Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

「Dard mountain is coming into view. It is slightly hazy but visibility is mostly clear. There are no problems.」

Celia, riding my back, puts a hand above her eyes as she looks into the distance.

I support her ass to make sure she doesn’t fall and enjoy its sensation while I’m at it.

A new handlebar has been welded to Pochi’s back by the dwarves so we don’t have to worry about being thrown off.

There is also a sunshade for Brynhildr and chairs for the elves to sit on, making the space much more habitable.

An abundance of other things have also been added to suit this mission.

I was somewhat concerned for Pochi in regards to something being welded directly to his scales, but it’ll eventually fall off when Pochi replaces his scales so he should be fine.

「Did everyone read their operation documents?」

I warn Brynhildr, who seems the most guilty of not doing so.

By the way, I haven’t read it, but Celia has and that’s what matters.

「After we get close to the mountain, if there are any enemies, Alice will burn them as we fly above. Approaching the hairy caterpillars is dangerous so we will attack from long range, Yularen-san and Ijaris-san are flexible with their magic and will provide cover support to the entire group, and then once the surface is rid of resistance, Tikuku-san and anybody else who has energy to spare will blast the mountain with maximum firepower!」

Celia orates proudly.

「It’s perfect. Whether it’s a centipede or a spider, if they fly up, they’re no different than a bug. The hairy caterpillars are also not dangerous if we keep at a safe height. After all, the enemy can’t fly. Fufu,......fuhahahaha!」

「That’s right! As long as they can’t fly, the more they spawn, the more targets we have! Fuhahaha!」

Me and Celia laugh together.

「Fufu, how amusing.」

「What pleasant people.」

The two elves giggle, while Alice hesitates to laugh, realizing how forced it is and shrinks.

Tikuku, for some time now, has been rotating her head in the cover of the windbreak.

「How long has it been since you’ve seen people like this? They laughed wildly before the battle and then were the first ones to take an arrow to the head.」

Don’t say something so ominous, Brynhildr.

I know it’s Siegfried beside me, but the black cloth makes him look like a mummy and it creeps me out.

Nothing on the Central plains can match Pochi’s soaring speed.

The blurry Dard mountain quickly becomes bigger as we approach at an overwhelming speed.

We are headed towards the giant rock close to the peak where the hole to hell is hidden below.

I dropped dye last night so we don’t need to waste effort finding it again. It’s harder to miss red dye against the brown-colored mountain surface.

「Now, it’s time for the operation to start......weird.」

I can’t see the outstanding red color.

It’s just brown.

「Also, doesn’t it seem like the mountain is shaking? No, it’s more like the mountain is moving......」

Messerschmitt, who was sleeping on Pochi’s head, runs inside the windbreak and hides.

「Hm~?」

Celia and I stick out our heads and strain our eyes.

「Geh! Uuuhn......」

Celia swoons on my back and falls backward. I can’t blame her.

「The surface of the mountain is densely packed with hairy caterpillars! We’ll turn into porcupines if we get close. Get as high as possible!」

Pochi responds to my order and increases his altitude.

Like they are chasing after him in the truest sense, countless needles fire at us, but gravity pulls them back down after barely not reaching their target.

I click my tongue and stare at the zenith.

「The sun is still up. Come on now.」

I expected enemies to be here, but I imagined them to be more passive, like lurking in holes or hiding behind walls.

I didn’t think they would be overflowing onto the mountain during the day.

「I don’t think overflowing is the appropriate word.」

Sekrit sits next to me as she combs her messy hair.

「You also snuck on? Where were you?」

She came from the direction of the tail and the only place to hide there is the anu-......

The two elves and Alice step away from Sekrit.

「I hid under the tail, idiots!」

Sekrit clears her throat and continues.

「If the enemy is covering the entire surface of the ground during the day, which we thought was safe, they must have thought this is the time, but the only thing we are chasing is the mountain and the area of our attack target.」

Sekrit trails off as she blows into the ear of the fainted Celia.

「In other words, they waited. They knew that you discovered the hole. They figured you would come again. And so they endured the light, waiting for their moment to strike.」

I can guess the meaning in her words.

「So you’re saying the bugs are beginning to think?」

The revived Celia asks.

「Fool. A spider is not going to suddenly awaken some kind of intelligence. There is somebody here doing the thinking. Or at least there was. That’s what I’m trying to say.」

Sekrit throws the walnut she was holding way down to where the wiggling bugs are.

I see, that’s troublesome but it doesn’t change what we must do.

「First we burn the enemies on the surface. No big deal, there’s just a little more of them.」

When I signal Alice with my eyes, she slaps both her cheeks and motivates herself.

「Pochi, fly just barely outside their range directly over them.」

Pochi opens his mouth preparing to assist, but suddenly coughs violently.

I knew his throat wasn’t in the best condition after spitting out purple flames several nights prior.

His usual growl is awfully low-pitched and scary-sounding.

「You don’t have to do it now. When we really need it, I’ll tell you to fire it even if it rips up your throat.」

Pochi nods to say he understood and then makes large flaps with his wings, rushing toward the peak of the Dard mountain that has turned into a clump of hairy caterpillars.

Something glints from one of the enemies below us.

Needles on a hairy caterpillar stand on end and point in our direction.

Seeing the terrifying sight, the caterpillar-hater Celia shivers.

Our speed increases and our altitude drops at the same time.

Right before the needles can fire, Alice spreads her arms.

「O my flame. Crawl along the ground and become a scorching carpet of fire――eiyah!」

Human-sized fireballs launch from Alice’s hands.

The fireballs float unreliably and sway until they hit the mountainside, bursting on contact with a soft pop.

Small flames the size of a campfire are left over.

「W-was it a failure!?」

「This is......so many fire spirits within a human’s body......」

Celia panics while Yularen gulps.

In the next moment, a huge fire spreads as if oil of high purity was poured from the mountaintop.

Replicating Alice’s chant, the flames laid on the ground like a carpet, climbed over rocks and swallowed up countless enemies.

「I thought a large boom wouldn’t work......so it’s rather low in power......but it covers a wide area......and burns.」

As if corresponding to the mumbling Alice, the flames as tall as a person don’t explode and simply envelop everything.

「Is this what they call ‘catching everyone in one net’? Look, the fire on the burning caterpillars are transferring to the ones adjacent to them.」

The caterpillars seem to have a tolerance to high temperatures as they are still moving despite being on fire.

However, they have nowhere to run and continue to burn, eventually burning to a crisp and sending the fire to another insect nearby.

「Being so close together backfired. They can’t escape.」

The hairy caterpillars squirm, roll around, and climb on top of each other to no avail.

Now it’s the same if there are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of them.

Alice’s knees bend, she loses her balance and falls over.

Her red hair turns to pink and then white. Her magic energy has been exhausted.

「You did a good job.」

My reflexes catch her immediately and I give her a kiss of appreciation.

「When we get back......my ass......」

I’ll show you plenty of love that is usually forbidden for health reasons until your ass is turned inside out.

I secure Alice in a special dwarven shelter and turn back to the burning mountain.

The hairy caterpillars near the peak are neutralised.

We should be able to get close now and unleash our maximum firepower on the mountain.

「Victory was assured at the point we had the means to fly and attack from long range! It’s time to settle this!」

Celia, who recovered after the caterpillars burned, gives orders with great enthusiasm.

Pochi also seems to have read the situation and is slowly starting to rise in the air.

Now Tikuku and the two elves just have to collapse the summit and it’ll be over.

For how desperate of a situation we were in, that was quite easy.

Then it happened when Pochi stalled in midair and Tikuku looked up.

A single unbelievably loud boom echoed from the mountain.

「Evade!」

Sekrit yells, Messerschmitt’s howl follows.

It occurred at the same time as Pochi reacted and the mountainside collapsed along with the fire and caterpillars.

Countless caterpillars and rocks peeled away like wood chips.

「It crumbled before our attack?」

Tikuku denies my murmur.

「Erosion is limited only to the surface. Scanning――scanning. Apertures as well as biological signals detected.」

Tikuku is right and the decay stopped at the topmost layer.

「Something is inside the mountain!」

I could see a collection of geometric structures after the rocks fell away.

Now, where have I seen that shape before......

「There are many bugs coming out that we’re seeing for the first time! But it should be the same result if we keep our distance and set them on fire!」

The insect crawling out is around three to four meters long. It isn’t something frightening considering what we’ve already seen.

But I unconsciously look up at the sky as my brain tries to register the form.

「I know I’ve seen this before.」

I inhale and then shout out the answer at the same time as Sekrit, who had already figured it out.

「「A beehive!!」」

The enemies under us immediately spread their wings and take off into the air.

「Everyone hang on!」

Even the two elves and Brynhildr, who have been acting laid back up until now, move like the wind.

Pochi instantly increases his altitude as he lets out a low-pitched roar.

The speed was so fast that should shake off anybody if not ready, and even Schwartz would fall behind if he blinked.

「Where are they?」

「They’re following us! We haven’t shaken them off! Left――!!」

I grab Sekrit by the hair and pull her towards me.

The flying insects―― they look completely like bees, so we might as well call them as such―― make a menacing noise from their jaws and hit air.

The irritating buzz of their wings surrounds us on all sides.

They’re incredibly fast. Pochi flying at full speed can’t shake them.

「Go faster! Dowah!」

A stinger several times larger than that of the hairy caterpillar grazes me right as I give the order to Pochi.

「They can shoot projectiles too!?」

My scream is futile as we get bombarded by a barrage of stingers.

We won’t last at this rate.

Pochi turns his head to us, lets out a growl, spreads his wings and begins to ascend rapidly.

「Is he going to do a loop?」

The bees are unable to respond to the sudden ascent and lag behind.

I see, they are faster in a straight line whereas Pochi seems to have the advantage in mobility.

Pochi builds up speed in the climb and then loops backward, our heads pointing at the ground as Pochi turns upside down.

If the dwarves didn’t install the hand railing, all of us would have fallen head first.

Below us......I guess it’s more accurate to say above our heads now.

The swarm of bees chase us.

「It’s our chance now that the distance has widened.」

「......you can really see everything.」

Yularen and Ijaris are wearing skirts.

With one hand holding the handlebar and the other hand pointed at the bees, they can’t keep their skirts from flipping up.

「Aegir-sama, this is no time to be swelling up!」

「You can get hard in such a situation? I don’t know if you’re amazing or stupid.」

Yularen’s wind magic wraps around the bees as Celia and Sekrit rebuke me coldly.

The bees’ movements are disturbed along with a sound similar to dead tree snapping.

「They are as hard as a virgin’s penis. My wind scythe was deflected.」

「Fumu, is that so......then what about this?」

Ijaris follows up with magic that slices through the wings of a bee.

The bee tumbles wildly in midair, flying around uncontrollably and crashing into other bees behind it.

「Aim for their wings. Like testicles, they have no way to train them.」

Ijaris smirks.

Her smile is alluring but her underwear is even more sexy.

Her purple underwear barely covers the front and the back is just a string that almost reveals her asshole――

The bees catch up once Pochi completes the loop.

In response, Pochi turns left and right to prevent being cornered, but the small margin doesn’t change in the slightest.

Although the two elves do their best to strike down the bees with their magic, there are too many of them.

The knife Celia throws bounces off the face of the bee.

「Such a weapon won’t even make a scratch!」

「Isn’t that why this was added?」

Sekrit points the weapon installed on Pochi’s back at a bee.

The boom of the cannon and the sound of a bee’s head flying off was almost simultaneous.

A mini-cannon was equipped? What are the dwarves turning Pochi into......?

In this specific moment, I’m grateful they added it though.

「I’ll use this!」

Celia holds onto a different weapon and fixes her aim at the bees.

Thick strings are repeatedly snapped, launching arrow after arrow.

Bees that were hit in the face reel from the impact, while bees that had their wings torn spiral to the ground.

「It’s a ballista that can fire in quick succession! I can take them out with this!!」

「This one also has automatic loading...... I wonder how the mechanism works?」

Celia and Sekrit fire a fierce barrage, knocking down the approaching bees.

If the distance closes when Pochi’s movements are not efficient enough, the elves promptly scatter the enemy with magic.

「I have to do something too.」

With that said, I didn’t bring any spare spears or swords.

And I can’t exactly throw the Keravnos or Dual Crater at the enemy so there’s nothing I can do.

「What’s that?」

I look nearby and find a scale on Pochi’s back that is about to peel off.

When I grab it, a new scale grows in its place. An old scale is perfect for the job.

I grip the scale tightly and pull, and after slight resistance, it comes off.

Pochi growls, but this is an emergency. Suck it up.

I take aim at a bee above Sekrit who is shooting her weapon happily.

「Hmp!」

The scale I throw rotates like a boomerang and hits the bee’s thorax.

Being harder than steel and heavy enough to numb my hand after throwing it, the scale sticks into the bee’s body and the bee drops from the sky while leaking purple liquid.

「Alright, next.」

I hear a growl louder than before and our speed increases.

The bees are left behind and I don’t have to throw anything.

「With that said, we can’t attack the mountain like this.」

「Affirmative. 90 seconds of charging is required to reach maximum firepower. Meltdown trigger possible when getting bombarded during charging.」

Tikuku hasn’t been participating in the battle.

She has to invest all of her firepower into collapsing the mountain.

「We have to distract the bees temporarily......muu.」

A pond jumps into my vision as my eyes dart around.

I don’t know if ash clumped together with the rain and accumulated in the water, but the liquid in the pond is cloudy to the point that it’s questionable whether it is water at all.

「Bees are weak against water.」

I don’t really see many bees on rainy days and the ones that came out of the hornet’s hive after I pissed on it were writhing on the ground. The bees came out of other holes and stung Yakov like crazy but that’s unimportant.

Ijaris realizes the same thing and sighs.

「Haa......it can’t be helped. I’ll request ten handsome men and ten virgins when we return home.」

Faster than I can say anything, she leaps off of Pochi’s back.

I quickly look down and see her using wind magic in midair, reducing her momentum and lowering herself into the pond.

Some of the bees pursue her but when she sinks under the water, they hover above the surface aimlessly.

So they dislike water after all.

「Fly as close to the water as possible.」

Pochi stops turning and flies barely above the surface of the ground toward the pond.

Naturally, the bees give chase.

As we pass over the pond, muddy water rains from the pond.

It must be Ijaris’s magic.

The phenomenon is like a reversed heavy downpour originating from the water.

We are also mercilessly drenched, but being wet doesn’t hinder Pochi’s flying.

He only makes a sad face because he likes cleanliness.

The same cannot be said for the bees.

「The bees are falling! The remaining bees are also slowing down......we can shake them!」

There is no need to kill them all.

We just have to get away.

「Head for the mountain!」

Pochi immediately changes course.

「More bees are coming out of the mountain! It looks like multiple insect hydras have appeared too!」

In addition to Celia’s words, the summit of the mountain which we planned to destroy, blasts apart on its own.

「A new enemy species......a giant bee! It is easily 100 meters in size!」

A queen exists in the hive.

But we can’t pull back now.

「Push yourself, Pochi. Tikuku, maximum firepower.」

「50% energy recommended. Maximum firepower not recommended, severe consequences expected――」

I grab Tikuku’s shoulder.

「I said, maximum firepower.」

Tikuku’s head spins around once.

「Ignoring risk management. Ignoring danger clauses. Setting genocide cannon to maximum power. Please insert battery for consumption.」

Tikuku hands me something that shines bluish-white.

「According to safety regulations, maximum power requires the manual insertion of a battery only by the administrator.」

「Understood, but where......oh, the ass......?」

I push the thing that is at least as thick as an arm into Tikuku’s ass.

「Insertion confirmed. Initiating positron influx.」

「W-wow.」

For some reason, Alice, who should be unconscious, gets up, but I don’t have time to pay attention to her right now.

「Pochi is......going!」

Purple flames shoot straight down from above the mountain and hit the queen bee.

The queen that was on the verge of taking off was hit in the thorax by the purple flames, causing fire to rise from its entire body.

The queen bee writhes in agony as the outer shell boils and melts, while the heat and impact of the stream of fire blows away nearby bees and parts of the hive.

Fire spreads throughout the interior of the mountain and spews out from anything that can be considered a hole in the mountain surface.

It makes the mountain appear to radiate a red glow.

An explosion occurs.

I don’t know if that was the result of the hive not being to endure the heat or something inside the queen bursting.

Nevertheless, the explosion blows off the queen’s head and all its legs, and the enormous wreckage falls down along with the burnt hive.

At the same time, Pochi coughs and his breath ends.

「Both the queen bee and the hive are crushed!」

「Aah, but it’s not over.」

The queen “fell”. But where would a queen in the mountain fall?

That’s obvious. It would fall towards the abyss.

I can see a wide hole in the ground where the hive burned and collapsed.

The radius of the cavity is at least 50 meters.

If left alone, I don’t know how many millions of bugs would crawl out.

「Tikuku.」

Tikuku leans her body over the edge of Pochi’s back and peers down into the hole.

So far everything has gone as we wanted.

「Tch, enemy behind! Persistent bastard!」

Sekrit fires a cannonball faster than I can turn around and shatters a bee with a large hole in its wing to pieces. The bee launches its stinger at the same time it explodes.

The stinger aimed at us misses greatly and skims Pochi’s eyelid.

Pochi’s enormous body reflexively flinches, and the forward-leaning Tikuku is thrown off.

「Tch!」

I made a mistake by grabbing her by the collar.

If it was Celia or even Sekrit, I would have been able to pull them back.

But Tikuku is too heavy for my outstretched arm, especially when I’m off-balance.

「Crap!」

I am pulled off of Pochi’s back and fall together with Tikuku.

A scream comes from Pochi’s back as the pitch black hole fills my vision.

I knew what had to be done.