Chapter 1207 - Result Report
—And, the next day.
"Wow... that kind of..."
"......Unreasonable. Displeasing."
Now, having spent time in the real world pampering Ashe to restore her mental state, and having spent time in the virtual world going to pick up the raid party including [Sword Queen]-sama, and having returned safely.
I was showing a bitter smile at the familiar Eastern Round Table, the zenith of my own faction's wartime base.
Sharing the space with me was an expressionless face that still looked displeased as ever, even if she didn't expose an obvious depression like yesterday. Ashe, sticking close right next to me. And then...
"Man... we really got turned on our heads, huh? Well, there's really no helping this."
Wearing a bitter smile of the same shade as mine, [Grand Commander] Goldow, who was soothing his younger friend (Ashe) with a look that said "That was a disaster." And in addition...
"This is why I hate them. Those things called the incarnations of the Unreasonable (raid bosses)."
Although she wasn't sulking in an obvious way, with an extremely tired face—resting her chin on her hand, which was rare for her—Irori was directing her slightly vexed blue eyes toward the "screen".
With the four of us gathered, there was no need to say what we were doing.
"Even without a gimmick like that, this guy's simple combat power alone is plenty raid-class..."
We were currently checking the recorded video that Ashe and the rest of the raid party had brought back, having them show us the flow of the dungeon attack failure, which must have been regrettable.
Furthermore, upon playing the video, the three of them worriedly asked all at once, 'Are you really okay?', but my trauma doesn't trigger against videos, so there was no problem. Because if it's a situation where there is no danger of actually falling myself, I can gaze even upon those fish bastards with a peaceful mind.
That said... even putting that trauma aside, in the dark underwater with the worst visibility, my mind is shaved away by the groups of enemies with absurdly eerie designs, like strange 'humanoids' and 'fishmen'.
In other words, it goes far beyond simply understanding the hardships of the six, including Ashe, who faced the conquest representing us Rankers (we). At the end of the video, which made me feel truly sorry for them, thinking it must have been really tough...
This. Thinking that such an "Unreasonable" thing was waiting for them, even more so.
"...The enemy's name is [Euphias]."
Recording, which is a standard player function in Arcadia—to state the official name that doesn't break the world-building, it is a video recording by the Surrogate Eye of Divine Authority.
Because this basically doesn't display the player's UI... the visual game assist function interface group like HP displays and such, even if you stare at the enemy in the video, no information comes out. Hence, the necessary explanation muttered from Ashe's mouth.
Attentive consideration. This is a type of Memo Pad, a convenience expansion tool derived from players, and thanks to a spatial-writing Mako (Magic Craft)-made item, the stylish top-and-bottom phonetic equivalents are also perfect.
Now, it bears a meaningful name, as expected of Arcadia's boss enemies, but...
"...It's not decreasing, is it?"
"Yeah. It's completely turned invincible."
The end of desperately searching through the dark water. In the end, the correct answer was neither down nor sideways, but "up", and what lay beyond, with no signposts whatsoever, was an absurdly majestic palace.
A giant structure unsuited for the middle of the water, as if it were the Castle of [Castle Lord]-sama itself.
When they finally entered it, which was floating serenely in the darkness without its feet touching either the ground or the seabed—what was there was an ultra-vast single space with no layout whatsoever.
What was there was [Euphias], as Ashe called it, which was playing with the six people who could be called the absolute elite of the virtual world in the video... —its appearance was,
To describe it briefly, the God of the Sea (Poseidon).
Hair raging as it rode the ocean currents it whipped up, a manly and abundant beard, a beautiful giant body like a sculpture, supple yet muscular. What it carried in its hand was a majestically shining trident.
Sometimes two legs, sometimes a fish tail. The power of its violent yet graceful rampaging, while shifting its form just like the infinitely adaptable water, was obvious from the fact that a party of such prominent members was having a good fight—and yet, as if that weren't enough.
Around the time ten-odd minutes had passed since the start of the battle, it came with a severe bonus where absolutely no attacks worked anymore. Even if the HP wasn't displayed in the video, you could tell just by looking.
Ashe's sword, Irori's katana, Rinne's sound, Sayaka-san's light, [Castle Lord]-sama's mass bombardment (castle)... even Yura's furious barrage, which seemed to be her going all out, absolutely none of it was working.
It was, literally, invincibility.
"We reached it on the second day and established a route. Since then, we challenged it seven times, but the results were all the same."
"Out of the five HP bars it has, no matter how many times we try, our attacks only work on one of them."
And so, supplementary explanations were added.
According to Ashe, who was simmering with a slight touch of anger, the HP display of [Euphias] was a specification akin to an unlimited large-scale battle (over-raid)... in other words, the so-called giant HP bar, which felt like a high-density custom-made bar equivalent to ten normal boss HP gauges, with five of them in total.
—Which means... well, the materials for speculation are pretty much all here.
"Man, could it be...?"
"Requires simultaneous conquest of five locations... huh?"
Truly, simple thinking. A simple deduction.
As Gossan and I deepened our bitter smiles even further and lined up our thoughts...
"Most likely."
"Probably."
The two who had returned reluctantly after doing nothing but piling up hardships and helplessness with their own bodies, responded simultaneously without a moment's delay. They nodded, their voices carrying an increased sense of fatigue.
We're players, after all. There's nothing we can do about the system's walls.