Volume 1, Chapter 20

Volume 1, Chapter 20

Translator: Adam Seacord

Editor: Weasalopes

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「Quite a ruckus out there.」

When the Mazlack knights were just about wiped out, Douga whispered. He sensed that something was off in the courtyard.

「Isn’t from combat?」

「Not quite. No blades clashing. I can hear some sort of discourse.」

Since they were in the middle of a battle, this was bizarre. Slightly confused by this situation, Douga continued to corner Odenell. As leader, Odenell was marginally more skilled than the rest of the lot, but that margin was negligible to Douga. Unable to put up any sort of a fight, his weapon was shattered, and his armor was destroyed. Knees quaking, Odenell crumpled to the ground.

「We won’t find out until we take a look. Let’s head over and…」

Douga couldn’t finish. The same disturbance that was affecting the courtyard had taken affect in the front entrance.

「…Huh?」

The bodies of the Mazlack knights began to suddenly morph. For some, their arms blew up, making them more buff than an ogre, and for others, their hair changed to tentacles. Only some of them were lucky enough to maintain a humanoid appearance, while there were a few who had morphed to some sort of slime. What all of them had in common was oozing affliction, and the fact that they had each doubled in size.

「…Stomach-turning.」

Carefully watching this ominous (undoubtedly R-rated) turn of events, Douga spat out in disgust.

「Do you think this has anything to do with the commotion earlier?」

Rayna asked.

「Not sure. In any case, I figure we can’t leave these bastards be.」

「…If the same thing is happening outside, things aren’t looking well for us.」

Nodding in response, Douga poised his lance. There were one hundred Mazlack knights in all. While Douga didn’t know how much of a change these morphing would cause, it wasn’t as hard as taking on Cerberuses. That being said, if they retained their human intelligence, they could use their new-gained powers in unexpected ways. The best course of action, Douga thought, was to wipe them out at once.

「On the double, Rayna!」

「Lord Douga, head to the courtyard for back-up, please.」

「Hm?」

「No restraint is required here, anymore. They don’t seem like the type to leave any useful materials behind, and Hiroshi isn’t messed up that way to use materials harvested from ex-humans. No one would be inconvenienced if I cut loose here.」

Rayna proposed, as she sliced the first mutant in pieces, with a rabid, rabid grin glowing across her face.

「Alone? Are you sure?」

「I won’t stand to give these fools the respect to ask for back-up, mutants or not. Besides, this is the perfect opportunity to exact my revenge for everything they’ve done. Legally, nonetheless. I don’t mind, really. I’ll make sure that every single one is obliterated.」

Even as she responded to Douga, she cut down two mutants. As she was using Elemental Enchantments against those more durable to normal sword attacks, Douga could see that Rayna wasn’t losing herself.

「…Fine. I won’t accept any complaints for running a few of them over on my way out, though.」

「I understand.」

The mutant (who used to be Odenell) must have heard this, and cackled:

「How stupid can you be, She-Man!? You’re outnumbered and now outclassed!」

Ignoring Odenell, Rayna sliced them down left and right to cover Douga as he prepared. After a full second or so, Douga unleashed his attack through the most crowded route to the courtyard.

「It’s good for you scum, but I don’t have much time. Sky-Sunder Lance!」

Using the most powerful attack in his arsenal, Douga sprung towards the courtyard. Becoming a giant spearhead, Douga tore through any and all mutants in his path, while also tearing to shreds all the monsters just standing near the trajectory. Leaving behind over thirty corpses behind him, Douga walked out of the front entrance. The Mazlack knights had lost over half of their army, but their nightmare wasn’t over.

「I don’t have time to cut you up one at a time, either. Die, the lot of you!」

While the mutants were distracted by Douga’s big play, Rayna had prepared her own. With strong intent to kill, she slammed in a wide-range attack.

「Blast Square!」

Swiping her blade with all of her bloodlust, the dense energy surrounding it burned everything in the blade’s path to a crisp. The decreased power due to the long range left a few mutants alive after being hit, but the only unscathed mutant so far was Odenell, who had coincidentally avoided both attacks. The number of mutants that could put up any chance of a fight were down to thirty or so.

「Now, you’re going to sit and watch this stupid girl’s righteous rampage.」

Firing off an Outclass with her rabid grin, the Mazlack knights couldn’t help but quake in fear despite their newfound mutant powers.

「Haruna!」

「I’m okay!」

Shoving away Oria, who had stabbed a knife in Haruna’s side, she carefully plucked the knife out (careful to avoid touching the hilt and triggering a curse of some sort) as she answered Makoto’s call. The knife was cursed considerably to improve its Attack, but it wasn’t quite enough to pierce the set of armor on Haruna.

Perhaps because she had expended all of her Stamina with this Unblockable Attack, Oria was already passed out by the time Haruna shoved her away. It was only natural, since this special attack cost a varying amount of Stamina depending on the target’s skill level. It was a miracle that the attack could be activated at all.

Unblockable Attacks and Ignore Defense were both prevalent in most RPGs. Fairy Tale Chronicles was no exception. In Fairy Tale Chronicles, however, there were extremely few skills that possessed these sort of effects, and they were limited to very high-level bosses and Extra Skills, or else to ridiculously rare drops and specific crafted equipment.

The difference in skill level between the user and the target (as well as the target’s skill level in general) increased the attack’s Stamina cost, making it quite costly if one were to attack through the Defense of someone like Hiroshi or Douga. While an Unblockable Attack against Haruna wasn’t as costly, an untrained civilian would expend all of their Stamina, losing their consciousness as a result.

The same stipulation applies even when the attack is achieved through an equipment’s effect rather than a skill. A weapon that automatically activates an Unblockable Attack or Ignore Defense would harshly drain the attacker’s Stamina at each use; it would be useless without a ridiculous amount of endurance. The cost may not be so unreasonable, though, considering that it distorts the laws of physics.

This led to the conclusion that Oria wasn’t too bad of a fighter (although it was doubtful that she would take this as a compliment).

「Still, I could feel the tip of the blade through the undershirt. It was close…」

「You hear that? Don’t you regret not making her a bra and a pair of undershorts?」

「Gimme a break…」

The cursed knife had completely penetrated the Wyvern leather armor and the Spider Silk shirt below it, reaching the silk undershirt (with a Defense stat equivalent to leather armor in itself). Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the knife had even dug into the undershirt a little. It really was a close call.

If it was Mio instead of Hiroshi who had made the undershirt, or if Hiroshi had not started the crafting processes at the loom, or if the attacker was someone with proper training (like the assassin from the night before) Haruna would not have gotten off scot free. Especially because the knife was cursed with who-knows-what, the knife breaking a single layer of skin could have been deadly.

Couldn’t have Hiroshi blocked the attack? He had not learned a skill capable of doing so. The only skills that he could have used (if he had learned them) were Deplosion, which transferred the damage itself to the user, Cover Dive, which allowed the user to jump in front of the attack regardless of timing or distance, and Switcheroo, which switched the positions of the user with the target, al regardless of timing or distance between them. Even an Unblockable Attack didn’t trace its original target if it was suddenly interrupted in these ways.

「I’m so glad we thought about these undershirts, seriously…」

「I mean, it weren’t too hard makin’ ’em, since they weren’t too different from men’s shirts…」

Hiroshi reminisced about having the task sprung on him at the last minute, and crafting five of them on the double. Thankfully the royal family had provided him with ample silk, but the project required almost too much materials if they had to harvest them from the spider webs. Hiroshi had his thoughts about the quality of the silk, but it was still the best quality silk on the market. The slight drop in quality seemed negligible.

They had these undershirts crafted for the sole purpose of protecting Unblockable attacks against the supporting members. They didn’t expect the opposition to provide a servant girl with a cursed Unblockable knife (in fact, Oria had no weapon of any kind in her possession until moments before the assault) but this additional layer provided protection for various attacks. Since Hiroshi couldn’t protect everyone all the time, this sort of added defense was always welcomed.

「No joke, though, we’ll have to have Hiro craft all of our undergarments at some point.」

「Come on, now…」

Hiroshi slumped in defeat to Tatsuya’s request. It was agonizing enough crafting for Aearis and her undeveloped body. Crafting underwear for someone with a supermodel’s silhouette was unthinkable.

「Let’s drop the underwear thing for now.」

Layotte interjected.

「Sure. So, what happened here?」

「…Barold’s handiwork, most likely.」

Elena assessed, looking over her unconscious servant. She had noticed that her servant was feeling an emotion not unlike animosity to Hiroshi and Haruna. Oria didn’t call Hiroshi a quack or anything, since Elena was showing actual improvement, but her pent up dissatisfaction for being left out of the treatment had been inflated to boiling hatred by Barold.

While Elena had noticed Oria’s increasing dissatisfaction, she could easily imagine her overprotective tendencies sabotaging her treatment if she had taken Oria with her to the workshop. She would have complained about the tight quarters, the untidiness, and the strangeness of the food served.

The biggest concern was that Oria would protest the medicine. This could have put Elena’s life in danger. Elena would have liked to give Oria the benefit of the doubt, but considering her attitude towards Hiroshi during his treatment session (even considering Barold’s influence) Elena couldn’t brush it off.

「She was even unhappy with you earning favors in the castle by giving out treats.」

「She really resented being excluded from your treatment, eh, Elena?」

「I tried reprimanding her many times, but…」

「Some grudges burn deeper than we realize. Even if she thought she was over it, it could rekindle at the drop of a hat. This sort of undermining is Barold’s only trick, anyway.」

Layotte agreed with Elena, not concealing his irritation.

「Now, Elena. Father has taken the rest of the crowd. Try to catch up to them.」

「I’m going.」

「…Nah, it’s too late now.」

Hiroshi mumbled, sensing the further shift in the air.

「…Is this an Isolation Barrier?」

「Close, but not quite, I reckon. We’re ’bout to be in an isolated dimension.」

Hiroshi answered Haruna, both with a frown across their face. An isolated dimension was easy to get into, but difficult to get out of.

「Will Father be all right?」

「They were goin’ fast ’nough to make it out, I think. They were already out of range by the time we were talkin’ ’bout underwear and whatnot.」

「But not you, Ellie. Worst case, you’ll be isolated.」

Elena nodded in response to Hiroshi and his apprentice. At the very least, she could carry her weight on the back end. Besides, she also had her trump card given by Hiroshi, just like Aearis.

「Just be ready for anything. This time, we might not be able to handle it on our own.」

The princesses acknowledged Haruna’s harsh assessment. She was assuming that Alfemina would at least protect Aearis, but since she had mentioned something about how taxing it could be, Haruna wasn’t sure if the goddess was able to protect Elena in addition to the Priestess Princess.

「It won’t be fun if this place is turned into a dungeon. The royal family as a trump card, as a last result. If it comes to that, I’m trusting you to get out of here with Elena and Aearis.」

「…Are ya the only one with that card in ya pocket, Lay?」

「The Crown Prince and King are the only ones who can use it. As long as the king lives, a prince is replaceable. We can’t afford to lose Father in our current political landscape.」

The Japanese members get a sense of what the trump card entails. While Layotte was serving his role as a crucial member of the royal family, they didn’t envy his position.

「Speaking of, can an Isolated Dimension be fixed?」

「In all the events, all we have to do is take down the boss and purify the affliction.」

Makoto answered Haruna. This was mostly as expected. No change of plans.

「…Something’s coming.」

Mio whispered. As the party jumped on guard, translucent beings floated into the room.

「Specters…」

「Hiro, can you gather them up in one spot?」

「I’ll give it a shot.」

Leaving Oria in front of the door to the Ritual Room for the time being, Tatsuya called to Hiroshi as he charged a purifying spell. In response, Hiroshi decided to roll the dice by activating Outclass.

「Common!!」

Hiroshi exerted a flood of pressure with a shout. Before they had a chance to be gathered up, the Specters were blown away.

「…They just up and disappeared. What happened?」

Hiroshi asked.

「Um. I’ve never seem Specters evaporate to Outclass…」

An awkward silence.

「…How could Specters withstand that much pressure without physical bodies?」

「That’s how it works, huh?」

「Yes. Both Julius and Ernest blow away specters of that caliber with a single Outclass, too.」

Hiroshi and Haruna accepted this explanation. Makoto, however, mumbled:

「If they’re Spectors, or any Spirits for that matter… Can’t Haruna just sing a song and take care of them all?」

「…Good point.」

「…Yeah. Come to think of it.」

Layotte and Hiroshi conceded. Since it could purify affliction, it would stand to reason that Haruna’s singing could also send the Undead souls to the afterlife. Still, the Japanese members were still haunted by the preconceptions of the in-game rules, and Haruna had never sung a song against Undead monsters. There were a few other players with the Singing Extra Skill, but for the most part (due to the performance of the Cursing Song) no one sang during combat, let alone against Undead monsters.

Spirits and Specters were not affected by normal physical attacks, and didn’t drop any items (unless they were a boss). They were not monsters that players were enthusiastic about hunting down. They only spawned in limited locations (none of which were inhabited by profitable items or monsters) and didn’t provide exceptional EXP.

Most players had squared off against one in-game, but for the most part, these monsters remained mostly unexplored in terms of researching effective skills against them. Of course, there was no guarantee that the effects of Outclass and Song of the Gods in this world were the same as they were in the game.

So, no one could really blame the Japanese party for their lack of knowledge in this department.

「Here’s the next wave.」

「Haru!」

「On it!」

On Mio’s cue, Haruna began putting her all into a song, projecting her voice towards these things that were oozing out of the ground, smelling of sulfur. However, she didn’t come up with an appropriate son on the fly. Instead, she sang the theme song of a cartoon about travelling the world and catching various creatures.

The rotting blobs, as expected, did seem to be of the Undead variety. As soon as Haruna’s singing echoed through the hall, they stopped in their tracks, and crumbled away. Upon complete purification, not a single spec of flesh was left of them.

Nonetheless, it was a bizarre scene to watch Undead creatures purified one after another to the theme song of the ubiquitous children’s cartoon.

「…What song was that?」

「A song for a children’s story back in our country. 」

「Like a fairytale?」

「Kinda, but nah, not really.」

Layotte seemed to accept Hiroshi’s answer, somehow. Despite the impending danger, the team in the Temple managed to maintain a lackadaisical outlook.

「…Singing. It seems that servant girl has failed.」

「How useless can she get…」

「But she doesn’t have the power to immediately wipe out the malicious energy of six thousand souls, it seems. I believe it’s time for us to take matters into our own hands.」

「How insufferably infuriating.」

Twisting her face in an ugly scowl at her precarious position, Katrina spat out begrudgingly. No one would see her like this and call her the most beautiful princess in Farlane.

Until Haruna had arrived, Katrina still possessed her own set of standards. Interestingly, despite a twisted sense of reality, as long as one’s standards stood in reason of that perception (no matter how disassociated from the rest of the world) their actions won’t appear as ugly. Katrina was no exception, as she arguably possessed a certain form of malicious beauty, until Haruna arrived.

But now, Katirna had lost that. Her ugliness was accentuated further by her external beauty. She had forsaken anything close to standards, devolving into a child having a tantrum. There was no beauty to behold there, nor reason that commanded support. What remained was an aged child and her ugly self-centeredness.

The nobles that had supported her (if they had not been burned by Barold) would have regretted their decision had they seen her like this. However, most only ever projected themselves onto her.

「In any case, with that girl and the priestess out of the picture, your victory is assured. The world is at your command after that.」

「Yes. I’ll start things off by taking care of that insufferable brat myself. It’s infuriating to think that we are even half-related.」

Barold knew that Katrina had no more outs. Even if everything went as planned, she would only be seen as a usurper. Even if they eliminated Elena and Aearis without a hitch, afflicting the mineral veins all over again would prove extremely difficult. True, Katrina had traded her sound mind for incredible power, but she would still die before the veins were completely afflicted. As long as the King and Mark were safe, there was no victory in Katrina’s future.

And Barold didn’t mind that. Plenty of lament and hatred. That was the gift his god most desired. In a large city like Wulls, the veins would be completely tainted in no time, if he could only eliminated the Priestess Princess. Katrina was merely his pawn to achieve that endgame.

「Let’s end this war, shall we?」

Barold’s best case scenario was out the window. He was left to make a desperate gambit from where he was cornered.

「In a bit of a pickle, are we?」

「Lord Douga!?」

In the courtyard, the Knights’ Order was met with expected back-up as they were struggling to finish off the ever-flowing swarm of the Undead.

「Are thing all right at the entrance!?」

「For the most part. Rayna can handle the rest.」

Douga said with blatant nonchalance before charging into the area most dense with Undead creatures. He was holding a shield instead of a lance, but the charging mass he had become was a threatening weapon on its own. Taking down the new wave of Undead creatures with a single Shield Charge, Douga observed his surroundings.

「No Mutants, it seems.」

「We eliminated all of those.」

「Then we’re in for the long haul. Now that the entire castle is an Isolated Dimension, there won’t be an end to these swarms.」

Douga concluded without much disappointment in his tone. Hit with expected disappointment, the knights stood on guard against the newly appearing monsters.

「At ease. The Ritual Room and the Princess are both fine. It won’t be long. Our job is to keep these ants away from the Temple while they take out Barold. An easy task, considering how many of us are here.」

「I expect the clean-up work to take longer, when you put it that way.」

The second-in-command of the Order answered, somewhat tired, as he picked up on the strangely upbeat song from the Temple. Even at this distance, the affliction in the courtyard was being purifying, weakening the monsters little by little. Still, they were facing down countless monsters. The second-in-command was already dreading his tasks afterward, like equipment maintenance and scheduling everyone’s breaks.

「I’ll take it for the next five minutes or so. Check on your men, and regroup.」

「Yes, sir.」

At Douga’s command, the second-in-command moves to check on his knights. It started as a fierce battle, so some of them were running out of steam, and a few members had broken their primary weapons in the process. They could all carry their weight with their back-up weapons, but the second-in-command decided best not to push them too much harder. One knight, who had continued to block attacks on the frontline, had his armor damaged nearly to the breaking point, and injured almost too severely for potions to keep working on him. Without his valiance, the second-in-command assessed, it would have been impossible to make this much progress without casualties.

Quickly assessing the status of each member in this manner, the second-in-command rearranged their formation while accounting for the damage each member had taken. The fact that he concluded this rearrangement of several thousand knights in five minutes was telling of his leadership of this elite Order. No matter how impressive one’s resume could be in combat, that alone would never serve as qualification for a leader.

「Sir, we are ready.」

「Then, I’m going to take a breather. I’m too old to be running around a battlefield like this.」

「We can handle it, sir.」

The second-in-command answered Douga (who was obviously far from exhausted) and order his first battalion forward to take down the new wave of monsters. From the Temple, another song mismatching to their situation (one of yesteryear Japan, a slow poetry of life). The incredible quality of Haruna’s singing nearly entranced the knights. Nevertheless, the same song was washing away the affliction in the area. Asking her to stop was out of the question.

Without much a solemn mood, the Knights’ Order continued taking down the horde one by one.

「Sorry, I need a sec.」

After four consecutive songs, Haruna felt something in her throat, and stopped. She wasn’t aware of this, but songs that purified affliction seemed to wear her out more. The problem was that Haruna (not aware of this) wasn’t adjusting her method of singing.

「Good job. Got you a lolly.」

Hearing the slight difference in her voice from her usual performances in bars, Hiroshi tossed Haruna a lozenge. A rather gentle one, made from something like a kumquat and honey. Of course, those ingredients (while similar to their earthly counterparts) were monsters; most adventurers would not even get the chance to touch them. Since Hiroshi made it, it also had the effect of a potion.

「I guess we gotta make some noise until Haruna’s done with her lozenge.」

Tatsuya said.

「Ya said it. They started materializin’ soon as she stopped singin’.」

The gang could only chuckle at what Hiroshi pointed out. There were in an isolated dimension, after all. It was getting really tiresome that monsters appeared from this little puddle of affliction.

「Brin’ it on!」

Hiroshi pressured the beetle-like monsters to attract them to himself.

「Brother, if we dry and treat their guts, they make liver medicine.」

「That’s a niche…」

「I doubt we got time to take ‘em apart, though. Just light ’em up.」

「On it. Let’s burn the affliction around them with it.」

Three beetles flew around Hiroshi. Tracking their movement, Tatsuya activated a spell that could burn them all (along with the affliction around them) at once.

「Get ready, Hiro!」

「Brin’ it!」

「Hellfire Sanctum!」

With Tatsuya shout, a flame (in a strange blend of color) charred the puddle of affliction. Hiroshi Smashed all three beetles into the fire in one move. The spell had a confusing name as to whether it was Holy or not, but its effect of summoning the flames that encaged hell to burn impurities might clarify that this was an Advanced Holy and Fire elemental spell. These kinds of roundabout Skills were the only way Tatsuya could get rid of affliction.

「…Here comes the big kahuna.」

Hiroshi warned the rest of the party, as a dense mass of affliction, unlike what they had been seeing, entered the nearly purified Temple.

「I understand Holiness filling this place may not aid you, personally. But to go this far in eliminating it? Just as I thought, you are helplessly selfish, struggling against nature’s current.」

「He sounds like an environmental group that focuses too much on a single tree and forgets about the rest of the forest…」

Tatsuya mumbled in response to Barold’s opening statement.

「How so, Tatsu?」

「Humans are part of nature. Disposable chopsticks are a good example.」

「What do you mean?」

「Once a forest has been reformed by humans, they have to cut down extra trees once and awhile, or they’ll burn down more often than natural forests. And they make disposable chopsticks from those extra trees they cut down. They don’t threaten the environment at all. I mean, no one uses disposable chopsticks anymore, and they didn’t always use those extra wood, so I guess I can’t blame them for criticizing the use of disposable chopsticks.」

The member of Farlane seemed to be impressed by Tatsuya’s explanation. Haruna and Makoto (who were into trivia to begin with) and Hiroshi, who had acquired that kind of knowledge through levelling his Farming/Felling skills, simply nodded in agreement.

Back in Japan (in this story, anyway) disposable chopsticks were limited to food stands at festivals, or to-go meals from stores. Any kind of diner or restaurant, as well as hotels, used reusable chopsticks. Of course, those disposable chopsticks were all made from materials acquired while thinning the forests.

「So. Even if we left things to your definition of natural order, the world may not be a better place for monsters, anyway.」

「And if we shall perish, that is nature’s way.」

Barold replied, and Tatsuya deem him hopeless. No amount of logic would compel someone like this to see the error of their ways.

「And you’re okay with that?」

Tatsuya turned to Katrina.

「This country can burn to the ground, for all I care.」

「A princess must be educated. A princess must serve the people. Before I can remember, those mantra were drilled into me. And as soon as my younger sister is born into the position of the Priestess Princess, they treat me like I’m worthless. No matter how hard I try, no matter how much I devote myself to the people, they treat me like a piece of garbage. For being born without a certain talent. Why shouldn’t the lot of them rot?」

Hearing this, the Japanese members look at Elena, who shook her head with a frown on her face.

「Katrina. I don’t care what you think, but no one would call what you did trying, nor serving the people.」

「It’s not just her qualification as the Priestess Princess that sets Aearis above you in the people’s eyes. Who would admire you for superficial, one-sided and misplaced charity work that shows your utter lack of empathy? Are you really as foolish as to think otherwise, Katrina?」

Elena and Layotte shut Katrina down. Whether she was born with it or was assigned a bad educator, Katrina always acted with the presumption that she (or rather, the logic that she was taught) was always right. As a result, she often engaged in appropriate yet ultimately pointless works of charity, in a condescending manner, nonetheless. Some might have thanked her for the act alone, but they were often pointless altogether.

Still, until Barold came along, Katrina had made a real effort to live righteously, in her own way. The rest of the royal family knew this, and as such, didn’t disregard Katrina entirely even while reprimanding her for her actions. Even Aearis, thinking that Katrina hated her because of some flaw in her character, had listened well to what her sister had to say, and had desperately tried to fix those flaws (as Katrina saw it).

No one could deny that these reactions ended up distorting Katrina’s sense of reality even further. In her eyes, despite doing the same thing, her actions were rejected by the family while Aearis’ were rewarded. They were supposed to be equals, yet her younger sister was always the good child. In reality, Katrina had earned this by ignoring any reprimand and insisting on failed methods, but one could hardly blame Katrina for feeling as if her family favored Aearis for no good reason.

「You would never understand, Layotte. In your privileged position. Nor you, sister. Since you have never once experienced rejection in your life.」

「…If that’s how you really feel, Katrina, I will get you the best doctor in the world to have him examine your head.」

Elena said.

「A world that can’t accept me. That won’t let me be? Let it crumble to ashes. Why shouldn’t it?」

Layotte and Elena were finally forced to let go of their last shreds of hope for their sister upon seeing her irreconcilable ignorance. At this point, Aearis (who had remained speechless until now) finally spoke.

「Katrina.」

「How dare you speak to me, you filthy rat.」

「Why do you dislike me so? How can I ease your mind?」

「…You selfish child. How many times do I have to tell you that your mere existence aggravates me? If you died right now, the fact that you did exist would continue to annoy me. How can you not understand? You stupid, stupid girl. 」

No matter what Aearis had done, there was never any hope for Katrina and Aearis to reconcile.

Katrina had never felt any joy in Aearis’ existence to begin with. She was able to feel a sense of kinship to Layotte and Mark as her brothers, but all Aearis was to Katrina since the moment she learned of her existence was an object of her hatred. She hated that everyone cheered and woo at Aearis while she just slept. She hated that everyone would run around to tend to her as soon as Aearis cried. She hated that Aearis breathed the air around her at all. She hated most of all that her brothers and sisters and everyone else in life only ever cared about precious little Aearis.

At every attempt of Aearis trying to build a relationship with Katrina, it only gave Katrina more reasons to hate her in return.

「Still… I see. There is one thing you can do.」

Katrina continued in glee, with a grin streaking across her face, filled with so much hatred, that it could only be described as heinous. Sensing danger in this, Aearis drew her dagger and stood on guard. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that Katrina’s shadow had distorted beyond that of a humanoid silhouette.

「Die by my hands. Relinquish every last drop of blood and shred of flesh to me.」

「Dancing…」

「…Edge!」

At the same time as these calls, tentacles sprung out of Katrina’s shadow. Before Hiroshi or Makoto could intervene, they stretched at incredible speed to penetrate Aearis. At the same time, Barold (multiples of him, in fact) attacked them from behind.

However, since they knew an attack was coming, it was easy for them to activate their trump card, despite their lack of experience in close-range combat. They had uttered their keyword at the very moment the tentacles emerged. In an instant, six daggers appeared around each of them, and twenty four blades of varying shapes and sizes appeared around each set of daggers.

As soon as the first blade pierced a thorned tentacle, several blades sliced through one of Barold’s doubles. Tentacles or doubles that make it fast the twenty four offensive blades were blocked by the defensive six, then promptly torn apart by the offensive blades.

There were always twenty four offensive blades and six defensive blades that were not engaging with anything. The flood of Barold’s doubles and tentacles, as well as his diffusion attacks served no purpose at all. Barold abandoned his diffusion tactic when he could see that at least one hundred blades had materialized around them.

「…One of your little tricks again?」

「Kinda the minimum requirement for defense, don’t ya think?」

Barold presumed from his experience so far, that this sheepish man was the culprit behind such an annoying contraption. Even as Barold glared at Hiroshi, he managed to return a quip through his chattering teeth. While it was aggravating for him to admit, Barold had to acknowledge the biggest cause of his mission to fail this time around was Hiroshi.

「…No wonder Ernest called it a weapon of war. How many blades can manifest at a time.」

「Tested up to ’bout 10,000. Didn’t bother tryin’ past that point.」

「Could it take down a Wyvern, for example?」

「Like ya see, each blade on their own don’t do much damage. Who knows how many blades it’ll take to take down somethin’ bigger than ten meters.」

Layotte seemed satisfied with the answer. He could see that, while the blades kept the Barold doubles at bay, they weren’t powerful enough to take them down. At this rate, he could easily imagine a Wyvern charging through these defenses to simply run over Aearis.

Besides, after observing it in action for a while, Layotte noticed a clear weak point. If the user were already captured, this may not help all that much. This was why Hiroshi stopped Aearis from using this during their last infiltration into the Temple. Of course, if they had let the enemy that close to Aearis, a few daggers would not change her fate.

「Now. Elle and Elena did their thing, so let’s make some noise.」

「I second that. Let’s do some crowd control, first.」

Sliding her longsword out of her sheath, Makoto cut down the closest double to her, as Tatsuya burned a bunch of them with Hellfire Sanctum. In lieu of her usual bow, Mio used her dagger to carve out the core of one double to the next with precision. Hiroshi stopped the flooding horde of doubles, tanking all of the attacks (each of which could insta-kill a player in the double-digit levels) and coming out with only a scratch or two.

Now and then, some attacks would slip by and hit someone (other than Hiroshi) but by then, the power of the attacks were drastically reduced. A Novice heal spell easily counteracted the damage.

Our heroes were starting to gain some ground.

「You can kill as many of us as you want, it’s no use.」

「In fact, your only giving this place more holiness.」

「Besides, we haven’t even used a fraction of our power.」

The Barolds clamored with a condescending tone, as more and more of them materialized with every double they killed. Everyone there was aware of this, of course. Now that they had more than enough healing to cover any resource they expend, it didn’t matter how many doubles came around. They had a proper card to deal with the doubles, anyway, They were just buying time until Haruna’s voice recovered.

「Haruna, are you ready!?」

「Whenever you are. Any requests?」

「Somethin’ that’ll piss ‘em off. You got a sea shanty?」

「You got it.」

Haruna began some Celtic-sounding shanty upon Tatsuya’s cue and Hiroshi’s request. Hiroshi was only kidding, by the way. The Japanese party had realized that they had underestimated Haruna once again.

「This sounds… Bitter sweet, somehow…」

「I don’t understand some of the words, but I can tell that it definitely doesn’t match the mood.」

「Can’t you pick something a little more fitting?」

Layotte and Elena muttered, with a constipated expression. Regardless of how off-putting it is, the song still seemed to do the job in purifying affliction. The tentacles all shriveled up, crumbling any of them that had been sliced by the daggers. Katrina and Barold writhed in harmonious agony.

「Stop that song!」

Unable to bear the powerful purification, Barold finally discarded his human shape, transforming into a devilish monster, before spring to Haruna, when…

「Where ya think ya goin’!?」

With an activation of Outclass, Hiroshi blocked Barold’s trajectory and shoving him off. Hiroshi’s presence had veiled him, making him appear several times larger than life in Barold’s eyes. Giving up on even trying to look for Haruna, Barold retracted all of his doubles before attacking Hiroshi.

「It seems I have to tear through you, first!」

「Show me what ya got!」

Hiroshi met Barold, as he charged directly at him, with a wild swing of the poleaxe. Barold, assuming that it was yet another Smash attack, went to counter it when he noticed the trick up Hiroshi’s sleeve.

It wasn’t a Smash attack after all. It was a Novice Strong Strike, Smite. Unlike a Smash attack, Smite had no additional effects of blowing the enemy away or making them stumble. Just a simple attack. Hiroshi had finally gotten the hang of this Novice attack just yesterday, which meant that the power level was at its baseline (slightly lacking compared to a Smash attack) but it did more damage than a vanilla physical attack.

The biggest advantage was that a high-impact attack from Hiroshi no longer telegraphed a Smash. While Smite had its downsides (big opening after the move resolved and it took longer to charge than it should despite the fact that it did less than two of Makoto’s basic attacks at the moment) it was useful enough to bypass a Smash-counter like this time around.

Blocking the Smash-counter, Hiroshi transitioned into Smite. As a result of two attacks (that were more vulnerable than most) clashing, Hiroshi, who was nearly unscathed through the evening, regained his ground first.

「Makoto-san! Brother!」

「On it! Crashing Stampede!」

「Holy Octo-cannon!」

On Hiroshi’s call, Makoto jumped in with one of the biggest attacks in the normal longsword skill category, as Tatsuya slammed a purifying large-scale spell. Makoto’s attack was a flurry-type (rare for a longsword) which she used to slash through left and right, adorning a red aura around her. This move consisted of twenty slashes (each of which could sever a Cerberus in half) in three seconds flat, as Makoto tackled the enemy in a Smash-like tackle. Following this, a bullet, embodying the energy of Pa Kua and every element of nature, struck Barold.

「We… Didn’t do it, did we?」

「Took a chunk out of him though, for sure.」

Makoto and Tatsuya compared their impression after each of their attacks (keeping in mind that they were facing down a boss). While both of these moves were powerful, they weren’t the most powerful, even in the category of ordinary skills.

Crashing Stampede acted as a downgrade of Elemental Dance. It was more cost effective, but two tiers lower on the damage output. Worse yet, unlike Elemental Dance, Crashing Stampede lacked the special effect of guaranteeing the modifier for a super effective (unless the enemy had as much Magic Resistance as Hiroshi, of course). As a result, the difference in damage output in the field was more disparaging than on paper.

Holy Octo-cannon was another powerful move using multiple elements, but there was at least two moves more powerful than this one available as a normal skill. Its relatively easy learning curve, short Cast Time and Delay, as well as its large cost reduction from power levelling led to many players acquiring this skill, but it was far from the most powerful spell out there. There were plenty of savage spells in terms of pure firepower.

Tatsuya, in the first place, was on the lower end of the top-tier of spell weavers. His strong point was the variety of his arsenal, especially when it came to collecting craft materials, and not firepower. Against enemies like Barold (that required a more direct approach than Tatsuya would prefer) he was a little lacking in terms of power level. Just as the smoke from the Octo-cannon was fading, Haruna had finished her song. As expected, Barold stood among the smoke, far from defeated.

「…How thoroughly infuriating…」

「Like it or not, we’re a part of this. We’re not going to roll over and die.」

Tatsuya quipped back with a cheeky grin at Barold, who had spat this line out with wounds that were not yet debilitating but no longer insignificant. Tatsuya proved himself a better actor than Hiroshi in disguising his bravado.

「Just so you know, we haven’t even played our aces yet. If you’re not going to surrender, you better bring your A-game.」

Tatsuya mocked with nonchalance, as if to mock Barold. Elena, startled, whispered:

「Tatsuya, maybe you shouldn’t taunt him like that…」

「No way this guy doesn’t have more tricks up his sleeve. We might as well make him use it before we starting running low on our resources.」

Tatsuya retorted, still confident as ever. The fact that Barold didn’t have a particular trick to make Tatsuya wipe the grin off his face was driving Barold mad.

「I see. You have a point. Maybe I’ll reach into my sleeve, then, just to shut you up.」

Barold said, as he summoned a dozen Cerberus. Makoto and Tatsuya were brazenly done with all of this. Haruna and Mio were beginning to worry, now that they were outnumbered. Hiroshi was more pessimistic, guessing how many hits he was going to have to take. Upon seeing their reaction, Barold cackled with triumph. When it seemed as if the tables have turned, three of the Cerberuses near the entrance were skewered, and four of them in the direction of where the King had went were blown to bits in an instant.

「What!?」

「You would think a big boss would summon something more interesting…」

「These were the same beasts that blocked the King’s way, earlier. Can’t you do anything but send your dogs to do the dirty work?」

Douga appeared from the entrance and Julius from the hidden passage, both exasperated by this. These two wouldn’t let a single Cerberus past them, no matter how many they were facing down. They each took down an additional hound on their way to join the Japanese party and standing on guard on either side of Elena and Aearis.

「I lost track of time, it seems. You seem rather spent, Lord Douga. Unlike Lord Felnork.」

「It won’t take much to block your attacks. We have Julius and Makoto for firepower, not to mention Haruna’s trump card. I barely need to lift a finger.」

Before Douga could finish saying this, more back-up arrived.

「I’m sorry! I’m late again!」

Rayna came running it, slicing up a Cerberus on her way. With just her right arm, as it was obvious that her left arm was broken. With a longsword, nonetheless, which was never meant to be wielded with one hand. This was a testament to Rayna’s ridiculous strength and skills.

「Don’t mind the time. What happened to your arm?」

「It’s embarrassing, but Odenell got me with his self-destruction. I can’t pull any big attacks, but a couple Cerberus won’t give me any trouble.」

Rayna answered Tatsuya, a little embarrassed. The Japanese party (sans Makoto) were aghast at this answer, as Barold gritted his teeth at Rayna’s unexpected strength.

「So, you took care of that scum entirely?」

「There’s not a piece of flesh left of it. I don’t think you’ll see that thing again.」

「Okay. Even if it does, reviving monsters are usually punks, anyway.」

Makoto asked Rayna, about what must have been a mission given to Rayna. As Rayna finished her answer, Haruna healed her broken bone with Goddess’ Healing. It couldn’t grow back limbs, but healing a broken bone wasn’t an issue.

「Thank you, that helps a lot!」

「No reason not to help boost our chances. So, is Odenell the one…?」

「He’s the one. The head of the Mazlack soldiers. I’m mortified that I ever considered Hiroshi to be similar to that thing.」

It looked like Rayna had gotten some closure, and more than one way. All that was left was to take down the man pulling the strings.

「We have some power on our side now, let’s end this!」

「As if it were so easy!」

Just as the team was about to strike, Barold exerted a shock wave. Hiroshi jumped in front to block it. Still, it was enough to break the party’s momentum, stopping them in their tracks.

「I tip my cap to you, really, for making me go this far. But you will not defeat me!」

Barold screamed with a demonic expression, before transforming further. Along with him, Katrina began morphing out of her (barely) humanoid shape.

「H-Hold on a second. We’re too early in the game to have a boss that transforms twice, don’t you think!?」

「Makoto-san. Just because he’s our first boss, don’t mean he’s an auto-win chump!」

Hiroshi answered, as the entire party ready for combat. Although they couldn’t attack through the thick layer of affliction at the moment. In the meantime, they decided to clean up the rest of the Cerberuses, and re-cast their support spells.

After the wall of affliction faded, Barold, who had at least tripled in size and had become more heinous than ever stood alongside Katrina, who had become Medusa, or rather a lamia, with snakes as her lower body and hair.