Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 22 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Fatal Fight, the Overlord’s Descent

Gideon, City of Duels, Central Arena

While Ray’s group was being dragged into the Overlord’s event...

“By the way, did you not participate in The Tournaments? I don’t believe I saw you in any of the public matches.”

“Grrrgh... I-I don’t think I saw you either.”

...the two artists continued their verbal battle—this sarcastic back-and-forth.

“You didn’t, because I didn’t participate. Despite how it may seem, my face and identity are supposed to be a secret, so I wouldn’t expose and embarrass myself in such a public setting. Surely you understand?”

Marie seemed to be losing ground here. Being defeated in her first Tournament fight was coming back to haunt her—and he knew her identity, giving F a huge advantage. He had a great many cards he could play against her, while it wasn’t clear how Marie could approach him.

At some point, Marie had taken out her Arc-en-Ciel—and not the normal revolver form, but the single shot form meant for her ult. However, the mangaka side of her felt that fighting back against his words with violence would be a loss in its own right, so she was able to hold herself back...if only barely.

“Oh? Looks like it’s time.”

“Hm...? Ohh. It is.”

But then, the end of their verbal battle arrived. The thing everyone here had been waiting for was about to begin—the ultimate match of the final Tournament.

The two Superiors—Figaro and Albert—were already facing each other on the stage, but the start of the match had yet to be announced.

Perhaps because it was the final day, Altimia A. Altar—the acting ruler and first princess of the kingdom—was currently making a speech about The Tournaments so far.

“Hm...?” However, Marie, F, and some other members of the audience found it strange.

The speech was supposed to happen after the final match, yet the order had somehow been reversed.

F wondered why that had happened, and soon realized the reason.

He’d sent many drones all over the venue, and the information they provided let him know what would happen next.

“I see,” he said. “So he’ll lose the handicap for this one.”

“What do you mean?”

The handicap in question was obviously the limitation on Albert’s firepower. His consideration for the audience had rendered him unable to use his real combat style. If he fought Figaro like that, Figaro would have the upper hand in terms of both compatibility and sheer power.

Being from the same clan as him, Marie would’ve liked that, but it was unlikely that Albert himself would.

“Attention visitors. The stage will now undergo maintenance in preparation for the final match.”

Shortly after Altimia concluded her speech, an announcement echoed through the venue. However, there seemed to be no damage to the stage, so what was the maintenance for?

The answer to that question came in the form of a person who parted the wind and flew in, stopping right above the stage.

Looking up at the sky, the spectators saw a lone woman. She was wearing a wizard’s robe paired with a pointed hat, and she sat on a staff with both legs over one side, the classic picture of a witch riding a broomstick. The only thing that diverged from that image was the monocle over one eye.

Regardless, some people present already knew who she was.

“The maintenance will be done by the current Arch Sage—Integra Sedna Clarisse Flagman.”

Integra—a friend of the first princess, and currently the only court mage. She was usually busy with work in Altea, so some wondered why she was here in Gideon.

Her sudden appearance made the audience look up at her in shock.

Meanwhile, Figaro was smiling, Albert showed no emotion, and Altimia made a face as though to say, “Finally, she’s arrived.”

The reason she’d pushed the speech forward was to buy Integra some time. This implied that the Arch Sage was necessary for the final match—and this was proven by what she did next.

“Miss Flagman will now reinforce the arena’s protections.” Following that announcement, Integra created a massive barrier over the existing one.

She was adding multiple new layers over the five that already covered the stage, resulting in a large number of magical barriers nested within one another.

This was in response to the UBM escape on day six. There had been a counterplan meeting where the likes of Altimia and Count Gideon had discussed how to prevent such a thing from happening again. Being an arena expert, Figaro had also participated as an observer.

One of the solutions they’d come up with was enhancing the barrier by adding extra layers on top of the ones already there, and this responsibility was given to the Arch Sage, Integra. While the Arch Sage could use magic of all kinds, Integra was especially good at barrier magic. They’d intended to use her powers to add additional walls and prevent more UBMs from escaping.

But now, contrary to their plans, they were using this solution in the final match.

The reason they were doing this was actually Figaro.

This many-layered barrier would reduce the risk of audience casualties even further—and that was exactly why, having listened in on the meeting, Figaro himself had asked that they use this in the final match.

Though he was participating in The Tournaments, he didn’t actually want the MVP reward—those were just something he received in the course of pursuing his true goal.

Figaro was someone who enjoyed battle from the bottom of his heart and always sought powerful enemies against whom he could burn away his spirit, body, and all that he was. Blessed with an opponent as great as Albert, Figaro would never allow him to bear such an unfair handicap.

“...Heh.” Figaro stood on the stage with a smile on his face. His expression spoke more eloquently than any words could, saying, The stage is set. Let’s go all out.

Even the audience felt like they could hear the silent invitation.

Saying nothing in response, Albert spent a moment looking at the enhanced barrier...

“Deploying armaments.”

...and adorned himself in MVP rewards.

Figaro’s smile deepened as he took a weapon in hand.

Thus began an all-out battle between Superiors armed to the teeth with countless powerful artifacts.

◇◆◇

Gideon, City of Duels, Eighth Arena

Legendaria had three Overlords—Overlord Acedia, ZZZ; Overlord Gula, Dis Satisfactory; and Overlord Invidia, G.

Overlord Acedia did nothing but sleep inside his realm. As long as no one threatened his territory, he did not partake in conflict against anyone. If sleeping dogs were left to lie, they wouldn’t bite—and the same was true of Overlords.

Overlord Gula was wandering around Legendaria, going where the winds took her, and those who stood in her way were fated to be consumed. She was like a natural disaster, growing stronger day by day thanks to her auto-leveling as an Overlord.

Meanwhile, Overlord Invidia’s activities were much more reminiscent of the dark lords and demon kings many players would be familiar with from fiction. She commanded an army—her clan, Underground Sanctuary—and regularly invaded Legendaria to take their rare items, riches, and territory, all while recording it and creating videos to upload online.

Overlord Invidia, G was definitely the most “Overlord-ish” of the three.

There were two reasons why she’d taken action now.

First, her ult could only be used at night.

Second, it was because nearly all the eyes and ears in Gideon were focused in the Central Arena. The unexpected appearance of the foreign Superior had made it attract even more caution and attention than she’d anticipated.

On top of that, Figaro was a participant in the match, while Shu and Hannya were on security duty, drawing them away from any potential danger to Ray.

The uncertain variables that could interfere with G’s plans had been reduced to an absolute minimum.

The only ones here now were Ray and Nemesis, as well as Juliet’s trio—and G couldn’t have asked for a better cast.

◇◆

“Playground of the Great Old One—R’lyeh!”

Following her skill declaration, the environment in the Eighth Arena changed drastically.

“Ngh...?! What...?!”

“The arena...is sinking?!” A transparent cylinder surrounded the arena as dark water began seeping in from the bottom of it, the level slowly rising.

The Eighth Arena—Death Period’s base—was gradually sinking.

Ray and the others jumped high and landed in the audience seating, where the water couldn’t yet reach.

“Liquid summoning?! Like Chelsea’s Poseidon?!” Max exclaimed.

“Not exactly. Not quite,” G said with a chuckle. “This is R’lyeh rising up.”

“Huh...?!”

“It’s something I gotta do to get the arena—and it’s my win condition for this game.”

“Right! I looked this up! So this is her ult...!” G’s words made Chelsea show a hint of panic, and Ray grimaced.

“‘Game,’ huh? You talk like this guy I know who wears a lab coat everywhere,” Ray said with a scowl as he recalled an unpleasant memory.

“Franklin’s Game, right? I know that! It went viral. I dunno if you realize this, but you’re very famous. You’re better known than even some Superiors.”

“Can’t say I’m happy about that!” Ray said before letting out a sigh. First Jubei, now this—becoming famous had gotten him nothing but trouble. If not for that, G wouldn’t have targeted him in the first place.

“And that’s why I think fighting you will make for a great video. Content, revenge for my brother, and this arena—I’m getting so much from this!”

G regularly recorded her activities and uploaded them on her channel. Due to her unusual role as both a Superior and an Overlord, as well as her personality, she had a lot of followers expecting to see something unexpected or entertaining. G believed, without a doubt, that “stealing an arena” and “fighting the Unbreakable” would amaze people as much as—if not more than—her previous escapades.

“Ya keep sayin’ you’ll take the arena. Whaddya mean by that?” Though Max now knew that G was an enemy, she still didn’t know much about her, and nothing had gotten any clearer for her. Juliet was the same in that regard. Ray and Chelsea knew of G and seemed to be getting more and more worried, but Juliet didn’t know why.

“That’s G’s skill, Maxie. It’s Overlord Invidia’s Embryo ult,” Chelsea began explaining to them. “She already cut off a buncha Legendarian territories, but she didn’t change the country’s borders like what happens in a War.”

“Then what did she do?” asked Max.

“The moment this ult is complete...”

“...The Eighth Arena itself will be absorbed by her Embryo,” Ray finished.

R’lyeh was a fictional location from the Cthulhu Mythos. Sometimes called an island, sometimes a city, it was always at the bottom of the ocean. However, it was said that when it rose to the surface, the Great Old One—Cthulhu—would awaken and subjugate the world.

Thus, R’lyeh’s core trait was “domination.”

When the rising waters of R’lyeh sank the targeted area, it would take control of and steal the land, the buildings, and any items within, turning them into a part of itself.

Basically, it was a Superior Embryo that forcefully claimed the very terrain in which it was summoned, cutting off parts of the world itself.

While this ult didn’t possess any direct offensive power, to a country, this was more terrifying than any violent attack. Multiple Legendarian tribes had already lost their mines, castles, and towns to this Embryo, whittling away at the country as a whole.

After claiming whatever she set her eyes on, G released everything in her faction’s base, creating her own land—the Overlord’s domain.

That was the core of her Underground Sanctuary’s strategy.

“Seriously?! That’s some totally lawless shit!” said Max.

“It is. As an Overlord, I make my own laws,” said G, not ashamed whatsoever. “Also, there’s a limit to how big an area and how many Resources I can absorb, and the more I steal, the longer it takes. This arena will be consumed in...a bit over an hour, I guess?” She explained with glee as she gazed at the water filling the arena from the bottom and the “scale” etched onto the top of the cylindrical barrier around the arena.

The time needed for her Embryo’s ult to complete scaled with the Resources of the target.

“Anyway, it’s time to reveal the rules! The channel regulars already know them, but I’ll make them clear to new viewers who came here just for the Unbreakable!” G once again spread her arms wide and raised her voice to ensure that the countless cameras all around could hear her.

In one of her hands, there was now an uncanny, unusual shape—a trapezohedron.

“The rules are simple! I lose if this trapezohedron breaks before R’lyeh consumes the Eighth Arena! This is the core of the ult!”

R’lyeh’s ultimate skill provided other people with the means to stop itself. The fact that it could only be used at night, its long cooldown, and this “fail state” were harsh restrictions that allowed for its greatly empowered effect.

“Of course, you could just defeat me, instead! R’lyeh will disappear and that’ll obviously stop the ult! But if you can’t do either before the time runs out or all of you are eliminated, Team Unbreakable loses!” G then put her hand on her throat and called out to Ray’s group surrounding her.

“Now! The Overlord’s head is right here! If you wish to protect your land, then face me like real heroes! This is the start of a fight to annihilate the Overlord!”

Following those words, pillars of water rose up everywhere. From the water, now knee-deep, large tentacles burst out and attacked Ray and his friends.

“Ngh...!” Ray reacted instantly, jumping on Silver to rush to the sky, while the others evaded their attacks as well.

Thus, they weathered the tentacle ambush, and the only things damaged were the places where the four had been standing.

“First they blocked Chelsea’s and Max’s attacks, now they attack us... How are those creatures even fitting in that amount of water? It is not that deep yet!” Already in her weapon form, Nemesis couldn’t make sense of this absurd scene.

But Ray and Chelsea knew exactly what was going on.

“The water is just an entrance.”

“An entrance?”

“The surface of this water is a connection to her Embryo... A whole other world.”

G had already revealed her abilities in her content. Ray had also featured in multiple public videos since Franklin’s Game—G’s powers were probably at least as well-known as his, maybe even more so.

However, G was a case where knowing her powers wasn’t much help in defeating her.

“Heh heh heh. I’m happy you know me so well, but should you really be doing this? Should you waste time just talking? Don’t you think you’ll run out the clock?”

With her legs in R’lyeh’s waters, protected by countless tentacles, G cracked a grin.

Her ultimate skill was consuming the arena as they spoke, and if G wasn’t defeated within the next hour, it would disappear entirely.

“Yeah,” said Ray. “It’s not like you’ll stop if I just tell you to, huh? Just like your brother.”

“Yep. I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’m not nearly as reasonable as he is.”

“Well, that’s...a problem.” King of Light, F had created a misunderstanding between a couple that had almost destroyed a city—yet Overlord Invidia, G claimed to be an even greater nuisance.

Coming to understand that with absolute clarity, Ray let out a sigh.

“But, man... I’ve fought a bunch of Superiors for a bunch of different reasons, but this is the first time one of them has attacked me for my real estate.”

“This is a rental, though,” Nemesis interjected.

“Hey! Don’t forget that I’m also fighting to avenge my brother! It’s an emotional endeavor!” G interjected.

“Be honest.”

“You beat him, so if I beat you, it’ll prove that I’m better than him, right?”

“Do you two hate each other or something?”

“We get along great! But that is one thing—this is another!”

“That so?” Ray realized that it wasn’t just her motivation that was unique—she was nothing like the previous Superiors in terms of personality either.

The vibe here kinda reminds me of Mori-Mori, he thought, remembering the senior from his high school club. I feel like she and G would get along really well.

Regardless, he’d already decided what he would do. She was telling him to fight and defeat her, or else she would take what was his. He had only one response to that.

“Sure. Let’s do this,” said Ray, still mounted, as he brandished Nemesis. “Beating an Overlord... That sure is a quest, all right.”

Gathering his resolve, he declared that the quest had begun.

“This is good! Very good! I can see why my brother is so infatuated with you!” said G, her smile growing deeper at Ray’s words.

But then, she turned away from him...and looked at Juliet, making her eyes widen.

Juliet had backed away into the air, but couldn’t...didn’t do anything beyond that. She didn’t instantly register G as an enemy like Chelsea and Max did, nor had she gathered her resolve like Ray had when he’d realized G’s true intentions.

Juliet was the only one here who was still perplexed by the situation.

While Chelsea was the oldest and most proactive of them, and Max was used to situations like this thanks to Tenchi’s battle junkies, Juliet had never experienced anything similar.

This was nothing like the all-out battle against Chelsea she’d had in the recent event, or her disputes against Shion from before the Exodragon King Incident, when they were still hostile to each other.

A friend she’d just made was doing something bad to another one of her friends. Something like that had, thankfully, never happened to her before.

She’d never had enough friends for it to be possible.

And that was why Juliet was so perplexed she was frozen in place.

Though she’d only met G yesterday, they’d hit it off instantly, and albeit in a different way than with Ray and the others, G had quickly become a friend Juliet felt she could connect with. In this conflict, Juliet had no idea what to do.

She couldn’t rush to eliminate G like Chelsea or Max, nor ask her questions like Ray. She was stuck acting like a child her age, doing nothing but watching the situation, lost in confusion.

“Ngh...” As a friend, the reasonable thing to do here was to join Ray and stop G from committing this crime.

She knew this in her mind, but her confused heart kept her body from moving.

Thus, Juliet was unable to choose...

“Julie! You fight me too!”

“Huh?”

...and the one who gave her the push she needed was the enemy—G herself.

“You are this video’s guest performer! It might have happened by chance, but never mind that! I’ll be really happy if you show me what you got!” G reveled in causing chaos and committing terrible crimes, and yet her words seemed to contain no guilt or shame. She was self-indulgent, self-centered, and selfish.

Despite this, her words melted away Juliet’s reservations. There was no contradiction between her reasoning and her friend’s words—and combined, they gave her the encouragement she sorely needed.

“...Okay!”

And so, Juliet flapped her dark wings and brandished her blade.

Her friend had asked her to stop her crimes, so Juliet would do just that.

Thus, the four-person party prepared to face the Overlord.

There we go, G thought. Every good star has to know how to read the mood.

She looked at the four, all ready to fight, and smiled in satisfaction.

I guess Julie isn’t used to things like this. I feel like I did her wrong, but I also followed it up nicely, so I guess it’s all good... But wow, this just makes me think how insane Legendaria’s rankers are. When I went at that card gamer, she responded so fast it was like she knew the future.

Estimating Juliet by the standards of the rankers G knew had caused her to misjudge the girl’s mental fortitude. G reflected on that, but she now had the matchup she wanted.

I want an arena. I really, really do. It’d really help my clan and my friends at Desire...but that’s just one of my goals.

The second was defeating Ray Starling—and there was a third, which was far more important than the other two.

That was the reason she’d approached this situation like she had.

Instead of taking the arena like a sneaky thief, she’d gathered a cast of combatants before using her ult. She’d also explained everything so they could fight without confusion.

If someone present was confused and hesitant, she straightened them out with her words.

And if all this led to an exciting battle for her to record, nothing would please her more than that.

She wouldn’t tell them to just lose—how could she?

All out and beyond—a wild dance of supernatural powers. A gleaming light that could only be found in this world.

That was the blueprint of the future G desired.

“Now! Let’s fight! Let’s play!” Thus, G spoke—sang—to the world.

“Let’s go all out...and see what lies beyond!”

She faced the heroes who would challenge her and the viewers who would watch her—and let them all know that she was here.

◇◆◇

Such a curious coincidence...

At the same time, in the same city, but at different locations, Figaro and G—two Superiors—gave their own opponents exactly what they needed to give it their all.

Gideon was now a stage of two battles truly fought in earnest.