Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 11 - Chapter 3.1

Interlude: At the Royal Castle 
Royal Capital, Altea 
Three days had passed since Claymill’s destruction. 
News had spread across the continent that the Arch Sage’s apprentices, the holy men of Altar’s church, the imperium’s second armored battalion, and the Babylonian Battlegroup had all suffered a staggering defeat against Gloria. 
With Claymill the Fortress City gone, nothing now stood in Gloria’s way. 
The evacuation of the capital’s inhabitants had accelerated, the price of food and clothing skyrocketed, conflict increased, medical facilities suffered a shortage of healers due to the lack of holy men... it was equivalent to a full-scale war. Gloria itself was far from the only thing the capital’s knights had to deal with. 
All this chaos demanded leadership for the knights, but their commander, Celestial Knight, Langley Grandria, was simply floating above the royal castle. 
He was sitting on Gold Thunder — the national treasure loaned to him — and looking not at the town below the castle, but towards the northwest... the direction Gloria was approaching from. 
Gloria itself was still nowhere in sight. 
Three days after Claymill’s destruction meant that it was now a week after Gloria’s initial appearance at Lightning Dragon Mountain. 
It ought to have arrived at the capital by now. 
The only reason it hadn’t was all the damage inflicted by the Babylonian Battlegroup, the other Masters on the scene, and King of Swords, Foltesla. 
Though Gloria wasn’t killed and could still fight just as well, all the damage it sustained, especially the lost heart, forced it to spend a whole day fixing its wounds. It had also lost its wings, which didn’t regenerate, so it was now a day behind schedule. 
Even so, Gloria would arrive at the capital tomorrow and engulf it in its Fatal Field. 
“...I must face it,” Langley muttered. It had since been revealed that Fatal Field wasn’t fatal to everyone. Those of level 500 and above could survive it and fight the dragon. 
It was also known that Gloria couldn’t be harmed by anyone outside the field. That was information that the members of the Babylonian Battlegroup fervently spread throughout Infinite Dendrogram and even outside of it. The conditions for fighting it were now known, and, for better or worse, Langley met them. He had the power to fight for and protect his kingdom. 
“Let us move, Thunder.” 
He steeled his resolve and prepared himself to ride Gold Thunder towards the northwest, into the Nowest Canyon where Gloria could be found, but stopped when someone grabbed his shoulder and said, “Wait, Sir Grandria. There is no need to rush.” 
This rather surprised him, seeing as he was high up in the air, and he quickly turned to see a man standing in midair using his absurdly precise control of wind magic. There was only one person capable of that: one of Altar’s Superior Jobs, which Langley named with his next words. “Mr. Arch Sage...” 
He’d served the kingdom for over a century, but no one even knew his name. He only went by “Arch Sage,” and that was what people called him. The old man’s origins were a mystery, but he had been an Altarian court magician for generations, and always used the wisdom he’d gathered to advise and tutor its leaders, which had made him a highly trusted figure here. 
“There are a few things I would like to say, but first and foremost, you will not solve the problem if you go alone. It would only waste our battle potential too early, and you could not do much besides buy a little time. If I were the one heading out, it would be exactly the same.” 
“Not even you can best it?” 
“Oh yes. And if I summoned a meteor within the field, I would endanger myself, as well.” 
In an off-hand manner, the Arch Sage brought up his most powerful spell — a meteorite summon. However, he immediately changed his tone. 
“It would be different if I still had my apprentices... What a grave loss.” 
“Mr. Arch Sage...” All of his apprentices had died in the battle at Claymill. The Arch Sage’s expression was that of a teacher who had lost all his students, and Langley felt sympathy for him. 
However, his feelings were a bit misplaced. 
The Arch Sage did feel that their deaths were a loss... but he didn’t regret them for a moment. 
“That Gloria creature, though...” said the old man. “Thanks to the sacrifices that were made, we now know how it functions, and it is indeed a fearsome monster... I wonder how the remaining forces of the kingdom can even fight it.” 
The kingdom had already deployed and lost nearly as much as it could afford to give. 
There were still the knights, but the only ones among them who could survive Gloria’s Fatal Field were Langley and the vice-commander of the Royal Guard. Even with the Arch Sage joining them, it wouldn’t be enough. 
Besides them, the kingdom had another tian who could be an immensely powerful addition to the group, but sadly, that tian was not yet level 500. 
“It is futile. At the very least, tians alone cannot win this,” said the Arch Sage. 
“So not even you know a way to defeat it?” Langley asked. The question made the Arch Sage fall silent. 
Finding that strange, Langley called out to him, “Mr. Arch Sage?” 
“...Oh, my apologies. I was simply racking this old brain to remember something, but came up with nothing. How embarrassing. And here I am, supposedly this great fountain of wisdom,” he said as he returned from his trip through his own thoughts with a wry grin, then took out a pocket watch. “More importantly... Sir Grandria, it’s almost time for the negotiations. Knowing who we are dealing with, I humbly believe it is best if you participate as well.” 
In less than an hour, the king would be negotiating with a certain someone. Langley hadn’t planned to attend, but the Arch Sage was right about the other party. I should be ready to protect Eldor, he thought, before saying, “Very well. I will go and guard him. What of you?” 
“I will stay here in the wind’s embrace and lose myself in thought. Perhaps I shall happen upon a solution. Oh, but do not worry. I will be there for the negotiations.” 
After seeing off Langley, the Arch Sage looked to the northwest again. 
His train of thought went as follows... 
Would Superweapon No. 3... Would Acra-Vasta be able to handle it? No... it should not be complete yet. However, the base functions should be ready to go. Perhaps Acra would survive it...? No. No it would not. The monster breathes light. The distance created by Space Dilution means nothing against that, and Vasta’s Mutual Repair would be quickly exhausted. And since attacks from outside the set range do nothing, their kinetic energy bombs would be useless, as well. 
He was thinking about Langley’s question — the means of defeating Gloria. However, there was a major problem with that. 
It was the name “Acra-Vasta” itself 
Acra-Vasta was a superweapon being secretly constructed within some uncovered pre-ancient civilization ruins. Even the Arch Sage shouldn’t have been able to discover anything about it. 
No. 5... Beldrion would have had a better chance against it, but it was destroyed by the King of Kings and The Lynx over six hundred years ago. Using No. 1 is not an option, while No. 2 and 4... are no longer under my control. 

The man calling himself Arch Sage sighed, then looked up at the sky. 
No matter. Gloria is just another pawn of the incarnations... Between this and the recent increase in Masters... inferior incarnations... it appears that now, after two millennia, they are approaching their endgame. 
That thought made him change his expression. 
This new expression was ugly, and seemed to contain both pure hatred towards a sworn enemy and the sheer joy of eventually bringing him down. 
Worse comes to worst, this body of mine might wither; I will simply focus on gathering more data. It is of no consequence. We still have a spare... The “we” of the next generation... already exists. 
Thinking that, the man who’d hid his name from the world and went by only his job returned to the castle he’d been nesting in for over a century. 
 
Royal Capital, Altea, Royal Audience Hall 
As Gloria’s arrival came ever closer, certain negotiations were reaching their end. The parties involved were the king, Eldor Zeo Altar, and... “Okie-dokie. My darlings and I will fight Gloria, too.” 
...the leader of The Lunar Society, High Priestess, Fuso Tsukuyo. 
“So The Lunar Society will help in the fight against Gloria? How reassuring,” said the king. 
“Yes indeed,” Tsukuyo nodded. “We got lots of people who can survive Gloria’s field, so you can be sure we’ll be useful.” 
Her response calmed Eldor’s nerves. 
Thus far, negotiations with The Lunar Society hadn’t gone well, mostly because he couldn’t contact Tsukuyo. Now that he finally had, it seemed to be going smoothly. 
With Gloria only one day away, they couldn’t manage without the help of The Lunar Society — the kingdom’s largest and strongest clan. 
“Thank you,” said the king. “I am in your de—” 
“But only if all the royalty sign this Contract.” However, it would come at a price. 
“This is...? Ah...!” Tsukuyo presented him a Contract of the highest quality — the kind that instantly granted death to anyone who violated it. Knowing that full well, she had still demanded the entire royal family sign it. Eldor went on to read the conditions of the contract and... 
“‘A prohibition on all use of the kingdom’s authority to suppress the actions of the Lunar Society?’” he read aloud. 
“It’s basically a written guarantee — an agreement to never suppress or harm The Lunar Society no matter how big we get.” 
Essentially, she wanted him to grant them complete freedom as a religious group. The Lunar Society was currently growing at staggering rates. It was far above a thousand strong, and that included both believers from reality as well as tians. 
The speed of their growth would be menacing to any politician. 
Even if everything seemed fine now, there was a chance that it may grow into a terrible cancer upon the kingdom. The chances of the kingdom dismantling the clan were low, but it was entirely possible that they would’ve begun to limit it, and Tsukuyo brought out this Contract to prevent that. 
“Oh, it also says that the Contract would be null and void if The Lunar Society committed acts of terror or got involved in criminal activity. Otherwise, we would be able to do whatever we wanted. Though, in exchange for that, we will also be given the freedom to accept or refuse any other requests from the country.” 
“But that means that...” ...It would become impossible for the kingdom to bind this dangerously powerful entity in any way. Signing this basically meant trading the elimination of a current threat for a dangerous future. 
“You wouldn’t interfere with our religious activities and wouldn’t force us to do something we don’t want as long as we don’t engage in criminal activity. That’s all. Nothing big, right?” 
Tsukuyo Fuso, sly fox that she was, demanded this despite knowing all of that full well. 
The king wouldn’t have to give anything. As long as the contract was unbroken, no one would be harmed. It came at no immediate cost, but it would enable them to deal with the imminent threat. 
The conditions seemed truly fair, but it made the king feel as though his head was caught between the jaws of a fox. 
“And what if we try to force you to act before signing this contract?” asked the Arch Sage. 
“We’ll respond with terrorism,” Tsukuyo instantly replied. 
The words made the audience restless, with some of them beginning to berate her. 
“Before the contract is signed, we can go ahead and engage in religious terrorism if we want... And we are well prepared for that.” 
Those words made everyone fall silent. 
“Wh-What are you saying?” asked the king. 
“Right now, I have Kage’s special forces hiding within every major city in Altar.” Special forces led by King of Assassins, Eishiro Tsukikage. 
Their specializations and goals were obvious. 
“Besides that, I could cover the capital in my night, then have Kage follow it up with Erlkönig... You know what would happen, don’t you?” Everyone present knew the powers of Tsukuyo Fuso and her most trusted aide. 
Tsukikage was a limited wide-scale extermination specialist, while Tsukuyo was a wide-scale suppression type who greatly expanded those limits. It was easy to see that the capital would fall if they unleashed their combined power upon it. 
“Please don’t...!” the king pleaded. 
“You don’t have to ask. I’d only have them act if the kingdom tried to force us to cooperate. That’s why you have three options,” Tsukuyo said as she raised up three fingers. “You either sign the Contract and get our cooperation, don’t sign the Contract and try to take care of it some other way, or try to force us to do what you want and face utter destruction.” 
After naming the three things, Tsukuyo smiled proudly and waited for an answer. 
“...You are a monster,” said one of the nobles in the audience. “Control yourself!” said another. 
However, none of this had fouled Tsukuyo’s mood whatsoever. In fact, her smile actually widened to an inhuman degree; she tilted her head slightly and said “You’re asking for my help exactly because I am as dangerous as a monster, no? Anyway, what do you say, Your Majesty? Will you sign it? Or not?” 
Eldor hesitated for a good moment before deciding to sign it. 
Thus, the peaceful negotiations ended, and it was decided that the kingdom’s largest clan would participate in the fight against Gloria.