Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 17 - Chapter 8.5

Interlude: The Closed Sea

Event Area, South, Beach

This was the same battlefield where Shion defeated Juba, only to fall to Carl right after.

Two famed Altarian duelists now stood upon it: Juliet the Black Crow and Chelsea the Wandering Golden Sea—respectively the fourth and eighth in the rankings.

They were besties, combat partners, and rivals all at once, and now they were facing each other in single combat.

“...I came to Altar right about when Gloria did her thing, right?” Putting her battle-axe, Poseidon, down in the sand with its bladed side first, Chelsea began to talk about her memories.

“Hm?” Juliet, facing her from some distance, found Chelsea’s attempt at conversation strange, but listened to her regardless.

“It was right after my closest friend also left Granvaloa,” Chelsea continued. “I left to look for an SJ I could take and went to Altar ’cause it was closest.”

Saying nothing in response, Juliet recalled the time she’d first heard that.

The friend Chelsea spoke of was none other than Zeta—the now-wanted Superior. They had once been part of the same Granvaloan pirate crew.

“After the move, I decided to try my hand in Altar’s duel scene...and that was when I met you, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” nodded Juliet. Back then, Rosa and the rest of K&R hadn’t arrived in Altar yet, so the country didn’t have many female duelists. As fellow girls of the arena, they’d noticed each other, and Chelsea had struck up a conversation.

“I never had any idea what you were saying back then.”

“Ngh...” Chelsea was now Juliet’s closest friend, but unlike Ray, she didn’t have the strange ability to instantly understand her as though she was speaking normally.

“I eventually figured it out, but by that time, you’d started talking to me like a normal person.”

“Yeah. I did...” Juliet used her own, natural manner of speech with those she was close to. She’d slowly gained a few such friends over the years, but Chelsea was and always would be the first.

“It’s a bit embarrassing to say this, but...we really are friends, aren’t we?” Chelsea asked.

“I really feel that way...” said Juliet with a light blush and a nod.

“We’re friends, but also rival duelists,” Chelsea continued as she caressed her axe. “But there’s a side of me I haven’t shown you yet.”

A second later, their surroundings sank into the sea.

Or rather, the water flowing freely between the grains of sand on the ground raised the local sea level precipitously.

Surprised, Juliet flapped her wings and rose above the water.

“By that, I mean...you’ve never met the ‘me’ from the past, when I was at my strongest.”

With over half of her body now submerged, Chelsea continued speaking.

“You...or rather, the strongest girl in Altar needs to see it.” She pulled out her Poseidon and leaped out of the water. “I am the Great Pirate, Chelsea—the eighth in Altar’s duel rankings, nicknamed the ‘Wandering Golden Sea.’”

She then used her skill as a Great Pirate to stand on the water’s surface and introduced herself properly.

“And I was the second in Granvaloa’s duel rankings, nicknamed the ‘Closed Sea.’” That was who Chelsea used to be—someone many thought to be the strongest woman in all of Granvaloa.

“Bestie...you’re about to get a taste of my real fightin’ style,” Chelsea declared as she stood atop the rising sea. “Hope it ain’t too much for ya, Julie.”

“...Try me!” Juliet replied, all smiles, and commenced the battle.

◇◆

Type Weapon, “Panthalassic Axe, Poseidon.”

That was the name of Chelsea’s Embryo, and its abilities were centered around the concept of “liquid summoning.”

The skill that probably stood out the most was its ultimate, Golden Bull Tsunami—Poseidon, which summoned a flood of liquid gold. Besides that, there was World Reversal Waterfall, which created a massive pillar of water that could be used for both defense and offense.

However, neither of those pushed her “liquid summoning” theme to its limit.

She could also summon simple seawater, the volume of which easily surpassed the amount of the liquid gold she could conjure up; given enough summoning time, it could even exceed that of the World Reversal Waterfall.

Chelsea had been preparing to summon water from the moment she’d put her Poseidon into the sand, and by now, the water had already submerged their battlefield and still continued to flow unabated.

Liquid summoning with a long precast? A flooded surface doesn’t mean much to me, though... Juliet thought. Being capable of flight, she could easily avoid the water below.

The height limit for this event was a whole five hundred metels—far higher than that of the arenas. And since Juba had been dealt with, she didn’t have to worry about being shot down from the sky.

Juliet could easily win this by simply attacking Chelsea from above over and over until she died.

As she became puzzled why this “all-out battle” was going in that direction...

“Julie.”

...Chelsea looked up at her and smiled. “You sure you’re high enough?” A moment later, continuous explosions resounded over the beach.

“Ah?!” Juliet’s intuition drove her to rise higher for an evasive maneuver as trails of light pierced the sky. Flare bombs! she thought as she looked down to see a large object.

Its silhouette was all too familiar to her.

“Your ship!”

It was the pirate ship that had been parked in Gideon’s fifth district—the place that had once been the HQ of the Golden Pirates.

“Yeah. We had dessert parties there, so of course you know her,” said Chelsea.

That was a pleasant memory between her, Juliet, and Max—but right now, Juliet found the ship, with its proudly displayed Jolly Roger, absolutely terrifying.

“With the clan disbanded, I can carry her around like this. She’s my property, y’know?”

Just like Caldinans with their sandships, Granvaloans carried their vessels in large inventories. The size of these ships and regulations around dueling prevented them from being used in Altar’s arenas, but the only item disallowed inside this spacious event zone was the Lifesaving Brooch.

“So you raised the water because...”

“Ya guessed it. To let this baby float. Twenty metels from the coastline just ain’t enough.”

While Ray and Alto were incorporating the event’s barrier into their fight against Carl, it was nothing but a limitation to Chelsea.

“Here’s another thing about my Skyanchor here—she’s fitted with an anti-air loadout.”

As Chelsea proclaimed this, the ship revealed a number of anti-air guns that did not match at all with its wooden hull. Energy then flowed from the magic tank within, activating every single one of them.

“So yeah, flyin’ around like that ain’t very safe.”

And with that, the sky was torn apart by a flood of light. Explosions resounded and overlapped, playing an orchestra of destruction.

“Gh...!” Even Juliet found it difficult to evade the barrage. Gaining altitude wasn’t an option—five hundred metels was far too little before these powerful AA guns.

Instead, she spun around as she went down and...

“Blackwing Orchestra!”

...used the black feathers she released while evading to power an offensive skill. Each of the plumes released jet-black blades of wind, raining down on the Skyanchor.

“Julie, here’s something you may not know about Granvaloan ships...”

However, the wind-blades barely did any damage.

“What?!”

“Their surfaces have anti-water and anti-air coating. We go sailing through storms, y’know? You’d have to use your ult to break through this resistance.”

Chelsea was right, but Juliet would have to stop moving to prepare her ult, which would leave her open to the anti-air barrage.

To avoid this AA fire and buy time to use her ult, Juliet had to go not above Skyanchor, but below its firing range.

Thinking that to be the best course of action, she quickly descended.

The automated AA turrets followed her, but she continued to go down as though falling until...

“Welcooome.”

...she was right next to her friend—and her friend’s axe was swinging towards her.

Though caught by surprise, Juliet parried the axe with her cursed sword, using the force of the collision to slow her momentum before flapping her wings to readjust her stance.

“Julie, didja think about why I’m bein’ so talkative right now?” Chelsea said with a joyful tone. It seemed as though she’d expected Juliet to deflect her surprise attack.

Juliet had missed the moment Chelsea had left her ship, but the girl had somehow known exactly where Juliet would go and water-walked right to that location. That, along with the precise targeting of the flare bombs and the guns made Juliet realize that she’d moved exactly as Chelsea expected.

“You were talking to lure me down for a battle on the sea...weren’t you?”

“Yep! I suggest you don’t go up again. I set the guns to attack any livin’ thing that’s too high up there.”

Chelsea knew Juliet’s combat style almost as well as her own. With her analysis skills, it wasn’t hard to make Juliet act as she wanted.

Their surroundings were covered in water, but with the job skill that let her walk on water, that wasn’t a problem. Juliet, on the other hand, couldn’t go too high because of the AA weapons, forcing her to fight in low altitudes.

She could no longer bring death from above even if she wanted to.

“Now, here’s a question for ya: why do ya think my ship is specced for AA?” Chelsea asked.

Juliet realized that she was once again funneling her into acting a certain way, but she couldn’t tell how.

She carefully observed both Chelsea and Skyanchor when suddenly...

“Hm...?”

...she felt something odd.

Juliet had Danger Perception and Killing Intent Perception as job skills, but neither of them were active. Instead, her pure combat intuition was telling her that she was in grave danger.

“The answer is...” Chelsea said as Juliet flapped her wings to dodge to the side. “...because I’m strongest on the sea.”

A moment later, an explosion erupted right under where Juliet had been floating just moments earlier.

Though overcome by shock, Juliet instantly understood that this attack wasn’t caused by Chelsea’s Embryo or job skills. The explosion was quite obviously a Crimson Sphere, and there was only one way Chelsea could use something like that.

“Gems...!” Looking down, Juliet saw countless Gems floating in the beautiful water below.

This was a strategy that would never appear in an Altarian duel.

◇◆

Upon moving from Granvaloa to Altar, Chelsea was deeply troubled by the stark differences in dueling rules.

What made Granvaloan duel rules different wasn’t the lack of duel barriers—that was a difference in environment, not the rules specifically.

Was it the fact that you won by sinking the other side’s boat, then? That was a major difference, but there was something even bigger.

It was the use of items.

Since there were no barriers, Granvaloan duelists were allowed to use Brooches to ensure their survival, but more importantly, they could also use many items that were banned in Altar’s duels.

HP recovery consumables—allowed.

Artillery shells and Gems made by other people—allowed.

Special gear that ran on MP from magic tanks or similar outside sources instead of the user’s own—allowed.

Granvaloan duels were based on naval warfare, so there were almost no limits on the items that could be used in them.

That was the main difference between Granvaloan duels and the ones held in other countries, and it had taken a long while for Chelsea to adjust to that.

Indeed, her true combat style was one in which she utilized countless offensive consumables as sea mines.

This particular style of combat was also extremely compatible with her Embryo.

Poseidon could summon a crushing wave of liquid gold that could be used both offensively and defensively. However, those who knew Chelsea as she had been in the past would understand that the most fearsome thing about her wasn’t her flashy skills, but her seemingly minor techniques and trickery.

She had a skill called “Creek,” which created a weak flow of water from any nearby spot in space. It dealt almost no damage and only barely exerted enough force to knock over a toddler, which made it unable to even trigger Danger Perception.

In exchange for this weakness, however, she was able to create water in any place within a range of several hundred metels.

She could do it in deserts, in the air, in the sea...and at riversides.

Indeed, this was the exact skill Chelsea had used against Wan. She’d walked downstream alongside the river while preemptively and secretly arranging Gems in the water. All the while she’d used Creek to move the Gems, leading them to Wan and then detonating them right when Zaqqum exploded, seizing the chance to blow off his legs.

Her true power was in these precise and silent “sea mine attacks.”

She also had a strong predictive ability that had allowed her to dominate Granvaloan naval battles.

Her keen analytic eye and control over conversation were both weapons she incorporated into her fighting style. Sometimes, she provoked her opponents to infuriate them; sometimes she used the truth to push them to act exactly like she wanted.

Chelsea funneled her opponents into situations advantageous to her, where she would silently attack them with her sea mines and sink their ships.

Even the Granvaloan Superior, Antimicrobic Soy Sauce, had been no match for her back when he was still in his sixth form. He could turn the surrounding water into explosive material, but Chelsea would just see it coming and use it against him.

Avoiding the minefield and approaching it from the air was made impossible by the excessive AA armaments on Skyanchor, forcing everyone to fight on her home turf.

On top of that, Granvaloan duels weren’t one-on-one, but crew versus crew—meaning that she had multiple crewmates supporting her and protecting the ship.

Because of this, back when there had been no Master Superiors or Superior Jobs, she and her Skyanchor had managed to rise to second place in Granvaloa’s duel rankings.

Since the number one spot was held by Grand Captain and the capital ship—Granvaloa itself—it was fair to say that Chelsea was effectively the duel champion.

Because of this, she was once known as “the pirate fleet’s most fearsome woman.”

However, with the increase in SJs and Superiors, other Masters increasing their boating skill, and her lackluster performance after the move to Altar, that title had been all but forgotten.

But that was the very woman Juliet was facing now.

The environment, the lack of death penalty, and Chelsea’s mentality were all exactly as they had been back then, and she was ready to bare herself to her friend and rival.

The Closed Sea was unleashing her entire being upon the Black Crow.

◇◆

“...Chelsea,” Juliet said. She’d never seen her friend fight like this.

Chelsea had prevented her from using her most powerful techniques and was aiming to win by dragging Juliet into her own battlefield. It was a chillingly fierce, yet quiet and fearsome strategy.

If Juliet didn’t have her wings, she might have already lost without so much as scratching Chelsea.

However, she could still fly and hadn’t drowned yet—and that meant she could still fight.

“Yeah, that’s about what I’d expect from ya, Julie...” said Chelsea as she observed Juliet settling into her now-familiar combat style.

She used her well-rounded strength to the fullest, reaching for victory no matter the situation or what enemy she was up against. It was beautiful, dazzling, and charming to the point of being emotionally moving.

Now that Chelsea had her ship and sea mines, there was the possibility that Juliet could be defeated with little resistance.

But she was still alive—she hadn’t sunk yet.

And that one fact was why she could still fight. Her time having fun with her friend wouldn’t end just yet.

Both of them had cracked a grin without realizing it as they took their fight to the next stage.

“Blackwing Requiem!” Juliet launched a remote-controlled dark magic spell at Chelsea. Neither water nor explosions could defend against it.

But there was something that was able to block it—dozens of winged black spheres surfaced from the water and welcomed Juliet’s spell.

Gloom Stalkers?! she thought in surprise. The dark magic spell that she’d seen Shion use countless times now was a high-rank ultimate job skill.

And it had just been launched en masse from the sea—or rather, from Chelsea’s minefield.

The Great Pirate had actually thrown every single Gem she had into the water right as she raised the sea level, and there were more than just Crimson Spheres among them.

“I went around and bought tons of dark magic Gems just in case I fought you or Shion,” Chelsea said. “There aren’t many of them on the market, though, so it cost me a whole lot.” She held her hands out and waved them lightly as though to say “I’m broke now.”

However, she had managed to gather more than enough of these Gems for her purposes. She’d always thought that a chance like this would come sooner or later.

I don’t know how many dark magic Gems she has, Juliet thought. I might run out of MP before she runs out of them... Also...

Also, Gems didn’t use Chelsea’s MP, and she could activate many of them at once. It wasn’t impossible for her to completely overwhelm Juliet.

“In that case...!” Juliet said as she flapped her wings and flew towards Chelsea, intent on fighting with something other than magic.

“That’s exactly what I thought you would do!” cried Chelsea as she braced herself for Juliet’s approach.

There was no longer any room in the fight for her silver tongue or Skyanchor’s aerial domination. The battlefield was now limited to the surface of the water, and the winner would be decided by pure fighting technique.

“Up you go!” Chelsea said as she swung her finger like a conductor’s baton, directing serpentine jets of water upwards into the air.

Countless such flows aimed straight for Juliet, and all of them carried Chelsea’s sea mines. Juliet’s friend and rival was planning to detonate one Gem when Juliet got too close, leading to a chain explosion that would completely consume her.

The trajectories of the water flows were such that it was difficult for Juliet to evade them all—a fact that made it obvious how well Chelsea knew Juliet.

She can only do this because this fight is right above the water...! Grazed by the exploding Gems, Juliet considered the differences between the Chelsea she knew and the Chelsea she was fighting now.

It wasn’t merely the presence of Skyanchor or the Gems she used as sea mines—Juliet also couldn’t see where the flows that she commanded actually began.

On land, Chelsea’s liquid summoning was somewhat telegraphed, so Juliet could easily spot them and counter the attack. That was always how it had gone in their duels.

But just as you would have trouble finding a specific tree in a forest, you couldn’t spot a water current in the sea. Until the flow broke the surface, it was hard to tell where the liquid Chelsea summoned was coming from—and where it was heading.

Actually, Chelsea had found it necessary to attack her with flows that shot out of the water exactly because she was fighting Juliet in particular. In battles against other ships, she could simply sink them without ever breaking the surface of the sea.

As she is now, she’s clearly a pre-Superior...among the best of them too! Juliet thought. Perhaps if the battle against Chrono Crown had been on water, Chelsea might’ve been able to prevent him from evading or accelerating, quietly ending the battle with her silent sea mine attacks. That was how powerful she was right now.

But still...! Even despite the dire circumstances, Juliet was having tons of fun fighting Chelsea in her current state.

She couldn’t ascend upwards and was always in danger of being blown up by the mines in the water below, which trapped her between sea and sky.

But still...she was having tons of fun.

After all, this was her first true all-out battle against her dearest friend.

It was so much fun that she wouldn’t regret it if this turned out to be her final duel in Infinite Dendrogram.

And so, with a smile on her face, she flew towards victory.

You really are somethin’, Julie, Chelsea thought. She knew Julie well and had made her water flows as difficult for Juliet to evade as she possibly could.

However, Juliet had the combat skill and adaptability to dodge them regardless.

She was closing the distance between them, but Chelsea knew what she was planning.

She can’t use her ult, Chelsea thought. Juliet’s Corpse-Eating Bird—Hræsvelgr was a powerful mixed-magic spell, but to prepare it, Juliet had to move her wings to her arms.

It came at the cost of mobility, which would spell certain death in Chelsea’s minefield.

Because of that, what Juliet was about to do was...

Cursed Phalanx Disorder, Chelsea thought. It was the Fallen Knight’s ultimate job skill that turned her cursed weapons into missiles flying towards the enemy.

Being merely a high-rank job, Chelsea didn’t have the stats to survive a direct hit from even one of them. However, since cursed weapons were physical, they could be deflected by things other than dark magic.

She’s closin’ the distance to deplete the Gems I’d use to intercept her attacks. She’ll break through half my minefield and use her job’s ult when I run out of Gems to counter it.

However, neither of them knew exactly where that divide was.

Chelsea didn’t know how many cursed weapons Juliet had prepared, while Juliet didn’t know how many Gems Chelsea had floating around.

Victory would belong to whichever one of them turned out to have the greater number.

Though, to reveal the answer to this question, there were more of Chelsea’s Gems than Juliet’s cursed weapons.

That was exactly why Juliet was closing the distance.

Despite the danger of being shot down before she could use her Cursed Phalanx Disorder, she was approaching her rival. It was more or less a strange game of chicken.

Neither of them were saying anything anymore. The battle itself had their full attention.

Juliet was focused on heading forwards and looking for the best moment to strike, while Chelsea was focused on preparing for Juliet’s ultimate job skill—and bringing her down when it came.

Their AGI was different, and thus the time they experienced was different. Their intense focus had made it feel like time was slowing down.

It seemed almost as though this moment would never end.

The both of them were indeed hoping that this thrilling split second would last forever—but alas, that was impossible.

When the distance between them was only fifteen metels, an explosion singed Juliet’s leg...

Now!

...and in response she took a small pouch from her sleeve—the inventory holding her weapons.

“Cursed Phalanx Disorder!” With that, she destroyed the inventory with her own hands, spreading the many weapons into the air.

Then, following her command, the weapons used the grudge stored within as fuel to propel them towards Chelsea.

“...Now,” Chelsea said out loud as she activated all of the Gems she had prepared.

Magic lights began to appear beneath the surface of the ocean between them...and below where Juliet had just passed.

This was Chelsea’s plan—to prepare enough Gems so that she could not only counter Juliet’s Cursed Phalanx Disorder, but also surround Juliet completely and defeat her once and for all.

Their attacks were unleashed at the same time, and the sea was soon swallowed up in a massive burst of power.

◇◆

She wondered what had led to her defeat.

Had it been overconfidence? No—her plan had been solid and her execution had been nearly flawless.

Had she not adequately prepared? No—she’d been ready for this battle long before it was imminent, and she’d expended every resource she’d stocked for this exact scenario.

Had it been some sort of mistake? No—although her strategy did have one weakness, it shouldn’t have posed a problem.

Explosions from below the water surface could always be evaded by going upwards. However, that meant becoming the target of Skyanchor’s AA cannons. If Juliet took to the sky to escape the magic of the Gems, they would quickly shoot her down.

Because of this, Chelsea’s plan was as good as flawless.

However...Juliet had actually flown upwards despite the danger.

She just barely escaped the inferno below her and increased her altitude, all the while weathering the fire of the AA guns.

Being burned and shot out of the sky should have been inevitable.

However, she was still alive—and she was right in front of Chelsea.

“HEEEAAHHH!” Juliet swung her sword as she fell. “Fell” not merely because she was descending, but because she no longer even had the wings to fly—they had been completely consumed by flame, having become her shield through her Molting skill.

Chelsea had obviously known about that, but she believed that Juliet would’ve been shot down regardless.

Juliet, on the other hand, had wagered that she’d make it through the barrage with a tiny sliver of her health remaining.

Whether due to her own incredible battle intuition or the influence of a teammate who was known for recklessness, she’d charged straight through the cannon fire, made it to the other side, and reached Chelsea.

Gotta use my water flow control to make a wall! Chelsea’s heyday had really been back in her time in Granvaloa, but that didn’t mean that she was weaker now in every way.

“Ah...!” Back when she’d won all her battles using her sea mines, she didn’t have the close combat technique she’d honed under Altarian dueling rules—the fighting style she’d developed to stand her ground against her rival.

However, she couldn’t move her axe fast enough to block Juliet’s sword. Her reaction was delayed by her overwhelming focus on her old fighting style.

The golden axe failed to stop the black blade, and the winged girl’s sword sliced into the seafaring pirate.

Being a high-rank job, Chelsea didn’t have the bodily strength to withstand the strike of a vanguard Superior Job. The sword entered her left shoulder and cut diagonally through her body, the edge finally exiting at the right side of Juliet’s waist.

It was a fatal blow. The beautiful blue sea was now stained red with fire and blood.

Without a word, Chelsea looked down at her wound, then at the friend who had sunk into the water right at her feet.

Unlike Chelsea, who had a water-walking skill, Juliet—now wingless—had sunk beneath the surface of the sea. Having clearly overextended herself, she didn’t seem to have the strength to get up again.

...If I’d left a mine under my own feet, I might’ve been able to make this a draw, Chelsea thought. With a wry smile on her face, she created a flow that brought Juliet to the surface.

“Ughh...! Chelsea...?” said her nearly drowned friend, coughing.

“Here,” Chelsea said as she reached into her inventory and gave Juliet the life jacket she’d used during a previous event, hoping that it would keep her friend from sinking.

Now... Is there anythin’ else? Chelsea thought.

Her pain was set to “off,” so she could still move, but certainly not much. She had only seconds left until she would receive her death penalty.

“Next time...” With great effort, she opened her mouth to speak.

“Huh?”

Chelsea had spent a moment thinking what she ought to say in this exact situation. “The next time we get a chance to fight like this, I’ll have developed a fighting style different from the one I had and the one I’ve got now.” She cracked a faint smile. “So fight me just like this again, will ya?”

It was a promise.

Juliet had defeated the Chelsea she was now and the Chelsea she’d used to be—and yet her friend would still challenge her again in the future. Maybe that was just Chelsea being a sore loser, but duelists were just like that. They found joy in competing for victory against people who were simultaneously their bitterest enemies and dearest friends.

Chelsea had continued living this lifestyle despite Altar’s different duel rules exactly because she found it so much fun. And it was made even more fun by the fact that she had forged a strong friendship that helped the both of them improve each other.

That was why Chelsea would never tire of this.

“...Sure!” Juliet said, readily accepting Chelsea’s promise. She was worried that this might’ve been the last duel she would ever have, but this promise thoroughly overshadowed that fear.

Thus, she smiled, believing with certainty that the two of them would play together again.

The two girls smiled at each other as one of them vanished, ending their duel.

Until next time.