When the large trailer they had been monitoring suddenly vanished from sight, even Miyuki could not help but be astonished.
"Is this... a barrier!?"
"Yes. It's Mikihiko. He's quite skilled."
"Yoshida-kun did this?"
Tatsuya nodded in response to his sister, who looked up at him with a question in her eyes. Regardless of whether one was a Course 1 or Course 2 student, the fact that a first-year high school boy had constructed a perception-inhibiting array of this scale and intensity was a shock Miyuki could not conceal.
"Its effects are visual and auditory blocking. It doesn't obstruct physical movement... I see."
"You can tell just by looking at it?"
Honoka reacted to Tatsuya's muttered observation. From her perspective, while Mikihiko creating the barrier was surprising enough, Tatsuya understanding its exact effects at a glance was equally astounding.
"I'm quite familiar with Ancient Magic, after all."
Giving a plausible excuse on the spot, Tatsuya pulled his communication terminal from his pocket and contacted Mayumi.
"Saegusa-senpai, this is Shiba."
"What's wrong?"
"Please turn off the recorder for the surveillance equipment near the laboratory building's cargo entrance."
If this were in the city, it would be an unreasonable request even for a daughter of the Saegusa family. But within the school, it should be possible for Mayumi, who had, in a sense, done whatever she pleased up until now.
"Asking 'why' wouldn't get me an answer, would it?"
"I think you'll understand once you see it."
Since Mayumi should be near the monitors right now, Tatsuya judged it better to let her confirm it with her own eyes rather than explaining it. And that judgment was not wrong.
"This is certainly bad... Alright, I've cut the feed."
"Thank you very much."
Come to think of it, Mayumi was quite lenient with Tatsuya. However, since Tatsuya was also fairly lenient with Mayumi, perhaps the feeling was mutual. Or maybe it was simply a relationship of give-and-take.
"Miyuki, let's go. Honoka, please wait here."
"Yes, Brother."
"Understood."
Naturally, he couldn't take Honoka, who didn't specialize in combat, into the middle of enemy territory. Honoka didn't try to force her way along after Tatsuya gave the order.
A white blade flashed before her eyes.
Her evasive maneuver relied purely on intuition. Lina shoved Michaela away, using the recoil to roll backward herself. Covered in dust, she pulled an outdated information terminal from her inner pocket. When she slid the switch on the side, the terminal split front and back to reveal a plate-shaped, general-purpose CAD. It was a gimmick one would expect a covert operative to carry, so Erika wasn't fazed.
Ignoring Lina completely, Erika leveled the tip of her drawn kodachi toward Mia, who was still lying on the ground, and assumed a one-handed thrust stance.
"What are you doing, Erika!?"
Constructing a Magic Sequence as she screamed, Lina activated a spell to blow Erika away. However, her magic was blocked by a magical barrier covering Erika—a solid mass of event-interference power.
"Katsuto Juumonji!?"
Looking back in astonishment, she saw a giant body like a boulder. In terms of sheer size, his physique wasn't unusual to her, but his presence was immense beyond anything she had ever seen.
Her preliminary investigation had noted his ability as something to be wary of. But actually experiencing it, she couldn't help but be shocked that such a formidable opponent was still lurking here. In the split second Lina was distracted by Katsuto, Erika closed the final step.
"Mia!?"
The scream of concern for her comrade was replaced by a cry of disbelief at what she saw. Michaela had caught the kodachi with her bare hand. Without using a CAD, she had wrapped her palm in defensive magic. That magic was identical to the one the white-masked phantom had used.
"What does this mean...?"
Into Lina's ears, as she muttered in a daze, a whisper flew in with perfect timing.
"Lina, can you hear me!?"
"Sylvie?"
"Thank goodness! I finally got through."
It wasn't a conversation via a communication device. This was a spell Sylvie specialized in. Without using a physical medium, she vibrated the air as sound and read the air's vibrations as sound. As long as the target could be identified, distance didn't matter, obstacles didn't matter, and neither radios nor wiretaps were necessary. It was a convenient magic for situations where one didn't have the luxury of picking up a communicator.
"I've identified the White Mask! It was Mia! The true identity of the White Mask is Michaela Hongou!"
Lina's consciousness went blank. But only for an instant.
"Mia, you were the White Mask!?"
To Lina, Michaela was just a teammate. Even so, the fact that Michaela was the opponent she had engaged in deathmatches with repeatedly dealt her a considerable shock.
Michaela, who had been staring down Erika, turned her gaze toward Lina, who was showing such an extremely human reaction. But her look claimed neither innocence nor regret; it was a cold, inhuman gaze solely wary of an enemy.
"Don't play dumb now!"
Erika was convinced Lina and the Vampire were in cahoots. To her, Lina's scream sounded entirely fake. Cutting her off with words, Erika swung her kodachi to cut down Michaela, who had shown an opening.
Closing the distance in a single step, Erika's slash, which ran horizontally toward Michaela's neck, changed trajectory like a magic trick, slipping under Michaela's raised hand to pierce her chest from the front.
But in the next instant, it was Erika whose expression tightened grimly. Without a care for the fact that she was wearing a skirt, she swung her leg up and kicked Michaela in the stomach. Using the recoil to pull out her kodachi, she pushed off with her pivot foot and jumped backward significantly.
Michaela's right hand swept through Erika's afterimage. Her fingers, bent like claws, were clad in pyramid-shaped force fields. The hole in her pierced chest closed up in the blink of an eye, right in front of Erika and Lina.
"Healing magic!? She healed that wound in an instant!?"
"Looks like she's a real monster."
Lina raised her voice in shock, while Erika spat out the words, glaring at Michaela.
"In that case, how about this?"
The voice came from the shadow of the trailer. Along with that voice, winter suddenly intensified its grip. A wave of freezing cold assaulted Michaela with pinpoint accuracy. Physically and magically, without even a moment to resist, Michaela was frozen solid.
I want to deviate from the original story without it feeling forced, but that might be difficult...
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 40 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
Here's the link:
[pat*eon*com/DaoistRoeoNQ]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"