Kamijou and Orsola had been chased out of the room.
Agnese had borrowed a sewing purse that Orsola had and said in a low voice,
"…Anyway, I'll be exposed if my clothes aren't well done. Hurry up and go."
She then started to sew her specially-made habit. After mending it, she would most likely head to the flagship.
There was no point in worrying about it now.
Kamijou exposed only his head from a corner on the corridor, checking the situation in front of him.
Moonlight was reflected wildly on this straight corridor that was made of ice that had its melting point modified, like the shine of a white light bulb. Different from a normal ship, the corridor was extremely narrow. This should be a characteristic of a warship. It felt like if people gathered, it would be so packed that nobody could move about.
Like a cinema with screens on all four sides, the floor and the walls were rather obvious, but the hollow part of the aisle was rather difficult to see. Kamijou narrowed his eyes as he looked around.
"…No one's here."
"Just like Agnese said."
Just as Kamijou and Orsola said this, they walked out of the corner and moved forward.
It took them quite a while just to confirm that no one was around. A lot of courage was required to take the first step.
Agnese had said,
"The fleet's control, operation and attacks all rely on magic. More than half the people on the fleet are originally from my company, and there's a danger of them revolting if the fleet relies only on them. The squad has about 250 company, and the number of ships totals about 100. After calculations, there are only a few people controlling many workers. Of course, they would have done quite a lot of work. But because of that, there are loopholes."
It seemed to be that way.
But if the ship is manned automatically, what are the nuns' jobs?
He had heard that their work was just some simple menial labor, but he hadn't asked for the specifics. He would just ask Lucia and Angelene after he saved them.
Even if they had confirmed that no one was in the aisle, they couldn't get rid of the nagging insecurity that they may be ambushed. They were wary that there could be people hiding behind the straight rows of doors, or around the tight corners of the corridor.
According to Agnese, Lucia and Angelene had been taken to the 3rd level. The place where they kept the useless workers should have been a cabin near the bottom of the ship, but it seemed like the psychological control center to 'force people to be unable to use the escape spell' was upstairs.
The duo climbed up the steep cliff-like stairs.
Part of the corridor on the 3rd level consisted of windows. There was an entire row of gunnery rooms below the deck. As the top of the structure didn't need a gunnery room, the walkway was positioned on the outside.
"Oh my."
Orsola casually looked outside the window.
Kamijou looked at where she was looking, and suddenly gasped,
"…It's definitely not an ordinary method."
Though this was the third level, it was counted from the deck. In fact, it was about 10 meters from the deck to the surface of the sea, so the view from here was about 5 levels high.
It felt like looking down from the top of a lighthouse, but what was below was a huge fleet. Like this ship, a fleet full of giant ice ships, like fish covering the sea completely. Just by looking outside the window, one could see more than 50 of them, all of them giving a white light bulb-like glow, covering the dark surface of the sea with a layer of light.
"Hm?...Agnese has started to move as well?"
While mindful of his surroundings, Kamijou stared outside the window.
Between the ships, arch bridges could be seen. There was a small figure moving about. After the figure moved away, the ice bridge vanished. Looked like she had started on her distraction strategy.
The place which Agnese was moving to was most likely the 'flagship' that she had talked about. In the middle of all the ships, several hundred meters in front, a larger ship was surrounded by many ships. The length and breadth was about three times as large as this escort ship. It felt like looking down at a city from the top of a castle.
Kamijou looked back inside.
"I don't want to count how many… but the largest religion sect can't be underestimated."
"…It's more like this entire fleet is as big as a city."
As Kamijou proceeded on, he thought that their priority wasn't to 'engage in combat', but 'to escape'. And Lucia and Angelene knew the key spell required for them to escape.
"—eh!?"
Once Kamijou reached the corner, his thoughts got interrupted. He pulled Orsola's hand as he leaned his body against the wall.
He timidly revealed his head out from the wall.
The room that Agnese told them about was ten meters ahead.
There was someone guarding the room.
No, was that really human? That giant rock-like 'thing' that was blocking the door was a 3-meter tall golem made of ice. The sculpture was giving off a light-bulb like color, and the transparency level was rather low. The entire thing looked like it was some kind of heavy equipment. Wielding a pole…it should be some kind of rod or stick, right? But it looked more like it was wielding a rectangular steel frame that had been cut off.
Kamijou retracted his face, his back leaning on the edge of this slightly shining wall.
Damn it, that thing can't be taken down in a hit… it'll be bad if there's help when we're fighting it.
The walkway was extremely narrow, there was no real way to escape. If there were ten or more people rushing in from the back, it would be hard to even graze past them. After that, the ending would be that they would lose under the condition that they were outnumbered.
"Damn it…"
Kamijou cursed. Just as he was trying to confirm how narrow the corridor was—
DONG!!
With this sound, his vision was blocked by the light-bulb colored ice.
At first, Kamijou didn't know what the thing in front of him was.
The ice statue that had been just guarding the door around the corner had passed through the corridor in an instant, turning past the corridor… it took him quite some time to realize this.
The feet of the golem glided to the side.
When the melting point was changed, ice wouldn't melt, so it couldn't glide. But on a closer look, the tips of the toes of the golem were touching the floor, as if it was swimming on water.
But Kamijou was unable to calm down and check it.
Wha…!?
Kamijou's eyes widened in surprise as the ice sculpture's wrists moved before his eyes. It was a strike from below to above. The steel frame-like stick easily pried the thick floor, moving towards Kamijou's body without a loss in momentum.
The weight and speed was enough to smash this place like an empty container.
"Eh!—YAAAAHHHH!!"
The wind pressure touched Kamijou's cheek just as he was avoiding. While he was knocked aside, Kamijou knew that he couldn't avoid it. He swung his right hand in reflex, not caring as he slammed his palm down to take on the incoming attack.
PIANG!! The sharp sound echoed throughout the ship.
Irritatingly cold sweat emerged from Kamijou's palm to the shoulder and elbow.
"…Ugh"
Kamijou couldn't help but let out a groan.
The huge piece of golem in front was not moving either.
Pachang! The rod that the ice golem was holding onto broke in half. The shoulder holding the pole then started to break, and there was a crack down from its chest to its abdomen. Its thighs and kneecaps also started to crack, before the entire thing collapsed sideways.
Crack.
As the ice broke apart, the degree of refraction changed, the glow surrounding the golem disappeared.
Orsola, who had been holding her breath till now, finally made a sound.
"Are… are you alright?"
"Sort of."
Maybe he was thinking too much, but Kamijou felt that his wrist hurt.
"Broken…this, is kind of like a magical robot, right?"
"Hm…this isn't a stone golem. Instead of it, it's more like a part of the ship has changed shape. In terms of a fleet's attack, it's more like a cannon aimed inside…or something like that."
Orsola touched the ice statue that was rolling on the floor, slowly reading every single word and sentence slowly.
"A part of the ship…?"
Kamijou touched the wall nearby gently with his right hand, but the thick ice didn't break.
…This is a golem that uses magic to maintain itself, so does it have any difference as compared to the ship's wall which has transformed completely?
He pondered, but there was no time to verify his doubts.
(Even though…)
Luckily, that golem is made of magic, Kamijou thought as he felt really relieved. If it was just a head-on fight, he didn't know whether they would win even if they had a modern-era tank; Kamijou could have been beaten in an instant.
Anyway, he didn't win by his ability, but by the special characteristics.
Kamijou now walked around of the corner and into the empty corridor.
"Then, we'll go and save Lucia and Angelene. Though it's somewhat troublesome."
"Regarding that,"
Orsola said worriedly,
"Is it possible that the room has only Lucia and Angelene inside? There should be some mages torturing them using magic. If we open the door like that, we might start a battle."
Orsola picked up an ice block that was on the floor. It was the one the ice golem was holding, the rod that was cut in half. She looked like she was holding onto a musical instrument with both hands.
"This will be my weapon."
She revealed a smile that definitely didn't fit the atmosphere.
And,
"This and… that, hm, that looks strong."
After saying this, she picked up the leg of the ice golem. It's attack power should be equivalent to that of a large rock that's used to crush things, right?
"…Really?" ''But it sure looks useless''.
Kamijou swallowed his words.
"The rest is up to fate. We can only pray that this kind of thing doesn't happen consecutively."
"Alright, I'm done. Let's go."
Kamijou and Orsola nodded to each other and began running down the corridor. Their pessimistic view of wanting to avoid being seen in the corridor was much stronger than their enthusiasm to fight.
Both of them reached the door.
While grabbing the handle of the door, Kamijou noticed that the door wasn't locked.
To be honest, they were afraid, but continuing to hesitate wasn't a solution. They opened the door without hesitation.
A loud sound echoed throughout.
"Eh!?"
It was a neat room, it looked like... it looked like a doctor's clinic. Even so, the beds were made of ice as well. To be honest, Kamijou didn't know what it did.
There were about 7 men and women inside the room. Among them, two of them were wearing habits with yellow sleeves and skirts. They were Lucia and Angelene. Both of them were wearing gold rings that were secured tightly on their cloth headpiece. The remaining five people were unhealthy men that were skinny like needles. They seemed to be researchers, and they had pitch-black habits on. On the ice table nearby, there were many metal rods that were for some unknown purpose, and these were the only things that weren't made of ice. The tips of the metal rods were as sharp as a pencil. The unique shininess that was like a cinema made them even more mystifying.
They couldn't see an ice golem anywhere.
But in terms of numbers, 1 on 5 was still disadvantageous for Kamijou.
Cheh…!!
They would lose if they took them head on, Kamijou thought, ''we have to take them down while they're still shocked'' as he took a huge step to the middle of the room.
But.
A person suddenly stepped in front of him.
"Don't move."
The one saying this was Orsola Aquinas. She tossed the ice block that she was holding onto the floor. The remains of the rod landed on the floor together with a heavy sound. Instead of saying that she threw them, it was more like the ice block had slipped out of her hands.
The Roman Catholic men, who heavily outnumbered them, stopped in unison.
"How do you think we broke this?"
Said Orsola confidently and reached her hand into her sleeve.
Kamijou stared at his right hand, still wondering what Orsola wanted to do.
The enemy didn't know anything about the Imagine Breaker.
"Oh my, I casually spoke some Japanese unknowingly, can you people understand? It's alright if you don't. If you don't listen to my warning, I'll use this."
After saying this, Orsola reached her hand into her sleeve.
"Wait…"
One of the men spoke in Japanese.
Once the other party made a response, it meant that they were starting to concede.
"…What kind of spiritual item are you hiding inside?"
Before Orsola could reply, the other man said,
"If it's just ice, you could have broken some normal ice and carried it in."
"Oh my, then does this ship have this kind of thing?"
Orsola tossed another ice block.
This time, it was the leg of the golem. The shape was a lot more intricate than the rod, as it was part of the kneecap that was smashed.
"—"
The men backed away.
In contrast, Orsola forcefully moved forward by one step.
"As for your problem just now, if you want to know how I did it, then it'll be alright to let you see it. However, you'll be turned to ash before you can see it clearly. Oh my, since you still need a bodyguard, I really wonder if you can take it?"
As she shook her sleeve gently, the men were terrified to death. Even Lucia and Angelene, who weren't involved, were looking slightly fearful.
Kamijou was marveling at this.
To use this technique of bluffing on them, one had to first accurately predict the enemy's capabilities before using it.
"Then, please tie their hands and feet up."
Orsola smiled to Kamijou as she said this.