The Light Ignites
The light ignited.
"You got here fast."
"Well, this much is just the basics. Hoho. Shall we head over right away?"
"Head over where, exactly?"
Yena, still brandishing the Legendary Enhancement Probability Scroll, turned her head. At the displeased look on Alice's face, she glanced back and forth between me and her before asking.
"Who's this?"
"That's my line. Who are you, and why are you standing between Darling and me?"
"...Darling?"
Yena looked at me. I shook my head.
"She was the Queen of Kiki Island. Her name is Alice Leah."
"Oh, right — you're the one who cleared this dungeon, aren't you? One of the residents. And here I was wondering who it was."
"What do you mean, who am I?!"
"I'm Lily's friend, obviously. The name's Yena."
"Yena? Fine, Yena. Would you kindly step aside? I have business to attend to."
"Excuse me? I'm busy."
"My business isn't with you. It's with Darling."
"And my business is with Lily."
Flutter.
Yena thrust the enhancement scroll right up in front of Alice's face.
"As you can see, Lily needs to go enhance this right now, so she's in a hurry. Could you maybe come back later?"
"I said I was here first."
"I was here first. I just went and grabbed something I needed for my business."
"Well, I live here. If we're counting who's been here longest, I win by a mile."
The two of them growled and glared at each other for a moment — then abruptly swung their heads toward me, one after the other.
Wait, what?
"Then let Lily decide. Who goes first."
"That's right, Darling. You pick! That tail-chasing little—"
"I'm sorry, tail-chasing what, exactly?"
"Oh, did that sting? I know girls like you all too well. It's obvious you're only hanging around pretending to be all buddy-buddy."
"That's complete nonsense. It's nothing like—"
"Hmm..."
And me?
"You both have business. So—"
"Huh?"
"Yes?"
"You're both coming with me."
Kiki Island was home to a place called the Great Altar.
A realm where the Great Races dwelled, the altar only opened on a fixed cycle — or when all six blessings had been gathered — and currently, only the former method allowed entry.
After all, of the Great Races who would have granted the blessings, every one but Fortune and Temptation was dead.
"...You want me to open the door?"
"Do you think that's possible?"
There I stood, before the banana statue that granted access to the Great Altar — the very space Crere had once lured me into.
Back then, I'd smashed the statue and its foundation apart with my hammer and dropped straight into the underground. But with time restored to the way it was, the statue stood intact once more.
It wasn't urgent enough to warrant bashing my way in again. That would be a bit much.
Alice shook her head.
"It won't have opened. The time isn't right yet."
"When will it open?"
"...I honestly can't say, now that time has rewound — but at the very least, three months."
Three months.
By then, the Great Cataclysm would have come and gone with time to spare.
"Three months is far too long. Is there really no other way?"
"Hmm... I don't hold any of the blessings anymore. If anything, Darling, you probably know more about blessings than I do."
Saying so, Alice ran her fingers over the banana statue. After a long moment of searching, she discovered a small groove — and when she pressed it, the statue split cleanly in two with a heavy clunk.
A straight staircase led down into the earth. Following it all the way down, an unfamiliar altar came into view.
A gray, pyramid-like structure with its top sheared off flat. At the center of the altar stood a cluster of statues, each seemingly depicting one of the Great Races.
One thing was odd, though: there was no Kiki.
I could roughly guess why. Anyone could see this was an ancient temple. A slot machine statue would look just plain wrong here, wouldn't it?
Most likely, Fortune had changed her form to match the Kiki Island warped by the modern era and by Crere. Or maybe Kiki simply hadn't existed as one of the original races at all.
"It didn't feel like this back then."
"Crere renovated it when he obtained his blessing. What you're seeing now is its primordial shape."
"Kiki."
Poof!
Kiki was summoned, still cheerfully spinning her reels as ever.
─Kiki!
"Do you think you can open it?"
─Kiki?
Kiki rolled in a circle around the altar, then soon gave an emphatic nod, creaking and clanking as she did. She then settled herself at the dead center of the gray altar, stopped her reels, and seemed to focus intently for a while.
After standing frozen for quite some time, Kiki lit up her own lever with a bright glow.
So she couldn't do it alone?
"I think she wants you to pull it?"
"Looks like it. Which probably means..."
Answering Yena's question, I slowly stepped up onto the altar.
Opening it required the six Great Blessings. Then what was the source of those blessings? Why did gathering them all grant a wish — and open the door to that source?
Grind.
Ding-ding-ding~♪
The answer was already in my hands.
The Agent's Blessing is activating.
A pattern utterly different from anything before began to etch itself across the slot machine.
A tiny sparrow, a massive bear, a hawk with a razor beak, a dependable hound, a ferocious lion. And then—
"...A cat?"
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Three pink-furred cats clattered down in a row, lining up perfectly.
The altar opened.
The blessing granted by the Agent who had fulfilled my wish. Until now it had been a power I carried only as a title, never once finding use for it — but the instant I approached the altar, I felt it stir.
Nothing overwhelming, but more than enough strength to open a 'door.' More than anything, the power felt strangely familiar.
"Ooooh... it's kind of dreamlike in here."
"...This is my first time inside."
Yena and Alice looked around in astonishment. It was a boundless, pure-white space where floor and sky were indistinguishable — yet not so formless that one could get lost. A peculiar pink glow marked out a path, and pink-tinted trees grew here and there along it.
Come to think of it, the sky overhead wasn't white at all. It was blue.
...?
That wasn't how it used to be.
'You've come again.'
A voice resonated through the entire altar. As the Agent, draped in its multicolored robe, revealed itself, Kiki let out a delighted cry of Kiki! and scurried to its side. The Agent's hand stroked gently over Kiki's head.
'Welcome. I trust the adventure was... enjoyable?'
"The altar seems to have changed."
It definitely hadn't looked like this before.
The Agent smiled the way Kiki did. Though the robe concealed its form, the smile somehow showed through all the same.
'The altar was once destroyed, you see. Now that business has concluded, I took the liberty of redecorating to my own taste while rebuilding it. Do you like it?'
"Business, you say?"
'Ah... the matter of wish fulfillment, of course. The wish that child received.'
At the Agent's gesture, Alice flinched and lowered her head.
It was a passive posture entirely unlike Alice — the self-proclaimed Queen of Kiki Island who never stopped cooing "Darling" at me. But then, Alice was a resident of this island and a long-standing 'believer' who had received its blessings.
Before the 'god' who had granted her wish, there was no choice but to bow.
'So — do you like it?'
"It's lovely."
The scenery was strikingly familiar. The beastkin lands, before their destruction in the past, had looked exactly like this. Bright, peaceful, abundant. A land so perfectly suited to every manner of living thing that nothing about it could be improved.
I remembered it with particular clarity because it was where Myoshin, the god of the beastkin, had died.
After all, she had a story every bit as heavy as Rasty's.
'...Is that so?'
"Yes."
'I'm glad to hear it.'
─Kiki?
Under the Agent's touch, Kiki's machine pulsed with light.
'Now then — what brings you here...?'
"Ah, I need to do some enhancing."
I showed the Agent the Light of Heritage and the White Savior, and explained what I intended.
I'd given it some thought, and since the Multicolor Inheritor had already gone through its trial, enhancing the White Savior made more sense than trying anything else. Even if I eventually stopped using this weapon, it was made of Metamor — I could reshape it and wield it in another form. In fact, the bandit Rafina's daggers had been exactly that: the White Savior, transformed.
The Agent nodded.
'I see. In that case, I would like to offer my assistance...'
"Your assistance?"
'Yes. After all, you did not make a wish of your own that time either, did you?'
The Agent clapped its hands together — clap! — and Kiki erupted in a cascade of rainbow light. With a dazzling ka-ching!!, the reels spun to a stop on 777.
Even at a glance, I could feel Kiki's fortune surging to extraordinary heights.
'This much should suffice — as payment for the 'compensation' you were denied back then.'
"How much did it go up by?"
'To the very peak of what this child can muster. In the terms of your world... roughly ten percent.'
"Ten percent, huh..."
Which meant the final enhancement odds came out to nearly a coin flip. Fifty-fifty. Either the White Savior would become a Transcendent Masterpiece, or it would simply vanish — and that would be that.
I'd used everything usable. There was nothing left to do.
All that remained was to pray.
"White Savior."
The White Savior answers your call.
"Can you do this?"
The White Savior declares itself ready, for the sake of rightful salvation!
The White Savior asks you to trust it, and to place this in its hands.
"...All right."
"Ugh. I walked the whole island and there was nothing anywhere."
"Yena? Could you hand me the scrolls?"
"Oh, sure."
From Yena — who had wandered half the island and back — I received four probability scrolls in total, from Common all the way up to Legendary.
With every scroll spent, the final probability stood at...
4 Enhancement Probability Scrolls used (Common, Rare, Special, Legendary). Success rate increased by 17%.
Pet (Kiki)'s ability activated. Success rate increased by 15%.
Current odds: Success 47% / Failure 53%
Use the Light of Heritage (Semi-Legendary) on the 'White Savior'?
Forty-seven percent.
"...Yes."
The light ignited.