ripple extending her body out from the picture frame hanging on the wall and shouting at me.
"What… Did something happen?"
The instant I heard what Ripple said, my mind became completely clear together with an illusion of cold sweat coming out of my entire body.
A small purple golem wielding a scythe. There's only one golem I know that looks like that.
"No way…!"
I jumped up and grabbed the smartphone on the sideboard, before teleporting to the Mirror Room while still in my pajamas.
The figures of the invaders couldn't be seen; there was only Bastet, who was crouched down beside a wall. A collision mark can be seen on the wall above her. Did she get done in by Luna!?
"Oi! Are you alright!?"
"King-sama…! I'm fine. I only got blown away, and one of my feet is malfunctioning… Leave me be, quickly chase after that person… Luna Trieste…!"
"I knew it! Damn!"
I clicked my tongue when I heard that name from Bastet. Why'd someone that troublesome have to come here at this time!
I carried Bastet in my arms and teleported to Babylon's [Laboratory].
In the [Laboratory]'s first lab, nobody was present, and there was only a single wolf golem sleeping on the maintenance platform.
"Touya-dono? And… Bastet! What happened!?"
Fenrir, who was sleeping, raised his head up. Fenrir is a sibling model to Bastet and Anubis. It's obvious for him to worry about her.
"Fenrir-niisama… I'm sorry…"
"I leave Bastet to you! I think she's alright, but have Dr. Elka look at her just in case!"
I left Bastet in front of Fenrir, who looked at me in concern even though he doesn't know what's going on, and invoked search magic.
"Search! The position of Luna Trieste!"
"… Search finished. Brunhild castle, second floor western corridor, currently engaged in battle."
"Wh…! With who!?"
"… Search finished. Opponents are Mochizuki Moroha and Mochizuki Karina."
The moment I heard the two names coming from my smartphone, tension left my body like a deflated balloon.
So it's my sisters… I'm saved. If it's those two, they should be able to deal with Luna no matter what she does.
Oops, I can't get relaxed now. There might be injuries in the castle already. For the third time, I used teleport and moved to the place where my sisters are fighting.
At the corridor to the west of the castle that I arrived at, there was the figure of Luna who's unconscious on the floor, as well as the purple [Crown], Viola, which is struggling on the wall, being pinned there by countless arrows.
And besides that, there was the reliable older sister and cousin, as well as Yae and Hilda. It seems like they ran into Luna as they were about to start their morning training.
"Oh, it's Touya. Morning."
"Good morning, Karina nee-san…"
I exchanged greetings with Karina nee-san who turned around. It feels weird to be doing this here somehow.
The corridor was damaged all over the place, and there's a section that's completely broken as well. These cracks are probably from either Viola's scythe or Luna's blade arms, I guess.
Looking at Viola which is pinned on the wall, though, it seems that Karina nee-san's arrows were stuck pretty deeply into the wall as well.
"Touya-kun, this is my advice as your older sister, but you really shouldn't engage in the kind of adultery that involves drawing blades, you know."
"That's not it, alright! Don't say something scary like that!"
Apparently, inside Moroha nee-san's head, Luna was a girl who I picked up and then threw away, and with love and hate in her heart, came to the castle to commit a double suicide with me.
"… What could this be about, Touya-dono?"
"Touya-sama? By adultery… What could that mean?"
"Like I said, you got it wrong! Can the both of you put that black aura away for a minute!?"
I desperately explained to Yae and Hilda whose eyes narrowed at me. No, why do I have to explain when there's really nothing… going, on?
An image of the scorching sun and Luna's naked form appeared in my head.
"Well, leaving Touya's adultery aside."
"How many times—"
"This glasses girl, she's got the power of the variants inside her, doesn't she? I was surprised. Is that why her behavior was a bit off too?"
"Isn't it because she was thrown away by Touya-kun?"
"Stop it already!"
I explained to them that Luna's madness was due to the compensation taken by the purple [Crown], Fanatic Viola. Mainly to my two fiancées.
It's absolutely not my fault, alright?
"Fuun, it eats away at your mind, huh. So, what does Touya-kun want to do with this girl?"
What do I want to do, huh. For this kind of dangerous individual, the best choice would obviously be to either kill them or imprison them somewhere…
I looked towards the pinned-down Viola. I wonder if Luna will be freed if I destroy this golem.
However, there's Viola's annoying regeneration ability. Even if I cut it into pieces, it'll just regenerate itself, and then Luna's mind will further degrade due to the compensation. It's a vicious cycle.
"In any case, now's not the time to deal with this. We'll leave it for—"
"Gi."
As I was about to say the word "later", Viola landed on the corridor after breaking the arrows embedded on its body.
It picked up the large scythe that had fallen beside its feet, before swinging that in a large motion towards me. This…!
"[O Ice envelop, an everlasting sarcophagus, Eternal Coffin]."
"Gigii."
Innumerable ice pillars sprung up from below the feet of Viola, and the purple golem was instantly encased in a rectangular block of ice.
Just in case, I've strengthened it with divinity. Half-baked powers won't even be able to scratch this ice. Oh, right, gotta separate it from the floor to make it movable at least.
"Your Majesty!"
The knights in charge of castle security could be seen rushing over here, with their captain, the female knight Rebecca-san at the fore; they're probably called by Ripple.
Rebecca-san was originally an adventurer I met in the deserts together with Logan-san, the current police knights captain, but after many twists and turns, she's now captain of the Royal Guards of the Brunhild castle.
"Our deepest apologies! Our security was…!"
"No, this time is an irregular case, so it's fine."
"Irregular?" (Note: Touya said "irregular" the English word in katakana the previous sentence. Rebecca is parroting the word back in hiragana cos she doesn't know what it means.)
"Ah… An unnatural situation, I mean. In any case, please bring this golem and that girl over there to the [Prison]-enchanted dungeons… Wait, Luna can break regular [Prison]s with her variant power… What to do…"
And [Paralyze] probably won't work against Luna when she turns into her variant form too… And even if it did, it'd be bad for me to leave her in a state where she can't even go to the toilet.
While I was worrying about it, Karina nee-san gestured towards Luna with her chin.
"Touya, take a proper look at that glasses girl with [Divine Eyes]."
"Eh?"
As I stared at Luna with [Divine Eyes] as instructed, I spotted a small core at her right chest. It's around the size of a golf ball, and is without a doubt a variant's core. So this is the source of her variant powers, huh.
That means if I take this out…
"[Aports]."
Using the object transfer magic [Aports], I took the core into my hands. And I immediately slammed it into the floor and destroyed it.
With this, the variant factor inside Luna should have disappeared.
"Guess it's good with this. Sorry about that, please bring them away."
"Yes!"
Rebecca-san and the others carried the ice-encased Viola and Luna to the dungeons. Man, that was quite a fright. I'm glad Moroha nee-san and Karina nee-san were here.
Oh, right. Since Bastet is back here, that means the number of people guarding the "Sacred Tree" in Eisengard has decreased.
It's quite a bit earlier than planned but let's call [Red Cats]' Est-san for now. Nia's definitely still sleeping and won't pick up, after all.
"I didn't hear about it being this early in the morning, y'know. This counts as extra charges, get it?"
"I get it, I get it. How petty."
Starting from the chief Nia who talked to me, the vice-chief Est-san, the aides Yuni and Yuri, as well as several more members of the [Red Cats] were assembled in the Mirror Room.
As for the golems, there's Nia's red [Crown], Rouge, as well as Est-san's Akagane, and three other golems I havn't seen before. Since they're all painted red, it's easy to tell that they're golems of this group.
"I'd like you to protect the 'Sacred Tree' that's ahead of this place. We'll send further reinforcements in the future, so you guys will be the advance party, so to speak."
"Understood. We shall face it dutifully as a job request."
The vice-chief Est-san replied, and we crossed the mirror to our destination.
We exited in a forest somewhere. Anubis, who noticed me, came running this way. The black dog golem stood up on his hind legs and clung to my legs.
"Uooh! King-sama, King-sama! Is the castle alright!? Those guys entered the mirror on their own… I was worried, but I can't leave this place too…! What about Bastet ane!?"
"Ah, I know, I know, calm down. Bastet got hurt a bit but she's alright. Leave this place to us, you can head back to the castle for now."
"Really? Then, excuse me!"
Anubis went into the mirror, almost as if replacing Nia and the rest of the [Red Cats] guys.
In this place, only Albus, who stood to protect the tree behind it, remained.
"It became pretty big, huh…"
I looked up at the "Sacred Tree" behind Albus. Is it already around 5 meters tall? It seems like the "Sacred Tree" is growing along nicely.
Something glittery is being released from the leaves. That's the purified magic particles, I suppose.
"So, all we gotta do is protect this tree here, right?"
"Yep. Things like variants would come attacking this tree. I'll get the Frame Gears out as well…"
As I was talking, I suddenly felt nauseous and knelt on the ground with one knee. Damn. I thought it'll be alright, but the current purification range of a few dozen meters around the "Sacred Tree" is still too small. It's much better compared to the last time, but the effects of Godslaying Poison amplifies in response to the level of divinity. For me, who's a dependant of the World God, it's still a bit too tough.
Higher-ranked gods apparently aren't supposed to feel a thing from this, but I'm just a trainee, so…
"O, oi, you alright?"
"Aah… Somewhat. Kuh… [Gate]."
I opened a [Gate] and called out the Chevaliers used by the Red Cats, Est-san's Red Lynx and Nia's Over Gear [Tiga Rouge].
While looking sideways at the giant mechs that appeared while shaking the ground, I turned back towards the full-length mirror.
"I'll leave the rest to you… Albus, let's return."
"Acknowledged."
Once I passed through the mirror and returned to the castle, the feeling of breathlessness, pressure, nausea and other negative sensations I had got several degrees lighter.
It's not to the degree of fainting, but a sense of tiredness assaulted me all of a sudden.
"[Refresh]."
The stamina recovery magic blew away my tiredness, but the bad feelings still remain. It feels like a hungover morning… Wait, I wouldn't know that since I'm underage.
I lied down on the floor and got slightly better. It's only around 30% better though. The purification still isn't enough.
Once the "Sacred Tree" gets bigger, the amount of Godslaying Poison it can absorb… That is to say, its purification range would increase as well, so the whole of Eisengard getting purified would be closer and closer to reality.
We'll have to keep defeating variants until then, though.
"Albus, in the end, how many variants attacked?"
"Fifty three. All lower-class."
53, huh. Quite the number… Maybe I should send reinforcements to Nia and the others early.
I took out my smartphone to contact the masters of the black and blue [Crown]s, Norn and Robert.