Land of Transformation
They say that everything happens for a reason, but such trite words could never comfort those who lost their homeland and their brethren due to the actions of fools, nor convince them to forget their rage and give up on revenge. It is only by striking down our enemy once and for all that we can find a way forward. (Bazan, descendant of the dragonkin)
“It doesn’t look like anything’s started happening yet.”
Satou peered outside through the front observation window of the airship as it flew over the ocean, gazing at the richly covered roofs of the houses in the royal capital of Pialork Kingdom, the “land of transformation.”
“Master, where should we land the airship?”
“Bring it down anywhere you see a landing area.”
“Yes, Master.”
Nana steered the airship toward a landing area facing the ocean.
A birdfolk soldier flew up from the lighthouse on the cape to receive them.
“Mew!”
Tama, who was curled up on the couch, suddenly sat up.
“Fool…!”
Urion shouted, looking furious.
“What’s the matter?”
Though Satou’s “Poker Face” skill kept it from showing in his expression, his “Sense Danger” skill was already blaring a severe warning.
“The seal has been undone. The destruction begins.”
Karion glared in the direction of the Zaicuon Central Temple.
“The seal is not completely broken yet. We can still make it in time.”
“I concur, Urion. Let us cover the temple with a barrier. Then we shall put a stop to it. Bring the airship over there.”
“Yes, Karion.”
Nana turned the airship toward Zaicuon Central Temple.
The birdfolk soldier who was guiding the airship down for a landing called out a sharp warning, but Nana ignored it, bringing the airship up to top speed.
Seeing this, the birdfolk soldier blew a sharp note on a flute, and a bell rang out from the castle walls warning of an emergency situation.
“Oh dear, now we’ve started a whole scene.” Arisa sighed.
“It’s better that way.” Satou shrugged, then turned to the goddesses. “Is there any way you could evacuate the citizens with your divine commands?”
“Nay. ’Tis possible, yet trivial compared to the task at hand. We must take great care to avoid wasting our divine power. Karion says so, too.”
“I did not. ’Tis not ideal to decrease the population, but most of them are Zaicuon’s followers. ’Tis an acceptable sacrifice for the preservation of the world.”
The goddess girls gave a decidedly inhuman response.
Their top priority was protecting the world and their own believers; it seemed they had little concern to spare for those who worshipped other goddesses.
“Then at least let me advise the citizens to evacuate in the name of the goddesses, please.”
“Very well. If such an action might preserve the stability of human resources, thou shalt take it at once. Karion says so, too.”
“I concur, Urion. Thou may pretend to speak for Zaicuon.”
Despite their suggestion, Satou gave the names of Urion and Karion in his warning to evacuate.
He sent the message to the royal family of Pialork and the heads of all the temples in the royal capital.
“Master, we have landed in front of the Central Temple, I report.”
In front of the airship was a temple built with yellow stone, gaudy enough that it was almost an eyesore.
Priests and worshippers were running out of the temple’s main entrance in a panic.
A moment later, the heart of the large temple exploded, and something swathed in jet-black mist oozed onto the roof of the temple and began absorbing the building.
“Bring us down in the front, please.”
“Yes, Master.”
The airship began lowering on Satou’s command.
“Karion, the barrier.”
“Aye.”
At Urion’s prompting, Karion produced a bright vermillion light and surrounded the temple with a spherical barrier.
Urion’s crimson glow followed as she waved her hand and produced a veil of light above the temple that trapped the black fog inside the building.
“Master, look!”
Arisa pointed at a large group of priests—the former Phantom Thief Pippin was leading them out. Hidden in their shadows was the sage’s student Serena who’d been working with him.
“Be right back. I’m going to find out what’s going on!”
Satou jumped down from the airship and ran over to Pippin. During their journey to Pialork Kingdom, “Kuro” had gotten a message from Pippin that they’d tracked down the sage’s student who was causing problems and infiltrated Zaicuon Central Temple to intercept him.
“Pippin!”
“Young master! Did you make this barrier?”
Pippin turned around to see that the black fog that had been chasing them was trapped inside a crimson barrier.
It was recoiling from the barrier like a person who’d touched hot metal, shrinking back to keep a safe distance.
“That was one of my traveling companions. It’s the strongest barrier you can imagine, so we don’t need to worry about that thing causing any harm outside of it.”
“You sure? Looks like the priests can get out just fine.”
“It probably just isn’t closed completely yet. For now, just tell me what happened, please.”
“All right. So Serena and I figured out that that troublemaker Bazan was after something kept underneath Zaicuon Central Temple…”
Pippin began to explain what had occurred in Zaicuon Central Temple.
“Doesn’t look like they’ve caused any trouble just yet.”
Pippin appeared in one of the spires of the temple, whispering to Serena, who’d teleported in with him.
Their view of Zaicuon Central Temple was remarkably peaceful, without any signs of caution or panic.
“I doubt even Bazan can do anything with just the key, the Fantasmic Tuning Fork, no matter how good he is at breaking seals.”
“You said he also needs three Dragon’s Eggs, right?”
“No, technically it’s three dragon souls to be sacrificed.’”
“Same thing. You think anyone in the world could take down a dragon? Not even a hero would…”
…Stand a chance, Pippin was about to say. Then he remembered his employer, Kuro, and Nanashi the Hero, who defeated the overwhelming terror of the Evil God’s Spawn.
“Okay, there might be someone who can do it, but this Bazan guy’s not all that, right?”
“I doubt it. If he was powerful enough to defeat a dragon, he wouldn’t need help from anyone else in the first place.”
“Exactly. Anyway, the young master’s got the White Dragon’s Egg, so Bazan should only have the two he stole from the red dragon on Redsmoke Island and the green dragon in Dragu Kingdom. There aren’t any other dragons around here, are there?”
“Only lesser dragons. Rumor has it that there’s a yellow dragon in the south, but no one has ever seen it.”
“Why wouldn’t he have just gone for the lesser dragons, then? That’d be way easier than trying to outwit a fully-grown dragon, wouldn’t it?”
“I’m sure he would do that if he could. But Kamusim told me before his betrayal that a lesser dragon or its eggs wouldn’t count as a sacrifice.”
“I guess that means we should be all right for now, then…”
Pippin wiped the cold sweat from his neck and breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’d still prefer to stay here and keep a close eye on Bazan for a few days. As much as I’m concerned about the other places, too, I’m almost positive that his main target is the seal here in Pialork Kingdom, where the gods have less influence. What do you think, Pippin?”
Pippin didn’t answer Serena’s question.
“Pippin? What—?”
Before Serena could ask what was going on, Pippin pressed his hand to her mouth.
“We screwed up. They’re already inside.”
Pippin pointed down at a hedge. The body of a priest had been dumped behind it.
“Have they forgotten the sage’s teachings?!”
“Save the righteous anger for later. Let’s go.”
Quieting Serena’s outburst, Pippin teleported down to the ground with her in tow, heading through a door that looked to be the intruders’ route inside.
“I believe there’s a hidden door that leads underground up ahead. It’s behind a white statue.”
“Must be that one— Serena!”
Pippin sharply stopped Serena in her tracks.
A priestess was collapsed near the hidden doorway, covered in blood.
“Damn it! Are you alive, priestess?”
“F-forget about me, just…please, catch those thieves. Stop them…before they touch…the Godstrial Prison…”
With that, the priestess collapsed in Pippin’s arms.
“This way.”
Serena stepped over the unconscious priestess and entered the passageway.
“Hey, wait a minute! We gotta take care of the wounded first!” Pippin called out to Serena, then produced an Echigoya-made intermediate potion from a pouch on his belt and poured its contents down the priestess’s throat.
“Sorry I can’t stay around till you wake up.”
He lowered the priestess to the floor, then ran after Serena.
“Damn, she got ahead of me fast.”
Pippin used “Short-Range Teleportation” a few times as he hurried down the dark corridor until he saw a purple light up ahead.
Spotting Serena right in front of the light, Pippin closed the rest of the distance with one more teleport.
The light was pouring out from beyond a broken wall; on the other side was a pitch-black altar, a magic circle glowing with purple light on the wall behind it. The circle was crackling with strange purple lightning and slowly producing black mist.
“No one’s here?”
Whoever had activated the magic circle was no longer in the room.
“Did they finish their business here already?”
Pippin and Serena cautiously entered the room.
“Serena, on the altar.”
A tuning fork had been placed atop the altar.
“The Fantasmic Tuning Fork…”
“That’s the key they stole from Myusia Kingdom, huh?” Pippin sounded suspicious. “But where the hell did Bazan and his lackeys go?”
Ignoring Pippin’s muttering, Serena walked toward the magic circle.
“I’ve seen this somewhere before…”
“Hey, don’t touch it without— Serena!”
As soon as Serena touched the magic circle, she disappeared as if she’d been sucked inside.
“Argh… To hell with it!”
Pippin steeled himself and jumped into the magic circle.
Several pieces of information flooded his wavering field of vision at once.
A group of black-clad sage’s students like Serena, a huge magic circle drawn on the floor—and one Dragon’s Egg placed at each of its three points.
“Don’t do it, Bazan!” Serena shouted.
Her voice brought Pippin’s muddled thoughts back into focus, and his swimming vision began to clear.
“You’ve caught up to me, Serena?!”
Bazan spread his arms wide in the center of the magic circle.
There was a barrier produced by some kind of artifact, preventing Serena from entering.
It even blocked Pippin from teleporting inside.
“It’s not too late! You have to stop this, Bazan!”
“Why should I?! This was the dying wish of your beloved sage—that monkey. His ambition was to travel around the land and undo all the gods’ seals!”
“If you undo the seal, you’ll never make it out alive!”
“So be it. I no longer have any living brethren thanks to the war started by those foolish politicians. I will become one with the Divine Beast of Destruction and take down every last one of those fools along with me.”
“Won’t that make you just as bad as the politicians who start pointless wars?!”
“You wouldn’t understand. My only desire is revenge.”
Pippin was only half-listening to the exchange between the students bound to each other by fate as he surveyed the room and wracked his brains for a way out of this mess.
I can’t believe there was another egg…
Pippin and company had secured the White Dragon’s Egg, the Red Dragon’s Egg was stolen at Redsmoke Island, and the Green Dragon’s Egg was taken from Dragu Kingdom. But apparently there was one more dragon that still had an egg, after all.
Pippin’s “Analyze Goods” skill told him that the last egg was the Yellow Dragon’s Egg.
Black fog was twining around the egg, and the purple lightning produced by the magic circle was crackling violently.
Pippin suspected that the seal was about to break.
(This doesn’t look good. If I could just teleport into the barrier, I bet I could do something…)
Pippin’s eyes fell on a delicate magic device on the outer edge of the magic circle. That was probably the artifact producing the barrier.
Pippin pulled out a dagger from his bag.
(I didn’t expect the dagger Lord Kuro gave me to come in handy in a place like this…)
Pippin focused his teleportation power on the small dagger and managed to teleport it into the barrier successfully.
It struck the artifact and destroyed the barrier, just as he’d hoped.
“Serena!”
“I know! Tile Dagger Tan Fu Ha!”
A pure-white talisman shot from Serena’s hand, transformed into a blade, and pierced Bazan’s chest.
“…Curses.”
Evidently, the Defense Magic and delay runes that had once protected him from Serena’s Tile Magic had been deactivated to focus on the major magical task of destroying the seal.
Bazan crumpled to the floor.
“Shoulda worn a little more armor.”
No one responded to Pippin’s casual remark.
Though he didn’t know it, the black robes that the sage’s students wore had much higher defense power than the average metal armor. It was just that Serena’s spell had been prepared specifically to strike her comrade down.
“You can stew in your emotions after we retrieve these eggs.”
Pippin picked up one of the eggs from the magic circle.
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”
A woman’s voice rang out just as several whips lashed forward and stole the egg out of Pippin’s hands.
“Bazan was even wimpier than I thought if he went down to a softy like you, Serena.”
A glamorous woman appeared in the room.
If Satou or the samurai of Blacksmoke Island were here, they might have noticed that her face was that of the black-clad thief who was beheaded by the samurai general.
“Ohohohoho!”
Her whips danced around effortlessly, forcing Pippin and Serena away from the magic circle.
Pippin’s thrown dagger was knocked away. Even when he teleported behind her and thrust his blade through her heart, she seemed unaffected as she counterattacked him.
“Uuurgh, are you immortal or something?!”
Pippin clutched his broken arm as he teleported away, then healed his wound with a magic potion.
“Wake up, Bazan.”
“…Kelmareite.”
At the woman’s words, the previously dead Bazan stood up.
On closer inspection, there was a jagged scar on the woman’s neck, like it had been clumsily sewn back together.
“I’ll deal with these bozos. You hurry up and undo the seal!”
“I won’t let you! Fall Slip Rousoufu!”
Serena unleashed a rain of charmed tiles down on the Dragon’s Eggs that served as the crucial key to the magic circle.
“Not a chance, sweetheart!”
The woman’s whips protected the eggs from the spell.
“Kelmareite!”
At Bazan’s warning, she realized that Pippin had stolen one of the eggs.
Pippin was nowhere to be seen in the room. He must have grabbed it and fled.
“Bazan! Time to use our last resort.”
“Very well.”
Bazan teleported himself to the former position of the stolen egg.
“Stop! Do you have a death wish, Bazan?!”
“Oh, be quiet, softy! You already killed Bazan yourself, remember?!”
The woman’s whips lashed out to stop Serena from interfering.
“The ancient blood that flows through my veins, the ancient soul that shapes my heart… I offer it all as sacrifice. Let my body, that of the last living dragonkin, be the martyr that completes the ceremony to undo the seal.”
“Bazaaaaaan, stoooooop!”
Serena’s cry fell on deaf ears, as Bazan pulled his heart out of his torn-open chest and held it aloft.
The black fog trickling from the magic circle became a torrent.
“O ancient one, sealed away by the gods. Emerge from the depths of the Godstrial Prison.”
Blood frothed from Bazan’s mouth as he laughed triumphantly.
The eggs were devoured by darkness, then Bazan himself, along with his offered heart. When they had all been absorbed, the darkness overflowed and covered the magic circle entirely.
“Looks like it’s high time to make myself scarce. Later, loser.”
The woman threw a netlike object over Serena, then sped out of the room.
“I suppose throwing myself into that darkness would only lead to a pointless death…”
Serena hesitated, then passed the magic circle to flee the room as well.
The black fog burst out after her, as if giving chase.
She ran through the passage as fast as she could, but the fog moved faster.
“I can’t get away…!”
Wherever the black fog touched the tips of her red hair or her cloak, they crumbled away into ash.
Just as Serena had lost half her hair and her cloak and was about to give up on getting out alive—
“Serena! Over here!”
“Pippin!”
Pippin was waiting right in front of the stairs.
Just before the fog caught up to her, Serena’s hand brushed Pippin’s.
Teleportation.
Pippin and Serena returned to the ground floor of the temple, grabbed the still unconscious priestess, and headed outside.
There was a sound behind them like something breaking. Pippin looked back to see something appear, engulfed in black fog.
Writhing like a serpent, a tentacle of fog touched a fleeing priest, and the man’s body tore open from within and seemed to turn itself inside out, exposing his fleshy muscle fibers and spilling his guts onto the ground.
“Oh shit…!”
Pippin warned everyone to leave the temple, collecting as many people as he could along the way until he tumbled safely out through the gates.
“…So yeah, on that note, you’d better get out of here. I’ll call for Lord Kuro. Even if we can’t handle it, Lord Kuro or the hero will probably find a way.”
Pippin left the priests and priestesses he’d brought out with him in the care of a priest who’d run away from elsewhere.
“Nay. We shall not flee. Karion says so, too.”
“I concur, Urion. Let it be known that this is now a holy war. All living things in the relevant area shall comply with the will of the gods.”
Urion and Karion glowed with crimson and vermillion light respectively, sending out ripples of light in the same colors.
The people who had been trying to flee stopped abruptly, and readied their staffs and weapons with looks of determination.
“Goddess Urion, the masses will only get in our way. We can handle the fighting ourselves.”
“Nay. There is strength in numbers. I shall summon the knights and soldiers of this kingdom.”
“But surely the priests who have no battle experience won’t be of any use.”
“Nay. Their Holy Magic shall aid us.”
Satou tried to convince the goddesses to avoid needless sacrifices, only to be firmly rejected with unwavering logic.
“Say, goddesses,” Arisa cut in. “Couldn’t we have the priests and civilians pray for our victory in a safe place? Prayers produce divine power, right? Wouldn’t that be more efficient?”
“’Tis worthy of consideration. Karion, thy opinion?”
“Aye. The young one’s proposal is sound.”
Karion nodded, and the priests took off like horses freed from their yokes.
The goddesses must have released them from the control of their divine commands.
But while the priests were set free, the goddesses’ powers were spreading to the faraway barracks of the Pialork Kingdom army and the mercenary camps.
“All hands, prepare for battle! Rapid reaction force on duty, move out! Order the mages to activate the heavy golem squad!”
On the general’s orders, the soldiers began getting ready at once.
They were all moving as feverishly as if there had been a surprise enemy attack.
But not everyone was as fired up as the general and his men.
“General! What the hell is this?!”
“We have a fight on our hands, Commissioner. You should have your troops prepare for battle as well.”
“A fight? And where is the enemy, exactly?! This is why I said we should never hire commoners as generals!”
A military commissioner who was the nephew of the current king, and who himself was a duke of noble lineage, was deriding the commoner-born general.
“Cease this foolish horseplay at once! Are you planning to rebel against His Majesty the King?!”
“Do you not understand, Commissioner? This is a request from the Most Honorable Ones!”
“Most Honorable? What in the blazes are you—”
The soldiers restrained the commissioner in the middle of his sentence.
“Ensure that the commissioner does not interfere until our holy war is over.”
The general gave a heated command to the soldiers, then returned to his work without a second glance at the commissioner, whose face was so bright red that steam was practically coming out of his ears.
Word of this soon reached the royal castle.
“Your Majesty! There’s been suspicious movement from the soldiers at the garrisons.”
“Enough of this commotion. Leave such business to the imperial guards or the military commissioner. More importantly, will you not appreciate this painting with me? It’s the latest work of Toppentolle, who’s said to be the second coming of the Master Painter.”
In stark contrast to the panicking minister, the gaudily-dressed king was more interested in admiring his recently acquired painting.
“Your Majesty! Urgent news, sire!”
“You too, old man? Between this and the imaginary voices from earlier, it seems everyone’s half lost their minds today.”
The foolish king had apparently dismissed Satou’s warning and those of his family, who had heard it as an auditory hallucination.
“We noble few who lead the people must remain calm at all times, you see. Why, when the previous king was a child—”
Since it would be a grave offense to interrupt the king, the old chamberlain had to wait for him to finish his story before he could relay his urgent news.
Outside, the priest of Zaicuon Central Temple who had sent the chamberlain to relay the message was fretting impatiently in the waiting room.
“Hey, you! Don’t just leave your post!”
As he waited, the priest heard angry shouting outside the room.
“Let me go! We have a sacred mission!”
“What could be more sacred than an imperial guard’s duty to protect His Majesty?! And you call yourself a noble?!”
“Shut up! Are you saying that those of us who don’t hold court rank like you aren’t real nobles?!”
“There’s no point arguing! If you insist on trying to stop me, I’ll have to use force!”
The imperial guards drew their swords on one another in a tense standoff.
Evidently only some of the kingdom’s combatants had received the effects of the goddesses’ divine commands.
“You morons! Why are you squabbling in the castle?! Authority Aura Ken’i Koji!”
The enraged military minister used a City Core spell by way of the glowing blue terminal in his hand.
The blue light washed over the imperial guards, who knelt down on the spot, trembling with fear.
“Wh…what was I doing…?”
“Looks like you’ve come to your senses. Gather all the imperial guards. If anyone else is acting up like you were, restrain them and bring them here. Try not to kill them if you can help it, though I don’t care if you injure them a little. Now go!”
The imperial guards ran off to follow the minister’s orders.
“What the hell is going on in this kingdom…?”
The military minister felt an indescribable sense of dread as he stood in the now-empty hallway.
And indeed, this situation was far beyond the imagination of any mere mortal.
Meanwhile, in front of the temple…
“Mew!”
“Satou.”
Tama was on high alert, and Mia spoke a warning.
Humanoid shapes shrouded in black mist burst out through the walls and doors of the silent temple, appearing one after another.
Something tried to come out through the main gate as well, only to be blocked by a stone wall that appeared in their way. It must have been a priest who could use Earth Magic.
“They’re getting out of the goddesses’ barrier!” Arisa cried.
“Such cunning. They used the barrier’s settings against us. Those things are made from humans.” Urion looked grim.
The misty humanoids were apparently taking advantage of the fact that the barrier was designed to let humans pass through.
“Those are the Dissentients. Grasping tentacles sent to encroach on this world.”
Karion’s expression was grave. In Satou’s vision, the mist-cloaked humanoids were labeled as Dissentients by his AR display.
“Karion, that is taboo knowledge.”
“Aye. Thou shalt all forget what I just said.”
Karion evidently had a tendency to be careless at times.
“Is it possible to turn them back into humans?”
“Nay. Even if the amount of factors are few, ’tis impossible to return them to normal once they have been completely transformed.”
“I concur, Karion. It can only be fixed before they have transformed. Individuals that have been fully taken over are no longer beings of this world.”
“I see…”
Satou’s shoulders slumped at this answer.
“My Magic Hand goes right through them…?”
When he tried to toss the emerging Dissentients back into the temple, he couldn’t get a hold of them.
“Master, the local army has arrived.”
Lulu reported from the airship deck, where she was preparing her Sniping gun.
The army was led by ten small golems around ten feet high with flashy decorations on their heads, followed by Magic Cannons and ordinary soldiers. There were a few midsized golems roughly twenty feet in height, although those were on standby protecting the royal castle.
When the Pialork Kingdom army arrived, they began to attack the Dissentients before Satou and the others could stop them.
“Wooow, powerfuuul?”
“What an amazingly amazing attack, sir.”
With a resounding boom, the Pialork Kingdom army fired their Magic Cannons and attack spells, shooting the Dissentients full of holes.
“…Hmm? They’re weak?” Arisa blinked.
“Of course,” Karion replied. “They have only received the minimal amount of discordance factors in order to pass through the barrier.”
Satou and company watched with an air of slight disappointment as the Dissentients anticlimactically went down without a fight.
Once the first volley was over, a squadron of knights on horseback launched a mounted charge on the Dissentients.
“It’s almost too easy.”
The knights’ charge made short work of the Dissentients, quickly reducing their numbers.
In their wake, foot soldiers charged at what was left of the swarm.
“Meeew?”
“Something’s not right here.”
Tama and Pippin were the first to notice the strangeness.
The soldiers who were mowing down the Dissentients suddenly doubled over in pain, frantically throwing aside their shields and weapons, and desperately stripping off their armor as they began to flee.
The rest of the royal army supported their retreat with long-distance attacks and the shield-bearing golems.
“Are the Dissentients corrupting them?”
“Aye. Their corruptive power is low, but staying in contact with them for an extended period of time is ill-advised.”
Sure enough, the knights who had only briefly trampled through the Dissentients’ ranks looked unaffected.
“They have revived, I report.”
“Tough.”
The Dissentients who’d been immobilized by the first attack gathered back together like liquid and swelled up.
Since the attacks had broken their host bodies, the reformed Dissentients couldn’t maintain a humanoid form, instead moving jerkily toward the army like something in between a zombie and a slime.
Some of them absorbed the soldiers’ abandoned armor and weapons as part of their vessel or began to fuse with others to create larger Dissentients.
Appearing to be either threatened or frightened by this, the royal army unleashed a wave of attacks even more intense than the first.
“Ah…”
A few stray shots from this volley broke the walls of the temple, and one of them struck the main body of black fog that was still sealed inside Urion’s barrier.
This roused the misty creature out of its stagnant state into thrashing around actively, striking tentacle-like tendrils of fog against the red barrier.
“Warning. The barrier is in danger of being destroyed. Estimated twenty-seven hundred units of time remaining.”
“You mean we have to destroy it from outside the barrier before the countdown ends!” Arisa exclaimed delightedly, readying her staff. “It’s a classic boss battle mechanic!”
“Nay. The barrier will break before thy chant is finished.”
Even as Urion spoke, a slight crack formed in one section of the barrier, and one of the fog tentacles stretched into a thin whip, mowing down the royal army in a matter of moments.
The golems were smashed to pieces like poorly constructed papier-mâché models, while the soldiers were slaughtered in a spray of blood.
It all happened so quickly that even Satou and company couldn’t intervene in time.
Still, Satou quickly jumped into action.
“Over here!”
Satou teleported away from his companions instantly using “Warp,” firing repeatedly at the misty tentacle with a Magic Gun.
The light bullets appeared to strike the tentacle, but they actually passed right through it without causing any damage.
“I can’t let you have all the fun, young master!”
Pippin teleported around repeatedly as he attacked with throwing knives and a Fire Rod.
“Goddess Urion! Reinforce the barrier while we keep it busy, please!” Satou shouted.
“Nay. ’Tis impossible now that the boundary has been infringed upon. I shall break it into small pieces instead. I entrust thee with taking care of the rest. Karion, put up another barrier.”
“The cost of maintaining two barriers is too great. I shall temporarily remove the outer barrier. Mortals, thou shalt ensure that those things do not lessen the number of civilians.”
“All right. Liza! Bring the vanguard with you and go fight off the Dissentients! Make sure you don’t stay close to them for too long! Arisa and Mia, you’re on support!”
Satou immediately agreed to the goddess girls’ lofty requests and gave orders to his party.
“Begin.”
Urion sliced off the tentacle with crimson light, while Karion took over maintaining the interior barrier.
The tentacle undulated in midair, and Urion sliced it to pieces on the upswing of her blade. After she’d shredded the Dissentient, Urion added her own barrier on top of Karion’s to ensure the main body of fog would never break through again.
“Uh-oh!”
“Look up there!”
Mia and Lulu were the first to notice the problem.
The shredded tentacle had merged with some of the Dissentients on the ground and formed a much larger mass.
“Being bigger just makes you a better target for the amazing Arisa!”
Arisa shot off an advanced single-target Fire Magic spell at the enormous Dissentient. The huge ball of flame pierced through the giant being’s torso and blew off a large chunk of the temple.
“It went straight through?”
“My Magic Spear doesn’t seem to affect it, either.”
“Spellblade Shots pass right through, too, sir!”
“Ninjutsu, too?”
“My physical bullets and the Fireburst Gun don’t have any effect.”
Normal Magic Swords and spells are one thing, but even Liza’s Magic Cricket Spear with the dragon fang coating doesn’t work on it?
Internally, Satou was surprised by his companions’ report.
“Our attacks don’t touch it even though its attacks can hurt us? Give me a break!”
“’Tis a shadow from another dimension,” Karion responded to Arisa’s complaint. “Unless one aims for the core it uses as its vessel, no mortal means of attacking will affect it.”
“Then if we just blow the whole thing away…”
“Don’t, Arisa! You’ll destroy the city behind it, too.”
Lulu stopped her sister as she rolled up her sleeves.
“Watch out! Quick!”
Satou yelled a warning as he saw the giant Dissentient produce a mass of tentacles and spring at his friends.
“Fortress!”
“Fallinks, sir!”
Nana activated her Fortress, and Pochi used Phalanx, but the giant Dissentient’s tentacles passed through them effortlessly to attack the girls. They didn’t notice that the core part of the Dissentient, the only part with a corporeal form, dissolved into sparks when it touched the Fortress.
“ Stack Tile Juukabefu!”
The sage’s student Serena tried to support them with Tile Magic, which the tentacles only passed through just as easily.
When Satou tried to use “Warp” to go to their aid, another giant Dissentient blocked his path.
“Out of the way!”
Without hesitation, Satou boldly hurled himself directly at the creature.
Although a horrible terror assailed his heart, one of his many resistances protected him.
In the moment he passed through the Dissentient’s body, he pulled out a Divine Blade from Storage and slashed upward, defeating the giant creature without anyone knowing his method.
Satou burst through the remains of the Dissentient to see a vermillion barrier shining between his companions and the tentacles.
“Karion’s barrier!” Satou accidentally exclaimed with relief.
Evidently even the Dissentient’s attacks that could pass through physical and magical obstacles still couldn’t pierce a goddess’s barrier.
“See how you like this!”
Serena tossed some kind of artifact.
It broke over the giant Dissentient’s head, and chains made out of light bound the creatures hand and foot.
“Not bad, lady.”
“It’s Serena. Looks like the Evil God’s Chains the sage gave me work on these things, too.”
The corner of Serena’s mouth twitched upward at Arisa’s praise.
“Can you use it again?”
“Sorry, they’re single-use only. There were many found in the Evil God’s Prison, but I only have two more left.”
Serena bound the second giant Dissentient coming toward them in the same way.
The remaining giant Dissentient seemed to sense that Serena was a threat and lumbered away from the front lines to come after her as well.
“Gotcha… Goddesses, is there any way you can strengthen our weapons and armor like you did on Blacksmoke Island while still maintaining the barriers?”
“I have little divine power remaining. For a few people, perhaps. Karion says so, too.”
“I did not. But I am low on divine power, too. The mortals are too frightened of the giant Dissentients. Their prayers cannot supply enough power. If I use too much now, I shall not have enough left to reseal the main body.”
The goddess girls grimaced.
“Then we’ll just have to fire them up again! Manipulate the masses with a moving speech!”
Arisa looked up at Satou triumphantly, as if she’d struck on a genius idea.
“I take it you have a plan?” Pippin looked at her, then turned to Serena. “Serena! You and me are gonna buy them some time!”
“Got it!”
Pippin grabbed Serena and used “Short-Range Teleportation” to lead the giant Dissentient that was chasing Serena around on a merry chase.
Keeping one eye on them, Arisa explained her plan to Satou.
“Master! I’ve got an idea! Project the image of that monster big enough that it can be seen from anywhere in the city. The one that’s not chained up!”
Satou used his Illusion spell to display the giant Dissentient.
He even went above and beyond Arisa’s request by adding a frightening roar with his “Ventriloquism” skill.
The citizens were already anxious from the purposeful march of the armed forces through the streets and the frightening booms that followed. Then they saw the gigantic beast looming over the center of the city near Zaicuon Central Temple.
“Wh…what…? What the hell is thaaat?!”
A horrifically large monster glared down at them and let out a terrifying roar.
“M-MONSTEEEEEER!”
“R…run…run for iiiiit!”
The masses flew into a panic, pushing and shoving as they ran away.
“Be not afraid, mortals.”
Just then, vermillion light gathered above the main gate of the city and formed the floating image of a young girl.
“I am Karion. I shall protect you from this harbinger of doom.”
The girl waved her hand, and a wall of red light blocked the monster’s way as it tried to stomp toward the city.
The monster struck the wall furiously, the echoing boom shaking the hearts of the people.
“Mortals, you must not give in to fear, for it only gives the monster more power.”
A different girl appeared over another gate in a flash of crimson light.
“I am Urion. I will bind the fearsome beast with the power of the gods.”
The second girl raised her hand, and chains of red light appeared and wrapped around the thrashing monster.
Although this wasn’t how the goddess girls normally spoke, the people of Pialork Kingdom were unlikely to realize that.
“Pray, mortals. Your inner strength will give us the power to defeat the monster.”
“Have hope, mortals. That you will once again live peaceful lives. Your pious prayers will grant us the strength to destroy the evil.”
The goddesses spoke directly to the masses.
Although the rest was all an act put on by Satou, the final word that followed came directly from the goddesses’ lips.
“Pray.”
It was only one short word, yet it was imbued with the power of a divine command. The masses lowered their heads and prayed, for themselves, for their families, and, most of all, for the sake of a peaceful life.
“…Ooh. Now this is a surprise.”
“Aye. I did not expect to receive such powerful prayers. Karion says so, too.”
“I did not. Thou art delusional, Urion. But with this much prayer, we can grant thee enough power to destroy the filth.”
The goddess girls applied divine power to Satou and his party’s weapons.
“Arisa, Lulu, Mia, you three take down the giant Dissentients that are already chained up. The rest of us will go defeat the free one that Pippin is leading around.”
With that, Satou ran up to the giant Dissentient, holding a Magic Gun and a self-made Magic Sword.
“Get back, Pippin!”
Pippin and Serena moved out of the way with “Short-Range Teleportation.” Just as the Dissentient lost sight of its target, Satou jumped into view.
“First, a little test-drive is in order.”
Muttering to himself, he shot a bullet from his Magic Gun.
Glowing with vermillion light, it pierced through the giant Dissentient.
Unlike before, the part that the bullet had passed through scattered, and a hole formed in the creature’s mist-like body.
Satou dodged a counterattack from a tentacle with as little movement as possible, then used his crimson-glowing Magic Sword and gauntlet to parry it.
“Looks like it can’t corrupt my weapons or armor now.”
The overprotective Satou was ensuring that there would be no danger to his companions before he gave them the signal to join the fray.
“Liza, go!”
“Yes, sir! ‘Blink—Helix Spear Attack’!”
Glowing with both crimson and vermillion light, Liza thrust her spear into the giant Dissentient’s knee.
“‘Akilleez Hunter,’ sir!”
Pochi’s sword flashed vermillion as she sliced through the heel of the being’s other foot.
“‘Shield Bash,’ I declare!”
Nana struck the giant Dissentient’s shin, her shield glowing crimson.
“Nana, duck!”
Nana dodged on Mia’s warning as the Dissentient lost its balance and swung its tentacle back down toward her.
“Aim…and fire!”
Lulu’s attack blew through the tentacle just before it could strike Nana.
“Nin-niiin?”
Tama’s ninjutsu sank the being’s arms into shadows.
“Let’s sync up.”
“Yes, Liza! Zero strike, ‘Blast Fort,’ I declare!”
Nana used an attack she’d learned on Blacksmoke Island, an updated version of “Blast Armor.”
Her special attack scattered the mist from the giant Dissentient’s face, revealing its hideous true form.
“First striiike? ‘Vorpal Shadow Biiite!’”
Tama’s two Magic Swords slashed up the Dissentient’s exoskeleton, then shadow blades followed closely behind, opening the wounds wider. The addition of ninjutsu made her special attack far more destructive than before.
“Second strike, sir! ‘Vanquish Slicer!’ Sir!”
While Pochi’s “Spellblade” whirlwind had long been part of her repertoire, the sword-drawing techniques she learned from the samurai general increased its speed several times over.
The magic blade grew physically larger, completely shattering the part of the exoskeleton that Tama had damaged.
“Liza! Now, sir!”
“Right! Third strike—‘Draco Buster!’”
As the exoskeleton quickly began healing itself, Liza leapt into the gap, delivering a volley of strikes to the swirling darkness with her Magic Cricket Spear.
The mist around the vortex sharpened into evil fangs to try to chomp down on Liza.
But Liza fearlessly twirled around to shake off the mist that threatened to close in on her, then used the momentum to strike deep and true.
In that moment, the fangs that were about to bite down on her broke and shattered.
When she saw this, Liza realized that Satou was suddenly standing beside her. He had jumped right into the face of danger to protect her.
“Oh no! Master, it’s getting away!”
The giant Dissentient that the rear guard was fighting turned into a cloud of countless bats, like a vampire, and flew up into the air. A few of them turned into wolves and fled over the ground instead.
“Aim…and fire!”
“Get them!”
“You won’t get away from the amazing Arisa that easily!”
Lulu’s Fireburst Gun shot down the mist bats one after another, while Mia’s summoned Behemoth’s lightning strikes and Arisa’s Fire Magic mowed them down.
Satou kept pace with Lulu, shooting at the bats with a Fireburst Gun in each hand, but there were simply too many.
The handful that turned into wolves tried to attack the rear guard and were promptly blocked by Nana’s Fortress.
“We’ll defeat the wolves.”
“Aye-aye, siiir?”
“Roger, sir!”
The beastfolk girls worked together steadily to take down the mist wolves.
“Shoot, at this rate, it’ll get away…!”
Despite the rear guard’s valiant efforts blasting away the bats, some number of them were starting to get out of range.
Just as Satou was about to transform into Nanashi the Hero, a streak of red flame sizzled across the sky.
“‘Dragon Breath,’” Mia murmured.
A moment later, a yellow laser-like beam scoured the sky from another direction.
Following close behind, the gigantic forms of the red dragon and yellow dragon flew over the royal capital of Pialork Kingdom.
“The dragons are here. Always so eager for a fight. Karion says so, too.”
“I did not. ‘Dragon Breath’ can harm those things. We can entrust the rest to them.”
The goddess girls looked up at the dragons as they relentlessly mowed down the mist bats.
The bats formed back together into several mist wyverns, fleeing for the horizon as fast as they could.
The dragons gave chase, still burning them with fiery breath.
“Doesn’t look like those ones will be getting away…”
Satou turned his attention back to the vanguard’s fight against the mist wolves.
There was still one left, but not for long.
“ Fall Slip Rousoufu!”
Serena, the sage’s student, had returned from hunting down the smaller Dissentients in time to finish off the last mist wolf with her Tile Magic.
“…Erm, I’m sorry. Did I just steal the best part…?”
“Not at all. We appreciate the assistance.”
Liza gallantly thanked the apologetic Serena.
“Young master, we wiped out the last of the small fry.”
“Thank you, Pippin.”
Satou turned his gaze back toward the main body of the mist, which was still trapped inside the two barriers.
“May I ask you to finish off the last part?”
He tried to pass the baton off to the goddess girls.
“Goddesses?”
Arisa looked at the unresponsive pair.
“…Oh dear.”
“’Tis most unexpected.”
The goddess girls gazed up at the image that was still being projected into the sky.
The performance they’d put on had brought hope to the masses despite their fear, inspiring them to pray to the goddesses piously and sincerely in a way that helped turn the tide of the battle. There was no doubt about that.
But at the same time, it also inspired more fear in them.
The stress that tormented them as they prayed created miasma, which strengthened the fog that produced the Dissentients—the main body of the “Discordant One.”
If Arisa and Satou knew that miasma strengthened Discordant Ones, they might have chosen another method, but the goddesses told them no such thing. After all, that fact was common knowledge to the divine.
“…Master, turn off the projection…”
Satou realized it, too, as Arisa spoke, and made the image disappear.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
The misty monster broke through the goddess girls’ barrier and emerged onto the ground.
“ZZZXXXZBBB.”
A disturbing roar, like a mix of low-pitched tones and a high-pitched screech, distorted the world.
“So that’s its true form…”
A single bead of cold sweat trickled down Satou’s brow as he realized that an even bigger fight was ahead.
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