Apocalypse Witch: To the Strongests of an Age of Plenty
Episode 9

It's 2pm in London.

However, a mysterious solar eclipse made it so dark as if it was the middle of the night.

"Hgm."

"Now, let's focus on the business."

"You must apologize first! Apologize for everything!"

"What are you angry about!? And I have to apologize for what!? What's wrong with me in that situation!?"

Marika with her wave hair drooped on the sofa sleeping for a while, but now she threw her hands into the air and returned the cry.

"Ughh, ahhhh! You should apologize for your bad karma !."

"It's getting pretty gripping too fast! Besides, that Student Council President got me stuck!"

This was probably very similar to their tumultuous days at the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy. Karuta himself felt something nostalgic in the storm he experienced.

However, things have changed.

They now have sexy eyes from the storm.

"Oh, how can it be, Karuta-kun? After everything we did while they were gone, you tried to blame the girl?"

"Hey, don't blush and put your hand on the cheek like that. Are the weapons not enough for you?"

Karuta asked this to the Chairman of OSIS who wore a shirt that he used as pajamas. Crystal Girl Aine stood expressionlessly in the corner of the RV, but she was just waiting for further orders. He definitely did not understand the danger here since he was secretly tilting his head.

Karuta immediately conveyed his point coldly like a bank teller just before closing hours.

"Okay, okay, that's enough! Let's get back to the topic!!"

"Hmmm!"

" (Yes my goodness. He is the one who sleeps naked. How hypocritical he is)."

However, the OSIS Chairman is mature enough to keep that personal thought to himself as he begins to work.

"Our top priority target this time is Yukino Arakawa."

He used a projector to cover the wall with photographs taken from news sites or online articles.

"Unlike Elicia and her dinosaur, this woman did not directly board the ship. It made it hard to say anything for sure, but he was almost certainly the one who sunk the escort ship with a spear of light. I saw him give instructions from the cargo door that opened on their tiltrotor plane and, although unconfirmed, he was famous for 'carrying eclipses' wherever he went. So, most likely he is in London at the moment. Of course, we don't know what the Threat itself is, so who knows how reliable this information can be" the wet-haired OSIS president added. "Every member of Problem Solver is a monster, but Yukino's spear of light is one that I want to get rid of as early as possible. Both because of its extremely destructive power and because of its vast reach. We must assume that he controls everything within the range of that unnatural eclipse. That means there is no real safe zone on the Earth's surface. If he knows where you are, you'll die. The longer this fight goes on, the more information about us will be available, so I want to take care of it before he can narrow the matter too far."

See about.

Eliminates.

In other words, they would kill him just like they did Elicia.

This is very different from their classes where they plan to confront the Threat but have no concrete picture of what will happen.

Karuta finds it difficult to decide whether he can call that a "growth" or not.

"But what's so cool about that spear of light?" he asked as if to distract himself from the problem.

The curly-haired Marika shook her hand as if dismissive yet still flattened her cheek.

"Who knows, but it looks like a laser beam from the sky."

“I doubt he used a bomber because the attack came from a distant height. I imagine he has something in satellite orbit, but I can't say more of it.” The Student Council president placed a finger on his lips. “However, we know Trouble Solving is responsible for the defense of space elevator which is considered as useless junk, so what if there is a connection there?”

“You mean it might be solar power plant or satellite interception?”

“I've heard some rumors,” started Omotesandou Kyouka with a sigh. “It was never finished, but there is something known as Project Sunny Side Up. He said, it was the largest planetary expansion project in history.”

“Eggs?” asked Marika who was a strawberry blonde while frowning on the sofa bed.

“Only fried on one side if you want to know technically,” replied Crystal Girl Aine while still bending towards Marika.

Kyouka sighed softly before continuing.

The identity of the Threat is unknown, but it is known that it does not leave the atmosphere. The plan is intended to remove ordinary citizens from the atmosphere and turn this blue planet into a farmland and a cage for Threat. The base of the elevator should be sturdy enough, so combat personnel and maintenance teams for unmanned agriculture will be placed underground. There is a blueprint showing a network of station buildings surrounding the planet in a sphere one size larger, so it is clearly more about expanding the planet's surface than it is about traveling into space. Therefore, this planetary expansion project is known as the planet expansion project.”

“Ugh..”

When looking at its cross-section, is the earth seen as the yolk of an egg and its outer shell viewed as the egg white?

If it is to be sliced apart, a boiled egg or Scotch egg seems to be more accurate, but anyone who gives its name might just let its egg preference influence its choice.

The main material should be a foam material that is solid, harder and heat resistant than steel and can expand to fill a large space with only a few original materials. The presentation said that living spaces and agricultural areas would be kept separate so that man-made contaminants would not pollute the environment, but rather excessive even for an effort aimed at propping up 5.5 billion people. Earth's rotation differs between latitudes, so it seems that their networks would collapse if they did not find a way to equalize their relative speeds.

Sunny Side Up is a double.

First, it allows for global environmental adjustment. By efficiently increasing the amount of natural soil, there will be more food for human populations that "temporarily" stay in satellite orbit.

"So the lances of light use their immense heat to stir the air and create wind and rain clouds".

And second, it will eliminate the Threats lurking on the surface.

"And at the same time, they are weapons meant to literally shoot Threats?" ask Karuta.

Kyouka.

He looked amazed but also exasperated by the large scale that existed.

“While a single shot may not be enough, they must have thought that snuffing out the Threat could be done by shooting at it constantly from outside the atmosphere. Or maybe just to distract the Threat and keep it away from the farm. It is unclear whether the purpose of the shooting was to ‘eliminate’ Threat permanently.”

“Although so, it is more than enough when used for human.”

Karuta and the others had already too understood how powerful the weapon was when it managed to sink the escort ships one by one.

“Because it has not been destroyed, I imagine that the weapon still benefits the world through its production facilities and power plants. Although without a microwave or large-scale laser power transmission system, the remnants of that past may still be used to transfer electrical power.”

“Elevator space.”

“If it can carry the payload to 'outer durability' at a cost of less than 1% from using rocket or shuttle, then it can be used to transfer container-sized batteries back and vice versa. That might give you a little reason not to destroy the elevator. Yukino's power in the global business world is said to be in Eurasia, but everything from Europe to China is a bit too far away, right? He'll need a product that can cover half the planet."

It was intended as a warning to Threats and to save the whole world.

But who turned it into just a rusty old tower?

Was it the mistake of a Crystal Magician like Karuta whose method turned out to be cheaper?

"Maybe this eclipse is not the result of a giant object appearing overhead. It was possible that the sky had already closed and the 'net' holes were closed as Yukino got ready to fight." The President of OSIS tapped the armrest of his wheelchair with a finger. "Of course, chemistry and physics are not enough to explain a system like this. As I said, the gravity and rotation of the earth would tear it apart if it did not match the relative speed of the entire network, but constantly using the thruster to maintain it would drain all the energy they hoped it could produce. That means, God's Worship Magic should play its part. I believe Yukino's expertise is the Celtic god of light Lugh. He was a god of war who was also known as the "long-sleeved god". Yes, it would be perfect for energy production and projectile attack."

If the relationship between the space elevator and the Problem Solvers is closer than officially recognized, then they may not be happy with the Crystal Magician who revels in the failure of the elevator. (Especially because the Crystal Magi only work on the surface, so moving to the "outer skin" it will be a problem for them.)

More than that, Problem Solvers used God's Adoration Magic from the previous era instead of Crystal Magi. Did the Crystal Flower awakening look as a threat to them?

(No, too many unanswered questions about them.)

“After all, it is very brave of you, Karuta-kun,” Kyouka said with a sigh. “One of the Troubleshooters is missing. The world may not want to accept it, but the other four will know it. And then you send them an anonymous message.”

He operated a projector to display the intended message.

Marika spoke with a mixture of fatigue and admiration.

"‘One of you is leaving now, but I know where you can find someone even stronger than Elicia "Saurus" Luxverg. I want to meet you guys for an interview, so when is the right time?’” After the girl with curly pigtail hair finished reading it aloud, she exhilaratedly looked towards them. “You can look at it as a letter of responsibility, right? You know Elicia's death even though it's hidden, you say that you know where to find someone stronger, and then you say that you want to meet them.”

"But they can't ignore it, can they?" ask Karuta firmly. "They know Elicia's dead, but they don't know who did it. They wouldn't let someone like that get away with it. For them it does not matter whether the author of the letter is that person or not. They just want to destroy anyone who might do it. And they have to keep doing it until the problem stops.”

Crystal Girl Aine tilted her head the entire time and spoke as her silver hair trembled.

“So they will rush in despite knowing it's a trap?”

"Maybe it would be more appropriate to say that we made them set a trap and wait for us" Karuta said. "Troubleshooters are the most valuable treasures of the international community, so they must be detained. We chase them like they chase us. We can't let them hide. Our top priority is Yukino Arakawa. That's the most important thing here. We have to knock it out first, but then we have to knock out as many other Problem Solvers as we can while we do it. After all, we know that they have all been summoned to London to attend the G21 meeting."

They're gonna take out Problem Solver.

He could say it easily, but only because they had already done it once with Elicia "Saurus" Luxverg. He knew they could be defeated. It proves to be good for the psychological side.

And with that in mind, he immediately faced the problem that he had been avoiding.

Yep.

"OK, then that's our next target" Marika said.

"Yukino Arakawa" said Kyouka. "This sounds like a worthy challenge. I have no complaints about having a fight to the death with him."

Karuta could not immediately say the same thing.

A bitter feeling had developed in his stomach throughout the planning, but Aine spoke to him while standing in the corner of the RV.

"Don't worry, Sacri-sama."

"About what?"

"Nobody's gonna steal the chance to kill you this time. Let's make sure we kill him ourselves."

If only he had not been shaped like a cute girl, perhaps he would have punched her reflexively.