Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

–Aegir POV–

I am falling headlong.

It doesn’t make sense when I put it in words.

I ignore the wind blowing in my face and the sound of strong gusts in my ear as I pretend not to see the gradually growing hole leading to hell and think.

If I continue falling, I will undoubtedly die.

I will go splat and die if there are rocks or dirt at the bottom, and even if I achieve a superhuman feat by landing, jumping into a nest of insects and surviving is impossible.

「Calm down and think……what can I do……mmm, I don’t know.」

When I think it’s all over and tap my forehead, my body becomes light and my falling speed visibly decreases.

「――mu?」

I tap my forehead again and it feels like I’m floating but further taps don’t change anything else.

「Urrggh! This one is as heavy as a rock, I can’t make her float!」

I hear Yularen exerting effort above me.

It appears wind magic is being used on us.

Tikuku has a childish face but she’s actually more than twice as heavy as I am.

That’s why she won’t float no matter how much wind you try to lift her with.

「Yularen-san, please do something! Do it like you are lifting a mountain!!」

Celia spurs her on, but that’s an unreasonable request.

「Hngggh!!」

An unbecoming grunt comes from Yularen who usually carries herself with an air of composure.

Looking up, I see her brow and mouth warped into shapes I shouldn’t see.

Still, we don’t float and she only slows our fall slightly.

Tikuku, without turning her head, announces in a voice one level louder than normal.

「Main cannon, loading complete. Can fire with final confirmation.」

「This isn’t the right time for that! Now that it’s come down to this, we will also dive down and retrieve Aegir-sama!」

Pochi obeys Celia and folds his wings in preparation, but I stick out my palm.

「No, don’t.」

Then I point my finger downwards.

I hear a very unpleasant sound below us, in other words, from the hole leading into the abyss made when Pochi blew away the queen and the hive.

「It’s like the time I got drunk and headbutted a beehive.」

That time, I used Mack as a decoy and jumped into the river to avoid trouble, but I can’t do the same now.

「Uuggh!?」

Sekrit let out a weird groan.

Innumerable bees are rising from the depths of the hole.

「You’ll all be killed while retrieving me. We just have to do it. Tikuku, can you blast all of them and the hole too?」

Tikuku probably can’t move while preparing that jen――or whatever.

As usual, she answers facing front without turning her head. Her entire head is glowing.

「Unable to answer. Concerned hole has not been analysed――thus.」

Tikuku’s indifferent reply that is neither flustered or pessimistic makes me laugh.

「We have to try anyways. Unleash your most powerful, max full power.」

The bees get closer.

We’ll likely be stabbed repeatedly in about ten seconds or so.

Tikuku pauses briefly, then answers in a softer and a little sadder voice than before.

「Overcharge firing recommended. But it’s use is not recommended.」

「Which is it?」

I smile and then put my hands on either side of Tikuku’s waist, securing her in place from behind. If we don’t destroy the hole in the next five seconds, everything will be over.

「Do it.」

「Administrator confirmation――official designation: model 373 positron cannon, overcharge. Stopping barrel preservation mechanism. Stopping recoil suppression mechanism. Ignoring assessment of environmental effects. Activating safeguard of administrator. Firing.」

After Tikuku speaks faster than I can comprehend, her head splits open and changes into the shape of a cylinder.

At the same time, a translucent film-like material exits from Tikuku’s shoulder and envelopes me like a protective blanket.

「Oooh.」

As I unconsciously express my awe, the deformed head emits a white light, which changes to yellow and then blue, then extends toward the hole to the abyss like a shining blue pillar.

I was somewhat disappointed at the moment of firing.

For how many words she spoke, the pillar of light was only as thick as my arm and I didn’t think it could defeat the swarm of bees in front of me.

Thinking this is the end, I search my waist for a dagger to at least put up a fight.

However, there was no need.

The blue light stretches in a straight line from Tikuku deep into the hole, snagging a few bees along the way.

「Woah!?」

But even the bees that didn’t appear to be touched by the light were broken into pieces in an instant.

They were literally reduced to tiny pieces. It wasn’t as a result of an explosion or being burned, the bees were suddenly split apart and erased.

It was similar to how vampires would turn to ash when exposed to sunlight and then eliminated from existence.

Although I wanted to observe more, the translucent veil separating me from the bees, while generating sound and light, blocks me from watching any further.

Left with nothing else to do, I simply tighten my grip on Tikuku.

To that, Tikuku slightly wraps her right arm around my waist.

Her hand rubs my body, somewhat reluctantly.

「Hey, don’t tell me――」

My words are cut short by purple flames and hellfire flying from behind me.

The intermittent stream of purple embers is from Pochi and the inferno should be from the magically-exhausted Alice.

Fire of different colors, a beam of light and the breath of a lizard all fall into the abyss.

「I-I can’t hold them……guh.」

My body becomes heavy again, resulting in me and Tikuku once again plummeting.

Yularen has reached her limit.

Tikuku’s beam also ceases and smoke and steam shoot out from her body, clouding my vision.

All we could do was pray for something good to happen and the mountain to collapse, but it looks like we’ll fall head first into the hole before we could witness the outcome.

I’m not going to give up until I’m dead, but I can’t help sighing at this hopeless situation.

「Go, Siegfried.」

Obeying the voice as beautiful as a bell, a man clothed in black leaps off Pochi’s back.

The man dives head first, deliberately narrowing his form so he could descend rapidly until he is level with us.

Brynhildr’s faithful servant offers a rope to us.

I don’t ask questions about what would happen to my arm if I hold onto the rope mid-flight or whether it’s okay for him to move in the presence of the sun.

The moment I grabbed the rope, the weight of me and Tikuku as well as our acceleration were added to Pochi’s load.

My leather glove quickly wears out and disappears. Pochi also growls.

「Tikuku, hold on tight. It’s hard for me to hang on with one hand.」

Tikuku, who I’m clutching onto with my left hand, doesn’t respond.

The steam rising from her head clears briefly. I don’t say anything more, close my eyes and exert all my strength into my right arm.

「Guoooooh!!」

I feel the muscles in my left arm tear from not being able to to bear the weight of Tikuku.

My right hand slips, ripping off the leather glove, followed by my skin, as the rope digs painfully into my exposed flesh.

Siegfried appears to be hanging on with ease but I can’t expect him to help.

Although covered entirely in black attire, smoke seems to be rising from his body like acid was poured on him.

「Argh, I can’t stop!」

My hand continues to slip.

Because my skin has rolled back and I’m bleeding, the rope is very slippery.

「Aegir-sama! Let go of your left hand! Tikuku is-! She is-!!」

I glance at Tikuku.

Honestly, I don’t know if there’s any meaning in trying so hard.

But I can’t do something as cruel as tossing her body away.

「I’m bringing her no matter what. Tikuku, I won’t let you go.」

No sooner had the words left my mouth than a powerful attack was added.

My resolve was shattered in a second, my hand left the rope……and flew upward.

「What happened!?」

I look down as I hug Tikuku with both arms.

「Wait, it can’t be!?」

Celia screams.

White smoke spewed out of the large hole and blew me, Tikuku and Siegfried away like the lid of a kettle.

My vision dyed white.

I thought it was ash, but it felt hot and wet. Is it steam?

We spin up and stop once we reach the highest point, then Pochi swallows us in his mouth before we start to fall.

「If that goes boom at this time, it’s all over.」

We weren’t even at the base of the mountain when scorching ash erupted from the Dard mountain yet it was still a huge problem.

If we were at the peak, we would have vanished in less than a second.

「Withdraw, even if it’s just a little――!」

Celia shouts, but it’s already too late, and the mountain trembles.

「The surrounding area is――waaah!!」

Following Celia’s scream, the ground all over the perimeter of the mountain burst, and a bright red sludge-like liquid spouted out. The liquid boils over, accompanied by a red flame.

When I lean over to verify the situation, my face is hit with hot wind.

Despite being a considerable distance from the ground, the air is at an unusually high temperature.

「Not good, fly up.」

Pochi spreads his wings without being asked.

A strong updraft lifts up into the sky.

「What’s that? It’s nothing like the burning ash from before.」

It is not comparable to an ordinary flame considering our distance from the liquid.

The heat rivals that of Alice’s magic.

The liquid spreads all over the mountain, turning the immediate area red.

Insect hydras clicking unpleasantly while staring up at us get engulfed by the liquid.

Even the insect hydras which shrugged off the heat of oil caught on fire as soon as they were touched and sunk into the liquid with not much of a struggle.

Hairy caterpillars burst into flame just by being near the liquid and hundreds of them are burnt to a crisp like normal caterpillars when they are tossed into a campfire.

「What on earth is going on!? It was ash at the peak before! Now it’s a clump of fire…… that covers the entire mountain like mud.」

Then there is a thunderous boom that would break my eardrums even if my ears are covered, vibrations that transmit directly to my heart despite being in the air, and a cloud of dust that rises up……

「The mountain――」

Celia mutters blankly and Sekrit drops her prosthetic arm.

「Is collapsing――」

The Dard mountain crumbles inward as the molten liquid surrounds it.

It wasn’t merely the peak caving in. It was like the whole mountain like it was being swallowed into the ground.

Boulders dozens of meters tall fluttered down like pebbles and bedrock the size of a village split in half, sending dust hundreds of meters high.

Caterpillars and insect hydras that had been climbing the mountain to avoid the fire scattered like grains of sand.

One insect hydra gets crushed by a rock several times its own size while the ground under a bunch of caterpillars fall, disappearing into the abyss.

Others also tried to escape but could not find a safe spot with all the scorching heat around them.

「Is it because of our concentrated attack?」

「No way, the scale of damage is too large.」

The Dard mountain disappears as we watch in amazement, turning into an extremely large depression with a radius of a few kilometers.

Red hot sludge pours around the cavity.

「S-so our mission is a success?」

The hole is gone along with the Dard mountain and the enemies on the surface have either fallen or burned away.

Now we just have to figure out how far this phenomenon will spread.

「This kid might know something, but she’s in the state you see right now.」

When I give her a criticising stare, Sekrit coldly turns her face away.

I hug Tikuku and pat her head……no, her hand.

Then after a gasp at the sky, I let out a deep bestial grunt.

「Full power not recommended……if this is what you meant, tell me in advance.」

Tikuku doesn’t say anything. She can’t say anything.

Her head had completely melted.

I can’t get the final sensation of her arm around my waist out of my mind.

That must have been her way of saying goodbye.

「It’s like I killed you.」

I tightly embrace Tikuku close to my body.

The surrounding temperature increases further and I can tell Pochi is flying even higher.

「Negative. Administrator was not aware of the damage to the barrel associated with overcharge.」

I shake my head.

「You recommended over and over not to do it. I should have guessed.」

「Negative. The main reason for the recommendation is the semi-permanent heavy contamination of the impact site. In addition, T-99 is a man-made object and the word ‘kill’ does not apply.」

I slam my fist against Pochi’s scale in anger.

「Don’t be ridiculous. What do you know about Tikuku!? She isn’t an object, she’s my woman. I was planning to sleep with her eventually too……how shameful of me to let a woman sacrifice herself so I can survive.」

I grasp Tikuku’s hand with both of mine.

「’Tikuku’ is the nickname of T-99. I am T-99. Cannot comprehend link between Tikuku and myself. Error. Error. Postponing the current thought. Fundamental denial. In the case “kill” is interpreted as the stoppage of activity, I am not inactive.」

I grab Tikuku’s shoulder.

Her head is really gone and the steel rod acting as the neck bone is exposed.

However, her body is clearly facing me and positioned like her head is tilted.

「Auxiliary sensor adjustment complete. Activation of sub-vocal device confirmed. No problems found maintaining activity.」

Tikuku stands up like nothing happened.

Yularen takes a step back while Brynhildr furrows her brow, whereas Sekrit and Celia approach slightly.

「……you’re fine without a head?」

「The functions of the head are optic sensing, voice generation and main cannon. I am equipped with spare functions for all except the main cannon.」

Now that she mentions it, her voice does seem to be coming from a lower area of her body than before.

「Optic sensor is replaced with heat sensor in the nipple area. Spare vocal device is located in the groin area. Stereo function is available.」

「Is that so……」

Her appearance is rather terrifying but I guess it isn’t a huge deal since she can live without a head.

「So, headless woman. Do you know what the hell happened?」

Learning from her previous mistake, Tikuku crawls carefully to the edge and peers over.

I can’t help feeling uncomfortable when I see her in that pose resembling a person who was beheaded by a guillotine.

「Did your single blast blow up the entire mountain?」

Tikuku raises her head――no, she doesn’t have one――and shakes her neck……or rather, the metal sticking out.

「Even if an overcharge was fired, it is impossible to destroy the L3-G dormant volcano, commonly referred to as Dard Mountain. Estimate: judging by the state of the state of the surrounding area, the volcano appears to have erupted very recently. In that event, the eruption occurred without the accompaniment of magma, creating a sizeable pool of residual magma. The attack by my main cannon stimulated the magma reserve, which triggered a magma eruption, followed by the rapid loss of magma leading to a cave-in and the formation of a caldera――」

I shake my head.

「I have no idea what you just said. Tailor your explanation to me.」

Tikuku proceeds to spread her arms.

「Beam, boil boil, bombombom, thump, kaboom. That is all.」

「I see.」

「Eeeh……」

Celia gives me a brief sad look, then runs up and hugs me.

Fufu, what a cutie.

The one who grabs the cute Celia’s head and pulls her back is Sekrit.

「I don’t care about the caldera or the boom boom kaboom. How far will that unknown burning liquid spread? If the insects are replaced by that, our situation essentially hasn’t changed.」

Tikuku tilts her non-existent head to think and then she once again gazes down below.

I’ll hold onto her legs just in case.

「Comparing the magma pool of the L3-G volcano with data. The volume of erupted fluid has reached 35%, and the extent of damage will be 28% in relation to the region of volcanic ash. Time of stoppage estimated to be within three weeks.」

Fumu, so it’ll end soon and won’t exceed the range of the ash.

That means, it’s nothing to worry about.

I suddenly feel something hit my foot.

When I look down, I see Messerschmitt holding something strange in his mouth.

「What’s that?」

At first glance, it appears to be a red jewel, but upon closer inspection, there seems to be flickering flames inside.

Messerschmitt points to the former Dard mountain with his front leg.

So it flew out from there?

That rock looks like it’ll start a fire if it breaks open so I don’t want to put it in my pocket.

There happens to be a perfectly-sized gap in Pochi’s scales so I’ll place it there. His scales can handle a little fire.

「Now then.」

I clear my throat.

「Well, that was a bit different to our initial plan, but the insect hole is sealed and nobody died. There was a small incident, but it will subside soon.」

I ask Tikuku if that is all.

「Major pollution has been left at the impact site of the main cannon.」

「Let’s not talk about what happens underground.」

It’s not like the insects are going to complain.

They ate a generous portion of humans so this is the least they should put up with.

I put my hand on my hip and declare.

「Our mission was a success. Let’s go home.」

Everyone cheers.

Celia hops up cheerfully and Sekrit turns around with her arms folded.

Brynhildr simply raises a fist, while Siegfried does the same with his bandaged-wrapped hand. He’s the most injured……no, wait that’s Tikuku.

Alice cheers weakly while lying down and Tikuku raises both hands……because she doesn’t have a head, it’s really creepy.

Lastly, Pochi roars.

I can finally see this war which seemed to last forever coming to an end.

「One enemy on the port side.」

Everyone’s eyes focus on the left after Sekrit yells.

Luckily for us, it is a single surviving bee flying unsteadily.

Its wings are in tatters too so it probably won’t pose much of a threat even if it attacks.

「The enemy is running……well, there is no need to chase.」

The bee floats shakily to the west and out of sight.