Just when I’ve made you think there won’t be another update today—surprise update. Seriously, please let me off tomorrow.
Chapter 456: Dragons, O Dragons! Part Thirty-Three
Here, I’d like to explain a little about magic.
Many kinds of magic exist in SLF, but among them is a group of spells that can be considered one kind of ultimate form.
This is no cheat like The Desire. These spells can be learned only by those who have mastered magic belonging to a specific field. They are called Gate Magic.
There are several spells with “Gate” in their names, but Gate Magic is clearly different from those. It is activated by an astonishingly short chant and the trigger keyword “open the gate.”
Truth be told, Josette may be a tank, but she is not the sort of wall-class tank whose selling point is physical defense, like the tanks of SF-Zoo.
Her true role could be described as a Magi-Tank—someone who holds the frontline through magical defense.
As the shield protecting Eristella, the Saint of Love, Josette had continued honing her defensive magic to protect the Saint sometimes from monsters attacking their pilgrimage, and sometimes from insolent NPCs.
Then, one day, a year after the service launched, that defensive magic finally reached its ultimate form.
◆
Josette: “—My blood burns hot.”
That was all. An astonishingly short chant, yet the phenomenon it brought forth was dramatic.
Sunraku: “Whoa.”
Two lines of fire, like wheel ruts, raced out from Josette’s left and right, running straight between her and Siegwurm.
These were no ordinary flames. The shimmering heat could not hold the same shape for even a single second, and yet, wavering all the while, it took form and rose.
They looked as though they were wearing helmets I recognized. They looked as though they were holding round shields I recognized. More specifically, I felt like I’d seen them in a mirror once when I upgraded my equipment.
Josette: “Gate Opening—Come and take it.”
The heat-haze warriors—Spartans—raised their swords, spears, and shields, then melted into the flames. The fire’s intensity reached its peak, and from the corridor of flame surging upward like a tidal wave, hundreds of fiery weapons burst out to block the way.
A wall of spears. A swarm of swords. Shields standing shoulder to shoulder. It was, precisely... a gate of burning warriors, opened to bar the enemy’s path.
Siegwurm: “—Scorching Annihilation Breath: Breath of Bane!!”
Josette: “—Hot-Blooded Gate: Thermopylae!!”
The vermilion breath and the crimson gate collided. Every time the fiery blockade was blown apart and shattered, new weapons burst from the flames and bit into the destructive energy.
I could see sweat running down Josette’s cheek as she thrust her right hand forward and braced herself with all her strength. Even if this was a game, it was still SLF. Apparently it wasn’t as simple as casting the spell and calling it done.
Sunraku: “Think you can hold it?”
Josette: “Of course!”
That was Josette’s natural voice, not the gallant voice she used for roleplay. But her answer did not waver.
Josette: “So what if you’re a Unique Monster... Haaaaah...”
Josette took a deep breath. After the briefest pause, she stepped forward with a piercing battle cry!!
Josette: “Saint-chan is the beeeest!!”
Sunraku: “That’s the battle cry you’re going with?!”
Apparently, she was perfectly happy with it.
The force of the flames surpassed Siegwurm’s breath. In direct contrast to Siegwurm, whose momentum weakened first, the fire swelled all at once and exploded forward with clear direction.
Josette: “This spell... is a counter spell!!”
Siegwurm: “Kha—ghaaaa!!”
The flames burned across the earth as though gouging it away, twisting and racing forward exactly like a shield charge—like a warrior bracing a shield and charging straight ahead.
Even in the face of that, the massive golden body did not flee. Siegwurm took the attack head-on with a smile, but the force overwhelmed him enough to lift him slightly from the ground... and for the first time, the body that had remained unshaken all this time was blown away.
Sunraku: “Amazing...”
Josette: “H-How was that...? Ugh... I’m so tiiired...”
Josette slumped down like all the strength had gone out of her, practically collapsing in on herself. But considering what she had just accomplished, there was no way it came without a cost. Sure enough, I could see that her HP gauge had been drained almost completely, leaving only a few millimeters.
Josette: “S-Sorry... That was seriously rough... This won’t recover for a while, so I’m gonna rest...”
A drawback? There was a good chance she’d been hit with something similar to that shitty drained state I got stuck in a little while ago. But the sheer impact of seeing Siegwurm get sent flying was enough to blow away the players’ hesitation.
Sunraku: “Good job! Guess I won’t have a leg to stand on if I don’t do something impressive too, huh?”
Josette: “Do your beeeest.”
Sunraku: “That’s half-assed as hell... Whatever. Saina! Find Emul and bring him here! From here on out, it’s an all-out battle... Let’s use every last drop of blood we’ve got and give Siegwurm one hell of a surprise!”
Saina: “Acknowledged (All right): commencing action.”
Yashirobird should be running out of patience too. Let’s put on one hell of a heroic tale—a Dragon Slay!!
◇
Josette: “Ugh...”
Unable to move due to the side effects of Hot-Blooded Gate: Thermopylae, Josette let out a quiet groan as she watched Sunraku run off and Noirlind fly away.
Josette: “Well... I came out ahead overall, I guess...”
The player known as Akitsu Akane—or at least, the girl whom Josette’s powers of observation had identified beyond doubt as a girl—had given her words of pure, unalloyed gratitude. That alone was worth taking an unremovable penalty for several dozen minutes.
Gate Magic was not something that could be used so casually. In the case of Hot-Blooded Gate, the price of activation was having the user’s heat taken away. In system terms, the stats spent as the cost of activating it would not recover for a period proportional to how long the spell remained active, and on top of that, the user could not level up until the EXP deficit created by the “experience points” offered as the activation sacrifice had been brought back to zero.
Josette: “I’ve gotta find some time to level somehow...”
That was when it happened.
Eristella: “Good work, Josette.”
Josette: “Huh? Did I die and go to heaven?”
As Josette lay there, her head was gently placed on something soft. No way... She timidly looked up, and there, unbelievably close, was Eristella’s face.
Eristella: “I cannot deny your resolve... I cannot erase the price you paid for opening that gate of burning blood, but I can at least do this much for you, can’t I?”
Josette: “Oho............ Now I’m way, way in the black...”
Josette realized that something resembling her prospects for marriage had just moved even farther away, and spent a blissful moment thinking, This is exactly why fictional beautiful girls are the best.
◆
Sunraku: “Yo, Siegwurm. You feeling it?”
Siegwurm: “Oh... the wolf-scarred one... No, that bearing. I see. So this is what you call ‘serious’?”
Sunraku: “Don’t be stupid. I’m always serious. If I had to put it another way, this is me going all out.”
I never cut corners when it comes to cutting corners, and when I’m splurging, I like shaving the balance down until there’s only one digit left. Even with that slash back then, I poured all my Component Crystals into it in the hope of splitting your face clean in half... though I whiffed!!
Sunraku: “Sorry it took me so damn long to get back to round two. I’m going to blow you away with everything I’ve got.”
Siegwurm: “Oh...? With that weapon of the Divine Era?”
Sunraku: “Centipede Model 8-0.5 Tausend... You’ve got some idea who made it, don’t you?”
That shit stage, Sigmonia Canyon Frontline, literally recreated a permanent battlefield. Down inside a doughnut-shaped depression with steep, bowl-like slopes, two kinds of colossal monsters had kept fighting without end.
One of those two was the Treynor Centipede.
Maybe because I’d made them fight the other side’s fortress spiders again and again, I had the good fortune to be there when the bosses of both sides clashed.
And this weapon with the absurdly distinctive name Centipede Model 8-0.5 Tausend was made using materials from a female Treynor Centipede—Treynor Centipede Dora!!
The male individual, Gustaf, was already about the size of a train, and Dora was several times larger even than him: a super-super-gigantic centipede.
Sunraku: “There was no crude direct intervention, but I did get a push from behind... If I’m going to act as a proxy, I’ve gotta do what needs doing or this won’t have any closure!!”
Siegwurm: “Then what will you do?”
Sunraku: “I’ll die if you so much as tap me. But as long as there’s fire—motivation—left in my heart, I’ll stand back up as many times as it takes. I’ll become immortal until I beat you. Right, Siegwurm the Sky Ruler...? Come at me ready to die. I’ve been ready from the very beginning!”
Siegwurm: “Hahahaha, kuhahahahahahahaha!! You dared spit out that ‘name’! Then I shall reduce this so-called immortality of yours to cinders with every ounce of my being!! Behold my Dragon King Engine: Dragon × Driver, as befits the Sky Ruler!!!”
Set his heart on fire too. Holding back is stupid... Let’s beat each other senseless until we’re Ash (High)!!