Sorry the update was late. I actually had everything up to this point written in advance, but I completely forgot that I'd made a major change to the setting, so I had to rewrite it... What the hell is an Imaginary Form? In the original plan it was just an octopus form...

Chapter 212: Together Under Heaven — Part Eighteen

The Tactical Machine Dragon "Seiryu" is a Tactical Machine Beast compatible with the full set of Non-Standard Specialized Armor 【Shoro】.

With the danger of it breaking at any moment due to Lycagon’s Contusion, I started running and gave orders to Seiryu, which was following me.

Sunraku: "Let's go, Seiryu! Combine!!!"

Seiryu: "Roger!"

Man, I'm overwhelmed with emotion at being able to loudly proclaim the romantic word "combine" in a game with this much realism.

Just as Seiryu, who's more hyped compared to Suzaku's AI, roars, several lines of text begin to scroll across my vision as I equip the helm of Shoro.

It's not like I have eyes in the back of my head, so I can't subjectively recognize what's happening. But the pressure—not so light that I'd ignore it, but not so heavy that it'd crush me—indicates that Seiryu is covering me.

I feel something pressing against my back. Something covers my entire head as if enveloping it. Seiryu's arms slide from around my shoulder blades and form additional shells around my arms.

Seiryu: "All parts ready for connection! This unit will now begin the combination sequence!"

Sunraku: "I read that long-ass explanation, so I've got the gist... Soaring high!!"

By its setting, Seiryu has the ability to manipulate attraction and repulsion. This lets it fix particles in the air and use repulsion to... basically, it's like having the skills "Zero Gravity," which lets you walk on walls and ceilings, and "Flit Float," which lets you step on air, constantly active.

The VR system reads my thoughts, the SLF server further analyzes them, and Seiryu displays the "path" I desire inside my helmet. The moment I step onto a path that shouldn't exist, revealed in my information-expanded vision by Shoro, I feel an indescribable sensation—like stepping in mud or snow, or as if air is pushing up against the soles of my feet from below with incredible force.

Seiryu: "Ashigake Amagake!"

Sunraku: "Whoa!?"

It's like an incredibly high-speed conveyor belt, or an unsteerable straight-line ski slope, or being flung off the top of a car you're not supposed to be able to ride.

Inertia grabs my upper body, trying to drag me backward. I hurriedly lean forward, turning to face forward...

Sunraku: "Hey, wait! The path just cuts off like a ski jump!?"

Seiryu: "Request continuous designation of coordinate route!"

Sunraku: "So you won't let me take my eyes off the road, huh...!"

Flyaway!!

My body, clad in Seiryu, goes flying from the broken, invisible path. Seems he's noticed the flashy blue metal mass tearing through the sky, too, as he reaches out with building-sized tentacles, trying to swat me down.

Sunraku: "Oh, thanks for making a path for me."

It seems I need to constantly keep a "path" in mind to maintain the invisible one, but Ctarnidd's tentacles, which already exist as physical matter, won't disappear even if I look away.

Sunraku: "It's a direct expressway to your face!"

I land on a mass of flesh—rubbery, spongy—and accelerate. If I remember the description correctly, it's "creating a repulsive force between himself and the air to propel and accelerate himself." So, it's like being constantly in a pinball machine.

The blue dragon knight slides along a tentacle, likely made of the condensed flesh and blood he's consumed. The goal is the base of the giant tentacles: Ctarnidd's face, as he looms in a Vitruvian Man pose.

I manipulate my Inventoria while sliding along the writhing, rampaging tentacle with absolute stability, thanks to gravity manipulation. This is a big splurge, and I have to finish it in under three minutes anyway, so no point in being stingy.

The inheritance left behind by Wethermon the Tombguard, the Non-Standard Specialized Armor, runs on a Tactical Machine Beast as its power source. And where there's armor, of course there are weapons.

Sunraku: "Out-of-Spec Armament... Since we're going big, let's break away from swords and magic!"

I select the Out-of-Spec Armament: Dual Guns Type 【Castor & Pollux】 and transfer them from my Inventoria into Ruluiath.

The rectangular metal lump summoned from the storage space looks at first glance like a massive book. At least, it doesn't look like heavy machinery. But the moment my hands touch each rectangular block, following the guidance displayed in my helmet by Seiryu, the metal rectangles begin to transform.

Following the straight lines crawling across the metal surface, the metal unfolds like a piece of origami returning to its original shape, wrapping around my arms to form barrels. Meanwhile, the armor side also undergoes a transformation, connecting some kind of energy lines.

Sunraku: "Whew, looking cool...!"

Seiryu: "Connection complete! Loaded charged rounds count: twenty!!"

Sunraku: "Is that per arm or total?... Eh, whatever. Twenty rounds for now!"

Despite having heavy metal blocks attached to my arms, I aim the muzzle at Ctarnidd with surprisingly light and agile movements. The image creates an invisible path in my vision. My feet, leaping from the tentacle path, press down on the path of force fields. This route, which only I'm allowed to walk, passes directly in front of Ctarnidd's face.

Sunraku: "Spray your ink!"

Electric light scatters. Energy bullets, wreathed in sparks, are fired in rapid succession from the transformed Castor and Pollux. Though my aim is rough, they all land on Ctarnidd's face, unleashing their destructive power.

Vooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

Ctarnidd shrieks as science-based high firepower smashes into his face at this critical moment. With his flinch animation, the giant tentacles ripple, exposing an opening... but no, it's too shallow.

Where my gaze lands, I mentally form a slide on my falling trajectory. Sliding down it, I land on the ground. I need to deal more damage, create a bigger opening, and ensure Akitsu Akane's blow lands for certain.

Rust: "...Amazing. Truly amazing. Truly marvelous..."

Sunraku: "Whoa, Rust..."

Looks like I landed near her. While fretting over the approaching time limit and planning my next move, Rust—with Emul on her head—walks over.

Sunraku: "Sorry, but can the commentary wait until after—"

Rust: "...I have some theories regarding Ctarnidd's weak points."

Sunraku: "You've got twenty seconds."

Less than two minutes remain. I can't waste a single second.

Rust: "...The orbs on Ctarnidd's back, at the base of the tentacles, are glowing like obvious weak points. If you take the aggro, I'll shoot them."

Even while stopped in his flinch motion, his aggro is clearly directed at me—I can feel it from the goosebumps rising beneath my armor. I don't have time to circle around and confirm, but I don't need to.

Sunraku: "Can you do it?"

Rust: "...I only have eight shots left in terms of MP, but with Mold's buffs, if I land all of them, it'll be fine."

Sunraku: "Alright. I'll be the decoy. Emul, go tell Akitsu Akane to unleash it when our attacks are done!"

Emul: "Hai na!"

Sunraku: "Alright! Everyone! Plan B!!"

The "B" in Plan B stands for "Beat down"! It stands for "Bash in"! It stands for "Batter"! In other words, to reach the final phase of the operation, everyone except Akitsu Akane will unleash their current maximum firepower!!

Ctarnidd can talk, so the reverse should be possible too. I don't want him catching on just because I said something stupid out loud, so we've converted the strategy into a very simple code word.

Sunraku: "A fair and square, one-on-one...!!"

This is an octopus that keeps reversing everything on a whim. So reversing the strategy's words and its meaning is a perfect fit, right?

At the command to 'fight him fair and square' (cheating welcome) and 'take him on' (gang up on him), everyone starts moving. Seems my attack made the bastard choose to come down to the ground to attack. Maybe floating in the air is actually hard, like he's doing push-ups? No, that can't be... Still, it's convenient.

Seiryu: "Remaining energy: thirty percent! Requesting recharge!"

Sunraku: "It's not fuel economy... you just didn't have enough charge to begin with, huh... Eh, fine. I'll make you move even if you run down to zero!"

I put away Castor & Pollux and instead deploy the Out-of-Spec Armament: Cannon Type 【Regulus】. A one-meter-long cylinder attaches to my right arm. Following the same concept as Castor & Pollux, the separated cylinder parts undergo transformation and combination to form a massive cannon.

I don't know how long it's been alive, but Ctarnidd seems to correctly recognize Regulus as a threat, raising his arms like shields and increasing his caution toward me. You could still attack me with your tentacles, you idiot...

Sunraku: "Hey, Ctarnidd. Let me let you in on a secret... The meaning of the words is reversed."

Ceecrue: "[Takemikazuchi]!!"

Araba: "[Tidal Deep]!!"

Fair and square? I wouldn't get a single Mani for selling that idea. Might as well feed it to a goblin.

While his attention is on me, Ceecrue and Araba, who've circled around behind him, slam their attacks into the backs of Ctarnidd's knees. The knee-buckler, again. The only difference is that the firepower slammed into the backs of his knees this time is on a whole different level.

Sunraku: "Fire!"

Regulus unleashes a blast of light toward Ctarnidd, whose center of gravity has been thrown off by the knee-buckler. There's no recoil thanks to Seiryu, but I grit my teeth and push through the pressure grinding into my right arm.

The fired cannon shot hits Ctarnidd around the collarbone, pushing him further off-balance as his weight shifts backward.

Sunraku: "If you want to flip over that badly, go play Othello with yourself... Rei-shi!"

Psyger-0: ".........!"

Ctarnidd is starting to fall backward. But it's not enough. This won't give us anything close to the flinch time we need.

So we'll hit him harder. Rei-shi will beat him with even more stacks of money, intent on an overkill.

Psyger-0: "Here I go... [Titanomachia]!!"

Among the Magic Scrolls that Rei-shi carries, this is the most expensive and contains the strongest magic. Following Rei-shi's will, it unleashes the sealed spell.

This earth-attribute spell requires the ground to be within a certain area. Ruluiath is an "island," even if it was at the bottom of the sea until recently. We're standing on solid earth. The Titan's blow can be activated.

The earth rumbles. The ground of the colosseum that Ctarnidd formed cracks, as if some enormous being were unleashing its power with a roar.

Sunraku: "Whoa. It’s like flipping a pancake in a frying pan."

A giant fist of earth, piercing through the ground, manifests. Behind the cracked fist, the Titan's blow, bearing a red-hot glow, sends Ctarnidd's back flying from directly below to straight up, as he was about to fall into the open sky. Can you believe it? Ctarnidd is floating.

Sunraku: "Rust!!"

Now then, let's see the power of NephHolo's strongest player!!

The giant tentacles of Ctarnidd are the type that "exhibit weight corresponding to their mass when interfering with opponents," but "do not exhibit their original weight when interfering with himself." In other words, it's the "No way a slender pretty girl could swing a greatsword? Shut up! With magical bullshit powers, she just doesn't feel the weight!" phenomenon. The flip side of this is that "only the weight of Ctarnidd's humanoid form applies to his own physics." This subtly affects restraint magic and such, making it important for strategy... or so I've set it. To put it super simply for duelists out there: it's "Armityle the Chaos Phantasm."

Magic Scrolls "Magic user" class players or NPCs who meet certain conditions can create them. The mainstream scrolls are those with practical spells like teleportation that can be used without drawbacks, but attack spells can also be sealed within them. However, the power is reduced... but since the "phenomenon that occurs upon activation" itself remains unchanged, scrolls like [Titanomachia], which summon a massive object that currently only "Sage" class NPCs can create, trade for extremely high prices. By the way, the scrolls that Rei-shi has been using without thinking about the consequences were not purchased with her own money, but rather with "clan funds" and given to her. A pattern where she goes on a "reckless Magic Scroll spree" on the spur of the moment and deeply regrets it later.