Chapter 3: Horn’s Battle
Horn ran with all her might. She was so afraid of the believers that went after them, she had found herself running as fast as she could before she even realized what had happened.
“That’s crazy! Totally impossible!”
She rushed across the city, screaming, and had no idea how she made it back, but...
Horn found herself in front of the inn. It was after sunset. She had always entered the inn after Diablo and the rest, and was anxious going into such a high-class establishment by herself. However, as she made her way into the Firebird Inn’s lobby, a dwarf girl bowed before her politely.
“Welcome back, miss.”
“Ah, yeah...I’m back.”
“Here is the key to your room. We’ve been told to cancel your reservations for dinner, but would you like for me to prepare it now?”
“N-No, it’s fine.”
She didn’t have much of an appetite. They had planned to storm the Church, and knew that, whatever the result would end up being, they wouldn’t be back for a while. In a manner of speaking, she was the one out of place here.
Horn grabbed the key and ran up the stairs, throwing herself on her bed as soon as she entered the room. She had only stayed here shortly, so it didn’t...quite feel like she was at home here, but she had gotten used to the room. She almost wondered if what had happened during the day was just a dream.
Her eyelids fluttered shut...and when she opened them again, a knock on the door jolted her awake. She thought Rem had come to call her to join everyone in the large room so they could tell her what happened in the Church, but that was just a dream. An optimistic illusion born from her belief that no matter what, they would always pull through. After all, they had Diablo on their side. He would defeat any powerful enemy that might come their way—or so she believed.
The real result was...a crushing defeat...
“He should have just...” Horn mumbled, lying on the bed. “Boss should have just beaten that jerk who tricked Lumachina and the believers who tried capturing her...”
She had said it so bitterly, but knew that wouldn’t resolve the situation. That would just be the “Purification by the Demon Lord’s hands” Alicia had talked about. Not being able to convince anyone with words, and just forcing the people to do their will by violence... That wasn’t the reform Lumachina was trying to achieve.
Diablo and the others were probably captured because they decided fighting wasn’t the right thing to do, and Horn couldn’t think of anything else.
“I’m sure Boss’ll think of something... Yeah, if I just wait, the Boss’ll come back looking like nothing even happened!”
She closed her eyes again. She heard another knock, and once more thought she had dreamt it.
—That’s not a dream...
Jumping from her sleep, she unlocked the door.
“Yes!?”
A dwarf girl was standing on the other side of the door. It was one of the inn’s employees, but she wasn’t smiling like always.
“Miss...people from the Church are...”
“Aaah!?”
“Believers have come here, asking to take your luggage. What should we...?”
“Y-Y-You can’t!”
The believers knew they were in this inn, or maybe someone in the group had talked.
The dwarf girl nodded sternly.
“Understood, miss. The Firebird Inn will do everything in its power to protect you and your luggage.”
“Thanks so much!”
“I recommend you go outside from the back door, however. For your own safety.”
“D-D’you mean I should run!?”
“Were it just the believers, we could turn them away, but there are people from the Church here, too. If a Paladin were to come here...I’m sad to say our establishment’s security is ill-equipped to handle them.”
“Heee!?”
She could feel tears welling up in her eyes.
Paladin were about level 100, if she recalled correctly, and Horn was only level 20 or so. She was also a Seeker, which meant she wasn’t geared for battle.
The dwarf bowed deeply. “There’s a mirror at the end of the third floor’s corridor. Press down on its frame from the right. It should open a hidden door.”
“Aaah, yes...”
The employee left, having told Horn what she needed to know. The door closed with a heavy, solemn sound. Horn jumped at her gear.
“Gottagofast!”
Squealing that positively meaningless phrase, Horn grabbed her rucksack and began cramming it full of her belongings. But it occurred to her she should probably leave behind whatever she wouldn’t need first. Turning the rucksack upside down, all sorts of items fell onto the floor and rolled around. Horn reached down and grabbed a silver cup from the floor.
“Oh...”
She had borrowed it from the ?Treasure Vault?, and “soiled” it due to certain circumstances, so she took it to give it a vigorous washing before giving it back. But she was still too embarrassed over it and hadn’t returned it to Diablo yet.
The memories from their adventure at the Demon Lord’s Underground Labyrinth, the dungeon they explored in the desert, flashed in her mind. It was an exciting adventure, the kind she thought she could only dream of.
It was the absolute best! But me...I’m weak... The kind of weakling who runs off, shaking at the knees just from hearing the word “Paladin!”
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks, the drops dripping into the silver cup.
“B... B-But...they’re...they’re my friends!”
“Do ya, like, wanna save ’em?”
“You bet I do!” she shouted back, then noticed. “Wh-Who was that!?”
“Oh, I’m here, over here, girlfriend ?”
The only thing Horn could see was the goblet she was holding in her hands, but a pretty girl was sitting on its rim, small enough to fit in Horn’s hand. She had green, fluffy hair and was wearing clothes the likes of which Horn had never seen before. She was like a fairy, and, in any case, was small.
“Who’re you!?”
“Whoa, rude! You’re, like, talking to the great and wise goddess of the Holy Grail! You don’t wanna cross Lady Babalon, girlie!”
“Holy Grail...?”
“Like, this thing you’re holding?”
“Heee!?”
She never knew this thing was so important!
“Hehehe... So you didn’t know? Well duh~ This is a Regalia from another world!”
“Another world...?”
This was insane. Last time, she couldn’t help herself—and used this thing as a toilet! Horn felt all the blood drain from her face.
“I think it’s been, like, a hundred years or something? Since I manifested last time, so I’m in a really good mood. I’ll do ya a little favor, sister! I’ll level you up!”
“What? Honest!?”
“Hehehe... I mean, I’m supposed to be a level up goddess and all? And your level’s kinda sucky, so it’ll be a piece of cake.”
“So I’ll be able to go save Diablo and the others!?”
“Well, I dunno, that’s not on me.”
“Oh... Well, I don’t care, whatever goes! Do anything you can, but hurry!”
“Haaa... I kinda...don’t feel like it anymore~ You’re gonna have to ask me like you’re worshiping me and all that. Like, I know I’m from another world, but I’m a pretty big deal, y’know?”
Setting the Holy Grail down, Horn got on all fours and rubbed her forehead against the floor.
“Please help me, Goddess-Boss!”
“Aaah, I cracked a nail.” Babalon examined her nails with a bored expression, not sparing Horn a look. “Feeling some pretty bad vibes here~”
Horn beat her head against the floor with a bang bang.
“Please, I’m begging you!”
“Wha!? Gawd, you’re bleeding, sis! Doesn’t that hurt!?”
“It doesn’t...because if I don’t do something now, if I just keep running, my...my heart will hurt so much more...”
“Okay, okay, I get it. I said I’d raise your level, didn’t I? And you gave me compensation already.”
“Compensation...?”
“Yep, yep. Hehehe... A virgin’s fresh blood, to maintain my good looks!”
“Heee!?”
“It kinda tasted funny, but it was still good!”
“Wh-When!?”
“Uhhh... A month and a half ago, maybe?”
“Wh-Wh...at...?”
But that was when Horn borrowed the Holy Grail... Fresh blood? What she spilled in the Holy Grail wasn’t blood. It definitely, definitely wasn’t blood. But, now that she thought about it, the...liquid she spilled into the Grail had disappeared before her eyes back then. Was that because the Goddess residing in the Grail drank it!?
Horn was sweating bullets.
“Alriiighty. So sit tight, and watch me perform a mi-ra-cle ?”
For a miracle, it was pretty laid back. Babalon fluttered her hands in Horn’s direction, and a small light emanated from her hands, flying toward Horn. It hit Horn’s chest, then disappeared. Horn clenched her fists and tried jumping up and down a few times.
“Did I...level up? I can’t really tell, but...my body’s feeling kinda light. Aren’t my hands moving faster than ever!?”
She flung her hands, brandishing an imaginary dagger with a whoosh.
Babalon shrugged. “It was a no-go.”
“Buha!? What do you mean!? Did you scam me!? You scammed me, right!?”
“It was totes a miracle! I don’t really know what happened either~ This is a total bummer.”
“Oh nooooooooooooooo...”
Horn cradled her head helplessly. Did it not work because she gave it urine instead of blood!?
Horn was, thankfully, still a virgin...at least, as far as she could remember.
“So...how much blood do you need?”
“Around two liters?”
“Oh, it’s that much... Will it work!?”
“Aaah, you’ll kinda die, so I don’t really recommend it.”
“I’ll die!? Then it’s super pointless!”
“Usually I, like, get sacrifices.”
“You can’t do that! Sacrifices are a no-no! That’s not being a goddess! Demons do that!”
“Kyahahaha! You took it so seriously! What a dork.”
“Hng... I knew I shouldn’t count on some phony goddess... I’ll have to do it on my own!”
“Wha!? Excuse you!? I am not phony!”
“But you couldn’t level me up...”
Giving Horn a scornful look, Babalon shifted her gaze away grumpily. It had probably failed because Horn gave her a liquid that wasn’t blood, and besides, it wouldn’t work in the first place if Horn hadn’t given her a lethal dose.
“Then I’ll just give you another way do it! Kyaha!” Babalon clapped her hands with a popping sound.
“What other way?”
“I’m a gifted level up goddess, so I can sniff out things that give you the potential to grow. And lemme tell you, this place reeks. It totes reeks of potential.”
“Please stop telling girls they reek, it’s bad for my heart...”
“Not you, dummy, the other room! The next room over smells like potential!”
“Huh... What are you saying...?” Horn grumbled, but then it dawned on her.
—The other room, that’s Rose’s room!
Unlike Diablo with his weird pouch, everyone else left all their belongings in their own rooms. This meant most of Rose’s things were still in hers.
—The Subjugation Contract!
Horn grabbed the Holy Grail and rushed out into the hallway.
†
Horn grasped the adjacent room’s doorknob.
“It’s locked!? Awww, I should have known!”
The way she talked and acted may have been odd, but Rose was still a maid. She would never do something as careless as leave without locking the door behind her.
“Why don’t you, like, pick the lock?”
“Right...”
Horn’s fingers crept inside her belt, pulling out a small wire she then promptly inserted into the keyhole. The lock clicked, as if she’d just used a key.
“Wow, you’re quick!” Babalon exclaimed, her eyes round with surprise. “For how low your level is, your ?Unlock? skill is, like, crazy good!”
“Nah, I’m pretty average at that. Teach could do it even faster...”
Horn entered the room.
“Hehehe... I’m getting my hopes up, y’know? Your level is low but your abilities are this polished... That means ya got talent, y’know?”
“Where did she put her luggage!?”
“Listen to me when I’m talking to you, gawd! I just said something that’s, like, totes important!”
“Here it is!”
Horn pulled a rucksack from under the bed. The thought crossed her mind that Rose may just kill her when Rose found out about this, but she decided saving her friends would have to do for her excuse.
The rucksack was secured with a lock, but Horn picked it in seconds, finding the black leather collar after a moment of rummaging. All she had to do was put it on and she’d level up quickly. But if the Lord, Diablo, died, so would she, the Thrall.
—That’s the price...
Horn swallowed nervously.
“That thing’s, like, the real deal,” Babalon said. “Putting that thing on will make your level spike like crazy, no doubt about it... But as a level up goddess, I gotta warn ya. It’ll cut your lifespan short.”
“For real...?”
“Getting cold feet?”
“No, not that; will it really level me up!?”
“Puh-lease, I’m a level up goddess. I don’t make mistakes when it comes to leveling.”
“You failed earlier...”
“Ugh, a split hair~ Feeling some bad vibes~”
—Believing her is a lost cause... I gotta do something, fast.
Horn took a long, deep breath, her heart beating loudly and frantically in her ears. Her breathing had become erratic as her fingers clenched the leather collar tightly.
“Aaah!”
—Who cares about my lifespan!?
“Just do iiiiiiit!!!”
Horn clasped the collar around her neck.
Her vision turned black.
She was standing on top of a gray tower, the wind battering her mercilessly. A dark-brown sky hung overhead, the stars nowhere to be seen despite there not being a single cloud to hide them.
Below her was a breathtaking, sparkling sight. Countless buildings stood, making up the visage of an unfamiliar city. People walked along the surface, smaller and more numerous than ants, with horseless, box shaped carriages moving in tow. The whole place was illuminated by a light stronger than anything a torch could hope to produce.
A “floaty” feeling enveloped her as the ground rapidly grew closer.
—I’m falling!?
“Bwha!?”
When Horn came to her senses, she was lying face down on the ground. The Holy Grail lay tumbled over before her eyes, and Babalon poked at her nose.
“Hey, you’re alive~ I know I said it’d shorten your lifespan, but I didn’t mean it’d cut it by this much.”
“Ah... Ugh... I’m alive...”
“Nice.”
Horn rose to her feet. “I gotta go...”
“Ah, take me along. I’m, like, super bored... Er, I mean, I’ll be super useful to have around! Guaranteed or your lifeblood back!”
“Huh... But if I’m sneaking into the Church, you’re way too loud to take along...”
“Gawd, can you get any ruder!? I’ll be quiet, promise! ‘Sides, only you can hear my voice, remember?”
“Oh, right... But if I answer you, they’ll still spot me.”
“I’ll curse you if you leave me behind.”
“What even are ‘goddesses’ anymore... Fine, I’ll take you along.”
“Oh you, don’t you know cute boys, like, go crazy for goddesses like me?”
Horn picked up the Holy Grail from the floor and left Rose’s room. Just then, she could hear footsteps approaching.
—I can tell, somehow...
It didn’t sound like the staff or the other guests. It was three men, carrying weapons. But she couldn’t just run. She would have to go down to the lower floors and confront them.
†
The men stood there, their eyes bloodshot. They were dressed in shirts and trousers; normal attire, with the exception of chains depicting the holy mark dangling from their necks and the maces in their hands.
“Hey, isn’t that one of Lumachina’s lackeys!?”
One of them pointed in Horn’s direction. Horn couldn’t believe the believers would call the High Priest by her name so plainly like that. The men were obviously looking for everyone’s luggage.
“There’s still some forged documents missing...” another man said. “Don’t resist, and give them to us, all right?”
Horn frowned. The group had taken all the evidence with them. The only other thing that came to mind was Alicia, who may not have given them all the evidence she had found. She may have done so to stay on the safe side, in case Lumachina’s negotiations would fail and the evidence be taken away.
“I’m probably right, but I’m still in hot water here!”
“What are you saying, sis!?” Babalon exclaimed, pumping her fists. “They’re only level 10! Whack these mooks, girl, whack ‘em!”
“What? N-No... I can’t just do that out of nowhere...”
“Stop mumbling to yourself and give us those documents!” One of the men drew closer to Horn.
—If the documents are fake, how do you know some are missing? It makes no sense! How can these people not doubt it!?
But they probably weren’t thinking straight. They obeyed the Head of the Cardinal Council, Vishos, blindly, like puppets on strings. Lumachina was obviously in the right, but Vishos’s clever words kept the believers under his thrall.
—If I could do that, I’d be able to get out of this situation! If I could just manipulate them like that...
~Level Up Bonus Skill selected~
“Huh?” Horn turned her gaze to Babalon.
Babalon shook her head. “That wasn’t me.”
The voice echoed in Horn’s head once more.
~?Charm? Skill increased to level 8 ~
“What was that!?”
“I told you, it’s not me. It’s kinda confusing, I know, but it’s not.”
“What does ‘Charm’ even mean!?”
The moment she shouted those words, a pink heart jumped from Horn and toward the men who stood in her way. It flew at them with a wheezing sound and disappeared with a “Pop!” when it reached them.
“Haaah!?”
The men squealed with odd, high-pitched voices, then their faces flushed with an odd blush. It was, honestly speaking, pretty creepy.
The men opened their mouths to speak, one odd sentence coming out after another.
“Heee, hehe... We’re sorry, missy, we didn’t mean to be so harsh... We don’t want you to hate us, okay?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“If you hate us, missy, I... I don’t know if I can live on...”
A creepy chill ran down Horn’s spine.
—What are these people saying!?
Meanwhile, the little goddess was cackling uncontrollably.
“A Charm skill! Kyahahaha! Imagine you, being that popular with the guys! That’s hilarious!”
“Wha!?”
“Well, anyway, if you already got them charmed, why not use ‘em to your advantage?”
“Huh... I really wanted some sorta super magic like the Boss uses...”
“Mmm? Well, yeah, I think you’ve got the talent for that, too.”
“Hmm... Could you please not take our things away?” Horn asked the men. “There’s no more evidence here.”
Would those words do anything to move these angry men? Horn was half in doubt, but the men happily nodded.
“That right? Well, if you say so, missy, we won’t take them.”
“If there’s no evidence here, there’s no point taking it back. It’s not like we disobeyed Vishos’s orders.”
“Yeah, we did exactly what he asked.”
It seemed their loyalty to the Cardinal Authority hadn’t changed any, but Horn’s Charm was enough to get them to believe her excuse and “obey.”
“What are you doing, girl? Ya gotta act cuter than that,” Babalon egged her on. “You know how with swords and magic, there’s a right way to ‘swing’? That goes for skills, too. If ya slack off, the effect’ll go away as soon as you’re outta their sights.”
The idea seemed pretty gross to Horn, but she decided to endure.
Horn brought her hands together and tilted her head a bit to the side, forcing her lips into the biggest smile she could muster.
“Kyaaa, thanks a bundle, misters! You made Horn sooo happy!”
—Kill me.
The men’s faces steamed over.
“Bufh! Y-Y-You can leave everything to us, Miss Horn!”
“We’ll keep your luggage safe!”
“Oh god, my nose won’t stop bleeding...”
“Please, misters! And thanksies~” Horn exclaimed enthusiastically as she got away from them.
She ran through the third floor corridor, where the hidden passage should have been, wiping her mouth with both her hands.
“I think I’m gonna hurl...”
“Eeew, TMI! I’ll curse you if you throw up in the Holy Grail, ya got that!?”
Horn made a mental note to never tell Babalon she had used it as a toilet once already.
†
“I need you to take me up there! P-Pretty please!”
It was already dark out when Horn made it through the secret passage. It seemed even during the night there was a great deal of traffic heading toward the Inner Sanctum. Horn had attempted to Charm a man driving a wagon to the Church, secretly beckoning him into a building and making her request.
“Oh, uhm, no, but...” the man stuttered, red like a tomato. “I’m only delivering vegetables to the White Masks...”
—So, is it impossible...?
“Hold it, girl. Horn, are you some kinda stick in the mud nun or something?” Babalon spoke up in a provocative tone. “You gotta show some skin if you wanna get in people’s heads! Don’t think the world will cut you any slack just ’cuz you’re twelve!”
So said the goddess, displaying the same tenacious chagrin one might expect from a creepy cameraman. Apparently no one could see or hear her except for Horn.
Horn grit her teeth in embarrassment and grabbed the hem of her skirt, slightly revealing her thighs.
—My skirt’s short enough as it is, but doing this, too... I’m so embarrassed I could die right here and now!
“P-P-Please!”
“Gufu!? I g-g-g-g-g-guess I can help you... They only inspect the crates at the top, so you can hide in the cabbage crate near the bottom... It should get you to the Inner Sanctum...”
“Thank you so much, mister!”
“As a level up goddess I hereby bequeath upon you the title of ?Geezer Seducer?,” Babalon chuckled triumphantly.
“You can take your stupid title and go on a hike with it...”
“Beg pardon?” The man, who was busy opening the cabbage crate, turned to her quizzically.
“Aaah... It was totes nothing! Teehee!”
Horn was filled with self-loathing as she squeezed out the cutest voice she could muster from her lungs.
—One Hour Later—
Using Babalon to check that there was no one outside, Horn made her way out of the crate.
“Ewww... I smell like cabbage...”
“Can you, like, not get any of that on the Holy Grail? It’ll, like, ward off all the cute boys if it smells like cabbage.”
Ignoring Babalon’s words, Horn inspected her new surroundings. It seemed to be some sort of warehouse. There was no source of light, so the place was pitch black, but that wasn’t much of an issue. With nothing more but the starlight streaming through the room’s small windows, Horn could see the environment clearly. Her night vision was so keen, Horn herself could hardly believe how good it was.
When she was hiding in the crate, she could feel it ascending, so this should be the Inner Sanctum’s storage room. She tried recalling the way here...
“Huh...? I... I remember it?”
She could clearly remember how far the box was carried and how many turns in which direction it made. Her sense of perception and memory were never this keen before. Horn was confused by the changes she was going through.
Doing her nails with a makeup kit she had pulled out of nowhere, Babalon opened her mouth to speak.
“Mapping is, like, basic for Seekers, right? At level 80, you could probably fall into a trap hole and still have your bearings straight.”
“Level 80...?”
“That’s your level.”
“My level...?”
“Yep, that’s what it’s at now.”
“Fuwhaaat!?”
“The Subjugation Contract’s an item that elevates the Thrall’s level to one where he could benefit the Lord, remember? It just means your Lord’s level is crazy high. His level should be, like, eighty times two.”
“Whaaat!? 80!?”
Horn fixed her gaze on her hand. Several memories floated up to the surface of her consciousness.
“I used to live in a town called Zircon Tower. It was in the former Demon Lord’s Domain, so a lot of strong people lived there, and the person everyone said was the strongest warrior around was level 80.”
“Hmm? That’s nice.”
“You don’t sound impressed...”
“Well, you can’t really impress level gods unless you break the level limit. You’ve got a ways to go until that happens~”
“Level limit?”
“Hehe ? For the races, the limit is level 99. Until you reach that, you can level up at a normal pace. But you break the limit once you reach level 100.”
“Oh... So what about Paladins?”
“I dunno about them. But leveling up over level 100 takes ten times the effort it takes just to even reach that point in the first place.”
“Ten times!?”
“Yeah, but thanks to that, the power gap between being level 100 and level 110 is, like, crazy large.”
“Seriously...?”
“Totes. The martial arts and spells you get at those levels are some real hot stuff, strong enough to face armies and large-type magical beasts.”
“Hot stuff, huh...”
The difference between her now and how she had been this afternoon was like heaven and earth. Breaking the level limit and going over level 100 felt as far away as the moon.
—The boss probably broke the level limit then...
“Aaah, someone’s coming~”
Horn hid in the shadows. At her current level, there was no chance she would be spotted in such a dark storeroom. But hiding alone wouldn’t help fulfill her objective.
One person entered the storeroom, donning a white mask. Based on his physique, it was probably a male Dwarf.
“I’ll try asking that guy if he knows where the Boss and the others are!”
“Oh my gawd, you’re gonna seduce someone again? With your smooth, cute twelve-year-old body and level 80 techniques?”
“Please stop putting it like that... I’m just making the most use outta my Charm skill...”
The very moment she cast it was always the most nerve-racking.
She stepped out of the shadows, right before the man. Noticing her presence, the White Mask turned his gaze in Horn’s direction.
“Charm, on! Teehee~”
Horn gave the widest, most dazzling smile she could muster.
†
The White Mask Dwarf provided Horn with all sorts of interesting information. Apparently, the Inner Sanctum was divided into four sections: The storerooms, kitchens, and other essential facilities were in the lower stratum, and the White Masks would volunteer to work there. The central wing was a chapel where large-scale rituals were held, and it was frequently used every day for prayer. The eastern wing was the high ranking officials’ bedrooms, which was also where the High Priest’s bedroom was; but that probably wasn’t of much importance right now. There was also a library and reference room in that wing, which were probably where Alicia’s cooperators had stolen the documents regarding the bribes. A small lecture hall and a dining room were in the Inner Sanctum’s west wing. The confessional was there as well.
Lumachina had been locked away separately from Diablo’s group. The so-called “confessional” was more of a prison in that regard. The White Mask Dwarf had told her as much, but sadly didn’t know exactly where each was held prisoner. It appeared they were spread out in random parts of the large building she was currently in. Horn decided to go the west wing, and find someone else to ask there.
Horn ran through the hallways, their walls and floors a pure white. Were they made of stone, or of earth? She couldn’t really tell. This was a building kept aloft by the power of God’s miracles, so it was probably made of some type of special material. There were small windows along the corridor, starlight streaming through them and illuminating the place dimly. There were no other sources of light. The place gave a clean, well-kept impression, but the darkness made it a bit creepy.
—The old me would probably be scared stiff being here...
She’d made it out of the lower stratum and into the west wing. This place had a more frugal design, with the walls and floors being made of wood. There were also latticed windows which lit this wing up more than the lower stratum, albeit with the windows set so they couldn’t be opened.
“All you do is run... What a bore,” the Holy Grail’s goddess whined. “I’m getting sorta hungry. You feel like giving me your blood, sweetheart?”
“Aaah... Phew... The floor where the confessional is should be pretty close...”
“I can’t believe it, you’re ignoring a goddess!?”
Horn spotted a shadow ascending the stairs and stuck out her hands.
“Charm!”
“Huh!?”
A thin White Mask turned his gaze at her, surprised. Their orange hair was long, and their chest was round and looked soft.
—A Pantherian...woman!?
A pink colored heart flew at the woman, making a wheezing sound as it traveled through the air...but nothing else happened.
“A-Ah...”
Horn opened her mouth to speak fearfully, but the woman only reacted as Horn feared.
“Kyaaaaaa!!!”
“Oh crap... That really backfired!”
“Hehehe... It probably depends on their inclination, but I guess your Charm skill doesn’t work on girls, Horn. I don’t discriminate on the basis of gender though.”
Horn strafed to the Pantherian woman’s side and broke into a sprint.
“If you knew that much, why didn’t you say anything!?”
“It’s common sense, you shoulda figured that out on your own.”
“I-I mean, you’re right, but...”
“Don’t let it get to ya, girlfriend. Letting your power go to your head and messing up comes with the territory ? Y’know, like Sp0derman and that one line?”
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about! Messing up could get me killed!”
She’d gained information from several White Masks, and had the place pretty much mapped in her head. She rushed to the Key Room where the keys for the confessional were held.
—Please make it so there are no girls in there! And that there aren’t too many people in there, too!
The more people there were, the less Charm would be effective on each individual target.
The Key Room—
There were only two people in there: A Pantherian man, naked from the waist up, and a Grasswalker boy—no, probably an adult—reading a book. Grasswalkers were a race who looked like children even as they grew older. Even Horn, who was the same race as him, couldn’t discern his age, but, given he was here, he was probably an adult.
They didn’t have White Masks on, and they weren’t dressed in modest robes, either. The Pantherian had a pair of leather pants while the Grasswalker was dressed in all black and had a pair of glasses on. The only ones who could be in the Inner Sanctum other than the White Masks were...
Horn’s eyes widened. “Oh no...”
—Paladins!?
“Hehe...” The Pantherian’s lips curved into a smirk. “She actually showed up. Just like you said, Grun.”
“Obviously...” the Grasswalker muttered, not lifting his eyes from the book.
The Pantherian grabbed a war axe that was lying nearby and rose to his feet.
“Heh... So you came here to save your friends, huh?” he said, motioning toward his crotch. “Well, the key to the confessional’s over here, little bunny rabbit.”
“Wha!? Why’d you put it in there for!?”
—Paladins are scary!
“You’re pointing the wrong way, Gatreth,” the Grasswalker sighed. “It’s behind you.”
“Hmm? Aaah, right! Thanks, Grun!”
Gatreth the Pantherian pointed again, this time at a bundle of keys hanging from his waist. Horn sighed in relief, despite the dangerous situation she was in. Each of the keys seemed to have a number on them.
“Kehe... Your buddies are in the thirteenth confessional. If you wanna meet ‘em, I can bring you right over.”
“Wow, really? I didn’t think someone with such a scary face would be so nice! Thanks!”
“The frig does my face have to do with that!?”
“Aaah!”
“What I’m saying is, if you sit still and let us catch you, we’ll lock you up along with your friends, keheheh... A great guy like me’s got a real heart of gold, eh?”
“Oh, so that’s what you meant... Then I’m taking that ‘thanks’ back!”
“Whoa, lame! Who calls himself ‘great’ like that nowadays? Dork. He’s pretty hilarious though.”
“Ayup...”
Horn recalled what Babalon had said when she first appeared.
You’re, like, talking to the great and wise goddess of the Holy Grail! You don’t wanna cross Lady Babalon, girlie!
Either way, this guy didn’t seem very cooperative, so Horn stuck out her hands toward him.
“Charm! Hee hee ?”
The skill activated, and, like always, a pink heart flew toward the man, swiftly wheezing through the air...
“Aaah, hnnng!”
Gatreth stuck out his exposed chest, flexing his pectoral muscles. The heart popped like a soap bubble and dissipated when it hit his solid chest.
“Whaaat!?”
“Kuhahahaha! Cheap tricks don’t work on great men like me!”
“Do you swing the other way or something!?”
“No, you little doofus! I only care about busty, curvy kitty-cats! I won’t get it up to a washboard kid-rabbit like you!”
“It’s got nothing to do with your sexual preferences,” Grun mumbled behind them. “The Charm skill doesn’t work on someone stronger than the user.”
“Seriously!?”
“Oh yeah, I was thinking of telling you that,” Babalon said, as if suddenly remembering. “Charm doesn’t work on higher level opponents, you can only use it on people who are a lower level than you. Oh, and, of course, the success is based on your charm rank as opposed to the opponent’s resistance.”
“You should have said that sooner!”
In other words, Charm wouldn’t work on Paladins.
Horn took a frightful step back and bolted out of the room.
—I can’t fight in such a cramped room!
Gatreth chased after her immediately.
“Yahoo! It’s rabbit season!”
Having been left alone in the room, Grun flipped through his book’s pages wordlessly.
†
Gatreth swung his war axe around, severing everything in his path, the wall’s wooden boards included, in two.
“Aaaall riiiiiiiiight!”
“Uwa!?”
Now that she’d become level 80, Horn’s dodging skills had significantly increased. Gatreth may have exceeded Horn in power and speed, but Pantherians weren’t as dexterous which allowed Horn to just barely avoid his attacks. The axe’s swings packed so much force, even the slightest touch would cut Horn into pieces. But with so many needless motions to Gatreth’s swings, they were easy enough to predict.
Still, even if she knew they were coming, it took Horn everything she had to simply dodge, and those attacks were coming her way in waves.
“Ahahahaha! This is crazy, crazy dangerous!” Babalon called out with a shrill laugh. “You might die, Horn! Think you’ll die!?”
“What makes you think any of this is fun!?”
“Hee hee! Because level gods are also gods who govern over combat!”
“That’s convincing, but I’m begging you, keep it down! You’re distracting me!”
“Awww zip it, we’re not in a movie theater!”
The massive war axe once again skimmed through where her head was just a moment ago. If Horn had crouched even a second later, everything above her nose would have been on the other side of the room.
“Yikes!?”
“Come on, come on, come on! What’re you doing here, huh!? I thought you came here to save your friends!” Gatreth roared.
He had split the wooden walls again, launching splinters in the air which pelted over Horn’s face, spilling blood.
“Ouch!”
The blood dripped into the Holy Grail dangling from Horn’s waist, hooked onto her belt.
“Hnnng! This is the BEST!” Babalon cried out ecstatically.
“I’m gonna die at this rate, you know!”
“Hehe... Ugly machos like him aren’t my thing, but if he splits open a virgin’s heart and offers it up to the Holy Grail, I’ll have no choice but to manifest~”
“To that Paladin!?”
“I mean, that’s just how the Holy Grail works, y’know?”
“How much of a treacherous tramp can you be!?”
“Teehee~”
This no-good goddess clearly wasn’t going to be of any help.
Horn jogged through her thoughts. Even if the gap between her and a Paladin wasn’t as impossibly wide as it was before, beating one would still be difficult. A twenty level gap was still steep, and Horn’s ?Shadow Knife? was a weapon made for beginners. Gatreth didn’t have any armor on, but she still doubted she’d be able to beat him with nothing more than a knife. She instead decided to devise a plan, relying on the structure’s map in her memory to think of a way to come out on top.
“You annoying little—!” Missing attack after attack, Gatreth was becoming increasingly more annoyed. “Heh, but...”
There was a wall at the end of the corridor. Horn was running toward a dead end. She rushed to the nearest window she could find, but, as she had thought, it wouldn’t open. She could see the starlight outside, and the sparkling luminescence of the city below.
Gatreth stopped his gait, standing five steps away from Horn. They weren’t standing too far apart from another, but it wasn’t a range the war axe could cover either.
Gatreth held the war axe with both hands, positioning it vertically before his face, the blade aimed at Horn. It was an odd stance.
—I don’t really know what he’s thinking, but that’s probably a Martial Art!
From his perspective, he probably thought he’d finally cornered Horn after she scurried around all this time. He was confident he’d be able to kill her here. Usually, the worst result for him would be her dodging his strike and slipping by from the side. So, to stop that, he’d have to use a long range attack with a wide reach!
Gatreth waved his war axe.
“I’ll crush you into mincemeat! ?Axe Impact?!”
A shock wave spread out around them, pressuring and crushing the walls, floor, and ceiling.
“Aiya!”
Horn kicked the window frame behind her, launching it out into the air. Then she jumped out the window, surrounded by a shower of splinters.
“Let’s gooooooooo!” Horn screamed out.
Starlight, the sparkling luminescence of the city below, the death that approached her rapidly, along with the debris of the window that had been blown away by the force of Gatreth’s attack...
“Aaaaaah!”
Horn reached out with all her strength, grabbing onto the lower floor’s windowsill. She managed to grab on! ...Or so she thought, but the next moment the window frame bent under her hands and snapped loudly. The broken frame tumbled further down, falling softly in the direction of the entrance to chapel’s square. Debris from the broken wall and window were falling, too... Horn tried reasoning there shouldn’t be anyone out this late at night. Hopefully...
Grabbing onto a different window frame, Horn had narrowly escaped death from crashing down.
“Aaah... That was crazy!”
“Way to go! Huge props for that quick thinking and agility, girl!” Babalon cheered.
Grasswalkers were a race who prided themselves on their agility, and Seekers were a class focused around nimbleness. It was a bit of an absurd feat of acrobatics, but her level 80 body pulled it off.
“Horn, look up! Up!”
“Huh!?”
Gatreth cocked his head out of the broken window.
“You’re not dead yet, you shitty little rabbit!?”
He swung his war axe again, its blade beginning to glow.
—Another Martial Art!
If he were to throw his axe her way, that would be the end right there. But him using a Martial Art with a long wind up time gave Horn the chance she needed to escape unscathed. Before the war axe could reach her, Horn rolled into the lower floor’s corridor through the window.
—I can’t stay put!
Horn jumped to her feet and broke into a run. Gatreth rushed down the staircase, hot on her trail.
†
The White Masks were moving to and fro in confusion.
“Oooh, Sir Gatreth, whatever is going on...?”
“Where’s that damned rabbit!?” Gatreth grabbed the collar of the man standing in the front, panting heavily.
“Ahhh!?”
“Answer me, or I’ll twist your head off!”
“Th-The intruder!? The Grasswalker is... She’s over there, she went that way!” The believer pointed down the hallway.
“I’ll turn that that sneaky little snot into a stain on the wall!”
“Aaah!?” Gatreth threw the believer to the floor.
“What were you just standing there for!? The least you could do was hold that little bitch down!”
“I-I’m sorry... Sh-She went in the third door.”
“Then say so sooner, you idiot!”
Gatreth approached the door with heavy steps, then kicked it down with all his might. The door flew inward, its hinges detaching forcefully from the wooden frame. Suddenly, white smoke burst out of the room.
“The hell!?”
A White-Masked-Grasswalker who was sitting inside pointed to the end of the room. “The intruder’s getting away!”
They could hear the sound of a door being opened on the other side of the curtain of smoke, and barely made out the form of a small figure running out of it.
“You shitty little rabbit!” Gatreth roared. “I’ll skin you and turn you into stew if it’s the last frigging thing I do!”
“That sounds like it’d hurt!” Horn’s voice echoed from above.
Gatreth lifted his gaze to look up, only to be greeted by a pair of boots to his face. Leaping down from the ceiling, Horn kicked him squarely in the head. However light Horn’s small Grasswalker body was, it would still deal some damage.
“Gah!?” Gatreth fell back, cradling his face in pain.
Horn Charmed the believers, enlisting them to help in this little performance. Ordering them to fight a Paladin would be impossible, but getting them to distract him would work. The White Masks were all civilians, below level 5. As she was right now, Horn was capable of “asking” them all to help at the same time.
Gatreth rose to his feet, waving the axe around to fan away the smoke.
“Pieces of shit, every single one of you!”
But by the time he finished, Horn was already out of the room. Veins popped on Gatreth’s forehead one after another.
“Hng...?”
He looked to the left, then to the right, but she was gone. Then he cried out in surprise, reaching out to his waist.
The bundle of keys was gone.
“That thieving little runt!!! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Gatreth’s cry of wrath shook the room’s walls. At that same moment, Horn was sprinting up the staircase, already making her way to the upper floor. She had the bundle of keys in her hands.
“I gotta free Boss quickly!”
“You’re on a roll, girl!”
“Hehe... It’s the first time I used my ?Thieving? skill, but at level 80, it still works.”
“That’s not in the Seeker skill set, though. Are you sure you’re not a Thief?”
“Uhn!?”
“They’re similar, but still different classes. If you try to spec into another class, you’ll notice a pretty big gap in abilities at a high level. Gotta watch out for that, or you’ll get burned later down the road.”
“My teacher was a Thief... He always told me, ‘Never become a Thief!’ and never taught me how to steal... Am I a Thief, after all?”
“Do you like your teacher, Horn?”
“Of course! I love Teach...”
“Then why not be the same as him? Ya don’t have to be, like, the classic image of a Thief. Be the kind of Thief you want to become!”
“Ah...” Horn found herself smiling naturally.
“Whoa, look at me being all smart like!” Babalon said with a triumphant expression. “I just said something real smooth, didn’t I? Moved you to tears and all that?”
“Ah... Ayup!”
†
Horn used Babalon to check the key room. Apparently, they could still communicate if Horn was five meters away from the Holy Grail. Horn thought it was extremely useful for dungeons and indoor explorations. Maybe that’s just what one should expect from a goddess of battle.
“Aight, I checked it out for you. But just so ya know, nobody’s ever pushed me around this much before, ya got that?”
“I’m really grateful for this...” Horn answered with a whisper. Only Horn could hear Babalon’s voice, but had to answer softly so she wouldn’t be heard.
“So, ya wanna know what I found? Do ya? Huh? Hehehe... I’ll let ya know if ya take off your panties!”
Horn wordlessly stuck her hand out a window, dangling the Holy Grail in the night air.
“Eeeeeeeee~ I was kidding, just kidding! You’re so ungrateful, gawd!”
“Well?”
“He was there! That Paladin, Grun; he was sitting there and reading a book!”
“All right.”
Horn hooked the Holy Grail onto her belt.
“I can’t believe you’d treat the great mistress Babalon like this... You’re a scary girl, y’know that!?”
“Pipe down.”
Horn put all her concentration into muffling her footsteps. She passed across the door to the key room and moved onward. The corridor beyond was made of stone bricks, like a dungeon.
—There’s no one here?
She’d expected to see guards, but no one was around. Maybe because it was so late at night?
A number of doors filled the corridor. If Gatreth hadn’t told her earlier, she’d have been at a loss as to where to find them. According to him, Diablo and the others were in the thirteenth confessional, but she still didn’t know where Lumachina was. The White Masks had told her Lumachina was in another room...but she’d have to think about that later.
Checking the numbers on each door, Horn headed deeper down the corridor.
“Here it is!”
“Woohoo.”
It was a large iron door, unfitting for the image of a confessional, with a large plaque that said “013.”
“Boss, you there!?” Horn called in a husky whisper, running up to the door.
No response.
She tried knocking on the door.
Silence.
—Did he lie about them being in the thirteenth confessional...?
Gatreth didn’t strike her as someone bright enough to lie that well, but...
There were so many doors. Horn didn’t think it possible to check each room without alerting the Paladin in the key room. She could feel herself sweating from the suspense.
“Boss!”
“...Is that you, Horn?”
Rem’s voice came from the other side of the iron door.
“Ah! Yeah, it’s me!”
“...Impossible... How did you get all the way here? Did they capture you?”
“A lot of stuff happened...”
She could hear others talking on the inside.
“What!? Horn’s out there!?”
“Wow! Did she come to save us!?”
It was Diablo’s and Shera’s voices.
Horn looked in the bundle for the key marked “013.”
“Just gimme a sec. I’ll get this door open, then we can run!”
She inserted the lead-colored key into the keyhole, but then she heard a child’s voice behind her.
“—Helena’s Tome, Chapter Three, Fourth Passage—?The Merciless Claws?.”
Horn wheeled around her head rapidly, coming face to face with a massive black tiger that filled her entire field of vision.
“Aaah!”
Horn dodged, twisting her body to the side. She tumbled over, the world spinning rapidly as a shock wave knocked all the air out of her lungs. Before she could even process what had happened, Horn was crumpled down on the floor, leaning against a wall at the edge of the hallway.
She couldn’t feel her left hand.
“Ah...”
Turning her gaze to her left, her arm had been deeply shredded.
“Aaah!”
Her warm lifeblood dripped to the floor, drop by drop.
“Hang on, Horn!” Even Babalon—with her usual flippant attitude—sounded terribly alarmed.
Horn realized perfectly well: The way she was bleeding was fatal.
“Uuugh...”
It was seeing the amount of blood she lost, more than the damage to her body, that really made Horn go into a panic.
“I’m...dying...?”
She could hear the sound of boots walking toward her from the down the hallway.
“Of course you are. I attacked you with the intent to kill.”
It was Grun. He still appeared young, as was typical of Grasswalkers, but he now had his blue armor on, a sword sheathed at his waist. He still had his glasses on, and his eyes were fixed on the book in his hands.
“So you gave Gatreth the slip after all. Stands to reason I suppose. He always did have rocks for brains.”
“Uuu...”
“Try not to hate me for this. I don’t have anything against you, but Vishos’s orders were quite clear...”
“Vi...shos...”
Horn finally realized just how fearsome the enemy she had picked a fight with really was. She hadn’t regretted acting to help her friends, but...did she overestimate how strong she had become by leveling up? What made her think challenging such strong Paladins was a good idea?
Her eyes filled with tears, fogging her field of vision.
“This stench of blood... Your bleeding is quite severe,” Grun pointed out, never tearing his eyes from his book. “With wounds that deep, you won’t last much longer. I’ll just put you out of your misery.”
“Eeek!?”
“—Helena’s Tome, Chapter Four, Second Passage—?The Starved Canid?...”
A pitch black wolf appeared from inside his book. At that same time—
A voice bellow from behind the “013” door.
“Wither away! ?Last Burst?!”
It was one of Diablo’s incantations.
The iron door suddenly changed to a brown color, cracks rapidly running through the stone wall. The door had become brittle and was kicked away from the inside, shattering as it crashed against the floor.
Diablo stepped out from behind it.
“I will never allow you to harm my belongings any further...you Paladin whelp!”
Grun lifted his gaze from his book for the first time, pushing his glasses up with his middle finger.
“Who do you think you’re calling a whelp? I’ll have you know I’m turning sixty this year. Now then, lad, since you seem so hellbent on leaving your cell, how about I really do send you down to hell?”
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