“W-What is that...?”
It was a sentiment akin to awe, shared by attackers and defenders alike.
“Friend or foe?”
That, too, was a question shared by both. However, the answer was revealed immediately.
A voice resonated from the giant golem.
“Both sides, lay down your weapons!”
The voice was amplified and distorted through the application of wind magic, making the original vocal quality indistinguishable, but it sounded like a woman’s voice.
“War is futile. It exhausts the nation and wounds the people. What this world needs now is peace.”
From inside the golem, Reiko spoke the lines Jin had taught her.
“The population is small, and the land is vast. If you have the surplus energy to spend on war, develop your nations instead. Enrich your people.”
These were the words of persuasion Jin had desperately composed the previous night.
“Why do you grip weapons now with the very hands that reached out to one another during the Great Magic War?”
Time seemed to stand still on the battlefield. Everyone listened to the words spoken by the giant golem.
“The past is the past. It is forever out of reach. The future is what you must reach for.”
Some of the soldiers and ritter took those words to heart.
“Do not look back at the past; exert your strength to build the future. Do not live for destruction; live for creation.”
Someone snorted in derision. To that person, the speech sounded like nothing more than idealistic platitudes.
“You are free to heed this advice or not. However, if you do not listen, I shall stop you by force.”
Before the warning had even finished resonating, a Flame Ball spell was launched from the Kingdom of Franz's army toward the giant golem.
The giant golem caught the Flame Ball in its equally massive palm and crushed it.
A moment later, the 1st and 2nd companies snapped back to their senses and began to move. Their goal was the wide-open castle gate.
In response, intercepting magic was fired from within the gateway.
＊ ＊ ＊
Watching and listening to the scene through the mana-telecam installed in Titan, Jin let out a sigh.
“I guess it’s no use after all.”
It seemed Jin’s words carried no weight in the exceptional environment of a battlefield.
“Reiko, execute Operation 2 as planned. Raptor squad, Falcon squad, deploy.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Yes, Master.”
＊ ＊ ＊
Once again, a voice resonated across the clamorous battlefield.
“How regrettable.”
And then, the giant golem began to move.
Its movements were as fluid as a human’s. Because of its scale, it appeared to move roughly ten times faster than any normal soldier.
In an instant, the giant golem closed the distance to the walls of Tetrada.
“U-Uwaaaah!”
The wall was 8 meters high; the golem’s height was 15 meters. The wall only reached its waist.
When such a giant golem approached, terror was the only natural response. And then...
The giant golem swung its right arm.
A thunderous boom of shattering stone echoed. More than half of the wall directly in front of the giant golem collapsed. Buried under the rubble were the remains of the golems that had descended from the flying spheres.
With a single blow, the giant golem had pulverized the wall along with the enemy golems that were still running amok.
“H-How could this be...”
Niclas Fahlheit let out a groan filled with shock and awe.
The giant golem, having pulverized the wall, now turned toward the Kingdom of Franz's army and held out its right hand as if to cast a spell.
That movement alone made the soldiers cower.
But nothing happened. Just as the soldiers began to think it was a mere empty threat, the phenomenon began.
“What? My body feels hot.”
“Hmm? My sword’s getting hot!”
“Hot! Ow-ow-ow-ow!”
“Whoa, why?!”
The swords held by the soldiers and the armor and helmets they wore began to radiate heat.
“It’s hot! I can’t keep this on!”
Metallic clangs rang across the battlefield. Swords were cast away, helmets were thrown aside, and armor was stripped off.
Every single piece of metal was currently generating heat.
(As expected of Father.)
It was the magic tool Jin had finished in great haste: the Induction Radiator.
If radiated at maximum output, it could melt steel in a short time, but out of consideration for the soldiers, it was being radiated at a lower setting.
Furthermore, the source of the radiation was not Titan 2, which Reiko was piloting, but the VTOLs of Falcon 1 through 5, situated far up in the sky.
They were radiating toward the ground while remaining invisible under Stealth. Titan 2 was merely striking a pose; there simply hadn't been enough time to install the device on the golem itself.
“U-Uwaaaaah! W-What? What is happening?!”
The soldiers screamed. The discarded swords, helmets, and armor—as well as the spearheads still held by their wooden shafts—began to glow red-hot.
The red eventually turned yellow, then white-hot... and every single metallic weapon and piece of armor melted. Even the pots and metal tableware in the rear encampment were not spared.
“To think such a thing was possible...”
Without weapons or armor, they couldn't possibly fight, and the Kingdom of Franz's army completely lost its will to battle.
This sight was seen not only in front of the Tetrada gate, but also by the 5th and 6th companies stationed on the opposite side—by the entirety of the Kingdom of Franz's army.
And the mysterious flying spheres in the sky were not spared either.
While the crews had been hesitating, unable to gauge the true nature of the giant golem, they noticed their altitude was gradually dropping.
“Hmm? Put out more fire! Raise the temperature!”
Indeed, the mysterious flying spheres were hot air balloons. They floated in the sky using magical fire produced by one of the onboard magi as a heat source and moved using wind magic. Because they carried no heavy components like gas cylinders, their load capacity was high.
However, the Raptor squad, equipped with Magi-Jammers, was now making that magic unusable.
“The altitude is dropping! Can’t we do something?!”
“Tetrada's interior is right below us!”
Inside the city of Tetrada, the defenders were waiting for the flying spheres—which had dropped the golems that destroyed the gate—to descend.
“Damn it! Attack with magic!”
“It’s no use! For some reason, I can’t use magic!”
Four of the five hot air balloons made emergency landings inside Tetrada. The remaining one landed outside the city. Its two crew members immediately fled, abandoning their craft.
However, they were captured by the Army golems that had already deployed and were taken aboard Falcon 5 to be interrogated. They were currently awaiting Jin’s instructions.
The crew members on the four balloons that landed inside were all detained. Niclas Fahlheit behaved with level-headed composure.
He planned to order their transport to the headquarters in Berg shortly.
And finally, the finishing touch occurred.
“Gih!?”
“Gah!”
“Gyah!”
With short cries, the soldiers of the Kingdom of Franz, the Klein Kingdom, and even the residents of Tetrada collapsed unconscious.
This was due to the Paralyzers fired by the Raptor and Falcon squads from overhead.
They were simultaneously bombarded with Shock; even if they had been controlled by Hypno or Seduce, they would have been snapped out of it by now.
In the vicinity of Tetrada, where nothing else moved, the Army golems appeared.
They went about collecting every single weapon and piece of armor within the walls of Tetrada. Simultaneously, they administered recovery medicine to those who were severely injured. It had been proven effective just by being applied to the skin without the need for ingestion.
When those who had been unconscious finally woke up, they realized their weapons and armor were gone. With nothing else they could do, the Kingdom of Franz's army retreated. The Klein Kingdom's army had no choice but to set about repairing the crumbled walls and gates.
It was a stroke of luck that no one wore metal dentures.