by Sakon Kaidou
However, there was nothing curious about this.
Wind Hoof’s barriers were made of gathered and compressed air, which didn’t disappear after the skill was canceled. So, upon losing its “container,” the air got scattered into the surroundings, creating an explosion in the process.
It was much like a bursting balloon, only hundreds... or thousands... of times greater. The only thing separating it from a bomb was the fact that there were no life-threatening shrapnel, but the explosive pressure was more than enough to tear a living being apart.
Upon further thought, Ray realized that the result was nothing if not obvious.
Fortunately, Silver himself was designed to not get caught up in the explosion, so Ray and Nemesis were completely fine. Otherwise, he’d have gotten the death penalty.
Though impressive overall, being surrounded by falling ground and flesh was enough to make Ray and Nemesis hesitate about using this skill combo. After a bit of talk, they concluded that it was too indiscriminate and dangerous and chose to never use it again.
Funnily enough, they ended up having to do it a second time on the same day, and with far greater MP than during the experiment.
◇◇◇
Ray himself had had no idea just how powerful Wind Hoof would become when he gave it all the hundreds of thousands of MP from his greaves... however...
“Looks like it was enough to break through its barrier,” Ray said as he looked at the RSK, lying on the ground, its insides exposed due to having lost its upper half.
The abomination wasn’t the only thing that had been caught up in the explosion. The surrounding ground looked as though it had been turned upside down, making the area seem more like a “wasteland” than a “grassland.”
The damage caused was far greater than Ray had expected, and if there had been any other people nearby, the results would’ve been nothing but tragic.
“...Yeah, this definitely wasn’t a skill I could use when the Royal Guard were lying here.” Ray worriedly looked around and saw Liliana and her knights, safe and sound.
“Right, then...” he said as he turned to the RSK again.
It wasn’t over yet, as the monster still hadn’t become particles of light. Ray didn’t find that surprising, since he hadn’t expected Wind Hoof’s explosion to be enough.
“...Yeah, I figured as much,” he muttered as he noticed that the RSK began gradually regenerating.
Just like with Gouz-Maise, his enemy from yesterday, the flesh expanded and rebuilt the parts of the body it had lost.
With the RSK being a creature that could spawn monsters, the presence of a regenerative ability was par for the course.
Thus, Ray made the move he had in mind.
“...Let’s go,” he said as he made Silver dash towards the abomination.
The RSK’s regeneration speed increased exponentially in relation to the volume it regained, and soon enough, its offensive function was back up.
The cracks opened up again and began firing light projectiles towards Ray.
Their amount was significantly lower than before, but the reason for that was obvious. Not only had the explosion from Wind Hoof exterminated all the attacker minions it had had in its upper part, but the RSK was too preoccupied with regeneration to dedicate any energy to their creation.
“Break through... Silver!”
The Prism Steed ran on the air and gracefully avoided the light projectiles as he closed in on the RSK.
“You can make it!” Ray shouted.
The moment he was in range, Ray jumped off Silver’s back and forced his left arm into the RSK’s last wound. Though the meaty pressure wasn’t pleasant, it wasn’t strong enough to crush his limb.
“Gardranda!” he shouted, preparing his left bracer — the flame thrower — to fire.
“...Ha, now that’s just pointless,” said Franklin in a mocking voice that Ray was already familiar with, much to Ray’s dismay. “Didn’t I tell you that Purgatorial Flames and Hellish Miasma don’t work?”
The jerk was nowhere in sight, but his voice resounded throughout the surroundings.
“That attack sure as hell surprised me, but it’s not like you can do it again, right?”
“Yeah,” Ray replied. “It drained all the MP I had in Gouz-Maise, so it’s not an option anymore.”
“Then you’re out of moves, huh?” Franklin sneered.
“Nope,” Ray grinned in response. “I can still burn this thing down.”
“...Why, though?” Franklin said. “You should know by now that Purgatorial Flames don’t work on him. I mean, you tried it yourself.”
Franklin spoke nothing but the truth.
“But does it negate regardless of where I fire?” Ray asked.
“Ah...” The words made Franklin fall silent.
“Wouldn’t the fire work if it came from inside?” Ray added.
Ray believed it was entirely possible that the negation effect was only present on the surface.
“Honestly, if it could really negate the fire no matter what, I don’t think you’d have told me that,” he went on. “I mean... you’re a huge asshole.”
That was Ray’s primary reasoning. He had a feeling that Franklin wouldn’t have said that if the RSK hadn’t had some sort of weakness.
“That’s pointle—” Franklin began.
“Is it? I’ll see it for myself.” With those words, Ray poured all his remaining MP into his Miasmaflame Bracers.
“Wai—!”
“Purgatorial Flames — full power!” Thus, demonic fire began rampaging within the RSK.
They filled its corpus, burst out of its many cracks, and even roared through the hole Ray forced his arm into. The RSK’s body, attacker minions, central nerves, Ray’s left arm — all of it got caught in the crimson blaze.
“Well, my ‘natural enemy...’ let’s test our endurance!” Ray shouted.
“■■■■■...!” The RSK’s mouthless body released a silent scream as it shook its large frame and swung its tentacles to try and throw Ray off of it.
The abnormality of the situation caused the RSK to break the rule of not attacking Ray by itself.
But Ray was able to stay on anyway by forcing Nemesis in her sword form into one of the RSK’s eyes and holding on to her. His back got hit by the tentacles, but he had enough endurance to bear it.
Ray’s arm burned and his torso got damaged, causing his HP to drop by the second. But he didn’t stop his flames, for he had already decided that he would continue firing until either he or the RSK died.
Right as his limited HP and MP was about to be depleted, for reasons not even he knew...
“GOUZ-MAISE!” Ray shouted the name of the grudge abomination that had turned into his boots, and despite him not intending it, Gouz-Maise answered.
Ray’s flames had turned the RSK into a gathering of pain and rage — negative emotions fit for Grudge Conversion.
Placed directly on this potent source, the boots were able to absorb the grudge with great efficiency, delivering great amounts of MP to Ray. He instantly used it to empower the flow of the fire and even heal himself.
The greater flames increased the RSK’s pain, which, in turn, got converted into MP. It was much like a perpetual motion engine.
However, nothing was perpetual, and something would eventually yield.
And, sure enough, after an amount of time that would have seemed long for some and short for others, something broke.
Surrounded by the crimson blaze, a silhouette crumbled and vanished.
◇◇◇
That night, the tians living in Gideon were overcome by fear.
Fiendish-looking monsters were unleashed upon the city, and its streets were ravaged by the battles between Masters.
Some shut themselves in their homes, some took shelter in designated emergency facilities, some just curled up and shook in back alleys, and some were trapped in the arena and shared their worries with others in that situation.
Likely for the purpose of fueling their fear, a live recording was being broadcast to them through several projections in the night sky. They displayed a madman in a lab coat, a large monster, and a mere three Paladins fighting those enemies. The madman claimed that if they didn’t defeat the monster within the time limit, countless more beasts would be unleashed upon Gideon and reduce it to rubble.
Naturally, the people’s fear escalated, and they began feeling much like criminals waiting to answer the gallows’ call. However, despite the overwhelming despair, they still held on to a bit of hope.
After all, the three Paladins were still fighting the enormous abomination, and their struggle against the odds was more than enough for the people to not give in to despair.
Eventually, the monster and the young man — the sole Master among the three — were both engulfed in flames.
The fire he’d released burned not just the abomination, but himself, as well, and to add to that, the monstrosity’s large tentacles were repeatedly attacking him. Despite it all, he didn’t give up or show any signs of stopping.
For both those involved and those watching, time seemed to be distorted, feeling long for some and short for others.
However, such differences were inconsequential to the result — the crumbling of a large silhouette.
Its ten tentacles fell apart as the sphere-like gathering of flesh exposed its scorched insides and slowly began turning into particles of light. As they scattered and vanished into the wind, the shape of a young man stood up in the midst of it.
His own flames had carbonized his left hand, while the thrashing he’d received from the tentacles had taken its toll, and his equipment no longer held its original shape. And yet, his eyes were still shining with power.
In his right hand, he held a black greatsword which he used to support his body.
Then, he wrung out his remaining energy to raise his right arm up into the air.
As if to tell the scared citizens of Gideon that the fear was no more, or perhaps just to assert his victory, he raised his arm, making him look much like the many arena champions the inhabitants of the duel city were so familiar with.
A moment later, the city of Gideon was drowned in roaring cheers.
To be continued...
Afterword
Cat: “We won! Franklin’s part is over! Hello, this is the control AI you already know well, Cheshiiire!”
Xun: “Whoa noW, it ain’t over yEt. And hey, I’m the Master Jiangshi, XunYu.”
Cat: “Brother Bear cannot participate due to certain circumstancees.”
Xun: (Certain circumstances...?)
Cat: “We will start this afterword by informing you about something. The manga version of Infinite Dendrogram, drawn by the skillful Kami Imai, recently had its first volume released!”
Xun: “I bet thAt tons of novel rEaders are already readiNg it.”
Cat: “The first volume ends with chapter 5, the one that got lots of ironic ‘Is this the final chapter?’ comments on Niconico Seiga. Our battle had only just begun!”
Xun: “Stop adding uNtimely endings to sTuff.”
Cat: “If all went smoothly, then chapter 6, the continuation of the first manga volume, should already be up on Comic Fire! We will be very glad if you enjoy this story in both novel and manga form.”
Xun: “Well, with the adVertising done, let’s go bAck to talking about tHis volume.”
Cat: “Yes. Despite what I said at the beginning of the afterword, this incident isn’t over yet.”
Xun: “The latter haLf of the Franklin paRt will be in vOlume 5.”
Cat: “Yep. However, while the latter half was too large to fit into volume 4, it’s also too small to fit into a separate volume, so volume 5 will have new scenes that don’t exist in the webnovel.”
Xun: “We’ll leavE the explanation to the aUthor and his serious commEnt.”
Dear readers, thank you for the purchase. I am the author, Sakon Kaidou.
Instead of ending the ongoing incident with volume 4, I decided to make it continue into volume 5.
I figured that making the split and adding additional scenes was a better choice than cutting good scenes just so that I could cram it all into a single volume.
After all, Franklin’s part has numerous scenes and includes lots of characters, so I wanted the novels to use Taiki’s superb drawing ability to portray as many of those characters in as many scenes as possible.
However, this choice wouldn’t have been possible if the novel series had gotten canceled on volume 4.
Thanks to your support, dear readers, we have plans to continue the series further. You are the ones that allowed me to make this choice, and I simply can’t thank you enough for it.
That aside, I have something to say about this volume.
It portrays the battles between people who are “similar, but unlike.”
There are those who began playing Dendro for the sake of their creations: the manga artist, Marie, and the composer, Veldorbell.
There are those who are friends with Ray and are both indecisive in their own ways: Hugo and Rook.
Ray, who uses all he has to seize the possibilities, and Franklin, who has used everything he has to win.
It’s safe to say that this volume was all about such similar people fighting for what they couldn’t give up on.
Rather than the amount of powers or the knowledge needed to win, the results of their fights could have actually been decided by their mental strength.
After all, it was Ray’s unbreakable will that allowed him to defeat his natural enemy and pull victory from the fiery maw.
The only reason why Taiki’s wonderful illustration displaying the final scene of the battle could go at the end of the volume was thanks to the split which, again, could only happen because of you — the readers.
I will continue to do my best to answer to your expectations.
Just as you’ve already been informed, the next volume will contain scenes that weren’t in the original webnovel. Up until now, I’ve been doing primarily sorting and editing of parts too personal or verbose, so this would be my first major addition to the novel.
Little would make me happier than your excitement for the conclusion to this incident in volume 5.
Sakon Kaidou
Cat: “So there, please wait for volume 5.”
Xun: “It’s alrEady decided when it reLeases, though.”
Cat: “...Ah! Infinite Dendrogram volume 5 is—!”
Xun: “Volume 5 is sEt to come out sOon! Look forwaRd to it!”
Cat: “I thought I’d get to say it this time! You thieving cat!”
Xun: “You’re the caT here. By the waY, Cheshire.”
Cat: “Mrrgh, I didn’t get to announce it even once... Well, what is it?”
Xun: “Why didn’t thE bear partiCipate in this afterWord?”
Cat: “He said he’s on standby for volume 5.”
Xun: “...AlreaDy?!”
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Copyright
Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 4
by Sakon Kaidou
Translated by Andrew Hodgson
Edited by Emily Sorensen
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Sakon Kaidou
Illustrations Copyright © 2017 Taiki
Cover illustration by Taiki
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2017 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2017
J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: January 2018
