Hello, I'm still here, alive and healthy. I hope you all are too.
So, a little announcement. I'm now certain that I'm gonna eat my own words from way back then. It turns out this story will live to see its 3rd anniversary after all. This ongoing arc being the final one remains unchanged, though.
In any case, let's go on with the show.
Chapter 81: Infested Land
Deep within the depths of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Ainz was seated behind his work desk in his office. The one and only genuine Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown was floating at his side, faithfully waiting for the owner to utilize it. At his other side, Albedo was standing by in a firm upright posture, and across the work desk Demiurge was sitting while reading through a report sheet
Thanks to the world-wide Darker attack, the initial purpose of the alliance between ARKS and Ainz had been thrown out of the window. Instead of him spreading words about ARKS while proceeding with his world conquest, it was ARKS who were now spreading words to all nations about his newly founded nation and recommending them all to ally with it.
In addition, Ainz had recently received news from Pandora's Actor, who was currently masquerading as Momon in E-Rantel, that the King of Re-Estize Kingdom had officially approved the concession of E-Rantel and stated that Re-Estize Kingdom was open for further alliance negotiations. Such a development had never been foreseen because Ainz had been expecting oppositions and resistances, which he would crush if necessary, either through violent means or less violent ones.
The report Demiurge was reading was a written summary of the outcomes of ARKS sending their representatives across nations of New World, courtesy of ARKS themselves. Ainz had never asked for such a report, but he could understand their goodwill, since their endeavor to protect the people of New World involved his kingdom directly after all.
It was convenient that the report was written in New World language, which the librarian of Nazarick had already learned. Therefore, a legible copy of it could be quickly made for relevant Nazarick denizens to read. Ainz had already read the report, and now he had Demiurge read it as well to hear his opinions.
"Ainz-sama..."
Demiurge called out to Ainz's name in a low voice without raising his head from the report sheet he was holding. The lack of gesture raised a feeling of anxiety within Ainz's mind.
Is he mad? Did I take the wrong course of action?
Before Ainz could verbally respond to Demiurge, the latter put down the report sheet and spoke with his head kept low.
"I'm truly humbled by your brilliant mind, Ainz-sama. It is unimaginable that you would grant a small mind like myself the privilege to voice out an opinion!"
What...? Shit, here we go again...
Despite Ainz having come clean back then, nothing had changed on the matter of the attitude of the Floor Guardians regarding him. At this point, Ainz was already too used to this kind of thing happening that he outright no longer bothered to voice out any denial. Instead, he just went with the flow and spoke in his dignified tone.
"Brilliant mind, small mind, those are irrelevant measures. No matter how genius one's mind is, one should not be blinded by their own view of the world. Hearing the views of others is one of the many ways to expand one's knowledge, however small. Therefore, speak"
Demiurge raised his head, staring at Ainz without saying any word for a brief moment, until he finally opened his mouth and spoke.
"As you wish, Ainz-sama. As per written in this report, a number of nations around the location of Nazarick and further beyond, with a few exceptions, have officially recognized the founding of Guardian Kingdom. All of them are either open for alliance negotiations or keeping themselves neutral. Achieving this level of recognition with minimal resistance has never been within my wildest dream, Ainz-sama!"
While hearing Demiurge's speech, Ainz put his hand under his chin.
"Hmm, is that so?"
"Of course, Ainz-sama! We all know how humanity views and shuns heteromorphs, especially undead, who in their mind is something to destroy on sight. Taking this into account, the world conquest plan I have formulated involved years, if not decades, of intrigue and political games to suppress resistance against us. This outcome here... To achieve similar results with my formulated plan... it would have taken two decades, at least!"
Ainz didn't budge from his position and body posture. He simply couldn't believe how having ARKS spread news about him and his kingdom had become such a huge deal in Demiurge's eyes.
"I did not produce this outcome myself, though. ARKS did everything without me asking for it"
"And that was the result of your brilliance, Ainz-sama. None of the Floor Guardians, not even myself, have ever thought that allying with them would produce decades worth of results in one fell swoop. It should have been obvious ever since the day Ryu came to Nazarick, but I didn't see it and it is so shameful"
Upon hearing Demiurge's words, Ainz lowered his head and rested his forehead on his left hand.
This is getting out of hand...
Not having any more of the excessive praise, Ainz quickly spoke to move on with the topic.
"A-Anyway! What do you think about the exceptions?"
Hearing Ainz's question, Demiurge's face reverted back to the straight and serious expression. He briefly adjusted his glasses before he began speaking.
"Ah, yes. The Roble Holy Kingdom to the southwest, and the nation of demihumans to the far east. It seems the Paladin Order of the Holy Kingdom voiced a strong opposition upon knowing the fact that Ainz-sama is an undead. Typical hardline Paladins. I actually have formulated a plan for conquering this kingdom, but sadly it had to be discarded because the situation within the neighboring Abelion Hills has changed too far from favorable. Shall I formulate another plan from scratch, Ainz-sama?"
"Umu, as long as they don't give hints of outright hostile actions against us, we can leave them alone for the time being. What about the other?"
"The nation of demihumans, commonly called Beastman Country, is nothing more than a bunch of savages. Taking into account the events happening so far and the fact that they were dense enough to show hostility against the representatives of their savior, wiping them off the map sounds like a good idea, Ainz-sama"
Ainz pondered about the idea for a brief moment, and then he shook his head before speaking out.
"While doing that will possibly garner favor from the Dragon Kingdom which they are currently at war with, I wish not to openly show violent actions when my own nation is still very young. I shall leave them alone too, while keeping them under surveillance"
"Excellent decision, Ainz-sama"
Demiurge nodded while still sporting his usual smug smile. At the same time, Ainz noticed from the corner of his eyes that Albedo was smiling with her eyes looking at him in adoration. Not going to pay further heed to that, Ainz spoke to Demiurge.
"Nevertheless, now that E-Rantel is officially annexed to Guardian Kingdom, we should begin fortifying its defenses immediately. After all, there is no telling when and where Darkers will attack again. Can I trust you on the preparations, Demiurge?"
"Certainly, Ainz-sama!"
Demiurge responded with one hand placed in front of his chest, which was a clear gesture of confidence. Ainz then turned his head towards Albedo.
"Albedo, work together with Demiurge. Once everything is ready, notify me"
"As you command, Ainz-sama"
Albedo bowed as she spoke, and then the two of them left the room to make the necessary preparations. Once Ainz was sure that he was alone, he slouched on his seat and sighed.
Perhaps it's still better to play along rather than denying. At least now I no longer have to worry about keeping my image, so there's that.
While having the brief rest, Ainz pondered about Dark Falz Double. In current circumstances, they were the ones Ainz had to be most wary of. Attacking all major cities on a whim and taking countless lives in the process was proof that they were significantly more ruthless than Elder. Moreover, taking into account the statement from Guardian Melrose, Ainz was basically their main goal thanks to the fact that Dark Falz Elder was now inside him.
"Hey, what do you know about Dark Falz Double?"
"Nothing! I have only met them once, and I immediately didn't like them!"
"You don't get along with your fellow Dark Falz?"
"There's no such thing as getting along in our book. Each has their own goal, and if our goals clash we kill each other. Simple"
Ainz went silent after hearing Elder's answer. Having no more questions, he stood up, gently grabbed the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, and began walking away from the office.
[X][X][X]
Ryu, Hikaru, and Lily returned to E-Rantel right after finishing necessary business back in Laguz. Darker activity was currently at controllable levels, so he could leave the extermination operations to other squads.
Knowing that the civilians of E-Rantel were already aware of ARKS's method of arrival, Ryu no longer hesitated to land in the middle of the city, and right in front of the Adventurer's Guild building no less. As expected, some people turned their heads towards the trio, but they then immediately went back to their own activities.
Ryu then entered the guild building followed by the other two. Once he was in the main hall, he looked around searching for a certain person. Thankfully, he spotted the person soon enough and therefore he approached that person.
"Momon-dono"
"Ah, Ryu. Thank you for your hard work keeping other cities safe"
Momon greeted Ryu while still remaining seated. Nabe at his side glanced at Ryu with a sort of odd approval in her eyes, but didn't say a word.
"The same goes to you, Momon-dono. Thank you for keeping E-Rantel safe in our absence. Is there any important news?"
Momon was silent for a brief moment before he replied to Ryu's question.
"Actually, yes. This morning the news spread that the King of Re-Estize has officially conceded E-Rantel to Ainz Ooal Gown. Therefore this city is now under his rule"
Once again, Ryu had no idea how he should respond to the news. However, by now it was already public knowledge that ARKS and Ainz were allied, so there was less worry of having to play dumb or such. He only needed to prevent himself from leaking the fact that Momon and Nabe were affiliated with Ainz as well.
"I see. So now it's just a matter of when the news will reach him"
"Which I believe should be soon enough. Now that you know, ARKS will know, and he will subsequently know too, no?"
"Eh, I'm not sure about that. Like I said before, our alliance is about aiding each other against Darkers and Dark Falz. We're not obliged to do anything for him when it comes to local politics like this"
"I see"
Blam!
Suddenly, the front door of the guild building slammed open. The one entering immediately was a young man bearing a Silver Rank plate. Fear and worry were written all over his face.
"The undead is here!"
The young man shouted at the top of his lungs, prompting reactions from all people inside the main hall, including Ryu's group. Momon, while remaining calm, stood up from his seat.
"Speak of the devil. Let's go and see what he's going to do"
"Ah, right"
Momon and Nabe walked out from the guild building, while Ryu's group followed right behind. While walking, Ryu silently lowered his head closer to Lily and whispered to her.
"Just in case, remember not to call him 'Papa' in public"
Lily didn't give any verbal reply. Instead, she just nodded. Soon after, the group saw the familiar undead being, standing in the middle of the road right in front of the guild building, holding a decorated golden magic staff.
"Ah, how convenient to see familiar faces upon my arrival"
Ainz spoke right upon noticing the group coming out of the guild building. There were other people in the vicinity, but all of them kept their distance out of fear and worry. There were even some others who turned tail and ran away from the place.
"What's your purpose of coming here today, Ainz Ooal Gown?"
Momon asked the question while standing upright. Knowing the truth between the two, Ryu couldn't help feeling a little strange seeing the interaction, but he knew that he shouldn't speak unless asked, so he silently watched.
"To take over the leadership of this city, of course. The King of this kingdom has approved the concession, no? My loyal subordinates are now at the City Hall taking care of necessary things, while I am here to keep my words"
"If I were to make a guess, I suppose you mean about protecting the people?"
"Hmm, I am glad that you paid attention. Indeed it is. I wish to protect the people, my people, from those pests. And for that a proper security force is necessary, no? This is where I shall bring my troops in, and they shall be stationed throughout the city"
Without waiting for a reply, Ainz raised one hand and put two fingers on the side of his head. Just a second later, a dark portal appeared behind him. Unlike the portal Ryu usually went through, this one was significantly taller and wider, to the point that Ryu could no longer see the building behind Ainz.
Ryu couldn't comprehend what happened over the course of the next ten seconds. What he knew was the fact that now there was a legion of large undead knights in place of the portal. They were neatly lined up like disciplined soldiers, which was an astonishing sight for anyone looking at them. Seeing this, more people could be noticed running away from the place, and there were others who fell on their bottom.
"Wait a second! You can't just bring your troops here out of the blue like that! Even though you mean well, the people will be scared out of their wits seeing them!"
Momon voiced his complaint, while Ainz remained standing without showing immediate reaction.
"In that case, how about you work for me to maintain public order? Of course, you shall be rewarded appropriately"
Ryu somewhat understood that the conversation between Ainz and Momon so far had the purpose of establishing a situation where Momon would be officially working under Ainz, which would provide a layer of security regarding Momon's true identity. He was quite interested in seeing how the conversation would continue, however...
Beep! Beep!
A call from Laguz came. Ryu immediately picked it up, and he could immediately hear Xiera's voice.
"Ryu! There's an emergency! Please return immediately!"
Momon and Ainz noticed the sudden call, and the latter immediately spoke.
"Go, Ryu and company. I shall protect this city in your absence as I once promised"
Momon made a nod right after Ainz spoke, agreeing with him. Ryu looked at Lily and Hikaru who immediately nodded as his eyes met theirs, and then he put down a teleportation beacon right where he stood.
Less than five minutes later, Ryu and his company arrived at the Gate Area of Laguz. The ambient lighting of the area was a hue of red, and quite a number of people rushed left and right. It was plainly clear that an emergency situation was ongoing.
"Ryu! Here!"
Ryu heard a familiar voice calling out to him. He immediately looked and noticed the rest of his team standing a stone's throw away from him. Without question, he dashed to approach them.
"What's the situation?"
Ryu asked the question to Guardian, who immediately answered.
"A sudden Darker activity spike. Here, take a look"
Guardian opened her photon interface, showing a map of the land below. A significant portion of a region was marked with flaring red color, and Ryu recognized the marked region.
"Abelion Hills..."
Ryu uttered the name of the region, and Guardian responded with a nod.
"Yeah, it's a barren land with no human civilization, but for some reason a lot of things have been happening there. Anyway, if left unchecked the Darkers will eventually march towards civilizations, so our mission is to exterminate as many as possible"
While Guardian was speaking, Rose turned her head towards Alice and spoke.
"The Darkers are stronger than the ones we recently fought. Do you still want to come with us?"
Rose's facial expression was dead serious. She asked the question not to make fun of the fact that Alice was still the weakest among the group in terms of combat power, but because she was genuinely concerned about Alice's safety.
Alice made a determined nod in response.
"I will go. Who am I to leave the responsibility of defending my home planet to other people?"
Rose, not changing her facial expression, nodded upon hearing Alice's words.
"Stay close to us"
Alice responded with another nod, and the group of six immediately departed to the location of the mission.
After a quick trip using the Gate Ship, the group landed at the location which Ryu remembered as the place where the group, minus Guardian, had fought the Apostolo Dragon. It was also the place where Guardian had been captured by Ainz's subordinates, an event which had led to her encountering Ryu's group for the first time.
What Ryu saw first was the fact that the place was nothing like he remembered. Red haze painted the sky, all vegetations were either dead or overgrown by equally dead-looking plants, and red pools which could easily be mistaken for blood were everywhere. In addition, multiple companies of Darkers could be seen roaming at a far distance and it was just a question of when they would notice the group here. The sight was horrible, but familiar for Ryu and other ARKS.
"W-What is this?"
It was expected that Alice, who had never seen such a scene, would question it with a pretty horrified look on her face. Lily remained calm, but one could still notice her astonishment on closer look.
"Darker Den"
Guardian gave out the short answer while taking her rifle out.
"You mean, Abelion Hills has become a breeding pen of those abominable creatures?"
"Yes"
Alice was momentarily speechless before she turned her head to Ryu and asked a question.
"Ryu... is this what Re-Estize capital would have become if Elder had not honored his promise?"
"Well, back then I exaggerated. It was actually unlikely, but yes, in the absolute worst case scenario the capital city could end up like this"
Hearing Ryu's answer, Alice was once again speechless with the horrified look remaining on her face. Ryu didn't blame her, since this kind of sight was a rarity even for ARKS operatives.
"Liz, if you want to back out nobody will blame you"
Upon hearing Ryu's words, Alice tightly gripped the magic staff she had received from Ainz with both hands, with her facial expression changing into a more determined one.
"I won't repeat myself. Moreover, despite honorary, I'm an ARKS too. I will fight, both for ARKS and for my home planet!"
Seeing Alice's determination, everyone else couldn't help feeling inspired. Guardian smiled as she nodded before speaking out.
"Alright, our mission is simple. Roam the area and exterminate as many hostiles as we can on sight. Everyone ready?"
Without further words, everyone else readied their weapons and the group moved out to begin their mission.
Presently, the group was merely one of many ARKS squads trying to suppress Darker populations over the Abelion Hills. There was no information on how and why a full-blown Darker Den could suddenly emerge over such a large area. Although it couldn't be confirmed as of yet, one could interpolate from recent events that this was highly likely to be the handiwork of Dark Falz Double. Yet another one of their 'games' with which to 'play' with ARKS.
Having never encountered Dark Falz Double in person, Ryu's knowledge about them was limited. But the most important matter right now was the fact that the Darkers encountered so far were mixed groups of Dark Falz Double's Toy Darkers, Dark Falz Loser's Winged Darkers, and Dark Falz Apprentice's Insect Darkers. The only Darker type missing was Dark Falz Elder's Aquatic Darkers, which essentially confirmed the suspicion that this Darker Den was Dark Falz Double's handiwork, since they had devoured Loser and Apprentice but not Elder.
The Darkers themselves didn't trouble the group too much. Coupled with the fact that the mutated photons of this planet amplified Photon Arts and Photon Techs, the weapons Guardian had procured for everyone had more than enough power to end all Darker encounters quickly.
The main problem came from the natives and wildlife of the region, which had been infected and mutated beyond help. The malicious mutations strengthened them to the point that they had become as threatening as the Darkers, if not more, thanks to the lack of information about their powers and combat methods.
Whoosh! Boom!
Two large spherical energy balls shot from Guardian's rifle sped through a myriad of hostiles, vaporizing them all. Ryu also eliminated a different group using Ilmegid dark claws. Meanwhile, Rose slashed a large Darker in two with her katana, and as an aerial Darker was about to attack her from above, she instantly switched to Meru, casting Grants upon it. This conjured light spears which impaled and killed it instantly. Ryu noticed and felt impressed, since no one else could switch classes mid-battle like that.
"Shifta! Deband!"
Alice casted the two buffing Photon Techs to renew their duration. Thanks to her having Techer as her main class, the effects were significantly more potent than what Ryu could normally achieve if he casted those techs himself. He was now fully convinced that she really had made the right choice.
The coast was clear for the moment, so the group gathered to take a breather and have a quick discussion.
"Everyone alright? Anyone hurt?"
Guardian asked while looking around at the others.
"I'm alright, and it seems everyone else is too"
Ryu replied while also looking at all the others. As far as he could see, everybody was alright.
"We've been fighting for like... nearly an hour. I'm not injured or anything, but sooner or later I will get tired. We all will"
Rose spoke her concern out, and nobody showed any sign of disagreement. Alice then looked at Guardian and asked a question.
"What's the current status of this mission?"
Without saying a word, Guardian opened her photon interface and took a good look at it before giving her answer.
"We're steadily suppressing the Darker population, but it feels too slow. The squads will get exhausted first at this rate"
Guardian spoke with a concerned expression, and Mel Rose who was currently Meru looked worried in response.
"What? Is there anything we can do...?"
But before Meru could get any answer...
"Watch out!"
Lily shouted and jumped at Meru, tackling her away from the spot she was standing on. Within that instant, a large battle axe slammed upon her former location. The ground around it exploded into a small crater, kicking up an enormous dust-cloud, signifying the strength of the blow from the thrown ornate weapon.
"What was that?"
Hikaru asked the question, and the battle axe flew away by itself, probably returning to the hands of whoever had thrown it.
"We got company"
Guardian spoke as the dust began to settle. What was soon revealed to the group was a muscular bipedal white tiger wearing armor and wielding the battle axe, accompanied by something which looked human but had four arms. Both of them radiated sinister black and red aura, and they each had a Max Darker Core latching on their shoulder near the neck.
"Infected natives, with Max Darker Core..."
Ryu muttered while readying his weapon. Seeing the Max Darker Cores reminded him of his bitter experience against the Kraken. Now there were two infected natives, and there was no telling how much trouble they would cause soon, despite his group being significantly stronger and more numerous than back then.
"There's one more behind us"
Guardian spoke while glancing in the opposite direction from the two infected natives. Ryu turned his head, and saw a bipedal goat wearing green-colored armor, a red cape, and wielding a yellow-colored sword. The goat creature was also decorated with other shiny accessories, but the one which immediately prompted a reaction of disgust was the set of three human skulls hanging on its waist. At a glance, the skulls were smaller than average adult humans, so it was likely those were the skulls of human children. Like the other two infected natives, this one also radiated a sinister dark aura, having a Max Darker Core latched upon its shoulder.
"Six versus three. Should we split up?"
"Yeah. Piling up on one will get us back-attacked by the others"
As Guardian spoke, Meru switched to Rose and stood up looking angry.
"Let me at that tiger!"
Guardian, while remaining unfazed, spoke in response.
"Fine, but keep your calm"
"Lily, keep Liz safe"
"Yes, Ryu-san!"
Without further words, the group split up in an uneven fashion despite the possibility to do otherwise. Rose and Hikaru went against the tiger, then the trio of Ryu, Lily, and Alice went against the goat, and Guardian faced the four-armed humanoid alone. Either by coincidence or not, the adversaries seemed to understand the intention, moving accordingly to face their designated opponents. Ryu had his concerns, but he knew that he had to focus on the enemy in front of his eyes. Tending to the others would only come after defeating the foe he was facing now.
[X][X][X]
Guardian quickly dashed away from the group in order to avoid possible stray attacks hitting them. While doing this, she kept her eyes on her opponent, who raised one of their four arms.
A solid long and sharp lance-like projectile gleaming in silver color was conjured and shot straight at Guardian. She narrowly evaded and immediately attacked back with a single shot which was accompanied by three more energy projectiles. All of them missed because the enemy moved to the side using an instant short range teleportation.
Shift-Verbrechen!
Guardian conjured a tetrahedral-shaped crystal above her which automatically and periodically shot homing projectiles at the enemy. In response, the enemy conjured multiple lances, each with a different elemental property, and shot them all at once. Guardian managed to evade once again, but one of the lances pierced the crystal and made a small explosion, ending it abruptly.
Shift-Nachtangriff!
Guardian shot out two spherical energy balls towards the enemy accompanied by three smaller energy projectiles, but once again everything missed because the enemy blinked away with the teleportation ability. Seeing how the enemy was very adept at evasion like herself, Guardian switched her weapon from rifle to rod and immediately began charging a Photon Tech, which she casted less than half a second later.
Grants!
Multiple light spears were conjured around the enemy and impaled the Max Darker Core. This time all of them hit, but the core still survived. The enemy flinched in pain, so at least Guardian knew that she had dealt damage.
Grants!
Another barrage of light spears struck the core once again, but this time the enemy didn't flinch. Instead, they blinked sideways out of Guardian's line of sight. She turned her head trying to track the enemy, but the moment she finally got them in her sight, she suddenly felt strange. Her focus dropped and her sight became blurred for a second.
When Guardian came to, she wanted to immediately resume attacking. However, she noticed that both her wrists were now covered by a glowing white magic circle. Knowing that those things would be bad news sooner or later, she raised her weapon as fast as she could towards the enemy in an attempt to strike.
However, it was a little too late.
Within an instant, the magic circles changed color to red and Guardian lost control of her hands. She could no longer move her fingers as she wanted, and as the result she dropped her weapon. She tried as hard as she could to move her arms, but they wouldn't budge no matter how hard she kicked the ground for leverage. It was as if her hands and wrists were frozen and suspended on the spot.
The enemy standing at a distance in front of Guardian made some gestures with one of their four arms, and suddenly Guardian's arms were forced to stretch sideways. A different arm of the enemy made a similar gesture, and soon Guardian's ankles received the same treatment as her wrists, forcing her legs to remain straight down.
Guardian was now in a bind, figuratively and literally. She was essentially tied to an invisible crucifix, courtesy of the strange unknown magic spell casted by the enemy, who was now preparing multitudes of lances to throw at her. Guardian struggled and squirmed, but her arms and legs wouldn't budge. The others were probably too focused and occupied by their own battles, so she couldn't expect any help from them either.
Come on! What to do to get out of this!?
A fire elemental lance was thrown, directly striking Guardian's left shoulder.
"Ugh!"
Guardian felt an intense, sharp burning pain. It was surprising that a magic spell from a native could hurt her this much despite photon armor protection, but it was probably thanks to the Darker infection greatly amplifying them.
Another elemental lance was thrown, this time it was of lightning element, and it hit Guardian's knees. The shocking pain was so unpleasant that Guardian couldn't even grunt.
"H-Hey! Someone lend me some power to Dark Blast!"
Guardian shouted inside her mind, trying to get any of the Dark Falz inside her to lend their powers. But the reply she immediately heard was anything but good news.
"You think I've been standing here twiddling thumbs, chump!? This deep shit you're in blocked our powers from reaching you!"
"Hmm, this is interesting. The deployed formula converges into a possibility I have never seen before"
"Cut the crap talk and start thinking of something useful, Loser!"
Gettemhart, Luther, and Margaretta addressed the situation in their own ways, and none of them gave Guardian any feelings of relief.
"Hey, hey. Can we try?"
"Hey, hey. Can we play?"
Flo and Frau spoke, sounding calm compared to the others. Gettemhart grunted before speaking in a clearly upset tone.
"Suit yourself!"
Seemingly not paying much heed, Flo and Frau spoke cheerfully.
"Let's play! Let's play!"
"Yeah, let's play!"
Suddenly, Guardian could feel the power of Flo and Frau flowing throughout her body. She wondered why they weren't affected by this strange magic, but she had no time to question it because the enemy was about to throw another lance at her. Within that instant, Guardian mustered her strength to invoke the power lent by Flo and Frau, causing herself to be engulfed by a bright red aura.
Dark Blast Double!
The aura dissipated, and Guardian came out of it in the form of an altered and purified Falz Dourumble, the humanoid battle form of Dark Falz Double. In this form, Guardian had two similar humanoid bodies looking like a pair of grinning toy dolls, one blue and one pink. Each of them had one fairly normal-looking arm while the other arm was a huge pincer almost as big as their body, which was about three meters tall overall. For the pink body the pincer arm was the left arm, while for the blue body it was the right one.
"Ta-dah! Let's Play! Eheheheh!"
A creepy, childish voice came out from Guardian's form. What immediately followed was the blue body morphing into a giant hammer, which the pink body used to slam at the enemy.
"You better dodge or you're gonna die!"
The enemy narrowly blinked away, but the slammed ground exploded into a crater and sent out radial shockwaves which still hit them. The blue body reverted to their normal form, and at the same time the pink body morphed into a cannon which the blue body gripped tight as it shot out a barrage of projectiles.
"I hope this hurts you a bunch!"
The amount of projectiles was too many for the enemy to dodge, even with what Guardian assumed to be a teleportation ability. They were struck by dozens of them and flinched as Guardian kept raining hell down upon them with the barrage.
"I'll show you my special treasure!"
The pink body reverted to normal form and now the two bodies stood side by side holding each other's hands while their pincer arms began shooting out a barrage of larger projectiles which exploded like fireworks. The explosions not only hurt the enemy massively, but also leveled the entire ground around them.
"Lookey! Pretty, huh?"
Guardian's form shouted childishly as each of the two bodies fired an even bigger projectile, the two of which soon converged and created a gargantuan explosion.
BOOM!
Afterwards, as the dust cleared, nothing appeared to be left of the enemy. The only sight visible where they had used to be, was an utterly devastated land and an enormous crater resulting from Guardian's attack.
"Awww, I still wanna play..."
As Guardian's form spoke, they were engulfed by a red aura. Seconds later, Guardian was back in her human form with her breath running short. She glanced at the distance and saw that it seemed the others were done with their respective battles as well, hurrying to her while looking concerned.
"Are you alright there?"
Ryu spoke first as they got close enough. Guardian took a quick deep breath before replying.
"Yeah, my opponent was more trouble than I expected, but I'm fine now"
"Was that another of your... transformation power?"
[Lesser Rejuvenate Stamina]
Alice asked the question as she casted a stamina recovery spell at Guardian. It didn't recover much, but it still helped regardless.
"Yeah, that was from borrowing Double's power. It's the hardest one to control, but for some reason I had no other options because the magic spell I was put under prevented the others from lending their power"
"Huh? Why? How come?"
Rose tilted her head as she asked. Guardian herself had no idea, and so she replied.
"No idea. Cover me for a moment. I'm gonna ask them directly"
Guardian then closed her eyes, sending her consciousness into the mind space where all the Dark Falz resided within her. All of them were there standing around with straight faces, and Guardian immediately looked at Flo and Frau.
"Any idea why your powers could reach me while others' couldn't?"
"Nope, no idea"
"Yeah, we were just happy to play!"
Flo and Frau tilted their head childishly as they replied. Guardian wasn't too happy with that, and so she glanced at Luther whom she liked the least among all the Dark Falz, but nevertheless the most intelligent out of them all. He noticed that and smiled with a smug face.
"You failed to grasp the answer, and so you came to me again. Fufufu..."
"Tch! If you know something, just spit it out!"
Gettemhart spoke to Luther in a clearly upset tone of speech. Luther remained unfazed while keeping his smugness, but he then spoke.
"From all the events that have happened thus far, you should know there is something which makes Double different from the rest of us now, hmm?"
"Wait, you don't mean-?"
Margaretta's eyes went wide as she spoke, having seemingly realized something. At the same time, Guardian got a hunch about what Luther exactly meant, and so she spoke to confirm.
"The Evil Deity they ate back then?"
Luther nodded with one hand under his chin while keeping his smug smile.
"This is just an interpolation of the formulas and possibilities presented, and there is no way to come to an absolute solution yet. But it is the most probable answer that Double has absorbed the power of whatever that thing was, which allowed them to overcome the obstacle that blocked the rest of us"
As they heard Luther's speech, Flo and Frau looked at each other while looking visibly confused.
"Now that you mention it, I do feel something strange"
"Yeah, yeah. That gross thing we ate, I felt that I became stronger after eating that"
"But ewww, I'm not gonna eat something like that again"
"Yeah, yeah. It was not tasty at all!"
Flo and Frau stuck their tongue out in disgust as they remembered their experience of devouring the Evil Deity. Meanwhile, Guardian made a slight nod after hearing everything. Without saying any more words, Guardian returned her consciousness to her physical body and opened her eyes.
Rose was then the first one to inquire.
"So, did you get any good answers?"
"It seems the Evil Deity they devoured back then gave them additional power which could overcome the magic spell"
"You mean when Mo'ryck attempted to possess you? Makes sense, I guess"
Rose made a slight nod as she spoke, while Ryu seemed to be thinking deeply. Everybody in the team had already been told about her story with the Evil Deity, so thankfully there was no need to explain things anymore in regards to that matter.
"So, the Double inside you got stronger after devouring a local monster?"
Ryu asked the question while still keeping his thinking posture.
"Yeah, that's pretty much it"
"This might be bad..."
Ryu spoke while glancing at Hikaru, who immediately nodded. Guardian had no idea what he meant, so she asked.
"Why is that?"
"I forgot to tell you thanks to the sudden emergency situation back then. Actually, Dark Falz Double of my universe devoured something upon their arrival"
Ryu then proceeded to recount his experience during the brief scouting mission he did along with Lily and Hikaru. He spoke about a mysterious but definitely very strong individual named Ishmael who had fought an equally strong monster, which got devoured by Dark Falz Double.
"...If the Double inside you could achieve a power upgrade from devouring a local monster, isn't it possible that Dark Falz Double has achieved the same from devouring that powerful monster, whatever it was?"
With the question, Ryu ended his story. Guardian briefly went into a thinking posture, and then she spoke.
"That's actually a valid concern. In any case, I believe we have done enough for now on our part. Let's retreat back to Laguz, deliver this information, and recuperate"
Nobody disagreed, and so Guardian put down a teleportation beacon which brought them back to their Gate Ship.
During the flight back to Laguz, Guardian heard Flo and Frau talking to her from the mind space.
"Hey hey, Guardian. I have a present for you!"
"Yeah, yeah! The power I got from that gross thing!"
"I can share it with you!"
"That's right! Ta-da! Now you're stronger too!"
Guardian suddenly felt a surge of power within her body right after Frau exclaimed, but then she felt nothing. Her body still felt as normal as it always was, and her vital signs displayed in her photon interface showed no change. She was not sure if she really had become stronger like Flo and Frau claimed, but she knew that they meant well so she accepted their mysterious gift with gratitude.
[X][X][X]
Afterword:
Once again, Guardian got a little careless while fighting against a native, but like before she got out of trouble thanks to the help from within. She was also gifted a portion of the new power later, which was appreciated because Dark Falz Double have become stronger thanks to the monster they have eaten, and everybody will need all the help they can get.
See you again later.
