Chapter 20 — A Dream-Like Battle between Two Perverted Women
Dai barked energetically, prompting his armor to deploy. The confusing array of parts clattered out and recombined into a larger form. The new suit of armor fired a number of cylinders, which arced through the air towards his target, a dragon. The cylinders punched through the dragon’s scales and exploded.
The injured dragon cried out in pain, dropping its head to the floor. It was still alive, but only barely, and had lost all will to fight.
“Hrm...although it is a dragon entirely unrelated to me, I feel the need to ask that we leave it at that. Just watching this was painful...” Atila whined in her human form. She must have been imagining a similar fate.
They were on the highest level of the prison area. The path they were following led through a convoluted labyrinth and was blocked here and there by gates that required a Philosopher’s Stone to pass through, as well as monsters that attacked without warning. Thanks to Dai’s efforts, however, they were making progress easily enough.
“Dai’s pretty strong, huh?” Yogiri commented.
“Why is a dog shooting missiles?!” Tomochika complained.
“I’ve played games with that sort of thing before.”
“I mean, I know they exist, but...”
Dai trotted over to Yogiri’s side with a woof. He answered the dog’s desire to be praised by scratching his head. The dog’s armor then collapsed back in on itself, stowing itself away.
“This is what the Great Sage wanted. He’s probably having a great time watching us now.”
“Huh? He’s watching us here?” Tomochika looked around. Of course, there was no one around them, nor were there anything like cameras.
“He seems interested in us, and I’m pretty sure he’s capable of it.”
“Uhh...that’s kind of...off-putting.” She winced. “I thought that in the worst case we could at least hide somewhere for a while, but if the Great Sage is on to us, that’s probably not possible anymore.”
If Tomochika were alone, she may very well have been able to live in this world alone.
Even when he hid his face, people could recognize Yogiri. Hiding somewhere probably wouldn’t do him much good.
“I’m not settling for that after all we’ve been through. We’re in this together now,” Tomochika declared.
“I have no part in this incident, but...I’m starting to greatly regret getting involved with you,” Atila announced. Even a higher-level being like a dragon couldn’t take having the whole world as her enemy lightly.
“You don’t have to come with us if you don’t want to.”
“That would have been nice to know before we got this far! It’s too late now that I’ve been swept along!”
As its name suggested, the prison area was a rather gloomy place. As long as they had a Philosopher’s Stone, they could keep moving forward, but their prospects for getting out weren’t looking good.
“Hmm. Maybe we should have split up when we were in town?” Tomochika seemed to be a bit concerned about Atila.
“Being left alone in a human city is also an unnerving prospect!” The dragon was a part of the monster faction, so it was no surprise she’d be uneasy alone in a human settlement. Even if she wanted to go back to the monsters’ base, she would need to go out into a field and enlist the help of another monster to open the gate for her. Once she weighed those options, it wasn’t terribly surprising that she had let herself get pulled along by Yogiri’s group.
“Anyway, let’s get going.” Yogiri urged them onward.
Walking around the wounded dragon, they continued down the corridor. Following Dai’s lead, they came to another gate. They had already been through plenty of gates before, so they weren’t especially cautious as they passed through it. As before, it took them to a staircase leading upward.
Climbing the stairs, they passed through another gate. On the other side was an all-too-familiar scene: stone corridors stretching off to the right and left. The gate they had passed through didn’t exist on this side, so there was no way to backtrack.
They began exploring the new floor. Though Dai knew the general direction of the gates, he didn’t know the correct path through the labyrinth, so they still needed to do some investigating.
“The floors seem to be getting smaller. Does that mean we’re getting close to the top?” Yogiri asked. As they ascended, the area they could explore was gradually shrinking. If the interior was constructed like a pyramid, as its outward appearance suggested, that was to be expected.
“We still seem to have a long way to go though,” Tomochika sighed.
All we can do is pray this is not some sort of magically distorted space.
“I want to believe that at least the stairs we’ve been climbing aren’t lying to us...”
We cannot head back, so we have no choice but to proceed regardless. And if we move too slowly, others may catch up to us.
“You really think they’ll chase us?” Yogiri asked.
Of course they will. I do not know why Rick was killed, but even he may have been here searching for you.
Everyone knew that Yogiri had headed out on a quest, and they could find out which one by asking the guild staff. They didn’t know if the guild staff were sworn to confidentiality or not, but it was best to assume they weren’t.
“Once we get through here, we need to wait for the other Philosopher’s Stones to arrive to reach the next area, so we’ll probably end up meeting someone sooner or later,” Yogiri said. With that in mind, reaching the last boss’s area, where only seven parties maximum could find them, would be a lot better than dealing with a limitless flood of assailants.
Following Dai’s guidance, they explored through the labyrinth, discovered another gate, and ascended to the next level. Occasionally, they encountered monsters, but Dai and Atila were easily able to dispatch them, leaving little for Yogiri and Tomochika to do.
“I’m starting to feel guilty about freeloading like this...” Tomochika felt a little ashamed.
“Yeah, it would be easy enough to use my power, but I really don’t want to if I don’t have to.” Though it seemed like an odd stance to take after how much he had used his power in the past, Yogiri was afraid of becoming too quick to rely on it. If he had to defend himself, then he had no choice, but he didn’t like using his power otherwise.
“Yeah, you don’t have to worry about it, Takatou.”
And deploying your Ruler of the Battlefield power for each and every small fry is too tiring, Mokomoko offered.
“Don’t I have anything more suited to smaller encounters?”
“Ruler of the Battlefield” was a class Sion had modified in accordance with Mokomoko’s request. The Sage couldn’t do anything she wanted with the Gift, but for someone as experienced in handing it out as she was, it was possible to add some bias to it.
I believed being able to nullify the powers of others would allow the Dannoura style to shine, but it is quite a bit more taxing to use than I imagined. Either way, as a combat-oriented class, you will gain stats simply by leveling up.
“The name suggests something more like a rear guard or a commander, though, doesn’t it?” Atila commented.
It is certainly better than something like Healer! And once she gains more levels, she may unlock more useful skills!
“Am I really looking to level up in the last dungeon of the game?!” The equipment the Great Sage gave them helped a lot considering their low level, but it could only do so much. Tomochika’s level was not at all suited to this dungeon.
“Atila looked strong from the start, but Dai didn’t at all, and he’s doing fine. Maybe you don’t need to worry about your level that much,” Yogiri suggested.
“Uhh...I feel like Dai is in a whole different genre. Speaking of which, does he even have a level or class?”
“I wouldn’t expect a dog to have one.”
Still, he was quite strong and was making good use of his equipment. Maybe he had been given the Philosopher’s Stone because he was special.
“It doesn’t look like he minds, so we can just leave it to him, right?” said Yogiri.
Dai responded with a happy woof, recognizing that they were talking about him. He was wagging his tail as he walked, so Yogiri decided that must mean he was happy to be useful.
“I guess I can’t really complain about leaving things to others at this point...” Yet, Tomochika seemed to realize she wasn’t in this situation because she wanted to be. She was a little vexed by the ordeal, but she could put up with it for now.
As they talked, they continued walking, the labyrinth around them getting smaller and easier to navigate. At this rate they would reach the top of the pyramid without issue. While Yogiri thought optimistically about their progress, Atila suddenly grew concerned.
“I sense someone is coming up behind us.”
“Now that you mention it...” Tomochika had noticed it too, but Yogiri hadn’t felt anything. They were killing the monsters as they progressed through the labyrinth, so if they felt something behind them, it may have been other adventurers.
“What should we do?”
“Not much to do but keep going forward, right?”
If they continued on, they might make it out of the prison area before anyone caught up to them. They pressed forward with that hope in mind, but despite going through a number of gates, it seemed their pursuers were catching up.
At this rate, they will likely catch us before we make it out of the prison.
“What does it feel like?” Yogiri asked.
“Not too many people,” Atila answered. “Just a few at most. Maybe a single party?”
“I guess we’ve got no choice. Let’s fight them.”
If they were going to be facing a constant stream of opponents, then running would have been better, but against a single party, Yogiri felt it was best to get them out of the way sooner rather than later.
The group stopped and turned to face the approaching party. After a while, they finally saw signs of something in the distance. At first, it looked like the silhouette of some large monster, but as it drew closer, he could tell that it was a small group of people. They were arranged as if participating in a cavalry battle in a high school sport’s festival. Four men were working together as the horse, holding up a woman above them. As they approached, the men stopped and the woman dismounted. The men then stepped back and dropped to their knees.
The woman was basically naked. A pitiful amount of cloth was wrapped around her chest and waist, but otherwise her voluptuous, bewitching body was on full display.
“Hello! Are you Yogiri?” Her voice was sweet and kind, as if appealing to the male’s base instincts.
Completely stunned, Yogiri looked at the men behind her. They all seemed like they had been charmed. They had been perfectly enslaved, looking up at their mistress with an expression of total surrender. Yogiri shook his head, immediately feeling a sense of danger from them.
“Who the heck are you?!” Tomochika said, jumping forward. She seemed to sense the same danger in the woman that Yogiri instantly had.
“Oh? You’re pretty good,” the woman said, eyeing Tomochika up and down.
This scene looks like a dream-like battle between two perverted women.
“Who are you calling a pervert?!” Tomochika shouted.
“Hmm...I have heard rumors of such a thing. That is a succubus’s tattoo, is it not?” Atila asked.
A pattern had been tattooed on the woman’s exposed lower abdomen. It looked somewhat like a heart, probably a metaphorical representation of a uterus. The tattoo did quite a bit to enhance the woman’s already considerably lewd aura. She seemed like the type to be well aware of her own attractiveness and to use it to its fullest. But she had yet to do anything to them, so Yogiri was able to ask a levelheaded question.
“Can I ask you something? Parties are limited to four people, right? It looks like you guys have five.”
“That’s what you’re worried about?!” Tomochika blurted out.
“Yeah, it’s simple. It’s like your puppy over there. These guys are my pets.”
“That’s allowed?!”
“If they agree to it, why not?” the woman answered offhandedly.
But there was a clear difference between humans and dogs. If they were treated as pets, they wouldn’t be able to receive quest rewards. A dog didn’t need to pay the Life Tax, but adventurers still had to pay out a steady stream of DP. In a sense, it was like a slow suicide. In other words, this woman wasn’t a good person.
“What do you want?!” Tomochika flared up at the mysterious stranger.
“To save humanity, obviously. As long as Yogiri’s alive, the world can’t be reset, remember?”
“You think you can beat me? I thought everyone knew about my power.” Though Yogiri hadn’t heard the message himself, he had been told the Great Sage had informed everyone about his powers.
“Of course. You can kill anyone at will and react to killing intent, right? But that doesn’t affect me.” The woman took a step closer. That simple movement was like an alluring fragrance washing over them. “I’m not planning on killing Yogiri. I just want to get along with him. I’m saving the world with love.”
“No way! This woman is no good!” Tomochika began to panic.
Ah, this is a stratagem we have yet to see. Rather than trying to overcome him with violence, she is simply trying to seduce him.
“Mokomoko! It’s my turn to fight!”
Hm. The Ruler of the Battlefield is not so well suited to a situation like this.
“Why not?!”
It is specialized for one-on-one encounters. And once you use it, there is a considerable cooldown time before it can be activated again. It is only really useful in situations where you have a single powerful opponent that must be defeated. In other words, Mokomoko considered the men in the back to be a threat.
“So the secret technique is already useless by the second use, huh?”
“In that case, leave this woman to me!” Atila declared. She and Dai had easily wiped out the small fry they had encountered in the labyrinth. She must have thought this would be no different.
Atila raised her hands and fired her lightning, while Dai’s armor activated and launched a salvo of missiles. Against ordinary monsters, that would have annihilated them. Against an ordinary human, there wouldn’t be anything of the poor victim left. But the attacks were deflected at the last moment. A transparent dome had appeared around her, blocking the lightning and the missiles.
“What?!”
The woman and her slaves were unharmed. Not even ash from the attack lingered on the wall protecting them. One of the men had stretched his hands out. It seemed he had used his Gift to protect them.
“Apparently, he has a perfect defense ability,” the woman explained. “But he’s still a guy, so he couldn’t do much to stop me.”
“In that case, taste my full power!” Atila instantly returned to her dragon form. She roared, a torrent of lightning so thick as to look like a beam of light pouring from her mouth. The lightning filled the corridor with a blinding light. The air turned to plasma, giving off enough heat to vaporize everything around them. The storm of plasma would permit nothing to survive its wrath. But the defensive barrier in front of her didn’t so much as waver, the woman inside standing unperturbed within.
“What...?”
The unharmed woman hadn’t so much as flinched, as if she had expected nothing less. “You know, if you do it right, I think Succubus is the strongest class. If you get some strong guys around you, you can just use them to fight off the strong women for you. And guys are a dime a dozen.”
“Huh? Wait, what are we supposed to do, then?!” Tomochika looked at Yogiri in a panic. She must have thought his powers would be useless here.
Of course, since he detected no killing intent, his powers wouldn’t activate automatically, and he wouldn’t attack anyone who didn’t attack them first. But if they were an obstacle to their progress and there was no other way, it wasn’t impossible to convince him.
“If she isn’t going to attack us herself, can’t we just run away?” Yogiri suggested. If the woman attacked them, she would die automatically. She knew that, so she wouldn’t do anything stupid.
“Oh, that’s not gonna work. No guy can escape my charms. My class, Succubus, has a seduction skill that is guaranteed to work against any guy and gives me full control over them.”
She took a new pose. It didn’t seem to be an attack, but the air around them changed in an instant. It felt like the atmosphere had suddenly turned suspiciously indecent.
“Takatou?!”
Yogiri couldn’t take his eyes off her.
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