115. The Goddess Descends
115. The Goddess Descends
The Queen's Awakening After Abandoning Egg-laying
Originally, since she was preoccupied with laying eggs, a somewhat equal fight should have been possible.
"Diiiiiiieeee!!!"
"....Fuck..!"
The Queen had given up her eggs.
She abandoned the eggs and took all the power needed for laying them for herself.
A variable.
An anomalous phenomenon I never even considered.
And if my guess was correct──it seemed to have happened because of me.
'Why's that bastard only glaring at me?'
Well, her eyes were fixed on me the whole time.
As if even that wasn't enough, there were oddly more Sirens coming at me, and they even kept shooting condensed water blades at me while simultaneously pumping power into their voices in real-time to disrupt my mind.
A situation where three patterns overlapped consecutively, any single one of which would be difficult to endure.
"Really, good thing I prepared in advance."
I had already gained enough experience points needed to unlock skills while grinding through dungeons.
What was needed was situational judgment and the combat power to overcome it.
Fortunately, since both were in my hands, I could evade without feeling major difficulty.
Yeah.
"The pattern's fucking dirty!"
I said I could evade, never said it was easy.
—Tududududu!!
When they were about to surround me, I kept them in check with a submachine gun.
—Tang! Tatang!
Sirens that approached to close range were finished with a pistol.
—Spat, kwadeudeuk!
Even so, the Sirens pushing through with sheer numbers were ended with fists and a dagger as I somehow squeezed through gaps to escape.
Hit & Run.
A typical hit-and-run tactic.
To be precise, it was fleeing before getting surrounded, trapped, and killed, but whatever, names don't matter.
'A way... isn't there any way...?!'
There was one thing, no, two things left to rely on.
One was Minerva's awakening.
Minerva was still tearing at her electric guitar diligently, but she needed to go one step further—Athena had to descend.
Probably by the time that song ends, something would happen, for better or worse.
And the other was the effect of the title 'Heracles' held.
[Time of Decisive Battle], it activated when facing a boss monster and HP dropped below a certain threshold, possessing the effect of temporarily doubling the stats to 2x.
'The point is, if I endure to the death, it'll somehow get resolved.'
Could I really endure, though?
I crushed the head of a Siren blocking my vision with a fist and sorted out my thoughts.
"...It's not entirely impossible."
An acrobatic feat that should normally be impossible.
But with the title effect doubling stats to 2x, and if [Time of Decisive Battle] activated to double them again to 2x, and on top of that if Athena descended and bestowed her blessing, the calculation showed it wasn't an unwinnable fight.
"Huuuuuu..."
Just shitty, not an unwinnable level.
For the first time in a long while, I put 'those words' in my mouth and whispered.
"Because I'm used to unfairness."
I gripped my gun and sword tightly and stared at Queen Siren.
"My child, my lord husband!"
"....Ah fuck."
Chrono was forgetting.
That the hardest thing during war wasn't the enemy with overwhelming power.
"For me, for us, defeat that monster!"
"Uooooooh!!"
"For Her Majesty the Queen!"
"Diiiiieeeeee!!"
"She even uses brainwashing."
But the utterly hopeless incompetence of his own allies.
**************
"Uh, slicing through...?"
Meanwhile, in Minerva's case, who was having a showdown against Queen Siren with her performance,
she was feeling herself gradually being pushed back by Queen Siren's power.
It was only natural.
The song of a Queen who abandoned egg-laying, putting her heart into killing the enemy,
could not be overcome by the performance of a mere girl with a weak soul who only sought to rely on someone else.
"Kh... Aaak...!!"
"Chrono!!"
Ultimately, one by one, people were being charmed by the Sirens.
As all of them bared their fangs and started fighting against Chrono, the battlefield once again turned into a melee—
No, it became an execution ground solely to kill Chrono.
"They're only targeting Chrono."
It was something Minerva could accurately grasp from a third-party perspective.
The Queen persistently targeted only Chrono for her attacks.
She concentrated the surrounding Sirens on him.
She intensely radiated charm toward Chrono and his vicinity.
Even when launching blades made of water, it was only at Chrono, showing no concern at all for anyone else around.
What could the reason be?
There was no need to think; it was far too simple.
'If Chrono goes down...'
All of us would be finished.
Minerva instinctively sensed this and put more strength into the hand gripping her pick.
Solely for Chrono, to help Chrono.
She put all her power into focusing her consciousness on Chrono──
"──Kyaaaaak!!!"
"C-Conductor...?!"
The situation did not favor her.
"For Her Majesty the Queen!"
"Kuh... Hngggp!"
She kicked away the conductor trying to assault her.
"Cough! Keuk... Kkeuuuugh!!!"
"........Ugh..!"
Already broken eyes. A gaze that had lost reason.
Minerva was certain.
'They've fallen to the Queen's charm.'
These were people who had even been shaken by the charm of ordinary Sirens, not even the Queen.
Let alone the Queen's charm, its aftermath alone was threatening enough.
At least when they were playing instruments, some resistance was possible, but now that even playing was impossible, they had to endure with sheer mental fortitude.
"Please... please snap out of it! Was the Athena Guild so weak as to lose to something like this!"
A shout aimed at the charmed ones.
"Kyaaaaaa!!"
"For Her Majesty the Queen!"
"Young lady, surely you understand as well!"
However, they were indeed weak enough to lose to something like this.
Realizing that further persuasion was futile, Minerva hurriedly drew the rapier at her waist and went on guard—
'No.'
—If she did, Chrono would die.
The performance Chrono had entrusted to her.
She had the 'duty' to play this to the end.
'But...'
If she continued the performance like this, at this rate, she might truly collapse.
"How... What should I..."
She had to choose.
She had to pick something, make a decision.
And at the end of that fork in the road, she──
"I... believe in Chrono!"
─chose the performance.
Even though it might be dangerous right this moment, it was Chrono after all.
If it was Chrono, he surely had a plan.
She believed solely in Chrono and continued her performance.
'Chrono... Chrono...!!'
Sirens and guild members approaching closer from all around.
Seeing them come right up to her nose, she endlessly called out for Chrono──
—Peo-eok!
"Chrono!"
"...Tch. Have you lost it here too?"
His figure appeared just in time, turning back to save Minerva.
In an instant, Chrono pierced through the Siren's head and rendered the surrounding guild members combat-incapacitated.
"Chrono... what do we do now? How, what should we...!"
Minerva approached Chrono.
'Chrono, would'
If it was Chrono, he would know.
If it was him, he would find a way to survive even in this situation.
Of course he would, because he was 'Chrono.'
The hero who cleared the 'Tutorial Dungeon' everyone thought was impossible to conquer,
the man who strategized and defeated the Troll King that no one could bring down even by combining forces.
Moreover, that man whose ability, intellect, and wisdom she acknowledged as all surpassing hers was──
"Fuck...."
"...Chrono?"
─biting his lip with a pale expression.
"You have a plan... right?"
"........."
Minerva's subsequent question.
Chrono didn't answer. He couldn't answer.
Because.
"I don't know."
"Excuse me?"
"I said I don't know either."
"........"
Because he also didn't know.
Because he couldn't get a feel for what to do.
"If it was just one or two things going wrong, I could at least reach out a hand, but this..."
"........."
Only then could Minerva see it.
Unlike before, an expression without composure.
Literally, the gaze of a person driven into a corner.
At this point, Minerva almost let her heart falter...
"Charge? No, if I do that Minerva will be in danger."
"It's already too... late to run."
"Then time──No. Not that, absolutely not that."
"....Chrono."
Even while firing guns and moving his hands and feet, his mouth worked busily.
Even in the face of a hopeless situation, he didn't give up.
No, perhaps he couldn't give up.
Because if he gave up,
he would die in that instant.
Giving up was directly linked to death.
—Chalkak-chalkak
"Shit... is it real that I'm out of ammo?!"
Even when his magazines were ultimately all empty, Chrono raised his fists and sword again to fight.
Seeing him like that, Minerva also continued her performance and asked.
"Should I join in too?"
"Don't. If you fall to the charm too, then there's really no answer."
"Then... what should I..."
"Ha... really."
A frustrated voice.
Ultimately, Chrono shouted toward Minerva.
"Athena, isn't your Main God saying anything?!"
"Athena...?"
In that moment, a thought flashed through her mind.
'That's right.'
Athena.
My Main God.
Come to think of it, I had forgotten her all this time.
"Athena... please...!"
Minerva strummed her electric guitar and prayed in her heart.
At the final moment, what a human could lean on was solely the Main God they served.
"Grant me the wisdom to overcome this situation──!!"
Minerva prayed with all her sincerity.
A prayer seeking help not from Chrono, not from herself, but solely from the goddess.
['Blessed Olive Tree' resonates with the 'prayer'.]
[Goddess Athena attempts 'Advent'.]
"Uh-uh...?!"
And thus, a deity responds to such 'sincere prayer'.
Minerva couldn't close her eyes to the 'miracle' unfolding right before her.
—Kwadeuk... kudeudeuk...!
"....Ah."
The olive tree that leaped out of Chrono's bag.
Soon after, the grain of the olive tree warped and began to crumble.
Not like wood, but more like clay or modeling clay.
"Uh... huh...?"
"What on earth was I doing until now..."
The olive tree, gradually taking on human form, scattered endless divinity around it and purified those who had fallen to the charm.
Before the advent of a god, that which was profane could not even exist in itself.
[Ah, ahh...]
When Athena finally descended upon that small tree,
Athena looked upon her followers and spoke.
[To think such saengseonbakis are my followers...]
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