It seemed this man was the king of the human kingdom. He'd spent his entire life
working toward this peace. Hajime could see why everyone respected him.
Finally, his speech wound to a close. He roused everyone at the end with a spirited
closer. The audience burst out in cheers. However, Hajime was struck by a sudden
premonition. He felt as though he recognized the king's face from somewhere.
"Now, after a year of peace, I've come to realize something… How worthless it truly is."
Everyone glanced about in confusion. They looked to each other, wondering if they'd
misheard the king. The speech everyone had thought finished continued.
"Indeed, utterly worthless. Raising toasts with beasts and consorting with heretics…
What is it, if not folly? Do you understand, ladies and gentlemen? You are all a pack of
fools."
"Wh-What are you saying, Aleister!? What's gotten in to— Gah!?" The demon who'd
stepped forward to protest coughed up blood. A sword was sticking out of his chest.
The demon's eyes widened in surprise. He turned around to see a human behind him
holding the weapon. From the demon's expression, Hajime could tell the two must
have been close. He fell to the ground, an expression of disbelief frozen on his face.
Everyone started talking at once. Cries of "Your Majesty, please!" rang out. Many of the
guests were unable to comprehend what was happening.
"Now then, ladies and gentlemen. Like I said in the beginning, I am honored you all
agreed to come. You have made my job that much easier. It grated me day after day to
watch as you ungodly heretics attempted to create your own nation. As if monsters
who've turned their backs on Ehit, the sole creator of the world, could ever be equal
to humans. But that all ends today. You barbarians who worship a heretical god do not
deserve to exist on Ehit's holy Tortus. We will only have true peace when vermin like
you are eradicated! If only you knew how much joy it brings me that all the leaders of
all the nations willingly gathered here today. Believers of Ehit, bring down the iron
hammer of retribution on these nonbelievers! Lord Ehit, are you watching!?"
King Aleister sunk to his knees and gazed up at the heavens in prayer. The sailors took
off their uniforms, revealing gleaming soldier's armor underneath. They surrounded
the guests.
There was a massive mast right in the center of the ship's deck. The terrace was built
atop that mast, and so the soldiers positioned there had an unobstructed view of the
entire deck. Unless the guests could somehow escape into the sea, the soldiers had an
overwhelming advantage.
The various lords and ladies of every country realized that as well. Despair colored
their faces.
A second later, the soldiers loosed magic at the undefended guests. They tried to fight
back, but outnumbered and outmaneuvered as they were, their desperate struggle
amounted to little.
A few managed to escape, but after a few seconds the majority of the guests were lying
in puddles of their own blood.
Just a short while ago they'd been happily eating and drinking. Some of the guests had
tried leaping into the ocean, but Aleister had prepared for that. Small boats packed to
the brim with soldiers had been lying in wait, and killed anyone who jumped over. The
water around the ship had turned crimson.
"Ugh…"
"Kaori…"
Kaori leaned against the railing, one hand against her mouth all the while. She tried
very hard not to throw up. This vision was even more horrific than the last. Hajime
gently patted her back.
Once the slaughter was over, King Aleister went below the deck with his soldiers. He
was probably going to hunt down the few who'd escaped into the bowels of the ship.
His aide and the hooded figure trailed behind him.
However, before heading downstairs, the hooded figure turned to look at the terrace.
Hajime caught a glimpse of silver hair in the moonlight, or at least he thought he did.
Their surroundings began to warp again. It seemed there was no test in this vision.
Melusine had just wanted to show it to them.
"Kaori, rest for a bit."
"It's okay, I'm fine. That was a bit graphic but… was that it? It ended without us doing
anything."
"This is the end of the ship graveyard. We could craft a barrier and explore the ocean,
but judging from what we saw, I assume we're supposed to go inside now. At the very
least, the vision seems to be leading us there. Melusine wanted us to burn the
atrocities the gods committed into our memory before letting us continue, I guess…
Can't say it's a very pleasant experience. It'd probably be even worse if we were from
this world."
Almost all the humans in Tortus were believers of Ehit. It'd likely be quite a shock to
see visions of what kind of monsters their faith could turn them into.
In order to conquer this labyrinth, powerful magic was a necessity. The ability to use
magic depended greatly on the user's mental state. In many ways, it was the complete
opposite of the Reisen Gorge. Fortunately, Hajime and Kaori weren't from this world,
so it wasn't like their entire worldview was being shaken.
Still, the massacre had been horrific. They looked down at the deck, which had soaked
up so many people's blood, and thought back to what they'd seen. Hajime was just
annoyed that Melusine was making them go through all this crap.
Once they'd prepared themselves, Hajime took them down to the deck and they
entered the same door Aleister had in the vision.
The interior of the ship was pitch black. It was bright outside, so Hajime had expected
light to be pouring in through the windows, but for whatever reason it wasn't, so he
pulled a green glowstone lamp out of his Treasure Trove.
"About that vision from before… The king betrayed them after they'd already made
peace, right?"
"Looks like it. But don't you think it was a little weird? It looked like everyone really
respected the guy… Would they have really looked up to him like that if he secretly
hated all the beastmen and demons?"
"You're right. Based on what he said, it had been a year since the war ended. Something
must have happened in that time that changed him so drastically. The question is,
what?"
"There's no doubts the gods were involved somehow. You heard what he was saying.
He sounded pretty crazy at the end."
"Yeah, he reminded me of Ishtar-san… It was like he was in a trance. It was almost
pitiful to watch."
Hajime almost felt a little bad for Ishtar. A high school girl thought the pope of the Holy
Church was cringeworthy.
They walked forward for a while longer until Hajime's lamp illuminated something. A
white, fluttering something.
The pair stopped in their tracks. Hajime pointed the light upward. It revealed a girl,
wearing a pure white dress. She was swaying back and forth, her head pointed
downward.
Hajime and Kaori both had a bad feeling about this, and Kaori's face was frozen stiff.
Hajime had no idea what a little girl was doing here, but he pulled Donner out anyway.
He wasn't taking any chances in a labyrinth.
Just then, the girl crumpled to the floor. Her joints bent at inhuman angles, and she
started scuttling across the floor toward them like some kind of grotesque spider.
"Kakakakakakakakaka!" Ominous laughter rang out through the hallway. Her eyes,
partially hidden by her bangs, glowed with an eerie light. She looked like something
straight out of a horror movie.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Whoa!? Calm down, Kaori! Let go of my arm!"
This was as cliched as it got, but that didn't make it any less scary. Kaori clung to
Hajime's arm for dear life. Hajime tried to shoot down the monster, but Kaori ruined
his aim.
"Kegyaaa!" With a strange scream, the monster girl leaped at Hajime's face.
Hajime gave up on trying to shoot her and kicked her in the stomach. He enhanced the
kick with Steel Legs just in case a regular one wasn't enough.
The girl doubled over as she flew backward into the darkness. She bounced off the
walls like a pinball, landing in a crumpled heap at the end of the hallway. Her limbs
were bent at even odder angles now, and she didn't get back up. Instead, she melted
into the ground and vanished.
Hajime sighed and patted Kaori's trembling head. She jumped at his touch and looked
timidly up at him. There were tears in her eyes, and her lips were quivering. Damn, I
guess that really scared her.
"Are you bad with horror stuff, Kaori?"
"Is there anyone who isn't?"
"Just pretend they're all monsters."
"Hic… I'll try." Kaori finally let go of Hajime's arm, but she still kept hold of the hem of
his shirt.
Hajime's words had given her a lot to think about, and she's been less clingy after their
discussion. However, now that ghosts and the like had shown up she'd thrown her
reservations out the window. She wouldn't let go until they were out of here. She was
terrified. Absolutely terrified. Even more so than when she'd first confessed to Hajime,
really.
They encountered a number of unsettling events after that. Bloody handprints on
doors, noises coming from behind walls, water dripping down from the ceiling,
ominous scratching noises, a strange monster with a severed head and an axe, the list
went on. Hajime easily shot and kicked his way through most of them, but it was still
slow going.
"I hate this. I want go home. Shizuku-chan, I want to see you again." The countless
scary events had left Kaori clinging to Hajime's back. Her mental state had regressed
to that of a child's.
The reason she wanted Shizuku specifically to come save her was because when Kouki
had taken them all to a haunted house long ago, Shizuku had been the one to protect
her. That was why she trusted Shizuku the most.
The creator of the Sunken Ruins of Melusine, Meiru Melusine, had been determined to
mentally unnerve challengers to her labyrinth as much as possible. Hajime had
already spent months in the darkness of the abyss, surrounded by monsters who
would attack him without warning, so he wasn't too affected by Melusine's tactics.
However, he had to admit a normal person would be pretty unsettled by her tricks.
Though he couldn't imagine Yue or Tio being scared, either.
What happened to all those serious visions about the folly of man? Despite her fear,
Kaori was holding up pretty well. She mowed down hordes of supernatural
apparitions with her Binding Blades of Light as they continued to move forward.
Hajime had to keep her from fainting a few times, but he was still impressed by her
grit.
After some time, the two of them arrived at the ship's hold. Hajime pushed open the
heavy door and stepped inside. There was still cargo scattered here and there. The
pair picked their way around crates and barrels as they headed further inward. Once
they were about halfway, the door closed behind them with a slam.
"Hiii!?"
"...…"
Kaori shrieked and turned back around. Hajime was beginning to wonder if she even
remembered what they talked about anymore. He really didn't want to have that
conversation again.
Hajime sighed again and patted Kaori's shoulder. It was then that he noticed
something odd. A thick fog had suddenly sprung up around them.
"H-H-H-H-H-Hajime-kun!?"
"Your voice is starting to sound pretty weird. Don't worry. It doesn't matter what we're
up against, all we've gotta do is blow it away with magic like everything else."
There was a sharp whistling noise, and something flew out of the dense fog. It was
heading straight for Hajime. He raised his left hand up to block, and found a very fine
thread wrapped around it. More whistling noises followed. This time, they came from
all directions.
"A physical trap after all those magical ones? God, what a pain! Why'd all the Liberators
have to make such annoying dungeons!"
"Guardian of light, lend us thy aid— Holy Shield!" Though Hajime was taken aback by
the physical nature of the attack, he quickly recovered. He was easily able to knock
down the threads, while Kaori protected herself with magic. A second later, the fog
began to swirl around, and a powerful gale struck the pair.
Hajime transmuted spikes from the bottom of his shoes to keep him locked in place.
He tried to grab Kaori too, but her shields worked against her here. He missed her by
a split second, and she was carried away by the wind.
"Kyaaa!?" The gust dragged her into the center of the fog. Hajime clicked his tongue
and tried to pinpoint Kaori's position with Sense Presence.
However, it seemed this fog possessed the same properties as the fog surrounding the
Haltina Woods. It interfered with one's sense of direction, and nullified sensory magic.
"Tch… Kaori, don't move!" Before Hajime could do anything though, a knight stepped
forward, sweeping away the fog surrounding him with his longsword. Hajime didn't
know what kind of style he was using, but the knight was clearly proficient.
He blocked the oncoming strokes with Donner. Then, once he saw an opening, he
stepped in and fired a magic bullet at point blank range with Schlag. It punched a giant
hole through the knight's stomach, making him vanish without a sound.
After that, he found himself up against a gauntlet of powerful knights, each a master
of their chosen weapon.
"God, what a pain…" Hajime grumbled to himself and set a number of his magic bullets
to circle around him. He then activated Supersonic Step, and went about defeating the
knights. He was worried, since Kaori hadn't responded to him.
Around the same time, Kaori was trembling in fear since she couldn't see Hajime.
Horror was the one thing she just couldn't deal with. She'd just freeze up whenever
she encountered anything remotely scary, and she hadn't been able overcome her
phobia. Kaori had wanted to prove to Hajime she wasn't just wallowing in her own
inferiority, but she'd just ended up clinging to him again. She hated how weak she was.
She berated herself for being so pathetic and forced herself to stand through sheer
willpower.
Just then, something laid its hand on her shoulder. Kaori hoped it was Hajime. He was
fond of tapping her shoulder, so it wouldn't be surprising if it was.
"Hajime-k…" She was about to turn around, but then she realized the hand on her
shoulder was lacking in warmth. In fact, it was ice cold.
A shiver ran down her spine. That's not Hajime behind me, is it? She was sure of it.
So then, who was behind her? She turned around slowly, her head creaking like a badly
oiled door. What stared back at her was a girl's face. It was no ordinary face, though.
Her eyes, mouth, and nose were all dark, bottomless pits.
"Awah!" Kaori was so overwhelmed that her brain did the only thing it could to protect
her. It shut down.
In only two minutes, Hajime had succeeded in destroying almost fifty knights. Each
knight only took a few seconds to dispatch.
As the fiftieth knight met his end, Hajime stopped. Was that all of them? However, the
trial wasn't over yet. Another figure appeared from the fog. The knight this time was
massive, and he carried a greatsword taller than Hajime himself.
Hajime sidestepped the knight's giant swing. The knight had seemingly predicted that
Hajime would dodge. He utilized the rebound as his sword slammed into the ground
to follow up with a lightning-quick attack.
Hajime leaped into the air and used his Diamond Skin enhanced prosthetic arm to
grab onto the sword mid-swing. He swung himself up onto the flat of the sword and
fired a mana bullet at the knight's head.
As the giant knight faded into mist, the nearby fog began to fade as well. Alright, now
it's definitely over.
"Kaori! Where are you!?" Hajime once again cast Sense Presence. Though that proved
unnecessary, as he spotted her almost immediately.
"I'm over here, Hajime-kun."
"Oh good, you're safe…" Hajime breathed a sigh of relief as Kaori walked up to him.
She smiled cheerfully and sidled up close.
"I was so scared…"
"That bad, huh…?"
"Yep. So, won't you comfort me?" She wrapped her arms around Hajime's neck and
hugged him. Her face was so close that their noses were practically touching. She
looked up at him with pleading eyes and leaned in closer. However, Hajime casually
pressed Donner against her forehead.
"Wh-What are you doing?" She looked at him in confusion. There was murder in
Hajime's eyes.
"Isn't it obvious? Killing my enemies, just like you tried to do to me." He pulled the
trigger without hesitation. A crimson mana bullet shot straight through Kaori's
forehead, sending her sprawling backward.
A rusty knife fell to the ground with a clang. It had been hidden up Kaori's sleeve.
Hajime walked over to Kaori's prone figure. She raised herself into a sitting position
and looked up at Hajime with fear in her eyes.
"Hajime-kun, why are you doing—" He mercilessly fired another bullet into her.
"How dare you talk in Kaori's voice. How dare you take over her body. I can see right
through you. Trash like you has no right to even touch Kaori. Don't speak. Don't even
move."
Hajime's Demon Eye could clearly see the female specter that had taken over Kaori's
body. The ghost grinned wickedly. Now that her identity had been discovered, there
was no reason to continue pretending to be scared.
"Ufufu. So what if you know? This woman is already mi—" Hajime knocked Kaori to
the ground and straddled her.
"Wait, what do you think you're doing!? This woman is your lover, isn't she!? Can you
really bring yourself to hurt her!?"
"You're not a very good listener, are you? I said don't speak and don't move. Don't
worry, I won't hurt Kaori. These mana bullets pass right through physical things. The
only one suffering right now is you."
"If you destroy me, you'll destroy this girl's soul too! Are you willing to take that risk!?"
Hajime hesitated. It was possible she was bluffing, but Hajime had no way of knowing
for sure. Thinking about it logically, he would surely hesitate to strike again. That was
definitely what the specter assumed as well. She grinned and ordered Hajime to get
off.
Contrary to expectations though, Hajime just fired another mana bullet into her.
The specter's pain was conveyed through Kaori's twisted expression. Panicking, she
yelled at Hajime.
"Are you insane!? Don't you care what happens to her!?"
"Shut up, ghost. If I stop attacking, you'll get to keep Kaori's body forever. Besides, if
only killing you will destroy Kaori's soul, then I can do anything to you as long as you
remain alive, right? I'll just have to torture you until you're begging to leave."
The specter was at a loss for words. She'd never faced anyone so hell-bent on killing
her.
"You hurt someone important to me. Don't think you'll get off lightly. Trust me, I have
ways of making sure you won't die no matter how much you suffer. I'll make sure
you're perfectly lucid for every minute of it, too. Hell will seem like paradise once I'm
through with you. You're one of my enemies… but hey, at least you won't die." Ribbons
of dark red mana swirled around Hajime, and his white hair stood on end. His gaze
was as cold as ice.
Hajime was furious, more than he had ever been. Just killing this specter wouldn't be
enough for him. He would make her suffer every way he knew how.
The specter just stared at Hajime, frozen in terror. She couldn't even muster the
courage to say anything in her defense.
She had realized too late that she should never have picked a fight with the monster
staring down at her. Now, she had no choice but to pay the price for her mistake.
Hajime pressed Donner against Kaori's forehead again. The specter began to pray.
Please let this end quickly. The mere thought of what Hajime would do to her already
left her wishing she was dead, except she already was.
She was nothing more than what remained of a human's particularly powerful grudge.
Now though, she was even willing to forgo that grudge if it let her leave this plane of
existence.
I don't want to exist anymore! I don't want to exist anymore! I don't want to exist
anymore! I don't want to exist anymore! I don't want to exist anymore! I don't want to
exist anymore! Just as Hajime was about to pull the trigger, Kaori's body began to glow.
She was enveloped in the light of the healing spell Consecration. It was one of the
delayed cast spells she'd held in reserve for emergencies.
The specter looked down in surprise.
Don't worry, I'm exorcising you. This way you'll be able to pass on.
The light surrounding Kaori grew brighter. It wrapped itself around the specter, and
she slowly began floating up to the ceiling. Her consciousness began to fade, and her
spirit along with it.
A second later, Kaori opened her eyes. It seemed the specter had been banished.
Hajime looked down at Kaori. He'd confirmed the specter's disappearance with his
Demon Eye, so there was no reason to be on guard anymore. He checked over Kaori,
making sure the possession hadn't left any lingering effects.
Kaori could feel the intensity of Hajime's gaze. She could tell just how worried he'd
been. It almost surprised her how serious he looked.
She met his gaze and lifted herself up. Then, she brought her face close to his, and
kissed him on the lips. It was a brief one, but it was nevertheless Kaori's first kiss.
Hajime had been too worried making sure Kaori's soul really wasn't going to be
destroyed to dodge the kiss in time. After a brief moment of surprise, Hajime pulled
away.
"What're you doing?"
"Giving you my answer?"
"Your answer to what?"
"Remember, you asked me why I even decided to come with you… Well, I found the
answer to why I decided to travel with you, and why I'll keep traveling with you."
She smiled, and it was the usual bright smile Hajime had begun to miss. This was the
first time since entering the labyrinth that he'd seen her smile like that.
The whole time Kaori had been possessed, she'd actually been conscious. It was as if
she'd been locked inside her own mind, forced to watch her body act against her will.
However, since she'd been aware of everything that had been happening, she'd seen
just how mad Hajime had gotten for her sake. She'd heard him call her someone
important to him.
Seeing him like that had really moved her. She remembered how she had felt when
she'd confessed to him.
No matter what anyone else said, no matter how much trouble it caused others, this
was the one thing she wasn't going to give up on. She would make him reciprocate her
love. That resolve hadn't changed.
She didn't want to be the only one left out of Hajime's group. She didn't want to be the
only one not by his side. Even if she wasn't nearly as strong as Yue or the others, she
wanted to prove her feelings for Hajime were every bit as strong as the other girls.
"I love you, Hajime-kun. I love you so much. That's why I want to stay by your side."
"Won't that just make it hurt more? Like I told Shea, I have no intention of being with
anyone other than Yue."
"Maybe. I do want you to look only at me. I want to be the only one special to you. I'm
definitely jealous of Yue, and I feel like I'm not as good as her… It'll definitely be painful
if I stay."
"Then you should…"
"But I know if I back down here, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I'm sure of it. You're
right that after coming here, I saw the difference between me and everyone else, and
I started to lose faith… I began to doubt whether or not coming with you really was for
the best. But I'm not worried anymore." She cupped Hajime's cheeks and smiled.
He wasn't sure how to react to that. In the end, though, it was her decision. If this was
what she truly wanted, he wasn't going to refuse her. Happiness had a different
meaning for everyone. It wasn't for Hajime to decide what would make Kaori happy,
nor was it his place to dictate such things.
"I see… If that's what you've decided, then I won't argue."
"Good. I know I'll be causing you a lot of trouble, but please don't hate me for it."
"Bit late to be asking that. You were causing me heaps of trouble back when we were
in Japan even… You're more of a troublemaker than you look."
"Hey, that's mean!"
"Well, it's true. You'd always come talk to me in school, completely oblivious of what
everyone else thought. You didn't even notice the other guys in the class looked like
they wanted to kill me every time you said anything remotely suggestive. Plus, you
came to my room at night wearing nothing but a negligee…"
"Ugh… I-I didn't realize anything back then. I just wanted to talk to you… And that time
I went to your room, I got super embarrassed about it afterward…"
Kaori buried her face in her hands. Smiling wryly to himself, Hajime helped her up. He
patted her on the shoulder and the pair made their way to the end of the hold. There
was a glowing magic circle there.
Kaori grabbed hold of Hajime's sleeve, holding him back. She was still shaking a little.
Clearly, being possessed had been quite an ordeal for her. Though it seemed not to
have left any lasting effects, so it wouldn't take long for her to recover.
"Let's take a short break."
Kaori decided to make the most of her break, and jumped onto Hajime's back.
"What are you doing?"
"It's better to hurry, right? There's no telling how long that magic circle will stay active.
If we stay here too long, the fog might come back, so this is more efficient, right?"
She's got a point. Hajime reluctantly allowed her to ride on his back and stepped into
the magic circle.
Kaori wrapped her arms around Hajime's neck and hugged him tight.
Hajime had a hard time concentrating with her pressing so tightly against his back.
Plus, Kaori whispering into his ear only made it worse. Her hot breath tickled his ear.
"Hajime-kun… Can you say that again?"
"Say what again?"
"When you got angry at the ghost. Remember?"
"Hmm, I can't say I do."
"Come on, you could at least say it one more time."
The two of them continued flirting amicably as Hajime stepped into the magic circle.
And, in a completely different location, pale light illuminated the ocean's surface as
waves lapped against the ceiling.
In the center of the room was a shrine, which was supported by four massive pillars.
It had no walls, and the ceiling was held up by the pillars alone. An altar lay in the
center of the shrine, with a detailed magic circle engraved on its face. Also, it was
surrounded by seawater, and four floating paths jutted out from it along the cardinal
directions. They each ended at a circular platform. There were magic circles carved
into the floor at each platform.
One of the four started glowing faintly. A second later it exploded into light, and two
figures stepped out. Hajime and Kaori.
"Where are we? Hm? Wait, is that the final magic circle? Don't tell me we beat this
labyrinth already…"
"Umm, is that bad?"
"Nah, I just didn't think we'd finish it so fast. It feels like it was way too easy compared
to the other labyrinths… I thought that sea angel thing might come back at the end,
but I don't sense it anywhere…" Hajime was a little disappointed they'd reached the
end of Meiru Melusine's labyrinth so easily. Kaori poked her head out from behind
Hajime's shoulder and grimaced.
"You know, Hajime-kun. I'd say what we went through already was hard enough. First,
we had to find our way into an underwater cavern. You know most people don't have
submarines in this world, right? You'd have to use a lot of mana just to get here. If you
mess up, you'd drown before even stepping inside. Then, we had to fight that crazy sea
angel monster, and after that we had to fight a bunch of illusions. They couldn't even
be hurt by physical attacks, so we had to use mana again. After that, at the end, you
had to fight an army of soldiers while exhausted. I wouldn't call that easy."
"Hm, you've got a point, but still…"
"The people of this world are pretty devout. Seeing something like that would have
probably broken them…"
"Yeah, it's possible just watching them go crazy would have been too much for them
to handle…"
What Kaori was trying to say was that Hajime was just too strong. When he thought
about it, Hajime realized the Grand Gruen Volcano had been a piece of cake too. Had it
not been for Freid's surprise attack, they would have cleared it without a single injury.
I guess it's possible the labyrinth was so easy that we cleared it even before meeting up
with Yue and the others again. Just as he was thinking that, the magic circle on the
platform to his right began to glow.
Once the blinding glow of light faded, Yue, Shea, and Tio stepped out. Perfect timing.
"You guys got here at the perfect time. Is everyone alright?"
"Yeah. Did you… run into difficulties?"
"Ah, are you alright, Kaori-san?"
"Hm? You aren't injured, are you? Shouldn't you be able to heal yourself if you are?"
Yue and the others responded cheerfully. When they saw Kaori riding on his back
though, their expressions changed to ones of worry. Kaori hurriedly reassured them.
"Thanks for worrying about me, everyone. But I'm fine. I'm just being a little lazy." She
smiled as she said that.
Yue glared at her, while Shea ended up muttering jealously.
"Wow, lucky you… Let me have a turn too." Tio, on the other hand, simply had a
knowing grin on her face.
"I see."
"Wait, Kaori. You can stand now?"
"Ehehe. To be honest, I could have walked from the start… Sorry."
"Haaah, just get off." Kaori smiled guiltily and Hajime shrugged her off his back. The
two of them joined up where the paths connected and headed to the temple.
"So what happened between you two? Come on, Master, you have to tell us. Something
happened with you and Kaori, did it not? Don't try to hide it now, I can— Bweh!?" Tio's
persistence was getting on Hajime's nerves, so he slapped her to shut her up. Tio sank
to the ground, a look of pure ecstasy on her face. She was already panting heavily.
"I-It has been a while since I felt such pain. Haaah… Haaah… Mmm… Master, will you
please punish me more? You can even kick me if you like." Hajime ignored her
expectant gaze and continued walking toward the altar.
"One more! Just one more slap, please! I beg of you!" They heard Tio pleading with
Hajime from behind, but everyone ignored her.
"So? What happened?" Yue asked the same question Tio had. However, her question
was directed at Kaori, not Hajime. Kaori met Yue's gaze and beamed. Her smile had
the same warmth that Hajime had grown used to seeing in the classroom.
"We just kissed."
"I see…"
"What!? Really!? Who started it!? Did you kiss him or, wait, did he kiss you!?" An edge
of anger slipped into Yue's voice, but Shea seemed excited for Kaori.
"I kissed him. After seeing how angry Hajime-kun got for my sake, I couldn't help
myself."
"Wow, it's just like what happened with me! I did the exact same thing before. We're
comrades now, Kaori-san!"
"Ufufu, I guess so, Shea. Shall we steal him together, then?"
"If we're doing this, we have to make him ours for good."
It almost sounded as if they were planning on kidnapping him. Cold sweat poured
down Hajime's face. True, it sounded like they were just joking, but there was a
dangerous glimmer in their eyes. It scared him to see a pure girl like Kaori and a
cheerful bunny girl like Shea stare at him as if they were wolves staring down their
prey. Frankly, he never knew Kaori especially could be so aggressive.
"I thought you'd run away with your tail between your legs." Yue looked probingly at
Kaori.
She'd noticed how Kaori was letting her inferiority complex eat away at her. Honestly,
she'd expected the labyrinth to break her spirit and convince her to give up on Hajime.
Had that happened, Yue certainly wouldn't have tried to console Kaori. After all, if
Kaori's feelings for Hajime were that shallow, then she had no right to be here anyway.
However, it seemed Kaori had managed to survive. More than that, her resolve was
even firmer than before. Yue was curious as to how she'd managed to find her courage
again.
"I thought so too. Hajime-kun even said I should leave. Still, it's a bit too late to care
about trivial things like… how much stronger you are."
"So you're determined, then?"
"I guess you could say that. But you know, I was determined from the start. I just lost
sight of that when I saw how much stronger you all were. I won't show you anything
pathetic like that again."
"It would have been better if you just gave up."
"Hehe, scared? Worried I'll steal Hajime-kun away from you?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, you troublemaker."
"Hajime-kun called me a troublemaker too. But I really don't think I'm that much of
one…" Kaori frowned. It was a little disheartening that both the man she loved and her
rival thought she was a troublemaker. Still, she got over it quickly enough. In all
fairness, Yue, and in fact, all of Hajime's group were pretty big troublemakers. Sadly,
Yue herself wasn't aware the word could apply to her just as well.
"Well, maybe you're right, Yue… But at least now I know I'm someone important to
Hajime-kun. All that's left is to steal the title of 'special' from you. I won't give up, no
matter what anyone says."
"I see. Then like before, I accept your challenge."
"Yep! Oh, by the way, I don't hate you or anything. In fact, I feel like we're just friends
that fight a lot."
"Friends? I'm your friend?"
"Yep, you're my friend. In Japan there's a lot of people like that. They show their
friendship by fighting with each other. Just like us. We're rivals in love, but we're still
friends, right?"
"Japan… That's Hajime's home. The more I hear about it, the stranger it sounds. But…
I like it."
"Glad to hear it. Ufufu, so let's try and get along, alright?"
"Okay…"
It should have been a good thing that they were finally getting along, but for some
reason it made Hajime feel lonely. He was the only one being left out of the girls'
conversation.
Kaori and Yue's conversation reminded Hajime of the dialogue between certain
Monogatari characters, but he didn't say anything about it.
Hajime was a patient man after all, so he knew when it was time to wait his turn. Once
they reached the altar, the party stepped into the giant magic circle together. As usual,
their memories were examined to ascertain whether or not they'd actually cleared the
labyrinth. However this time, each group saw the memories the other group had
experienced as well. In other words, Hajime and Kaori got to see what Yue, Shea, and
Tio had gone through.
It seemed they had traversed through the ruins of a giant underground city. Like
Hajime, they'd been shown illusions made of magic. Their vision had been one where
two armies had fought in the streets of the ruined city. At first, the invading demon
army had attacked the human defenders. But once Yue had used magic, both sides had
turned their blades onto them, just like in Hajime's vision.
They'd made their way to the city's castle while defeating the enemies that came after
them. Once they got inside, they'd overheard a discussion among the country's
leaders.
It appeared the demons had overrun one of the human villages and slaughtered
everyone inside. Because of that, the humans had declared war on the demons.
However, it seemed the attack had all been orchestrated by the humans' leaders.
They'd wanted an excuse to eradicate all demons from the planet. Before they knew it
though, the flames of war spread far beyond their ability to control. Soon enough they
were the ones losing, and the humans had been pushed back to their capital.
From the sound of it, it seemed a high-ranking priest from the Church of Light had
been the one to push hardest for war. They had also been the ones behind the attack
on the human village. The Church of Light was apparently the predecessor to the Holy
Church Hajime and the others were familiar with.
Driven into a corner, the humans had turned to desperate tactics. They attempted to
sacrifice someone to appease their gods and gain their favor. A hundred little girls
were invited into the church's grand cathedral, where they were summarily
slaughtered.
Yue and the others had naturally been appalled at what they saw. Their faces paled as
they were forced to rewatch those memories. It even looked like Shea was about to
puke.
The memory scan finished, and the circle deemed that they had indeed conquered the
labyrinth. Another branch of magic from the age of the gods was inscribed into their
minds.
"Of course they'd put this magic here… This is the other tip of the continent,
goddammit! Stupid Liberators!
"So this is where we were supposed to obtain the power of restoration."
Hajime cursed at the long dead Melusine. The magic they'd received was regeneration
magic.
Hajime recalled the time they'd gone to the Grand Tree in the Haltina Woods. The
stone tablet had told them they would need the power of restoration. In other words,
to conquer the labyrinth on the eastern tip of the continent, one would need magic
obtained by clearing the labyrinth on the western tip of the continent. For Hajime,
who'd gone to the east first, this was unbelievably annoying. At least he had a car to
drive, though. Normal challengers would have been forced to make another year-long
trek.
The Liberators just keep getting more and more annoying. As the light from the magic
circle faded, a rectangular block rose up from the ground. It was like a miniature
version of the altar they were on. It began to glow with a faint light, and a second later
a vaguely humanoid shape formed above it. Like Orcus, it seemed Meiru Melusine had
left behind a message for the labyrinth's conquerors.
A second later the light coalesced and Meiru's features could be made out. She was
sitting on the block, wearing a white one-piece dress and had long, emerald-green hair.
Her ears were also shaped like fins. Surprisingly, it seemed Meiru Melusine had been
a Dagon.
Like Oscar, she introduced herself and then began explaining the Liberators' true goal.
She seemed like a gentle person. There was a look of profound sorrow on her face as
she spoke of the atrocities the gods committed. Her speech was otherwise not too
different from Oscar's. As she wound her speech down, she left a final warning for
Hajime and the others.
"Please, don't cling to the gods. Don't rely on them. Don't grow accustomed to what's
given to you. Struggle on, and grasp what you desire with your own two hands. Decide
your own path in life, and walk down it with your own two feet. Remember, no matter
how bleak things look, you'll be able to find the answers inside of you. Only you have
those answers. Don't be deceived by the gods' honeyed words. Only when you live by
your own free will can you find true happiness. I pray the path you walk will be forever
showered in fortune." With that, Meiru Melusine's apparition faded away. As the light
from the circle that summoned her dissipated, Hajime spotted a coin engraved with
her crest resting atop the mini-altar.
"And this makes our fourth marker of strength too, Hajime-san. Now we should be able
to challenge the labyrinth in the sea of trees. We'll finally be going back, won't we? I
wonder how my dad's doing." Shea gazed nostalgically in the direction of her home.
However, when she remembered how her father and the rest of her family had
transformed into gangsters, she shook herself back to the present.
Hajime put the coin in his Treasure Trove and similarly tried very hard not to think
about the gangster Haulia tribe.
The moment the coin disappeared into his Treasure Trove, the temple began to
rumble. A second later, the water level began to rise.
"Whoa!? Tch, looks like we're getting another rough exit. Everyone, grab onto me!"
"Okay."
"Wawah, not so rough!"
"I don't want to go through another Reisen Gorge!"
"Water torture… sounds rather fascinating."
They were completely submerged in seconds. Hajime didn't even have the time to pull
out his submarine. He handed everyone oxygen masks just in case this trip lasted a
while, then had everyone huddle together so they wouldn't be separated like last time.
The ceiling of the room opened up, just like it had in the Grand Gruen Volcano, and the
water started flowing into it. The party was carried up by the powerful current, and
they found themselves heading for the hole.
Hajime assumed this was the shortcut out of the labyrinth. Still, he would never have
guessed that kind, gentle woman would have come up with such a violent way to take
them out of the labyrinth. Especially since it was forced. Maybe she was a lot more
ruthless than she looked.
After a while, Hajime noticed something. At the rate they were going, the current
would crash them into the roof above.
Hajime activated Diamond Skin and moved to shield Yue and the others from the
shock. However, just before they hit the ceiling, it too slid away to reveal a hole. The
current bore them out and spit them into the sea. Hajime was sure of it now. Meiru
Melusine was nowhere near as gentle as she appeared.
Now that they were in relatively calm waters, Hajime pulled out his submarine. He
motioned for everyone to get inside.
Still, before they could, they were interrupted. By the worst possible enemy, at that.
"Ah!? Everyone, get out of the way!" He called out a warning with Telepathy.
A giant translucent tentacle slammed into the submarine, sending it spinning away.
Hajime turned back to see the enemy they'd failed to defeat earlier, the giant sea angel.
It looked like a fairy, but its jelly melted anything it came into contact with and it could
regenerate seemingly indefinitely. It seemed utterly unaffected by water resistance,
and shot its countless tentacles at the party at unbelievable speed.
I can't believe we have to deal with this thing even after beating the labyrinth. Hajime
ground his teeth and called out telepathically to Yue.
"Yue!"
"Crystal Coffin!" She immediately created a barrier of ice around them, freezing the
surrounding water in place.
The tentacles slammed into the globe of ice protecting Hajime and the others. The
impact was so strong that the party was rattled around like dice in a shaker.
"How are we going to handle this, Master!?" Fortunately, Hajime had a plan.
"Yue, we've gotta make it to the surface. We'll just be slowly beaten down by it
underwater. I'll buy you the time you need!"
"Okay." Hajime used the spirit stone-imbued ring on his finger to remotely control the
submarine. The submarine stopped drifting aimlessly and charged headfirst at the sea
angel. It did an underwater barrel roll to avoid the sea angel's tentacle barrage, then
launched a salvo of torpedoes at it.
The single salvo contained twenty torpedoes in it. Honestly, it was almost overkill
already.
However, Hajime wanted to be absolutely certain he'd buy them enough time, so he
launched all the remaining salvos in the sub as well. He set the submarine circling the
sea angel with the hull pointed toward it, as he did so. The unnatural movements
almost making it look like the sub was drifting.
All in all, he launched a grand total of 48 torpedoes at the monster. They came at it
from all directions, and each and every one of them found their mark.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Explosions blossomed one after another. A massive
amount of water around the sea angel was displaced. Jets of water broke the surface
of the ocean one after another. That was how powerful each of his torpedoes had been.
While the sea angel was distracted, Yue manipulated the current to carry them to the
surface. No matter how fearsome its powers of regeneration were, Hajime was sure
that would keep it out of commission for a few minutes at least.
Unfortunately, Hajime and the others had underestimated its strength.
"Yue, above us!"
"No, I can't stop in time!"
Hajime looked up and saw a membrane of jelly covering the area above them. In a
matter of seconds, the jelly had reformed, and now the sea angel was above them.
It opened its mouth wide and swallowed the ice sphere they were riding in whole.
They were now inside the sea angel's stomach.
"Shit, it regenerates too fast!"
"This isn't good, Hajime-san. We're surrounded in jelly now!"
It seemed the sea angel had been spreading its jelly ever since it appeared. It had
planned for this exact situation.
"Hajime, my barrier won't last long! There's no water inside its stomach, so I can't
freeze more to reinforce it, either!"
"Tch, everyone, brace for impact!"
Yue did her best to slow the corrosion of her ice sphere. Hajime helped as well by
coating the ice in Diamond Skin. At the same time, he used his Treasure Trove to pull
out a large number of torpedoes and explosives. He placed them outside the barrier,
but inside the sea angel's stomach.
One again, the sea angel's body was blown to bits, its pieces scattered to the four
winds. The barrier was nearly corroded away at this point, and the explosion blew it
to pieces. Hajime and the others were sent flying from the shockwave.
They were once again in the middle of the ocean. Hajime called his submarine back,
hoping to at least get Shea and Kaori to the surface. The two of them were even more
helpless underwater than the others.
However, his submarine had been caught. The sea angel had latched some of its jelly
onto the bottom of the submarine, and now there was a huge hole in it. After being
filled with water his submarine had become too slow to maneuver properly. Crippled
as it was, the sea angel had easily been able to surround it with more of its scattered
jelly and render it completely immobile.
Worse, it had realized they were trying to make a break for the surface, so it had
created a translucent barrier of jelly directly above them. Considering how quickly it
regenerated, Hajime knew it wouldn't be easy to break through it.
Hajime inwardly cursed as he watched the sea angel devour his prized submarine.
"Yue, you're going to have to use your trump card."
"I'll need forty seconds."
"I won't let it touch you. This is our only way out of the ocean now."
"Okay… leave it to me." Yue closed her eyes and began concentrating. Kaori and Shea
supported her, making sure the current didn't sweep her away.
Tio barely held back the encroaching tentacles with a rapid barrage of mini breath
attacks. However, she knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. Breath attacks
consumed a lot of mana, and down here they were hampered by water resistance.
Moreover, because they were linear attacks, they pierced through the tentacles instead
of destroying them. In a few seconds, Tio would be overrun.
Hajime quickly pulled massive quantities of ore out of his Treasure Trove and
transmuted another globe-shaped barrier around them.
"Master, I cannot hold them back any longer!"
"You held out long enough, Tio! Everyone, get inside my barrier!" Hajime made the
sphere large enough to fit all five of them. They all scrambled inside, with Tio coming
in last. Once they were in, he sealed the entrance. Dark red mana surrounded the metal
sphere. Hajime had strengthened it with Diamond Skin. Furthermore, because he'd
incorporated weightstone into the barrier's design, it wouldn't sink.
Numerous tentacles slammed against Hajime's sphere. The mana-corroding jelly ate
away at his Diamond Skin spell. Before long, the metal itself was being dissolved by
the jelly. Red sparks ran down the sections most worn away by the jelly, and they were
filled with new metal.
By continually transmuting more ore into the barrier, Hajime was able to keep it
mostly intact. Thankfully, Hajime had stockpiled so much extra ore that he had
mountains of it stored in his Treasure Trove. He continued replenishing the walls of
his barrier for the full forty seconds Yue needed to finish her preparations.
"Cosmic Rift!" Yue finished casting her teleportation spell. An elliptical ring of light
appeared next to the party.
The teleportation spell, Cosmic Rift, was one of the many spatial magic skills they'd
learned at the Grand Gruen Volcano. It connected two points in space. In other words,
it created a warp gate. As Yue had acquired it only recently, it still took her nearly a
minute to cast such a difficult spell.
"Everyone, get in!" At Hajime's command, everyone jumped into the warp gate. Hajime
went last, transmuting the barrier until everyone was through. The gate vanished after
Hajime leaped through it, and seconds later the barrier that had been protecting them
was dissolved by the sea angel's tentacles.
As they passed through the gate, Hajime and the others were assailed by a sense of
weightlessness. That was mostly because Yue had teleported them into the sky. In
order to get them as far away from the ocean as possible, Yue had put the exit point of
her Cosmic Rift one hundred meters in the air.
Tio instantly transformed into her dragon form and caught the others on her back. Yue
slumped over, and Shea and Kaori hurried to hold her up. Casting that spell had taken
all of her mana. She instantly began replenishing her reserves using the magic
accessories Hajime had given her.
"Thanks, Yue. I knew I could count on you. Though it looks like spatial magic's pretty
difficult."
"Haaah… Haaah… Yeah. I did it, but I'm not good enough with it yet that I can use it in
combat."
Spatial magic was far harder for Yue to use than even gravity magic had been. Like
she'd said, under normal circumstances it wouldn't be usable in combat. She'd been
forced to use Image Composition to create an imaginary magic circle instead of simply
controlling her mana directly like she did for other spells. On top of that, it had
consumed twice as much mana as her highest-rank spells did just to teleport them one
hundred meters into the air. Its mana consumption was still highly inefficient.
Still, it was thanks to the fact that she could use it at all that they'd been able to escape.
Yue blushed as everyone, even Kaori, praised her skills. Everyone smiled in relief, but
a second later those smiles froze.
Splaaaaaaaaaaaash! A massive tidal wave bore down on Hajime and the others from
behind.
No, massive didn't do the word justice. The tidal wave rose up so high that it blotted
out the sky. It towered over them, even though they were a good hundred meters
above the water. At a guess, Hajime put it at five hundred meters tall and at least a full
kilometer wide.
"Tch, Tio!"
"Understood!" Tio flapped her wings and shot forward. They couldn't dodge to the left
or the right, and spatial magic wouldn't make it in time. In that case, the only option
was to keep moving forward. Tio flew with a speed rivaling that of her flight from the
Grand Gruen Volcano.
"Divine Shackles! Hallowed Ground!"
"Hallowed Ground."
Kaori cast the spells she'd stocked up while they'd been waiting for Yue. She joined
everyone together with her chains while simultaneously casting the same barrier Yue
did. Shea closed her eyes and concentrated. A second later, her eyes shot open and she
shouted out a warning.
"Tio-san, watch out! That thing is hiding inside the tsunami! It's going to send its
tentacles at you!" She relayed the things she'd seen with Future Sight. Tio reacted
instantly, twisting out of the way. Countless tentacles lashed at the spot she'd been in
mere seconds ago.
They'd evaded the first attack. However. because of that, the distance between them
and the tsunami had shrunk. Hajime fended off further attacks with his flamethrower,
but Tio wasn't able to recover enough speed to get away.
"Shit! Everyone, brace for impact!" Hajime hugged Yue, Shea, and Kaori protectively. A
second later, the gargantuan tsunami crashed into them.
Thanks to Yue and Kaori's barriers, they were able to withstand the impact. Still, the
tsunami tossed them around, and before they knew it they were plummeting back into
the ocean.
Moreover, the force of the tsunami had completely shattered one Hallowed Ground,
and the other was filled with cracks. Had Yue and Kaori only deployed one barrier,
they would have been sleeping with the fishes.
Hajime shook his head, clearing the dizziness that had accompanied being tossed
around by the tsunami. When he looked up, his expression grew grim.
"So you're not gonna let your prey go, huh?" The sea angel had caught up to them. It
had gotten bigger, too. Now it was over twenty meters long. Apparently, it didn't think
that was big enough though. It continued gathering translucent jelly from its
surroundings, growing even larger.
"Y-You've gotta be kidding me. It doesn't die, it can melt anything, and it can even
control the sea… How are we supposed to beat it?"
"Hajime-san, can you kiss me? I'm not joking, I want to at least be kissed by you once
before I die."
"In that case, Master, I too wish for a kiss before death."
Kaori was despairing, but Shea and Tio were smiling faintly, a look of resignation on
their faces.
But when they looked up at Hajime, shivers ran down their spine. Even now, his eyes
glimmered with determination. Bloodlust so thick it was palpable rolled off him in
waves. He glared at the sea angel, completely undaunted.
He hadn't given up. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind. All he was thinking
about was how to kill the enemy in front of him and make it out alive.
The sea angel they faced was unbelievably powerful. But if Hajime was the kind of
person who gave up because the enemy was too strong, he wouldn't have made it so
far. He would have died in the abyss ages ago.
Yue had walked through the abyss with him, so she understood. She, too, was only
thinking of how to defeat the foe in front of her. Surrender wasn't part of her
vocabulary.
Kaori, Shea, and Tio's breath caught in their throat as they watched Hajime. They
stayed like that for a while, until the sea angel, which was now thirty meters long,
attacked and brought them back to their senses.
Kaori hurriedly put up another Hallowed Ground. Shea tried to use her Branching
Paths ability to find a way out of this mess. Tio fired her breath at the sea angel. If
Hajime hadn't given up, then they wouldn't either. If they didn't show their grit here,
then they had no right to travel at Hajime's side.
Yue hadn't been able to come up with a solution, so she added her strength to theirs,
hoping to at least buy time.
Hajime stood stock still, thinking furiously. He'd activated Riftwalk to accelerate his
thought processes even further. He knew he needed to find a solution soon, or they
were all dead. He went over all the information they'd gathered on the enemy so far.
Every little thing was examined in detail in case it offered a potential solution. There
was one point he came back to. Back when they'd first escaped from the giant sea
angel. Why didn't it chase after us back then? It could have chased us down easily. What
was different between then and now? We're not…
"We're not using enough fire." Last time both Tio and Yue had blasted the sea angel
with fire spells. The fire had withered its tentacles, and the burned jelly hadn't
regenerated.
Finally, he saw a ray of hope. He wasn't one hundred percent certain his conjecture
was correct, but it seemed the sea angel couldn't regenerate indefinitely. It just had so
much jelly that it appeared that way.
Furthermore, it likely could create more jelly given enough time. It seemed creating
more jelly took a lot more time than regenerating what was already there, though.
That was why it had taken it so long to recover after they'd burned so much of it last
time. They'd been able to escape because it had prioritized replenishing its jelly
reserves over chasing them.
So to defeat it, they simply had to do the same thing as last time. Burn it down faster
than it could regenerate and replenish. However, they were surrounded by ocean. Fire
magic wouldn't be very effective with all this water around. Tio's breath was powerful,
but she couldn't keep it up for long enough to burn away all the jelly. They had no
weapons capable of burning it away.
In that case…
"I just have to make one." Hajime pulled out a large amount of ore and torpedoes from
his Treasure Trove and started transmuting.
"Hajime? Did you think of something?"
"Yeah. This is the only way we're gonna be able to use fire around water. If this works,
we'll be able to kill it."
"Do you really mean it, Hajime-kun!?"
"I knew I could trust you, Hajime-san! I never doubted you for a second!"
"Shea, were you not the one asking Master for a kiss before you died just moments
ago… At any rate, good job, Master!" Tio joked around with Shea. The two of them had
relaxed a little. The man they trusted most in the world had told them they'd make it.
There was no reason to worry anymore. All that was left was to live up to the trust
he'd shown in them.
"It's gonna take some time, though. I'm counting on you guys to hold it off."
Hajime smiled fearlessly, and the others smiled back at him. Then, he activated both
Riftwalk and Limit Break while he worked. Bolstered by those skills, he transmuted
faster than ever.
He finished one weapon and quickly started on the next. This new weapon of his
required an unprecedented amount of precision and skill to craft, so he couldn't massproduce them like his bullets. However, he needed a lot or it wouldn't be enough to
burn away all of the sea angel's jelly. Firing them off one after another would just delay
their inevitable demise. Either he got it all at once, or not at all. Limit Break caused
dark red mana to swirl about him, and it looked like he was caught in a small crimson
tornado.
Unfortunately, their situation was still looking rather bleak. Overpowered as they
were, Yue and the others still couldn't hold back the sea angel for long. The ocean just
gave it too great of an advantage.
They all tried their best to hold on, but it didn't look like they would be able to endure
long enough for Hajime to finish making his weapons stockpile.
"Three more minutes, that's all I need!" Hajime used Telepathy to shout that to the
others. The sea angel was almost right on top of them. It opened its mouth wide to
swallow the party whole once more.
Hajime reluctantly decided he'd need to fire off whatever he'd made so far. It wasn't
enough, but there was no point in saving it if they were about to die.
Just then, though, a grizzled old voice spoke to them via Telepathy.
"Yo, Young Haj. You seem to be in a spot of trouble. This old man here'll help you out."
"W-Wait, I recognize that voice! Is that you, Fish-san!?"
"That it is. It's me, your friend Fish-san."
To Hajime's disbelief, the fishman he had freed back in the aquarium at Fuhren was
here. Hajime looked around in surprise, and saw a giant silver silhouette tackle the
sea angel. The sea angel was taken completely by surprise, and was sent flying off to
the side.
The familiar fish monster with a human head appeared beside Yue's barrier. Yue and
the others were stunned. Yue, Kaori, and Tio had never even seen the fishman before,
so it was natural, but even Shea hadn't expected to find him here.
"You're the guy from back then!" Shea exclaimed, while Kaori shrieked in fear.
"Have you been well, Shea?"
"Fweh!? Umm, y-yes! I'm doing fine!"
"Excellent, excellent. Quit spacing out, Young Haj. You said you needed three minutes
to beat that oversized Devourer, right? Then get to work. I can't hold it off for long."
"A-Alright. I'm still not sure what's going on, but thanks for saving us, Fish-san."
Hajime once again got back to work.
The giant silver silhouette continued fighting with the sea angel, dodging its attacks
and keeping it away from Tio. Upon closer inspection, Hajime realized what he'd
thought was one silver creature was actually a huge school of fish. Not monster fish,
just regular everyday fish. However, there were hundreds of thousands of them all
gathered together. With that many, even they could hold their own against the sea
angel. Still, they wouldn't be able to keep it up for long; thousands of fish died in every
attack.
Why on earth is a fishman here? Shea stepped up to ask what everyone else was
wondering. It was a rare sight to see Yue huddling behind Shea and not the other way
around.
"U-Umm, Fish-san? Is it alright if I call you that? Uhh, what exactly are you doing here?"
"Hmph, I wasn't doing anything. I was just minding my business, swimming along,
when I sensed this huge explosion of mana. I heard your Telepathy too, so I rushed
over, only to find Young Haj about to be eaten by a giant Devourer. I didn't really know
what was going on, but my friend was in trouble. I wouldn't be a man if I didn't help
him out."
"Umm, what about those fish… Also, what's a Devourer?"
"That thing you're fighting. They're known as Devourers. They're creatures that used
to live in the sea long ago… Actually, they're more natural disasters than creatures.
People say they're the ancient ancestors of monsters. Oh, and I'm controlling those
fish with my Telepathy. The kind of Telepathy my species uses lets me communicate
to some extent with all sea creatures, even if they don't have mana."
Shea's jaw dropped open. Fish-san was a fishmancer. As he finished his explanation,
the last of his fish army melted away. The Devourer once again chased after Tio,
determined to swallow them all whole.
Fortunately, he had managed to buy them the three minutes Hajime needed.
Hajime set up his super-sized torpedoes around the edges of Yue's barrier. In three
minutes he'd crafted roughly 120 of them. Floating next to him were a number of small
circles equal to the number of his torpedoes.
Hajime poured his mana into the spirit stone and launched all of the torpedoes
simultaneously. They left a trail of bubbles in their wake as they sped toward the
Devourer. These were no normal torpedoes. Simple explosives wouldn't do any lasting
harm to the Devourer, after all. It would just regenerate all of the jelly that had been
blown apart.
Irked at being interrupted, the Devourer sent out a barrage of tentacles to swat down
the torpedoes. However, Hajime guided the torpedoes to weave through the tentacles.
With his Limit Break, he was just barely able to control all 120 of them at once.
"You're not gonna dodge, are you? Hope you like my present, then." Hajime muttered
viciously. He figured since the Devourer dissolved anything that got close to it, it never
bothered dodging.
His guess proved to be correct. After making it through the forest of tentacles, Hajime's
torpedoes all smashed into the Devourer. It hadn't even tried to move out of the way.
However, there was no explosion. The torpedoes slowly melted into the Devourer. All
of the black dots sticking out of it almost made it look like it had been poisoned.
Hajime needed to hurry and complete his preparations before the torpedoes melted
completely. He pulled a large amount of sticky black liquid out of his Treasure Trove.
It was liquified flamrock. Then, he poured the liquified flamrock into the circles
floating around him.
A second later, the Devourer was dyed pitch-black. The blackness spread through its
body like ink through paper. Black liquid moved to fill every inch of its translucent
jelly. The liquid flamrock was being transported from the circles into the Devourer's
body.
The circles were actually all miniature warp gates connected to their respective
torpedoes. Anything that fell into the circles around him appeared at the
corresponding torpedo. His torpedoes hadn't actually been the weapon, they'd just
been its means of delivery. Their shells only existed to protect the warp gates inside of
them from being corroded away instantly.
Naturally, the liquid flamrock itself began to dissolve inside the Devourer as well, but
there was so much of it that it couldn't get rid of it in time. It tried to split itself into
pieces to save parts of it from being filled, but Yue and the others weren't about to let
that happen. They used barriers, ice spells, and breath attacks to keep it busy. Hajime
hadn't asked Yue to make the gate because he knew she wasn't skilled enough with
the magic yet to accurately open one inside a moving target. For now, the best she
could do was connect two points in space.
The Devourer had gathered all of its jelly in one place to give itself an advantage over
Hajime, but that backfired on it now. It would die precisely because it had gone all out.
Hajime kept pouring flamrock in until he was sure the Devourer was thoroughly
saturated.
He grinned wickedly at the Devourer, a sharp glint in his eyes. There was a small
burning object in his hand.
"Let me show you what hell feels like." He flicked it into one of his warp gates with his
thumb. It stuck to the flamrock, pouring through and reappearing inside the Devourer.
3,000 degree flames spread to every inch of the monster's body, devouring the
Devourer whole.
It transformed from black to red in the span of a few heartbeats. As the flames were
originating inside of it, the Devourer had no way to fight back. It could only watch in
horror as its body was eaten away.
Soon, it couldn't contain the flames inside it, and gouts of fire shot out of it. However,
this just made it catch fire from both outside and in. The flames were so hot that they
evaporated the surface of the ocean and a large cloud of steam covered the Devourer.
Jets of water shot up as the hyper-pressurized steam rose to the surface. The sea began
to roil and bubble as the parts of the Devourer still underwater burned away. Yue's
barrier kept the choppy waves off them while the party searched the area, making
sure no traces of it remained.
They combed the surroundings for a while, but they didn't see any more jelly. Hajime
used his Demon Eye and Farsight to check even more thoroughly, but still didn't see
anything.
Now he was certain. The ancient monster of the depths, the Devourer, was no more.
"Gah… That was hard…" Hajime's warp gates lost their glimmer and fell to the ground
as he stopped powering them. The swirling cloud of mana that had surrounded him
so far faded away as well. He slumped to his knees and grimaced. He'd overexerted
himself using Limit Break, so now he was left with a pounding headache. Still, his eyes
glowed with the joy of triumph. They'd done it.
"Hajime, are you alright?"
"Hajime-kun, I'll heal you right away, don't worry!"
Yue walked over and helped him stand, Kaori started casting healing magic, and Shea
and Tio ran up and hugged Hajime.
"We did it, Hajime-san!"
"Wonderful, Master. Your murder methods are as creative and cruel as always. That
sent shivers down my spine."
Kaori's healing magic soothed Hajime's headache, and he smiled at his comrades. A
grumpy old man's voice interrupted their celebration.
"Hey, Young Haj. Next time you're about the blow the ocean up, tell me first. I thought
I was going to die back there."
"Ah, Fish-san. Sorry. I was so focused on killing it that I forgot."
The explosion of pressure caused by the heat had blown the fishman away too. Hajime
had been so focused on killing the Devourer that he'd forgotten the fishman was also
in the water. He also hadn't expected an explosion. The interaction between the
flamrock and the ocean had surprised even him.
"Well, I won't deny killing Devourers is pretty taxing. You guys did a good job."
"If you hadn't saved us back there, we might really have died. Thanks."
"You're welcome. Though I was just repaying my debts, so don't worry too much about
it."
"You're so cool, Fish-san. My thanks to whatever coincidence brought you here."
"Young Haj, a series of coincidences is what we call fate. It was fate that you saved me
back in that city, just as it was fate that brought me here to save you."
Hajime and the fishman smiled at each other. It almost looked like they were
communicating silently. The girls whispered to each other as they watched this bizarre
spectacle.
"Is it just me, or does it feel like they really understand each other?"
"Is this what friendships between guys are like?"
"Hajime-kun, is the first friend you made in this world really a fishman? I know you
didn't get along with other people back in Japan, but that doesn't mean you have to
turn to other species!"
"They were like that last time, too. I guess it's the boys' version of girls' talk or
something? Though he's talking to an old man and not a boy… Actually, he's not even
an old man. He's just a fish."
They were both a little confused and a little creeped out that Hajime seemed closer to
a fish than to them. After a while, it seemed Hajime and the fishman's conversation
came to an end.
"I'll be leaving then, Young Haj. We'll meet again, if fate wills it."
"Yeah. Stay safe, Fish-san."
The fishman turned around and swam off after hearing those words. However, just as
he was about to vanish from sight, he stopped and turned to face Shea.
"Good luck. I know you've got a lot of rivals, but you can do it. Whenever you two have
kids, let me know. I'll let them play with mine. I'll introduce you to my wife, too. Bye,
then." He turned back around and vanished into the deep blue sea.
Hajime and the others were stunned.
"He's married!?"
No one had expected that. Hajime had thought the fishman just liked wandering
around, but it turned out he was actually a deadbeat dad. It took a while for everyone's
shock to wear off.