“This one’s ours.”
“Big Sis, why would you go and raise a flag like that?!”
“Big Sis, the enemy’s high-ranking clergy still haven’t come out yet, so letting your guard down would be dangerous.”
Even though both sides’ combat-power evaluations were dropping, the Prava Divine Kingdom’s numbers were clearly falling faster. Judging from the projected decline curves, the win was almost certain. That was how Eve saw it, but come to think of it, there were still those people called Archbishops—figures whose existence was still unclear, and whose combat power had not even been evaluated yet.
“I mean, this already looks pretty catastrophic for them, but they still haven’t shown up. Isn’t drip-feeding your forces a terrible move?”
That said, Eve found it hard to believe that, with the battle situation having deteriorated this badly, they still had forces in reserve.
Were the cleric-soldiers fighting outside just expendable pawns, meant only to wear down enemy strength as much as possible?
“Big Sis. Expecting perfection from humanity is asking a bit much!”
“Asahi, that’s pretty harsh. Though if we’re talking about that, I don’t think the AIs on the front lines are anywhere near perfect either.”
“The volume of information we can process is fundamentally different, Commander Ma’am. Comparing humanity, which can only share information through speech and writing, with us AIs, who can directly transmit all kinds of information, is not constructive.”
Perhaps something in Eve’s grumbling had struck a nerve, because Ringo fired back at high speed. Eve’s face instantly turned into an uh-oh look, and she hurriedly stood up.
“Okay, okay, okay. I know you’re all amazing, so calm down...”
For Eve, who depended on Ringo for everything, having Ringo get sulky was literally a matter of life and death. Well, given the raison d’être of the AIs affiliated with <The Tree>, that kind of situation could never actually happen, but emotionally, that was another matter.
Eve wrapped an arm around the shoulders of Ringo’s doll-machine communicator body, which had gotten worked up despite its blank expression.
This was probably Ringo’s version of clinginess—or rather, one form of communication. Asahi’s eyes narrowed just a little in a damp, resentful way, but fortunately, Eve never noticed.
“Big Sis. Iris found a special unit.”
Even while that warm little exchange was going on, the situation on the front lines was changing by the second.
The surveillance net laid by Iris had picked up a unit believed to be an Archbishop, dressed in especially extravagant robes.
So this was the grand entrance that had been saved for the perfect moment.
By now, roughly half of the cleric-soldiers deployed outside the walls had already been judged combat incapable.
Of the Bishops, who were regarded as the strongest force, 2 of the 6 had been destroyed.
From <The Tree>’s point of view, it was only natural to conclude that the enemy was feeding in forces piecemeal.
“An Archbishop... Right. Archbishop. Estimated combat-power evaluation: five to ten times that of a Bishop... Hm? Bishops are the ones that chopped off Jotun main guns, right?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. At present, if this unit enters the battlefield, total annihilation of the <The Tree>-side units is considered possible.”
“...A single target taking down a land battleship still feels impossible... or maybe more like something I just don’t want to admit...”
With the Jotuns losing combat capability, the combat-power evaluations for Bishop-class units had been revised upward. Along with that, the estimated values for Archbishops had also shot up.
Before the operation, the assumption had been that the forces committed this time would be enough to take the Holy Capital.
“In the face of magic fantasy, conventional forces might as well not exist—they’re just background noise! A single individual crushing a vast army—it’s such a thrilling setup, isn’t it?!”
“We’re the side getting crushed, so I’m not thrilled. The only saving grace is that we can probably get a reasonably accurate combat-power evaluation out of it, so it won’t be a total waste.”
“We already factored that in, so there’s no need for you to worry, Big Sis! Come on, Iris, you say it too!”
“Even if all currently deployed forces are lost, current production capacity would allow full recovery of combat strength in as little as 5 days. Another invasion would be possible in 1 week. Based on the estimated combat-power evaluations, at most 3 invasions would exhaust the Divine Kingdom’s available forces.”
Eve immediately sent back a thumbs-up to Iris.
“Thanks, Iris. But there’s still a chance we can take it with this invasion alone, right?”
“Yes, Ma’am. The addition of Mnemosyne has raised the evaluation considerably.”
For this operation, the Titan-class airborne escort ships had been kept at an altitude of 6,000 m. At that kind of distance, it should be manageable somehow. The actual bombardment was being carried out from the sky at a straight-line distance of at least 10 km. Surely nothing was going to attack something 10 km away—or so they had assumed.
The very first shot alone had been delivered from directly overhead at an altitude of 1,000 m, purely for intimidation.
And the multi-stage electromagnetic projector—coil cannon—mounted on Mnemosyne could launch a projectile weighing as much as 2 tons at a muzzle velocity exceeding 6,000 m/s. Compared to that, calling the main gun of a four-legged tank a popgun would hardly be an exaggeration. A four-legged tank’s main-gun shell weighed only about 5 kg, so in simple destructive power, the difference was around 400-fold. And because both the energy supply and cooling systems had been fully prepared, the interval between shots was short as well.
If one of those rounds landed a direct hit, maybe even a Bishop could be eliminated.
That was what Eve hoped, anyway.
In reality, there was no way to know until they actually tried it.
“Units believed to be Archbishops sighted at the north gate, east gate, and west gate.”
Akane reported it, and magnified images appeared across the airborne display.
Then two vanished, and one flared pure white.
“What now—?!”
“Warning: severe damage detected on Jotun fourth ship.”
“The four-legged tanks are under attack~!”
“Hit them, hit them—!!”
In an instant, the entire scene was hurled into utter chaos.
Warning markers erupted all across the displays, and the combat-power evaluations began dropping at a terrifying rate.
“Full power, full power~!”
“I’m merging the control systems into Eurytos—. Mm, no, I might be too late...”
The four-legged tanks assigned to the east gate were being destroyed one after another. On a battlefield crisscrossed by shells and laser fire, a single Archbishop had begun rampaging freely.
Every gun other than the Jotun main guns began pouring shells in at full power. The four-legged tanks tried to use themselves as bait to somehow land an effective hit, but they simply could not keep up with that speed.
More than anything, the distance was too close.
The Jotun assigned to the west gate had a huge hole blown through the center of its hull by some unknown attack. The fusion reactor installed nearby had of course been wrecked, and the energy system had suffered severe damage. It had not shut down yet, but its combat-power evaluation had plunged.
And at the north gate, countless translucent shields had appeared across the battlefield.
Those shields scattered laser fire and completely blocked shells, and with that protection in place, the cleric-soldiers and Bishops began moving aggressively.
The 4 Bishops in particular used those shields as footholds, repeatedly performing even more incomprehensible maneuvers as they destroyed four-legged tanks one after another.
“Whoa! This is getting completely insane!!”
“Theia, Rhea, and Themis have the target within range. Using maser cannons.”
Then, into that battlefield in utter turmoil, overwhelming reinforcements finally arrived. Gigantia-class third ship Eurytos had brought the battlefield within range. The airborne escort ships Theia, Rhea, and Themis all ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) began firing at the same time.
The first target was the Archbishop at the west gate, the highest-threat target of them all.
The energy emitted by 5 high-output maser cannons converged onto a single point.
It was, quite literally, the speed of light. The instant the target perceived the attack, it was already striking at maximum power.
The surrounding atmosphere turned to plasma under the extreme heat. But the wall itself showed no change, perhaps protected by the barrier’s defensive effect.
Even so, the Archbishop unit, which had apparently been about to launch another attack, was swallowed by the plasma.
But Iris, which had been observing the enemy from every possible angle, confirmed that the Archbishop unit had broken free, clothing scorched black in the process.
That information was shared across the network in an instant, and the future position was predicted from movement speed and heading. The maser cannons’ angles were fine-tuned, maintaining continuous aim on the fleeing Archbishop unit.
