Leviathan of the Covenant

Solomon"s ark.

This s.h.i.+p"s hiding place was not on Earth but in the domain called the sea of stars by dragonkind—A corner of the universe. More concretely, its precise location was the asteroid belt lying between Jupiter and Saturn. Since it was within the confines of the solar system just the Earth, it would be considered relatively near for astronomical distances.

The effect of the Legacy Inheritance spell that Hal had been casting continuously since the previous day was to summon this treasure chest, containing Solomon"s legacy, from across the unimaginably vast distance of its hiding place.

This ark took all night to traverse the sea of stars and was now floating on the Hudson River.

The s.h.i.+p had not been moored with an anchor, yet it was floating motionlessly on the river surface. As expected of a great sorcerer"s s.h.i.+p. Despite being a wooden s.h.i.+p, it possessed the inexplicable ability to break through the atmosphere like the dragons.

Hal looked at the ark from Manhattan Bridge and spoke over a military transceiver.

"I"ll open the treasure immediately to take out the items. Asya and Rushalka, continue attacking."

"Understood. I hope you"ll power up as soon as possible."

Hal and Asya were conversing.

His childhood friend and Hazumi had also confirmed the battle situation from the helicopter in the air.

"I"ve also figured out the characteristics of the enemy"s Rune of the Spear, more or less. I was looking for a chance to make full use of my discoveries."

"You"re talking about that, right? Rather than a spear, it"s more like a phalanx rune."

"Yes. Since a head on clash won"t work, I"m thinking of inflicting flanking attacks as much as possible. That being said, Hannibal"s version of the phalanx is pretty mobile."

Phalanx. This was an infantry tactic dating back to ancient Greece.

A row consisted of foot soldiers, each equipped with a long spear and a large s.h.i.+eld, standing side by side. Then these rows were repeated in a rectangular formation. During combat, the soldiers would march forward while keeping the rectangular formation and attack with their spears. When the front row of infantry was defeated, the next row would step up, thus maintaining offensive strength.

Due to ama.s.sed numbers, the row of large s.h.i.+elds could also form a fortress. Defensive strength was obvious. The hedge of spears from the upward pointing spears of the soldiers in the latter rows was also able to block projectile weapons from the enemy.

This was an ancient Greek military tactic that combined offense with defense.

However, mobility was relatively low due to how closely packed the soldiers were. This was the weakness of the tactic...

Asya verified the combat situation after ending her call. Not only was Hal on Manhattan Bridge but Juujouji and Akuro-Ou too. The white fox-wolf had exited Queen Form. Rushalka was not nearby because she had gone off to carry out the next step in the plan.

Hannibal"s army was currently aimed at the ark, marching forward without impediment.

Neither the commander-in-chief in the lead nor the salamanders had reached top speed, hence the situation was not too urgent yet...

"Juujouji, I"m relying on you to stop the lizard army after I open the treasure chest."

"Very well... Please be careful, Haruga-kun!"

Hal nodded in response to the worried girl and focused on his task of "opening the box.

Open sesame. Hal took a shortcut and omitted most of the incantation. From the white ark—seventy-two blue-white ghostlights flew out!

They were ghostlights shaped like dragons, similar to leviathans in size.

"Serpent ectoplasm..."

The catalog of treasures automatically entered Hal"s mind while Legacy Inheritance was in progress.

As a result, Hal knew everything. The true ident.i.ties of the serpent ectoplasm were the souls of ancient leviathans that had lost physical form. Despite losing their flesh, they had not lost their magical power—

The seventy-two dragonoid ghostlights spread their wings like birds and flew all over the sky.

The ghostlights flew freely with agility, like seabirds flocking by the ocean. Then something tiny and sparkling from the flying serpent ectoplasm fell towards Manhattan Bridge.

Hal reached out to the sky and opened his right palm.

The object dropped by the serpent ectoplasm was falling as though in slow motion. Finally, it fell into the hand of Hal the successor.

"Solomon"s ring..."

It was a gold ring, the instrument of magic control left behind by the great sorcerer of antiquity. Hal placed the ring onto his right index finger and muttered the ring"s other name.

"The Rune of the Ring...!"

A new magic symbol appeared on Hal"s right palm.

An extremely simple seal of "◎," it was the Rune of the Ring, neither a bow nor twin katana. When that rune surfaced, the flock of flying serpent ectoplasm displayed new movement. One after another, they flew towards Hal who was on the ground.

More precisely, their target was not Hal but the ring worn by Hal. One by one, King Solomon"s legacy absorbed the servants that were flying overhead.

With seventy-two serpent souls inside, the ring surged with ma.s.sive magical power.

And the ring"s successor was able to control this power arbitrarily.

"!?"

Apart from magical power, there was another dramatic change.

From the moment he put on the ring, Hal could feel the presence of hearts.

First, there were the hearts of the serpent souls gathered inside the ring—They were overjoyed to return to the earth after thousands of years, liberated from the ark that served as gigantic shackles.

"So it"s a ring that can listen to the voices of "serpents" and sense their thoughts and feelings..." Hal muttered after actually experiencing one of the functions listed in the catalog.

There was a rumor regarding King Solomon and a magic ring. Legend had it that the archangel Michael had bestowed this ring upon him, granting him the power to make angels and demons do his bidding as well as the ability to listen to the voices of all plants and animals. This was a story recorded in multiple grimoires and the Old Testament of the Bible.

Hal was using the ring"s power to expand the range of his extrasensory perception.

Akuro_ou and Rushalka were quite fired up to fight the army of salamanders.

In addition, the WotC"s "serpents" in Brooklyn were tense due to sensing the dragon king"s presence.

Like machinery, the salamanders only obeyed the dragon king"s orders.

"Come to think of it, all of our "serpents" are female..."

Hal was reminded. Due to their appearance as ferocious beasts, without communicating heart to heart in this manner, it would be all too easy to forget that all leviathans, the allies of mankind, were female.

Akuro-Ou and Rushalka were genuine ladies, the same gender as Orihime and Asya.

While feeling slightly apologetic, Hal established a psychic connection to their souls. This was to output magical power directly, several times stronger than before, without needing to go through the witches" hearts. This was also an ability granted to Hal by the ring.

"All ready. Juujouji...!"

"Roger that! Akuro-Ou, use a killer move to stop those dragons from advancing. Don"t hold back and use fire magic to bombard them!"

Orihime responded to Hal"s request firmly and powerfully.

While the "serpents" were receiving substantial magical power from Hal...

Hannibal and his three hundred salamanders continued to march on, merely four or five hundred meters away from Manhattan Bridge.

Their goal was to crush Tyrannos Haruga Haruomi and his followers.

Having obtained sufficient speed, Hannibal"s army was going to reach Manhattan Bridge in ten-odd seconds. At that moment, Akuro-Ou attacked first from the bridge.

Nine black arrowheads had manifested over the white fox-wolf"s head.

These mysterious arrowheads resembled primitive stone tools crafted from obsidian. They were manifestations of the Rune of the Bow as weapons.

The nine black arrowheads turned into hovering artillery, lined up in a row in front of Manhattan Bridge.

Aimed at Hannibal"s army, the arrowheads all fired at the same time. Flame projectiles were shot out from their tips at rate exceeding a hundred times per second.

Fully automatic fire. This was the technique of a.s.sured annihilation that Hal had innovated when forging his magic gun.

Naturally, the hail of bullets was directed at the red dragon king"s army.

However, neither Hannibal nor the salamanders following his lead faltered.

The Ruruk Soun incantation of "O spear of mine, gather the northern star"s power to advance with ferocity" continued to withstand the rain of bullets brought by a technique of a.s.sured annihilation. The great army persisted in pus.h.i.+ng forward.

Even so, Akuro-Ou"s technique of a.s.sured annihilation succeeded in slowing down Hannibal"s army.

This was thanks to the unmitigated and overwhelming firepower of full auto.

"Akuro-Ou... Your pseudo-divinity"s power has increased as expected."

From inside the helicopter flying above the Hudson River, Asya watched the battle situation around Manhattan Bridge and nodded.

The potency of the magical power that Akuro-Ou used was even stronger than that of leviathans partnered with Level 5 witches.

This blessing was not limited to Akuro-Ou alone.

"If we can benefit from the Rune of the Ring too—Rushalka!"

Seeing that the time was ripe, Asya called out to the blue wyvern that had left the battlefield on her own, flying to the alt.i.tude of seven kilometers over New York City, waiting for the opportunity for a surprise attack.

"Activate technique of a.s.sured annihilation while descending. Full burst!"

This was her fourth time invoking pseudo-divinity today.

This left only one remaining invocation, meaning that the trump card of Double Casting was no longer available—

With the situation critical, Rushalka rushed down at Hannibal"s army.

She returned to Queen Form again. The two arms of ruby reappeared with a crimson bow held in her left and an ice arrow in her right.

Furthermore, Rushalka was not the only archer.

After she began her rapid descent, support archers appeared behind the blue wyvern.

They looked identical to Rushalka in Queen Form—clones, numbering close to a hundred. The clones were all wielding crimson bows and ice arrows.

The Rushalka army fired arrows while charging at the Hannibal army from above.

With every shot, a new arrow would be created in the right hand. Rushalka and her clones were all able to fire arrows continuously without pause.

—The Rune of the Spear was impregnable when facing frontal a.s.saults, but was powerless against flanking attacks.

In order to strike at this weakness, Rushalka had personally gone up into the sky to launch a surprise attack. However, Hannibal"s composure in handling this situation was to a maddening degree.

"O dragonslaying spear, offer imperishable protection to my great army!"

The dragon king ordered the spear in his hand, instantly deploying faint pearly radiance.

The red dragon king"s protection range was not only large enough to cover his own ma.s.sive body but also the three hundred salamanders under his command.

Defended by both the runes of Ruruk Soun and imperishable protection, the Hannibal army had no blind spots.

Akuro-Ou and Rushalka persisted in unleas.h.i.+ng techniques of a.s.sured annihilation for almost a minute, but not even a single salamander p.a.w.n was defeated, much less a dragon king.

Rushalka"s hundred clones also vanished completely.

However, Aysa had saved a secret move for the last.

In addition to Akuro-Ou, Rushalka had also obtained extraordinary magical power thanks to the Rune of the Ring"s blessing. Specifically, her total magical power rivaled that of Hannibal, who was dragon king-cla.s.s.

A Level 3 witch like Orihime might have been unable to control it completely.

But in the case of Asya the master-cla.s.s witch and Europe"s strongest ace—

"Rushalka, now is the time. Technique of a.s.sured annihilation, sun-shooting divine bow!"

Rushalka lowered her alt.i.tude to almost ground level.

She circled around to the side of the Hannibal army that was advancing towards Manhattan Bridge and used the Rune of the Bow"s ultimate mystic technique.

s.h.i.+ning with golden splendor, the arrow of light shot out from the crimson bow.

In her current state, Rushalka was capable of firing the sun-shooting divine bow without Double Casting pseudo-divinity.

Furthermore, this trump card was made even more effective by the previous barrage of fully automatic fire to weaken imperishable protection—Gambling everything on this arrow, Asya watched it fly.

Roughly fifty meters in length, the arrow of light turned into a great serpent of flame.

The serpent devoured salamanders one after another, wiping out forty or fifty of them within the blink of an eye. The serpent even entangled Hannibal and tried to swallow him, who tried to stab using his dragonslaying spear, but just as the dragon king raised his spear for a swing—the great serpent of flame exploded.

The giant explosion in the air over the Hudson River had enough range to cover the entire Hannibal army.

Flas.h.i.+ng of light, flickering of flames, ma.s.sive rumbling, and wind from the blast persisted for a minute or two.

When everything settled, the enemy army was cleanly eliminated. Not a single salamander remained at the scene. Even the gigantic Red Hannibal was nowhere to be seen.

The only magic beast still in the air was Rushalka in Queen Form.

"A-Asya-san, you did it!"

Hazumi immediately cried out in joy and hugged Asya tightly. Inside the same helicopter, she had been watching Asya"s valiant battle with bated breath.

However, while watching her angelic junior rejoicing, Asya—

"Rushalka, emergency de-materialization! Hurry... Run away fast!" Asya immediately commanded without having even the time to cast Enemy Detection.

There was no rational basis. If anything, Asya"s reaction probably stemmed from a rigid belief that a dragon king could not possibly have perished just like that. More importantly, she had sensed an incoming crisis, enough to chill her to the bone.

Just as Asya issued her command, the dragonslaying spear immediately flew out from the Hudson River.

The spear flew, targeting Rushalka in the air, piercing the ruby chest armor.

Fortunately, Asya had commanded a retreat ahead of time. Just before the spear tip skewered the heartmetal inside Rushalka, she vanished instantly.

In the nick of time. But not unscathed.

"Gu... ahhhhhhhh!"

"Asya-san!?"

The pain from a dragonslaying weapon was not only experienced by the "serpent" but also the covenantee as well.

Holding her hand to her chest, Asya collapsed forward. She felt as though a ma.s.sive hole had been gouged out of her heart and had difficulty breathing properly.

Hazumi hastily supported Asya who was unable to stand on her own.

Meanwhile, the spear that had forced Rushalka"s exit remained motionless in the air.

It was faithfully waiting for its master to leave the river and retrieve it.

"The sudden amplification in power truly surprised me... However, there are limits to a "mock dragon king" after all. That being said—"

Hannibal gripped the dragonslaying spear again and muttered quietly.

"It might be a different matter if I could fight the queen of the past directly. O Tyrannos of the Bow, you have many toys hidden up your sleeve."

Dragon king Hannibal gazed upon Manhattan Bridge.

In the air over the bridge was no longer Akuro-Ou but the Crimson Queen, in other words, Hinokagutsuchi"s physical body when she was alive as a dragon king. One could think of it as Haruga Haruomi"s avatar currently.

However, Asya felt very uneasy inside.

Between her and her childhood friend Haruomi was a bond of the covenant and a connection of magic.

In spite, she currently could not sense any presence of the Rune of the Bow from the Crimson Queen. Neither was there any presence of the Rune of the Twin Katana.

Was that really the Crimson Queen?

While enduring the intense agony in her chest, Asya prayed for Hal"s safety.