09-33 Strategy #2

“Wha, what’s, that…”

This was the feeling of fear both attackers and defenders held.

“Friend, or foe?”

This was the question both sides were asking. But it was soon answered.

A loud voice came from the gigantic golem.

“Both parties, lay down your weapons!”

Because the wind magic used to amplify the voice made it echoy the original speaker’s voice was unrecognizable, but they could somehow tell that it was the voice of a woman.

“War is unproductive. It impoverishes nations and hurts the people. What the world needs right now is peace.”

From inside the golem, Reiko was reciting the speech that Jin had given her.

“The population is scarce, and the lands are vast. If you have spare energy to do war with, use it to develop your country. Use it to enrich the people.”

These were the words of persuasion Jin had frantically thought up last night.

“Why is it that the hands which clasped each other during the Great Magic War are now wielding weapons?”

It was as if time had stopped on the battlefield. Everyone was carefully listening to the giant golem’s speech.

“The past is in the past. It’s something you can never reach. Instead you ought to be reaching for the future.”

Some of the soldiers and knights took the advice.

“Use your strength not to go back to the past, but to build a prosperous future. Live not for the sake of destruction, but for the sake of creation.”

Hmph, someone snorted. Pretty words alone couldn’t convince the person.

“Whether or not to heed my advice is your choice to make. However, in the case that you do not you will be stopped by force.”

Before the speech was over, a [Flame Lance] was fired from Frantz Kingdom’s army towards the giant golem.

The gigantic golem caught the [Flame Lance] with its similarly gigantic hand and crushed it.

A short while later, the first and second companies started to move as if they had come to their senses. They were heading towards the opened castle gate.

Then magic was fired from the gate’s direction as a counterattack.

＊ ＊ ＊

Jin who saw and heard what was going on through the Mana Telecam built into the t.i.tan sighed.

“So it’s no good after all, huh.”

It appeared that in the special place known as a battlefield Jin’s words had no persuasive power.

“Reiko, as planned, execute strategy #2. Also deploy the Raptor and Falcon teams.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Yes, master.”

＊ ＊ ＊

In the battlefield once again filled with noise,

“How unfortunate.”

A voice resounded.

The giant golem then moved.

The way it moved was comparable to how humans moved. That meant it appeared to move ten times faster than a human.

Just like that the golem drew near the walls of Tetrada.

“U–uoaaah!”

The walls were eight meters high, while the golem was 15 meters tall. The castle walls only reached to its hips.

You could say that being afraid was inevitable when a golem that large neared you.

Then. The gigantic golem raised its right arm overhead.

A huge smas.h.i.+ng sound was heard. More than half of the castle wall in front of the giant golem crumbled. Under the rubble was also the wreckage of the golem that had come down from one of the flying balloons.

Yes, the giant golem had, along with the wall, pulverized the yet-rampaging golem in one blow.

“Ho-how could…”

Nicholas Fahlheit leaked out a moan filled with surprise and awe.

After pulverizing the castle wall the giant golem turned to face Frantz Kingdom’s army, then held out its right arm as if it was about to use magic.

Just that was enough to make the soldiers freeze.

But nothing happened. So it was a bluff, the soldiers started to think and then it happened.

“What’s this? My body’s hot.”

“Hmm? My sword has heated up?”

“Hot! Ouch!!”

“Owowowow, why?”

The swords the soldiers were wielding and the armor and the helmets they were wearing began to be tinged with heat.

“It’s hot! I can’t keep wearing this!”

Metallic clanks filled the battlefield. Swords were abandoned, helmets tossed away, and pieces of armor thrown off.

Now every piece of metal was hot.

(As expected of Father.)

It was the Magi Tool Jin had finished in a hurry, the ‘Induction Radiator’.

If radiating at its highest output it could even melt steel in a short while, but taking the soldiers into consideration weak radiation was used.

And t.i.tan Mk.2 which Reiko was on wasn’t the source of the radiation, the high-alt.i.tude VTOLs from Falcon-1 to Falcon-5 were.

While invisible using [Stealth], they had pointed the devices downwards and emitted the radiation to the ground. t.i.tan Mk.2 had only taken a pose. This was because there hadn’t been time to equip it.

“U–uaaaah! Wha, what? What’s going on!?”

The soldiers yelled. The reason being that the abandoned swords, helmets, pieces of armor, and the heads of the spears –which could still be held as their handles were made out of wood– were red hot.

Before long red turned to yellow, and then to glowing white with heat…. All the metal weapons and armor fully melted. No, even the metal pots and other tableware in the encampment in the rear melted.

“I can’t believe this…”

Without weapons and armor there was no way to do battle upfront, and Frantz Kingdom’s army completely lost their fighting spirit.

This spectacle wasn’t limited just to the front of Tetrada’s castle gates. Starting with the fifth and sixth battalions lined up on the opposite side, this could be seen happening with Frantz Kingdom’s whole army.

Not even the mysterious balloons flying in the air were safe.

Perhaps the people in the balloons had been trying to determine the giant golem’s true nature, so they had only stood by and watched. Now they realized that they were gradually losing alt.i.tude.

“Hm? More fire, raise the temperature!”

That’s right, the mysterious flying balloons were so-called ‘hot-air balloons’. One magus on board used fire magic as the heat source to raise the balloon into the air, and it moved using wind magic. Because it didn’t use anything heavy like a gas cylinder, its carrying capacity was also high.

But, right now, because of the Raptors which were equipped with Magi Jammers they couldn’t use their magic.

“We’re going down! Can’t you do something!”

“Under us is Tetrada’s castle!”

Inside Tetrada’s castle walls people were waiting for the flying balloons that had lowered the golems who destroyed the gate to come down.

“s.h.i.+t! Attack with magic!”

“We can’t! For some reason we can’t use magic!”

Four of the five hot-air balloons did an emergency landing there. The remaining one landed outside the castle. Its two crew members immediately began running away from Tetrada.

However, they were captured by the already deployed Army golems, and to extract information out of them taken into custody in Falcon-5. They waited for Jin’s orders.

The crewmembers of the other four balloons were all restrained. Nicholas Fahlheit was acting rationally.

He planned to afterwards order them escorted to the headquarters in Berg.

And then, at last, it happened.

“Ugh!?”

“Gah!”

“Arg!”

With short screams Frantz Kingdom’s army, Cline Kingdom’s army, and even the whole population of Tetrada fainted.

This was of course due to the Paralyzers fired from the flying Raptors and Falcons.

By simultaneously applying [Shock], even if there were people affected by [Hypno] or [Seduce], they should come to their senses after this.

The Army golems made their appearance on the outskirts of Tetrada where no one as moving.

They gathered all the weapons and armor inside Tetrada’s castle walls. At the same time, they gave the seriously wounded restorative medicine. Just applying it locally instead of making them drink it had apparent results

The fainted people woke up, and after realizing that their armor and weapons were gone Frantz Kingdom’s army evacuated somehow with difficulty. Cline Kingdom’s army could do nothing else but repair the castle wall and gate.