Art and Amanda had an easy time defending Archer's sword body from wave after wave of E and D-rank monsters while the sword's spirit was elsewhere.
The dozens of various spider themed Demonic Beasts lay dead before them, from more Trick and Trickster Spiders to odd monstrosities that looked like spider bodies with the heads of eels attached to them. None latest long. Art barely even contributed as Amanda annihilated everything that moved, even as they were trying to manifest. Amanda wasn't even using any of her mana to perform [Whip Techniques] or make use of her weapon's [Length Control] effect.
She just stood on the top step, right in front of the Dungeon Core, and tore whatever came within thirty meters into pieces.
"Big sis sure is scary." Art mumbled as she stood behind Amanda, watching her relieve stress on the monsters. Part of her wanted to join in, but it wasn't really necessary and she kind of didn't want to get in the way.
"Things at this level are no trouble at all. There could be a thousand of them coming all at once, and it wouldn't make a single difference." Amanda said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Honestly, dealing with these pests is rather boring."
"Boring huh?" Art said, her head drooping.
Fran never found any fighting boring. Whether it was a G-rank or a B-rank, she always fought her best.
Art had been by Fran's side constantly since the moment she had first came into the world. So while some might think that two weeks was a short time, it was literally Art's entire life time. Not having Fran with her felt wrong, and not sharing their telepathic link through her [Familiar of the Sword] title felt even wronger. Now, with Archer's mind inside of the Dungeon Core, she couldn't feel him either. Art had never felt so alone in her entire life, all two weeks of it. She was so worried that she couldn't think straight.
"Sorry for asking, and you don't have to tell me but, who is this Rani person?" Amanda asked as she disinterestedly held the line.
"We're not really sure. She's helped mom and Fran out before with some stuff, and has the ability to access some kind of archive of information, but we don't really know anything about her. Mom seems to trust her though, and that's good enough for me."
"Is that so?" Amanda said with a sigh. "An intelligent weapon, a demon familiar and now strange voices that are capable of directly interfering with a Dungeon Core, things sure are interesting around Fran."
"Demon familiar!?" Art choked, her eyes widened with panic before she shook herself. "Amanda, what are you talking about… there is no demon familiar."
Amanda gave the girl a small smile. "Art, it's fine. No matter what you are, you are still a child and so I love you regardless." The A-rank woman said gently.
"...I don't know if that is comforting or concerning." Art said flatly, gaining a laugh for the half-elf woman.
Suddenly, all of the Demonic Beasts that were still just out of range of Amanda's whip seized up before collapsing to the ground, their entire bodies dissolving into dust, the same way they would if their Dungeon Master had just been recently killed.
If the Dungeon Master dies, all Dungeon Monsters that had yet to be killed would completely disappear, meaning that if a high rank monster was in the dungeon, you couldn't target its Dungeon Core to get the materials without having to do the work. But the bodies of everything that had already been killed still remained.
"Looks like whatever they did worked." Amanda said as the Dungeon Monsters disappeared. "With all of the Demonic Beasts disappearing, Fran should be safe. Now we just have to get to her."
"Right. Come on Mom, let's get moving." Art said, ready to start trying to find her best friend and sister… Only Archer didn't respond. "Mom, are you in there? Hurry it up already." Anxiety grew as Art still couldn't feel the presence of Archer's spirit. "...Mom?"
Her heart sank as black splotches began to grow on Archer's once beautiful silver blade. A powerful decaying magic entering the blade.
"Mom!" Art screamed. Only her instructions not to move the blade before Archer and Rani returned and a primal instinct stopped her from reaching out for the blade. A fear of that taint overwhelmed her, forcing her to take a step back. "No. This isn't happening. Please tell me this isn't happening."
"Something's coming." Amanda said, dragging Art's attention back. In the middle of the room's entrance a small line appeared in the air. It wasn't a Dungeon Summoning. Someone was using [Dimensional Magic] in order to teleport directly into the room, something that should have been impossible without a marker of some kind. The line slowly opened, revealing a dark rift, and out of the darkness came three figures, each twice the size of a normal man. "What are those?"
Amanda had ever seen such Demonic Beasts, or even heard of them. They seemed to be chimera-types, being a mishmash of features belonging to other creatures. They had the taloned legs of a bird of prey, with long lanky arms with the weblike wings of a bat, ending in humanoid hands that gripped their weapons. Their entire torsos were covered in a mixture of thick fur and feathers, and their heads were those of an owl, with elk-like ears and antlers growing out of them.
Of the three, one stood in the front, slightly taller than the other two, with white fur and feathers instead of brown. While the others carried a sword and shield, this figure had a long wooden staff covered in runes. While the other two gave off the energy of B-rank Demonic Beasts, the front one was even stronger, bordering A-rank.
Amanda had never seen nor heard of such creatures, but Art had. "Kipines? What are they doing here?" Just like the Demons were the subjects of the Goddess of Chaos, the Kipines were the guardians of the Goddess of Wisdom's sacred library, and almost never left the Divine Realm. What the hell were they doing in a low rank dungeon of all places?
The white Kipine narrowed its black eyes as it stared past Art and towards Archer's sword body. "So that blasphemous weapon has been reforged after all." The creature said, its higher pitched hooting voice seeming smug. "Did the Angel really believe that we wouldn't notice its presence in the Between World? That certainly wasn't very 'Wise' of it." The other two began to hoot as well, as if it had been a funny joke. "Hm?"
Their laughter stopped as the sword began to glow and the black marks on its surface disappeared.
"Tch, it would seem that the Angel has already regained enough power to resist even the God-Slaying Poison." The white Kipine said with an annoyed tone. "No matter. We will simply have to destroy it ourselves."
The two shield wielding Kipine moved in front of the speaker and raised shields as large as a man as Amanda and Art reacted to the threat. Heavy lashes and powerful [Dark Magic] spells slammed against the shields, causing the two to have to take a step back, though no damage got through.
"Fufufu, I'm sorry, but were you ignoring us?" Amanda said, playing with her whip.
"If you think I'm going to let you put a single figure on Mom, forget it!" Art growled, raising up her own sword, which began to glow with her demonic strength.
"Meaningless pests." The white Kipine mumbled as it raised its staff, causing the other two to glow from the power of his [Support Magic]. "We will just have to deal with them first."
The moment the castle sized spider-woman started to reach out for Rani, Archer moved, sweeping the girl off her feet and carrying her out of the way of the massive hand, just as Rani's barrier, which had protected her from stray attacks earlier, ripped, as if it had been made from nothing more durable than tissue paper.
Holding Rani close to him, Archer used his free hand to toss a copy of Kuroko as hard as he could at the outstretched arm. The blade simply bounced off, leaving not even a scratch.
"Get back here!" Lolth screamed, swinging out her arms, trying to catch the Servant as he avoided her grasp, moving just out of range and forcing the giant to lung. As the creature went airborne, Archer stuck close to its leg joints, slashing the leg with all he had, only for his blade to shatter, with no visible damage at all. Failing to injure the Divine Beast, Archer slipped past and escaped the monster's line of sight, momentarily.
However, as its massive body slammed into the ground, it let out a wave of dust, dust that caused Archer to choke. His entire body felt like it was on fire as he struggled to keep moving, dodging Lolth's flails and struggling to remain out of sight.
Even with his Servant's body, the poison was too much. His skin began to black before falling away as the poison melted the flesh from his bones. His lungs were quickly turning to liquid from the singular breath he had inhaled. But even as he fell to pieces, he continued to move, and doing his best to use his Mana to push the toxins away from the girl in his arms.
He couldn't let that monster touch her. He had to protect her. He had to know if it was really her. If she was really who she looked like. If she was his former Master, Hakuno.
His vision was failing him as his eyes began to melt in their sockets, he couldn't hear anymore since his eardrums had burned away. His entire body was screaming in agony. He knew he was far past the point of no return, yet he still moved. His soul sensing his surroundings, as his body no longer could.
{135 Self-evolution Points have been consumed. Upgrading [Parallel Processing] to [Concurrent Consciousness]... Upgrade complete. Increasing the levels of [Healing Magic] and [Purification Magic] to LvMax… Complete. [Purification Magic] LvMax has unlocked [Holy Magic]. Increasing [Holy Magic] to LvMax... Complete. Using [Skill Specialization] to upgrade [Healing Magic] LvMax and [Holy Magic] LvMax to [Healing Magic SP] and [Holy Magic SP]... Upgrade complete. Consuming [Healing Magic SP] and [Holy Magic SP]... Process Complete. [Angelic Magic] has been unlocked.}
{Casting [Angelic Magic] spells, [Angelic Protection] and [Angelic Restoration].}
Archer gasped as his entire body began to glow, his decaying flesh mending itself in a near instant and the poison purified from his body.
The sudden recovery was so jarring that Archer nearly stumbled, and even it that hadn't been so surprising, the sight of Rani, still in his arms, glowing with the same power as angel-like wings spread out behind her certainly was.
The girl was panting, her eyes unfocused.
"Are you alright?" Archer asked as he continued to move.
"Just… tired." She replied. "This system will need to rest. But first we must escape. Something is blocking my attempts to leave the Between Worlds. It will take time to undo their work." Archer picked up the hint that Lolth wasn't the actual one blocking them and filed away that information for later. For now, he needed to put his full focus into surviving.
Screaming in frustration, the Divine Beast changed its tactics. Magic circles appear in the sky, hundreds of them, and from each circle dropped a B or A-rank Demonic Beast. While similar in shape to Lolth, these human-spider hybrids ranged in size from cars to elephants, and therefore looked tiny in comparison to their mother.
"Nameless, you will need to keep them busy while this system unlocks our retreat." Rani said.
"I Am The Bone Of My Sword." Hundreds of copies of the "Mithril Sword of Fiery Explosions" appeared in the air, trained on the spiders that had just appeared before firing at high speeds, logging themselves into the hairy bodies of dozens of the spider monsters, focusing mostly near their joints, before exploding. While it didn't straight up kill the creatures, it certainly took off several limbs, with only the A-rank specimen being left in any kind of condition to fight after being hit by a volley. "Understood. I won't let them reach you." Archer said as he carpet bombed the area.
Art and Amanda weren't having an easy time of it, with how sturdy those damned shields were.
The brown Kipines might not have had much offensive power, but they sure knew how to make themselves pains in the ass, constantly getting in the way while their magic using friend pelted the two Adventurers with spells from the safety.
Ranged attacks weren't working, forcing Art and Amanda to go in close if they wanted to fight. But such a fight wasn't a fair one. With [Support Magic] buffs and strong equipment, the two frontliners weren't going to be brushed off easily, and while their swordsmanship was laughably weak in comparison to Fran's and none existent when compared to Archer's, they seemed to have at least Lv7 [Sword Arts] as far as Art could tell.
Probably gifted to them by their Goddess of Wisdom, same as the magic, since the idea of those bird brains even figuring out which end of the sword was the pointy one on their own was almost non-existent, let alone learning actual magic.
The Kipine were a joke among those who served the Gods and Goddesses as while they were physically strong, had high perception skills, and possessed large quantities of mana, they were dumb as bricks, despite having the Goddess of Wisdom as their patron Deity.
Many of the Demons speculated this was because there was no way that the Goddess of Wisdom would ever allow a creature capable of reading within a hundred miles of her personal library, which she guarded with a level of jealous suspicion that was borderline ludicrous, even attempting to curse other Gods who dared to stand on its doorstep.
With all the training Art had done with Archer, she should have had no problem stomping those stupid freaks. The only problem was, while she had tons of experience fighting against swords and whips, she didn't have so much experience with shields. And with their already high physical stats being boosted even higher, they were easily five times stronger and faster than Art was.
An unfortunate [Shield Bash] caught the girl in the shoulder, sending her flying back into the wall of the Dungeon Core Room so hard that it cracked the strengthened walls, before falling into one of the clusters of Mana Crystals that littered the room. "Ouch." Art mumbled as she pulled herself up out of the crystals.
It didn't hurt so bad. Strong as the Kipine were, the shield was blunt damage and her Little Demon Set was the real deal, absorbing nearly all of the force. The Demoness was more worried that Archer might have seen that. Nothing those Kipine did to her could ever match the kind of training she would have to endure if her mom ever found out she had been hit by such a low rank skill.
However, being thrown into the Mana Crystals did give her an idea. Using her wind magic to give Amanda the heads up, Art started to chant, drawing in the power of all of the Crystals around her. She discarded her [Racial Mimicry], using the power and focus to further her attack.
"In Madness there is Sense! In Death there is New Life! Be the power which ushers Change into this Stagnant World!" Sensing the massive spike in Mana, the two frontline fighters moved into the path of the attack, quickly raising their shields as the white Kipine cast a spell over them to increase their magic defense even more. "[Pandemonium Bomb]!"
The giant ball of black and white fire flew towards the defenders, slamming into the shields with enough force to cause the entire room to rattle and break. But even this attack wasn't enough. The Magic Armor of the Goddess of Wisdom's personal guards wasn't anything to scoff at, and their own natural defenses and the [Support Magic] was too strong.
But it hadn't been meant to kill them, only to force them to defend.
"You're mine now." Amanda said with a toothy grin. While Art kept the two brown beasts occupied, Amanda had circled about and targeted the white Kipine. Using [Elemental Weapon] to pump her weapon with wind magic, Amanda unleashed her [Thousand Lashes].
The whip blurred as it reached speeds exceeding what the eye could follow, striking the Kipine from all angles, not once letting up. It was a move that had killed many A-rank Demonic Beasts, yet to Amanda's surprise, the white Kipine seemed unaffected by the attack as it raised its staff and fired off a powerful blast of light magic, which Amanda easily evaded.
"Damn it, they have [Divine Shield Techniques]." Amanda said as the two brown furred Kipine staggered, and bled. The wounds that should have been on the white furred leader appearing instead on their bodies, as they had absorbed and mitigated all of the damage.
"That's right. Our goddess made sure to give us all complementary skills." The white fur boosted as it wordlessly cast a [Greater Heal] spell with a wave of its staff, restoring the two pawns back up to perfect health in seconds.
Amanda inwardly swore. She had seen this type of skill before. Normally, it would be a huge drain on mana in order to sustain, but there was little doubt that the bastards equipment gave them the means to continuously use it, so a war of attrition wasn't in the cards, and in order to kill the white Kipine directly, she would need to do enough damage to kill all three of them two times over.
Their only option was to target the shield users first and find a way to get through their guards. But that was next to impossible. Not unless they could somehow take them by surprise. "You might as well surrender now. There is no way that weaker beings like you could ever…"
The white Kipine's gloat was cut short by an unexpected surge of mana from behind the Demonic Beasts.
Before they could react, something bolted from outside of the doorway and slammed into the back of one of the shielders, driving a weapon deep into the creature's neck. Amanda and Art were as surprised as the Kipine as the hybrid monster collapsed to the ground, revealing the small black haired Beastkin still clinging to the sword that had penetrated the monster's neck, taking its head from its shoulders.
"You started without me." Fran said, seeming a little annoyed, as she stood up on top of the monster's back, the blade she had just used crumbling into pieces from being overcharged with wind magic.
"Fran!" Art cheered.
"Where did you come from!" The Kipine mage screamed in surprise. With Fran's [Magic Concealment] she had gone completely unsensed by the monsters until the moment she had activated all of her skills to deliver a killing blow to the monster's exposed backside.
The remaining shielder turned around to face the new enemy, but that only showed its back to Amanda and Art. Before it could even move, a bolt of black and white energy slammed into its back, followed by the head of Amanda's whip, which took off the creature's entire head.
While this was happening, Fran jumped down and crossed the room to Art and Amanda, with Art welcoming her back with a hug. "You're alright! You're alright!"
"Nn? Why wouldn't I be?" Fran asked, tilting her head.
"Huh? But… the Trickster Spider…"
"Nn… Disappointingly weak."
"..." Art couldn't think what to say to that, so she just snorted with laughter.
"You… you…" The remaining Kipine growled angrily. "It matters not, even in death, they will still serve the Goddess." With another wave of its staff, necrotic energy filled the air, channeling into the freshly dead bodies of the Kipine which started to steer and return to their feet, even though both were now missing their heads. "You have not beaten us yet… Wait, what are you doing?"
Fran ignored the Kipine as she walked up the stairs to the Dungeon Core and picked up Archer's sword.
Seeing the small girl lifting up the blade, the white Kipine stumbled backwards, seeming to tremble in fear for a moment before starting to laugh its hootish laugh again. "Do you think I am afraid of that empty weapon!? With the Angel's soul stuck in the Between World, that sword is nothing more than a useless piece of scra…!"
The Kipine stopped talking as the zombie Kipine instantly collapsed as they were hit by a powerful [Turn Undead] spell, canceling out the Kipine's own [Raise Dead]. Then a wave of killing intent rolled over it, causing a owl pellet to shoot up in its throat. The owl equivalent of shitting itself in fear.
[You were saying?] A cold voice said in the back of the creature's mind as the sword itself spoke to him.
"N...No… That's not possible!" The creature shouted as it backed away. Then, turning around, it quickly swung out its staff, casting a [Long Jump] Spell in order to teleport away before anyone could stop it.
[So... Who were they?] Archer asked.
Fran's only reply was a shrug.
She didn't have a clue what was going on, but hey, she grew a level out of it.
(New title unlocked: Angel | Awarded to one who possessed [Angelic Magic]. | Grants [Curse Immunity] and increases the effectiveness of all healing and holy magic.)
Archer's remaining Self-Evolution Points: 81
Update on Fran's stats.
Name: Fran
Age: 12
Race: Black Catkin
Job: Magus Killer (Lv30)
Status: Normal
Level: 36/45
HP: 421, MP: 364, STR: 253, END: 204, AGI: 232, INT: 182, MGC: 201, DEX: 185
Titles: Fire Mage, Lord of Cooking, Lord of Dismantling, Lord of Digging, Skill Collector, Incarnation of the Sword, Favored of the Goddess of Chaos, Cadet of Hell's Training, Lord of Climbing, Goblin Slayer, Insect Slayer, Demon Slayer, Dragon Slayer, Recovery Mage, Wind Mage, One Man Army, One Who Slaughters, Big Game Hunter, Skill Maniac, (New) Earth Mage, (New) Sandstorm Mage, (New) Lava Mage, (New) Lady Killer, (New) Giant Slayer, (New) Annihilator of Demonic Beasts, (New) Bad Target for Ambush, (New) Angel
Equipment: Nameless, Black Cat Set
Some more about Rani's true nature is being hinted at here, with her being able to access the Sword's skills while Archer couldn't, as well as what the Kipine's were saying.
It has been hinted at in canon that the Goddess of Wisdom has some kind of grudge against the sword, but I haven't read far enough to know why. So the reason I'm giving is that the Sword stole knowledge from the Goddess's library. Maybe it was her diary or something.
The Kipine were just something I saw on a D&D site about home brewed stuff. Some kind of mutant Owlbear. While they have enough intelligence to understand basic language, they are by no means smart.
Just so you are all aware, even with Noble Phantasms, Nameless still won't stand much of a chance against a true Divine Beast, even a weakened one. Not without his full power as a Heroic Spirit/Pseudo Counter Guardian. Limited by his nature as a Servant, and with limits on what he can trace, he is nowhere near strong enough to even seriously injure Lolth.
This will be a driving force for Archer, as he realizes that nothing they have could let them fight an S-rank threat on even footing.
And before any of you start talking about your favorite Noble Phantasms to kill it with, that Spider has roughly 6 times as much Defense as Berserker. It is tanky as fuck. Caladbolg won't kill it. And since it is the size of a goddamn castle, restraining it with the golden chains will be difficult when they would only fit around part of one of its legs.
(16967 END * 4 (Diamond Skin LvMax multiplier) = 67,868 | Servant stats of A is 5,000, A+ is 10,000)