As for the Illustrated Stories, extra chapter! Read on to find out about the largest mystery in Rebellion (at least in sheer size).
Enjoy!
Upheaval, chapter 9.5: Battle in the Ruins
After leaving the ruins, a devastated canyon extended.
If you raised your eyes, only a line of the quite distant sky could be seen. Cliffs towered over that deep, dark canyon.
Too thin for people to pass through anymore, the fragile scaffolding rattled if you put your feet on it carelessly, to the point that you just knew it was going to collapse.
If you looked down, the deep abyss opened a mouth that continued who knows how far, it even felt as if only darkness awaited the victims inside it. Even so, in the valley of the death where no signs of life could be detected, five figures advanced.
They were the “Alchemy Strategist” Yuit, the “Twin Taimashi” Tarnyang and Sainyang, and the “Alchemy Android” Vante, who carried on her shoulder the “Child of the Dragon”.
“Hurry up! That girl is absolutely chasing after us, before she arrives, the seal of the “Sacred Treasure Fortress Bligh”… uhyauu!”
Before she finished speaking, the step under the “Alchemy Strategist” Yuit collapsed, and her small body fell into the abyss.
“Yuiit!”
“Gaooon!”
Vante stuck out her right hand towards Yuit before Tarnyang screamed.
But, she wouldn’t reach!
The very moment she felt so, Vante’s wrist disconnected from her arm, and aiming at Yuit, it sprung at her and caught her ankle by a hair’s breadth.
That was the special move of the extraordinary android Vante, the “Alchemy Android”, called the Missile Punch.
“T, thanks, Vante…”
While she was pulled up upside down, Yuit thanked her.
“Gaonn.”
“Really… wasn’t it you yourself, Yuit, who said to pay attention to the steps since they’d easily collapse.”
“S, sorry…”
“…Let’s leave that behind us. We should go ahead without quarreling.”
Being told by Sainyang, Yuit and Tarnyang calmed down.
Nodding to one another, they began to walk on the path along the thin canyon once again.
“Really… you don’t pay enough attention… ahya?”
Crummble!
“Vante!”
“Gaooon!”
Seeing Tarnyang hanging upside down, Sainyang sighed.
“…I don’t think you can speak in such a patronizing way to people…”
“A, anyhow, we must proceed with utmost caution… or else this will happen…”
Still hanging upside down, Tarnyang said so as if to excuse herself.
At the same time, the “Leader of the Fang” Elina and the “Solar Dancer” Luna Luna were advancing through the canyon of the death, chasing after Yuit’s party,
“Hey hey, hurry up! We must catch up to those girls, don’t we?”
Manipulating four tentacles skillfully, Luna Luna advanced in the face of the unstable scaffold.
“I know that! But, I can’t make a mistake on this road, can I?”
Going the same way, Elina advanced casually through the nimble, thin scaffold, as if she could completely feel her own body weight.
“To get inside the “Ruins of the Beast”, there’s no way around this “Canyon of the Death”, this is the main road. If we’re to catch up to those girls, you have no choice but to keep up.”
“Hm, but catching up, can we do it?”
“Well, don’t we have to catch up to them by any means? ...Ah, look!”
As Luna Luna’s tentacles raised her body for her to observe their destination, she pointed to the path.
“What? …The road, it collapsed?”
“Since the scaffold around here is weak, it’ll collapse with just a little vibration… surely, it broke down because of those girls.”
“It can’t be, did they fall down?”
Elina murmured, looking into the bottom of the sheer precipice. No one would survive if they fell down from there, not even Elina.
“I want you to forgive me for all this.”
As far as Elina was concerned, she wouldn’t say it was over with just stopping Yuit’s party.
Even if she had to torture Yuit, who had seemingly solved the mystery of the “Sacred Treasure Fortress Bligh” somehow, to get information from her, she absolutely had to secure Bligh for the Queen’s Army.
“Sister Claudette… if Elina obtains Bligh… I wonder if you’ll praise me…?”
Upon her triumphal return having solved the mystery of Bligh, the Queen Claudette would look at Elina’s face and speak words of appreciation. Picturing such an image, Elina would grin involuntarily.
---
They kept walking along the path of the cliff, through the fragile, thin scaffold, for a few hours.
Finally, Yuit and the others left the canyon, and managed to arrive at the deepest part.
“It’s here…”
A majestic appearance towered before their eyes, that took Yuit, Tarnyang and Sainyang’s breath away. There was such a huge stone gate, they knew they would have believed it even if they had been told it was the entrance to a giant’s house.
“Is this… the “Sacred Treasure Fortress Bligh”?”
“But, how do we open it? Can such a large door ever be opened?”
“Indeed… I’m sure there must be some trick to it.”
Sainyang said to the puzzled Yuit.
“L, listen, the key… I don’t think we have it anywhere on us…”
“The key…?”
Reacting to the word “key”, the “Child of the Dragon” sitting quietly on Vante’s shoulders, opened her mouth calmly to speak.
“Southern land. The gate serves as the key, and the key serves as the gate. Holding the key, a small, wise person. The steel servant, the protectors of the dragon, the gate will be opened, and then closed.”
“We’ve heard that many times… if the hints were a little easier to understand…”
Sainyang was observing the stone gate with a sidelong glance while Yuit grumbled, and suddenly raised her voice.
“Look, look! Over there, up top, there seems to be something!”
“Eh?”
Yuit and Tarnyang lifted their faces, focusing their eyes on the direction Sainyang was pointing at.
Around the top of the stone gate, a small recess had been excavated.
“Is there anything there…? It kinda looks like a decoration of the stone gate.”
“They’re at the left and the right of the stone gate, on both sides… but, how could we go to such places…”
Tarnyang folded her arms in worry. Next to her, Sainyang, who had been looking right at the stone gate, asked Yuit.
“Say, Yuit… Vante’s Missile Punch, would it reach over there?”
“Eh? Yeah, I think it’d reach.”
“Well then, I want you to pick us up, to take us to the recesses over there. Both of us.”
“I don’t think that’s a rational action… but I understand.”
“Thanks, then, shall we, Tarnyang!”
“Eh… shall we, what?”
“Stand on Vante’s arm.”
“Eh, wait, Sa, Sainyang… Are you serious?”
“Tarnyang, don’t you think this much is easy as pie? Or, is this impossible?”
“T, there’s nothing impossible! This much, is a piece of cake!”
“I thought you’d say that, in that case… together on 2!”
“Ah, wa, wait, we’re really going…? One!”
“Two!”
Tarnyang and Sainyang, moving without feeling their own body weight, jumped upon both of Vante’s extended fists, waiting to be catapulted.
“Okay then, Yuit, Vante, please!”
“This is reckless… but it’s fine. Okay then, Vante, gooo!”
“Gaoooooon!”
With a roar, Vante shot the Missile Punch with both arms at the same time. The twins stood on top of the iron fists, and flew through the air in a straight line.
“Uwaaaaaa!”
“Teyaaaaa!”
“A, amazing… both of them.”
Yuit couldn’t believe the scene as she watched in amazement, and next to her, the “Child of the Dragon” looked up expressionless at the stone gate.
With one breath, both girls, Tarnyang and Sainyang jumped into the recesses, and the Missile Punches, even after losing their baggage, kept their momentum and sank into the rock.
“Are you alright?”
Yuit called out to them from below, and the two people looked at her and waved their hands.
“L, like I said, this was a piece of cake…!”
“However, Yuit! Here, there’s something like a mechanism!”
“Here as well!”
“This here, looks like it’ll move if I pull it!”
“Same goes for this one!”
"..."
Yuit put her hand on her chin, deep in thought. After a while, she raised her face and shouted to the two people.
“Both of you! At the same time, operate the mechanism!”
“Got it!”
“Roger!”
“1, 2, 3…”
“There!”
When Tarnyang and Sainyang operated the mechanism inside the recesses at the same time, a sound like an earth tremor echoed around them.
Rummmmmble…!
“W, what is this sound…?”
Confused, Yuit took an extensive view of her surroundings. She instantly found the answer.
The lower part of the stone gate had begun opening slowly.
“Yuit, how is it?”
Tarnyang and Sainyang, who had gone down to move away from the cliff, called out to her.
“Tarnyang, look! It’s open!”
Tarnyang quickly noticed what Yuit was seeing, and hit Sainyang on the shoulder.
“Really… but, how are we supposed to go inside there…?”
Tarnyang was puzzled. As she said, there was no passage leading inside the open gate, there was only yet another towering stone door instead.
“What should we do this time?”
Ignoring her own complaint, Tarnyang approached the gate.
“Hm? Here, I see something like a keyhole?”
“Keyhole?”
At Tarnyang’s words, Yuit, Sainyang and even Vante, who was restoring and mounting her Missile Punches, drew near.
“You’re right… a keyhole.”
“But, won’t this need an extremely large key?”
Now that she mentioned it, the keyhole was quite large, it was like a child’s arm could fit in there.
“We have nothing like a key suitable for this.”
“If we did, we’d know immediately.”
“Yeah, isn’t it about the same size as the key that’s always hanging around Yuit’s neck?”
“Yep yep, a key with approximately the same size as this one, to go look for it now… oh.”
Tarnyang and Sainyang exchanged glances, and said no more.
“What’s wrong, you two? Anyways, we need to find the key…”
“…Y, Yuit?”
“Hm, what?”
“I mean… it can’t be, but we think…”
“So, what is it?”
Tarnyang and Sainyang, both timidly, pointed at the key around Yuit’s neck.
“It can’t be… doesn’t it make sense…?”
Asked by the two people, Yuit looked at them blankly.
“Eeh? Noo waay! This is Vante’s activation key. Why would it be the key of these ruins…”
“B, but, just in case, it may…”
“If you’re going to say that much… fine.”
Preventing Yuit, who was going to try it out, from touching the key, a voice echoed from the canyon.
“Wait, you guuys!”
---
“Kuh…! Leader of the Fang Elina… and Moonlight Dancer Luna Luna!”
Looking at the pursuers who had finally arrived, Yuit called out their names.
“Seems like we’re in time… well, I want to say, thanks for your hard work on guiding us here. Now, you just have to give us the key. Didn’t you find it skillfully, the key of the ruins?”
“E, even you, I didn’t know what it was!”
“I told you to give it to me, lady.”
Luna Luna smiled when she said that to Yuit.
“Your doll companion, Vante… in the ancient language of the Calibara, the meaning of “gate”… I wonder if you don’t know it?”
“Eh…”
“You’re getting it backwards, aren’t you? That mobile fortress’ activation key was taken by that person, the alchemist Cyan, and she hid it and deceived us by saying that it was the activation key of that doll.”
“Mother… hid it…?”
“You know, if you look at it, it’s a simple trick… but, it was good that I chased you before you beat us to the punch, Yuit… that activation key, no, the “Sacred Treasure Fortress Bligh”… I won’t hand it over to the Rebel Army!”
Elina said so, readying her claws, and next to her, Luna Luna said one more thing to Yuit.
“I was told by Elina… Your Rebel Army, is a group of demons that keep on plundering and destroying the countries that go against you… if we hand Bligh over to you, I don’t even know what will happen to this Calibara forest… you know”
“Wait, what lies have you fed her!”
“Ooh, isn’t it the truth? Since your leader of your group is the “demon” Annelotte and everything.”
“Ugh…”
The scary memories of Annelotte’s rampage still remained in Tarnyang and Sainyang. When she referred to them, they couldn’t help faltering after all.
“If you give such a demon this enormous power, we won’t know what will happen… So, give up, you guys! If you do now… If you do now, you won’t get off too bad… You won’t get a death sentence, I’ll send you to the “Fierce Tiger’s Den” to avoid it.”
“I have to protect these ruins, entrusted to me from my honorable ancestors… so, even though I’m afraid I’m not a cute child anymore… I can enjoy myself some more.”
“Well, let’s settle this quickly, and say goodbye to this irritating place!”
Before she finished speaking, Elina kicked the ground and rushed out.
“Tsk… Tarnyang, Sainyang, Vante, come here!”
“Gaoon!”
Vante stepped ahead and crossed her arms, catching Elina’s claw. When the claw and the strong arm clashed with each other, sparks came off.
“Sainyang, we’ll go as well, we’ll start full throttle!”
“Y, yeah!”
Sainyang turned around and thrust her waist towards Tarnyang. Tying both hands behind her back, Tarnyang tried to connect her own waist to Sainyang’s.
“Double Dragon Formation, Dragonic Howl!”
“Taaaaah!”
The scream concentrated inside Tarnyang’s body and was transferred to Sainyang, and after running through Sainyang’s body, it was released as a shock wave from her mouth!
“Giggle, I’ll have you two together as my opponents, LUCKY!”
Happily saying that, Luna Luna bent her back to avoid the shock wave.
“Kuh, Sainyang!”
“Hyaauh?”
Noticing that Luna Luna’s tentacles were attacking at the same time she evaded, Tarnyang hurriedly pulled Sainyang towards herself. And it was in the nick of time, as the blade attached to the tentacle passed before Sainyang’s eyes.
“Tsk… Even if she’s one person, because of those tentacles it’s like she can take on two or three people, no, even more…”
“Do you get it now? If we play all jumbled up we’ll have more fun...giggle.“
Yuit, Vante, Tarnyang, Sainyang, Elina and Luna Luna were all jumbled up now, releasing deadly blows and defending.
In those circumstances, letting one’s mind wander just for an instant would prove fatal.
So, they didn’t notice one thing.
“Wait, w, watch out!”
When she noticed it, Tarnyang shouted as her face started paling.
“N, no, watch out, don’t come this way!”
Yuit understood the situation as well, and screamed.
“My my, don’t you want all of us jumbled up, now that we’re having so much fun, lady?”
Luna Luna smiled bewitchingly, as a tentacle caressed her cheek.
“…”
As expected, remaining still expressionless, the “Child of the Dragon” was standing unaware in front of Luna Luna’s eyes.
“S, Stop… don’t lay a hand on that chiild…!”
“Giggle, I wonder what I should do?”
The “Child of the Dragon” was certainly well within Luna Luna’s tentacle’s attack range.
If they moved carelessly, the “Child of the Dragon” might fall victim to her; thinking so, Tarnyang, Sainyang and Yuit stopped moving.
But, the “Child of the Dragon” didn’t care much about that situation around her, and reaching out for Luna Luna, she tightly grasped with both hands the small ornament by her crotch.
“Hyauh!”
The Moonlight Dancer Luna Luna whined before the unexpected action.
“…”
Slowly, the “Child of the Dragon” kept on stroking Luna Luna’s elephant ornament with both hands.
“Ah… a, mn, hiu, a, ah… kku, fu, a, ah…”
As if even her nerves went through the decoration, Luna Luna let out disconnected sighs.
“Yuit, Luna Luna’s appearance…!”
“Y, yeah… she’s changing, again…!”
The brown color of her skin faded out, and Luna Luna’s appearance changed back to the one she had the first time they met her.
“…”
“Haa, haa… haah…”
When the “Child of the Dragon” let go of her grip, rather than the “Moonlight Dancer” Luna Luna, there was the “Solar Dancer” Luna Luna there.
“Luna Luna! Solar Dancer Luna Luna!”
“Yahoo, how have you been?”
“We’ve been awful! And you know that!”
“Ah, right. But, aren’t you the bad guys, who want to steal from the ruins and devastate the forest?”
“That’s wrong! We’d never think of doing anything like that!”
Yuit desperately appealed to Luna Luna.
“My hometown, the Little Elves’ Forest, was burned down by the Queen’s Army! Even if they pretend to be cooperative at first, they’ll suddenly crawl deep into the forest! The same thing will happen to this forest if we leave them as they are!”
“Eh… But, Elina…”
“You can’t believe what Elina says! She made the people in your village work for her, and she made a fool of your dance!”
“It… seems she did?”
“Heey, Luna Luna! Don’t be fooled by what those people are saying, we have to hurry up and defeat them!”
While fighting Vante, Elina turned towards Luna Luna and shouted.
“Trust me! We are allies of the Calibara tribe! If the Queen’s Army obtains the “Sacred Treasure Fortress Bligh”, they plan on burning down this forest as well!”
“Hum… which one should I trust?”
Luna Luna pondered, tilting her head to the side.
“That’s right… the thing is, it was Yuit and the others who helped me… Besides, they even praised my dance… yeah, I got it!”
“Eh, wait!”
“Sorry, Elina, but still, I’ve become their ally!”
“Wait, just, one second… that’s not what you promised!”
“But Elina, even you made a fool of my dance, these children said it was great… So as I thought, I’d better go with these people, don’t you think…?”
“F, for such a reason?”
At that excessively irrational reason, Elina felt exhausted for a moment.
That was her oversight.
“Gaoooooon!”
Weaving her way, Vante rushed and unleashed a punch.
“Kuuh!”
Elina leaped, without getting into a panic. But Vante, no, Yuit wasn’t aiming at Elina herself.
“Vante, do iit!”
“Gaoooh!”
Vante’s fist beat the ground thoroughly!
Clatter clatter!
“Eh, ah, wait, a sec, eh…!”
The ground collapsed, and began to collapse at Elina’s feet.
“Uh… hya, a, a, aaaaaah…!”
Her footing was lost faster than she could escape, and Elina’s figure disappeared along with the rubble in the blink of an eye, falling into the canyon which bottom couldn’t be seen.
---
“Haah… haah… haah…”
Once the intense battle finished, before even catching her breath, Yuit headed to the stone gate.
“Mother Cyan… the Bligh you discovered, I’ve finally found it now… are you watching from somewhere, mother…?”
Muttering quietly, she inserted the key, and twisted it.
Rummmmmmble…!
Along with a short earth tremor, the stone gate really opened this time, and inside it, there was the central part of the “Sacred Treasure Fortress Bligh”, guiding the party in.
This way, the Rebel Army took possession of the strongest fort, succeeding in obtaining a base.
But at the same time, the Queen’s Army, together with its allied forces, the pope’s agency, was arranging a large battalion of troops to exterminate the Rebel Army.
The battle had yet to end.
-To be continued-
>>Special commentary by Elina:
Uooooh, I’M SO PISSED OFF! The pipsqueak strategist, the iron puppet, the conjoined twins, and even the pervert dancer, I’ll rip them to shreds the next time I see them!
Hey you, listen! After I did my best, this can’t be happening to me! First, when I attacked the village of the Little Elves, I gathered information on Bligh. I read the scroll Cyan left behind carefully, but I didn’t get its meaning, and I discovered the location of the legendary land, Shai-Fang (maybe the first time anyone ever has).
Then, I kidnapped the mystical brat without anybody noticing. Furthermore, I lured Yuit into the jungle, anticipating her. I even solved Bligh’s mistery ahead of Yuit, so! I need no help even if I fell this far down the bottom of the valley! In the first place, I’m one of the few talented people in the Queen’s Army! I almost don’t have to work!
Big sis Leina, hurry and come pick me up!
*However, Elina was grave when she returned to Gainos. Please listen to the supplementary Drama CD for details!
Whew, longest chapter so far. Funny that neither of them commented previously about Yuit's key hanging in front of their eyes the whole time.
It's a nice touch that they confirmed Elina is still alive, even after foreshadowing her possible death, but I guess she'll be sitting out the next battles.
And I noticed that Fiwasaki's site (the guy who translated the 1st volume and part of the 2nd) no longer exists, so I'll update the links in chapter 3 as soon as I can. We'll always thank him for all the work he poured into QB, though.
Next chapter, we're back to Annelotte in the middle of a heated battle!
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