Chapter 207: Together Under Heaven — Part Thirteen
In that moment, my body moved on pure reflex.
Sunraku: "Like hell I'm letting you get away——!!"
Five seconds left until the next flash. One cup left. You think I'm gonna let it pull a recovery move after a purple light, this late in the game?! Not a chance!! Duxram, Blade of Aspiration No. 1—the foremost dirty-job workhorse of the Sunraku Weapons lineup, despite its cool name and backstory—gets hurled with everything I've got. For the record, Togetsu — Moonblades: Waxing & Waning sits at the top of my armory, followed by Gilta Brille. But being just "tough" means I can abuse the hell out of it. It won't reach the heights of a hero's weapon, but the shining blade still reaches out, spinning end over end, and stabs straight into the purple cup as it's being lifted away. It was a desperate Hail Mary, practically an RNG prayer. But after what felt like a dozen-plus minutes of shuttle runs and lobbing ball-shaped potions, the purple cup had already hit its limit. Duxram, Blade of Aspiration No. 1 dealt the final blow to the dam holding back the flood. The purple cup bursts with light—but it's not the light that flips damage into healing. It's the light of collapse, its very foundation gone.
Ctarnidd: "Though the world may change utterly, the core shall not waver. If so... does mankind yet swim the sea of stars?"
Poetry break. Here comes the next form. I don't give a shit what it means. I retrieve No. 1 as it falls and just file the words away for later. All eight cups destroyed. Ctarnidd, stripped of its eight-colored glow. Yet despite all the times Rei-shi and I landed hits to pull aggro, Ctarnidd's main body shows zero signs of taking damage. I mean, Ctarnidd is basically a magical life-form... no, maybe it would be better to call it life-form magic. I can't imagine external damage doing much. If so, any external change must be something Ctarnidd is doing to itself.
The tentacles fold. I know that sounds weird, but the tentacles—once shaped like a deeply organic octopus—are now folding along straight lines in three dimensions. Yeah, that's it. Like someone took a wireframe model made of straight lines and just folded it up. Mass and physics completely ignored. The folded tentacles overlap in the same coordinates. A single tentacle, thicker and longer than the utility poles you hardly see anymore, folds in half, and in half again, until finally it's swallowed entirely into Ctarnidd's main body—the torso.
Sunraku: "If a normal octopus did that, it'd just look ridiculous..."
Rust: "...Hard to laugh when a twitch from this octopus could kill us all."
Thanks for getting it, Rust. That's exactly it. When ridiculous behavior comes with that kind of power, the laughter turns into fear and anger first. An octopus with no tentacles. Ctarnidd looked like a circle drawn by a kid with a compass, with two octopus eyes stuck on. But even those eyes sink into the body. Finally, Ctarnidd becomes a black lump—like a misshapen apple. Then, from the inside, something pushes, and the outline twists and bulges, like something's trying to break through the shell.
Ctarnidd: "Far, far, far have I come. I know not her homeland. My homeland was the sea of stars, my brethren, and her smile."
Sunraku: "Long-form poetry, incoming!"
Psyger-0: "Is this... the final form?"
Sunraku: "Nah, let's wait and see, Rei-shi. Feels way too cocoon-like. Might squeeze in one more before the final."
Ctarnidd's body suddenly stops swelling. What comes next is contraction. Not deflating—no, it compresses, shrinking down as if its size is being crushed.
Ctarnidd: "I exist in this world, yet exist not in this world. My body has no flesh, my body has no bone, and no blood flows through my body."
Akitsu Akane: "No bones—well, it IS an octopus!"
Mold: "Babuffu—!"
Sunraku: "Mold! Stay!!"
And Akitsu Akane, quit throwing sucker punches. Mold's laugh reflex is tuned way higher than a normal person's. Anyway, I doubt there'll be much time for laughing in this fight. If he screws up anyway, then sorry—he can pitch in as a corpse.
Mold: "I-I'm fine. I'll take it seriously, so Rust, Sunraku, stop looking at me like that..."
Us gamers are great at addition and subtraction. If someone's in the way, we subtract, no hesitation. That was a joke, Mold. Don't look at me like livestock that just learned it's going to be slaughtered. There you go, good boy, good boy.
Ctarnidd: "If so, I shall make delusion into fact, arise as illusion, emerge from fantasy, and become imagination. Therefore—therefore shall I become virtual and seek flesh and blood."
Akitsu Akane: "So he wants barbecue?"
Sunraku: "Akitsu Akane, stay."
She nearly got my laugh reflex too. Close call. But the moment I see Ctarnidd's transformation, I realize this is no time for laughing. Emul comes running over with a panicked look; she probably knows what this is even better than I do, despite the fact that I've seen the real thing. I put her on my head and yell to everyone.
Sunraku: "Everyone, weapons up! Watch every direction!!"
If I had to compare it, it would be a collapser collapsing under its own power—a gravity monster that swallows celestial bodies and even devours light. A hole of nothingness. A black hole. Shrinking, compressing—Ctarnidd becomes a creepy black hole hanging in space, and around it, dozens of magic circles unfold. I'm no magic user, so I don't know how those circles work. But the distinct glow leaking from them? I've seen that before. It's slightly different, but almost identical. So the effect is probably almost identical too. And this particular spell—normally, it's something only weak monsters like Vorpal Bunnies or Cait Siths would have.
Ctarnidd: "Strive against the waves of life. For struggle is the very essence of life."
Random Encounter. Probably tuned for Ctarnidd. The genuine article: something that makes you "encounter" things "at random." Thirty or more of them fire all at once.
Small fry become fishballs. The strong stay as they are. Chimeras become Kaisen-Oh. What's that mean? It's how you describe this current hellscape.
Sunraku: "This feels like the boss fights from a hunting game, a zombie game, and a fighting game all got mixed together!"
Emul: "We're gonna die, die, die, wa—!"
Sunraku: "Save the crying for Rabituza when this is over! Alright, let's ride the Monster Train!!"
I leap sideways, and the headlong charge of the Gigant Oarfish, Arctus Regalex, plows straight into the horde of rotting fishballs. Monster House. That's a term from dungeon-crawler games. A trap where you're locked in a room with a massive spawn of monsters and can't leave until they're all dead. Sometimes it's a few higher-level monsters beating you down. Sometimes it's a swarm of lower-level ones crushing you with sheer numbers. Ctarnidd, apparently, decided to pick the best of both.
Let's call it "True Random Encounter." The dozens of spells Ctarnidd fired have packed the coliseum with fish and monsters. The fish, their very definition of existence flipped, transform into half-rotten fish-men. In the sky, Arctus Regalex lets out a roar you'd never expect from an oarfish, searching for a target.
Rust: "...What is this."
Akitsu Akane: "It's the 'Call Friends' command!"
Rust: "...Got it. Mold, support."
Mold: "Okay!"
It's great having people who can understand words from other games. Look at Akitsu Akane. She heard me and saw what was happening, then blurted out something completely off-base.
Akitsu Akane: "Ctarnidd's friends?"
Well, I'll still give her credit for actually doing her job.
Sunraku: "Rei-shi! I'll hold aggro on that big one! Clear out the trash!"
Think about why Ctarnidd used the "Call Friends" command. Normally, "Call Friends" is a trash-mob move. Bosses sometimes summon minions or servants, but this indiscriminate summoning feels off. If so, these monsters aren't just a wall. They're the "blood," "flesh," and "bone" Ctarnidd was asking for. Its poetry? In lore terms, it's a monologue. In game terms, it's a hint for the next mechanic.
Ctarnidd's poetry is a pain, but it's modern language. Chew it up with the situation, and the answer appears. Ctarnidd said it has no flesh or blood, and that's why it wants them. Delusion into truth. Arise from fantasy. Become imagination through virtual. What matters isn't the meaning, but the number of words. "Delusion," "illusion," "fantasy," "virtual," "imagination." If we count the octopus form before we returned Ruluiath to its normal position as the first form, we can guess Ctarnidd has five forms total. Which means right now, it's in its "Virtual Form."
Sunraku: "Emul, you handle the trash that gets close while I keep that thing busy. And if you can, finish them off."
Emul: "H-Hai na!"
It wants flesh and blood. With the final form still waiting, it summons a mountain of flesh and blood. Let's slot in the last piece of the puzzle. Ctarnidd's been dropping hints this whole time.
Ctarnidd (recalled): "Advance with unwavering heart, and no height shall be beyond your reach."
To drag Ctarnidd down from high above, fight without giving up just because you can't reach. And indeed, by countering every single tentacle, we forced it down to the ground.
Ctarnidd (recalled): "Find the self you believe in. Even should the world change utterly, the core shall not waver."
Through eight cups, eight lights—gender, sight, stats—all flipped, but the core remained. We kept fighting whether we turned into women or had speed swapped for toughness, and all the cups shattered.
So then, what about the latest words?
Ctarnidd (recalled): "Strive against the waves of life. For struggle is the very essence of life."
"Waves of life" is exactly this situation right here. All the life spun out in this sea, gathered together, coming at us. And the action Ctarnidd laid out is "fight," not "flight." Think about it. Ctarnidd didn't just turn into a hole. It turned into a wide-open mouth. This bastard, at the last minute, just ordered a seafood bowl delivery.
Sunraku: "Then what we need to do is obvious."
Cut down the amount going into its mouth. Don't let it get full. The fourth form is a fight to drain as much combat power as possible before the fifth.