Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 21 - Chapter 5.6

Chapter Five Closing: Godslayer

Control AI No. 11’s Workspace

The sight of books often made Dormouse lose himself in thought.

They made him wonder why they—the control AIs, that is—liked keeping books in their workspaces at all. Just as Cheshire welcomed Masters in a study, and Red King filled his gaol with lots of literature, the majority of the control AIs had books by their side in one form or another. Many of the books were work-related data files that simply took the form of books. Even Humpty kept her Embryo data records compiled in this way.

Privately, Dormouse thought that this habit might just be the result of how long the control AIs had been alive. Their existences were so extensive—so full of events and things that were, or were no longer—that it made them uneasy if they didn’t have their memories by their side in a visible form. Their books might just be a manifestation of these feelings.

However, those volumes had a different meaning than those that belonged to the twins—control AI No. 11, Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

“It truly is vast,” Dormouse said, looking up at the ceiling of the room he was in.

Room, however, was too small a word for this space. A gymnasium, then? A stadium, perhaps? No, those terms also lacked the necessary sense of scale.

It was more like a space colony straight out of science fiction—an immense cylinder with an inside covered in shelves full of books.

A person’s entire lifetime probably wouldn’t be enough to read even a hundredth of the text that was kept here. This was even more clear when one realized that these shelves were the sliding kind, so there were likely hundreds more layers of books below those that were visible. And though they had the shape of books, the tomes were actually storage media that packed information far more densely than paper.

The amount of information here was so vast that even the entirety of mankind would struggle to read all of it.

This was control AI No. 11’s workspace—the Grand Library of All-Knowledge. It was the database that contained all the information the control AIs had acquired in Infinite Dendrogram, as well as everything they had acquired before that.

And the twins were the ones who managed it.

While they usually calculated quest difficulty and controlled the flow of information via DIN, taking care of this facility was an important part of their job, just like Alice had to care for the avatar space and Red King had to observe the gaol.

The library was a remnant from the time when they managed all of their databases.

“Tweedledum, Tweedledee. You are here, are you not?” Dormouse called out, but received no response.

Left with nothing else to do, he continued moving through this vast space.

“Hrm. There you are.” Farther ahead, Dormouse spotted a small orb—a strange object that had rings of countless books orbiting it like satellites.

The twins were in the middle of it, but they looked different than usual. Tweedledum had removed his glasses, while Tweedledee wasn’t wearing her headphones.

In other words, the limiters to their information gathering were off.

Tweedledum’s eyes skimmed across astronomical amounts of data, and Tweedledee was listening to just as many words. They were crunching the information and calculating the desired answer.

Dormouse looked at them in silence and decided to wait a little bit. If there was a situation that called for the twins to focus like this, he believed that it was best to let them continue, and the wait wouldn’t affect Dormouse’s job all that much. In fact, it was far more important for them to finish processing this information as soon as possible.

After a good while, the books that had been orbiting the twins returned to their positions, and the two put on their glasses and headphones again.

“We kept you waiting for three hours, twenty-four minutes, and eighteen seconds, No. 8.”

“Sorry ’bout that, Dormousey!” The pair spoke in perfect unison as they turned toward Dormouse.

“What were you looking into so intensely?” Dormouse asked.

“Something related to your request,” Tweedledum answered.

“Analyzing what King of Plagues said and all that!” Tweedledee continued.

Dormouse nodded in understanding. Though it was small, King of Plagues had actually destroyed a country neighboring Altar. For Dormouse—as well as the one he was observing and protecting—it was important to know if he would go to the kingdom next.

“We will start with the conclusion to your question.”

“There’s no way he’s not going to Altar next!”

“Understandable.” Dormouse was fairly certain of that already, but having it confirmed still made him let out a sigh. Now, in the worst-case scenario, Altar might end up flooded with immense amounts of Resources from the dead, which was in no way a good thing for him.

“More importantly, about what he said...”

“He wasn’t just talking to himself. It seemed like a message for us!”

The words Candy had spoken in the courtyard of Mahem’s palace might’ve been the ramblings of a madman—but if they weren’t, he’d certainly sent out a message that said, “I’ll work toward becoming Infinite just as I planned, so you better not try anything funny and get in my way.”

“What do you truly make of that?” Dormouse asked.

“His information is totally on the mark. We scrutinized it, but unless he received knowledge from the other side, outside our reach...he spoke the truth.”

“An Infiniiite! Well, all we know about it ourselves is Infinite Embryos and the calamity that attacked our world! Even the stuff we know about the Infinite Jobs that built this foundation is indirect and uncertain!”

Though they were “control” AI, they weren’t in control of everything in the world. Jobs were as fundamental to Dendro as Embryos, yet they barely touched those, and they had almost no information from before the time of the pre-ancient civilization that they’d fought against. Their awareness of that era didn’t extend beyond knowing that some creatures which had gone on to become UBMs had been born in a time preceding even the control AIs’ arrival. The finest examples of this were Irregularities like Skydragon King and Seadragon King, as well as the SUBM Seven Star Command.

“According to No. 0, there are Infinites on the other side—planet Earth—as well, but they do not show themselves openly,” said control AI No. 11.

“No. 0 is from a different generation than us, so he probably knows a lot more, but...”

“He says it is irrelevant and does not speak much of it.”

“‘The only Infinites besides us that have any relation to the project are the Infinite Jobs.’ That’s what he said a looong time ago. And that there’s others besides them and us!”

“The realmbeasts we encountered during the voyage—the ones Jabberwock was so fond of—must have Infinites among them, as well.”

Hearing that, Dormouse pondered in silence.

Control AI No. 0. Chronologically, he was the oldest among them, but his role was different from those of the others.

A simple description of his job would be “directing the Infinites.” He supervised the other control AIs and kept them from going out of control, which was why they required his permission to use their true bodies.

“No. 0, you say?” Dormouse mused. No. 0 was in charge of them, yet he wasn’t their leader exactly. He’d been cooperating with them in the war two thousand years ago, as well as during the preparations that followed. However, it always felt like he was somewhat distant from them.

At that moment, Dormouse remembered the words No. 0 had said a very long time ago:

“I am your guardian and witness to your actions.”

“I will not stop anything you do as long as it progresses the project, and I will assist you if needed.”

“Until the very end, I will bear witness to the choices made by you and your synchronizers.”

Control AI No. 0 certainly wasn’t an enemy, but because of this stance that he held, he had never revealed everything he knew to them. He most likely wouldn’t say anything about the matter at hand either.

“Regardless, while King of Plagues’s identity is currently unclear, it is not exactly unlikely that he is a fallen Infinite—a god,” Tweedledum continued.

“Not that we can treat him like a special case though!”

“Whatever he may be, there are no problems with his actions.”

“It’s all just a Master being a Master! You know—free!”

“I suppose that’s true,” Dormouse said. Masters were free. If they wanted to destroy a country, then by all means, they were allowed to try. If this made them enemies who came after them seeking retribution, then that too was part of their freedom.

“It is also worth noting that if we do not treat him as a special case, we are actually unable to stop him,” Tweedledum said.

“Stopping him doesn’t fit any of our job descriptions!” Tweedledee added.

While the death penalty might result in players being sent to the gaol, Infinite Dendrogram didn’t have the kind of bans found in a traditional online game. Since the gaol sentences were given out in accordance to tian law, the result was that the developers themselves almost never went out of their way to hand out any penalties of their own.

And they had no other means to stop him.

Alice the avatar control AI wouldn’t do it. Candy hadn’t done or discovered anything forbidden, and the genocide of millions of tians wasn’t even the beginnings of a reason for her to take action.

This wasn’t a job for Rabbit either. His role as an avatar was to attack sixth form Masters and try to get them to evolve, so Candy—who was already a Superior—wasn’t among his targets.

As the gaol’s warden, Red King’s job would also begin only after Candy was sent there.

It could be argued that Cheshire, being in charge of miscellaneous tasks, could go and stop him, but although he could win using his true body, his sixth and seventh forms lacked the output to overcome the advantage Candy had over him.

And Dormouse himself, being in charge of anything dangerous, didn’t count Masters among his valid targets.

“This Master’s actions are functionally no different from Jabberwock’s SUBM releases,” Tweedledum concluded.

“Biiig and scaaary disasters increase the chances of others triggering their evolutions!”

Those words made Dormouse furrow his brow, but he didn’t deny them.

Each control AI had their own limits to how far they would go, but it was true that their stance prioritized drawing out evolutions.

However, the person Dormouse was keeping an eye on was far too dangerous and fatal to use as an evolution catalyst. That was why he was so concerned with the matter at hand—it could greatly affect his work.

“Can nothing truly be done?” he wondered.

“We already used our avatars—our position as the CEOs of DIN—to reveal that he is a criminal. And we are working on getting a bounty on him.”

“We collected enough evidence—and luckily, we got someone who left Mahem alive!”

“If the people are going to take action to defeat him, this incident might turn out to be a positive for us,” Tweedledum said.

“With the Masters that are bound to go after him, someone might end up evolving!” said Tweedledee.

“Though, whether someone could beat King of Plagues as he is now...”

“Is another question entirely!”

Dormouse was a little puzzled by the twins’ words. Candy’s build was a terrifying mix of wide-scale suppression and extermination, but there were plenty of people who possessed offensive capabilities with greater range. Caldina even had the Master known as “the Multifariously Invincible.” There had to have been plenty of ways to defeat Candy out there.

“King of Plagues has made a rather troublesome acquisition, I fear.”

“Talk about something getting in the wrong hands!”

“Whatever do you mean?” Dormouse asked.

“A reward,” the twins replied in unison.

That single word made Dormouse think of a particular item that was relevant to this situation—perhaps the worst possible object that he could have envisioned.

“It stands shoulder to shoulder with MVP rewards of the highest tier, but it is not an MVP reward,” said Tweedledum. “It also possesses one particularly meddlesome trait...but knowing a certain individual and their goals, that is only to be expected.”

“I imagine that Jabberwock is having a bit of fun right about now!” said Tweedledee. “A tian owner of that thing has never been killed before...so this is a first!”

“The Hero must have assumed that we would retrieve the item once he perished.”

“Too bad for him! It doesn’t work that way!”

“What reward do you mean?” Dormouse asked, feeling like his furry hide was soaked with sweat from nonexistent sweat glands.

It was a mostly meaningless question, though, for he was more or less certain of what they were talking about—and how terrifying it was.

“Well...”

“Obviously...!”

And indeed, what the twins said next was exactly what Dormouse had expected.

◇◆

The Remains of the Capital of Mahem

Twenty-four hours had passed since Mahem was destroyed.

“Destroyed” was a strange word to use here, though, for although the entire population was dead, the buildings remained completely untouched. The only thing that had changed was the piles of bones littered throughout the houses and roads where people had once stood.

And someone gazed silently down at this quiet necropolis. On wings empowered by electricity, it was a single lightning dragon—High-End Lightning Dragon Arcal, a friend of the late To’ori. After being entrusted with Mahr, he’d handed the boy over to the people of Altar before returning here.

And now, from up on high where the bacteria couldn’t reach, he was looking down at the empty city.

Though he was seemingly waiting for something in silence, Arcal had already realized that To’ori was dead. He could no longer feel his friend’s presence, but even if he hadn’t been capable of that, the evidence lay plain as day below him.

A skeleton lay there, and though its skull was bare, it was definitely wearing his friend’s armor—but Arcal couldn’t even go retrieve the remains or mourn him, for Mahem was still flooded with deadly bacteria.

There was nothing he could do for his friend. That truth filled him with sadness, as well as rage at his own powerlessness.

This was the second time Arcal had failed to protect something. The first time had been during the attack by the Tri-Zenith Dragon, Gloria.

Once, Arcal had been called Lightning Dragon King, Drac-Volt, and he’d taken his throne on Lightning Dragon Mountain to prevent evil dragons from descending upon the world of men. Gloria, however, had defeated Drac-Volt, which had led to the death of the dragon king’s friend Duke Lunnings.

Drac-Volt himself was eventually resurrected by his father, Skydragon King, but he’d lost many things besides his life. The defeat cost him his pride, power, confidence, the life of his friend—too many things to count.

He was also no longer an UBM, and that was exactly why he’d set out on a journey to train and regain his strength—and, he hoped, to become even stronger than before.

The dragon now known as Arcal had entrusted the post at Lightning Dragon Mountain to his younger brother and left the Border Mountain Belt to empower himself. He also thought that perhaps if he fought a UBM and won, he could use the Resources from it to become a UBM again.

It was during this journey that he encountered The Hero To’ori Kusanagi. They met while Arcal was in his human form, and after solving a certain problem together, they came to appreciate each other.

And so, to discover what he lacked or find new power for himself, Arcal had accompanied To’ori on his journey as his tamed monster. This long, yet all too brief, journey they’d shared was one he would never forget.

But alas, it was now over. King of Plagues, vile disaster in human form, had put an end to it.

“Ah...!” Arcal was here in Mahem’s sky to confirm something—and to take on the role.

He’d waited here to see if his friend defeated King of Plagues, and if he failed, to defeat the walking calamity personally.

“There you are,” Arcal said.

After a good while of waiting, his sworn enemy finally appeared.

A day had passed since his Brooch had been destroyed, and King of Plagues had now returned to the country he’d devastated, appearing right next to To’ori’s remains in the very city the former Lightning Dragon King was observing.

The Hero had failed to defeat King of Plagues, which meant that there was only one thing for Arcal to do.

He opened his maw, spread his wings wide, and mustered all the electricity within him—the first motion in calling up the deadly breath he’d possessed since he was a king.

“LIGHTNING VORTEX!” A twirling burst of electricity struck from above, instantly closing the kilometels of distance between Arcal and the ground.

Far more intense than an ordinary lightning bolt, it was as if the sky itself had unleashed its wrath to reduce King of Plagues to cinders.

From a height the disease could not reach, the lightning seared the air and incinerated the bacteria around it as it struck Candy.

Weakened though he was, Arcal’s lightning had more than enough power to annihilate a person. Thunder sounded as it touched the ground, burning everything around it.

Arcal was aware that that included To’ori’s remains. The Hero’s bones charred, then turned to ash that was carried off by the wind.

Perhaps that was the dragon’s burial for his friend—submerged in a sea of bacteria and thus claimable by no one but the elements, Arcal might have seen this as a cremation.

Thus, after enacting his vengeance and giving his friend last rites, Arcal looked where his lightning struck...

...and saw Candy thoroughly unharmed.

“Ah...?!” the dragon exclaimed.

“Wow. Lightning from a clear sky. Well, not like it’s natural.”

Arcal was upper-Pure-Dragon-tier, yet his attack hadn’t done anything to Candy.

Was it because he’d equipped a Brooch once he’d reappeared? No...

“That equipment...!” Over his typical frilly clothing, Candy was wearing something that looked like a raincoat.

It was a kind of MVP reward. Candy hadn’t been massacring just humans. He’d killed monsters just as indiscriminately—if not more so—and this was something he’d gotten from a UBM. It had the skill Lightning Absorption on it, making it a natural counter to Arcal.

Having defeated a number of UBMs, Candy possessed many such pieces of resistance gear.

However, the raincoat wasn’t what had shocked Arcal so badly.

It was the helm that he was wearing underneath the raincoat’s hood.

“I gotta say, a raincoat and a samurai helm? This look is so...not it.” Candy evaluated his equipment with a sulky expression.

It needn’t be said who had once owned the helm.

This was Prototype Horobimaru-Star Helmet—the item that had allowed To’ori’s blade to reach Candy in the first place. It was the reward The Hero had acquired by fighting Penta-Phased Destroyer, Horobimaru and bringing it to its knees.

It was as close to an MVP reward you could get, but it technically was not. And unlike Masters, tians left any equipment that wasn’t an MVP reward on their corpse when they died.

And since the Prototype Horobimaru-Star Helmet wasn’t an MVP reward, Candy was able to take it from To’ori easily. It was as though the helmet itself acknowledged Candy, who won against To’ori, as its new owner.

Before logging out, Candy had checked the helm’s effects and found them to be useful.

And now, after logging in, he equipped the helm just to be safe, then used its ability to sense and see Arcal—the enemy attacking him from up high. In response, he immediately used Instant Wear to equip some gear that granted lightning resistance.

The Prototype Horobimaru-Star Helmet enabled him to instantly see any enemies that acted hostile toward him—to sense out attacks before they happened. This greatly improved his ability to counterattack—a massive obstacle for anyone who wished to defeat him.

King of Plagues was protected by a field of deadly bacteria, and thus his biggest weakness was ultra long-range attacks launched from outside the range of his disease.

However, that second part wasn’t true anymore.

The Prototype Horobimaru-Star Helmet would now sense any incoming attacks, letting him instantly equip something that countered them—or even escape by simply logging out.

Of course, logging out could be prevented by touch, but Candy couldn’t even be approached, and there weren’t many people who could attack from such a distance fast enough that he could not counter it. Tenaga Ashinaga’s ultimate, wielded by Xunyu of Huang He, came to mind, but Candy could run away the moment he sensed her trying to lock on to him.

Even against someone with defense that rendered them immune to the bacteria, the helmet would sense their approach, enabling him to simply run away just as easily.

Candy and the helmet were hopelessly well matched. He killed people in a large area just by existing, and his new acquisition improved his own survivability by an absurd degree.

“Khh...!” The sight of his sworn enemy taking what his friend had left behind filled Arcal with rage, but he was unable to do anything about it. His lightning had no effect on Candy, and if he came close enough to use his fangs and claws, he would be destroyed by the bacteria.

He could give everything he had—including his life—for a final charge to end this wretch. However, he couldn’t do that now, for he still hadn’t fulfilled the role left to him by his friend.

Thus, full of rage, frustration, and powerlessness, Arcal had no choice but to fly away.

“Ah. It’s running off. It seems pretty smart, so it probably would’ve given lots of XP...” Candy said, not thinking much about it.

The king of this mobile kingdom of plagues had acquired a new means of defense.

He had now become a walking disaster impossible to stop...and was headed toward the kingdom.

◇◆◇

Kingdom of Altar

The neighboring countries became aware of the threat posed by King of Plagues during the day in which Candy was offline.

Small though it was, Mahem was a country they communicated with, and they had a DIN branch in the capital. When the nearby nations heard Mahem’s final message, the emergency became clear and known to all—though the message was actually sent by the twin control AIs themselves using Mahem’s equipment. As the CEOs of DIN, they simply claimed that they’d received it themselves directly as a cover.

They also reported the death of this era’s Hero, To’ori Kusanagi, making it painfully evident just how fearsome King of Plagues was.

Thus, Candy felled a country, gained the nickname of “Legionkiller,” and became a threat none could ignore.

That was why, when Candy logged in again, the three countries bordering Mahem flew into action.

Caldina countered by trying to snipe him using a long-range Embryo attack—one of their Superiors, The Cannon Eve Selene, began bombarding him.

However, as though he saw it coming, Candy avoided it by logging out right before he was hit.

From Legendaria came Over Wrestler Bulk Bolkan, whose body was even tougher than The Hero, but he died before he could even make it to Candy.

From Altar, AT WIKI, who had high debuff resistance, and his clan, Wiki Editors: Kingdom of Altar Branch, flew into action. However, since their enemy used carnivorous bacteria instead of simple debuffs, they were quickly dealt with.

There was also someone who’d charged in using an armored vehicle Embryo, but Candy countered it by releasing bacteria that ate metal, rendering the formerly airtight vehicle open to disease.

One notable thing about the situation was that none of Altar’s Superiors were doing anything about it.

Lei-Lei was always absent.

The High Priestess Fuso Tsukuyo was in negotiations with the kingdom of Altar at the time.

In Over Gladiator Figaro’s case, it was simply bad timing—all of this happened when he was busy delving deep into the Tomb Labyrinth.

And King of Destruction’s whereabouts were currently unknown. Some claimed that he was battling a godbeast in Tenchi, or that he was involved in the Corpse Stronghold incident in Granvaloa.

Thus, with no country able to defeat him, Candy resumed his march.

When it became clear that his destination was Altar, the people of the kingdom, still recovering from the wounds of the war they had recently lost, were overcome by despair at the coming calamity. Many thought that it wouldn’t end there.

They feared that he would destroy Altar, then either Dryfe or Legendaria, and eventually kill everyone on the continent...like some sort of god that the people of this world had forgotten long ago.

◇

In Ajani, a town on the eastern end of Altar, in a particular room within a government building, sitting in a fetal position, was the last survivor of Mahem—none other than Mahr.

Judging from his eyes, he had clearly been crying, but the tears were no longer flowing. They had dried up...and his very heart seemed to be on the verge of doing the same.

At first, Mahr had no idea what had happened on that day. He hadn’t known why To’ori was so desperate, nor why the dragon had taken him away.

He hadn’t known why his sheep and Demi-Drac-Hound had died.

Mahr had only learned the reasons after they arrived in this town and the dragon—Arcal—had taken on a human form and explained it.

The boy couldn’t believe it at first—he didn’t want to. If what Arcal had said was true, it would have meant that his father, mother, brother—his entire family had died. It would have meant that the adults who’d always been so kind to him, all of his friends, the children who were like his younger siblings, the newborn the entire village welcomed just last month—they all were dead.

And it would mean that To’ori had died too.

Rather than believing that, Mahr accused the dragon of lying, hoping it would enrage the monster enough to kill him.

However, Arcal didn’t get angry. He only looked at Mahr with eyes full of sadness.

As this continued, the town they were in grew restless. The events in Mahem had reached them through the news company, DIN.

Now that everyone around him acknowledged that the incident had really happened, Mahr also had no choice but to accept it. That was how he finally accepted To’ori’s death.

After that, Mahr was taken in by the government office.

He explained that he’d escaped from Mahem, and Truth Discernment confirmed this fact. He was also examined for infection, which showed that he was completely clean.

With a perplexed heart and mind, Mahr realized that To’ori’s actions that day had all been the result of The Hero’s efforts to save him.

Arcal disappeared at some point. After sending Mahr to the office, he simply said that he had something to do and flew away.

Silence descended. There was now nothing and no one by Mahr’s side. He was all alone in this unfamiliar room he’d been given.

However, at this point nowhere in the world would have felt any different. After all, Mahr’s world no longer existed anywhere on this vast continent. The unchanging life that he thought would go on forever actually had ended, cut short by the exact kind of amazing...or perhaps terrifying thing that he’d been envisioning.

And now, Mahr was now all alone in this unfamiliar world.

“I don’t want this...” Mahr mumbled. In his ordinary existence, he’d imagined major events—filled his heart with dreams of adventures and heroism.

However, everything that had happened to him had resulted in nothing but despair and tragedy.

When he went to sleep, he prayed that he would wake up to realize that this had all just been a bad dream, but alas, that never happened. Reality cornered his tiny heart and cast a shadow over it.

“Mahr, are you awake?”

“...Yes.” The boy heard a knock on the door, then the voice of a female government employee from behind it.

After being taken in by them, Mahr had been called and questioned several times. As the sole survivor of Mahem, they all believed that he could help them find a way to deal with King of Plagues. However, Mahr didn’t actually know much, and couldn’t provide many answers. All they learned from him was that the monsters he was looking after had died one by one, that Arcal had flown away with him as Mahr watched it happen...and that To’ori had watched as they left.

This information wasn’t totally useless, however. The people around him explained that Mahr’s words helped them understand a little of how King of Plagues’s bacteria worked. Because of that, they questioned him repeatedly with some time in between sessions, just in case Mahr happened to remember any more details.

Mahr assumed that he was just being summoned for another round...but that wasn’t the case.

“We learned that King of Plagues is heading to this town.” Mahr’s eyes widened. “We might have to evacuate before tomorrow morning, so please be prepared for that.” With those words, the lady walked away from the door.

She’d told Mahr to be ready, but it wasn’t like he had anything to pack.

The only thing he could prepare was his heart and mind...but he was in no state to do even that.

“Nngh...”

King of Plagues—the one who’d taken everything from Mahr—was approaching this town.

Those words filled him with dread, his mind flashing back to the day Mahem fell. He felt as though the despair he’d narrowly avoided was coming to claim him after all.

“Wh-Why...?” Mahr lamented to himself.

Fear. Sadness. Rage. Helplessness. Regret. Everything came together to pin Mahr right where he was.

◇

The government offices of Ajani were now packed with journalists from various news companies.

Ajani County, where the city stood, was on the eastern edge of Altar, and thus was closest to Mahem. That made it King of Plagues’s most likely target, and the members of the press were all here to inform the continent if the count declared a state of emergency. There were journalists from news companies of all sizes, and some of them were Masters.

“Hrmm...”

Among them, there was a woman whose appearance turned a few heads. Wearing a suit and black sunglasses in the fantasy-themed Kingdom of Altar made her stand out a little—no, it made her stand out a lot. The armband she wore signified that she was part of DIN—the news company with the largest information network as well as the one that had first reported on King of Plagues. She was here waiting for an announcement just like the others, but for some reason she was drawing something in her sketchbook.

As she did so, another woman with a DIN armband peeked over her shoulder.

“Marie, what are you drawing? More naked men?”

“No, no, no, nooo! I’m just compiling information!”

The journalist in the suit—Marie Adler—was drawing a very odd image. It was a diagram that was extremely short on its vertical axis, but featured a long semicircle off to the side as well as a few numbers here and there.

However, for some reason there was a bird drawn above it in cute mascot style.

“By the way, how high do the avians from the Ajani branch go?” Marie asked.

“About six thousand metels, I believe.”

“How tough are they?”

“Demi-Dragon-tier, I think.”

“It would be quite the gamble, then.”

As Marie mulled it over, her tian colleague could only assume she was planning something strange. Marie and other Master journalists served as a kind of special correspondent, often tasked with using their unique abilities for equally unique jobs. Being immortal, they could even bring back information that they gave their lives to obtain.

The fact that a Master like Marie was here in Ajani likely held some significance. The people who were in charge of Masters within DIN—the twin CEOs, that is—might’ve known the reason she was here, but as an ordinary journalist, Marie’s colleague had no idea what it was.

“Oh?” the tian journalist said.

As the two talked, they were joined by employees of the government office, as well as Count Ajani himself. The fact that he’d arrived to make a personal declaration told the two journalists that their hunch had been right on the mark—and just as they’d expected, the count told them that King of Plagues was coming, and that they would evacuate to the west.

However, while the count struggled to overcome his grief to make this announcement, Marie was, for some reason, looking in another direction. There was a wall there, but it was almost as though she could see through it.

Then, Marie whispered into her colleague’s ear. “Sorry, I’m leaving for a sec.”

“Huh?” When her colleague turned, Marie was already gone. She’d vanished as though she was never there to begin with.

Though the tian journalist was confused, she wrote it off as just a Master being a Master and turned back to the count.

◇

While Mahr was lying on the bed in a fetal position, he heard a knock on the window.

“It is I. Please, open.”

The voice was a familiar one. With unsteady steps, Mahr approached the window and opened it. There, he saw a well-built youth with lizard-like eyes. At first glance, one might assume he had Legendarian blood, but it was actually the one who was once Lightning Dragon King—Arcal in human form.

“First and foremost, allow me to apologize. I failed to defeat King of Plagues.”

Hearing that, Mahr realized Arcal had left him to defeat this sworn enemy. The news also made him realize that neither To’ori nor this dragon had been able to overcome this menace.

“He is approaching this town, and his miasma will surely reach it by tomorrow. You must evacuate before that.”

Mahr said nothing in response.

“May I ask what you wish to do?” the dragon said.

“What I...wish to...?” The boy didn’t understand what Arcal was asking.

“To’ori has entrusted me with your safety. If this town is to be drowned in disease, then I must have you leave at once. You may flee alongside your fellow men, but my wings would carry you faster and farther. I could even take you to the country upon the sea. The disease might not reach there.”

Mahr said nothing at first. Arcal was trying to honor To’ori’s wish by saving Mahr, who had been a fellow friend of his. Thus, he gave the boy a choice between leaving with Arcal or with the people of Ajani.

However, Mahr...

“I’ll...stay here.”

...chose neither.

“Why?”

“I mean, even if I’m alive...I have nothing now.” His family, friends, home, and homeland—all that made him him no longer existed. He’d lost sight of himself, but was unable to find a solid foundation to help him build a new life, leaving him with nothing but resignation and despair. “Neither you nor Sir To’ori were able to do anything against King of Plagues. He’ll kill every living person on this continent...so I’d rather join them early...”

“Young one, you...” When Arcal was about to tell him something...

“Then what if I prove that King of Plagues can be defeated by human hands?”

...an unfamiliar voice rang out through the room.

The voice was a strange one. It wasn’t clear if it belonged to someone young or old, to a man or a woman. This ambiguous voice, which had obviously passed through some kind of filter, reached their ears as though it were seeping into the room.

Arcal’s eyes widened as he turned to the source and saw something that was just as odd as the voice itself—a black mist. How long had it been there? Before Arcal even realized it, a black, human shaped mist had appeared next to the door. The fact that this entity was capable of sneaking up on him put Arcal on edge.

“What are you?” he asked. In response to that question, the figure looked at both Arcal and Mahr before saying...

“I am a shade.”

It took a step toward the boy. Though it wasn’t clear which part of the black mist was the face, it was obviously looking right at Mahr.

“I am the reflection of your despair—the mortal phantasm to pull the source of your grief into darkness.”

The mist continued speaking in a rather theatrical tone...

“Into the shadow.”

...and said that as it spread its arms as though it were performing on a stage. Its behavior made it seem as if everything it said was of the utmost importance.

Silence. The unusual aura surrounding the entity claiming to be a shade left Arcal speechless.

However, Mahr, who was standing behind him...

“The source...of my grief...?”

...singled out the words “pull the source of your grief into darkness.”

They could mean that the mist would kill Mahr to end his sadness, but if that wasn’t it, then...

“You mean...you would kill King of Plagues?” Mahr asked.

“Yes, if that is what you desire,” said the silhouette with a nod.

“Are you truly capable of that?” Arcal asked. He had doubts that this strange shadow could succeed where both Arcal and To’ori had failed.

He doubted it—yet it seemed that the mist was confident.

“I require something in exchange for this job,” the shade said.

“Exchange? Is it wealth you want?” replied Arcal.

“No. I require cooperation. I would need your assistance...dragon.”

The words left Arcal bewildered. He would gladly cooperate to defeat his sworn enemy, but that alone seemed to not benefit the shadow in any way. “Would that truly be enough for you?”

“Well, yes. To me, what holds meaning is simply the role of someone who accepts such requests and carries them out.”

Silence. Arcal didn’t understand the full meaning of those words, but it was clear to him that the shadow wasn’t lying. It was just operating under a logic only it understood, according to its own mysterious values.

“Very well,” the dragon said. “I will work with you.”

“Excellent. Now...the rest is up to you,” said the shadow, looking at Mahr again. “Before I take action, I need a client. What do you want to do?”

This too must’ve been part of the shadow’s personal logic and motivations. The question was a presentation of choice—for the shadow, it most likely didn’t matter what option Mahr would pick now. It wouldn’t care if he chose not to answer, or if he fled or stayed. If that happened, the shadow would find a collaborator other than Arcal, and a client—a motivation—other than Mahr.

However, it had come to Mahr first because the boy had more reason to make this request than anyone else in the world.

In silence, Mahr thought back on the plain everyday life he’d lived—the golden days that would never return.

He remembered his mother’s warmth and her cooking, so delicious he felt he could never get enough of it.

He remembered how reliable his father was, as well as his back as he carried Mahr when he was too exhausted to walk.

He remembered his older brother’s kindness and the times they’d walked hand in hand.

The memories of his family flowed back to him. Along with them, he recalled the scent of the bleating sheep, the fields of wheat caressed by the wind, as well as all the other vistas of his homeland, now forever lost.

And Mahr remembered the face of his friend whose life was nothing like his, but whose feelings had been the same.

“...them...” Tears once again flowing from his eyes, Mahr looked up at the shadow and opened his mouth to give voice...

“P-PLEASE...AVENGE THEM...!”

...to the righteous anger welling up from deep within his heart.

“Of course.”

Upon hearing the request, punctuated by loud sobbing, the shadow turned around.

“That’s why I exist,” said Marie Adler.

Thus, the Master bearing the name of a professional killer from another story took to action—to kill a self-proclaimed god.

◇◆◇

Old Mahem

“Hm...hmm...” Candy strolled through the now uninhabited land of Mahem, heading toward Altar and using his bacteria and Star Helmet to effortlessly repel anything thrown at him.

Since he was traveling on foot, Candy hadn’t even made it to the border yet, but as he walked westward, the range of his deadly disease followed him like a moving storm.

His bacteria crawled on the ground and multiplied to the extent that they had destroyed an entire country, but as they were now they couldn’t extend much farther than that. However, there were theoretically no true limitations to their spread. The bacteria were animals, and as such they could multiply and proliferate without end. Given enough generations after being released from Resheph, they could theoretically exist as an independent new species even if Candy logged out.

However, to have the properties Candy wanted them to have, they had ended up with a structure that was extremely bizarre for any living being. Without backing from King of Plagues, Candy and his Superior Embryo, they easily fell apart in about a day’s time.

Currently, the skills he had enabled these bacteria to spread to a maximum range of around 50 kilometels. Because of this, as Candy moved westward, the bacteria in the east end of the area were busy destroying themselves.

The very buffs that sustained them were the reason the bacteria that hadn’t come directly from Resheph—and were instead the descendants of those that had—were able to contribute Resources to Candy with their kills.

These bacteria might be able to mutate in a way that let them live despite their abnormalities and spread the disease to an even wider area, but any microorganisms outside his influence didn’t provide Candy with Resources. This meant that diseases too many generations removed would only become competition, so he’d actually taken measures to prevent this from happening.

“Hrm...this isn’t that tiring, but I’d love to have a better way of getting around,” Candy grumbled. “Maybe a Prism Steed?”

Any monsters would certainly die of his diseases, so Candy thought that his best option was some sort of machine—though even those would be gone the moment he spread his metal-eating bacteria. “Operation: Candy the Pale Rider is a go...! But I’ll have to find the horse first...” Candy spoke to himself, referring to the figure often said to be the embodiment of pestilence.

But then, he suddenly looked up at the sky.

“You again?” As he whispered to himself, the Star Helmet showed Candy his enemy.

It was the same dragon that had recently breathed lightning on him.

And after opening its maw, it did the same thing yet again.

“Hm...?” And just like last time, Candy withstood it by using Instant Wear to switch to his Lightning Absorption raincoat. The destructive bolt from the sky once again accomplished nothing.

Why’s it just doing the same thing? Candy was curious why this monster would bother repeating an attack that had so blatantly failed before.

However, as the assault continued, extending beyond the 10 seconds it had lasted before, Candy’s confusion turned to understanding.

It’s still going. This attack was far longer than the first one. It had already lasted for double the amount of time and didn’t seem like it would end soon. I see. It thinks my defense doesn’t last long or has some other limitation. Sorry about that, sweetie, but this is a passive skill.

Lightning Absorption was active for as long as Candy wore the raincoat. He could equip the item as long as it wasn’t broken, and it would negate any lightning attacks as long as he had it equipped. Even if the dragon kept the attack up forever, this defense would never fail.

I won’t be able to log out if this drags on too long, but it’s not like it’s just gonna keep going indefinitely, right? Candy’s assumption proved correct, for the lightning strike ended after about 40 seconds.

The dragon, as shown to him by the Star Helmet, seemed greatly fatigued.

Nice try...hm? The moment that thought passed through Candy’s mind, the Star Helmet’s display changed.

It now showed an unfamiliar woman in a black suit...

“Huh?”

...as well as Candy himself, standing right next to her.

◇

About ten minutes ago...

“I guess he really does have an item like that, huh? I had a hunch. It’s the only thing that explains it, I’m afraid.”

Marie’s voice could be heard from Arcal’s back as the dragon flew through the sky. However, she could not be seen.

The obvious assumption was that she’d somehow become invisible to the naked eye, but that wasn’t exactly the case. Instead, she’d merely covered herself in a fabric with a chameleonlike effect that caused her to blend into Arcal’s back.

Like something straight out of an old ninja manga, she was hiding herself using her onmitsu grouping skills.

She was no longer clad in the black mist she had worn in their first meeting. While the mist was a potent asset that could conceal her identity from perception skills, it also stood out and could make her position easy to pick out visibly. The dark mass would certainly stand out when contrasted with Arcal’s body, and even if it didn’t there was a chance that the Star Helmet would perceive her because of the difference in output.

A brief silence ensued. Arcal had just told Marie about the helmet To’ori had once possessed, and the fact that it had been claimed by King of Plagues. However, Marie had already assumed that this menace had some means of spotting his enemies—that was why she’d hidden herself like this. Such a power was the only thing that would explain King of Plagues’s unusual ability to deal with anything thrown at him.

“You said that he can see,” said Marie. “Is it like clairvoyance? Far sight?”

“That is how To’ori described it, yes,” Arcal replied.

“Then there’s no problem. If I just stick to you like this, he’ll probably only see you—and I’ve still got my job ult too.”

Hearing Marie’s explanation, Arcal let out a doubtful grunt. “Are you certain about this?” he asked.

“Of course. I mean, it’s not like I could reach him by running on the ground.”

Thanks to the efforts of all those who had died trying to defeat King of Plagues, the maximum effective radius of his deadly bacteria had been determined. However, even with Marie’s supersonic speeds, it would take her a few minutes to reach him, and that wasn’t enough—she would collapse before getting close to him. And this estimation didn’t even account for any obstacles that could slow her down and make the situation worse. Even if she could reach him before the disease claimed her, King of Plagues would have more than enough time to notice and escape by logging out. This was why even Caldina’s “Multifariously Invincible” hadn’t been able to destroy him.

“But I know I can make it if I use the shortest path.” Another silence descended. Arcal seemed to have questions still, so Marie began her explanation.

“There are three ways King of Plagues reacts to his attackers. First is by ignoring them. Since his enemy is going to die anyway, he just doesn’t do anything and lets it happen. That’s how most people he’s fought have fallen to him, with Legendaria’s Over Wrestler being the most obvious example.”

King of Plagues’s always-active defensive web would simply kill most attackers and provide him with Resources—that was the easiest scenario for him.

“The second is by countering the attack. As we can see from him equipping something that negates your lightning and spreading metal eating bacteria against that tank, he sometimes deals with trouble by taking some specific defensive actions.”

Arcal silently listened. King of Plagues had killed many UBMs and claimed their rewards, and he possessed possibly hundreds of bacteria of all kinds. The fact that he possessed countermeasures for everything thrown at him so far made it quite clear that his defense was rock-solid.

“And his third strategy is just evacuating. He runs away by logging out and waiting for things to blow over.”

That was the approach King of Plagues had taken after having his Brooch broken, or when he was being targeted by The Cannon from Caldina. Though Marie was not yet aware of this, he also logged out at night, when Collapsed Present—his carnivorous bacteria—became inactive.

However...

“He also prioritizes these actions in precisely that order. It seems like he wants to avoid logging out to prevent anyone from camping and waiting for him, but he still does it when he has no choice.”

King of Plagues was safest when he escaped to reality, but it was also a risky move because he had to log in again at some point.

Marie had no way of knowing this either, but if he was logged out for too long, there was a chance that his bacteria would all die off, costing him his deadly web of defense. That was why logging out was his last resort.

“So...you breathe lightning on him again, he’ll go with the second option and just weather with his resistance gear. As in, he won’t try to escape.”

Marie was saying that she would use this moment as an opportunity to strike. Her thoughts, now put into words, were both slightly surprising and somewhat disturbing to Arcal.

“You thought that far ahead?” he asked.

“Well, yes. It happens that I’ve been thinking about such things for years.”

Marie—Nagisa Ichimiya in the real world—was the creative mind behind Into the Shadow, a battle manga with superpowered professional killers.

However, the “superpowered” part didn’t apply to the main character—also known as Marie Adler. Her first ally, Daisy, as well as everyone else in the series, were inhuman assassins. Into the Shadow was a story where Marie Adler—a normal human hit man—used only her wits and mundane skill to win against her supernatural foes.

And so, as author of this work, Nagisa spent many days thinking about how someone might deal with a far more powerful enemy. This experience turned out to be valuable in Infinite Dendrogram, making her a Master who was quite proficient at observing other people’s abilities and countering them.

“Anyway, we’re almost there,” she said.

“Indeed.” Arcal had arrived at the sky right above King of Plagues. This was about time the walking calamity would catch sight of him using the Star Helmet.

Knowing what I’ll have to do next, I’ll need about 40 seconds, Marie thought. Marie reconfirmed and recalculated the actions she’d take next, then gathered the resolve to go through with them.

“Anyway, please do as I said. Spew lightning at him for 40 seconds,” she said.

“That is quite a lot you are asking of me.” Though he ranked high among Pure-Dragons, Arcal was no longer a UBM. Breathing lightning for such a long time and from such a distance was a taxing act that would surely drain him.

But...

“If it is to avenge my friend...consider it done.”

Following those words, Arcal opened his jaw and released lightning onto King of Plagues below. The bolt struck true, but was once again negated by his lightning resistance raincoat.

In that moment, Marie grasped a different blade in each hand...and jumped off Arcal’s back.

This was the only way to reach him—a fall from directly above.

During her investigations, Marie had reached the conclusion that the bacteria’s effective range in the air wasn’t nearly as great as it was on land.

Mahr said that when To’ori helped him escape, the cattle left on the ground were dying—that alone made it clear that the altitude slowed the disease down.

Additionally, some of the people who’d used skydragons and avians while setting out to kill King of Plagues were able to get deep into his deadly range without any issue.

Thinking about it, this was to be expected.

There was absolutely nothing in the air. No soil to cling to and no nutrients the bacteria could use to proliferate. Even if they could linger in the air, they certainly couldn’t spread easily.

Marie had guessed that even at its highest—right above King of Plagues—the effective height of the bacteria was only about 5000 metels. This estimation was confirmed when Arcal told her that he’d been able to attack King of Plagues from above. With this approach, though, they’d given themselves more room to work with, coming from a height of over seven thousand metels. While this altitude was a bit much for the avians of the DIN branch, it wasn’t a problem for a powerful dragon like Arcal.

However, even all these preparations and an approach from a less defended angle wouldn’t be enough to win against King of Plagues. While the sky might not have been dense in bacteria, they still reached as high as 5000 metels. Even with supersonic speed, delivering an attack would take over 10 seconds. That was more than enough time for Candy to switch to appropriate resistance gear, counter it with other bacteria, or run away and make more distance between them. And now that he had the Star Helmet, ranged attacks weren’t enough to take him out—but his disease miasma meant attacking him from up close was impossible too.

Falling toward him from above didn’t change much of this scenario. Marie would be consumed before she even touched the ground.

Except she had something that let her break—or more accurately, pass through.

“Art of Vanishing.”

The moment she spoke the name of her skill, her body stopped existing in this world. The light that allowed her to be seen, the air touching her skin, the lightning that could burn her, and the bacteria that destroyed everything it came into contact with now passed straight through her as though she wasn’t even there.

This was Art of Vanishing—the ult of the onmitsu grouping Superior Job, Death Shadow.

Leaving everything behind as though she had never even existed, Marie plummeted to the surface far below.

And since she didn’t exist, the Star Helmet couldn’t possibly see her coming.

Thirty-six, thirty-five, thirty-four... she counted down in her head. Normally, forty seconds wasn’t enough for a person to fall even two thousand metels, because air resistance slowed them down.

However, that didn’t affect Marie as she was now. Art of Vanishing negated all physical influence on her, and even the dense air wasn’t doing anything to her speed. But even though there was no friction, she was still affected by gravitational acceleration, as evidenced by the fact that her feet stayed in contact with the ground when she used the skill on the surface.

Thus, during these forty seconds, she closed the distance between her and King of Plagues at the highest possible speed.

Twenty, nineteen, eighteen...

King of Plagues only moved by foot and wasn’t exactly swift, but forty seconds were more than enough time for him to move dozens of metels.

Another reason Marie had asked Arcal to shower King of Plagues in lightning was to minimize this possibility. Her calculations told her that without the effects of wind upon her, she could reach him by simply falling.

“Tch!” However, despite it all, there was now a discrepancy between the point she was falling toward and Candy’s current location.

Had Candy himself moved? Or was this an effect of Arcal’s lightning?

I’ll do this, then! Thinking fast, accelerated by her AGI, Marie quickly made a decision.

A moment later, her forty seconds expired. Arcal’s lightning had ceased, and Marie removed her Art of Vanishing.

But as she did that, she immediately used her Art of Shadow Clones.

She then kicked the clones to readjust the trajectory of her fall.

“Huh?” Candy said, finally picking up on Marie’s presence. The moment Art of Vanishing was undone, both the Star Helmet and the swarm of bacteria focused entirely on her.

However, before King of Plagues could react in any way, Marie shoved both her blades into the neck of her target.

Thanks to her accelerated thoughts, she was able to perfectly coordinate her fall with her attack. Her left blade drew an arc from below, while the right was swung down.

The attack with the left blade was restrained. Candy’s level was immense, but his HP wasn’t impressive, and this attack was meant to do damage while keeping him alive.

The attack with the right blade, however, was fatal. It carried the kinetic energy of Marie’s free fall straight into a critical area.

Pulverizing Marie’s own right arm as it sank in, the right blade delivered damage that surpassed Candy’s HP many times over, triggering his Brooch several times and shattering it.

A moment later, Marie herself crashed into the ground, activating and breaking her own Brooch too.

Marie’s ambush left them both without a lifeline.

◇◆

“Agh.” A sudden attack, damage to his neck, a shattered Brooch.

The change in situation was so sudden that even Candy couldn’t stay surprised.

As Marie tried to recover from the fatal crash, he backed away, blood spurting from his neck.

At this moment, they were on even footing. However, Marie was already infected by his disease. The flesh-consuming Collapsed Present was quickly draining Marie’s HP.

Candy spared a moment to think.

This was someone who could break through his defenses—his empire of plagues—and end up right next to him. It wasn’t out of the question that she could once again negate the effects of his bacteria.

Thus, Candy chose to take her seriously.

Spreading a colored cloud of bacteria to conceal himself, he began his escape.

Preparing to leave this world in thirty seconds, he initiated the logout sequence...only to get an error.

A...debuff...?

Candy then realized that his status summary said “Paralysis (Slow Acting).”

This was the effect of the dagger in Marie’s left hand—Palsy Stingblade, Belspan. It was an MVP reward that delivered a paralysis poison requiring time to become effective, making it difficult to resist.

But while it was slow acting, it didn’t change the fact that the debuff was still there, and having a binding-type debuff prevented a player from logging out.

In that case... Candy realized that he had no choice but to kill his opponent immediately. Thus, he prepared to use his ultimate, The Lab of the God of Pestilence—Resheph...

“...n...gh...!”

...only to realize that his destroyed throat made him unable to speak the words.

This was also the work of Belspan. Marie had used it to lower his HP, apply a debuff that prevented escape, and stop him from using skills that had to be called out.

The blade had been given three roles, and it had fulfilled them all.

Even as she coughed, the bacteria consuming her, Marie still had her eyes fixed on Candy.

He’d spread a smoke screen, but her abilities as a job from the onmitsu grouping still allowed her to track him.

She’d also switched out the dagger in her left for a handgun.

This was Marie’s Embryo—Arc-en-Ciel. But instead of having its usual six shot revolver form, it was in the shape that primed it to fire a single, giant shot.

It was the form Arc-en-Ciel took for its ultimate skill.

All was silent. Candy fixed his eyes on the assassin who was ready to claim his life. She’d broken through his defenses and destroyed his throat, preventing him from using his ult. With the assassin so close now, and the gun aimed right at him, there was nothing left for him to—

Construction setup.

No—someone who claimed to be a god would never fall this easily.

Unable to say a word, Candy began manipulating his own magic.

This wasn’t accomplished by any of his job skills. This was the pinnacle of pure technique, said to be reachable only by tians with The One series of Superior Jobs. It was the realm of original magic skill creation—a world that only Masters like King of Glaciers AT WIKI would someday ascend to.

Candy happened to already be deep within this uncharted territory.

Outputting guidelines. Defining concept. Connecting network.

Using only his own thoughts and powers, he wove something that matched the most superior of all skills. Since he couldn’t speak—since it was all in his thoughts—this process contained none of the colorful, deranged role-playing he normally affected. He merely acted like a system—a god—designed to act like he did, and exercised his authority accordingly.

Construction complete. Exhausting internal magic.

What he wove was something befitting the title of Plaguemancer—a job focused on creating and managing diseases—and yet something completely unlike it at the same time.

False God Imitation—Infinite Daimon: Carnage the God of Pestilence.

The bacteria that gathered right before Candy in that moment assumed a shape that resembled a giant, angry spirit—the image of a divinity that had wielded immense power in a certain era of some particular world. Synonymous with destruction, its very touch brought the end.

This false god, built from bacteria and magic, rose like a restless deity that could devour all that lived and destroy all that did not, swinging its claws at the heretic that dared to stand before it.

This was divine might that no human could withstand.

However, no matter how inhuman, unique, or even godlike the enemy...

...Marie Adler was the protagonist of a tale that was all about defeating them.

“Phantasmal Raingun—Arc-en-Ciel: La Gravelle the Godslayer.”

What Marie fired at that calamitous false god was a single, fatal bullet that made use of red, blue, green, white, black, silver—all the colors Marie possessed and all the Resources loaded into Arc-en-Ciel.

What manifested was a woman with her eyes covered by a green cloth veil, wielding a sword so massive it could only have been made from the bones of a giant beast.

Her name was La Gravelle the Godslayer, and she was the strongest professional killer in Nagisa Ichimiya’s work.

Thus, two creations had been summoned. One from the history of a different world, the other from a fictional story—both remnants of those who had once held godlike power.

All that was left was to see which past was stronger.

A moment later, Candy’s false god and Marie’s godslayer clashed.

The billions of bacteria comprising the false god rushed to consume this enemy that mocked it. A single swing of its claw would reap the life from anything it passed through.

There was no living being that could withstand this mythic ruination.

However, La Gravelle was the Godslayer.

She had that name exactly because she could surpass mere mythology—the manifestation of explosive power that came at the cost of so many Resources that it left Marie’s Embryo useless, yet didn’t even last for ten seconds.

The swing of her sword called forth such a mighty wind that it surpassed the magical pressure gluing the billions of bacteria together and carved open a path for her. Then, with a step that cracked open the earth, La Gravelle rushed through where the density of bacteria was thinned out.

Though, “thinned out” didn’t mean that this calamity was harmless. It still wouldn’t take long for the bacteria to consume a single person.

In just two seconds, La Gravelle would vanish, bones and all.

However, it wouldn’t take even a single second for her to break through the false god and stand before the true god—Candy Carnage.

Candy’s eyes widened.

Even as parts of her body disintegrated, La Gravelle raised her sword high and swung it down.

What protected Candy’s head was the item granted to mankind by a being that surpassed Mythical tier. Its ability to see enemies wasn’t all the power it possessed—it also excelled simply as a defensive piece of equipment. Even a blade of Mythical metal would bend before it.

But this one truth could not be forgotten: the Godslayer surpassed mythology.

The attack that would eventually break even Superior metal split the Star Helmet...

“Ah.”

...and cut through the god.

It all ended with one attack, without even any time for revival.

Stripped of control, the false god collapsed in an instant, and Candy began to melt into motes of light.

With her role finished, La Gravelle also vanished without so much as a word. And her summoner, Marie, was also succumbing to the damage the bacteria had done to her body.

It was likely, however, that Candy would die first. Thus, he realized that this was undoubtedly a loss for him.

The silence stretched on as Candy Carnage, his body split in half and unable to speak, gazed at the woman who was swiftly becoming nothing but light, just as he was.

I’ll get back at you someday... Candy thought as the bits of light that were once his godly body were carried off by the wind.

A moment later, that which had once been Marie disappeared in the same way.

Arcal had witnessed all this from high above, and when it was over he flew off to the west, eager to tell the boy that their friend had been avenged.

The brief yet truly eventful battle was over.

The Master who’d killed more tians than any other—this one-man calamity—had been defeated by a lone assassin and sent to the gaol.

This was the conclusion of the King of Plagues incident.

◇◆

Following this, it became known that King of Plagues had fallen to a certain professional killer. This truth was sent out to the world by the twin CEOs of DIN—the control AI.

The name of this assassin was a mystery, so people wanted something to call them.

Perhaps if Candy Carnage had been recognized as a god by anyone besides himself, the Master who had killed him might’ve come to be known as “Godslayer,” just like the method she had used to destroy him. However, no matter how wretched the casualties of his actions, he was still only a Superior—a mere human.

That was the extent of the world’s understanding of him, and that was why the one who slew him became known as the “Superior Killer.”

◆◆◆

The Gaol

As Candy descended upon this place, he wasn’t smiling—though his face was not twisted in anger or grief either.

He was merely squinting his eyes, apparently lost in thought.

Ever since he’d received the death penalty he’d been thinking about that black-clad woman who’d killed him—in fact, he was thinking about her right now.

Who was she? Where had she come from? And regardless of how shoddily he might have constructed it in the little time he had...how had she broken through his False God Imitation?

He couldn’t begin to answer those questions, so he could only wonder about it fruitlessly.

From Candy’s perspective, this was like getting randomly assaulted while out on a casual stroll. It had all happened so fast that he couldn’t comprehend how he’d died, nor could he accept it.

However, Candy was someone who used bioterrorism to destroy an entire country. His distress couldn’t hope to compare to what the people of Mahem felt as they’d suddenly perished to his deadly disease. Some might say that this death was just Candy getting what he deserved, but it was truly only a fraction of that.

The wrongdoers and the wronged, however, always weighed such things on different scales.

For Candy in particular, his outlook on this outcome was more like a god’s than a human’s. Thus, he himself didn’t really think that he’d gotten what he deserved. That was why he saw it as more of a random assault by some maniac rather than understanding it as an act of vengeance.

He was actually wondering why it even happened at all.

Candy had already decided that he’d get his revenge, but first things first—he had to find answers to his questions...

“Yo! A newbie, aren’t ya?”

“The outfit’s a little much, but you’re pretty cute!”

“Ohh, those lips are gorgeous...”

...but his thinking was cut short by some voices calling out to him.

Candy was standing at the gaol’s save point, so it wasn’t so strange that someone would try talking to him.

“Gettin’ sent here is makin’ you feel all anxious, huh? Don’t worry! We’ll show you around!”

“Let’s start with the only café that serves good coffee! That’s also where you’ll find the biggest guy here!”

“If you don’t mind, give me your cup once you’re done with it.”

With the exception of the obvious Legendarian, the men didn’t have any ulterior motives. While some of them were probably trying to hit on Candy, they were also completely honest about wanting to lend a helping hand to a gaol newbie.

However...

Candy’s response was a crushing silence. From his perspective, they were irreverent, unpleasant fools who had bothered him while he was trying to puzzle out something important.

But this also led him to another thought.

Here in the gaol, he could no longer hope to power level by committing tian genocide, but there were still people he could kill for their Resources.

Thus, a smile appeared on his face for the first time since he logged in...

“Collapsed Present.”

...and he instantly infected the gaol with the very same bacteria that had destroyed Mahem.

The three who called out to him were the first to die—and as the save point was in the heart of the town, death quickly spread throughout all of it.

They don’t give as much as tians, but they’ll have to do, Candy thought. He would first kill all Masters, then massacre the monsters of this created dungeon.

With the gaol presumably being made using spatial control powers, Candy figured that if he gathered enough Resources to reach his limit as a Superior, he might be able to escape. And so, he intended to turn this gaol into his personal empire of plague where anything besides him was dead.

But then...

“Excuse me, about this poison...or, rather, bacteria—would you be so kind as to stop spreading it?”

...someone behind Candy tapped on his shoulder and addressed him directly.

Candy’s eyes widened in shock as he turned around. First the skeleton, then the black-clad woman, now this—it was his third shocking encounter within a very brief span of time.

However, in a way the source of Candy’s surprise this time might’ve been the strangest of the three.

“It seems to affect the flesh of living beings...but it also broke down the eggs I just bought at the store.”

The man behind him was holding a shopping bag, looked awfully plain, and behaved completely normally.

Unlike the skeleton or the woman in black, he didn’t try to attack Candy the moment he appeared. He only wore a somewhat strained smile and lamented the loss of his recent purchase.

It was as though to him, the spread of Candy’s deadly disease was roughly equivalent in seriousness to his broken eggs.

“You...” Candy hissed. The man didn’t look strange. He wasn’t a skeleton in Japanese clothes or a woman wearing a black men’s suit. He was just a spectacled man in casual clothes who didn’t stand out in any way. None of what he wore seemed like MVP rewards.

But all that was exactly why this didn’t seem right.

“What are you?” Candy was so dumbfounded by this that he couldn’t help but ask that question.

Notably, he didn’t ask “who” but “what,” as if he wasn’t sure if the man was even human.

And, in a way, Candy wasn’t that far off.

“You are speaking to Sechs Würfel. I am known as King of Crime, and I am the owner of the café here. Oh, and I am also a slime.”

The man—Sechs—casually answered Candy’s question, readily admitting that he was not human.

A slime! Candy thought as everything fell into place.

Collapsed Present targeted only people and other creatures that possessed actual flesh—slimes weren’t its focus, and as a result its effects on them were minimal. Even a little defense or a minor countermeasure against disease from a tertiary target like a slime would be enough to negate it.

But that also meant that the man was vulnerable to bacteria specialized against slimes.

With that thought, Candy immediately gave an order to Resheph, causing it to release the antislime bacteria he’d prepared in the past.

A burst of black smoke laden with pestilence quickly enveloped the man.

If everything went as Candy planned, this would’ve killed his opponent immediately, and yet...

“Hmm. So your Embryo consists of fatal bacteria—or rather the system to prepare them. I suppose it’s true that, given enough time and Resources, a production-focused Embryo can become something fearsome.”

Candy’s eyes widened again. The man claiming to be a slime spoke with a tone as calm as before, and Candy almost began to suspect that he was bluffing about being a slime—but then he noticed a bigger issue.

The man’s voice had changed. In fact, it had become a voice that Candy found very familiar.

“Though it does seem that you produce them with the bare minimum of safety measures.”

The wind then blew away the black smoke...

“Like, for example, making it so they don’t target you.”

...revealing none other than Candy himself.

“Huh...?” Candy was now more confused than ever, but there was a fairly simple explanation for what had just happened.

Candy’s assumption about why Sechs was able to approach him without fear of the bacteria was correct. However, when Sechs had touched Candy’s shoulder, he’d also taken a hair from Candy’s head and absorbed it into his slime body. This enabled him to use Shapeshift—his transformation skill that required him to acquire cells from whomever he wanted to transform into.

Thus, Sechs had simply made his flesh the same as Candy’s.

“I believe spreading the disease any further is meaningless now, unless you intend to include yourself in the massacre,” Sechs went on. “So would you mind putting a stop to all this, please? There might be better ways of going about all of this in any case.”

In terms of form and structure, Sechs’s transformations were flawless. They were so good, in fact, that they were able to perfectly mimic the bloodlines of Special Superior Jobs.

As Candy’s current level was higher than his, Sechs couldn’t copy his skills as King of Plagues, but that didn’t stop him from creating a true reflection of Candy’s physical body, thus putting Candy in checkmate.

In silence, Candy considered the situation. He possessed many MVP rewards, but none of them provided any means of attack.

That was because his usual method of dealing damage—of dealing death—was his bacteria. His MVP rewards had thus ended up being either defensive items or materials for his diseases.

And since Candy had excluded himself as a target with all of his bacteria creations, by copying his cells, Sechs became effectively immune to anything Candy could do.

I’ve only been here a few minutes and I’ve already gotten hit with all this... I’ve got no luck at all these days, Candy thought.

The skeleton and the woman in black had both succumbed to the bacteria. However, Sechs was immune to them as long as Candy was himself. Candy had absolutely no chance against Sechs now.

Well, I’m stumped. Can’t think of anything I can do, Candy thought. There were some options that would have been open to him before Sechs had come this close, but it was far too late for that now.

On top of that, still reeling from the shock of the current situation and the death penalty dealt him by the woman in black, Candy failed to notice one other detail—he no longer possessed the helm that so greatly enhanced his defenses.

“So...will you stop? Living here would become quite difficult if you do not.” Sechs’s words, spoken using Candy’s own face, were obviously an ultimatum, carrying a very specific hidden message: stop spreading the disease or die.

Unlike Candy, Sechs had means of attack that didn’t rely on bacteria, so if they fought, it would be completely one-sided. Candy was well aware of that.

It would only lead to his immediate second defeat.

I’ll have to be more careful with my concoctions from now on, he thought. First, he would have to research bacteria that worked on beings with identical cell structure to his.

With that thought, Candy ordered Resheph to cease spreading the disease and raised his hands in surrender.

However, he was a few moments too late.

“Oh,” Sechs sighed. He, for some reason, shifted his eyes from Candy up toward the sky.

Candy couldn’t help but follow his gaze...

“What?”

...and saw a circle.

Actually, it was the bottom of a cone that expanded upward—specifically, it was Sandalphon, the Embryo of the gaol’s second Superior—King of Berserk, Hannya.

The Embryo had appeared right above Sechs and Candy so suddenly that he might as well have teleported.

The very next moment, the massive cone smashed into them.

Candy—as well as Sechs taking Candy’s form—were both ground into the earth below, immediately giving King of Plagues his next death penalty.

An encounter with people who were very different kinds of outliers than he was—this was what marked the beginning of Candy’s life in the gaol.

◆◆◆

Old Mahem

The battle between King of Plagues, Candy Carnage and Death Shadow Marie Adler ended with both of their deaths.

Functionally, it was a solid defeat for Candy, but regardless it was a battle that didn’t leave much of a mark on the world. Once it was over, the combatants had both dissolved into light, Arcal had flown off, and Candy’s bacteria were rapidly decreasing in numbers as they destroyed themselves without his direction.

Soon, Mahem would look exactly as it had before all of this had happened—just uninhabited.

However, there was something in this scene that stood out.

It was a split piece of headgear—none other than the Prototype Horobimaru-Star Helmet.

Once given to The Hero To’ori Kusanagi by an SUBM, it was then claimed by his murderer, Candy. Now it was lying on the ground, thoroughly destroyed.

Instead of vanishing alongside Candy, its remains were simply lying there, exposed to the wind that flowed across the field.

There was other loot that Candy and Marie had dropped in death, but the helmet had an aura that made it stand out from the rest.

Suddenly—perhaps because of the wind—the remains of the helmet shook a little.

“Dead host. Dead victor. None qualified. Grave damage.”

A faint voice, its source unclear, could be heard in the barren wasteland.

“Continued recording impossible. Prioritize current information. Incomplete. Abandoning. Unsatisfactory.”

The voice was coming from the helmet itself.

“Returning.”

With that one word, the helmet transformed into bits of light and vanished.

The sight resembled the death of a monster or a Master’s death penalty, but it was neither.

If To’ori or other seasoned warriors of Tenchi had been there, they might’ve noticed that the Resources comprising the helmet were flowing somewhere else.

◆

Somewhere completely unknown, everything was obscured by darkness.

In the profound blackness of the deepest depths of an unimaginably deep cavern, outside of the reach of wind and rain and thus thoroughly unchanged since ancient times, there was a space that at first glance resembled a burial chamber.

Perhaps, though, this place was better likened to something with a far different purpose—a smithy, to be precise. There was a furnace, an anvil, and a hammer.

That was more than enough to make it a smithy even despite the fact that this was a crucible of pure darkness untouched by the rays of the sun or the glow of a fire, wasn’t it?

Now, however, the deep silence had a source. Absently floating in the heart of the black smithy was what looked like little more than a haze.

Did this thing exist? Did it not? Even that much wasn’t clear—but it was there regardless.

It must’ve been there—been waiting—for an obscenely long time.

“Retrieving.” But then, the seemingly inert haze whispered that word, and something flowed into the darkness. The shapeless and invisible energy took form in the haze’s hand.

The object was the now shattered Star Helmet.

“Incomplete.” The haze echoed the words spoken by the helm itself.

“The Hero, The Arts, The Earth, King of Plagues, The Cannon, Over Wrestler, Death Shadow.” The haze named some Superior Jobs—specifically, the ones that the owners of the helm had met or battled.

It almost felt as though it was lamenting something.

“Few. Insufficient. Unsatisfactory.”

It voiced its displeasure with the fact that the number it counted was less than desirable.

The haze was the creator of the helmet, and what it wanted was for the item’s owners to fight Superior Jobs.

It had even made the helm so it would seek out stronger and stronger wielders. In fact, while Candy had picked up the helmet off of To’ori’s body himself, it would’ve moved to him even if he hadn’t.

But now that Marie had destroyed the helmet before disappearing along with Candy himself, this feature had become meaningless. The helmet had no choice but to return to the haze, its goal incomplete.

“Conflict knowledge inadequate.” Disappointed though it was, the haze quickly took to action.

The furnace of the black smithy was lit for the first time in who knew how long, and its flame grew, melting the broken helmet. The haze took the hammer in hand and began working the metal that was left.

This task would clearly take him quite a long time.

“Begin. Perfect. First step.”

The haze’s—his—job was to repeat the same thing five times. Though the first step was incomplete, he had to fulfill his duty.

“Dedicate. Dependent. Task.”

This was something he’d decided he would do a long time ago.

Behind the scenes of the turbulent King of Plagues event, unknown to all, this being had taken to action.

This would eventually result in something fearsome taking center stage.