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Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 9 - Chapter 9




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Chapter Nine: Their Choice 
About The Primeval Sword, Altar 
“The Primeval Sword, Altar” was the name of a legendary azure blade that had existed even before the time of the pre-ancient civilization. 
It was a transcendental sword of immense power that was said to be able to cut anything. 
Two thousand years ago, during the final years of the pre-ancient civilization, it had disappeared from the face of history, and resurfaced only about five centuries ago. 
Back then, the entire continent had been in a state of perpetual war, like the modern Tenchi. 
It was the time after the time of the immensely powerful Draconic Emperor, King of Kings, and The Lynx. 
The Draconic Emperor’s long life expired, the King of Kings was sealed by The Earth, The Ocean, and The Atmos of that era, while The Lynx simply disappeared somewhere. 
With the King of Kings’s disappearance, the vast lands to the west of the continent lost their ruler, causing many to fight for control over the fertile lands near the west coast. 
Some wanted as much profit as possible, some tried to replicate what the King of Kings had done, some simply wanted to defend themselves. The reasons were varied, but the west was in a state of chaos nonetheless. 
The situation quickly stabilized in the southwest, under the control of the long-lived races, and in the northwest, where people were unified by their worship of the pre-ancient civilization, but the space right between them had no common banner to fly, so it ended up becoming a gathering of small countries fighting with each other for a long time. 
That situation was made even worse by the appearance of The Evil. 
Eventually, however, there came a man who subjugated all the countries and unified them into one. 
His name was Azurite. 
He started out as a shepherd who was grieved about the war, but it all changed when he chanced upon The Primeval Sword, Altar, buried under some dirt. 
The blade chose him, and he became the Sacred King. He used the sword’s immense power to fight in the wars, eventually defeated The Evil alongside his friends, and brought stability to the central west part of the continent. 
He was Azurite Altar — the first king of the Kingdom of Altar. 
“The blade chose him, and he became the Sacred King” meant exactly what it sounded like. 
After the destruction of the pre-ancient civilization and the death of its previous owner, The Primeval Sword, Altar, spent centuries untouched and even became a UBM over the years, but that did not change its role — to determine who was suited to wield it and to give them the Special Superior Job of Sacred King, or, if the wielder was female, Sacred Princess. 
The first king, Azurite, qualified for this role and became the Sacred King, letting him wield Altar. 
There were two types of Superior Jobs: those who could be reached through talent and hard work, and those for which no amount of work and aptitude was enough. 
Hierophant — or High Priestess if female — and The Saint were good examples of each. 
They were both Superior Jobs with a heavy focus on healing magic, but there was an important difference between them. 
First, the conditions for Hierophant: 
One — reach level 500 with only jobs linked to the clergy, such as Priest, Temple Knight, or Monk. 
Two — find 1,000 people who had maxed out the Priest job, have them nominate you for the Hierophant job, gather their signatures, and bring them to the priest grouping crystal. 
Three — complete the special job change quest. 
As hard as these conditions seemed, it was entirely possible to fulfill them with just hard work and talent. 
The same thing couldn’t be said about The Saint’s conditions. 
To gain that job, you had to be a woman who had the blood — the genetic information — of a certain family, and complete a special quest. 
The Saint prioritized bloodline over all hard work and talent. 
Basically, normal Superior Jobs could be acquired through aptitude and determination, while the Special Superior Jobs had unique conditions which excluded the vast majority of even the most talented people. 
Sacred King and Sacred Princess were Special Superior Jobs that could only be acquired by people with aptitude for The Primeval Sword, Altar. 
The first king had used the blade’s name for his country, giving rise to the kingdom of knights. 
The royal family of these lands had been inheriting the blade ever since, and because they had the blood of the first king in their veins, the children of their family inherited the first king’s aptitude for Altar. 
Not all of them had it, however. In fact, only one child in every few generations did; those who did were actually quite rare. Not even the previous king, Eldor Zeo Altar, had been an exception. 
His daughter Altimia, however, possessed this gift. 
Though born to two blonde-haired parents, she herself had azure hair. This was definitely not because of infidelity, but more like an atavism. 
The first king’s hair color had been azure, and every now and then, the gene resurfaced in his descendants. That detail alone was considered auspicious to the point that the azure-haired child was always given the first king’s first name, Azurite, as a middle name. 
However, unlike most of the previous blue-haired Altarian royals, Altimia also had Azurite’s immense aptitude for Altar. 
Soon after she was born, the blade, kept in the treasury, began glowing blue, and Altimia, despite being still a baby, was given the Sacred Princess job. 
Needless to say, her father, Eldor, instantly knew that his first daughter was the blade’s chosen one. 
However, he didn’t want to force her into a life of fighting just because of how she was born. 
The sentiment was similar to his stance on Masters, but this surely must have been stronger than that. 
He couldn’t tolerate the idea that an infant, not even months old, would be forced into a life of strife just because she was chosen by an ancient power. 
Thus, he kept her job, as well as Altar’s sudden gleaming, hidden from the public. 
Revealing it would have given him cards to use against foreign countries, and it would definitely have enlivened his people, but he still prioritized his daughter’s peace. 
Still, he was well aware that, as royalty and as someone calling this world her home, Altimia would not be able to live without knowing battle at all. Simply having a power like hers put her in danger, and he wanted to make sure she didn’t hurt herself. 
Thus, Eldor revealed the truth to and asked the help of two people: Langley, the Celestial Knight and an old friend of his, and the Arch Sage, his own teacher. 
Langley taught Altimia in the ways of the sword, while the Arch Sage taught her about how the world worked. Thanks to that, the girl grew up to be someone who wouldn’t misuse her power as the Sacred Princess. 
However, there was one thing no one expected. 
Langley had soon realized that Altimia’s status as the Sacred Princess wasn’t the only thing special about her — she also had a talent for swordfighting. 
It was so immense, in fact, that she surpassed even Langley, and when combined with the supreme power of sword only she could wield, her talent made her the strongest swordfighter in Altar. 
 
Quartierlatin, town outskirts 
“Hhn!” Altimia didn’t even dodge Acra’s charge. 
With a breath, she dove right into the rows of its needle-like legs, evaded them all with supreme precision, and swung Altar’s azure blade. 
The sword that could cut everything tore through the fixed space around Acra, then through its own armor like it was nothing. 
She found it easier to swing than a feather. Many would feel that that actually made it harder to use, but to Altimia, handling the sword came as naturally as breathing. 
Another thing of note was her speed. She’d originally used the Swordmaster job to hide her identity. But when switching to Sacred Princess, she’d activated the job’s passive skill, The Inheritor of the Sacred Blade, which multiplied all her stats by ten whenever she wielded Altar. 
It was one of the things that made the Special Superior Job so impressive. With her speed now exceeding 50,000, she was too fast for Acra to keep up with. 
She surpassed the speed of sound five times over, and Acra, a machine which dedicated most of its Resources to Space Fixation and Mutual Repair, had no way to counter her. As powerful as Acra-Vesta’s abilities were, they consumed all of its available resources. 
Thus, when faced with Altar — an enemy against which its functions meant nothing — it lost all of its advantages. 
“Requesting backup.” Acra quickly calculated what it had to do, and decided to request that Vesta release one of its kinetic energy bombs. 
Though Vesta was in a battle itself, it quickly acknowledged the request and released one of its fins right over Acra. 
Tom, who was watching Vesta’s surroundings, quickly called out, “Princess! The thing above just released a fin!” 
Not even a Special Superior Job such as hers was sturdy enough to survive this attack. That was the very reason why Tom had been watching Vesta — to let her know when she had to back away. 
But... 
“Just one...? There is no need to retreat, then,” she replied. 
“Eh?” Tom couldn’t understand what she meant. 
“I shall not allow it to damage Quartierlatin any further. We are too close to the town. There might be casualties this time.” 
“Well, I get your point, but it’s already falling down!” Tom was already making seven of himself retreat, and the fin was falling faster by the second. 
Just like the first one, it was going to reach speeds of seven times greater than the speed of sound. 
“If it is only a little bit faster than me... then I can match it,” Altimia declared as she stood where it would fall. 
Her claim was based on not just her AGI, but on her kinetic vision, as well. That was what had allowed her to keep an eye on Tom while he was moving at supersonic speeds and she herself was only half as fast. 
She correctly calculated the moment the fin would reach the ground, and... 
“Cut.” 
...with a skill bearing a basic name, swung her azure blade on it. 
It was hard to describe what happened next. 
The gigantic fin, now split in two, gently descended to the ground. 
There was none of the insane speed it had gained during its free fall through the vacuum. 
“What did you just do...?” Tom asked, completely dumbfounded. 
“I just cut its kinetic energy.” 
She said it like it was nothing special, but that definitely wasn’t something you could cut. 
However, Altar made it possible. 
It was a blade that could sever matter, space, and even energy, regardless of whether the thing had a shape or not. 
Tom knew that well, so the main source of his shock was the skill Altimia was demonstrating. She’d effectively cut through something that moved at seven times the speed of sound, while she herself was at five. 
When fighting Ray during their first encounter, Altar had been dormant, and she’d been trying to incapacitate, rather than kill, him. 
Now that she’d unleashed Altar’s and the Sacred Princess’s powers, she definitely had enough power to match many solo fighting-focused Superiors. 
Altimia began to silently ponder that. There was no doubt that she had supreme power. Perhaps if she’d taken part in the war, she could’ve defeated Logan and protected her mentor, and maybe even saved her father from Franklin, too. 
Even now, she was often tortured by regret at the fact that she hadn’t stood at the front lines, despite being the kingdom’s strongest tian. 
However, what’d stopped her from taking part in the war were Eldor’s own words. 
One more thing, Altimia... I do not want to push people to fight just because they have the power to. And that’s why, Altimia... you don’t have to fight. 
His words had been gentle and full of fatherly love, but as she was now, she would never nod to them. Though it was far too late, she’d developed a better answer. 
“Father... you claimed that you didn’t want me to fight merely because I had the power to. I am extremely grateful for your consideration, kindness, and love, but...” 
She stopped to cut off more of Acra’s legs and armor and continued to talk to her late father. 
“I have now decided, by myself, to join the Masters in battle.” 
That was the path the current Altimia was choosing to take. 
“I will not be the pacifist you wanted me to be, nor the same me who distanced Masters and tried to bear it all by myself.” 
As she muttered that, the face of a certain Master came to her mind. 
All Masters follow their own wills and choose how they’re gonna be. As a Master, I choose to protect you and Quartierlatin. 
Those were the words Ray had told her yesterday. His choice was his and his alone, and born of nothing but his freedom. 
Those words had left such an impression on her that she had gotten the urge to choose something herself. 
“I shall stand with them at the front lines and resist all that menace the kingdom.” 
Inspired by Ray, she took a step forward on her own path. 
“Father, please watch over me from the heavens... and see where the battle I chose leads me.” 
With those words, Altimia split Acra’s body in half and looked up at the sky. 
The lights high above were proof that her comrade in arms was fighting, as well. 
 
Prism Rider, Ray Starling 
The whale’s field was a strange space. 
The moment we entered, I instantly became unable to see Quartierlatin. The increase in distance made it appear far away. 
I was free falling down and accelerating towards the whale below. 
Since there was no air, I didn’t feel any wind — the compressed air barrier protected me from it, but I felt no resistance behind it, either — and since there was nothing but sky around me, I had completely lost my sense of distance and was now left with no idea of how fast I was going. I was just falling through the cloudless sky — and I wasn’t sure if it even qualified as that, considering it was a vacuum. 
This would be the fourth time I’d fallen from the sky like this. 
The first time was when my sister wheedled me into going skydiving in a South American jungle, I reflected. 
The second time was when I first logged in to Dendro and Cheshire dropped me to Altea. 
The third time was just a couple days ago, when I failed to reach Monochrome and had to go back down like I was falling. 
This fall, however, was way more silent than any of those had been. 
This descent through a soundless space felt more like drowning in the sea. 
The light coming from the sky became distant as I continued this seemingly endless fall. 
But then, something entered my vision. 
“Here they come again! More lasers!” Nemesis exclaimed. 
From a distance at which I still couldn’t properly see it, the whale attacked us with dozens of laser rays. Most were consumed by the Black Warcoat covering Silver, but some that came from a different part of the whale grazed me. 
As you’d expect, the whale had powerful anti-air defense. It was probably aware that attacks from above were its weakness. After all, if you could somehow bring something heavy above it, you could do the same thing to it as it was doing with its fins. 
The lasers were there to prevent that. 
If those lasers changed an object’s trajectory even slightly, it would become a major difference mid-fall, and it would miss the whale. 
Considering that that would make the object fall near the town instead, it wasn’t really an option for us. The chances of hitting it were low to begin with, anyway. 
However, things were different with us being the thing that was dropping towards it. My Monochrome could absorb the lasers, and Silver could move to make up for any slight changes in our fall trajectory or the whale’s position. 
“Those lasers also help us know where it is,” Nemesis added to my thoughts. 
“Yeah.” 
Lasers went straight, so the whale could only be directly where they came from, and we simply had to fall in that direction. 
I was actually beginning to see an insanely small dot in the distance, and I had no doubts that it was the whale. 
However, I couldn’t attack it yet. If Shining Despair did what I expected it to, firing it from the top was out of the question, as it could damage the town, too. 
I had to get to where I could see the whale clearly, and fire from its side or the bottom. 
“But... can we survive long enough to get there?” she wondered. 
“We’ll have to.” 
I used the Black Warcoat to protect Silver, as his Wind Hoof protected us from the vacuum. 

Naturally, for all the Monochrome surface area I dedicated to him, I had less of it to protect myself. I could block some of it using my Black Shield, but some still grazed me, sometimes going dangerously deep. 
Also, though Monochrome’s Light Absorption dealt with the light, it couldn’t absorb all of the heat. The many lasers hitting us were slowly increasing our temperatures, and my skin already had signs of Burns and Scorches on it. 
But we had already fallen about a third of the distance to the whale. There was no going back now, and I, praying that they didn’t land a critical hit, had no choice but to continue. 
There was just one problem. As we drew closer to the whale, the whale gained better angles to attack us from. 
“Ray?! Gh... There are more and more lasers I can’t protect you against!” 
I silently gasped as another laser hit me. 
If this keeps up... No! Not yet! 
“We’ll reach it, no matter what!” I shouted. 
Azurite has to be fighting that crab right now. I have no reason to give up! 
“Ah...! Ray! There’s something above us!” 
“Above?! But the whale’s below us!” I looked up, and what I saw shocked me. “That’s...!” 
What was falling towards us was... 
 
Zero General, Gifted Barbaros 
“If you’re to take Emilio, maybe I should go, as well?” the voice in my memory said. 
“Mina, you don’t like using dragon carriages, do you?” another voice responded. “Not to mention that there’s count work to be done.” 
I instantly understood that my life was flashing before my eyes. When on the verge of death, the brain projected the past into the hazy consciousness. 
I’d been through this a number of times before. Once when the current The Ram was young and we’d fought a powerful UBM together, once when I’d fought other SMTF members during the imperator accession civil war, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. 
Looking back at it, it was strange to reflect that I’d survived to thirty-one with so many deadly battles on my record. 
“That’s true, but... I’ll ask again. It is safe, right?” 
“Of course. We will come back in less than a month. I imagine I’ll be missing your cookies dearly at that point.” 
During some of these near-death experiences, I often saw visions of the past. Most of them were of my youth in the Barbaros household, but what I was seeing this time was different. 
“You want a cookie?” 
“You can’t. You’re too young for cookies. You don’t even have a full set of teeth yet.” 
The memory was too vague for me to remember how old I was. However, I could clearly see two people in it. 
“Ha ha ha! Emilio, just wait a few months and you will have the teeth for them. Or maybe you’ll be able to eat them by the time we come back from Dryfe. Who knows?” 
One was a man reminiscent of my image in the mirror... 
“Oh, then I’ll have to work hard and welcome you with my best cookies yet.” 
And the other was a gentle-looking lady with a right eye much like his, and a beautiful green eye... 
“Emilio...” 
 
“...ther...” The vision I saw on the verge of death vanished along with the strange sound that left my lips. 
“I... I’m still alive, I see.” I quickly checked my window to assess my state and realized I had less than a tenth of my total HP left. 
I also had the Bleeding and a number of Broken Bones status effects. If I’d continued drifting in that vision for just a few minutes more, I’d have been as good as dead. 
Moving my broken arm, I reached into my inventory and took out a Potion, as well as drugs that increased regeneration and sped up the process at which injury-based debuffs vanished. 
My HP stopped decreasing, and then began going up instead. 
Waiting until I was sufficiently healed, I stayed collapsed on the ground, pondering something. 
Specifically, why was I still alive. 
I’d suffered lethal damage from just the shockwave alone. The Brooch and my SJ stats had kept me from dying instantly, but considering the situation and the height from which I’d fallen, it didn’t make sense that I was still alive. 
“Was it the growth here?” I wondered out loud as I realized that I was lying on some plants in some garden. 
It really didn’t seem like enough to soften my fall and keep me alive, though. 
Thinking there had to be something else, I looked around and saw a tree so large that it left me speechless. 
Some branches of this brilliantly verdant giant were broken as if something from high up in the sky had just fallen on it. 
For some reason, though, lying down and looking up at it gave me some immense déjà vu. 
I actually felt like I’d done this before. A very long time ago... 
“Milady! You must take shelter within the mansion’s barrier!” 
“I know... but I just heard something happen at his tree. I’ll only take a look. You take shelter and treat everyone’s wounds.” 
“...!” 
As I searched my memories, those voices reached my ears. 
One of them was new to me, while the other made my heart shiver, for some reason. 
Hearing them also made me realize where I was. 
These were the gardens of the Quartierlatin Mansion. 
I’d simply happened to fall here by chance. 
With that in mind, it was easy to know whose voice that was. 
“Good... I can still move,” I muttered. 
The healing had progressed enough, so I slowly got up from the plants I was lying on. As I stood tall, I heard someone behind me, but I couldn’t let myself turn around. 
“You are...” a voice said. 
I couldn’t face her. I was the Dryfean field marshal, and I’d already rejected the option to return to my mother in Quartierlatin. 
Thus, I couldn’t let myself meet her. 
Even if I did, she’d probably treat me like any other trespasser. 
I hadn’t been here since I was an infant. A whole three decades had passed since then. 
The only proof that I was her family, my heterochromia, had been taken away from me by Edelvalsa. 
Right now, I was nothing more than an injured man who’d fallen into her garden. The countess would probably see me as a potential threat, and meeting her face-to-face would simply burden her. 
After reaching that conclusion, I began dragging my feet towards the gate... 
“Emilio?” 
...but that word made me freeze. 
“...How?” I whispered. 
There was no way she could’ve known. She hadn’t even seen my face. My height and build were nothing like when she’d last seen me. 
The “me” she’d known was a harmless infant, not this man reeking of blood and gunpowder. How, then, could she speak that name upon seeing me? 
“You... You are Emilio, aren’t you?” 
Silence. 
Unable to confirm or deny that, I just stood in place and listened to her words. 
“I don’t know why, but I had a feeling I would see you soon,” she said. “It started yesterday, I believe... I somehow felt like I did back when you and he were still with me.” 
I’d definitely visited this place yesterday, but how could that have been enough for her to realize who I was? 
“Perhaps it was because of the young man’s words, but I don’t believe it was only that.” 
I was silent. 
“I also met him in a dream last night. ‘Emilio is coming home,’ he said, still using that strange manner of speech.” 
That sounded a lot like something I would say when acting as Mario. Why had I decided to use that manner of speech, anyway? 
“The town has been in a dreadful state since early morning,” she continued. “And then this tree shook at a time like this, so I came out to take a look... and found you. You could say he arranged for us to meet.” 
Ah, so the “he” she was talking about was my real father. 
Oh, I see... so that’s why the tree looks so familiar, I thought. 
It was the same one that I’d slept under when I was an infant. And it’d saved my life just now. This was definitely a strange day. 
Strange things happened on strange days, so perhaps it was only natural that she would realize I was Emilio. 
“Emilio... can you show me your face?” she requested. 
In response... 
“I can’t...” I shook my head. 
I was now Gifted Barbaros, the Dryfean field marshal. 
I hadn’t chosen to live as the kingdom’s Emilio Quartierlatin, so that name wasn’t mine. 
Not only that, but I was a man who was willing to destroy Quartierlatin for the sake of the imperium. 
Could a person like me face his mother? Certainly not. At least... 
“...not at this time,” I murmured. 
Until this incident and all other issues between the kingdom and the imperium were settled, I had no right to face my mother. 
“I understand,” she said, accepting my selfish reply and not pressing any further. “I can feel that you are resolved. You have a reason for that, don’t you?” 
“I do.” 
“In that case... just finding out that you are alive... is more than enough for me,” my mother said in a tearful voice. 
Suppressing the urge to turn around, I gave her a promise. “I will... come again... someday.” My own voice made me realize I was choking up, too, but I continued regardless. “I have a wife... and a daughter. We will all come visit you someday... no matter what...” 
“I’ll be waiting... Emilio.” 
“Yes... Please be in good health... until then,” I said. And then I forced myself to begin walking. 
“Take care, Emilio.” 
“I’m off.” 
With that promise, I left the Quarierlatin mansion. 
Albeit barely, Faldreed was still working, so I looked through his eyes and saw the battle between the legged tank... and the first princess. 
“Looks like they’re engaged in battle now,” I muttered. 
It turned out that the masked woman really was her. 
The disguise was so obvious that I’d actually thought it was a bluff or something. But she could wield Altar, so there was no way she could be anyone else. 
I had no orders from the imperator this time. The princess was unrelated to my current mission. 
After finding out what was happening on the surface, I looked up at the sky and saw Ray Starling, the Unbreakable slowly descending towards the airship. He was being barraged by lasers, but he was blocking them somehow. 
“But he won’t last,” I muttered. I could tell he was close to his limit. 
Just like the princess with her Altar on the surface, the Unbreakable probably had a way of dealing with the airship, too, but as things were, it didn’t seem like he’d succeed. 
“I don’t have much MP and SP left... and I can’t really tell what damage the fall did to my brain...” I examined my state. “Well, it won’t be a problem.” 
I used Marionette Squadron Creation a few times in a row. 
Many of the trees in town became flying marionettes. 
They used a lot of my brain’s calculative power even under the best circumstances, and I was making an awful lot of them, despite my condition. 
“Gh...” My head rang out in pain, and my left eye socket, where I had Edelvalsa, began to bleed, but I didn’t care. 
If I didn’t do anything, the Unbreakable would break, and the airship’s fins would destroy Quartierlatin. 
That would make the promise impossible to fulfill. 
“Run at maximum capacity!” I ordered. “All units, support the Unbreakable!” 
Thus, the hundred flying marionettes took to the sky to protect my promise to my mother, and to protect the possibility leading to the best future. 
 
Prism Rider, Ray Starling 
What I saw were wooden marionettes with their arms spread like wings. 
They were all falling directly down. 
“Those are Dr. Mario’s!” 
I knew because they looked exactly like the one he’d been riding before the kinetic explosion. 
Unlike us, who were free falling, they were basically diving through the vacuum, and ended up going ahead of us. 
That made the whale’s lasers focus on them instead of us, but no matter how many of them were shot down, they kept going forward. 
One after the other, they went ahead and took the laser fire in my stead. 
“This is...” I whispered. 
“Are they opening a path for us?” asked Nemesis. 
A path. That had to be it. 
The countless marionettes were using themselves to shield me from the lasers and to give me an opening leading to the whale. 
“Dr... Mario...” 
As one marionette burned to protect me, I looked at its head. 
At that moment, I felt like I heard the word “Go.” 
This was a vacuum, and the marionette was silent. But I had no trouble understanding that he was urging me keep going forward. 
There was only one thing for me to do at this point. 
“Nemesis! Silver! Let’s do this!” 
“Certainly!” she called. 
“Gh...!” agreed Silver. 
 





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