Masquerade (6)
The fissure that had appeared without warning spread across the entire space in an instant.
“...Huh? What is this?”
Immediately after, Malfi, an executive of the Burning Torch and the original builder of this isolated zone, let out a gasp as if he had noticed something.
“Malfi? What’s happening all of a sudden?”
“The spatial seal has been released... No, this isn’t simply that...!”
Ann, still holding the unconscious Führer in her arms, asked in confusion, but Malfi did not even look back at her as he hurriedly checked their surroundings.
Yet before he could do anything, the anomaly had already begun.
Crack, crack—
The fissures slowly widened, revealing the scenery outside bit by bit.
A dark night sky glittering with stars, and the view of a small city with a slightly run-down atmosphere.
It was a hideout in Thailand, in a region bordering Malaysia—the place where Malfi, the core of the spell, had been before joining the conference.
“Damn it, the space is collapsing!”
As the direction of the steadfast blockade suddenly reversed, all the damage that had been stirred up from within during the earlier attempts to escape was now bursting out at once.
Of course, the fact that it was reacting only now was by no means a coincidence.
‘The connections to the magic tools used as mediums are being cut off one by one. This has to be...’
There was no way to explain it except as outside interference.
Just like the antique silk each of them had installed on their doors as part of the procedure for entering this place, the devices arranged throughout Southeast Asia to bind the entire region together were now sending abnormal signals in succession.
Crack— Crash—!
The surrounding scenery, covered in spiderweb-like fractures, collapsed before anyone could even think of doing something about it.
It was a situation that would have flustered anyone faced with such an unexpected change, but not everyone froze.
[Now!]
As if they had been waiting for this very moment, the telepathic wave of Nagaraja, the Southeast Asia branch chief of Beoncheonhoe, rang out in the minds of the Beoncheonhoe members.
They had already been tipped off just before it happened, so the movements that followed contained not the slightest wasted motion.
And among them, of course, was the Executioner, who had been in the middle of trading blows with Harley.
“Ugh— Hey, brother! Where do you think you’re going in the middle of a fight? Let’s be men and settle this right here!”
[Kuhah! You truly are disgustingly persistent. I tore you apart and smashed you to pieces over and over, yet you show no sign of dying?]
The demon with a brutal appearance had just hurled the battered Harley into a mountain of collapsed debris.
Seeing Harley spring back up like a roly-poly toy and begin regenerating his writhing body, he clicked his tongue.
Of course, perhaps because excessive damage had accumulated, his regeneration speed had become noticeably slower than at first. But in the process of forcing him into that state, fatigue had piled up on the demon as well.
If they kept fighting like this, he was confident he could finish him off, but considering that this mutant monster was not the only enemy present, it was not a very good idea to remain tied down like this.
‘That vampire... He’s the one who hunted down that duke who used to throw his weight around in Europe, isn’t he?’
He could tell instinctively.
In the current situation, if that vampire were added on top of this barbarian, he could not guarantee his survival no matter how actively he used his unique skill.
So there was not a shred of hesitation in his movements as he took advantage of the opportunity to withdraw from the battlefield.
After all, he could satisfy the battle lust of his false madness at any other time.
“Where do you think you are rushing off to? There is still so much prepared, and it would hardly do for the host of the party to leave his seat already.”
Of course, his opponent did not simply let him go.
As though he had been waiting all along for this moment alone, the opera-masked monster, who had scattered fine particles of blood densely throughout the surrounding area as a countermeasure against time stop, appeared like a ghost and blocked his retreat.
Openly expressing his determination to execute him without fail.
[...Well now, I wonder if you can really stop me?]
But the Executioner, who no longer had any intention of facing them head-on, merely twisted his lips.
At the smile that was demonic to the extreme, Heinz, who stood facing him, frowned.
“No matter what you do, it’s useless. We have already prepared every countermeasure thoroughly.”
[Well? It isn’t as if I meant I was going to do anything in particular.]
And no sooner had the Executioner said those words than—
[It’s here.]
—————!
Heinz, Harley, Heinrich, Harris.
Several Transcendents, including those four avatars, hurriedly looked up at the sky.
‘What is that?!’
Their thoughts accelerated rapidly.
Grasping the detailed situation and establishing the optimal response took place in an instant.
And immediately afterward, they put it into action.
Fwoosh—!
Heinrich, who had been charging in to finish off the Beoncheonhoe group, changed direction and soared high into the sky.
As his three pairs of wings flapped, the brilliant radiance that scattered from them dyed the surroundings in bright light, and a massive blade of light surged from the holy sword in his hand.
And immediately after.
Kwaaaaaang——!
With a tremendous roar, a dazzling flash burst across the pitch-black night sky.
The massive shockwave that followed swept in all directions, and a storm raged across the area.
“Uwaaaah! It’s a bombing! We’re being bombed!”
“Kyaaah— What is that all of a sudden? Mom!”
“Close the door! Hurry, close the door!”
In the aftermath, the citizens’ screams echoed from all over the city.
And this was despite the fact that he had scattered the shockwave as much as possible to keep it from reaching the ground.
Heinrich frowned as he felt the arm that had deflected the attack falling from the sky tingle.
If he had not blocked it and it had struck the ground directly, the damage would have been incomparable to being bombarded by missiles.
Aside from a few among the Burning Torch’s executives who were close to Transcendence, the targets of that attack likely would not have been able to gather even their bones properly.
‘...Who on earth launched an attack like that?’
Heinrich recalled the shape he had vaguely glimpsed just before deflecting the attack and gauged what had just struck.
If he had not seen wrong, it had clearly been...
‘An iron stake about the length of a forearm.’
Of course, it was no ordinary stake.
At a glance, it was a proper magic tool, exuding an aura that seemed far from normal.
In practical terms, it could be regarded as an ultra-small missile.
But he had no time to ponder it in detail.
‘More are coming. And this time, one after another...!’
As if the first attack had merely been to calibrate the aim, an unidentified barrage poured down like carpet bombing.
Shwaaaaaak—
Heinrich’s senses expanded.
Earlier, he had been too flustered to examine it closely, but now that he was looking properly, information he had missed before began entering his eyes one by one.
‘Speed conversion, trajectory analysis, tracking the flow of supernatural power... It didn’t simply cross over through the material world. It passed through the astral plane.’
The attack that suddenly plunged from the sky was so destructive that the term orbital bombardment suited it perfectly.
Even Heinrich, who as an angel had received significant correction toward protection, felt the burden while defending against it; for others, it would have been all the worse.
Kwaaang—! Kuuuuung! Peeeeong—!
Based on the mobility provided by the wings on his back, Heinrich raced through the heavens, swinging his sword to intercept the falling bombardment, and explosions of thunder and flashes of light erupted one after another in the dark night sky.
And while deflecting several such attacks, he combined various analysis results, including the projectiles’ trajectories, and was able to roughly estimate where exactly this attack was coming from.
‘...Insane. If this is true, it means the distance is at least five thousand kilometers.’
A place more than five thousand kilometers north of Thailand.
That was the location where the sniper currently launching these attacks was presumed to be.
No, at this point, they could not even be called a sniper.
What sniper in the world carried out sniping from five thousand kilometers away, firing attacks one by one that were no different from intercontinental ballistic missiles?
‘Whew, let’s not think in terms of common sense. For now, stopping that bombardment comes first. If this goes even slightly wrong, not only the Burning Torch, but the city’s citizens as well could be massacred en masse.’
Fortunately, the avatar forces dispatched here were not so weak that Heinrich’s absence alone would immediately create a major problem.
But he did not know what might happen from here on, so it would be best to finish the job and rejoin them as quickly as possible before the plan went awry.
‘It may be a little flashy... but let’s make certain of it.’
Heinrich, who had flown above the city, spread his three pairs of wings wide and exuded divinity.
As if protecting the humans on the ground from heavenly punishment falling from the sky.
A gigantic curtain spread wide enough to cover the entire city shimmered like an aurora.
“...Ah. What on earth is that?”
“An angel...? That’s a real angel, isn’t it?”
“Ohhh! An angel has descended from the heavens! To save us!”
Perhaps the charm Heinrich possessed had exceeded its limits when he became an angel, because some of those looking up at him abruptly began to pray.
As if their faith had been imprinted upon them by directly facing the object of that faith.
Of course, to Heinrich right now, who had no leeway to spare his mind for such trivial issues, it was nothing of importance.
“H-Hey! You’re filming this, right? If you miss that, you’re disqualified as a reporter! Zoom in more! The angle isn’t coming alive at all!”
“The angle isn’t the problem, Chief! How are we supposed to capture something like that properly on camera?”
An angel in white armor, clad in wings of light and a halo, drifting through the sky while protecting the city from disaster.
The fact that this sight was being captured by a broadcasting station’s camera, which happened to be visiting the region to film a documentary...
Was not a particularly important matter either.
***
Near Lake Baikal, Russia.
“Whew~ What a commotion in the middle of the night.”
The thick steam that had risen along with the smell of sweat slowly settled.
At its center, a blond woman who had revealed herself cracked her neck and swung her arms this way and that.
As if checking whether the sudden exercise had caused any problems.
“I swear I’m going to collect this debt. If it hadn’t been Oracle’s request, I wouldn’t have cared whether that annoying bastard the Executioner dropped dead or not.”
As if she had been urgently called out from sleep, the woman, dressed comfortably in a tank top and shorts, scratched at the messy blond hair she had roughly tied behind her.
Because she had been in a hurry and had gone straight into a full-power throw without any proper warm-up, the heat radiating from her scalp made her head itch unbearably.
Drops of sweat that had formed all over her body flowed down, dripping along the lines of her slender muscles.
“Haa, then shall I slowly get started again?”
Unfortunately, the work was not yet over.
Even for her, who specialized in ultra-long-range sniping, a distance like this was quite a burden, so she had only taken a brief pause.
She picked up one of the iron stakes lined up to one side.
It was her own “bullet,” made with rare metals as well as Beoncheonhoe’s distinctive composite spellwork.
“Whew~ whew.”
With deep breaths, steam began to rise once again from her body, which was flushed red.
Her eyes were already looking not at this place, but far away.
At a single point thousands of kilometers away, so distant that an ordinary person could not even see it, let alone determine its direction.
Thud!
One of her feet stepped powerfully forward.
Energy amplified repeatedly from her legs traveled through rotation, passing in succession through her waist and shoulders to her wrist.
And at last, the moment that power was fully loaded into her fingertips—
When she swung her arm with a forceful shout, the iron stake in her hand vanished.
Shwaaaaaak— Kuguuung!
Leaving behind only a shockwave around her, as if a rocket had been launched, as if space itself had been torn apart.
In the raging aftermath, the surrounding thickets shook violently as if they would be uprooted.
And it did not end with that one time.
After completing the throw, she took another step forward.
In her opposite hand, another stake identical to the previous one had appeared at some point.
Kurururung! Kwaaaaaa— Kuwaaaang—!
Even though a barrier had been installed to mitigate the shock, the surrounding environment began to be overturned into a mess by the shockwaves that erupted one after another.
Had she not deliberately come all the way out to a place where people did not pass through, the aftermath alone would have been more than enough to commit a massacre.
The projectile, fired in such a manner, only came to a halt after passing another ten or so paces.
“Phew, it’s been a while since I worked up a decent sweat.”
Her eyes, flickering with blue light, turned south.
From launch to impact, barely over ten seconds.
Her sniping, which wove together various long-range skills including [Certain Hit], had already reached most of its targets.
Truthfully, given a distance exceeding 5,000 kilometers, it was not only physically absurd but also difficult to explain even within the framework of superhuman studies; however, she was a being unbound by such laws.
She had reached a realm where she went beyond deviating from the world’s principles and could even overlay a portion of the laws she herself defined onto the world.
“…Oh, impressive? Hmm, well, I’ve done my part at this point. If he dies even after I’ve helped this much, it’s his own incompetence.”
She had only stepped into this affair because of the Oracle anyway; she didn’t particularly care for the Executioner, who was a madman incarnate.
No, strictly speaking, she despised him.
To the extent that, had the Hoeju not forbidden combat, she would have already sunk her ultimate technique into the back of his head several times over.
‘A thug who starts brawls on a whim without an ounce of conviction, the very picture of a bully who preys on the weak and fears the strong. I hope he gets beaten badly enough this time to come to his senses.’
She glanced briefly south, let out a long yawn, and moved on.
Having worked up a sweat from this unexpected exercise, she intended to return to her quarters, wash up, and get a proper night’s sleep.
There was no room left in her head for what came after.
***
Tracking the exact location the attack had originated from ended in failure.
The projectile was far too small compared to its tremendous power and speed, and with special abilities also interfering, various means—including Hesperon’s satellites—had been completely unable to trace its trajectory.
‘Still, I’ve grasped the general direction and distance.’
Russia.
It was a situation where that place was all but confirmed.
Well, the land was vast, so that alone wouldn’t be of much help.
‘It’s probably one of the highest-ranking executives, said to be just below the Executioner. One specialized in long-range attacks, at that.’
If not, this level of power would be impossible.
To one-sidedly deliver attacks from thousands of kilometers away, each shot rivaling tactical nuclear warheads…
Considering that the dissipation of inherent energy was minimal and concentrated, the destructive force focused on such a narrow area might have to be considered even greater.
‘Of course, I’ve never actually taken a tactical nuke to the face before.’
At any rate, thanks to the enemy possessing such extreme offensive power, he had instead been able to gain a clearer grasp of Heinrich’s abilities—an angel specialized in protection.
The result of that was this very sight.
The panoramic view of the city, preserved without significant damage save for the disarray caused by fierce winds—
“Kuhk!”
“Damn…it.”
—and the sight of six Beoncheonhoe survivors sprawled before him, captured on the brink of death.
The reason it was six instead of seven was simple.
‘Tch. To think he’d use all his remaining subordinates as sacrificial pawns and flee.’
The Executioner, who could be called the most important target, had yet to be captured.