Past the pass at the far end of the [Gate], the view opened onto a fortress under siege, black smoke pouring up from it.
I cast null-spell [Long Sense] and flew my sight toward the fortress.
Built on a low mountaintop, the fortress was barely holding off the enemy. Fires were rising in too many places — the defenders had their hands full between firefighting and pushing back the attackers.
Fire-arrows arced ceaselessly across the air; in the gaps, enemy soldiers swarmed the walls, trying to scale them.
I pulled out my smartphone and searched Yae’s older brother. Since I’d searched for him once before, this should work… got him. In the fortress, just inside the wall, moving left and right. Looks unharmed.
“Your brother’s safe. Father — can’t tell yet…”
”…! We need to get to the fortress!”
“Wait. You think you can just dash into that and survive?”
Leen stopped Yae, who was already about to break into a run. The fortress was completely encircled — getting close wouldn’t be easy. But there was a way.
“I’ll use [Long Sense] to check 1 km ahead, then [Gate] there. Repeat that and I can get inside the fortress. Standing out would be bad — I’ll go in solo first, scout, then open another [Gate] back here. Everyone wait until then.”
“Understood. Surest route, I suppose.”
Leen put a hand to her chin, thinking. Wait — that reminds me.
“Hey — can fae-folk fly with those wings?”
“Eh? Oh, no. We’ve devolved past it, unlike the winged-folk. We can flutter them, but it’s only enough for a brief hover. Tires you out fast, too.”
Shame. I’d been hoping Leen could fly me over the fortress. Then again, if anyone weird gets spotted in the sky over a battlefield, archers would have a field day. Probably a no-go either way.
So back to the original plan.
“Kōhaku. Look after everyone. Signal me if anything happens.”
[Understood.]
”!? She talks!?”
Leen’s eyes went round at Kōhaku’s reply. Huh? Didn’t I mention? Probably shouldn’t be giving the Mismid contingent more info — though she’s keeping my abilities quiet, so it should be fine.
I deployed [Long Sense] and scanned a kilometer out. That patch should be safe. I opened a [Gate] in a stand of trees just before the fortress.
“Right. Be back.”
I stepped through into the trees. Battlefield-particular roars and shouts came at me from all sides — an air unlike anything I’d known. The smell of burning was layered with the smell of blood.
I looked up at the fortress in front of me, planning my next jumps. Two more hops should put me inside, but I’d rather not be spotted by enemies on the way.
I sent my sight ranging again with [Long Sense]. Everywhere I looked — enemies everywhere. Nowhere safe to jump. Fine — head for the lightest enemy concentration, clear that pocket, then open the [Gate].
I cycled through viewpoints, hunting a spot with fewer enemy soldiers. Eventually I found one off the side of the fortress — two archers there, easy to take down for a brief window.
“Reload.”
The Remington New Model Army at my right hip got [Paralyze]-enchanted rubber rounds; the gun-sword Brünhild at the back of my hip, real bullets. In case the enemy has magic-resistance charms.
“[Gate].”
I drew the New Model Army, jumped through behind the two archers — blindside — and pumped paralysis rounds into both their backs in succession. Ugh — that felt cheap to do.
The two soldiers fell from the back-shots — but instead of paralyzing, they slowly rose to their feet and drew the katana at their hips. !? What are these guys!?
The shock wasn’t that the paralysis hadn’t worked. It was the appearance of the soldiers.
Japanese-style armor and helmets, katana in hand — fine, that part fit. But the masks fixed to their faces gave the whole picture a strange wrongness.
Demon masks. Oni. Bright red, twin horns, faces frozen in fury. Japanese armor does include face-protection plates called menpō — covering the jaw and cheek — but this was nothing like that. These were full demon-faces strapped over the actual face.
Even stranger — the skin visible through gaps in the armor and tears in the clothes was the same red as the mask. As if a red oni itself were wearing a mask.
I holstered the gun immediately at the abnormality and drew Brünhild from the small of my back instead. I unloaded real rounds into the leg of one in front of me. First — disable. Don’t want to kill if I can help it.
But my preference didn’t matter to the thing — leg shot or no, it raised its blade and came at me without hesitation. Whoa!
“[Slip]!”
The friction coefficient under its feet dropped to zero. It lost balance and crashed to the ground. Yes! Slip is OP!
I pinned its katana-hand with my left foot to immobilize it, then drove my right foot full-force into its face. The mask shattered to dust — and the thing stopped moving.
These guys — are they being controlled by the masks!? I switched Brünhild to my left hand, drew the New Model Army with my right, and shot a rubber round straight into the mask of the other soldier still poised with its blade.
The impact cracked the mask, and it split cleanly in two. The fragments hit the ground — and the soldier dropped to its knees, then collapsed limply.
“What were those things…”
I walked up to the fallen soldier. Ugh — that smell… Wait, this is… Dead? Don’t tell me — those masks are being used to animate corpses as soldiers? Can that even be done!?
Now that I think about it, the one I shot in the leg barely bled. Already dead, heart already stopped — that would explain it.
“Controlling corpses… like, what — a Necromancer out of a game?”
Didn’t feel quite zombie — too quick on its feet. Either way, a force like this is a serious problem. Better get into the fortress fast, get the situation, and figure out how to deal with them.
I extended [Long Sense] into the fortress. Last thing I want is to be mistaken for an enemy and attacked. Best bet — find Yae’s brother, get him to vouch.
Right… ah — this one, maybe? Black hair, black eyes, sword-scar on the right cheek. Wearing dark armor, calm-looking but his motions clearly not those of an ordinary man. Body splattered with someone else’s blood, he was shouting orders.
“[Gate].”
If I appeared right in front of him out of nowhere I’d risk getting cut down on reflex, so I held the [Gate] open with a gap. On the other side, a door of light would simply hang in the air. Then I stepped through slowly and emerged in front of Yae’s brother.
”!? Who goes there!? A Takeda agent!?”
Yae’s brother leveled his blade and challenged. The soldiers around him whipped their swords in my direction in unison.
“Wait, please. I’m not an enemy. You are Kokonoe Yae’s older brother — Kokonoe Jūtarō?”
“Indeed I am Jūtarō… but how do you know Yae…?”
I held up my hands to show I had no hostile intent. With Yae’s name on my lips, Jūtarō-san looked at me suspiciously.
“I’m a companion of Yae — we met her in a country called Belfast. I came because we heard her brother was in danger.”
“Yae’s…!?”
“Yes. She’s nearby. I’ll be summoning her here with transfer magic right now — if that’s all right?”
A murmur went around the surrounding soldiers as they glanced at Jūtarō-san. “Lady Yae?” “Lady Yae, here?” — from that, these might be dojo students.
Eventually Jūtarō-san lowered his sword and gave a slow nod.
“[Gate].”
From the door of light I opened, a girl came barreling through. She looked around, fixed on Jūtarō-san, and ran straight into his chest.
“Brother!”
“Yae…? Truly, is it you, Yae?”
“Yes!”
While the siblings savored their reunion, the rest of the party filtered out of the [Gate].
“And those?”
“My comrades. Every one of them to be relied on, indeed.”
Hearing her say it like that makes me a little bashful.
“Brother — what of Father? Is he safe?”
“He is well, set your mind at ease. Father is currently guarding Lord Ietsu. You can see him later.”
The brother spoke gently to his worried sister. He cuts a picture, this one.
But the situation here was bad. Looking around — wounded slumped everywhere, unable to move. Without help, lives would be lost.
All right — let me try this.
I pulled out the smartphone and switched it on. The map app had [Multiple] already enchanted onto it; just [Program] remaining.
“[Program] begin. / Trigger: touching a target on the screen. / Target capture: via [Multiple], all instances of the same target. / [Program] end.”
That way I won’t have to lock targets one by one. One touch, and the spell catches all of them at once.
Searching wounded would catch enemy wounded too, so I refined the search — Tokugawa-army wounded. Pins dropped on the map one after another. That’s a lot. I zoomed the map out so the whole fortress fell within range.
I tapped one of the targets to lock it, and the other targets locked in sequence on screen. I glanced sideways — small magic circles were materializing over the wounded soldiers slumped nearby. [Multiple] circles. Setup done.
“Light, come — peaceful healing — Cure Heal.”
Soft particles of light descended from each magic circle. They enveloped the wounded, and the injuries closed and healed before my eyes.
A short moment later, cheers rose from every part of the fortress; the wounded soldier in front of me stood up wonderingly and moved his body, baffled.
“Wait… what did you just do? I could tell you cast a healing spell, but…”
“Healed every wounded soldier in the fortress. Glad it worked.”
Leen turned an exasperated look on me at the words. Well — I get the gist of what she wants to say.
“The wounded… what was that…?”
“Lord Touya’s healing magic.”
Yae answered her astonished brother, eyes flicking my way.
“Only the wounds were closed, so please don’t push them too hard. Blood that’s been lost doesn’t return.”
“A-ah, understood. I’ll see to it the word is spread.”
Jūtarō-san answered, still not fully recovered from the shock. Anyway, that takes care of the wounded. All that’s left is to deal with the enemies swarming the fortress.
Let’s go big, shall we?