Chapter Two: Those Who Bind the Possibilities
Jeand Grasslands
Franklin’s words made the surrounding air freeze.
Nemesis, Liliana, Sir Lindos, and the other Royal Guard members failed to fully understand what Franklin had just said.
“F-Five... eh?”
“Wasn’t it 500...?”
“56,826 monsters? Hmph. Isn’t that a bit too large a number to work as a bluff?” Nemesis asked, the worry in her voice all too apparent. She knew exactly what he was saying, but it was clear that she simply couldn’t believe that he was capable of that. “You planned to release just 500 into the city. Do you really expect us to believe you can increase that number a hundredfold?”
Nemesis wanted to think he was lying, and most of those in and outside the city likely shared her sentiment.
In response, Franklin simply nodded and widened his smile. “It’s just that I couldn’t make more than 500 monsters with the useless ‘attacks only Masters and buildings’ trait. They cost me quite a lot, though.”
In other words, he had been able to prepare far more monsters that targeted all creatures, and that number was above 50,000. The 500 monsters in the devices in Gideon had only been made out of consideration for one of his own: Hugo.
“But now that plan A and B are bust, I can’t allow myself to care about appearances,” he continued.
That word made Nemesis realize something. “Plan...!”
It was clear what she meant.
Plans A, B, and C — the more Franklin failed, the longer the kingdom held against his schemes, the more intense and destructive the plans became.
Franklin had intended to end it with plans A and B. As he always said, he’d had no intention of losing. However, he had devised plans just in case he was defeated, and he’d done it all for a single purpose.
“Oh man, what a shaaame,” Franklin mocked. “It never would’ve come to this if you’d all just given up.”
All to break the country’s spirit.
All to make its people painfully aware that their fruitless struggle would only increase the casualties.
That was why he’d gone out of his way to create other plans in case his earlier ones failed.
“Find Franklin! Put the wretch to death before he can summon the monsters from his Jewel!” Sir Lindos roared, causing the Royal Guard to begin desperately searching.
Defeating Franklin before he summoned his monsters would mark the end of the crisis. The fact that the two monsters from before had appeared right next to them must have made Liliana assume that Franklin was nearby.
However...
“Heh heh heh. ‘From his Jewel’? Come on now, if I got them on the board by Calling each one separately, morning would come before I could even get to 10,000.” Franklin formed an indomitable smile and snapped his fingers. “Optic Camouflage — cancel.”
A moment later, the world was shaved off, much like the scales on a fish. An area of the nightly darkness crumbled, revealing whatever was hiding there.
It was an object so large that it could make people forget the fact that it was ever hidden. Its silhouette was reminiscent of a mix of a box, a dragon, and a spider. Countless smokestacks were extending out of a cube that had sides reaching a length of a kilometel.
The inorganic cube was fixed with a large, elaborate head of a dragon. It also had eight arachnid legs extending to its sides. It was abnormal in terms of both size and design.
Everyone besides Franklin was immediately puzzled as to why they’d failed to notice an existence this unnatural. Franklin stood at the top of the abnormal structure and introduced it.
“First time seeing this? Well, you’d better remember it, since this is my Superior Embryo. Type Plant Fortress — Magic Beast Factory, Pandemonium.”
“Superior Embryo” was a term used in reference to the Embryos that had evolved to the seventh form, the apex of Embryos.
Gideon’s inhabitants were highly familiar with the term thanks to their champion Figaro, the Over Gladiator. However, before the overwhelming abnormality of Franklin’s Pandemonium, that familiarity did little to help their state of mind. It was simply far too unlike the Superior Embryos Figaro and Xunyu had used in their match.
“This bad boy wasn’t evolved during the war, but yeah, this is my Superior Embryo,” Franklin said gleefully. “His unique abilities are monster production, as I’m sure you’re all aware, and monster transportation.”
With that, the large, mystical fortress opened its mouth. Within it, there were countless dim lights. They were eyes — the sinister gazes of the numerous monsters about to be unleashed.
“All right, let’s start with 5,000 of my Suicide Series,” Franklin said in a casual tone, causing a slope to go down from the dragon’s mouth.
5,000 monsters grouped up and began marching, all for the purpose of annihilating Gideon.
■■■ ■■■■■, ■■■■■■
Superior Embryos were the apotheosis of Embryos.
Though that was true for all of them, the path they took to get to that point and what they became upon reaching it differed on a person-to-person basis.
For example, there was the one belonging to Over Gladiator, Figaro: the heart-shaped Superior Embryo with a name still unknown to me. It and its Master were literally one, and its unique ability was a very simple thing — the enhancement of the items he had equipped.
Basic as it was, however, thanks to the enhancement proportional to battle time, the enhancement inversely proportional to the number of equipped items, and a third type of enhancement — the ace up his sleeve — he was theoretically able to improve his equipment without limit. And that was enough for this Superior Embryo to be considered an apex among Embryos.
Then there was Tenaga Ashinaga — the prosthetic limbs Superior Embryo belonging to Xunyu, the Master Jiangshi. They could stretch at the speed of sound and had durability matching that of Ancient Legendary-tier special rewards. Though Xunyu had an END-focused caster job, this Embryo gave her the potential to match AGI-focused Superior Jobs in terms of close-quarter fighting ability.
Then there was her Embryo’s ultimate skill — the space-bending attack capable of destroying the organs of and killing targets far in the distant horizon, even if they weren’t in battle.
Thus this Superior Embryo was, without a doubt, another apex among Embryos.
Then there was the Superior Embryo belonging to the Giga Professor, Mr. Franklin.
It was a Plant Fortress: a Type derived from the basic category of Type Castle, and the only one of its kind so far. It had two main unique abilities: monster production and storage.
Monster production was again split into two types: mass production and the creation of specially-made monsters using the ultimate skill.
The former was the one relevant to this situation, and the skill it used was simply called “Monster Mass Production.”
As far as I was aware, it was a skill that empowered the researcher grouping’s Monster Creation skill and allowed the production of multiple monsters at the same time. Of course, Franklin needed materials for this, but I’d been informed that it was entirely possible for it to produce 1,000 monsters per day.
The skill also came with the effect of lowering the costs the more monsters he produced at once, making it more than deserving of the name “Monster Mass Production.”
Instead of being instantly moved to the Jewel, the monsters created by this could then be stored inside Pandemonium using its “Storage” skill. Even though taking them out just once would make it impossible for them to be Stored again, until then, they could be kept inside semi-permanently.
Pandemonium was a gigantic fortress factory capable of producing as many monsters as resources allowed, then storing and unleashing them, making it more than worthy of being considered another apex among Embryos, a Superior Embryo.
Now, what if these three were to fight in a defensive battle?
Specifically, what if Franklin had attacked Gideon and the other two had protected it?
The expected result was obvious — Franklin would win a hundred times out of a hundred.
It wasn’t a matter of who was better than the other. It all boiled down to the difference in the vectors of their abilities.
As made obvious by its equipment enhancement ability, Figaro’s Superior Embryo was an “individual battle type,” focused on the power of one, and the same applied to Xunyu, as well.
Franklin, on the other hand, could summon countless monsters. He commanded armies that could overwhelm the earth, skies, and seas. In player terms, that made Franklin a “wide-scale suppression type.”
When that type was on the offensive side of a defensive battle, it was considered to have an absolute advantage. Those focused on individual power were staggeringly incompatible with those who had numbers on their side.
Sure, they would never actually be defeated. In fact, they could probably break through the overwhelming ranks and take down their leader. However, when defending an area, they would lack the numbers to keep the enemies at bay, and the place would be destroyed by those that leaked through.
Perhaps they could have been able to defeat the head of the enemy — Franklin, in this case — before his monsters reached the city. However, due to a trick by Franklin, it was evident that the monsters would continue attacking even if he was defeated. The battles — or, rather, their aftermaths — here in the city made that all too obvious.
Due to that, Figaro and Xunyu would have been able to do little against him.
Even my individual battle type comrades would have a hard time in these situations.
Jeand Grasslands
“Hell yeah, baby. Man, it feels good to just... let it all out.” As Franklin expressed his pleasure, Pandemonium continued unleashing the numerous monsters. The way they swarmed out of the dragon’s mouth was highly reminiscent of a scene from an old anime.
Due to that, the sight might’ve been somewhat comical. But the fact that they were all heading to destroy Gideon, which was only a few kilometels ahead, made it no laughing matter.
“Get the Embryo!” shouted Sir Lindos. “Kill Franklin! We can still make it!”
A number of knights followed his order.
His decision was sound. Though they couldn’t stop the numerous monsters, they could prevent any harm to the city by defeating Franklin and making them all disappear. The knights would give their all to that possibility.
“‘Make it’? Sorry, not happening,” said Franklin, making the knights halt. “With respect to the fact that you ruined two of my plans, let me reveal something to you, dear people of the kingdom.”
He was talking not only to the knights before him, but also to all the Masters trying to stop the tragedy.
“These monsters won’t stop if I die, and I can’t make them stop even if I try.”
His words confused just about everyone listening. It just didn’t sound like the words of the one who’d unleashed all these monsters unto Gideon.
“What are you saying?” asked Liliana. “These monsters are your doing, aren’t they?”
With that question, she was speaking for just about everyone on the scene.
Franklin simply widened his grin. “Yep. I made them all with my Pandemonium. However, they’re no longer mine.” He paused briefly. “I mean... I let them go.”
Once again, the ones listening had trouble processing what he was saying. And even after they were done, they still had trouble understanding.
“What... What are you saying?” asked Liliana, representing everyone yet again.
“Well, you know minion capacity, right?” said Franklin in response. “Giga Professor might be a Superior Job, but I still don’t have enough of it to take in that many monsters. And a party only has five slots, too.”
Tamed monsters worked using the minion capacity, which allowed the monsters to act as the owner’s own battle potential.
Though it could be increased by taking jobs from the tamer, knight, researcher, pimp or other groupings, the limits were still there. Using monsters too numerous or too strong for the capacity would either cause them to be unusable or greatly lower their power. Thus, Franklin had chosen to not be bound by it.
“If you want to make that many monsters fight to their full potential, letting them go is about the only option,” he explained.
Monsters that were let go were no longer being used by the ex-owner, so they also weren’t bound by the capacity. He’d completely discarded the restrictions.
“Oh, and don’t worry,” Franklin continued. “They’re properly programmed, so they won’t attack me. They’ve been set to ‘move forward until death’ and ‘kill everyone besides my clan members and my other monsters.’ That’s why I call them the ‘Suicide Series!’”
Though Franklin proudly puffed his chest, what he had done was nothing short of nauseating. He’d created an army of lives, set to move forward from birth to death while doing nothing but killing everything except a select few.
It was abhorrent enough even to those who saw Infinite Dendrogram as a game, and to those for whom it was another world, this deed was a work of pure madness.
“Why do you think I ran to the west?” he said. “If I’d used this in the north or the south, I could have damaged our dear Dryfe or Legendaria — the third party in this war. This is a deathly army made up of tens of thousands of monsters that are constantly on the move and can easily go through borders as long as they’re alive... And yeah, there’s Caldina in the east, but I don’t care. They’re our enemies too, after all.”
Not to mention that the likes of The Earth and the King of Termination will make short work of them when they get there, he was probably adding silently.
“Anyway, there’s nothing I can do about the monsters I let go, and they’ll keep going even if you somehow kill me. Tu as compris?” Franklin willfully used his real-life mother tongue to taunt his enemies.
Nemesis, Liliana, and the other Royal Guard knights were stunned into silence. They had to defeat every single monster and then their source — Pandemonium and Franklin.
In the best case scenario, they would take care of Pandemonium before it could release the remaining 50,000 monsters. However, they simply didn’t have the required battle potential to do it.
It would be difficult for Liliana, Sir Lindos, and the other knights to defeat Pandemonium by themselves. They would be able to do little to buy time against such an overwhelming number of monsters.
The barrier around the central arena had already been rendered useless, meaning that the Masters there could finally destroy it, and Cocytus’s La Porte de l’Enfer had been canceled, as well. In a few minutes or so, the Masters from both places would come to their aid.
Before that, however, the Suicide Series would ravage the city of Gideon, and Pandemonium would release even more of the wretched creatures. Those “few minutes” were far too long.
Franklin spoke what everyone was thinking. “Heh heh heh, you won’t make it—”
“I’ll buy the time.” A completely unexpected person spoke up, wiping the sneer from Franklin’s face.
No one had thought he’d be in the spotlight again. After all — his battle was over. He’d been sleeping after having sacrificed his left arm and exerted every inch of his being to defeat his natural enemy.
And yet, he still stood up.
Ray Starling still had the power to stand.
His consciousness was in an uncertain state. The battle had completely drained him, and even the mind of the player controlling the avatar was in a sorry state. It was likely that he didn’t even have a proper grasp of the situation.
And yet, he would still face the 5,000-strong monster army charging towards Gideon.
“Ray!”
“Ray?!”
Nemesis and Liliana’s worried shouts weren’t without reason. Ray still had a number of injury-based debuffs, couldn’t move his left arm, and didn’t even have half of his maximum HP.
Gideon’s central arena, the stage
No one saw the scene.
Most of the audience in the central arena were watching the broadcast, either with despair or slight hope.
Thus, no one saw a certain man approach the barrier sealing the stage. He was tall and wore the pelt of a black bear.
With casual steps, he closed in on the barrier.
There were some other Masters nearby. Upon realizing that there was no danger of monsters being released inside the city, they’d moved to try and free the two Superiors stuck inside the stage — Figaro and Xunyu. However, that barrier was even tougher than the one surrounding the arena as a whole, and when they’d realized they couldn’t break it, they’d also started staring at the broadcast.
This man passed by them and stood right next to the barrier.
Suddenly, something attacked him.
It was a blue Slime — the remains of an Oxygen Slime that Franklin had released into this arena. Though most of them had been destroyed by the Masters here, one had been able to survive thanks to being hidden by some rubble.
Because it relied on things other than sight to perceive its surroundings, the Oxygen Slime was the only creature there that had noticed the man. And, since he’d happened to be right next to it, it had attacked him right after crawling out of the rubble.
The moment it came close to him, the man reduced it to dust with a casual backhand blow.
The hyper low temperature, ultra poisonous immortal Slime was destroyed by a mere fist.
“Eh?”
“Huh? Since when...?”
The sound of the battle — if you could call it that — caused by the Slime being pulverized made the Masters around the barrier notice the man. Right when they did, however, he swung his fist again and — just like the Slime — destroyed the barrier in one hit.
With it broken, the two Superiors inside were rendered free.
As the barrier’s destruction made everyone in the arena panic in confusion, the man spoke to one of the Superiors: Over Gladiator, Figaro.
“I’m leaving this place to you. If the thing below or the two in the audience look like they’re about to do something, you stop them, all right?”
After saying those words, the man made his way towards the exit.
“What will you do?” asked Figaro.
The man momentarily looked up at the broadcast and — with his back still turned — responded.
“I’ll bind the possibility he seized.”
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