The high outer wall looking down over the mountain ridge. Past it on the other side was another wall. With another wall behind that one, too. The road through the space in between the walls skirted around like a maze, forming the town... and making any spot within the meandering road always exposed to long-range fire from the central citadel.
On top of this, each and every one of the mercenaries stationed there had equipment and training on par with Aureatia's regular soldiers, making an easy invasion impossible. However, Kazuki the Black Tone was a champion in the shadows, better versed in this type of unconventional warfare than any other.
Kazuki was going to achieve her goal without any meddling from Aureatia. Meanwhile, Aureatia could avoid an all-out war with Okafu while praying for the visitors' mutual demise.
Kazuki the Black Tone whittled away at Okafu's military strength, and using relief as a pretext, Aureatia would dispatch their army, negotiating from an advantageous position. That was the plan Aureatia had devised. If possible, after the two visitors involved had been killed.
Kazuki was well aware of Aureatia's attempts to get rid of all deviant combat powers from the world.
A veteran visitor like Kazuki the Black Tone could also use such world affairs for her own purposes.
She firmly brushed away her long hair. She squinted her eyes in the final brilliance of the setting sun.
Turning his sights on the small carriage that appeared to escort him away, the Gray-Haired Child muttered to her.
"Looks like it's time to go. Sad to go our separate ways, but be well." "When will I get to see you again, then?"
"It might be another ten… No, I'm sure I'll end up seeing you again before long, Miss Kazuki Mizumura. I'm glad to see you haven't changed at all."
"Right. And you were just as shady as always, yourself."
Kazuki smiled a little. Then she nimbly jumped into the car she had bought from the Gray-Haired Child.
It was called an automobile. A vehicle that was powered by steam. She needed a mode of transport without an expendable life span in order to ensure
the day's strategy for storming the fortress would succeed.
Now that their first meeting in thirty years was finished, the young boy's carriage grew smaller and smaller in the distance. The horse kicked the earth, running.
Horses. This world had horses, too. There were times when she'd suddenly think back on it nostalgically.
A world that was clearly connected to her homeland yet was unquestionably different.
"Ta-taaah, taaaah, taaah. Ta-taaaah..."
Inside the car, Kazuki hummed to herself as she fiddled with several muskets. The night would be her time. The many gunners positioned in the citadel would be unable to hit their proper target in the darkness and the light of the kerosene lamps. At the very least, not Kazuki the Black Tone and her perfect
understanding of everything involving guns.
The steam engine started up. Currently, her position was on a slope looking down on the drawbridge spanning the ravine. It meant she'd descend an incline so sharp it physically felt like a straight drop, with the speed of the steam- powered automobile.
The car's mass won't change. Unlike horses' legs, the wheel rotations are fixed, too…
It wasn't equipped with the steering functionality of cars in the Beyond.
Kazuki didn't need it.
If its hit any sudden obstacles, it'll be repelled and fly back at the appropriate angle—just like a bullet.
She felt the speed increase as she descended the hill. In the driver's seat, she didn't do a thing.
Much like how no gunner touched their bullet after setting their line of fire.
The drawbridge closed in. She continued rushing forward. Getting wind of the assault, the bridge was in the middle of being drawn up. She could tell the bows and guns at the citadel all had their sights trained on her.
Steam-powered automobiles felt no fear. Its speed neither accelerated nor slowed. A storm of gunshots. A hail of slaughter relying solely on sheer volume. The metal plating installed around the driver's seat would guard her against the hail only once. It was accelerating plenty. It didn't stop. The car collided into a mass of rock. The car body was launched up into the air at exactly the angle Kazuki wanted—tumbling diagonally toward the end of the rising drawbridge.
The cargo bed was crushed, and the load of muskets inside scattered out of it like rain.
Similarly launched into the air, she readied her two muskets. "Impact."
It was as if she had known her sacrificial gamble would succeed from the very start. She cleared the bottomless ravine and had invaded the Free City. She breached the first outer wall.
In midair, she made out a shield-wielding ogre guarding the tightly shut gate. A correct judgment to make. Supposing she was able to step inside the second outer wall and could utilize cover and her mobility, the ragtag mercenaries had no hope of winning. For the first three days, she had massacred
her enemies to ensure just that.
"…Taaah, ta-ta-tah, finished them off~! What a scene~!"
First, she would kill the ogre guarding the gate. Instantly, as she crossed her arms to unsheathe her guns, two gunpowder flashes occurred at once.
A shrill metallic sound rang out. "…What?"
Kazuki was puzzled as her lithe knees dulled the impact of her high-speed landing. The ogre didn't appear to have reacted to her shots at all. Yet her target still lived.
She was certain the previous sound had been both of her bullets being stopped at tremendous speed.
They weren't normal bullets. The muskets mass-produced in this world had remarkably improved accuracy compared to their historical equivalents in the Beyond—but the bullets had curved at a speed only Kazuki was able to see.
Their trajectory was aimed at the ogre's carotid artery, wrapping around both flanks of the shield to pierce it. It was no work of Power Arts. Her supreme technique brought the air resistance and rotation of the bullet itself under her willful control. Kazuki the Black Tone was always running through these calculations as she readied her shot.
"You've got a lovely voice. You should become a singer."
"...Fiiingers out of reaaach. One on top of theeeee other… Tah, tah."
There was another mercenary in hiding. An abnormally thin body, able to hid behind the ogre's large frame. A skeleton.
Skeletons were fast. Without either muscle or organs, they possessed an extremely lightweight body, lighter than would've been possible for any living being, and that was even combined with the physical strength and technical
skills they had possessed in life, too.
That being said…
She had never before seen any being like him. Speed on an entirely different level that the simple racial difference couldn't explain. Even in the darkness, how he had managed to react so deftly?
The two bullets she had fired simultaneously hadn't been cut nor reflected. The wide side of his spearhead had knocked them down to the ground.
What kind of speed was that, seriously?
Kazuki grew annoyed.
"…What, you're just hiding behind the gate?"
"My job's defense. I have some things I'd like to ask you. I'll keep you company till you run out of bullets."
"Oh? Suit yourself."
A projectile came at her from the side, trying to catch her off guard. She pulled her body back and avoided it like it was nothing.
A thin medicinal vial landed on the ground and exploded in an irritative acrid black smoke.
"Kazuki the Black Tone. You must be sick of being the hunter, right? Today you're the prey."
The zmeu's reptilian face, after launching the medicinal vial from some sort of mechanical device, was gravely solemn.
A correct judgment. Even if she forced her way past the drawbridge, right here, before she could step within boundaries of the second inner wall…it was possible to surround Kazuki with several mastered hands and create this advantageous position—as long as she hadn't prepared for such a situation.
"Hilca io ocaf. Formia ora. Nel cloza." (From Hilca to Okafu soil. Power of hoarfrost, cliff face.)
Reinforcements. A black-skinned minian was chanting Word Arts.
Using the momentum from her dodge, she rotated just barely over the ground, catching two of the muskets she had scattered all around, using her finger's first knuckle joint. The guns that had been fully loaded into the car were the groundwork she laid for the fight. This area had already been turned in her combat domain.
She rotated. Took aim. She wasn't firing at the zmeu in front of her or the chanting minia. She fired at the latest new reinforcement.
"Enzeham nort! Nazelcthuk!" (Stop heartbeats! Come to pass!)
On her right, she shot the thigh of the elf coming through the smoke screen,
slashing at her.
The shot missed the head because their follow-through with their low- positioned iron rod protected their vitals. As proficient as their reputation suggested.
"Hngah… Augh!"
"...She got Leforgid!"
"Damn, how's she reacting so fast…?!"
In the drug-wielding zmeu's direction, an abruptly risen stone wall cut off her line of fire. Protective Craft Arts from the black-skinned minia. Supposing she had been shooting at the zmeu, then the elf's attack, cloaked in the smoke screen, would have split her head in two.
Correct judgments, each and every one of them.
Too bad it's all meaningless, though.
Taking on several mastered hands and fighting them at once. Fighting continuously.
To Kazuki the Black Tone, it wasn't anything special at all.
She would admit her opponents had the upper hand. Their judgment had been precise, and she could tell that their coordination was quite high.
Nevertheless, Kazuki had become completely accustomed to such situations and opponents. Even if the mercenaries compiled every possible optimal solution together, they wouldn't be able to match her talent. Without question.
"Tah, ta-taaah. Taaah, taaah. I don't believe anymore... I feeeel, myself, meeeeelting awaaay."
She spun her muskets in rhythm with her song. With it, she applied centrifugal force to them.
"...Ta-ahn!"
The metallic click came after Kazuki threw the musket in her right hand.
The next vial discharged from the zmeu's launcher machine was intercepted by the gunstock of the thrown musket long before it landed, and the smoke screen from the explosion enveloped the zmeu and the minia Word Arts user.
She kicked one of the muskets scattered at her feet and broke into a dash. The gun spun on the ground, sliding as it sped into the black smoke cloud. Kazuki's straight advance came faster than the black-skinned minia could incant the first stanza of their Word Arts.
"Hilca io ocaf." (From Hilca to Okafu soil.) "…Hng!" "Taaah, tah."
She pulled out the left musket from within the smoke. Her gun was
simultaneously also a bayonet spear. An enormous amount of blood drenched the bayonet, and the minia's Word Arts ended incompletely. The intercepting stab from their two-handed sword also failed to reach her.
"Beforeeee, inevitabilityyyy. Tears everything awaaaay."
She spun the musket she pulled up behind her. The blood scattered in a clean arc.
There was a sound of a shot from behind. Launched from the shield of the ogre defending the gate, the four metal rivets were blocked with her wooden gunstock. She had already picked up that this mechanism in the shield was the ogre's trump card.
Throwing one away and using the other for defense, now, both of the muskets she'd had in her hands were rendered useless... Suddenly, the first enemy popped up in the back of her mind.
…That expert fighter. If the spear-wielding skeleton…picked this moment to make his move, then what?
"Shhhaaaaa!"
The vial-launching zmeu was at close quarters. Her claws were threatening to tear out her throat. A deafening boom pierced through the zmeu's mouth and passed through her skull. Kazuki threw away the small gun she pulled out of her coat. An armament of hers she hadn't revealed to them up until now.
"Ta-taaah…"
The moment that Kazuki the Black Tone took her hands off all the guns she had, including her hidden weapons—
It was the perfect opportunity he had been aiming for. A minia wielding a rapier came up from behind Kazuki. The man was Milieu the Hemp Drop.
He had perfectly hidden his presence during the exchange of blows up until that moment. A silver streak, straight at her heart—
"Aw, close one."
She kicked up a musket at her feet with the tip of foot. The gun she had sent to this position with a kick before her charge.
The bayonet's intercepting thrust, digging into his flank, reached out longer than the rapier.
"...!"
Piercing through his abdomen, she then pulled the trigger.
His innards exploding, the rapier wielder went flying from the shock. "And you had the best chance, too. What a shame."
She hadn't read the situation—Kazuki herself simply maintained a position where she was capable of responding to anything.
Kazuki twirled around, moving like a dancer, and smiled down at the people she killed.
Four of them were snuffed out. Her fighting brought everything to a close in an instant.
She kicked two guns up into the air to pick them up. She was unscarred.
During the high-speed battle, she had constantly used her opponents to cut off the line of fire from the citadel. The rain of gunfire was never going to reach her. When it came to both combat and tactical strategy, the mercenaries were no match for the champion.
Left over were the two guarding the gate. A shield-wielding ogre. With him was the skeleton spearman. Even if she assumed there were a number of traps and troops waiting for her behind them, the Free City of Okafu's military power was definitely growing weaker and weaker.
"I was only just hired by Okafu today, but…" The skeleton looked at Milieu's pathetic corpse.
"…This guy said he'd show me around, see. Guess that's what they call the mercenary problem, but…I shouldn't have gone and made a promise like that."
"What? But I had him go on ahead so he could show you around the next life better."
The skeleton stepped forward. Black rags, reminiscent of a reaper. A full body of bone, treated with some unknown technique to polish them pure white.
"Shalk. Fall back."
The ogre gave a brief warning to the skeleton mercenary.
"You can tell, right? Anyone that challenges her probably has a death wish." "Well, I've been dead for a long time now. Got nothing to lose, really." Shalk brandished his white spear.
"Kazuki the Black Tone. You the Hero?"
"…Nope. Been mistaken for them before, but it's not me."
"Really now. Well then, first off, if I win, I want you to pass your entry for Aureatia's Royal Games to me."
"Is that right…?"
She herself hadn't considered the Royal Games to decide the Hero as anything more than whimsical entertainment. The firm promise that she'd be rewarded for taking down Okafu with the right to enter was, from the very start, nothing but a bonus for making contact with Morio the Sentinel.
However, she never expected anyone out there would challenge her to a duel for such a reward.
"Makes no difference to me. You can have it."
One-on-one. The prospect of competing against the speed that first stopped her bullets gave her a bit of a thrill.
Or perhaps, maybe this skeleton had hoped for this very situation, and that was why he hadn't gotten involved in the fight until now.
"Second question. This one I'd like the answer to now." "…You know, you're quite a bit pushier than you look, huh."
"You've visited The Land of The End. As part of that very first search party to confirm the Demon King had disappeared."
"And?"
Kazuki was looking at Shalk's center of gravity. He held his spear out straight ahead. He was trying to kill her with a maximum-range thrust.
This skeleton was likely able to dodge faster than her bullets flew, even if he waited until after seeing where she aimed.
Nevertheless, for Kazuki, reacting after seeing her aim was still too slow. She could fire in a completely different direction than where her gun barrel was aimed by using the spin and inertia she gave to the bullet inside the barrel. Even if he compiled together all the optimal solutions to her attacks, he wouldn't be able to match her talent.
"If the Demon King really was defeated… Did you see the Hero there? And if they happened to be dead, did you see their bones? If you did, then—"
The future up until the final moments was settled. With both guns, she would simultaneously send a bullet straight ahead and an indirect shot to cut off his route of escape. Kazuki's bullets would land five paces before the spear could reach her.
"Did they look anything like these bones?" "Sorry, but…"
Kazuki's long hair waved in the night breeze.
In this world, there was a skeleton who was brought to life without any idea who they were.
Surely it must have been similar to the loneliness felt by visitors, exiled in another world for their deviance.
"I don't know a damn thing about you." "I see."
Dust and sand flittered in the air. She pulled the trig—
X--Kazuki-the-Black-Tone--X
Shalk the Sound Slicer
"Huh?"
It was after the spearhead had been pulled out of her windpipe.
Shalk was five paces outside his spear's range. Exactly as the preternatural champion, Kazuki, had estimated.
The visitor, capable of watching a bullet's path with her naked eye, was only barely able to capture the exact second that he nigh instantaneously returned his grotesquely extended and rearranged right arm back to normal—it was supernatural speed.
Much more—the speed of his spear thrust.
…Impossible…? What…?
She couldn't sing.
The strength drained from one of her legs, and her body twisted as it collapsed.
Shalk the Sound Slicer was looking down at her as she writhed. Both in the New Principality of Lithia and here in the Free City of Okafu, he was after the same thing. The truth behind the Hero and the Demon King of this world.
Or a powerful someone who could tell him who he was. "Aaah, this…wasn't the one, either."
The hollow skeleton spat out bitterly, walking off into the wilderness. Who was he? Where did he come from? Why was he as strong as he was?
Even the skeleton himself didn't understand. "...Who, am I?"
He possessed a deceased, suprarational physical form, rendering both thrusts and fired shots meaningless.
He knew spear techniques capable of surmounting champions, while being completely ignorant of his own origins.
He voided the perceivable concept of range as meaningless with instantaneous separation and conjugation.
A monstrosity abruptly born into this world. The fastest undead in the land. Spearhead. Skeleton.
Shalk the Sound Slicer.