Chapter 203: Together Under Heaven — Part Nine

[I wanted a cute fallen angel, but the gacha gave me a not-cute fallen angel.]

A sensation of floating, then the impact of falling. But it wasn't enough to call damage, nor was it enough pressure to crush Emul.

Sunraku: "Ubeh."

Emul: "Fugyuu—"

It felt like when you're doing push-ups and your arms give out, collapsing under you. You reflexively say "ow," but there's no actual damage. That kind of feeling.

Emul: "I-it seems the others are safe too, wa... Ugh, my face hurts, wa..."

Sunraku: "Emul, I'll listen to your complaints later... Ready your weapon."

I see. Looks like we're heading straight for the boss this time, for real. Still, this bastard sure knows how to make every single event a spectacle... What, is he still busy leveling the playing field?

Akitsu Akane: "Th-the castle!"

The castle of Ruluiath—no, Ruluia—the very castle we'd been exploring until just moments ago, is being reassembled. It's as if someone took a castle built from blocks, dismantled it, and then rebuilt it into something completely different—fast-forwarded. A supernatural feat that could never happen in reality. And there's one more thing I've realized.

Sunraku: "Look. The sky."

Not the canopy of the ocean floor where marine snow drifts upward from below. A true, genuine night sky, shining with atmosphere and stars and the moon. Amidst the castle disintegrating in the blink of an eye, I—Sunraku—and Emul have seen the sky for the first time in seven full days.

Mold: "Aren't we falling?!"

Rust: "...It's like an elevator fall, so... we're fine. Probably."

Mold: "I wanted you to say that with confidence, even without proof, Rust!"

Maybe I should take a page from their book—still cracking jokes at a time like this. But the fact is, right now we're standing on the floor of the throne room, left behind in a circular shape, plummeting downward at ferocious speed. As if the castle itself has turned into a tornado, every component that made up the castle is scattering outward, spreading around us as the center.

Pillars lined up at equal intervals. Bricks formed a staircase. Candelabras became lighting fixtures. The building materials—equal in mass to the castle—swirl in a vortex, constructing a coliseum.

Akitsu Akane: "Uh, it's like that! Italy's gutsy thing!"

Psyger-0: "Do you mean... the Colosseum... in Italy, perhaps?"

Akitsu Akane: "That's it!"

Incredible. Aside from the "tt," she barely grazed the actual word, but I can still understand the nuance. Though the bowl-shaped circular arena is indeed reminiscent of the Colosseum... except for the fact that it's about the size of a baseball dome or larger.

Sunraku: "Is everyone okay?!"

Emul: "Hai na!"

Ceecrue: "No need for concern, de gozaru!"

Araba: "We're fine over here as well!"

Stude: "I-I'm okay too!"

Alright, the NPCs seem fine. Players just respawn somewhere when they die anyway, so our lives are cheap, cheap. Now then, is the organizer who built this special ring planning to make his entrance in a mask? Bring it on. I'm wearing a mask too, so let's have ourselves a mask-ripping death match.

Ctarnidd: "Show me."

Sunraku: "Mm."

Emul: "Pii!?"

Ah, the NPCs are definitely not fine. Emul's trembling on top of my head so hard my own head's started vibrating. I try talking to her, pulling her ears, but she's completely catatonic. The culprit's obvious, but let's try to assess the situation. First: that voice that sounded like it'd been heavily processed inside my head—like a massive pile of rusty nails mixed with mud and slammed against a blackboard—how to describe it... a voice that feels like the back of your molars are being scraped out... It's safe to assume the other players and NPCs heard it too.

Ctarnidd: "The inherited will."

Sunraku: "Aaagh! Even if you have to use helium, at least speak with a slightly less awful voice!"

This is at the level where Wethermon's voice sounds beautiful! Dammit, just by speaking, the bastard not only puts NPCs into a provisional "Terror" state, but even saps players' concentration?! Actually, where even is Ctarnidd himself in the first place? I suppress the urge to grind my teeth and scan our surroundings.

Akitsu Akane: "Sunraku-san... above you!"

Not left, right, front, or back—above, huh. No wonder everyone was looking up.

Sunraku: "What the hell is that?"

It's not unusual for a final boss's first form to look strange. A final boss that at first glance seems weaker than the mid-bosses, only to transform into a monster—you could even call that a classic trope. That's exactly why I initially thought that giant octopus form was its first form. If that's the case, is this the second form? Or...

Sunraku: "Tch. At the very least, if we don't do something, the NPCs are gonna turn into dead weight..."

Rust: "Sunraku, what do we do?"

Sunraku: "First, we need to get the NPCs off to the side, or they'll just be punching bags."

Mold: "I'll guide them away."

Sunraku: "Thanks, Mold."

They're completely stupefied—even Araba and Ceecrue. This thing is clearly meta-gaming against NPCs. Still, I doubt the NPCs will remain useless until the battle ends.

Emul: "Ah, ah, ah..."

Sunraku: "Alright, Emul, just stay off to the side for a bit... Now, does anyone have a ranged attack that can reach that thing?"

I point at the entity that still hasn't broken its silence—something that can only be described as a bizarre form, eyeballs and tentacles sprouting from an octagram magic circle deployed overhead—Ctarnidd. I pose the question to the players who are still functional.

Rust: "...In the upward direction, even my Strong Bow probably can't reach."

Psyger-0: "I suspect... all magic in general suffers from distance attenuation and... won't reach."

If that's the case, then I'm the only one who can move—just as I'm thinking that, Rei-shi, prefacing with a "however," turns her face toward a certain person.

Psyger-0: "Probably, among everyone here, the magic with the longest range is... Akitsu Akane-san's [Dragon Breath]. If it truly imitates Siegwurm's breath... it should... most likely reach."

Akitsu Akane: "Is it my turn?!"

Rust: "...Akitsu Akane, stay."

Akitsu Akane, who's now even being treated like a dog by Rust, could indeed serve as a kind of trump card. But her Apology Cannon should be used at a carefully chosen moment, so I agree with the "stay, wait" command.

Sunraku: "In the first place, it's not even confirmed that landing an attack will advance things. We need to verify a little more—"

Akitsu Akane: "But attacks are coming at us, you know?"

Sunraku: "Scatter!"

One SLF hardcore gamer, two NephHolo hardcore gamers, and one whose base specs just seem generally excellent—all react instantly to my voice, leaping backward in completely different directions. In the next instant, a massive downpour of octopus legs from the heavens impales the spots where we'd just been standing.

Sunraku: "Oi, oi... The main tentacle branches out even further?!"

A monstrous octopus transformed into an intricately patterned octagram. From each of its eight "points," one tentacle—eight in total—writhes. But one of those has further branched into over a dozen thinner tentacles, piercing the ground like spears. Assuming each tentacle can branch into ten, and there are eight sets... a maximum of eighty medium tentacles raining down like a storm?

Sunraku: "What the hell are we supposed to do..."

Ctarnidd: "Advance with unwavering heart, and no height shall be beyond your reach."

Sunraku: "Shut the hell up!"

No, wait. It's too hasty to dismiss that as mere taunting. In battles where the solution isn't a simple contest of strength, hints are often presented mid-combat. If so, is that line a hint?

Sunraku: "Tch... I expected it, but it's got slight homing...!"

It's not as dense as the attacks of Aberrant Wood-Mage I fought back in Rabituza, nor as fast to activate as Wethermon's Thunder Bell. But the tentacle-spears, which moderately encompass the threat of both, carry ten damage checks per attack and carve into the ground as if hunting down their targets.

Sunraku: "What's the condition for a phase shift...? I don't see any gimmick objects that look the part, and even if I wanted to attack, it's too far..."

No, that's wrong. In a turn-based battle, sure, but in a real-time brawl, there's no need to dutifully observe the relationship between attack and defense. If an attack and an attack collide, it doesn't end in a draw—whoever lands the more effective blow simply wins.

Akitsu Akane: "Eiii!"

And then—Akitsu Akane aims at one of the branching tentacles that missed her and impaled the ground, striking it with her short sword. The moment I see that attacked tentacle get sucked back into the magic circle overhead at terrifying speed, like a tape measure rewinding all at once, a hypothesis worth testing crystallizes in my mind.

Sunraku: "The tentacles! Attack the tentacles stabbed into the ground!"

That's the only action we can take right now. Beat every last one of them right back into that creepy magic circle!!

Ctarnidd: "Don't give up! You can do it! (Summary)"