[148] Forceful Breakthrough (3)
"Heh heh. Still, I'd like to see them make it this far. Right, Yuna? I'm dying to see the look on that brat's face when he sees me."
"Please—save me. Send me home."
Yuna knelt and begged Marsha. Her subordinates' attitude made it obvious who ran the organization.
"It's okay. Don't be afraid."
"So you'll send me home?"
"Of course. It's noisy outside right now, so when things settle down I'll send you back. But could big sister ask one favor first?"
"A favor?"
Marsha stepped up to Yuna and stroked her head. Gradually Yuna's eyelids drooped and her focus blurred.
"Huh? Huh?"
Yuna didn't even notice she was closing her eyes. A ringing filled her ears, and before she knew it she lost consciousness.
Catching Yuna as she toppled forward, Marsha looked down at her kindly, then turned her head and let a cold smile spread across her face.
"Heh heh. We're going to start a fun little game now."
* * *
Falcoa's men were coarse and violent. As if fear meant nothing to them, they shrugged off mediocre blows and waved their swords recklessly.
"Attack with the Thunder Formation! Charge!"
Their main tactic was guerrilla war. They alternated offense and defense in zigzags to distribute stamina—an especially brutal method for Shirone and his inexperienced group.
But the point of guerrilla warfare wasn't the ambushes so much as the retreats. The bastards had no intention of fighting a straight-up battle.
"Disengage the Thunder Formation! Fall back for now!"
"Where do you think you're running off to?!"
Amy fired Flame Strike after Flame Strike. The enemies' bodies flashed and burst into blinding light that shot into the sky. A high, tearing whistle cut across the heavens.
"Ugh, this is irritating! We missed them again."
Stomping in frustration, Amy got a hand on her shoulder from Rian for consolation.
"They're committing everything now. Their numbers are swelling, so Yuna should be safe for the moment. That's good for us."
Shirone looked over at his friends.
"First, check our status. Anyone injured?"
You had to visually confirm injuries. In a street brawl you might notice a nosebleed, but in life-or-death combat so much endorphin is released that they might not feel pain.
The four checked each other and, after confirming no serious injuries, let out a sigh of relief.
But the enemies hadn't taken casualties either. No matter how hard they pressed, the opponents vanished like ghosts at the decisive moment.
"We haven't knocked down a single one so far. That could work against us in future fights."
Amy laid out what she'd observed.
"I watched them. The secret's in the bracelets they're wearing. They're definitely devices that trigger spatial teleportation."
Shirone frowned skeptically.
"Is that possible? It's not the same as magic bullets. Teleportation is a mage's spell. Without a Spirit Zone you can't set a destination, and you shouldn't even be able to activate it."
Amy had her doubts too, but strictly speaking it wasn't impossible.
"Maybe… they're linked to magic circles."
A magic circle is a diagram that imprints a specific image into space and makes it radiate mana on its own. With the power of a magic circle, even non-mages can use magic.
"You can't cast teleportation with a mere magical trinket. But if it's linked to a magic circle recorded at a specific location, then in theory it's possible."
Shirone, who understood the concept, nodded. Tess, however, thought along a different line.
"Could a fallen mercenary band pull that off? As far as I know, magic circles take enormous manpower and money. And teleportation is high-level magic, right?"
"Right. It's probably a mid-level circle. Drawing one takes the labor of at least five mages working a whole day. But they could do it. Falcoa monopolizes the Loop. The mercenaries we met in the ruins said the Loop's margins are huge. They fortified their base by selling drugs. That would explain all of this."
"How much did those bastards make selling drugs? One magic circle can't cover that range."
Tess's doubt made sense. Shirone replayed their battles so far.
The first fight in the valley was where the enemies first fled. There were retreats in the forest, and they teleported again here.
"If we calculate the distances they cover, there must be at least hundreds of magic circles."
"Hu—hundreds?"
Tess gaped. A mid-level circle needing five mages a day—if there were hundreds of them, how much coin had been poured into this land?
"Surely they didn't blow that much money. Based on distance, dozens would be enough. If there really are hundreds of circles, then we could never catch them in any situation."
Then realization hit Tess and she slapped her palm to her forehead.
"Oh! Right!"
"See? They made it so they can't be caught, no matter what. They networked the whole northern forest. If we keep fighting like this, our smaller numbers will wear out first. We'll collapse before reaching the summit."
Her hatred for those who sold drugs to strengthen their fortresses flared, but now wasn't the time for emotion. They needed a cool solution.
"So what do we do? Maybe we should erase the magic circles. If the enemies always escape when we fight, rushing in won't work."
Amy shook her head. Tess's idea was reasonable, but another problem remained.
"It's difficult. A magic circle is a record inscribed in space. To remove one you can't just wipe away a drawing—you have to raze that space. Doing that to hundreds of circles could take days."
Tess bit her lip, understanding at last. When a small group faces a larger force, you have to whittle down their numbers. But these bastards had preemptively blocked that option.
Unexpectedly siding with Tess, Shirone raised his hand.
"No, it's worth trying. Let's erase at least one."
"Try? Even if we erase one out of hundreds, it won't change anything."
"That's our stance, but maybe the enemy thinks differently. If they spent that much effort building a network, they'd hate losing even a single circle. They might swarm to defend the spot."
"Ah, I get it! High-level psychological warfare!"
Tess quickly caught Shirone's plan. War is often a money game, but the side with deeper pockets doesn't always win—human psychology complicates things.
The more you have to protect, the more your resolve weakens. For example, spending a fortune to train one elite soldier is worthless if you're too stingy to ever deploy him.
That happens in wars: people pour money into preparation, then panic about wasting it and fail to send elites, letting cheap troops take the fort.
Amy analyzed Shirone's plan: if you can't chase them, lure them. It was the most feasible move. But it didn't fix the underlying problem.
"We have to think in terms of efficiency. I didn't say this earlier because I thought destroying magic circles was non-negotiable, but nullifying a circle's effect is much trickier than you think."
Rian planted his sword's hilt into the ground.
"Can't I just slash the earth until the circle's gone?"
"That won't be enough. The magic circle we see is just the symbolic trace of a concept."
Shirone, who had caught Amy's point, defined it clearly.
"So unless you destroy the space itself enough that the circle's concept disappears, the circle won't vanish, right?"
"Exactly. There are two main ways to destroy a magic circle. One, neutralize the concept itself with a dispelling spell; or two, smash the circle until its concept decomposes. The former is beyond us; the latter just takes time."
Tess understood why Amy hesitated.
"So in the end, destroying a single circle takes more effort than just charging straight through? It's less efficient?"
"Right. If you can't obliterate it within ten minutes, it's probably better to go as planned. Still, exploiting the enemy's psychology is a good basic idea."
Once they'd shared the necessary information, conversation dwindled. In this kind of situation, following one opinion made sense. Rian looked to Shirone for his call.
"What do you want to do, Shirone?"
Shirone had to decide. With a hostage taken, haste mattered, but being too greedy could doom the rescue.
"Destroy the circle. I'll try."
When Shirone finally voiced his decision, Amy looked at him in surprise.
Shirone's strength was insight, not slavish devotion to probabilities. He didn't ignore odds entirely—he judged the chance of destroying a magic circle within ten minutes at under ten percent.
"Are you sure? You don't have a spell that can do that in time."
The strongest spell Shirone currently had was the Photon Cannon. But concentrating light with mass wasn't enough to bear the weight of the earth.
If he fired it at super-high speed, maybe he could destroy one in ten minutes. But the mental exhaustion would put them at a disadvantage in the fights to come.
Another option would be a laser, but Amy was skeptical.
A spell that localizes energy to excite molecular vibrations can destroy material regardless of durability, but its effective area is limited.
"I'll try. I have an idea."
Amy couldn't picture how Shirone planned to destroy a magic circle, but for now it was best to trust him. His intuitive accounting of variables rarely missed.
If they wanted more certainty, someone like Iruki would have been ideal. Since Iruki wasn't here, if Shirone's plan failed it would have to be accepted as unavoidable.
Amy nodded.
"Okay. Tess and I will move as one pair; Shirone and Rian as the other. Keep fifty meters between the pairs. Use teleport to scout around. Find the magic circles."
"Got it. But be careful. If you focus only on distance you could run into other cover. Teleporting through a forest is dangerous."
Even Shirone, a teleport specialist, needed intense concentration to cross a forest that way. Amy snapped, sounding annoyed.
"Who do you think I am worried about? Don't tell me you think I'm one of those supernatural types."
Her words were meant to ease Shirone's concern, and they weren't entirely wrong. Amy was a graduating senior who had mastered impassable crossings, and with her crimson eyes the chance of accidental collisions was slim.