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Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 15 - Chapter 18




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Chapter Eighteen: Values

The Royal Capital of Altea, City Quarter

Shortly after the peace talks at the border fell apart, Altea was thrown into a state of chaos when it found itself under attack by grotesque hybrids of bee and human — Apis Ideas.

They killed people using their poisonous, spear-like stingers — and upon death, their victims exploded violently, causing damage to anyone nearby. It would be accurate to call them murderous bioweapons. The guards and Masters inside the city fought back against them while attempting to get the inhabitants to safety, but each and every Apis Idea possessed stats that surpassed even Demi-Dragon-tier creatures. Of the Altarian tians, only the Royal Guard had any chance of fighting them one-on-one, so they were forced to face the monsters in groups.

Even Masters who could take on an Apis Idea each weren’t having it easy.

“Riser! They’re not just strong — they blow up too! We can’t fight ’em close up!” shouted Lang, the hippogriff-mounted Gale Rider and member of the Babylonian Battlegroup.

“Tell the other members to fight with guns, bows, and magic. Anyone without a ranged attack can use the Gems in the clan’s storage!”

“Roger that!” Lang was talking to a man riding a motorbike smuggled from Dryfe. Another Gale Rider, this man was Masked Riser, number six in the duel rankings, as well as the acting leader of the Babylonian Battlegroup. While he drove the bike through the streets and shot at the bee-men with a rifle, he used a magical comms device to talk to his clan members.

...Good thing I got Fuso to heal me, Masked Riser thought. Tsukuyo had healed all the wounds he’d sustained in his fight against Chrono Crown. With his Embryo damaged, he wasn’t as powerful as he could be, but thanks to her healing abilities, he could at least still fight.

As a temporary replacement for Hermod, Masked Riser was using an MP-powered motorbike that had been leaked from Dryfe.

Things really aren’t looking so good right now though, he thought. At the moment, there were few combat-capable Masters in the capital.

Most of the duel rankers had been assassinated the day before yesterday and their death penalties had yet to expire, while The Lunar Society and Death Period — the first- and second-ranked clans — were at the peace talks. The third, K&R, was missing their two Superior Jobs.

And because The Lunar Society and K&R were both based in Altea, most of the other ranking clans had chosen to set up in other cities. Because of this, the only Masters around who were capable of fighting this wave of enemies were the members of the Babylonian Battlegroup, the rest of K&R besides Kashimiya and Rosa, and a handful of others.

As for the kill rankers... Most of them aren’t here, but I guess there aren’t many of them who can fight in a city. Like the very top ranker — King of Destruction, Shu Starling — most of the kill rankers possessed immense firepower that was best suited for taking on swarms of monsters. The majority of them would only be of limited use in this situation.

“Damn it! This is too much for us! It’s like we’re playing chess and our side hasn’t got a queen!” Lang said, his thoughts running similar to Riser’s.

In response, Riser swallowed his worries and said, “That still leaves the knights, the bishops, the rooks, and the pawns. Let’s show them what we’re made of.”

“...All right!” Lang said, trying to pull himself together.

“I’ll go east. You meet up with squad B and head west.”

“Roger that!”

After about a minute of driving, Riser arrived at a barricade blocking the road.

Beyond it was one of Altea’s several town halls; it seemed like it was being used as a shelter and the barricade was there to protect the people inside.

Near the roadblock stood several people, all of them dressed in the uniform of the city guard.

“You are...Masked Riser!” one of them said as Riser came close. His unique-looking mask and long history as a duel ranker made him well-known among the kingdom’s tians.

“How’s the situation here?” he asked, dismounting from the bike.

“We repelled the first and second wave, but we’ve suffered some casualties of our own...and a third wave might be on the way.”

“Are you saying that this place is being targeted specifically?”

“Yes. It’s not just here, though. They seem to be prioritizing locations where there are a lot of people.”

It looked as though the bee-men were attacking at random, but they were actually trying to be as efficient as possible — efficient at killing people, that is.

They had enough sentience to attack where they would do the most harm, and they exploded upon death to do even more damage.

“According to guards stationed elsewhere, these bee-men are coming in everywhere, even the rear entrances, and—”

“The bee-men have appeared at the national church’s shelter! The explosions are threatening the evacuees!”

“Damn it...!” the guard captain cursed. This wasn’t the first time today he’d received news like that.

Among the bee-men, some of them had been bee-men from the very beginning, and others had started out looking human.

The latter often blended in among the evacuating citizens to hide inside shelters before revealing their true forms in a fatal explosion.

Their efficiency at slaughter was as impressive as it was fearsome.

The shelters can’t refuse to take in the evacuees, but it’s difficult to tell them apart from the disguised bee-men... This is bad, Riser thought.

Not even Reveal could expose them. It only showed their names and a low job level that didn’t reflect their true stats, and unlike monsters, their names didn’t display above their heads. That latter fact made it extremely difficult to tell them apart from normal humans — and it was also proof that, despite their grotesque appearance, these bee creatures were also human.

“What are they, anyway?! Some Legendarian tribe?!” The guard captain’s words left Riser deep in thought.

If they’re not monsters, that’s the most obvious assumption...but that can’t be it. According to a Babylonian Battlegroup member who had a job from the researcher grouping, the post-transformation bee-men had the “insectoid” typing. That just wasn’t normal.

No matter how insect-like they looked, a humanoid tribe would always be of the “human” type. There were jobs that changed this, such as Lich, which turned the humanoid that had it into “undead,” and Ogre Samurai, which did the same with “Oni.” However, according to Reveal, the bee-men had no such jobs.

Even if it was some kind of job, it wouldn’t explain the transformation ability or why the stats don’t match their levels... Hold on, he thought to himself as he realized there was another possibility — that these might be humans who had been warped by Embryos or UBMs.

It was unlikely, though, that UBMs would commit such a complicated act of terrorism. Riser had been in this world a long time, but even he could only think of one such example — the Exodragon King that had schemed behind the scenes in Gideon.

But that would mean that these bee-men were created by a Master, and...how could anyone like that actually exist...? Riser didn’t want to believe that. If that were true, it would mean that there was a Master who turned tians into living weapons. He was a solid worlder and really didn’t want to accept that someone so callous really existed in Dendro.

“...Whatever the case, I have to stop these attacks on the shelter.” Even if the bee-men were transformed tians, he’d already resolved to stop them from harming any more innocent people.

What he needed right now was a means of telling evacuees and the bee-men apart, but his Babylonian Battlegroup didn’t have anyone with an Embryo that could help in that regard.

Right as Riser began to fear that the bee-men would retain the element of surprise all the way through...

“U-Um...!”

...a girl called out to him.

“Hm? You’re...” She seemed familiar to him.

This girl and Riser both knew Ray and had been in each other’s presence several times now.

“I’m Kasumi...from Death Period...” Kasumi was a member of Death Period who had been unable to participate in the peace talks due to real life circumstances. She was accompanied by Io and Fujinon, who also couldn’t join Ray for similar reasons.

“Yeah, I remember you. All of you,” said Riser. “So you stayed here in Altar, huh?”

“Y-Yes...! Umm... I have something...to say...!”

“You do?”

Kasumi nodded before showing Riser the board in her hands — her Embryo, Taijitu.

“My...my Taijitu can show the locations and levels of nearby Embryos...!” Before, it could only pinpoint the Masters themselves, but its recent ascension to a high-ranking Type Angel-Arms had expanded this ability to their Embryos as well.

Riser instantly understood what she was getting at.

“Those bee-men...” Kasumi said. “They’re all marked as ‘VII’...Superior Embryos...!” Taijitu was reacting to the fragments of a certain Embryo within the bee-men and displaying their locations.

“Superior... Wait, more importantly, you’re saying that you can tell them apart from regular humans even when they’re disguised?!”

“Yes...!” That was great news. The greatest threat right now were the bee-men blending in with the evacuees, so dealing with them would greatly reduce the casualties.

“Can you tell us where they are?” Riser asked.

“Yes...! I’ll mark them...! So please...inform everyone else!” Kasumi said before looking into her Taijitu and touching its surface.

She traced her finger over the many “VII” signals it was displaying.

“Taijitu...Marking!” The moment she used that skill, their surroundings slightly changed.

A downward-pointing triangle, looking like something straight out of a GPS app, suddenly appeared above one of the evacuees heading to the nearby shelter.

That was it — the mark distinguishing the enemies blending in among the tians.

“...There’s one!” Kasumi called.

“Got it!” Io and Fujinon quickly leaped into action. Fujinon — now a high-rank job, Geomancer — used earth magic to bind their target in place.

“BZzzZZzzZz...” The moment he was bound, the man instantly transformed into a grotesque human-bee hybrid.

However, a moment later, he was split in half by a giant axe — none other than Io’s Embryo, Five-Ring.

It exploded as it died, but since there was no one nearby, the explosion did no further harm.

In fact, Five-Ring was so large and long that the explosion didn’t move it an inch, and Io was so far away that she almost didn’t feel the shock wave from the blast.

“A-A mark...? What was that...?” This sudden turn of events perplexed the guards, and Riser realized that the situation had now shifted in their favor.

Kasumi’s Marking skill didn’t contribute to the battle directly, but it allowed them to neutralize the bee-men hiding in shelters before they could do too much damage.

“...Can I assume that all the bee-men in the city are now marked?” Riser asked.

“Y-Yes! Taijitu covers the entire city... But the five ‘VII’s at the castle were too fast for me to touch...”

“The castle...” The bee-men were powerful, but not absurdly fast.

Does that mean that the “VII”s at the castle aren’t just these minion bee-men? Could they be actual Superiors...? No, I can’t focus on that right now...! Riser had many questions, but they were less important than the task before him.

He grabbed his comms magic device and said, “Attention, all members of the Babylonian Battlegroup: the tians with arrows above them are actually bee-men. Question and bind them just in case, and neutralize them if they expose themselves!”

With that, the members of the Babylonian Battlegroup scattered all over Altea now had the necessary information.

The guards at Riser’s side were also busy contacting their fellow guards all over the city.

“Thank you,” he said, turning to Kasumi. “You really turned the tide in our favor. Hm...?”

For some reason, the girl wasn’t listening to him. She was just staring at her Taijitu with her head tilted to the side.

“...Is something wrong?” Riser asked.

“L-Look...” she said, pointing at a particular location on the map, her finger shaking.

Riser, Io, and Fujinon all came to see what had made her so unsettled.

Kasumi was pointing to the fountain plaza at Altea’s southern main street — the place that functioned as the city’s save point.

There were a large number of “VII”s clustered all around it. They were overlapping in a way that made them hard to count, but there couldn’t be fewer than a hundred, at least. That was no doubt a much higher number of monsters than had been initially released.

“Th-They weren’t there before...” Kasumi said.

“Hmm...” If they had been there from the start, Kasumi would’ve certainly noticed them when she was marking the others. That could only mean that they did indeed just appear suddenly, without warning.

If that save point was the place where the bee-men emerged from hiding...

“...That could very well be the source of the invasion.” If they ignored this, the situation could become unsalvageable.

Riser made his decision. Then, he grabbed the comms device connecting him to his clan members.

“Attention, all members of the Babylonian Battlegroup! It’s likely that the source of the bee-men is near the fountain in the southern part of Altea. Anyone who can move quickly, go straight there and prepare to fight. I’m heading over too!”

Riser then leaped back onto his motorbike and headed towards the fountain.

Upon seeing his swift departure, Kasumi, Io, and Fujinon looked at each other and nodded before jumping on their own Landwing mounts and spurring them towards the same destination.

A few minutes later, they all arrived at the fountain from the northern side of the main street.

The other Babylonian Battlegroup members were nowhere in sight, but if they were following Riser’s instructions properly, they were surely moving to surround the source from every direction.

“What...?” said Riser, struck by the odd sight before him.

Over a hundred bee-men stood in an orderly fashion, like a well-trained army.

“Oh my. Oh me oh my. Ohohohoho!” The sound of laughter began to echo from somewhere beyond the line of soldiers. The sound was unpleasant — like a mix between a human voice and the buzzing of an insect. “Congratulations! You are the first humans in the whole city to have the honor of an audience with me. Oh, how splendid. Truly delightful!”

This speech was quite unlike the incoherent buzzing of the bee-men. Garbled though it was, it was still easily recognizable as human speech.

The owner of the voice was sitting elegantly on the edge of the fountain, surrounded by the bee-man army. “Sitting” might not even be the correct word for the figure’s pose, as its body was terribly warped.

The speaker appeared to be a mixture of a well-proportioned human woman and several bees. The resulting discord in its form made it hard to tell if it was actually “sitting.”

It even had a bee-like abdomen — or rather, several of them.


Compared to this creature, even the bee-men didn’t look grotesque.

“What...who are you?!” Riser yelled.

“‘Who?!’ That is your first question when faced with such a beautiful being?! Oh my! Such ignorance!” The buzzing, mumbling voice made it difficult to read her emotions, but it was fairly obvious that the question had made the creature upset.

“But I will forgive you,” it added. “This is the kingdom of Altar — a place so dreadfully unlike the wondrous fairyland I call home. I cannot fault you for not knowing me. Ignorance is not exactly a sin, after all.”

“Fairyland...?” Riser didn’t miss that word. There was only one country that it could apply to.

“Indeed. I am Eh Teln Pare! As the holder of the Insect General job, I once served Legendaria’s army, but the foolish queen and those who follow her branded me a rebel and chased me out of the country!”

Riser had now obtained the enemy’s name and job. However, that information was nothing compared to what it...she said next.

“And now, I serve I.F.! Especially La Crima, who recognized my beauty, saw that I was in the right, and granted me these new soldiers!”

“I.F....!” Riser knew of the clan — a group of Superior villains.

That was enough to be certain of who was behind this incident.

“And now...ohh, and now...!” Eh Teln Pare went on as though intoxicated, “I am Regina! Regina Apis Idea! The queen bee! And the true queen of fairyland!”

She proudly revealed the name she had been given as a modified human. “I will use this fight to grow stronger, then free my ancestral home from that misguided queen! I can’t allow my beloved Legendaria to continue along its wayward course any longer...!” Eh Teln Pare practically sang out her true desires. “And you will be the first sacrifices towards achieving that end!” Finally, she unleashed her Apis Ideas onto Riser’s group.

The ten Apis Ideas in the front of the formation were the first ones to attack. Ten was more than double the size of Riser’s group, and the ones that remained were more than enough to protect Pare...or rather, Regina Apis Idea, the queen bee herself.

All of the Apis Ideas were affected by the Insect General job’s skills: Insectoid Enhancement and its final skill, Even a Worm Will Burn.

At skill level EX, the former ability merely doubled all of their stats, while the effect of the latter was more complicated.

It was one of the few Superior Job final skills for which someone else, not the user, paid the price.

When an insectoid within the party died, the skill made them explode with a force proportional to their stats. The collective firepower carried by the Apis Ideas, all above Demi-Dragon-tier in stats, was simply immense — as evidenced by the many Masters they had already destroyed.

And now, all of this power was focused on Riser and the three girls.

“Ngh...!” Under normal circumstances, a high-ranking duelist like him might have been able to easily repel these Apis Ideas. However, his Embryo was still damaged, so he lacked the firepower needed to destroy them without a great deal of effort.

“Keep your distance from them! I’ll slow them down!” Despite this setback, he still had means of fighting them — one of which was an inventory filled with high-rank offensive ultimate job skill Gems.

He reached into his inventory now and took out a stark white Gem before tossing it towards the ten Apis Ideas as they charged forward.

A moment later, the spherical area surrounding the Gem was flooded with white.

“BzZz... BzZ...” The ten Apis Ideas were instantly covered in frost, which greatly slowed them down.

The spell contained in the Gem was White Field, the ultimate job skill for Cryomancers. Though it was weaker than Crimson Sphere in the same tier, it had the effect of ridding an area of its thermal energy and inflicting the Frozen status.

Though the Apis Ideas had Demi-Dragon-tier stats, they were human-sized and possessed the insectoid weakness to low temperatures.

“Riser! Get down!” Io shouted, putting her Five-Ring under her arm and swinging it horizontally.

The heavy weapon, specialized in offense, easily split and pulverized the Frozen insectoids.

The Apis Ideas scattered and died...

“Huh?”

...but unlike the others, they didn’t explode.

Their severed top and bottom halves were still moving towards them.

“Get back!” Riser shouted, and the girls immediately created distance between them and the Apis Ideas.

As they fled, Kasumi summoned a Balloon Golem to act as a shield, while Fujinon used her earth magic to create a barricade.

Both of them stopped the Apis Ideas in their tracks, and after ten seconds or so...they all exploded, as per usual.

It was as though their deaths had been delayed.

“I know this...!” As an experienced Master, Riser was familiar with one job that made this possible.

“They’re Death Soldiers!” The Apis Ideas the queen had at her side — the ones she called the “Queen’s Guard” — were different from the other bee-men in two ways.

First, they had their transformation ability removed in exchange for doubling their stats.

And second...all of them were Death Soldiers.

That was the job used by suicide troops in the wars several centuries ago. It was perfect for the purpose because of its Last Command skill, which allowed movement after death.

Having this job would make it impossible for the Apis Ideas to blend in among normal people, for skills like Reveal would instantly expose them. However, the Queen’s Guard couldn’t transform and thus had no need to blend in, so they lost nothing from becoming Death Soldiers.

This was the greatest advantage Apis Ideas had over ordinary monsters.

Being originally human, they had the ability to acquire jobs. They were still experimental creatures, and Death Soldier was the only job they seemed to utilize so far, but the future held the promise of amazing, fully optimized builds.

Their ability to take Death Soldier was terrifying enough, however. As long as Last Command was active, the Queen’s Guard were able to charge at their enemies even if torn to pieces.

Additionally, since Last Command only allowed for the movement of parts still connected to the brain, the Queen’s Guard overcame this limitation by having their central nervous system distributed around their body.

Of course, that made human-like thought impossible. Their intellect was arguably even lower than that of actual insects, but that didn’t affect their ability to act as the Insect General’s pawns. The morality of their creation aside, Apis Ideas were extremely potent soldiers under Regina’s command.

“Oh? Ten wasn’t enough? You’re more skilled than I expected. How commendable,” she said, nonchalantly releasing more Apis Ideas from her Jewel.

She seemed to think nothing of the ten former human beings she had just seen die. It was as though they were nothing more than actual insects to her.

“...Fiend!” Riser shouted, unable to restrain himself any longer.

The Apis Ideas were no doubt his enemies, and he was determined to protect Altea from them — but thinking about it from another perspective, they were the nauseating creations of a truly warped mind, and thus victims in their own right.

“Fiend? Certainly not,” Regina said, clearly irritated. “Legendaria is the truly fiendish power here. I am fighting to fix it, so I cannot be in the wrong.”

“What does Legendaria have to do with this?!” Riser raised his voice in anger. Even if she was right about Legendaria, it didn’t make her any less of a fiend. There were many conflicts, past and present, where both sides were evil.

“My motherland is overcome by madness! The machinery has come undone, letting foolish ideas spread unchecked!” Regina continued, clearly ignoring what Riser was trying to say. “I had to right this wrong, even if it meant becoming a rebel and initiating a coup d’état! My will to do so has not wavered, even now that I have sworn loyalty to La Crima!”

Riser had heard rumors that there was a secret feud within Legendaria’s ruling class, so he could only guess that Regina wanted to set things right.

Still, that was no excuse for her horrific actions.

“Indeed! I had to resist! I had no choice! My country has gone mad, and it is traveling down the wrong path!” Regina continued to bare her soul in a buzzing monologue — as if Riser and the others weren’t even there.

“Yes! Legendaria is making a grave mistake. After all, they...”

And so...

“They revere Titania instead of me — the beautiful Pare!”

...she revealed her ultimate motivation — one that only she herself could ever see as righteous.

Riser, Kasumi, Io, Fujinon...everyone present could barely comprehend what they’d just heard. They felt as though their ears were failing them.

After all, Regina had just said that she rebelled because people fawned over the queen of fairyland more than her.

To them, as well as to most other people, this motivation and the actions taken on behalf of it were completely incomprehensible.

“It just isn’t right, don’t you think?! That ugly creature — beautiful? Lovable?! Worthy of idol-like adoration?! Utter madness! The entire country has lost its mind!”

Riser was still at a loss for words. Images of Titania could be found all over Infinite Dendrogram, as well as on the internet in reality. Riser had seen them too, and remembering what she looked like, he thought, If not finding her ugly is madness, then I guess I also need professional help. The queen of the fairyland was just that beautiful.

It actually felt wrong to compare her to Regina — this monstrosity of warped insect flesh.

“I tried asserting my beauty, but nobody listened! If that isn’t madness, I don’t know what is!” Regina exclaimed.

“B-But...if your beauty was so important to you...why did you transform into this...?” Kasumi meekly asked.

Like the other Apis Ideas, Regina was marked on the Taijitu as a “VII.” It seemed as though she used to be human and had been transformed into what she was now, but...

“What do you mean?” Regina tilted her head in confusion. “My beautiful form wasn’t changed one bit.”

Her response made them even more perplexed.

“I specifically asked the one who gave me power and this army to let me keep the beautiful form I was born with. I was told that might limit how powerful I could be, but that didn’t matter! Nothing in this world is more valuable than my beauty!”

Regina’s words were laden with confidence in her righteousness.

Riser just looked at her, saying nothing. Everyone had different values. What was good in one’s eyes was bad in another’s, so in a way, Regina wasn’t completely in the wrong.

“Anyone who suggests otherwise is misguided! And I will correct everyone who does!”

However, her greatest error was misjudging the outlook of the vast majority.

“Those who don’t accept my beauty are the source of this terrible wrongness, and I will kill them all. I will free Legendaria and the rest of the world from their madness! I am beauty! I am justice!”

She was clearly insane, and yet she believed that everyone else was — and she never doubted this for even a second.

Kasumi had Truth Discernment, and the fact that Regina’s words didn’t trigger it sent a chill down her spine.

Regina truly believed that she was more beautiful than anyone else, and that she should be adored by everyone. If that wasn’t how things were, she would rather destroy the world than let it continue in ignorance.

The powers she gained, the Apis Ideas she commanded, her repulsive appearance that she thought was beautiful...many things here could be called “monstrous,” but none of them compared to her alien mind.

“...I see,” said Riser. He realized that he was facing someone who would mow down everyone in her path for the sake of her own values...and if that wasn’t evil, he didn’t know what was.

With that in mind...

“Babylonian Battlegroup, attack!”

...he used his comms device to send out an order.

A moment later, the Babylonian Battlegroup members who were surrounding the fountain plaza showed themselves and charged towards Regina. They had assumed their positions and prepared for an ambush while Riser and the three girls distracted the bee queen.

Twelve Masters all attacked Regina from every direction.

No matter how modified, not even a Superior Job could withstand the combined might of that many ultimate high-rank jobs and Embryo skills. And Regina herself had admitted that she wasn’t as enhanced as she could be.

She fought back with her squad of Apis Ideas, but Babylonian Battlegroup’s Masters, experienced as they were, easily broke through...and aimed their entire assault straight at Regina.

Multiple Masters all played their most powerful cards in their bid to defeat her.

...And a moment later, explosions resounded from all across the city.

Some of them were close at hand — a number of the Queen’s Guard had blown up, taking several of the attacking Masters with them.

“Oh, what a surprise. There goes a hundred of them,” said Regina — who, unlike the Masters, was completely unharmed.

It was as though the damage she should’ve sustained went somewhere else.

“What? This is...” Riser instantly understood what happened just now, and it was terrifying.

“...Lifelink!”

“Not exactly, but close enough,” said Regina.

The skill she was using was called “Colony for One.”

It was the Insect General’s passive skill, and it made it so that any damage she suffered would instead be transferred to any in-range insectoids under her command. It had a far greater range than Lifelink and wasn’t as restrictive about what types of minions it worked on.

As long as there were Apis Ideas within range, Regina wouldn’t receive a single point of damage.

And since any damage to her was transmitted straight to her minions spread all over the capital...

“But that...that means that...”

“If we attack her, we’ll just cause more explosions in the city?!”

...It meant that any attacks on Regina could result in disaster.

“Ohohoh! So, what will you do now? I wouldn’t mind if you keep fighting me just as you have been. No one can sully my beauty!” Regina laughed, summoning more Apis Ideas, which instantly readied their poison stingers and aimed them at the Masters.

Regina couldn’t be harmed — she held the capital hostage and could increase the size of her army as she wished.

Those facts made Riser realize that, Gloria aside, he was up against his most fearsome foe yet.





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