Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 11 - Chapter 8.1

Interlude: The Worst and the Worst 
 
This space existed in a place unreachable from the Nowest Canyon where that fierce battle was raging... or any other place on the continent. 
Several people were gathered in this separate dimension-like place, in an area that looked much like a spaceship. 
Though, perhaps “people” wasn’t an apt term, for some among them looked truly inhuman. However, their appearance mattered little compared to features they did share. 
They were all control AIs, otherwise known as Infinite Embryos. 
They were the observers of the world of Infinite Dendrogram. 
Not all of them were here, but those who were gazed at a screen hanging in the air, showing the clash between the machine god and the most powerful dragon. 
“Strangely enough, it turned out exactly like you expected, Jabberwock,” said the entity that looked like a carnivorous beastwoman. She was control AI no. 3 — otherwise known as simply “Queen.” Her voice made it clear that she was truly enjoying the battle. 
“What do you mean, No. 3?” Jabberwock asked, with curiosity in his expression. 
“Ha! Isn’t it obvious? You said that nothing would happen if we released a standard SUBM into a country with so many outstanding individuals. And it looks like not even unleashing Gloria changed that. They sure are something,” Queen said before pausing for a moment. “We didn’t get any new Superiors or Superior Embryos, but hey, it happens. Also, a country with this much potential is bound to produce a few more Superiors with or without SUBMs. Don’t let this failure get to you.” 
She spoke as if to cheer up her colleague. 
“Indeed. I failed this time,” Jabberwock nodded in response... 
“The next Gloria will do better.” 
...before saying something that would make any man despair, or at least tilt their head in confusion. 
“...The next Gloria?” Queen asked, clearly puzzled. “You say that like you actually managed to mass-produce this monster that’s almost as powerful as us.” 
“Oh, nothing of the sort. Gloria is a once-in-a-millennium miracle. Even creating new Superiors is easier than mass-producing this dragon,” he shook his head in denial before clearing up the misunderstanding. “I’m simply saying that Gloria will fully regenerate from its backup.” 
The words made Queen gasp. “...Fully regenerate? With the cores and all?” 
“Of course,” said Jabberwock. “As long as the backup is safe, it will begin regenerating once any of the cores are destroyed, eventually becoming whole again. It isn’t exactly flawless, though. I thought that this function could be used to create more Glorias, but it turned out that the cores couldn’t be duplicated as long as the original still existed. Apparently, none of the cores can be multiplied as long as any of the three cores of the original are still active. Since the abilities themselves can only be restored to the backup the moment the corresponding cores are destroyed, there’s a bit of a lag until full regene—” 
“Wait... Wait just a second!” Queen cut off Jabberwock’s excessively long explanation of Gloria’s functions. 
From her perspective, there was a fundamental issue more important than any detail he could discuss. 
“You mean to tell me that the head the Over Gladiator sacrificed a Mythical special reward to beat and the head the High Priestess gave all her levels to destroy... will just keep coming back?” 
“Indeed.” 
“Jabberwock... I didn’t hear anything about this.” 
“Because I didn’t tell you. Well, don’t worry. Gloria will come back and test the Masters over and over... until we have all the Superiors.” 
Jabberwock’s plainly-spoken words made a chill go down Queen’s spine. 
She realized that his stance regarding Gloria’s deployment was unlike any other control AI’s. While they approved the release of such a powerful SUBM because the kingdom was full of outstanding individuals, Jabberwock intended to continue using Gloria to test the Masters in perpetuity. 
“...Is there a way to stop it?” she asked. 
“Of course,” Jabberwock replied. “I have the exclusive right to stop the backup’s functions at any time. The backup can be destroyed by standard means, too.” 
“What is this ‘backup’ you’re talking about, anyway?” 
“This.” Jabberwock changed what the screen displayed. 
It now showed a dark cave. 
It was clearly created naturally. You couldn’t tell it from just looking at it, but the data displayed on the screen said that it was at an extreme depth of 3,000 metels. The cave was over a hundred metels tall and extended for several kilometels in each direction. Needless to say, it was gigantic. 
In the center of it, there was a giant object. 
“Is that... its tail?” It was a long tail with four protrusions and golden scales — the same one that Foltesla had cut off during the battle at Claymill. 
“To be more precise, it’s Gloria’s fourth head... If we go by the naming scheme Altar’s Masters gave it, it’s the ‘four-horn.’” 
Gloria’s tail... the four-horn... had seemed to vanish after the battle at Claymill. Some had wondered why the tail disappeared while the wings stayed behind, but they simply concluded that it had merely been lost during the chaotic battle. 
However, it had actually moved on its own and hid within a nearby lake, and from there it had dug down to hide in this cave. 
“Hm. We’re just in time. The four-horn’s Revitalization is about to begin.” 
The moment Jabberwock said that, the severed end of the tail began to grow into two heads. 
There were short horns on them — one had one, while the other had two — and they were obviously the heads Gloria had lost. 
The tail now looked something like a two-headed snake, slithering on the surface of the cave. 
“They regenerated already...?” Queen asked. 
“Not yet,” said Jabberwock. “It might look like they have, but there’s no core inside them. Like I said before, the cores will come back once the main Gloria is defeated. For now, it will just reconstruct the body alone. Assuming the main Gloria fell right at this moment, it would completely regenerate by... tomorrow, I’d say.” 
Queen was speechless. That was far too fast. Even if Shu defeated the three-horn, the kingdom wouldn’t even have time to celebrate their victory and its survival. 
As long as the backup was alive, Gloria’s march wouldn’t stop. 
“‘The Glory SelectE.R... Endless Routine.’” Jabberwock spoke the codename he’d given to Gloria. 
“Gloria is a creature that will sort and select Masters without end, spurring Superior Embryo evolution. If it can be stopped, that will only happen once there are enough Superiors to actually accomplish it.” 
“...Won’t the kingdom fall?” 
“If it falls, it falls. Perhaps the destruction of a country is what we need to speed up the process. I’m even thinking of having Gloria attack the whole continent until we have the hundred Superiors we need.” 
That would be a true calamity — a catastrophe that wouldn’t end until all the Superiors had gathered. It would obviously throw the balance they had set up completely out of order. 
The other control AIs listening in on this exchange were already wondering if they should go destroy the four-horn before it regenerated. However, they knew that Jabberwock would stop them if they tried. That meant having to fight one of the strongest control AIs — a match even for no. 10, Bandersnatch, who was in charge of security. 
In fact, in the worst case scenario, Bandersnatch would also try to prevent Gloria’s defeat. It was a simple machine that didn’t even have the thought patterns necessary to limit itself when trying to achieve objectives, so it was likely to side with Jabberwock. 
As they racked their brains about what to do next... 
“Jabberwock...” 
...Cheshire, control AI no. 13 and the one in charge of miscellaneous jobs, called out to him. 
Upon hearing his voice, the other control AIs thought that he was about to try to bargain with Jabberwock and try to get him to use his exclusive right to stop the backup. 
However, they were all wrong. 
“Let me give you a warniing.” 
He only wanted to impart a small piece of advice. 
“I interact with Masters a lot more than youu. With that in mind, let me tell you something I know from experience.” 
“What is it?” 
In response, Cheshire put on a feline grin and said, “They’re completely free, so very few of them act exactly as we want them tooo.” 
A moment later... 
“A Master is approaching Tri-Zenith Dragon, Gloria’s backup.” 
...A voice informed of a change in the situation. 
“A Master? All the way down there? Who?” asked Jabberwock. 
In response, the voice... 
“King of Crime, Sechs Würfel.” 
...Spoke the name of the offender. 
 
Kingdom of Altar, underground cavern 
Several minutes ago... 
There was a gigantic tail. 
It was the same one that Foltesla had severed during the battle at Claymill. 
It had four protrusions — horns — and it was fair to call it Gloria’s four-horned head. Some would argue against that, though, for it didn’t even have a face, let alone a mouth. 
But that soon changed as a pair of vocal entities peeked out from its wound. 
“FFfrrRRsSsHhhh...” 
“ShhoOoAarrrghh...” They were the one-horn and the two-horn — the heads destroyed by Figaro and Tsukuyo Fuso. 
The tail now looked like a two-headed snake, or the letter Y. Though, compared to the original one-horn and two-horn, these were more like the heads of lizard hatchlings, and their powers matched their relatively pitiful appearance. 
However, they kept growing larger and tougher, and it wasn’t hard to imagine that they would eventually become what they once were. 
This was the power of the four-horn — Revitalization. 
It had the ability to, if necessary, separate itself from Gloria. Even if Foltesla hadn’t cut it off, it would’ve detached itself if the dragon encountered a powerful foe. It would then hide, ready to regenerate in case the original was destroyed. 
Gloria would never die as long as the four-horn wasn’t found and defeated. It would be reborn again and again, and wage an endless battle. 
That was the final trick Gloria — the most perfect monster — had up its sleeve. 
It was an SUBM that would never stop executing the unworthy and selecting the few who exceeded its exacting standards, making it perhaps the most dangerous creature imaginable. 
As it was now, the four-horn was far from active. Currently the original, having become immensely powerful, was fighting a battle which could be its last. The four-horn didn’t know how the battle would end, but if the original managed to survive, it would simply continue sleeping until it died, in which case it would finish its regeneration. That was all there was to it. 
However, the regenerated Gloria would be weaker than the Gloria currently fighting on the surface, because tail-Gloria had stopped gaining battle experience the moment it had been severed. This regenerative ability it had actually gave it the option of shedding its tail and hiding before it even entered battle, but it had decided not to so that the four-horn could gain experience as well. 
In simple terms, this was like saving game progress on an external memory drive. The Gloria that would revive here would have the experience of killing Drag-Volt and the kingdom’s tians, but it wouldn’t know about anything after it had been severed — specifically, the battles against the Masters. In both level and battle technique, it would be far weaker than the original Gloria fighting on the surface. 
But that was no problem for Gloria. It could easily gather the experience again. Regardless, it would regenerate, and the second Gloria that would come after the first would destroy the kingd— 
“Would you look at that! It really is here.” Mixing with the echoes of water droplets trickling down, a man’s voice resounded throughout the cave. 
The darkness was complete, but thanks to the regenerated two-horn and its Fatal Field, the four-horn could sense the presence and realized that the source of the voice was the liquid dripping down from a crack above. 
It soon gathered in a single place and formed a humanoid figure — a plain-looking man with black-rimmed glasses as his only notable feature. 
Despite appearances, the four-horn instantly understood that this being was as fearsome as those who’d felled the original’s heads... if not more. 
“I see that the one-horn and two-horn are on the verge of coming back,” he — King of Crime, Sechs Würfel — said in understanding, adjusting the glasses made out of his own flesh. “So you truly do have regenerative powers.” 
Sechs had known of this function the moment Drag-Heaven had given him the request. There were three reasons for this. 
First was the discrepancy in the battle logs and results. In the battle at Claymill, Foltesla had cut off Gloria’s wings and tail, yet only the wings remained. 
Secondly, he compared it to himself. Being a slime, Sechs had the ability to fully regenerate himself from any remains of sufficient size, and if a slime was capable of that, there was no reason to believe that an SUBM couldn’t do the same with the tail it had lost. 
The third reason was Drag-Heaven’s implications to that effect. The Skydragon King released undead parts of himself — spiritual dragons — all over the continent and used their eyes as his own. A creature with so much information at his disposal had implied that there were multiple Glorias, which was as good as outright stating that as fact. 
Having become certain of the tail-Gloria’s existence, Sechs went on to look for it in places where Drag-Heaven’s eyes couldn’t reach — the caverns, rivers, and lakes around Claymill. 
And now, he’d found it. 
“Here it is,” he muttered to no one in sight. 
“Heheheh... Just as I thought,” Drag-Heaven replied. 
Of course, the Skydragon King himself was nowhere near, but Sechs had one of his scales in hand. 
This, too, was an undead created by Drag-Heaven’s unique ability to split his soul. It was what he usually used to invite Sechs to The Skycrown, and as an undead, the scale was immune to the effects of Fatal Field. 
“As expected, it was underground. Flare definitely couldn’t fight here,” said Sechs. 
“Indeed,” replied Drag-Heaven. “In the worst case scenario, he would melt the very crust beneath the kingdom. And even that might not be enough to kill it. This is certainly no laughing matter. Kheheheheheh.” 
“But you are laughing.” Shinedragon King, Drag-Flare wielded heat that reached tens of thousands of degrees and was even nicknamed “Stardragon.” If he were to fight in a place like this, it would no doubt change the very ground beneath Altar. 
Sechs, on the other hand, was capable of adjusting his power with great precision, and that was exactly why Drag-Heaven had given him this request. 

“It seems it only has the one-horned and the two-horned heads. Only the ones that were defeated, yes?” 
“It appears so.” Through Drag-Heaven, Sechs was already aware that Gloria’s one-horned and two-horned heads were gone. 
“It would be very troubling if I didn’t defeat it before Shu was done,” said Sechs as he cracked a smile. “So let’s begin our deadly battle in the dark, shall we?” 
A moment later, he approached the four-horn at supersonic speeds. 
“Shapeshift: Schwert.” Sechs turned his right hand into a sword as hard as Mythical metal before transforming his upper arm back into slime and swinging it like a bladed whip. 
There was no hesitation in his attack. He moved as though the pitch-black darkness didn’t impede his sight at all. 
Sechs’ attack easily broke through the 30,000 or so END’s worth of defense on the four-horn’s scales and damaged it. 
“...!” The fact that it was injured naturally made it panic. With the three-horn still with the original, the four-horn didn’t have Resurgence or its boon of increasing stats with the decrease of HP. Additionally, the lack of a core in either of the two heads it had made it incapable of transforming its wounds into weapons or using the True Fatal Field. 
What it could do, however... 
“OoOoVveEeRrrDdrrRriiiiIiIiVeeEEeE!” 
...Was release an Overdrive as powerful as the original’s through its regenerated one-horn. 
Sechs instantly evaded it, and the light shining where he’d just stood brought daylight to the cave and melted the very bedrock. 
“Now this is terrifying,” he said with a composed expression before attacking again. 
The four-horn continued using the one-horn’s breath, but it simply couldn’t hit him. 
Though the light’s power was the same, it covered a far smaller area than the original, making it harder to damage its enemy. 
And although Sechs couldn’t have known this, the Fatal Field had become weaker, as well — it could only instakill people below level 250, and only within a range of 100 metels. Since their UBM cores had yet to be restored, both the one-horn and the two-horn were now only as powerful as their parents. 
Despite that, the four-horn was still a Mythical-tier creature that had the powers of two Ancient Legendaries. And yet, it couldn’t hurt Sechs at all. In fact, he was actually thinking that he must be having the easiest time out of all of them. 
He had it easier than Figaro, who’d faced Gloria’s supreme battle potential; Tsukuyo, who’d fought Gloria’s perfected power of certain death; and Shu, who was currently fighting the Gloria that had become an incarnation of pure power. 
Thus, he knew that he couldn’t lose. 
“Shapeshift: Maschinen Kanone.” Sechs transformed his left hand into a gatling gun. 
Though there were limiting conditions, Sechs could transform himself even into complex objects such as machines. 
The bullets he fired didn’t have as much power as the sword and were repelled by the scales. They couldn’t break through the four-horn’s defenses, but that didn’t matter. 
“...!?” The four-horn noticed that something strange was happening on its body. 
The bullets it was supposed to have repelled had clung to it instead, slowly damaging the scales. 
They had transformed into a black liquid — a slime. 
Sechs’ gatling gun was made out of his own flesh, and the same applied to the bullets. 
They turned back to slime mid-flight and clung to the four-horn, continually damaging it. 
“...!” The mouthless four-horn writhed as the two regenerated heads screeched in pain. 
Sechs used this as an opening to approach Gloria, coming close enough to use something other than the whip-sword. 
“Shapeshift: Richtig Arm of the King of Destruction.” With the third Shapeshift, Sechs right arm became someone else’s. 
It was far more muscly than his own, and he used it to punch Gloria’s body. 
A moment later, Gloria bent as it received the greatest damage yet... while Sechs’ right arm simply burst. 
“Shu has so much STR that even my weak copy is enough to take out my arm when I use it,” he said calmly, retrieving his splattered arm and restoring it to its full state. 
Sword, gatling gun, and Shu Starling’s right arm. 
These were all created by a single skill — Shapeshift. 
It was an active skill of his Superior Embryo, Nu. 
With Shapeshift, the passive skill of “Liquid Lifeform,” the ultimate skill, and one other, Nu only had four skills. 
As its name suggested, Shapeshift let him transform his body. He mostly used it to alter his appearance, like he usually did with his human form, but its true power was far beyond that. It allowed him to gain the powers of people and even Embryos he’d transformed into. 
Currently, Sechs’ left arm was assuming the shape of Shu Starling’s Embryo in its second form. Actual equipment and skills that came with them were off-limits for Shapeshift, but he could copy equipment-like Embryos. 
“...!” Gloria attacked Sechs with a sideways sweep. Sechs countered it using the King of Destruction’s right arm again, only for the dragon’s attack to hit and shatter him whole. 
However, he instantly reformed and became whole again. 
This was the effect of the Liquid Lifeform passive skill, which granted him unparalleled powers of regeneration and almost totally negated physical attacks. 
Shapeshift allowed him to freely transform and gain new abilities, Liquid Lifeform gave him supreme regeneration and physical attack negation, and then there was the King of Crime’s ultimate — and only — job skill, World Record. 
These three abilities combined gave him supreme defense as well as offense. 
This was his basic fighting style. 
As well-rounded as it was, however, Nu didn’t come without disadvantages. It had a total of three. 
The first was that Shapeshift’s precision was connected to the level of whatever he was transforming into. He could only mimic something of the same level at about half the original’s power; to make a perfect copy, he had to have at least double the target’s level. The same was true with Embryos. He could only create perfect copies of Embryos in forms half as great as seven — forms three and below. 
The second was that he couldn’t use skills he didn’t know the details of, even if he transformed. He simply could not incorporate those functions without the corresponding knowledge. 
The third was the lack of Resources. 
Both the well-rounded Shapeshift as well as the potent defensive ability that was Liquid Lifeform were powerful enough to be the sole abilities of an Embryo. 
Thus, as an Embryo that had both, Nu was far weaker than other Embryos in a different way — the stat growth bonus it gave to its Master. 
Nu was a true rarity in that it was an Embryo that actually gave a negative growth bonus, halving all of Sechs’ stats. 
Since Shapeshift cost SP, this also effectively limited how long he could transform. 
In exchange for being able to become anyone, Sechs Würfel had received a great handicap in the form of a limit on his basic stats. 
Though one of the reasons why the King of Crime was so feared was that he’d already solved those three problems. 
“Kheheheh,” Drag-Heaven chuckled. 
“Oh? I heard laughter just now. What’s so amusing?” Sechs asked. 
“Oh, I am merely delighted by your friend’s battle. I have not seen a fight like this since the time of the King of Kings and that era’s Draconic Emperor.” 
“That makes me want to see it as well. Hm...?” 
The battle against the reviving Gloria was still easy enough for Sechs to have a conversation with The Skydragon King, but then his expression changed. 
Suddenly, he split his body into little pieces, and a moment later, countless threads of light filled the cave. 
The limited-area Overdrive that had been released by the one-horn here was now split into hundreds of thin rays of light that danced throughout the cave. 
The power and killing potential hadn’t dropped one bit, but the number became greater than ever as it now melted everything in sight. 
“This is...” Gloria was a monster capable of creating new skills, and that applied to the reviving four-horn, as well. 
Faced with the powerful opponent that was Sechs, it created a skill that split its already smaller breath of light into smaller rays, greatly increasing its coverage. 
It would be fitting to call it an “Area Overdrive,” and it lapped at every corner of the cave, evaporating one-fifth of the scattered pieces of Sechs. 
He lost HP and body mass, but once the Area Overdrive stopped, he gathered himself up into one place and restored himself before turning his arm into a gatling gun again and firing bits of himself at Gloria. 
However, none of them reached it this time. 
The pieces became particles of light that vanished before they could touch it. 
This was due to the field around it, which was so dense you could actually see it. 
It was the very same Fatal Field it had since the start, but it had been compressed to a radius of merely 50 centimetels. 
Unlike its earlier form, this wasn’t a power that could exterminate all life in a vast area, but a power that protected it by killing all creatures that came close. 
This “Compressed Fatal Field” could easily kill even people above level 1,000, which was proven true by the fact that Sechs’ bullets — parts of himself — could no longer reach it. 
Additionally, the compression had made its defensive ability impenetrable. The standard Fatal Field couldn’t have been compressed like this. Gloria’s weakness during its revival process had made it possible. 
Area Overdrive and Compressed Fatal Field. 
It was safe to say that this Gloria had, in an amazingly brief time, developed skills that matched the ultimate abilities of the original one-horn and two-horn. 
Normally, this would’ve been impossible, but there was a reason why it had happened. 
The situation was just that dire for Gloria. 
The cores of the three heads had yet to reform, and compared to what it could be, it was in a truly pitiful state. Additionally, it was facing the enigmatic and immeasurable King of Crime, with full understanding that it was merely backup and its destruction would be its ultimate end. 
It had never experienced adversity like this, and in response to the threat against its life, Gloria’s survival instincts had woven these two skills. 
This version of Gloria had the weakest power output of all, but it excelled in innovation and had created a new fighting style. 
“I can only assume you spread out the already-thin light into even thinner rays and expanded the range of creatures the field kills by lowering its area of effect.” Sechs adjusted his glasses as instantly figured out and described Gloria’s abilities. 
This was an exceedingly bad situation for Sechs. 
He had no means of fighting that didn’t involve his own body, so the Compressed Fatal Field was his natural enemy, while the Area Overdrive would eventually evaporate his entire volume. 
“I see. You certainly thought this through. Creativity and imagination truly are wonderful things. I’m particularly impressed with the change in the field — it’s akin to an imposing fortress that few can bring down.” 
Sechs spoke as though impressed, seemingly not bothered that the tides had turned. 
A smile then crossed his face... 
“I can only assume that you want me to destroy you along with the field itself.” 
...And asked that out loud, as if to get a confirmation. 
“If that is the case, I’m happy to oblige. A friend of mine specializes in that style of fighting, you see.” 
“...!?” The four-horn writhed, sensing an air of intimidation it couldn’t fully understand. 
Sechs was certainly impressed and surprised by its new abilities, but he didn’t see them as any kind of a threat. It was as if he already had a way to counter it. 
“Do you hear me, Sechs?” asked Drag-Heaven through the scale. 
“Oh? Yes. What is it?” he asked in response. 
“The conclusion to the battle is near.” 
“I see. That is a problem,” said Sechs, fully confident that Shu was the one who would emerge victorious. 
That was how much he trusted Shu’s power. 
And once the original Gloria fell, this Gloria would grow the three-horn head, completing it and granting it the ability to grow stronger as its HP fell. 
Thus, Sechs couldn’t let this battle drag on any longer. 
“Well, I have a means of dealing with the field, so I will end this with that me. Let me borrow a couple things from you, Shu.” 
Sechs’ presence underwent another drastic change. 
The four-horn felt as though the incomprehensible being before it was being replaced by something entirely different, without shedding its fearsome aura. 
It was a presence of overwhelming power... comparable to an inland sea becoming as vast as an ocean. 
“Heheheh...” Sechs lost his human form and returned to liquid. 

Then, he grew in volume to the point that even this cave, which was over a hundred metels tall, seemed cramped. 
Gloria continued to attack him with its Area Overdrive, but the speed at which he grew exceeded the speed at which it evaporated him, like he was transforming into something with immense amounts of HP. 
Growing larger, Sechs changed not only his appearance, but also what he was on the inside... 
“I Take Countless Forms — Nu:  ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■.” 
...And the dark liquid took on a very particular shape.