In a Different World with a Smartphone Chapter 416: The Signal of War, and Full Burst.

[Gladius].

Forty-eight glittering meteors attacked the Fakes in the surroundings.

The daggers which have pierced through the Fakes cockpits switched their targets to the golden skeletons that have fallen out of them.

Mode change: Sphere.

The daggers morphed into spheres, and proceeded to crush the golden skeletons whole. The skeletons were smashed together with their cores with the strike made heavier by [Gravity], and melted down into nothing together with the Fakes that were housing them.

As expected, they really are more troublesome compared to regular variants. Its helpful that we dont need to look for their cores like this, though.

I breathed out lightly inside the cockpit of my exclusive machine, the Reginleiv.

In the distance, some Chevaliers were beating down the Fakes with battle hammers in their hands. Blunt weapons like hammers are proven to be more effective in attacking them since the impact can reach the golden skeletons inside too.

Search. A distribution map of the purified land inside Eisengard.

Search complete. Displaying.

A map of Eisengard was displayed from my smartphone placed in the front of the cockpit. The blue parts are places that have been purified, while the red parts are places that still have [Godslaying Poison] remaining in the ground, I guess.

According to the map, the purification has already reached all the way to the golden palace. In this state, it should be fine to treat the [Godslaying Poison] as nonexistent around here.

Its about time I called Moroha nee-san and the others over, leave the defense of the Sacred Tree to them, and proceed with our evil god subjugation.

I got out of Reginleiv, contacted Moroha nee-sans group, and used [Gate] to bring them over here.

Moroha nee-san, Karina nee-san and Takeru ojii, who appeared through the [Gate], lightly moved their bodies a bit while looking at their surroundings.

Fumu. Well, I dont feel perfectly normal, but this much should be doable.

You can still feel the effects of the [Godslaying Poison]? Even though its almost completely purified around here?

Ibecame a bit worried at Moroha nee-sans words. Looking at my expression, Karina nee-san and Takeru ojii laughed lightly.

Its because this place is connected to lands that are still poisoned. Even though were in our human forms, were lower-ranked gods. Were sensitive enough to feel the slightly speck of impurity in the atmosphere. Dont worry, its just some unpleasant feelings, it wont actually do anything to us.

I can manage something like this with spirit. Leave this to us, and you go do the things youre supposed to do. The World God-sama is also looking from the castle, you know.

Seems like theyre alright. The three of them patted my shoulders to encourage me. As long as Moroha nee-sans group is here, this place would be absolutely safe. All thats left is for me to do my own thing the best I can.

From [Storage], I took out a great sword and a long sword for Moroha nee-san, a bow and some arrows as well as hand axes for Karina nee-san, and the same kind of gauntlets I gave Ende for Takeru ojii. Theyre all made with crystal materials, as usual. I made Takeru ojiis gauntlets to have the same looks as Endes as well. That guy should be happy about this, I think. Probably.

The moment they got their weapons, they rushed off towards the battlefield as if they couldnt wait any longer. Fast. Just how much do you guys wanna fight?

Theyre probably gonna be fighting those Fakes with their own bodies as usual Un, I guess were alright here.

I put Reginleiv back into [Storage], and returned to where everyone else were.

Are we sortieing-degozaru ka?

Are we sortieing?

When I entered the tent, Yae and Hilda stood up simultaneously with Yae holding her beloved sword [Touka], and Hilda holding the crystal sword I gave her as a present when we first met. So there are people who wants to fight here as well, huh.

Un. I called Moroha nee-sans group here just now. The Sacred Tree should be fine now. All thats left is for us to head to the golden palace and beat down that evil god.

Everyone nodded. They dont look like they have any sort of weird anxiousness, and are behaving normally. Should I say as expected of them? Theyre pretty calm. Please dont tell me Im the most nervous one here.

I called Endes group out with a phone call, and also passed the message that well be marching on the golden palace after this to our knight commander Rain-san.

I understand. Please return safely.

Un. Then, Im off.

Opening a [Gate], we transferred to the capital of Eisengard, Industrial City Eisenbrook.

The ones coming with me are the fiance group, Ende and the three Phrase girls, Mel, Nei and Rize, for a total of 14. Apologies to Pola, but itll have to stay back this time.

As we come out of the [Gate] and stepped foot on the streets of Eisenbrook, we were shocked into silence for a while on the scene we saw in front of us.

The place we arrived at was a desolate street, with thick, dark clouds overhead, and covered by countless dead bodies.

The city that was once called the mechanical capital, ruled by the Magicraft King, was long gone, and what remained here is only a city long abandoned.

I did hear the stories, but this is pretty terrible

Elze muttered while looking through her surroundings.

Just like Bastets reports said, the bodies have almost no damage to them. However, the clothes theyre wearing looked very worn out, and was proof that theyve been exposed to the elements for a long period of time.

Every one of them had died with expressions of agony on their faces. Umu, this is a bit scary

Touya-san!

Uoh!?

When I turned around after hearing Linzes shout, I saw the figure of a man, who was just a body lying on the street moments ago, charging towards me.

That figure, with the whites in his eyes showing and his tongue dangling out of his mouth, was the picture-perfect definition of a zombie, and I felt a deep spike of fear seeing it.

[Slip]!

Ugo, gaa!

Raising a groan, the zombie slipped and fell face-first onto the ground.

Ah-, that scared me. It really is scary when youre assaulted out of nowhere like that, isnt it.

[Come forth Fire, a swirling spiral, Fire Storm]!

Without pause, Linze released fire magic towards the zombie. The zombie, which was rolling about on the ground, was swallowed by the flames and burnt up into nothing Was what I thought, until a dark golden-colored skeleton rose up from within the flames.

As I thought. Becoming golden skeletons is what awaits people who had their souls eaten, after all. Look at the hearts location.

When I followed Leens words and looked at the chest portion of the golden skeleton, I saw a red golf ball-sized core hidden behind the ribs. Without a doubt, this one has already completely turned into a variant.

Lestia-style sword technique, Fifth Spiral!

The tip of Hildas sword immediately plunged into the chest of the golden skeleton.

The strike, which had rotational force added to it, easily destroyed the rib bones together with the core underneath them.

The skeleton, after its core was destroyed, started emitting black smoke and melted down into nothing.

So as expected, this place was where they were replenishing their golden skeletons, huh.

Seems like we were a bit too noisy, Touya.

Eh?

When I turned my eyes away from the melting-down golden skeleton at Elzes words, the corpses around us had all risen up and started heading in our direction. Uuo, disgusting.

Does purifying magic not work on them-no ka?

Normal zombies would perish from that, but the reason why those guys are moving is the bones inside them so Its probably useless.

Muu.

Suu grumbled when Yumina denied her idea. Since Suus a light-attribute holder, against a normal undead army she wouldve been able to wipe them out with a flick of her wrist but

[Entwine O Ice, curse of the freezing cold, Ice Bind].

The magic Sakura used froze the feet of the zombies rushing towards us, sealing their movements. Right afterwards, Leens magic was released.

[Come forth Wind and Fire, a whirlwind ablaze, Ignis Hurricane]!

With our group as the center, a huge tornado of fire swept through the surroundings, burning down everything. Its a composite magic Leen learnt from a grimoire in Babylons [Library].

Its power was fearsome to behold, as the zombies rushing towards us had their bodies burnt to ashes within moments one after another.

Still, even magic as strong as this cant do anything besides destroying their flesh. Those bones carry the same magic immunity trait that the Phrases have, after all.

However, thats where Yae, Hilda, Luu, Elze as well as Ende jumped in and went around breaking the cores that are their weak points. I felt bad not doing anything and just standing, so I also used Brunhild to shoot through the cores of several skeletons.

I guess it would be safe to assume that all the corpses in the capital had turned into golden skeletons.

Still, why did they attack us all of a sudden? Even when theyve clearly never moved until now

Sheathing her twin swords, Luu murmured as she looked at the melting golden skeleton before her. The one who answered her question was, surprisingly, Ende.

Its because theyre fundamentally similar to the Phrases. They probably reacted to the sound of your heartbeats. In fact, they didnt pay any attention to Mels group, if you didnt notice.

Now that he says it, there really were no golden skeletons that charged towards the three of them.

In order to not let the variants notice their locations, Mel, Nei and Rize all have a small [Prison] around their cores that shut out all sounds. So thats why they werent noticed by the golden skeletons. Its because their heartbeats, or rather, their special resonance sounds as Phrases were covered up.

To put it into perspective, were basically walking while playing a bunch of drums right next to a whole bunch of sleeping magic beasts. They would obviously wake up and start attacking us.

I see. Well, if you woke up due to someone drumming away next to your ear youd want to hit them too, I guess.

In any case, our goal isnt here. Lets quickly head to the golden palace.

I called out Reginleiv from [Storage]. Everyone else also called out their Frame Gears, and got into the pilot seats.

Nei and Rize were riding on the hands of Endes Dragoon though. Since the Dragoon is a lightweight model, its cockpit is also small; fitting Mel inside is probably the most it can manage.

It wouldve been fine if they got onto Linzes Helmwige in flight mode, but the two of them apparently doesnt want to be away from Mel.

With myself and Linze in the sky, and everyone else on the ground, we headed towards the golden palace.

How nice, getting to fly in the sky. Cant you make my Dragoon fly too?

Thats solved easily with a Flight Gear though.

Id lose all my mobility if I was carrying a stupidly big shield like that Our compatibilitys too bad.

Ende complained, but I cant help you with that. The base concept behind the two are too different to begin with. The Dragoon is a model designed for high land-based mobility. On the other hand, the Reginleiv is a model made by combining the know-how gained from everyone elses model.

After passing through the suburbs and getting out of Eisenbrook, we came out in a plain that stretched all the way off into the horizon.

The dark clouds overhead blocked the suns light, and even though its midday the surroundings are dark, almost as if the sun has set already.

As we proceeded on the plains, the figures of several crystal clusters with an eerie golden luster showed up straight ahead. The fact that theyre visible from here even though theres still a fair bit of distance between us means that those clusters must be very big. They really do kinda look like a palace.

We stopped our advance some distance away. Now then, what to do from here on.

Theres no way they still havnt noticed us after this, right?

Nope, they noticed. The golden skeletons in front of the palace are coming this way.

When I zoomed in my camera after hearing Yuminas words, the golden skeletons that were shuffling around in front of the palace were indeed marching towards us.

I suppose this is where I take the stage.

Leens black frame, Grimgerde, took a step forward from among our group.

Lets raise the signal of war. Its gonna be a flashy show.

The chest armor of Grimgerde, whos standing imposingly, opened to reveal two Gatling cannons. Two large cannons attached on its back moved themselves over the shoulders.

The six-barrel Gatling gun equipped on both arms, the head mounted Vulcan, as well as the sixteen-pack rocket pods on its shoulders, waist and legs all started revving up and aiming towards the front.

The anchor in its heels dropped down into the ground. Preparations complete.

Full burst.

Together with Leens announcement, a storm of projectiles was launched from Grimgerdes body. The shooting systems on Frame Gears generally cant run out of ammo. Their ammos are replenished via spatial transfer from Babylons ammo storage, after all. Although it will actually run out if that ammo storage becomes empty, Grimgerde will probably overheat long before that happens.

The golden skeletons were blown to bits by the bullet storm unleashed upon them. Whether the attacks actually hit their cores are unknown. The skeletons are simply smashed together with the ground beneath their feet.

In the midst of the sounds of explosion and destruction, the golden skeletons flew in the sky in glittering little pieces between the never-ending rain of bullets.

Showy indeed-degozaru na

Its amazing how it can pull off a sustained firing like, that.

Well, thats true. Its basically an endless barrage of [Explosions] if you think about it. Plus, the power is different for each shell it shoots. A full burst to that degree probably cant be maintained by anyone except Leen and me.

The rain of projectiles doesnt show any sign of stopping. Their fearsome power gouged out the earth, and easily changed the landscape of the target area.

The annihilation-specialized bombardment-type Frame Gear that wields overwhelming destructive power over a wide area. That is Grimgerde.

Several minutes later, the bullet storm finally ceased. White smoke came out of Grimgerdes body, and its movements completely stopped.

A weakness of Grimgerdes is the requirement to have a cooldown time for a while after it used a full burst.

In order to cool down the heated frame, the engraved magic circuits on its armor activated cooling magic. Numerous blue lines of light ran down the black body, producing steam that rose upwards. It takes around 20 seconds before the temperature reaches a safe range. Until then, Grimgerde is completely defenseless.

Due to this weakness, Leen doesnt use full bursts in normal battles. Its only usable when theres several friendly units around her that can serve as protection, or when shes firing from an absolutely safe location.

When the huge dust clouds that were blown up cleared away, around 80 to 90 percent of the golden skeletons that were charging at us were lying on the ground in pieces, dissolving into nothing while raising black smoke.

King-sama, I can hear something A cracking sound Directly ahead, from that crystal mountain.

The same moment Sakuras ears caught that sound, a crystal pillar at one corner of the golden palace broke off at its base, and from the hole that formed there, a swarm of Fakes rose up and came towards us.

They held various kinds of dark golden weapons in their hands, and their movements are uniform and disciplined; the sight of that brought a weird feeling of incongruity to me.

Touya, it seems Mels caught the resonance sound of General Zeno. Hes in the middle of that group there.

What did you say?

I switched my camera to zoom mode when I received Endes report. Among the Fakes horde, there are ones with spiked armors different from normal mixed in. Within them, theres an especially big one with a rooster comb-like structure on the top of its head, which obviously looks like the commander. Thats the one?

Theres no doubt. Zenos riding in that one. And the spiky Fakes around him, those are probably piloted by Zenos subordinates called in from Phrasia too. Their movements are different from the rest.

The Phrases combat-class, and the one said to be the strongest among them, General Zeno. A new enemy stands in our path towards the evil god.

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