Part 6 of 9
Nguyen and Gohka’s respective dragon minions have joined the fray, too, only for most of them to get shot down and stuck in spiderwebs.
Since the pit goes from the surface to the Lower Stratum, it’s a quick way to get close to the Bottom Stratum here.
But we wouldn’t leave a shortcut like that unguarded.
The queen strung up her threads there in advance and was lying in wait to meet any would-be invaders with all her strength.
This pit is a fortress of sorts. An impregnable one.
It gives the queen a home field advantage as well as the help of her minions, and she was already stronger than Nguyen and Gohka in terms of stats.
On top of that, the two dragons had already fought another queen outside.
They must have taken a short break in between, but they can’t be fully recovered.
With all those conditions lined up in our favor, this was the natural outcome.
…It’s strange, though.
There’s no way Dustin wouldn’t realize that we’d be guarding the pit, nor that Nguyen and Gohka are on the verge of exhaustion.
Even if the aim was to attack at the same time as Iena and overwhelm us, this still seems like a poor strategy.
I haven’t seen the other ancient dragon chiefs yet, and I have no idea why he’d keep them out of play at a time like this.
I’m sure Iena’s swift defeat must have been as much of a surprise to them as it was to me. Still, it seems downright reckless for Nguyen and Gohka to rush in like this.
Nguyen is a fire dragon, well-rounded and strong.
His attack and defense are both on a high level, and he has the extra advantage of being able to fight in the air.
But this also means he doesn’t stand out on any particular front, so while he can reliably defeat less powerful foes, he inevitably struggles against stronger ones.
He just doesn’t have enough firepower.
Which seems silly for a fire dragon.
So while theoretically he’s got the type advantage over a queen and should be able to handle it even though his stats are outmatched, the results are as you see now.
As for Gohka, he’s kind of a meathead, the total opposite of Nguyen.
His stats are incredibly high, maybe even the strongest of all the ancient dragon chiefs in terms of numbers alone.
In fact, his stats might be on par with the queen’s, or even higher.
His skills, on the other hand, are unpolished; he just uses his excessive stats to muscle his way through everything.
That’s not really a problem in itself, though.
The power of his stats is so simple that it’s difficult to counter.
If you tried to beat him with cheap tricks alone, he’d eat you alive.
Even with strategies that rely on traps and such, he could very well beat you using brute strength before you have time to lure him into them.
At the bare minimum, you’ve got to be strong enough that you wouldn’t die on the spot if he attacks you head-on.
He’s got that powerfully destructive lightning as his main attack method, and high enough physical stats to maneuver around quickly and tear apart enemies with his fangs and claws.
It’s a simple yet effective method that might rank him first among ancient dragons in terms of raw destructive power.
Although the trade-off for that high output is that he runs out of gas quickly, putting him at a relative disadvantage in longer battles.
That’s probably why fighting two queens in a row is clearly taking a toll on Gohka.
Even with a break in between, he didn’t have enough time to recover all his SP and such.
I can tell that his movements are already losing their polish.
That’s why he got caught in the queen’s web so quickly.
…Or maybe it’s just because he was jumping around without thinking, as usual.
Gohka is one of those fighters who uses his high speed and small frame for a repeated hit-and-run style of attacking.
Fighting in a pit with threads restricting his movements was never going to work out well for him in the first place.
I feel like Dustin would’ve thought of all that, too, so I don’t understand why he would send Gohka into a battlefield where he’d have a clear disadvantage.
It makes a little more sense with Nguyen, who at least has the advantage of fire being strong against spider threads.
But if he wanted to use Gohka to his full potential, he should’ve had him stay out of this fight and get some rest.
There must have been someone who would be better suited to attacking the pit.
If it were me, I probably would’ve picked Ice Dragon Mia or something.
She’d have the attribute advantage, since her ice can freeze threads, and her specialty is slowly wearing her opponents down with extreme cold and curses.
A strategy like that would force us to go on the move instead.
Which would mean most of the webs set up in the pit would go to waste.
If Nia had shown up, I was afraid I’d have to send in Sophia or Wrath to deal with her, to the point that it feels strange that they didn’t pick such an effective strategy.
Is she going to attack from another angle?
Maybe she’s even attacking already?
But I don’t see anything strange when I scan the entirety of the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
So maybe it’s going to happen later?
That timing seems way too slow.
We’ve already repelled Iena’s attack, and the queen is winning against Nguyen and Gohka.
The battle is clearly going in our favor.
I can’t figure out why Dustin wouldn’t send in the rest of the ancient dragon chiefs at this stage.
Am I missing something major here?
Sure, I’d be in trouble if I got hit with a surprise attack in the Bottom Stratum, since I’m alone down here at the moment.
But I don’t sense anything coming, and even if it did happen, I could summon the last queen who’s guarding the other entrance to the labyrinth right now. That would at least buy enough time for Sophia or Wrath to make it back to me.
No problems here…I think.
Things are going great.
So why can’t I shake off this strange feeling of anxiety?
Something has definitely gone wrong on our opponents’ side of things.
Since I can’t figure out why Dustin would be holding back on his resources this late in the game, the only logical conclusion is that there must have been some kind of change in circumstances that left him with no other choice.
Just like Iena, Nguyen and Gohka are far too valuable to use as throwaway pawns.
It’s probably safe to assume that he can’t make a move if I’m a sitting duck down here and nobody’s come after me yet.
Could this mean that the ancient dragon chiefs I haven’t seen yet actually broke off from Dustin’s side?
That would certainly explain why Nguyen and Gohka are attacking so recklessly.
If they’re his only game pieces left, he’d have no choice but to attack with them, even if it doesn’t make sense.
In which case, the reason he sent these two in not long after they defeated the first queen was probably because he figured he had to pile on the attacks while Iena was still alive.
Although in point of fact, Iena had already been beaten by then, rendering Nguyen and Gohka’s reckless attack on this front fairly pointless.
If Iena, Nguyen, and Gohka were the only ones who stayed with Dustin, they don’t stand a chance at winning anymore.
Iena is gone, and Nguyen and Gohka can’t break through our defenses alone.
If he’s still got the other ancient dragon chiefs on hand somewhere, that would be another story, but I really don’t see why he would be holding out at this point…
The moment when Iena and the other water dragons attacked the Upper Stratum would’ve been the best time to attack. With that window of opportunity closed, all that accomplished was losing a major player like Iena for no good reason.
So the theory that the rest of the chiefs abandoned ship makes the most sense. Why would they do that, though?
Well, I can kinda see Nia bailing.
She’s always been a shut-in anyway.
But Hyuvan and Reise? That makes less sense.
Hyuvan has a strong sense of duty and always carries out orders faithfully, despite his ridiculous demeanor.
And Reise is so loyal that he let himself be sealed away all by himself to protect the Sword of the Demon Lord.
It’s a little hard to believe that he would leave Gülie’s faction.
If he did, I’m guessing something really serious must’ve gone down on their end.
The scary part is, I have no idea what that could be.
Does this mean something is happening elsewhere that’s so important it could have a huge effect on our side, too?
Something that would cause loyal dragons like Hyuvan and Reise to secede?
…Okay, if that’s true, it can’t be anything good.
And it’ll be tough to figure anything out from way down here, where I’m not getting any information from the outside world.
That doesn’t mean I can just up and leave now, though.
It wouldn’t be wise to change our course of action based on nothing but a vague suspicion.
We’ve got to stick to our guns.
Focus all of our efforts on defending the Great Elroe Labyrinth to the bitter end.
Whatever might have happened to throw a wrench in the other side’s plans may just work out in our favor, anyway.
I’ve got to concentrate on commanding my own army.
Still, at this point, we’ve just about clinched it.
Things were already going well for our side, and now the puppet taratects have arrived.
That’s four puppet taratects along with the queen.
Not to mention nine arch taratects and plenty of smaller spider monsters, too.
On the other hand, Nguyen and Gohka’s side only has two ancient fire dragons and one ancient lightning dragon left.
The others have all been defeated already.
They were a match for us in terms of legendary-class monsters, but otherwise our defenses were just too strong.
Now that the puppet taratects have arrived, Nguyen and Gohka have zero chance of turning things around, when they couldn’t even handle the queen and her underlings alone.
Nguyen must realize that.
Not sure about that meathead Gohka, though.
Their best option here would be to retreat…but will they?
Nguyen howls.
Even though I can’t hear it as I watch through my Panoptic Vision, I can feel the forceful drive behind it.
He burns up the threads around him with fiery breath and fights back against the puppet taratects as they descend on him.
So he’s not gonna run.
I guess that proves that their side has their backs against the wall.
If the other ancient dragon chiefs were still on standby, that would mean Dustin is doling out his forces in piecemeal attacks, sending them in one by one only to get destroyed.
There’s no way he would do something so stupid.
It makes more sense to assume that Nguyen isn’t retreating because he knows there’d be no coming back if he did.
At this point, I have to assume that the other ancient dragon chiefs really did defect.
Their only remaining option was for Nguyen and Gohka to break through the queen’s defenses in the pit.
But we’re not nice enough to just sit back and let them do that.
The puppet taratects assault Nguyen from all sides, moving in perfect sync.
A fiery breath attack shoots from Nguyen’s mouth toward one of them—Ael.
She produces poisonous liquid to cancel it out.
Since he’s stronger and has the attribute advantage over her, Nguyen’s attack wins out, and Ael gets blown back by the fiery breath.
But the other three attack Nguyen in the meantime.
Their six sword-wielding arms slash away at Nguyen’s tough scales.
That’s three of them with six arms each, for a total of eighteen attacks at once.
Since Nguyen’s stats are higher, a single attack doesn’t leave a very deep cut—but it’s not shallow enough to ignore, either.
Eighteen of them at once is enough to deal some major damage to his HP.
In evident pain, Nguyen produces fire from his entire body in a last-ditch effort to drive them away, which only proves their attack did enough damage to make him cautious.
Ael, Sael, Riel, and Fiel.
These four puppet taratects are my elite force.
The puppet taratect species is exclusive to individuals handpicked by me. It can’t be reached through the normal taratect evolution tree.
But their numbers have been greatly reduced, and now only these four remain.
The rest of the puppet taratects fell in battle.
(Let’s not talk about the fact that it was White who took out most of them.)
These four elites who survived all that are the best of the best.
It helps that they were already particularly strong compared to the others, which is why I kept them out of that fight as my bodyguards.
That’s why they survived getting slaughtered by White.
And they’ve continued to survive even throughout this final battle.
Sure, they haven’t grown as quickly as reincarnations like Sophia and Wrath—even Merazophis has grown faster.
But they’ve definitely become more powerful by surviving so many fights.
I don’t just mean in obvious ways like higher stats and more skills, either.
Their techniques and teamwork have grown, too, in ways that numbers alone can’t convey.
These four are the puppet taratects who have survived it all.
And they’ve spent more time together than any of the others did, too.
No one can top their teamwork.
They cover for each other and fight in harmony without ever using Telepathy or anything of the sort, like their hearts are beating as one.
Riel and Fiel use their threads to catch Ael and bring her back right away.
Ael looks a little scorched on the surface, but the puppet taratects’ real bodies are the tiny spiders hidden inside their doll-like exteriors.
Damaging the outside won’t kill them as long as the spider at the core is safe.
With Ael and the other two brought together, Sael is left alone on the opposite side.
Nguyen notices this right away and goes after her.
But the other three puppet taratects leap at his back.
Nguyen senses them coming and flips around to fend them off.
Then Sael promptly takes that opening to attack.
Her sword slices up Nguyen’s wing.
In this four-against-one fight, they’re able to conquer Nguyen even though he’s stronger and has an attribute that’s their biggest weakness.
Now Gohka flies toward the puppet taratects, maybe in an attempt to rescue Nguyen.
But he can’t catch them.
They run along the threads or swing on them, zipping around in all directions.
This strange movement is harder to follow than any normal flight, making it hard for Gohka to keep up, even though his stats are higher.
Almost no one can catch the puppet taratects in a space like this, where they can use threads to their full advantage, except maybe someone like Hyuvan, the fastest of the ancient dragons.
And once Gohka stops moving, the threads wrap around him.
He only froze for a second, unsure which of the puppet taratects to chase when they split up into two groups.
That was long enough for his body to get wound up in thread.
And then the thread starts to cut into him.
Gohka surrounds himself with lightning, burning the threads away so he can escape.
But he still sustains some major scratches, unable to completely get away in time.
Nguyen uses his fiery Breath to stop them from attacking any further, but the puppet taratects are at a clear advantage.
They’re not just winning because they work together so well—it’s also because Nguyen and Gohka aren’t working together well at all.
Nguyen can’t keep up with Gohka’s speedy movements, and it would never occur to Gohka to try to match pace with Nguyen.
That Gohka really is a meathead, after all…
So instead of four-against-two, it’s more like four-against-one-and-one.
On top of that, supporting fire from the queen and her brood makes it even harder for Nguyen and Gohka to get anywhere.
The queen is the biggest threat of all, and the two dragons can’t just ignore her.
But do they really think they can keep an eye on the queen’s movements while also fighting the puppet taratects?
They’re overestimating the queen and the puppets both.
The puppet taratects all fire Dark Magic spells at once.
Nguyen and Gohka weave left and right to avoid the attacks, only to suddenly stop in midair.
Looks of alarm arise on both their faces.
They’ve been captured in threads too fine to be seen by the naked eye.
While the two of them were busy fighting the puppet taratects, the queen carefully surrounded them with threads without their noticing.
How could they have picked up on it, when they were battling four elite fighters while also trying to keep an eye out for the queen?
And even those thin threads are strong enough to stop Nguyen and Gohka from moving for a moment.
The puppet taratects’ Dark Magic spells hit their marks.
Magic isn’t very effective against dragons, thanks to their Dragon Scales line of skills.
But it’s not nothing, either.
The spells stab at the dragons’ scales, damaging them.
Then the puppet taratects are close behind.
Tangled up in threads and still recovering from a barrage of spells, Nguyen and Gohka can’t fight back against the puppet taratects’ attacks.
They’re unable to dodge or defend themselves as the four fighters with six arms attack, for a total of twenty-four slashes.
Nguyen and Gohka are soon covered in wounds, dripping blood everywhere.
It’s hopeless for them now.
Still, these are two supreme rulers of the powerful ancient dragons.
Fierce flames rise from Nguyen’s body, while Gohka is wreathed in purple lightning.
The puppet taratects are too close to dodge in time.
Direct hits from fire and lightning turn the puppet taratects into ash…or at least, their marionette bodies.
But their real bodies leap out of the puppets, unbeknownst to Nguyen and Gohka.
Four palm-size spiders whirl through the air.
The threads they control take on a cutting edge and slice through the two dragons’ bodies.
Remember, the puppet taratects’ exteriors are just that: puppets.
Though they serve as both armor and weapons for the tiny spiders inside, you could also say they’re nothing more than that.
The puppet taratects’ tiny true forms might look weak, but they retain all of their stats and skills, not the puppet bodies.
In other words, even at that size, they still have stats in the ten thousands.
They’re plenty strong even without their puppet bodies.
Now their Cutting Thread attacks prove to be the finishing blow.
Nguyen and Gohka are no longer moving.
Since their bodies are still caught up in threads, they go limp in midair as if crucified.
Nguyen’s mouth moves slightly, and his body dissolves into dust.
Seeing this, Gohka says something as well, and his body does the same.
…They offered themselves up to the system.
I wasn’t very close with either of them.
But we certainly knew each other for a very long time.
Now those old, familiar acquaintances are gone.
Though I feel some sadness at this loss, it also tells me in no uncertain terms that the end is finally near.
After a moment of respectful silence for Nguyen and Gohka, who fought bravely until the very end, I give a few words of thanks for the puppet taratects.
“You did great.”
Not that they can hear me from so far away, but it’s the feelings that count here.
The puppet taratects are looking sadly at the charred remains of their puppet bodies.
White made those bodies especially for them.
They were far from ordinary puppets: visually indistinguishable from real humans, thanks to White’s impressive thread work.
I wouldn’t be able to remake them to nearly the same quality.
So I’d like to have White remake them, although I’m not sure if there will be time after this battle is over.
“She’d better come back safe for all of our sakes, including the puppet taratects’.”
I utter a prayer for White, who’s still locked in battle.
Just then…
“Testing, testing, one-two-three. Hello? Can you hear me?”
A voice suddenly echoes in my head.
Is this…Telepathy?
I don’t sense anyone nearby.
They must be sending this message from outside the labyrinth.
That would take a seriously high skill level.
The Word of God church has quite a few high-level Telepathy users, and stations them in most towns and cities to create a sort of telephone network. That’s how the Word of God headquarters gathers information from all over the world.
If this person is skilled enough to reach me all the way at the bottom of the Great Elroe Labyrinth, they’ve got to be one of the church’s trained Telepathy specialists.
“Who is this? Someone from the Word of God, I assume.”
“Hello? Hi. You’re half right, I guess. Oh, this is our first time talking, so I guess I should say nice to meet you. Although we’ve technically seen each other before. I’m Kenichi Ogiwara, one of the reincarnations. I’ve got a unique skill called ‘Unlimited Telephone,’ you see.”
This telepathic message was about to turn the entire situation upside down.
A grim atmosphere settles over the military headquarters.
The situation is bleak.
Our other headquarters that we had set up near the battlefield was attacked and destroyed by white-robed agents.
As for the battle itself, while we managed to defeat the queen taratect, thanks to great efforts from Chief Nguyen and Chief Gohka, the swarm of Nightmare’s Vestiges that appeared partway through dealt major losses to both the human alliance and the demon army, ultimately driving them to retreat.
Of course, I never had high expectations for the human nor demon armies.
Given the strength of Lady Ariel’s main forces, it would be foolish to even count them among our assets.
But she couldn’t just ignore them if they all attacked at once, either.
She would have to send some of her forces to deal with them, and if Chief Iena’s assault went well in the meantime, the next steps would be a little bit easier…or so I hoped.
Yet I have already lost contact with Lady Iena.
I had one of my Panoptic Vision users try to investigate the Upper Stratum of the Great Elroe Labyrinth, only to find it frozen as far as the eye could see.
I did not truly expect to submerge the entire labyrinth, but I still hoped that Chief Iena’s power would be enough to eliminate one or two of the enemy’s strongest players.
At the very least, I believed she would be able to buy us a fair amount of time.
But if the Upper Stratum has been frozen over so quickly, that must mean Lady Iena was defeated after almost no time at all.
My original plan was to wait for Chief Nguyen and Chief Gohka to recover while Lady Iena kept some of the enemy’s main forces occupied, or to perhaps even defeat them, allowing us to go on the offensive.
Since Lady Iena was defeated instead, I was forced to speed those plans along and send in Chief Nguyen and Chief Gohka right away, only for both of them to fall as well.
At this point, we no longer stand a chance of conquering the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Chief Hyuvan, Chief Nia, and Chief Reise simply left too large a void behind.
All we can do now is pray for Lord Black Dragon’s victory.
And now, in the midst of this situation, I received a report from one of the reincarnations—Kenichi Ogiwara—that somehow made everything even worse.
“Are you certain this is true?”
“Would I lie about something like this? That would be an awful thing to joke about.”
I did not actually think young Ogiwara was lying, of course.
Perhaps it was just that I so desperately wanted it to be false that I could not help asking.
I know that Ogiwara is not the sort to lie at a time like this.
He has an advanced form of telepathy called “Unlimited Telephone,” and used this skill to leak information to me from the elf village for many years.
Though we only met in person once, to register me as a contact for his Unlimited Telephone skill, I know him quite well through our regular conversations.
“At this rate, the evil god is going to wipe out half of humanity no matter which side wins.”
Despite myself, I put a hand to my forehead and groan.
I cannot believe that we would receive such terrible news when we’ve just reached the point that our side can only pray for the ebony god’s victory.
If this information had come just a little sooner, perhaps we would not have lost chiefs Iena, Nguyen, and Gohka in vain.
“Ah, hang on a second, please… There! It’s all set up! I’m switching this to a group call!”
After those words, my mind is filled with noise.
It’s as if I can hear several people breathing all at once.
“What’s this?”
“Hrm? Is that you, Dustin?”
The voice I hear next belongs to Lady Ariel.
“It’s a group call. An ability of mine that allows multiple people to have a telepathic conversation at the same time.”
“You can do such a thing?”
“It’s not like I was hiding it on purpose. It just never really came up.”
Evidently, this “group call” uses Ogiwara as a conduit to allow several people to communicate via telepathy.
I never imagined that I would speak to Lady Ariel again, let alone like this.
But my senses tell me there are others besides Lady Ariel connected to this call.
“Okay, sooo…I guess let’s start by having everyone introduce themselves one at a time, when I say your name. Shun, you go first.”
“Oh, sure. Um, I’m Schlain, a reincarnation and the current Hero. Please call me Shun. Thank you for having me.”
“Wow, so formal.”
“Shut up, Ogi.”
The first to be introduced is Sir Schlain.
So it was his group that supplied the information about the evil god, then.
He did decide to pursue the unlikely hope of making both the ebony and ivory gods’ wishes come true, after all.
Perhaps it took a soul like his to find out the truth.
Someone who refused to give up or compromise until the very end.
“Next, Mr. Hyrince.”
“Right. My name is Hyrince Quarto. But at this point, maybe I should introduce myself as a double of Güliedistodiez, the ebony god. I’ll be participating in this meeting from that position, anyway. Thanks.”
Sir Hyrince is the next to speak.
He was a member of the previous hero Sir Julius’s party, and of the current hero Schlain’s as well.
But just as he says, we ought to treat him as a double of the ebony god now.
Most of the ebony god’s doubles live their entire lives as ordinary humans, never revealing their second identity until the very end unless extreme circumstances require it.
His primary aim is to experience life from a purely human point of view.
That he is making an exception to participate in this meeting is additional proof that what’s happening is of the utmost importance.
“Okay, next! Our teacher, Ms. Oka…I mean, Miss Filimøs!”
“Ogiwara, did you really forget my name just now?”
“I mean, you’ve always been Ms. Oka to us, sooo…”
“Ogi, Ms. Oka, now isn’t the time for that sort of thing.”
This familiar exchange goes to show how close the reincarnations were in their previous lives.
Our world did them a grave disservice by tearing them apart and plunging them into chaos.
And the fact that we must now depend on their help only further emphasizes how inadequate we residents of this world truly are.
We should all be ashamed.
“Hello, my name is Filimøs. I am a reincarnation and former teacher to the others, which is why many of them call me by my prior name, Ms. Oka. I am pleased to meet you all.”
Miss Filimøs is the elf reincarnation, I believe.
After the massacre at the elf village, she is likely the only survivor of their race.
That may lead to many complications if she survives after this battle, but I suppose now is not the time to concern myself with such things.
“All right, let’s keep it moving. Next! Chief Reise, representing the ancient dragons.”
“I am Reise the dark dragon. A pleasure.”
Hrm.
If Chief Reise can participate in this meeting, that means that Ogiwara has met them before.
One of the caveats of Ogiwara’s Unlimited Telephone is that he can only connect and converse with individuals he has met in person.
In other words, since Chief Reise joined up with Sir Schlain, Ogiwara must be with them right now.
“Next, Pontiff Dustin of the Word of God religion.”
Ah, my turn has come.
“I am Dustin, the pontiff of the Word of God. Thank you for having me, everyone.”
Most likely, they are all familiar with me through the world quest speeches.
It would thus be pointless to introduce myself at great length.
“Finally, Miss Ariel, the Demon Lord.”
“Hey, I’m Demon Lord Ariel. Let’s do this.”
Lady Ariel sounds rather sullen in her short introduction.
I suppose that, too, is inevitable, given that everyone else here is technically her enemy.
“And I’m Kenichi Ogiwara, the reincarnation using this group call to connect everyone. I’m just here to link you all up, so I’ll leave the rest of the proceedings to Mr. Hyrince.”
“Thanks. Let’s get right down to business, then. As I believe you’ve all heard from Ogiwara, this is about the evil god plotting to sacrifice half of humanity, as described in the world quest. We all assumed it was referring to the ivory god at first, but thanks to certain information, it’s now clear that we were wrong. The real evil god is Administrator D, the creator of the system who outranks the ebony god.”
“Might I ask a question? Who provided this information? And are we quite certain we can trust it?”
“I’m afraid I can’t reveal the source of the information. It’s not that I refuse—it’s simply not possible. Additionally, if anyone does figure out who may have provided the information, please keep it to yourself and don’t tell anyone else. I hope that answers your question.”
Hyrince responds immediately to my question.
…I see.
So he cannot reveal the source, even if he wanted to.
Since we must also refrain from mentioning it if we figure out the source, that probably means there’s some sort of restriction involved.
And the person at this meeting most likely to be under such a restriction is Miss Filimøs.
Considering how quickly Potimas was able to collect the reincarnations, outpacing even our church, it’s clear that Miss Filimøs has an information-gathering skill of some kind.
And if she is the source of this particular revelation, it would explain why she is present at this meeting.
“As for the veracity of the information, I personally believe it is true beyond a doubt.”
“I see. If you of all people feel so strongly about it, I shall take you at your word.”
It would be best to assume that this information is true if Sir Hyrince, a double of the ebony god, believes it so confidently.
I would suspect anyone else of being deceived, but the ebony god has lived far longer than even I have, keeping watch over and protecting this world.
As a part of that ebony god, Sir Hyrince could never be deceived about a threat to our world.
“Unfortunately, all we know for certain is that the evil god is D. There is no indication as to how we might prevent the destruction of half of humanity. And if I may speak on behalf of the ebony god, if D intends to stand in our way as an enemy, then we have no hope of fighting back.”
D is the being who created the system: a god far stronger than the ebony god, and the savior of our world.
Since this planet survives thanks solely to the system, that means D could destroy the world just as easily as save it.
There is no question of who is stronger when D already holds all of our lives over a barrel.
“Therefore, we’ve concluded that the only way to do anything about this information is to attempt to make contact with D first. And so, the Spatial Magic master Elder Ronandt is currently searching for a way to teleport to D’s location.”
Hrmmm…
The ebony god has already lost all hope of conquering the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Perhaps it would be best to give up on that matter and meet with Sir Hyrince and company instead.
I have no choice but to cooperate with them if the alternative is sitting and waiting for half of humanity to be destroyed.
But even if we on the ebony god’s side feel that way, the problem is whether the ivory god’s side will agree…
“So? What do you want us to do about it? You realize I’m still fighting to kill half of humanity either way, right? I’m not gonna change my plans at this point just because of something like that.”
Of course…
Lady Ariel has a point.
The ivory god’s side already intended to destroy half of humanity.
Whether D does it or not is none of their concern.
This doesn’t change the victory conditions for Lady Ariel’s side; thus, they can simply continue to defend the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Though she will probably not actively hinder us, we cannot expect her to help, either.
Of course, since we are currently enemies, I could not ask her to do such a thing anyway.
“…About that, Ariel. I don’t suppose you could open up a path to the system core for us?”
“Excuse me?”
Lady Ariel’s voice takes on a dangerous edge in response to Sir Hyrince’s words.
Even through telepathy, it is intense enough to give one goose bumps.
“And why would I do that?”
“It’s the most reliable way to attempt teleporting to D’s location. D created the system, and controls it personally. By us directly accessing the core of the system, the chances of successfully teleporting to D would be much higher.”
Hyrince’s statement does make sense in theory.
But whether Lady Ariel will accept it or not is another story.
“Don’t make me laugh. We wouldn’t gain anything from going along with this.”
The ebony god’s side wants to save humanity, while the ivory god’s side does not.
And since the ivory god has to prevent anyone from entering the system core at the heart of the Great Elroe Labyrinth in order to be victorious in this battle, Hyrince’s request is an impossible one.
I am sure he is aware of this as well.
So why would he make such a request, knowing it would be rejected?
“I beg you to reconsider.”
“No thanks.”
“At this rate, half of humanity will be destroyed. Not just death—utter destruction.”
Hyrince’s words, and the urgency behind them, make everything clear to me.
Not just death…utter destruction.
In other words, their very souls would vanish.
From our perspective on the ebony god’s side, we ought to focus all our energy on stopping D, not the ivory god’s side.
For the ivory god’s side, the death of half of humanity is not the goal, but a natural result of their endeavors. For the evil god D, however, this seems to be the sole intention.
Death and destruction are similar, yet there is a major difference.
If one’s soul is destroyed, one can no longer be reborn.
We must deal with D, whose plans would cause far greater damage.
The best way to improve our chances to this end would be to convince Lady Ariel to let us into the system’s core, where one with ruler authority could connect to the administrator and create a higher rate of success for teleportation.
Teleporting to the unknown location of D, whom Elder Ronandt has not even met, is far beyond the limits of any skill.
I cannot imagine success is likely, even for humanity’s strongest mage.
From the point of view of the ebony god’s side, we must persuade Lady Ariel no matter what.
But Lady Ariel’s answer is point-blank.
“That doesn’t matter to me one bit.”
There seems to be no hope of changing her mind.
I cannot blame her.
Allowing someone into the system’s core could directly result in the ivory god’s side’s defeat.
I or someone else with ruler authority might very well take that opportunity to prevent the system’s destruction.
If anything, that would be the most logical course of action.
After all, the people who want to go to the system’s core are the leader of the ebony god’s side and another group with similar values.
They want to save everyone without sacrificing half of humanity.
“I understand that this would not benefit you. And yet the survival of humanity hangs in the balance. Is there any way we can convince you to help us?”
“Yeah, right. What kind of idiot would let the enemy waltz right into their headquarters?”
“We would of course promise not to do anything in the system core other than teleporting to D’s location.”
“I don’t believe that for a second.”
We are at an impasse.
“I’ve always made tons of compromises. And look where that got us. I refuse to compromise anymore.”
Lady Ariel’s assertion is understandable.
And it is difficult to argue.
Look at the way this world’s people mistreated Lady Sariel: using MA energy despite her warnings of its dangers, incurring the wrath of the dragons, letting her defend us from them, only to sacrifice her in order to keep this world alive.
Amid all these irredeemable transgressions, it is small wonder that Lady Ariel and the others who counted Lady Sariel as family would be furious.
And yet Lady Ariel has restrained her anger for so long.
Just as she says, she has compromised with us many times over.
It is simply too much to ask her to compromise yet again.
She has no reason to go along with our request.
Trying to appeal to her emotions because half of humanity is going to be destroyed will not move Lady Ariel’s heart when we have ignored Lady Sariel’s suffering for so long.
If anything, the more we try to move her, the more irritated she is likely to become.
What right do we have?
After we asked so much of Lady Sariel, and whittled away at her life for so long, how can we turn around and demand even more?
I am sure that is how it sounds to Lady Ariel.
It is impossible to persuade her.
And yet we must, or else either Elder Ronandt will have to find a way to teleport to D’s location on his own, or we will need to attack the Great Elroe Labyrinth once again.
We cannot count on Elder Ronandt’s success.
And now that we have lost chiefs Iena, Nguyen, and Gohka, it would be difficult to break through into the depths of the labyrinth even with the aid of the remaining dragon chiefs.
None of these options are feasible.
They are all just as impossible as convincing Lady Ariel to help.
Isn’t there any way out of this mess…?
“Excuse me…”
Just then, Sir Schlain breaks his silence.
“Please, I’m begging you to reconsider, too! I swear we won’t do anything that would put the ivory god’s side at a disadvantage!”
For just a moment, I hoped perhaps a reincarnation would be able to convince Lady Ariel, but a simple, honest plea is hardly enough to change her mind.
“Yamada, you reincarnations throwing your hat in the ring doesn’t change my answer.”
“No, listen! At this rate, half of humanity will be gone forever!”
“If I must repeat myself again, our side was already fighting with the full intention of slaughtering half of humanity. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t make much of a difference whether they die or get destroyed.”
“But that’s awful…!”
It appears Sir Schlain will not be able to persuade Lady Ariel, either.
“Yamada, this battle concerns our world. You reincarnations are outsiders. Don’t try and get involved if you’re not prepared to face the consequences.”
If anything, now she’s the one talking him down.
“…I’d prefer if you didn’t treat us like outsiders. Yes, maybe we were born in another world. But we live in this one now, and we’re going to go on living here. We’re not interlopers. This concerns us, too. At the very least, I know I’m here because I’m prepared to be part of this.”
…Now, there’s a surprise.
Sir Schlain, who seemed at first like he would be cowed into silence by Lady Ariel, was able to make a surprisingly firm comeback.
So this is the younger brother of Sir Julius the Hero.
Though he is still young and naive, I can see now that he has truly inherited the will of his predecessor.
“…Gotcha. Sorry for being so dismissive, then.”
It appears that Lady Ariel was caught slightly off guard by Sir Schlain’s words as well.
In that short exchange, her perception of the young hero has likely improved from someone not worth her time to someone she can address on equal terms.
“But that still doesn’t mean we’re going to go along with your demands.”
Unfortunately, that still isn’t enough to change the situation at hand.
“Erm, excuse me, may I pose a question? Why do you suppose this ‘D’ is going to destroy half of humanity, exactly?”
This time, Miss Filimøs speaks up.
I can understand her misgivings.
While Lady Ariel’s side has a goal that they wish to accomplish even if it means taking countless lives in the process, D has no such clear reason.
In fact, we know next to nothing about D at all.
I myself do not understand D’s thoughts or goals in the slightest.
This, too, is something we likely cannot say for certain unless we ask D directly.
“Who knows? Not me, that’s for sure. White and Gülie are the only ones who’ve met D face-to-face. But from what I’ve heard, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s mostly just for fun.”
“For fun?! Destroying half of humanity for fun?!”
Despite Sir Schlain’s evident shock, I do not find it overly surprising.
Any being powerful enough to create something as anomalous as the system is bound to see things differently from mere humans like us.
Although Lord Black Dragon is closely linked with humanity, the rest of the dragons were quite willing to eradicate every one of us.
We must not forget that.
To a god, mankind is little more than rubbish.
“Yes, I imagine it is at least in part just for fun. D sees this world as nothing but a toy for her amusement. I’m sure she could have saved this planet without a roundabout method like the system if she really wanted to.”
Mr. Hyrince is right.
This world is only a toybox to D.
She forced humans and demons to war against each other, added monsters into the mix, and watched mankind struggle and fight to survive.
When I think of it that way, it makes perfect sense to call someone so cruel an evil god.
But it is true nonetheless that this planet has escaped destruction, thanks to the system.
We toys cannot rebel against our owner.
“Erm, if this person really is that powerful, does that mean she might be able to grant both the ivory god’s and the ebony god’s wishes? Think about it! Maybe we can talk to her face-to-face and convince her!”
Sir Schlain speaks with the conviction of someone who’s had a brilliant idea.
True enough, I am sure D does have the power to do so.
However, that would be…
“So you’re depending on gods again?”
I can sense Lady Ariel’s immense anger even through telepathy.
As I suspected, Sir Schlain’s proposal struck a nerve with her.
“You can’t do it yourselves, so you turn to a god. How’d that work out for this world last time, huh?”
We humans turned to Lady Sariel for help, and even now, we continue to repay her kindness with cruelty.
For Lady Ariel, who is striving to save her, asking a god for help is unthinkable.
“…I’m sorry. That was thoughtless of me.”
“If you weren’t a reincarnation, I’d probably kill you where you stand.”
Her threat sounds serious enough that cold sweat runs down my back.
It drives home the depth of the rift between our side and hers all over again.
Though we understand each other’s words, we can never understand each other’s feelings.
I am sure it seems that way to Lady Ariel as well.
If anything, she seems to believe even more strongly that we cannot agree.
Humanity has betrayed Lady Sariel for so long after all.
Perhaps trying to persuade Lady Ariel any longer would only be wasting our time.
“That won’t do at all, Hero. We’ve got to win this on our own, or it won’t be worth anything. Besides, from what I’ve seen of our world all this time, D’s not likely to do us any favors.”
Chief Reise chimes in with an easygoing drawl.
I can easily picture them shrugging languidly as they speak.
“Yes, I agree. D seems to cherish fairness, from what I can tell. If we make such a request of D, she will expect something of equal value in exchange. When Güliedistodiez asked her to save this planet, she created the system and ordered us to save it with our own sweat and blood. And we have no way of paying the price she would demand this time.”
If fairness is truly important to her, is this her way of evening the playing field in spite of her divinity?
Placing limits on herself because she could otherwise do anything she wanted?
Of course, knowing that would not help us negotiate when we have nothing to offer, just as Sir Hyrince said.
But if she truly values fairness, then perhaps…
“This could be D’s method of divine punishment.”
I blurt out the thought through telepathy as soon as it strikes me.
“Even if the ivory god’s side loses, mankind will still pay for their crimes. Perhaps she decided that this would be the fairest outcome, from a god’s perspective, and that is why she issued the world quest.”
If that were the case, perhaps we should simply resign ourselves and accept our punishment.
The thought drains all energy from my body.
All this time, I have worked tirelessly to defend humanity, no matter the cost.
But in truth this was merely stubbornness: I felt that since we betrayed Lady Ariel, we must commit to that stance until the bitter end.
And as a result, divine judgment has deemed that humanity must be punished.
Which means…all this time, I’ve just been…
“I cannot deny the possibility, but it is still a mystery why D decided to create the world quest. The only way to find out is to ask her directly. We cannot waste our time on pointless theories and conjecture. Let’s continue the discussion.”
At Sir Hyrince’s words, I pull myself together.
Although I am not sure what else there is to discuss, since it seems we cannot come to an agreement…
“…Hyrince, Dustin, that Ronandt fellow, and any interested reincarnations. Ah, and throw in Balto as a representative of demonkind. I will allow those people, and only those people, to enter.”
Just as I was about to give up, Lady Ariel makes a proposal that I can scarcely believe.
“…Are you sure?”
“Isn’t this exactly what you people wanted?”
It is, and yet I am utterly bewildered.
Lady Ariel has no reason to accept our pleas.
Just as she told us multiple times, the ivory god’s side need do nothing but continue to focus on defending the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
There is no need for her to allow us inside.
Lady Ariel’s offer is all risk and no reward for her faction.
I can understand why she excluded the other ancient dragon chiefs.
They are the only ones who can stand up to the ivory god’s forces at this point.
But even if we do not pose much of a threat in battle, it is still dangerous to allow those of us with ruler authority to enter the core of the system.
The ivory god’s side’s conditions for victory are that the ivory god herself must win, and they must prevent anyone from entering the system’s core to prevent its destruction.
Only those with ruler authority can stop the system from being destroyed.
If she allows anyone with that authority to enter the core, they could easily do just that.
“Does this mean you have decided to trust us?”
“Of course not. How could I possibly trust you? It’s just that I wouldn’t mind meeting D and having a few words with her myself.”
If she is acting on her own desires instead of trusting us, that does somewhat explain her change of heart.
Though I still cannot understand why she would allow such a risky venture.
“Thank you.”
Still, it is an incredibly fortunate turn of events for us.
Even if this is a trap and I am to be killed, there is nothing else that the ebony god’s side can do.
My life would be a small sacrifice to make.
“I’ll be waiting in the Great Elroe Labyrinth, then.”
As if things weren’t already difficult enough…
I can feel my stomach tightening with nerves.
Why do I have to take on such a major role in the proceedings…?
While it’s true that I’m a double of Güliedistodiez, I’ve lived my whole life as Hyrince, and I intended to continue doing so until the end.
Güliedistodiez’s doubles don’t have an important part to play.
For him, it’s basically just a fun little change of pace.
Like playing out the fantasy of living an entire life as an average human.
So that’s how I’ve lived my life, too.
Although I guess you couldn’t exactly call me “average,” since I was the hero’s childhood friend and later his party member.
Even so, as Hyrince, I always expected to defend Julius and “go out in a blaze of glory!”
But that all changed when the so-called reincarnations showed up.
I know this is an awful thing to say, but it’s definitely crossed my mind a few times that things wouldn’t have gotten so complicated if it weren’t for those reincarnations.
But of course, the war between humans and demons might have been even worse without them, and we probably wouldn’t have been able to defeat Potimas.
The pluses and minuses are so extreme that it’s hard to say which way would’ve been better.
I will say, however, that the reincarnations are entirely to blame for this “world quest” business.
And by reincarnations, I specifically mean White.
In other words, White is the root of all evil.
“It looks like we’re all here.”
“You’re gonna be the guide, Kyouya?”
All internal monologuing aside, I’m currently in front of the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Wrath, one of the members of the ivory god’s side, stands waiting for us.
He’s a reincarnation, too, isn’t he…?
In fact, there are more reincarnations here than not, even though this is about the fate of our world. Seems wrong, doesn’t it?
There are four people here native to this world.
The pontiff, Elder Ronandt, Balto representing the demons, and me.
On the other hand, there are six reincarnations: Shun, Katia, Fei, Yuri, Ms. Oka, and Prince Hugo.
Aside from Shun and Hugo, the rest are all lovely ladies.
What is this, a harem?
The girls are clearly all gathering toward Shun, not Hugo.
Sure, Julius was popular, too, but they weren’t all hanging off him like this, dammit.
“So. What’s the deal with that girl, Shun?”
“Huh?”
Wrath points to someone past Shun’s back.
It’s Shun’s half-sister, Sue, hiding behind the rest of the group.
“Sue?! I told you not to follow me, didn’t I?!”
“But, Brotheeer!”
While Shun looks sincerely distressed, Sue is on the verge of tears.
The worst part is that I can tell she’s also trying to look cute, and stealing glances to see if it’s working on Shun or not.
“…I guess one extra tagalong is fine. But if you try anything funny, I will cut you down. You’d better keep that in mind.”
I discreetly let out a sigh of relief at Wrath’s words.
If we angered the ivory god’s side and they called the whole thing off, we’d be out of options.
We’re lucky Wrath was willing to bend on that.
The pontiff looks pale, evidently harboring similar concerns.
Does little miss Sue know that her selfishness could have altered the fate of the world?
…Nah, she couldn’t.
If she knew that, surely she wouldn’t have done it…right…?
It’s all too easy to imagine her saying something like, “I’ll stay with my brother even if it means the end of the world!”
I’m begging you, think about the bigger picture here…
Urk, my stomach hurts.
I feel like I’m going to cough up blood…
“Shun. Keep a close eye on Sue and make sure she doesn’t make any wrong moves. Just so you know, they could probably kill all of us without our being able to fight back.”
My stats are still well within the range of human capability.
Since I trained and fought with Julius, I imagine I’m on the strong side for a human, but that doesn’t make a bit of difference in this battle.
Here, you would have to be far beyond the realm of human strength to even be considered a part of the fight.
Even Elder Ronandt, who seems more powerful than any human should be, isn’t exponentially stronger than the limit, by any means.
He would probably struggle against even a lesser dragon, never mind an ancient one.
Every major player in this battle is at least as strong as an ancient dragon, so those of us whose strength is firmly in the “human” category would just get blown away as soon as we set foot on the battlefield.
Although I am a double of Güliedistodiez, I don’t have any special abilities of my own. I’d be blown away with the rest of them.
So why am I stuck marching right into the middle of enemy territory as some kind of representative of the ebony god’s side?
Urgh. Give me a break…
“Kyouya…”
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not going to hurt anyone as long as you don’t do anything to force my hand.”
“He’s right. The ivory army doesn’t need to let us in, so we know this isn’t a trap. Since they’re doing this on good faith, we’ve got to make sure we show them the same. Don’t be nervous.”
I pat Shun’s shoulder as I comfort him, though I’m mostly saying it to reassure myself.
It’s not that I’m afraid to die here.
I should have lost my life along with Julius and the rest of our party long ago.
But the thought that we’re carrying the fate of humanity on our shoulders makes me feel like I’m going to cave under the pressure…
We step into the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Immediately, several giant spider monsters called greater taratects stand in our way.
I would barely be able to beat a single one by myself, and there are so many of them…
Resisting the urge to turn around and leave, I force myself to stay put.
“Please, climb aboard.”
“On these things?”
Wrath nods.
It certainly would take a long time to traverse the Great Elroe Labyrinth on foot, but still…
Using powerful monsters like greater taratects as taxis seems a little excessive.
Part 6 of 9