Meanwhile, what was Elena doing when she didn't show up?
"......This is the place!"
She was investigating a suspicious magical reaction.
<
At the very least, there must be to activate the transfer magic circle.
The best is the best and the right person is in the right place. With this in mind, Elena was investigating to get closer to the source of this incident.
This is also supported by the fact that Elena's own fighting ability is far below that of Rei, Machina's squire.
She has come to investigate after identifying the flow of a weak magical reaction .......
This is the private office of Graham Darby, who was once the Chief Superintendent. The room is now vacant.
Normally, such an empty room would be cleaned and redecorated, and someone would move in, but for some reason, this room remained empty.
"It's locked. ...... It's no use, it's an emergency."
Elena put her hand on the door handle and squeezed it firmly.
"......Avalon, as expected. It is a strong door.
Elena puts even more force into the door. Finally, with a resounding cracking sound, the handle is released from the door.
But as a result, the door lock is rendered useless. Elena puts her slender hand through the hole in the door, and successfully unlocks the door from the inside.
"Locked from the inside?"
The realization of this fact saved Elena.
Before she could open the door, a spear was suddenly thrust out from inside.
Even Elena's reaction speed was barely enough to dodge it. The fact that the door was locked from the inside would have made it impossible for her to dodge if she had not guessed that someone might be inside.
"......Automata, is it?"
Inside was an ordinary looking automaton.
Basically, there are no automata in <>. They are either temporary guests like Elena and Rey, or infiltrators of .......
However, their performance seems to be high. Elena braced herself for the attack.
A moment later, a spear is thrust out.
"!"
Elena dodges and draws her shortsword.
She swings her sword to cut off the tip of the spear, but a moment later, the spear is pulled back.
"That's quite a feat!"
Even with the improved Elena, the automata is not so easy to defeat.
Elena has decided to remove the limiter she has imposed on herself.
Her senses have been sharpened by this, and there is a worrisome reaction.
"......<>? And ......<? I see, that's what you mean."
The performance of Elena's control core is high. It can easily handle parallel processing even in battle.
"You drove away the approaching humans with and the maintenance golem with , didn't you?
Elena imagines that this is how they hid the secrets in this room.
Meanwhile, the enemy automata attacked with their spears.
However, the trajectory of the spear is quite limited in the small room. Therefore, it can be said that Elena, who has only a shortsword, is able to compete with the spear-wielding automata.
However.
When the limiter is released, Elena's reaction speed jumps to twice as fast. It may not seem like much, but it is very effective.
Even if she moves after seeing her opponent's movement, she can still deal with him, which is a big deal.
Finally, Elena's shortsword catches the spear of the automata. The tip of the spear flies in the air.
The automaton immediately releases its spear, which is no longer useful as a weapon, and retreats to the back of the room.
Elena steps in after it.
"What!
But the automaton had another weapon from the back of the room and stepped into the room.
Elena's sword is repelled.
The automaton has two short swords in its hands. In other words, she wields two swords.
"I bet you know how to use them ......."
Elena decided to attack more cautiously.
Anyone can hold a sword in both hands and swing it alternately. But to use two swords in tandem requires practice.
Elena concluded that since the enemy was an automata, it was more likely that they had the ability to handle such a situation rather than training.
"But it doesn't seem to be so troublesome, does it?
The speed of the enemy automata's sword blows was obviously slower than when they were handling spears.
This must be the performance limit of the control core.
Elena stepped deeply once and used her momentum to cut up with a short sword.
The enemy automata caught her with the short sword in her left hand, but the sword was taken away by the force of the cut.
Not paying attention to the sword in the air, Elena took another half step and returned the shortsword, this time cutting it down in a bamboo cut.
A hard metallic sound echoed.
The enemy automaton barely caught Elena's cut with the shortsword in its right hand.
But the sword was different.
Elena's sword was specially made by Jin. It is made of a thin adamantite core sandwiched between tough nickel-chrome molybdenum steel.
The sword of the enemy automata, on the other hand, is simply reinforced steel. Well, it seemed to be reasonably well made.
Though small and light, the steel sword could not withstand Elena's weighted downward cut.
With the force she had left, Elena sliced the enemy automata from the right shoulder to the chest with a shallow cut.
"Now you won't be able to use your right arm!"
The enemy automaton's movements slowed down, though it was far from stopped.
Now they are no match for Elena.
Elena throws a thrust with divine speed.
It penetrates through the chest of the automaton, without missing the target.
The lungs are the equivalent of human lungs.
--There should be an "ether converter" or "ether tank" there.
When the organ that produces magical energy was destroyed, the enemy automata stopped moving.
"...... was quite a formidable foe."
Elena sheathed her shortsword but did not let her guard down. But there seems to be no more enemies.
"Well, let's check this room again. ...... But first, let's stop the Magi machine that is producing <> and <>-like effects.
Elena quickly stops the magi machines on the floor at the back of the room.
At the same time, she observed the room that used to be the private office of the former Chief Superintendent Graham Darby.
The layout of the room is the same as the other rooms on the same floor: a living room of about 10 tatami mats and a bedroom of about 3 tatami mats in the back.
"The bedroom is suspicious, isn't it?
Elena frowns at what she sees through the door she cautiously opens.
"Transference magic circle ......"
It peeked out from the carpet that had been rolled up.
A small transfer magic circle had been carved into the floor.
"It's a tricky thing ...... to deal with someone with this much magic technology."
* * *
< was over, Elena asked Machina III, Tomax, and others to gather.
The place was, of course, the room that used to be Graham Darby's private room.
"Ummm ...... this is a serious situation."
Tomax Bartmann looked difficult.
Former transfer gate supervisors Arietta Aeolial and Machina III were bent over on the floor examining the transfer magic circle, but when they eventually stood up, Arietta Aeolial was the first to speak,
"The transfer magic circle itself is on the same level as the one discovered in the Kingdom of Celluloa a long time ago. In other words, it is not something that can be activated frequently.
She reported that the magic circle itself is the same level as the one found in the Kingdom of Celuloa long ago. And,
"After activation, it will take about an hour to accumulate enough mana for the transfer.
Makina said.
"In other words, if we knew it existed, we could deal with it.
This was Wattes Schletzer, the military chief of staff.
"That's the only thing that helps. ......"
Tomax Bartmann said, rubbing his stomach.
"I guess I'll have to check inside <> again. ......