Hajime activated his Farsight to scout out the room. But before he could get a good look, Shea yelled out a warning to him.
“Run!”
“Wha—!?” Hajime and Yue unquestioningly heeded Shea’s warning and leaped to the side as fast as possible. Fortunately, there was another block floating a few meters away for them to jump to.
A second later, something crashed into the block they’d been standing on with the force of a meteorite. The impact shattered the block completely. Meteorite was an apt description for what had just landed, as whatever it was shot straight through the block and kept falling, a nimbus of friction-induced heat surrounding it.
Cold sweat ran down Hajime’s back. Had it not been for Shea’s warning, they would have taken that head on. And since he couldn’t use Diamond Skin here, it might actually have killed him. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been able to sense the attack. In fact, he’d felt the presence bearing down on them an instant after Shea’s warning. However, it had been traveling so fast that he wouldn’t have been able to dodge in time after sensing it that late.
“Thanks, Shea. You saved our lives.”
“Yeah... good job.”
“Ehehe, thank goodness my Future Sight activated back there. Though I’m completely out of mana now...”
So the reason she sensed it before me was because of her Future Sight ability? Shea could use her ability voluntarily, but there were also times it activated on its own. When something posed a threat to her life, it would almost always activate. That meant the meteorite had at least enough power to instantly kill Shea. Hajime shivered a little before looking down at where the meteor had fallen. He cautiously poked his head over the edge of the platform. When he peered down, he could faintly make out something ascending at high speed. In the blink of an eye, it was floating above Hajime and the others. Its eyes glowed with a cold light as it stared at them.
“Man, are you serious?”
“It’s... so big...”
“S-So this is their boss.”
They all gazed up in amazement. Yue’s outburst could probably have been interpreted in a not-so-wholesome way, but that wasn’t really important.
Floating in front of them was a massive golem knight. It was fully armored like the others, but this one was twenty meters tall. In its right hand was a glowing red heat knuckle. That was what it had used to destroy the platform earlier. In its left was a flail, its fingers wrapped around the chain.
As Hajime and the others prepared for battle, the other golems all started flying in as well, encircling the trio. They stood, or rather floated, at attention, with their swords held upright in front of their chests. As if they were saluting their emperor.
Hajime and the others looked around nervously. Silence filled the room, and the tension was almost palpable. The moment one side moved, a fight to the death would break out. Or at the very least, that was the sense the atmosphere gave off until...
“Heyo~ Nice to see you~ It’s me, everyone’s favorite idol, Miledi Reisen-chan~” The huge golem’s greeting didn’t match its look at all.
“......” Their jaws all dropped open in shock. The cutesy voice coming out of the heavily armed and armored golem was so utterly incongruous that they couldn’t help it.
The giant golem frowned in displeasure as it looked down. Judging from its voice, Hajime guessed it was a she.
“Hello? Aren’t you going to say anything? It’s proper manners to return a greeting, you know? Sheesh, kids these days... no respect, I tell you.” That annoying manner of talking was very familiar to them.
“Unbelievable.” The golem with a burning knuckle in one hand and a flail in the other shrugged her shoulders in a very human-like fashion. Irritated expressions flitted across the trio’s faces. She talked just like the messages they’d seen. Since she’d called herself Miledi Reisen, it was possible it was the Liberator herself, but she was supposedly long dead and a human. Hajime decided to try that angle of questioning first.
“My bad. But wasn’t Miledi Reisen a human? And isn’t she dead? Anyway, we’ve never seen a sentient golem before, so we were a bit surprised... Sorry about that. Also, tell us what exactly you are. As concisely as possible, please.”
“Oh my, you’re quite forward despite being surrounded and outnumbered.”
There was no subtlety to his questions. He just laid his questions flat out. Unsurprisingly, the golem called Miledi was taken aback by his bluntness. But she recovered quickly, and if he didn’t know golems couldn’t show expression, Hajime would have sworn she grinned.
“Hmm? Miledi was always a golem, you know? Whatever gave you the idea she was human?”
“There were a few things written about you in Oscar’s notebook. And don’t give me bullshit like ‘Oh, but I look just like a human, don’t I?’ Just keep it short. It looks like you’re trying to get in our way, so we’ll be turning you into scrap soon enough. That’s why there’s no need for any annoying banter, just tell us what we want to know.”
“O-Oh my. I finally get a chance to talk to someone, and this is how you treat me? And did you just say Oscar? Did you three perhaps clear O-chan’s labyrinth?”
“Yeah, we’ve already beat Oscar Orcus’ dungeon. But I’m the one asking the questions here. If you don’t want to answer, that’s fine too. We’ll just move straight to the part where we crush you to pieces. It’s not like I’m dying to know any of this information. All we’re here for is the ancient magic.” Hajime pointed Donner at the massive golem to accentuate his words. Yue looked on impassively, but Shea, half-impressed and half-nonplussed, let her thoughts leak out.
“Wow, nothing fazes you does it?”
“If you want the ancient magic, does that mean you’re going to kill the gods? Are you going to take out those conniving little bastards for us? If you got to the end of O-chan’s labyrinth, then you must know what’s going on, right?”
“I told you, I’m the one asking the questions here. If you want me to tell you anything, you answer first.”
“You really are a cocky little brat. Well, whatever. Umm where to begin... Ah, guess we’ll start with my real identity. Umm...”
“Like I said, keep it short. I don’t need an entire novel’s worth like when I saw Oscar.”
“Ahaha. I guess O-chan can be a little long-winded. He always did like to talk.” The massive golem looked up at the sky, quietly reminiscing. She really felt more like a human than a lump of rock. Yue was as expressionless as always, but Shea was glancing nervously at the golems surrounding them.
“Alright, so put simply... I am indeed Miledi Reisen. And the secrets of these golems lie in the ancient magic I can use! If you want to know more, then you’ll have to beat me first!”
“That’s not an explanation...”
“Hahaha. I mean, what’d be the point in making this labyrinth if you got all the answers before clearing it?” The Miledi golem wagged her finger like she was lecturing a small child. If only it wasn’t Miledi Reisen doing that, it’d almost look cute.
“It’s who’s inside that’s the problem,” Yue muttered quietly. It appeared she agreed.
Though in the end, they hadn’t figured anything out about who was inside either. Hajime’s best guess was that if she claimed to be Miledi herself, then she was probably the lingering remnants of her spirit or something. He vaguely recalled that one of his old classmates, Eri Nakamura, had the job of necromancer, which dealt with manipulating such spirits. Though nothing she’d resurrected with her necromancy had the kind of independent will this golem seemed to possess. So does that mean it’s the ancient magic she had that let her spirit have such a strong will even after she passed on?
Regardless, it seemed that whatever magic Miledi possessed, it wasn’t going to help him teleport across worlds. Somewhat put out, Hajime asked his next question.
“Does your ancient magic have something to do with controlling spirits?”
“Hm? Sounds like you’re looking for a certain
spell. Well, just so you know, my ancient magic has nothing to do with any of this. I had La-kun help me affix souls into these guys~”
Hajime’s only goal was to return home. It didn’t matter if this spell controlled souls or spirits or whatnot, it was of no use to him. But Miledi’s response wasn’t what he had been expecting. He didn’t know who this “La-kun” was, but he guessed they were another one of the Liberators. Whoever they were, they were the ones that had put the spirit of Miledi, who was supposedly dead, into this golem.
“Then what does your ancient magic do?”
“Oh, interested, are we? Do you really wanna know that bad?” Her expression couldn’t change, but her tone made it obvious that she was grinning inside. Annoyed, Hajime waited for her to answer.
“If you wanna know... you’ll have to answer one of my questions first.” Her tone suddenly shifted drastically at the end of her sentence. Her playful, cutesy voice was replaced by a dead serious one. Hajime and the others were slightly taken aback. Still, he didn’t let it show on his face.
“What?”
“What are you after? Why do you want to collect ancient spells so badly?” Her tone made it clear that she wouldn’t forgive him for lying. It was possible this was her real personality. After all, she was a member of the group that had risen up against the gods for the sake of the people. She had plenty of reason to want to know what the person she entrusted her power to would do with it.
Unlike Oscar, who’d passed away and left only a video recording of himself, Miledi had spent centuries here waiting for a challenger to come and lay claim to her power. In a way, it must have been torture. Her frivolous attitude might only have been a front, while the real her was someone with an immense amount of patience and a strong sense of responsibility.
Yue had picked up on that as well, so her expression shifted ever so slightly. Having spent centuries trapped in a prison of her own, Yue must have understood the suffering Miledi had gone through. And there was more than just sympathy in her eyes. After all, unlike Yue, Miledi had chosen to remain down here in the darkness for centuries of her own volition.
Hajime’s gaze met Miledi’s, and he told her the truth.
“My only goal is to return home. One of your stupid mad gods summoned me to this world by force. I’m just trying to find a spell that can teleport me back... I have no interest in carrying on your crusade against the gods. I’m not going to risk my life for this world.”
“......” She stared at Hajime for a few seconds before turning to look at Yue, then Shea. Seemingly coming to some sort of understanding, she nodded curtly.
“I see,” was all she said. Then, her serious tone of voice vanished, and was replaced by the cutesy one she had been using before.
“Hmm... I see~ I see~ I understand now, you’re not from this world. Yeah, that must have been tough for you~ Alright, let’s duel! Beat me and get your hands on the power you seek!”
“I can’t follow your logic at all, but... in the end, what is your ancient magic? Is it a teleportation spell?”
Miledi only laughed gleefully and said “Well...” suggestively. She would have made a great host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Tired of her games, Hajime pulled out Orkan. If she wasn’t going to say anything, then he would just beat her and get his own answers. And yet, before he could fire she opened her mouth and taunted him.
“Not telling!”
“Then die.” Hajime let loose a barrage of missiles. They left a trail of sparks as they slammed into the Miledi Golem and exploded. The explosion echoed loudly across the massive room. Smoke enveloped the space Miledi had been occupying.
“Did you get her!?”
“Shea, anytime anyone says that the enemy’s alive.”
Shea was ready to start celebrating, but Yue shot her down. And in the end, Yue’s warning proved correct. A burning fist punched its way through the smoke. Miledi swept her hand across, blowing away the smoke.
As the smoke cleared, they saw that while Miledi’s forearms were crumbling here and there, she hadn’t taken any serious damage. She grabbed one of the nearby floating blocks and crushed it, using the particles to restore her own body.
“Fufu, congratulations on landing the first strike. But I’m sure you can do better than that. Come on, I might have the spell you’re looking for~ I’m pretty strong though, so try not to die.” Accompanied by joyous laughter, Miledi fired the flail attached to her left arm at Hajime. Not swung, fired. There was no windup, so the flail attached to the end of an arm was just suddenly hurtling toward them. She must have been able to control the direction of her gravity like the other golems, so she made the flail “fall” at them.
Hajime and the others jumped to a nearby platform to avoid it. It shattered the block they had just jumped off of and, like it was swimming through the air, turned around and returned to Miledi’s hand.
“Let’s do this. Yue, Shea, we’re taking Miledi down!”
“Okay!”
“Roger!”
At Hajime’s shout, the final battle of the Reisen Labyrinth, one of the Seven Great Labyrinths, began in earnest.
The golem knights that had been on standby until then suddenly sprang into action. Like they had in the hallway, they pointed themselves like bullets at Hajime and the others, then fell straight at them.
Yue lithely dodged out of the way, thrust one of her canteens forward, and swung it from side to side. The highly compressed water shot out with considerable force and cut through the golems like a laser.
“Ahaha, pretty good. But there’s fifty of these infinitely regenerating golems and me. Will you really be able to get them all at once?” With a wicked cackle, Miledi fired her flail again. Shea leaped out of the way and onto a pyramid shaped block above her. Instead of dodging, Hajime emptied Donner’s chamber on it.
There was only one gunshot, but all six bullets were fired. The six bullets hit the flail almost simultaneously. Even a giant mass of metal like the flail couldn’t ignore six railgun enhanced bullets. And so, it was flung off at an angle, away from Hajime.
Meanwhile, Shea leaped off her platform and swung Drucken down at Miledi’s head.
“I can see right through your tricks~” Miledi suddenly shot sideways through the sky. She had reoriented her gravity.
“Kuh, damn you!” Gritting her teeth, Shea pulled Drucken’s trigger. There was a concentrated explosion along the face of the hammer. The recoil of the blast allowed her to correct her trajectory. She spun around thrice before delivering a blow backed by the power of centrifugal force squarely into Miledi.
Miledi raised her left arm up to guard herself, but Shea’s strike was so powerful that it crushed her arm entirely. However, Miledi seemed unconcerned and swatted away Shea with her crushed arm.
“Kyaaa!”
“Shea!”
The force of the blow sent her flying. She somehow managed to stabilize herself by firing Drucken multiple times, then made an emergency landing on one of the floating platforms.
“Heh, looks like you’re just fine. Hey, Yue, just what kind of training did you give this girl?”
“...I just cornered her a little.”
“I see. No wonder she’s so good at surviving.” Hajime nodded approvingly as he watched Shea make her way back, jumping from block to block. The amount of golems swarming them was more than Yue could handle alone.
Hajime pulled Metzelei, his Gatling gun, from out of his Treasure Trove. Then, back to back with Yue, he started firing 12,000 rounds of death a minute.
The six barrel Gatling gun rotated at ridiculous speeds as it fired. Gunshots echoed throughout the room and streaks of red light filled the air as a hailstorm of bullets ripped the golems apart, sending them all hurtling to the depths below. The knights that attempted to circle around and take him from behind were cut down by Yue’s water jets.
Within seconds, over forty golems had been turned into hunks of fractured rock. They fell unceremoniously down to
whatever was below. They’d return fully rebuilt, of course, but at least they wouldn’t bother them for a while. And that meant they had enough time to take out the Miledi Golem.
“Hey, what the heck was that!? I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it!” Hajime ignored her question and put Metzelei back into his Treasure Trove. Then, he took Donner out of his holster and yelled in a voice loud enough for Shea to hear,
“Miledi’s core is where a human’s heart would be! Destroy that!”
“Wha— How do you know that!?” She asked, clearly surprised. It hadn’t even occurred to her that Hajime might have a demon eye that could see the flow of mana. Now that they knew the Miledi Golem’s weak point, Yue and Shea’s eyes glinted with a predatory light.
There weren’t even ten regular golems left to protect Miledi. As long as we coordinate our attacks, we should be able to take out her heart.
Hajime leaped from platform to platform, looking to close in on Miledi. With his weakened railgun, it would be difficult to shoot down Miledi’s core. And so, he’d have to rely on a point blank shot to blow off her armor, then finish her core off with a grenade.
But no matter how frivolous her attitude, Miledi was still a Liberator capable of using ancient magic. He doubted it would be so easy. Miledi’s eyes flashed bright, and one of the platforms floating overhead shot down toward Hajime.
“Huh!?”
“I never said the knights were the only things I could control~”
Hajime ignored her and activated another one of his left arm’s features. With a resounding bang, a shockwave fired out of his elbow. More specifically, he fired a shotgun blast. It couldn’t be accelerated with his Lightning Field, but the burst contained far more blastrock than Donner’s bullets. Though, the recoil was also that much stronger in turn. Hajime flew through the air, narrowly avoiding the falling platform. He somehow managed to land on the block he was aiming for too.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 2 Page 25
