Act Three: The Selection of Despair
Some time ago:
Foltesla the Surpassing Blade. The duel ranker who would earn that nickname had started playing Infinite Dendrogram shortly after its release.
He didn’t have any special reason for starting the game. He’d only picked it up because it was a hot topic in the media, and he suddenly had a lot of free time after quitting his job recently.
Upon logging in for the first time, all five of his senses were absolutely overwhelmed.
“Realistic” doesn’t even begin to describe it, he thought.
Right after arriving at the royal capital of Altea and before his Embryo hatched, he went wherever his legs took him and headed towards the north.
As Foltesla was taking a casual stroll through Noz Forest, he suddenly heard a scream.
By conditioned reflex, he ran straight to the source of the sound, where he found a young lady clutching a basket of herbs and a wolf about to attack her. The “Teal Wolf,” as it was called, bared its fangs at the girl and leaped towards her.
“...!” All of a sudden, the only thing between the wolf’s fangs and the girl’s flesh was Foltesla’s sword.
She’s in terrible danger, he thought, as his body moved on its own.
The very idea that this was a game — not reality — had completely vanished from his mind. There was only his fear that this girl may die, and his actions were simply a response to that.
After that, Foltesla went on to slay the Teal Wolf, badly injuring himself in the process.
Though these wolves were among the weakest monsters one could encounter, just a single one of them was stronger than level 0, jobless Foltesla. He’d have been lucky just to chase it away.
As Foltesla, tired from the fight, sat down on the ground, the girl asked, worried, “A-Are you okay?”
“Yeah. What about—?”
Mid-sentence, Foltesla finally remembered that he was in Infinite Dendrogram — a game.
For a moment, he reminded himself that she was just an NPC...
“A-Are you okay?! I-I’ll make some medicine right now!” ...But as he watched the worry in her eyes upon seeing his wounds and the care she put into making his medicine, Foltesla simply couldn’t keep thinking of her as nothing but a character in a game.
“This might sting a bit, but it should work right away...!” she said, wrapping the medicine-soaked bandage tightly around Foltesla’s wounds.
He’d disabled the pain settings, so it didn’t sting at all, but he could feel the smell pierce his nose, and pick up the flowery scent wafting off the girl.
As she covered him in medicine and bandages, the two talked.
“I’m sorry,” the girl said. “I’m new to this, so I still can’t make medicine that would heal you right away...”
“It’s okay. Thank you.” Foltesla checked his status summary, then showed it to her.
Relieved that he was healed, she noticed the name on the summary.
“What a relief... Umm... Is your name ‘Foltesla’?”
“...? Oh. Yes.” He wasn’t used to his player name yet, so it took him a moment to remember it.
“Umm... Thank you for saving me!”
“Thank you for the medicine, uhh...” He wanted to thank her, but then he realized that he didn’t know her name.
She realized that, too, and quickly corrected the problem. “I-I’m sorry! My name is Erica. Erica Lansley. I’m a Medicine Worker.”
“I see. Thanks, Erica. I’m Sfor—... I mean, Foltesla,” he re-introduced himself, nearly saying his real name.
That was their beginning: the beginning for a Master and tian who would become husband and wife.
Claymill the Fortress City, outskirts
Gloria had been completely unharmed by the ultimate attack of a Mythical UBM and countless full-power attacks from tians. Foltesla, however, had figured out the secret behind its apparent immortality and quickly rallied his Babylonian Battlegroup against it, sparking a battle that was intense from the moment it began.
“Shulka! Hold it in place!” Foltesla roared.
“Got it!” the Over Enchanter responded. “Come, Lahmu!”
Shulka’s crest glowed before a vast amount of mud spewed out of it. The overflowing mud quickly became a fifty meter tall, human-shaped giant that stood before Gloria.
Its name was “Guardian Mire, Lahmu,” and it was the Embryo of the Over Enchanter, Shulka — the sub-leader of the Babylonian Battlegroup and sixth in the kingdom’s kill rankings.
“BO-BO-BO.” Large as it was, it was still less than half the size of Gloria, but it charged forward regardless.
Gloria couldn’t miss the mud behemoth approaching it and quickly swung its tail, bristling with four spikes, to slice Lahmu in half diagonally.
“BO.” However, Lahmu was merely a flowing mass of mud, and because of its Physical Attack Negation, the tail had no effect.
Gloria might’ve been a fearsome monster superior even to Mythicals, but nothing could deal physical damage to a creature that negated it. Its Fatal Field wouldn’t work on non-animals, either.
That meant that there was only one thing Gloria had that could make Lahmu vanish.
That thing was the breath of ultimate light... The weapon that had slaughtered all the tians guarding Claymill.
However, Lahmu had been summoned precisely to prevent that.
“BO-BO-BO!” Upon approaching Gloria, Lahmu transformed its body back into mud and crawled up the dragon’s head: specifically, the one-horned one that fired the deadly light. Lahmu quickly wrapped itself around the head... “Great Guardian of Firmness — Lahmu!” ...And, with Shulka’s ultimate skill declaration, compressed and hardened itself.
Lahmu’s ultimate skill turned it into a material harder than even Mythical metal. Normally, it only hardened a part of its mud for use as a weapon, but this time, every last bit of it was instantly petrified.
“...!” Lahmu now acted as something like a dog muzzle or a prisoner’s mask. Gloria’s one-horned head could neither open its jaws or emit its deadly light. It tried to break the restraint with its immense STR ranking in the tens of thousands, but even that couldn’t easily destroy a creature that was as hard as Mythical metal.
It came at the cost of all the power of a sixth-form Embryo, but the light of the zenith was now completely sealed.
“You’ve got it!” Foltesla cried.
“Yes,” nodded Shulka. “But it seems that anything that went inside its mouth evaporated, so I can’t finish it off.”
The closed maw kept the heat inside, preventing Lahmu from going in and killing it from within.
“That’s all right. Focus on keeping it bound.”
“Very well. I’ll focus the single-target buffs on Lahmu, then cast the area buffs in order.”
The Over Enchanter’s passive skill, “One and All Enchanting,” let Shulka simultaneously use single-target and area buffs at the same time. Thus, it was possible for him to put the single-target END buffs on Lahmu to keep the binding strong, while at the same time using area stat buffs to increase the abilities of his clan members.
“All right...” Foltesla said before charging Gloria again, now buffed.
His attacks were powerful now, and not just because of Shulka’s buffs. It was also due to Næ?ling’s self-enhancement.
The skill that Næ?ling had possessed from the very beginning was called “Over Chaser,” which increased Foltesla’s stats by (skill level x 10%), provided the corresponding stat was higher on the enemy he was fighting.
In her sixth form, Næ?ling’s skill level was 6, which meant that all of Foltesla’s stats except AGI — in which he was already above Gloria — were increased by an impressive 60%.
The two enhancements added up, giving him impressive stats even for a Superior Job, and supreme offensive ability against Gloria.
“It has some strong defenses... But it’s nothing an active skill can’t break,” Foltesla muttered as he cut into Gloria’s tough scales.
He wasn’t the only one fighting, though. All of the Babylonian Battlegroup’s elite, also buffed by Shulka, were attacking Gloria now as well.
“We can do it... We’re damaging it!”
“Watch out for the tail! It deals more damage than its legs!”
“We know that, Riser!” There were even rankers among the Masters, and they fought against the dragon without showing the slightest intention to retreat. They were daring and resolute indeed, and little by little their damage began to add up.
However... the dragon’s HP was going down too slowly.
“We lack the numbers, don’t we?” Still fighting, Foltesla looked over the clan members within the barrier. Even with himself and Shulka included, their number didn’t exceed twelve. Two parties — only about 5% — of all the members present were even able to participate.
The players here were all level 500 or above, and Foltesla already knew that was what allowed them to stand in the field.
Attaining level 500 was actually very difficult for Masters. Besides Superior Jobs, the only ones that could reach it were those who’d maxed out all their low and high-rank jobs. However, it was extremely common for people who’d hit max level to be unsatisfied with their builds and reset unneeded jobs to get new ones. It was also a way of experimenting, in the hopes that they would discover the conditions for unlocking Superior Jobs.
This was especially true in the Babylonian Battlegroup, which was the second strongest clan in the kingdom and was fully focused on battle. Most were in the middle of leveling new jobs, and thus only the aforementioned twelve qualified to enter the field.
In addition to that, the party compositions weren’t all that good, either. There wasn’t a single person who focused on a job in the priest grouping. One might say that the only reason they were able to put up such a good fight was that Shulka — a Superior Job from the support-focused enchanter grouping — was a central figure among them.
To fully prepare to fight Gloria, you needed at least a few dozen max-level Masters. That was the reason why the rushing rankers had been defeated. And if not that, you needed people who were above maxed-out — Superior Jobs.
I see... Foltesla thought. So this is what this thing is all about.
As he fought, he finally figured out the concept behind Gloria.
As a storied fighter and leader of the Babylonian Battlegroup, Foltesla had fought many UBMs, and by now, he knew that the majority of them had some sort of theme behind them.
Some would regenerate endlessly until you dealt with their weak spot.
Some would absorb the life force of nearby animals to grow stronger.
Some would nest in an advantageous spot and simply attack from there.
Design concepts like that applied to most UBMs.
And just now, Foltesla had figured out Gloria’s concept.
This thing specializes in “selection,” he concluded. You could see it in the many powers it’d used so far.
The Fatal Field selected those who were of high enough level.
The negation of all damage from outside the field prevented people of lower level from joining the battle at all.
The light breath selected those who could escape before it became deadly... Basically, anyone fast and decisive enough.
All of them were powers that selected the powerful and filtered out the weak.
...It does make sense for what it is, though, Foltesla thought. If you looked at Tri-Zenith Dragon, Gloria, as an endgame raid boss from a traditional MMORPG, it made a lot of sense. You had to fight it over and over so you could figure out its special qualities, weaknesses, and action patterns before you could fully prepare yourself and beat it to receive an immense reward.
In a way, it was a very “complete” boss monster.
“But... there’s no time for repeat runs!” A vast number of tians had already died, and they would never come back.
If they lost to it over and over, the kingdom would fall, even if the Masters themselves didn’t.
And considering the fact that the Babylonian Battlegroup was the last barrier standing between Gloria and their hometown of Claymill, they couldn’t afford to lose even once.
“We’ll finish it, here and now!” Foltesla shouted.
“YEAH!” the others cheered.
“We have a chance.” To Masters that could enter the Fatal Field, the only dangerous things were Gloria’s stats and light breath, but the latter had been sealed by Lahmu.
And though its stats, such as the STR that could kill in one hit, were intimidating... “We can just dodge all the attacks!” Foltesla was third in the duel rankings, and the other Masters had plenty of fights under their belts, as well. With their AGI buffed by Shulka, they used their stats and experience to avoid the storm of claws and tail.
“Gloria’s STR and END are great, but its AGI isn’t even supersonic,” Foltesla said. “As long as we watch out for its tail and claws, it won’t be hard to avoid its attacks.”
A single mistake meant certain doom here, but as the rival of the Over Gladiator, he was familiar with these kinds of situations. It was dangerous, but as of yet, not a single one of the twelve Babylonian Battlegroup members had died. In fact, they were starting to gain the upper hand.
Their MP and SP was limited, of course, but the members outside the barrier could keep them charged using their support skills. They would fight with all their might, run out of MP or SP, rush to the edge of the field to fill up, rinse and repeat.
If things continued like this, victory was in their grasp. The moment they felt certain of that...
“Ah...!”
...Gloria was attacked from an unexpected direction.
It dealt damage, so it was clearly from inside the monster’s field, but the ones responsible weren’t part of the Babylonian Battlegroup.
“Captain! It’s those parties and clans that were watching from a distance! They—”
“Found out how to beat it and decided to take advantage of our fight, huh?” It was actually a number of parties and clans, and all maxed-out, skilled players who jumped in to attack Gloria.
Some attacked Gloria with AoE attacks, not caring if they damaged other Masters. There were also some who targeted Masters specifically.
The Babylonian Battlegroup members outside the field had tried to stop them, but they were caught off-guard and did not manage to succeed.
“Build up your damage! We gotta be the MVP!”
“Crush the others, too! Keep those AoEs coming!” Their actions were, in some ways, reasonable. Everyone gathered here was after a Superior special reward. By default, it was “every team for itself” — or perhaps even “every man for himself.”
“Can’t expect any cooperation here,” Foltesla scowled and rang out as he cut down one of his attackers.
At first glance, it looked like they now had more people on their side, but everyone was trampling over each other in their rush for the merit needed to become MVPs.
To the Babylonian Battlegroup, who fought cooperatively, this clearly made the fight more difficult.
“...Rabe, Hanzaki, tank for Shulka,” said Foltesla. “If he dies, Lahmu will disappear.”
“...!?” Gloria’s defense required the use of active skills to break through it.
What made it so easy for Næ?ling to overcome was her ultimate skill.
The One Who Overcomes — Næ?ling.
It was an ultimate skill that activated upon her destruction.
First, it would recreate the blade out of light for ten minutes.
At the same time, it added the destroyer’s defense to Foltesla’s attack, offense to his defense, and AGI to his AGI — a retaliatory ultimate skill.
That meant as long as the skill was active, Foltesla had an attack power that could always break through the opponent’s defense, defensive power that they could never overcome, and speed that was always greater than theirs.
The skill’s duration was limited, but in a one-on-one, this would always place Foltesla above his opponent.
“ShoUOooOoOEeeEAaAaaAAAAaaAHHhHh!?” The shock of losing its tail caused Gloria to roar in pain for the first time.
However, Foltesla didn’t stop there.
Gripping the blade that had now returned to its original size, he ran up Gloria’s back and, once at the base of its wings, unleashed the ultimate job skill of the King of Swords.
“Sword Avalanche!” It was a barrier of blades — a sword-storm slashing all around him at twice the speed of sound.
A weaker blade would have definitely shattered from the force of this relentless attack. However, as she was now, Næ?ling could bear it.
Thus, the sword avalanche cut down the two wings growing out of Gloria’s back before tearing open a giant hole in its body, dealing immense damage.
It had destroyed Gloria’s heart through its back.
“...”
Losing a critical organ made Gloria’s balance waver. Neither the Babylonian Battlegroup nor any duel rankers missed this brief flash of weakness. At this moment, they would unleash everything they had.
“Disintegrating Bow of Divine Lightning — INDRAAAAA!”
“Thousand-Arm Earth-Shaking Fist — Avalokite?vara.”
“Storm-Man Who Blows Away All Evil — Hermod... RISER KIIIIIIIIIIIICK!” An arrow of compressed thunderclouds, continuous blows from fists that seemed to number in the thousands, and a supersonic spinning kick all struck Gloria.
Seeing the opportunity, the surrounding Masters also focused their attacks on the dragon.
In that moment, firepower that surpassed even the rite of divine punishment overwhelmed Gloria’s body.
Foltesla leapt off Gloria’s back to avoid being caught up in it. And even if he wasn’t forced back, using Sword Avalanche had rendered him unable to move his arm for a minute, so he couldn’t keep attacking anyway.
“Captain! Are you okay!?” asked a Babylonian Battlegroup member who ran up to him.
“I’m fine,” Foltesla responded. “I’ll attack it again the second the side-effect wears off.”
“...So it still isn’t over yet?”
“Yeah. I destroyed its heart, but that just slowed it down. It’s probably a core-type, and the core is probably in one of the heads, or in all three of them.”
Normally, destroying the heart was enough to kill most creatures. But if the creature had a core that ruled over the other organs, the heart was little more than a piece of flesh.
And Foltesla guessed that Gloria had three cores — one for each head.
“...The side-effect’s gone now,” he said. “I’ll go get its head.”
“Be careful. Hm...?”
The clan member that was seeing him off was blinking rapidly.
It was because a light was shining into his eyes.
After a moment that was like staring at dawn or directly into a flashlight... his head vanished.
“Huh...!?” After seeing that, Foltesla looked up at Gloria. What he saw reminded him of the disco balls from the nightclubs of a few decades ago.
Gloria was releasing light from its entire body.
There was no telling when this began, but it seemed like the wounds the Masters had dealt to Gloria had transformed into toothless mouths, all of which were releasing light. The one-horn was still bound by Lahmu, but the horn peeking out was shining red, just like when it had evaporated the tians.
“...! This has gotta be it!” Foltesla became certain that this was the source of his fears.
Gloria, now covered in wounds-turned-mouths, was twisting its body, sweeping up the surrounding Masters. The range of the blasts from the wounds was shorter than the ones from the main mouth, but that didn’t mean much to the Masters it caught.
They survived for a moment thanks to their Brooches before expiring in the light.
It felt like a bad joke — the Masters that were dominating the fight were now being simply swept away.
That included the non-maxed-out Babylonian Battlegroup Masters who were providing support from outside the field.
Foltesla himself was able to avoid the light with his skillful movements, but...
“Ah...! SHULKA!”
“Captain, I’m sor—” The light show evaporated Shulka, the sub-leader of the Babylonian Battlegroup and the Master of Lahmu.
“BO...” A moment later, Lahmu vanished, freeing the one-horn and unleashing the first and strongest source of deadly light.
The source that, unlike the wounds, could fire all the way to Claymill.
Most of the surrounding Masters were gone, so Gloria stopped releasing light from its entire body.
Instead, the one-horned head opened its maw and aimed straight at Claymill.
“Not yet...!” The very next moment, Foltesla charged towards the head at supersonic speeds.
He got on it right before it fired and... “Over Edge! Sword Avalanche!” ...ran in to destroy the one-horned head using his ultimate job skill, right after expanding the size of his blade.
True to its name, the attack was like an unrelenting avalanche. It shattered the face cover on its head, split the right eyelid, cut the eye, and nearly reached within the skull when Næ?ling’s blade of light shattered.
Foltesla gasped. “H-How? This just...!” Neither he nor Næ?ling could believe it.
After all, there was only one opponent who could withstand Foltesla’s blade after he had used his ultimate skill.
Regardless, the reality was that the blade had broken upon reaching the bone.
This couldn’t be right. His offense should’ve been above Gloria’s defense.
There was only one reasonable explanation for this...
“Its stats increased...!” Foltesla now knew.
While Næ?ling’s ultimate skill was active, there were only two ways the target opponent could have a defense greater than her offense. Either it was some special defensive ability that had nothing to do with stats, or the target’s stats had increased after the ultimate skill was executed and copied the stats onto Foltesla.
Foltesla had fought Figaro many times, and he knew that he could lose even with his ultimate skill active due to the lion’s ability to grow stronger as the battle progressed.
He suddenly felt a gaze on him. He turned and wondered how long it had been like this.
The third head, the one that had been dormant since the start, now had its eyes completely open.
Seemingly bored, the three-horned head stared at Foltesla, who was still on top of the one-horn.
If Gloria was indeed specialized in selection...
The barrier selected the powerful, while the breath of radiant death selected the quick and decisive...
So wouldn’t it make sense for it to have a power that would allow it to select the strongest among the strong?
“Not yet...!” Foltesla stood up and brandished his sword. Even if his Næ?ling had broken and the opponent had become stronger, Foltesla wouldn’t stop fighting.
Maybe he wasn’t a man of true strength who could make it past Gloria’s third selection. But even so, he had something he wanted to protect with his blade.
Gloria would soon fire its breath of light.
If that happened, Claymill would be done for.
Erica — Foltesla’s wife — would die.
As a Maiden’s Master, he couldn’t tolerate that. This world was real, after all. She was real.
“N-NO! I WON’T LET YOU DO THIS!” Næ?ling had shattered and vanished, so he used Instant Equip to take out and brandish his spare weapon — a greatsword forged from a Mythical metal.
He struck Gloria again and again, even if it meant breaking his blade. He had to shatter the core at all costs. His grip on the handle was so tight his palms began to bleed. He didn’t even stop attacking when the bones in his wrist began to crack.
Gloria didn’t stop, either.
The horn soon began to shine, and its mouth began to overflow with light. The all-extinguishing radiance shambled towards Claymill.
“No...! ERI—!” Suddenly, the wound Foltesla had made on the head became another mouth.
And he, too, was engulfed by the torrent of light.
Nothing could withstand that. Even the Mythical greatsword melted to liquid, dripping down on Gloria as Foltesla and all he’d tried to protect vanished within the light.
After the battle, there was neither a fortress nor a city. The only things left were Gloria’s own severed wings.
The city had evaporated, leaving only the foundations. The people had evaporated as well.
Claymill the Fortress City had fallen. There were no survivors.
The battle had simply ended in a bitter flash of light...
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