Chapter 136 - Chapter 136: The Great Battle!
Leaving the princesses on the surface, Tetsuo and I alone took on the dungeon.
The final goal was the enemy on Floor 10, a mass of terror and malice.
We had been wiped out once, but thanks to Tetsuo's Return by Death, a miracle from the gods, we got to start over.
First, to whittle down the enemy's forces, we took out that woman from the Labyrinth Cult.
That woman was an existence who had received power from the final boss. It seemed killing her would weaken the final boss.
Tetsuo seemed to have experienced this kind of battle a few times, so I followed his strategy.
I also rescued Ren, who was with the woman, and had the gods send her back to the surface.
Honestly, if the gods fought, it would probably be over in one shot, but that would be a rule violation.
Are there even rules?
According to Tetsuo, the opponent is an Evil God.
Even if it is an Evil God, it is a god. A god versus god situation would have no end, so they are likely using their own avatars, the Apostles, and the Saintesses to fight for dominance.
It's nothing like that; we just ended up caught up in the power struggle between the gods.
"GROOOOOO!"
Floor 10, where a white mist covered the view. In that dense fog, a clash as if from a mythological passage was unfolding.
No, it wasn't something so solemn. From my eyes, it looked like a giant monster war.
The space vibrated, and a deep bass-like rumble echoed.
Standing there was Shazam, in full power mode with black muscles bulging.
Opposing him was the final boss, believed to be the ruler of this floor, a giant goat-headed monster with massive horns.
Both extended their arms, sprouting additional arms from their backs to strike palms against each other. The space distorted as if creaking for a moment, and the white mist blew away in all directions.
The power was evenly matched. If Shazam added more arms, the opponent did too.
The opponent was an Evil God; anything goes.
"Can this even be decided?"
As I worried, the stalemate broke.
"ORAHHHHH!"
Tetsuo, riding on top of Shazam, must have tried to break the stalemate too.
The moment Tetsuo's roar tore through the air, the giant goat head slid off from the neck.
Bone, muscle, skin, none of that massive weight mattered. It was as if cut by a razor.
The goat's pupils swam, staring into the void for a moment, then the entire head slowly tilted. Accompanied by a deep bass sound, it was slammed onto the ground.
Dust rose from the impact, and deep cracks ran through the dry rocky ground.
Black blood overflowed from the neck, crawling across the ground like a living thing, spreading while emitting steam.
The enemy's head was gone, but the body didn't collapse, and the struggle of strength with Shazam continued.
The cut surface of the neck swelled like bubbles, gradually taking shape again.
"Could it be regenerating?!"
Now that I think about it, some monsters could regenerate.
This is a higher existence than that.
It wouldn't be strange if it regenerated.
"Shazam!"
At Tetsuo's sharp command, Shazam's whole body began to swell like a pulse.
Muscles writhed and hypertrophied like armor.
The arms became even thicker, and steam-like heat erupted from the back.
As if putting an end to the struggle of strength, the swollen body exerted overwhelming power.
The enemy's bones groaned with a nasty sound. Before it could groan "GWAH!", its body was twisted in the opposite direction.
Shazam stepped forward, twisting and squeezing his arms.
The enemy's joints screamed, and its body bent into a V-shape.
With a cracking sound, deep cracks appeared on the surface of the skin.
Black blood gushed from the muscle tears, and something hard emerged from within. A gloomy, black-glowing mass.
It was a giant black stone.
"That magic stone is the key to its regeneration ability!"
Around here, the mechanism is no different from monsters.
If we destroy that, the regeneration ability should stop.
I took out a dagger from the Item Box.
The Rotting Dagger. I'll use this to rot the enemy's skin and hinder regeneration.
"ORYAAAAAA!"
I kicked my leg high and threw the sword next to the giant magic stone.
The blade, spinning violently vertically, reflected light and bit into the enemy's skin.
Soon, the black fur crumbled into mush, spreading corruption around.
It shouldn't be able to regenerate easily now. Though I don't think this will work forever.
They'll counter it soon, so we need a quick decision.
At that moment, an electric current ran through me.
"Tetsuo! Can't you cut that magic stone with your black hole?!"
"Oh! That's right!"
His black hole approached the giant magic stone, but.
Suddenly, a white disc shimmered in the void and appeared.
It appeared without any warning, silently. The next moment, it wrapped around Tetsuo's black hole.
Sharp bands of light writhed from the edge of the disc, and the surface pulsed like liquid metal.
The moment that white light touched the black hole, with an explosion sound, the space twisted, and a torrent of plasma and intense flash flooded the surroundings.
The disc and the black hole tangled fiercely as if two living creatures were biting each other.
White and black, light and darkness, positive and negative. Opposing forces clashed head-on.
The white disc rotated, trying to push open the edges of the black hole.
Meanwhile, the black hole seemed to try to swallow the very existence itself, dragging it into the distorted space.
At the point of collision, shockwaves layered upon each other struck the air, and even the surrounding earth trembled.
Clearly, this was a clash of equally powerful forces, neither willing to yield an inch.
That's how it looked to me.
"This is power equivalent to the gods' miracle."
Is there any other move?
My brain was rotating more fiercely and sharply than ever before.
Like gears of burning heat grinding and meshing, calculating every possibility.
A sensation that thoughts were overtaking reality. The sounds and lights around felt like slow motion.
Fear and hesitation were pushed to the corner of my brain for this moment only. Floating up instead was just one clear question: "How can we win?"
"Can't we destroy that huge magic stone?!"
Magic stones infused with mana can be detonated using my Namu Thunder.
Can't we explode that huge thing the same way?
If we really could do that, its body might be reduced to splinters.
We might get hurt too, but we'll deal with that when the time comes.
I can't think of any other method.
As I ran my old man's gray brain through thoughts, the monster's giant punch came at me.
Thanks to heightened concentration, it looked like slow motion, but if it hit, it would surely bring death. Truly a lethal destructive power.
"TOH!"
I dodged that attack lightly.
At the same time, I jumped onto the enemy's punch and took out a sword from the Item Box.
"I'm going!"
I climbed up the enemy's arm, like a log, and jumped toward the giant black magic stone.
I focused my spirit on the tip of the sword I held tightly.
"Namu Thunder!"
White lightning gushed from the sword I held after jumping into the air.
The lightning entangling the blade's surroundings was sharp like thunder running along a crack, and dazzling flashes filled my vision.
That lightning writhed like a living thing, drawn toward the giant magic stone embedded deep in the monster's chest like a swarm of snakes.
"GWOOOO!"
It seemed like an electric current passed through the monster's body, but it didn't seem to cause much damage.
There was no change in the magic stone either.
That huge thing probably lacks power with just Namu Thunder.
As soon as I landed, I started planning the next strategy. Once I reached a conclusion, I took out a large magic stone from the Item Box.
I got this when I defeated the Dragon.
Magic stones can be used as explosive weapons, so I had collected them for emergencies.
To use it as an adhesive bomb, it was coated with plenty of glue.
"ORAHHHHH!"
I kicked my leg high again and threw the black stone I was holding onto the enemy's giant magic stone.
"Got it! It worked! Tetsuo! Hold it down like that!"
"It won't last that long!!"
"I know!"
I kept taking out magic stones from the Item Box and throwing them, but the enemy's restraint was gradually loosening.
"Daisukeee!"
"Damn it!"
Should I detonate it for now?
No, if I fail, I'll have no other moves.
"GWOOOO!"
The enemy's power started to exceed Shazam's.
"Is there anything?! ...Ah, yes!"
Basically, I just need to stop the enemy's movement.
I took out an item that was still stored inside.
Held in my hand was a golden bow.
I had gotten this in the dungeon before, but since I had no use for it, I had just thrown it in.
When you hold the bow and pluck the string, music plays. A useless item.
I thought the ability was just music, but later I learned it had a hypnosis effect.
It can induce sleepiness in enemies.
If this is the Dungeon Master, will an item made by the Dungeon Master work on the Dungeon Master?
It's highly questionable, but I have no choice but to try.
It was a gamble, but the enemy's movement and Shazam's movement stopped dead.
It seems the item's effect appeared not only on the enemy but also on Shazam.
Even Tetsuo on top of Shazam was frozen.
"Alright!"
I threw the bow and threw the remaining magic stones aimed at the boss's belly.
Magic stones coated with white glue stuck to the black wall floating in the monster's belly like a rosary.
"...NGWOOOO!"
The enemy, frozen for a moment, revived, and Shazam was being pushed back.
Both reached the peak of muscle bulging, and the goat head had completely revived, housing that eerie glow again.
"Let's go~!!"
I held my sword, gathered my spirit, kicked the ground, and jumped toward the enemy's giant body.
I stabbed my sword into the enemy's black fur.
While hanging from the sword, I shouted.
"Ultimate Super Attack! Super Namu Thunder!!"
I just said it; it was no different from my usual magic, but I poured all my mana into it.
The moment my shout echoed, blue-white lightning rushed from the stabbed sword, running as if tearing the skin of the giant monster before me.
As if the anger of the thunder god had materialized, the electric shock crawled over the monster's whole body like a snake, and the black, swollen giant body was enveloped in blue plasma light.
"GWOOOO!"
"Oh!"
A giant palm came rushing toward me, tearing through the sky.
The oppressive feeling as if a rock mountain was collapsing. I reflexively let go of the sword and threw my body toward the ground.
Just before landing on the ground, while adjusting my posture, I focused my consciousness on the Item Box.
"Summon!"
The next moment, a spare sword appeared in my hand.
At the same time as I gripped the cold hilt, a sound tearing through the air came from behind. The enemy's fist was swinging down at lightning speed.
Without missing a beat, I jumped straight up.
Twisting my body in the air, I spun around once. I copied the princess's move.
"ORA!"
The sword I swung down bit deeply into the monster's finger.
I slashed that finger, thick like a log and abnormally hard, scattering sparks.
A dull shock traveled up my arm, and after a few seconds, black blood gushed from the cut surface.
The giant body let out a roar of agony, and the severed finger was slammed onto the ground and rolled.
The blue-white sparks covering the black giant body burst, concentrating on the monster's chest, reaching the giant magic stone embedded there.
"TOH!"
The moment I kicked the ground and separated from the monster, the magic stone bomb stuck to the magic stone flashed.
It reacted sequentially due to the electric shock.
The blue flash transformed into an orange glow like burning, and the chain of explosions turned into a torrent of flames.
Red-hot flames engulfed the monster.
The flames, rolling up the wind and swirling, were truly "Goka" (Karma Fire) -- a dense mass of heat and destruction that seemed to burn even souls.
In the center, the giant magic stone embedded in the monster's chest rang with a shrill sound.
Deep cracks ran through the red-hot outer shell, spreading like a spiderweb.
"Shazam! Get back!"
Tetsuo sharply gave the order to his partner.
When Shazam retreated, a dazzling flash gushed from the center of the monster again.
With a thunderous explosion sound, it was light as if the sun inside had exploded.
The flash was so intense it became a white curtain, stealing the view, and illuminated the surroundings as if burning the space itself.
With a heavy cracking sound, the giant magic stone scattered, dancing in the air as multiple fragments.
From the monster's belly -- finally, the magic stone was shattered.
It became red-hot fragments, drawing tails of light, arcing through the air, and raining down around like a meteor shower.
Fragments pierced the ground, burst, and kicked up smoke and sparks.
Some parts of the magic stone pierced the walls, other fragments crushed the rocks and kicked up dust, scorching the ground.
The monster's flesh at the center was no longer maintaining its shape.
Torn by flames and flashes, the giant body collapsed, and the charred remains crumbled while pulsing red.
"Amazing!"
There's no time to be surprised.
After the storm of flashes and flames, the monster should have definitely collapsed.
In the depths of my vision, amidst the lingering smoke, the blackened giant body that should have been scorched began to move slowly.
"Tetsuo! It's regenerating?!"
Despite losing the magic stone, its energy source, the mass of monster flesh moved sluggishly, and the broken bones groaned with sound, trying to return to their original positions.
The scorched muscles writhed as if they had will, and new flesh buds were growing from the cross-sections of the torn limbs.
"It's fine! Shazam!"
As Tetsuo's voice echoed, a change occurred in Shazam's pitch-black body.
The black fluid covering the surface murmured, writhed, and changed shape like darkness itself possessing life.
Something grew from Shazam's shoulder with a creepy sound.
A black, distorted monster head. It opened its mouth wide, lined with fangs, and growled like a hungry beast.
That head lunged at the monster that was still regenerating.
A nasty sound of bones and flesh crushing echoed.
The black monster's mouth, biting deeply into the regenerating flesh, swallowed even the enemy's screams.
The enemy's body writhed, flapping its limbs to resist, but the black hole in the center of Shazam's body -- gaping like a rift in darkness -- began to suck it in like an abyss with gravity.
The white disc that was hindering Tetsuo's hole seemed to have disappeared.
Probably because the magic stone that was its energy source had vanished.
With a heavy sound vibrating the air, the enemy's body was dragged along.
As if sinking in a swamp, or falling into the gates of hell, half of its body was already disappearing into the hole.
Its dying scream was in vain. The black monster's jaw bit in deeper, greedily devouring so the enemy wouldn't escape, dragging it into the depths of the abyssal darkness.
Until just now, the power was evenly matched, but now it was completely reversed.
Once the groin was eaten, the two legs that lost support began to tilt slowly, as if the life of a giant tree had ended.
Once the center of gravity was lost, the giant body, without resisting, was pulled by gravity and collapsed all at once, shaking the earth.
Slammed onto the ground, shaking it, bodily fluids gushed from the cross-section.
"Huh?! It's still regenerating, isn't it?!"
Strange bubbles bubbled up from the section eaten by Shazam and gradually spread.
Ignoring that, Shazam grabbed that leg and threw it into the black hole.
It was resisting like an amoeba, extending tentacles to avoid being eaten, but it was in vain. All of the enemy was devoured.
"Alright! We did it, Shazam!!"
At the same time Tetsuo shouted, a huge tremor shook the space.
"Uoh?!"
I also lost my balance and sat down right there.
Shazam seemed to have prevented the fall by extending its black tentacle body.
The vibration that was shaking the ground gradually subsided, and finally stopped completely.
The surroundings were so quiet you wouldn't think there was a roar, a roar, and a shout of anger just moments ago.
As if the fierce battle itself was an illusion -- what remained there was an overwhelming silence that even swallowed the afterglow.
Only the faint heat rising from the cracks in the destroyed ground told us that that was reality.
A silence so quiet that even the sound of breathing was forbidden pressed down heavily on the air.
"Daisuke!"
Shazam's body returned to the black hole, shrinking gradually, and Tetsuo returned.
"Did we do it with this?"
"Well, probably... This time, we had a helper, so we didn't need to use Return by Death -- wahahaha!"
"Did the white mist clear?"
I noticed there was no white screen covering everything.
The mist was gone, but a faint light remained.
Vision was good.
"Probably the white mist was created by that guy too?"
"Oh, I see..."
It was anticlimactic to defeat it.
No, I could say we defeated it because Tetsuo and Shazam were here.
Whether I and the princesses could have faced such a monster alone...
If a zombie attack like a game was possible, maybe we could, but unlike Tetsuo, we don't have saves or resurrection.
"Phew... Is this work over for this time?"
"What are we going to do now?"
"I don't know -- I think the gods will take me back to another world..."
"I see, that's a shame."
"Well, anyway, we got a lot of things, and I have a family at home."
"Say hello to your family when you return."
"Yes."
We reached out our hands and bumped fists.
For now, I took out a canned coffee from the Item Box and took a breather.
"Phew..."
We just sat still for a while drinking coffee, but nothing happened.
"Nothing is happening..."
"Hmm? You don't mean the gods forgot us, do you?"
"I've never dealt with the gods, so I don't know what action they'll take..."
"Well, since they are beings beyond human intelligence, it's true there are many things we don't know what they are thinking..."
Waiting and waiting, nothing happened.
Only time slipped through my fingers like sand.
The air was terribly quiet, and a silence so heavy it hurt the eardrums hung around.
Not a trace of the monster's presence could be felt, as if it had never existed in the first place.
No matter how hard I looked or listened, there was nothing.
It was as if the world itself had stopped.
Only the sound of our own footsteps barely proved our existence.
Not loneliness, but a deep void.
An emotion that couldn't be called anxiety or resignation, as if cut off from the world, welled up, and I squeezed out words.
"Shall we try going back through that rift that came down from Floor 9?"
"Let's do that."
Tetsuo agreed to my proposal.
We boarded Shazam's flying black carpet.
"Huh?!"
"What's wrong?"
"My body feels a bit heavy..."
"Oh, that's it -- if the big guy we just defeated is the origin of all dungeons --"
"Could it be that the level benefits are gone?! Status!"
The status screen didn't come up.
"How about you?"
"Nothing comes up... No! Just now, I could use the Item Box?!"
"Maybe the influence is still lingering a bit?"
No way. Now that I think about it, whenever I defeated something like a dungeon boss until now, the dungeon disappeared.
Will the Special District's dungeon disappear too?
"Th-then, adventurers might get caught up in the dungeon disappearing?!"
"We won't know what happens around there until it happens."
"Th-then, could I have done something terrible...?"
I believed it was the right judgment at the time.
I intended to end it with just me and Tetsuo, without involving anyone else.
But what was the result?
Before I knew it, other adventurers, the princesses, Sana... the people I tried to protect might have been caught up in the vortex of my choice.
My chest hurt. My breath grew shallow.
The voice trying to tell myself "It's fine" was repeatedly negated deep in my heart.
No, that's wrong -- it's not fine.
What if someone got caught up in the dungeon's disappearance? What if they lost their lives?
Just imagining it makes the back of my throat burn.
In my head, countless "ifs" were running wild.
There might have been another way.
Like clearing it casually and making them give up.
No, I couldn't do that to the girls who were seriously facing the dungeon.
Regret, self-loathing, anger, fear... Changing forms, they tightened my chest one after another.
The thoughts welling up in me seemed to disappear, only to float up again immediately, gouging my heart over and over.
I don't feel like I've fully grasped the weight of what I've done.
How serious that was -- I understood that more than enough.
If the dungeon disappears from Japan, the economy will be in chaos again.
It will be a start from zero.
If this was a mistake, it's irreparable.
But now, there's no way to repaint the past. Or rather, if it's Tetsuo's Return by Death, it might be possible...
His purpose was to defeat that big goat head.
That purpose was achieved.
Even if I said I wanted to go back now, he wouldn't cooperate.
I still don't know what state the surface is in, and worrying here is pointless.
For now, let's return to the surface.
Though I might be judged as a war criminal for Japan's decline because I destroyed the dungeon.
No, dungeons were made all over the world, so is the world in chaos?
"Daisuke, are you okay?"
"Yes -- if I said I wanted to use Return by Death, would you cooperate?"
"I can't do that. My job is over."
"I see..."
Well, of course...
"What are you worried about?"
"No, I'm worried that many adventurers might get caught up because the dungeon disappeared..."
"Oh, I see... Well, let's ask him."
"Ask him?"
From Tetsuo's black hole, Shazam's giant body oozed out, and from behind it, something else appeared as if being pushed out.
A writhing black mass. It slowly unraveled.
The black that was intertwined like melting peeled off like a veil, and a woman appeared from within.
Her skin was glossy as if wet, and the tips of her arms and legs were dyed black.
It was as if darkness had possessed her body.
Her hair stuck to her back like wet silk, and her shoulders rose and fell with her breathing.
Clearly more tense than before, two huge mountains unnaturally full and ripe.
It was that woman from the Labyrinth Cult.
"What are you doing bringing out that woman?"
Tetsuo squatted down at the woman's head.
"God! I have a few things I'd like to ask."
She said nothing, just opened her eyes quietly.
Deep darkness, neither human nor monster, burned in the depths of her pupils.