Crabbed Out
Crabbed out.
The interior was a complete mess by the time I forced my way through the door — it had been tougher than expected, so I'd used a bit more strength than strictly necessary. Not a single surface remained intact; the walls were spiderwebbed with cracks and looked ready to come tumbling down at any moment. I brushed one lightly with my fingertips, and debris came trickling down in a soft cascade.
That's right. The route still split into just two paths, exactly as it had the moment I refused the Second Prince's proposal. Which meant the ending lay down one of them. Either things concluded with my victory and the Crown Prince's, or — I lost to someone in this place.
Hmmm.
"!"
My body moved before my mind did, hammer already rising overhead. A hammer of that size was a blunt instrument of devastating power, sure — but it also doubled as a shield with respectable coverage. A crimson flash tore through the shattered darkness. The shell-forged hammer ground backward under the impact, and my body launched off the floor into empty air.
Another crimson flash fired the instant the first cleared. Blocking it was pointless. Just like back then. In 2v2 duels, shield warriors all ran the same trick — a skill that launched you helplessly airborne the moment it connected.
So I wrenched my grip around the hammer mid-flight and slammed it straight down into the ground. The secret vault shuddered to its foundations, and the already-crumbling wreckage sank completely, swallowed whole. And when the golden sandstone that had paneled the walls fell away, what remained was a rectangular chamber sheathed in glossy crimson. The space itself felt like a crab's shell.
With a hiss of chit— Crab, a pincer erupted from the darkness and shot for my throat.
KA-GA-GAK!
The speed was almost unbelievable for something swinging a hammer bigger than its own body. I met the pincer with a full-arc hammer strike, and it surrendered one claw and scrambled backward.
"Blocking that, Crab."
Scuttle, scuttle...
Something was emerging slowly from the rubble. Its size and power were in a different league entirely from the other crabs. The ruined pincer was already regenerating, and from a pair of red eyes unlike any ordinary crab's, a scarlet mana was seeping out in lazy curls. This was no mere crab. It was a being of an entirely different order.
"But none can stand against the Red Eye of the Imperial Family, Crabness—"
"What's your relationship with Karabus?"
"...What? What nonsense is this, Crab. I serve Lord Crabcrous alone, Crab."
Does it really not know?
A descendant... that thing had a descendant? But those red eyes, that mana — they were unmistakably the traits sealed inside my hammer. I'd wielded it far too long to ever mistake them. And Karabus's mana was so rare that even the demon clans had once studied it as a research subject.
"Then never mind. Where's the Second Prince?"
"Insolent, Crab. You would dare stand against the rightful heir of the throne, Lord Crabcrous, Crab?"
"Crabnius is heir enough."
"INSOLENT!"
The Red Eye of the Imperial Family, Crabness, is now hostile toward you!
This is a boss battle. Defeating this boss will permanently determine your route.
If you desire a different route, leave this area immediately.
A boss battle, then. Which meant the final boss wasn't the Second Prince — it was that descendant of Karabus over there.
No idea why it's connected to this weapon, though.
THWACK.
"Take a hit and you'll find out."
"ENEMY OF THE THRONE, CRAB! DIE, CRAB!"
Hammer met pincer.
BANG! CRUNCH! KRR-KA-KA-KA-KAAA!!! SHRRRUNCH!
"...Yeesh, Crab."
Crabbed out.
Crabcrous — imperial blood, and master of the crab currently being battered to pieces shell-first over there — sat deep inside the vault, observing the situation through the Viewing Water Mirror. Crabness, the crabs' final weapon, said to have existed since before the Empire itself. In truth, even the name "Crabness" was nothing more than a label slapped on by the First Emperor who first discovered the thing; its true name and nature were known to no one. It had simply been asleep, and they had woken it.
Once the Empire stood complete, Crabness had become its greatest asset, but it never stepped into the open again, remaining instead as the hidden blade of the imperial line —
Losing.
The Empire's ultimate weapon was losing. And to what? A single small female who looked like some merfolk, nothing more. The crimson beams meant nothing. The colossal pincers meant nothing. The hardened shell meant nothing. The mystical energy lacing every beam was turned aside by the hammer again and again; the pincers landed without dealing any real damage. The shell held up for a while at first, but as time passed the fractures spread. Reviving its own life force, wielding magic-like techniques — none of it mattered. And the opponent was hardly limiting herself to the hammer. When the hammer was a disadvantage, she used a spear; when the spear was a disadvantage, she wielded some mystical force like wind itself.
One thing was certain: she wasn't perfectly dominant either. He had seized on exactly that gap and funneled most of the vault's relics into Crabness, but —
CRUNCH!
The opponent was simply a more seasoned warrior than Crabness, veteran of countless battles though it was.
Crabness fell.
After a few more words exchanged with someone, Crabcrous glanced sharply at the empty air.
"...!"
It was no illusion. She had seen straight through the Viewing Water Mirror in its invisible state.
Cold sweat ran down Crabcrous's shell.
"H-haha, Crab."
It was over.
After bringing down Crabness, I stepped into the vault's depths and found the Second Prince. He must have decided nothing more was worth fighting for, because he'd already stripped off every piece of armament before I even arrived. Presumably he was hoping for mercy.
Not that I expect mercy to mean much. Would Crabnius really forgive the brother who drove their mother to the brink of death? The murderous wretch? Personally, I don't think so.
"He will be spared, Crab."
"...Excuse me?"
The Crown Prince Crabnius offered an answer I found more than a little hard to believe. Nothing about how he'd carried himself suggested it.
"There is no doubt he deserves death, Crab. But vengeance at this late hour... would mean little, Crab. I intend to strip him of his pincers and all his strength, and send him into exile, Crab."
"Oh, the pincers are already off."
Payment for trying to poison me — I'd taken both of them ages ago. They'd make pretty entertaining cooking content, actually.
"......"
"That surprises me. That's not how you acted at the palace."
The way he'd torn out his brother's confidant's throat back at the palace looked nothing like the figure before me now. If I were in his place, I would never have let the man live.
"If the vault's relics had failed to save my mother, I would have pursued revenge to the bitter end, Crab. But she is safe now, so no further vengeance is needed, Crab."
That's what he said. Well, he'd be off ruling his empire soon — he'd manage. It wasn't my place to say otherwise.
"And so you are leaving, Crab? I could offer you the finest treatment imaginable, Crab."
"I'm fine. I've gotten everything there was to get."
The moment I claimed Karabus's hammer, I'd already hit the maximum payout this dungeon had to offer. An old grudge, and my main weapon. Its seal wasn't even broken yet, but someday it would return to its true form.
This dungeon will close in 30 minutes.
After the dungeon closes, you may select your rewards based on the items you have acquired.
"Ah, by the way — the Emperor says he wishes to see you."
"The Emperor?"
"Kherf, Crab. Welcome, Crab. Kherf! Kherf! Crab!"
"......."
He even coughs in Crab. Truly, the more I look at this species, the more fascinating they are.
The Emperor lay abed, surrounded by the palace physicians. Age had bent him, but the blood of the imperial line still showed — he remained a fairly massive crab.
"Crabnius... I have heard everything, Crab. That wretch is behind it all... kherf, Crab!"
"Yes, Crab. The Second Prince plotted everything and tried to drag me down, Crab."
"I see... I had drowned too long in faded glory, Crab... unable to tell right from wrong, Crab."
Ahem!
"Setting that aside... so you are that species called human, Crab."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Truly. You are strong, Crab. Stronger than any I have ever laid eyes on, Crab."
"Thank you."
"...And yet. That weapon of yours is rather dangerous, Crab."
The Emperor's ancient crab eyes gazed down at the hammer in my hand. I'd used the Shrinking Pearl — one of the relics from the Second Prince's vault — to bring it down to roughly the size of a spear.
"Dangerous how?"
"That weapon, in truth, was the very wellspring of power that once shrouded the Crabness you faced, Crab. The First Emperor himself tried to tame it, but he only provoked its wrath, and it flew away sealed and dormant to a crab kingdom far, far away, Crab... Should you ever reclaim its full power, you would never be able to contain it, Crab."
Contain it, he says.
Containing Karabus.
Pfft.
"No problem. He's really nothing special."