Chapter 417: The Chaotic Battlefield, and the [Sovereign]'s General.
(Author: The POV will change halfway through.)
A high-pitched singing voice resounded in the battlefield. It's the song magic being released from Sakura's white Frame Gear, Rossweisse. That song would lighten our footwork while dulling our opponents' for a set period of time.
Amidst the flowing French pop classic, we clashed head-on against the Fakes army.
"Mode change: Lance."
The twelve crystal boards on the back of my exclusive frame, Reginleiv, merged together to form a single giant crystal charging lance.
"[Accel Boost]!"
Casting acceleration magic, I charged ahead while flying right above the ground. While crushing the Fakes one after another with my lance, I tore a path straight through the enemy's formation, much like how Moses split the sea in legends.
"Turn to paste!"
Suu, in her Ortlinde Overlord, swung the hammer in its hands down. This time it's not a hammer used for throwing. It's a real war hammer.
With zero special abilities, it's a lump of steel that has its huge striking area as its only positive. However, in the hands of the gigantic Ortlinde Overlord, that alone is enough to turn it into a weapon of mass destruction.
Currently, it's in the process of turning the golden skeletons that came out of the broken Fakes I charged through into paste. And the ones who tried to dodge that were crushed like ants by Ortlinde's feet. —It's a pure trampling.
Even though Suu's golden Ortlinde Overlord and the dark-golden Fakes share the same gold color, their levels are too far apart.
"Yaa!"
When Ortlinde swung the hammer in a pretty sloppy golf swing, several Fakes flew up into the sky in pieces.
And right afterwards, crystal bullets flew from behind, and accurately pierced through the golden skeletons inside the Fakes up in the air.
The sniping fire belongs to Yumina's silver Brunnhilde. Thanks to her ever-accurate shooting, we can fight without worrying about our backs.
"Haaaaaaaaaah!"
It's precisely because she knows it too that Elze was able to charge in without reserves like that… I think. Probably.
In the red war god, Gerhilde, Elze broke apart the Fakes coming at her one after another.
"Crush!"
Gerhilde's fist broke apart the cockpit of a Fake. At the same time, the crystal pile installed in its arm shot out, propelled by the [Explosion] triggered in the firing chambers, and landed a solid strike on the golden skeleton riding inside.
She stomped on the skeleton which was already crushed by the pile bunker just to be safe. If the core was actually intact after all that, then it would've all been for nothing.
"Kokonoe Shinmei-ryuu Ougi, Hoshi Ittotsu!"
"Lestia-style sword technique, Fifth · Spiral!"
While leaving their backs to each other, the purple samurai and the orange knight each pierced through the cockpit of the Fakes in front of them. It's Yae's Schwertleite and Hilda's Siegrune.
The two frames rushed through the enemies while rotating with their backs to each other, almost like a spinning top. With each spin, more dark golden wreckages fall down onto the ground behind them.
Towards those wreckages, even more bullets flew in from far away to finish them off for good. In the distance, there's the figure of Luu's Waltraute equipped with the long-distance C unit firing towards the battlefield.
The bullets fired by the emerald green frame burst open above the enemies' heads. With that as the switch, the numerous small crystal pellets packed within had their [Gravity] enchantments activated, and rained down upon the variants, each piece having a weight of several tons.
It's the same thing as the mock cluster bomb used in the past against advanced-classes.
Leen's Grimgerde, which had finished cooling down and restarted, also rained down bullets in a similar way.
And even further above, there's Linze's Helmwige in flight mode. From the blue frame high up in the skies, any changes in the battlefield are relayed to everyone else real-time.
Furthermore, it's also casting [Ice Wall] towards the ground, blocking off the paths of the Fakes and obstructing their movements or luring them to certain spots. As expected of her.
When I turned to look at the side, Ende's Dragoon was leaving the battlefield. Of course, he's not the type to run away in front of a battle.
The proof of that can be seen in the figures of several spiky Fakes behind, chasing after it.
Since I've decided to leave the Phrase's general, Zeno to Ende's group, I've released the [Prison] on Mel and the girls' cores earlier. In that way, Ende's group is blatantly showing their existences to the ruler-classes on the opponents' side.
The Phrase [Sovereign] is right here in front of you, or something like that.
Basically, Ende's serving as bait. Still, that General Zeno's bringing along a sizeable group with him; is Ende gonna be alright?
"Oi, Ende. It seems you're pretty popular; you sure you can handle all that?"
"Please, I'm nowhere as popular as you. The ones chasing after us aren't variants. They're the same ruler-classes as Mel and the others, who came from Phrasia… Normal Phrases."
They havn't been converted to variants? How did they manage to resist being absorbed… Is there some kind of special reason?
"Elze, Sakura, sorry about this, but can you go help Ende's side? Stick to support as much as you can."
"Man, can't be helped. Time to follow up on my unreliable no-good senior disciple."
"Dragging the foot of King-sama… Unforgivable. Go beat them up quick."
"Touya… Aren't the girls over at your side a bit too cruel?"
"They're wonderful women, what about it?"
I answered thus on the comms channel which Elze and Sakura are probably still on. You think I can say anything else with them listening? (Note: Touya has bad opinions about his fiancées, confirmed right here, this damn no-good husband…)
The spiky Fakes that chased after Ende's Dragoon amounts to about 20.
And further behind, Elze's Gerhilde and Sakura's Rossweisse rushed after them.
Let's leave the other side to the two of them. I'll have to finish this place up quick too.
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(Note: POV change. Looks like 3rd person?)
"Here should be good."
Ende turned his machine, Dragoon around with a twirl and disengaged its high mobility mode, and faced the spiky Fakes pursuing him from the front.
"You're serious about this, right?"
"Yes. It won't have meaning if I'm not the one to finish this."
Ende's lover, as well as the [Sovereign] who stood atop the society of the crystalline lifeforms known as Phrases, Mel nodded from the back seat.
After confirming her resolve was firm, Ende pressed the button that controlled the opening of the cockpit hatch.
The monitor in front moved upwards, and the chest hatch opened vertically.
On top of the protruding hatch, Mel stood silently without looking perturbed at all from the height she's at currently. She strikes an imposing figure the way she looks currently. It's a figure with a majesty befitting a species' sovereign. It's completely different compared to a certain dukedom's sovereign from somewhere. (Note: oh, this is Ende's POV isn't it.)
She had already removed the pendant she received from Touya which puts an illusion of a human's looks on her. Her ice-blue eyes were pointed straight at the group of spiky Fakes approaching from the front.
In the same way, Nei and Rize, on the Dragoon's right and left hands respectively, returned to their original looks and stood to the sides as befitting their roles as guards.
Once they reached a certain distance away, the Fakes also stopped.
After a while, just like the Dragoon, the cockpit hatches of the Fakes opened up one after another. The ones who appeared from within are ruler-classes of the Phrase, clad in crystalline armor that shined under the sun.
When the figure of one man with an obviously different atmosphere compared to the rest appeared from the large Fake in the middle, Mel and the others' narrowed their eyes.
It was a ruler-class clad in red crystals that look blood-soaked. Phrases do not age. They grow from their cores, and at a certain stage, they stop growing and stay that way for the rest of their lives. It's similar to the elves and the fairies of this world.
The man in front of Mel's group looks to be around his mid-20s from a human point of view. His eyes are sharp like a bird of prey's, and a fearless smile was on his face.
In the past, back on Phrasia, he was the great general who led tens of thousands of Phrases and battled against other invading species as well as magic beasts. Zeno; that is the man's name.
"It has been a long time, O [Sovereign]. I am glad to see you doing well."
"I am no longer the [Sovereign]. I don't need your courtesy. General… No, Zeno. Answer me. Why did you leave Phrasia? I'm sure I have commanded you to aid the next [Sovereign]."
Even though there's a fair bit of distance between the two, they could speak with each other without issues. To the ruler-classes, something like this doesn't pose any problems.
Their conversation can also reach the other ruler-classes as well as Ende. The only ones who can't hear anything are probably only Elze and Sakura, who are further behind. No, actually they should've been able to hear something, but they won't understand the exact words, and just feel that they're talking about something.
"You spoke of the next [Sovereign] but… My apologies, but that person is not suited to be [Sovereign]. Isn't it because of knowing that, that the two of them there also left Phrasia to chase after you? We would simply like to be spared from having to serve a weak [Sovereign]."
Hearing Zeno's words, the Phrase sisters standing on the Dragoon's hands glared at him. Nei tried to say something, but Mel held her back, and spoke up instead.
"You think of my younger brother as weak?"
"Exactly. Reconciliation and coexistence, such tepid thoughts are unneeded for the Phrase. If they're in our way then destroy them, if they're useful then take them by force; that is all. I cannot think of serving a [Sovereign] who holds such cowardly notions in his head. Is it wrong to call someone who has thrown away his fighting instincts as weak?"
In contrast to the grinning Zeno, Mel showed no changes to her expression.
Inside this man's head, there's no thoughts except for ones related to fighting. Should I say as expected of Gira's brother; his thought process is completely one befitting the name "combat- class". Even if he's not like his younger brother who picks fights with anyone and everyone indiscriminately, they're the same on a fundamental aspect.
"I had thought about defeating the [Sovereign] myself too but… Even if I fought with that boy, my heart wouldn't feel satisfied. And it was right then that Yura showed up. I gladly accepted
his words that he'll prepare a battlefield where I can fight you. I rejected the strange gold power, though."
"I see. So it was indeed Yura who pulled the strings. And, is that Yura in there?"
"Don't know… It's been a while since we last met, after all. Rather than that, O [Sovereign]. It's about time you quenched this thirst of us combat-types."
A fierce smile akin to that of a carnivore's appeared on Zeno's face.
"Fine then. It seems like no words will reach you lot anymore. As one who was [Sovereign] in the past, it's the least I can do to send you on your way to hell."
"Thank you for your consideration."
Zeno bowed to Mel in courtesy, and returned inside his Fake.
A communication from Elze reached the cockpit inside which Ende was seated.
"So? What happened to the talk in the end?"
"It broke up. Well, there wasn't any need to talk about this in the first place, though. Still, we wanted to know their circumstances anyway, and in a sense this is according to schedule."
"Alright, I'll go around and destroy the ones in the surroundings then, that okay?"
"I leave them to you."
The moment Ende replied, Sakura's singing voice began flowing out from Rossweisse, standing by behind the group of Fakes.
Flowing with a light, catchy rhythm, her voice resounded across the battlefield.
Since she's singing the song the way it was originally, as usual, nobody here would be able to understand the meaning behind the song.
It's a song by a pair of British musicians, and although the song title was translated in a weird way in Japan, the song itself was as amazing as ever.
Being cheered on by the song, Ende's group as well as Elze had their reaction speed increased, and their Frame Gears' magic reactors became more active.
"Let's go, Gerhilde!"
Hitting its fists together once, the red god of destruction rushed into battle. Kicking the ground, with the turbo boosters on its back activated, it charged straight into the enemies' midst in an instant.
Its fist, held in a stance at the waist, shot out like lightning and crushed the cockpit of the Fake it was facing.
Almost like an afterthought, the pile bunker on that arm was fired as well. The ruler-class riding inside was blown away and turned into pieces.
"One down!"
Another Fake attacked Gerhilde, which was withdrawing its fist, with a sword from the side. While turning its body to dodge that, Gerhilde unleashed a sharp roundhouse kick. The crystal blade that popped out of its leg sliced the Fake into two halves together with its cockpit.
"Two down!"
While looking at the figure of Elze happily crushing the spiked Fakes one after another, even though she is his junior disciple, Ende felt a chill down his spine.
"Well, no normal girl can become Touya's partner to begin with…"
The fiancées there are all a bit weird in one way or another. There's no way he'll say that in front of them, though.
It's not like he doesn't want to live or anything. No matter the time, no matter the world, there's nothing more stupid than making girls angry.
"Alright, we'll have to deal with our opponent as well."
Ende pointed the Dragoon towards the spiky Fake Zeno was riding in, which was holding a sword and shield in a stance.
In order to not cause problems in the fight, he asked Nei and Rize to jump down to the ground.
"You listening, Endymion!? If anything happened to Mel-sama, don't think you're gonna get let off easily!"
"At worst, you can just return Mel-sama back safely and leave yourself there."
"Can't you girls cheer me on or something…"
While looking at the monitor that showed the figure of the two, Ende dropped his shoulders. Mel smiled slightly while gazing at him.
"Ara, did you want to be encouraged by those two?"
"No… It's not like that. And besides, your cheering alone is enough for me."
"Fufu, thank you. Work hard, okay. I'll be properly cheering."
"Aah, leave it to me."
The heel portion jumped upwards, and the anchors at the front were detached; the Dragoon shifted to its high mobility mode.
The two mini magic reactors installed on its legs let out a roaring sound, almost like the roar of a dragon. Seems like his beloved machine is ready for the fight too.
"Let's go, Dragoon!"
Rushing at full throttle, the Dragoon, with the Phrase [Sovereign] on board, charged forward with a speed incomparable to before.