Abyssus abyssum invocat

Abyssus abyssum invocat is the 5th volume in the Youjo Senki Light Novel series.

Short Summary
The power of blessing emerged in the surface.

Tanya and Mary sue have faced one another.

Who shall prevail?

Chapter O: Letter to the home
A short letter from Mary Sue to her home.

Chapter I: Rapid advance
Tanya's Salamander Kampfgruppe is sent to the Eastern front. There she meets Colonel Uger who has some very bad news for her. There is a civil war going on within General staff. The Operations department under Rudesdorf is trying to move forward with an encirclement plan not to different from the one used on the rhine and destroy the Federation army before winter arrives, while Zettour and the rest of the service corps want to hunker down and break the Federation army over time. But Zettour argues than a swift offensive isn't something that the logistics might not be able to support at this time while Rudesdorf answers that sitting there and doing nothing might not be the best option either. But since both of them are pragmatists that hate idle talk, they decide to send tanya to sort it out.

There she continues to fight night and day and captures some prisoners. Visha and Weiss question the prisoners and find out that the soldiers themselves do not have a high opinion of communism or the party but are instead fighting for their country. This in turn sends Tanya into a panic as Nationalism isn't something that can be dealt with using brute force.

Chapter II: Strange friendship
Tanya returns to the capital to inform Zettour that they are not fighting communists, and that the ordinary Federation soldiers are motivated by nationalism. And so her recommendation to Zettour is that the Reich needs "good friends" who will help the Reich by fighting for their own independence. This means forming "national committees" and delegating police powers to the various ethnic minorities of the Federation.

Meanwhile the Commonwealth is also in dire straits, the imperial air forces have already incapacitated half of the nations mages and planes and the rest of the navy is stuck trying to protect the shipping from the imperial Submarines. Churbill instead decides to send their newest ocean liner, the Queen Of Anjou to the federation in order to boost solidarity and to give aid to the Federation ground forces. But the head of intelligence warns that due to previous intelligence "leaks" (which in reality was just Tanya getting lucky) it is highly likely that the imperials will know about it.

At Moskva, under Loria's orders, the Federation also decides to increase cooperation with the Commonwealth and appeal to the rest of the world that their alliance is real. To do this, he decides to exchange prisoners/intelligence agents between the Federation and the Commonwealth. And he will send idealistic communists to the Commonwealth to woo public opinion.

Chapter III: Northern operation
[Tanya hits her 13th birthday on Sept 24, 1926.]

Tanya had returned to the Eastern Front after her talk with Zettour, but she and the kampfgruppe is ordered to return to the capital immediately.

At the General Staff office, General Rudersdorf gives Tanya a new medal, the White Winged Grand Iron Cross. He also informs her that they are dismantling her kampfgruppe. Tanya is extremely upset by this, but Rudersdorf reminds her that the combat group was supposed to be an adhoc entity. And that the General Staff needs to learn how to organize other combat groups without using Tanya.

So Tanya has no choice, and Rudersdorf orders her to go back to the Norden with her 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion and attack the new supply route linking the Commonwealth and the Federation. In the meantime the General Staff will organize a new combat group for Tanya.

[As a side note Lt Colonel Ugar and Tanya meet fairly often when Tanya or the 203rd takes the train because Ugar is working for the railroad department. Or when they are in the capital. And so their friendship becomes real.]

At one meeting with Ugur, he informs her that her new mission to Norden is the result of the Reich's intelligence service. And not something the General Staff necessarily wants to do, but the sheer amount of begging from Norden Control was enough for even them to yield. As an apology Ugur has obtained reservations for the 203rd at the officer's club. Unfortunately the bouncer of the club won't let Tanya in because she is a minor.

In the former Entente territory, the 203rd sets up a new base and finally receive the details of there missions. The Commonwealth had sent the Queen of Anjou to deliver supplies to federation. The ships is so large that it can maintain an entire supply line by itself and it is so fast that no imperial vessel can catch it. Their orders are to cripple the engines from the sky and then let the submarines sink the ship.

Upon sighting the ship, Tanya orders her troops to do a bomber run, only for her to pull the troops up at the last second to dodge a barrage of explosive spells. Drake, meanwhile on the ship, orders both regiments to rush out after them, minus the volunteer units because he knows who they are dealing with. Drake rushes up right after them at the fastest possible speed, only for Tanya and her crew to swiftly turn around and cruise right through their loose formation back towards the ship. Tanya and her battalion let of a single volley and afterwards come face to face with Mary. Tanya is forced to constantly dodge her laser beams while the rest of the battalion is busy fighting off the regiments. Tanya manages to force her into the water with a handgrenade while the rest of the forces manages to escape. But back at base, she finds out that she has lost an entire company worth of mages.

Tanya immediately implodes at the shock of the cost and actually begins to grieve a little, as she has lost something valuable to her, even if it was just human capital and to top it off, Weiss had received word from the Navy that the damage done to the Queen of Anjou was insignificant and that the ship managed to reach the Federation without the submarines being able to intercept, Causing Tanya to despair. At the funeral for the men, she takes off her White Winged Grand Iron Cross and shoots the medal instead when the rest of the men give a 3 round firing salute for the fallen.

Chapter IV: Long range assault operation
The General Staff gives new orders to Tanya. She is to form another Kampfgruppen and report to the eastern front, with units (including a replacement company for the 203rd) that are, on the surface, competent.

But before she sets off, Visha informs her that she has managed to win some intel from the air force during her card games and it shows that the Queen of Anjou did indeed take significant damage and is currently stuck in a Federation Port for repairs. She subsequently tells her men that they are going after it before rejoining the eastern lines.

Chapter V: Timeout
Federation mages are deployed to defend the Queen of Anjou, docked at Novo Holmo. Led by Colonel Mikel (who used to be in a gulag), they are joined by Lt Col Drake's Commonwealth mages and Mary Sue. Col Mikel and Lt Col Drake become friends.

Meanwhile Tanya's 203rd is boards a submarine and heads to the Federation dock. There she makes a quip about mages being "aerial torpedo's" 2 companies launch from the submarine and surprise the defenders while 1 company blows up the Queen of Anjou. There Tanya activates her Type 95 and fights the majority of the 2 regiments+ all by herself. There, Visha notes the oddity of the Type 95, as by imperial standards, Tanya is only slightly above average in mana capacity and is even sub-par by her own battalions standards. And While Tanya kept them busy, Grantz destroys the Queen of Anjou.

When Loliya hears of the news, he is not angered but rather filled with joy. He is elated that Tanya is still alive and he redoubles his efforts to help the Federation military capture her. A new political commissar is sent to Col Mikel, Liliya Ivanova Tanechka (an idealistic communist). While Mikel and Lt. Col Drake hates political commissars in general and Tanechka is not an exception, Mary Sue becomes friends with Liliya.

Tanya is now at the Eastern Front with her new combat group and she is in low spirits. She thinks that her new colleagues are mostly useless. Captain Elmer Ahrens of the Tank Company seems competent but is eager for battle and heavily participates in the battle itself, not something an officer with responsibility should be doing. She finds 1st Lt Rolf Meybert of the artillery company to be too set in his ways and although a good shot, is too reliant on pre-war logistical promises. Captain Lienhart Thon and 1st Lt Klaus Tospan of the infantry battalions to be morons with no regard for higher command. Finally the new company mage recruits led by 1st Lt Theobalt Wüstemann can learn and are willing but they are too inexperienced. Thus Tanya decides to keep the 203rd as a regular battalion and sends Grantz to train and lead Wüstemann company as a separate company.

While the new Salamander Kampfgruppe is training, the Federation attacks. Chaos ensues, Captain Thon keeps disobeying Tanya's orders and goes on a recon mission without telling anyone. Eventually the kampfgruppe defeats the enemy. Thon is MIA.

During the battle Tanya comments that she wants Visha's coffee and everyone laughs. They hear it as a confession of love. Tanya debates romantic implications for the first time. If she dates a man that makes the physical relationship heterosexual but mentally homosexual. If she dates a woman that makes the physical relationship homosexual but mentally heterosexual. She can't decide. Because it's in the middle of combat, Tanya stops thinking about this and gets back to war.

On October 20th, the day after the battle, it snows. Winter has arrived.

Chapter VI: "Liberator"
Commonwealth and Federation alliance seems to be going well. At least Loria is satisfied. While he can't fool any of the diplomats or high ranking government officials, sending in idealistic commissars to the Commonwealth is having the effect he intended. Many ordinary people and ordinary soldiers in the Commonwealth are beginning to feel sympathy for the communist cause.

However, he gets a very shocking report. The ones on the front lines dealing with partisan operations are not imperial soldiers but armed locals. This sends a massive shockwave through the entire communist party as the domestic propaganda used against the empire was based on the premise of solidarity in defending the home country, but if the empire was giving land away to those who didn't like communism, the entire foundation of the Federation could collapse in on itself.

On November 24th, 1926, Hans von Zettour makes a speech declaring that the Reich does not demand territory and that it plans to help new nations become independent and to continue the fight against their common enemy, the Communists. That day the military relinquishes control over civilian administration in conquered Federation territory to the newly formed nationalist organizations.

That ends 500+ pages of vol 5.