Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 17 - Chapter 5

Chapter Five: The Asura

Paladin, Ray Starling

The attack came in a flash.

We’d moved into the dense forest at this point, so we dismounted Silver to make it easier to traverse. Before long, however, multiple daggers shot towards us.

“Ngh?!”

Juliet and I reacted just in time. She’d used her partially recovered wings to fly backwards, while I covered Alto and used my second Counter Absorption. The barrier of light stopped the attack from the flying blade—a grudge-clad spear.

“This is...” I was able to react to it in time because the weapon was cursed. Before I’d even seen it, I’d felt my Greaves begin to absorb its grudge, which alerted me to the enemy’s presence.

Having overcome the preliminary attack, I scanned our surroundings and noticed that the blade Juliet had evaded—a tachi—was still moving.

“Ah!” Seeing that made me realize that this wasn’t a simple thrown projectile, but a homing weapon much like Max’s Ipetam.

Counter Absorption was a powerful defensive skill, but it only prevented one single attack, so a follow-up strike would easily break through.

“Tch!” Nemesis clicked her tongue as she prepared to expend the third and final use of the skill, but then...

“My, what a pleasant group.”

...we heard a joyful voice, after which the flying tachi stopped moving entirely.

“Finally, I’ve found people who survived my first attack... People who can give me a true bloodbath!” The beautiful voice was thick with happiness, plain for all to hear.

A moment later, I saw blade-trails arc through the air—which were followed by the surrounding trees crashing to the ground.

Between them, in this newly created passage through the forest, there stood a single woman.

She was dressed in clothing that resembled a kimono, and her exposed skin was covered in countless scars. Four prosthetic limbs jutted out of her shoulders, each of them grasping a bladed weapon, and there were six more weapons floating around her. Two of them were the spear and tachi that had attacked us.

She was clearly just another participant, but the aura of strangeness mixed with familiarity that surrounded her filled me with terror.

“This woman...!” said Nemesis.

“...This reminds me of when I first met Figaro. I wonder why,” I said. She seemed as threatening as Figaro had back at the Tomb Labyrinth, while her prosthetic limbs, although different in shape, reminded me of Kashimiya.

“King of Asuras...Jubei Kaga?!” Alto blurted out what I assumed were the woman’s job and name.

“...King of Asuras?” I asked.

“Oh? Are you a Tenchi-dweller? You look like a kunoichi, but...” KoA said with a glance at Alto.

“Aaahh?!” Alto cowered and shook under the woman’s gaze.

So she’s the kind of person that can turn even this simpleminded, lighthearted cat’s cradle maniac into a cowering mess, huh? I thought.

“...Some of that sounds a bit rude,” said Nemesis telepathically.

“I do not recall ever seeing you,” said KoA. “Odd, since I believe I would at least recognize the kind of Tenchi-dweller who would be chosen for such an event.”

“Please don’t mind me! Unlike them, I’m just a nobody!” Alto said, moving behind us so we would serve as a shield.

...Well, I am the tank of this group, so it’s whatever.

“And this is not even the first time you’ve been used as a shield. Rook did so as well just recently,” Nemesis added.

Yeah. And this honestly feels a lot better than trying to be a damage sponge against the goddamn KoB.

“I do recognize the winged lady here, though,” KoA said as she tilted her head, presumably trying to recall exactly who Juliet was.

Though her actions seemed quite casual, I couldn’t see any openings in her guard. The six floating weapons were still orbiting her like satellites.

“Truly, ’tis the hide of one hardened by battle... (She has so many scars...)” said Juliet.

“I have not died in a while,” said KoA. “The scars have accumulated.”

Changes to your avatar, such as scars or lost limbs, were removed when you recovered from a death penalty—but if you didn’t die, they would stay with you until dealt with. I knew this painfully well from my own time spent without an arm. Assuming the same was true of KoA, it meant that she’d been in countless deadly battles...yet survived them all.

And that was exactly what Juliet was referring to.

“Oh, I remember now,” KoA said as she clapped her unarmed real hands together and looked at us. “You are an Altarian duel ranker. The fourth from the top, to be precise—Juliet the ‘Black Crow.’ Am I correct?”

“...You speak the truth,” Juliet said with a nod. I guess she thought that there was no point in trying to lie now that the enemy had seen her face, name, and even her Embryo.

“Eh heh heh,” King of Asuras chuckled. “I feel so lucky to meet a famous westerner. I am Jubei, a duel ranker from Tenchi. And I am the fourth, just like you. This coincidence can only be a sign that we will have a fruitful crossing of blades.”

Though her words were unsettling, the smile on her face was charming.

“The fourth, huh?” I said. That was definitely the same number as Juliet’s, but...

“The duels of Tenshi are fierce and zealous, far beyond the contests waged within our own lands.”

Yeah, just like Juliet had said, Tenchi had over double the number of duelists that Altar had, so for a more accurate comparison of ranks between our countries, you had to cut a Tenshi duelist’s rank in half.

“That means she’d be a match for the second in our rankings...Kashimiya.”

In that case, the odds were against us even if we had strength in numbers.

Though, if this was an easy battle for her, then why...?

“Why didn’t you just keep attacking us until we died?” I asked. We’d been able to deal with the first attack, but she had a whole six floating weapons to work with. She could’ve easily defeated us...or at least defeated me.

“A chance to talk to Masters from the other side of the world comes rarely, does it not?” she asked in response. “I cannot talk to you after I slice you up, so I am doing so now merely to give me something to remember.”

...The mix of friendliness and bloodlust was disturbing, but it helped me understand what kind of person she was.

Still, this was something I could play along with.

“Can I ask something, then?” I said. Figuring it was our best bet, I was going to try to find out more about her.

“Ask away. Though I will ask you something in return later.” King of Asuras...or rather, Jubei readily gave me the go-ahead.

I actually hadn’t really expected this to work, but now that I had her attention...

“...Are those weapons floating because of an Embryo skill? Your Embryo’s the arms growing out of your shoulders, right?” While Embryos like Figaro’s replaced a part of the body, the arms seemed to be more like Juliet’s wings—a so-called “Fusion-Arms” type Embryo that added new body parts.

“Asura is indeed my Embryo, but the weapons float due to a job skill. It is called ‘Asuran Battle-Mounts’ and to put it simply, I suppose you can say that it adds extra equipment slots for weapons controlled by telekinesis.”

“Telekinesis...” I knew of skills that added equipment slots through Figaro, but I didn’t think there was a special variation of such skills that let you equip things without actually equipping them, so to speak.

“As you can see, Asura also gives me extra slots, so I can wield quite a large number of weapons,” Jubei added.

An Embryo called “Asura,” and a Superior Job called “King of Asuras.” They both had “Asura” in the name, and they both added equipment slots.

Well, now I totally got why her nickname was “Multi-Asura.”

“This allows me to cross blades with others as much as I desire. I like it quite a bit,” Jubei added.

“...I can see that.” Extra equipment slots didn’t seem like a very strong Embryo ability just by themselves, though. There were Embryos with abilities that could kill in an instant, so this was actually kinda mundane in the grand scheme of things.

That meant she probably had an ace or two up her sleeve.

For now, I would look at her stats and...

RESISTANCE.

“Huh...?”

My Reveal skill was blocked...? I thought, confused.

“Oh, did you just try to look at my stats?” Jubei asked.

“...Yeah.” Crap. This is gonna end the conversation and start the battle... I thought.

“My apologies,” said Jubei, contrary to my expectations. “Asura denies things like that.”

What? Denies things like that...? “You mean, it negates skills that target you?”

“Umm, not quite. Asura’s always-active ultimate skill nullifies any phenomenon at all that does anything to me without trying to harm me. Assuming you are the Dark Knight you appear to be, your cursed weapons would still curse me if they managed to cut me—so please try your best to do so!”

...I wasn’t a Dark Knight, but I understood how the Embryo worked now. She would be affected by debuffs and the like that were accompanied by damage, but she would resist things like Reveal or Fuso’s ranged curses.

It was a power meant to shift focus onto pure battle...or maybe embody the motif of the Asuras—entities from Buddhism associated with justice.

If the resistance is the ult, then the Embryo probably doesn’t have any powerful secrets I can’t see, but...

“...The ten weapons we can clearly see are fearsome enough,” Nemesis said telepathically, and that was exactly what I was thinking too.

I also had learned another thing about her—the fact that she had no intention of hiding anything.

Revealing her Embryo or job skills didn’t put her at any sort of disadvantage. She laid out exactly what she was capable of and sought direct confrontation.

Her build as well as personality were both all about pure combat.

“...So this is what Tenchi is like, huh?” I’d heard about it from Fuyuki and the others many times, but man, seeing it like this sure was scary.

I’d got the info I needed, at least. It was time to put it to use and find a way to defeat her.

“Now, it is my turn to ask questions...” Jubei said. Suddenly, I felt like fate itself was mocking my plans. “...Oh?” she added, her expression changing.

As though she’d just noticed something, she was staring right at me.

“Oh my. Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my...”

The next moment, she was right in front of me.

“Ngh...?!” I tried to jump away, but my body wasn’t responding.

Her prosthetic arms had let go of their weapons, and three of them were pinning me by my arms and neck.

“...Ah!” Juliet cried out. I heard the flapping of her wings. Bound as I was, I couldn’t see what she was doing, but I could tell that she was either trying to use a skill to free me or at least attempting to approach.

“Please wait a moment,” said Jubei, warding Juliet off with her flying weapons.

As for Alto...she was kept in place by the one prosthetic that wasn’t busy with me.

“I apologize for acting so rough,” said Jubei. “I have a question...or rather, there is something I wish to confirm...”

She then pulled the cloth away from my face, taking my Storm Visage with it.

“Ahh!” she gasped in surprise. My hair and face were now exposed...

“You’re the Ray Starling!”

...and her eyes lit up even brighter than before.

“‘The’?” I, Nemesis, Juliet, and Alto all said in perfect unison.

What’s so “the” about me? I wondered, but Jubei ignored us and kept talking.

“I saw the videos! They made me shake with excitement! Those were some of the most perfect, crazy, fantastic battles I’ve ever seen! I’m a huge fan! Carve your autograph on me! Please!” She set me free, keeping hold of my open hand and hopping up and down like a giddy child. She was acting like a totally different person.

“H-Hold on a sec...”

“The battle against Hell General! The way you rush-rush-rushed through those devil hordes...and the moment you bit into one of them! Then the battle against KoB! I saw it this morning! It was amazing! You stabbed and almost killed KoB even after you’d been reduced to just a torso! It moved me to my very core!”

“...Huh? What the hell, Ray?” Alto said, and I couldn’t help but feel that she was freaked out by this.

“A slice-and-dice carnival! The counter-attacker and giant-slayer everyone’s talking about! Ray Starling the Unbreakable! I gave up on ever seeing you because you’re an Altarian, but now you’re standing right here! Next to me! I feel like I’ve already won this event!” She seemed to be completely overjoyed and it didn’t look like an act, which meant...

“...It appears that you have a fan,” said Nemesis. “This seems like something to be glad about.”

I had a fan despite not even being a duel ranker...?

“Ohh, I’m so happy...so, so happy...!” Jubei said in absolute ecstasy. It seemed like she was slowly returning to how she’d been acting before she’d found out my identity.

“I was worried for a moment, but it appears that we may be able to avoid battle here,” said Nemesis. Unfortunately, I was getting the complete opposite impression.

“...I never thought I’d get to fight Ray Starling himself!”

The next moment, she unleashed her bloodlust upon me with the force of an explosion.

“Ngh...!” I used Nemesis to deflect the blade she’d swung at me while kicking off the ground to put some distance between us.

I instinctively knew her STR would allow her to easily split me in half, so I reduced the damage by letting myself be knocked back.

It went exactly as I wanted...

“Ah-HAH!”

...but then I spotted a floating weapon in the exact spot I was headed towards.

“Gh!” She’d either read me like a book or this was just her regular fighting style.

The same tachi that had been aimed at Juliet was about to cut into me...

“Blackwing Orchestra!”

...but then Juliet released a black wind magic spell straight towards me. It blew me off course—and away from the range of Jubei’s floating weapons.

“Ray! Are you okay?!” Nemesis asked.

“...Yeah.” Juliet must’ve aimed at me because she’d already seen the tachi in action before. She felt that her skill wouldn’t work on the weapon, so she aided me by blowing me out of the way instead.

“Thanks, Juliet,” I said.

“...No problem!” Even as we spoke, Juliet and I were on high alert.

Jubei had stopped moving once again. Instead of attacking us...

“Eh heh, ah hah, HA HA! Amazing! Is that your instinct? The super defense that transcends even AGI... I finally saw it live...and it’s wonderful”

...she seemed to be relishing what had just happened. Her smile was even wider than before.

As for Alto...it seemed that Jubei wasn’t interested in her. She’d escaped her range without any trouble.

“...Ray, does she not hold you in high regard...?” Nemesis asked, confused as to why Jubei attacked us.

“That’s exactly why she’s doing this,” I said.

“What?”

“It’s pretty obvious by now that she’s a real battle junkie, right?”

“It is.”

“Then it’s only natural that she’d want to fight the person she’s most interested in. Everything Jubei said about me relates to what I’ve done in battle.”

“...Oh.” Just like someone would start attending an idol’s concerts after falling in love with their singing, someone who was charmed by my fighting would obviously want to fight me.

...Man, did that comparison feel weird.

“More...I want to see more. Slowly. Thoroughly. Until the end, until the final cut, until one of us expires,” Jubei said.

I had a feeling that until she’d realized who I was, she was still partially playing around—as though she wasn’t serious about any of this. But now, the purity of her bloodlust and fighting spirit was on another level.

It wasn’t because her opponent was strong, but because she wanted to have a taste of battle against me.

She wouldn’t hold back. She wasn’t the kind of person who would ever do that. She was going to go all out, push her limits, and try her best to kill me.

It was almost as though she was trying to experience a live reenactment of my battle against KoB.

“...It’s not like I did all that stuff on my own,” I said, fully aware that she wouldn’t listen.

“My fave... I want to cut and be cut by you, kill and be killed by you, love and be loved by you...” She seemed less human and more asura now—a creature from Tenchi enslaved by pure passion.

“LET US SHARE OUR LOVE UNTIL WE BREAK!” Overcome with bloodlust and affection both, the fourth in Tenchi’s duel rankings bared her fangs at me.

If she was actually on Kashimiya’s level, she was no doubt stronger than us.

However, unlike with Kashimiya, I could still see Jubei’s attacks.

The Unsheath sliced at speeds so far above supersonic that I couldn’t even understand, let alone sense any of them, but King of Asuras was far slower than that.

However, speed wasn’t what she specialized in.

Even now as she laughed with manic joy, there were six weapons floating around her.

Each and every one of them was the kind of weapon you’d expect to see in the hands of a vanguard Superior Job. With the addition of the four prosthetic arms, she could wield a total of ten potent tools of death at once.

Most importantly, those weapons were...

“Alto,” I said.

“...Yyeess?” She looked like she really didn’t want to be here. Well, being a Tenchi Master, she must have understood the danger far better than me or Juliet.

But that was exactly why I had to ask her...

“You know anything about her?”

“...They say that Asuran Battle-Mounts has a range of 25 metels, but that’s info people got from her dueling, so it’s hard to tell if that’s true,” Alto explained, not daring to look away from Jubei.

For whatever reason, though, she wasn’t making a move.

Apparently still in a trance, she was looking at me with her fleshy hands pressed against her cheeks.

“As for the flying weapons, I only know about four. A defense-breaking tachi that negates defensive skills, ‘Peerless Excess, Hora.’ The slow-killing shortsword that prevents all healing for 100 minutes after it cuts you, ‘Death-Bearer, Kubigawara.’ A maddened curse-spear that can slice and kill even spirits, ‘Anguishbloom, Higanbana.’ The retaliating katana that moves at insane speeds to inevitably strike anyone who comes too close, ‘The Denying Blade, Dankajin.’”

“...Now that’s something.” That was four special rewards, which was already more than I had.

The one Juliet had helped me evade must have been Hora. If it really did negate defensive skills, using Counter Absorption against it would’ve been certain death.

The other weapons were probably also MVP rewards or something close to that.

The two others that Alto hadn’t named were a chakram and a large hatchet. Like my Miasmaflame Bracers and Grudge-Soaked Greaves, they had a unique shape, making it likely that they were MVP rewards.

She was both stocked up on special rewards and had a bunch of extra slots to use them in, which was very...Figaro-like.

“Ah ha ha ha.” Jubei didn’t seem the least bit shaken that Alto had revealed all of that information. The joy in her face hadn’t faded one bit.

“So, have you said everything you wanted?” she asked Alto as her smile grew wider.

“EEP?!”

“Hm...?” Jubei sounded like she might be on the verge of killing Alto for revealing all of that, which had made Alto panic.

However, I got a completely different impression. To me, it felt like Jubei had actually been waiting for someone to explain everything about her.

“...I get it now,” I said. It finally made sense. She was both a Tenchi-dweller and a duel ranker—this was probably just how they were.

“You were waiting for Alto to tell us what you’re capable of...weren’t you?” I asked.

“Huh?” Alto was confused, but Juliet and Nemesis seemed to understand exactly what I was getting at.

Jubei’s smile widened again.

Information was a powerful thing. And in Infinite Dendrogram, where individuals could have unique powers, an informational advantage was more important than in any other game. That was exactly why Alto had recommended that I hide my face.

Jubei had answered every question I’d asked about her Embryo abilities and job skills, and that was before she knew who I was.

“Yes, exactly! I want those who withstand my preemptive attacks to be as well prepared as they can possibly be! After all, battles are at their most fun when they are close!” She didn’t want to just massacre people before they knew what was going on—she wanted a fair fight.

That was Jubei Kaga’s philosophy of fighting.

The scars on her body must’ve been gained through battles where she’d revealed everything about herself.

It seemed like a manifestation of carelessness or arrogance, but I felt that ultimately that was far from the truth. She was like Figaro or Kashimiya, in that she abided by certain self-imposed rules.

And, most notable of all, she’d been through many battles after revealing her hand, yet she still hadn’t gotten the death penalty. She’d won against many powerful opponents even after she gave them all the information they needed.

She was an Asura like no other—truly King of Asuras.

“It seems you are well prepared now, so...let us begin!” Jubei said with a smile before kicking off the ground.

She moved at supersonic speeds as though it was the most natural thing in the world. I didn’t know if it was because of her levels, stats, or a buff from some weapon, but she was a great deal faster than me.

“Blackwing Requiem!”

Before Jubei could get close, Juliet fired an orb of dark magic towards her. However, before it could land, one of the floating weapons—the chakram—flew towards it.

It traced a path over the dark orb, making it vanish in its wake.

Dark magic was supposedly hard to defend against, yet Juliet’s black shroud had disappeared without a trace.

“Huh...?!” An MVP reward that broke any magic it touched... It was just like Rook’s Touch of the Silencer!

Chakrams were weapons that were either thrown or wielded in hand. Using this particular weapon in the former way would’ve meant letting go of it, while the latter way would come with the risk of getting hit despite its anti-magic properties. But since Jubei used telekinesis, she didn’t have to deal with either of those problems.

“Purgatorial Flames!”

I welcomed Jubei with fire from my Miasmaflame Bracer. But then, her floating hatchet spun around and slashed through the blazing torrent, splitting it in two.

“So that one kills fire...no...breath attacks!”

An anti-magic chakram, an anti-breath-attack hatchet, and an always-active ult that canceled all effects that weren’t coupled with damage.

It seemed that she wanted to do everything she could to ensure her battles would be physical.

“Entryyy!” After extinguishing our spells and fires, Jubei came close enough that we were in range of her floating weapons.

The tachi, the shortsword, the spear, the chakram, the hatchet...all of them approached me and Juliet with different trajectories.

The katana...the retaliating “Dankajin,” or whatever it was called, was still floating next to Jubei.

The weapons coming towards me were the tachi and the hatchet.

I could only use Counter Absorption to block one attack, but since the tachi was that defense-breaking Hora, I couldn’t even use that.

And since my AGI wasn’t high enough for me to evade both of them, there was only one thing I could do.

“Chaser From the Mirror!” I switched to the fourth form, and Nemesis instantly activated Chaser with Jubei’s AGI as the target.

My speed became equal to hers, and along with that we now experienced time the same way. That slowed down the weapons heading towards me.

“Agh!” I read the trajectories of the weapons and evaded them both.

They tried to reverse themselves and attack me again, but this time I dodged them by rushing forwards.

“All that sparring against Xunyu is finally paying off!” said Nemesis.

“She always gets me in the end, though!” Still, these floating weapons were easier to dodge than the golden prosthetics that had chased after me until I had nowhere to run and no option but to die.

Jubei, however, was far more than her floating weapons.

While attacking me, she herself had closed the distance between us. The four prosthetics were all holding blades, all heading towards each of my limbs.

It was like an approaching prison of sharp edges. No matter which side I dodged towards, I couldn’t avoid attacks from someone who was just as fast as I was—and behind me there were the tachi and hatchet, still hurtling towards me.

That left me with only one choice—to step forwards.

I put power into my legs and rushed towards her with all my strength.

This was perhaps the most dangerous thing I could do, since this meant that I’d activate her Dankajin.

However, the katana didn’t fly towards me.

Juliet, who’d evaded the flying weapons as well, had approached Jubei before I did and was now keeping Dankajin distracted.

So the superspeed counterattack can only happen once before it’s unsheathed! I realized. Because of this, I was able to approach Jubei without resistance.

I thrust the twin sword in my right hand towards Jubei.

“Ah hah hah hah haah!” Amused by something, she laughed as she grabbed Nemesis’s blade with her bare hand.

“Huh?!”

It was a technique that everyone even mildly interested in swords had fantasized about.

While I was completely immobilized by the surprising move, a total of seven of her weapons all hurtled towards me.

However, it was too late for that.

“Vengeance is Mine!” Nemesis and I both roared. She’d touched it, so our skill should work.

A shock wave erupted in Jubei’s hands, and blood splattered all over.

Just like her tachi, my attack ignored her defense—it was a fixed damage counterattack. As long as I had damage stocked up, it could hurt anyone as long as the attack connected.

Free from her grip on the Nemesis in my right hand, I prepared to thrust the one in my left...

“Ah...”

...but a chill ran down my spine that made me reflexively jump to the side.

I leaped straight onto a blade held by her prosthetic and basically just took the damage to my right upper arm.

However, the sheer amount of attacks that landed on the place I had just been standing was several times greater.

“Mmgh...”

“So this is it... This is the thing I’ve heard so much about... Eh heh heh...” said Jubei.

While I had made distance between us, she was frozen in place, staring at her bleeding palm with an ecstatic expression.

The wound was far from deep. It hadn’t even severed any of her fingers—ultimately it was nothing more than a gash on her palm.

“Thank you for your autograph! Mmm...!” she said, licking at the blood before turning back towards me. “What a strange feeling. It was as though that power just burst out of my palm from the inside. Eh heh heh... Though, this is far from enough, as I am sure you know. It’s only double the damage you received, and the only damage I dealt to you before you activated your fourth form was from my preemptive attack. And since you copied my AGI, you can’t possibly have a great deal of damage stored up to return to me, can you? Or is it because your twin swords are split it in half? Regardless, the damage is less than I was expecting.”

I said nothing in response. Jubei had only seen my battles in videos, and Nemesis’s fourth form had only appeared in my battle against KoB.

Had she seriously figured out how my skills worked by just watching those? Not just that, but she’d actually grabbed my blade just so she could get me to use Vengeance...to mark the occasion with a scar on her body as though it was an autograph.

“...Ray, would I be correct in thinking that...?”

“You probably would be,” I said, knowing exactly what Nemesis was about to say. Everything that had happened so far went exactly as Jubei had wanted.

She’d actually intended for me to use Chaser, then just barely make it close to her...and then use Vengeance to land a blow on her, all while preventing Juliet from interfering.

“...The fourth in Tenchi’s duel rankings, huh?”

She wasn’t as fast as Kashimiya or as strong as Figaro.

However, she was good. As in, extremely skilled.

She simultaneously controlled ten weapons, analyzed her enemy, engineered the battle she wanted to have, and finally got the results she desired.

Though her eccentric appearance and behavior didn’t show it, she had an extraordinary amount of control over her technique.

“This was exactly as I anticipated,” she said, smiling in satisfaction at the theatrics she’d just directed and starred in.

Her words could only mean that she’d crafted the exchange we just had with the expectation that I would pull it off—all based on what she’d seen in the videos.

If I hadn’t met her expectations, I would’ve surely died somewhere in there.

“But...it was not more than I anticipated,” she said as her smile vanished and she looked at me. “It did not draw out everything good about the Ray Starling.”

It didn’t seem that she was disappointed in me exactly. It was like she was confused more than anything else.

“What am I lacking?” she asked as though the flaw clearly wasn’t with me, but with her.

Regardless, I had no answer to her question.

I felt like I had pushed myself to the limit and done everything I could.

If there was something I could do to be stronger than I was now, I would have liked to hear it myself.

◇◆◇

Event Area, East, Forest

Just what am I supposed to do here...?!

A high-level battle had unfolded before her eyes.

Her friend, that friend’s friend, and King of Asuras were fighting, and Alto was at a complete loss as to what to do.

Jubei Kaga is like the worst person to run into...we even work for the same daimyo...! she thought.

Though Jubei didn’t recognize Alto, Alto certainly knew Jubei.

This was because they were both serving the same daimyo family in Tenchi—Toseiden, one of their big four.

That was why Alto was so hesitant to involve herself in the conflict.

If she did, there was a chance that Jubei would set her sights on her after the event ended.

Jubei Kaga...she’s such a battle junkie that she sided with Toseiden despite acting like a stereotypical Shimazu type from Nashumon...just because she wanted to fight against Nashumon...! Alto had actually refrained from giving her name because she didn’t want anyone like that to actually remember her.

In fact, she wanted to use her skills as a Nukenin to get out of here as quickly as possible.

However, since she’d promised to cooperate with Ray, that wasn’t an option.

I can’t abandon an IRL friend! It’s gonna leave a mark on our friendship and my mind...! That was why she couldn’t run. She didn’t want to fight, but running just wasn’t in the cards.

But just letting him die would be basically the same thing...! I wanna do something, but what can I even do...?! This is so stressful... I wanna play some cat’s cradle...! She wanted to calm her nerves with the game she loved so much, but someone would have to be quite off their rocker to play cat’s cradle in this situation. An absurd act like that would have definitely jogged Jubei’s memory.

There really was nothing she could do here.

Compared to Jubei, her attack power was practically nonexistent, her Embryo actually had a chance of benefiting the enemy, while the very reason she was chosen for this event wasn’t something she could use in the presence of other people—especially ones from Tenchi.

The most I can do now is create a smokescreen to help everyone escape, but...

There was a chance that the hatchet would disperse the smoke just like it had dispersed Ray’s flames. Even if the smokescreen worked, Jubei was the kind of person who would keep attacking even if she couldn’t see anything.

If only there was something to distract her while I put up the smokescreen... In this situation, that just wasn’t a reasonable hope.

Jubei was currently speaking to Ray, but it was only a matter of time before she flew into action again. Once that happened, they would have almost no hope of winning. Juliet knew that as well, and that was why she was mostly incapable of helping, aside from the fact that she was still recovering from her use of Molting.

God! Buddha! Cat’s cradle! Gimme a helping hand! Hell, I’ll take even the devil here! Cornered, Alto’s thoughts had begun to race...when suddenly, there was a sound of a twig breaking.

Jubei was the first to react.

As though to swat down this nuisance getting in the way of her joy, she sent the defense skill-negating tachi, Hora, towards the troublesome target.

And so, the unfortunate intruder to the Kingdom of Asura died with just that single strike.

...Or at least, that was what one might expect would happen.

“...What is this?” Jubei asked, staring in confusion at her target, which clearly had her Hora blade stuck into it.

However, it seemed that this blade that was supposed to negate defense skills had actually landed in the target’s body—assuming it was fitting to call it that.

The silhouette it had wasn’t that of a human. It was a rather rotund costume covered in long fur.

The animal it was based on was...

“Ah. A bear.” The words escaped Alto’s mouth.

I asked for a devil and got a bear.

While that casual thought crossed her mind, the other three were overcome by terror.

“Shu...? No. You can’t be him...!” At first, Ray immediately associated this unique appearance with his brother, but this was not him.

This was certainly a bear costume, but not Shu’s Hind Bear.

It was also wearing an ushanka on its head and a gas cylinder on its back...and its fur was pure white.

Most notably, Ray felt no familiarity in the gaze of whoever was inside the costume. Instead, it felt like the bear was a hunter evaluating his prey.

“...The one who treads upon divine ground and answers the call of predation’s chains.” Though spoken in her own language, Juliet’s words implied that she knew who this was.

As for Jubei...

“Eh heh. Eh heh heh... I did not know that this event also had your kind...Superiors.”

...she had shifted her divided attention away from Ray and Juliet, and was now focused entirely on the person in the costume.

Her words, specifically Superior, made Ray remember something Shu had once said to him.

“Costumes are more usefur than you’d expect. I ain’t the only one using them, that’s fur sure.”

The Granvaloan “Human Bomb,” Antimicrobic Soy Sauce.

The Tenchi-dwelling “Ironman Mechanicus,” Bachigo Futae.

Legendaria’s most wanted, “Hypersomnia,” ZZZ.

And the person standing before them now.

Ray used Reveal and saw his name listed among the stats.

“God Hunter, Carl Lourlou!”

A member of Caldina’s strongest clan, Sefirot, as well as the bearer of the title “Multifariously Invincible.”

This was the spice that the control AI had prepared for this event—the Superior said to have the strongest defense of any Master in the world.