Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 6 (28 page)

Wearing camouflage to conceal herself in the grasslands, Mikoto took advantage of the chaos of battle to approach the castle unseen.

Thanks to Lyu’s distraction, she was able to climb over the rubble on the north side of the castle and get inside. Holding a rustic longsword in one hand, she ran into the damaged remains of the base of a lookout tower. Small piles of debris had accumulated inside, but she simply jumped over them.

“
Fear, strong and winding—
”

Then she began
casting while running
.

“A sneak attack—! Another enemy coming in from the north!”

The prum Luan was the first to recognize the danger and alerted his allies to Mikoto’s presence.

She used the stairwells inside the tower to emerge on the roof of the inner sanctum, all the while keeping her eyes locked on the strange tower where the enemy general was waiting on his throne. Her enemies moved to surround her and cut off her advance.

“
I call upon the god, the destroyer of any and all, for guidance from the heavens. Grant this trivial body divine power beyond power.
”

“That one’s got a magic sword, too! She’s going for Hyacinthus!”

Luan’s keen eyes had caught sight of the unorthodox weapon in her grip. Members of
Apollo Familia
swarmed in, flooding the roof from both sides.

“
Saving, purifying light. Bring forth the evil-crushing blade!
”

Arrows and spells shot from higher towers peppered the stone roof at her feet. Mikoto pushed on, the song of her spell dancing on the breeze.

Heat welled up as magic energy swirled within her body, splashing with every step and hit taken. Her skin was slick with sweat, droplets flying in her wake.

“—?”

“Hey! That’s no magic sword!”

An archer fired an arrow from below and managed to hit the longsword dead on. The blade snapped on impact.

Her ruse was over. The next wave of arrows ripped the camouflage clean off her back and exposed her lithe limbs. The attacks of her pursuers intensified; arrows buried themselves in her battle cloth and spells burned her tender skin. Fragments of stones flying through the air left cuts and bruises on her face and neck.

She almost fell countless times, but never did she stop conjuring her spell. Mikoto pressed forward at full speed.

“
Bow to the blade of suppression, the mythical sword of subjugation.
”

Every nerve on fire, Mikoto conducted a very unpolished Concurrent Casting. There was a very real danger of Ignis Fatuus—unstable magic energy exploding before release. Every attack that connected, every step she took made even more energy churn within her. She was already on the brink.

Keeping the magic energy under control through sheer willpower, a memory flashed within Mikoto’s eyes: the song of the “Gale Wind.”

The exquisite melody produced by that amazing warrior while engaged in fierce combat with a strong enemy was still ringing in her ears. Mikoto had seen the next level; she had sworn to do whatever it took to reach that plateau.

No matter how many arrows hit her, how many spells barred her path, she would grit her teeth and press on.

Conjure and run—that was all. That fairy warrior managed to attack, move, dodge, and cast her spell at the same time. But that was still a distant dream, one that she would never realize if she failed to complete her mission. What’s more, she would be unable to face her new allies should she come up short.

More and more enemies emerged from the castle. Mikoto forced her legs to move even faster.

“
I summon you here now, by name.
”

Mikoto raced across the stone roof. Knowing full well that she would be unable to finish her spell if drawn into combat, she made a hard turn and rushed toward the central tower, arriving at the castle’s inner courtyard.

Doing her best to evade incoming arrows and keeping her eyes focused on the looming tower, she jumped off the roof and into the air.

“
Descend from the heavens, seize the earth—
”

Enemy warriors appeared in the courtyard, emerged from the castle, jumped down from the roof in hot pursuit.

The threat of a magic sword had drawn them in. The adventurers in the courtyard looked up at the girl in the air as she focused her gaze toward the clouds.

Countless sets of eyes on her, Mikoto finished her incantation.

“
—Shinbu Tousei
!”

A wave of magic energy was released the moment Mikoto landed in the courtyard. Her enemies only gawked for an instant and threw their swords, spears, axes, or anything else on hand in a desperate attempt to silence her before she could flip the trigger, but it was too late.

The wave spread out fifty meders in every direction, maximum range.

A glimmering pillar of light in the shape of a sword appeared above Mikoto’s head—her Magic had been activated.

“
Futsu no Tama!
”

Many rings of light shot out from beneath her as the sword of violet light came crashing down to her feet.

An immense gravity field forced all of the airborne weapons straight to the ground before they could find their target. All adventurers within the outer ring, including Mikoto herself, fell to the ground under the tremendous weight.

“Gh-gahhhhhhh…?!”

The adventurers trapped underneath the violet dome generated from the top of the sword cried out in pain.

Apollo Familia
members who had been lucky enough to be outside the ring launched arrows and threw even more blades at Mikoto, but all of them crashed to the ground the moment they hit the light purple barrier. “
Ka-ting!
” The sound of metal on stone echoed throughout the courtyard. Humans, elves, and animal people inside the outer ring fell to their knees, some on all fours as they fought to keep their heads upright under the insane pressure of Mikoto’s gravity magic.

The girl had her fists clenched, feet planted firmly on the ground as she endured the full brunt of her own spell.

“Are you freakin’ serious…?!”

Self-sacrifice.

By getting caught up in her own Magic, she had managed to capture every adventurer inside the courtyard and keep them there for as long as she could hold out.

Mikoto watched as more and more of the adventurers collapsed. However, she didn’t budge at all. Her eyes met the closest human’s gaze as he howled at her.

In the middle of this test of endurance, Mikoto responded in a resolute voice.

“You shall remain here with me for the time being…!”

“Stay strong, Mikoto…”

Takemikazuchi watched the battle from a mirror he’d summoned into his
Familia
’s home.

“Hang in there…”

“She plans to keep the enemies in the courtyard?”

Chigusa and Ouka were by his side, grimacing as they watched the sweat pouring down Mikoto’s face.

Twenty-two enemy combatants had been trapped inside Mikoto’s gravity cage. Anything that touched the outer layer of Futsu no Tama, be it physical or magical, instantly came crashing to the ground. Nothing was coming close to the magic user at its center, which meant that the spell would not be broken until she collapsed from exhaustion.

Including the group that had gone to engage Lyu during the magic-sword attack,
Apollo Familia
’s forces had been cut by almost 80 percent.

—At the same time on the thirtieth floor of Babel Tower…

Hermes spoke as he followed the tides of battle on the mirror in front of him. “Much too fast.”

“What is?”

“Team Apollo’s movements. They’re reacting too quickly.”

His eyes jumped from person to person reflected in the mirror as he responded to Asfi’s question.

“How they responded as a group to the power of Crozzo’s Magic Swords, how they all ganged up to stop little Mikoto’s sneak attack—don’t you find it a little odd? It’s almost like…they’re being guided somehow.”

Asfi’s eyes went wide in recognition as Hermes looked away from the battle to enjoy the look on her face.

“Information is a weapon in war.”

“The better the quality, and the faster word comes in, it can be the ultimate trump card.”

“However, should a little bit of
poison
be mixed in with said information…it spreads much faster.”

Asfi exchanged words with her god before looking back at the mirror. Only one person was reflected inside: a prum with his head on a swivel as he ran through a hallway. Luan encountered no guards as he ran quietly to the fully intact west gate of the castle.

“Just one drop of poison can lead to unthinkable tragedy.”

Then the man opened the west gate by turning a wheel with his own hands—granting Bell and Welf entrance to the castle.

“A traitor—?!”

Townspeople all over Orario stood up, heads between their hands and jaws slack in surprise.

In the main streets, in front of the Guild, in Central Park, no one could believe what they were watching and yelled at the top of their lungs.

“That guy just betrayed
Apollo Familia
?!”

The many “windows” floating in midair showed two humans running side by side with the prum man. Everyone seemed to be drawn closer to the mirrors in shock.

An unthinkable betrayal—Bell and Welf entered the castle without any resistance whatsoever thanks to Luan. What was left of the fifty adventurers dispatched to take care of Lyu were still fighting in the east. Almost half of the castle’s remaining troops were currently trapped by Mikoto’s magic in the courtyard. The passages in the western part of the castle felt deserted. The guards who were originally stationed there must have gone to protect the heavily damaged north and east walls, creating this blind spot. One unlucky adventurer who happened to be passing through the hallway stared at the three for a moment before taking off and yelling at the top of his lungs. But he wasn’t fast enough to get away from the white rabbit and was knocked unconscious with one quick strike.

Absolutely floored by the turn of events, waves of excitement and anxiety passed through the spectators.

“Wha…Eh…Hah…?!”

A speechless Apollo was one of them.

He stood up from the table with such force that his chair flew backward, slamming to the floor behind him. Anger had boiled up inside him to the point that his face started to contort and change color as he opened and closed his mouth.

Yes…!

Hestia made sure to keep her celebration out of sight of the visibly shaking god as she silently pumped her fist beneath the table.

She gazed at all the members of
her family
with trusting eyes in the mirror in front of her.

“You get them goin’?”

The castle ruins, inside
Apollo Familia
’s castle. Welf ran up to Luan’s side.

“This is the only way Lilly can be useful.”

It was most definitely a man’s voice, but Luan’s tone was surprisingly feminine. His face was male, too, but the way he smiled at Welf was the spitting image of their young ally. Bell ran up along the other side and grinned at their unsung hero, their supporter.

Luan the traitor was actually Lilly in disguise using her magic.

The real Luan had been captured almost four days ago on the night that
Apollo Familia
first set out to the castle ruins. He was currently in a random shed outside the city wall—no doubt viewing the War Game under Miach’s watchful eyes. Lilly had taken his place, copying his voice and mannerisms to the point that no one noticed a difference. She’d been collecting information from inside the castle ever since.

She had an opportunity to reunite with Welf and the others the night before the War Game after being assigned to bring the last of the supplies into the castle. That’s when this plan all came together.

Being Level 4, Lyu would draw out half of the enemy’s forces and keep them busy while Mikoto cut the remaining forces in half yet again by restraining them inside the castle grounds.

Lilly would manipulate the commanders as well as anyone else from the inside to ensnare as many as possible in their trap. With their numbers reduced, she would then let Welf and Bell into the castle.