Chapter 126

As a side note, once the seal is broken, both Shia and I are capable of flight. And at quite a high speed, too. Though in my case, stepping on the air and leaping is faster than actual flying, so I rarely use it.

Even so, the fastest among us in terms of flight speed is Bell. Three percent of the speed of light… seriously, I have no idea how she manages that kind of velocity. Is it an angelic trait? Or, since she’s a part of my mental image, is there some kind of hidden correction value applied within this space?

At any rate, our roles for the escape were incredibly simple:

The Angel flies, while Shia and I clear the path.

I quickly used Craft to manifest the Nu Gundam-style vehicle I had used once before.

Vroom!!

Seeing the Gundam, Shia let out a hollow laugh despite the urgency of the situation.

“What on earth is this?”

“Heh. It’s every man’s dream. I even implemented the Funnels in this version, you know?”

I snapped my fingers, and U-shaped Funnels detached from the Gundam’s shoulders, whizzing through the air. However, a moment later, they lost power and tumbled to the ground in a heap.

“…They fell.”

“Ah, well, Nu Gundam Funnels are single-use, so they can’t be recovered. Just leave them.”

“…Stop fooling around and get ready.”

“Hmph. You just don’t get the appeal. I’ll get a phone later and show you the true glory of Universal Century Gundams.”

Just like before, Shia, Sis, and I boarded the Gundam, and the Angel gripped the back of the machine.

Now, for those of you thinking that at 3% the speed of light, we should be out of Earth’s atmosphere in an instant—don’t forget about acceleration time. It takes her about 10 minutes of constant acceleration to reach that 3%.

“No. It will be 7 minutes. I’m only applying inertia control to the ‘squishy’ Sis. You two… I expect a load of about 2,200G during acceleration. I assume neither of you will have trouble with that?”

For reference, at 2,200G, the force acting on our bodies is roughly 154 tons. For the current me or Shia…

“That’s nothing.”

“No problem.”

“Understood. The fight up there seems to be reaching its conclusion, so let’s escape while the Solar Giant is still holding on. Everyone, hold tight!”

At that moment, Sis raised her hand, interjecting into Bell’s countdown.

“Wait.”

“Sis?”

“Not yet. A little longer.”

Bell furrowed her brow slightly.

“Sis, if the Solar Giant falls, even the small openings we have will vanish.”

“It’s not that. The final strike. Wait 15 more seconds.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ll count. …Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Go.”

Bell was confused by the cryptic instruction, but she nodded and waited for the timing as Sis commanded.

And then…

“We’re off!!”

The very moment the Angel kicked off the ground and soared into the sky, a sudden pure-white flash erupted from the Solar Giant, which had been losing its light while entangled in chains.

KWA-AAAAAAAANG!!!

The Solar Giant exploded, releasing a light akin to a quasar.

(Ah, that sound was just me translating the image into audio in my head. We’re far too distant for actual sound to have reached us yet.)

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An incredible wave of light. The chains covering the planet were swept away and purged by that tide. We let out exclamations of awe as we watched the fading Solar Giant, giving it a final mental thumbs-up.

“A self-destruct…!?”

“Wow, that guy… he really knows how to put on a show!?”

Regardless, thanks to that, there was nothing blocking our path as we escaped Earth. The Angel grit her teeth and pushed her speed to the limit.

At this rate of acceleration, it would take about one minute to reach Geostationary Orbit (35,000 km above), which we considered the safe zone for escape. I hoped nothing would happen during that time, but…

Gooooo… Clatter-clatter-clatter!!

Chains, surging once again like an endless fountain, blocked our path.

“Persistent bastards…!”

“The density is much lower than before, though! We’re breaking through! Shia!!”

“I know!”

Shia cast a sharp gaze toward the ground. Down on the surface, the clockwork giant changed its form. The gears making up its upper body collapsed, reshaping into a massive, thick circular barrel.

“Fire!”

FLASH!!!

A pillar of brilliant light, nearly as radiant as the Solar Giant’s, pierced the sky right past us.

Ether Artillery.

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAK!!

With overwhelming firepower—easily dozens of times stronger than when she fought me—the net of hundreds of millions of chains blocking our way was shredded, and the path was blown wide open.

As the Angel successfully dove through the hole, cheers erupted.

“Yes!”

“We did it!”

However…

“It’s too early to celebrate! There’s another one ahead!!”

Startled, I stopped my high-five with Shia and looked up. Sure enough, about 2,000 kilometers ahead, another net of chains was deployed and waiting for us.

“Oh, come on…”

“My God. What kind of grudge do they have to go this far…!”

Furthermore, this net was easily twice as thick and wide as the previous one. Since it was thickening in real-time, it looked like it would be five times sturdier by the time we arrived.

Shia grit her teeth and shouted.

“I’ll fire once more!”

Flash!

Light flickered from the ground, now a vast distance below us, and struck the frontal chain net after passing us.

But…

Fssss…

The moment the bombardment touched the chains, it flickered out as if it had never existed. It wasn’t blocked or deflected; it was literally erased.

Bell shouted in horror.

“An Antiaether Field? They adjusted their attributes to counter Ether Artillery in that short span of time!?”

Panicked, Bell and Shia’s eyes turned toward me simultaneously.

“My dear…!”

Right. In this situation, I’m the only one who can step up.

But I’m in a bit of a bind myself…

“Well… I left the fighting to my clones so I could come in here, right? Because of that, my mana is being drained by them in real-time out there. My current output is only this much.”

I channeled mana into Astraphe, and it glowed, producing a pillar of light only about 20 meters long. Normally, it would stretch for over 100 meters. Seeing that my power was limited, Shia’s expression darkened.

“Th-then how…”

“Well, I’ll have to try something. I have an idea. Leave it to me for now. Bell, if I fail… you know what to do?”

“Yes. I’ll hold out until the very last second and then send Shia back to reality. That should buy a little more time.”

If that happened, the chains would reappear in the real world… but I have a separate countermeasure for that. It’s just that it involves significant sacrifice and doesn’t have a high success rate, so I’m keeping it as a last resort.

I gave the anxious Shia a quick pat on the head, hopped off the Gundam, and threw myself into the void. Watching the Angel’s trajectory recede in an instant, I tore a rift in space and dove inside.

High-Dimensional Space.

Looking around this bizarre space where up, down, left, and right are indistinguishable, I felt a strange sensation for a moment.

‘Even for a high-resolution mental image, isn’t it weird that it implements higher dimensions beyond 3D…?’

…No, now isn’t the time for such thoughts. I immediately scanned the coordinates of the 3D space I had just jumped out of.

To put it simply, I was currently like a being on a 2D sheet of paper who had jumped into the “up” direction of a higher dimension. As long as I picked the right return coordinates, I could move through 3D space via the higher dimension.

As I focused, my Transcendental Wisdom (high-dimensional perception) opened, and I perceived coordinates within a roughly 1,000-kilometer radius as if they were right in my hand.

‘…There.’

Without hesitation, I swung Astraphe and tore through space. It was a pure-white rift, entirely different in form from the one I had used to enter.

I shot a smirk at the wave of chains visible through the gap and dove back into the rift.

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When I suddenly burst out of space right in front of them, the chains surged as if they possessed actual emotions, pouring down toward me.

The sight was chilling—like hundreds of millions of snakes lunging with their heads held high—but I took my stance, holding Astraphe as it flickered with white mana.

“Sssss…”

With a deep breath, I pushed my concentration even higher. Time began to float aimlessly. The movements of the chains, which had been like flashes of lightning, slowed down until they felt like I could grab them.

‘There’s no need to panic. These chains were meticulously designed specifically to counter Shia. To me, they’re just exceptionally sturdy restraints.’

As my status as a Potestates-class opened my perception wide, I intentionally allowed the chains to coil around my arms, legs, and torso.

Then, through my transcendental senses, I felt and analyzed the chains as if I were dismantling them.

‘A “Mystery” is just a general term for things we don’t understand. If you don’t know it, it’s a mystery; but the moment you understand it, the veil is lifted and it becomes a mere “phenomenon.”’

As the chains tightened, what initially felt like a jumbled mess of alien gibberish slowly began to make sense.

*‘This… it’s a program.’

Granted, most of it consisted of codes (concepts) and laws beyond my comprehension… but there were small parts I could recognize.

‘…Over 70 percent of this is about Sia. Ah, so this is the Anti-Ether Field code.’

I rapidly absorbed and discarded information. Amidst that feast of complex code, I was looking for only one thing.

And just before the chains could tighten around my throat and cut off my breath, I finally found the code I wanted.

[Binding]

“…Found it.”

Immediately, I raised my right arm—the last part I had kept free—and thrust Astraphe into the chains.

Stab!

A minor movement. But at the same time, that thrust was the culmination of every level of mastery I had ever achieved.

The profound mystery within Astraphe severed the “concept” of [Binding] that was part of the chains.

And then….

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAK!!

The hundreds of millions of chains that had filled my vision shattered into pieces, raining down toward the ground like glass.

“Phew… that actually worked.”

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KWA-AAAAAAAANG!!

Sensing pressure from behind, I turned my head just in time to see Bell arrive. She caught me and hauled me back onto the Gundam.

As the Gundam surged toward space, cutting through the shattered fragments of the chains, Bell and Shia shouted in unison.

“Wait! How on earth did you do that?!”

“My dear! How did you manage such a thing?!”

I gave them a bright smile and returned my usual answer.

“Expertly.”

It was the moment of our successful escape from that nightmare of a siege.

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Kwaaaa…!!

Bell continued to accelerate.

The Earth receded, and the Moon grew larger by the second.

Shia shivered in horror as she looked back at the Earth and the swarm of chains overflowing and covering its surface.

“My God. They’re still coming.”

I frowned and asked Bell, “We’ll be okay, right?”

Bell replied with a conflicted expression. “Well, I’d like to say yes, but I can’t be 100 percent sure. Those things are getting faster, too…. They’re picking up speed even faster than I’m accelerating.”

“Ah, for f—”

Then, Sis tapped me on the side.

“It’s okay. Once we get this far.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because there are plenty of friends here to help.”

“Friends… to help?”

“Look.”

Immediately after, I sensed something in the distance. Countless asteroids came flying in, colliding violently with the reaching chains.

“See?”

And that wasn’t all.

“Bell… did you just increase the output?”

“No.”

“Then the speed at which the Moon is approaching is insane…”

Wait, could it be…?

I whipped my head around to look at Sis, who held up her index and middle fingers in a V-sign.

“The friend we’ve been waiting for.”

And a moment later, we let out hollow laughs as we watched the Moon pass right by us.

KWA-AAAAAAAANG!!

The Moon slammed into the swarm of chains following us, grinding them to dust.

Having successfully gained a significant lead, Bell asked Sis tentatively.

“…Are there more?”

“Yeah. The biggest friend is on standby.”

If we were talking about a “big friend” waiting after the Moon, there was only one.

“…Mars?”

“Yep. So don’t worry and just run.”

Scratching my head in bewilderment for a moment, I finally asked Sis.

“…You seem to know an awful lot. What exactly is this place?”

“Here? Sword God’s mental world.”

“…Let me rephrase. How do you know all of this?”

Sis gave a cheeky grin and replied.

“Expertly.”

…I lost.

“…Anyway, this means I can head back now, right?”

At that, Sis and Bell nodded simultaneously.

“Leave the rest to us. We’ll make sure to hold out until the battle outside is over.”

“Yeah. Just trust me, Sword God. Don’t go relying on this flimsy excuse for a Demon King over here.”

“Hey!”

I let out a long sigh and nodded.

“Alright, then I’m heading back. Don’t fight, try to get along. Contact me if anything happens.”