BDISSEM.
A mysterious substance that binds the mana and power of the prisoners in Nouvelle Vague.
Vikir had once vaguely speculated that it was made of plants.
-Title: 'Daylily Lumberjack'
↳ Inflicts massive additional damage against creatures in plant form.
Taunt, Confuse, Blind, Bleed, Burn, Poison, and other status ailments last slightly longer.
Vikir's suspicions were confirmed, as he realized that the restraints, which he could not break no matter what, could be destroyed by the power of the Daylily Lumberjack, a title he had earned in the Hell Tree.
And Vikir realized that his guess was correct.
The girl before him was higher in rank than any of the guards he had ever met.
A brigadier general, even higher than the colonel's rank on Souaré and D'Ordume, where the warden was a colonel.
Brigadier General BDISSEM.
Although she looked like a young girl, her true self was completely different.
A being with the power and cunning of an old tree.
Her race was called the Ents, or Dryads.
If the beings between animals and humans are called the Beastman, then the beings between plants and humans are the Ent.
'... So, it makes perfect sense that all five wardens are non-human beings.'
Vikir was right.
D'Ordume was a sea crocodile, Souaré was an elf-dwarf hybrid, and the one in front of him, BDISSEM, was an Ent.
Meanwhile, BDISSEM stared at Vikir in wonder.
"I'm here to find out who broke my handcuffs. It was you, wasn't it?"
Apparently, BDISSEM can feel when the handcuffs she made are destroyed.
Shhhhhh.
The five fingers on the end of BDISSEM's arm elongated like vines, then turned black and turned into chains.
"How did you break it? Do it again."
As soon as BDISSEM finished speaking, a chain of vines erupted from her body and rushed towards Vikir like a snake.
Chakang! Chakang! Chakang!
At the end of the chains, handcuffs and shackles were interlocked like the jaws of a snake.
One bite from that thing would instantly cause the bindings to be filled and the mana and power to be sealed.
Of course, Vikir had the power to destroy it.
But the thought of having his mana flow interrupted, even for a fraction of a second, was disturbing, so he simply stepped back and dodged all of her attacks.
BDISSEM pulled out more vines as enthusiastic.
"Fight me properly! You're letting me off the hook!"
She was quite angry for some reason.
She seemed to misunderstand why Vikir was only dodging and not fighting head-on.
grrttt.
The sound of tree bark rubbing came out of BDISSEM's mouth.
The vines, hard and resilient like extremely concentrated rubber, flew out like whips, aimed at Vikir.
The blow was a blow, but what followed was even more annoying.
"This is all because of Warden Orca! That old man is making everyone overprotective and treating me like a child! Why am I being treated so differently from Flubber!"
Although Vikir didn't know what she was talking about, he had a vague idea of what had caused all the complaining.
Vikir had plenty of opportunities to fight back, but he kept backing away from BDISSEM's attacks.
He gently scratched her nerves.
"Go get a guardian. You're too young to fight."
"What! I'm a hundred years older than you!"
"I do not fight with the opposite sex. Back off."
"I have both male and female genders!"
"...."
So why the hell is this girl overprotected?
Vikir thought for a moment and then spoke.
"You are a valuable resource to the Nouvelle Vague, so take care of yourself. I don't want any disruption to the production and maintenance of the BDISSEM restraints."
"...!"
"What if you die and the rest of the restraints lose their power?"
"...! ...! ...! ...!"
Judging by the look of surprise on BDISSEM's face with each of Vikir's words, that was the answer.
Then, her expression turned to one of uncontrollable irritation.
"So what? Stop telling me to save my body, I'm sick of it! I have freedom!"
Apparently, BDISSEM was living a life of confinement in an alley because of the production and maintenance of restraints.
And she seems to be under a lot of stress because of it.
'Well, I know it because I lived as a prisoner. The frustration of Nouvelle Vague.'
Vikir dodged a whip and did a backflip, landing on the other side of the aquarium.
Suddenly curious, Vikir turned to BDISSEM and asked.
"So, if you're so overprotected, how did you get here?"
"Hmm. That's because Orca, the old man, was away."
Orca, the warden of Nouvelle Vague.
Come to think of it, Vikir hadn't seen his face since entering Nouvelle Vague.
"I heard the ground has been devastated these days? There were so many felons to send to the Nouvelle Vague that the old man was sent on a long-term mission to the ground? We have to face some kind of huge 'event' or something….. We don't know what that means."
BDISSEM was quite a talkative individual, perhaps because she spent so much time alone.
Even against the less talkative Vikir, it was obvious by the way she kept talking to herself.
"I hear there's been a lot of talk about demons and gates lately. Hmm~ Things are complicated on the surface."
"...!"
Vikir, who has a quiet personality, gained a lot of information from BDISSEM's chatter, which spouted things without being asked.
Vikir barely suppressed the slight impatience in his heart.
'Demons and Gates. The age of destruction is upon us.'
He saw it coming, and he can't save them all anyway.
Only those who cannot be left to die can be saved.
...The rising of the Great Demons.
...Gates of Destruction.
...The Rainy Season of Fear.
...Poseidon.
...And the Nouvelle Vague.
Vikir strung together the keywords in his mind.
Then he began to act.
"First, the immediate enemy."
When things are overwhelming, it's best to tackle them head on.
…Flash!
Vikir awoke and summoned Beelzebub, the magic sword.
Having not breathed fresh air for so long, Beelzebub's strength was surging and he was radiating a crimson aura.
There was no need to use the solid aura of the Swordmaster.
Tsutsutsutsutsutsutsuts...
A gaseous aura that only an Expert could produce.
Vikir converted all of his aura into a gaseous form and scattered it.
"Heh, what is it? Are you an expert? With just an attack like this... huh!"
BDISSEM, who had been looking down on the gaseous aura that was spreading like a whirlwind, swallowed the wind in vain.
Gases were just gases, flickering and weak.
But its scale was a problem.
The gaseous aura that Vikir unleashed began to envelop an enormous area, as watery fog envelop an entire mountain.
An ordinary Expert-level swordsman couldn't even dream of it.
jjeojeojeong! jjeojeojeojeong!
The sound of anchors and ropes breaking or snapping could be heard throughout the aquarium.
Each molecule of Vikir's fog of strikes was a sharp, lethal weapon.
'The Swordmaster's solid aura is good for one-on-one combat, but the Expert's gaseous aura is more effective for wiping out large areas.'
Vikir had no intention of killing BDISSEM.
Now that he knew who she was and what she was capable of, there were endless ways to use her.
'...I'll keep her alive for now.'
He'd seen her power firsthand, and it was more than enough for him to handle.
So Vikir enveloped the area in a fog of strikes to subdue, not kill, BDISSEM.
It was the foundation of the Hound, the art of slowly cornering a prey.
"Ugh!"
BDISSEM was left with no room to move back as the entire space around her was covered in Vikir's strikes and aura.
There was only one path she could take now.
The aquarium. Into that pool of saltwater where the balloon eels were being bred.
...And finally.
Pung Pung!
BDISSEM dived deep into the pool.
Vikir realized that the plan had worked.
'Plants don't like salt.'
Normally, plants exposed to too much salt would burn the tips off their leaves and eventually die.
The Ent or Dryads, as beings who owe their life to plants, were no different.
What's more, the water here is ultra-deep, 10,000 meters below the surface.
It was extremely salty and concentrated, making the water feel sticky.
Pung!
Vikir dove into the saltwater pool to capture the weakened BDISSEM alive.
Several balloon eels approached, assuming they had run out of food, but were quickly cut to pieces by Vikir's charge.
'...Where are you?'
Vikir looked around, searching for BDISSEM, who must be sinking and weakening somewhere.
Just then.
"Hohoho- are you looking for me?"
A seductive female voice called out from somewhere.
"...!"
Vikir's head whipped around.
Churrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
BDISSEM vines, much thicker and tougher than before, flew out and enveloped Vikir's entire body.
It was a speed that couldn't even be compared to fighting on land.
Vikir's eyes widened at the unexpectedness of the situation, and BDISSEM appeared before him.
With her hair flying in the extremely salty brine, she looked quite different than before.
Her body had matured, and her face was no longer that of a child.
Seeing the vast increase in BDISSEM's power, Vikir had to admit that he had made a mistake.
" ...Was it a seaweed entity?"
He hadn't realized that the thing he'd dragged into the water was actually a bad hand.