Chapter 73: Putting Feelings Into a Moment, Part 20
Using Vorpal Blade Art [Water Mirror Moon], I erased my aggro. In that same instant, Pencilgon burst forward, swapping in and dousing Wethermon in what was likely magic flame. She'd said she'd handle it — so all I needed to do now was prepare for the final moment.
Sunraku: "Togetsu — Moonblades: Waxing & Waning is ready. Fifteen seconds left. You talked big, so you'd better hold out, Pencilgon...!"
Pencilgon: "Ah— crap."
Oi, she barely lasted five seconds. Wethermon the Tombguard seized her and slammed her into the ground, where she burst into polygons. I hurled a revival item at her, then danced back out in front of Wethermon. Well, even just a few seconds — if I think of it as a moment to loosen the tension, it wasn't a complete waste.
Sunraku: "Stay back, Pencilgon!"
Pencilgon: "Ah— sorry!"
Sunraku: "Nothing we can do about it!"
Going zero-frame spam without getting used to it first is a recipe for accidents — hell, I've died a fair few times myself exactly like that. Once I confirmed Pencilgon had fallen back, I threw myself back into Clear Sky Conquest.
(Ten more seconds. Eight... six... four... one.)
Sunraku: "Good!"
Adjustments complete. Now I just needed to survive thirty more seconds, and all the preparations would come together.
Sunraku: "Bring it! From here on out, it's the real deal — the climax!"
Dodge the blade. Slip past the pillar of flame. Deflect the grasping palm. Now that I thought about it, this battle had only started a scant thirty minutes ago, yet I'd somehow gotten awfully comfortable dealing with all this. Energy-drink power, maybe? The thirty seconds felt like an eternity. Leap over the cloud arm, sprint through the rain of lightning, dodge the blade once more. Just a little more. Ten seconds.
Wethermon: "Ash Blizzard."
Sunraku: "Five seconds!"
Four. Thread through the gray encirclement.
Three. The hyper-speed iai slash released — I ducked under it.
Two. Wethermon's movements froze for an instant. Here it comes...!
One. I shifted into a counter stance. A paired set of blades into a single blade. After enduring and enduring, the recast timer finally finished — I reactivated the skills...!
Zero.
Sunraku: "H-Huh?!"
A hollow, deflating sensation — the feel of a skill failing to activate because the recast timer wasn't actually finished. In other words, the skill didn't fire. Before me stood Wethermon the Tombguard, blade raised high. Togetsu — Moonblades: Waxing & Waning had already finished merging. But now that the weapon type had changed, without the buffs from Climax Boost and Hunger Wolf, a parry would never be fast enough.
Sunraku: "Don't tell me..."
Had I miscounted the seconds? Skipped a few somewhere? No, that wasn't it.
Sunraku: "My HP isn't low enough."
Wethermon: "Tensei."
Sunraku: "Ahh... I screwed up."
The activation condition wasn't met, so the skill never triggered. Making a basic mistake like this — I couldn't believe it. And from here, there was no way I could prep a self-resurrection. The blue blade swung down, and I had no answer for it. Even for me, pulling something out of this situation was...
Pencilgon: "HEY, WETHERMON — MAKER OF WOMEN CRY!"
In that instant, Wethermon the Tombguard's movements — however briefly — came to a complete halt.
Wethermon: "...Ah."
It was because Pencilgon, who'd fallen back, and Oikatzo, who'd crawled his way to his target location, had destroyed the grave of Setsuna of Bygone Days and provoked Wethermon the Tombguard. Because Wethermon the Tombguard had, as a result, taken his awareness completely off me.
What exactly Pencilgon had shouted at Wethermon — and the fact that the character Wethermon had prioritized his lover's grave over the enemy right in front of him — none of that mattered to me at this precise instant.
Sunraku: "Oi, Wethermon. Taking your eyes off your opponent... you've got some nerve."
A single second of time. But those sixty frames meant more to me than anything in the world...!
The twin blades of Togetsu — Moonblades: Waxing & Waning joined pommel-to-pommel, forming the single-edged greatsword configuration [Dual Crescent Moon]. I slashed open my own abdomen with it. Self-damage tore through my HP, and the number plummeted toward zero. But I knew. I knew about one of the changes in the major update that had gone live exactly thirty minutes ago. A line from that gaming magazine I'd read in the convenience store that day.
————In this update, the activation conditions for Luck-based "Guts" will be modified. Specifically...
Sunraku: "'When it comes to self-inflicted damage or recoil damage, if your Luck is 50 or above, you will always survive with 1 HP...!'"
My HP stopped falling with just a sliver remaining, held steady. The numbness in my flank prickled and itched; my body was heavy, but I drowned all of it out with sheer willpower and skills. Activate Climax Boost. Feed the boosted stats into Hunger Wolf and layer it on even further.
Everyone — absolutely everyone — was fixated on that NPC Setsuna. Even Wethermon the Tombguard, it seemed, couldn't resist those feelings. But the only thing I care about is this single instant — this one fleeting moment. One move to checkmate.
Clear Sky Conquest: the chain of actions that ends with Tensei. In other words: if you don't fire Tensei, you can't finish... Not Clear Sky Conquest's sequence, and not even that long, long oath of the Tombguard!
Sunraku: "On behalf of my boss back home — I'll knock you flat and put you to sleep... Crescent Vorpal!"
Wethermon: "...Tensei!"
The ability set for Togetsu — Moonblades: Waxing & Waning [Dual Crescent Moon] was brutally simple. The weaker you were compared to your enemy — the slower, the frailer, the more fragile — across every parameter from HP to Luck, the higher your critical hit damage and success rate rose.
Doping, buffs, all of it pumped my stats up, yet Wethermon still outmatched me. Against him, I unleashed the exclusive skill usable only when Togetsu — Moonblades: Waxing & Waning was merged — Crescent Vorpal — and it came packed with guaranteed critical success and maximum critical damage as it met Wethermon's descending blade head-on.
The recoil was going to be brutal later — that certainty filled my brain, running at full throttle, making my vision seem like slow motion. Before my eyes, Wethermon's sword — wreathed in power that brought every conceivable death and destruction — was met by the blade of Dual Crescent Moon, striking the flat of the blue sword as if deliberately avoiding the edge. With the overwhelming force of a critical hit dealing fatal damage, I shoved the blade aside mid-swing — driven downward by terrifying strength — and without letting up an ounce of power, followed through to the very tip of the swing...
Sunraku: "Instant-death strike... cleared."
Wethermon: "............"
The tip of Wethermon's blade never touched me. It slammed into the ground right beside me.
In the silence, I exhaled hard. Whether or not CO2 was actually leaving my lungs in-game, I don't know — but along with the breath, the strength threatened to drain from my entire body. I fought back the feeling.
Wethermon: "...Magnificent."
He pulled his sword from the earth. I instinctively braced for combat, but Wethermon the Tombguard made no move to cut me down. He simply stood there, silent.
Wethermon: "Clear skies turned, and with them, my ultimate Tensei. Words shift, and turn to praise... Truly splendid that you saw through my ultimate technique."
Sunraku: "That's... a pun..."
Saying it at a moment like this was beyond absurd, but the sudden wordplay slipped out before I could stop myself.
Wethermon: "Kah-kah... Setsuna often told me... the same..."
Sunraku: "..."
I felt the faintest flicker of fondness for the character named Wethermon. But the scenario advanced without mercy. From Wethermon the Tombguard's body came the sounds of cracking and groaning. The blue flames that had been spewing from every part of him were gone now; only faint, thin wisps of dying smoke still rose.
Wethermon: "Once more... truly, magnificent... Descendant... of the 'Pioneers'..."
Wethermon the Tombguard... no. His long oath and duty complete, now simply Wethermon — his arms fell. His legs crumbled. His torso slammed into the ground, and with it, everything collapsed.
Wethermon: "My body... decays... I... sleep... Ahh, Setsuna... now... I go... to where you are..."
With those final words, Wethermon's head toppled from his body. Even the thin, smoldering smoke ceased. The armor that had been so impossibly sturdy crumbled away.
Sunraku: "Is it... over?"
Oikatzo: "If this turns into another chain of battles, I'm seriously gonna cry."
Pencilgon: "Surely that's not happening..."
But with no notification appearing to confirm we'd cleared the Bonus Unique Scenario, it was pretty much guaranteed there was still something left. Oikatzo, Pencilgon, and I all remained on guard, scanning our surroundings... and then the field began to change.
The cherry tree — which had bloomed with an unnatural, almost unsettling beauty even during the battle — rapidly withered and died, reverting to the same dead tree that had stood in the Hidden Garden before we'd entered the inverted world. And beside it — when had she appeared? — stood a translucent woman, silent and still.
Setsuna: "Arthur. And Oikatzo... and Sunraku too... You did it. You truly did."
Pencilgon: "Setsu-chan..."
Setsuna: "All three of you — truly, thank you. My wish... no. The wish that 'Setsuna' held in the distant past... has been fulfilled, here and now."
Hm? Something about that phrasing nagged at me. She was talking as if she herself wasn't Setsuna.
Pencilgon: "Setsu-chan — wait, you're not Setsuna yourself?"
Setsuna: "No, Arthur... I am certainly 'Setsuna.' But I am not the same as the Setsuna who died that day. I am a remnant born from Setsuna's wish — from that feeling of 'If my lover will be bound to my death forever, please, make it stop.' A copy, so to speak — like a manuscript reproduced down to the very handwriting. Once my role is complete... I am meant to vanish."
Sunraku: "Ah... so that's why it's 'of Faraway Days'..."
Not the real Setsuna. A remnant of the past — the wish of the real Setsuna from a time long, long ago, given form. A copy-pasted, reproduced existence, I suppose. Even as I thought it, static flickered across the illusory smile on Setsuna's face.
Pencilgon: "Setsu-chan..."
Setsuna: "Don't be sad, Arthur. The moment the world answered her wish... it was decided that this would happen someday."
Already fading from the feet upward, Setsuna's expression shifted from a fleeting smile to a serious one as she looked at each of us in turn.
Setsuna: "You are Pioneers. Descendants of Project Two — those who "open up" the world. If you wish to learn the truth of your own roots — the truth of this world — then seek out 'Bahamut.'"
Oikatzo: "Bahamut?"
Sunraku: "You don't know? It's the fish that's pretty much treated as a dragon."
Oikatzo: "I knew that much... Pencilgon, you know anything about a Bahamut in this game?"
Pencilgon: "No — at least, if it's something players named, that's one thing, but there shouldn't be any monster called Bahamut... Setsu-chan, what do you—"
Setsuna: "Fufufu. From here on, you'll have to find out on your own. After all... that's what it means to carve open the future, isn't it?"
Her serious expression replaced by a mischievous smile, Setsuna was already nearly faded away.
Setsuna: "...Ah. One last thing. Arthur — these aren't words from 'Setsuna.' They're from me, to you."
Pencilgon: "Huh?"
Setsuna: "Thank you for always coming to see me. I love you, Arthur."
Pencilgon: "Wha— ah... same here!"
With those words and a smile in full bloom, the NPC Setsuna of Bygone Days vanished completely. The few remaining polygons burst and scattered like bubbles — and this time, true silence ruled over all.
Sunraku: "Hey, Pencilgon..."
Pencilgon: "...Snf. I'm not crying."
Sunraku: "I haven't even said anything yet."
Her scrubbing at her face with both hands lent her words precisely zero credibility. Still — special dialogue based on affection levels? That AI was monstrous. Someone should bottle this and force-feed it to Fuckaria, who wouldn't stop babbling about her memories even when you punched her, kicked her, or set her on fire.
Oikatzo: "That wasn't so much a denial as it was basically a confession, you know?"
Sunraku: "Who knew Pencilgon had a 'warm tears' function too."
Pencilgon: "This feeling... could this be... a heart...?"
Pencilgon: "That's the same bit from before! Enough already — I'll strangle you both!!"
Sunraku: "Oh crap, she's unarmed so the kill method is way too visceral!"
Oikatzo: "Getting PK'd at this point would be the absolute worst! Sacrifice yourself instead, Sunraku!"
As we noisily scrambled around, a window finally appeared. Pencilgon stopped chasing us, straightened herself, and spoke.
Pencilgon: "Anyway — both of you, thank you for indulging my selfishness. Thanks to you, we made it all the way to scenario clear."
Sunraku: "What's with the formality? We joined because we wanted to. No thanks necessary."
Oikatzo: "Yeah, the title of being the first-ever Unique Monster slayers since Shangri-La Frontier launched is reward enough."
Sunraku: "Bragging about piggybacking on someone else's Unique... is that really fun...? Quit it — stop aiming precisely for my solar plexus!"
Oikatzo: "You're one to talk! I'm about to knock you flat!"
As Oikatzo and I squabbled, Pencilgon — wearing a smile that was neither her model smile nor her fearless villain grin, but a genuine smile from the heart — made her declaration.
Pencilgon: "All right, you bastards — let's check our rewards and celebrate!"
『Wethermon the Tombguard has entered eternal slumber.』 『The remnant of Setsuna has fulfilled her wish of bygone days.』 『Bonus Unique Scenario "From the Living World, With Love" cleared!』 『Title acquired: "Watcher of the End"』 『Title acquired: "One Who Thinks of a Moment"』 『Title acquired: "Ancestor's Seal of Approval"』 『Accessory acquired: "Inventoria"』 『Item acquired: "Clear Sky Style Secret Tome"』 『Item acquired: "Truth of the World, Tombguard Edition"』 『Bonus Unique Scenario "Epic of Vorpal Bunny" has progressed!』 『World Quest "Shangri-La Frontier" has progressed!』