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Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 17 - Chapter 3




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Chapter Three: The Dark Knight, the Nukenin, and the Fallen Angel

Paladin, Ray Starling

So, it turned out the monsters we were supposed to kill during this event were called “Plate Holders.”

They looked like puppets made from some kind of ore—and one of them was attacking me right this very moment.

“Ngh!” I let out a groan as I switched Nemesis into the Black Mirror’s twin swords mode. The trees surrounding us made it hard to fight with the greatsword.

To avoid forest fires, I wasn’t using my Purgatorial Flames and judging by how the thing looked, I doubted that Hellish Miasma would do anything, so I was left with no choice but to fight using Nemesis.

The creature’s stats didn’t seem to be that great, though.

It was like one of the Planting Golems from the other day, just without the regeneration. I figured I’d have no trouble beating it.

Well, you needed a minimum of eight plates to clear this event, multiple people could do it, and you could try again if you got it wrong, so making these monsters too strong would probably have ruined the game’s balance.

“Whoa.” Before I knew it, the Plate Holder was dead, and it had dropped a plate with the number “2” on it.

“Mhm. So we must gather eight such plates,” said Nemesis. “Though, an eight-digit number? That could be...”

Yeah, there’s only a few types of numbers that have exactly that many digits, I thought.

“...It could be a date of some kind,” I said. “Day-month-year.”

“Even if it is, there are a myriad of dates to choose from. And there still remains the possibility that the correct number has nothing to do with the calendar at all.”

“Yeah. That’s where the hints scattered across the island come in, I guess.”

We had to gather plates from these monsters, find the hidden hints, and watch out for the other participants who may or may not have anti-air weapons.

...This event sure will keep us busy, huh? I thought. Though, the lack of real risk makes it less mentally taxing and stressful than what I usually do.

“Do not let your guard down,” Nemesis warned. “You have no Brooch this time. That makes one less lifeline keeping you here.”

“Yeah. Be ready to put up Counter Absorption if you sense any danger.”

“Certainly,” she said as she turned back into her greatsword form.

Black Mirror was her fourth and newest form, but she couldn’t use Counter Absorption while she was in it, so the greatsword was better when we had to watch out for ambushes.

With the preparations done, we resumed traveling through the forest.

I encountered a couple more Plate Holders, but I hadn’t yet met a single other participant.

I can hear sounds of fighting, though, I thought.

“They might have noticed you and retreated before you spotted them,” said Nemesis.

“...Why aren’t they approaching me?” I wondered.

“They might have decided that fighting while so few people actually have plates is meaningless, or...”

“Or...what?”

“...Your apparel scared them away.”

“Whaa...?” My gear was the same as ever—Nemesis in hand, Storm Visage, Black Warcoat, and Grudge-Soaked Greaves.

Hell, without my VDA, my look was actually kind of toned-down from the usual.

“You scare away even tian brigands,” Nemesis added.

“Everyone here’s a Master, though...”

“In that case, they might be aware that you successfully faced Dryfe’s Superiors and that your combat style is not well suited to endurance battles. Who in their right mind would fight you at the point where you have all your cards in hand?”

“...Good point.”

I actually didn’t have all my cards in hand, though.

Since I’d used my boots at the peace talks to summon Gardranda, the grudge levels in them were still low, while Monochrome was still far from fully charged. Other people wouldn’t know that, though, so it made sense that they’d be wary of me .

“...Whoa!” Suddenly, I heard the sound of someone running ahead of me, coupled with the noise of trees being destroyed.

Looking beyond the trees in front, I saw something that deviated from the scenery of the forest I’d been seeing so far.

It looked like smoke—a white cloud on the surface, spreading out and flowing towards me.

“WAAAIT! I DON’T HAVE ANY! I GOT NO PLAAATES!” a familiar voice screamed.

“HYAHAAAH! I SEE, I KILL! WINNING’S GONNA BE A CAKEWALK WHEN I’M THE ONLY ONE LEFT!” another person yelled in response, making me wonder if the guy was RP’ing some battle-crazed lunatic.

“Ah!” the first person—Alto—cried as she leaped out of the smoke, her eyes widening in surprise when she spotted me.

“WHOOO! ANOTHER ONE!” the other person said, rushing to follow after her. He was a mohawked, muscle-bound man with a metal plate covering his face and a comically large gauntlet on his left arm.

A gauntlet that was currently being thrown directly at me. “Counter Absorption!” Nemesis and I cried in unison, preventing the gauntlet from even touching me.

I couldn’t afford to worry about wasting my skill uses or waste time calculating if I could withstand the blow without it—every participant here was a Master, and there was no guarantee they didn’t have skills that could instakill me.

My decision turned out to be correct, as the barrier of light we’d created immediately cracked upon impact, threatening to break.

“WHAAAT?! THAT WAS MY ‘LEGEND OF THE STRONGEST FIST—POLYDEUKES’! HOW THE HELL’D YA BLOCK IT?!” The moment the attack came, I’d launched into a motion that was basically muscle memory at this point—the Impact Counter.

Nemesis touched the enemy at about the same moment the attack had landed...

“Vengeance is Mine!”

...and without the Brooch to protect him, my retribution skill pulverized him instantly.

The attack that had nearly broken Counter Absorption was probably an offense-enhancing ult, just like B3’s Atlas. Returned to him twofold, all of this damage turned the mohawked Master into motes of light before he even realized what was happening.

A moment later, the several plates he’d presumably gathered from monsters fell where he’d once stood.

“That was rather perfect,” said Nemesis.

“It would’ve been pretty bad if he broke through, though.” Knowing that Counter Absorption could presumably handle up to 300,000 damage, it was impressive that he came so close to its limit.

Assuming there were tons of Masters that powerful here, this event might’ve been more high-level than I thought.

“Oh yeah, Natsu— I mean, Alto?”

“Raaayyy! Thank you sooo much!” Alto said as she grabbed my hand and shook it up and down. “I told him I had no plates, but he just kept chasing me! I tried using a smokescreen to escape, but he was this close to catchin’ me...”

It seemed that the smoke I’d seen was the product of one of her skills.

“So, what now?” I asked.

“Huh?” Alto looked at my face, then Nemesis, then the place where the mohawked, masked musclehead had become bits of light and said, “I’m not fighting you! It’s too scary!” As she said this, she shook her head vigorously. “So let’s team up!”

“...From fighting straight to teaming up. Quite a leap, that,” said Nemesis.

“Hey, a whole three people can clear it and we’re friends, so there’s no reason not to!”

...Well, that’s more or less exactly how I see the situation, I thought.

“And on top of that, you’re not the type who can fight a lotta times, right? You used up one of your barriers just now too.”

I said nothing. She’d watched the recordings, so she seemed to know what I could and couldn’t do.

She was right—that punch had cost me one of my three Counter Absorption uses, leaving me with just two.

“I’m a Nukenin, so I got a bunch of skills that can help ya escape!” Alto said.

“Nukenin? As in, a runaway ninja? I knew there was a ninja grouping, but didn’t think there’d be a Nukenin job,” I said.

Is that really a “job,” though...? I wondered.

“I would say that your Death Soldier is no more of a ‘job’ than her Nukenin,” said Nemesis. Point taken.

“The skill I used was Art of Smokescreen,” Alto continued. “It spreads smoke that messes with perception skills. It does blind both friends and enemies, though!”

So that was why that mohawked musclehead hadn’t noticed me until it was too late.

“That’s a powerful skill,” I said.

“Yep-yep. Nukenin is one of the ninja grouping’s high-rank jobs! It’s not very strong in fights, though!”

...So it is a high-rank job, I thought. Well, I guess if you aren’t a decent ninja, you can’t last as a runaway one.

“So yeah, I come with the added bonus of letting you avoid useless battles! How about it?”

This event was partially about survival. With that in mind, her skills might’ve been more useful to me than some additional mediocre firepower.

“I’ll throw a game into the mix too! It’s okay! Let’s play some cat’s cradle!”

“What’s with your passion for cat’s cradle?” That aside, though... “You can hold off on the game, but I’m fine with teaming up,” I said. I couldn’t keep fighting endlessly, so I had to pick and choose my battles. Alto, on the other hand, was great at disengaging, but didn’t have much raw combat potential. We would both benefit from teaming up.

“YAAYY! I got a bodyguard!”

Hey, you can fight the monsters yourself, can’t you?

Anyway, we resumed the search—now as a duo. The both of us watched out for other participants while hunting the monsters we came across.

Despite what she’d said, Alto actually did participate in the battles. Like the ninja she was, she fought by throwing kunai and shuriken from mid-range.

They really didn’t seem to do much damage, though.

“Normally, I make these poisonous or explosive, but it doesn’t look like poison would work on them, while explosions would attract the attention of other players—and we don’t want that, do we?” she explained, and I could actually see her point. I myself wasn’t using Purgatorial Flames to avoid starting a forest fire that would attract everyone on the island.

Since basically everyone was an enemy, the only ones who could afford to stand out were the ones powerful enough to deal with the consequences of that. Anyone else would be brought down just like that Master with the flying machine.

“Oh, Ray, you should put this on,” said Alto, handing me a folded piece of cloth.

“What’s this?” I asked.


“Some cloth.”

“I can tell that much. Why are you giving it to me?”

“You should use it to hide your face.”

“...Why?” It wasn’t a piece of gear and didn’t seem to give any stats...

“I mean, you’re a retribution build, right? Plus you’re famous and tons of people know your face, so I think you’ll have a hard time landing counters as easily as you did back there.”

...She had a point.

“It’s not gonna do much against those who’ll still fight you even knowing who you are, but no one knows everyone in this event, so it’ll help a bit, doncha think?”

“I do. Guess I’ll use it, then. Thanks,” I said as I took the cloth from her and wrapped it on my face.

I thought I’d have trouble breathing with it, but thanks to Storm Visage, I was just fine.

“How’s this?” I asked. The silence I got in response was deafening. Hey, what the hell? I thought.

“You went past ‘dark knight’ and straight into ‘undead’ territory,” said Alto. “Like one of those corpse-things that lost its face.”

“The cloth and oxygen mask combo makes even your breathing sound terrifying,” said Nemesis. I responded by breathing even more heavily. “...Well, I suppose it would do the job of concealing your identity,” she added.

“Oh yeah! It’s perfect!” Alto approved of that, at least. Well, if it was useful, then all was good. I needed to increase my chances of winning as much as possible, so every little bit helped.

Now done with my...“transformation,” we resumed walking.

“Hm? Oh yeah...” I said, realizing something.

Alto knew of our skills and was worried that other participants would know about them too. However, I knew barely anything about what she could do...particularly, her Embryo.

“Hey, Alto,” I said.

“Cat’s cradle?”

“No. You still haven’t told me about your Embryo.”

“Ohhh...” she said, her eyes darting to and fro as though something was bothering her. “Hmm... Ray, have you got a good head on your shoulders?”

“...We go to the same college.” What kind of question was that? And from her, of all people?

“That’s not what I mean. Are you good at riddles and stuff?”

“I’m about average, I guess?” I couldn’t recall dabbling in them all that much.

“Then let’s just leave it at that. If the riddle thing goes wrong, it could be all over for us.”

“...Are you implying your Embryo can’t be used if your friend doesn’t solve a riddle?”

“It’s kinda like that, yeah.”

“I see...” Knowing how Embryos worked, it wasn’t that far-fetched that there might be ones that really were that weird. Honestly, seeing as Natsume was the kind of person who asked everyone if they wanted to play cat’s cradle, it would only make sense for her Embryo to be particularly bizarre.

“By the way, Ray. What’s our plate situation?” she asked.

“With the one we just got, we have exactly ten.”

There were three that said “2,” three that said “4,” two that said “0,” one that said “1,” and one that said “5.”

“...Seems a bit unbalanced, doesn’t it?” said Alto.

“I see what you mean, but it’s still just ten plates,” I replied. “Though, if there’s a meaning to this lack of balance, then I guess it’d suggest that the answer uses both ‘2’ and ‘4.’”

“It’s eight digits, so maybe it’s a date?”

She thought of the same thing we did, I thought.

“It’s possible, but we can’t be sure just yet. We need to find the hints.”

“Yep-yep. But wouldn’t it be easier to search while flying? You can fly, right?”

Oh yeah, I haven’t explained that to her, I thought.

“It’s...not a good idea right now,” I said. “There’s someone with some crazy anti-air powers, so if we go up...”

Before I could finish my explanation, another beam of light pierced through the small bit of sky we could see through the forest canopy.

“...We’re gonna get shot down like that.” Looks like they’re still at it, I thought.

“Wooow. That looks like it’s from a sci-fi anime. We can’t deal with that!” said Alto.

Well, it sure was easy to get her to understand... Hm?

“Is that the sound of something falling from above...?” asked Nemesis. Her words, combined with the rushing noise of the air parting, made me look up again.

A moment later, something broke the branches above our heads, and a black object fell onto the ground ahead of us.

Before crashing to the ground, it created a gust of wind and scattered feathers everywhere, which then slowly floated to the ground like black snow.

The feathers surrounded a black-clad girl, now lying unconscious in a small crater.

“...Juliet?” Indeed—it was none other than the Altarian duel ranker and the friend who was participating in this event alongside us. Her body and gear were both badly damaged, and most importantly, her Embryo-wings...Hræsvelgr had lost most of its feathers.

“Ray! A girl fell from the sky!” said Alto as if she had been waiting her whole life to say that.

“Shut up for a second,” I said as I considered Juliet’s situation.

I didn’t know for what purpose, but she’d taken to the sky to examine the landscape before the anti-air beam-shooting Master had brought her down.

“And since the feathers are all over the place, I guess she used Molting to reduce the damage.” She’d used that skill with me during our sparring matches. It was one of Hræsvelgr’s skills, and it basically functioned like reactive armor. It caused it to release its feathers with a burst of wind and dark magic, making it a combination of a defensive skill and ablative armor.

It did, however, have a drawback—losing its feathers made Hræsvelgr unable to fly for the three hours until they came back.

“So, Ray... You gonna finish her off?”

“Hell no!” I know this isn’t a serious event, but I’m not the kind of scumbag who attacks his friends when they’re unconscious!

“But duel rankers are the kind of people who go around the battlefield singing and turning people into mincemeat, aren’t they? Isn’t it dangerous to leave her be?”

“The duel rankers I know aren’t...well...yeah. They aren’t like that. Probably,” I said.

“It is troubling that you cannot say that with certainty,” said Nemesis.

...Well, I did see Figaro churn through all of Mad Castle like a blender, I thought. Wait, did Alto just imply that there’s a lot of people like that in Tenchi?

“All I know is that you don’t have to worry about that with Juliet. Anyway...”

Leaving her here Fainted would’ve left a bad taste in my mouth, so I decided to take her with us.

◇◇◇

???

“I messed up...”

Juliet was in the place where Masters who had Fainted or were under the effects of Forced Sleep were taken to. It had many names, but Juliet’s group referred to it as the “waiting space.”

“Was I panicking?” she wondered, her head bowed. She was worried that this might’ve been her last day to play with her friends, and because of this, she rushed to search for Chelsea and fulfill her promise—to seize this opportunity and use it to the fullest.

Chelsea was Juliet’s longtime rival and closest friend, and this might’ve been her last chance to battle her. It seemed that the sentiment had overwhelmed her, making her overlook the possibility that there could be Masters present with anti-air attacks.

As a result, she was caught off guard, and though she was able to use Molting to avoid a direct hit, she was still shot down and had lost consciousness.

“I know I’m the Fallen Knight, but this is too much... Though, since I’m here in the waiting space, I guess I haven’t gotten the death penalty...”

There was no telling when someone would finish her off, though.

“Chelsea...” Feeling apologetic towards her dear friend, Juliet was at a loss as she waited for the death penalty to come.

However, a whole five minutes passed, and she was still alive.

“What’s going on...?” she wondered—right as the so-called waiting space around her began to dissolve.

Juliet knew that meant that she was recovering from her Fainting, and the next moment, she found that her body was swaying back and forth rhythmically. She couldn’t open her eyes yet, but she could hear sounds—particularly the sound of a horse’s hooves hitting the ground.

“We haven’t run into anyone since then, huh, Ray? Not like I really want to run into anybody.”

“Yeah, so far, I’ve just met you, the mohawk guy, and Juliet. This island might be pretty big.”

Juliet then heard the voices of her friend, Ray, and Ray’s friend, Alto.

She realized that they must have saved her and began to consider something else—specifically, the situation she was in.

Ah. Wait... Is this...?! she thought as a certain image came to mind—an illustration from a children’s tale she’d read in elementary school, showing a prince astride a white horse with the princess clasped in his arms. That mental image made her wonder if she was currently in the exact same situation as the princess, with Ray holding her as they rode.

Hm...! Hm...?! she thought, flustered. Juliet had a high opinion of Ray. He was a friend who shared her taste in clothing and a sparring partner with a shockingly good sense for combat.

To her, he was “more than a friend, but less than a bestie”... Even if she did like him in a different way, there wasn’t much to it.

Still, if he went and treated her like a princess straight out of a fairytale, she couldn’t help but tense up and...

“By the way, Ray... Isn’t this the kind of situation where you oughta princess-carry her? Or give her a piggyback ride at least?”

Huh? Juliet thought. Alto’s words made her realize that a princess-carry would put her facing up. However, her senses were telling her that she was facedown, and that she was on top of something.

“Hey, it’d be pretty bad if we got ambushed and I couldn’t use both of my arms, wouldn’t it?” said Ray.

“Alto, although Ray tends to be the voice of reason, he may sometimes do strange things,” said Nemesis.

On top of that, Juliet also felt that she was tied to something at her waist.

That was when she opened her eyes.

“Oh, she’s awake. You okay, Juliet?” Ray—who was wearing a dark-looking mask—questioned her with a worried tone, while Alto looked at her with pitying eyes.

And so, Juliet found out that she’d been put on Silver’s back belly-down and tied to him so she wouldn’t fall.

Ah. This is how they carry bags of rice, not princesses...

The reality was so far from what she’d envisioned that Juliet couldn’t help but feel a little shocked.





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