Chapter 62. Death From Above
No matter how much I think,
no matter how much I prepare,
life always presents me challenges. Almost as if it's asking me if I can take this on as well. In any case, this was the last one. I suppose I should try to tie it off pretty nicely. Failing here won't just earn me mockeries and laughters after all.
The current time was 3:30 am.
The sky island had gone into orbit in space thanks to Necro and the saint's powers. The place we were headed to was the edge of the Haze Republic. The place where the Hero's army was stationed. I walked out of the command room and looked up at the stars dotting the void of space.
"Nice weather today."
The sphere of air around us let us breath in an environment like this. The Red Lotus Dominion and the Higgs' Rule created a habitable environment within the sphere as well. I used Heart of Gold to send the specialists I hired back to their original world. What they installed around the island were a set of weapons and machineries. I didn't have much time, so the preparation was a bit weak, but this should still be enough.
We're ready for war.
And we'll even be performing a preemptive strike as well.
Half of the rebellion would be sleeping about now. I should be able to take them all out if lady luck is on my side. It'd be unlikely though.
"You're actually going through with this? Are you really fine with that? No, you can't be. What if you fail?"
Necro asked me these questions with a worried tone. He had paled the moment he heard my plans and he still hadn't calmed down even now. I guess it really is difficult for humans to change.
"I'll send you back to your original world if this fails."
"No, even so… Damn, I thought I was a piece of trash, but you're worse, aren't yah? You really don't care about how you kill. Why do you even live like that?"
"Like you're one to talk."
The saint still hadn't said anything. Even when she heard of the plan, the only response I got from her was a slight twitch in her eye. Even better, there was no need for her to act this time.
That was the last thing she had ever said to me. Come to think of it, I never really talked to the saint all that much. I was always just stuck in my head, thinking about the future. Probably because I was annoyed by her.
The short, short autumn. A journey that took three months at best. The time I spent with her was…
Yeah. It wasn't too bad. …Mm, if I was being honest, I might as well say that it was… ni..ce?
In any case.
"Then…"
Necro quickly stopped me before I left.
"Wait! Wait! Why are you in such a hurry? This is the crux of our journey. Don't you feel sad or anything? Don't you feel like a student about to graduate or something?"
"Not at all."
"You're too much~ Why act so cool all the time? Anyway. Thanks for everything, you two. I'll give you two a nice present at the end of all this. You down?"
A celebration afterwards… Shouldn't be too bad.
"Just don't forget to revive me."
"Ah! Of course! I keep all my promises. Just rest nicely after you kill the Hero, okay? Let's go together. We'd like to say our farewells before you actually go fight."
I teleported the three of us to the edge of the island. We were thirty thousand kilometers above the sea, at Intermediate Circular orbit. So high that it was nigh impossible to make out the Haze Republic. The Hero's army was somewhere below us. Necro shouted in surprise after looking down and stumbling back a few times.
"Wow… They're probably not going to see us if we're this high. How thrilling! Ah, sorry, sorry. You don't have much time do you? Got anything to say before going into battle? Who knows? This might be the end for you here."
"…You think?"
He was right. If I make even the tiniest mistake, if I fail to kill the Hero, I'd forever be unable to meet them ever again. Then the only time I have to return the ring was now… I walked up to the saint and took out a wallet from the vault. The saint stepped back and had a question mark hanging over her head.
That part of her never changed.
"Something you forgot."
I handed her the frog wallet with the ring while saying this. It didn't mean much. The object simply didn't belong to me. It wouldn't be right for me to keep something that didn't belong to me.
"Don't lose it next time. It's important to you, isn't it?"
She might not remember it, but it was still an object that contained her wishes. The saint looked up for a second after receiving the wallet, then drooped her head again. She seemed to want to say a few things still, but…
Something must be on her mind.
I said my goodbyes after walking to the edge of the cliff. Then, I jumped off and fell straight down. The moment I escaped the sphere of air set on the island, I could feel the void wrap around my body. Even now, the sun was behind this planet. It was hard to even make out the continent from a place like this.
What I was planning on doing now was a review of all my previous plans.
First, we start with the Warrior. The plan to defeat him came from a very simple question I had at first. "If I acquired my power in a place out of this world, would I still be able to use it?" Was it possible to use my power outside of this world? If I could deliver items to a place up in… say, Mt. Everest?
If that is possible, we could say that Heart of Gold is "not restricted by location." Of course, this would mean that I could deliver objects in altitudes like Intermediate Circular orbit.
When I was up against the Warrior, I delivered 1,500,000 gallons of water inside the volcano. What if I delivered something else?
I thought about using a refrigerator at first, but the air resistance that I'd get from it would reduce the destruction far too much. I needed the object to go faster than one kilometer a second, so I ended up ordering a custom set of items from a popular tungsten workshop.
What ended up being created were ten thousand tungsten spears.
An imitation of the Rods of God. It was originally an orbital weapon designed by the United States in the 80s. By dumping rods around five meters in length and one hundred kilograms in weight, it was possible to create an explosion equal to around 11.5 tons of TNT. The actual program was shut down because of the costs, but— such a thing didn't matter to Heart of Gold.
The army that Camille lead was composed of a million soldiers and 128 brave-class summoners. Killing them was my primary objective. If the Hero doesn't respond too quickly, I should succeed.
4AM.
Once I reached the stratosphere, I was able to see the glowing spears above my head. So it really is accurate. It's good that I got some help from specialists. If I miscalculated the winds, the spears would have gone somewhere entirely different. I activated dematerialization, then used Higgs' Rule to increase the mass of the spears.
It only took an instant for the spears to penetrate through the atmosphere.
Pii–!
The crimson rods dropped right down onto the base of the rebellion. The first one to go was a soldier that was squinting his eyes to see the spears raining down from above. The spears left thousands of red lines up in the sky.
And soon afterwards, they dropped down on the ground and exploded with a blinding white light.
Kuoooo!
The destructive force from the gravitational force of the earth dropped directly on earth. The ground that the spears struck melted instantly. Some of them even exploded or flipped from the intense heat. The tents in the rebel base were ripped away along with burnt corpses and plants.
What a sight to behold.
A dark red wave of heat moved across the earth, then moved back due to the vacuum generated in the centre. What was formed from this was an orange mushroom cloud. The rest of the ten thousand spears began to flood down one by one. Each one of them decimated the ground below, coloring the absolute blackness below me with a red light.
The Hero appeared right after this.