Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 22 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Sunken Labyrinth

Gideon, City of Duels, Eighth Arena

“Anyway, let’s get this started for real! Face me! Challenge me with all you got!” And with that, G fell backward into the dark water and began sinking into it—inside her own Embryo. But then...

“Blackwing Requiem!”

“You’re not gettin’ away! Bladescale Hail!”

Having resolved to fight, Juliet and Max attacked G, attempting to prevent her escape.

“Oh, what a barrage! So intense! Sadly...”

However, both Hræsvelgr’s black light projectiles and Ipetam’s blades...

“They can’t reach the bottom of the sea.”

...were deflected by the water and failed to touch her.

The water that covered G didn’t seem more than a few centimeters deep—and yet it completely blocked the attacks, letting her sink within.

Juliet’s eyes widened as Max shouted, “What’s going on?!”

“The Superior Embryo, R’lyeh,” said Chelsea. “It’s not immediately obvious, but under the water is an entirely different world.”

Type Invasion Labyrinth, “Encroaching Sea-Altar, R’lyeh.”

Standing next to Tsukuyo Fuso’s Kaguya, it was one of the few Embryos crowned with the “Invasion” type. Though Kaguya and R’lyeh targeted different things, they were similar in that they ate away at the world outside of their boundaries.

The water—in other words, its outer shell—acted as an entrance linking R’lyeh to the rest of the world and allowed it to consume things with its ult, but at its core, R’lyeh itself was an independent universe.

Even if the water looked shallow from the outside, there was no telling how deep of an abyss it really was.

Thus, attacks that couldn’t pass through its entrance would never strike R’lyeh.

“That water is an entrance that only allows living beings through. It totally rejects attacks and stuff,” said Chelsea.

“I thought Ipetam’s blades could be counted as part of its body, but I guess they aren’t.”

“What do we do, then?!” Max asked.

“Basically, if we wanna beat the Overlord, we gotta enter her dungeon.”

That was a classic RPG scenario. However, entering the enemy’s territory was still a scary thing to do, especially when the entrance was a pool of dark water protected by tentacles and there was no telling what lay beyond.

“I guess that makes her basically the same as ZZZ in that regard,” said Ray. “Still...!”

The man who’d already been dragged into an Overlord’s domain and overcome it didn’t back down a single step.

“I’m going in!” Ray dismounted Silver with no hesitation and led the charge.

Assuming that his steed’s air-walking abilities wouldn’t work underwater, he simply jumped in there by himself.

“Whoa! No hesitation at all!” said Chelsea.

“I’m going too!” said Juliet, jumping in right after Ray.

A moment later, the world completely changed.

“Huh...?!”

The second her whole body was submerged, she found herself very suddenly out of the water.

But she was no longer in the Eighth Arena where she had just been standing either.

She was now inside of a damp, dimly lit cave, filled with a fishy stench. There was a wall behind her, and the only way to go was a tunnel straight ahead.

“Where...?” Looking around, she saw that Ray was already there, and they were soon joined by Chelsea and Max.

“Huh?! We’re not actually underwater!” Max exclaimed. She’d equipped an accessory to help her breathe in the water, but this unexpected sight meant her caution had been all for naught.

“Ugh... I figured you’d choose this place, but man...” Meanwhile, Chelsea put her hand on her head as though she had just realized something unpleasant.

“What do you mean?”

“What does she mean? This is what she means!” G’s voice resounded from somewhere unseen, responding to Juliet’s question. G herself was nowhere in sight, and there were no visible speakers, but this place was basically the inside of her Embryo. Thus, it made perfect sense that she was able to talk to them like this. “My R’lyeh is unbelievably wide and deep! It contains many of the places I’ve helped myself to! It’s like an amusement park! Is that a good comparison?”

R’lyeh was an underwater otherworld. Most of its vast area was a sunken seabed, but there were some places that were quite different. Those were the locations that she had “helped herself” to—or, rather, had stolen from people. The dvergar mountain mines, the lionkin citadel, the hidden elf forest—they were all places that were important to powerful Legendarian tribes, and they were most of the reason she was a wanted criminal.

“I can choose where intruders end up. Though, while the ult is active, the rules prevent me from putting you too far away from me or the trapezohedron. Well, regardless, this time you’ll find both at the end of this dungeon! That’s your goal!”

Like the Legendarian locations inside R’lyeh, this was another place that she’d cut out and taken for herself, but this one was different in one respect. It didn’t have a previous owner.

“I had a really hard time in this dungeon. I’m sure it won’t be easy for you too!”

“Huh? What is this place, anyway?” Max asked. G chuckled a little before saying...

“Ever heard of the Depths of Jealousy?”

◇◆◇

Gideon, City of Duels, Central Arena

In one of the box seats of the Central Arena, overlooking the raging-hot final match, F kept one of his eyes closed in order to view the scenery of another world.

So she did end up choosing that place, he thought. While his open eye watched the battle between Figaro and Albert, he simultaneously observed his little sister’s own event.

Since only living beings and their possessions could pass through the surface of R’lyeh, F had asked her ahead of time to bring some of his Zodiacs inside. That had been his compensation for guiding Ray there.

R’lyeh’s ultimate cuts off the land itself. It can steal entire mountains and castles, but that dungeon took it an entire night, and it still only managed to absorb a part of it... I suppose Overlord dungeons are just that exceptional.

Overlord dungeons—challenging, trial-filled labyrinths that bestowed a Superior Job from the Overlord series upon anyone who cleared them.

G was now using this as the challenge for her current game.

Her previous games had ranged from direct confrontations to speed mining events where her victims were forced to mine up the trapezohedron within the time limit. But this time, she’d chosen something that was not quite so straightforward, but also not particularly unorthodox either—a traditional dungeon full of challenges that Ray and Juliet would have to overcome.

She’s very enthusiastic about this one, F thought. He knew his sister well enough to guess what she was thinking.

A dungeon with an Overlord waiting at the end didn’t just make for a good spectacle—it was also the place where G could use her combat style to the fullest. It was clear that she was very motivated for this one.

That was exactly why F was somewhat concerned, though.

Will they be able to clear the dungeon in time? he wondered.

Because Overlord dungeons granted a Superior Job while ignoring prior jobs and talents, they were all extremely difficult to clear. The Depths of Jealousy dungeon that had chosen the current Overlord Invidia was no exception. Though she’d only cut away a part of it, making the dungeon far more compact, F still wondered if they could make it through within the time limit.

I suppose I will just have to wait and see. Despite his concern for his own research and his sister’s event, F continued simply watching things unfold.

◇◆◇

Paladin, Ray Starling

“Now—you have fifty-eight minutes left! Hurry up! Do your best!” Urged on by the dungeon boss herself, we started running. There were some things that didn’t quite make sense, but we didn’t have the time to hesitate and think about it.

The four of us were now rushing through a damp, natural-looking cave.

“Maaan,” said Chelsea. “We talked about goin’ to the Tomb Labyrinth to help Maxie farm up some money, but I can’t say I expected to go to the Depths of Jealousy first.”

“Now’s not the time to say shit like that! Hell, I’m the one who borrowed the key, so this is my fault too! If she takes the arena, then forget about payin’ him back! There’s no way I could make up for that!”

“Same here...” The spare key I’d given to Max had let Overlord Invidia enter the arena, and Juliet was the one who’d brought her there. That meant they both seemed to feel pretty guilty about all this.

“Hey, don’t let it bother you,” I said. “She probably could’ve used her ult from outside the arena just as well. I do appreciate the help though.”

“R-Right!” Juliet said.

“Leave it to me! I’ll slice up her and her tentacles!” Max added.

As we talked, the cave seemed to change a little, and we arrived at a fork in the path.

“Left or right, huh? Pretty standard,” said Chelsea.

“Hey! You two saw this place in her videos, right? Doncha know the right path?” Max asked.

“The problem with that is...this place’s structure changes with time.” I said.

“I saw about three videos, but one of them had a guy go ‘Hey! I saw this place on G’s channel once!’ and then run straight into a trap, so...” Chelsea said.

“A reply truly scribed in crimson... (That makes me think of the Red Pen Teacher...)”

Shu had once told me that despite them both being in the category of “created dungeons,” Overlord dungeons like the Depths of Jealousy were a good bit different from the Tomb Labyrinth.

Apparently, the Tomb Labyrinth was the newest of these dungeons, created shortly after the time of the first Azurite, while the others had existed since before the pre-ancient civilization. The Tomb Labyrinth was deeper and housed stronger monsters, but the Overlord dungeons came out ahead in terms of troublesome gimmicks and tricks.

Incidentally, Shu had actually destroyed an Overlord dungeon while fighting The Earth.

“Wait, you’re tellin’ me you can die by just pickin’ the wrong path?!”

“Yes,” Chelsea and I instantly replied in perfect unison.

This place really was just that much of a pain.

“Then again, we can’t just stand still here,” I said. “I’m gonna keep going.”

“Huh?”

I took the left path and took a step forward. “Nemesis?”

“Certainly.” Understanding what I was planning, Nemesis prepared herself.

And when I was about three metels into the passage, my face was instantly and fully obscured.

A blue-purple mist had burst out from every direction, completely swallowing me up. Through the air I breathed and even through contact with my skin, the mist inflicted countless debuffs on me.

“I see... These must be the debuffs of these Depths...”

The Depths of Jealousy was an Overlord dungeon specialized in debuffs.

It was especially rife with poisons, bindings, and curses. That single spray had given me a whole seven status effects: Poison, which drained my HP; Magic Drain, which sapped my MP over time; Soul Drain, which caused me to lose SP; Weakness that halved my stats; and finally Lethargy, Paralysis, and Frailty which further reduced my STR, AGI, and END respectively.

There were so many debuffs that conventional items and skills wouldn’t be enough to deal with them, so most people would be forced to fight the monsters here while greatly weakened. That could easily kill anyone who was unprepared, and that made this dungeon really difficult—especially for tians, who only had one life.

Apparently, G had become the current Overlord Invidia by taking shelter in her otherworld, R’lyeh. ZZZ had probably become Overlord Acedia by using his dream invulnerability, so they were kinda similar in that regard.

Anyway... I’d just confirmed what we were dealing with.

“That was the wrong path. Past the trap, it’s a dead end.”

“Hey! Are you okay?! You look way too calm for getting all those crazy debuffs!” Max shouted, staring at me as I stood painted blue-purple by the mist. She had nothing to worry about, though.

“If anything, I’m even better than before,” I said as I showed her Nemesis.

“Truly! It has been long since this form was useful!”

She was currently in her Flag Halberd form.

Indeed, if we were dealing with debuffs, nothing was more effective than her second form’s “Like a Flag Flying the Reversal.” This might’ve not worked in the original Overlord dungeon, but this whole area was now a part of an Embryo—in other words, an enemy. That meant that Reversal could function against these debuffs. And since these status effects weren’t from a Superior Embryo fully focused on debuffs like Miss Eldritch’s Kaguya, I could reverse them into buffs without a problem.

Because of that, my matchup with this dungeon was actually pretty good.

“Though, it hit us with over twice the amount of debuffs as Hellish Miasma right from the start,” said Nemesis. “That feels unfair—perhaps even illegal.”

“No it isn’t!” G insisted. She must’ve still been observing us. “That’s just how the Depths of Jealousy works! Overlord dungeons become way harder the more people enter them! With four of you here, the dungeon will be going all out right from the start!”

Right. I’d almost forgotten that was a thing they did.

I feel like Figaro could totally get an open Overlord job, though, I thought.

“Anyway, I’m the right person for this. I’ll be our canary,” I said as I took the lead and advanced.

“Huh. A canary? Aren’t you supposed to be a Starling? How did you mix those up?”

Ignoring G’s comment, I considered that she had probably anticipated this. Her voice didn’t seem to contain even a hint of surprise that I’d used her debuff traps against her.

That could mean that she had worse traps prepared.

We gotta stay cautio— 

“Ngh...?!”

“Ray?!” Juliet cried.

“Ooof... A spiked ball just jumped from the ground and went straight for his crotch... Scary stuff,” Chelsea commented.

G, you bitch! Couldn’t you set up a more normal trap?! I’ve got pain turned off, but that almost felt like it’d been switched back on!

“Ray, are you okay...?” Juliet asked.

“I-I am. My gear’s fine, and I’ll heal the damage pretty quickly with the reversed Poison...”

It didn’t hurt, but I did feel weird, like my insides had been flipped upside down...

“So there’s physical traps too, huh? Not just debuffs,” said Max.

“Well... Actually, these spikes are covered in poison,” said Chelsea as she grabbed the spiked ball.

I would’ve liked her to stop touching it, in that case.

“Actually, while I kinda get the poison mist, I’m not sure if the Depths of Jealousy is supposed to generate traps like this spikey thing. It’s just not what you’d expect from a place that looks like a natural cave,” said Chelsea, considering the trap that had attacked me.

“You’re right! That one is different. Some of the traps here were gifts from our sub-leader.”

G gave this answer like it was nothing, but...

“Who the hell gifts people traps?! And traps this messed up, at that?! It was so bad it reminded me of Mori-Mori from high school!”

“Who? That just makes me curious,” said Chelsea.

“She was a senior who challenged people to games and set traps for them, only to have them all blow up in her face!”

“The fact that you refer to her using such an odd nickname makes it clear what kind of treatment she gets...” said Nemesis.

Yeah... Honestly, she was even more of a joke than Miss Eldritch. She deserves the nickname, I thought. This trap, though... No way, right?

Following that, I was subjected to several more traps, but Reversal’s buffs and healing over time allowed me to withstand them all as we brute-forced our way through the passage.

And beyond it, the cave suddenly ended.

The oppressive ceiling and walls disappeared, revealing a large, open space. Within the dome-shaped area, there was a straight bridge extending from the passage we’d come from all the way to the wall on the other side. I could see an exit over there.

There was something wrong with this space, though—right below the bridge, there was water with the same blue-purple color as the mist from earlier.

Needless to say, falling off was probably an awful idea.

Also...

“Places like this always have some kinda surprise, don’t they?” said Chelsea, saying exactly what I was thinking.

“Well, nine out of ten RPGs would either put an ambush here or make the bridge collapse,” I said with a nod as I looked around.

I didn’t see anything suspicious on the walls or ceiling, but the water was so dark.

“We should fly.” With one person joining me on Silver and Juliet carrying another, all of us could fly past here. If we were in the air, the bridge collapsing wouldn’t be a problem, and it’d be easier to deal with anything that came out of the water.

With that in mind, I prepared to summon Silver when...

“Ah. Hold on a sec.”

“Chelsea? What’s wrong?”

“I’m just guessin’, but... Yah!” She took a Gem out of her Inventory and threw it at the empty space.

A moment later, there was an explosion that painted the walls and water in an orange glow.

The three of us were speechless.

“Ah, I knew it,” said Chelsea. “Air mines—and they’re even camouflaged. That military nerd from my old country used those a lot...”

I couldn’t see a thing, but it looked like there was a trap that Chelsea had spotted. She herself was a bit of a mine expert, so maybe it wasn’t that surprising that she’d figured out something we hadn’t...

G expressed no chagrin about this, though. Instead, she actually clapped and praised Chelsea. “Wow! You saw right through it! You’re pretty good too, Chel! By the way, the mines will just keep coming back, so if you try to destroy them all, you’ll just run out of time.”

“That so?” I said.

“Also, the explosions act as a signal.”

A moment later, something broke the surface of the dark water and leaped onto the bridge to block our path.

“GEH GEH GEH!”

“Wha?! The hell are these?!” The things that had emerged from the water, apparently immune to its poisonous properties, were dozens of monsters that looked like mermen.

“Monsters of the Depths of Jealousy...!”

“Bzzt! Wrong! When I absorbed this dungeon into R’lyeh, I didn’t get its monsters or monster-producing mechanisms. They’re just like those air mines—I procured and spread them here! They’re not even tamed, but this is their territory, so they’ll attack any intruders!”

G graciously told us about the mermen.

I was wondering why she was going out of her way to tell us so many things, but it could be that she wasn’t doing it for our benefit, but for the viewers who would watch all of this once she turned it into a video.

Additionally, these mermen were armed with harpoons and the name “APM” was visible above their heads. It did look like they were immune to the poison, so...maybe that stood for “Anti Poison Merman?”

“Hey...” said Nemesis. “Is it just me, or is that naming scheme somewhat familiar?”

Oh, come on! There’s no way that guy could be involved in...

“ALSO! Since this is the halfway point, I’ve placed a boss here!”

After G said that, the water’s surface rippled, and there was a splash even larger than the one that the mermen had made.

“E a H e A h e a H E a h E A H!”

And that was the entrance of a freakish monstrosity that looked like a cross between an octopus and a humanoid giant.

“What is that gargantuan thing...?!” said Nemesis.

“That’s gotta be the main body of the tentacles that attacked us back at the arena!”

The creature was massive, with a size matching even the Afforest King Golem we’d fought some time ago.

This was a pretty large space, yet its octopus-like head almost brushed the ceiling.

The air mines were reacting to it and blowing up, but it didn’t even flinch. Any damage they did rapidly closed. Its grandeur and size made for a sight that could definitely drive someone past the boundaries of sanity.

“Hmm?!”

But there was something that drew my attention more than anything else about it—something above its head.

“Hold on! G! I got a question!”

“What is it? What do you wanna ask?”

“It’s about the name of this octopus thing!” I said as I pointed above its head—at the name hanging up there. I’d already seen the tentacles, but its name was a different—and way bigger—problem.

“Huh?” That was when the girls noticed it too, and their eyes went wide.

I couldn’t blame them. After all...

“This is just a monster, not an Embryo, right?! Why is it named like that?!”

The letters above the octopus giant’s head said “Cthulhu.” This thing was the Great Old One from the Cthulhu Mythos—not just in appearance, but even in name.

“This world’s got Cthulhu as a goddamn monster?!”

“I feel like a world with an ancient evil in it would be fated for destruction...” Nemesis said.

Well, Azurite’s ancestor did beat something literally called “The Evil,” so that part is real, at least.

“No,” said G. “Cthulhu doesn’t exist in this world—at least not in the wild. This one’s not natural.”

“Not natural... You mean...?!” Her words made a certain person come to mind.

“Yes. I had him made special for me. There’s someone in Dryfe who creates custom monsters for you. His name’s Franklin... Oh, wait, it looks like you already know each other!”

“THAT LAB COAT SHITHEAD!” Hearing the name, I found myself raising my voice. I sure as hell didn’t expect my sworn enemy’s name to show up here!

“I mean, my Embryo is R’lyeh, and R’lyeh has gotta have Cthulhu, right? I brought in some materials and had Franklin make him for me. I even used an MVP reward.”

Right. Franklin had used Dragon King mats to create a monster that could use the Dragon King Aura. Knowing that, it didn’t seem out of the question that could probably make something like this too.

The fact that it was made using an MVP reward gave me a bad feeling about this, though.

“Oh, and I got the APMs at a discount for buying them in bulk. He said he didn’t have much use for aquatic monster materials, so he sold them to me for cheap. I bought a lot!”

“You got those things because they were on sale?!”

What kind of Overlord army is this?!

“Hmm. I like that reaction. You’re a fun one, Unbreakable. I can see why you went viral so many times.”

“Is that what you’re impressed by...?” said Juliet.

“Who gives a damn who made these and where?! If we can’t get past the mines in the air, that means we can’t get through if we don’t beat that octopus and the mermen!”

“Ah! Right! Sorry, Max! This all just caught me off guard!” I remembered we didn’t have time for this nonsense—we had to clear the dungeon.

G had said this was the halfway point, and we had about forty minutes left. It seemed like we were making good progress, but considering we still had to overcome this mid-boss and then G herself, we had no time to waste.

“Corpse-Eating Bird—Hræsvelgr!” Right as I finished my thought, Juliet besides me used her ult, starting the battle with a bang.

“GEH!”

“E e e a A a h H H!” The sideways tornado released from Juliet’s hands swept away the group of mermen on the bridge while also badly damaging Cthulhu’s upper body.

“Julie?! Wow, you act fast!” G exclaimed. Having her bargain finds... I mean, the mermen wiped out like that might’ve stung a bit.

“Well, Julie’s like this in duels too. She’s pretty proactive when she’s locked in,” said Chelsea.

“The fact that the bridge is still standing tells me that she controlled it properly too...” Nemesis added.

Yeah, when a bunch of enemies group up and block the path, few things are better than a wide-scale ult, I thought.

“Now...!” Juliet called.

“All right!” Urged on by Juliet, we ran on the bridge, now free of mermen.

“E a A h h H...” Though Hræsvelgr had gone straight to Cthulhu’s face, he wasn’t just still alive—he was quickly regenerating. It reminded me of the RSK I’d fought during Franklin’s Game, and I could really tell this Cthulhu was another one of his creations.

Regardless, he was still recovering, so he was completely immobile. Even if he fully healed, that large body would work against him, and he wouldn’t be able to chase us into the passage. Not even his arm would fit—the best he could do was a tentacle or a finger.

That meant that if we made it out of this space, we could just leave Cthulhu behind.

With that in mind, we kept running, and we soon passed the middle of the bridge.

“E a h... E a h... E a h.” Still recovering, Cthulhu was holding his head with his left hand.

However, the right one was being extended toward us.

He wasn’t trying to grab us, just reaching out his hand—and then it suddenly began to shine.

My eyes widened.

“E a h E A h e A H e a h E a H e a h E A H H H!” Letting out a screech in a voice both maddened and maddening, Cthulhu pointed his finger at us.

“Def— I mean, DODGE!”

As I alerted the girls, Cthulhu’s fingers released a blue-purple beam.

The light was eroding and rotting away everything in its path. It was ruination made manifest.

We dodged just in time to avoid it, but the air it passed through was blackened, the bridge melted away, and even the walls collapsed.

“This is...!”

“It’s like Gardranda’s Purgatorial Flames: Zero...!” That was the terrifying power that had melted away Logan’s Legendary Gigaknight. The destruction before me was more than enough to remind me of that.

“That’s Cthulhu’s Gandr—the Finger of Ruination! Whaddya think?! Do you like it?!” While we were overcome by terror, G proudly explained what just happened.

“Is that a skill from the MVP reward you used on him?”

“Yeah! It was originally a Legendary UBM that lived here in the Depths of Jealousy! He absorbs debuff particles, compresses them, and fires them as a beam! In fact, he’s charging another one right now!”

So instead of negating the debuff-filled environment, he accumulated them and used them as a weapon. That explained why he was keeping his lower half in the poisonous water.

“Hm...” I couldn’t expect to be able to Reverse that. Letting it hit me was a bad idea.

The worst part was that we couldn’t just skip past it now.

From what I could see, the passage on the other side was a long, straight line that went on for quite a while. If Cthulhu managed to get even a finger into the tunnel and fire while we were there, it would hit us for sure.

“I guess we actually gotta beat this thing, huh?” I said.

“Yep! I won’t let you skip the mid-boss! This isn’t a speedrun!”

“Says the one who gave us a harsh time limit...”

“That is one thing! This is another! Oh! And here’s a second helping of these guys!”

Following her words, the water rippled again, and dozens of APMs jumped onto the bridge again.

How many of these did that lab coat freak sell her?! “Ngh! Let’s deal with the mermen and take out Cthulhu!”

Chelsea was quick to respond. “Okay! The harpoons look poisoned, so since you can handle debuffs, you go to the front! Maxie and Julie, use Ipetam and your magic to reduce their numbers from a distance! Maxie, you and I will fight Cthulhu! Julie, back us up if you find an opening to hit him hard!”

“Roger that!” we all said in unison.

“Gheow!” called Ipetam. Chelsea had more experience in group battles than anyone else here, so we flew into action according to her strategy.

“GEH GEH GEH!” Despite the previous group of mermen being unceremoniously wiped out, the new ones didn’t seem to show any fear. They must’ve been made for combat, just like Franklin’s suicide series.

Holding debuff-imbued spears in their webbed hands, they charged at us.

“No way you’ll hit me!”

However, none of their attacks could land. The debuffs that halved and reduced my stats had all been reversed into buffs. My multiplied AGI let me read all their moves and slice the mermen apart with my Flag Halberd.

Even more of them then tried to attack me from a blind spot, but Ipetam provided cover, firing blades into their foreheads.

“Blackwing Requiem!”

As their movements started to slow, Juliet’s black light projectiles overwhelmed and devastated them.

“Let’s do this!” Max called out.

“All right! I’ll give us some footing! C’mon, Skyanchor!” Chelsea held up an Inventory and released an entire ship.

It was the vessel that used to be the Golden Pirates’ base, and a force to be reckoned with in Granvaloa’s duels.

The antiair sailing ship, Skyanchor, landed on the blue water.

“She’s coated, so she can handle the poison for a while!” said Chelsea. “But maintenance could be a pain, so let’s settle this quick!”

“Hell, if we waste too much time, tentacle-face here is gonna charge up and blast us along with the entire ship!”

“Can’t say I’d like that!”

Skyanchor began moving as soon as they landed.

Riding the current created by Poseidon, they approached Cthulhu.

“FIRE!” At Chelsea’s order, the armaments installed on the ship began bombarding the monster. She herself contributed with Gems, showering the still-regenerating Cthulhu with explosions.

“E e A a a A a A A H H H!” He released a voice of anguish, but his tough body was far from fatally wounded. As though to prove that point, he extended his arms—not to fire a beam this time, but to attack with his tentacles.

They wrapped around the ship, creating a scene that was straight out of a classic high seas fantasy story.

“Ugh, it’s been a while since somethin’ like this happened, but it’s still as gross as ever! Maxie!”

“On it!” Responding to Chelsea, Max grasped her katana and ran onto the deck. Her eyes were fixed on a tentacle that seemed far too thick for a blade like hers to slice through.

“Heh! This will be the perfect test.”

Despite all of that, Max’s face was in a confident grin.

She then activated the Swordmaster job’s Laser Blade skill and took a swing.

Cthulhu didn’t react to it whatsoever, focusing instead on attacking the ship.

That was understandable. Back at the arena, Max had charged at Overlord Invidia, but her blade had been deflected by these same tentacles—it hadn’t been effective whatsoever. It wasn’t clear just how intelligent Cthulhu was, but it would’ve been reasonable for him to assume there wasn’t anything to worry about.

However, the situation now was completely different than before.

This was proven when Max’s attack reached the tentacle several times her own size and sliced clean through it.

“E E A A H H?!” Cthulhu was shocked by this, but who could blame him? Max’s blade had dealt far more damage than its appearance alone would have suggested.

“Ha...! So it’s good even when shit gets real!”

In her hands, Max held one of Tenchi’s Hundred Famed blades—Sekiun.

Its skill was called Ungo-Musho—“Bladecloud Convergence”—and its effect was devastatingly simple.

It took the attack power of all the blades currently being used by the wielder and focused all of it into itself.

That was rather meaningless in most cases. Even if used while dual-wielding, it didn’t result in much of an increase due to Sekiun’s low base attack power, so it was more effective to just wield two katanas of equal power instead.

Jobs in the gladiator grouping could equip more weapons, and King of Asuras had the Asuran Battle-Mounts skill that added floating weapon slots, so they might’ve been able make better use of it.

But here stood an exception among exceptions—a duelist who used far more blades than King of Asuras and the Over Gladiator.

She was...

“I’ll turn ya into sashimi, ya damn octopus!”

“Gheow!”

...Great Genocide Max, the twenty-fourth in Altar’s duel rankings and the Master of Bladeswarm Beast, Ipetam.

Max was using a hundred blades, already released by Ipetam, and their metallic shine was now reflected by Sekiun.

Thus, just one of her swings was now a hundred times more powerful than they had been before.

And despite having just acquired it today, she was using it very effectively.

Max was sending Ipetam’s hundred blades at the APMs attacking me, and in between she was slicing at Cthulhu’s tentacles.

The swarming blades and the focusing blade—Max could turn the Bladecloud Convergence skill on and off just by thinking it, and so she switched attack power between the hundred and the one as she both repelled the APMs around me and fought Cthulhu on the ship.

Max was a powerful Master who’d once made it to the top of Tenchi’s infamously stacked duel rankings. She was far stronger than her current position suggested.

“E e A h h...! E a h e A H e A h...!” Cthulhu was tough enough to deflect Chelsea’s and Max’s attacks, possessed regeneration so powerful you could see it happening in real time, and even had a skill that let him turn debuffs into a devastating offensive weapon. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was actually a match for Legendary UBMs.

However, he could still take damage that surpassed his toughness, and Chelsea and Max were overwhelming him to the point that his regeneration couldn’t keep up.

Cthulhu swung his tentacles in rage, but Max sliced them off so they couldn’t do any damage, and Chelsea detonated so many Gems around him at once that he lost his footing.

I’d once said that not even Superiors could create perfectly invincible monsters, and that was true here, as well. Chelsea could use her optimal combat style here, while Max had just obtained an incredible new power—and together, they were overwhelming Cthulhu.

“E e E a a A h h h H H H!”

And yet, he still moved.

Was it because of the Overlord’s orders? Or was it the pride of a creature bearing the name of the Great Old One? Regardless, Cthulhu pointed a finger at Skyanchor, fully intent on destroying all of his enemies.

But then, there was a break in the flowing horde of mermen, letting Juliet and I leap into action.

I hopped on Silver, Juliet flapped her wings, and the both of us flew forward, keeping low to avoid the air mines.

“Juliet! You get Max!”

“Ah...! Okay!” Juliet understood what I was planning and sped toward the ship.

I, on the other hand, stopped right between the ship and Cthulhu.

“You realize this is a gamble, don’t you?!” said Nemesis.

“The usual, then!”

“Well, I suppose...! Form shift—Black Shield!”

Right as the menacing light on the monster’s extended finger grew stronger, Nemesis switched from the Flag Halberd to her shield form.

With Reversal gone, I was now afflicted with a bunch of debuffs—but I held on to Silver and tried to bear it.

And then...

“E e E a a A a A A A A A A A A H H H H H H!”

“Counter Absorption!”

...a blue-purple light crashed into my barrier of light.

“Ngh...!” The beam attack was so concentrated it caused physical destruction.

Weathering the seven debuffs, I gave my all to hold on to Nemesis and the reins.

The beam felt like it was never-ending. The barrier of light cracked, on the verge of shattering, and a blue-purple aura was leaking through, touching the surface of the Black Shield. My defense would be broken in just a few more seconds.

“...We win.”

However, I knew what would happen next.

I saw Max, holding on to Juliet’s hand as she flew toward Cthulhu.

“Hyakujin Itto!” With that shout, meaning “Hundred Blades in One,” Max swung the single blade empowered by hundred and split Cthulhu in half at the torso.

“E a h...?!” With a pained sound, the monster’s top half fell into the blue water.

Cthulhu still tried to move for a moment, but eventually he disappeared, flickering out of existence as though flowing back into something that lay elsewhere.

“It’s over.” Switching to the Flag Halberd, I let out a sigh.

Cthulhu was probably set to return to a Jewel when he took too much damage. It looked like not even G wanted to lose a monster that she had used an MVP reward on.

Regardless, the threat blocking our path was now gone.

We also had less than half an hour left. We had to hurry and...

“Huh?! They...!”

“GEH GEH GEH!”

We’d beaten the mid-boss here. However, these mobs—the APMs—were still swarming the bridge.

“They’re still coming?! Just how many of them are there?!”

“Franklin said he wanted a bunch of metal from my mines, so I got a very good deal on these,” said G. “There’s a whole lot more.”

Metal, huh? He’ll probably use that for monsters or Magingears, I thought. But man, my sworn enemy and current enemy really struck a win-win deal, huh...

“I fear that whatever he makes will be used against us,” said Nemesis. She was probably right, but we had to focus on what was in front of us.

We could just rush forward, but getting stabbed in the back would be pretty bad too.

“All right! Maxie and I will hold them off! You two go on ahead!”

As I thought about what we had to do next, Chelsea raised her voice.

“I’m doin’ this too...?! Well, fine!”

“Chelsea...?”

“G’s probably after Ray. She’d probably do somethin’ funny again if he doesn’t go. Also... You wanna face her yourself, doncha, Julie?”

“Yeah!” Juliet said with a nod.

“Then that’s how we’re gonna split! We’ll catch up once we’re done here, so leave this to us and go!”

“Hey! Stop settin’ death flags for us...!” said Max as she cut down some mermen and pointed Sekiun at the passage. “Hurry up and go!”

“...Thanks,” I said. “We’ll leave this to you!”

“We’re off...!”

Thus, Juliet and I turned our backs to them and advanced deeper into the Depths of Jealousy, where the Overlord was waiting for us.