“Big Siiis!”
Elina couldn’t believe her eyes. Her mother, the Master Swordswoman Maria, had been resurrected, and along with her beloved sister, both had been swallowed by an ugly meat mass.
“Kuh!”
With a sour expression on her face, she hurried to recover the wire.
The lump of meat that had swallowed up her sister was wriggling in a gross manner, creeping up the cliff.
Only, it wasn’t just a cliff. From the cracks that originated throughout the island, mucoid-like creatures pulsing black with a fetid odor were springing up.
As if they were a tsunami, or a storm, the meat lump came upon her.
[If I chop up this lump of flesh now, I might be in time to save my sister.]
Judging it so, she rushed towards the flesh mass with the spear—wire now wound back in place.
“Big Sis, I’ll--!”
A swing of her spear cut through the meat mass.
“Give her baaaack!”
Before her second attack could land, an intestine-like tentacle popped out of the mass she had just cleaved into two.
“Kuh!”
Without taking her eyes off it, she got a good look at the tentacle coming at her. From the tip of that tentacle shaped after an intestine oozed bodily fluids, as if baring its fangs.
She avoided the attack by a hair breadth, but bodily fluids from the tentacle dripped on her arm, raising some steam with a hissing sound.
“Ouch!”
Elina frowned at that pain. It felt as if she had been touched with heated fire tongs.
[My skin got burnt with just some bodily fluids. When they absorb someone…]
In her mind appeared Leina, no longer breathing as the tentacles dirtied her body.
“That’s not going to happen! My Big Sis is alive!”
She shook her head, casting away the delusions in her mind.
With tears in her eyes, she confronted the blocks of meat coming at her. She cut the flesh, avoiding the splashing fluids, trying to inch even a little closer to the cliff that had swallowed up Leina, but outnumbered as she was, she could only protect herself.
“Dammit, why you, why you, why you!!”
With such an overwhelming difference between both forces, even Elina was running out of breath.
[At this rate, me being swallowed up and assimilated isn’t that far off either.
Still, that might be nice. If I can be together with Big Sis…]
“Doooryaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Just when Elina was beginning to contemplate giving up, a silvery brilliance accompanied by a battle cry repelled the lumps of meat swarming around her.
The Vance girl stared at the sudden, silver shine in utter amazement. Every time the red battle ax crushed the blocks of meat, the rotten smell got purified and a clean wind blew forth.
What was shining silver was the dress a girl—wielder of the aforementioned battle ax—was wearing.
[Why is a little girl somewhere like this?]
“What are you doing here, you dolt?”
The girl’s rebuke brought her back from her reverie.
“Get away from here, this isn’t something one person or two can deal with anymore!!”
The girl, with a complicated, curly hairstyle, shouted at her as her battle ax drew a red trajectory while sending away chunks of meat.
“W-Who are you!?”
“Me?! I’m Ymir! The Iron Princess Ymir!”
The newcomer didn’t stop attacking even as she answered. Not fearing the bodily fluids burning her skin in the slightest, she kept chopping up lumps of meat heartily.
“Wait, those bodily fluids…!”
In front of her eyes, the fluids splattered Ymir’s clothes. However, strangely enough, they appeared to solidify without melting her outfit, and fell to the ground.
“What kind of magic are you using?”
“It’s not magic, it’s crafts!”
The dwarf proudly stuck out her chest. The defensive power of the dress woven with Mithotil was comparable to that of a chainmail (and in one layer of clothing, too), while its evil-banishing power seemed equal to the scriptures of a high priest.
“What’s your name?”
“Huh?”
“If you ask for someone’s name, it’s only common courtesy to introduce yourself in return. I gave you mine!”
“You demand courtesy from me, huh.”
The other might be a dwarven princess, but she herself was a princess of the Earl Vance, who dominated half of the Continent; she couldn’t afford to lag behind.
A fire was lit in Elina’s mind, now that her willpower had been about to be snuffed out.
“I’m Elina of the Earl Vance, Captain of the Royal Guards.”
She adjusted her posture, setting up her spear.
“Ooh, then you must be Miss Leina’s sister!”
“You know my Big Sis?”
“I don’t just know her, it was me who brought her to this island.”
Before Ymir even finished speaking, Elina swung down the spear in her hand towards her.
*Crunch!*
The dwarven Ancient Gauntlet stopped the blow.
“What’s your deal!?”
Ymir stared at her with bright blue eyes.
“This is no time to be quarreling.”
“You! You! If you hadn’t brought her to this island, Big Sis wouldn’t…!”
The girl with the curly haircut drew one step back when she saw tears in the blonde’s eyes.
“What happened to Miss Leina? Come to think of it, I can’t see her anywhere.”
“She got swallowed up by one of *those*!”
Elina sobbed, pointing to the lump of meat which rose like a mountain. Letting out a putrid smell, the amorphous mountain—still pulsing eerily—kept rising at an alarming rate.
“By now… she’ll already…”
“Miss Captain, Miss Leina will be fine.”
Ymir spoke with a gentle tone, letting go of the spear.
“Don’t try to console me now!”
“I’m not. Miss Leina was bathed in Soul Drop. As long as the effect persists, she won’t be eaten by *that*.”
Elina found her words hard to believe.
“Big Sis… she’s okay?”
“Hm. I guarantee it by the name of the Iron Princess.”
Elina withdrew the spear that she had been aiming at the Dwarf.
“We have to give it our all to escape now. This is no time for internal strife!”
“I understand, I’ll follow you, princess.”
She wiped her tears and got behind the other girl.
“Oh? That’s surprisingly obedient.”
“You have to deal with things as they come. I must make preparations to help Big Sis.”
Even though she said that, in order to escape, they had to break through the flesh surrounding them. In Ymir’s case, she would have no problem cutting her way through, but there was no guarantee that Elina would be able to follow suit, with her not being protected by Mithotil.
“Maybe we’re stuck here?”
“Not entirely true, get down!”
Ymir ducked. Without understanding why, Elina did the same.
The very next beat, they hear a strong windy sound, and blazing fireballs started raining one after another. They hit the earth with a ground-shattering sound, burst open and sent down a rain of countless fires.
The black, wriggling meat chunks, when exposed to the fire, became disfigured and swollen.
“What’s this?”
“I’m guessing it’s from your ship.”
The dwarf pointed to a warship moored in the bay.
“The Erebus!? Under Captain Shade’s orders!?”
As the surprised Elina looked on, the catapults and castle siege bows operated restlessly, preparing to shoot fire arrows with burnt stones.
“What will he do if he hits me?”
The Vance daughter pouted.
“I guess he thought you were capable of avoiding them anyway. You have good vassals, don’t you? Let’s go, we can’t miss this chance!”
Ymir pulled her by the hand, and they both ran through the escape route created by the fire bullets.
***
“Next: right, thirty-two.”
Based on the report from the watchtower, the catapults from the Erebus threw fire charges towards the Fiend Island, one after another. The projectiles raised fire columns upon landing, evaporating the Grey Ooze.
“Confirm the impact’s effect!”
“Lady Elina is fleeing with a dwarf!”
Captain Shade gave a sigh of relief when he heard the observer from the watchtower.
[I guess we can finally catch a break.]
“Aaaalright, now then, fire as much as you want! We’ll lighten the ship!”
“Captain! Look at *that*!”
The observer screamed.
“What… IS that…”
Uttering the same words for the umpteenth time, his gaze got stuck to the island.
As dusk approached, a giant humanoid slowly emerged from the cracks of the island split into two.
As the good sailor he was, the captain’s eyes quickly realized that its size exceeded 300 meters.
It was too big to call it a giant. It was too ominous to call it a god.
The way it split the earth and towered over the island was just proof of its otherworldliness.
“Ah…”
The captain’s heart was shaken by the intimidation the creature was giving off, and he had to put in a lot of effort not to collapse right there and then.
“Is that, the legendary Golem…”
At both sides of its head, it had cow-like horns tinged with purple electricity, and though it had eyes like a person, there were three of them and utterly black; enough to convince anyone that it wasn’t human, if it wasn’t clear already.
“GWOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”
It looked at the sky and roared.
That was the demonic giant weapon that had swept over the world back in the age of the gods.
***
At the base of the court magicians—the ones who played a central role in Queen’s Blade— and the point where the magicians relayed all matches, the top floor of the spire, called the Crystal Tower by the general public.
A gigantic, sinister light spot emerged on the huge ceremonial magic circle made to relay any and all battles through the whole Continent.
“Critical situation! Critical situation!”
The umpire images arranged to surround the large magic circle screamed, their eyes shining.
“Huge magical reaction to the northwest of the Continent.”
A map emerged, overlapping with the large magic circle. Everyone could clearly see the immense light spot near the Free City Sheldan.
“What is that?”
“How could we miss that magical power so far?”
“It swelled up suddenly. Do we have any predictions?”
The court magicians who heard the emergency report started gathering at the top floor.
Last month, another emergency had arrived due to the magic disappearance phenomenon in the Elven Forest; they had never suffered so many emergencies in such a short time. The expressions on their faces reflected the gravity of the situation.
“Sage Forrest, this couldn’t be…”
A young magician in a purple robe quickly rushed to ask the Sage Forrest, who was looking at the large magic circle. The sage, in a red robe, was one of the top-ranking magicians, one of only four among them all.
“Hmm… Magician Tamoev.”
He spoke in a calm tone, stroking his white long beard.
“This is the legendary Golem Warrior… We must make an inquiry of Her Majesty The Queen.”
Back when the magic disappearance event occurred last month, the Queen had ordered them to wait and see, so what kind of order would she give now? Tamoev wasn’t the only one worrying.
“Still, we have to reach a consensus before that.”
“I’ll send a message to all the magicians who can gather.”
The young man turned around, his purple robe fluttering, and reached for the large magic circle.
A purple light traversed the shining circle.
“I relayed the summons, even though I don’t know how many of them will arrive.”
The Sage Forrest frowned. He had been wearing the high-ranking red for thirty years, and had seen his fair share of crises while serving the successive Queens… but it was the first time he was able to witness the Golem Warrior reviving.
***
The beast’s vicious scream had reached beyond the sky, to the world humans called Heaven.
“How shall we proceed, Head Angel?”
The battle angels had picked up their godly spears and now stared at her, waiting impatiently for the order to depart to the battlefront.
“That responsibility is far too heavy for humans to bear.”
“Is it not our turn?”
The battle angels requested to be ordered on a sally. At their feet, the revived Golem Warrior kept roaring.
“Unfortunately, Heaven can’t intervene.”
The Head Angel closed her eyes and refused their insistence.
“Why can’t we?”
“Only we can defeat the Golem!”
They spoke one after the other.
“That is something earthlings have resurrected… and so, earthlings have to defeat it.”
Before their fundamental principle of keeping the world balance, even the battle angels had to concede.
“But, Head Angel, if this goes on…”
“I understand. It is no less frustrating for me.”
The Head Angel called off the battle angels, still persisting on the attack.
Only godly weapons or sacred treasures from Heaven would be able to stop the Golem Warrior. And to the best of her knowledge, the only sacred treasure left on the surface was the Sword of the Unicorn.
“As much of a fleeting hope as it might be, we have no choice but to believe in the people from the surface.”
***
Airi floated on the head of the Golem Warrior—who had revealed itself after splitting Fiend Island into two—, staring at the sun sinking beyond the horizon; from then on, it was the time for the followers of darkness to rule.
Below her, the golem, awakened from a long sleep, shouted towards Heaven.
[Everything has worked so far, but what should I do now?
Maria, who was needed to control it precisely, is still missing. At this rate, it’ll just run out of control.
What could I do…?]
She had contacted Melona through the crystal ball earlier, but no further instructions had come from her. Maybe she had gotten trapped in the underground labyrinth that collapsed when the golem activated, or maybe she lost her ball.
[Either way, I don’t need to worry about Melona; only Mistress can kill her.]
Since she couldn’t contact the shapeshifter, the one who had all the details on the golem operation, she’d have to move according to her own judgment.
“I don’t have a choice.”
Airi slowly lowered her altitude, landing on top of the creature’s head. She didn’t wish to land on it directly; the golem’s skin was greedy. Like back with Melona and the crayfish, the golem absorbed all living creatures and made them his flesh and blood. It’d even have absorbed Airi if she hadn’t had the necessary adjustments made.
“Thanks for waiting~, gee, was that a close call.”
A cheerful voice with no tension behind it sounded, and a pink liquid came out of the crevices of one of the horns growing on the golem’s head.
“If you were safe, how about contacting me?”
“Sorry, sorry, couldn’t use the crystal ball inside this guy.”
As Melona changed from liquid form to a human one, she looked up at Airi floating over her head. Since her remaining volume had been reduced, the slime girl’s size was just about a normal child’s.
“If you are here, it must mean you succeeded in recovering the Master Swordswoman Maria.”
“Of course! Sure thing!”
The girl snapped her fingers.
A crack ran through the top of the golem’s head, and a woman with golden hair and a black crown turned up from inside it.
Even so, only the upper half—wetted by the fluids of the golem—appeared on its head; her lower half completely sunk into the creature.
“Master Swordswoman Maria… I’ll have you play your role.”
A smile appeared on the wraith’s lips.
“Now then, I’ll go around here…”
Melona morphed her body into a sphere and rolled over the giant’s head.
“Wait, where are you going to go?”
“Hm~, to get a meal. I think it’s pretty obvious, but I’ve lost quite a lot of volume.”
Certainly, her size was about a third of her usual figure. Even if she was able to move inside the Golem’s body with Maria, she might have been partially absorbed in the process.
“Well, now that we’ve made it this far, I’ll leave it to you, Airi; my job is over.”
The pink girl was responsible for everything up to the golem’s resurrection, including the adjustment of the Master Swordswoman Maria; Airi was in charge of operating the creature afterwards.
“See ya~”
With that, she left, rolling down the huge head.
“Good grief… as carefree as ever.”
The maid looked away from the rolling ball, and turned her eyes towards the woman integrated into the golem’s head.
“Maria, can you move the Golem Warrior?”
“On your orders.”
The other replied in a voice without emotion or intonation.
“A part of the mainframe is undergoing reconstruction, but there are no general problems.”
With an unconcerned tone, she reported on the golem’s status.
[From what I hear, it seems there are no important problems.]
“In that case…”
In response to Maria’s report, Airi theatrically raised her arms.
“Golem Warrior!”
“GWOOOOOOOOOON.”
The creature roared, the fangs that grew around its mouth wriggling.
“Now, get up! It's time to walk now!”
Along with a roar that shook the atmosphere, the Golem’s jet-black eyes shone red, and feet thicker than a cathedral’s spire took their first step from the cracks of Fiend Island.
*Thuuuuump!*
The shockwave shaking the whole island caused raging waves, tossing about the sailing boat anchored in the bay.
“Oh my, so they haven’t run away yet.”
When Airi looked at the waves, her eyes caught the figure of the ship being shaken; that’s when the golem noticed it too.
“Crush them underfoot!”
Following her orders, the golem lifted its feet… and just at that same time.
*Riiip*
With a sound of something tearing up, the creature’s feet collapsed.
“W-What was that?”
Having lost both its legs, the golem fell on top of the island with a roar.
“Hyaaaaaah!”
If the wraith hadn’t been floating in the air, she’d have been thrown out and would have fallen to her death.
“W-What happened?”
“Both legs broken, starting reconfiguration…”
Answering her question, the woman integrated with the golem spoke without any inflection to her voice.
“We were attacked by the Holy Sound during the early stages of revival. This is the result of the body’s reconfiguration after the basic structure of the femur not being possible to reproduce.”
With her voice still plain, she dispassionately talked about the creature’s status.
“You said there were no problems, were you lying?”
“I was not. There had been no problems concerning movement yet.”
She couldn’t avoid sighing when she got that reply.
[It seems I asked the wrong question. I should have asked if there *could* be any problems with movement.]
“How long will it take to reconfigure?”
Airi switched gears and asked another question.
“Materials are missing.”
The flesh of the Golem Warrior was built by absorbing every living thing on Fiend Island.
“Can’t you use the Grey Ooze?”
She looked at the feet of the golem, which had torn off and fallen down. Melting into the earth, both feet dissolved along the skeleton.
“Any part that separates from the main body after it has been formed will self-dissolve. It can’t be reused.”
“Then, you should catch new living things to become your flesh and blood.”
Airi looked towards the far-off Continent.
“Is it possible to move?”
“Far below the planned speed, but it is.”
“Then!!”
She swung her scythe, aiming the tip in the direction of the Continent.
“Move, Golem Warrior! Your first destination is Sheldan!”
If it absorbed the inhabitants of the nearest big city, Sheldan, as material, the Golem Warrior would regain its original appearance.
“GWWOOOOOOOOOOO!”
With a roar, the creature rose up.
*Thump, thump*, the Golem Warrior began to advance, raising earth tremors as it crawled with both arms.
“Rather unsightly, I would say.”
The maid gave a sigh, as she floated on top of that head which kept shaking.
***
Furious waves rocked the Erebus to and fro. Pushed away by tsunami-like waves, the ship had been kept away from Fiend Island.
“Where’s Lady Elina!?”
“I lost sight of her!”
The observation crew member shouted aloud.
Finding the small boat with Elina and the dwarf in it wasn’t easy, even more so after sunset.
“Bless my soul!”
The captain frowned when he heard the report from the watchtower; with Fiend Island too far already and with the headwind they were getting, it didn’t seem likely they could get close.
The Golem Warrior had begun advancing into the sea, its enormous body shaking.
“It’s plenty good that we didn’t sink, isn’t it…?”
The captain switched gears, clenching the hat on his head.
“The dwarven ship approaches from starboard!”
[Apparently they were safe after all. Dwarves are very good at handling boats.]
The intense waves the golem was creating had practically disappeared now, but the sea still braved on. Meanwhile, the dwarven ship approached, side-by-side to the Erebus.
[Will we collide?]
“All crew, prepare for impact!”
The climax of a battle at sea was the boarding fight that ensued when another boat got so close. However, that dwarven ship wouldn’t be able to damage them much.
“Captain Shade, I’m getting on!”
He couldn’t really believe the woman’s voice he heard from the dwarf ship.
“Lady Elina?”
Without even waiting for his reply, she flew up from the other ship by using the spear’s wire. Using elastic motions reminiscent of a cat, she brilliantly landed on the continuously shaking deck.
“You’re safe?”
The captain rushed to her side, keeping his balance despite the tilted deck still shaking.
“Well now.”
She answered casually, then gave a big wave of her hand to the other ship, which was now leaving. Ymir responded by waving with her battle ax, her silvery curly hair swaying in the wind.
“It was only by a close call that I was able to get a ride there. We owe a big debt towards the Iron Mountain.”
She said in a not very amused tone, then turned by the captain to her side:
“Captain, head course to Sheldan immediately.”
“To Sheldan?”
As he listened to her, he transmitted his instructions through hand signs. In a flash, the sail spread to its fullest, Earl Vance’s coat of arms expanding with the wind.
Sailing at night was usually dangerous, but staying there was even riskier.
“The goal of those guys is to disrupt the power balance in the Continent. They must be stopped.”
From what Ymir had told her, Elina had been able to guess the aim of Airi’s party.
“We already have the Earl’s territory and the Queen’s territory, and that’s enough, thank you. We don’t need a third party.”
The Vance girl said, looking sternly at the horizon.
***
It had become a terrible situation. If this was as usual, Nanael would have already been scolded by the Head Angel, had her Holy Milk refilled and ordered to go down to the surface again, but the circumstances were different this time.
“If the place I call home disappears, it’ll suck.”
After returning to Heaven for the first time in a long while, she found herself having more free time than she knew what to do with.
The Head Angel was busy meeting the battle angels, leaving no opportunity for the blue-haired angel to talk to her.
Reluctantly, she decided to visit the Great Unicorn’s bedchambers on a whim. Looking at that huge body, whose tibia was already taller than she was, always gave her a sense of security similar to peace, for some reason.
However, today was different from usual. An abnormal, never seen before phenomenon was occurring to that strong, enormous body like that of a giant elephant.
“What’s… this?”
The body of the Great Unicorn, that had been slumbering for a long time, was giving off a pale glow in front of her eyes.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this.”
She stood in utter amazement, not knowing what to do.
***
“That is a fact.”
A girl sitting in a luxurious throne said gloomily, as she sent a fond look to the letter in her right hand. Her left arm and breast were tied up tightly as if she was punishing herself, and her right eye was covered with a metallic eyepatch.
She was the Bewitching Queen Aldra herself, whose growth had stopped in exchange for a power rising above human comprehension, she who had defeated the previous Queen at Queen’s Blade and protected her throne through overwhelming power at the last tournament.
A court magician in a red robe stepped forth towards that Queen who inspired fear into those hostile and peace into those obedient.
“The Golem Warrior is on a course aiming for the Continent. At this rate, it will land on the suburbs near Sheldan in the morning.”
Aldra’s eyebrow twitched when she heard that court magician—their representative, Sage Forrest.
“Your Majesty?”
“Are there any corps in the vicinity of Sheldan?”
“The 10th corps was deployed as per Her Majesty’s orders.”
“Then, order the 10th corps to evacuate the residents immediately.”
“They’re to evacuate them?”
“If the Golem Warrior is a weapon from the age of the gods, it can only be slain by holy power or any equivalent means; that much is for sure. We won’t have the elite of the 10th corps go and die a meaningless death.”
“Jococker, the corps commander, will be moved by your concern as well, Your Majesty.”
Forrest prostrated before her, and stepped back from the throne.
“Convey our decision as the Queen.”
Aldra placed the letter to her chest, and stood up.
“The 10th corps will devote their full power to evacuate the Sheldan residents. They’re also expected to tell the Priestess of Gainos about the invasion of the Golem Warrior, and request her cooperation.”
“Yes Ma’am!”
“The court magicians will utilize the referee statues to collect information and convey instructions. This is an emergency.”
The referee statues that managed the preliminaries to Queen’s Blade were transferred to all over the Continent following the approval from the crystal balls. Taking advantage of this, Aldra requested to use those as messengers to transmit information without any time lag.
“By your decree it will be done, Your Majesty.”
He prostrated himself again in acknowledgement.
“If Sheldan falls and the Golem Warrior keeps moving on, we shall go ourselves.”
“You yourself… Your Majesty?”
When the Sage Forrest raised his head, he was graced with a faint smile on the Queen’s face.
“With the Golem Warrior as our opponent, it might not be bad to use our full power.”
She stroked her bound left arm gently.
“We just pray… that we don’t need to use our demonic power… to defeat a demon…”
Once they received their instructions, the Sage Forrest and the other court magicians stepped down from the audience.
The only thing left behind was silence, and the cold air of the night.
“It should be fine with this…”
She sank again into the throne, talking to empty space.
(Yes, good work. You make a fine Queen, don’t you…)
A man with a pale face in formal clothes appeared behind her, embracing the Queen.
(There was no mistake in that decision you took as a Queen. And that goes for protecting the people of Sheldan too.)
“Our younger sister might be in that town. Would we ever let her become a victim that easily?”
The queen closed her eyes, holding the letter tucked in her chest.
The court magicians kept saying they couldn’t find her, but a letter had arrived.
[Our younger sister is alive. Oh, younger sister.
Tricking the court magicians should be easy. We might have to make a move after all.]
However, being on the throne of the Queen made it impossible.
“We thought we could find our sister as soon as we became the Queen… what an irony.”
Delmore, the man with a pale face, didn’t reply, only patted her head gently.
“If we weren’t the Queen, we’d be able to leap there right away…”
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