by Sakon Kaidou
This time, I’d won in terms of compatibility, but I’d been completely overwhelmed by the immense difference in our powers, and totally crushed because of it.
Not only did Tsukuyo Fuso have ill will towards me... she was also insanely strong. And for some reason, she wanted to drag me into her clan.
It was clear that she’d still keep me here when I awoke. To log out, I either had to use the suicide function or fight them while trying to find a way to escape the headquarters.
With that in mind...
“Looks like I have no choice.”
...I readied myself to fight that freakish creature.
Even if my chance of victory was minuscule — far below 1% — I would still struggle to seize the possibility. That was how I rolled.
“Still... there are some problems,” I muttered. “That aberration... is scary as hell.”
Even now, I was still afraid of Tsukuyo Fuso. I was losing to her not just in terms of actual power, but on the mental front, as well. I’d actually found her far more scary than anything else I’d encountered in this world so far.
That might’ve been strange, considering I’d faced a Demi-Dragon Worm while being a level 0 without an Embryo, and later fought two awe-inspiring monstrosities, Gardranda and Gouz-Maise.
As scary as I found her, though, I couldn’t really tell why I felt that way. This fear should’ve been completely new to me, but for some reason, it felt somewhat familiar.
Whatever the case, acknowledging that something was scary ought to make it a bit less scary than before.
“All right, I have the mindset... Now I just need to find a way to win this.”
Tsukuyo Fuso could cast an AOE debuff that would make short work of my basic bodily functions, and neither Hellish Miasma nor Reversal had any effect on her. Thus, I had to use something else. However...
I didn’t have enough MP stored to use the Wind Hoof bomb... not to mention that I couldn’t really use it in town, either.
I didn’t have my left hand, so I couldn’t use Purgatorial Flames.
I probably couldn’t build up enough damage for a good Vengeance, either.
Besides that, all I really had was Purifying Silverlight... but no matter how much of an aberration she was on the inside, her job was completely sacred, so it wouldn’t help at all. I’d heard that the priest grouping had passive skills that lowered all holy damage coming their way.
I could ignore all that and try to take her head-on... but either because of her level, or because of some other jobs she had in her build, she had higher stats than me.
From the kick that’d reaped my consciousness, I could also tell that she was a skilled fighter. In fact, she could probably rival the contestants in the Un-kra tournament that Shu had taken part in. She was probably doing some sort of martial arts in real life.
“But man, the direness of my condition makes me wonder... How the hell did she actually corner me more than Franklin did when he was actually aiming to do it?”
I could almost picture Franklin retorting with “Don’t get the wrong idea, noob! I’d have won if I’d set all my forces on you!”
That aside, this encounter made me painfully aware that, even if I was able to surpass Superiors on some highly specific fronts, they were still so much more powerful than me, it was stupid.
With opponents like Tsukuyo Fuso and all the powerful foes waiting for me in the upcoming war, I definitely had to become stronger. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to seize the possibilities.
“The best way to become stronger would be... an evolution.”
Evolutions were the primary feature of all Embryos everywhere, and also their greatest power-ups.
What separated Superiors and standard Masters was that their Embryos were in their seventh forms, so if I wanted to catch up to them, an evolution was my best bet.
However, ever since evolving to her second form in our fight against Gardranda, Nemesis hasn’t evolved once during the entire past month here.
To compare, despite him having started at the same time as me, Rook’s Babi had already reached the fourth form, making her a high-rank Embryo.
According to Marie, a month should be more than enough time for an Embryo to reach the third form.
...Well, I was fully aware why Nemesis was evolving so slowly.
It had been there in the system window that had popped up when she was evolving to her second form.
I recalled the window saying that it would provide us with the optimal evolution for the situation in exchange for slowing down the next evolution.
I was completely fine with that.
If we hadn’t gotten The Flag Halberd and its Reversal back then, we wouldn’t have won against Gardranda and Gouz-Maise... and if I hadn’t gotten the Grudge-Soaked Greaves, I couldn’t have won Franklin’s Game, either. Without that evolution, I couldn’t have made it against those odds, so I found it perfectly fair that it had come at the cost of slowing the next evolution.
The only problem here was... just how long would this lag continue? Surely we wouldn’t be stuck in the second form forever, right?
“I’d say it’s high time we see a sign that it’s about to happen,” I muttered.
It wasn’t like I was expecting to get a convenient evolution here and now and completely turn the situation around, but still.
“I want it to happen... for her sake, too.”
I was fully aware that Nemesis was troubled by the fact that she wasn’t evolving. She was clearly trying to hide it, so I never actually said anything, but for her own sake, I really wanted to help her evolve.
As I considered Nemesis’ evolution problem, I began hearing a voice from what felt like far beyond.
“...! ...!”
“Hm?”
“...y! ...e up!”
“Nemesis?”
The voice belonged to my Embryo. It was faint, as if it was coming from beyond a thick glass.
“Ray! Wake up!”
The moment her voice became loud and clear, the space within my mind vanished, and my consciousness returned to my avatar.
◇
“Nngh...” I murmured.
“You’re awake!” Nemesis cried.
Upon waking up, I found myself on the tatami of the same room I’d woken up in last time. Nemesis was right next to me.
That was all perfectly normal, but she seemed really tense, and the room was in a... rough state, to say the least.
Two of the room’s walls were completely gone, as if they’d been blown away by an explosion.
Through the missing walls, I could see other areas of this facility, and honestly, it didn’t look pretty.
Most of the tiles had slipped off the roof, and I could see the evening sky beyond it. The walls and pillars alike were broken, letting me see even more of the devastation, including the countless furnishings scattered all over.
It looked as though this place had suffered an immense earthquake or a powerful tornado, but that wasn’t the case here. This devastation was man-made, and I couldn’t be more certain of that.
Why? Because I could see the two responsible in the midst of all the chaos.
“Now, now, don’t overdo it, you sickly prince,” Tsukuyo Fuso said mockingly.
“How about you just take the death penalty and give Ray back?” Figaro snapped.
The two Superiors were killing one another.
Chapter Three: Lion and Fox, Light and Dark
The Lunar Society headquarters
Figaro had arrived at The Lunar Society’s headquarters approximately ten minutes before Ray was woken up by Nemesis.
It hadn’t been long since he’d left Gideon. The Superior knew the quickest way to the capital by heart, and he’d traversed it while wearing his best AGI-enhancing equipment, so while his speed had been impressive, it definitely wasn’t surprising.
Standing at the gates of The Lunar Society, Figaro spent a moment to equip the best gear for the situation, such as anti-debuff ar
mor to counter his prime opponent, a stone ax so large it could split mansions in half, and a monocle-like accessory.
That last item wasn’t particularly rare or remarkable. It only had a weak Clairvoyance effect, which was often used to search for traps and the like. However, Figaro planned to use it for a completely different purpose — to merely look at the backs of people’s left hands.
The presence of a crest there would indicate that the person was a Master.
“If I get rid of all the Masters, they’ll have no choice but to let Ray go,” he murmured.
And the monocle was there to help him differentiate who to kill and who to let live.
Indeed, the very same man that had dismantled the blockade at the south of the capital by annihilating Mad Castle was about to rescue Ray by massacring The Lunar Society. And alas, no one was there to tell him just how absurd and rash he was being.
This Superior’s modus operandi was quite unlike what his noble-like features would have you expect.
“Let’s go,” the fair-faced meathead said as he started it all off by throwing his gigantic ax towards the main gate.
Needless to say, it collapsed in one hit, and Figaro didn’t hesitate to bound over the rubble and enter the premises.
Thus began the lion’s wild dance of destruction.
Walls crumbled, structures fell, Masters vanished, and tians scrambled for safety.
It didn’t take much of this chaotic pandemonium for Tsukuyo herself to stand before Figaro. Kaguya, too, was forced to end her chat with Nemesis and join her Master in battle.
It was at that moment that Ray woke up and saw the two Superiors face one another, murderous as could be.
With The Lunar Society’s HQ as their stage, two of the Big Three were now fighting each other to the death — a situation that could certainly be called a Clash of the Superiors.
◇
Paladin, Ray Starling
Nemesis and I stood in the shattered room and observed the battle.
Figaro’s arms were entwined in his trademark Crimson Dead Keeper chains, and he held a bow in his hands — a weapon I had rarely seen him use.
From his words, I could assume that he’d come here to help me, but his murderous intention seemed unfittingly immense.
Did something happen between him and the aberration? I pondered.
Speaking of Tsukuyo Fuso, she was holding a wand as menacing as Figaro’s Gloria α or Xunyu’s Yinglong’s Fang, and she, too, looked thoroughly murderous, likely because of the tragic state of her base. Even a third party like me could feel the hostility between them.
Maybe because of the intensity alone, or perhaps because of their immense skill, the battle between the Over Gladiator and the High Priestess was simply sublime.
Figaro wasn’t clad in his AGI-focused gear, so even I could follow his movements, and they were nothing short of spectacular. The four chains on his arms attacked automatically, and he coupled it with shots from his bow.
Not only that, but he was doing it while moving all across the space by kicking off of walls or pillars, and the arrows he’d launched all seemed to break the laws of physics, leaving log-sized perfect circles wherever they hit.
Tsukuyo Fuso, on the other hand, was entirely different from the way she had been when she’d faced me.
She was wrapped in a dark blue cloth highly reminiscent of the night she’d subjected me to, only denser, and she was launching black waves, much like swallows or crescent moons, with every swing of her wand. In all honesty, she looked like a final boss straight out of an RPG.
“Is that dark blue cloth just another form of the Lunar Reduction Field?” I asked.
“Yes.” Nemesis nodded. “Kaguya... Tsukuyo’s Maiden... transformed into it a short while ago.”
“Maiden...? Oh, so we share a category.”
The impression they gave me was completely different than the one I’d gotten from Hugo and Cyco, though. Also, that cloth of hers seemed like a solidified version of the night she’d used to defeat me.
This was supported by the fact that Figaro, despite excelling at melee combat, wasn’t fighting her from up close, meaning that the cloth-Embryo might be a more effective — or harder to resist — Lunar Reduction Field.
The swallow/crescent moon-like waves were likely similar in nature.
Another thing to note was that the wide-scale night she’d used to suppress me wasn’t active. Tsukuyo Fuso herself had said that the night wasn’t effective on high level opponents, so when faced with someone like Figaro, she probably had no choice but to “compress” it.
Also, Figaro’s endless buffing was a good counter to her debuffing. He was growing stronger with every passing second. His movements were gradually becoming too quick for me to follow, and his arrows were causing more and more destruction.
The two were more or less on equal footing right now, but that meant that Figaro would eventually gain the upper hand.
“As things are, it seems like the meathead will win,” commented Nemesis.
“Yeah.” I nodded, but then noticed something. “Hm?”
The flow of the battle itself was shifting in his favor, but there were two things I found odd and concerning.
First was the fact that Figaro wasn’t looking at me at all. I was aware of a plausible reason for that, though. He himself had told me about it.
One day, after we’d had a little spar, we’d chatted a bit. I’d taken the opportunity to ask him why he was so adamant about playing solo, both in the Tomb Labyrinth and out.
Figaro definitely wasn’t socially impaired. While sparring, dueling, or just having lunch, he had absolutely no trouble making pleasant exchanges with me, Shu, or the kingdom’s duel rankers, so that had made me all the more curious about his solo fixation.
A part of me had thought that it might be a sensitive subject, but Figaro hadn’t hesitated to answer, “Because I can’t cooperate with anyone.”
I didn’t know the details, but apparently, when he participated in battles involving someone he recognized as an ally, his fighting would become abnormally worse, and that was why he was never a part of any party, and always acted alone.
It wasn’t an effect of a Dendro skill or debuff or anything the like. It was related to his real life, so I’d chosen not to ask about it any further.
That being the case, right now, Figaro was purposely ignoring me because if I entered his vision, his movements would become more dull.
Even so, his fighting was lacking some of his usual brilliance, making it evident that he was telling the truth and that my very presence here was burdening him.
The other strange thing I’d noticed was that Figaro seemed to be rushing so much that it made it look like he was panicking. Occasionally, he looked away from Tsukuyo Fuso and, for some reason, glanced at the sky.
Since she wasn’t using the wide-scale night effect, it was nothing more than a sky you’d see on a typical evening.
Another thing I’d found strange was not something with Figaro, but with Tsukuyo.
“She still looks confident,” I muttered.
Though she was clad in the nightly veil, I could occasionally catch a glimpse of her expression — a composed smile.
It didn’t seem to suit her current situation at all. Figaro was growing stronger by the moment, and his attacks were beginning to pierce the night shrouding Tsukuyo Fuso.
“Ah...” she gasped as one of Figaro’s arrows grazed her and completely blew her left arm away. In but a moment, she became as limbless as I.
“Mercy of the Holy,” she said, speaking the name of a skill. Light gathered where her arm had once been, and reformed it as if it had never been gone.
An injury so grave, treated in mere seconds.
“So that’s the healing magic of the High Priestess...” I muttered. Though she could probably fix me up just as easily, I still had absolutely no intention of asking for her help. “Even so, it doesn’t look like he can lose this.”
; Figaro’s attack, the damage it had done, and the way Tsukuyo Fuso had reacted to it made me more confident than ever.
She’d used her immense healing ability and damage reduction from the Lunar Reduction Field to effectively become an endurance build meant to survive prolonged battles, meaning that Figaro — a fighter that turned stronger with the passage of time — had no way of losing this fight.
However...
“Oh dearrr, a dummy like you is just too much for little old me alone,” she muttered as she wiped her brow with her freshly-healed left arm.
She was absolutely right about that. Figaro was at the top of the kingdom’s duel rankings and was nearly unmatched in solo battles. In contrast, Tsukuyo Fuso was a support job focused on helping her clan as they did the dirty work.
One was the apex of single battle, while the other was the zenith of leadership. The outcome of a one-on-one battle between them was obvious from the start.
“I could reallllly use an ally or two...” she murmured.
We were at her clan’s headquarters, so there should’ve been many of her followers here. However, I didn’t see any of them in my immediate vicinity. There was only Figaro, Tsukuyo Fuso, and us.
“She herself made all the adherents, Master and tian alike, distance themselves from the battle,” said Nemesis.
The aberration had probably realized that an opponent like Figaro was just too much for them, and that they wouldn’t be much help in a battle against him.
Still, she must have known full well that a pure support build such as her would stand little chance in a solo battle against a pure battle build such as Figaro, and... wait.
“Is she really alone?” I thought out loud. We’d only talked for a brief moment, but that was enough for me to be able to tell that she wasn’t exactly a nice enough person to make all her underlings stand down and to face a threat all by herself to lower the casualties.
And so, as if to prove me right...
“You can join us now, Kage.”
“As you wish.”
Indeed. She spoke to something, and the “something” answered.
It seemed to have a man’s voice, but I couldn’t be certain about that. After all, it came from all the lengthy evening shadows, and it reached my ears like an echo.
