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“Still, though, it’s one crazy thing after another…losing my memories, taking forever to wake up. I’m sorry!”
“It’s not like everything is your fault. You don’t have to apologize, Subaru.”
“Really? It’s okay? You don’t all hate me, now?”
“What are you so scared of? It’s fine, I suppose. Betty won’t hate you. If anything, I l-l-l-…”
Holding his hand and running alongside him, Beatrice tried to muster some words of encouragement.
“I got it, I got it. It’s okay, I feel better already. I love you, too.” Subaru simply nodded.
Honestly, it was more embarrassing to have that last part put into words. It was a lot easier for him to say stuff like that than to have someone say it to him. He didn’t doubt his own feelings, after all.
“Where is Shaula?!”
“Yes, we’re almost…there!”
In the lead, Julius pointed to a side path hidden in the stone wall. Passing through the deviously camouflaged passage, they entered a hidden space.
“ ”
The moment they left the tower, they were met by a fierce sandy wind and heard a series of unfamiliar sounds—almost like the sound of countless panes of glass shattering.
The source of it was…
“Urrryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryaryarya!!!”
They were on a balcony set into the side of the tower.
From a height of hundreds of feet above the ground, the stylish beauty with black, glossy braided hair was dancing around in the dry breeze.
Subaru covered his face against the wind and shouted.
“Shaula!”
“Ah! You came, Master?! I’m so glad! Come to see my big performance? Or more like an office visit! It’s bring Master to work day, so please enjoy!”
Shaula responded with a cheerful voice that was entirely at odds with the situation.
What she did next was almost unbelievable—a string of cannons appeared in the sky along the full width of the balcony. Strictly speaking, they weren’t cannons but white magic circles floating in the air. But that didn’t change their impression, and it was clear from the steep angle that they were aimed at the ground.
And then…
“—Infinite Hell’s Snipe!”
“What the hell?! That’s so cool!”
The moment she shouted her attack, the white cannons flashed.
Drowning out Subaru’s dumb comment, the sound of glass shattering filled the sky above the sands. Simultaneously, the cannons lost their form, unraveling and melting away.
That was the source of the sound that had greeted them earlier. And the goal of the orchestra of magic circles she was conducting was one thing—white flashes that swept the ground below.
The moment the beams made contact with the sands, the ground was consumed by massive explosions. The demon beasts running furiously across the sands were no safer, splattering blood and flesh everywhere as they exploded, too.
The dry sands greedily soaked up the fresh blood while other demon beasts trampled over the corpses. Her bombardment cut down more than a hundred of the charging demon beasts.
But even Shaula’s magic of mass destruction was just a drop in the bucket compared to the sheer number of monsters surrounding the tower like a swarm of ants.
That was just how many demon beasts had gathered from across the desert.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa…I don’t really want to hear it, but…”
“Only one section of the tower’s surroundings is visible from this vantage point. However, you may safely assume the same scene is occurring at all points around the tower, yes.”
“You don’t know that. What if this side of the tower’s the only one with sugar water poured all over it?”
“If it is really that stupid of a reason, Betty will pulverize whoever is responsible.”
There was an unending rumble that came from the writhing black mass down below. Subaru felt a little woozy at realizing that it was happening even where he couldn’t see. And as a digression, he really wanted to register a complaint about the visuals of the demon beasts he could see in the distance.
They’re all too grotesque and weird and incomprehensible. God’s design skills are definitely a C– at best.
“How was it, Master! Did you see my performance?! Also, the nice view I gave you from behind? What did you think?!”
“You’re not discouraged at all, even in a situation like this. That’s crazy. I’m genuinely impressed! Also, nice figure! And I don’t have the composure to take a close look, so just focus on the fighting!”
“Okay, Google! Deeefense! Oooffense!”
He had to give it up for her insane mental fortitude. He only had half-assed comments for her, which made him feel guilty as he watched her fight so bravely.
I want to at least give her a little reward once this is all over, but…
“Getting out of this is priority number one…! Meili!”
“You don’t have to shout.” Meili frowned and covered her ears as she looked at the ground. “But…”
“But?! But what?! ‘But do you mind if all of the demon beasts get killed?’ Yeah, that’s fine. In fact, please do kill them all!”
“Don’t go expecting the impossible. Even I can’t control this many beasties.”
Ignoring Subaru’s irrational hope, she braced her adorable young face. And licked her peach lips almost coquettishly.
“—I’ll just have to use the ones I prepared and let them fight.”
“ Sssshh!”
Meili pointed her hand at the ground as an enormous spout of sand shot upward.
They were far away, so even large demon beasts looked tiny, but the shape of what burst from the ground there was still clearly visible. It was gigantic. A massive worm, probably fifty to a hundred feet long, was crushing nearby demon beasts with its massive body.
“That’s…” Subaru gasped.
“I tamed it in advance on the off chance something like this happened. It was supposed to be for sneaking away, but I messed up that.” Meili stuck out her tongue.
As it happened, Subaru’s surprise wasn’t so much from the worm, but from the fact that he recognized it. It was the demon beast he had encountered when he tried to flee from the tower.
Thinking back on it, he had run into trouble when it leaped out of the ground, too. The image of it being blown away by a white light afterward was also in the corner of his mind.
So that worm was Meili. And the light was Shaula?
He was a little slow to pick up on it, between the shock and awe, but as Meili acted tough, Subaru reached out a hand and roughly tousled her hair while she couldn’t defend herself.
“Wah, ah, stop it!”
“I don’t know if it’s your nature or just a habit, but you don’t have to put up an act. I don’t believe you were planning to leave us behind and run.”
“Mrgh, how can you say that?”
“Because I was you and you were me. Everyone’s different and everyone’s special.”
“Huh?”
Meili looked completely lost, and Subaru had no intention of explaining.
At a fundamental level, Subaru could see through her deceit. Because he had seen her memories as if they were his own, he was the person who knew her best in this world.
Still resting his hand on her head, Subaru scrutinized the situation they were in this time. He finally learned why the demon beasts had been pouring into the tower in the last loop. There had probably been a stampede just like this, and the reason Julius had been fighting the centaurs running wild on the lower floor was because Shaula couldn’t handle them all.
That wouldn’t happen this time, because…
“Captain Meili was missing due to an unforeseen accident last time, but she’s here now! Which means…”
—It was possible to have Julius deal with a different problem.
Realizing that, Subaru understood that they would need to put the right people in the right places if they had any hope of dealing with all the problems cropping up right now.
—The stampede of demon beasts blotting out the desert.
—The Archbishops of Gluttony coming to attack the tower.
—The giant, ferocious scorpion wandering around the tower like it owned the place.
—The enormous dark shadow swallowing the tower and the desert around it.
—And Reid Astrea, who would start roaming freely around the tower.
“On our side, we’ve got me and Beatrice, Emilia-chan and Ram. Meili and Shaula, and Echidna and Julius…” Subaru started going through their active roster.
“Are you going to include the two land dragons and the healing spirit in the green room?” Echidna asked.
Nodding, Subaru mentally added Patlash and the big ground dragon down below to the list as well.
She’s right. This is no time to be picky. I need to play every card we have and kick this crafty brain into high gear to figure out how we can win.
I’d like to start with getting a handle on where everyone currently is…
“—Wait, Emilia-chan and Ram just went to the green room to check on Rem and Patlash, right?”
Subaru’s voice went hoarse when he realized they still hadn’t shown up.
The green room was on the fourth floor, the same floor that they were on. It was possible they didn’t know where this place was and were just wandering the tower, but…
“In this situation, if they merely didn’t know our location, Ms. Ram would find a way. Or else Lady Emilia would break down the wall herself.”
“Ram aside, I wonder a little bit about what kind of person you think Emilia-chan is. There’s no way those cute little arms can break through a wall. And even if she could, she doesn’t have that sort of personality…right?”
“Your loss of confidence at the end speaks volumes. But Betty has a bad feeling, too.”
“—! Shaula! Meili! Can we leave this place to you?!”
With Julius and Beatrice agreeing with his concerns, Subaru shouted to Shaula and Meili. Shaula gave a thumbs-up while setting up more magic artillery, while Meili brushed her braided hair aside and puffed her chest out.
“Leave this place to me and go on ahead!”
“I’ll take care of this much somehow. I won’t go easy on you if you don’t find them safe and sound.”
Shaula dropped the number one line everyone wanted to say at least once, and Meili was more than reassuring, so Subaru and the others raced off to find their missing friends.
Ducking under the wall, they burst back into the passage—
“Meili and Shaula are holding the line for us, but is there any chance of the demon beasts getting into the tower?”
“It’s not impossible. The underground labyrinth we fell into…I guess you don’t remember. It’s possible to get into the tower from there. But, thanks to Meili…”
“You think the worm rampaging might’ve collapsed the underground passages?”
“Given the number of branching paths, I don’t think they can handle that sort of stress.”
Subaru clenched his fist to celebrate a small victory. Meili’s assistance was curbing the stampede in more than one way. If they could keep the monsters from getting in from above and below, that meant their defense was rock solid. Now that the swarm of demon beasts had been handled, there were only four more major problems…
“Barusu!”
“—! Ram?!”
As they were running toward the green room, a voice called out from down the hall. As they looked up, a black shadow rushed furiously toward the four of them—Patlash.
Ram was holding on to the intelligent land dragon’s back while carrying the sleeping Rem tightly in her arms.
“Ram! And Patlash and Rem! Are you guys all right?!”
“Yes, somehow. We had a terrible time while you were napping. How could you sleep through everything? Stand up at once.”
“I’m sorry! I don’t need to hear it from both of you! And look, I’m standing up! Actually, I’m running!”
Ram dismounted, leaving Rem in the saddle while giving Subaru a verbal lashing. Coincidentally, it was so similar to how Rem had torn into him in the dream, he couldn’t help the sentimental thought that they really were alike in more ways than just appearance.
“—? Your odd attitude is bothering me, but this isn’t the time.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot I want to tell you, too. Wasn’t—?” Subaru started to ask about Emilia, but Ram sharply interrupted him.
“Down the passage, we encountered an opponent calling himself the Archbishop of Gluttony.”
Daunted by the force of her words, Subaru, Beatrice, and Julius all fell silent. By process of elimination, Echidna was the one to respond, as she was the least shaken.
“The Archbishop of Gluttony? Down this way?”
“Yes, that’s right. And that Archbishop is fighting with someone.”
“…Someone?”
Her explanation was sounding stranger and stranger. Ram’s voice was as full of confidence and vigor as ever, but the vagueness gave him a bad feeling.
“Yes.” Ram nodded. “—Some unknown silver-haired girl is fighting the Archbishop of Gluttony. She told us to run.”
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