"What's the situation outside?"
"R-Report. The aerial bombardnt has stopped, but the gunfights inside the base are still ongoing. It has been confird to be an attack from DEM."
"The magic reactions that had previously ceased activity are now moving again. A total of seventy-eight Bandersnatch combat drones and thirty-five Wizards are approaching this way!"
"Where are the Commander and the others?"
"I've been trying to call them since earlier, but there's still no response."
"Wh-Why is sothing like this happening! Ahhh! Lord God Misty!"
At this ti, in the bridge command room of the airship Fraxinus EX, facing the sudden attack from DEM Industries, the crew had already fallen into chaos. By the way, Nakatsugawa was currently placing a bishoujo figure, which Maria had forbidden him from bringing in, on the console and praying to it as if it were a god.
Their panic wasn't hard to understand. They were originally staying in what was considered an absolutely safe secret base, patiently tuning their equipnt. As a result, they received the DEM invasion alarm completely unprepared. It felt like a boxer warming up, getting punched in the face by his opponent without any warning before even stepping into the ring.
Although they had experienced many dangers, this kind of situation was a first for them too. Adding to that, the Commander was currently missing. This leaderless situation further magnified the unease and fear in their hearts.
"Everyone, calm down!"
Just then, Kannazuki's loud and clear voice brought the scene to a temporary silence.
"...Kannazuki?"
Everyone couldn't help but look at this Deputy Commander, who felt sowhat unfamiliar to them, with surprised eyes.
"The enemy hasn't even attacked us yet, and you guys are already panicking. What is the aning of this? What would the Commander think if she ca back and saw this? She'd scold you all to the point where you wouldn't have the face to see anyone, and that's my privilege, okay!?"
Although there was so contemptible content in his speech, it had to be admitted that thanks to Kannazuki's words, everyone cald down sowhat.
"That's true. If we ss up our own formation like this, it will bring sha to the Commander's face."
"Until the Commander returns, we must finish preparations and protect the Fraxinus."
"Rather, I absolutely refuse to be considered worse than a pervert like Kannazuki!"
"You're absolutely right!"
Regarding Mikimoto's words, the crew mbers agreed in unison.
"Ah! You guys are all so an! Ah—but this feeling of being fundantally denied by others... is actually quite nice."
His body trembling involuntarily, Kannazuki muttered to himself with a hint of excitent.
[Kannazuki-san, you are so disgusting.]
Maria roasted him with a cold face from the screen.
Right at this mont, the loudest explosion yet roared, and the hull of the airship shook violently along with it. Even without looking, they knew the enemy had blown up the hangar doors and was preparing to surround the airship.
"This is bad. We need to co up with counterasures quickly."
"But if we deploy a barrage inside the hangar, we ourselves will be caught in the crossfire."
Seeing the enemy constantly attacking the hull of the Fraxinus on the screen, Kannazuki frowned slightly and spoke in a sowhat serious tone.
"Maria, deploy a Territory. Range 50, attribute: magic generation interference."
[Understood.]
Following Maria's calm voice, the entire airship began emitting a low hum like a bee vibrating its wings. And simultaneously, the dozens of Bandersnatch surrounding them outside fell to their knees like puppets with their strings cut.
"The drones stopped moving?!"
"Mhm, I just used our Territory here to neutralize the enemy's Territory. This is fatal to robots that require magic power."
"I see, as expected of the Vice Commander."
Regarding his colleagues's praise, Kannazuki didn't act smug, maintaining his serious expression.
"However."
Just as Kannazuki said that, a series of explosions ca from the bottom of the airship, causing the entire bridge to shake.
"—After all, it's not a hacker invasion targeting Realizers like Yutsuki-san does. We can only interfere with Territories; it has no effect on Wizards and live ammunition weapons—"
"Hah...!?"
"Doesn't that an it's completely aningless!?!!"
Just as the crew let out wails, the automatic doors were blasted open with a loud "Boom!". Following that, five Wizards wearing wiring suits walked in holding pistols and rifles.
"Everyone! Hands up!"
"If you move, we'll shoot!"
Facing the cold muzzles of the enemies' guns, everyone obediently raised their hands and stood still.
"Looks like this should be the command room of this airship!"
"Great, it seems the credit will go to our team!"
"You guys, don't let your guard down. Instead of talking nonsense, hurry up and tie them all up, and shut down the AI."
After instructing his subordinates, the Wizard leading the group held up his rifle, walked forward, and pinned Shiizaki, who was closest to him, to the ground.
"Kya...!!"
Hearing Shiizaki Hinako let out a scream, the other crew mbers couldn't help but widen their eyes in anger.
"Don't resist. We've been told by the higher-ups that if anyone resists, we can shoot them without hesitation."
Pressing the muzzle against Shiizaki's temple, the leading Wizard scanned the surroundings and threatened with a cold voice.
No one doubted that if anyone dared to act rashly, the other party would unhesitatingly pull the trigger and kill Shiizaki.
Although Kannazuki was confident he could subdue one or two Wizards in an instant, the others couldn't. During that ti, the remaining three would take the opportunity to slaughter the others.
"Hey... what do we do now?"
Nakatsugawa asked softly, unease evident in his voice. At this mont, Maria's—no, to be precise, Arusu Marina's voice sounded in their earpieces.
[Endure! I've already called for rescue. Don't act rashly until I give the signal.]
Rescue?
Although they didn't understand what Arusu Marina ant, considering the current situation, they had to patiently endure for now.
After tying everyone up, the Wizards relaxed their guard slightly.
"My, it's over without any resistance. Too easy."
"Hey look, look, there's actually soone who brought a toy doll here. Bringing sothing like this to the command room, isn't the screening threshold for the crew here too low? Ah—it broke."
The Wizard played with the figure on the table and let out a disdainful laugh.
"—!?"
"Maria, Nakatsugawa looks like he's about to go berserk! Is it not ready yet?"
Kawagoe and Mikimoto held Nakatsugawa back together and asked anxiously.
[Just wait a little longer...]
"Hey! I told you not to be careless! Did you forget we just suffered a huge loss?"
The leading man dissatisfiedly reprimanded his subordinates. Westcott had just inford them that the boy who was more terrifying than Spirits had been subdued by him, but he still didn't dare to take it lightly.
Although the boy possessing Spirit power and the Spirits had been subdued by Director Westcott, for so reason, after invading this airship, an uneasy feeling had been lingering in his heart.
When Westcott gave them the order, rather than expecting them to capture this airship, it felt more like he intended to use them as sacrificial pawns to be discarded.
"Don't let your guard down!"
However, despite saying that, the consequences of disobeying orders would only be worse. The leading Wizard could only maintain vigilance while turning on his communicator to contact the Wizards suppressing other areas of the airship.
"Report, we have discovered the enemy command room, capture complete. What's the situation on your end?"
[...]
"Hey! What's wrong over there? Answer if you hear !"
However, the teammates on the other end of the communicator didn't reply. The annoying static noise pushed the vigilance in his heart to its peak.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
Just then, a subordinate's voice made him abruptly raise his head. He saw a staff mber standing at the entrance of the bridge, slightly short in stature, wearing coarse work clothes resembling a maintenance worker and a baseball cap.
"Ah, I'm the maintenance staff for this airship. Um... who are you people?"
This staff mber seed to have not yet grasped the current situation, touching his cap and asking with confusion.
"Cut the crap, this airship has been occupied by our DEM. If you don't want to die, be obedient, put your hands up, and don't move!"
"Okay..."
Seemingly intimidated by their firearms, the staff mber obediently raised his hands. Seeing the other party so cooperative, they didn't suspect much either. They picked up handcuffs and rope, preparing to tie the other party up.
Seemingly sensing sothing wrong, the leading Wizard hurriedly shouted.
"Don't go over there!"
However, it was ultimately a step too late. After a flash of lightning, his two subordinates, upon getting close to the person, twitched and trembled before collapsing to the ground unconscious.
[Now!]
Suddenly, Maria's voice rang in everyone's ears. Kannazuki was the first to act. He dashed forward, raised his leg, and kicked the opponent's firearm aside. He slipped close behind the opponent, and using his handcuffed hands to loop around the opponent's neck, exerted force. Soon, the opponent foad at the mouth and rolled his eyes back.
"You bastards are unforgivable!!!!"
At the sa ti, Nakatsugawa, unhindered by his companions, was like a runaway Humr. His massive body shot out like a cannonball, and his head viciously headbutted another Wizard in the face.
"Damn you, damn you, damn you, damn you!!!!!! You bastards, to actually do that to my Misty!!!"
At this mont, Nakatsugawa was like soone possessed by an evil spirit. With bloodshot eyes, he straddled the opponent, raining punches down on his face one after another.
Originally, with Nakatsugawa's strength, it would be impossible to deal with a Wizard. But because he was caught off guard and lost the initiative, and was overwheld by Nakatsugawa's intensity, the Wizard could only be beaten black and blue by Nakatsugawa's brutal bare-knuckle attacks.
Taking advantage of this, the others hurriedly moved, cooperating with Nakatsugawa and Kannazuki to completely suppress the Wizards.
"Damn it—All of you just die!"
Watching his subordinates completely wiped out in a few short seconds, the leading Wizard's face looked as ugly as could be. Raising his submachine gun, he began sweeping the command room indiscriminately, regardless of friend or foe.
However, sothing happened that left him dumbfounded.
As if hitting a transparent wall, the bullets traveled barely a ter before stopping dead in mid-air.
"Wh—"
Before the Wizard could react, the petite staff mber rushed in front of him, ignored the defensive Territory he had set up around himself, and delivered a vicious punch to his abdon!
In an instant, unimaginable agony spread from his abdon to his entire body. The Wizard felt as if he was going to vomit his entire stomach out.
"Ha...cker..."
Seeing a glimpse of brown hair drift past his eyes, the Wizard muttered a sentence before completely losing consciousness.
"Phew—Scared to death. To actually try firing a gun in such a cramped space, are Westcott's subordinates all crazy?"
Picking up the cap dropped on the floor, the staff mber—Ryougi Yutsuki—sighed in relief with lingering fear.
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