In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 11 Premium Page 13

  “That’s right! Touya needs to flirt with us a little more, if I’m being honest!”

  “Wh-What?!”

  Gimme a break, I’m Japanese! My culture is socially modest, so most of the guys from my generation don’t even get girlfriends! You’re asking me to climb a mountain here... If I did something like publicly flirt in my old world, I’d invoke the ire of keyboard warriors. Seeing that kind of thing makes you wanna scream “Die, normie! Get the hell outta here!”

  “That’s right! I want you to gimme a big squeeeeeeze, Touya.”

  “Me too. I want to walk hand-in-hand with you, and feed you food in restaurants...”

  “That sounds nice. Can’t we do that much, at least?”

  Hngh... It’s just a big hurdle to climb for me... I don’t wanna piss anyone off by doing that publicly.

  “It’s fine, right? How about if we do it without people around. Let’s cuddle in private.” Sue suddenly charged headlong into me and started cuddling me from the front.

  H-Hey! Just because nobody’s around doesn’t make it less embarrassing!

  “A-Ah... M-Me too!”

  “Hm... I want in on this.”

  “Gh— What?!” Linze and Leen suddenly attacked me from the left and right.

  Ugh! G-Gimme a break! Even Paula joined in on the attack and hugged my leg.

  “D-Don’t hog all of him! Me too!”

  “Whoa!” Lu suddenly spoke up and grabbed me from behind. I was surrounded with nowhere to escape. Four enemies, or uh... cute girls, surrounded me from all angles.

  It’s not like this isn’t nice, but it’s still embarrassing! This is worse than I feared! Someone save me!

  “Attention! Crack in the sky located! The Phrase will be mobilizing soon! All units, prepare for battle!” An alarm suddenly sounded, and the surrounding area woke up with noise. Linze and the others suddenly detached from me and headed to their Frame Gears.

  I was saved by the bell... Though, I did have mixed feelings about the Phrase rescuing me from my situation.

  It wasn’t like I didn’t wanna get flirty with them... All nine of them were engaged to me, after all... I knew I had to be a little social with them, but still...

  Well, I decided to take it slow. I didn’t need to be flirty in public... I just didn’t want anyone to get mad or jealous about it, after all. In this world, someone could literally make me “get the hell out” with a well-placed spell!

  I heaved a sigh and headed toward our base of operations.

  ◇　◇　◇

  The Phrasium bullets that came out of Leen’s Gatling gun reduced an entire crowd of Lesser Constructs to shreds.

  “Hoho, they’re more fragile than I thought.” Leen grinned as her Grimgerde tore down an entire squadron of airborne Manta Phrase with a hail of bullets.

  The chest hatch opened up and yet more Gatling guns emerged to obliterate yet more enemies. After the barrage, Grimgerde began its cooldown period to prevent overheating.

  Several Chevaliers moved in during this period to shatter any Phrase cores that her barrage had failed to destroy.

  Leen’s Frame Gear had several drawbacks. The first was that her allies couldn’t go in and attack during her barrage. Friendly fire was a massive risk due to the imprecision of her assault.

  Secondly, her attacks weren’t precise enough to hit the cores all the time. Even if the enemies were smashed to pieces, if the core was intact they’d just regenerate. That being said, she was capable of concentrating her volleys.

  The third and final issue was that she couldn’t keep a sustained fire going on for a while. The body of the Frame Gear slowly heated up as it continued its attack. Grimgerde was partially constructed out of Phrasium, so there was an element of self-repair in its make-up, but it wasn’t enough to mitigate the damage of a constant barrage. That was why the cooldown period became necessary.

  That was also why we needed to pair her up with people who could cover for those weaknesses. Grimgerde was defenseless when it stopped firing, so the airborne Phrase began focusing their attacks on the inactive machine. But suddenly, bullets appeared as if from nowhere and destroyed the lot.

  “Thanks for the assist, Linze.”

  “No problem!” Helmwige flew by like a jet plane and destroyed a ton of the ones still in the air. Good job, Linze!

  Linze’s Frame Gear soared around the battlefield and supported various areas with raid-styled attacks. Much like what we wanted Lu’s Frame Gear to be, it took the position of commando.

  On the ground, Lu rushed around in her Green Dragoon, slicing through the enemies with her twin blades.

  Leen and the others had already begun another fight to the rear.

  “Stardust Shell!” Sue raised her voice as the Ortlinde Overlord raised its left arm, producing a wall of star-shaped shields of light. The shields lined up and defended her allies in the area.

  The Stardust Shell was a powerful shield that completely bounced back the beams that had been fired by a bunch of airborne Koi Carp Phrase. At that exact moment, the golden mecha raised its right arm and fired off the entire forearm at the elbow.

  “Cannon Knuckle Spiraaaaaal!!!” The fired hand flew into the air, crushing the Koi Carp Phrase one after the other in quick succession. The rocket punch flew in an arc before returning to the main robot body.

  Wow... They added in a motion that makes it do that... Well, I guess that’s pretty handy.

  I told Sue to use Ortlinde to focus on defending the HQ. Her mech was suited for that, given its high defensive capabilities. Plus, I didn’t want Sue out on the front lines. She was still too young for that. I didn’t want her to think I was being unfair, though.

  I used [Fly] to soar across the battlefield and check up on a group that looked like they were having a rougher time.

  “Fifth Squadron! Just because they’re Lesser Constructs doesn’t mean you need to face them one-on-one! Support one another and pay attention to your allies.”

  “Yes sir!” I instructed them all through my smartphone. The Fifth Squadron was composed of the new recruits. They weren’t quite used to battles that weren’t just one-on-one. They needed to pay more attention to their circumstances, really. Their power was a double-edged sword.

  “Entwine thus, Ice! Frozen Curse: [Icebind]!”

  I invoked a restraint spell and cast it on the Phrase attacking the Fifth Squadron. Their legs were snared in ice, restricting their motion. They could easily escape by snapping off their limbs, but even stopping them for a short while would be a great advantage.

  The Chevaliers of the Fifth Squadron began to shatter cores one after the other. I felt they’d be fine at that point.

  As I looked around, I saw three Frame Gears come in from the HQ. A red one, a purple one, and an orange one.

  “Kept you waiting, huh?”

  “Please forgive our lateness, Touya-dono!”

  “A-Apologies for being late!” It was Elze in her Gerhilde, Yae in her Schwertleite, and Hilde in her Siegrune.

  The three of them had been sleeping in the castle, so their late arrival was to be expected.

  Yae took the lead, dancing through the battlefield with her Phrasium blade. She sliced the Phrase cleanly in two, not missing a single core.

  Thus, the three maidens of death began their rampage.

  “My liege. There’s a large spatial distortion about one kilometer from the HQ. The Upper Construct is coming soon.”

  “So it’s nearly here, huh...? All squads, distance yourself from the projected emergence point.”

  “Roger.”

  Tsubaki confirmed that the big one was coming, so I used my [Storage] to pull out some hunks of Phrasium to use for my Meteor Rain attack.

  The plan was to pelt it the moment it came out. Using a strike like that probably wouldn’t be enough to take its core out, but wearing it out with the surprise attack would be enough to weaken it and then finish it with an all-out attack.

  I invoked [Long Sense] to check
the perforated area in space. It was cracking wider, meaning the creature was about to emerge.

  The sound of splintering glass rang out into the air. In a matter of moments, the Upper Construct came screaming through the tear in reality.

  “GRAUUURGH!” It screamed into the heavens, its body shimmering and sparkling in the sunlight. The creature’s mountainous form caused the very earth to tremble underfoot.

  Its back was large, curved, and smooth. Its six legs were stubby and chunky. It had a long, snake-like tail with several spiked, thorn-like protrusions running along it. Its short head jutted outward.

  It was a giant turtle. Or perhaps it was more similar to a tortoise. Still, no tortoise I ever saw had six legs and sawblade-like lining on its shell.

  As far as cores went... It had only one. I could see the dull orange light come out from deep in its shell.

  “It’s huge! Although... maybe it’s about average for an Upper. If anything, that just makes it an easy target... Let’s get this over with... Meteor Rain!” I invoked [Gate], opening several above the beast. The crystalline “meteors” started raining down upon it, their weight enhanced by [Gravity]. Just as I was certain of my success, the tortoise withdrew its head, tail, and legs into the central shell. I could only look on in shock as my barrage pinged off the shell, doing absolutely no damage at all.

  “Gh... Its defenses are that good?” It seemed like it was a defense-oriented Phrase. I sighed slightly as the massive creature protruded its thorny tail from its shell. All of a sudden spines fired outwards in multiple directions, like a missile barrage.

  “Tsk, no good! All units, evasive measures!” The spines splintered as they flew through the air, creating more fragments. It was like a cluster bomb attack.

  Goddammit! Fortunately, the damage was negligible. Everyone had already vacated the area preemptively due to my Meteor Rain attack. That being said, several Frame Gears were impacted. They stopped moving, and their colors grayed out, signifying that their pilots had been warped away.

  “Gaaah! Shatter!” Elze’s Gerhilde charged toward the lumbering giant, smashing against one of its massive legs with a pile bunker. She got two hits in, the first causing a short crack, and the follow-up shattering the leg entirely.

  Still, the tortoise had three pairs of legs. It wasn’t going down so easily. I considered using [Slip] to get it on its back, but Elze was in the way. I didn’t want it falling on her.

  Elze suddenly retreated, allowing Hilde and Yae to close in with a two-pronged attack that crushed the remaining two legs on the same side.

  The creature immediately lost its balance, falling to the left. Yae and Hilde withdrew in seconds, skillfully avoiding its falling form.

  We couldn’t rest easy, though. It might have been immobilized, but it still opened up its mouth to gather particles of light.

  Crap! It’s gonna fire a beam?! Leen’s Grimgerde launched a devastating salvo, but each shot simply pinged off its shell like it was nothing. The shell wasn’t just hard in terms of structure, it also had some kind of naturally reflective property. In a sense, it was similar to Spica’s defensive fighting style.

  “Cannon Knuckle Spiraaaaaal!!!” Sue’s Ortlinde Overlord smashed a rocked-charge fist straight into the tortoise’s head, shattering it into tiny pieces. The gathering light faded away as its neck dangled limply.

  Good job, Sue! Unfortunately, I celebrated too soon. Its legs and head began their regeneration cycle. We needed to break the core, but the only issue was figuring out how.

  As I wondered what to do, my smartphone started vibrating.

  “Touya... Don’t you want to try using... that...?” It was Doctor Babylon.

  “Wait... you mean that...?! The thing Rosetta made...? Didn’t you say that thing takes up a ton of magic, though?”

  “Well, it does... Even combining Linze and Leen’s magic, you’d only be able to get one use out of the thing... Still, it’s better than nothing, right? I have their consent, too. It’s all up to you.”

  Hrmph... I kinda wanted to get a chance to test it first, but the situation’s a little dire...

  Helmwige and Grimgerde got into formation, bracing themselves against the heavy cannon that materialized before them. A huge anchor came out of the cannon and rooted it deeply to the ground, preventing any major recoil damage.

  This was effectively a giant magic-powered cannon. I called it Brionac. Its barrel was three times the length of a standard Frame Gear and fired a massive, specialized bullet imbued with [Explosion]. It was also imbued with the [Spiral Lance] spell, causing a fragment of the bullet to rotate after impact for maximum velocity and damage potential.

  It took time to charge up the gun with magical power, and it couldn’t exactly fire in rapid succession. Even so, it was capable of devastating damage output. It was a kind of one shot, one kill blast.

  “You two ready?”

  “Yes, we are!”

  “As we’ll ever be.” Linze channeled her Fire magic into Brionac as Leen channeled her Wind magic into it. The gauge on the side of the barrel gradually began to climb.

  “Seventy-five percent... Eighty... Eighty-five... Ninety...!” The doctor kept us updated on the situation as I looked back to the tortoise. We were aiming for its throat. A shot there would be able to penetrate through to the core and explode inside the shell. It wouldn’t be able to defend.

  Its head and legs were almost completely restored, so we needed to take the shot immediately.

  “Ready to fire!”

  “Got it! Take the shot!” The Brionac let out a thunderous bellow as it spewed flames. The barrel of the gun itself splintered and cracked as a result of the recoil.

  The massive bullet came flying out of the end, and smashed into the tortoise’s neck. Alright! Show them what you’re made of, Brionac!

  After the initial explosion, the bullet, now somewhat more pointed and grooved, began to violently rotate against the tortoise’s body. It was drilling. The Upper Construct was completely powerless to prevent it from breaching its crystal body, so it could only roar as it was violently penetrated.

  The trajectory of the bullet led it straight to the core, pulverizing the orange sphere in a matter of seconds before making a swift exit right out the back of the beast.

  The Upper Construct stood still, and then its entire body began to shatter.

  The cracks connected and the entire structure collapsed, creating a glittering mountain. In a matter of moments, it was nothing but debris littering the beautiful plains of the Regulus Empire.

  “We did it...” Steam rushed right out of Brionac as its cooling mechanism set in. Helmwige and Grimgerde also stopped moving entirely, falling to one knee and going completely silent.

  “You two alright?”

  “S-Somehow, yes...”

  “That... That was terrible, darling... All of my magic is practically gone... Agh... A second shot would be impossible.” It really did take a lot out of them. I figured we could maybe squeeze a second shot out if we used Yumina and Sakura, though. I couldn’t do it myself, since the recoil was strong enough to wreck a Frame Gear, and Brionac itself was damaged in the process... It was honestly pretty dangerous.

  Either way, I felt like we’d be able to improve it for future use. The doctor had her ways, after all.

  “Alright, people. The Upper Construct is done. Commence cleanup operation.”

  “Roger!” The Frame Gears began mopping up the remaining weaker Phrase, one by one. I didn’t actually end up doing anything important in this fight, either...

  There were several new Frame Gears being used, and the girls all worked great in tandem, but it seemed like I didn’t need to do anything special.

  Still, I sighed in relief and was about to commend myself for a job well done... When I noticed all the Phrase in the vicinity had stopped moving.

  What’s with them...?

  “T-Touya, look!” Linze used Helmwige to point up at the sky, showing a new rip in space. The sound
of tearing and cracking spread through the air. Far more intensely than it did when the Upper Construct came through.

  Oh shit, don’t tell me...! Something came through. Something small. Something humanoid. It leaped through the hole in space and began surveying the area.

  A body of crystal, a human form, unbelievable power... A Dominant Construct.

  This was the fourth one I’d ever seen. I remembered Ney, the female-looking one that sought to hurt Ende. I remembered Gila, the battle-crazed guy. And I also remembered Lycee, the female-looking observer who sided with Ende.

  This one, I didn’t recall. It was someone new. He had a handsome face and looked distinctly male. I didn’t know if sex or gender was important to the Phrase, though. His ‘hair’ was long and elegant, but his eyes were chilling like ice.

  I descended to the ground in order to confront him. He looked at me, but the expression on his face didn’t budge an inch.

  He slowly pointed toward me, extending his finger in a skewering motion.

  “Wh—?!” The finger extended toward me, and I deflected it using Divine Brunhild.

  That came outta nowhere! If I was a normal human, I’d be dead for sure! His finger shattered, and I noticed a subtle change in his expression when he noticed that. He seemed a little shocked, but only for a moment. His finger restored itself in a matter of seconds.

  “...Hmph. Then that must make you Endymion’s accomplice.”

  “You can talk?”

  “Gila shared the language of this world with me. You must be the Touya.”

  “...Uh, sure.”

  Who the hell is this guy, and how does he know about me? Has that Gila bastard been spreading rumors about me over there? Damn it... I sighed, quietly cursing Gila’s name.

  “I am not like Gila, I have no interest in a wretch like you. I have something I must take care of before the recoil kicks in. Stay out of my way.”

  The recoil...? The thing that sends Dominant Constructs back past the boundary? Ende had explained to me that this recoil would draw creatures of a certain strength back to the other side, but it would gradually get less effective on them as they came through more. Eventually, they’d be able to freely travel across the world with no limitations.