Rune Troopers

Rihyalda thought that it was pretty quiet. Here, at the foremost line of the battlefield, was the first time she felt such silence. However, there were many corpses of her allies strewn on the ground in the courtyard.

She could also see the defeated dragon, along with things that looked like wreckage. In the interior was a heap of furniture, probably to defend against arrows, making up a shoddy-looking camp. A person was in there.

This person was the one blocking the Empire’s forces, standing in front of them. The one with the power to destroy in an instant what could be called without exaggeration the strongest force in this world – the dragon knight unit – was standing there.

At this point of time, their fate probably wouldn’t change. But the forces wanted to be satisfied at the end. Whether it be a military man or a knight, the honor of knowing that your true self belonged to the one who kills you – that was the desire and duty of one who kills.

“Wait here.”

“Shogun?”

“It’s dangerous!”

Ignoring calls for restraint from her subordinates, Rihyalda continued walking forward. While she walked, she thought. Just what exactly is the enemy? There’s no mistake that they are not part of Mariisua’s military. That’s confirmed.

Up until now, the Mariisua they had been fighting against had been tenacious, but they could not rival the empire. There was a battleship in the bay near Sei road that fought like a fierce G.o.d. Did they ride here on that? Just where are they from? Far away, like the end of the four continents? Though this is stopped under the Inheritance Empire’s military rule, are they a volunteer military? I don’t understand.Not a single thought came up which was not a speculation.

“Please stop.”

The one from whom the voice came out was across from her, coming to close the distance to where soon she could see his face. Rihyalda, without being the least bit agitated, raised her voice in a n.o.ble manner.

“My name is Rihyalda! I have been honored to hold the position of the fourth level shogun as the supreme commander of the Monarch’s southern mixed troops of the Filborg Inheritance Empire! I request to meet your general!”

The person, probably a Mariisua warrior, could hear the shakiness in her voice. It wasn’t these guys. There’s no way the strongest unit would lose to these guys. And, from the unsightly camp made of piled up furniture stepped out one man.

“I am j.a.pan’s Ground Self-Defense Force Second Lieutenant Kuze. I am the commander of this base.”

He said, and he walked toward where Rihyalda was. It was a young, strange man. He was wrapped fully in strange clothes with a green, brown, and black spotted pattern. But, upon closer inspection, it seemed to be some sort of armor. He also seemed to be carrying a knife at his waist.

She understood that his armament was made to be very efficient. She observed the unsightly camp, and understood that there were about 30 others in the same outfit as him. Who are they? Rihyalda was flabbergasted.

The man in front of her eyes was probably younger than her. He had refined movements, and he put out his hand ahead of his forehead. She didn’t understand what he was trying to do in that moment, but she understood that it was a sign of respect. She compa.s.sionately nodded. He had no desire to recede from the silver-haired female shogun.

“… It doesn’t seem like you’re the general of the whole party… Are you?”

“I am the commander of this spot. The ultimate commander is in that vessel, and so I am sorry that I cannot presently bring you two together.”

“I see.”

Rihyalda said calmly. Even if he was the supreme commander, she had no intention of getting agitated with him.

“So you are on an expedition from the country named j.a.pan, correct?”

“Yes… Though there was no intention of coming here.”

“Hm. That is odd of you to say. But, I have not heard of this country. On what continent is this country to be found?”

“It is a country which does not exist in this world.”

“What?”

At that time, Rihyalda showed her first signs of shock.

“We have come here from a parallel world… The Self-Defense Force is the name of an armed military group.”

“A parallel world… You say?”

She thought that the group Mariisua had obtained as its ally was some sort of mercenary volunteer army. However, despite the numerous battlefields she had fought on, she could not understand their nationality. They were wrapped in never-before-seen clothes and held strange weapons.

She couldn’t understand. If these were foreigners from another world, there’s no way she could correctly guess about them. To the shocked woman, the man said.

“Frankly, I’m going to ask you to do something.”

“…What is it, Kuze-dono?”

“Please retreat.”

“…The bird I rode on to get here has already returned to the opposite sh.o.r.e. We came here to win, after all.”

“Then, please surrender and submit to the Mariisua military.”

Rihyalda laughed at this rather inappropriate time. The town is in flames, the countrymen were ma.s.sively killed, and these Mariisua people are going to ask them to become prisoners of war? They brought their weapons to ultimately kill them by decapitation or by hanging. Or to have them become slaves after much torture if not just killed.

“If you are not joking, you are quite the hypocrite.”

“According to the Geneva Convention… We will secure your lives, and to that end, we will mediate between the two nations.”

“I refuse. We are a military people, and to that end, we live on the battlefield and die on the battlefield. We have brought our weapons; to die anywhere except the battlefield would be a disgrace.”

“Then, why did you come to meet me?”

“What?”

The man asked in silence to the young shogun of the empire’s forces.

“… Did you not think of wanting to save your subordinates?”

“First, let me say:”

Rihyalda seethed with anger like a carnivorous beast, and with a glint in her eye faced him.

“With such worthless, virgin words, I definitely cannot accept that our officers and soldiers would lose to the likes of you!”

She pulled out the magic sword from her waist.

Kuze got the rifle that was on his shoulders into his hands. But, he could not shoot it. At point-blank range against a real, flesh-and-blood human, he hesitated to shoot.

Kuze fully realized the meaning of her words when she called him a “hypocrite.” Even though she is before him with criminal intent, he can’t shoot the young lady. Even if he could shoot those empire soldiers trying to kill the children, he could not bring himself to shoot the beautiful female shogun.

But, hesitating to kill or injure someone on the battlefield at point-blank range is not rare in reality. Without all of the conditions present in such an imminent situation, one cannot shoot another person. The current Kuze let his guilt overcome his defensive instinct.

“Scream out, my blade! I entrust this to your all-consuming flames!”

Flames clad Rihyalda’s sword. It was the magic sword Balmanx. The spirit of the sublimely brutal flames were sealed in a blue jewel implanted in the blade of the sword. Rihyalda’s ancestor, Count Gunther, is held in high esteem as a hero, even in the empire, for protecting the eastern border at the Mars fort with just a hundred soldiers.

The Balmanx was the weapon he used. It was said that the creator found it when he was an adventurer inside the maze of Saalal. Even if you kill with magic, even if you fight the undead and vengeful spirits as your allies, this sword will not lose.

“The only place for a military soldier to die is on the battlefield! Take this, knight from another world!”

She challenged him to one-on-one combat. She expected to fight with honor by crossing swords with a knight. But, in the next moment, she felt something pierce her body.

“Eh…?”

Suddenly, with a jerk, she lost the power in her body. After a slight delay, she heard a dry sound in her ears. When she looked at her own chest, there was a hole in her armor. She thought back.

“Invisible arrows”: was the report of what caused commanders one after the other to fall.

“Guagh!?”

The moment she realized he got her, she spit out blood and fell right at that spot.

Kuze looked over her and was dumbfounded with his still-prepared gun.

“Se-second Lieutenant Kuze, I-I…”

Ichinose, who had been watching over the situation from the minaret, had his quivering voice come over on the wireless communication device. Kuze was taken aback. Ichinose had fulfilled his duty as a sniper in the SDF, which is to “protect the allied commander.”

He also hesitated, like Kuze, to shoot Rihyalda, whom he saw from his scope. Kuze thought back to Katou. The upper commander entrusted him to either have the courage to shoot or to choose the path of fleeing. Kuze faced the wireless communication device and spoke in the only expression he could.

“Ichinose! Thanks for saving me!”

“Eh..?”

“Sorry, it was because of my usual habit of having the safety on. If you didn’t shoot, I would be dead.”

(EN: … I hate him, but quick thinking there…)

He said this, and, even if just a little, it relieved some of the young private Ichinose’s guilt. Ichinose, on the other side of the communication, didn’t give any sign as to whether he was celebratory or in agony over it like usual, as he stayed silent at first.

“Are you alright?! Kuze-dono!”

Kuze understood that Karuda was coming from behind him. Kuze turned around, and she was relieved to see he wasn’t hurt.

——And.

“Fu… Fu…”

Lying face-up on the ground, looking at the sky while near-death, Rihyalda flatly laughed. Karuda squinted her eyes and walked over to where she was.

“What’s so funny, invader?”

“This unsightly death… Is…”

Karuda laughed through her nose, and prepared her spear.

“Go in peace. To an invader, this is too much charity.”

As though Karuda’s words may not have entered her ears, Rihyalda fixed her gaze to Kuze.

“Yes, shogun?”

“Let me ask you one last thing…”

Kuze nodded.

“For what purpose did you hold your weapon?”

Kuze was startled. In this world and in his original world, not a single person had asked him that in such a straightforward manner. He wanted to smooth over the issue. But, he thought doing such a thing to a person about to die would be shameful. Kuze honestly answered.

“This might be a selfish reason, but it is to protect someone I wanted to protect.”

To protect the country, might be the answer a commander in the SDF might have to say. But, he couldn’t do that. Ultimately, he didn’t hold the courage to do such a thing if there wasn’t someone nearby that he wanted to protect.

Even if he was about to get killed himself, he probably couldn’t pull the trigger. After Rihyalda let out a dry laugh, she vomited a large amount of blood.

“… I too… Was once like that.”

After saying these parting words, Rihyalda died. Karuda watched the enemy general with a complicated expression. Kuze bent down near her body. And, he closed her open eyes.

“… Karuda-san.”

“Yes?”

“People sure are quick to die, eh, on the battlefield…”

“Kuze-dono…”

Presently, Kuze made a decisive expression and raised his head. He returned to the barricade and grabbed a megaphone.

“Tell the empire’s officers and soldiers! That they must retreat from this nation, or order that they surrender after disarmament! In the case that they will not obey, we will not decline a decisive battle! Do they want to become like those dragon people?!”

Kuze’s exclamation reverberated into the castle. The pride of the empire’s elite soldiers was already shattered. No matter how st.u.r.dy, to no longer have a commander in whom you put so much trust into will break you. Morale break. That fear and despair which renders an army unable to function properly ruled over them.

“H… H… Her excellency the shogun has..”

“I-i-it’s the end…it’s already the end…”

Covered in black armor, one after another the knights who were supposed to be without peer in this world let out words of lament.

“Karuda-san.”

Kuze looked at Karuda with serious eyes.

“What?”

“If even one non-resistant person among them gets killed, then we will be their allies, you know.”

The Mariisua soldiers were startled. But, Karuda just nodded without reproach. It was not because she feared Kuze.

“Agreed. I will protect that agreement on my honor.”

The resistance from her countrymen was inevitable, but that is why she swore. It was not out of a sense of being indebted to the ones who saved her country or a sense of fear at the power that broke the empire’s army that she swore such. It was just that she trusted this young man. She faced the enemy and raised her voice.

“Throw away your weapons! If you do so, we shall spare your lives!”

The empire’s soldiers, perhaps because of a sense of security from these words, scrambled to start to throw away their weapons. Usually, at the end of a battle there were only the victors and the dead. Being prepared for that, then being given hope to live make one want to hold onto that hope: it was human nature.

Especially on a battlefield when one cannot hope for victory. Many Mariisua soldiers viewed the scene together in wonder. But, one group was seen making uneasy movements. There was a thirst for blood. It was from the resentment for having their mates and family killed. But, Karuda noticed and yelled.

“On my name, those who lynch anyone or run away from here will be treated as though they have rebelled against upper command.”

To such force, they faced the empire’s non-resistant forces and had no choice but to give it up.

“It’s over…is it?’

Together with the refugees, Katou showed his face unexpectedly from the corridor from the throne room.

“I give permission to throw away your weapons with both hands raised and come here! Those who don’t do this, stay where you are!”

At Karuda’s words, beginning slowly, then immediately in large groups, those soldiers for the empire who had thrown away their weapons did so with a troubled expression. Somehow it looks to be over, said Katou, and he stroked down his chest.

Even if those who wanted to rebel existed, they couldn’t overwhelm the Mariisua forces. In enemy territory, for a defeated organization to get back up and fight is surely impossible.

“Oh boy, the aftermath seems very troublesome… Huh?”

Katou had a bad feeling about one person going towards his direction.

“… Is he laughing?”

That man was walking to where Rihyalda’s body lay

“That was a terrible last moment, eh, shogun Rihyalda?”

The robed man seemed to be speaking in a sincerely happy tone to the corpse lying there. And, he saw one sword. The magic sword Balmanx. The sword Rihyalda had held with the blue jewel embedded into it. He—Genful—laughed. That weapon fit Rihyalda’s overwhelming charisma.

“I’ll do in those monsters from another world.”

The man stared at the strange boat floating in the bay.

“Kuku… But your death won’t be useless.”

Genful took something out of his pocket. It was an old crystal ball. It was a beautifully polished orb.

“It’s quite a fine church, eh, shogun?”

He said as though it were just common chatter, and he lifted up the sword covered in soot. He could feel the pulse of the sword’s magic power. He thought it was almost as if it was rejecting him. Perhaps a normal human could not easily hold it. However, he was a magic user. What’s more, he was fairly high-cla.s.s, too. He was used to such resistance.

“A festival for the downfall of Brominia, such quite a discovery is to be found as the present of that nation’s idiots.”

He was talking about how the insistence of trying to take the throne was thanks to the knight unit missing the court mages.

“It’s because they think they are the center of the world. If I were destroyed or even if the world were destroyed, they probably would not think it matters. Using the archive, the magic of the ‘people of the wings’ was used to call forth those monsters to this world.”

Genful lifted his crystal ball and stared into it.

“Yes, they are not of this world, shogun. In the case that you would die, I was ordered to settle the affairs.”

He continued to speak of Rihyalda’s magic sword. He was colored by the intoxication of madness.

“We must maintain the balance of this world. They are an existence we cannot have in this world. They are an existence that bends this world and calls for chaos in it.”

Genful saw a mountain of corpses.

“Ultimately, you were unable to stop them. So, I will offer to settle everything.”

He lovingly stared into his crystal ball, and noticed that the magic sword is shaking. Strong, frightening magic power was put into that crystal ball. The magic sword probably feels that.

“Kukuku… Have you ever heard of the fairy tale of the ‘falling stars’? It has been relayed to me that those people of the wings that are said to be destroyed used the ‘eye of the shooting star’ as a controlled weapon to rain down and hit rebels and savage tribes. No one believes the fairy tale… My church disagrees. The reason is because… It is right here… That ‘eye of the shooting star’.”

He put his hands out towards the sky and saw something in the crystal ball. It was not just a reflection of the sky’s scenery. In that crystal was a universe.

“This crystal itself is a magical tool of destruction, the controlling weapon the ‘falling star’, the ‘eye of the shooting star’.”

He took a commanding view of the burning city.

“If peace for this world is attainable by the vanishing of one country, then it would be quite cheap a price to pay.”

And, he thrust Rihyalda’s sword, which he had been holding in his hand, into the ground.

“I am happy. I am, right now, about to move to save the world after all.”

He laid bare the workings of his heart and mind by himself:

“You disdained me, but I also want to protect! The empire, the world!”

He held the crystal in both hands and started to focus his mind. The sweat on his forehead is not just because where he is standing is hot. This magic weapon is too strong for him alone to handle. And, he also understood that.

“To control this comes with a price. That price is my own life. But, I don’t mind. That is because my name will always be pa.s.sed on in my church. Against those enemies from another world that the elites could not defeat, I will exchange my life to become a martyr!”

He didn’t have plans on a safe return. This is the death he hoped for. Immediately, his body started to shake. His heart beating fast, blood vessels show on his skin. While his focus was reaching its limits, the “eye of the shooting star” entered into Genful’s body.

And, the direct absorption of Genful began. Even with this, it is not enough. There is a need to supplement it with more. Genful was covered in darkness. The darkness, as though it l.u.s.ted insatiably after the corpses scattered around, began to take them in. Devouring fresh blood and regret, the darkness swelled.

“Wh-what!? What’s happening?!”

A young man from the parallel world yelled. Genful was noticed by him, and Genful shook in a sense of superiority.

——Now, he has become a being that transcends everything. And, Genful was swallowed up by the darkness, and became the darkness itself. However, somehow he managed to successfully gain control. He gushed with the greatest sense of achievement.

“Haha, hahahaha! Now… Monsters from another world, disappear with this country!”

Feeling danger, Hamieea, who had run out to the terrace of the castle, was terrified upon seeing the sky dyed red. If this world were to come to its end, surely this would be the color of the sky at that time. At least, this was the embodiment of this nation’s “end”.

Sweat formed on Hamieea’s brown forehead. Being quite the erudite girl, she knew that this color had some meaning. In the literature of the ancient legends, there are repeated hints that one can see.

“’Falling star’, is it?! That confounded empire! Dost thou desire so desperately to destroy this country?”

A maid rushed over to the girl crushed by despair.

“Y-your Highness, it is dangerous here! Please take refuge in the bas.e.m.e.nt!”

“… Will not the meteor destroy places like the castle and its bas.e.m.e.nts when it falls here?”

At that moment, Hamieea made a face fitting for her age. No matter how you struggle, the “falling star” was an attack that one could not be saved from no matter the measures one took.

“Even if they be military forces from realms beyond ours… This probably shalt remain impossible…”

She powerlessly bent her knees and sat on the terrace.

At the same time, Katou also squinted at the red sky. He had received communication from the fleet and knew that a meteorite was coming to fall on them. But, even for someone like him with knowledge in the “scientific” world, it was an unbelievable sight.

But, given his what can be called a talent for adaptability, he could accept this as reality. And, he thought  it could be a form of attack that had such a meteorite fall.

“Somehow, they’ve managed to have the meteorite pinpoint this location…!”

Katou’s guess was already about there.

With a handle on his occupation as a military member who rode on a destroyer, he grew an interest in how to guide attacks from long distances.

Even if this was brought about via magic, to have the meteorite target him and his crew to fall there must have a fitting difficulty, he thought. Somehow, the source of gravity for the thing might have to be around here.

“…No, it’s definitely like that.”

He looked at the sky’s disaster and glared at that monster that appeared.

“There’s no other choice.”

There was not a strange man who always didn’t seem like a self-defense force leader staring at his surroundings with weird eyes, but a major staff officer for the fleet burning with pa.s.sion for his mission.

He would definitely not give up. The purely self-defense policy – which is what the SDF has accepted and which guides it in all its ways without going beyond it – to a heart open to the truth, means to destroy a nation’s forces. After all, if a basic deal cannot be made, you cannot work to decrease a little the damage that is to be done.

“Commander Kaburagi… We’re counting on you.”

He stared at the Aegis warship floating in the bay

In the same hour——

The Aegis cla.s.s destroyer, the “Ibuki”. The main objective of the enemy has been surrendered, and suddenly the operations specialist overlooking the radar at the now-loosened up CIC raised his voice to yell.

“C-commander!”

“What is it?”

Kaburagi sent the same worried voice his subordinate had used right back at him.

“There’s a slight reading on the radar! There is a possibility it is a flying corps from outside the atmosphere!”

“What?!”

No one could imagine what this really meant. However, there was only a common bad feeling among those present.

“Get a precise reading on the target.”

“Roger!”

The waves of the 3D radar, which go in every direction, were focused only on the target. This method is possible because there were no other enemies around.

“Th… This is!?”

At the result of the data a.n.a.lysis, the crew member grew pale.

“I-it’s a meteorite! A huge meteorite is falling towards us!”

“Meteorite!?”

The CIC was confused. The spontaneously developed photo was too real. A meteorite at this time was falling, and what is more, towards them. They didn’t understand how this would be possible at all, but they imagined it was somehow some sort of artificial attack by an enemy.

The Aegis System’s super computer calculated the destructive force of the falling meteorite and displayed the result. Upon seeing it, everyone was at a loss for words. It was an energy that would rival that of an atomic attack.

——They can’t be saved. They are on the verge of danger that is incomparable to earlier. Understanding this, the crew members’ faces became stiff. Despair ruled all of their hearts. There was no wondering at what to do. It was an atmosphere of everyone looking at each other and seeming to want to cry out. But, Kaburagi calmly asked.

“What is the projected time of impact?”

“A-about 20 minutes, we think!”

“Gah…!”

To the display of the estimated simulation of the meteorite’s fall, Kaburagi could only hold in his uneasiness.

A man sharing Katou’s thoughts was on the ship. If he weren’t wearing the black uniform of a marine leader and the gray life jacket, he’d look like a handsome middle-aged man. He was brilliant, but his on-the-spot, tactlessly straight-forward decision making unfortunately made him a SDF leader who couldn’t have a good career. He—Kaburagi—getting ahead of his worry, declared the next step to take.

“Activate the Ballistic Missile Defense System.”

“Y-yes!?”

The weapons officer who had accepted the order doubted his sincerity and soundness, and he reflexively looked at his face. In this unusual circ.u.mstance of having a meteorite coming to fall on you , many crew members had lost their composure. Kaburagi, knowing this, dished out some sound judgment.

The subordinates who fell into panic completely would cling to a calm commander. That was taken into account.

“Standard Missile 3, prepare to launch.”

Kaburagi was not being impatient. Still, there was something left for them to do. People have a strange mentality when “fate” gives them a large thing to stand against, where they give up or do nothing, or devote themselves to their own skin.

Kaburagi hated that. Being a man on the sea, he could not permit such an abject mentality. Fight and struggle until the end! Kaburagi is a good-natured man and doesn’t talk much about this, but he is a person who has some pa.s.sion in his heart.

(EN: That’s a man there! You see that, Kuze! Be like Kaburagi! Stop taking the girls!)

“R-roger! SM3, standby!”

The weapons officer, while making a face as though he didn’t understand the reason, doubted the command. The SM3 is an Intercontinental Ballistic missile which is launched to intercept an object a long distance away outside of the atmosphere: it is an extremely long-range attack missile.

The Aegis system includes GM software built-in, which allows for the launching and is cutting-edge in the field of defensive weaponry. But, it technically has unfinished parts at this point, which makes it highly possible that the attack will be difficult.

It can be said to be as difficult as shooting a bullet from a pistol straight up and having the casing fall back into the same barrel.

“Launch with everything you’ve got!”

Kaburagi ordered. The weapons officer was dismayed.

“Y… You don’t mean to attack the meteorite!?”

Kaburagi affirmed it silently. It would be an unprecedented attempt. But, he had appraised the chances of success. It was like a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV), except with only one target, not multiple.

Also, it was not as if you could detach the ballistic part of the missiles and have only the warheads fall. In short, this meteorite compared to ballistic missiles is overwhelmingly enormous. With a huge target, it is easy to hit.

The possibility was 50/50.

“Preparation to launch ready!”

It was like a bet. It was a bet that one would dislike to take, but there are times in life when you have to bet.

“I approve… This launch!”

Kaburagi believed in the “Ibuki”. The “Ibuki” was built on the preconception of defense against ballistic missiles as the marine SDF’s first Aegis-cla.s.s destroyer. When suspicions concerning the “North”, to appease the international tensions around the world, the “Ibuki” was loaded to the brink with state-of-the-art tech. It is expected to be a shield to protect many people at the last moment.

(“Ibuki,” you are the last shield, even in this world…!)

In this parallel world. Against this atrocity no one can fight against., The only thing that can stop such a thing is this single destroyer with the Aegis system prepared alone. He was brought back to his memory of when he first laid eyes on the “Ibuki”. It was at the naming ceremony prior to the ship’s launching.

“The ‘Ibuki’, huh?”

“We’ve got another safe name.”

“The name of a piece of sc.r.a.p that won’t ever fire even one shot…!”

(EN: … Someone just got burned.)

Those words were whispered around. The source of the name “Ibuki” is an old Imperial j.a.panese cruiser, the “Ibuki”. It was a ship which was only halfway done being built by the end of WW2, and it was never used in even one battle by the end of its use.

But, Kaburagi was happy to be able to ride such a ship. After all, it would be a very proud thing to have your ship not get into a single battle for the Self-Defense Force. He clung onto belief in this lump of iron which held no meaning as if it were a G.o.d.

“Fiiiire!”

(EN: FAAIIYAA!!!)

The weapons officer screamed. It was not just the vessel. The life of everything in this part of the world depended on this battle.

The VLS on the deck opened, and the standard missiles took off into the sky. There were ten missiles fired. They immediately surpa.s.sed the speed of sound barrier, and rose in the sky. To launch this many SM3s at the same time is not believable under normal circ.u.mstances. But, considering the target’s largeness and how st.u.r.dy it will be, even this many makes one fear of not being adequate.

“The launch of the SM3 is confirmed: it should reach the target in 200 seconds!”

“The first stage has been purged!”

The SM3 missiles have 3 stages. The first stage of being shot via the boosters, the second stage of cruising, and the third stage of a direct hit with the equipped kinetic warhead. Its range is approximately four hundred and fifty kilometers, and its limit for ascending range is approximately two hundred and fifty kilometers.

That is, it has the ability to reach s.p.a.ce.

(EN: (♥ ͜ʖ♥))

The radar screen on the “Ibuki” displayed the attacking missile and the meteorite. The distance between the two was gradually shrinking.

“Second stage, the rocket is cut off! The nose cone is released. It has activated its kinetic warhead!”

Thirty seconds before reaching the target, the second stage releases the nose cone and activates stage three. Crossing many kilometers per second, they moved to meet their target at frightening speeds, and they were sure to be able to hit their target as they were able to make fine adjustments in their courses with highly precise seekers that used infrared lasers.

At that point in time, thirty seconds.

That is, after thirty seconds, everything will be decided. In the well air-conditioned CIC, the crew members had sweat pouring on their foreheads and the napes of their necks due to being nervous.

“B-before the counter attack, 10 seconds…”

The wildly sighing member in charge of the attack reported. Already, on the screen, the target and the missiles were set to meet up neatly. Finally, they broke into the steps of the countdown.

“Five…four…three…two…standby…”

With his fist grasping onto the desk really tightly, Kaburagi closed his eyes forcefully. Their fate, no, the fate of thousands, tens of thousands, millions of people in this country would be determined in that second, and none of them can look up at the result. The scream of the crew member in charge of the firing reached their ears.

“——Mark, intercepted!”

Light shone in the sky.

(EN: Sayonara, ryuusei-chan!)