Apocalypse Witch: To the Strongests of an Age of Plenty
Episode 14

Between Lines 2

The Magic Academy Ocean Crystal Grimnoah.

Yukino Arakawa only had one thought about it.

"I think the old man had the wrong idea about this."

All the world's resources and assets should be focused on Problem Solving if they want to address Threats, so they have developed a project to eliminate everything that would interfere with it. Whether it was a physical presence or online, once something was large enough, people would naturally start to gather. So, they have to destroy those things.

That's the basic idea, but...

"He wants us to give a speech at the opening ceremony of their Disaster? Seriously, all he did was gather useless talents so that their classes were completely useless."

"But he's very serious about this" I said.

The shadow that fell on my feet changed shape and said in a delicate male voice.

It was Lugh, the Celtic God of Light.

"Some people think that only a handful of geniuses will fall under the pressure of all the lives of people pressing on their shoulders, and they tend to bring mass production systems into the military. Of course, the problem is that his efforts to help you are only taking your position away from you."

"Are you saying that the old man harmed us?"

"Maybe. But honestly, I'm envious. Fighting on the side that has certainly failed is an honor for a soldier. I know I shouldn't have said it when I lent you strength, but always siding with victory must make you suffer."

"We can't pick-choose."

“Tell me,” the shadow of the woman calmly scratched her head. “But after all, the idea of the magic academy was quite interesting even though we ignored the Crystal Magi thing. Again, I shouldn't have said it when I lent you this power, but God's Honor Magic is so powerful that you can't really practice using it. If anyone develops a way to teach efficiently, I might be freed from seeing the unpleasant results of people borrowing my power and losing control while using that power for the first time.”

“You don't have to worry about that,” Yukino said in a much friendlier voice than people she knew would imagine. But he did not announce that he would create such a magical education system. “I am the strongest one working with you now, so as long as I am with you, you don't have to think about what will happen with the next one.”

“Ya, you said so, but..”.

“But what?”

“Well, um, uh, shit, I really don't know how to say it.”

“If you have something to say, then get it out. You are a god, right? Then you do not need to hold back with ordinary humans.”

Yukino wore something like a nun robe with a thick hemisphere on the sides, but his religion was not the monotheistic religion symbolized by the cross and scriptures.

He simply folded his hands in prayer to the god who had taken him to a higher stage.

That was why he did not feel any doubt at all when it came to swinging such great power. It was the highest achievement that showed the world that he was connected to the God who loved him.

Although the show meant his body was burning.

It's the same as changing rings and going on a honeymoon.

Sometimes you want a physical symbol of it all.

"What did the others do?" ask the shadow of the woman. "Like Jessie with a giant sword."

"He stays the same as always. It was hard to tell whether their match was very bad or very good, as he still developed into a troublemaker without any clear distinction between him and Susanoo. Of course, that might be one way to bring the two of you together."

"So he just wants to fight and doesn't care why, huh? I admit I see its appeal."

"Mr Lugh, of course you don't show any interest in other women."

"Of course not." His shadow wagged his finger. "A bloodthirsty fight to the death is the honor of a warrior, but it's not something you enjoy with the woman you've loved. The one thing I can't do is push you to death."

Part X

Yes, we're in Rio de Janeiro.

As you can see, the city limits are locked with yellow barriers and ribbons so that we, the common people, are not allowed to look inside. Recording from helicopters or drones will not be possible because the area has been declared a restricted flying zone and civilian satellites have been forced to mask the data they release in accordance with the Peaceful Use of Space Treaty Internationals.

Details have not been announced in accordance with the usual information restrictions, but reportedly the Threat is what does it.

Repeatedly this month, Problem Solvers were less successful and people suspected this incident could have been completely avoided if the five strongest men were deployed as usual, so community groups requested the information be released.

Elicia "Saurus" Luxver.

Yukino "Punish" Arakawa's.

Jessie "Edge" Marcus's.

The three people were known as the public faces of the problem solvers, whereas the other two people did not leave the same impression as they were more like secret weapons hidden from the public.

Some tabloids and online news sites have mentioned that there are actually not five Problem Solvers and only those three people, he said, but the truth will be hard to find because no government is willing to say anything on the matter.

Meanwhile, the threat is still a problem to be faced.

We can only pray that Problem Solvers recover from whatever is causing them problems.

No one pushed the power button on the remote. Amaashi Marika, a twintail-style girl with bright strawberry blonde hair who made paint, has thrown the remote into the screen.

Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka smiled softly.

"Marika-san."

"Oh, sorry. It just pisses me off too much."

Marika pursed her lips, but she completely lowered her head.

They had taken their RV out of the UK and headed to neighboring European country, Germany. They have a simple reason to do that: two Trouble-Solving Members have been killed during the G21 meeting. The country will definitely be locked down until a large-scale search begins. Britain is an island nation, so it could be locked in tighter than any other country. Once the circle closed around them, there would be nowhere to escape.

But why hasn't it locked up yet? They could guess that the higher-ups decided not to explain to the regular police what had happened because they were afraid of chaos and panic if word of what happened spread.

After all, they had to flee while they still could.

Marika glanced at the dead television.

“How much longer can we watch TV like this?”

“Yes, defeating Yukino causes the Sunny Side Up network to be severed in the gravity of the earth, right?” kyouka. “That system does not completely depend on it, but the loss of the main source puts pressure on the others.”

“Yes, I hear homes that use solar power are now experiencing solar panel theft from their roofs. It may not be long before people start stealing car batteries.”

Yukino's defeat has shaken the world's power supply. Governments that have used their energy as a primary power source are trying hard to re-operate their main power plants at full capacity, but doing so would leave government supercomputers and particle accelerators powerless.

Both machines are used to develop new medicines for incurable diseases.

However, it is claimed that this step is necessary to ensure their budget remains viable.

If the machines stop, it will cause various problems.

Utagai Karuta was confused listening to their conversation while immersed in his thoughts. Their retaliation has reduced the number of Problem Solvers, which in turn increases the anger of the Threat. Many countries, regions, or cities have disappeared completely overnight this month and many unrelated people have met with unfortunate endings.

Everyone talked about it as if they were blaming the Karuta group.

It's almost like Problem Solver deliberately refrained from escalating the damage done so they can blame the group.

However, Karuta also had other thoughts.

"Is the threat really there?"

That's a fundamental question.

He began to wonder when he was in London. Yukino Arakawa has tried to escape responsibility for the mass killings by blaming the Threat. What if they've done that over and over again in the past? Threats may or may not exist, but there is clearly someone who is taking advantage of the situation.

Threats began to serve as a means of manipulating public opinion through fear and confusion and as a curtain to cover up troubling truths.

The thought of it put the previous news report in a different light.

Find the criminals who attack Problem Solving. The world needs to unite and hunt them down.

If it was true that the Problem Solvers had destroyed several cities just for that, then they had reached a new level of evil. Yet at the same time, he could not help but note that the people who had destroyed their giant school ship could easily do so.

Not only has the ability, but also the lack of moral principles.

“Anyway.” The head of the OSIS slid his hands in front of his large chest. “Dinosaur, spear of light, and giant sword. We have eliminated half of Problem Solvers now, but arguably the real challenge is still to come. You know why that is, don't you?”

Crystal Girl Aine flicked her silver hair that shone a rainbow, flicked her transparent white dress, and calmly tilted her head at the corner of the RV.

Karuta sighed and refocused his mind.

"Unlike those three people, we have no record of the other two people fighting. We've defeated everything we've seen using the God Worshiping Magic in our school."

"Yes, our experience and data allow us to put together a detailed plan and that makes a big difference. The Problem Solvers are the strongest in the world and now we will be forced to enter blindly and adlib to get through it."

"By the way, Sacri-sama, is it possible that the invisible Problem Solver in your school did not actually participate in that battle?"

Aine seems to speak in the name of Karuta's unwillingness to kill, but it is actually Karuta who rejects the idea.

"We know the dinosaurs were on the ship and the bright spears and the giant swords most likely attacked from the outside, so that means there was at least one other there: the: women who laugh through the ship's speakers. It's just an estimate and we can't rely on it too much, but if there are four of them involved, it doesn't seem like it's possible for just one person to not go along."

There were no real clouds on Marika's or Kyouka's face.

Feeling it wrong to consider the possibility that one of the Troubleshooters is actually a good person. They could not imagine even as a hypothesis.

"Facing this situation without clear knowledge will not be easy at all" said his curly-haired childhood friend with a bitter expression. "What their attacks look like, how powerful, what range they are, how often they can be used, and so on. Moreover, without knowing their name or residence, we cannot fight against them or even approach them. A game of concentration that relies on intuition involving 5.5 billion people around the world sounds unpromising."

"However, we have something that can be used as a reference" said the head of their school's OSIS with a smile while taking something out of his pocket.

It was a card-sized electronic device.

“The woman of the spear of light was destroyed, but the woman of the giant sword was still intact, so I snatched away her phone. I made sure to modify it so that even the owner could not track it. … And by 'modifying', I mean I checked the device plan and pierced the transmission chipset with nails.”

“Do you say that it might tell us the base location of Problem Solvers or personal information about other members?”

“Layak to investigate, what do you think?”