Pendragon's Infinity Gauntlet

Page 192

However, Oriana didn't care at all about the stares from those around him.

Being the one being tracked is extremely unnatural.

(As for time... it might take a while. Oh well, I'll leave that to Lidovia. What should I do in the meantime, big brother? Hmm.)

Oriana walked down the street as if trying to attract attention.

It looks like there's plenty of room for maneuver.

They are completely unconcerned about the possibility of being discovered by their trackers.

The train stopped again.

The second stop was the Western Mountain Station, our final destination.

As soon as the doors on both sides of the train opened, Jing Shen and Tyr rushed to the platform. They ran straight to the nearest exit, with Fang Cun close behind. Tyr, spitting his chewing cigarette into the trash can along the way, said:

"Damn it, where's Tsuchimikado? If that guy's not here, we can't prepare the 'Reason-based Four Formations' for the exploration!!"

As she spoke, she took out her phone and dialed. Although it was underground, the call connected quickly, probably because it was very close to a cell tower.

"Tsuchimikado!!"

"Meow. Sorry. My automated bus has arrived near the station... The roads around here seem to be the designated route for the 10km race walk. Because of the change in the race schedule, the start time was brought forward. As a result, the bus is stuck in traffic and can't move."

Tyr clicked his tongue without any hesitation.

"How far is it from there to here!?"

"If you get off the bus and run, it will take about ten minutes."

Jing Shen thought to herself, "This is terrible."

Three minutes had passed since they spotted Oriana, five minutes had passed since they arrived at the station, and they still had to wait ten more minutes before starting preparations for the exploration magic. It was hard to imagine where he could have moved to. Tsuchimikado had mentioned before that the "Reasoning Four Arrays" magic used to search for Oriana had a radius of about three kilometers. If Oriana discovered their movements, he would likely escape again.

Tsuchimikado probably understands this. She said in a bitter voice:

"Tyr, do you remember the pattern of my 'Four Formations of Reason'?"

"impossible."

"If I instruct you via my phone, can you draw it?"

"That's impossible. Just learning by watching and combining techniques like this won't make any sense of the theory. I have absolutely no concept of the Eastern style. Especially the way you've prepared the 'Four Formations of the Theory School' in terms of location and spatial flow, the Western and Eastern methods are completely different. I'm not some child from the Catalogue of Forbidden Books; are you planning to teach me the Yin-Yang philosophy and its essence all over the phone?"

"...Should we use your Western-style search method?"

"If possible, I would like to ask you for help. I am a complete novice in this area."

"I see... Well, you're right."

A bitter sigh hit the microphone, producing static.

After a moment of annoyance, Tsuchimikado

"Alright, I'll initiate the 'Four Formations of Reason' from my side."

Upon hearing this line, Jing Shen was startled.

"What's there to be afraid of? A ten-minute walk could easily lead to a fatal error. It's better to do this than to spend time going to the station. Oriana could also take the subway or an automated bus. It's better to explore sooner rather than later."

Chapter 343 Redundancy

Chapter 343

Before Jōjin could speak, Tsuchimikado alone drew a conclusion.

"I'll send you the results of the 'Four Formations of Reason' via mobile phone. Tyr, along with Pure God and Misaka, should pursue and capture Oriana. The one who possesses the 'Apostle Cross' might not be Oriana, but Lidovia. If possible, I hope to capture him alive."

"wait…"

Upon hearing this, Jing Shen finally lost her patience.

"Wait, Tsuchimikado! Can you still use magic!?"

Haruka Tsuchimikado cannot use magic.

To be precise, while she can use magic, her body would explode internally whenever she did. This is because she is a magician who has also undergone modifications to become a superhuman. Since the bodies of superhumans are different from those of ordinary people, using magic "created for ordinary people" would cause a rejection reaction.

She herself must be perfectly aware of this.

Today, she was covered in blood because she used magic.

Now she says she wants to use the "Four Arrays of Reason" herself. Having already used magic once before, using it twice could very well lead to her death.

However, she did not respond to Jing Shen's concerns.

Tsuchimikado did not answer, nor did Tyr.

As if to silence the words of the God of Purification, Tyr began to speak into the phone.

"...Are you sure you can do this?"

"I don't know why you asked me that, meow? I'm a magician, an expert in using magic, right? And Purifying God, if you have any complaints, wait until I'm in the hospital bed and I'll listen to you slowly. If you're visiting me, please bring melons and apples, meow."

"Tsuchimikado!" Just as Jōjin shouted, the call was unilaterally cut off.

Tyr put the phone into his breast pocket.

"Hmm. When that guy calls next, it should be after he has activated the 'Four Formations of Reason'. We can't let his resolve go to waste. Let's stop thinking about unnecessary things and focus on purifying our minds and exorcising demons."

"hateful!!"

Hearing her say that, Jing Shen couldn't help but punch the cement wall.

"That's unnecessary."

Tyr finished speaking as if he couldn't take it anymore, and then took out a new cigarette from his pocket.

Fang Cun watched Tyr finish her cigarette, and then her phone rang.

It was Haruka Tsuchimikado who called.

The content is that she needs to move to a deserted place and activate the "Four Formations of Reason".

-

Oriana's shoulders trembled slightly as he suddenly sensed something.

(Oh—this…this is the same spell I used before. Is this a sarcastic jab at my older brother who can no longer use the same magic?)

He was thinking this as he walked in the middle of the Fifth School District trail.

The enemy's exploration technique used Oriana's word cards—or more accurately, the "Original Text," a haiku-like, world's smallest and most unstable magical book—to reverse-detect Oriana's location.

However, for Oriana, he set the activation and deactivation of the spell to a switching caused by "the activation and self-destruction of the unstable scripture." Since it requires Oriana's own magic power, and the card has the "function of sensing Oriana's commands," it is possible to track his whereabouts and conduct reverse detection.

In this way, —

(Big brother, what's my card called over there? Never mind, anyway, as long as the card is connected to my magic, I'll immediately sense any unusual activity when the other party tries to do something to the card.)

As she pondered this, Oriana quickened her pace.

There exists magic in the world that can disregard physical distance. Especially in assassination, attacks that cannot be escaped even by fleeing to the other side of the world are highly valued.

but……

"This is different."

As the bus was engulfed in flames, he sensed that his pursuers seemed extremely fearful of the distance between them increasing. If their magic could detect the entire world regardless of distance, moving slowly shouldn't be a problem.

"So, the best approach seems to be to go further away... Even so, it's a real headache. How far should I go, and in which direction?"

Oriana tilted his head and walked past wave after wave of people.

(Which way should we go next?)

He looked at the sky where the spaceship was floating and thought to himself.

Fang Cun and the others ran up the stairs leading from the underground to the ground and rushed out of the subway station exit.

Unlike the Seventh School District where Shirogane and her friends live, the Fifth School District has many universities. While the chaotic impression created by the rows of tall buildings is similar, the clothing stores and restaurants have a more mature feel compared to other school districts. From Shirogane's perspective as a high school student, there's an unapproachable atmosphere here. It feels like being thrown into a world-famous, yet utterly uninteresting, symphony concert hall.

But she doesn't have time to care about that right now.

Fangcun followed them running around as fast as he could, ruining the fashionable atmosphere of the whole street.

The cell phone in Tyr's hand conveyed the location they should go to.

She ran as fast as she could.

“…Oriana…he noticed. His movements suddenly changed…he’s heading northwest now. The distance is three to five hundred meters…wait a minute, we’ll lock onto him soon…”

The sound was intermittent, not due to a problem with the radio reception. The person on the other end of the line, Tsuchimikado, was probably bleeding profusely and enduring excruciating pain while using magic.

Tyr was slightly out of breath:

"Five hundred?...That seems close, but it'll be a bit difficult to run over and catch him. Let me confirm, can you use the 'Red Artillery' bombardment?"

"Red Magic Style" is a long-range fire magic used by Tsuchimikado. He used it before to successfully blast away the home of the Pure God from a distance.

“Impossible, meow… If we were to do that, we would have to switch from the ‘Reason School Four Arrays’ to focus on the ‘Red Art Formation’. But that would mean we wouldn’t be able to lock onto Oriana’s latest coordinates as he keeps escaping, and the accuracy of our hits would be greatly reduced.”

"More importantly, we can't add any more burden to Tsuchimikado!!"

"Illusion said as she ran," Tyr replied with an annoyed expression. She flicked the cigarette from her lips and said:

"The effective range of the 'Four Formations of the Reason School' is about three kilometers. It will be eliminated in about two thousand five hundred meters. Even if we want to increase the burden on someone, we must shorten the distance."

"I know that...!!"

Watching them run and argue, Fang Cun felt like he was superfluous. Were the thugs really that insignificant?

The three ran along the sidewalk of the main road. After entering a narrow road on the side, they followed the winding road to another main road, climbed the overpass, and ran down the steps on the other side.

Chapter 344 Unexpected Event

Chapter 344

"...The reaction is out... Judging from the location of the Pure God's side... the direction is still northwest... the distance is between 309 and 433 meters... In short, he's using a straight line... trying to escape the pursuit, meow. ... Hurry, there are still about 1700 meters left outside the effective range..."

Like a marathon runner replenishing water, the Pure God grabbed the free guidebook for the Daihasei Festival that the Disciplinary Committee member was distributing.

"Northwest 309 to 433... Wow!"

Because she was reading the manual while running, she nearly bumped into a cylindrical guard robot on the path. Jing Shen hurriedly dodged, and the guard robot behind her beeped a warning sound.

"Could it be... that? About 800 meters from here is the monorail station. It's a loop line that goes around the Fifth School District. If he catches it, he'll be over three kilometers in no time."

Although it's 800 meters from here, for Orianna running ahead, it's only about 400 to 500 meters. Considering the time to buy tickets and wait for the monorail, how many minutes of leeway is there? Since the monorail will increase its service to coincide with the Daihasei Festival, waiting for a train should take less than two minutes.

However, Tsuchimikado on the other end of the phone suddenly started saying strange things:

"No, wait a minute... Oriana suddenly changed direction."

The sound of pages turning came from the other end of the phone. She was probably checking her spells and the guidebook for the Daihasei Festival.

"The path to that monorail station... turned a right angle... Oriana doesn't seem to be heading to the departure station--!! What, that guy suddenly sped up...!?"

"What?" Jing Shen frowned as she ran.

Tyr, who was running beside him, was also listening intently to the sound coming from the phone in his hand.

The surroundings were quite noisy, and the sounds of running and breathing were also quite loud, but Jing Shen felt a deep silence in the depths of his ears.

Silence fell on the other end of the phone. Whether it was the manipulation of a spell or something else, the sound of fingers scraping the ground could be heard. The monotonous sound continued endlessly, creating an effect that distorted the sense of time.

"Damn it, where is he going... Ouch! Damn it, at a time like this..."

Forcing himself to use magic seemed to increase Tsuchimikado's physical pain. Just as Jōjin was about to speak, Tsuchimikado spoke first:

"No... problem, Purifying God... I'll pinpoint Oriana's location soon—hey. Really?"

The voice that said this sounded somewhat surprised.

"This path... Damn it, so that's how it is. That Oriana guy, he wouldn't—!!"

As Tsuchimikado called out, static suddenly came from the other end of the phone. The microphone emitted the sound of a grater grinding. Accompanied by an unnatural echo, the call was abruptly cut off. It felt as if the radio communication had been forcibly severed.

The spirits grew anxious. Without Tsuchimikado's guidance, they couldn't determine which direction Oriana had gone. Even if they thought they were chasing him, they might actually be widening the gap between them.

"What's wrong? Hey, Tyr, where's the phone's antenna?!"

"Why can't we make calls suddenly? Stop, cleanse your mind and exorcise the demon."