Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 14 - Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen: The Conclusion 

What was he to her...? 

He was someone who always filled her with worry. 

The very moment she was born and met him, he was tattered and covered in blood — and that was far from the only time. 

Once, he’d almost died standing against a colossal undead abomination in the mountains. 

Once, he’d almost died facing a monster that a Superior had created solely to defeat him. 

Once, he’d almost died while bathed in the deadly light of a black star scorching the land beneath it. 

Once, he’d almost died fighting another Superior and his devilish legions. 

And now he... had actually died struggling against an apex. 

In spite of that, he was still moving — and still fighting. 

Even though a part of her wished this wasn’t the case, neither the agony of a lost lung nor a body so battered it was difficult to look at were enough to stop him. 

Perhaps some who saw him, struggling despite his gruesome state, would say that he had a strong heart. 

She didn’t share that opinion, however. 

In fact, she would say that that was flat-out wrong. 

From her perspective, most of his many, many desperate battles were just painful to watch. To see him constantly jump into such conflicts hurt her heart even more than his thorough defeat at the hands of Marie. 

This was because she’d figured out his true nature. 

His death to Marie was nothing but an accident... a death at the end of a battle where his was the only life at stake. 

What she felt back then was the pain of loss and, as she had failed to protect him, the shame of her own powerlessness. 

However, most of his other deadly battles, including the one in which they’d met, were fundamentally different from that one. 

The first time she’d noticed that difference was when they had entered the dungeon in the bandit hideout... when Ray saw what had become of the innocent children that the vile necromancer had murdered and raised as undead. 

She knew everything that was happening in his heart and mind, so she could truly understand just how badly that realization tore him apart. 

When they’d first met, they had managed to rescue the one child he was trying to protect. But what they saw in the dungeon was the destruction of lives that no one had tried to save. 

It broke his heart. His soul wept for them. 

That was when she began to notice his true nature. 

After the incident with the bandit gang, he fought to protect the people of Gideon. Later on, he fought to protect Torne and the boy he’d come to know. 

Even later than that, he fought to protect the people of Quartierlatin. 

His reasoning for doing so was always the same: 

“I mean... it’d just leave a bad taste in my mouth.” 

Right now, she knew full well that those very words were the driving force behind his actions... the nature of his being. 

From the moment she was born, she believed that at Ray’s core, he was a simple young man with a kind heart who was always ready to protect someone... or someone who used pain as a motivation to advance forward. 

Both were on the right track, but not completely correct. 

She realized that Ray’s nature was to get himself hurt to protect others. 

It was too depressing to be called “kind,” and too pitiful to describe someone who was always advancing forward. 

He was simply incapable of ignoring any tragedies befalling innocent children, those he was close to, or just people he wanted to protect — for ignoring them would cause him immense pain. If given the choice between ignoring a tragedy and hurting himself to protect someone, he would always pick the latter. 

In exchange for the wounds he suffered, he would be able to prevent tragedies that would shatter his heart. 

His nature was also reflected in her existence — his Embryo. 

She didn’t believe that Ray was strong-hearted. Someone with a truly strong heart would be able to endure such tragedies. 

That certainly wasn’t the case with him. He merely chose bodily suffering over the emotional suffering he could not withstand. 

He just couldn’t bear seeing someone close to him suffer and fade away. 

It might’ve actually been more accurate to say that Ray’s heart was weak. 

If it would prevent a tragedy, he would give everything he had and more, even if it meant he suffered severely. That was just how he was. 

She knew full well that he wasn’t doing this solely because his avatar’s sense of pain could be turned off. In fact, she was sure that he would do the same even if he could feel the pain. 

As far as she knew, even being in his real body wouldn’t stop him. 

Despite all of that... he wasn’t anyone special. 

He was not some messiah trying to save the world, nor was he some avenger on a mission to change it. 

He was just an ordinary person following his heart and protecting those he cared about. Just a person struggling against the tragedies before him so that they would not become memories that would haunt him. 

That was his nature, and that was why there was something that she would never say to him... 

That being the words, “You may close your eyes, cover your ears, and run away.” 

That would have been the easiest path, as well as the one most people would pick, but she would never recommend it to him. Sometimes she might question if he was certain about what he was doing, but she would never urge him to run. 

As one who knew him better than anyone else, she simply couldn’t bring herself to do that. 

She knew that his heart wouldn’t allow him to take the easy path and abandon his loved ones and anyone he saw who was suffering. 

It was always hard to watch him destroy himself, but she knew that if he didn’t face the tragedies, the heartache would be worse than the wounds. 

But that was exactly why he was so important to her. 

He didn’t have a strong heart that could withstand the pain of tragedy. He wasn’t any more special than anyone else. 

In fact, he had a delicate heart that was so easily hurt, yet he never ran away from tragedies, instead growing determined to face them head-on... and that was exactly what she loved about him. 

That was why, here and now, she agreed to be a part of the only strategy he proposed that could perhaps lead them to victory, knowing full well what would become of his body... and what she would have to do to him. 

She made her choice fully aware that it would once again lead to that feeling of powerlessness and the sadness of loss. 

As a being born from Ray’s heart, she was compelled to protect the sole desire etched into her from her very first breath. 

Altar-Dryfe border, assembly hall 

Ray and Behemot charged straight at each other. 

They were equal in speed and each of them was fully capable of killing the other. 

Behemot’s offensive ability had been demonstrated many times in this battle alone and she could deliver more than enough to damage Ray to the point of incapacitation, while Ray had enough in his damage counter to deliver a critical attack. If he hit a weak spot like the head, neck, or heart, the injury-based status effects would do the rest and finish Behemot off. 

I’ll aim for his left arm! Behemot thought, fully aware of the danger she was in. 

The torso and head were no good. Ray couldn’t die while Last Command was active; if she targeted those areas, he could still launch an Impact Counter at her with just his upper half — or even his headless body. 

Therefore, she would aim for the arm that held Nemesis, for he couldn’t deliver the counter without the weapon that had all the damage stocked. 

She intended to tear off Ray’s left arm, send his wing-blade flying, and finally pulverize the rest of him. 

That was her full path to victory. 

Of course, she wasn’t the only one thinking about how she could win this. Ray was also considering what he had to do. 

The both of them were combing through the possibilities that would lead to victory and then giving their all to seize those possibilities. 

After weathering a storm of thoughts that still lasted less than a single second, the two arrived at the fated moment. 

“Hh...!” Ray’s reach was slightly longer, so he was the first to act. 

The moment Behemot entered his range, he swung his wing-blade at her head. 

He only needed to hit the general area. Even though Behemot had an absurd 20,000,000HP, his Vengeance would take out a whole 5% of it, and if that 5% was her brain or any other vital organ, victory would be his. 

The wing-blade flew at speeds equal to Behemot’s. She hadn’t faced an attack this fast since she’d become a Superior. 

However, it was a direct attack, rather than a counter, so... 

“...I can see it.” 

...Behemot could use her immense experience to evade it. 

As the blade shaved the fur on her cheek, she swung her left claw with the full might of Tiger Scratch. 

The three attacks obliterated his left hand, turning it into a bloody mist, while the shockwave it created blasted the blade away with power that sent it crashing through the. 

I wo— 

... Wait, not yet! 

Having taken away Ray’s means of attack, Behemot briefly celebrated her victory, but then realized that that was a dangerous line of thinking. 

Behemot knew about Ray’s past battles. Even in this one, she’d seen him stand up despite losing a lung. 

By now, she was fully aware that he wasn’t someone who could be stopped by an injury like this. 

“OOOAAAAAAAGH!” Behemot roared as she began to swing both her claws. 

The right one blasted away part of his face — the right side of his chin. 

The left one tore through his legs — the entire thigh area. 

All of his limbs, as well as a part of his neck, were destroyed now. 

He had been reduced to little more than a torso 

With Last Command active, even this wasn’t enough to finish him off — but now, just like the Death Soldiers of the past, he’d been rendered physically incapable of doing anything. 

He couldn’t even stand, let alone bite into his blade like he’d done before or kick it towards his target. Ray was completely incapacitated now. 

Now I wo— 

But the moment that Behemot became completely certain of her victory, something touched the base of her neck. 

...Huh? 

It didn’t do any damage to her. 

She was surprised, but whatever it was, it wasn’t strong enough to surpass her END. 

However, the damage wasn’t what mattered here. 

What mattered was the sheer fact that it touched her. 

After all, it was something that could very well kill her — one of Nemesis’ blades. 

Behemot’s mind was suddenly flooded with thoughts. 

Impossible. I just sent it flying. Why is it touching me? Wait, more importantly... Why is the blade penetrating Ray’s body? 

The blade had been sent flying into the ceiling, but somehow, it was now emerging from Ray’s chest. 

The answer to that question was simple — it wasn’t the same blade. 

Nemesis’ fourth form was a mirror and twin blades. 

Even if one was gone, there was still the other. 

Even so, who...?! Ray didn’t have the second wing-blade. Having lost his arm to the first maser beam, he hadn’t been able to wield it — and even if he could, he couldn’t possibly have pierced his own body like that. 

It was completely impossible... unless someone had thrown it from behind him. 

Shock overcame Behemot as she noticed something beyond the curtain of gore in front of her. 

It was Gardranda, her lower body entirely destroyed, now frozen in a position that suggested the follow-through of a throw. 

She was still alive...?! 

Though she had been torn apart and buried under rubble, the summon was still in effect. 

And now, she had thrown the first wing-blade and hit Behemot through Ray. 

Behemot hadn’t seen any of this. Her body was small, so Ray’s larger frame blocked out anything that was happening behind him. 

It was as though this had been planned out. 

D-Did he...? Assuming Ray had anticipated this... that this was the possibility he gambled everything on... 

Did he use himself... as a decoy?! Ray, holding the wing-blade in his left hand, was nothing but a distraction and a sponge to increase the damage counter. 

And while he was fulfilling that role, Gardranda had thrown the other wing-blade at him. 

Ray was holding the blade he’d already depleted to crack Greatest Top. The one piercing through his chest was the main one, and the damage on its counter now, after being so fiercely torn apart by Behemot, was truly immense. 

The moment his Last Command activated, he conjured up this desperate and precarious chance for victory. Swallowing his fear of being torn apart, he gambled everything to grasp for this tiny sliver of possibility that he could prevent a tragedy... and he reached it. 

“Vengeance...” The skill didn’t require Ray to hold Nemesis in his hand — it could be used as long as the two were touching. 

That was why it had worked the two times he used it while holding her in his mouth... and why it would work now that she had been stabbed straight through his body. 

“...Is... Mine.” 

Following Nemesis’ words, spoken as though she was holding back tears, Vengeance was delivered upon Behemot. 

[Last Command expired] 

[Resurrection period expired] 

[Death Penalty: 24 hour Login Ban]