Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume2 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 5===

They were surrounded by the solid sounds of hard objects striking each other.

The Rose was a three-dimensional shape made from the 216 Petals. Kyousuke and Hayato simultaneously launched White Thorns as if to crush the Rose from either side. The White Thorns left a laser beam-like trail behind and instantly smashed the Rose to pieces. The low sound, middle sound, high sound, and lowest sound Petals scattered in every direction and bounced wildly around on all the obstacles: the ground, the streetlights, the edges of the Artificial Sacred Ground, etc.

As soon as the Rose was smashed, countless holes known as Spots opened around the Artificial Sacred Ground.

They were dark, fist-sized holes opened in space itself. They looked like miniature black holes and the ricocheting Petals were sucked into them.

As they fell into the Spots, they were added to a summoner’s stock.

“Librarian-chan!!”

“Fuuki-san!!”

They both cried out as the vessel girls changed form.

Librarian-chan’s silhouette spiraled around and she became a giant mass of sticky yellow liquid three meters tall that weighed seven hundred kilograms. It had a cost of one high sound. Known as the Original Yellow (s), it was one of the most basic Materials.

Meanwhile, Benikomichi Fuuki became a similar mass of sticky green liquid. It had a cost of one middle sound and it was known as the Original Green (k).

Everything could grow infinitely from there.

Depending on how things developed, this could lead to the Divine or even Unexplored-class. It was frightening to think of, but even the White Queen, strongest of the strong, was no exception.

(In the three-way stalemate of sound range, I have the advantage. If he’s skilled enough to easily reach the Divine-class, it might be best to finish this before he can build up his Material too much. If I can continue predicting what he’ll do next, I can keep my sound range advantage and crush him with that!!)

With that in mind, Kyousuke thought of a few different Materials and the evolutionary tree that branched out from them. He instantly grasped the locations of all the Petals and Spots scattered throughout the Artificial Sacred Ground and accurately calculated out what rails his White Thorns would follow after he hit them.

But…

“Yes, I know that, Fuuki-san.”

Hayato muttered to himself as he held a mental conversation with the president.

“You are my mistress. As always, you just do what you want. I’ll make sure it all works out.”

A moment later, the battle began.

However, it did not start with the yellow and green goo clashing at the midpoint between each other.

The Original Green that Benikomichi Fuuki had become, mercilessly smashed the giant bridge.

Kyousuke and Librarian-chan immediately sank down.

Gravity was pulling them.

Their footing crumbled, but as a summoner, Shiroyama Kyousuke immediately saw what they were after.

“You…!!”

“Ha ha. That’s right!!”

The summoning ceremony contained the following rules:

''The Artificial Sacred Ground is set up once an Incense Grenade is used.

''The Artificial Sacred Ground is set up relative to the “contact surface” when the Incense Grenade detonates.

''Thus, it can be set up relative to a wall or ceiling rather than the floor or ground. In that case, the summoners and Materials will ignore gravity and stick to the wall or ceiling.

But what happened if the Artificial Sacred Ground’s “contact surface” was destroyed?

The answer was simple:

''The Artificial Sacred Ground will be reconstructed based on the next “contact surface” stepped on by the summoner who set up the Artificial Sacred Ground.

''If that is a wall or ceiling, the direction of the artificial gravity will change to match.

''In that case, unlike when the Incense Grenade detonates, the opponent summoner and vessel will also be pulled toward the new gravitational direction.

As he fell, Assassin Boy Hayato forced his feet onto the building wall as if stomping onto it.

A moment later, the direction of Kyousuke and the Original Yellow’s fall greatly changed.

They fell toward the building wall.

Unable to land properly, they collided with the wall.

<Kyah!?>

“Librarian-chan, abandon your human senses! Right now, not even a sword or bullet could hurt you!!”

<What, what!? What is this!? What is happening to me? Why am I surrounded in this sticky stuff…? No, is this my body!? What is going on!?>

Her problem was a much more fundamental one.

Even if she liked fairy tales, it was not so easy to accept the real thing so suddenly.

Meanwhile, the situation was already underway. The many Petals floating around the old Artificial Sacred Ground poured down into the new one as if they had been struck by a giant hand. They bounced around wildly even without any interference from a Blood-Sign and White Thorn.

Hayato targeted them and accurately launched his White Thorn.

Before Kyousuke could get up and pursue this new turn of events, Benikomichi Fuuki’s Original Green smashed the building wall as well.

He did not even have time to regain his balance.

Each time they fell, collided, and created a new surface, the Material would destroy the new “contact surface” after only a few seconds. Each time, Kyousuke, Librarian-chan, and the many Petals were pulled around with the moving Artificial Sacred Ground. It felt like being attached to an invisible chain and flailed around as a human morning star.

“…!!”

The Material’s body was incredibly tough and the summoner was surrounded by a protective circle, so this was not enough to kill them.

But being swung around so constantly cost Kyousuke any chance to aim and launch a White Thorn.

The simplest shot in the summoning ceremony was to place a straight line between the White Thorn, the Petal, and the Spot and then to hit the center of the White Thorn with the Blood-Sign for a shot with no spin.

That way, the Petal would only travel in a straight line.

Even a rookie could easily build up their Material like that, but it was completely unusable in this situation.

Each time the Artificial Sacred Ground changed, all of the Petals were pulled with it and began bouncing around wildly. Unlike a stopped Petal, a moving Petal would deviate from the direction in which the White Thorn hit it. That required taking two vectors into consideration when launching the White Thorn.

And that was while the artificial gravity constantly moved to the walls or ceiling to swing the summoner around.

Whether or not they knew in advance where the stage would move created an unavoidable gap in reaction speed. And that lag led to a definite difference in Material development.

They spread destruction for that reason alone.

They destroyed the city, the scenery, people’s homes, and the places of rest for complete strangers.

Again and again, they could be heard landing on new surfaces.

At the moment, Kyousuke and the others were inside a giant office. Thick columns were lined up horizontally like log bridges and they each landed on different ones.

Petals no one had touched fell into Spots on their own and fruitlessly vanished.

Countless steel desks and wheeled chairs were lined up vertically.

The bottom of the valley below them was a group of shattered windows.

Their Materials had changed again and again as time passed.

Kyousuke’s was the Greedy Demon-Devouring Spider (nu – wm – ei – lvz – fc – o – zi).

Cost: 14. Sound Range: High.

It was a brutal, three meter spider colored red and black. Rather than spinning a web for an indirect attack, it directly attacked its prey and injected digestive fluids with its fangs to melt the enemy Material from within.

Hayato’s was the Ugly and Pitiful Insect Swollen with Tragedy that Eats into the Void (lu – ei – map – ab – ou – od – nu – mel – o – yi).

Cost: 21. Sound Range: Middle.

It looked like a caterpillar larger than a car. Each time that incarnation of hunger wriggled and greedily moved its mouth, it ate into the scenery like it was biting into a leaf.

<N-now I’m mad.>

Librarian-chan’s voice reached the back of Kyousuke’s mind.

Her tone was distorted and she still seemed confused, but she must have seen something she simply could not accept.

<Now that I think about it, she didn’t hesitate to stab someone in the back and now they’re making a mess of the city for their own convenience… Do they think anything goes if no one gets mad and everyone forgets about them? I can’t just ignore someone who would probably kill someone with that flimsy reasoning!!>

The core of that cry may have overlapped with her family issue.

The dead monster that had become the Rainy Girl had once been her sister.

After having her family so unfairly taken from her, she could not overlook that same sort of unfairness here. And that emotion brought enough anger to overpower the confusion and fear of becoming one with an incomprehensible monster.

<What do I have to do? Shiroyama-kun, tell me what I need to do to defeat them!!>

“Just maintain that spirit. Hold the reins of the Material’s mind and imagine you’re pointing its targeting cursor directly at your opponent! Then the monster will attack that opponent on its own!!”