Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles Volume 25 E-Book

Yuri Kitayama

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 226

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Sendo Takahisa has slipped out of the clutches of death, though his actions have not gone unnoticed; the flames of hell rising from the slums have caught the attention of everyone at the Galarc Castle. And yet, danger has seemed to find its way to them, too—in the form of an overwhelmingly powerful golem, summoned by none other than Reiss!

Only Aishia can stand up to such a formidable foe as the others watch on in fear. But there is one who remains calm—she even smiles.

“It’s time to fix the divergent futures.”

The forgotten hero returns to the battlefield!

Leseprobe

Prologue: Preparations

Immediately after the Divine War ended—that is, a thousand years before the modern era which Rio lived in and somewhere in eastern Strahl, a woman with extremely elegant features stood alone in an uninhabited wasteland. She looked frail enough to be blown away by a gust of wind, and appeared to be no older than twenty.

“This should be the spot.” She looked around the area with certainty.

She seemed to have come to the uninhabited wasteland with a clear purpose, but she didn’t appear to be a traveler of sorts. She was wearing a casual dress, as though she was out on a stroll through the neighborhood. She didn’t have any belongings on her.

“Ugh...”

The woman staggered, mouth twisting in pain. She had a hand pressed down against her abdomen, and her face was as pale as a ghost. She looked like she was in so much agony that she could faint at any moment.

But the woman clenched her teeth and mustered all her strength. She had something she had to do first.

I’m sorry. There’s no time. He’s going to die before I can copy everything over. I have to leave everything to you, one thousand years in the future.

Those were the words she had uttered just before coming here. She had said them to Aishia, the humanoid spirit girl who would travel with Rio in the future.

The woman—Lina—would do everything she could to prepare for the future to come in one thousand years. Even if she had lost her power to see into the future, even if the otherworld powers had placed her in a state of certain death...

I will use the little of my remaining lifespan to do everything I can.

Lina looked up at the blue sky over her head with renewed determination.

My battle begins here...

Despite her awareness of how little time she had left, Lina beamed with satisfaction, then lowered her gaze to the land she stood on.

It was the spot where the Galarc Castle would stand in the future.

Chapter 1: The Seventh Wise God

Year 1000 of the Holy Era.

Early in the morning, when the sky was still dim, a huge pillar of fire rose from the red-light district of the capital of Galarc. It was the flame Sendo Takahisa had released to burn down the brothel. The fire was so fierce, it was visible from the castle, and it created a commotion as people wondered what was going on.

Satsuki and the others in the mansion were also roused from their sleep and rushed outside in a hurry. The pillar of fire could be seen from the garden, where Celia, Latifa, Sara, Orphia, Alma, Satsuki, Aki, Masato, Charlotte, Komomo, Gouki, and Kayoko had gathered. They were accompanied by Gouki’s servants—including Sayo and her brother, Shin—and Charlotte’s personal knights, as well as Celia’s mother, Monica, and Liselotte, who just so happened to be staying overnight. Miharu was the only one who wasn’t with them.

The entire group held their breaths as they watched the pillar of fire. The flames eventually died away and disappeared from view, but the silence lingered after.

They were all thinking the same thing: it couldn’t have been a natural phenomenon, as any normal fire couldn’t burn all the way up to the sky as this had. Thus, it had to be an artificial flame.

However, there was a limit to how large a man-made fire could get. Magic that could create a flame this large generally didn’t exist in modern Strahl, and producing something of this scale with spirit arts would be absurd. It would take someone with an enormous amount of latent power to do so—and there was only a select number of people who fulfilled that condition.

“H-Hey, that fire just now...” Masato said hesitantly.

Do you think it was my brother controlling it?

The question of whether Takahisa—who had sneaked out of the castle and vanished—was the culprit behind the phenomenon was on the tip of his tongue, before he swallowed it back down.

What was he trying to burn with a fire like that? Why would he do such a thing? Just the thought of it was terrifying.

“H-Hey, where’d Miharu go?!”

In an attempt to shake off the bad feeling she had, Aki glanced around at her surroundings in search of Miharu. Although they weren’t related by blood, she sought the comfort of the girl she adored like an older sister, but Miharu was nowhere to be seen.

“Wha...?!”

A vast amount of magic essence suddenly appeared in the sky above the castle. The scene was comparable to the shock wave of a bomb radiating from the sky—the air shook with the pressure of the essence, and those who could detect it quickly prepared themselves for battle with panicked expressions on their faces.

“A spirit aura?!”

Sara, Orphia, and Alma all whirled around to look at a corner of the garden. Their contract spirits had probably informed them that a spirit had appeared nearby. Sure enough, Aisha stood where they were looking. She was wearing one of the masks that allowed her to evade the restrictions of a transcendent one.

“Who is that...?” everyone wondered curiously.

Of course they would: Aisha had become a transcendent one along with Rio, so no one could remember her.

Aishia?! Why did you materialize... Never mind. I can see the situation calls for it.

The only exception was Celia, who the rules of god didn’t apply to for some reason. She could remember both Rio and Aishia clearly.

“Everyone, run!” Aishia yelled, flying into the air. Her normally emotionless voice was filled with a strong sense of urgency. “Everyone, we have to get out of here! Hurry...!”

Run now, was what Celia was about to say when she spotted Miharu making her way out the entrance of the mansion.

“Miharu, this way!” Celia shouted.

Her yells drew the attention of the others in the garden, who all looked to Miharu as well. However, Miharu appeared to be half asleep, eyes unfocused as she trudged forward. The sight of her like that made Celia run over in concern. But Miharu merely came to a stop and gazed up at the pressure in the air illuminated by the sunrise.

What’s wrong, Miharu?! Celia drew closer to her.

“Assumo,” Miharu said.

“Huh?” Celia doubted her ears; that word was the same as the start of the ancient magic spell she had obtained just recently.

“Exemplar: Septimum Caelum Vel Persona.”

I knew it! But...

After hearing the rest of Miharu’s words, Celia was convinced, but confused. It was slightly different from the ancient magic spell she had obtained, and Miharu had never obtained any ancient magic spells.

Did that mean this wasn’t the work of an ancient magic spell, but an artifact with sorcery embedded within it? But if so, when did she obtain such a thing? Either way, the light of the complex spell formula soon enveloped Miharu’s body.

“Miharu?!” Satsuki yelled in shock.

But Miharu didn’t even spare her a glance as she looked down at her hands as though to confirm something. Then, with a gleeful grin that was unimaginable for her—

“It worked,” she mumbled to herself smugly.

Celia was speechless as she stared at her.

Miharu looked up and met her gaze, then smiled.

“Now, it’s time to fix the divergent futures,” she said in a tone completely unlike her usual self.

◇ ◇ ◇

A short while ago, in the time between the disappearance of the fire pillar in the red-light district and the appearance of the powerful essence source above Galarc Castle.

The ambassador of the Proxia Empire, Reiss Vulfe, was in the sky above the city. He hovered in place while looking down on the Galarc Castle below. Floating beside him was a transparent orb, several dozens of centimeters in diameter.

Reiss placed a hand against the orb and poured his magic essence into it. After a pause, a complex spell formula unfolded around the orb. This meant the orb was some kind of magic artifact.

The precious parting gift of the Wise Gods, the golem. I wanted to analyze how the official owner registration worked before using it in combat, but alas...

Indeed, the ancient artifact Reiss was about to activate was a golem, created by the Seven Wise Gods long in the past. They were an autonomous mobile weapon of war that only obeyed the orders of the owner they were registered to.

However, Reiss was not its official owner. The golem was protected with a spell formula that prevented them from being activated, which he had circumvented to input his own orders.

Of course, activating it this way came with its own problems: the golem couldn’t be given any new orders once it was activated. To be more precise, while the golem was activated, any attempts to give it new inputs would be perceived as an enemy attack and trigger a fierce counterattack.

Thus, in order to input new orders, the golem had to be deactivated first. That being said, it wasn’t easy for someone who wasn’t the owner to deactivate the golem. Golems were the strongest autonomic combat artifacts designed by the Seven Wise Gods for use in the Divine War. The golems couldn’t deactivate themselves either, so the only choice was to wait for their internally stored essence to run out or deactivate them by defeating them. However...

I cannot defeat an activated golem in my current state. If I’m going to use this, I must be certain it will bury them. The target are the people in the mansion garden, and the highest priority is Celia Claire, followed by the humanoid spirit. If any other threats appear, those should be eliminated too.

Reiss was prepared to discard the golem after activating it. With Rio and Sora absent, this was a once in a lifetime chance to eliminate those in the castle. The strongest present were Aishia and Celia, who had ties to the Wise God Lina, but it was possible there were other threats hidden among them.

I would’ve liked to exclude the hero... But if she gets in the way, there’s no choice but to kill her. I’ll set it to keep damages to the castle and city to a minimum. I’ve got plenty of essence from saving up my magic for a thousand years. Worst comes to worst, the capital will just be erased from the map.

Once he finished inputting his entire order, Reiss removed his hand from the orb. The light of the spell formula faded, and a large amount of magic began to emerge from the orb. It was a sign of the golem activating.

Those on the ground will notice this ridiculous amount of essence soon enough.

The essence that was enough to make the air seem like it was shaking would reach the ground soon.

Just then, a change occurred to the source of the essence. A human-shaped exterior appeared like a materializing spirit. It was a bipedal robot with two arms, measuring roughly two meters tall.

The orb had been the core of this golem. This exterior form was what represented the activated golem.

It stared down at the Galarc Castle below. The sun was yet to rise completely, so the sky was still dim. In addition to this, there was over two kilometers distance to the ground, yet its eerily glowing eyes were able to clearly see the mansion and garden where everyone was gathered. Then, the golem moved its head and looked at Reiss.

Reiss had inputted his orders without being registered as the official owner. In this state, as long as he didn’t attack the golem, the golem shouldn’t register him as an enemy.

Reiss raised his arms in a show of nonresistance and slowly backed away from the golem. The golem then lost interest in him and looked away. Instead, its gaze was fixed on the mansion and its occupants below.

Immediately after, the golem pointed its mechanical right hand towards the mansion. Its magic essence swelled even more, concentrating around its hand.

Then, with a thundering boom, it fired a powerful bombardment of magic essence.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Now, it’s time to fix the divergent futures,” Miharu said to Celia with a smile.

For a brief moment, Celia was stunned into forgetting the current situation they were in. Then, she detected a surge in the essence source high overhead and looked up with a gasp. The sky was dim and the golem was so far away, it wouldn’t have been visible even in the daylight, but it was clear which direction the source of the essence was in.

Magic essence that normally needed training to be visualized had been condensed so much, it formed visible rays of light. Immediately after, enough magic to wipe out the mansion and surrounding area was fired from the golem.

The sight was like a full moon appearing at early dawn.

“No way...” Celia muttered, freezing as she stared at the light falling from the sky. In fact, everyone in the garden was still with despair, as though they were watching the end of the world take place.

There were only two exceptions: Aishia, who was rising into the sky while preparing her essence to face the golem, and Miharu.

“Dolus Magus: Excelsus Magia Castrum Murus.”

Her hands were held up towards the sky as she recited a spell. As soon as she did so, ten enormous magic circles appeared in the air above Aishia.

Remote activation of magic?!

Celia instantly understood what Miharu was trying to do. The remote activation of magic was extremely technical. Spells were normally cast by forming the circle right by the caster’s hands, but those that excelled at essence control were able to cast their magic circle anywhere within their field of view.

But the farther the distance from the caster, the more difficult that was to accomplish. When it came to advanced magic, that difficulty increased even more—especially when deploying multiple circles at once.

The multiple magic circles Miharu had just cast were located fifty meters away from her, and the formula appeared to be incredibly complex.

At any rate, a total of ten magic circles activated, forming a thick defensive wall of light around those in the garden of the mansion.

Aishia gazed in wonder at the barrier of magic essence that had suddenly appeared above her. For a brief moment, she wondered if she should activate something too, but promptly determined that the wall was enough and ceased her casting. No sooner had she did, the blast from the golem struck the essence barrier Miharu had deployed. Blinding light filled their field of view, illuminating the entire city.

With a rumbling roar, a storm blew over the area. In the midst of their obscured vision, the sound of a barrier shattering could be heard four times in quick succession.

But eventually, the sound slowed down to a stop with the ninth shatter. Celia still had her eyes closed against the light.

“This isn’t the time to be standing around,” Miharu said from right beside her.

“Huh?” Celia cracked open her eyes and glanced to her side.

“Transilio,” Miharu said, having grabbed Celia’s shoulder. A magic circle appeared under their feet, and the space around them distorted. The two disappeared from where they stood.

“Wha?!”

Multiple voices screamed as a thunderous sound like a falling meteorite could be heard. The golem had rapidly descended and landed on the ground. No, it was more like a fall than a descent. A violent shock wave spread from its point of landing.

It was at this point that Celia finally realized her surroundings had changed. Moments ago she had been with Miharu away from the rest of the others in the garden, but now they were in the middle of the group. It was as though they had both teleported.

“Lady Celia, Lady Miharu, when did you both...?” Gouki gasped. But his attention was soon drawn to the golem that had descended. Celia looked as well—and realized that the golem was where she had been standing moments ago.

A cold chill ran down her spine. If she hadn’t moved, she would have been crushed into a lump of flesh.

This time, Aishia was the one to descend rapidly upon the golem, stomping down with the momentum of her fall. The sound of forceful impact rang out. But the golem had raised its right arm to easily block Aishia’s feet. Feathers from the wings growing from the golem’s back separated from the wings and floated into the air.

Aishia immediately distanced herself from the golem. Each feather was shaped like a sharp, triangular blade, connecting together to form the shape of wings. In separated form, it was like having countless knives floating in the air.

Satsuki materialized the spear that was her Divine Arms.

“Y-You’ve gotta be kidding me...” she muttered with dread in her voice.

“Stand back!” Aria yelled at the others. She grabbed her enchanted sword and stood before Liselotte to protect her. The others similarly grabbed their weapons to protect those who were unarmed. Aishia positioned herself between the golem and everyone else.

Satsuki’s feeling of dread was on the mark. The feathers floating in the air began flying, aimed straight at the residents of the mansion.

“I won’t let you,” Aishia said.

She immediately deployed countless light orbs of essence. Each one moved all at once to intercept the approaching blades. Her aim was so accurate, it managed to strike and deflect every single blade.

However, while the orbs Aishia released had struck the blades and deflected them, they hadn’t been able to harm them. The blades were knocked off trajectory, some falling to the ground, but they all quickly readjusted and started flying at the residents of the mansion again.

Aishia quickly tried to make more light orbs, but the golem moved to attack her directly. It moved in front of her in an instant, raising its metallic fist and swinging at her face.

“Guh...!”

Aishia crossed her arms in front of herself and deployed an essence barrier at the same time. The golem’s fist made smashed into the barrier and shattered it. Aishia was sent backwards with the momentum, nearly flying away. She wasn’t able to kill the force of the impact completely, and her arms bent in a disturbing way.

She nearly proceeded to crash into Latifa behind her, when Aishia turned into her spirit form just before making contact.

“Wah! Huh?!”

Only the mask she had been wearing remained, which fell to the ground. Latifa blinked, wide-eyed in shock.

But Aishia promptly reappeared, grabbing the falling mask and putting it back on. Her arms were restored by rematerializing, although a dull pain remained. However, by that point, the feathers of the golem were about to reach the residents of the mansion.

“Ngh...”

Aishia’s normally inexpressive face was now panic-stricken. She must have thought there were too many people for her to protect alone. Despite that, she quickly tried to deploy more essence orbs to do something about the flying blades.

Just then, without any warning, countless magic circles appeared all across the ground. Each one was cast in the way of a flying feather. A light bullet of magic shot vertically out of every magic circle, striking the golem’s feather blades and deflecting them upwards. Setting aside the matter of who had cast the magic, Aishia immediately fired her orbs of light too. The essence flew through the air like it was being sucked towards the feathers, deflecting them all further.

But her attention on the blades had distracted her from the golem’s main body, and the golem had used that chance to vanish.

With the disappearance of the golem, everyone including Aishia looked around on high alert. The next moment, a fist swung down upon Celia’s head. The sound of a fierce impact rang out, but the golem’s fist was prevented from reaching Celia by a wall of light. Celia flinched belatedly as she realized the golem had been closing in on her from above.

While the others were also reacting with their own shock, Miharu was the only one staring up at the golem with a completely calm look. Then, a crack appeared in the barrier above their heads.

“No! Hmph!”

Gouki immediately readied his katana, but a new magic circle appeared between them and the golem. Magic essence fired from that circle, but the golem reflexively dodged the extremely close-ranged blast at high speed without any issue. But another magic circle appeared where it moved to, as though its evasion had been predicted from the start. A new blast of magic essence was fired from there, but the golem was able to evade that one easily too.

The magic circle was positioned in what appeared to be the golem’s blind spot, yet the golem had reacted as though it had seen it. But more magic circles appeared in rapid succession, forcing the golem to keep evading.

“Huh...”

The continued deployment of circles with no verbal casting made it confusing to tell who the caster was at a glance.

Miharu is casting all of those...

While everyone else was staring at the golem’s movements in astonishment, Celia was the only one who was watching Miharu’s side profile with bated breath. She understood that Miharu was using the highly advanced technique of wordless magic activation.

Aishia had also noticed that Miharu was activating magic without using verbal spells and came to stand beside her.

“Alis Luminis.”

Just then, Miharu recited a spell, and wings of light grew from her back. Her body rose into the air, ignoring gravity.

She can even use light wing flying magic...

Celia’s surprise intensified. Light wing flying magic was an ancient spell she had only just obtained recently herself.

Satsuki and the others were taken aback as well. “Miharu...?”

Meanwhile, there was a change in the golem’s movements as well. It drew its feather blades back towards its body while readjusting its posture, then swung its arms to send a sweeping shock wave at them. It seemed to have determined that Miharu’s attacks weren’t powerful enough to bother avoiding.

“The odds will be stacked against us at this rate. Aishia, can you do something about the blades in the air? Celia, gather everyone in a single spot and stop them from acting on their own.”

Miharu gave orders to Aishia and Celia, who were on either side of her. Then—

“I will lead that thing away from here,” she said, charging straight at the golem in the air without waiting for their reply.

“Huh?! Wha— Miharu?!”

“I’ll be back,” Aishia said, ignoring Celia’s shock and taking off after Miharu.

“F-Fine, jeez! Everyone, come over here! I think Miharu has a plan!”

There were a million things on Celia’s mind, but she raised her voice and called for the people in the garden first. However, they were more hesitant than Celia herself.

Everyone was slow to react. Part of it was because they couldn’t keep up with the situation, but they also didn’t have any trust in leaving the battle to Miharu. While she could use simple spirit arts, she was a delicate noncombatant and had a personality unsuited for war. That was the common opinion between the residents of the mansion.

But at the same time, Miharu was most certainly showing abnormal combat prowess right now. She was using magic she shouldn’t be able to use, flying through the air with magic wings of light.

Miharu deployed several magic circles around her wordlessly while rapidly approaching the golem. The golem also charged straight forward to crush Miharu. But before the golem could reach her, one of her magic circles fired a blast.

The golem instantly vanished, evading the blast. It reappeared right before Miharu, swinging its fist.

“Look out—!”

Sara and the others on the ground paled. But Miharu deployed another barrier of light to her side and blocked the golem’s fist. The golem’s feathers closed in on her from behind to pierce her in the back, but Aishia manipulated her orbs of light to deflect the feathers.

“Well done,” Miharu said with a pleased grin. She then shot Celia a glance to urge her into gathering everyone up faster.

Celia startled, then raised her voice. “C-Come on, everyone! Gather here!”

At that, everyone finally started approaching Celia in confusion. The battle above their heads continued as they did so.

The golem was flying around at a speed faster than the eye could follow. No human body would have been able to withstand the recoil, but that didn’t affect the golem. It rapidly repeated its sudden acceleration and sudden braking, attempting to attack Miharu from her blind spot.

Yes, attempting.

Miharu was casting spell circle after spell circle without moving in the air. She was only using two types of magic: one that fired a blast of magic essence, and one that deployed an essence barrier.

She prevented the approach of the golem using these two spells alone. She wasn’t even looking at her surroundings, yet she was able to accurately block the golem no matter which direction it came at her from and aim her essence shots perfectly every time. It was almost like she knew which direction the golem would come from.

Sorcerers were weak against soldiers in close combat. That was common sense, yet the way she was fighting right now overthrew such concepts completely.

Amazing...

Celia was so captivated by the sight, she nearly forgot about the situation they were in. But just then, the golem’s magic essence increased. Those on the ground who could detect it stiffened.

Immediately after, the golem charged straight at Miharu. Miharu deployed a barrier of light to block the golem’s fist, but the moment the golem made contact, the barrier shattered like glass.

Miharu rose diagonally upwards to distance herself from the golem. But the golem flew right after her, closing that distance once again.

Looks like this is as much time as I can buy. At least everyone’s gathered as planned.

Miharu took one glance at Celia and the others on the ground and grinned. She then cast a magic circle in front of her, aiming a blast at the golem below her.

The golem swung its left fist and swept away the incoming blast. It then held its right hand up at Miharu and released an intense heat ray. The heat ray spread in a conical shape starting from its palm, swallowing Miharu and blocking her escape route.

“Look out!” Sara and the others yelled from the ground.

But at that moment, Miharu was already enveloped by the light. The beam converged and eventually faded.

“No... That can’t be... Miharu...”

Unable to see Miharu anywhere, Satsuki paled in horror. She feared that Miharu had been erased without a trace by the heat ray, but—