Alice Tale in Phantasmagoria Chapter 147

I sort through the situation.
The categories of magic and skills are canceled, due to the effect from the activation of the saintess's skill『Omega Crown』.
We're isolated right in the middle of the enemy formation where we're outnumbered by numerous enemies.

「……I wonder if this means death.」

I take a deep breath and, calmly question myself.
Un, death.
Someone will definitely, die.
After all……because this is a battlefield.
It's for that reason that, I couldn't spectate from on high.
And so I'm here.
Such a thing as regret, is the most useless of feelings.
The saintess opened her eyes with cross symbols, at a distance where it wouldn't take 2 seconds for us to meet if I were to push my way in.

「……This is truly regrettable. May you find fortune on the path to Yomi.」
「Your concern is unneeded.」

Sharan, the saintess's monk staff cried out.
Pure red light like eyes swollen from tears envelops the battlefield.
……The opponent showed her hand.

「――Let's go.」

s.h.i.+on-san jumped off from one foot to push her way in as if to say, there's no use in such like being afraid of this.

(Seriously……!)

The reliability of that back running ahead immediately after my heart became lost.
I can't see the saintess as being specialized in hand to hand combat so, I can see the clear advantage of seizing the initiative.
This is――taking the kill.
While calling her an enemy, my eyes became narrow as I imagined the appearance of a girl younger than me being slashed――but, that didn't become so.
There was an enemy soldier that came jumping in to offer up his body, in front of the saintess.
s.h.i.+on-san dealt with that quickly and, mows her way through with Senbonzakura.
Such things as iron armor don't become a problem for that blade's cutting edge.
Soldiers crumble to the ground split apart clear through their torso.
Vivid blood begins to pool on the ground such that a stench rises.

「……Prepare yourself.」

After watching that gallant enemy soldier of the sort that gave a praiseworthy display for a moment, s.h.i.+on-san brought her blade back in to swing down toward the saintess――――her balance collapsed.

「――Wha, what?」
「Eeh!?」

The me that watched that raised her voice as well, without intending to.
A fatal injury――without a mistake, that should have been a fatal injury.
s.h.i.+on-san shouldn't have made a mistake in her force and, Senbonzakura's cutting edge isn't so blunt.
So just now, what explains the soldier grasping s.h.i.+on-san's leg after having fallen to the ground before my eyes――?

「Vuuooo――!」

――A dead body, moved!!
Raising a groaning voice that raises the hairs on my body, the corpse came coiling around s.h.i.+on-san!

「U, aaaah.」

The unusually shaken (though that's natural……) s.h.i.+on-san stabbed her katana into the corpse.
She relied on her power for a 2nd time and 3rd time.

「U――u――」

It still, moves!?
As expected even s.h.i.+on-san fell back as her face's color changed, at this menace with an unclear form.
Throwing off the restraint on her leg without worrying about her appearance, she comes back to my side.

「Oneechan.」
「……It's alright.」

……s.h.i.+on-san is breathing heavily, from that amount of fighting.
That's natural.
Indecipherable, things of that sort weigh on the human spirit the most.

「Alice-ojousama!」

The maid-sans come gathering together, as if to form a s.h.i.+eld around me.
I try looking them over and, no one is missing.
As expected of them.

「……The enemy」

Following where Myan threw her gaze as if it was hard to say――the enemy soldiers had completed the encirclement of our entire perimeter.
The maid unit was here so that they couldn't do that but, the true power of those girls is authentic.
Even so, they easily permitted the enemy encirclement.
The reason for that is――

「Vu――u――u」

――――――They're all, corpses.
Even when defeated and defeated again, they rise up.
The color of blood has left them.

――Sharan.

I turned around in surprise, at the crying sound from her monk staff that was eerie enough to be out of place.
The saintess is there leading numerous corpses.
Cross symbols, within the open pupils of her eyes.
At this point I can't read the color of her emotions, deep within those pupils that take in sin.
An adorable girl if she were to close her eyes.
However those pupils, eloquently explain that they are not the belongings of a normal girl.

「Sitra……」
「――Valkyrie・Parade. This is my, skill of kings.」

Sitra・Fon・Austanya announced as such.
The forms of numerous blood soaked soldiers are at my back.
That form is not something like a saintess, nor a maiden of war who guides warriors…………

「Blasphemer of life……Necromancer.」

Even if Sitra was surprised by my murmur, her expression didn't change.
Corpse soldiers steadily come gathering around us.
We gather together and, create a circular formation.
The wall is becoming too thick, to break out from.
I feel sweat on my forehead.

「……Alice-sama, I'll ask one more time. Please surrender the fort. Alice-sama will not be treated in a poor manner. No, the name Fairy of Silver Lightning roars out even in the commonwealth, such a thing as poor treatment shouldn't be possible.」

I'm thankful for her final warning.
But, it matters not.

「If I withdraw……the guarantor of the princ.i.p.ality is?」
「That cannot be decided under my own discretion.」
「The treatment of the kingdom is?」
「That cannot be decided under my own discretion.」
「The war responsibilities for the defeated country is?」
「With the current situation as it is, the prince of the kingdom is a mere puppet. In reality――The head of Krancesca・Wilmington, I suspect it will become that sort of thing.」
「Hahahaha」
「……」

Kran's, head?

「――Absolutely rejected. Don't anger me……too far!!」

I step in toward the saintess, clearly and decisively.
Sitra's expression stiffens just a little.
Raising my fist, I aim for the side of that perplexed face and thrust with my full power.

「――――tsu」

At point blank range, our eyes meet as she opens her eyes wide in surprise.
Gagin, making that horrid sound my fist and the monk staff that the saintess instantly raised collide.
The one thrown back is the saintess, the injured one is me.

「Guu.」

My right hand fist, broke……probably.
Overly frail, no, perhaps this is what happens after hitting that sort of thing with your full power……

「Kohoo, Alice-sama is……daring isn't she.」

The saintess got up among her corpses, while coughing.
As expected it seems the battle power of the saintess herself isn't anything special.
I suppose blocking that attack was a coincidence of the moment.
Be that as it may……the soldiers here were all corpses to begin with weren't they……
Having intended to carry out an insurrection, it's the case that they were completely set up.

「This is regrettable, Alice-sama……truly.」

There's no lie in that expression.
However she doesn't waver either.

――Sharann!

The sound of her eerie monk staff cries out.
The surrounding corpse soldiers began moving forward all at once.

「……You will become that which is a corpse on the battlefield, in this place.」
「I still, have no such intent.」

I take distance with a backstep.

「Don't approach, ojousama.」

Myan released a thrown knife to keep them in check.
Between the eyebrows of the corpses giving their attack, in their hearts, in the back of their necks.
Even so those which were all fatal injuries, still weren't enough to stop the corpse soldiers.

「Chii, then, with this!」

s.h.i.+on-san hunts their legs with Senbonzakura.
However the fallen corpse soldiers, use their arms to come crawling in.
The other corpse soldiers rus.h.i.+ng in, from above the corpse soldiers crawling on the ground――

――Squish

As easily as if they were squas.h.i.+ng a bug, the headthat is crushed.

「……tsu」

This, this is bad, I feel like I'm going to vomit.

「If there's no pain there's no fear either, they don't even have emotions……!」

Wrinkles are forming, even around s.h.i.+on-san's eyebrows.

「――Remove their heads! There's no way to stop them except that, can you do it!?」

s.h.i.+on-san questioned the maids resolve.
I'm, secretly lost.
However, those girls were strong.

『Affirmative, s.h.i.+on-sama!』

They agree, without the slightest hesitation.
……Truly, they're quite the children.
From here on, it was h.e.l.l itself.
Remove the corpse soldiers's heads, crush the fallen head underfoot.
Even the act of running away cannot be, within a smell of death that seemed like it would destroy the nose.
I really didn't know if we were maintaining our sanity.
Girii.
I bit my lips and blood flowed.

「Is this the battle, of the person called the saintess!? You should know shame!」

Sitra's expression doesn't change, from the question I yelled while relying on anger.

「……Right. It's stranger to be unperturbed here. As such I am now, no longer a person. I am simply the vessel, called the『saintess』.」

Sitra's face, became darkly warped.

「I properly, understand this.」

A suffocating battlefield, of the sort that crushed the nose with its pungency.
A darkish river of blood is flowing, running into the earth's grooves.
People――things that were people, turn into something different.
――Disgusting doesn't begin to describe it.

「――You don't understand! At such a young age, don't form the intent to understand!!」
「Alice!!」

s.h.i.+on-san bravely offered her body up to protect me, from a corpse that came to sink its teeth into my head from the side.
While letting her arm be bitten, in my place.

「Guuu」

――d.a.m.n it, I, became heated!

「Oneechan!」
「Don't make a ruckus, it's alright.」

She even showed a courageous wink.
s.h.i.+t, even though recovery magic is also unusable!

「――I, want the world to change already. Thus, I will guide, my companions who mistake cla.s.sification and discrimination! I will.」
「Don't try to guide the world through war!」
「Since, will it not not change――however long we wait.」

Sharann!!
Guided by the sound of the monk staff, beastman and human――corpse soldiers, harmoniously come flying at us together.
Corpses come pus.h.i.+ng toward us all at once from every direction.
But well, Kran won't be killed, by a person who flees down the easy path――

「――Ilya, Dragon Transformatiooooooooooooonn!」

『Yes, my, lady.』

A thunderous noise reverberates, from the direction of the distant fort.
The postures of everyone including the corpses crumbled as they dropped to the ground, due to the quickening of a phantasm like unto an earthquake.

「……Dragon? Ah, that light……that is……Ancient――」

Saintess watches the phantasm, with her cross eyes opening as widely as they could.

「There is, nothing living here――――mow them down!!」
『My power is, for the sake of ojousama――』

――――Light ran forth.
The light ran across the land, with a speed that blurred human vision.
Instantly, the earth fountains as corpse soldiers are blown away――she annihilates them.

「W, why――did the attack」
「There was no effect, on Till's phantasmal magic right?」

I advance forth before the saintess that's still on her knees.

「Because my dragon contract, is itself that which is phantasmal――there's no way it would be stopped is there.」

The corpse soldiers had already been annihilated by a brief beam, during the time when Sitra was lost in a daze.

「――tsu」

A fierce dizziness came when I stood.
……Even with the magic power of the current me, anything beyond this is.

「It's fine now, Ilya.」
『May you find fortune in battle.』

The burden on my body fell, along with the sense that Ilya released her dragon transformation.
……My lost magic power, won't return so simply though.
But it's sufficient, the situation has been reversed with this.

「……We will capture you.」

I stretch my hand out so as to capture the saintess who had lost her undying army and――stopped.

「――Hou, it seems you have good intuition then. Had you taken one more step forward, you'd have been split in half though you know?」

Going nya nya, a beastman male with a cheerful att.i.tude that didn't fit with the battlefield came walking out from behind Sitra's back.

「Where did he……」
「An? There's this trench that we dug, take a look――」

After the man rotated his arms――Corpse soldiers numbering in the countless thousands once again come to show their form, from the surface of the ground where we couldn't see because of the depression.
What a thing……Ilya's second coming is――impossible is it.

「――You, used your trump card just now didn't you?」

Sharan, her monk staff cried in that manner as the saintess stood up.
Making a dark dark face.

Pii――

A finger whistle resounds and, a horse that had been running around the perimeter is given a call to return.

「Oneechan?」
「It's time to pull out, Alice.」

I do a check back towards the direction that she indicated toward with her gaze.
A dust cloud and bellow.
The opponent's main force is closing in――a living cavalry unit.

「Alice-sama, will you display one more slaughter using that breath?」
「……」

This person……!

「Even though it would've been over, had I given the order such that even you would be mown down, that was quite the composed hidden ball wasn't it.」
「The tale of the Fairy of Silver Lightning, and the dragonkin who follows her is famous you know. Would the cause of Alice-sama's defeat be that you looked lightly upon your own position?」

On top of having foreseen Ilya's matter, she even turned my personality against me……!
There was also a definite risk of being burned to nothing but the one who put her life on the line to make her plan succeed was the saintess.
I didn't intend to look at her naively but, s.h.i.+t!

「Ma, this sort of thing also happens. Don't mind it, Alice.」
「……Oneechan?」
「And this still doesn't mean we've lost.」

Even if a horse comes for us, we have to gather time to escape from the enemy in front of us.
Someone, has to gather time.

「I'll try and, do something okay.」

With a broad smile, she expressed a smile that was enough to be blinding and, s.h.i.+on-san made a wink.

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Next time『As the Blizzard of Falling Sakura Dances』