HOPES and FEARS

Heeeeey, it's BloodTrinity. Hoseh bo?

Chapter 8: Conquistadores. ZERO_Treasure

Part 1

"So...why am I doing this again? And alongside you, of all people?!"

"Because your boyfriend will be sad if you don't do this for him?" came the sardonic reply.

"He's not my boyfriend!" a bolt of lightning issued from Mikoto's fingers at Accelerator, who simply let it hit his hand so that he could redirect it towards the rebel Air Force. He hit one ship's hold, where the wind stones were kept, causing it to start falling slowly. "And he's...not...that kind of person either," she said in a small voice.

"That the best you got, Railgun?!" he shouted wildly.

"Oh, there's more where that came from!" Mikoto flipped a coin. A bright orange beam completely covered a ship. When the orange light dissipated, all the sails had been blown off, leaving it unable to catch the wind to move forward, and there were numerous fires on it. As a follow-up, Mikoto fired lightning at each of the cannons of the ship and destroyed them. Without directly taking any lives, she crippled a ship within those 30 seconds.

Musujime Awaki rolled her eyes at the two Level 5s' antics while surveying the situation – the members of the party that had come in from Tristain were spread out on the castle ramparts of Newcastle facing the massive rebel force that had been assembled to crush the Royalist Army loyal to the King of Albion. This force consisted of a spectacular array of floating warships that were coming in to bombard the ramparts. There was also a sizeable ground force that was split into various divisions and coming in to attack the castle walls. Currently, they were still some distance off – waiting for the ships to lower the defences of the castle before they approached. The nearest ships were less than a kilometre away. Considering all this, Musujime looked thoughtfully at one of the large blocks of stone that was used to make the ramparts.

"I'll be borrowing this for a while," she tapped the block and casually called out to a Platoon Commander from an Albionian gun company standing nearby. The PC simply rolled his eyes. "Go ahead, miss. I don't really care what you people do any longer - just don't destroy the castle,"

Smiling, she shone her light at the rock and then moved the flashlight to one of the ships. The large rock was superimposed with the hull of the ship, which started tilting and falling with the weight that had suddenly appeared on its side. Musujime moved her flashlight again, and this time, the massive rock disappeared from the side of the ship, leaving a large hole there. The PC looked at it, stunned, but he quickly recollected his thoughts.

"There's your target, men! Aim for that hole, now!" The men operating the battery of 5 large guns under his command responded swiftly and made the hole much bigger with just one shot per gun.

As the ship continued on its slow, unnatural descent, rocking wildly under the influence of the forces buffeting it from all sides, Musujime's rock reappeared in the side of another ship. She continued doing this until 5 ships were falling, then replaced the rock on the rampart and paused to catch her breath.

"Hey! What happened to those ships?" the PC's Officer-Commanding, observing the battle from a tower, shouted at one of his sergeants.

"Who cares, Capt? They're our enemies, and they're falling!"

"Of course I care!" the OC yelled. "I wanna know who brought them down! I didn't see any of our men fire at them, so who did it?! JONES! Was it you?!"

The PC rolled his eyes and drawled a negative reply to his boss, winking at the teleporter.

Meanwhile, at another part of the wall, Tabitha continued blasting spells alongside Misaka Serial Numbers 10032 and 10039. While her spells lacked the destructive power of the two Level 5s and the Level 4 on the other sections of the ramparts, she could still fight in other ways. She could call up clouds of steam around the bridges of enemy ships to lower their visibility. She could splash water onto the ships' cannons to dampen their gunpowder.

Following her example, Kirche blasted a few spells too, but did so half-heartedly, while Guiche simply stood aside holding the team radio that he had been given. Since the others would all be fighting, he was assigned the job of being the radio operator for the group. Accelerator had given him a crash course on using the Receiver/Transmitter set – one he wouldn't forget in a rush – and he had been left to monitor the comms so that they would all be in contact with the other groups and individuals. After firing a few fireballs, Kirche sighed loudly and stood back.

"It's like we're completely being overshadowed by those two monsters," she complained to Tabitha and Guiche. The diminutive blue-haired girl continued doggedly blasting spells, calmly analysing the situation to help out in whatever means she could, plugging the holes left by Accelerator and Mikoto's attacks, but Kirche did not have that kind of discipline.

They too were powerful mages and were valuable players on the battlefield, but their job was simply boring when compared to the scale at which Mikoto and Accelerator were turning the tide of the battle.

"Are you sure about that?" Guiche asked. "Doesn't it seem like Tabitha's gotten more powerful?"

"Well, yeah, I felt it too, to be honest. Somehow, it feels like my magic's gotten more powerful just by being here. Tabitha too - normally, she would be reaching her limit at this point, but she's just blasting spell after spell,"

"Just what is going on?" Guiche muttered. "I come from a family of military commanders. Everyone knows a mere 300 cannot possibly defeat an army of 50000. Granted, we have some powerful elements here that are turning the tide in our favour, but it's not like the Albionian army is standing by and doing nothing,"

He pointed to a nobleman firing spells at a rebel warship nearby. "See that man? An enemy cannonball hit the ramparts right next to him. Ordinarily, he should be in shock, at best – no, even that is overly optimistic. Logically, he should be either dead or incapacitated by the explosion. And yet, he just stood back up before the dust settled and continued casting spells,"

"Yes, whatever you say, Guiche," Kirche rolled her eyes at his superior tone, but inwardly reflected that he was not wrong.

As much as I'd like to deny it, he's right. This isn't natural. Even with people like Accelerator or Mikoto around, there's no way the battle could go this easily.

Just what is going on?


Between The Lines 1

The United Kingdom.

Like the name implied, it was a union.

It was a union of four countries, four peoples, and four cultures.

To cement the power of the country, to protect this union against foreign influence, King Henry VIII had created a great mechanism through which the Head-of-State was placed at the head of an army of angels. And the Head-of-State was chosen by a sword. A sword named Curtana, the sword that symbolised the Leader of the Angels.

Four Countries.

Gallia. Tristain. Albion. Romalia.

Four cultures and four peoples bound by one almighty man who was placed even higher than the prevailing religious authority of the time.

Brimir.

The man considered the King of Demons by the Elves, a man who trampled on their faith system and established himself and the humans as something higher than the Elves.

Four countries marked by the Founder and bound by blood ties. Each of them carried a symbol of belonging to him - the Rubies of Wind, Water, Fire and Earth.

Dickens wasn't a hopeless dreamer after all, Stiyl Magnus reflected. Coincidence and random chance sometimes did work to overturn incredible odds.

A small piece of Curtana Second had been passed to him for 'testing' on the new world. But seeing as it had seemingly not worked, he had decided to give it away - to Hiraga Saito, based on a random whim. Random chance had seen the boy pass on the Gift to Prince Wales. Being placed in the hands of Royalty sealed the deal altogether, cementing Wales' position as the Head-of-State of Halkeginia and the leader of an army of Angels - as long as he held on to the tiny shield-shaped shard of Curtana Second.

It was a minor power-up, to be honest, probably less than 2% of what the Knights of England had received during British Halloween, but it had saved Prince Wales from the lethal spellwork of a Square-class mage. It gave his old and infirm father the strength to fight. It gave his 300 soldiers the strength to stand up to a force of 50000.

Miracles can happen.

Random chance can save the day.

Prayers are always heard.


Part 2

Guiche de Gramont carefully scanned his surroundings.

"Looks like everything's clear!" he said in his usual grandiose tone. "Our defences are holding up well!"

"They're on their way. I can see them flying out," Tabitha said warningly.

"Eh?"

"Pay attention, Guiche!" Kirche smacked the blonde boy on the head. "She's talking about Touma and Saito! Tell the rest over the…the radio, was it? Come on, do it quickly or they'll be heading into enemy lines without any support!"

"I'm on it!" Guiche fumbled around with the radio. "Umm. This button, was it?" He pressed the PTT button so hard that it seemed to be in danger of being pressed right into the radio's body. "Uhh…Guiche here!"

He paused, still holding on to the PTT button. Kirche looked at him, concerned, then realised what he was doing.

"Guiche! Don't you remember what Accelerator told you?! You're supposed to press the button, say your piece, then quickly release it! If you keep pressing it, the rest won't be able to talk to you!"

"Oh, right!" he quickly released the button. Immediately, a litany of curses flowed from the RT.

"You fucking retard! Did you alreadyforget my lesson on how to use the RT?!"

"No! I mean, no sir!" Guiche squealed. "I-I-I just wanted to report that Kamijou and the rest are flying out already!"

"Fucking hell! Say these things earlier!" Accelerator roared into the RT, standing on another portion of the castle ramparts. Mikoto peered out at the two dragons flying straight at the rebel forces, keeping a low altitude so as to avoid the cannons of the flying ships above, but also keeping high enough to avoid ranged attacks from the ground forces.

"They're too far out!" She shouted at Accelerator. "And the ships have noticed them! I see some of them dropping their height to reach them!"

"Damn it. That idiot blonde had just one job and he messed it up!" Accelerator raged. Four large tornadoes burst out from his back. Mikoto shielded her face from the rush of wind.

"Don't get carried away!" She screamed at him before he could fly off.

"Yeah…I know. Just relax, will ya?" He turned back and glanced at her. "I'm no longer in the business of killing people,"

"Huh?" Mikoto was not sure she had heard properly. Without waiting for her to catch up, Accelerator jumped off the ramparts and flew towards the enemy lines.

"Fighting a war without killing?, Even a shitty villain can do that!" Accelerator grinned as he spread his wings and flew out towards the array of enemy warships attacking Newcastle. He stopped a hundred metres before the rows of rebel ships and lifted his right hand towards the heavens. Focusing, he calculated the speeds of the winds surrounding him and redirected their vectors. He had once drawn all the winds of Academy City to a spot right above him and compressed it all to form plasma. Going by the same principle, he went for a different effect this time. He called in all the surrounding winds to his hand, grabbing them like a magician gathering ribbons in his hand. With his right hand outstretched, he flew forward and kept going until he was right underneath the enemy ships, and above the two wind dragons containing his allies.

"Fly!"

With that one ominous word, he released the winds he held in his hands, directing them upwards. A cannonball was fired at him, but he simply caught it in his left hand and redirected the force vectors to the winds in his hand. Faced with a strong upward force, the enemy ships started floating higher and higher. The bewildered sailors on the deck desperately tried to bring their ships lower, to a level where they could accurately target their enemies, but they hardly had the means to make their ships heavier at a moment's notice. In desperation, the mages on the ships used wind magic to push the ships down, but their efforts only served to exhaust themselves.

Within a minute, they were too high up to target the two wind dragons without endangering their own ground troops. Judging the situation, Stiyl and Tsuchimikado directed their mounts upwards. Now they were safely out of the range of the archers and mages on the ground, and the ships on top could not touch them either.

But at that point, the commanders of the rebel forces sent out their own wind dragons.

"Kami-yan! Mages are coming in – on dragons!"

"Yeah! I see them!"

Stiyl slowed down and pulled back his dragon – giving way to Tsuchimikado's mount.

"We're more suited to fighting mages!" Kamijou shouted to Saito over the wind. "Our job now is to protect them while they try and figure out the opponents' magic and find a way to shut it down!"

"Right!" Saito rose to the situation magnificently, drawing his sword and facing his right. Kamijou smiled tightly and looked to his left. As attacks of fire and water came in, the two boys held out their weapons of choice and dispelled the magic or absorbed it.

As they fought on, Index looked closely at the magicians who were preparing their own attacks and fought back in the way she knew best.

"TTWTTL! RTTARTEMTTSA! [Turn The Wand To The Left! Redirect The Trajectory And Redistribute The Excess Mana To The Surrounding Air!]!"

Louise looked out in fear. She still did not have a wand with her, and even if she had one, she could hardly do anything. Desperately, she hugged the prayer book to her chest. Index continued shouting verbal commands to confound the mages on dragon-back, and Stiyl focused on controlling the dragon's flight path. A few dozen metres ahead of them, the first dragon flew strongly through the chaotic skies, with Kamijou and Saito standing back-to-back, repelling the Mages' attacks from the left and right while Tsuchimikado manoeuvred expertly to avoid whatever attacks the other boys could not deflect or dispel. In desperation, she opened the Prayer Book and started reading.

"Eh? Why is this book blank?!" She then remembered vaguely that many editions of the Founder's Prayer Book were blank, for some reason. But even if this was normal, it did not help her in the slightest. She flipped through it desperately.

"O Great Founder…if there was ever a time we needed your wisdom…" She bit her lips, trying to block out the sounds of battle with her head as she flipped through.

Yes, I know I'm just a Zero. But there has to be something I could do! Something…

Suddenly, she saw something out of the corner of her eyes – the Rubies of Wind and Water she wore on her two ring fingers were glowing brightly. She looked at them incredulously. As the lights shimmered and overlapped, a tiny arc of multi-coloured light formed across the pages of the Founder's Prayer Book. Spurred by an unnatural wind, the pages of the book turned rapidly of their own accord and stopped at a certain section. Illuminated by the light of the rainbow, words suddenly began to appear on the page.

You have opened this book in your time of need, and the magic held within its pages has responded. Rejoice, O Bearer of my will. Open your mind and understand my words, for henceforth, I shall record the truth I know.

All the materials of the world are composed of fine grains. The four branches intervene with these grains and apply an influence, which transform them into spells. This was how "Fire", "Water", "Wind" and "Earth" became.

The din of the battle and the bright flashing lights seemed to almost turn themselves off in Louise's senses. Enraptured, she continued reading.

However, the gods endowed me with a different kind of strength. They taught me the truth of this world – that the grains which the four branches influence are composed of even finer grains. The power bestowed upon me by the gods, the branch which I wield, intervenes with these finer grains and applies an influence onthem, transforming them into spells. This is a "Zero" that belongs not to the four traditional branches. This Zero…shall be "Void". Yes, I shall name the Zero the gods have bestowed upon me "Void".

"The branch of Void… Isn't that a legend? Isn't that the legendary branch?!"

The ones who are able to read this will inherit my deeds, thoughts and objectives. They will become the bearers of this power. Be mindful, wielder of Void. For the sake of my brethren and I, who have died unfulfilled, you will strive towards retaking the "Holy Lands" stolen by heathens. "Void" is powerful. Yet, the incantations are of great length and consume much energy. Take heed, mage. At times, your life may even diminish. Thus, I choose the reader of this book carefully. Even when one wears the ring, they cannot open this book if they are not qualified. Only when a chosen reader wears a ring of "The four branches" can they open this book and read its contents.

Brimir Ru Rumiru Yuru Viri Vee Varutori (ブリミル・ル・ルミル・ユル・ヴィリ・ヴェー・ヴァルトリ)

"Lord Brimir…" Louise whispered, looking at the book carefully. She turned the page again to read more. "But how could this be? O Great Founder, you said only the chosen reader can read this book! I'm wearing two sacred rings, but that doesn't mean anything as long as I'm a Zero, does it?!"

But wait.

"Zero"?

"Could it be…this book considered me 'qualified'?" she whispered, searching for an answer inside her own heart. She turned the page, hoping for more answers.

Read on and inherit my legacy. Here in this book, I have described the methods of Void. By reading and understanding, you too can cast the spells I have created with the Gift bestowed upon me by the Gods.

Explosion.

This page contained a lengthy incantation.

Could I possibly be…the bearer of Void?

I need to know. I need to know the truth!

There was a way to test this.

"A wand! I need a wand!" she yelled. Stiyl looked at her in surprise.

"Is it absolutely necessary?!" he roared above the noise.

"Yes, it is!" she shouted back. I can't let this opportunity go!

"The Holy Founder…the Holy Founder is calling to me! If I don't answer this call now, I know I will regret it for the rest of my life!"

"Stiyl! Listen to her! I think we should get her what she wants now!" Index was in support of the failed mage. Stiyl looked at her in surprise, not understanding what she meant. But thankfully, he decided not to question her decision. He pulled an RT out of his pocket and pressed the Push-To-Talk button.

"Someone! This is Stiyl! We need a wand! Or rather, Vallière needs a wand! Could someone kindly get us a wand she can use?!"

"Hah?! A wand?!" Mikoto's confused voice came in.

"Ask the Tristanian mages! They'll know!" Stiyl shouted back urgently.

Kirche's voice was the next to be heard over the radio. "Guiche is just standing here uselessly! Would his wand work?"

Louise thought about quickly.

The power bestowed upon me by the gods, the branch which I wield, intervenes with these finer grains and applies an influence on them, transforming them into spells.

Earth magic, like fire, water and wind magic, worked by influencing the "fine grains" that made up the world and all the things within it. But Void influenced the fine grains that made up these fine grains.

A scientist might describe it as controlling the electrons, protons and neutrons that made up atoms, although Louise naturally did not know about this.

But she could make the intelligent guess that an Earth Magician's wand could be used to cast Void spells, if the mage using it was truly chosen by the Founder.

"Yes, it's fine! Give it to me!"

Back on the ramparts, Guiche reluctantly gave up his wand to Tabitha, who deftly caught it, then called Sylphid to her side.

"I'll go with you!" Mikoto called out, running to her side. "The rest of you, don't let up on the defence! We'll be back once we get Vallière her wand, so hang in there!"

"Leave it to us!" Kirche winked, preparing a spell. Smiling fiercely, Mikoto climbed on Sylphid's back together with Tabitha. Thankfully, she had gained some confidence to ride on magical beasts, despite her AIM field. Patting Sylphid reassuringly on her reliable back, she nodded at Tabitha, who urged her Familiar on. As they flew into the chaotic battlefield, Mikoto identified targets of opportunity and fired warning shots to scare the enemy dragons off. The wind dragons Stiyl and Tsuchimikado controlled were bred for speed, like racehorses, but Sylphid was a different breed altogether, it seemed. Even accounting for the non-linear path she flew, she was able to reach the other Wind Dragons in a matter of minutes.

"This speed…is really something else!" Mikoto wondered out loud. "Your dragon's really amazing, Tabitha!"

"Thanks," the other girl said simply, smiling slightly.

"Let's get close enough to them now!" Mikoto crouched down, holding the wand Tabitha had entrusted to her.

"Closer…closer…Almost there!" Mikoto muttered. "Damn it, the wind is too strong! Tabitha! I'm not confident Vallière can catch it!"

"It's fine," the blue-haired girl intoned. "Just throw it, and I'll ensure it finds its target,"

Trusting in her, Mikoto threw the wand in Louise's direction. Tabitha waved her staff, manipulating the winds.

The wand fell slowly, and within seconds, found its mark.


Part 3

Someplace else, a certain blonde man dressed in the simple clothes of an Albionian clergyman sweated freely as he slammed his fist down on his table. He was the man in command of the entire Rebel Army, although most did not know that his true title was that of the leader of a certain group of Nobles that yearned for a crusade to the Holy Lands of the Founder Brimir.

He was currently at his post in the rebel army Headquarters Command Centre, listening to updates from the battlefield. It was housed in a grand mansion graciously loaned by one of the nobles supporting Reconquista, although the Command Centre itself was kept in simple condition, owing to the nature of the Commander as a man of the Church.

Operators on the communications equipment relayed messages to the command team – comprising the heads of the Rebel Army along with one Operations Officer who played the role of secretary for them.

"Your excellency! The First Fleet has reported three quarters of their fleet crippled!"

"Report from the Third Army! The land forces are blocked by the wreckage of some of our own ships that fell to the ground in the battle! The men are being redirected to provide aid to our sailors!"

"Emergency report from General Richmond – he says a quarter of the fleet was wiped out by a Royalist Wind Dragon! I don't really get it, but they're saying there was a bright white light that destroyed our ships without harming our men physically!"

"SHUT UP!"

The command centre went silent momentarily as everyone looked apprehensively at Oliver Cromwell, the man at the centre of the uprising in Albion against what he called the corrupt royalty.

"How could this be? An army of 50000 – falling to an army of 300? Just how incompetent can you imbeciles get?!" he roared. "Tell the generals on the ground to turn the situation around at once! Tell them to stop losing and start winning this instant!"

"Stop losing…and start winning?" the nearby operations officer muttered incredulously – putting into words the thoughts of more than a few in the room. Cromwell held up his fist – the ring nestled comfortably around his ring finger gave off a dark, ominous glow.

"Do it, captain," he coldly ordered the officer. The young officer pursed his lips and nodded at one of the communications operators. Cromwell breathed deeply and got up.

"Your excellency? Where are you-"

"To get some air, General," Cromwell told the general who had spoken in a reassuring voice before turning his back on the room and stepping outside. He walked briskly to another room and barged inside without knocking.

"Miss Sheffield! What is the meaning of this?!"

The mysterious 'secretary' was seated on a chair at a table looking remarkably calm. She almost did not seem to notice that the man who stood at the top of Albion was shouting at her that moment. As if affected by her calm, Cromwell himself stopped to take a deep breath and steadied his tone before continuing.

"The idiots out there are saying there's a bright light. They're saying it brought down a quarter of the navy,"

"Only a quarter?" Sheffield cocked an eyebrow.

Cromwell was temporarily speechless. He struggled to form an appropriate response.

"My. Army. Isn't. Winning!" He slammed the table for effect. "It's 50000 of our soldiers and sailors against a puny force of 300 royalists and their bloody Prince! So how come I have ships falling out of the air and blocking my troops and bright lights swallowing up sails?!"

"Void has awakened," she said simply. She said it as though she was pointing out minor weather changes.

"Void? Void." Cromwell threw his hands up exaggeratedly. "Void. My power of Void. You're saying it has awakened?"

Sheffield did not show any change in emotion as he waved his ring around. "So what are you going to do?"

"What am I going to do? What am I going to do?! What are you going to do?!" Cromwell roared at her. "Come on – you led me to this stage – don't tell me you're just going to watch and do nothing as our plans fall apart!"

"You're right," she conceded. "The plan is falling apart,"

"Glad you see things from my point of view!" Cromwell said. While he put on a brave front before his 'secretary', it was all just empty bravado. The woman scared him to the core, and besides, he could do nothing without her. He was nothing without her. But he had not lost so much as to throw away his pride when dealing with her. If he could just force her to bow to his will just this once…

"I didn't expect the Void from Tristain to awaken this fast. But it is of no consequence – it just means they will be easier to control from here on out,"

"Easier to control? How so?" Cromwell was curious, despite himself.

"The user will, no doubt, become a high-profile individual after this. And she is carrying the treasure of Void handed down by the Founder. That means we have essentially found one of the four treasures and planted it in a safe place," she mused. "Now, we just need to scour Albion for what we need – and I don't need you to win," Her voice suddenly became cold. Cromwell's expression slipped.

"What do you mean, Miss Sheffield?"

"I mean that you have outlived your usefulness, your excellency,"

"What…?" he whispered.

"We have intruders!" a shout came from outside. Suddenly, the sounds of chaos came from outside.

"Intruders?! Here?! The royalists shouldn't even have the numbers to spare for a surprise attack behind enemy lines! And what are the guards doing?!"

"Never mind that! Who are the intruders? How many?!"

The reliable operations officer's voice could be heard, bellowing, "Guards! Follow me! We'll go head them off!"

"Fool! Don't take all the guards with you! Who's going to protect us if you fall?!"

Cromwell listened to the chatter outside Sheffield's room and shivered. "How?! How could they find this place?"

"Don't ask me. You were the one who refused to do anything after Wales discovered the location of our HQ. This is the result of your own arrogance,"

The dark woman got up from her chair in one swift motion that made Cromwell's breath catch in his throat.


Part 4

"Damn that pink-head…she's getting ahead of herself!" Kamijou Touma complained.

"Heh, what's the problem? For once, someone is actually helping you take care of things, Kami-yan!"

"You sure have some nerve saying that to me, Tsuchimikado!" Kamijou shouted at his friend, who shrugged innocently.

"But Kamijou's right – de la Vallière is getting carried away. All we need to do is hold the generals hostage, burn one of them as an example and force the rest to surrender, but she insists on burning every one of them!"

"And there's another crazy one," Kamijou sweat-dropped at Stiyl's words.

Louise de la Vallière had suddenly discovered the ability to perform magic. Kamijou didn't really know what had happened, but she had cast a spell while riding on the dragon behind him – the effect of the spell was a massive white sphere of light that rapidly expanded from her wand and engulfed all the nearby ships and dragons. It had cut out prematurely though – thanks to the light touching his right hand as it expanded outward. He hadn't meant to do anything, but the power of Imagine Breaker was absolute. But he did note that it took a few seconds for his right hand to dispel the light – but for the few seconds for which he was trapped in the light, he felt nothing. It didn't hurt him, or Saito or Tsuchimikado.

When the light dissipated, the ships it had touched were burning and falling out of the sky – but the sailors on them were unharmed. Stiyl theorised on the spot that it was a spell to target machinery but not humans – and that was why everyone inside the ball of light – himself, Louise, Index, Tsuchimikado, Kamijou, Saito and a great many Albionian soldiers – had not been harmed.

And now, emboldened by her success, Louise had practically led the charge on the enemy HQ. Continuously firing fireballs at the guards, she had taken out many of the guards by herself (the rest were mopped up by the equally enthusiastic Saito) and was now advancing to the deeper parts of the mansion. Kamijou, Stiyl, Tsuchimikado and Index were left at the foyer of the mansion. There were two levels to the mansion which were connected by a great marble staircase. There were also multiple doors leading to rooms or hidden corridors. Mage guards appeared on top at the second floor corridor and waved their wands down. Stiyl was already prepared, though.

At his command, Innocentius appeared. All the fire and water-based attacks that had come their way were swallowed up by the King of Witch Hunters. Under the cover, Kamijou and Tsuchimikado moved underneath the upper corridor – to the defenders' blind spot. From there, they opened one of the doors and entered the corridor inside it. More Mage Guards had been moving inside the corridor, preparing to take on the enemy. When they saw the two boys, they reacted fast, casting their spells.

"Too slow," Tsuchimikado muttered. It took practically an eternity to cast a spell, when compared to the split-second it took to squeeze a trigger. Yelling out in pain, the mages fell one by one before a single spell could be fired. Horrified, but still mindful enough to change their tactics, the nobles facing them gave up casting big spells with long incantations and switched to simple fireballs that did not require verbal spells or even much thought.

"Everyone! Aim at that commoner's abdomen! Combine your fireballs!"

"I don't believe it. They're making this re~ally nice and easy for us. Kami-yan! Do you mind terribly?"

"English? Why're you acting British at a time like this?" Kamijou sweat-dropped as he stepped forward just in front of Tsuchimikado. Waiting for the fireballs to coalesce, he extended his right hand at just the right time.

The sound of breaking glass rang out, and the boys grinned in satisfaction.

"Wh-What happened?!"

"Don't concentrate your fire!" a voice bellowed from the end of the corridor. There was one man standing there – a tough-looking man wearing clothes somewhat reminiscent of the Albionian officers' uniforms.

"S-Sir!" some of the guards exclaimed upon seeing him.

"Spread apart your spells. The blonde one can only take us down one at a time and the other-"

Tsuchimikado raised his Beretta and fired twice at him rapidly, then clicked his tongue in irritation. The air in front of the thick-set officer had started shimmering, and when it returned to normal, he was perfectly normal.

"-can only take down one spell at a time," he finished coldly.

"Sir!" the mages yelled and quickly followed his orders.

"Kami-yan! Out the door!" The two scrambled for the nearest door in the corridor and ran out before they could become trapped by fireballs in the narrow space of the corridor.

"Let's try and find another way inside!"

"Easier said than done, Kami-yan! The generals will be hiding inside the most secure area in the building – and places like that generally have just one main entrance and one emergency exit for security. If they were defending that corridor…well that says something about its importance,"

The two boys quickly left that room via another door. They ended up in another corridor, which they ran along. The house shook periodically from spell damage inflicted elsewhere.

"Why oh why didn't I give that pink idiot a radio?" Tsuchimikado shook his head dramatically.

"I doubt that'd have helped. They're too excited right now," Kamijou muttered. As they ran towards the end, they encountered another Guard. With the sound of a gunshot, the mage fell. Tsuchimikado replaced the magazine with a fresh one as they ran.

"What're we gonna do once we've taken over this place?" Kamijou thought out loud.

"I dunno. I hadn't thought of that,"

"…"

"What?"

"Nothing,"

"What, not gonna scold me?"

Kamijou kept quiet as they ran through the building.

I would scold him…but this whole thing was my idea. I should be the one taking responsibility to work out a solution to all the problems we might face here.

He scrunched his eyebrows, racking his brains.

How can I make sure the war comes to an end here? We could probably take over this place easily enough. But the hard part is to maintain it until someone comes over to establish a firm grasp over this building – or rather, the enemy commanders in this building. We're just a bunch of…foreign aliens here. None of us are officially part of the Albionian army.

"Tsuchimikado,"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any way of contacting the Albionian Army?"

"Well, since some of our allies are defending Newcastle alongside the army now, we can reach them indirectly,"

"Could you send for reinforcements? We need the Albionian Army to come in and take over this place," he outlined his thoughts to the spy, who nodded thoughtfully and took out his radio.

"Tsuchimikado here, can I get a response from whoever's closest to a senior Albion Army officer now, over? I repeat, I need to speak to a senior officer from the Albion Army now, so could all of you look around and find one? It's urgent, over!"

A tense minute passed as they continued running through the house and fighting Guards when they spotted them. The radio finally crackled to life.

"Misaka 10032. I've got a captain here, says Misaka as she notes the rank of this officer. Is that good enough?"

"It's fine! Hand me over, will ya?"

The next message from the Sister came within seconds. "I'm standing next to Captain Ryan Whitaker, the Operations Officer of the Garrison. Go ahead and speak, says Misaka as she wonders why she has to be a runner,"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Tsuchimikado chuckled. "Captain Whitaker? This is Corporal Hartwell Micah. I served with aircrew on his Highness Prince Wales' ship, the Eagle. I have an important message for the Newcastle Garrison, over,"

"Important message? What is it? Don't waste my time here, corporal!"

"This is intel on the enemy HQ. You see those people from Tristain helping you defend your wall? I'm aligned with those guys. We carried out our own plan to take down the rebels, but we need your help. There are some things only the Royal Albionian Army can do, over!"

"Intel? Fine, I'll hear you out. But make it quick, Corporal! We can discuss your unauthorised negotiations with third party organisations later!"

Tsuchimikado rolled his eyes before rattling off important details to the officer. "The enemy Higher HQ is at Wardon Manor. We have a team of six members storming the mansion. I have high confidence that we can dominate the manor and force the enemy soldiers within to surrender, but we need official members of the Albionian army to come and take over this place. I repeat, we can't hold the place for long and need reinforcements, over!"

The voice on the other end sputtered and stammered for a while. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that, corporal?! That you are storming the bloody Rebel Headquarters?!"


Between The Lines 2

Miss Sheffield carefully crept through the building. The Void-girl from Tristain had been headstrong indeed. She had blasted her way in randomly. It was probably thanks to their small team size that she hadn't hit any of her own allies in the meantime.

There was probably only one reason the house hadn't been destroyed, and that was because someone restrained her – the black-haired boy who accompanied her.

Gandálfr.

She felt a deep connection to him, as one of the familiars of Void.

"Why must we fight…?" she muttered as she walked in an almost carefree manner along the shadows of the house, holding up a hand to the wall. "The bearers of Void were never meant to fight, only to come together…just as my King intended…" her lips curved upwards slightly.

"And meet we shall, very soon," She crooked a finger at a silently terrified communications operator standing behind her, following her closely.

"We need reinforcements to destroy the intruders. Call in the 6th Reserve Company. Tell them they are not to kill the pink-haired girl and the black-haired boy,"

"Yes, ma'am," the operator responded.

"The rest are free for anyone to kill," her smile widened


Part 5

An officer shook his head, standing on the ramparts of Newcastle.

"Who does that idiot think he's trying to fool?" he started to storm off.

"Where are you going, asks Misaka as she wonders what you're planning to do,"

"Ignore it, obviously," Captain Ryan Whitaker smiled slightly at her. "I don't know anything about this Hartwell Micah guy. I can't even authenticate his identity because I don't know the Air Force's authentication code,"

"I can attest to his authenticity, and so can any of these others, says Misaka as she tries to compel you to make the right decision here,"

Looking a little flustered, the captain replied, "Look, I'm sure you can, but that just defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Authentication follows a strict protocol because that's the only way to identify a friend from a foe. I can't just go with what he says based on your word, or his word. And besides, it's too risky. Believe me, I'd love to believe that we've got our people inside rebel HQ, but I can't divert resources away from this area based on such a far-fetched claim!"

He quickly walked away from the area before the sister could argue any further.

As it turned out, further argument was not needed.

"Misaka 10032 to all stations, I have a recording for you, says Misaka as she warns everyone that the next transmission is pre-recorded. Pass on the message to the nearest Albionian Officer, and if you see Prince Wales, tell him immediately, requests Misaka as she resorts to underhanded methods to protect those six,"


Part 6

"Come on. Just stand down already," Kamijou urged. "We've already won. You're the only one left here,"

"That's no reason to give up." The large noble in front of him intoned. He was the only guard left in the building, it seemed. All his men had fallen, but this man, the operations officer in the command and control centre, still remained. "Commoners and enlisted men will just surrender when told, but nobles do not!" He waved his sword-wand strongly, creating a strong gust of wind that forced Kamijou and Tsuchimikado back, even though the former managed to dispel it. He quickly followed through with a barrage of smaller attacks that Kamijou was unable to dispel completely. Tsuchimikado clicked his tongue impatiently. There was just one target, and he was a large man – a prime target for his Beretta, but guns had already proved ineffective against him.

"I've noticed you can dispel attacks – if you can touch them with your right hand,"

He drew a straight horizontal line with the tip of his sword. All the water vapour in the air gathered at the tip and condensed, then froze into multiple sharply-pointed icicles. The icicles flew at his command, right at the two men.

"Shit! Back up against the wall!" barked Tsuchimikado. The two boys pressed themselves against the wall and let the icicles pass by them in the narrow corridor. Tsuchimikado hissed in pain as a stray icicle grazed his cheek, drawing blood. The two edged closer to the officer while pressing themselves against the wall.

"Hah! Cowards!" the officer bellowed and attacked them with more gusts of wind. The two continued to slowly creep closer. Suddenly, Tsuchimikado drew his pistol and fired a few times at the officer. The air shimmered again, but the spy paid it no heed and continued to come closer, firing continuously.

"Tsuchimikado! What're you doing?"

"Back me up, Kami-yan!" He fired until the gun went empty, and then threw the gun at the officer.

The officer narrowed his eyes and swung his sword, intercepting the gun mid-flight. With a loud clang, the sword swatted away the gun.

But in the second he took to take this action, Tsuchimikado had already crossed the gap to him. Twisting his body to the side, the spy avoided the deadly blade.

"Hyah!" he roared, thrusting his hand towards the officer's hand. He responded by quickly taking a step back and swinging his sword at Tsuchimikado. The spy dropped to one knee and let the blade graze the tips of his hair, and as soon as the danger had passed, he lunged forward explosively, grabbing the officer's arm and kicking his shin hard.

"Hnn!" the officer jerked his arm wildly to throw back the spy. Tsuchimikado held on for a few seconds, continuing to kick his shins hard. But eventually, he had to let go.

"So this is how the commoners fight then?" the officer panted, wiping his brow. Then he realised he had forgotten all about the other one.

Kamijou Touma's leg shot out from the side, hitting him squarely on his thigh. The officer screamed out in pain as his leg buckled and nearly gave way.

"Nice, Kami-yan!" Tsuchimikado grinned savagely. Lunging back, he avoided the sword that was half-heartedly swung at him and grabbed the officer's hand with his right hand. He placed his left hand on the blunt edge of the sword and twisted – essentially twisting his entire arm through the sword because it had better leverage. The officer screamed again and reflexively let go of the sword.

"Sorry, man," Kamijou muttered. The two let loose with their fists, right at the officer's face.

Breathing deeply as he fell, the two men collected themselves.

"Since when were you this savage, Kami-yan?"

"Geez, I wonder who influenced me?"

"Heh," They both walked through the door the officer was defending. They entered yet another corridor full of doors

"Just how many corridors does this place even have?"

"Wait – you hear that?"

Kamijou listened carefully, then sweat-dropped.

"Those two are arguing again,"

"Well, at least we know which door it is now,"

The two walked to the door from which the noise was emanating.

"Look, let's just leave them be! They've already surrendered. There's no point doing anything to them!"

"But they dared to raise their hand against the Albion Royalty!" Louise gesticulated wildly, the wand she had borrowed from Guiche held tightly in her hand.

Kamijou chuckled at the two, then sweatdropped as he cast an eye around the room. There were three generals, all of whom were cowering in the corner. Their wands had been taken from them, and were safely tucked in Saito's pocket.

"What on earth did she do to them…?"

"Nothing," Stiyl Magnus intoned. He was silently smoking in another corner, with Index standing next to him. "She just browbeat them into submission,"

"Right…" Kamijou muttered. "Well, everything went just as planned. The enemy HQ is down, but now comes the difficult part. We have to somehow hold the fort until reinforcements arrive,"

"So the attackers have become the defenders then," Stiyl muttered. His next words were cut off – by the sound of explosions outside.

"Damn it. This is what I was afraid of!" Kamijou muttered. "Those must be the Albionian reinforcements,"

"What should we do?"

Kamijou scrunched his eyebrows.

Tsuchimikado's magic is shut down because he's in a different world. Not that I want him to use magic even if he could use it. He's got a gun but is probably low on ammunition. It's not gonna help against an entire army.

Stiyl's very good indoors with Innocentius. He's probably the best hope we've got, alongside Vallière, with that crazy power.

Index and I are only useful against mages.

And Hiraga…he's insanely good with that sword. Maybe it's the adrenaline, but he just cut through mage guards like they were nothing. Vallière takes time to cast her spells – We all saw that when we were outside trying to get into this mansion. She's vulnerable during that time, but with Hiraga there to defend her, it isn't so risky to cast those spells.

Maybe we've got a decent lineup here. Stiyl, Vallière and Hiraga can deal with most attackers, and the rest of us…well, damn. What can the rest of us do?


Part 7

Back in Newcastle, a certain group of individuals scrambled to act on a radio message broadcasted within their group.


Part 8

"What's up?" the artillery Platoon Commander casually asked Musujime Awaki as she stared at the radio RT in her hand pensively.

"Apparently, they've captured enemy HQ," she said flippantly.

"What?" the PC laughed.


Part 9

"How could that be?!" Guiche de Gramont shouted at Misaka 10032. "Enemy HQ! ENEMY HQ! That's supposed to be the safest place for commanders to make their decisions! How could it fall so easily?!

He was quickly punched in the head by an irate Kirche von Zerbst.

"You're so annoying!" she flicked her hair and smiled fiercely. "But he's right though – those guys just accomplished the impossible! Oh you're making me fall deeper in love, darling~"

She cast her eyes around the ramparts. An officer caught her eye, but he quickly turned away, blushing. She smiled.

"Yoo-hoo~!"


Part 10

Misaka Mikoto ran along the ramparts, taking pot shots at the rebel fleet as she ran. The defence was holding very nicely, she reflected. The King and many other mages had been supplying their energy to a massive shield made of wind magic that protected the ramparts exposed to the enemy. A few shots had entered and hit the walls, causing casualties, but the soldiers had been surprisingly resilient. Most injuries were minor, and the men hit had just stood up, bandaged their wounds with emergency field dressing and continued to fight once they were done.

It almost unnerved her how strong these men had been, but that was not the immediate concern on her mind now.

That. IDIOT! Why did he just go into enemy lines without any reinforcements whatsoever?! He didn't even tell us in advance that they lack the resources to hold the building!

Somewhere on earth, a fish-eyed scientist must have been laughing in derision.

Ignoring the war around her, she ran to find someone who could turn things around.

"Heeey! You there! Robin Hood!" she shouted at one of the soldiers, who was firing arrows down at invading soldiers on the ground, trying to burrow through the walls of the castle.

"Huh? What'd you just call me?"

"Never mind! Where's your senior officer?"

"What? Come on girly, you can't just go up to a-"

And sparks flew.


Part 11

But the one who really took the cake was the #1. He grinned, then jumped right off the bridge.

"Hey! What the fuck-" a soldier cried out in shock

"Ah just let him go. Nothing he does is gonna surprise me anymore," his sergeant rolled his eyes and continued to rally the fire team.

Four tornadoes sprouted from Accelerator's back as he flew towards the enemy ships.

"Something's coming in! Shoot it down!" the men on the deck immediately rained down fireballs and arrows on him.

"That's not good enough!" the #1 roared, easily deflecting the magical and physical attacks right back at the ship. Flying around the ship, he approached it fast and pierced right through its port side like a missile. Once inside, he changed his trajectory directly upwards, punching right through to the top deck. Landing lightly just outside the hole he had created, he grinned at the stunned airmen looking at him.

"Those idiots told me to look for a senior officer…anyone home?!"


Part 12

"Hey. Why don't you guys tell your men to back off?" Kamijou casually asked one of the generals. The general sneered back at him, "What do you think our response to that would be?"

He rolled his eyes. "Guess we've got to go defend the place ourselves, then," Stiyl drew a few rune cards and placed a few each on the generals' foreheads. The three men were immediately restrained and also fell asleep.

Saito quickly unsheathed his sword and went for the exit. "Louise and I are under this…this Curtana's protection, right? I'll go on first, then,"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Saito!" Louise shouted and followed him out.

"What can we do to make this place easier to defend?" Kamijou wondered out loud.

"I can go and arrange some stuff," Index suggested. "Certain items, placed in specific places can bring out some symbolic meaning. It could work like a magic array, making it easier for us to defend and harder for them to attack,"

She quickly left the room, followed closely by Stiyl.

"Guess we'd better get out of here too,"

"Yeah. Let's lock up this place and seal the exits temporarily," Tsuchimikado suggested. "That way, we won't have to guard them. Stiyl's enchantments are strong enough, in any case,"

"Yeah," the two boys started going out of the room. But then, Tsuchimikado turned back and looked at the equipment in the room. There were some magical apparatus set up on tables placed against the walls.

"Kami-yan…could you go over there and, um, give each one of those things a tap with your right hand?


Part 13

It was time to test the bearers of Void.

"Go, Alvíss," she whispered. A multitude of dolls were standing at her feet. They were little gargoyles known as Alvíss that were rumoured to come alive at night.

Myoznitnirn.

The Mind of God, that was able to use all magical items.

At her command, the dolls called Alvíss awkwardly shuffled away from her. As they moved in the shadows, they slowly changed their shape and also became much bigger. Within seconds, they were fully-shaped knights, moving with a deadly grace. They moved through the mansion, looking for targets. Within seconds, they found the first one.

"There!" Saito yelled. With a mighty cry, he charged at the knight. Fuelled by the power of Gandálfr, made stronger by his raging emotions, he swung his sword and cut down the first knight. As he took the attacks of the other knights head on, blocking, parrying and counterattacking, Louise stood 7 metres away from him and opened the Founder's Prayer Book.

I've already cast one large scale Void spell – Explosion. But somehow, the spell didn't complete, and that's the only reason why I've got enough energy left to continue casting spells.

After the initial Void Spell, she had stuck to casting other lower-key spells, like fireballs. She was not a fire specialist, but Void had control over the other elements as well – thereby giving her the breadth of skills available to a Square-class mage, even if she did not have the depth of experience as well as the great power normally held by true Square-class mages.

And, in any case, she had never cast a spell successfully in her life – and thus had saved up a lot of energy for casting spells now, in her time of need. The Explosion had filled her heart with an anxious heat. The desire to prove herself, a feeling that had always been a part of her emotional state ever since she had understood the meaning of the word 'failure' as a toddler, was stronger than ever. And yet, it was tempered with the knowledge that her power was by no means invincible. She had felt the effects of 'Explosion' vanish entirely barely seconds after she had cast it. There was some presence on the battlefield that had the ability to stop her power in its tracks.

Conserving her energy, she prepared herself to use Void, once again, to take down her enemies as Saito bought her time. The pink-haired girl opened the copy of the Founder's Prayer Book that had been given to her by Prince Wales and flipped the pages.

This book responded to me in my time of need…maybe the same thing will happen again?

Saito, meanwhile, continued to fight the knights.

Dammit! Just how strong are these?

Even the power of Gandálfr was not absolute, and relied on a human being to channel it. Saito's senses were heightened and his power had received two massive boosts – through Gandálfr's power and Curtana's power, but he was not invincible. He surveyed what he had already done – one knight lay on the floor, his hand chopped off, and another had been disarmed and was reeling from the impact of Derflinger's pommel hitting his chest. Saito quickly noticed something odd.

Why isn't there any blood?!

He hadn't particularly been aiming to kill – specifically, he had avoided aiming for the head, but decided quickly to change his tactics.

He parried an attack from one of the knights, then feinted before launching a surprise strike at its head. With quick motion, his sword hooked the helmet and took it clean off the knight's head. Falling back, he peeked into the helmet as quickly as he dared.

It was empty.

"Oho. So they're just like Guiche's Valkyries then…That means I don't have to hold back then!" Saito lunged forward and actively aimed for the knights' heads now. He engaged the first quickly and attacked it with quick back and forth motions, stepping forward and backwards quickly to avoid getting swarmed by the others. The fact that they were in a narrow corridor worked to his advantage as well, as it prevented the enemies from surrounding him.

"Hyaaaah!" With a roar, he pierced his blade forward.

"No, partner! Don't pierce!" Derf shouted. But his warning came too late. With a loud metallic sound, the rusty blade sank into one of the knights' armour. Grimacing at the impact, Saito hastened to remove the sword – but it was stuck.

"…Shit!"


Between The Lines 3

Somewhere else in the house, Myoznitnirn smiled, watching the proceedings remotely through the eyes of the one knight. She closed her eyes, satisfied.

Good effort, Gandálfr…but it's not good enough.

Suddenly, her eyes popped wide open. The Alvíss doll in which Derflinger had been buried suddenly broke apart, as if it had swallowed a miniature bomb. Her visual tool that showed her a view of the corridor through the eyes of the knight Saito had engaged suddenly malfunctioned. She no longer had any view of the battle.

What's happening?

She quickly switched to another Knight's eyes – but this one was far back in the corridor and was blocked by all the other dolls.

A third person joined the battle? Who is it?!

She cast her senses out, trying to get a feel of the magic that person was using. But it was as if there was some Void there.


Part 14

"Kamijou!"

"Hey. Having trouble?"

"Not really!" Saito grinned back. "Those aren't human – they're a bit like Guiche's Valkyries, I guess,"

"Looks like it. Sorry Vallière, but I'm gonna borrow Hiraga for a while." He turned to Saito. "I'll give you a hand – just defend me from their attacks so I can get close and hit them with my right hand!"

"Sounds good to me! Derf!"

"Ready when you are, partner!" the familiar-boy charged forward for the first knight in line, and the Imagine Breaker followed closely.


Between The Lines 4

Myoznitnirn gritted her teeth furiously. She had sent a force of more than 20 dolls at Gandálfr and his mistress. More than half of those had been crippled – and the mistress in question had yet to fire any spells other than a few fireballs and other basic level spells.

Where had this sudden increase in power come from? Was it the other person who had come into the room?

But there was not a trace of magical power on him. He was practically a commoner. How could he have contributed to the fight?

And yet…it had to be him. How else could this result be achieved?

I have to go and investigate.

But, at that moment…

"There! She's downstairs, in the secret area behind the fireplace in the atrium!"


Part 15

"There! She's downstairs, in the secret area behind the fireplace in the atrium!" Louise shouted to the two boys.

"Heh. That's a useful spell," Kamijou chuckled, remembering all the times in the past he had run around aimlessly without knowing where his enemy was. He and Saito both ran downstairs to the atrium.

"Whoa! What happened here?" Saito looked all around at the walls and floor – which had been badly burnt.

"Stiyl just burned everything," Kamijou grimaced. "Anyway, the fireplace, right? How do we get in?"

Saito bounded over to the fireplace and looked around. There were decorative statues placed there.

"I've done this in video games before…" he mused. "You spin a statue or something and it opens right up for you,"

"What?" Kamijou snorted. "Do people even do that…anymore…what the hell?!"

The entire fireplace started turning around. Saito let go of the statue and grinned back at Kamijou.

"Let's get in!" But before they could do that, a few knights came out. The two boys glanced at one another and readied their weapons of choice.

"Let's go!"


Between The Lines 5

Myoznitnirn looked carefully as her knights went out. This group was her last one, the one that had been meant to protect her.

I've lost my protection…but I have to know what's going on.

She closed her eyes again and looked through the eyes of the knight behind her. What she saw stunned her.

Two boys worked in tandem to take down the Alvíss doll-knights. One of them was Gandálfr – he carried a sword and attacked the knights with ferocity.

But he was not fighting so that his mistress could cast her void spells. Indeed, the girl was not even looking at her Prayer Book. She was just holding the wand out to cast lower level spells whenever an opportunity presented itself. There wasn't even any need to cast high level Void Spells.

The one who was taking down the knights was the other boy – the one with spiky black hair. Gandálfr created openings for him, preventing the knights from using their weapons, and he took the small opportunities, charging up to the knight and touching them with his right hand. Whenever he did this, the knight would fall apart and it would not rise again. Myoznitnirn could not control them anymore.

Essentially, they had ceased to be magical items.

What was going on?

She stared at that absolute right hand. She watched on in silent awe as it cut through the air at its final target. The visual feed that was being played directly inside her mind cut to blackness as the final doll fell.

They won so easily, and they even managed to hold the house against my Alvíss. Ultimately, it is of no consequence. The mighty 6th Reserve Company is coming, and there is a good mix of mages and common soldiers that will overwhelm these fools. The Albionian royalty can hardly afford to send reinforcements, and even if they could, all they'll find are six corpses.

Her lips curling, she continued thinking about the situation, making mental notes and observations.

The elves considered Void the work of the devil, an abomination. And it's not surprising, it is possibly the only magic capable of standing up to their Firstborn magic.

But this…this right hand that denies any and all magic…

It seems the nobles of Halkeginia too have a demon they should actively fear. Where did this boy come from? What kind of circumstances led him here? I should find out – hnn?!

She whipped around, sensing a presence behind her.

"Gotcha," all she saw was a smile that did not quite reach the eyes – not that she could see the orbs hidden behind dark blue sunglasses.

Two sound-suppressed gunshots rang out.

The Mind of God fell to the floor with a scream.

Clutching her sides in agony, she struggled to form words.

"H-How?"

"Ahahaha…please," he muttered. "Whatever would I do if I couldn't even sneak up on those trying to sneak up on me?"

"You…won't survive…this!" she hissed. "An…army is coming!"


Part 16

A blonde churchman ran outside onto the plain outside Wardon Manor.

"Hah…hah…Hah!" He panted wildly as he ran, unused to physical activity in his restrictive clothing.

This was a mistake…A huge mistake! I should just have stayed at the church, content with my lot! I just had to meet that woman and accept her charms!

Oh why did I ever ask to be king?!

His eyes darted around quickly as he took in his surroundings. Wardon Manor was a large house in a massive estate that was mostly just empty space. He was in a large plain. His eyes suddenly detected movement in the plain. There were people creeping in, using the tall grass of the plain for cover.

"Who's there?!" he shouted, trying not to let his fear show.

"Your Excellency!" a soldier shouted.

An…ally? Could it be…?

"Identify yourself!" he called out, some calm returning to his voice gradually.

"This is Captain Jeremiah Turner, Officer-Commanding, 6th Reserve Company! We are here to reinforce the defences of Wardon Manor!"

Cromwell laughed. Slowly at first, then with great mirth.

"Defences! You're late, Captain!" he said, half-in-jest. He walked purposely over to the captain.

"Captain! There is a ship coming in!" one of the soldiers shouted. All of them peered up at the sky. There was indeed one ship flying in from the west.

The Eagle.


Part 17

"Oh, an army is coming in? Oh, ok, I guess," a certain spy said flippantly as he listened to Kamijou, Louise and Saito argue outside as to what to do next. "And we've got the entire Albionian Royal air force coming in,"

Right on cue, the ground shook and the air was saturated with the smell of gunpowder and the thunderous sound of explosions. If one listened carefully, one could hear the sounds of screams

"Well, our Air Force has just one old, rickety ship captained by a hopeless dreamer who's got a ridiculous enthusiasm for dying for one's country, but it's equipped with state-of-the-art Railgun technology. I can't be specific here – classified info, y'see – but suffice it to say, a thousand armies couldn't keep us out,"

He tucked his Beretta back into his jacket and went outside to meet back up with Kamijou and the rest.

"Tsuchimikado here, we've secured the house and the enemy commanders. We'll meet you outside, over,"


Part 18

The Albionian Air Force vessel, the Eagle, touched down gently on the plain in the Wardon Estate, shaking as it touched the ground. A gangplank was lowered and Misaka Mikoto slowly walked down the plank to the bottom. A few soldiers groggily tried to raise their weapons, but she promptly zapped the ground in front of them, scaring them into submission.

"This is the rebels' hideout, alright," Crown Prince Wales muttered, coming down after her, waving at the six teenagers, who were standing outside the house about 50m away.

"How on earth did they manage to come all the way out here?" he scratched his head. "And how come they received no support?"

"Well, it was supposed to be secret," Mikoto replied casually in English. "And he knocked together a plan on the spot and didn't share it with your army. I don't blame any of your commanders for refusing to take the risk of sending him support until we made enough noise that it reached your ears,"

"He? Who are you talking about?"

"That idiot with the spiky black hair,"

"Interesting. Is he your commander or something?"

Mikoto made a choking sound. "Yeah right! He's...! He's…I don't know. He's nothing of the sort,"

"But he just planned a mission to attack an enemy HQ, and actually pulled it off! Just who is he?"

Mikoto waved her hand dismissively. "He's...he's just a guy who couldn't bear to stand by and watch as 300 of your soldiers fought a force of 50000, so he just came up with a ridiculously simple, ridiculously high-risk plan to end the war in one shot,"

"Huh. That does sound like a ridiculously optimistic way of thinking,"

"Well, it won you the war. It saved 300 lives and perhaps a lot more," Mikoto shrugged. She smiled at him. "Isn't that good enough?"

He chuckled.

"Can't argue with that,"


Part 19

"Somehow things worked out," Kamijou muttered, looking down at the Albionian soldiers cheering at the Newcastle grounds.

"Yeah," Mikoto agreed. Everyone was spread out on the ramparts looking down on the courtyard where the rest of the army was gathered. The rest were standing in their own little groups, each engaged in their own lively conversations.

"Is this…"

"What?"

"Is this the kind of thing you get dragged into every once in a while?"

Kamijou chuckled at her question. "Most of the things I get involved in are nowhere near this scale. My life isn't so interesting, Misaka,"

"It's a lot more dangerous than your average Level 0's life though," she commented.

"Heh. That, I won't deny,"

Mikoto nodded, her lips pursed. "That's why I'm happy you did what you did this time 'round,"

"What're you talking about?"

"Relying on us," she regarded him seriously. "You listened to our input and asked us for help. And in the end, we managed to stop this meaningless war without significant casualties,"

She decided not to tell him about the countless ships she and Accelerator had brought down.

"Really?" the Imagine Breaker boy shrugged. "I think I barely just got away with some bad planning, though. I practically charged into enemy HQ without any idea of what to do with it afterward. We're pretty lucky we didn't just get killed inside there,"

"Kami-yan! Just listen to the girl for once, will ya?"

"Tsuchimikado? What's that supposed to mean?"

"We did really well this time, Kami-yan. And this time you weren't running around aimlessly, but you made plans and carried them out. Everyone makes mistakes the first time 'round anyway, but we turned things around, didn't we?"

"Maybe we should have you join the Church, Kamijou," Stiyl chipped in.

"Wh-What? What the hell, Stiyl?"

The priest looked at him with an ominous smile. "As much as I would detest being in the same organisation as you, I'd be grateful if someone like you were to join us and take up my duties,"

"Take up your duties? Stiyl, I-"

"Nice try, Stiyl! The one whose duties he's gonna cover is me! Come on Kami-yan! We've got plenty of time to learn all about the dark side of Academy City and the rest of the world!" the multi-spy casually placed his arm around Kamijou.

"The dark side?! Screw that!" Kamijou stomped off. Stiyl and Tsuchimikado simply looked at each other and laughed.

"A-Are you really gonna recruit him? To a church?" Misaka was concerned.

"Hmm? Oh don't worry. Even if he joined the church, he doesn't absolutely have to join the priesthood. So he doesn't have to be celibate y'see," Stiyl said while looking meaningfully at Mikoto.

"Heh. I see," she looked thoughtful for a second before her expression snapped. "Th-Th-That's not what I meant, you idiot priest!"

Tsuchimikado laughed at her response. "Ahahaha! Well, I'd actually like to have him on board, personally. Granted, the kind of missions Necessarius runs are different from what we did today and difficult in a different way too. Despite all the fantastic things he's already done, he'd still have to go through long and hard training, since he's barely scratched the surface of the magic world, if you look at it realistically,"

"Really? I thought he was neck-deep in…your world," Mikoto mused.

"Not really. He's been ad-libbing his way through the world of magic – but that just gives us an indication of how scary he could possibly become with proper training. I think he could do very well if he joined Necessarius as a layman. He could become an officer of the laity, tasked with conducting or supervising missions against magicians."

The feng-shui expert wore an oddly serious expression, "I honestly think he can pull it off. He just needs to develop his leadership skills and polish up his knowledge – and we can give him specialised training for that,"

"Another benefit of having him aboard is that we get a fresh perspective on things," Stiyl intoned. "Necessarius has always been tasked with hunting and destroying rogue magicians. But with him – with his personality – we might not need to do so much 'destroying'. He has a way of influencing people – indirectly thanks to his efforts, we turned quite a few potential enemies into allies. If we could convince our enemies to stop fighting without using force or killing them…Well, violent as I may be, I am still an ordained member of the church. Doing things without too much killing or hurt is a good thing,"

"Huh…But, is there much of a future for him there?" Mikoto sniffed. "Even now when he's not affiliated with anybody, he's throwing himself into situations all over the place – even when we're not even on this world. If he were to join you guys as a regular member, it's just gonna get worse-"

"Oh, there'll be lots of people who'll take good care of him in the church," Stiyl laughed dismissively. "With the church behind him, it'll actually be safer for him to take part in missions like these. Well, usually,"

"No, that's not what I meant," Mikoto shook her head patiently. "I think…I think it'd be taxing on him to do what he does as a day job. If he became an official member of the church and did this because he was required to under contract…I think he'd hate his job,"

Tsuchimikado looked at her interestedly. She continued, "When you're working in conditions like yours, you can't save everybody. You'll have to make value judgements and try to answer difficult moral questions like 'is it acceptable to sacrifice one individual to save a group of others', or something like that. If he is forced to make these decisions as an official, rather than as an individual looking at the world through his own idealistic lens…I think he'd suffer mentally,"

Tsuchimikado looked at her from behind his sunglasses. Mikoto tilted her head at him. "Am I wrong?"

"You're basically saying he shouldn't join the business of saving people because it'll wear out his mind?"

"Not really – I'm just saying he can't look at things objectively. It'll be difficult for him to accept losses, even if it's the loss of just one life. I know I wouldn't be able to accept it,"

Mikoto hesitated a little, and then muttered, "And I don't want him to become a calculating person either. I don't want him to have to go through that kind of decision-making on a daily basis,"

"But it could be beneficial to a lot of people if he could join the church, though..." Tsuchimikado raised an eyebrow curiously at her, dropping his usual manner of speaking. Mikoto narrowed her eyes at him. After staring at each other for a few seconds, she looked down with a sigh.

"I know. But so what? I think it's alright to care for one person,"

"What's wrong with asking him to take a step back for his own good? What's wrong with wanting to see a single boy smile for his own sake and continue with his silly, idealistic ways? And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. I'm sure all 10000 of my sisters would agree. I'm sure the people who put together this mission – that guy's senior, this Kanzaki person, and even the freaking Queen – wouldn't say I was wrong. I bet even that nun he's living with would give the same answer if you ask her!"

Tsuchimikado whistled at her outburst and Stiyl held up a hand. "Look, we weren't really being serious. I mean, it would be a good thing for him to join the church, but we don't have a policy of forcing people to join. Going by his response earlier, I doubt the guy himself really wants to join us – and we won't force him,"

Stiyl left them to smoke in peace, and Tsuchimikado continued staring at Mikoto.

"Wh-What?"

"Nothing," he shrugged. "I really have nothing to say after all that. You just reminded me of something – we owe him. We owe him big time, Misaka, big time indeed. World War 3 wasn't the first or last incident in which we got away with less disaster than expected – because of his efforts. Of course, he didn't act alone – a lot of powerful and influential people were also involved. We'd be looking at a totally different outcome to the war if people like Accelerator, William Orville, Hamazura Shiage, Stiyl, the Catholic Pope - well, former Pope - or even you hadn't been involved at some point. But even so, he was undoubtedly at the centre of those events. A kingpin, pinning down the operation and connecting – without even realising it himself – the various disparate parties and individuals that had a hand in the whole event,"

"What're you trying to say?" Mikoto wondered.

"I'm just saying that you're not wrong – he deserves the right to look out for his own well-being," He grinned at her. "Power to you, Misaka Mikoto. Thank you for looking out for my best friend!" He slapped a hand on her shoulder with a grin, then walked off to talk to someone else, leaving Mikoto standing there with a slight blush at his words.

"Everyone! The ship is ready! The Albionian soldiers are asking us to get on board already!"

"Soldiers? Why are there…?" Louise asked uncertainly.

"Isn't is obvious?" a charming voice rang out. Everyone looked at the two men who had just entered the courtyard.

Kirche gasped. "It's the Prince Valiant! Tabitha, look, it's really him!"

"You are too kind, milady," the Prince smiled self-effacingly.

In response to Louise's questions, the elderly advisor standing next to the Prince said politely, "Miss de la Vallière is on an official diplomatic mission along with her familiar, Mr. Hiraga Saito. It is only right that she and her entourage receive official hospitality from the Albionian Crown. We will escort your ship back to la Rochelle. From there, Knights sworn to serve Albion will ride with you to the Royal Palace where your mission will come to an end,"

"Your Highness, such preparations are unnecessary," Louise protested politely.

"Don't say that, de la Vallière," the Prince admonished kindly. "Truly, the service you have done us cannot be repaid in a lifetime. This is the least we could do for you. For all of you," he looked at each of the young men and women gathered in the courtyard. "Albion will never forget this service. You will always be welcome here in this land,"

He then reached into his pocket. "Before you all leave, there is something I have to return to Hiraga," he handed the object he had covered in his palm to Saito. When the familiar saw what it was, he gave a noise of surprise.

"Your Highness! I can't possibly take this back now!"

"No, please. I cannot hold on to such an object. It may have won us the war and saved all our lives, but I don't wish to use such an object again. Now that we have beaten the rebel army, it is time to stop fighting wars and come together at a table to talk to one another. I believe with all my heart that this is the only way in which this nation can put the scars of this rebellion behind us and move on in a constructive manner. And to do that, I need to rid myself of this power,"

"And you're going to do that by passing it on to me? I'm just a familiar!" Saito protested. "It's more natural for a Prince to have this kind of power, isn't it?"

"Actually…" Stiyl started. The Prince and Saito looked at him, and Saito smiled, remembering where he had gotten the metal piece from.

"Oh, right! Why not just pass it on to him? He's the one who originally gave it to me!"

Stiyl shook his head while relighting his pipe. "Oh, I have an even better idea," He walked over to the Prince and retrieved the shard of Curtana Second. Without warning, he threw it at Kamijou. "Kamijou! Catch!"

"Huh?" putting out his hand blankly, Kamijou caught the small piece of silver in his right hand.

"What the hell is this? Silver dust? That's weird...I could've sworn I felt something solid hit my hand…" he muttered, looking at his right palm, on which the small shard had disintegrated without his realising it. Saito's jaw dropped and he stammered at Stiyl. The priest simply smiled. "It's for the best,"

"Well, if that object came from you originally, I'll trust your decision," Wales smiled.

Stiyl clapped his hands. "Now that we've wrapped things up...shall we?"

Everyone smiled at him. Hearty goodbyes were said, handshakes were exchanged, and chaste kisses were planted on the back of maidens' hands. Wales and his advisor stood at the edge of the continent as Saito, Kamijou, Louise and all the rest boarded the ship. A flight of Dragon Knights mounted their beasts and formed a defensive formation around the ship. Raising their swords in salute, they flew off together with the ship - back to la Rochelle.

To Be Continued