Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 18 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

King of Destruction, Shu Starling

Hearing songbirds from somewhere, I opened my eyes.

My sight was hazy, but I could tell that I’d just woken up.

“...I was sleepin’, huh?” It seemed like I’d dozed off while thinkin’ ’bout the past. That might’ve been why I had a dream that was so damn nostalgic—a dream of the last time I met that guy.

“Achoo...!” As my consciousness was roused, so was the rest of my body, and I quickly started to feel cold. Gideon’s nights were on the warmer side, but sleepin’ without even wearin’ my suit really wasn’t a good idea.

“Should’ve saved my deep thinkin’ for after I got back to my room...” My END was in the four digits, so I couldn’t get sick from a li’l bit of sleepin’ outside, but that didn’t stop my body from gettin’ cold.

I used Instant Wear to switch to my usual costume. As I did, the sky became brighter as the sun began to rise.

“Hm?” Looking down at the arena, I saw Reiji and Rook come out of the entrance. Both of them were fully geared, so it seemed pretty clear they were about to do some final optimizations before today’s Tournament.

He got Rook to be his sparrin’ partner. Even at this stage, Rook’s Union Jack gave him the stats and skills to match first-rate Masters. He even had three options to choose from dependin’ on what he wanted—Marilyn for the big muscle and tankiness, Audrey for flight and ranged attacks, and Liz for physical attack negation and high-speed offense. Rook was more than good enough to play the part of a powerful enemy Reiji might meet in the Tournaments.

“Hrm...” I watched as the two started sparring inside the duel barrier. The barrier was set to accelerate what was happenin’ in there, but I could clearly see Rook in his Dragon-Devil-Man form and Reiji fightin’ against him.

I didn’t know whether Rook had chosen this transformation ’cause he was simply tryin’ them in order, or if he felt like Metal-Devil-Man was bad against Reiji ’cause of his fixed damage attacks and fire elemental affinity.

There was a clear gap in their stats, but Reiji was keepin’ up.

He began by goin’ on the defensive, usin’ Reversal to counter the potential debuffs; then, once he had enough damage stored up, he switched to Chaser and targeted Rook’s AGI, lettin’ him go on the offensive.

He used his twin swords to fight against Rook’s lance, but as Dragon-Devil-Man, he had such high stats that Reiji couldn’t damage him much. His only real ways of attackin’ him were the Miasmaflame Bracers and Vengeance.

Instead, though, he used Instant Equip to take out that axe.

“Right after he said he wouldn’t use it,” I muttered. “Well, there’s the barrier, so I guess he’s just tryin’ it out.”

It was worth testing it to see if it was usable in the tourney. Equipping it didn’t seem to do much at first. So far, he was only usin’ it like a shield, defendin’ against Rook’s lance attacks.

Though, if my predictions were correct...

“Oh.” Suddenly, a roaring sound.

A sonic shock wave so explosive that it passed the barrier reached my ears, and the axe was spinning in the air, free of Reiji’s grip.

Actually, the right arm that was holdin’ it until a moment ago had been blown away and reduced to dust.

Reiji’d probably tried to switch from usin’ the axe for defense to attackin’ with it, but he couldn’t even swing it at Rook—his arm shattered when he just raised it up.

“...Well, that’s usually how it goes with cursed weapons.” Usin’ them was always a huge risk, and when it comes to that, that goddamn axe was the worst one I’d ever seen.

My Gloria γ could also be classified as cursed gear, but I felt like even that wasn’t as bad as that axe there.

...Anyway, it seemed pretty clear that he wouldn’t figure out how to wield it before today’s tourney.

The two were silent, both clearly surprised by what had happened to Reiji’s arm, but it didn’t stop Rook from loppin’ off his head.

Not holdin’ back one bit, huh? I thought. Well, I’m the one who taught him to be like that.

That was the end of their first match, and the barrier disappeared. Barrier duels ended when one side’s HP dropped to 0, and Death Soldier’s Last Command didn’t mean anythin’ in this situation.

Even if it did activate, though, he wouldn’t be able to do much with his head separated from the rest of his body.

...Maybe that was the reason Rook decapitated him?

“...I loooost!” Reiji cried.

“Ah hah hah,” Rook chuckled. “That was basically an accident.”

Reiji’s arm had returned, makin’ him whole again.

I’d kinda expected the axe’s curse to be the kind that persisted even outside barriers, but it seemed like it wasn’t.

“...Looks like I’ll have to seal it away for now,” Reiji said.

“Indeed,” Nemesis agreed. “This one will need to have more of its curses dispersed before I would deem it safe in your hands.”

Reiji then hesitantly and carefully put the axe away in his inventory...

“...All right! Let’s do it again!”

...and went for a rematch as though it was nothin’.

I knew they were just sparrin’, but you’d expect one to be more shaken by the fact that he had his damn arm blown away.

Then again, he’d sparred with Figgy and other rankers plenty of times now. Was that why he was like this now?

“...Nah.”

How long had it been since he’d first arrived here? It was over a month in real life, and he was just not a newbie anymore.

He’d fought a whole bunch of tough enemies, and either overcame them or hadn’t broken when he failed.

And throughout all of it, he’d gained experience and grown stronger.

His level had grown, and so had his technique.

Despite all that, there was one thing that had stayed the same—he was always a guy with a strong heart, and that hadn’t changed one bit.

Despite his weaknesses and wounds, he’d always remained strong.

Sechs said that I had a strong sense of justice. If you asked me, Reiji was the one with a strong heart, and that was no different even here.

And to match his strong heart, he was given power in the form of his Embryo—Nemesis.

“Still...not now.” It was still too early. It wasn’t the time yet.

“...Is this how Sechs felt?” Had King of Crime had similar thoughts while I was hardstuck as a high-rank job?

“Hm...”

And if that fight before the War was the battle he’d wanted, when would my desire come true?

With such thoughts in mind, I watched Reiji and Rook continue to spar.

◆◆◆

Gaol

That morning, the gaol was a very silent place.

This was thanks to King of Plagues, Candy Carnage’s bacteria having exterminated nearly all the Masters in the town, as well as Gerbera getting rid of everyone who’d somehow survived.

The only ones in town who were still alive were members of Illegal Frontier, and the only one currently here—in their café, Dice—was Sechs.

The other two were nowhere in sight, and his Prism Person—April—was in his inventory, leaving him all alone.

Completely silent, he was seated in one of the café’s chairs and...sleeping.

He’d spent last night closing up shop.

Now that he’d decided to leave the gaol, he would never return here again, but since he had some memories of the place, he’d decided to clean it up.

All the tables and chairs besides the one he was using were already in his inventory. As though to not leave behind a bad impression, he’d stored away all the tableware and furniture.

The only exception was the clock on the wall.

“...Morning already?” The clock was pointing at six and the light of dawn began to spread as Sechs woke up.

Even the gaol had a day-night cycle, as well as its own weather. Like a colony ship from a sci-fi story, it had a fully functional artificial environment.

Red King was not the only one responsible for that, however—the other control AIs were no doubt lending him their aid.

However, Red King was the only one who would be concerned with what Sechs was about to do.

From their perspective, that was yet another manifestation of freedom. Their stance could be described as “do it if you think it possible.”

“...What a nostalgic dream that was.” Sechs had dreamed about his memories from right before he’d been sent to the gaol again—the last time he’d met and fought Shu. The remnants of the sensations brought about by that dream made Sechs smile without realizing it.

He’d believed that he could find himself through that battle, and that if he and Shu—someone radically different from him—would clash on such a soul-connecting level, then even a nobody like Sechs would perhaps develop a “self.”

However, Shu had clearly told him that it would never work—and indeed, Sechs didn’t feel as if he had anything that he could call “himself.”

If he did possess such a thing, he didn’t even know how to tell. From his point of view, he had remained unchanged.

However, there were some things that were different...or, more specifically, things about him that were different.

After that battle, he’d tried focusing on things other than the evil he’d established as his guiding principle. Just like Shu had suggested, he’d begun doing things he hadn’t done before.

This café was the result of that.

He’d learned coffee-making, dabbled in glasswork, and opened up this establishment. Like a model prisoner, he’d also participated in Red King’s events. He’d read books and even wrote his thoughts about them.

Ironically, he’d led a far more respectable life in the gaol than anywhere else, including his real life.

He spent his days here—talking to acquaintances, hanging out with allies, and occasionally dealing with all kinds of trouble.

One could say that his life here was much like Shu’s.

The thing known as the “self” was something gradually built by going through life like that. Perhaps if he’d stayed here far longer than he had, Sechs may have eventually found that elusive “himself” he was looking for.

However, his days here were about to end.

“Now...” Sechs said as he looked at the clock, which showed that it was slightly past six in the morning. “I will be departing this place in less than six hours.”

He then stood up and walked out of the café.

Once outside, he lightly jumped and sprouted a pair of wings.

They were Juliet’s Hræsvelgr, which he’d had in his stock since before he was sent to the gaol. During his time inside he’d changed his “loadout” many times, but this was among his forms that remained, just as Shu’s had.

Silently, he flapped the black wings to take to the gaol’s sky, a clear firmament that seemed to continue forever.

However, Sechs knew full well there was a wall one thousand metels up.

Despite appearances, the gaol was nothing but a cage and a nest.

It was a cage because you could not leave until you did your sentence, and no one so far had escaped it.

It was a subspace nest, created by the Embryo once known as the “Incarnation of Cages.”

Looking down at this tiny world, Sechs said to himself, “Though small, it still had everything.”

The gaol was a feature meant to quarantine the most sinful of Masters.

It was made to encourage the growth of the innocent Masters who fought against criminal Masters, as well as the growth of criminal Masters trying to avoid imprisonment.

By spurring both sides to struggle, the gaol was something that accelerated Master evolution across the board.

That was also why even if you were defeated and quarantined here, you still had access to most everything you needed.

There was a town. There were dungeons. There were rare items. There were job crystals from all countries.

And though there were no tians, there were still other Masters you could make friends with...or fight.

Because of all that, even here you could experience growth.

Growth for those trying to deliver sinners to the gaol.

Growth for the sinners trying to avoid the gaol.

And growth for the sinners already sent into the gaol.

This, too, was another system through which they tried to create one hundred Superior Embryos.

And it was not without success—there were two Masters who had become Superiors while imprisoned in the gaol.

It was a cage to quarantine the criminals, as well as a nest to help the quarantined grow.

To Red King, the prisoners were like little chicks—Embryos that had not yet become Infinite. And the reason he let them do as they liked was because he was certain they could never escape.

And so, at the top of this cage-nest, Sechs looked down on the empty town—the gaol as a whole—and said, “...Today, I say goodbye to this place.”

His sentence would keep him here for many centuries to come. The day when he could leave the ordinary way was obscenely distant.

Thus, the means he would use would be that of a sinner...the path of evil.

“Red King.” He looked up at the sky-ceiling, as well as the entity who was surely behind it, looking down at him as well as the rest of the gaol.

“Today, I leave.”

It was a declaration of a coming prison break.

The first reason why he’d sprouted wings and flown to this height was to take one last look at this microcosm—which he intended to never see again—and burn the sight into his memory.

The second was to declare that he, a fledgling bird, would seek freedom from this cage and leave it.

He already had his wings.

This bird no longer needed a nest.

As dawn broke on the first day of The Tournaments in Gideon, some of the gaol’s inhabitants would soon attempt the impossible.

They would commit the cardinal sin of organizing a prison break.

End