The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Vol. 3: The Cage of Iron Sand

The Traitorous Arm

Night was wearing on in the desert.

While the air was growing cooler without the light of the sun, it wasn’t completely dark. The full moon shone in the sky with nothing to obstruct its glow from faintly illuminating the sand.

Beneath the moonlight that was strong enough to cast a shadow, Ashuna threw off the robe she wore to fend off the sun’s heat, revealing an airy outfit underneath. Fabric cut into diamond shapes just barely covered the crucial areas on her upper body, and her notched skirt fluttered in the breeze. The outfit was even more provocative than that of a desert dancer, more elegant than the standard garb of any noble—and it happened to be what she usually wore.

“Let’s see…”

Before the eyes of Ashuna and the knights she led was a decidedly suspicious-looking base. It was hidden in the shadows of sand dunes, built from reused ruins with heightened security. In fact, to deem it suspicious, one would have to find
it in the first place. It would most likely be near-impossible to locate this cleverly hidden area without a guide.

This was the headquarters of the armed human trafficking group Iron Chain.

Even from a distance, one could get a sense of its enormous scale. Ashuna had also learned in her meeting with Menou that this place doubled as some kind of ceremonial conjuring circle.

Ashuna approached the belly of the beast head-on, making for the front gate. She made no effort to hide or sneak in. Instead, she strode forward with the confidence of a king.

The guards noticed Ashuna and watched her alertly.

They were still outside of the range of Guiding guns. Stopping a fair distance away, Ashuna drew her sword.

“Those guns might be convenient and dangerous, to be sure, but unlike Guiding vessels with crests, they aren’t very practical.”

She was speaking more to herself than anyone else. Unlike crest conjurings, Guiding guns didn’t require an invocation. One could harm other people just by pulling a trigger, no knowledge of materialogy or crestology required. In exchange, they had a limited range, and there was no way to increase or decrease their power.

Ashuna charged her broadsword with Guiding Force.

Guiding Force: Connect—Royal Sword, Crest—Double Invoke [Slash: Expansion, Flameburst]

The night was illuminated.

The power drawn from her soul flowed into the sword and activated the crest conjurings, creating a massive sword made of flame.

“Guess we’ll let ourselves in.”

The violent flames pushed back the quiet night, their vicious heat scorching the cool air. As the fiery blade burned brilliantly, the men standing guard gaped up at it in disbelief.

Then the massive burning sword swung down without hesitation.

As the blade of flame closed in, the guards scrambled away in a panic. This was far beyond what they could handle with their Guiding guns. They scattered like roaches, not even bothering to sound the alarm.

The sword kept its momentum and exploded just as it hit the gate.

With that massive explosion, everyone in the base turned their attention toward the Princess Knight, whose sword once tore through a castle. In addition to those who were already on guard, even the people who were sleeping had jumped awake. As the base quickly dissolved into chaos, Ashuna Grisarika walked forward without hiding, without hurrying, and led the knights through the gate she’d destroyed into the headquarters of Iron Chain.

Her plan to deal with the force that came to counterattack them was exceedingly simple.

As she bathed in the murderous gazes of the hostiles in front of her, Ashuna’s eyes crinkled delightedly.

“Not bad.”

The place was turning into a battlefield. Several assailants jumped forward to attack. As she fended them off, Ashuna kept pushing forward. The sporadic nature of the counterattacks was an invitation. They obviously wanted to guide Ashuna somewhere, and she was happy to oblige.

They led her into a dead end surrounded by buildings on three sides. The walls had openings for guns to shoot through.

“Oh-ho?” Ashuna whistled at what appeared in front of her. The way they’d deployed their resources in response to her attack showed the high quality of their personnel. And more than anything, the three massive opponents in front of her made her heart dance with excitement.

Guiding armored warriors.

They weren’t autonomous conjured soldiers—they were exoskeleton-like conjured weapons that were steered by human pilots. When three of them appeared before her, Ashuna flapped a hand at the knights behind her, gesturing for them to back away.

In the short time they’d known her, Ashuna had completely earned the trust of the knights. They nodded at one another and left the area.

Guiding Force: Connect—Royal Sword, Crest—Invoke [Slash: Expansion]

Ashuna’s sword stretched to block the path of the Guiding armored warriors as they tried to chase after the knights.

“Hold it. You’re going to decline my invitation? It’s a man’s duty to dance with a lady who’s offered her hand, you know.”

“…Good point.”

A muffled voice responded from within: the man piloting the Guiding armor. He pushed Ashuna’s blade aside and turned to face her.

“We can just kill you first, then go after them.”

“Oh?” The corners of her lips quirked. “Let’s see you try. Don’t bore me now, all right?”

Ashuna grinned viciously and struck.

The front gate of the base was sent flying with a loud
boom
. With that explosion as their signal, Menou and Sahara sneaked inside.

They were headed for the building that she had guessed was the main stronghold when she rescued Akari. They did a quick sweep of the first floor, then headed to the second to destroy the entrance. Just as they were soundlessly sprinting down the hallway, both girls stopped at once.

A conjured soldier appeared from around the corner.

It had a spiderlike shape, with eight long limbs and a small Guiding furnace built in that appeared to be powering it. Its central trunk was about the size of a human torso, while the legs had small claws that allowed it to climb on the wall.

Those legs were more than deadly enough weapons to destroy a human. The spider lunged, thrusting two of those legs forward.

“Ah?!”

Menou and Sahara dodged to the left and right respectively, avoiding the attack by a hair.

Failing to stab them, the legs scraped across the floor.
It’s certainly strong enough to kill
, Menou thought, calmly assessing the opponent. As she used her sharp senses to dodge each attack, she thrust her dagger into a joint, then grimaced.

The blade didn’t break through.

“Shoot.”

The joint felt thick and hard, yet elastic as well. Even attacks aimed at the more fragile-looking areas didn’t seem to work.

“A Blue Spider,” Sahara muttered without taking her
eyes off it. “It’s an insect-style soldier specialized in indoor combat.”

“You clearly learned a lot on the lines of defense against the Mechanical Society. So what’s its weak point?”

“Doesn’t really have one. It moves fast. It hits hard. And it’s flexible yet tough, even the legs. Not to mention it has a ton of those. If I had to name a weak point, I guess I’d say it doesn’t have any long-distance attacks.”

Just as Sahara finished speaking, more of the same model of conjured soldier emerged, enough to fill the hallway. Menou, however, had already decided on a plan the moment she heard Sahara’s description.

“Follow my lead, Sahara.” Menou charged her scripture with Guiding Force.

If the enemy didn’t have any long-distance attacks, she would just have to crush it right away with a powerful conjuring.

Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 12:1—

Menou’s construction speed was astoundingly fast, but it still took a few seconds. Sensing that she was about to invoke something, the Blue Spiders all jumped toward her.

But Sahara stood in their way.

“Mm.”

Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Prosthetic Arm—Activate [Skill: Giant’s Palm]

Sahara’s artificial arm produced a palm big enough to cover the entire hallway. The soldiers bit and stabbed at the palm-shaped Guiding Light, trying to break through, but they couldn’t move forward.

It was exactly the backup Menou needed. She used this chance to unleash her conjuring.

Invoke [Strike the nail, strike the nail, all to give support.]

The Guiding Light unleashed from her scripture took the form of countless nails.

As they burst forward, Menou controlled them to fly into the swarm of spiders. Some sent their limbs flying off, while others crushed their torsos and destroyed their inner workings.

They were wiped out in seconds. Sahara whistled. “Nice going, Flarette. You’ve got serious skills. No normal person could control that many nails.”

“Really? Well, I suppose my command of Guiding Force is the one strength I have to my name.” She closed the scripture and looked around.

It didn’t look like any more attacks were imminent. The fact that so many conjured soldiers were sent their way, however, meant their invasion had been noticed.

The element of surprise was gone now. The enemy would be preparing for them.

“They’ve certainly noticed us now.”

“Let’s split up. If the base itself is a conjuring circle, this building must be the center. You track down the conjurer here, Menou. I’ll go around to the towers in each of the cardinal directions.”

She had a point: The most important goal was to destroy the conjuring circle.

“I’ll go on up, then.”

“All right.”

Leaving Sahara to take care of any remaining attackers, Menou headed upstairs to find the wanted criminal she anticipated lurking there.

I’ll end this in less than a minute
, thought the man leading the force dispatched to take on the attacking knights as he accepted Ashuna’s challenge in his Guiding armor.

Guiding armor was a powerful weapon. It automatically connected the pilot’s Guiding Force to the machinery, circulating and amplifying it. The disadvantage was that one couldn’t use other vessels while wearing the armor, but the rewards were more than worth it for the pilot.

He gained immense strength, mobility, and weight that went far beyond his regular body.

These weapons could enhance the Guiding Force of the naturally weak and make the strong even stronger. There was no training required; just getting into the Guiding armor was enough to grant enormous power, far beyond the Guiding Enhancement of any ordinary knights.

Princess Knight or not, Ashuna was just one person, and they had three Guiding armored warriors on their side. Not to mention there were men armed with Guiding guns within the surrounding buildings. There was no way they could lose.

And in addition to their confidence, the men had vulgar ulterior motives.

Ashuna was too tall, but even so, she was an incredibly rare beauty. And her arrogance as a born royal had a certain appeal. They would beat her down, destroy her dignity, and make her regret ever being born. The man licked his lips eagerly.

Less than a minute into the battle, one of his comrades was cut in half.

“…!”

He probably hadn’t imagined even until the moment he perished that he could be sliced in the Guiding armor. Since it drew out and enhanced the pilot’s Guiding Force, the armor was heavier and harder than any ordinary metal, tougher than a crest barrier.

When Ashuna’s sword slashed down right through the middle of his body, however, the man died without even time to scream. Alarmed by the unbelievable sight, the two remaining men in Guiding armor hastily backed away.

At first, they’d assumed surrounding her with three Guiding armored warriors would be enough to crush her. Their armor could deflect most attacks, and they had strength and weight that outmatched most humans even with Guiding Enhancement. Since there were three of them, surely they could defeat any opponent—knight, priestess, or otherwise.

And yet, the woman in front of them had somehow pushed back one of the men surrounding her, then cut him down as he lost his balance.

Cover fire sprayed from the windows in an obvious show of panic. Many of the bullets hit the ground, sending up clouds of dust. But they couldn’t stop Ashuna’s movements. She kept sprinting forward, even as bullets struck the ground at her feet. As she zigzagged steadily across the uneven ground, the light of Guiding Enhancement left a phosphorescent trail behind her; dazzled by the constantly moving light, the gunmen wavered every which way.

“Don’t get carried away, punk!”

The armored warrior stepped into Ashuna’s way to stop her.

Ashuna’s abilities were certainly exceptional. But she was still just one unarmored woman. If he could prevent her from
moving, the Guiding guns could shoot her full of holes while he was protected by his Guiding armor.

“Ha!” Barking out a laugh, Ashuna flung her broadsword aside and grabbed the armor head-on. It was a direct, hand-to-hand contest of strength. And somehow, the one to lose was the man in the Guiding armor.

“How nostalgic. My sister had one of these toys in her collection, you see. I remember being so excited to try it when I was young.”

There was no more cover fire. As the man started to panic, he realized why.

He was being used as a shield. If they tried to fire through any of the holes in the three walls, he would be right in the way as he grappled with her. And she was bearing down on him too heavily to allow him to move aside and give them a clear shot. This was no coincidence. They had planned to use Ashuna’s determination to trap her, yet now she had lured him into being a shield instead.

“Damn you…! This can’t be—”

“But when I tried to pilot one, it got overloaded with power and broke.”

Unable to hold up to the contest of strength, the enhanced exoskeleton arm broke under the pressure. Ashuna promptly grabbed the limb, wrenched it out of the shoulder socket, and flung it aside.

“Just goes to show that fighting with your own muscles is the way to go.”

Her fist punched through the armor and smashed the head of the man inside.

Now there was only one squad leader left.