Soon after Rotting Soil Sun was lost in the fifth borough of Aureatia's Eastern Outer Ward, Tu the Magic dropped out of the battle.
From a small tower in the Third Fortress, he saw the moment Alus lifted off.
The word saw perhaps wasn't the correct way to phrase it. It was just a small silhouette, like a speck of dust, seen through optical scopes.
You gotta be kidding me.
The shooter, wearing a thick pair of sunglasses, cursed inwardly as he placed his finger on the Cold Star mounted inside the small tower. The motions to fix his aim on the target were mostly done unconsciously.
Dally the Coin Repeller was a soldier originally belonging to Kaete's camp. He had once used a new weapon from the Beyond to snipe at Kuuro the
Cautious from over nine hundred meters away. Right now, his target was Alus the Star Runner.
Alus wasn't ascending higher. He was flying at a low altitude to hide himself among the city buildings.
The buildings hindering Alus's low-altitude flight path were laid out in complex and intricate ways, and they also made it impossible for any sniper's line of fire to pass through.
The wyvern was clearly keeping conscious of the Cold Star's long-range fire. The Greatshield of the Dead protected Alus from extreme heat.
It had become evident that as long as Alus was activating this invincible defensive ability, he was unable to take any other action, including flying or attacking. In other words, Dally's role was to use the radiating light beam to interfere with Alus's flight and force him into the attack range of Shalk the Sound Slicer, who was pursuing him from the surface.
There was a 2,500-meter distance from Dally to the Eastern Outer Ward. It was a distance that made it completely unrealistic to snipe down a small target like Alus.
If this thing misses its target and hits him directly above the city, am I going to be held responsible?
The Third Fortress was the closest one to the Eastern Outer Ward, located on its western side.
His line of fire was aimed outside Aureatia city, and the damage that would come from the artillery barrage was seen to be within acceptable limits, however…
Even if a few hundred get caught up in the blast and die, I ain't handing out any compensation to the bereaved or anything.
Dally controlled his breathing. His combat experience led his finger to pull the trigger with near autonomous movements.
"Fire."
A dazzling light was launched in between the buildings, standing like shadows, as if threading a needle.
The beam of light the Cold Star radiated didn't produce any sound itself.
The light pierced through iron towers. The roofs of private citizens' homes were melted.
The shrieking roar that echoed across the sky was the result of the air above its line of fire being heated up and exploding.
With the sniper rifles that existed in this world, hitting a target from 2,500 meters was close to impossible.
However, the Cold Star fired light. Therefore, there was no need to heed gravity, the impact of the wind, or the rotation of the planet. With this, a big difference between it and a normal gun was its firing range and its duration.
Even if it missed the target by the time it reached it, it was possible to shift the light beam, as well as place the attack along the target's expected path. The weapon had characteristics that were completely unlike any of the firearms up until now.
Meanwhile, Dally the Coin Repeller himself was a test shooter who specialized in handling the weapons of the Beyond more than anyone else among Kaete's camp, and he continued to adapt to new emerging tactical strategies.
"Hurry up and crash already, Star Runner."
Through the light shield on the optical scope, he saw Alus's silhouette get hit by the Cold Star.
He had taken a direct hit. Before, Alus had sensed Dally's first shot and descended down lower into the city, but—
Something felt off.
He understood why Alus's figure remained intact after getting hit by the
cannon. He had activated the Greatshield of the Dead.
That wasn't all.
His descent speed is slow.
There was even enough time for him to put these thoughts into words. That silhouette. What if, in fact, that wasn't actually Alus the Star Runner? Dally thought he saw a flash of light behind the silhouette.
He carried up a corpse from the fifth borough of the Eastern Outer Ward.
He's having…
It was too late. Who could have possibly imagined until witnessing it for themselves…that he had a means to fly and counterattack, all while he readied a shield against the fatal light beam?
…that corpse use the Greatshield of the Dead for him.
The target was bigger, and heavy. That was why, this time, Dally had scored a direct hit.
A lightning flash.
A magic lightning bullet was fired back at the small tower of the Third Fortress where Dally stood.
I'm dead, he thought.
He still thought so as a loud roar of thunder echoed around him.
A bright something—flames—cut across, right before Dally's eyes. Cutting off the arc of Alus's lightning, it looked like a midday meteor rushing by.
The lightning that should have burned Dally to ash intersected with the huge quantity of flame and vanished.
"You're kidding," he couldn't help murmuring.
The difficulty of passing through the trajectory of Alus's shot, firing it from north to south of Aureatia, was entirely incomparable to Dally's successful shot from moments ago.
The distance it was fired from wasn't a piddling 2,500 meters, either. "Mele the Horizon's Roar…!"
Turning back the hands of time, while Tu the Magic was in the middle of her brave struggle in the fifth borough of the Eastern Outer Ward.
Shalk the Sound Slicer, having withdrawn with a rescued survivor, immediately searched out the minia who appeared in command of the scene once he'd handed off the wounded survivor and tersely gave his request.
"Send out Mele the Horizon's Roar." "What…?!"
It was Tuturi the Violet Foam, Aureatia's Twenty-First General.
After she had thrown the residents of the fifth borough of the Eastern Outer Ward into Chariot Golems and made them evacuate, she was in the middle of commanding the firefighting efforts and evacuating the peripheral areas.
"There's no time. We're doing the best we can, but there's only so much ground-based combat can do to hold Star Runner back. But if you get that Mele guy into the mix, that should change the situation."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…hold on a sec here; you're Shalk the Sound Slicer, right? I mean, what do you expect me to do here? If you want to talk about Mele the Horizon's Roar, go talk to his sponsor, Cayon. I don't have aaaaany right to tell him what to do, see. What in the world even made you come to me with this anyway?"
"You were nearby."
"Listen, buddy! Don't put this on me!"
In contrast to her jocular tone, a cold sweat ran down Tuturi's back.
If someone as strong as Shalk the Sound Slicer was talking like this, then the situation was undoubtedly much more urgent than she'd imagined. If they needed to shoot down someone who Shalk couldn't defeat even fighting two on one, then there likely wasn't any other means besides using Mele the Horizon's Roar to help.
"At any rate, Jel and Cayon are in the middle of negotiating about how to use Mele right at this very moment, okay?! Besides, even if you wanted to include him in all of this, I heard that he was rendered unable to fight in his match! Y'know, your match against him! What the hell's he supposed to do here?!"
"Unable to fight?"
Shalk tapped his spear on his shoulder, smiling with exasperation.
"That can't be true. That guy can still shoot, and even beat Star Runner no problem."
"Mele had one of his eyes crushed!"
"Hey, I don't have any eyes, do I? You think he hasn't practiced shooting with one eye before?"
"Aughhhh, give me a damn break!"
Either way, the negotiations regarding Mele the Horizon's Roar needed to be hurried along.
The problem then was how to buy time until the negotiations had concluded.
"…You just need some long-range backup, right?"
"If Alus starts destroying the city from far up in the sky where we can't reach him, it'll all be over. Eventually he's gonna be looking to do that, too."
"So we'll knock him down to make sure that doesn't happen. There's someone who can do that."
"What's your name?"
"Tuturi the Violet Foam. Why ask now?"
"I'm coming to kill you if you don't do your job." "Hey!"
Before Tuturi could get the word out, Shalk had already disappeared from the area.
She'd mobilize Dally the Coin Repeller and get permission to use the Cold Star. Considering this current emergency, the permission process was bound to go through without a hitch.
However, the question was if Mele the Horizon's Roar's sniping skills were actually in good shape or not.
"Quewai! You heard all that, right?!"
"I'm currently radzioing Dally the Coin Repeller. Seeing that introducing Shalk the Sound Slicer and Tu the Magic to the fight still isn't enough to defeat him, I believe we should consider pulling back the defensive line as well."
"Wait, why was I the only one getting hounded like that if you were standing right here, too?!"
The Eighteenth Minister, Quewai the Moon Fragment, had been acting together with Tuturi for some time now; however, it was possible that Shalk hadn't recognized him as one of the Twenty-Nine Officials. It was the first time Tuturi had ever felt envious of the man's lack of presence and gloomy demeanor.
"We'll need to figure out where to snipe from. Dally will move on my judgment. Quewai, contact General Haade and tell him to pressure Cayon from our side as well. It isn't the time to get caught up in faction this or that. Hell, I said it myself… I told him I'd do it. So I'm gonna do it, dammit."
The district Tuturi and the others were in was quite far removed from the fifth borough of the Eastern Outer Ward, but even then she could see the black smoke from the fires through the gaps in the low-rise buildings.
This battle concerned whether those flames of war would spread to engulf all of Aureatia or not.
"After all, Aureatia's in critical danger…but more than that, my own life's in
danger, too."
Mele the Horizon's Roar was continuing to receive treatment in Gigant Town, situated on the northern edge of Aureatia.
Though he was recuperating, there wasn't a single hospital in all of Aureatia that could take in Mele given his colossal body. It was more bed rest than recuperation, simply waiting for him to naturally heal due to his Gigant vitality. Aureatia's Twenty-Fifth General, Cayon the Thundering, was there with him.
Visiting them was a messenger from Jelky, sent to negotiate with Cayon regarding the operation to intercept Alus the Star Runner.
"Impossible," Cayon replied. He sat in a simple and plain chair, with his legs crossed.
"Nothing more for me to say here. I'm certainly not letting Mele shoot." "But if Alus is allowed to invade Aureatia, the entire nation will fall victim to
his rampage…! I know full well how unreasonable this is, but the situation requires a complete mobilization of our fighting forces!"
"You realize it's unreasonable, do you? Um, listen, do you really understand? Mele's sniper attacks aren't some simple, magical nonsense that'll automatically hit the target, okay? If he misses his mark just a little bit, the result could be this city you're busy protecting getting directly hit by a meteorite. Simply using this method of attack inside Aureatia's borders is out of the question already, and if he were to shoot while one eye and one leg are still wounded…he'd bring ruin to Aureatia far more easily than Alus can, I'll tell you that."
"...!"
The messenger couldn't come up with a response.
One of the reasons for hosting the Sixways Exhibition in the first place was either to kill the shura like Mele, who could potentially bring ruin to the world, or force them into being unable to fight anymore, to secure peace and order for Aureatia.
Thus, Mele the Horizon's Roar's present incapacitated state was, to Aureatia, a desirable outcome.
The same held true for Cayon the Thundering.
Ultimately, it may have been fortuitous that Mele got defeated in his first match with Shalk. He didn't lose his life, and it established that he was unable to fight anymore… The most desirable way to get through this Sixways Exhibition.
Now that things have ended up this way, I need to protect Mele until the games have concluded.
Cayon's serious actions were likely acts of treason against Aureatia. However, from the very beginning, he had been acting only with thoughts of his homeland, Sine Riverstead, and their guardian, Mele, in mind.
A future where Mele was hunted down as a threat to the kingdom meant ruination for Sine Riverstead.
He wouldn't run counter to this priority no matter what, even if, right now, Aureatia were to be destroyed.
"If you don't have the authority to make a decision, you can get Jel on a radzio call. I don't mind. I'd prefer to wrap this up as quickly as possible, thanks. I have to head to the front, too, right?"
<…Cayon. There's a mistake in your perception of things.>
A voice cut in from the messenger's radzio. Third Minister, Jelky the Swift Ink.
"Lord Jelky…!"
"Oh, there you are, Jelky. Are you sure you should be spending your valuable time on me? Time's of the essence, isn't it?"
"If Mele's fingers slip just a little bit, he'll destroy Aureatia, you know. If he shoots from here, the commercial and residential quarters will be included in his line of fire."
"I'm sure the numbers may tell you that, but I wonder what the citizens would say, hmm? If Mele's attacks cause damage and harm, no matter how necessary they may have been, they'll all criticize him for it. It's just as much our duty as sponsors to shield candidates from such political attacks as well. You understand that, don't you?"
attacks on our end. Ahead of Mele's arrow fire, we intend to try shooting Alus down with the Cold Star. The eyes of the citizens aren't going to be able to differentiate between the nature of the two attacks. We'll shoulder the responsibility.> "Still going to be impossible, I'd say." There was yet another problem, even if Mele was able to avoid responsibility. If Mele was mobilized here, it would demonstrate to Aureatia's side that Mele wasn't incapacitated. "Well, his sponsor's the one who's been the closest to him and looking after him. When you phrase it like that, it sounds like you're doubting my judgment." "..." Cayon heaved a deep sigh and covered his face with his sole remaining hand. Unlike most of the other Twenty-Nine Officials, Cayon the Thundering had never once genuinely considered Aureatia as his homeland. The loss of his arm in battle hadn't stemmed from his utmost loyalty to the kingdom, either. He'd merely tried to protect his life, even if it meant losing an arm, for the day when he would return to Sine Riverstead. Despite being so highly capable that his other colleagues within the Twenty- Nine Officials feared him, he didn't belong to any of the major factions. This was because he never held any interest in Aureatia's future. However—even then, it didn't mean he wished to see it in ruin. "Hey, Cayon, enough of the wishy-washy brooding already." A massive voice came down from above his head. He didn't need a second thought to know who it was. "Mele…! What're you doing up? You were supposed to be asleep!" "You guys are too damn noisy. I was peacefully napping before you all started yapping." "Don't you realize the situation you're in?! You absolutely can't be shooting any arrows right now!" Cayon had explained the whole situation to Mele. That it was best to pretend he was incapacitated until the end of the Sixways Exhibition. That it was the best way to keep Mele safe. "Who says I can't? Hey, radzio fella." <…Jelky. Jelky the Swift Ink.> Mele begin to create earthen arrows through Craft Arts without waiting for the answer. "Give Aureatia's wheat and some agricultural engineers over to Sine Riverstead. The wheat here's the one thing that's got the Riverstead beat," said Cayon. "Mele…! What do you expect to do with your body like that?!" "I'll look like a damn chump if I stay lying down after Shalk the Sound Slicer mouthed off like that. Besides, Aureatia here's your homeland, too, Cayon." Mele nocked an arrow on his black bow. There wasn't anyone who could stop Mele once he took up that stance, no matter what Cayon said to him. Mele the Horizon's Roar was a warrior. "Alus the Star Runner, this ain't gonna be like back then." With his one eye, he gazed up at the far-off stars. "I'm gonna shoot right through those eyes of yours."