“We finished it!”
The massive wall rising like a blade through the Great Forest.
Alicia stared up at it with a look of pure satisfaction.
About five days since they had arrived on site.
The construction delay had been completely made up, and somehow — barely — the wall had been finished before the Crawlers came.
“Thanks to your cooperation. We’ll acknowledge that much.”
“……That’s a funny way to put it. You could stand to be a little more grateful.”
“Come on — don’t bite at everything.”
Misha snapped back at the faintly condescending remark, and Alicia smoothed it over from the side.
That Elves tended to look down on others was already an established fact.
They were about to fight together — getting irritated over something this minor would get old fast.
“So what’s the plan from here? Do we hold this position and wait for the Crawlers?”
“We’ll send up the aerial corps.”
“The aerial corps?”
The unfamiliar term made Alicia ask again immediately.
Maruela let out a self-satisfied little hm.
“A branch of combat that the Ethereas Mage Kingdom invented — nothing else like it. They’re about to launch, so watch.”
“Understood. Let’s take a look then.”
Alicia and the others moved to somewhere out of the way.
Before long, the Elves came hauling in something that looked like small boats.
Each had small wings mounted on the sides, giving them the silhouette of a flying fish.
They set them down in the square in front of the wall and climbed aboard one after another.
“Launch!!”
The moment Maruela gave the order, the mages aboard raised their staves.
Wind immediately began to blow around them.
It built steadily, until it was strong enough to make it hard to keep your eyes open.
And then——
“They’re floating!”
“Well……so that’s how they fly.”
The boats lifted from the ground and took off — slowly at first, then accelerating, until they shot up to a vast height in no time.
Once they reached sufficient altitude, the vessels adjusted position and arranged themselves in a circle.
“Those are called airships. We keep three rotations in the air continuously to monitor for Crawlers.”
“From that height they’d have an enormous view. But how do you communicate with the ground?”
The airships floating high above were already the size of dots.
Even shouting at the top of your lungs, a conversation would be impossible.
Maruela produced a small mirror from her pocket.
“This is a light-based magic tool. We signal with flashes.”
As she said it, the mirror flared with rapid bursts of light.
The blinding flashes made Alicia and the others instinctively shut their eyes.
That would work fine for exchanging signals with ships that far away.
“Clever — well thought out.”
“But why are there five of them? Even as spares, isn’t that too many?”
“That’s because the airships aren’t only for reconnaissance——”
Before Maruela could finish, one of the airships began flashing.
The moment she saw it, her expression went rigid.
“What is it?”
“Enemy contact to the southwest! Estimated count — one billion!!”
“……Here they come!”
“Knight order, to your positions! Mage corps — begin Keraunos launch preparations immediately!”
Maruela snapped out orders rapidly.
Alicia immediately relayed commands to the Lancelot-types and moved up to the wall.
She put her binoculars to her eyes, and far in the distance she could see something churning and moving.
It looked like water creeping forward — a tide rolling in.
The sheer number and density of enemies stripped the sight of any sense of reality.
“So that’s them. Like the sea coming in……”
“Let me see!”
“Here.”
“……Ugh!! There are more of them than trees in the forest!”
The sight exceeded anything Misha had imagined, and her face went pale.
From what she could see — roughly seven parts black, three parts green.
……Was there anything in existence that could win against numbers like that?
Could they even be stopped?
The simple question crossed Misha’s mind.
The wall that had seemed so reassuring moments ago now looked like a small sandcastle before an incoming wave.
“At this point, the Elves’ magic is what we’re counting on.”
“That area-destruction spell……I want to see what it can do.”
The moment Misha murmured it.
High above, a massive magic circle in the shape of a pentagram unfurled.
Glowing blue-white, it appeared to be activated using the five airships as anchor points.
Then from the ground, a beam of light shot upward to pierce through its center.
“What is that……!!”
“They’re feeding magical energy from the ground! The amount of mana is insane!”
Misha turned to look and saw the mages behind the wall chanting with everything they had.
Beneath their feet too, a massive magic circle had spread out — and from its center a pillar of light rose toward the sky.
The magic circles were gathering the casters’ mana, converting it to light, and sending it upward.
The sheer density of magical energy was enough to make even a skilled mage like Misha feel it in her bones.
“Mana charge complete! Ready to fire at any time!”
“……Burn them all!!”
On Maruela’s order, her subordinate sent the signal to the airships.
The next instant——
“Whoa——!?”
“Ah——!?”
From high above, an endless cascade of lightning came pouring down onto the Crawler swarm.