Chapter 354: Dragons, O Dragons! Part Nineteen
Tottori: "......No, no, no, hold on, Deep Throater-san. So... it was all a lie?"
Deep Throater: "Hm? Yeah, the meteor spell stuff. All of it, a lie."
A confession so breezy it might as well snap the entire foundational premise of the battle in two. Tottori stands stunned for a few seconds, then snaps back to his senses and presses in on Deep Throater.
Tottori: "N-no, no, no! In this situation, that's not funny! What do we do!? Sunraku's fighting based on the meteor plan, man!?"
Deep Throater: "Fighting based on a meteor plan. That phrase is way too funny, don't you think?"
Tottori: "Grrrrrgh!!"
With Deep Throater still dodging and joking around, Tottori's patience hits its limit. He's about to shout and push even closer — but before he can, Deep Throater thrusts out a vertical index finger and presses it against Tottori's lips.
Deep Throater: "Shh. Don't get mad, don't get mad. First, calm down... okay?"
Told that in a gentle woman's voice, Tottori isn't so lost to rage that he can keep venting. And furthermore — the thought that Deep Throater, holding The Desire, might have some kind of plan crosses his mind. Reluctantly, he steps back and waits for Deep Throater's words.
Tottori: "...Why'd you tell a lie like that?"
Deep Throater: "Huh? Why...? I mean, I absolutely love watching Sunraku-kun overcome hardships, y'know? Something like 'just hold out until the time limit'... that's just, that's just..."
Her face reddening for some reason, Deep Throater starts squirming. Tottori is utterly creeped out from the bottom of his heart, and at the same time, he understands exactly why Sunraku loathes Deep Throater like snakes and scorpions.
Tottori: "Y-you're insane..."
Deep Throater: "I'm aware."
Which is exactly why, Deep Throater says, leveling The Desire and switching to a different kind of smile.
Deep Throater: "What I'm about to do is a spell Sunraku-kun doesn't know about — a spell that'll take down both of those things, Sunraku-kun included...!"
Tottori: "Wha... huh!?"
Emul: "What are you saying desu waaaa!?"
At those words, spoken with a vicious grin so wicked you'd doubt it was the same person, not only Tottori but even Emul — just back from roaming support — screams out.
Deep Throater: "It's fine, it's fine. Sunraku-kun's head is pretty much screwed on wrong, so he'll totally forgive me."
Tottori: "No, no no no! Friendly fire in a raid fight is grounds for a real-life fight, y'know!?"
Deep Throater: "———That would be a problem."
But still, Deep Throater says, moving The Desire and taking a huge breath. Then, she shouts at the top of her lungs toward Sunraku, still darting around frantically.
Deep Throater: "Sunraku-kuuun! Is it okay if I drag you into this tooooo!?"
For a few seconds, there's no reply — just dust kicked up amid the raging fury of massive bodies. Parting through it, a woman in a mourning dress, stepping back in a retreat that covers a bit too much distance to call a step, dodges a crimson flash and shouts.
Sunraku: "Die!"
Deep Throater: "He said okay."
Tottori: "Where in that was 'okay'!?"
Emul: "Well, he certainly didn't say 'no,' wa..."
The winged insect just won't fall. Whether out of sheer frustration or not (setting aside whether the Great Red Devourer even has an emotion like "frustration"), not just the regenerated tail but half the four heads growing from its torso — a total of three lasers — take aim at Sunraku.
Tottori: "How's he pulling off fighting alongside a monster so casually..."
Deep Throater: "Probably helps that both of 'em have pretty heavy-handed fighting styles... Well then, time to get to work."
The Desire. Paired with the still-unknown Materialization Staff, this staff possesses the same kind of power as its counterpart — an ability that lives up to its name.
These are words known only to Deep Throater and the leader of Witch’s Church. A single line carved into the shrine where The Desire had been enshrined stated its essence more clearly than anything.
Desire knows no end, and thus do I walk with you.
Deep Throater: "So this time, I'm splurging... Let's go with twenty times!!"
Tottori's eyes can't possibly grasp what kind of operation is taking place. After swapping out several accessories, Deep Throater, looking genuinely delighted, loads a certain spell into The Desire.
At the same moment, the jewel floating at the center of The Desire's twisted infinite ring intensifies in brilliance. The monoliths, at equal intervals, widen their circumference as they rotate.
Deep Throater: "Hm hm... oh my, oh my? This just might be a case of truth born from lies, maybe...?"
Tottori: "No, uh! Deep Throater-san! What exactly is the range on th———!?"
Deep Throater: "Who knows? I set it for two meters square, so times twenty... Probably blows away this whole area?"
Tottori: "Everyone evacuate————!!!"
Waaah! As if they'd been waiting for exactly that, the elves start fleeing. The smile on Deep Throater's face deepens further — yet somewhere in it, it almost looks like a prayer — as her mouth chants the spell's name.
Deep Throater: "———Please, let me see your true worth again... Urano Gaia Tectonics!!"
It realizes the wielder's desired multiplier of desire. And thus, the effect, range, cost... every element of the "Joint" spell Deep Throater had set is now "times twenty." A brand-new magic, presented to its wielder in this very moment. It was just like creating a spell on the spot — like Spell Creation Online.
Sunraku: "Knew it."
I figured she'd pull something somewhere, yeah. Pencilgon's brand of evil makes you pull the trigger on the wicked deed together with her. This one's the type to shoot you in the back and make it look like an accident.
The moment I heard "wipe out Scarred and the Great Red Devourer together," the question "Does that include me too?" was constantly tugging at the back of my mind. And bam, bullseye. What's the payout multiplier? Nobody bet on "Deep Throater is telling the truth," so there's no pot? Hahaha, piece of shit.
But still...
Sunraku: "This is just orders of magnitude more vicious!!!"
As if the very foundation supporting the earth had vanished without warning, cleanly and completely. On a scale of dozens of meters, the ground "collapses." The monster bearing a red tornado on its back, the monster wreathed in billowing black smoke, and one harmless human fall. Even for me, who can understand words, this was an unexpected drop. There's no way the Great Red Devourer or "Scarred" could've predicted it — the two monsters falling while flailing are a little comical, kind of cute. But die. Die and become EXP and items.
Sunraku: "Gh... what now? Can I pull this off?"
I see — making me think "above" and then hitting from below. That's just like her. I'll punch her later. But I've got one question here. Whatever method she used doesn't matter right now... Where did all that massive earth and everything she erased go?
That's easy. Just look.
Sunraku: "Ah, that fucking pervert!!!"
Directly above where the ground vanished — meaning, directly above me — an unimaginable mass floats in the air. No, wait. It's just so huge that it looks like it's falling in slow motion.
In short, that perverted one-person theater troupe played Daruma Drop with the earth itself and now plans to sandwich us with the ground she yanked out. All right, I'm definitely surviving this so I can half-kill her later!!
All right, calm down. If I use my skills, avoiding a death-by-falling itself isn't hard. While using Exceed Gravity and Space Charge against the wall to stand horizontally sideways... okay, strategy meeting.
Plan A: Sprint up at full speed and escape the sandwich. Top contender, but debris is scary. Levin Trigger: Hazard is mandatory, so if I take even one hit from debris, I die.
Plan B: Inventoria Escape. When I return from storage space to real space, no clue if I'll come out inside the dirt or above ground. Way too risky.
Plan C: Dig underground and escape... Hmm. If I had a shovel instead of a pickaxe, there'd be a chance. Rejected.
Guess it's Plan A after all... wait, the earth is already that close — can I make it!? The time limit's way faster than I thought. This is checkma—
Great Red Devourer: "Ooi."
—Yes?