Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 17 - Chapter 6.5

Interlude: The Crawler-Riders, the Magic-Spinners

Event Area, South, Beach

Shion Manjushage was a fairly famous Altarian Master.

Being thirteenth on a single ranking would have been impressive enough, but she was thirteenth in every ranking.

Duel, clan, and kill rankings—Shion was a rare person who had taken the same spot in all three of them.

She was powerful enough to go higher, but she chose to remain where she was.

In fact, she was actually making her clan members—all of whom were her family’s servants in real life—keep an eye on other rankers so she could adjust her kill count and clan score to maintain her position.

Her reason for going to such lengths was, to quote her, “Because the number thirteen is so ominous and cool!”

There was nothing more to it than that.

For that very same reason, she was after the position of the fourth—a more prestigious number which was also ominous in certain Asian cultures—which had made her proclaim herself to be Juliet’s rival. Some other duelists and parts of the audience did also see it that way, so it wasn’t entirely unfounded.

Because of this, she’d felt somewhat left out when Juliet and Chelsea promised to have an all-out battle. To quote her directly, “What about me?!”

From Chelsea’s perspective, though, Shion and Juliet had already had their showdown during the Exodragon King incident—and in a quite troublesome manner, at that. Chelsea had told Shion as much when they’d met up again.

All of that aside, Shion was now focused on the event.

One reason for this had been Chelsea’s words to her: “It’s not like you’ll become fourth in the rankings or something if you do beat Julie at this event. Doncha think it’s better to focus on winning that prize, using it to get stronger, and then challenging her?” Shion herself had said something similar during the Exodragon King incident, so that comment had been more than enough to convince her.

Chelsea’s true intentions in saying that, though, had been preventing Shion from interfering in her fight against Juliet—while also getting Shion on her side. The Dark Princess’s abilities made her a potent force against even the strongest players in this event.

After seeing Shion eliminate King of Cowboys, who could have become the greatest threat here, it would have been fair to assume that Chelsea had definitely made the right choice.

Dominating the event’s battles like this, they’d managed to acquire a fair number of plates; now they were searching for the way to use them—the hints.

To make the most of their abilities, they’d split up to make the search more efficient. They might have been more powerful as a group, but since only the first three through the gate could clear the event, they had to make a compromise between their combat potential and speed of investigation.

Thinking along those lines—or, rather, having been persuaded by Chelsea to think that way—Shion went to look for clues...

“Hm?! I found something strange!”

...and eventually found one.

This one, though, would have been hard to miss.

It was a white stone monument poking out of the sea about twenty metels from the shoreline. Its size? As tall as a five-story building. It could be seen from just about any point on the island’s southern beach.

“Hmm... There is something written on it, but I don’t wanna get too close...” Behind the monument there was the open sea, teeming with aquatic monsters warded off by the event area’s barrier. Shion had a distaste for octopuses and krakens and the like, so she didn’t want to come anywhere near them.

“Read it for me, Amethyst.” Because she was disinclined to approach the ocean, she made her Prism Crawler mount—the Amethyst Captor—do the job for her.

“Acknowledged,” said the mechanical spider as it turned its multiple sensors on the monument and read the text. “‘Each person’s answer may differ.’”

“So that is the hint...is it?” The cryptic, almost philosophical statement made Shion put one hand to her cheek and tilt her head. The gesture was very refined, but the thought running through her mind was, I’ve got no clue what that means.

“...Amethyst?” Shion asked.

“Insufficient information for analysis,” Amethyst replied. The Prism Crawler was often called “Shion’s external brain.” In this situation, she tried relying on it like she always did, but not even an AI could figure out the correct eight-digit number from this hint alone.

“Hmm... I will take it back to Chelsea, then,” Shion said. “She is a college student in real life, so she ought to be at least a little bit smarter than me!”

If Chelsea were to hear that, she would likely say something like, “Being ‘a bit’ smarter than you wouldn’t even be enough to get accepted to my college,” but Shion was right to bring this information to her teammate.

“Time to go to the rendezv—”

“Emergency evasion.”

Shion, all smiles, was about to order Amethyst to move, but the mechanical spider used its eight legs to jump away on its own.

A moment later, immense heat and light sliced through the place they had just been.

“What?!”

“Analyzing the enemy,” said Amethyst. “Applicable data discovered. Magically charged particle cannon—a weapon of the Obliterator.”

While Shion was surprised by the completely unexpected attack, Amethyst had seen it coming and even knew what they were being attacked by.

Amethyst focused its sensors on the light’s origin point, but there was nothing there.

“Camouflage.”

Nothing visible, at least. The unit’s sensors could easily detect something hiding there using Optical Camouflage.

Amethyst then aimed its tail towards that location and released multiple nets. Some of them struck parts of the scenery and, in a flash of purple lightning, removed some of the coverage afforded by Optical Camouflage.

Behind it, there stood a mechanical scorpion with a cannon for a tail. This was the unit controlled by the Flow Princess, Juba—the one who’d shot down Juliet.

“Identity of the enemy unit confirmed—Prism Crawler No. 2, Citrine Obliterator.” It was a machine in the same category as Amethyst.

“...I should’ve expected this from Altar’s strongest player in this event,” said Juba. “Neither the ambush nor the camouflage is going to work against her...”

As Juba traveled, she had chanced upon Shion while she was still looking for hints on this southern shore. Since she was one of the strongest participants as well as an Altarian, Juba resolved to take advantage of this chance to take her out of the game. Using Optical Camouflage to hide, she tried to ambush Shion using her charged particle cannon.

And now, since that hadn’t worked at all, Juba knew that Shion posed an even greater threat than before.

Of course, Amethyst was the one to actually react to the ambush; Shion hadn’t expected it at all. In light of this, perhaps Juba was giving her more credit than was warranted...

“Yes! I am Altar’s strongest lady duelist—Dark Princess, Shion Manjushage!”

...but Shion was willing to take it all anyway.

Amethyst, however, didn’t argue. It was a particularly loyal support mech.

“And that’s why...I’m gonna take you out...”

“Bring it on!”

Juba wanted to beat Shion because she was a strong opponent, while Shion faced Juba for no other reason than Juba had challenged her. Their motives might have been very different, but they would both fight nonetheless.

And so, the two Masters and their units rushed into battle.

“Initiating evasive patterns.”

“Initiating artillery patterns.” Amethyst began leaping around to avoid the cannon fire, while Citrine checked its memory banks for data regarding this enemy.

Amethyst then used webs to accelerate its movements, while the unmoving Citrine repeatedly fired its charged particle cannon, quickly turning the smooth beach into a pockmarked battlefield.

A spider fighting with webs and a scorpion fighting with its tail—they were much like the creatures they were based on, and the fight seemed evenly matched for a moment.

“Is it just me, or are our designs similar?” Shion belatedly realized.

“Affirmative. Both myself and the target—Citrine Obliterator—are Prism Crawlers built by the same creator. I am No. 1, while Citrine is No. 2.”

“Wow, you have a little sister?!”

“We have no gender.”

“But it has a girl’s voice.”

“Conjecture: that is the voice of No. 2’s pilot. No. 2 is a boardable unit.”

“I see! We’re both using bug robots... Let us find out which one of ours is the true king of insects!”

“...Neither scorpions nor spiders are insects.” Even Juba couldn’t help but comment on Shion’s words.

“If there is an actual person inside, I can kill it! Gloom Stalker!” With those words, Shion activated a skill. The result was a number of black homing projectiles—a manifestation of black magic that sought out living creatures, passing through anything inanimate. Combined with Judas’s Kiss of Death, they could deliver unavoidable death even through the toughest armor.

“Defense.”

But then, Citrine created a barrier of light around itself.

“Huh?! That barrier better not be dark or holy!” Shion exclaimed. Dark magic could only be influenced by other dark magic effects or its opposite, holy magic.

However, Citrine’s barrier didn’t look like either.

“No. 2’s barrier works on both offensive magic and physical attacks. It can only be penetrated by attacks with a greater output.”

“No fair!”

In exchange for being able to break through most defenses, dark magic wasn’t particularly strong. It seemed her only option for breaking the barrier would be her ultimate job skill, but that took some time to prepare.

“Amethyst!”

“I am a light support unit specialized in trap placement and three-dimensional mobility, while No. 2 is a heavy combat unit equipped with extensive armor and firepower. The enemy has the advantage.”

Though they were both Prism Crawlers, the gulf between them was wide, like that between a utility vehicle and a tank.

However, that was exactly what made the current situation so unusual.

“Operating both the charged particle cannon and the barrier at full capacity would be taxing even for magic-focused Superior Jobs. It is likely that No. 2 is receiving some form of special support, either from a Superior Job or an Embryo.”

The Prism Crawlers were famous weapons even older than The Era of the Peerless Three. A mechanic who’d inherited the title of Grand Artificer of the pre-ancient civilization built them, inspired by the Prism Horses and Dragons.

Their base capabilities were a match for the originals built by the Grand Artificer himself, but there was one drawback—the mechanic had failed to reproduce the reactors, making the Prism Crawlers completely reliant on the user’s MP for energy. The amount of MP drained was different for each unit. No. 1, Amethyst, was the most balanced in this regard, but the combat-focused Citrine was a true magic hog.

Despite this, Juba had some means of ignoring this limitation and could run Citrine at full capacity for long periods of time. An experienced fighter would notice this and immediately understand that discovering what made this possible would be key to victory.

“I see I have no choice...”

And now, Shion...

“I will have to just keep shooting until I break the barrier!”

...unfortunately not the brightest player around, decided to do it by force. Like an aggressive monkey, she chose to merely keep attacking, sparing no thought to the possible source of her opponent’s power.

Just as one could never reason with the embodiments of strife that were the asura, reason wouldn’t work on idiots either.

Shion then did exactly as she said she would, repeatedly firing her dark magic while leaving all evasion to Amethyst. All of her spells were blocked by the barrier, failing to reach either Citrine or Juba.

Despite that, she just kept on casting.

Seemingly obedient, Amethyst continued to evade while closing the distance or repositioning to give Shion an angle that would let her shoot past the barrier.

However, there were no gaps in the half-sphere barrier, so in all honesty, Shion was merely wasting her time and energy.

What is she planning...? Juba wondered, still overestimating her opponent. She never presumed that the fearsome Master who’d taken out the giant cloud-elephant would perform such a wasteful assault without purpose. Thinking that Shion must be planning something beyond her comprehension, Juba became a bit paranoid.

I have the upper hand in both firepower and armor. She can’t hit me as long as I keep up the barrier... Wait, is that why? Is she forcing me to use the barrier?

Normally, Juba didn’t talk much, and when she did her words were slow. However, that was because most of her mind was entirely focused on analyzing her surroundings. She analyzed her enemies and the battlefield around her to gain full control over them and achieve victory.

Thus, her thinking right now...

Are these useless attacks meant to shift my energy distribution towards defense? Is there a reason she wants to shut down my full-power cannon fire?

...was actually more like overthinking.

Shion certainly hadn’t put nearly that much thought into it. In fact, she hadn’t even noticed Citrine’s design flaw.

Citrine was a heavy tank, powerful in both defense and offense, but there was a cap on the amount of magic per second it could convert into energy, making it impossible to simultaneously use the charged particle cannon and the barrier at full power. Right now, to defend against Shion’s attacks, seventy percent of its energy flow was directed to the barrier, with only thirty percent powering the cannon.

It’s still enough to kill her, though. She’s using Amethyst to evade my shots, but unlike me, she doesn’t have any means of quickly restoring MP. Actually, all those attacks and my influence should mean she’s going to run dry soon enough... I think.

Since she thought Shion was still hiding something, Juba couldn’t be confident about her thoughts. The power of someone who held thirteenth place in all rankings was hard to gauge. It wasn’t just about her personal power—one couldn’t maintain all three positions without great leadership, thorough organization, and immense amounts of data about other rankers.

Because of this, Juba couldn’t help but assume that Shion had incredible charisma and could analyze a situation with the best of them.

Again, she was overthinking it.

Her clan members were all her servants in real life. They were organized because it was their job, and data was gathered by the members who were best at it. They simply approached Shion every week and told her, “Milady, this is how many you have to defeat to maintain your current ranking.” Shion herself had no analytical ability whatsoever.

That was why a UBM was able to take advantage of her during the Exodragon King incident.

I can’t let my guard down. Just what is she planning...?

Juba outmatched Shion in terms of compatibility, but failed to realize that her greatest enemy was her own wariness.

...Well, more accurately, there was one other problem she had to worry about.

“Ngh. It’s not working...!”

It had taken her nearly a hundred spells, but Shion finally began to realize the futility of her incessant casting.

The Weaver-Spider’s Wand that she so loved was a luxury, custom-made item equipped with the “Halve MP Use” skill, but the sheer number of spells had taken their toll, leaving her MP at less than 20%.

“I feel like my MP is dropping faster than normal,” she said. “I’m so tired that I feel like I am seeing two suns...”

“...”

“Oh?”

While Shion had begun to complain, Amethyst extended a thread to her. The non-damaging thread allowed for communication between them and them alone, somewhat like the two cans tied with a string.

“This message is top secret. I request that you do not change your expression to prevent the enemy from noticing,” said Amethyst. Shion nodded in response.

“I propose a strategy that will make it possible to win.”

“Huh?! Have you come up with something?!” Shion exclaimed, instantly forgetting Amethyst’s request.

Amethyst then proceeded to present its idea.

“...Huhhh?” Upon hearing it, Shion couldn’t hide how unpleasant she found the prospect. Then, after about ten seconds of thinking coupled with light groaning, all while Amethyst was still evading Juba’s beams...

“...I guess I have no choice!” she hesitantly agreed.

On the other side, there stood Juba, who felt that the end of the battle was close.

Reveal tells me that she has less than 10% MP left. Even using her Prism Crawler should be too much for her, she thought.

Shion had already ceased her magic attacks and was now doing nothing but evading Citrine’s beams. However, that would stop once she ran out of magic to power Amethyst.

Juba had fought as carefully as she could, and now her victory was close.

That was when Shion returned Amethyst to her inventory.

Juba couldn’t believe her eyes or even begin to understand that action. Shion had put away the one thing keeping her alive.

However, looking through Citrine’s optical sensors, she saw Shion holding her wand towards her unit.

That made her realize two things.

First, Shion had put Amethyst away to focus her magic on attacks.

And second...Shion’s incessant spellcasting didn’t have a single thought behind it.

“She was...just an idiot the whole time...?!” Juba shouted in exasperation, shock, and anger. As if channeling her sentiments, Citrine fixed its sights directly on Shion.

The dim-witted caster who’d thrown away her only means of evasion had no way to escape the impending blast.

“Obliterate!” Juba shouted, using a skill of the same name. Shion didn’t even try to evade the light that engulfed her.

The beam’s impact blew away even the patch of beach she was standing on.

“A direct hit...!” Even from her cockpit, Juba could see that Shion had been struck by the beam. The charged particle cannon had no doubt made short work of her.

“Hoo... That was scary.”

“...Huh?” However, once the light faded, Shion was still standing there, completely unharmed.

“Huh...? Huhh...? Huuhh...?” The figure standing in that spot clearly had Shion’s face, but her silhouette was nothing like it had been before.

“It was so bright that my eyes are all watery...”

The once-humanoid silhouette had been replaced by that of a soft, rounded form based on a skeleton of a bipedal carnivorous dragon. Shion’s face was about where the dinosaur’s neck would be.

She was now wearing a type of animal costume.

◇◆

The Exodragon King incident was something that had happened in Gideon some time after Franklin’s Game.

At its core, it was a battle between two UBMs: Armordragon King, Drag-Armor and Exodragon King, Drag-Mail. The former led armordragons, while the latter commanded maildragons, and none of this would have been an issue if humans hadn’t been caught in the crossfire.

Juliet, Chelsea, Max, and Shion had been deeply involved in it, and in the end, Shion was the one to finally defeat the Exodragon King, putting an end to the incident.

Being the MVP, she had received a reward—Ultimate Costume Series, Drag-Mail.

It was a costume-type MVP reward just like Shu Starling’s Hind Bear. Despite its appearance, it was an Ancient Legendary treasure—and as such, it had a powerful skill.

“Antimagic Exoskeleton” reduced all incoming magic-based damage by 100% in exchange for increasing physical damage to the exposed face by 1,000%.

While alive, Exodragon King had used its exoskeleton to negate all and any magic damage, and although the conversion to MVP reward had given it an extra weakness, this power was still as effective as ever—as evidenced by Shion withstanding the charged particle cannon attack like it was nothing.

◇◆

A defensive MVP reward?! Strong enough to negate Obliteration...?! Though the attack hadn’t been the strongest it could possibly be, Juba was shocked that Shion was completely unharmed.

Wait... Then...why didn’t she use it before...?! If it was that easy for Shion to nullify Juba’s attacks, she could’ve done so at the start.

What’s her plan...?! I don’t get it! I just can’t understand her...! Completely unable to read her, Juba was at a loss.

As for the reason why Shion didn’t use it...she simply didn’t want to wear something she thought was “tragically un-beautiful.” Her fixation on fashion had made her partially forget she even had it. If Amethyst hadn’t reminded her, she would have gotten the death penalty before she remembered it.

It hardly needs to be repeated, but Shion was what one might call a silly goose.

Is there some sort of risk to wearing it? Is there a time limit? Or a reduction to physical resistance? Despite her confusion, Juba tried to understand her enemy and in the process came upon the correct answer.

Indeed, while Shion was now strong against magic, her physical defense was unchanged, while any physical damage to her face would be increased tenfold. Juba could win by just crushing her with Citrine’s tank-like frame.

She silently considered doing just that. It would be a risky move. There was a chance that ramming Shion with the magic-based barrier wouldn’t do any damage, meaning that she would have to hit her with the unit itself. Since Shion wielded material-passing dark magic, this would leave Juba open to her spells.

It would all depend on what happened first: Juba crushing Shion, or Shion’s spells reaching her.

“I’ll...do it!”

Juba did not hesitate to enact her newfound plan. Trusting her piloting and Citrine’s power, she would charge towards Shion.

The mechanical scorpion’s many legs displaced the sand as it approached Shion...only for it to suddenly screech forwards on its back legs, like a bike doing a wheelie.

“Huh?!”

“...?!”

Both Juba and Citrine were shocked. They had no intention of doing anything like this.

To them, it seemed that for completely unknown reasons the unit had flipped over, and they realized its legs were caught in some kind of thread.

That was when Juba and Citrine immediately figured out what had happened.

“A wire trap?!” It was the exact trap that Amethyst Captor had left behind before being returned to Shion’s inventory.

Amethyst Captor was Prism Crawler No. 1. It was not designed to have much combat ability on its own, instead being intended to support the Superior Job riding it. It specialized in three-dimensional mobility, web-slinging, trap-placing—and most relevantly, tactical support using its high processing power.

Amethyst had the best analytic and strategic abilities among all the Prism Crawlers. And though a flat beach wasn’t a good place for taking full advantage of its three-dimensional mobility, it was perfect for burying traps.

Though No. 2 was a fearsome foe, Amethyst knew all of the other unit’s strong points and weaknesses. While its foolish owner was fruitlessly wasting time and MP, it used the chance to set up traps unnoticed. While fighting, it had also analyzed Juba’s personality and realized that if she couldn’t use her trusty charged particle cannon, she would likely elect to dash straight in for a physical battle.

The result of all that strategizing was now plain to see—the mechanical scorpion had been flipped over, exposing the unit’s undercarriage, unprotected by the half-spherical magic barrier.

“Gloom Stalker!” Not missing the chance, Shion used her remaining magic to release multiple high-rank ultimate job skills.

The winged, black homing projectiles easily passed through the armor of Citrine’s underside, reaching the cockpit and battering Juba over and over.

I...lost...! Juba thought dimly, finally fully grasping the fearsome intellect of the one who had crafted this plan.

Juba had been defeated by nothing other but Amethyst’s processing power...

Shion Manjushage... She pretended to be an idiot while she was inventing this thorough strategy... The kingdom has some truly terrifying players...

...but until the very end, Juba failed to realize who she should actually be afraid of.

Thus, the Dryfean pre-Superior, Flow Princess, Juba, retired from the event, with the mystery of her combo still unsolved.

◇◆

“VICTORY! IS! MINE! Ah ha ha ha ha!” Switching from the costume to her dress, Shion burst into a fit of refined laughter.

“Oh? I’m feeling pretty good about myself right now, so why do I feel like things are suddenly getting dark?”

There was something she hadn’t realized yet—the fact that there had actually been two suns in the sky until now.

Amethyst had noticed this fact and guessed that one of the stars was Juba’s Embryo, which must’ve been the thing helping her cover Citrine’s heavy MP costs. However, there was nothing they could do about it, and facing it hadn’t been necessary to achieve victory, so Amethyst hadn’t even pointed it out to Shion. It simply wasn’t high on its list of priorities.

“So many plates! And I have a hint now too! I am the best!” Having achieved victory, Shion was joyously gathering the plates Juba had dropped.

Alas, she was a bit too happy, and as a result she raised her voice a little too much.

The joy had also made her forget to redeploy Amethyst.

A crushing silence. Unbeknownst to her, a hunter in a presence-hiding ghillie suit was standing right behind her.

He...or rather, God Hunter, Carl Lourlou was holding a harpoon gun.

While Shion was still gathering the plates, he fixed his sights on her...and pulled the trigger.

A moment later, the sound of an explosion mingled with the roars of the crashing waves.

◇◆

And so, Shion Manjushage retired from the event.

She had been taken out by a third party while looting the enemy she’d defeated—a common enough occurrence in battle royales.