HOT NOVEL UPDATES



Hint: To Play after pausing the player, use this button

Chapter 7 — I Feel like All Our Effort Was for Nothing

Abby’s Class was Game Master, so the entirety of the Empire of Ent was under her control, but that didn’t mean she knew everything that happened there at all times. It was a small island, but countless people and innumerable monsters lived there, creating a never-ending stream of new events. There was no way a single person could manage that much information, let alone deal with the events themselves.

Most of the system ran automatically. Less important events were analyzed, with the information dispatched to the local adventurer’s guilds to create quests to resolve them. These quests involved things like slaying a certain number of monsters, finding medicinal herbs, or moving supplies from one town to another. Rewards were offered, so adventurers would take them on even without knowing what they were for.

Most quests appeared and were resolved all on their own. The automatic nature of resolving these irritating, smaller problems was one of the Game Master’s strong points. However, not all events were small and inconsequential. Some of them required her personal attention. For example, Yoshifumi had instructed her to personally handle anything related to the royal family. He wasn’t particularly worried if they were wiped out, but thinking something interesting might happen, he had ordered her to keep him up to date on their situation. So while keeping an eye on them, she managed the difficulty and rewards offered for related quests.

Another was giant monsters. Occasionally, monsters of an abnormally large size would appear. In those situations, the automatic quests generated were often insufficient to deal with them properly. So whenever a monster of a certain size appeared, Abby was notified.

Of course, anyone would notice this particular monster. It had appeared alongside an earthquake in a forest near the capital. From the capital, the source of the tremors was easy to identify, and anyone who looked in that direction could easily see the creature’s massive form.

Relaxing in her personal room at the time, Abby hurriedly opened her status window. The window displayed special information related to her work as a Game Master, with video feeds from various locations across the empire lined up beside each other. Abby selected one and enlarged it. The image of an enormous beast, like nothing anyone had ever seen, hovered in front of her eyes.

“What is that thing?!”

Once the creature had destroyed the surrounding forest, she was able to get a better look at it. Its enormous, round body was carried on short, fat legs. There seemed to be other leg-like appendages as well, but as they didn’t touch the ground, she wasn’t sure what they were for. Countless limbs ending in hooves and claws writhed around the creature’s body. The upper part of the beast hosted numerous heads. A number of long necks stretched out from it, ending in heads that looked like lions, snakes, and goats. Every step it took shook the earth.

Abby looked out the window of her room. The monster was close enough that it could be seen with the naked eye. It seemed to be moving slowly, but that was likely an illusion caused by its enormous size. It would make it to the capital in no time at all.

Abby sprinted out of the room, setting up an emergency quest (Defeat the Mysterious Giant Monster!) as she ran. The first order of business was to send the adventurers out to intercept it. It would be great if they could defeat it, but she knew that was likely not going to happen. The creature’s size was too extreme. It would sweep aside ordinary adventurers effortlessly.

She considered the possibility that this was an Aggressor. If that were the case, Yoshifumi would be the only one who could deal with it, but he had yet to return from the Elven Forest, and she had no way of contacting him. She could have sent him a message directly if he was still in the empire, but the forest had a barrier that repelled supernatural powers.

“Why did something weird like this happen now?!”

The creature had appeared while Yoshifumi was gone. Why would the creature show up now of all times?

Abby cursed her bad luck. If she left things as they were, the military would likely move to intervene. She didn’t know much about them, so she felt it was best to let them do their thing. All she could do was fulfill her role as one of the Four Heavenly Kings.

She burst into Luna’s room. “You know what’s going on?”

“Of course. It would be kind of hard not to notice,” Luna answered.

Abby stepped up alongside Luna, who was staring out the window. Naturally, she was looking at the enormous creature. It had nearly made it to the city already.

“Is there anything you can do about it?”

“Hmmm. I can only use my powers inside the city, so we’ll need to draw it inside the walls somehow.”

Luna could freely create and erase anything within the capital. No matter how strong the creature was, if it was swept up in the process, it would vanish. Within the capital, Luna was effectively invincible, so if they allowed the creature inside the walls, they could get rid of it. Any buildings it destroyed could be rebuilt in an instant. The only real problem was the cost of human life, but Abby didn’t care much about that. Ruling the Empire of Ent was no more than a game to Yoshifumi and his Four Heavenly Kings.

“Don’t run away, got it?” Luna said. She had to remain in the capital no matter what. She must have been afraid the whole problem would be dumped on her shoulders.

“I don’t think this is a big enough problem to force us to run away.”

“Why do you think it’s here?”

“Probably to eat people or something? It came out of the forest, so if it wanted a lot of people, this is the closest place. Let’s try something.”

Abby set a gathering point to the creature’s right, creating a quest that would reward anyone for going there. Almost immediately, adventurers began pouring out of the capital, rushing to the spot. It was far enough from the creature that it didn’t seem too dangerous, so those who didn’t feel they were able to fight all rushed there. At first glance it seemed like she was doing something humane like evacuating the locals, but of course that was not her intention.

“It doesn’t seem like it cares about eating.”

The monster continued pressing forward. Despite the surge of people leaving the capital, the creature wasn’t paying them any mind.

“So it’s interested in this place? But why?”

“This palace is the same one used by the previous royal family. Maybe there’s something here it wants?”

“In that case, wouldn’t it be better to have everyone run away? I can just make another city.”

Though it would take a bit of preparation, Luna could create a new capital city in a different place. She could only use her power in a designated territory, but she could reset that designation and pick another location if she had to.

“That’ll be our last resort. Yoshifumi’s pretty obsessed with this area, since it’s where the old royal family ruled.”

The Sage enjoyed playing the part of an evil emperor. He used the old palace for himself in hopes that the royal family would come back and attempt to reclaim their country. If they just gave up and abandoned this spot without a fight, they had no idea what Yoshifumi would do to them. Although they were his Four Heavenly Kings, he had no qualms about replacing them and had done so countless times. If they died, he could replace them in an instant.

“Then I guess it’s time for Mission Two.” Mission One had been gathering everyone outside the walls of the capital. Mission Two would involve sending them to fight the monster. But setting the condition to be the monster’s defeat would be too high of a threshold, so instead Abby set the reward to be based on a contribution system. Inflicting damage, healing, or giving support would earn them points, and those points could later be traded in for money. That way, anyone could earn something by contributing at least a little, and those who worked hard would earn a lot, so there shouldn’t be any complaints.

The adventurers advanced on the creature from its flank. Rather than taking the monster on in close quarters combat, they began pelting it from a distance with arrows and magic.

“Doesn’t look like it’s having any effect,” Luna observed.

“Damn. I was hoping they’d at least get its attention.”

The arrows bounced off the creature’s skin, not one managing to penetrate. Fire magic burned through its scales and ice magic tore at its flesh, but with the creature’s size, the scale of the attacks was barely enough to count as a scratch. Furthermore, the wounds they caused healed instantly. The hail of small attacks couldn’t amount to any sort of meaningful damage.

The monster continued heading for the city as if unaware of the adventurers’ attacks. While the worthless assault continued, another wave of attacks came at the creature from head on.

The capital was surrounded by enormous walls. On top of those walls were mounted large fire-spewing cannons. Of course, every single shot landed. The target was so large, it was almost impossible to miss. But those shots seemed just as pointless as the ones before them, with the monster continuing forward unharmed. The imperial army also began using large-scale ritual magic, but despite being the most powerful of their attacks so far, they still didn’t seem to be able to inflict any real damage.

Abby quickly gave up. “I guess it’s up to you, Luna. Nothing we do seems to work.”

“What? Isn’t there anything else you can try?”

“Not in this situation.”

“Fine. If it gets into the city, I should be able to do something about it.”

The creature stepped up to the city walls and came to a stop. As they watched to see what it would do, it raised its numerous heads high into the air before swinging them down with great force. The massive impact shook the walls of the city and threw Luna and Abby from their feet.

“What the?! What is it doing?!” cried Abby.

It was the first attack from the monster itself. It was lifting its heads up into the air and swinging them down. Meanwhile, other heads spat fire, breathed lightning, and launched spikes. In the blink of an eye, the stretch of city before the creature was reduced to rubble.

After unleashing its wave of destruction, it began moving again. It seemed to be heading for the castle at the heart of the city after all. In other words, it was heading straight towards Abby and Luna.

“Luna, hurry up and get rid of it!”

“It takes time to activate this, and I need it to be a bit closer...”

The monster continued towards them, tearing apart the city walls and setting the streets ablaze. The imperial army was doing its best to slow the creature’s advance, but it was like nothing more than throwing drops of water on a blazing fire.


“Now!”

Luna erased a section of the city, and with it the core of the monster vanished without a sound. About a third of the creature had disappeared. With a large chunk in the middle of its body gone, the front and back collapsed immediately. A tidal wave of blood poured from the remains as the pieces fell to the ground.

“Got it!”

“Yeah. It didn’t really have a chance once it passed the walls.”

“Hurry up and erase the rest of it.”

“That’s easier said than done. I can only erase in blocks, and doing it so quickly in succession is—”

Abby began to doubt her eyes. Bubbles started to form around the cleanly cut ends of the monster’s remains as it lay in the streets before countless tubes sprang out. The tubes reached out and connected the two remaining pieces of the creature, tying together into a thick cord. They then dragged the two remaining pieces of the creature towards each other, knitting them back together. Legs sprouted, lifting the beast back up. Unleashing a terrifying roar, the monster began to grow even larger.

“Hurry up and erase the whole thing!”

“I can’t! It’s too big! It doesn’t fit into a single block!”

“Do it anyway! Okay, just erase the head!”

“I’ll try!”

The monster began its march forward again. As if stimulated by the injuries, it seemed more agitated than before. Flailing its heads around with a roar, it sprayed the surrounding city with bodily fluids and chunks of meat, destroying everything in its path.

The front of the monster suddenly disappeared, and it collapsed once more. Though it was hard to tell where the creature’s front was, this time the portion with the heads had been removed.

“Hurry up! Erase the rest of it!”

“I told you, I can’t! Trying harder or being in a hurry won’t reduce the cooldown time!”

Abby and Luna stared impatiently out the window. Bubbles spewed forth from the creature’s open wounds as the flesh began to reform. The lost heads were regenerated in an instant, the creature letting loose a furious howl.

“There’s nothing I can do...”

Luna’s face twisted with despair. It was easy to guess how the situation would unfold. Her power could only erase things one block at a time. She had to wait a fixed amount of time before using her power again. She couldn’t erase a creature that big all at once. If any of it remained, it would regenerate whatever was lost. It would never end.

“No, we don’t know if it can regenerate forever! We might be able to win by trying over and over!”

“I’ll try, but it doesn’t look like it’s getting any weaker, does it?!”

The monster continued its advance. Luna’s power activated, erasing another chunk. It again stopped to regenerate before continuing on. It was the same thing all over again. They were managing to buy some time, but they wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer. Even if the beast couldn’t regenerate forever, there didn’t seem to be any sign that it was running low on whatever energy it needed to do so.

Luna finally gave in. “This is impossible. I can’t do anything to stop it.”

“We’ll have to run. Either Yoshifumi will kill us or that thing will. I think our chances are better betting on Yoshifumi’s mercy.”

“I find it hard to believe Yoshifumi will forgive us for tucking our tails and running just because something powerful showed up.”

But with no other options for dealing with the creature, there was no point in sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

“Okay, let’s go. We’ll worry about what happens next later!” Abby said before stopping herself. “Actually, what about Akira?”

“He probably ran away a long time ago.”

“No, knowing him, he’s probably cowering in a corner and sobbing somewhere. Let’s grab him if we see him.”

Abby and Luna left the room. They were at the top of the palace, the place reserved for the leaders of the empire. Akira also lived nearby, so if he hadn’t run away yet, there was a good chance he was still in his room. Luna continued her attacks on the creature as they headed there.

Abby kicked the door in, revealing Akira staring out the window, frozen.

“So, the coward’s still here after all.”

Akira let out a high-pitched wail, turning at the sound of Abby’s voice.

“Hey, what’s your problem? Am I that ugly?”

“N-No, th-that’s not it, I was just surprised...”

“Akira, what are you doing standing around in a situation like this?”

“Ummm, I am doing something. I’ve called for reinforcements from the Sky Castle, and the defense system—”

“Oh, just shut up!” Abby pulled Luna into the room, stepping up to Akira and delivering a kick to his stomach. He folded with a cry, dropping to his knees.

Abby kept kicking at him on the ground. As she did, a howl unlike anything they’d heard before came from outside. It was loud enough to shake the entire palace, powerful enough that anyone standing near the source may well have been killed by it.

“Oh, it’s working,” Abby said.

“That’s not going to do anything but buy us time, though.”

“Don’t you think it’s worth trying? It might decide it’s not worth the effort and run away.”

Akira’s class was Dastard. His primary ability was to inflict half of the damage he took on someone else. If he was attacked, the damage would be transferred not to the attacker, but to an entirely unrelated third party. In this case, Abby was attacking him, so the most likely candidate was Luna, but since they were holding hands, the power treated them as one person. With no one else around, the next closest target to Akira was the enormous monster outside.

Of course, Abby kicking Akira wouldn’t inflict enough damage for the monster to even notice, so what had made it scream? It was the pain. Akira’s pain was directly transferred to the target. No matter how resilient they were, the effect was based on how Akira felt. If he felt like he was in enough pain that he might die, enough pain would be inflicted on the target to engender the same feelings.

“S-Stop, stop!” Akira wailed.

“You’re finally useful, though. I should try a bit harder.” Abby grabbed Akira by the collar and lifted him to his feet. She didn’t possess any special abilities for close-quarters combat, but in raw strength she was already stronger than he was.

“So, what do we do? Are we just going to run away?”

“Let’s try breaking one of his arms. Then the pain transfer will be constant.”

“Nooooo! Why are you doing this to me?!”

“Come on, the empire is in huge trouble right now. A leader like you should be risking your life to save it.”

“Who cares?! I’m not a leader or an attendant because I wanted to be! Just leave me alone! Inflicting pain on that thing will only slow it down! There’s no way we can beat something like—”

An intense pain suddenly flooded Abby’s body. The blinding agony caused her to drop Akira, but the pain was such that she was beyond caring.

“Wh-What...?” The next thing she knew, she was lying on the floor with Luna, where they had both been writhing in pain. The feeling was already gone, but her thoughts were still in disarray. The pain’s departure flooded her with a relief that made thinking impossible.

It took her a little while to realize that Akira’s power had been turned against her. Someone other than Abby and Luna had attacked him.

“I looked all over the world for it, but I guess we couldn’t find it because it was sealed away. I feel like all our effort was for nothing.”

Abby looked up at the source of the voice. A boy with wings was standing there, Akira’s head dangling from his hand.



Share This :


COMMENTS

No Comments Yet

Post a new comment

Register or Login