Chapter 458: Dragons, O Dragons! Part Thirty-Five

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Gold collided with gold.

A gigantic Dragon King and a tiny human.

The two golden figures should have been far too mismatched to compete, yet they were balanced closely enough that their struggle could almost be called even.

Siegwurm: "You divert it... and yet you knock my arm aside!!"

Sunraku: "Don't think you can crush me as an afterthought!"

The purple spear pierced Siegwurm's leg.

The purple axe swept across Siegwurm's side.

The purple hook caught around Siegwurm's arm.

The halberd—a composite weapon spanning several different weapon categories—was matching the golden Dragon King through sheer all-purpose versatility.

Psyger-100: "Is he, you know... one of those people who can't fight unless he hides his face or something?"

Sunraku: "Like hell I am!!"

Psyger-100: "Whoa!?"

Sunraku had hooked the weapon around Siegwurm's swinging arm and used the enormous energy behind that massive limb as propulsion. He came literally flying toward Psyger-100, making her scream despite herself.

Sunraku: "Landing...! That was close. I was right at my stamina limit."

Psyger-100: "Should I say it's been a while?"

Sunraku: "Huh? Oh, evening. Yeah, no way I'm soloing this thing."

Perhaps because everyone had witnessed the fierce battle he had been fighting moments earlier, a strange empty space formed around Psyger-100 and the iron-masked man who had just flown over to her. Poisonous-looking effects poured from Sunraku's entire body, but he greeted Psyger-100 as though nothing were wrong.

Psyger-100: "What's that weapon?"

Sunraku: "Centipede Model 8-0.5 Tausend. You could call it my new secret weapon."

Psyger-100: "Seeing this many weapons I've never heard of is starting to make me jealous...!"

Sunraku: "Why not invest in Imron? They seem closer than anyone to becoming an Ancient Craftsman."

Psyger-100: "It's coming!"

Sunraku: "Shit!!"

Whether by coincidence or deliberate aim, a single breath attack flew toward Psyger-100 and the others. They jumped in opposite directions to avoid it.

Sunraku: "Are there any orders or anything I should be following!?"

Psyger-100: "It appears we're about to have bigger problems than that...!!"

No one knew this because there had never been a previous example.

Siegwurm had originally been designed to face the players alone. But the irregular intervention of four Color Dragons had turned the battle into a massive free-for-all, causing one of his special actions to be "sealed" by the system.

However—

Noirlind was effectively fighting as part of the players' forces. Deuredhowl had been defeated earlier than the system expected. Most importantly, the system measured the "quality" of the players and judged that they could probably withstand it.

And so the special action was unlocked.

Siegwurm: "Dragon King Engine: Dragon × Driver... activate."

Siegwurm had been designed with a final battle against at least a hundred players in mind.

Yet no matter how huge Siegwurm was, it would be difficult for several hundred players to fight him without some of them being left with nothing to do.

So what was the solution?

Siegwurm: "I need no aid to scorch the world! Run! My afterimages bear the heat!!"

The logic was simple. If there were too few seats and the battle became a game of musical chairs, then all he had to do was add more seats.

Siegwurm's horns shone with dazzling light. Five beams fired from them and scattered in every direction, forming five copies that resembled flame, lightning—or perhaps plasma.

???: "..."

???: "..."

The white dragon.

The green dragon.

The black dragon.

Siegwurm.

And now five more copies.

In simple terms, the number of dragons had doubled, and the players froze.

Siegwurm: "Now... what will you do?"

The plasma copies shaped like Siegwurm began to move. At that exact moment—

Sunraku: "Aim for the horns!!!"

One voice shattered the silence before it could collapse completely. The speaker was a warrior wearing a golden mask and carrying a deep-violet halberd. Sunraku loudly exposed Siegwurm's "secret" with absolute confidence.

Sunraku: "His abilities come from his horns! The Skill nullification and the magic nullification too!!"

And then—

Sunraku: "Let me guess, Siegwurm. While you're using this, you can't use your other abilities... Am I wrong?"

Siegwurm: "Kukaka! You are correct. Each horn pushed into overdrive creates one copy, and thus each copy and horn are linked."

Sunraku: "Take down a clone and its corresponding horn is exposed. Unless you break the horn, the clone will just keep rampaging... I'm bad at this kind of mechanic, so the rest is on you."

Psyger-100: "You dump only the troublesome part on us...! P.T. Overwerke! We'll split your people and our members into five groups! We can't expect random players to handle the clones!!"

P.T. Overwerke: "Understood! But you should go for the main body! We need to attack the horns in parallel!!"

Psyger-100: "Leave it to me! Hey, Sunraku, after making such a dramatic declaration, I expect a matching contribution from you."

Sunraku: "Of course! And our artillery has joined us now...!"

The crowd split apart. A suit of mechanical armor that looked exactly like a robot came charging through at tremendous speed.

The Dragon Armor stopped sharply in front of Psyger-100—or, more precisely, in front of Sunraku. It addressed Sunraku together with the Vorpal Bunny clinging to its shoulder.

Saina: "Mission accomplished: Individual designation Emul secured."

Emul: "Sunraku-san! I've arrived, wa!"

Sunraku: "All right, Emul! Time for a clearance sale! Dump the whole stockpile into Siegwurm's face!!"

Emul: "Hai na!"

A human.

A rabbit.

A doll.

Different species, different origins, yet all three looked toward Siegwurm with the same purpose in their own way.

Siegwurm smiled at them as though remembering the distant past.

Siegwurm: "You seek to break my horns... Kukukuku... How nostalgic."

Psyger-100 had watched the scene unfold from close by. She felt the slightest trace of jealousy at being left out of a story that must have progressed somewhere beyond her knowledge.

But—

Psyger-100: "Then all I have to do is step in and join it... Sunraku! I'll support you, so hold the frontline!!"

Sunraku: "Fine by me! Just don't stab me in the back!!"

The deep-violet halberd took the vanguard. Behind it stood the sacred sword serving as commander, while six renowned swords and magic swords lined up as its retainers.

Their target was the golden Dragon King. The other players, who had been thrown into confusion by the appearance of the copies, refused to be left behind. They raised their weapons once more, rebuilding the encirclement around Siegwurm.

Siegwurm: "Come! Prove beyond blood, wind, thunder, and flame whether you are worthy of making me stake my life!!"

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Time rewound.

???: "You know, I suspected it from the beginning. Were both clear conditions really supposed to gather in one place in the original scenario...?"

A woman continued speaking.

???: "Everyone knows the SLF system is completely insane, to put it mildly. So I wondered whether it might be able to recover even if things reached the level of scenario collapse..."

The moment Akitsu Akane successfully communicated with Noirlind and triggered the Unique Scenario, the woman had already arrived at that possibility.

In other words, perhaps Deuredhowl, Bryleinyego, and Blockentreed had not come here because the scenario forced them to. Perhaps someone's deliberate intent had brought them here instead.

Bryleinyego had looked at the frontline base and said that it would be a good place to migrate to.

Blockentreed had acted as though completely certain that Tottori the Shimahne was here.

???: "Doesn't it look like someone told them about this place and they came here because of that?"

???: "I see? That's an interesting theory..."

One woman answered the woman who had asked the question.

The woman holding a golden spear twirled it around and planted it against the ground like a staff. The woman she had questioned, who had a third arm growing from her shoulder as naturally as though she had been born with it, gave an exaggerated smile.

???: "I wasn't exactly trying to find the culprit, but after seeing you whispering something to Blockentreed, I couldn't just ignore it, could I?"

???: "...Hehe. I'll at least tell you that it won't stray very far from whatever you people are plotting..."

???: "Who knows? I've heard rumors about you from Sunraku-kun. Big Sis would really like to know what you're planning..."

Arthur Pencilgon and Deep Throater faced each other at the edge of the battlefield, both smiling without showing even the slightest trace of hostility.

Deep Throater: "Arthur Pencilgon, leader of the clan he's in... Let's get along, yeah?"

Pencilgon: "If we keep it strictly business, you're more than welcome, Deep Throater-chan."

The one who had created the stage.

The one who had gathered the people.

What would the two of them discuss?

The emotional impact of seeing a human come to break his horns while carrying a weapon seriously forged by the guy who once casually snapped one off was enough for Siegwurm to unlock his clones.