Volume 5, 2: Wandering Labyrinth * Imprisoning Inferno

Volume 5, Chapter 2: Wandering Labyrinth * Imprisoning Inferno

Part 1

A mental support was apparently quite important.

Once they lost the hero known as Omega, the old soldiers of Elkiad lost their former luster. And while Omega came from before the standardization, those old soldiers had trained their bodies to maximum efficiency following the military standards, so a single flowchart could be used to predict all of their actions. There was nothing to fear when you knew exactly when to dodge and attack. There was at least no need to worry about being surrounded and targeted from a blind spot.

“Sorry we’re late!!”

“You’ve been fighting continuously without any way to recover, haven’t you? But that changes now!”

Fighter Priest Armelina and White Witch Filinion joined the fray. They seemed to have safely escaped the Detached Magic Palace in Roppongi, Tokyo, but since they used different Gates, they could not have been together from the beginning. The wrecking ball woman who worked as a police officer was one thing, but how had the defenseless cow made her way across Ground’s Nir while it was overrun with the dead?

The glasses girl gave the answer with a smug look on her face and her overly large chest puffed proudly out.

“I tried some things on the way here, but it turns out the old recovery potions on the Undead trick works.”

“Eh?”

“When you sprinkle it on something without any life force, it seems to cause a conflict or malfunction in whatever it is the Underworld is using to keep the dead souls in this world while still dead. It acts like a lethal poison for them. Take this!!”

She tossed more and more colorful test tubes and the effect was truly dramatic.

In a single blow, the frightening elites disintegrated even more blatantly than a salted slug.

“Jheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!?”

“C-compatibility is a frightening thing... I can’t believe that fearsome Alpha Zero was defeated by a dumb cow...”

“Don’t underestimate the pure and just Shrine Maiden Princess. Vee. I don’t know anything about this Alpha Rice guy or whatever he’s called, but it’s insane to continue attacking these sturdy Undead from head-on without using any kind of trick.”

Beatrice was actually kind of glad that Tselika had managed to finish off Omega herself before this happened. It would not have made anyone happy for the cow to take care of him so casually.

“This is only a temporary death, not an eternal farewell. Omega, oh, Omega... I am returning to you now, sir...!!”

Beatrice clicked her tongue and thrust her rapier through the center of his chest.

It did not even feel like stabbing a human. The sensation was halfway between a thick mist and yogurt.

This time, his outline completely dissolved into the night air. They seemed to be closer to Ghosts than Zombies. They were apparently supported by something occult instead of just being clones.

“Squeal...”

“It doesn’t matter if we win or lose each individual battle. Boo Boo, let’s hurry on. If we don’t do something about the Underworld itself, they’ll be resurrected again.”

“Yeah, we don’t have time for anything else. Based on what Inoue said, the Thousand Dragon, Gruagach, and Rusalka are holding them back from the sky. Let’s use the cow’s recovery potions and the air support to head for the beach.”

While they discussed their plans, a few small forms poked their heads out from behind cover.

“Armely...”

“We’ve decided to fight. We’ve formed a volunteer army together!”

“What should we do, Armely? Tell us! Hurry up and tell us!!”

It was the bipedal dogs and cats known as Cu Sith and Cat Sith. They wore butler outfits and maid outfits respectively and they held small axes and spears made from a special material called Diamond Salt.

Beatrice looked confused.

“The residents of the southern forest? Armelina, I know you like cute things, but when did you become friends with them?”

“C-cough, cough! There are perfectly good and mature reasons for this...!!”

“Armely, I want to eat octopus balls again...!”

“Although since it was wrapped in those round balls, I’m still not sure what octopus is.”

“I want to see you spin them on the grill! I want to eat those round things again!!”

Filinion erased all expression from her face and pointed at the suspect.

“Officer, this is the one who was luring in pure hearts using treats.”

“I’m the police officer!! And those cute little things were begging me to show them what earth food is like and they were just so delighted that I couldn’t’ help but keep doing it. Surely you know what that’s like!!”

“Why do weirdos always insist that they’re perfectly normal? Right, Beatrice?”

“(Uuh... I can’t say anything this time when I did pretty much the same thing with little Boo Boo and the grilled fish and meatballs.)”

“Oh, honestly. Is everyone from earth like this?”

At any rate. The Underworld battle would come with a fairly serious risk of death even for the Level Cappers and Break News. They appreciated the thought, but this was not a journey for those bipedal dogs and cats who were not suited for direct combat. In fact, even without an enemy, there was a very real risk of them tripping and harming themselves on their own blades.

Armelina crouched down to get on their eye level.

“H-hey. I think there’s an important job for you other than opposing the Underworld.”

“...Ehh? But I want to go with you, Armely.”

“If you’re all going somewhere, how about going to the southern forest? We’ll be dealing with this whole Underworld business, so I want you to protect that forest while we do that. Listen, this is an important job and you’re the only ones I can rely on.”

“Well, if you say so, Armely. We’ll do everything we can!”

Was that a technique she had learned from giving traffic safety lectures? Filinion’s eyes glowed with an even sharper light when she saw how solidly Armelina was controlling them.

And with that, they finally began the counterattack.

To help any humans that arrived later, they wrote on the dirt and trees that the dead army was weak to Recovery Magic.

“Now! Let’s get going! Go, go!!”

“You stupid cow! Why are you thoughtlessly heading right toward the Black Labyrinth!?”

The Holy Swordswoman widened her eyes at that immediate suicidal action and grabbed the back of Filinion’s collar to stop her.

What mattered here was to never enter the Black Labyrinth created by the giant spider-crab fusion monsters. It did not matter in the slightest that a new field could be exciting.

Armelina also sounded exasperated.

“Since that dumb cow managed survive long enough to regroup with me, those Recovery Magic attacks must really work well.”

During an old war, it had taken months to get past a complex arrangement of trenches. New weapons such as tanks and poison gas had been developed to help get past them. That might seem like the problem of an older age, but none of that built-up technology existed in this foreign world.

The Fighter Priest gulped and looked at one of the contraptions that had stalled nearby.

“These flipped-over spiders are pretty weird. They don’t look to strong in a direct fistfight, but the direct alterations they make to the terrain are a big deal. They take away any advantage the terrain might give us...”

“Ara...chne? Is that their name carved into them? Arachne. I wonder who named them.”

The only things they had to rely on were the Fairies’ catapults and the Thousand Dragon.

The boulders from above, the gunpowder barrels, and the ultra-high water pressure breaths were tearing the Black Labyrinth to pieces, crushing it, and rendering it useless. When the dead soldiers lying in wait scattered, they were hit by Filinion’s insta-kill recovery potion attack before they could regroup.

When the aerial bombing crushed a distant large lumps formed from intersecting tunnels, it created enough of an explosion to form a crater.

“Waaah!?”

“What was that!? An Elkiad ammo dump or something!?”

It was bad for their hearts. Even at that distance, the shockwave nearly knocked them over as it swept across the surface. But it was also doing effective damage to the Underworld’s army. And it happened before they even had to cross blades or exchange Magic attacks with the dead.

They would not stand on their opponent’s field. They would not stupidly go along with what their opponent wanted.

“Hm, hmm, hm, hm, hm, hmmm.”

“Ehh? Why does this just feel like a fun adventure when Filinion’s with us? We were fighting on the verge of death just a bit ago.”

“The healer really is the cornerstone of a Party’s survival. You need a clever and reliable White Witch like me. Vee, vee.”

“I’m pretty sure this has gone too far for that to explain it.”

However, Beatrice and Armelina had not been fighting such desperate battles because they wanted to. Nothing was better than an easy solution.

They arrived at the dark beach.

Boo Boo brought a hand to his mouth and spoke with deep emotion in his voice.

“We really managed to push back that solid army and reach their base...”

“We don’t know how many forces the Underworld is holding in reserve, so we can’t let our guard down. We’ve temporarily pushed the hands back on the doomsday clock, but the gears are still turning.”

Meanwhile, Armelina seemed worried about something else. She was focused on the small-scale tactics instead of large-scale strategy.

“The catapult support has stopped...”

“Squeal. Those big spoons are in the forest, so they can’t be moved easily.”

“There are still people fighting further inland, so we can let the Fairies help them out.”

They saw Meridiana, Alice, Morgan, and other small Fairies flitting through the night sky and reflecting the moonlight with their thin wings to send them a signal before flying back inland. They did not seem panicked, so this was not as serious as the catapults being taken out.

Beatrice, Boo Boo, and the others focused on their own position. With no room for artificial lights, the ocean should have been absorbing the starlight and sparkling like a carpet of jewels, but that had changed.

An ominous and silhouette rose like a mountain and blotted it all out.

Ground’s Nir took three days to walk around, but this rotting marine creature was even larger. Something resembling a shark or killer whale was sticking up onto the beach. The smell reaching their nose may have been its rotting flesh. Or was it the sulfur from orange-glowing lava flowing from its wounds?

“This is...the Underworld?” said Beatrice.

“Squeal. I’ve never seen or eaten an animal like this.”

The marine creature did not move at all. It was impossible to tell whether it was alive or dead. Its opened mouth extended wide to the left and right and contained cluttered rows of cold, crystal-like fangs or teeth that were larger than the average house. Its eyes looked like an ominous red full moon, but more than just two, it had several large eyes like a spider.

Was it even possible for a structure that enormous to stick up onto the beach? Or had it first used the power of air to float above the ocean’s surface?

“Is anyone else here? I don’t see Huldra or Wildefrau anywhere on the beach.”

“With an entry route this huge, we’re bound to get split up. And if we left behind some kind of sign in the middle of enemy territory, it would only lead the Underworld’s troops right to us. Soldiers are probably really good at that.” Armelina then tilted her head. “Now, this seems to be the new area, but how do we get in?”

“Hmm. There is a big mouth open right in front of us.”

“Eh? Wait a second, Beatrice! Are you really going to charge right in there!?”

They only had a few days to move around freely. And the Underworld was even larger than Ground’s Nir which would take three days to walk around. They had no time to spare, but they could not afford to rush things and get eaten.

Meanwhile, the Thousand Dragon passed by overhead.

“Aerial surveillance is important, but is there no way for them to map out the inside like that?”

And just as Armelina said that ...

A crimson beam of heat was launched from the Underworld’s back and into the tranquil night sky.

It was a lot like an anti-air laser. The black flying Dragon was apparently taken completely by surprise. Her frantic evasive action was too little too late, her large wings were damaged, and she fell into the ocean.

“Wait, what!? Are you kidding!?”

“Weren’t Gruagach and Rusalka riding on that Dragon...?”

“The Thousand Dragon can swim like a swan and she’s large enough to act like a small island, so I doubt those girls would just drown...but I am worried about them.”

Meanwhile, the Holy Swordswoman looked up at the Underworld that towered above them like a cliff.

“Why did it attack the Thousand Dragon up there instead of us right in front of it?”

“It’s scary to think about, but could it be about angle of fire? Y’know, like an, um, antiaircraft gun that can only aim into the sky.”

“Or maybe...”

It was far too simple a conclusion. Beatrice used red lines to connect rectangular frames with her fire illusion Magic and she placed an “important” marker on the top of the Underworld.

“There might be something on top it doesn’t want us to see.”

Either way, this proved that their opponent had enough power to immobilize the Thousand Dragon, a paradox with a soul, in a single shot. And that power could be used as an extreme-long-range projectile. If that was forcibly fired on the island of Ground’s Nir, they would lose all the momentum they had built up. And if the Break News were taken out, they could be driven away before they had a chance to recover.

“Boo Boo, let’s search out this secret of theirs. Before the second heat beam antiaircraft blast.”

Part 2

And there were some who remained on the beach.

For example, the silver-haired Fairy Queen named Sutriona and the blonde-haired Vampire named Kallikantzaros. They were both from the Break News that held extraordinary power on the island of Ground’s Nir. She was not directly working with them, but Ileana (or at least one of her copies) would be around there too.

Since they were able to watch the others leave like this, they had obviously escaped the previous desperate situation.

They could not grow careless since a single mistake could bring them right back to such a situation, but they had reached a temporary lull. It helped a lot that the catapults and the Thousand Dragon had focused on the enemy ammo dumps. The Black Labyrinth had been torn apart from the sky and the struggle over territory had been pushed back.

With red glowing bats fluttering around her and her large chest pushing out her crimson negligee, the Vampire softly stroked the head of the small pig stuffed animals she held.

“I honestly thought you would go with them.”

“Don’t be stupid. I have to protect the Fairy village. And I hear the Break News are linked to the underground Labyrinth as a secondary power source. The material and internal structure of the Underworld are a mystery, but if we went in there, it could possibly break that link and place some kind of strain on the island.”

The black ribbon dress girl placed her hands on her slender hips and Kallikantzaros winked at her while crossing her arms such that they lifted up her breasts which were too large for her height.

“Since you aren’t throwing all that aside and heading out for some fun, should I assume you’ve actually matured some?”

“Are you picking a fight with me?”

Sutriona’s voice grew ominously deep, but she was aware this was an emergency.

“Besides, the humans are counting on us.”

“True enough.”

As previously stated, Beatrice and the others could only spend so much time here and the Underworld was vast. The odds were decent that they would reach the several-day time limit before solving the problem concerning the Underworld.

So the Holy Swordswoman had made a request on the way here.

“If they can’t solve everything in there, they want us to try blowing away the Underworld in a combined attack.”

“Well, if that would give us a nice happy ending, no one would be going in there in the first place, but it’s probably easier for them to know they have some kind of insurance.”

Then a small light fluttered down to that extraordinary pair.

It was Morgan, elder of the palm-sized Fairies.

“I wish to respectfully ask you paradoxes for support. We have found some remnants of the dead in the southern forest. They have yet to make contact, but the Cat Sith and Cu Sith remaining there will be unable to handle them. I am aware how presumptuous it is to ask this, but...”

“Not to worry. That Vampire won’t accept any obvious requests, but she secretly likes helping people out. And that’s where she lives, so I’m sure she’ll be flying back there before long.”

“...”

“See? Just look how tsundere she is. You mustn’t let that murderous aura fool you, Morgan. She might be scowling, but she’s blushing on the inside.”

“No, um, I did say it was presumptuous of me to ask, so wouldn’t that be how she really feels...?”

As they discussed the matter, the Break News and the messenger Fairy left the open beach and returned to the inland forest. The primary battlefield had moved within the Underworld, but not all of their forces were concentrated there. Some of the dead were wandering the island and more fools would likely appear in the Underworld and head out onto the island.

The number killed would not determine the victor here.

If they saw the number protected as the deciding factor, then it was hard to say they had passed the hardest point.

...And while their pride kept them from directly saying so, they were gradually being worn down. If the open beach would get them sniped, then it was best to move inland where they could hide behind cover.

The Break News were the ultimate fighting force, so they could not allow themselves to be defeated so easily.

The Thousand Dragon did not understand that and that was why she was known as the weakest of them.

“For now, I’ll be helping the Fairies evacuate their village. You head to the southern forest as requested.”

“Understood. ...I hear those cats and dogs have started putting together a volunteer army. It might be best if I threatened them a bit to make sure they do not shorten their lifespans needlessly.”

As they started toward their respective jurisdictions, Sutriona whispered quietly.

“We’re covering your asses. So go at it all you want.”

Part 3

Entering through the mouth would have been too frightening, so Boo Boo’s group avoided an internal course and instead climbed up the surface of the giant marine creature known as the Underworld. The scene changed entirely when they arrived on top of its back.

“Squeal...”

They saw a dark land covered in dips and bumps. The parts that had rotted into a liquid were like toxic bogs and red magma spewed from areas that were unnatural torn up. The exposed bone seen elsewhere had the cold shine of pale crystal and the scene as a whole was surprisingly colorful. It was like a park during the Christmas season.

“Pant, pant. Th-the heat is pretty intense once you get up here.”

“I don’t care, so just hurry on up. Why am I stuck pushing up on your huge ass in the afterlife of a foreign world!?”

Despite all her smugness from before, White Witch Filinion was already gasping for breath. The flaaat instructor was having trouble in her attempts to make sure that amateur climber did not fall.

Beatrice also had to wipe sweat from her brow.

“That’s the Underworld for you. I guess it wouldn’t be a comfortable place for the living.”

“Boo. But, Beatrice, I think I feel a hot wind and a cold wind.”

“Is there a chill coming from somewhere?”

“W-wouldn’t it be from those crystal-like bones? Pant.”

Once they had all safely reached the top, they began exploring.

“No, wait!!”

Armelina pushed the glasses girl’s large butt and the pure White Witch rolled along the black rotting flesh. And she had of course had a reason for that.

“(Boo Boo, you duck down too! Hide in that dip over there!!)”

Even if they were on top of a living creature, it still felt like a small island and the other end was hidden beyond the horizon. With all the rotting, the surface rose and fell a lot and it felt a lot like crossing countless hills. The red glow of the lava and blue glow of the crystal cast deep shadows, so it was impossible to fully grasp the scene at a glance.

Amid all that, Boo Boo’s group hid in one of the torn up pieces of the surface while loud shaking footsteps passed right by them along the black plain.

But the shaking did not come from the size of what this was. It came from the number.

“Wh-what is that?” asked Armelina in bewilderment. “Are they marching...?”

Sure enough, a lot of people were gathered in ordered groups and marching in unison like something from a military parade. Even their pace and the swinging of their arms were perfectly synchronized. Needless to say, these were the human souls trapped by the Underworld.

“Urp. Peh, peh. Eek. It’s always something, isn’t it? And it looks like there are about four hundred of them in this group.”

They could come up with a general number so quickly thanks to the orderly ranks. The dead souls formed a perfect 20x20 square as they freely moved diagonally.

“400? Isn’t that about the same number as the dead that invaded Ground’s Nir before? Can they send in that many for turn after turn?”

As expected, defeating the Underworld was not going to be easy.

A direct confrontation would only wear down the living until they were pushed back.

“How many do they have in all? Try to take those on normally and there’d be no end to it. Filinion’s recovery potions couldn’t keep up.”

“That heat beam that shot down the Thousand Dragon came from...even further back there, right? We need to find their secret before the second shot is fired, but the problems just keep piling up.”

Judging by eye, it was somewhere between five and ten kilometers away.

It felt like the thick beam of heat itself had been fired upwards from beyond the horizon.

And even while hiding in the dips, they were not blessed with enough fortune to walk all the way there while avoiding so many eyes. They would definitely be found as things were.

However...

“It looks like there are some things moving separately from the marching troops. See, it’s those spider-crab fusions. Arachnes, were they? Y’know, the contraptions.”

“Hm? What are they doing here inside their own base?”

“Squeal. It looks like they’re closing up the wounds.”

Boo Boo said it that way because of the red, boiling lava erupting from here and there on the giant fish-like Underworld. It did indeed look a lot like those Arachnes were using their thread to sew up the gaping wounds.

“But, Filinion, what about them?”

“I don’t know if it’s broken or what, but there’s an abandoned one flipped upside-down with its belly showing.”

They all exchanged a glance and then slowly approached it.

The large contraption was easily taller than a human. It overall looked a lot like a spider, but the belly was made to open and close like a crab carrying its eggs. Beatrice stuck her rapier in the half-opened door and tired prying it open. They found a fairly roomy space inside. Instead of a steering wheel or buttons, it seemed to be controlled by several threads strung irregularly around like a game of cat’s cradle.

“So is it like a marionette?”

But if they rode in this, they would not be noticed by the marching ranks of troops.

But there was a problem.

“What do we do about Boo Boo? He can’t possibly fit in here...”

“Boo. I’m fine on my own. You all can go on ahead.”

“No, we can’t. Wait here for a second and we’ll surreptitiously create a path for you.”

At any rate, it looked like the three girls would somehow manage to fit, so they hesitantly climbed inside.

However...

“Mgh. Was there any real reason to cram all three of us in here? And whose giant ass is this!? The glasses cow’s as usual!?”

“If you’re talking about my butt, you’ve completely lost the cow connection! Ah, wait! Blowing on me there is hardly fair! Ah, ahhh!!”

“We can ignore Beatrice since she’s basically turned into a bicycle seat, so let’s get going. Hmm, I guess you do have to control it like a game of cat’s cradle. ...But how do you control all eight legs???”

The movements were pretty awkward, but the contraptions started walking forward. Since they managed to avoid toppling over on their first try at piloting it, its pilot assistance must have been excellent.

Armelina sounded pretty excited.

“Oh, I think I’ve gotten the hang of it. One, two, one, two.”

Their field of view was surprisingly narrow for how many eyes it had. It felt like peering through several peepholes lined up in a row and they were pretty sure they would get motion sickness if they did this for very long.

While passing by other identical contraptions and viewing the marching units of 400, the three girls spewed black thread onto non-wounded areas of the rotting Underworld. They did not know how to do it at first, but they once they got used to it, it went much more smoothly. They left woven clumps of thread here and there.

“We have to hide someone as big as Boo Boo, so we need to leave cover for him.”

It was a lot like an irregular rocky area created with a 3D printer and Boo Boo would wait for just the right moment and run from cover to cover. He was still risking his life like this, but they had to view themselves as lucky to have any chance at all of victory.

The Holy Swordswoman’s group noticed something as they moved the eight legs and led the way for Boo Boo.

“Mghgh. Th-those soldiers walk differently from Alpha Zero. If they’re Soviets, then they’ll use different standards and I’ll have to create a whole new flowchart before I can predict when to dodge...”

“Hwah! C-can you at least pull your head out of there before talking, Beatrice!?”

“More importantly, what is that? There’s something weird mixed in there.”

Armelina was right.

Each of the groups of 400 had a single member who as clearly not human. One was a giant quadruped with multiple heads, one was a monstrous bird with the head of a snake, and one was a carnivorous plant that walked on the ground like an animal.

One was surrounded by intense sparks as if its fur was bristling, one had flames coming from its mouth like the top of an oil field, and a lot of them wore thick armor or carried giant cannons.

“That jumbled sense... I think they really are Soviets and not modern Russians. Those rectangular metal bags might be an attempt at recreating those multiple rocket launchers with the same name as a headband.”[1]

“What does that mean?”

“Well, if you have a big and solid weapon, you normally use it as a shield to protect people, right? You don’t normally place soldiers outside the armor or solid shell as a kind of cushioning made of flesh. ...But the Soviets had a tactic called tank desant. They’d cram as many foot soldiers as they could onto the outside of the steel tank and drive right into the vortex of gunfire on the front line. And of course, they’d be blown to bits by the first explosion.”

While he waited for the right timing to run out and then hid behind the black cover, Boo Boo approached the contraptions and whispered to them.

“Boo. They smell familiar to me.”

“Boo Boo?”

“They’re not the same as my ancestors, but there’s still something familiar about them.”

...According to the Sage, “Iberian Orc” did not refer to a pig-faced creature. Iberian Orc were the beings that had gained the strongest muscles and digestive systems after taking in the strengths of all kinds of plants and animals. And they had supposedly taken many shapes and forms before arriving at the current one.

In that case...

(Does the Underworld have control of the Another Orcs that traveled down a different evolutionary path and ultimately hit a dead end?)

This had nothing to do with Americans or Soviets. What would happen if they clashed with those things was a complete unknown.

Beatrice gasped at this revelation, but things went far further than that.

A wet splat rang out as one of those precious giants was crushed.

This was not the result of a reckless attack from Boo Boo or Beatrice’s group. Nor was it an incomplete soul self-destructing.

“Wha-...?”

At some point, a single figure had risen up within the ordered ranks.

But it was not a human.

It had a head like a lobster and a pair of arms made from octopus or squid tentacles wrapped around each other. Its entire body was covered in creepy scales and a sticky-looking liquid protected it from drying out.

That had done it.

That monster had done it.

After looking around at the lined-up troops, as if it had lost interest, it undid its tentacles and began squeezing and crushing them one after another. The victims showed no sign of resisting. Not the Another Orc or the soldiers surrounding it. They stood tall and put up no resistance. They did not even flinch when their neighbor’s bodily fluids splattered onto them. Like an example of shared responsibility, the entire group of four hundred was eliminated. The sight was enough to make one nauseous.

And it all ended with a single word.

“Next.”

It observed and it destroyed.

Some four hundred were killed and some four hundred were spared as it inspected group after group. It was reminiscent of clearing a wheat field early if it was afflicted with mold in order to prevent the damage from spreading to the ground.

“Next.”

It did not mind tearing up its own forces.

It seemed to be arrogantly saying it had plenty of resources, including human resources.

“Next.”

“...Is it culling them?”

“Is it something like leaving only the well-grown ones and then sending them to Ground’s Nir?”

According to Omega and Alpha Zero, when a soul trapped by the Underworld was killed, they were only returned to the Underworld. It was looking like fighting was not the only way for that to happen. If they did not reach minimum threshold that this being wanted, they would be killed before heading out to battle and they would have to redo it all. It seemed possible that some of them would be caught in an endless loop of that.

“Squeal. I kind of feel sorry for them. The killed ones have all their stuff taken by the others...”

“Their results determine where the armor, weapons, and other equipment gather?”

“I-it’s almost like it relies on coincidence to gather the numbers it needs, but then it throws out the ones it doesn’t like and strengthens the ones it does like.”

“If those things on the backs of the big ones really are multiple rocket launchers, the next turn is going to be even more hellish than the last. We need to do something before explosives are raining down over the entire island.”

If the other side was intentionally restricting their numbers, then there had to be a limit to the number their leader could manage at once. For example, maybe the Underworld Lord could only accurately control a single group of four hundred at once. Armelina gulped, and...

“But who does that lobster head think he is lording it over everyone like that...”

“Lording...?”

Beatrice repeated back the phrase Armelina had spat out without thinking.

“...Then is that thing the Underworld Lord???”

If they could defeat him, they might be able to stop the Underworld’s invasion of Ground’s Nir and of earth. But that was the center of the enemy formation. Even if they moved there inside the contraption, they had almost zero chance of successfully breaking through an unknown number of 400-man groups, defeating the big boss, and returning safely.

“We can’t.”

“But...”

“Beatrice, let’s continue toward the back like we planned. We know there’s something there that sickening lobster head doesn’t want seen. Whatever it is, we have a better chance of doing serious damage to the Underworld by destroying it. And we can’t let them target Ground’s Nir with that heat beam antiaircraft blast that shot down the Thousand Dragon. We need to stop it before the second shot takes out another Break News.”

It was not over once they won.

The island’s defenses were almost entirely reliant on the Break News. If that antiaircraft weapon took out a paradox or two, that would shift the power balance beyond the point of no return. So they had to destroy that antiaircraft weapon before it fired a second shot.

Also, they could not stab at their enemy in a one-way trip. To return to their original lives and smile with everyone, they could not afford to lose anyone. Besides, if they lost the contraption here, exposed Boo Boo would lose the cover he was using and he would be trapped.

They were reluctant, but they continued on anyway.

As they moved the eight legs and left the dark plain region, they finally managed to escape the eyes of those troops. Beatrice breathed a soft sigh as they descended a gentle slope.

“Nnnh... A-again, Beatrice, stop blowing on me there...”

“Now I’m a little worried about what my face is touching! What is this filling my vision!? God, it’s so hot in here. I can’t stand it anymore. Bwah!!”

Beatrice opened the door in the crab-like belly and rolled out into the outside world. The rotting flesh ground had a slight muddy stickiness to it. It was probably the stable ground that had led to that plain being chosen to gather all those people. Here, there were some areas that had melted into a thick, bottomless bog and other areas that had become a large river of orange lava. There was no one here to see them, but they had to contend with the threat of nature(?) now.

She wanted to take a deep breath of fresh air now that she was freed from that cramped space, but it was still unpleasant here. The heat and humidity mercilessly clung to her glossy hair and soft skin.

And as she wiped the dripping sweat from her brow, Beatrice realized something.

It was obviously due to them approaching a lave lake where the many rivers gathered, but she felt the stinging pain of the heat as if she was inside an oven.

She gave the orange boiling lake a puzzled look.

“...? My Fire Resistance isn’t working???”

Filinion was oddly pigeon-toed after climbing out and she responded with a question of her own.

“Really? Maybe it has another Element mixed in. You know, something strange like death or darkness.”

For one thing, the Underworld itself came from outside the island of Ground’s Nir, so there was no guarantee the rules they knew would apply. Just like a meteorite could carry unknown information, the Underworld could include previously undiscovered Elements.

But that could be a good thing.

(There might be some undiscovered Magic here to resurrect the Iberian Orc souls sealed in Boo Boo’s Shining Weapon. Or at least the key to finding that Magic.)

“Boo. What is it, Beatrice?”

“It’s nothing, Boo Boo.”

The red Holy Swordswoman shook her head and gave a smile.

“Wah,” said Armelina. “It sure is squishy around here. Not even this contraption can walk.”

“Boo. Then I’ll carry it for now.”

It was almost like he was lifting up an oddly-shaped swing ring or rubber boat. But they would not be able to use this to directly cross the lava lake. For now, the three girls and one pig-faced guy walked alongside the boiling lake on the dark ground that would sink disconcertingly below their feet. The Underworld was strange, but their exploration here was a lot like trekking through the desert at midday. Simply put, the lava was incredibly hot and they had no way of combating it. Sharp bones occasionally jutted out of the black, rotting flesh ground. They gave off a bluish shine, but they also gave off an icy chill. They were like oases dotting the desert.

“Pant, pant.”

“Damn... If I’d known this was coming, I would’ve waited until Ice Waterfall Princess Wildefrau caught up with us.”

“Pant...”

The arrangement of bones seemed different from the normal fish that Haruka the Maid would serve. The ones that curved up overhead like a crescent moon may have been ribs. As her stamina was worn down, the cow clung to one of the chilled blue crystals that rose up like a sharp tower and then she slid down into a sitting position.

The boiling lava lake was right there and Beatrice did understand the feeling, but...

“Should you really be doing that?”

“Wh-wh-why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, the Underworld is rotting everywhere, right? The place probably isn’t all that toxic with the magma sterilizing everything with its heat...but wouldn’t these oases be an exception? So this place might be crawling with all sorts of mold and bacteria.”

“Gyah!? Filinion, you’ve got some kind of sticky mushrooms on your back!! What is this? Is it like caterpillar fungus that absorbs its nutrients from a living creature!?”

“Gyaaaaaaahhhhh!? Get it off! Please get it off of meeeeeeeeee!!”

“This is your life on the line here. Couldn’t you have at least produced something like a matsutake!?”

Just how inconvenient for the living was this field? The cow swung her cape around to get off the things popping up from it, but that was not enough to ensure her safety.

“Ah!? Th-that’s right. The Undead here are weak to recovery potions. That’s right, that’s right. I just have to increase my life force and defeat them with the power of the immune system!!”

“What exactly are you going to do, Filinion?”

“...If I drink a recovery potion that raises your temperature by about 0.5 degrees, it’s sure to get rid of them.”

“Bfh!?” spat both Beatrice and Armelina.

“Squeal?” said Boo Boo a half-tempo later. “What does that mean?”

“Your confusion is the right response here, Boo Boo! Cow, is that really a recovery potion!? Come to think of it, you mentioned something about an aphrodisiac in preparation for Boo Boo’s birthday party, didn’t you!?”

“Shut up. I don’t want to die yet and I definitely don’t want to die covered in mold and with these things swelling up from me! So I’m willing to suffer a bit of embarrassment by putting myself in a mild feverish state that raises my temperature by about 0.5 degrees. Heh heh. Eh heh heh. This is the normal reaction. No one wants to die and, if there’s something I can try, I’m willing to try it. Even if you have to call it ‘The Secret Late-Night 24 Hours of the Feverish College Girl’, I swear I’ll survive thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!”

“W-wah! O-officer!!”

“Stop this, you idiot!!!!!!”

The civil servant embedded her fist of justice in the glasses girl and a test tube filled with an extremely colorful liquid flew through the air. Pink steam burst from it, Filinion writhed on the ground, and she accidentally stuck her head in something that looked like a giant transparent jellyfish or a mushroom umbrella growing from the black rotting flesh.

Beatrice slapped her forehead and summed things up.

“...Is Filinion feeling tired in more ways than one?”

“Doesn’t she know that the fan-service character never lives to the end in a horror movie?”

After failing to crawl on all fours and sticking her butt out at them, Filinion seemed to be trembling. It seemed she knew to provide fan service even after passing out, but...

“Wow, my heart is feeling so refreshed after that hit from a police officer. Look, I feel so light. I guess it really is best for human beings to live an honest life.”

“Waaahh! A translucent Filinion is coming out of Filinion!!!???”

When they saw the satisfied-looking cow, Beatrice and Armelina felt their skin crawl and frantically tried to shove the ghost back inside her body, but then they felt a very unpleasant sensation through their fingers.

Beatrice’s gauntlet covered her hands with metal all the way to the fingertips, so when she grabbed the translucent Filinion, which was as soft as custard, she tore through the shoulder and tore off the arm.

“...(Flap, flap, flap)!!!???”

Beatrice’s mouth flapped wordlessly, but the victim herself did not seem to have noticed. In fact, as soon as the translucent version was destroyed, the formless thing was rapidly reabsorbed by the body and Filinion pulled her head out of the giant jellyfish with her butt sticking out.

“H-huh? What was I doing...??? I felt like I had achieved enlightenment, opened my third eye, or flown to a higher stage.”

“Heh, heh heh, eh heh heh. Nothing happened. You’re fine. You’re perfectly fine, Filinion. I’m glad you’re okay. Yes, very glad...”

“Hold on a second. Is this what I think it is?”

This time, Armelina crouched down and stuck her head in the jellyfish body growing from the black ground.

And...

“Yeah, I was right. I don’t know what it’s used for, but this seems to let you move freely as an astral body.”

“Eek!? That’s what had happened to me!?”

“Heh heh heh. Aren’t you glad I returned you to normal, Filinion? You should thank me! So, Armelina. What can you really use that for?”

“Doesn’t that depend on how you look at it? Although it’s not that useful since being spotted like this will still raise the alert level. Still, we can look at it like sending out drones that we can afford to have destroyed. If we send the astral body out ahead and search for enemies and traps, we might be able to reduce the risk of instant death.”

While they discussed that, something changed.

It came from the wall right next to them...no, the boulder. The rotting flesh forming those black walls writhed unnaturally and split in two. It was a lot like a strange case opening and removing its contents.

Arms.

Faces.

Boo Boo quickly freed up his arms by throwing away the Arachne contraption he was holding.

“Squeal!? Ghosts!!”

“Wah, wah, wah, wah. Is it more of the Underworld’s dead troops!?”

“Hurry on back, Armelina! If your abandoned body is torn apart, you won’t have anywhere to return to!”

There were fifteen...no, more than twenty of them.

They had likely been young girls to begin with. They had dry hair and skin in severe need of moisturizing. They looked something like well-preserved zombies. What they wore may have originally similar to surgical gowns. Their outfits were no more than a combination of rags and bandages and their only accessories were thick chains wrapped around their torsos and rusted metal shackles and collars. Perhaps to avoid being contaminated by the rotting flesh, they wore something like thick, scratched-up ski boots on their feet, which were oddly out of place with the rest.

And there was one thing that gave off a sticky luster: the marine creatures, such as octopuses and univalves, that were clinging to their dried-out skin.

“Gahhh!!!???”

“Gahhh!!!???”

“Gahhh!!!???”

They rushed in all at once. If they were similar to Elkiad, who had fought so fiercely on Ground’s Nir, then this was more than enough of a threat. Beatrice’s flowchart to time her dodging only worked on people who followed American military standards, so a straight fight here could lead to a sad farewell with Boo Boo and the others.

However, they currently had healing expert Filinion who was the strongest when it came to fighting the Undead.

Or that was the theory anyway.

The situation changed when they heard the solid sole of a boot crush the rotting flesh underfoot.

Something rushed toward the bridge in the center of Filinion’s glasses.

A sharp blade glinted just a few millimeters away. With her hands shackled and her body wrapped in bandages and the remnants of a surgical gown, a ponytail girl had spun her hips around and swung up her slender leg. No, this was more than just a high kick. Almost like a collapsible knife, a sword wrapped in flames extended out ward from the tip of her toes!?

“Eek!?”

“Idiot!!”

Filinion reflexively tensed her shoulders and froze in place, so Beatrice stomped on her cape to bend her backwards. It was only a partial bridge, but it pulled her down just enough for the blade to slice through empty air and take a few strands of the White Witch’s blonde hair with it.

(What was that? It was different from Magic!)

They heard several metallic noises. The dead girl’s boot had supposedly completed its kick, but then it wriggled through a complex set of motions. It had contained more than just the one blade. Red flames, blue ice, yellow wind, and purple poison... Weapon after weapon flipped out and back in like a Swiss Army knife. Finally, a short blade extended from the heel and she pulled her leg back to target Filinion’s ample chest.

Beatrice was fairly certain what happened next was a complete accident.

While Filinion was bent backwards and unable to move, a test tube slipped from her fingers and spun through the air, so Beatrice shattered the glass container with her rapier.

Friendly fire did not matter here. This potion was not harmful to the living.

With the sizzling of Chinese cooking, the rag girl’s silhouette crumbled away. And when she screamed and tried to grab at them in one last attack, Boo Boo swung his giant Shining Weapon horizontally and launched her into the distance. She had more or less melted and she vanished as if she were trying to enter the upper atmosphere.

Even if someone had an insta-death attack for the Undead, they would still need support if they were unathletic.

“Tch, so you aren’t safe if you move up close like with an aircraft carrier!”

That was when a tremor ran through the ground below their feet.

A unpleasant sensation ran along Beatrice’s spine.

“Not good. Did the Soviet group in that black plain notice us here!?”

If so and they were surrounded, there was nothing they could do. They had poked at the hornet’s nest. But it was silly to think they could find somewhere to hide in the middle of this commotion.

There was only one way to survive.

“Metal Jet!!”

Beatrice drew her rapier and released a total of eight heat beams. Instead of the approaching dead in rags and bandages, she targeted a bone tower of bluish-white crystal located a short distance away. The attack rushed to the base, broke it, and caused it to topple over and block the way.

That was when the dead Soviets rushed in.

However...

“Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah!! Wh-what is that!? There’s yellow and pink and all sorts of colorful things growing up, surrounding them, and then collapsing!!”

“Mold, it’s mold! That’s what almost killed Filinion earlier, remember? The chilly air created by the bones weakens the heat sterilization of the magma, so those areas become a hotbed for mold and bacteria!”

That would stop the approaching soldiers and Filinion’s recovery potions could take care of the dozen or so bandaged ones who had broken through the boulder walls.

They thought that would be the end of it.

However...

“Squeal!? There are people coming from the broken tower!”

“You’re kidding, right!? How?”

“Oh, no. The dead are climbing up over the dead that were already crushed. And they keep doing it!! It’s a real version of the death march that clears a minefield by stepping on them all!!”

They were pushing themselves too hard and so they were not moving very quickly, but the group was gradually approaching. Once they passed a certain line, they would push in with the violence of numbers.

“Assault team, advance.”

“Barrier troops, prepare your weapons. Refusing the mission will be deemed a dangerous ideology.”

“They’re giving orders while aiming their guns at their allies’ backs!? What is with these people!?”

At this point, there was no way Beatrice’s group could win by staying here.

They needed to leave here as quickly as possible if they were to survive.

Beatrice used all the information available to her in order to find an answer.

“The lava lake... Since those contraptions were bothering to fill in the wounds, the dead must not be able to wade through the lava. If we travel through there, we might be able to lose them!”

“But how are we supposed to do that? Even in that spider thing, we’d just sink into the lava!”

“How about this? Since those threads were used to cover the wounds, wouldn’t a boat made from them be able to float without melting!?”

With that decided, it was time to take action.

Armelina seemed the best at operating the Arachne, so she took care of that while Boo Boo, Beatrice, and Filinion protected the spider-crab fusion until the small boat was done.

They were a lot more of the dead Soviets who were about to pour in, but there were still a dozen or so of the group in bandages and the remnants of surgical gowns surrounding Beatrice’s group. They wanted to avoid being surrounded and attacked from every direction at once, so it would best if Beatrice used her flames and Filinion used her potions to divide the enemy into groups of three which Boo Boo could take care of. To put it another way, it was all over if they were surrounded.

“Filinion, we can still view this as a fun adventure, right? We don’t have to enter serious mode, do we!?”

“Do not underestimate the Shrine Maiden Princess! Oh, how rare. There’s some Cheerful Alraune here.”

“Is this any time to be gathering plants!?”

“Maybe not, but there’s just so much of it. Oh, dear. And there’s even some Backbone Fish and Medicine Ball Palm. Those fantastic stories about the wind and waves carrying eggs and spores must be true.”

“If you let your greed distract you here, you’ll pay for it when-...no, wait a second.”

Once she realized something, the Holy Swordswoman raised her Shining Weapon rapier and asked just to be sure.

“Cow, you’ve been pretty self-sufficient all the way here, but surely that doesn’t mean you’re running out of materials for your recovery potions, does it?”

“....................................................................................................................................................................................Whatever are you talking about?”

“Boo Boo! Grab this glasses girl’ legs and shake her upside down! Right this instant!! We need to find out what all she has ASAP!!”

“Squeal? Is that a new health treatment?”

“Wah!? Okay, okay, I’ll admit it! Since everyone was praising me for once, I got a little carried away! I’m sorry!!”

Filinion, everyone’s big sister whose glasses did not come off even while she hung upside down, was shaken up and down by the legs. Her large breasts jiggled and she grew somewhat tearful.

“I just kept using them and, next thing I knew, I was fresh out. Eh heh heh. Isn’t that just the worst? It’s like when you find you’re short on magnum ammo in a zombie hell. Ah ha ha ha ha!!”

“Did you intentionally wait to tell us about this, you dumb cow!? And in the middle of the battlefield!?”

“Has everyone completely forgotten my name!? B-but anyway, I found a lot of the necessary ingredients, so please let me gather them. If I run out of recovery potions, we’re all goners!!”

No one could contain the dead if their supply of recovery potions stopped. This was more important than making the boat, so even Armelina got out of the spider contraption to search for ingredients.

That was when they heard a footstep on the twisted ground.

Armelina immediately raised her metal staff just as a shorthaired Zombie-style girl kicked out the solid sole of her boot with her hands still shackled. And this was not just a sole. A thick metal spike shot out of the heel like a pile bunker. A dull sound burst out, the Fighter Priest’s feet left the ground, and she flew to the side along with the metal staff that had blocked the attack.

The scarlet Holy Swordswoman raised her voice in surprise.

“What!? Someone managed to beat up Armelina!?”

“Hey, Beatrice! You weren’t judging me in units of cigarette packs, were you!?”

She hopped back to her feet and yelled back, so she was probably fine.

And Beatrice made a mental note that Armelina really hit her stride while using phrases that were a bit outdated in a non-smoking age.

At any rate, this was what happened when Filinion’s special move was unavailable even temporarily.

To buy time for the Mixing, Boo Boo and Beatrice also moved forward.

“Come to think of it, don’t you specialize in physical attacks, Armelina? Why didn’t you train your Elemental Defense?”

“Unlike for you, physical attacks are divided into several categories: impacts, slashing, stabbing, arrows, and more. You can’t get 100% resistance to them all. I’ve trained impacts pretty far, though. I would’ve broken a bone or two otherwise!”

And there was one more point of interest.

The dead decorated with thick chains and shackles were indeed violent and powerful, but they did not use guns or Magic like Elkiad had. They all used special boots with various mechanical blades hidden inside. The lack of the former was understandable, but what about the latter? If these had originally been humans who arrived in Ground’s Nir, they would definitely rely on Magic.

That line of thinking reminded Beatrice of something.

(That’s kind of like Abyss...?)

She kept her rapier at the ready and judged her distance from the dead while she spoke.

“Are these different humans from us? The ancient ones who created the Ground’s Nir armory and Abyss?”

The short-haired dead attacked immediately afterwards.

It was a lot like capoeira or break dancing. She swung her torso around and used both her slender legs to create something like the rotating blade of a lawnmower out of her blade boots. Meanwhile, she aimed for the side of Beatrice’s head with an ice-cold blade wrapped in a pale light.

“!?”

But as the Holy Swordswoman gasped, a test tube containing a colorful liquid was thrown over her shoulder from behind. It hit the dead girl and she melted away and was absorbed by the rotting flesh at her feet.

(She was absorbed...? Does this humus-like stuff suck up the nutrients to begin the recovery phase???)

There was no time to question it.

“This is bad. I kind of am completely out now!”

“What do you mean ‘kind of’!? Be more precise, cow!!”

“U-um, um, I have a decent variation of ingredients, but there’s still nothing I can do since I’m missing the primary piece. If I had just that one more ingredient, I could make tons of those anti tank missiles that work on the Undead but don’t do much of anything to normal people!!”

“What exactly is this last ingredient!?”

This was a pressing situation, so the Holy Swordswoman snapped back in irritation. And Glasses Girl Filinion confessed while tapping her index fingers together in front of her large chest.

“M-Maiden Pheromones.”

Blank expressions appeared on Beatrice and Armelina’s faces and they immediately made up their minds.

“Boo Boo, sorry, but can you hold back the dead on your own for a bit?”

“Squeal!? Exterminating ghosts all on my own is too scary! I’ll be surrounded if I’m alone!!”

“...My head is starting to hurt, so I’m going back into that contraption to build the boat. You handle the rest.”

“Sure thing, Armelina. If I cram this sultry cow in her first aid kit, it’ll solve everything, right?”

“Wait, no! This is no joke! I’m serious! Ow, Beatrice, that hurts! Don’t shut the lid over those! Y-you’ll leave weird marks on that soft and delicate area!!”

“Tell us what you’ve been doing while we’ve been risking our lives to buy time, you stupid cow.”

“Again, this is based on serious Mixing theory. Um, it might be too complicated for you meatheads who derive joy from swinging blades and blunt weapons around, but the herbs and minerals used in this are too strongly male to mix together properly. That means you need a female catalyst to act as a counter-ingredient, so if you stir up that future philosopher, the universal truths all works out in the end.”

“To sum up, you’re a giant pervert of a cow.”

“Don’t you say that with such a serious look on your face! That’s fake news!!”

Beatrice threatened her while opening and closing the stolen first aid kit like a ventriloquist dummy.

“...Anyway, we really have to help out Boo Boo who’s fighting so seriously out there, so I’d really like a simple answer here: what exactly do we have to do to get some recovery potions? No sex pheromones have been chemically discovered in the human body, right?”

“It doesn’t have to be that exact.” Filinion averted her gaze while continuing to tap her index fingers together. “Um, b-basically, a certain amount of a maiden’s sweat should work since it has a bunch of stuff mixed together in it. Heh heh, eh heh heh...”

“...”

“Wait, no fire to the face!! B-blood won’t work as an ingredient!!”

Beatrice approached Armelina who was moving the spider legs to take up the best position.

And they reached their conclusion.

“In that case, we need to discuss who can sweat the most efficiently.”

“Eh?”

“That’s right. Beatrice and I get regular exercise, so we would be pretty inefficient. That dumb cow starts gasping for breath at the drop of a hat, so I think she would be best for this.”

“Eh? Eh?”

“C’mon, you’re the one that brought it up, so hurry up and do some squats, sit-ups, or pushups.”

“C’mon, you’re the one that brought it up, so hurry up and do some squats, sit-ups, or pushups.”

“Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? All you did was make me confess things that only make my own life wooooooooooooooooooooooooorse!!”

Boo Boo was still desperately working to hold back the dead and Armelina was busy using the contraptions black thread to make their escape boat. That meant Beatrice had to get to work as the monster drill sergeant whipping the drop-out soldiers into shape in time for the national tournament.

As for Filinion, the main cannon they had to rely on...

“Pant, pant.”

“You’re the one that chose squats, so do them right. Gently bend your knees and drop your hips straight down.”

“Ahhhhh. I-I didn’t choose them because I wanted to. It’s just that sit-ups and pushups meant lying down on this squishy rotting flesh, while you can do squats while standing up...”

“Oh, just shut up. Now hurry, hurry, hurry!!”

“Wait, don’t circle behind me and pin me like this, Beatrice! Eh? Ah? You’re forcing me!? Are you forcing me to move my hips up and down!?”

Filinion was forced through the exercise in a way that would make a sports gym instructor feel faint if they saw it. The large things forming her body shook up and down quite a lot, which really pissed off the person who was lacking (in confidence?).

“Okay, that should do it. Your glasses have fogged up, so you must’ve warmed up.”

“Ahhh...”

Finally freed, Filinion could not even support herself on all fours. She partially bent her arms and pressed her face against the dirty rotting flesh while sticking her butt up in the air like a table with a broken leg. She just barely managed to keep her knees on the ground while her thighs trembled.

The equivalent exchange for that hard work meant test tubes full of colorful liquid came out of the first aid kit. The glasses girl’s invincible time had finally returned.

“P-pant, take this.”

“Wait, you idiot! Throw them properly, you out-of-fuel cow!!”

She had put in the most work, but she received the worst treatment to the very end. It seemed human rights were not guaranteed in a foreign world. With her hips weak and trembling, she entered an oddly sexy pigeon-toed pitching form and cleanly annihilated all of the Undead causing so much trouble.

“Squeal. Did you get rid of the ghosts? Are they gone?”

“Come to think of it, this can’t be fun for the dead.” A distant look entered Beatrice’s eyes. “They’re bossed around by the Underworld and then driven back by a cow.”

But it was not over yet.

The moldy soldiers were swarming over from the collapsed tower of blue bone. They had cruelly crossed the poison bog by walking on the corpses of their comrades, but a win was a win regardless of what method they used to do it. Beatrice’s group could not stick around.

Then they heard a decisive rumbling.

An especially overwhelming enemy – one of the Another Orcs from a different evolutionary path than Boo Boo – was a giant wolf with multiple heads and intense electricity running through its fur. It trampled over the other soldiers and crossed the mold hotbed.

“Wah, wah, wah. It’s like a noble gentleman placing his cloak over a puddle to escort a lady!”

“Isn’t this backwards, though!? Why is the giant weapon carrier walking over the soldiers!?”

The Fighter Priest watched in shock even as she worked, but once that thing got across, the situation would change. If that giant thing charged in, they would be knocked into the lava lake before they could dodge. When they had poor footing and had not analyzed this enemy’s movements, they needed to avoid a direct fight.

“The black thread boat is done! Everyone get onboard!!”

Armelina opened the crab belly door and rushed out before hopping into the black boat floating on the lava. Beatrice and Filinion were somewhat slower because they were secretly waiting to see if the boat would burst into flames and sink.

Boo Boo was the last onboard and the boat remained stable.

The extremely-evolved quadruped was running toward them.

“Wait, do we have a rudder? I’m not going to stick my Shining Weapon into the lava!”

“Beatrice, use some fire Magic! Think of it like a rocket engine!!”

The many-headed wolf with sparking fur had just reached the edge of the lake.

The blast of fire from Beatrice’s rapier scored a direct hit, so the great beast lost its balance and plunged right into the burning orange lake. A scorching wave nearly hit them, but the recoil sent the boat forward. They wave landed just out of range and the black boat began safely cruising away from danger.

It seemed the veteran dead really could not cross the lava lake.

The Party finally breathed a sigh of relief.

And then the dead Soviets all raised assault rifles with white bone stocks.

This was probably not a gun salute.

“Prepare to fire!!”

“Hit and we’ll break open the battle rations. If you want dried fruit and chocolate, aim straight ahead.”

“Gyahh!! Armelina, hurry up and turn that metal staff into some kind of shield!!”

“Wait, I’m supposed to block all of that myself!?”

“Ah.”

“I still haven’t grasped all of this! Help me process this one thing at a time, Beatri-...”

“RPG!!”

Needless to say, that did not stand for role playing game.

“Bfh!? There’s no way I can block something like that!!”

Armelina’s eyes widened when she saw the world’s most famous anti-tank rocket that flew in a spiral. Without being told, they all got down in the bottom of the boat while the explosives passed by overhead.

Part 4

Incidentally, the range of rifle bullets and rockets was limited, so moving the boat away took them out of danger. Although this brought their focus onto the overall scale of the Underworld that supported the lava lake. Just the surface was this large.

“I’m not seeing any more of those multiple rocket launchers with the same name as a headband, so we should be fine this far out...”

Even though they had escaped such a desperate situation, the time that followed was so flat and uneventful that a mood of boredom quickly set in.

They crossed the hot and humid lava lake in the black thread boat.

“Again, normal recovery potions don’t have my sweat in them. That was only necessary for a specialized anti-Undead potion and that was the easiest female catalyst to acquire given the circumstances.”

“After seeing that, I’m kind of afraid of your recovery potions, Filinion.”

“It’s like the stories of passing off earthworm meat as burgers. I’m going to hold off on the swallowed potions for a while.”

“Also, don’t treat it like it’s something dirty. Especially after it saved your life! Besides, if you listed out all the ingredients of a normal recovery potion, it would be pretty nasty too. There’s tons of insect larvae and fish guts in there!!”

“...If only it could have been tears instead.”

“If it could have, I bet you would’ve blown smoke into my face. You barbarians really scare me sometimes.”

While the boat was propelled forward primarily by Beatrice’s flame Magic, that conversation seemed to be set to loop over and over again. No one expected to find something pleasant when peeking inside a witch’s pot, but it was apparently still a major shock.

“Boo. So what ended up happening? Does Filinion’s sweat have the power to purify ghosts?”

“Yes, yes. Now that’s the clean kind of image I want. This is something noble, like a holy cloth used to wipe off the skin of a god or a buddha. Or like a holy relic!”

“If that’s how it works, I can make a protective charm. As long as I have Filinion with me, I’ll be fine all alone at night!”

“Cow! I won’t forgive you if you give Boo Boo some weird fetish!!”

For a while now, Filinion had been softly jiggling up and down.

“Hold it, Filinion. What are you sitting on?”

“Oh, this? I brought that astral projection jellyfish with me.”

“We don’t even know if it’s really a jellyfish, so how can you just sit on it...?”

“And even if it was a normal jellyfish, wouldn’t sitting on it get you stung?”

They could not do anything until they had finished crossing the lava lake, so it might indeed be a good idea to scout out ahead using the astral bodies that would only return to their physical bodies if they were destroyed.

“With only lava in every direction, we probably don’t have to worry about our defenseless body being attacked. So I’ll be going. Eiyah!”

Filinion got on all fours, stuck her head into the transparent blob, and was summoned up to heaven.

(That’s fine, but isn’t she embarrassed by the way her hips are sticking out and twitching like that? Her butt is the peak of the mountain there.)

“Is something wrong, Beatrice?” asked Filinion’s astral body.

“N-no, nothing at all! Come back with good news, okay!?”

“???”

Translucent Filinion tilted her head in confusion and ignored gravity as she crossed the lava lake.

But not even thirty seconds later, the glasses girl on all fours pulled her head out from the jellyfish.

“H-huh!? What, were you already found and killed...?”

“Hey, Filinion...”

“No, no, you don’t get a turn yet! We don’t have anything else to do on the boat, so I can try this as many times as I want! Yes, it’s all about trial and error!!”

“Your reflexes have always been terrible, so whether you’re an astral body or not, won’t this trial and error be nothing but death after death?”

Armelina’s warning fell on deaf ears.

Filinion kept sticking her head inside the jellyfish and then pulling it back out, but it did not seem she was accomplishing much. Yes, if you tried to overcome a tricky part through trial and error without coming up with a plan first, you were only wasting your time.

And then Boo Boo delivered the finishing blow with a hand over his mouth and a tilt of the head.

“Squeal. She’s see-through, but you can still see her, right? So if she keeps poking around on the shore like that, won’t it cause a commotion like she’s disturbed a hornet’s nest?”

“...”

“...”

“Wait, stop! What are you doing!? Why are you shoving me out of the way as soon as I got back!? Beatrice, Armelina, if you keep this up, I’ll fall out of the boat!!”

“Gwah! This is supposed to be punishment, but her ass is so big it keeps knocking me out of the way!? Does no good deed go unpunished in the Underworld!?”

“I’m not exactly delighted about winning like this, you know!?”

However, no matter who they blamed, the alert level would not change.

The most resistance Beatrice could manage was somewhat diverting the small boat’s destination and approaching the shore a short distance away from the shortest path straight across.

While setting foot on the dark land once more, Armelina gave a warning in a low voice.

“...You really have earned yourself a yellow card this time.”

“Well, that sure is weird. Is that any way to treat the MVP who has defeated the most enemies because Recovery Magic is the best against the Undead???”

Now that they had plenty of recovery potions, the atmosphere had changed from a desperate fight to a fun adventure. The sloppy course change must have not helped much because the humans wearing thick chains and rusty shackles were wandering along the path ahead, but they were nothing to fear with Filinion’s potions.

Enemies were everywhere up ahead thanks to her haphazard trial and error, but they fortunately had not located Beatrice’s group hidden behind a rising piece of rotting flesh.

“(It would be a real pain if we were surrounded. Let’s defeat just their lookouts and keep moving.)”

The Holy Swordswoman poured one of the White Witch’s test tubes over her rapier’s skinny blade, swiftly approached from behind a dead human in shackles and rags that seemed to have originally been a surgical gown, covered their mouth, and sliced through their neck, which more or less made it dissolve. She did not give them a chance to use their Swiss Army knife boots.

The girl set down the dead human who was crumbling away without even bleeding and she gestured Boo Boo and the others over.

“That clearly isn’t something a Holy Swordswoman should be doing.”

“By the way, the ancient humans haven’t been using any Magic at all, have they?”

“Well, they haven’t crossed between worlds since they’re the original people of this world. Without the ability to reassign Experience Points, I would guess they developed some other techniques instead.”

“Yeah, like those weird boots. I’d rather not find out what each individual blade does. For that matter, these are the people who designed the giant armory and Abyss, right? Maybe we should count ourselves lucky that they haven’t brought out laser cannons and railguns.”

They could actually start observing their surroundings at this point and Beatrice realized that the ground below their feet came in a number of varieties: areas that provided solid footing, wounds that spewed magma, bogs that had completely rotted, and scab-like areas that were at the midpoint between the heat and cold.

The flesh had been torn away in some areas, leaving a cave-like opening.

“So not all the wounds have that lava blood flowing out of them.”

“The lava is like red blood, isn’t it? So are these openings ones that have stabilized, like a piercing?”

“Half-healed scabs will have a clear fluid leak out instead of red blood. Maybe it’s a distinction like that?”

They were curious about the inside of the Underworld, but the source of the heat beam that had shot down the Thousand Dragon came first.

And as they walked on an on while defeating the ancient humans with Filinion’s help, their destination eventually came into sight.

“That’s the area where the heat beam antiaircraft blast came from, isn’t it? I’m glad we got here before it fired a second shot.”

“Squeal...” Boo Boo placed a large hand over his mouth. “But there’s nothing there.”

That was right.

They had expected to find some kind of special organ like a whale’s blowhole, but there was nothing there. They only saw something like a slight hill. It was not made of living or rotting flesh; it seemed closer to a dark and hardened scab.

Beatrice put her hands on her hips and sighed.

“So the question isn’t ‘what’ did it; it’s ‘who’ did it. It seemed to be Magic, so did whoever-it-was leave on their own two feet after shooting down the Thousand Dragon?”

“Boo, maybe we should look around in case they left footprints or scraps of food.”

“No, it’s too soon to say for sure. How about we try digging a bit into that scab hill? There might be something hidden inside.”

As Boo Boo had pointed out, they could always choose to track their target using hunting techniques. Disturbing any crucial hints would only leave them wandering aimlessly, so Beatrice’s group first took Screenshots of the hill’s surface. Only then did they stab into the scab hill. It felt harder than dried mud, but not as hard as stone or rock. It was a solid mass, but it came apart pretty easily.

“Is it cooled and hardened lava?”

“It’s hard to say when we’re dealing with a mysterious creature in a foreign world.”

Beatrice and Armelina were doing most of the work. Filinion’s Shining Weapon was shaped like a first aid kit, making it unsuited for digging, and she was still a dumb cow even if she was the strongest when it came to the Undead, but since they could not trust her to keep an eye on their surroundings, they had Boo Boo guarding them.

That left the cow with nothing to do.

“Oh, there’s a lot of stuff in here. And there are plenty of glowing stones mixed in.”

“Filinion, keep an eye on our surroundings. Who knows when more of the dead will show up.”

“What is this? It looks a lot like a Red Vibration Crystal, but it comes from the Underworld. But, but. If the components are similar enough, I might be able to get it to work. Where did I put that reagent?”

“Cow.”

“Beatrice, can’t you dig more over here? Yes, here. If your rapier’s sheath is just going to hang at your hip, hand it here so I can dig with it. See, like this. Here, here! Wow, look at it all. Now that’s what I call a successful dig! I really have a knack for-...”

Before she finished speaking, something red hot rose from beyond the scab.

She had gone too far and the red blood was seeping out.

“Oh, no! Get down, Boo Boo!!”

“Squeal!!”

On Miss Armelina’s accurate advice, Everyone’s Mascot: Boo Boo widened his eyes just before a violent eruption. Much like a geyser, an orange and sticky liquid burst vertically from the crack in the ground.

And as usual, the Holy Swordswoman grabbed at the White Witch.

“Tell me: are your brains contained in your right breast or your left breast!?”

“It’s true I screwed up, but can I say one thing!?”

“Now those dead Soviet soldiers are going to attack us again! We need to get away from here!!”

The black ground was shaking, but was that due to the magma or the footsteps of an approaching army?

The lava was not going to stop after the initial eruption, so they had to move away before they were caught in a newly-formed lava river. Even this was better than having solid rocks blasted up with the eruption and then raining down with greater speed than a bullet, but...

“Squeal. Is this what that orange light was?”

“You mean someone intentionally stabbed a sword or something into the Underworld so its blood would erupt out?”

If that hill had been a giant scab, then it was actually a decent guess. Of course, there might be some other process that gathered, aimed, and fired the ultra-high pressure blood.

The Holy Swordswoman spoke in a daze while the dead pressed in from the dark horizon like a large wave.

“But who exactly fired it at the Thousand Dragon!?”

“Is this any time to sit around thinking!? We need to hide before that army gets here!!”

As soon as they said that, there was a blinding flash of light and a deafening blast. Something swept across the dark night sky with enough force to blow away the lava eruption. Instead of targeting Beatrice’s group, it passed over their heads and mercilessly burned away a distant area.

There was nothing left.

It swept across from right to left. That great firepower instantly wiped out an army of the dead so large that even Filinion had decided to avoid them despite her recovery potions.

“What a pain. I see you all are as noisy as ever. No one would ever guess you were infiltrating enemy territory. I’ll admit I would be impressed if it turned out you were intentionally using your fun adventure to confuse the enemy into making mistakes.”

And there was a voice.

That beautiful voice sounded a lot like Beatrice’s, but it had a darkness woven in.

It was a problem that this person had even managed to get this close.

And it was catastrophic that she was standing in a blind spot.

“The...Sage!?”

“Hi, Boo Boo. We have a way of meeting each other in the weirdest places, don’t we?”

Part 5

She was the one who had brought Magic and the Gates to humanity.

By freely reapplying her Experience Points, she had almost a complete mastery of Magic.

And she looked far too much like Holy Swordswoman Beatrice with her red and silver hair, scarlet armor, and pure white miniskirt.

“...Why are you here?”

“I wasn’t aware I needed anyone’s permission.”

“To put it more simply, which side are on you on right now!? The living or the dead!?”

Yes, that was the problem.

The Sage had gone missing at the end of the Abyss battle and no one had known if she was alive or dead. And this was the Underworld where the souls of the dead were reused. If the Sage was still alive, she would be acting under her own will, but if she had already died, they would have to view her as a pawn of the Underworld.

Defeating the dead Soviets was not enough to prove her allegiance. The Underworld could recapture and reuse dead souls as many times as necessary, so those might have been abandoned once to earn the trust of Beatrice’s group.

“Were you thinking this couldn’t be much worse, Beatrice?”

“...”

“And does it really matter which it is? Whether I’m acting under my own will or being controlled by someone else’s, did you really think I would ever be on your side?”

Beatrice gulped.

The Underworld had control of the old soldiers from Elkiad in their prime. If the Sage was also their enemy, then they would have the full all-star roster that had attacked the Iberian Orc village.

“Honestly, what in the world are you doing...?”

Then a new voice reached their ears.

It was a short girl with long blonde hair, white skin, and long and pointed ears. She wore a green dress cut low enough to show off not just her cleavage but all the way down below her navel. And she held a Shining Weapon that looked like a twisted staff or a bow.

“You act all cold and calculating, but you always give priority to your adlibs and teasing. It makes my head hurt. Sage, we don’t gain anything from confusing them, do we?”

“Royal Elf Sibyl...” This time it was Armelina who opened her mouth. “Did you escape the inn during the confusion with the Underworld?”

“Please do not turn such lowly suspicions toward someone with the blood of the noble forest rulers flowing in her veins. For one thing, you were the ones that arrested me, so you had a duty to ensure the safety of your prisoner. A foolish human who neglected that duty has no right to accuse me of anything.”

Sibyl gave an arrogant laugh.

...Unlike the Sage, her survival had been confirmed, but what about now? Couldn’t she have lost her life when the Underworld attacked the inn town and couldn’t she have had her chest pierced by the Sage’s hand if the other approached her while pretending to still be alive?

There was no way to tell.

The distinction between the living and the dead was too unclear here in the Underworld.

Meanwhile, Sibyl placed her hands on her slender hips and gave them an utterly exasperated look.

“We came to the heat beam’s source because we thought there might be some trace of who fired it...but it looks like that was wasted effort. Apparently, foolish humans aren’t even tactful enough to preserve the scene.”

“No, Sibyl, there are a few photos inside their Shining Weapons. And with no signs of modification. Let’s use those to try tracking down whoever fired it. We might just be able to find the Underworld Lord without resorting to wandering around randomly.”

“Wha-!?”

Beatrice belatedly grabbed her rapier’s hilt, but she could not detect any kind of change. The Sage had accessed that supposedly inviolable terminal device that managed Beatrice’s Magic and then extracted some data. This was different from the old soldiers of Elkiad who had willingly handed control over to their superior officer.

(How far does her technological skill go!?)

“Squeal... Abyss mentioned that Underworld Lord too. But who are they?”

“The source of it all, Boo Boo.” For this question alone, the Sage immediately replied with kindness in her voice. “Not that I can act all full of myself on this one. To be completely honest, the elder and I hadn’t seen past Ground’s Nir Abyss, so we never predicted the Underworld’s existence. It was a complete coincidence that I digitally saved his and the other Iberian Orc’s souls in that Shining Weapon. ...That said, I can only say it was fortunate that the Underworld didn’t get a chance to toy with them.”

“Why...are you here?”

“Now.” Her sincerity was suddenly muddied with mockery. “Let me ask you instead: what did you set foot in the Underworld to do?”

“...”

Did that mean they were thinking the same thing?

Or was even this part of the Underworld Lord’s deception?

“The only people who can touch the Iberian Orcs’ souls are me, who spent so much time with them, and Boo Boo, their proper descendent. I will not allow anyone else that privilege. I don’t know who this Underworld Lord is, but if they insist those souls belong to them, then I will unconditionally eradicate them.”

She must have had no more business here because the Sage turned her back on Beatrice’s group.

“Don’t die, Boo Boo.”

“...Squeal.”

“We might be able to save the elder and the others after dealing with this Underworld mess, but I’m afraid of losing the Shining Weapon their souls are sealed inside. So make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Part 6

At the Detached Magic Palace in Roppongi, Tokyo, the evening scene had been destroyed.

For example, the large living room’s thick bulletproof glass windows were shattered, thee picture frames on the wall were crooked, the carpet had been torn up and blown away, and the sofa and tables were flipped over. Red liquid was splattered on the walls and floor and what looked like bullet holes had somehow ended up on the ceiling.

Nothing there moved of its own volition.

The wind entering through the broken windows was so refreshing it seemed out of place and the flowers in the shattered pots on the windowsill swayed emptily. There were several silent things strewn about. One of those was wearing a maid uniform and intellectual glasses, leaning limply against a bookcase with her butt pressed against the floor, and holding a small piece of precious metal in her hand.

The thin chain of a pocket watch slipped from her weak grip and onto the floor.

The shock of falling to the trampled floor caused it to pop open. Just like a locket, which could be seen as old-fashioned in an age of digital picture frames and smartphones, it contained a photo inside. No, because thoughtless technological progress had been negligent when it came to security, she may have wanted to keep this truly precious photo near her heart in a safer, analog format.

The photo showed the red dress girl’s face.

No hand reached down to pick up the image of her respected and beloved master.

“Hey, sister...”

A weak voice spoke from the middle of it all.

It called out to an unmoving blood-related sister.

“...Wasn’t this a battle we weren’t supposed to win?”

The voice came from Misoka, the second of the three maid sisters.

She had forced herself to sit on the flipped-over sofa and she rested a mop handle on her shoulder. No, it was technically a handmade weapon with a hammer attached to the end with duct tape. With the help of centrifugal force, that device could break ribs through the thick plates of a bulletproof jacket. It was a truly devilish product of household items.

Meanwhile, the oldest sister, Iroka, began to move once more after resting all of her muscles. She collected her favorite pocket watch from the floor and spun around one of her stockings that was stuffed with several inferior wristwatches.

“That’s not our fault. We can’t choose what kind of enemy we’re up against.”

“But wouldn’t it have been beautiful if we had met our end while tearfully seeing the lady off to the other world?”

The third sister, Haruka, was on all fours and simply stuck in the space between the TV stand and the wall. Her tiny butt was sticking out and she was too dizzy to move. It seemed everyone’s strong points were different.

“So what do we do now that we accidentally won?”

“Good question. The government cares about reputation enough to use organized violence, so they’ll probably send in an even worse group next.”

If the maids had lost the surprise attack, Kasumigaseki might have been able to accept it. In this case, winning was actually calling in an even greater disaster.

“What’ll it be next? Will they jump straight to the JSDF?”

“It isn’t easy having them act within the country and they still haven’t healed the social wounds they received from losing against Tselika. I doubt the elites of Ichigaya want to send tanks through the subway tunnels and start a firefight in the middle of Roppongi right now.”

“Then what? They can’t have the stationed US troops getting involved with one of our top secret problems.”

“Maybe the riot police. My guess would be the SAT.”

“Sakuradamon’s counter-terrorist unit, huh?”

Even the second sister had to smile bitterly at that.

This had honestly escalated beyond the point that some cleverness could get them out of it.

“Either way, there is no point in resisting any longer. Besides, the Detached Magic Palace itself is under the government’s direct control.”

“But we can’t let the lady lose her home here.”

“That’s right.”

“Hey, couldn’t we just throw out that assumption about the Japanese government? The affiliation doesn’t matter as long as we can protect the lady. And the money made with her Magic and Pieces is in high demand, right?”

“Are you saying she requests to defect?”

“The standard choice would be America or Russia, but she could also go with Italy or France if she wants good food. We can’t get through the next challenge the normal way, so can’t we mess with the official registration documents and remake the Detached Magic Palace into something like an enclave? It only has to be a threat at this point, but diplomatic pressure has always been the best way of driving a wedge into Kasumigaseki’s gears.”

“It’s an interesting idea, but will the higher ups really let go of their goose that lays golden eggs?”

“They’re trying to kill her themselves.”

“That’s different from letting someone else have her.”

Just as the two maids breathed a heavy sigh, the small butt sticking out from behind the TV began to wiggle around. The youngest sister poked her head out from the gap.

“U-um, Onee-chans?”

“Oh, you’re awake, Haruka? Since we so valiantly protected the kitchen like you insisted, could you show some respect by whipping up some food real quick?”

“I can, but, um, can I make a silly suggestion first?”

“What is it?”

They were all in this together, so the second sister casually urged her on and the youngest sister hesitantly spoke up.

“Um, instead of defecting to some other country, could we maybe turn the Detached Magic Palace itself into the world’s smallest country?”

Time briefly stopped.

That opinion had caught the other two completely off guard.

“You mean we would be breaking the Vatican’s record?”

“If anything, it would probably be more like Monaco or the Cayman Islands.”

“If only something like that was so easy to do.”

“We’d honestly probably have better odds getting into a fight with the SAT.”

Iroka and Misoka laughed together for a while.

“...But it’s an interesting idea. The lady alone is responsible for 15% of the country’s national tax income. With that kind of economic effect, forming the world’s smallest independent state might not be that farfetched.”

“Plus, she needs to spend some of those assets on herself. Now, where did I put that international standard electronic format?”

Part 7

They had run across several unexpected accidents, but Boo Boo, Beatrice, and the others could not stop. Filinion’s idiocy had given away their position with a major eruption. The Sage had gotten rid of the dead Soviet troops, but it was doubtful that was all of them. It would be safest to move away before a second or third 400-man unit was sent in. Beatrice, Filinion, and Armelina especially needed to hurry since they came from earth and thus had a time limit. A few days might seem like a long time, but it was nowhere near enough given the overall size of the Underworld. To survive, they had to keep in mind how long it would take to get back, not just reach their destination.

Whatever the case, they could not waste time.

“Based on the nuance of the term, the Underworld Lord seems like a core or controller. Of course, it’s possible that defeating the big boss won’t stop the facility from running.”

“Since we’re after the same target, won’t we just be following after the Sage?”

The Fighter Priest and White Witch discussed the issue like that.

And they were still working under the assumption that the Thousand Dragon had been attacked for a good reason.

“Oh, it’s another one of those jellyfish. Let’s use the astral body to scout things out ahead while we go.”

“Don’t you dare, cow.”

“Don’t you dare, cow.”

Even if they were following the same path, Beatrice did not see working with the Sage and Sibyl as an option. Who could say when they would lose control and start a real fight to the death before even reaching the Underworld Lord?

After walking a while, their destination came into view.

A shark fin rose up like a mountain in the distance.

“Squeal?”

After twitching his large nose to gather as much information as possible, Boo Boo tilted his head.

“I think the ghosts have stopped showing up.”

“M-maybe the Sage already defeated them all? She did say some dangerous things about ‘eradication’.”

“...”

The Sage had mastery of all Magic through reallocating her Experience Points and Sibyl could freely choose and materialize residual thoughts. If they were on a rampage as the Underworld Lord’s enemy, no battle force could be more reliable.

...But that was only if they really, truly were the Underworld Lord’s enemy.

(I just hope the Sage and Sibyl didn’t just redirect the Soviet troops’ Hate values onto us, move out ahead, and then rewrite the tracks leading to the Underworld Lord.)

Beatrice had a simple reason for holding that fear. They were following the small tracks left in the Screenshots and on the ground, but they never seemed to catch up with the Sage or Sibyl.

“...This is weird.”

“What is, Beatrice?”

“I mean...even if the Sage and Sibyl left before us, could they really have gotten so far ahead that we can’t see them on the path to that shark fin?”

Their footing had grown unsure. It was not a place someone would choose to walk through.

“Uuh... The rot here is really bad.”

“Squeal. It looks like it sinks down even more, so maybe we should turn back. I know there’s nothing you can do if you start struggling only after your feet are stuck in a bottomless bog.”

But there was no need for that. The giant shark fin jutted straight up past a small hill of piled-up black mud. That holy ground would be nigh impossible to climb.

And they saw something odd as they approached.

“What is that? There’s something like barnacles covering the top.”

“No, wait, Beatrice. Keep in mind the size and scale. They look small from here, but wouldn’t they really be bigger than a domed stadium?”

“But in that case...what are those pure white plates for?”

White Witch Filinion and Boo Boo tilted their heads together.

Beatrice brought a hand to her chin for a bit and she finally muttered a term.

“...Parabolic antennae?”

“?”

“The entire fin is a giant broadcast tower.”

It was not clear until they got close.

Had the Thousand Dragon been shot down for seeing this from the air?

“And it’s a massively powerful one, just like a radio telescope. You can tell by monitoring the air with your Shining Weapon. This regular noise may be the broadcast signal.”

“B-but what are they accessing with it!? Does it connect the Underworld Lord to the Underworld itself!?”

Perhaps so, perhaps not.

Beatrice’s greatest fear lay elsewhere.

“Until now, we’ve been assuming the Underworld needs direct access to the Ground’s Nir-side Gates to perform a cyber attack, but what if that wasn’t the case?”

“!?”

“We might have miscalculated the time limit. If they’re attacking even now using that signal, they might gain a foothold for an invasion of earth sooner than we thought...”

That truth was spread out before their eyes.

If the Thousand Dragon had been able to attack with her ultra-high pressure water breath, that black Dragon would have first destroyed that obvious landmark even if she had no idea what it was for. That might have destroyed the broadcast fin and ended the cyber attack on the Gates.

“We have no material evidence, but it’s probably worth destroying. I just hope there aren’t similar fins and parabolic antennae all over the place.”

“The loss of those eyes in the sky is hurting more and more... Walking all across the Underworld with all those troops everywhere simply isn’t realistic. Besides, taking care of the broadcast tower antennae won’t solve everything.”

They would start with this one. No matter how pressing the situation, only certain ruin awaited them if they did not deal with the threat before their eyes.

But the Holy Swordswoman should have realized something.

If the alternative was losing the foundation of their strategy, the Underworld was bound to resist with all their might.

The noise that reached the girl’s ears was a wet and sticky sound very different from the dead and their dried-out skin.

Her nose detected an odd smell like a rocky beach or a rotten liquid.

Something was different from the previous unreality where the dividing line between the living and the dead was so vague. This was a kind of “flesh” that could never be found on a human but was too raw for the dead. And that presence pressed in like a solid wall.

Unable to bear it any longer, they all looked straight up.

Just then, something sliced through the sky.

“!?”

Boo Boo was already swinging around his log or steel beam of a Shining Weapon, but it was stopped partway through as if something had tangled around it. The objects wrapped around it looked somewhat like ropes or chains, but they were something else. The things looked a lot like octopus or squid tentacles with countless squirming suckers. Filinion cried out in fear.

“From above!? Did that come out of the vertical side of that fin!?”

Not even an Iberian Orc’s great body was enough to regain his freedom.

Beatrice swung her blade form the side.

“Melt Cutting!!”

The red-hot blade finally severed them, but the tentacles felt no pain and snapped back like stretched rubber.

And they led to...what was it?

The tentacles wrapped around each other to form something like an arm. The head was somewhat like a lobster’s. The scaly skin crawled, produced a creaking sound similar to some kind of carapace, and was all wet with a clear, sea-smelling liquid. It seemed to be a single body constructed by forcibly sewing together the corpses of several marine creatures.

It was actually creepier that it had a full body and walked around on two legs. There was something fundamentally different about it compared to the dead who relied on their bodies from life. Boo Boo naturally opened his mouth.

Yes, they had seen this once before.

This utterly arrogant monster had judged and crushed the 400-man units and the Another Orcs who had each taken a different evolutionary path for the land, sea, or air.

“The Underworld Lord...!?”

There was no response.

With a sticky sound, the arm of wriggling tentacles swung horizontally. A frightening saw seemingly made from shark teeth appeared from within.

That alone had already settled it.

Just by producing his weapon, that lord of all death violently shook the ground. The enormous fin tilted disconcertingly.

They could see now why the Underworld Lord had appeared on his own.

The tilting of the fin broadcast tower showed just how much damage he could do to those reliant on death. If the lord went all out, all of the dead who served him could be blown away. So the Underworld Lord would act alone.

That was how much power he contained inside.

Beatrice and Boo Boo raised their Shining Weapons, but oddly, it was a completely different problem that came to Beatrice’s mind.

(We came all the way here, but we never caught up to the Sage or Sibyl. Did they really rewrite the trail they used to track him?)

Meaning...

(The rails were changed somewhere and something was twisted. If the Underworld Lord and we are gathered here, then where did the Sage get off to!?)

Part 8

The corners of the Sage’s lips twisted up.

She had escaped the eyes that monitored everything here.

“Hmm, I see. So this is it.”

Part 9

Now that it had begun, they had to go all out if they wanted to survive.

Setting aside finding a method of releasing the Iberian Orc souls, the odds were good that directly defeating the Underworld Lord would put a stop to the invasion of earth by the dead.

The many whooshing sounds were a lot more like swinging whips than blunt weapons.

What the Underworld Lord held was less a weapon and more a torture or execution device: a giant saw made from rows of shark teeth. That alone was brutal enough, but something else mattered even more.

“It’s so hard to judge the distance!!”

There was a sudden crash of impact from outside the apparent range.

Beatrice held back the violent rows of teeth with her rapier’s hand guard and she clenched her teeth at the tingling pain in her wrist.

The arm was a bundle of several sucker-covered tentacles, so its apparent length and joints were not reliable. The attack could “extend” at seemingly any angle or speed, so it may have been best to see it as a sort of morning star.

Also...

“Let’s support Beatrice. Boo Boo, match my timing!!”

“Squeal. Got it, Armelina!!”

Beatrice bent back from the clash of weapons, so Boo Boo and Armelina cut in from the sides so she was not attacked again. One used a Shining Weapon as thick as a log or steel beam and the other used a war hammer with a beak-like point on the end so its weight could pierce through steel helmets. With their chest and hips working together, they attacked from either side like they were closing a giant pair of scissors. It should have been difficult to dodge or defend against, but...

“!?”

Their weapons swished through empty air.

The Underworld Lord had created a humanoid silhouette by forcibly sewing together multiple marine creatures, but now he had vanished into the ground below. It was like holding a handkerchief between your fingers and then letting it drop to the floor. He let his own form collapse and flatten down to dodge the surefire attack.

After missing, Boo Boo and Armelina were wide open to attack and the Underworld Lord “stood” back up right in front of them using jointless movements. The cruel shark-tooth saw gave a roar.

“Why you...!!”

That was when Filinion tossed a test tube full of a colorful liquid. That was the strongest attack against the Undead, but the Underworld Lord dodged it like a disembodied soul given physical form. Only the giant lobster head remained while the torso and limbs lost their form and fluttered around like streamers. He rotated in midair to dodge the test tube and then used that momentum to charge toward the White Witch.

The blade did not reach.

Before it could, Boo Boo recovered and kicked at the rotten soul with the sole of his foot.

The Underworld Lord’s head bounced along the ground like a soccer ball or something, but it was unclear if this did any damage at all. Were the organs and blood vessels inside even functioning in the first place? When he could tear apart his own body to that extent, it was possible he would be able to move around just fine even if he was dismembered.

And then there was the sole of Boo Boo’s foot.

Damage was done there.

It was stuck with several sharp spikes resembling small crab pincers.

“Squeal!?”

“Boo Boo!!”

That was enough for something pink and yellow to crawl toward the wound. Some mysterious mold or bacteria was trying to cause the Iberian Orc to rot from within. A single scratch would be fatal here. Beatrice did not have time to hesitate.

“Fire Throw!!”

She swung her rapier and flames rushed out as if from a wound in the world itself. And they rushed toward Boo Boo’s feet instead of toward the Underworld Lord. She had to forcibly rid him of those pathogens even as it produced a sizzling sound much like Chinese cooking. Both Boo Boo and Beatrice clenched their teeth. And the Holy Swordswoman raised her voice.

“Done! Filinion!!”

“U-understood!!”

The White Witch tossed a recovery potion to forcibly heal Boo Boo’s nearly carbonized foot. Beatrice knew this was the most logical and efficient course of action and she knew Boo Boo would have died otherwise, but she could not stop the heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

And time had not stopped in the meantime.

After “standing back up” with his full body, the Underworld Lord did not hesitate to raise his shark tooth saw. Was he going to throw it from outside its range? Beatrice did not wait around to find out.

“Metal Jet!!”

Eight beams of heat shot out and severed the Underworld Lord’s wrapped-tentacle arms at the base. A muddy liquid spurted out and Boo Boo caught the airborne saw along with the arm still holding it.

He now wielded both the blunt weapon and the defiled saw.

No matter how cruel a weapon it was, it worked to their advantage if they stole it.

Boo Boo forcefully approached with the surrounding air roaring around him, but the Underworld Lord did not appear to be in any pain. He moved as if swinging his arm and the tentacles extended to their original length.

And they were holding something: a spear adorned with lots of dead coral and barnacles. The tip pierced the severed tentacles that continued to thrash around and absorbed all of their disturbing sticky liquid.

Seeing the tentacles dry up was enough to know this weapon carried even more contamination than the saw. He must have learned that the wound given to Boo Boo had been effective. Instead of just skewering a living person, that impure spear would cause them to rot from the inside. To Armelina, it looked even more ominous than a rusty old butcher’s knife.

“Oh, no. Does his attack pattern change when you destroy a part of him!? Come to think of it, he only produced the saw after Beatrice cut away the tentacles wrapped around Boo Boo’s Shining Weapon!!”

To face Boo Boo and his dual weapons, the Underworld Lord held his spear at about the midpoint so he could swing both the tip and the bottom. It looked like Boo Boo was pushing forward, but he was not doing any real damage. In fact, the lord was jumping back to regain the optimum distance.

“...”

Unsurprisingly, there was no conversation.

Boo Boo and his stolen saw clashed with the Underworld Lord and his spear at high speed. But this was not the end of it. Just as destroying parts of him had changed his attack pattern, it was unlikely this would end as a simple – albeit unusual – physical clash as it had with the saw.

“It’s coming...”

According to Abyss, the Underworld Lord did not hesitate to bring destruction. Robbing bodies of their souls and then enslaving those souls was the norm for him, so he only saw the living bodies as something like an egg’s shell or a vegetable’s skin. It was not that he killed people because he had a reason to; he did not spare people because he had no reason to. He had once destroyed the entire human race in this world and that same policy was now targeted at Boo Boo, Beatrice, and the others.

It was an almost refreshing level of evil.

Armelina gave a cry after picking up on a change in his breathing.

“Be careful, Boo Boo. He’s about to move!!”

The Underworld Lord tossed the impure spear straight up and small, pin-like weapons shot out like it was a hedgehog. They had likely been sticky threads to begin with, but their great speed made them as solid as an awl. It did not matter to him that they rained down on him as much as his targets. This fight entirely surpassed the logic of the living.

“Tch!!”

Beatrice immediately swung her rapier and produced explosive flames, but the real problem was not the deadly downpour directly assaulting them from overhead.

What amounted to long, long wires had been scattered all across the area. And Beatrice’s Party could not afford to forget that they were currently standing on an enormous marine creature that produced something other than red blood when injured.

“Not good!!” shouted Armelina.

A moment later, red boiling lava erupted all over. The intense eruption was like an upside-down waterfall and it came with overwhelming heat and a sulfurous stench. They would be helpless if they were caught in that and the Underworld Lord continued his attacks.

Yes, even this was only preparation.

How was it he had shot down the Thousand Dragon while she flew so high in the sky?

“It...can’t be...!!”

With an unpleasant sound, a massive amount of lava was condensed into spheres around the Underworld Lord. The many throbbing spheres moved like giant rolling eyeballs and faced the Holy Swordswoman and the others.

His true attack had finally been launched.

The released lava glowed as it sliced through the night air like several laser beams.

Beatrice was already drawing out complex paths with wings of fire and Armelina was making intentionally-fragile metal shields so they would redirect the lava as they were destroyed. Boo Boo grabbed Filinion by the hips and dove onto the rotting flesh.

It was all a complete mess.

They were not even sure if they were alive or dead. They thought they had safely avoided the attack, but they would have believed it if they were told they had long since been vaporized and were now ghosts thanks to the Underworld’s power.

That heat beam anti-aircraft blast had accurately shot down the Thousand Dragon from extreme long range.

And in a single shot.

“Wh-what do we do about that!?”

Armelina sounded completely at a loss for once.

...Perhaps they should have defeated him before it came to this.

Wouldn’t it have been best to hold back as long as possible on destroying parts of him and thus letting him change attack patterns? Then they just had to hit him with major attacks from all of them at once to kill him before he could use that special attack.

But since they had come here without knowing how he worked, the Underworld Lord had essentially won from the start. If they let that powerful current push them away, they would be right where he wanted them and suffer a severe defeat.

His normal attacks were bad enough because they would gradually fill the entire area with lava. That would rob them of footing and cut off any escape. The Underworld Lord had the advantage no matter what.

The ancient humans of this world had had greater technology than on earth, but there had been nothing they could do beyond leaving the task to Abyss, their ultimate weapon. Had there been no hope of overcoming that gap when thoughtlessly challenging him?

As the scarlet Holy Swordswoman wondered that, she heard a very familiar voice.

Yes, it belonged to Boo Boo.

“Squeal... But how did Abyss plan to defeat the Underworld Lord?”

“?”

Beatrice’s slender shoulders jumped.

That casual question had contained a very important meaning.

Yes, Abyss had been meant to battle the Underworld Lord. Whether or not she could have actually won, she would not have even been sent out if she did not stand a chance.

Inside the Labyrinth, Abyss had freely defeated Gimmicks, earned Experience Points, and acquired various kinds of Magic to obtain even greater power.

But she had been focused on the same thing as Holy Swordswoman Beatrice, White Witch Filinion, and Fighter Priest Armelina: Magic.

(What was Abyss trying to do by gaining all of that Magic for herself? She had to have had something decisive beyond being an inorganic doll without a soul that the Underworld could control. But what was it!?)

With a sticky sound, the Underworld Lord’s right tentacle arm produced another impure spear covered in coral and barnacles.

“Damn, can we steal the weapon before he can do anything with it!? Like before!!”

“Do you really think we’ll have enough of an opening!? And changing his attack pattern even more wouldn’t help!”

At this rate, he would launch that same lava attack again.

If they could not escape the enemy’s pattern and he attacked again with those heat beam anti-aircraft blasts, they really would lose any place for themselves. A direct hit meant instant death, but the overflowing lava would spread until there was no ground left. Things might have been different with the Ice Waterfall Princess’s cooling ability, but she was not with them this time.

(Multiple people working together can use multiple Elements at once.)

There was no time.

Beatrice raised her rapier again.

(So what is it Abyss has that we don’t!?)

The Holy Swordswoman in red armor and a white miniskirt felt like something flashed in the back of her mind.

But before that, the Underworld Lord threw his impure spear and white threads shot out like it was a hedgehog.

Part 10

There was hope.

Where had the hint come from?

“Abyss has learned new Magic. Metal Jet: standby.”

...It may have been that voice that monitored Abyss’s situation inside the Labyrinth below the island’s surface.

“Alpha Eight, barrel. Alpha Nine, shell. Alpha Twelve, sight.”

“Data link established. Begin combined action.”

...It may have been Omega’s tactic that combined the control of several people’s Shining Weapons.

“No, Sibyl, there are a few photos inside their Shining Weapons. And with no signs of modification. Let’s use those to try tracking down whoever fired it.”

...It may have been the Sage’s ability to illegally access their Shining Weapons with such ease.

At any rate, the red Holy Swordswoman had reached the following conclusion:

“A cyber attack!! Abyss was trying to separate the Underworld Lord from the Underworld to take away his power!!”

“Eh? Eh?”

“Just run. We probably have the best odds in that badly rotted area!!”

As soon as she said that, Beatrice turned around and set things in motion. Boo Boo and the others moved away from the giant fin as if tumbling down the hill of softly rotted flesh. The Underworld Lord pursued them by repeatedly firing highly-compressed lava beams at them.

“We just have to change how we look at this.”

While fleeing, Beatrice had more than just tension and fear on her face. She also showed the hope of someone who had a chance at victory.

“Why did the Underworld Lord show up here? He has so many troops and yet he’s personally firing those heat beams, so there must be something inconvenient for him here. And even if that includes the fin broadcast tower or the parabolic antennae covering it like barnacles, those aren’t necessarily the only things!!”

“Then what is it, Beatrice!? You mentioned a cyber attack before, right!?”

“The biggest ability that Abyss has and we don’t is probably the data link between her and the Labyrinth. She was equipped with a high-level wireless communications system from the beginning. The same is true of the Underworld Lord who doesn’t have any real devices. Abyss was meant to fight by severing the link between the Underworld and its lord using an ECM or cyber attack, just like an electronic-warfare aircraft!”

“But what does any of that have to do with what we’re doing here!?”

“The fin is emitting an EM signal for a cyber attack on the Gates and to interfere with Shining Weapons. That means the Underworld must have some kind of internal network for transferring electric signals, right!? I don’t know if it uses nerves or lymph glands, but if we can dig that up, we might be able to hook up our Shining Weapons with a cable and hack in even without a dedicated system like Abyss has!!”

“!?”

“The Underworld Lord showed up because he was afraid of that. And without speaking a word so we wouldn’t catch on to the real reason! That’s also the purpose behind the over-the-top lava attack that can take out even a Break News. And why he exposed himself to danger to lure us into destroying parts of him so he would change his attack pattern. The lord can’t fire that heat beam without repeatedly destroying a part of himself, so he must have wanted to shoot down the Thousand Dragon badly enough destroy his own body. We saw the result, remember? That scab of cooled and hardened lava! There’s a part of the rotting flesh ground we can probably dig up, so he’s trying to cover the data lines with magma and seal it up with new flesh and blood!!”

The Underworld Lord’s greatest attack was the ultra-high pressure lava attack which was also used to camouflage his repair work. But that was strongly dependent on the Underworld it used as a foundation. What if the girls contacted the giant marine creature below their feet and managed to freely control the flow of blood within? They might be able to stop the erupting “blood” no matter where the Underworld Lord stabbed into the ground. If you cut off the water at the purification plant upstream, no water would leak out even if the pipes had ruptured downstream.

“We need to find the contact point that will act as the Underworld Lord’s Achilles’ heel! There has to be one around here somewhere!!”

Several lava beams attacked them from behind. Meanwhile, Beatrice, Boo Boo, and the others ran down a gentle slope formed by especially soft and crumbling rotting flesh.

“There’s a weird smell here,” said Boo Boo with a twitch of his large nose. “It isn’t just rotting flesh or lava. It’s more like...yes, like down where Abyss was...”

“Where, Boo Boo!?”

The Holy Swordswoman followed his gaze and found it.

The rotting ground of the Underworld was especially bumpy and looked like it would begin to bleed and crumble away all on its own. She saw some kind of smooth luster coming from the wound. It was a high-speed cable covered in a white protective material, so it looked horribly out of place in the black and rotted flesh. It was probably made from a powder of a ceramic material or the same white bone as the parabolic antennae. It looked as sinister as a metal skewer accidentally thrown out in the can for raw garbage, but that was the secret the Underworld Lord feared would get out.

Beatrice pulled a Shining Weapon cable out of her pocket and attached it to her rapier. The Sage had combined the pieces of several broken Shining Weapons to increase the processing power and Beatrice herself had connected her Shining Weapon to Abyss to contact her.

This was the same.

The Underworld Lord would not have shown so much fear if this was not possible.

So.

“Connect...”

She sliced through the existing cable and connected her own to it.

They were clearly being targeted while she came to a stop for this work.

“Conneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeect!!”

And...

And...

And...

Part 11

Nothing happened.

That fearsome lord of death had been damage the Underworld so crimson lava would erupt out, but there was now nothing around him. As if the tap had been turned off, the fierce attacks of lava had been sealed away.

Of course, the Underworld Lord himself had not been defeated.

Since he had not, the battle was continuing.

But his greatest weapon had been sealed away. If all he could do was swing around that shark tooth saw or the impure spear covered in dead coral and barnacles, Beatrice’s group could handle it. That would mean the end. It was checkmate. Once they fought the old-fashioned way and defeated the Underworld Lord, the invasion of earth would end. And with that direct threat removed, they could search the entirety of the vast Underworld for a method of freeing the Iberian Orc souls.

The Underworld Lord must have viewed the severing of his coordination as destroying a portion of his body because his right tentacle arm wriggled. Several crossbows emerged, but Beatrice could shoot down the bolts using the various forms of Magic controllable through her Shining Weapon rapier. He was nothing to fear anymore.

Or so she thought.

But a moment later...

“Eh?”

She uttered a puzzled voice.

With far too light a sound, a brutal blade emerged from the center of her chest.

Part 12

It happened so quickly.

And Beatrice should have expected something like this.

All they had done was take away one of the Underworld Lord’s means of attack. The battle was not yet over and you never knew how things would turn out until the very last moment. So if you let your guard down at some point before then, what happened next was only natural.

The attack had come from behind.

The object that pierced through her back and out the center of her chest was as thick as a fingertip. The weapon was covered in an insulating material and the end glistened with a metallic shine. It was the Underworld’s data wire that they had undoubtingly believed was their primary hope.

While the Underworld Lord distracted them, it had risen behind the Holy Swordswoman like a cobra and then stabbed through her.

This was a fatal blow from the Underworld itself.

Meaning...

(That was...camouflage? I hadn’t taken control of the Underworld...?)

“Bea-...!?”

The shocking sight drew Filinion and Armelina’s eyes toward the girl’s chest, which proved a lethal mistake.

Their enemy had projectile weapons and an attack could come from any direction at any time.

Everything rushed in while their attention was diverted from him.

It all fell apart.

Once one thing broke, it was all over. There was no building on this or redoing it. They lost everything and received no mercy whatsoever.

White Witch Filinion’s neck bone was broken through.

Fighter Priest Armelina’s gut was punched through.

There was a high-pitched sound and some sparks. By the time Boo Boo finally knocked down the flying data cable with his giant Shining Weapon, the situation had advanced beyond the point of no return.

The entire area was colored red and filled with a rusty smell. And the girls corpses were cruelly scattered across the ground. The overwhelming silence left no room for speaking.

Death arrived far too suddenly.

There was no time for an emotional or dramatic build-up.

No matter how much work had gone into reaching this point, letting their guard down even slightly had caused it all to fail.

Wasn’t this something Boo Boo himself had experienced before? There had been no advance warning of the attack on the Iberian Orc village. He had gone out to play like normal and returned like normal only to find it was already over. That was how death worked. You could not attach unnecessary meaning to it.

“You...”

Several pulleys turned before Boo Boo’s eyes as the crossbows embedded in the tentacles mechanically drew their bowstrings. The straining noise sounded like crude laughter to his ears.

Boo Boo would not allow anyone to take a life for any reason other than survival or food.

He knew he would become an unstoppable incarnation of destruction if he chose to use violence and justified it with an unnecessary concept of justice or revenge.

Yes.

That was true.

But so what?

“Yooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!”

He finally erupted.

Until this day, he had been left with kind hopes and desires from so many people.

But he now tore those to shreds as he released the incarnation of rage within him.

Part 13

“Oh, dear.”

And.

After completing her task and returning to the scene, the Sage spoke with more than a little surprise in her voice.

“Now this might be bad. Honestly, I never know what to do about you.”

Between the Lines 2

Boo Boo did not remember his meeting with Beatrice being all that dramatic.

Back when he was still small and round like a stuffed animal, his luck had run out when he had heard some happy-sounding voices in the forest and decided to approach them.

(Squeal!? Humans!!)

Yes, he had found a group of humans there

Humans were generally only interested in the Labyrinth that extended deep underground, but they were not exactly a welcome sight for an Iberian Orc. They kept human statues in their homes at the village and called them messengers from heaven, but if an Iberian Orc actually ran across them, the humans would throw rocks at them for no reason. Boo Boo had been told they did that because they were afraid and not because they hated the Iberian Orcs, but it was still not a nice feeling.

He preferred not to think about what they would do if they captured a small and round one like him. Some strength was needed to safely escape them and small Boo Boo clearly lacked that.

Humans were scary.

They had a power that did not exist in the natural world.

(What do I do? I have to run away, but they would find the village if they followed me. I have to take a long way around and lose them first, but then I might get lost!)

He began to panic and ran back and forth on the spot, but...

“S-squeal!!”

A solid impact soon followed.

No one had hit him. He had run head-first into a large tree all on his own. He was knocked back onto his butt and rolled backwards from there. The pain and confusion finally brought tears to the corners of his large eyes.

That was when it happened.

The pain growing in his forehead suddenly receded.

He looked up in wonderment and saw a hand there. Someone was holding their hand over his forehead. Even after realizing it was a human, he oddly did not jump up to his feet. He did not sense the usual dark malice coming from this person.

“You’ll be fine.”

She wore red armor and a miniskirt.

The Magic-using lifeform was entirely different from Boo Boo’s species and she spoke with a small smile. It was not brought on by her own emotions. It was clearly made in order to calm Boo Boo.

“It wasn’t much of an injury. This should be enough to get rid of the pain.”

“S-squeal?”

Boo Boo blinked his eyes and asked a hesitant question.

“You aren’t going to shout at me? You aren’t going to hit me?”

He was afraid that she would say she would do those things.

Not because that would mean she would attack him with hostility on full display, but because it would mean a division between them that necessitated fighting back.

But that human shook her head.

She maintained her kind smile and did not hesitate to answer him.

“I won’t do that.”

“...That’s a relief.”

Boo Boo got up.

He swung his little hands and smiled up at her.

“I’ll be your friend. I can be friends with you!!”

“Bhh, bhhh...”

Memories were not always viewed the same.

Even if the data accumulated in the brain was the same, one’s emotions at the time of recollection could greatly alter the impression they left.

At the moment, that memory was like a torrent of magma.

“Bmoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Notes

1. ↑ In Japanese, a girl’s headband is known as a Katyusha.