Volume 14, 20: Just Before the Performance

Volume 14, Chapter 20: Just Before the Performance

You continue on because you might as well

That is why you fail to realize its importance

And why it embarrasses you even if you do

It was December 25 and morning was coming to an end at Yokosuka Wharf.

American UCAT had an underground base there inside a concept space, but the area on the surface was currently being used as an anti-Leviathan transport relay base.

The base connected the forces coming from the American homeland and the large concept space surrounding the Leviathan.

A fifty kilometer tall concept space corridor had been created from Yokosuka to eastern Tokyo. Ships, fighters, and mechanical dragons would cut their stealth and enter that corridor.

They would then travel from Yokosuka to the eight locations surrounding the Leviathan.

They moved quickly and accurately.

However, this all created noise, so the wharf inside the concept space was constantly shaking.

A few figures could be seen inside the one special hangar in the wharf.

The hangar had been divided up to create living quarters and two large forms and a few dozen people were inside.

One of the large figures illuminated by the lights was a red, white, and blue mechanical dragon.

The other was a white god of war.

A girl sat at the dragon’s feet, looking outside.

She looked through the half-open hangar door to watch a gray transport ship slow down.

“There are aircraft coming from Atsugi too. It looks like the ones from Europe and Continental Asia are coming in through Iruma and Yokota. How does it look to you, Alex? Even if we are being held here as a form of imprisonment.”

The mechanical dragon named Alex turned his head just a bit toward the girl.

“If we swear to cooperate, they will let us out, Tatsumi. That was the condition Hajji asked for in exchange for providing them with information. If we cooperate, they will set aside everything we did.”

“I wonder how Hajji feels about cooperating.”

Tatsumi’s monotone voice brought a short silence from Alex.

But during that silence, Tatsumi sighed.

She then bent forward between her knees, stretched her hands forward, and took a breath.

She hung her head between her arms.

“I’m really not good with this kind of emotional trouble.”

“It’s not my favorite thing either. But…”

“But?”

“I think Hajji is closer to Mikoku than we are right now.”

Tatsumi stopped moving while still leaning forward.

“Closer to her? She wants to bring Shino back to life and now she’s trying to change the world. He may be her former comrade and might as well be family to her, but he’s trying to stop her. So how is he close to her?”

“Because he isn’t looking away from her,” answered Alex. “Tatsumi. At the very least, the two of us aren’t looking at Mikoku. We’re leaving everything up to her.”

“But nothing we could do would change anything.”

Tatsumi slowly straightened up.

She looked to the other people sitting around the hangar or leaning against the walls.

“If Noah is being used as a defensive weapon, it will use its great army. You all know what would happen if it were to attack, don’t you? Well, that hypothetical is the reality here.”

She pulled something from her straightened back.

With a troubled smile, she showed off the knife in her right hand.

“They didn’t even check us over for weapons properly. It’s like they think we’re on their side or something. But…”

She looked down at the knife and realized the blade was shaking.

The shaking was growing.

“…”

She dropped the steel blade.

A metal sound rang out as it hit the concrete.

“Tatsumi,” said Alex.

“Yes.”

She nodded and looked to her right wrist while holding it in her left hand.

Her right hand was shaking ever so slightly.

“I can’t focus properly ever since losing to Ryuuji last night. …I’m afraid to hold a blade.”

A line appeared on her right palm.

The red line slowly grew thicker and produced a few scarlet drips.

She did not even wipe away the color on her hand.

“I can’t even use the defensive techniques I was so good at.”

She clenched her right hand and the color was squeezed out.

She then slid her left hand along the floor.

“What about you, Alex?”

She grabbed something from the floor.

It was a bolt.

“Your destruction has been picking up speed since last night.”

Her eyes were turned toward the ships and aircraft invading Tokyo outside, but her heart remained inside the hangar.

“Our fight is already over, so do you really think we can go see Mikoku now?”

Noon that day passed by relatively quietly.

The international UCATs entered through bases and ports around Japan and gathered at the designated eight locations around Tokyo.

They created their formations inside smaller concept spaces set up near the large one surrounding the Leviathan.

One of those was located in front of Mitaka Station of western Tokyo. That reserve concept space was being used for Formation 7 to prepare.

Inside the concept space, tanks and fighters had occupied the area around the station and they were checking on the corridor connecting to the Leviathan’s concept space and on the route their forces would take.

Inside Mitaka Station, eight figures were gathered at a sunny spot on the western edge of the first line’s platform.

The eight boys and girls were wearing white armored uniforms.

They sat around a table, eating a late lunch.

A girl with short hair grabbed bread and vegetables to make a sandwich.

“So Heo, American UCAT had a Christmas presents raffle to help raise morale, right? What did you win?”

She was answered by Heo who was scooping gratin onto her plate from an insulated metal container.

“Well, Kazami, I got a Christmas cake.”

“That’s nice. It sounds like a good omen to me.”

“Yes. And to make sure you don’t grow faint from an empty stomach on the battlefield, it was a super fatty cake with thirty thousand Calories. And – here’s the best part – I was thinking we could all eat it here. …Why are you all looking away? A-answer me, Harakawa.”

“Don’t drag me into this. I’m too busy ingesting rice.”

“C-c’mon, can’t you at least look at it?”

A tall girl looked at the large caramel-colored cylinder Heo placed on the table.

She tilted her head at the excessively-shiny chocolate display saying “Happy X’mas”.

“Is this edible, Heo?”

“Y-yes! Do you want some, Mikage?”

“Wah!”

The boy next to Mikage moved to stop her by grabbing her chest from behind.

“Y-you mustn’t, Mikage-san! If you eat that, you’ll gain a bunch of weight and it’ll be sad!”

“But Ryuuji-kun, if I don’t help, Heo will have to eat it all herself.”

“So you’re already assuming I’m going to eat it all?”

Heo’s comment led everyone to look away again.

On the west end, a black-haired girl tugged on the sleeve of a boy with a small animal on his head.

“C-c’mon, Sayama-kun. If you look them in the eye now, you’ll get dragged into it.”

“Heh heh heh. Shinjou-kun, I do not mind at all if your body gains a little more volume.”

“Eh? R-really, Sayama-kun? …You’d prefer it if my breasts and butt were a little bigger?”

“As long as you do not get careless, you will be wonderful no matter what.”

“Really? Oh, c’mon…”

A well-built boy glared and pointed at the two of them.

“Hey, Chisato. Those idiots have gotten even crazier since yesterday.”

“I-I am not crazy, Izumo-san!”

“Ha ha ha. Shinjou-kun, that is what all the crazy people say. Why not try following my example?”

Shinjou strangled Sayama, but no one bothered stopping it. This was par for the course. So was Sayama turning purple from cyanosis.

But Kazami glanced over at the two of them.

“Come to think of it, I found two people sleeping in the same bed when I went to check on their dorm room before noon. Now, who was that?”

“Eh? Um, w-well…”

“Oh? Have you forgotten, Shinjou-kun? As if to say this could be our last chance, we stayed up all night checking on each other’s bodies, Setsu-kun’s included.”

“Waaaahhh!!”

While everyone’s focus was on those two, Heo stealthily cut the cake into eight equal portions.

…We can share the damage. We can all share it together!

“Yes, that’s what teammates are for!”

“Heo, why are you emitting a sinister aura as you cut that cake?”

“Eh!? H-how did you notice!?”

When she turned around, the cream on the knife fell to the table.

The instant it landed on the white tablecloth, a change came over it.

“W-wah! What’s with this fat!? It’s spreading out like something from a horror movie!!”

They all gave a shout and moved their chairs precisely thirty centimeters back from the table.

Confused, Heo grabbed the manufacturer’s comment card from the box.

“ ‘This super fatty cake is an shout of protest against the pathetic modern health foods! If you can survive eating this, then you truly are healthy! –John A. Fettmann’ ”

For some reason, the others all hung their heads and Harakawa turned his back.

“That’s a German name, isn’t it? Give it your best shot, Heo.”

“G-give what my best shot!?”

She grabbed and pulled on his armored uniform’s collar.

“I-it’s a perfectly fine cake. It’s just a little fatty is all. Look.”

She used a spoon to fling some of the cream on the knife toward the pigeons in the station.

The pigeons quickly surrounded and pecked at the brown cream on the concrete floor.

Heo looked back at the others.

“S-see? Wild animals aren’t worried about it for no reason, so you can eat it too! It’s a perfectly fine cake. Wild savages like you should be able to handle it just fine!”

“Heo-kun, it is only appropriate to compare human beings to wild animals when you are talking about the old man or Hiba-sensei. And if possible, could you look behind you again?”

“Eh?”

She turned around and saw all of the pigeons were resting their bellies on the floor and hanging their heads.

“Wh-what’s wrong, you guys!? C-c’mon, fly! Fly like the wind!”

The pigeons all turned their backs on her and collapsed.

Heo heard the others whispering behind her.

“Oh, poor Heo. Once she eats that whole thing, she’ll be an expert in obesity.”

“Her body will be stuffed with foie gras like those pigeons.”

“Hey, Chisato. If you eat that, how much would you have to exercise? All the way around the earth?”

“C’mon, Kaku. Don’t ask the impossible. And besides, we’re talking about Heo here.”

…Th-they’re all keeping their distance from me!

She slowly looked back just in time to see them all resume eating their lunches with a smile.

But…

“Wh-who moved the cake in front of my seat!?”

They all maintained their smiles.

“Oh, Sayama-kun, this marmalade is delicious. It’s so marvelous they should call it marvelade.”

“Ha ha ha. How wonderful, Shinjou-kun.”

…They’re doing everything they can not to address it!

Heo made up her mind.

Her shoulders drooped as she sat in her seat and placed the box over the cake.

“You’re putting it away?” asked Izumo.

“Yes. It can wait until…I see an opening.”

When she erased her smile and glared at them, their smiles froze over.

“H-Heo?” asked Kazami while sipping at her oolong tea. “It takes courage to throw out even the bad memories. You could burn it like a candle.”

“You might wake up one morning to find it stuffed in your mouth.”

Heo’s plain threat brought a cold sweat to the others, but they did their best to keep their smiles.

“For future reference, let’s see what’s inside it, shall we? Also, try not to open your mouth on a dark road late at night.”

“I-I don’t like the sound of that…” said Shinjou.

Heo slowly lowered her shoulders and sorrowfully brought her hands to the corners of her eyes.

“I…I didn’t ask for this horrible fate…”

“You were pretty excited when you heard you’d won the cake.”

“Th-that was…u-um!”

“Yeah… you’re pretty hopeless.”

“N-no, that was before I’d checked what kind of cake it was!”

“In other words, you had failed to gather all of the facts.”

“But… Wh-why are you all such bullies? And Harakawa, please look this way.”

“This always happens. Bear with it, Heo Thunderson.”

She could only sigh and lower her shoulders.

This always happened. It really did. But…

…This might be the last time.

Heo understood that this could be the last time.

No one said it, but they had gathered here because they all understood that.

By dinnertime, they would all have left for their respective locations.

This could very well be the final time they could all be together.

In that way, the trouble they were giving her was actually incredibly important and valuable.

“Wait. I was just about to accept this, but those are two different issues.”

“Why are you talking to yourself? Are you okay? No, I suppose not. Then there’s nothing we can do. Understood.”

“H-Harakawa, you settle everything for yourself too quickly these days!”

At that point, the large clock in front of Mitaka Station reached three o’clock.

They heard an electronic tone from their wristwatches and Izumo looked up into the sky.

“Six more hours, hm?”

“I wonder what the world will be like this time tomorrow,” replied Sayama.

“What do you think it will be like, Sayama-kun?”

“Well,” he answered. “I expect I will have made the world eroundic using your concept of eroundism.”

Shinjou smiled as she slammed a boiled egg into his forehead. And starting from the top of the egg.

The egg loudly cracked open and Sayama fell from his chair.

“Oh, sorry,” said Shinjou. “I didn’t have anything to crack it on. Thanks, Sayama-kun.”

…That was an incredible retort.

The Japanese really know how to do it, thought Heo, while also deciding to ask something.

“But will you all be okay? I think this will be an intense battle.”

She took a breath and gathered her courage to ask.

“Will the Concept Core weapons really work?”

“That’s a good question.” Kazami exchanged a glance with Izumo. “Well, we should manage if the Leviathan spits out some small fries. And even if not…”

Kazami looked back toward Heo with a smile and a serious look in her eyes.

She looked at both her and Hiba.

“I heard from American UCAT that you have some kind of plan.”

“You do too, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah. …After all, our attacks weren’t enough for the Leviathan.”

Kazami straightened her back and looked at all of the others.

“You have to have given it some thought too. Isn’t that right, Sayama?”

She addressed the boy who had recovered and returned to his chair.

He brushed off his armored uniform while wearing Georgius.

However, Heo knew Georgius had not been able to fully destroy Mikoku’s regeneration concept despite breaking the philosopher’s stone.

As if to check on that, Shinjou asked him a question.

“Will Georgius actually work, Sayama-kun?”

“It will.” Sayama nodded and lightly clenched both Georgiuses to show them off. “After all, I now know the true way to use it.”

“Eh?”

Everyone else’s confused voices joined Shinjou’s.

What does that mean? wondered Heo as she saw Sayama smile.

“You taught me how in your novel, Shinjou-kun.”

“My novel? D-did I really write anything that could teach you something?”

“Yes. For example, that you can’t help but cry out if I grab your butt hard enough for my fingers to dig into it, that your navel is a weak point, and that the line above and below your navel also sends a tingling down your spine.”

“Waaaah!!”

Shinjou grew beet red and tried to stop Sayama, but everyone jumped at her to hold her back.

“C’mon, Sayama, tell us! What did Shinjou teach you!? Tell it loud and don’t omit any details!!”

“Wow, I’d love to hear about that too.”

“Waaah! Y-you’re not asking about Georgius at all, are you!?”

Heo shrugged and urged Sayama on while holding Shinjou’s arm.

“Heh heh. …Of course we are. Now, Sayama, tell us how babies are made!”

“Waaaah!!” shouted Shinjou. “L-let go! Let go! You have to let go! I need to stop him right now! He’s far too obscene!”

“That last part was a haiku, Shinjou-kun. But do not worry. Either way, the world will not be destroyed.”

“R-really?”

“Really.” Sayama nodded. “After all, I have yet to get an indirect kiss from you via a drink.”

He suddenly looked to the table and saw a paper cup Shinjou had drunk from.

“Oh, speak of the devil.”

With a shout, the others grabbed it and held it out to Shinjou who was still being restrained.

“Shinjou! Shinjou! Hurry up and drink the rest! If Sayama drinks it, he might lose his attachment to this world!”

There’s something wrong with this world if this is how we have to protect it, thought Heo.

At any rate, Shinjou protested as the drink vanished down her throat.

Once she finished it off, she took a breath.

“Ah. Th-there! Sayama-kun! What’s this about a true way to use Georgius?”

“Well.” He nodded. “I would like something to replace that drink.”

Hearing that desire, the others exchanged smiling looks with Shinjou in the center.

“Eh? No, w-wait ,everyone! Wah! This is a trap! This is Sayama-kun’s trap!”

Heo thought to herself while restraining Shinjou.

…This really is the same as always.

I’m not sure if it’s a good thing to think of it as “comfortable cruelty”, she began in her heart. But I hope we can keep doing this forever.

Shinjou’s cries of protest (but not too much protest) rose into the winter sky.

Mikoku slept in the evening sky.

She slept on top of the Leviathan’s forehead.

The night before, she had slept in a room of the residential area near the head, but it had been hard to sleep with the place so deserted.

That may have been why she had been overwhelmed by weariness after eating the meal Noah had synthesized and climbing up here.

“You slept well. Over.”

She had been fast enough sleep for Noah to comment on it.

She sat up and folded up the blanket Noah had placed over her.

She then lightly rolled her shoulders.

“With the atmospheric protection and the sun, this place is like a greenhouse.”

“Is it comfortable? Over.”

“Yes.” She looked to Noah and tapped lightly on the Leviathan’s forehead. “You really are a machine made for people.”

“Currently, I am only for you. Over.”

“That’s true,” she replied before immediately correcting herself. “No.”

She looked inside the glass at the center of the Leviathan’s forehead.

She stared at the girl there.

“All we have is Shino. And only for self-satisfaction on a frightening scale.”

“Testament.”

Noah nodded, but then…

“Those trying to stop us have arrived. Over.”

“So they’re here.”

“Testament,” replied Noah.

Looking down, white forms were visible directly below and around the Leviathan.

They were winged automatons, gods of war blocking the roads, and mechanical dragons flying around the sky.

Their appearances had changed since they were inside the Leviathan.

“You used the concepts being created to modify them for combat, didn’t you?”

“It was necessary for victory. Over,” said Noah. “And to ring the bell. Over.”

“Yes.”

Mikoku stood up and looked across the evening world stretching in every direction from Shinjuku.

“Come listen to Noah’s bell ring. Today is the day of the holy one’s birth. It is a day of festivities. It truly is the best day for the ringing of a bell.”

She saw the sun sinking below the mountains in the west.

The setting sunbeams vanished before she had a chance to take another breath.

“The night has arrived. The night of the final battle.”

With those words, the sunlight completely vanished and only the scarlet vestiges remained.

The sky grew colder and darker.

The world was approaching night.

At 8:40 PM of December 25, eight different movements began at a radius of fifteen kilometers from Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station.

This was the beginning.

Aircraft and tanks were forming ranks on the streets inside the concept spaces and mechanical dragons were trembling in large parking lots or on elevated highways.

The battlefield covered eight regions.

The weapons containing the eight world dragons had gathered around Shinjuku.

The Concept Core weapons had all been given bearers.

Region 1: North. Kita. Leader is Hiba. The dragon-gouging weapon is Keravnos.

Region 2: Northeast. Arakawa. Leader is Kashima. The dragon-slicing weapon is Totsuka.

Region 3: East. Sumida. Leader is Heo. The dragon-blasting weapon is the Vesper Cannon.

Region 4: Southeast. Koutou. Leader is Sayama. The dragon-striking weapon is the Four Dragon Balls.

Region 5: South. Meguro. Leader is Kazami. The dragon-piercing weapon is G-Sp2.

Region 6: Southwest. Setagaya. Leader is Brunhild. The dragon-severing weapon is Gram.

Region 7: West. Suginami. Leader is Izumo. The dragon-cutting weapon is V-Sw.

Region 8: Northwest. Nerima. Leader is Abram. The dragon-slaying weapon is B-Sp.

The seals for the heavens and the earth would be handled by Shinjou and Sayama who had Wanambi and Mukiti in Region 4.

Wanambi would be the heavens and Mukiti the earth.

The seal to become the declarations of heaven and earth had to be activated on top of the Leviathan above Shinjuku station.

If they created a sealing wall at an equal distance between the heavens and the earth and caught the Leviathan in the center, they predicted they could keep the strength of the seal constant in each direction and therefore contain the Leviathan.

To do that, Sayama and Shinjou would approach the Leviathan along with the other representatives. Their plan was to arrive on top of the Leviathan using the mechanical dragons or something else.

They could guess Mikoku and Noah would be there.

If UCAT could withstand the Leviathan’s attacks and complete the ten-direction seal and declarations by 10:30, they would win.

If Mikoku and Noah could hold off the seal and declarations until the negative concepts fully activated at 10:30, they would win.

The main problem would be the seals of heaven and earth.

They had to be activated on top of the Leviathan, so Sayama and Shinjou would have to fight Mikoku and Noah.

Effectively, victory would come down to whether they could defeat those two and establish the seals.

And for backup, they had the international UCATs and the Gears.

UCAT had formed a reserve army for themselves and the students and others had been added in to create a multi-national and multi-occupational army.

If the members of the other Gears were counted, it was even a multi-species army.

Some of them would have normally worn a suit to work, some would have maintained vehicles in work uniforms, others would have worked a register in a store uniform, and yet others would have worked agricultural, janitorial, or security jobs.

Normally, they all should have returned home for Christmas at this time.

Nevertheless, they all stood here equipped with their personal weapons and armored uniforms.

At 8:41, Sayama’s voice arrived over a communicator as everyone had finished their preparations.

They breathed silent white breaths below the darkness and light as they heard a dignified voice.

“Good morning, everyone. It is time for the world to wake.”

They all listened.

“Your mission today is to beat down the idiot who has no idea what to do with herself because she has no one to spend this wonderful night with. You are to insist she lets this night continue. But remember one thing.”

Sayama continued.

“She is another version of ourselves.”

They all gasped at that.

Their white breaths vanished and they focused only on Sayama’s voice.

“Feelings of anger when something is lost and the memories and pain that continue for years afterwards are something we all have and something we all wish would stop. …In other words, she is simply trying to do for us what we cannot. Therefore, I think there is one promise we must keep no matter what.”

Namely…

At 8:42 PM, Sayama held his cellphone to his ear at the lead of the army in Ariake.

“Once we win this battle, we will not accuse Toda Mikoku of any crime.”

At the same time, Shinjou’s eyes opened wide as she listened to Sayama from his side.

“You mean…”

She looked up at him and he spoke quietly without looking her way.

“Listen. She is trying to reject this world. I will neither allow nor condemn that action. I will leave her out in the cold by saying rejecting the world is no big deal.”

So…

“If you think being killed by her would be a wasted death, then leave. If you wish to punish her or kill her, then do so only after punishing and killing yourself. After all – let me say it again – she is another version of ourselves. It seems she has no one to spend this night with, but that is only because we are the ones that will spend the night with her. So…”

She heard him speak.

“Do not let this partner kill you during the dance. She is as desperate as the loyal retainer who cannot allow himself to approach the princess.”

At 8:43, no one moved in response to Sayama’s announcement.

No one moved back and no one ran away.

For that reason, Sayama’s voice continued from the various communicators.

“All of you have odd tastes.”

And…

“I too have odd tastes.”

At 8:44, Heo was preparing to board Thunder Fellow.

Behind the specially equipped blue mechanical dragon, she tried to get Harakawa to kiss her.

He refused.

But after climbing into the cockpit, he did so without speaking a word.

At 8:45, Hiba had finished checking on Susamikado’s secondary weaponry.

Sibyl asked him about Mikage’s evolution. She asked if he knew what new evolution she had wanted to show him just before Tatsumi had destroyed her evolution philosopher’s stone.

Hiba gave the following answer:

“You can have children now, can’t you?”

Mikage only blushed, smiled, and gave an “nn” of confirmation.

At 8:46, Kazami held G-Sp2 and took a slender metal cylinder from the development department.

She nodded when she was told it was “just in case”. She then sighed and made a call on her cellphone.

“Kaku?”

She took a breath.

“Hey? How does it feel to be standing in front of the world?”

At 8:47, Izumo rested V-Sw on his shoulder and held his cellphone between his head and other shoulder with a metal cylinder from the development department hanging from his waist.

“How are you feeling? The festival’s about to start, isn’t it?”

At 8:48, Mikoku crossed her arms atop the Leviathan’s forehead with Noah behind her.

She checked a transparent 3D map of Tokyo with white lights indicating her army.

“Now, it’s time to decide what kind of world this will be.”

At 8:49, Noah nodded at Mikoku’s words and calculated the estimated time of the positive concepts’ creation.

The answer came out to 10:30:18 that night.

“Please let me ring the bell. Over.”

As the Leviathan, she gave her commands to the army.

They were to work together and use their autonomous decisions to exterminate the enemy army.

At 8:50, the operators of the control devices creating the vast concept space containing the Leviathan detected movement in the philosopher’s stone readings within the concept space.

They raised the output to strengthen the walls of the concept space and reported to the eight armies that the Leviathan’s army had begun to move.

The angels, gods of war, and mechanical dragons had spread their wings.

At 8:51, lights illuminated an outdoor stage and people were gathering on the road in the real version of Shinjuku outside the concept space.

When they heard the backing band tuning their instruments, the crowd cheered to bear with the cold.

Those voices could be seen as the prelude before the festival began.

At 8:52, Ryouko watched live footage from Shinjuku inside the Tamiya house in Akigawa of western Tokyo.

She asked for some tea.

“Koujiiiii, it’s about to start, so could you bring in some tea and snacks?”

“You mean you’re not calling me in to watch it!?”

Kouji sighed in the kitchen, opened a window for ventilation, and looked into the sky.

He looked up into the moonless, cloudy sky.

At 8:53, Kashima’s wife, Natsu, closed the shutters at their house in Tanashi of northern Tokyo.

The sound would have drawn the baby’s interest and woken her, so she kept the shutters partly open.

She held the baby to comfort her and looked to the front door.

A large paper package wrapped in red ribbon sat there.

“It’s far too soon for a tricycle.”

She gave a trouble smile as she checked on the package with her child in her arms.

It had been sent by her own parents.

At 8:54, the three types of winged automatons, the three types of gods of war, and the three types of mechanical dragons began to move out using their respective abilities.

The names of what they were modeled after were written on their surface.

Those names came from the hierarchy of angels.

They all opened their mouths, shut their eyes, and produced words.

“Will this be a holy night?”

Their voices and tones belonged to Mikoku.

These were the voices of the temporary personality Noah had given them.

The personality left by Top-Gear set those nine angel types in motion.

They cut through the wind on the way to the border of the battlefield.

​

They were to hunt down the wills that opposed heaven’s intentions.

At 8:55, Sayama raised his right hand.

Surprised, everyone silently focused on him.

“Heh heh heh. You fell for my feint, everyone. The real command is coming from over here.”

He lightly raised his left hand and received a roundhouse kick from Shinjou.

At 8:56, Sayama got back up and raised his left hand again.

At the same time, the Leviathan’s concept space was linked to the eight concept spaces surrounding it.

At 8:57, the wind blew.

That wind was proof that they had connected to a vast space.

The blowing wind signaled the linking of the battlefield.

And that wind brought enemies with it.

At 8:58, Sayama saw a swarm of angels down the road they stood on.

They were approximately one hundred twenty meters away.

The angel automaton at the lead carried itself in a way Sayama recognized.

“Is that you, Toda Mikoku? Is that entire army you?”

The angel did not reply, but Sayama’s left hand was still raised.

“Everyone, prepare your weapons!!”

At 8:59, they all replied.

“Testament!”

After a slow pause, Sayama’s voice gave them another push forward.

He swung down his left hand and spoke to the enemy that prepared their weapons and moved just like his other self.

“Everyone.”

At precisely 9:00…

“Let the battle begin!”

Sayama gave a roar.

“Go ahead!!”