Real Combat
As usual, Fortuna fed a newborn that had only just opened its eyes to the light a fresh batch of pure white milky fluid she had just produced.
Shaaaa—
The milky fluid fell in a fine mist, like a light drizzle. In an instant the baby's body was thoroughly soiled with it.
"Hmm-hmm-hmm. Is it tasty, little one? Want more?"
Tremble—
"You want more? All right!"
Tremble! Tremble!
No matter how I look at it, that doesn't seem like a request for more…
Contrary to Jun's impression, Fortuna hummed a little tune and prepared to refill the watering can—now empty of the milky fluid, holy water (actual holy water, not breast milk)—with more of the same.
Tremble— twitch! Twitch!
Then, through another soul-thread far thinner than the usual ones, a surge of urgency and desperation came flooding in. Jun snorted a quiet laugh and answered that desperate wish.
"For, the baby's full now. Stop giving it more."
"Really? I should stop?"
Twitch! Twitch!
As if answering Fortuna's question, the newborn—the tiny sprout in the pot—gave its pair of cotyledons a little twitch. Reluctantly, Fortuna stopped filling the watering can with holy water.
As a consolation prize of sorts, she shifted from human mode into fairy mode, perched on the rim of the pot, and began teasing the sprout. For a moment the cotyledons drooped—then, almost at once, the sprout started swaying them cheerfully in time with Fortuna's play.
It looked exactly like a precocious child, half-annoyed yet still playing along for the adult's sake. A smile touched Jun's face, half wonder and half pride.
The more I watch it, the stranger it gets.
This was a fantasy world. Plants capable of expressing themselves or thinking on a human level were rare, but they did exist. Usually, though, that only became possible after they had aged to a certain point. He had never heard of a sprout that had only just germinated acting with such sophisticated intent.
Well, considering where it came from, maybe it isn't that surprising.
Grade: Platinum
Category: Other
A seed of ????? obtained from a treasure chest in Labyrinth-Moorim. It was used as the core of a Labyrinth Core. Having long been exposed to mana unlike that of this world, it requires vast quantities of high-purity divine power for purification and growth.
The sprout's true identity was the germination of an unidentified seed taken from a Labyrinth treasure chest. Its grade was nothing less than Platinum. Considering that every Platinum-grade item ever to appear in the world was treated as a strategic weapon, this seed almost certainly held tremendous power as well.
It might even surpass other Platinum-grade items. The Akashic Records—the hyperdimensional archive containing every record of the cosmos and of humanity—were linked to the Church's appraisal documents. The fact that those documents could not properly render the seed's name meant its rank was simply too high for the appraisal to handle. So once it finished growing, it would surely unleash power far beyond anything of the same grade.
Whether I'll live to see that is another question.
Four years. Fully four years had passed since Leonard had handed him the seed as payment, and only now had it finally germinated into a sprout—even with Fortuna, whose divine power was second only to a god's, periodically producing holy water and sprinkling it over the thing.
Am I just being impatient?
In truth, even this much was an astonishing achievement. The seed was one of the items the previous Hero had obtained while conquering Labyrinth-Moorim. The Church, which had received it as a donation from the Hero, had poured enormous time and resources into trying to make it germinate—and had ultimately failed, consigning it to a warehouse. If the Church, or Leon's mother—the previous Saintess, who had tried germinating it as a hobby—ever saw this sprout in bloom, they would flip over in shock.
For the record, Leonard had been the one to suggest Jun take the seed in the first place. When he fled with Leon, he had grabbed it thinking it was a memento of the Saintess; later he learned it wasn't. Returning it to the Church at that point felt awkward, and giving it to Leon was equally awkward—so he had more or less foisted the problem onto Jun. Jun could have refused, but he had already thrown a fit over wanting Firmus, the seed was the highest-grade item Leonard possessed, and above all Fortuna had wanted it desperately. In the end, Jun had accepted Leonard's offer.
At any rate, they had succeeded where both the Church and the Saintess had failed. All that remained was to wait patiently for it to finish growing…
"Jun, what are you thinking so hard about?"
"Whether I'll live long enough to see this thing finish growing."
"Again? I told you last time. Divine trees like this one or the World Tree are hard to germinate at first—but after that, they shoot up fast."
"You did. And you're right… but with everything going on lately, I keep thinking about it anyway."
Jun smiled bitterly and looked up at the sky. The Milky Way flowed past like a quiet river. Stars blazed with brilliant light, flaunting their presence for all they were worth. The moon watched over their antics with warm indulgence. High in a tall old tree at the peak of a chilly midwinter mountain, the sky overhead was so beautiful and fantastical it could steal a man's mind without warning. He wanted to keep staring up into that beauty forever.
Thud! Thud!
But the noise carrying from far away would not leave him alone.
Already starting, huh.
Jun closed his eyes and poured every scrap of his focus into his radar. Four years of growth had brought it far enough that it could now scour an entire mountain without trouble.
"Gyaaah!"
"Retreat! Fall back!"
"You bastards! You came here as you pleased—but you're not leaving as you please!"
Assassins fled in every direction as if they had seen a monster. Leonard, wreathed head to toe in divine power, smashed through everything in his path like a war engine and chased hard on their heels. If a wolf appeared among a flock of sheep, it would look something like that.
"Ghk!"
"S-sniper—!"
An arrow from somewhere stole the life of an assassin who had been fleeing in a blind panic. The one beside him tried to warn the others—but never finished the sentence, meeting the same end as his friend who had gone first. Having claimed two lives, Robin's eyes gleamed as he immediately lined up his next target.
Elsewhere, combatants dispatched by the Council and the Church were clashing with assassins all across the mountain. Screams and curses echoed through the trees like a chorus. Nausea rose in Jun's throat. Out of habit, he activated a skill he had only recently created.
Mind Control
They are enemies. If I don't kill them, they kill me. No need to feel anything about it. Stay cold. Stay cold.
"Hoo…"
The revulsion and guilt that had filled his head vanished, replaced by cold reason. Jun's turbulent eyes settled into calm.
"…Jun."
"Sorry, For. I promised I'd only use it in combat."
"Mm, it's fine. This basically counts as combat anyway."
She said that—but Fortuna was not at ease. Every time he used the new skill, she fretted that someday he would overuse it and something would break.
Forced regulation of thought through a super-ability. Useful in many ways—but if he ever grew addicted to it, Jun's growth could end right there. A person's thoughts are the wellspring of emotion. Good thoughts become positive feelings; bad thoughts become negative ones. So are bad thoughts—and the negative emotions they produce—unnecessary to a human being?
No. Absolutely not. They sometimes cause pointless trouble and become the root of accidents, but they are also the greatest driving force behind human growth. Jealousy of what another has moves a person to claim it for themselves. Anger and fear toward something drive a person to destroy and overcome it. Jun himself had come to crave strength out of injustice and rage. If he had possessed this skill back then—if he had castrated that injustice and rage—he would never have formed that resolve.
If Lumen had been a peaceful world, that might have been fine. But Lumen's rematch with other worlds was not far off, and no matter how hard she tried to protect him, whether she could keep him safe was far from certain. For their happy life together, he had to grow strong—strong enough to survive the war that was coming. So a skill that could smother the very emotions that made him want strength was something that ought to be sealed whenever possible.
But Fortuna could not bring herself to do it. She was afraid he would break before the war even began. She found herself hating Leonard and Leon all over again for dragging him into this filthy work.
Thwack! Thwack!
With the two of them not present, Fortuna took her frustration out on the pot holding the sprout. The sprout flapped its cotyledons frantically, begging for its life. Reading her thoughts through the emotions that came down the soul-thread, Jun gently scooped her up and brought her to the tip of his nose. Then he stroked her head kindly and spoke.
"I will never do anything that stupid, so don't worry, For. And even if I did make that mistake, I still wouldn't stop wanting power."
"Why?"
"Because that's how I get to impregnate you."
Growing stronger and stronger until he could work a miracle—Realize—that overcame the gap in rank. That was the clearest path to impregnating her. There was always the method of leaving it to chance, but that wounded his pride as a male, so he wanted to avoid it as much as possible.
"Eep! Idiot."
Fortuna flushed bright red and smacked him on the bridge of the nose. Then, fretting that she might have hurt him, she started showering him with kisses. Jun thought he might go mad from how cute she was. Even with his thoughts held in cold clarity, she could still make his heart race like this—wasn't her cuteness basically a superpower?
He returned the kisses in full measure. Then, as information arrived through space, he cooled his emotions again and called her name.
"…For."
"You have to go?"
"Yeah."
When Jun nodded, Fortuna became a soul and settled into the Stigma. He scooped up the little sprout at once, stowed it in his subspace, and cast a spell.
Magic — Teleport
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"R-reinforcements!"
"Blue Flash is here! Everyone, hang on!"