Log Horizon - Volume 11 - Chapter 5.3

3 
Having completely absorbed Gumon’s life, Enchantress Youren had recovered her health drastically, and she smiled sweetly. 
Krusty’s HP was down to just 8 percent. 
In contrast, Enchantress Youren’s HP was over 60 percent, and still rising. 
The gap was great enough that she could feel sure of her victory. Even if he’d managed to gain nearly limitless MP through Mnemosyne’s Taboo, with no means of recovering his HP, Krusty had no way to turn the tables at this point. 
“That was astonishing.” 
“…” 
“I doubt you remember, but I would expect no less from the Adventurer the Supreme Deity and the Heavenly Mother wanted for her nephew. —I’ll ask again: I don’t suppose you’d surrender to us?” 
“Are you telling me to play at being a sheepdog?” 
“I promise you the most fortunate of canine lifestyles.” 
In response to this, his expression still cool, Krusty smiled. 
The woman was funny. 
Had she noticed she’d confessed to talking to a dog? 
Or maybe she had wanted to believe it was actually the other party that was the dog. 
Even answering her properly seemed like too much work. 
“The tiger-fanged Bucaphi, Genius of Witches, wasn’t it?” 
“?! Don’t tell me your memories have—” 
With a light click, some sort of piece fell into place. At the same time, the flow of his blood sped up, accelerating into a raging torrent. With the thrill of understanding in his eyes, Krusty smiled fearlessly. 
The reality of something being “stolen” had closed the circuit. 
Pushing a mental arm through the gate up to its shoulder, he groped through a rainbow ocean as warm as his viscera. The true identity of the heat that made his breath tremble was a complicated emotion. It was amusement, and also irritation. Delight and anger were there together. 
The feeling was hard to put a name to, but it definitely did have heat. Keeping the emotion just as it was, he began to take them back, ripping them free. 
“The curse—! What happened to the curse that bound you?!” 
“It hasn’t been lifted.” 
As Krusty had sensed, there was still a negative status on his translucent window. 
SOUL DARKENING CURSE. 
NATURAL HP RECOVERY IS SUSPENDED. 
HP MAY NOT BE RECOVERED THROUGH RECOVERY SPELLS, OR THROUGH FACILITIES OR ITEMS. 
THE TELECHAT FUNCTION IS SUSPENDED. 
MOVEMENT ACROSS SERVER BOUNDARIES BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE. 
MEMORIES ARE LOST. 
However. 
“It doesn’t say I can’t retake the memories I lost.” 
As he’d said, a new condition was added, the words seeming to bleed into existence. 
The Enchantress looked pale and dismayed, and Krusty sent her a savage smile. 
Through the gate, he retrieved the memories that had melted into rainbow colors. Once he’d retaken them, it also became clear why he’d chosen those memories and released them. Krusty had foreseen that he would take them back. 
He’d been sure he would recover them, so he’d offered them up as collateral. 
Because he’d known they would come back someday, he’d relaxed and temporarily deposited them elsewhere. 
When he was caught up in Calamity Hurts’s rampage in the mountains near Seventh Fall, Krusty had landed on Mount Kunlun, a solitary island that floated in a distant rainbow ocean. On that island, he’d met the grotesque witch Bucaphi. She had wanted him to become her vassal, but he had refused, and as a result, he’d been hit with a bad status that robbed him of nearly all his combat power, then banished into the wilderness of central Eured. Even the memory of his encounter with Bucaphi had been taken from him. 
That was what lay behind Krusty’s arrival in this land. 
However, those memories were back in his hands now. 
They’d been accompanied by memories of the chaperone of his noisy guild, his precocious little sister, his reliable aide, and the reckless slacker princess. As this information flowed in, filling the gaps, he gave a little smile that was different from the one he’d shown the Enchantress. 
He’d been unable to hold back a wry smile at his own romanticism. 
Even if he’d had memories and connections, the benefits he could gain from them were limited. Still, Krusty didn’t have the sort of temperament that took delight in giving up part of himself. 
He also understood the cause of the hostility that blazed inside him. 
He’d already faced off against the enemy’s leader on Mount Kunlun. Now that he’d retaken his memories, he knew this clearly. As far as he was concerned, the bewitching woman who’d held him in contempt and had brazenly shown up to take him was already a target for annihilation. He had absolutely no intention of forgiving her. 
Papus—this woman, Enchantress Youren—and the Queen Mother of the West, Bucaphi: Everyone who had risen against Krusty and his memories was an enemy. Now that his memories were clear, her true name was displayed in his status window. Apparently, that was the limit of her mimicry. 
It was likely that Enchantress Youren and her cohorts were connected to the mystery of the Catastrophe. 
They probably had useful information on the current state of the world. 
However, that wasn’t the tiniest speck of a reason for letting them live. 
“Simply regaining your memories does nothing to change the situation!” she shrieked. 
“That’s right.” 
…But so what? 
Krusty hadn’t taken any notice of the situation in the first place. 
The important thing was producing a conclusion. That, and the motive for seeking it. 
Compressing the distance between them, which was already the space of a breath, he swung his ax, now scattering rainbows instead of blood. The motion surpassed even Adventurer limits, and if Nyanta had been watching, he might have sensed something similar to Kazuhiko in it. However, right now, Krusty was trembling with the joy of birth, and he wielded his blade like a song. 
He instinctively knew where Mount Kunlun was. 
It was on the horizon of heaven, somewhere Krusty couldn’t currently reach. 
However, his enemies were there, and he’d resolved to destroy them. 
Therefore, he should be able to sink his fangs into the place. 
The enemy: That had been the thing he’d given up on ever obtaining in his lifetime, what he’d grown tired and endlessly weary over. 
The people who’d whispered “Give up” to Haruaki Kounoike might always have said it out of kindness, but they hadn’t loved him deeply. 
However, Krusty had been told to seek people who would adore him. By his little sister, and by Takayama, and by Riezé. By Koen and Richou, too. Now that he thought about it, Kushiyatama had said it as well, long ago. With the resolve of someone throwing herself into the flames, Raynesia had shown that she was looking. Even if she understood that her own abilities wouldn’t be enough, that stubborn princess hadn’t given up on wanting. 
Krusty had given up his expectations for those around him, but even in the knowledge that they might rip and fall away easily, she’d clung to them. That hadn’t been weakness. It had been nobility. 
That night, Krusty had witnessed that nobility. 
If he was going to adventure, then what situation could be better than this one, where he’d been transported to a foreign country? Enemies and companions, obstacles and treasures were a solid reality in this vast, white land. 
Now that he thought about it, Shiroe and Isaac, and even William, who’d left for the north, had all attempted to make their mark on this world. 
Right now, Krusty was emphatically free. 
The feeling infused the joints in his arms and legs with the sort of energy that made him want to set off running immediately. 
Of course, he’d have to return to Yamato. D.D.D. was a comfortable place. It was his treasure, even if he hadn’t been aware of that. He had no intention of letting it be taken from him. 
However, in order to get there, it looked as if he’d have to defeat all his enemies…or maybe someone would come to get him before that happened. 
Possibly she’d been overawed by the colorless rage that had quietly accumulated inside Krusty: Enchantress Youren issued an order in a carrying voice. A froth of iridescent bubbles gathered in what had been empty space, and a swarm of giant moths appeared from it and attacked him. 
“That’s nothing—” 
He slashed through them. 

At this point, his enormous two-handed ax was so light it might as well have been made of paper. Actually, Krusty’s very limbs were filled with inexhaustible energy, and they massacred his enemies just as he wanted them to. As if he’d shed his skin, even the air currents felt fresh, and his sharpened nerves picked up the enemy’s movements easily. 
“The forces summoned from the moon are limitless. Even if you are beyond the bounds of common sense, how do you plan to oppose numbers like these? On top of that, your life is already a lamp flame, guttering in the wind.” 
Impatiently, the Enchantress issued rapid-fire invasion orders. 
The Moon Rabbits attacked, comically, their fat bellies wobbling. Krusty drew several of them to himself at once, then knocked the pestles they brandished away, sending them flying. 
Even as he operated the micro-gate, with exquisite focus, Krusty closed the distance between them. 
Half a step, then another. 
His Demon Ax, from which heavy sounds issued, finally inflicted a deep wound on the Enchantress’s tentacles. 
He’d sliced off the tentacles with herculean strength, and turning iridescent, they were absorbed into his ax, where they became a red pulse. It was the HP absorption ability he was supposed to have lost. 
“—?! But every way you could have recovered was sealed…” 
“Your curse is full of holes.” 
Krusty’s eyes skimmed across a translucent window. Shining red letters were being added to the Soul Darkening Curse display: HOWEVER, MEMORIES MAY BE RECOVERED. HOWEVER, IT IS POSSIBLE TO STEAL HP FROM GENIUSES. 
The calculator known as “a lifetime” ran on life force. 
The iridescent, crystalline bay that operated on that principle was an external calculator Krusty could connect to easily. He was reusing that rainbow energy to make additions to the curse. 
He remembered Shiroe giving him an explanation, in bits and pieces, in a military tent. 
He’d been explaining the possibilities and concept of the skill he’d called the Contract Technique. 
The key lay in balancing the risk-cost and rewards with the weight of the act of establishing the contract. The immense cost, which included phantasmal materials, was expended to guarantee the effect gained from the contract, and the mutual agreement of each party acted as the ignition key. 
“What are you saying…?” 
“You may not be able to understand it. In simple terms, your master went overboard.” 
That was right. 
What Shiroe had excavated from the foundations of the world was the idea of balance. 
Desires that could be granted with the Contract Technique probably extended to everything you could think of. It was terribly powerful and specialized toward granting wishes, and it thought of nothing else; a Mystery that could be considered Shiroe himself. However, it did have clear limits and restrictions. One of these was the cost required to draw up the contract. 
The physical contract for the Contract Technique had to be created by a specialist, and it called for expensive materials that corresponded to the scale of the wish—fantasy-class things. In addition, both to draft it and to conclude the contract, the majority of Shiroe’s MP had been lost, and he’d had the greatest capacity among those on his level. To grant a wish, a price had to be paid. That price also had to be commensurate to the wish. On top of that, for the Contract Technique to take effect, the involved parties had to agree and sign it. Shiroe certainly had the sword that cut the Gordian knot, but in order to swing it, he needed the other party’s consent. 
The Contract Technique wasn’t an all-powerful spell; it was a clumsy, roundabout method with terrible cost performance. That was the impression Krusty had gotten from listening to Shiroe, and it was also probably what Shiroe himself really thought. 
On the other hand, the Soul Darkening Curse truly was powerful. In this world, where resurrection from death was possible, its penalties were even more aggressively vicious than death itself. 
Its effect had been big. Too big. 
It was too convenient for the aggressor, and too much of a disadvantage for Krusty. 
Compared was the Contract Technique, its cost performance was too good, it didn’t require the consent of its subject, and it was far too unilateral. For being magic techniques in the same world, they were impossibly distant from each other. 
That was the weakness of the Soul Darkness Curse. In the balanced world of the Spirit Theory that Shiroe had spoken of, its overpowering effect was extremely unstable. 
It would have been one thing if Krusty had given his consent, but they’d had to force it on him arbitrarily; it had been effective after a fashion up until now only because it had been harshly branded onto him with the MP of Bucaphi, the Genius of Witches, a level-150 figure who vastly outranked him. However, to Krusty as he was now, in terms of sheer MP, he had the means to oppose it, even if it had come from someone whose level was twice his own. 
If trust had been part of the picture… 
If they’d been equals… 
If he’d at least consented… 
In any of those cases, the curse would doubtless never have been broken, but Krusty tore it apart easily. He didn’t have a scrap of the sweet temperament that would have obeyed something unfair. 
Enchantress Youren, half panicking, thrust out sharp talons. However, he grabbed her arm with a gauntlet like solid iron, crushing it under his fingers, and when he swung it around with all his might, it tore free and flew off. 
Showing no mercy whatsoever, Krusty immediately unleashed Armor Crush, making the very material that formed the Enchantress’s arm disappear. Now Enchantress Youren had one arm, just like Takayama. Everything about Krusty’s attack had been magically strengthened by overflowing MP, by Empathiom. 
“Wha—? Do you think an outrage like this will be permitted—?” 
“I don’t want to hear that from someone who steals others’ memories and degrades them into puppets.” 
She didn’t understand the dangers of winning too much. That made her less than second-rate. 
Krusty felt pain, as if all the nerves in his body were being torn, and it made him smile. That torment was the price he had to pay for victory. He didn’t need an overpowering victory, or an overwhelmingly advantageous contract, or unilateral exploitation. Even if those led to a temporary victory, they wouldn’t give him a sustainable win. 
The thin-ice victory Krusty wanted was a reality he needed in order to continue winning, and to keep from winning too much. 
As relentlessly as an icy wind, Krusty carved wounds into the Enchantress. First one, then another. 
Their HP grew closer, competed, and drew even. 
“Having been soiled with defeat once, I learned about the Adventurers and the Ancients. I degraded Elias and entrapped you, and certain victory was in my hands, and yet—I wasn’t careless; I knew very well how violent you were. How, why…?” 
That was probably carelessness right there, Krusty thought. 
How slipshod would you have to be to include nothing but your opponents’ violent natures in your assessment? 
Had she been planning to buy Manhattan Island with glass beads? 
Krusty didn’t know that it had been Kanami’s party that had defeated Enchantress Youren in the form of the Genius Papus. Knowing wouldn’t have changed how he dealt with her. Even now, he had no intention of explaining the reasons behind the Enchantress’s defeat to her. 
Even though he was in the middle of a battle, he just shrugged. 
Before they knew it, they were surrounded with piles of dead Moon Rabbits and Eternal Moths that were beginning to turn iridescent. The echoes of the pair’s fight had turned the animals into corpses before they could even get a shot in. 
Apparently, the backup the Enchantress had been counting on had run out. 
“You seem to have misunderstood.” 
Speaking to her ironically, Krusty raised his weapon for the killing blow. 
This wasn’t worth drawing out. 
Just now, countless possibilities had disappeared into the darkness. 
The routes of everything had converged, and the results were being integrated and consolidated. 
The time for the answer—the end—had come. 
“I wasn’t ‘entrapped.’ I was just resting, and I expect Elias only lost his way.” 
“You lie—!” 
“My condolences on your loss.” 
With a heavy sound, the Fresh Blood Demon Ax fell, splitting Enchantress Youren in two from the top of her head all the way down to her groin, then sank deep into the hard limestone. 
Dust hung in the air around him, and the reverberations echoed into the enormous cavern. 
The area was wrapped in silence, as if the sounds of combat had been an illusion. 
In the midst of that hushed gloom, Krusty pulled his ax free with a ponderous scraping noise, then looked at the thing that had been Enchantress Youren with eyes that no longer held any interest. 
A few moments later, it turned into a cloud of rainbow bubbles. 
As with all questions, there was meaning only in the path that led to the answer, and once it was over, it was no more than the faded past. 
The Enchantress had died. 
The cause of her defeat had been excessive disdain for her targets and the fact that she’d given herself too great an advantage. 
If you had no respect for something, you probably didn’t even consider trying to understand it. 
If you didn’t understand the opponent you were competing against, you couldn’t win. 
It sounded like a paradox, but to win, you had to respect your opponent. 
She’d overlooked that trivial yet important truth. 
“Results. That’s all there is.” 
Muttering, Krusty began to walk back into the cave, which had regained its stillness. When he’d walked a few steps, he turned back again, and there was no longer any crazed heat in his expression. When Hua Diao ran up and clung to him, he scooped her up in his arms.