We Should Get Going, Too.
"We should get going, too."
"Before that, there's something I want to ask."
Heminine looked the Illusion King straight in the eye.
"Why did you give out the Illusion God's Doll as a reward? Couldn't you have left the job to my brother, or to Gonetogin?"
"I told you. I simply entrusted it to someone who could deal with the underground base. I didn't think those two could manage it."
"Then..."
"Because of that man's strength."
"You decided on that alone?"
"The underground base was a variable I never anticipated. I had to find a player who could resolve it in a hurry, and as luck would have it, he was there."
"So it wasn't because of who he is."
"You ask the obvious."
Heminine turned away, looking somehow disappointed.
"Let's go."
"Where to?"
"Anywhere."
She was putting on the airs of a tragic heroine, which was absurd, but he decided to play along for now.
"Honored guest. My apologies, but I can't depart until you name a destination."
"..."
"Oh dear. What a gloomy face. In that case, I'll go wherever my heart leads."
After bidding the Illusion King farewell, Yujun and Heminine stepped out onto the road with no destination in mind.
"So what are we doing?"
"Gotonegin? No, was it Godegi? We find him. They said he was close to the answer."
"...It's Gonetogin."
"Anyway. We don't have time."
"We'll need to know where he is first."
"Right. Think you could tell me what Godegi looks like?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to turn this whole area inside out. If I know his face, I'll recognize him on sight."
"Briefly, or in detail?"
"In detail."
"All right."
Heminine described Gonetogin's appearance for him. Briefly.
Once he had the man's looks fixed in his memory, Yujun closed his eyes. Just as he had in Sourtul Forest, he pushed his senses out as far as they would go and began to search. They swept past the whole of the city.
Not in the city, at least.
He slipped beyond the outskirts and examined the land around them.
Nothing out here but empty plains. I'll have to search more broadly.
When it came to breaking the Illusion King's world, or to finding the answer, the city was nothing but a trap. Getting out of it first—that, he suspected, had been the real precondition.
Yujun rose high into the sky on flight magic. The whole city lay beneath him, and beyond it a yellow wasteland with no end in sight. He had gone up because his senses were far easier to use once obstacles like the high-rises were gone, and he could feel his field of perception opening wider.
This was a planet where living things were hard to find, inside the city or out. There were no small animals, no beasts of prey—nothing at all. Weeds dotted the barren ground only here and there, and even plant life seemed scarce. Finding Gonetogin, then, ought not to be especially difficult.
Little time had passed since the Illusion King's world opened. If the man was already close to the answer, he couldn't be terribly far away.
Then, in a certain moment, Yujun found Sorsin's party. Two of them, to be precise: the celestial Sophia, and First Prince Sorsin.
What are they doing out there? Are they heading for wherever Gonetogin is? I should follow.
He dropped back to the ground and explained the situation to Heminine.
"You're saying my brother is going to Gonetogin? What about Gonetogin's location?"
"I never found Gotogi. But Sorsin was charging off like a man who was sure."
"Couldn't he be trying to throw us off?"
"Why bother? If he wanted to confuse us, he would have hidden himself."
"Fair enough. Every second counts, after all..."
"Let's go. Follow me."
Trailing Sorsin, Yujun opened his inventory. He had no intention of attacking the prince with an item. The reason was entirely out of nowhere—he simply meant to use something he still hadn't gotten around to using.
He drew out a Skill Gem (Supreme).
Last time I used one on the Genius trait and held the skill gem back.
A gem of the highest grade was worth saving for a truly worthy skill. And recently, in the skill archive, he had learned Sword Unity (EX++). He had meant to see its power for himself before deciding whether to spend the gem, but the effect of Sword Unity was entirely too much to his liking. There was no leaving the gem unused after that.
The finest skill, and a skill gem of the finest grade. Was there a combination that suited them better?
Yujun broke into a crooked grin and used the Skill Gem.
EX++ → GX
GX rank?
The circumstances made it plain enough. This was the tier beyond EX. Sword Unity had reached a new rank, and Yujun took the fact as encouragement.
So EX really wasn't the end.
A GX rank he had never once seen in the game meant there could be something beyond it, too.
EX already boasts insane effects. From GX onward, just how broken is this going to get?
The urge to manifest the skill welled up, irrepressible. He even had a suitable opponent: the very Sorsin and Sophia he was chasing. He had killed them once. Would a second time be any harder? Above all, Sorsin was the man who had gifted him that mysterious experience of being shut inside an illusion. A single death could hardly be called payment in full.
Having rationalized the use of Sword Unity to his own satisfaction, Yujun did not act on it at once.
"The moment Sorsin reaches the maggot, I'll attack."
He said it to Heminine.
"The maggot? Ah... don't tell me you mean Gonetogin."
"Yes. Him."
"How did Gonetogin's name fall all the way to maggot...?"
"Oh, I can see the grub over there. Following Sorsin really was the right call."
"..."
Yujun spoke while pointing off to one side. Heminine decided to give up on understanding him.
As if he had known Sorsin would come, Gonetogin was already waiting with a force of several dozen at his back. Sorsin and Sophia were charging straight toward him. At last the two sides stood opposed.
"Gonetogin. What were you doing here?"
Sorsin was the first to speak.
"Brother. As if you don't already know... Still the same sly old serpent."
Befitting the illusion race, and royalty at that, Gonetogin was dazzlingly handsome as well—a more masculine image than Sorsin. Youngest of the Illusion King's children though he was, he looked sturdier than his siblings.
"It's laughable that you, who haven't a scrap of talent, should be the one searching for the answer."
"And yet you've fallen behind even someone like me."
"I'll be passing you now."
"Will you? Do you really believe two people will be enough?"
"Call them your faction if you like. They're nothing but a rabble of nobodies. I alone would suffice."
Fights among the illusion race were not quite like the fights of ordinary players. What mattered was who could create the higher world. Their kind often pooled their strength to build something larger and more elaborate, but when one side's skill was overwhelmingly superior, joining forces meant little. And the gap between Sorsin and Gonetogin was so extreme it could not be closed. The one standing above, of course, was Sorsin.
"I don't know whether you used some trick or simply got lucky, but I think this is where we say goodbye. Let's not make it ugly. We'll see each other again after I become king."
Sorsin's manner was pure arrogance. Gonetogin's face crumpled. Of all moments, his brother had to appear now and ruin everything. Blood ties or not, it was unforgivable—no, the blood only made it more infuriating.
"A mind set on taking the fruit without doing the work. Revolting, Brother."
"Run your mouth for a hundred days if you like. Do you imagine that will do you any good? You know perfectly well what happens to those who earn my displeasure."
"If it ever comes to that, I'd rather die. It might even be better if Sister Heminine became king."
At Gonetogin's words, Heminine set down upon the ground. She was smiling brightly.
"You mean it?"
"...When did you arrive?"
"Just now."
"Heminine!"
Sorsin glared at her, his face twisted with rage.
"Why take it out on someone who has nothing to do with this? I'm not the one who killed you, Brother."
"Where is he?"
"Behind you."
Yujun, wearing his Transparent Ring, swung his sword. Sophia, who had been watching their surroundings from the start, thrust her spear out in a rush to shield Sorsin. It met his blade head-on and shattered cleanly with a thunderous crash.
"Again?"
"Hello."
"You bastard!"
Sorsin, who already had one death by that sword to his name, stumbled backward and began preparing illusion magic. He knew better than to give this man any distance. Distance, though, was not going to let him slip away.
Yujun closed the gap in a single bound and drove Painful Strike into him. Sorsin managed to react and threw himself back, but he could not evade completely. The blade grazed him, and an immense pain came crashing down.
"Y-you've got to be—AAAAAGH!"
It was agony beyond imagination, more than even a superhuman will could endure. He understood all too well why Sophia had suffered so terribly. Painful Strike had been massively amplified by the Genius trait. This was nothing like an ordinary Painful Strike, and the skill's rank had been high to begin with.
For a moment after he used it, Yujun's movements stalled. Sophia took it for an opening and poured on a ferocious assault. Her spear hammered his armor again and again, yet far from piercing it, the spearhead only grew duller.
Worse than the robots' lasers.
She had drawn this spear fresh after the last one broke, and perhaps because of that, its power seemed a notch weaker. Yujun cast Space Domination and pinned her. Sophia went down with ridiculous ease and thrashed in a panic. So long as he did not spare his Magic stat, there was scarcely a player who could withstand Space Domination.
He turned the same magic on Sorsin, still writhing in pain. In a heartbeat, Yujun had subdued them both.
He looked at Gonetogin. The prince's eyes had gone wide, plainly startled.
"Geunetagi. Hand it over."
"H-hand what over?"
"The thing you dug out of the ground. You hid it in your inventory."
"...What are you talking about?"
Gonetogin spoke with a stiff face. His expression was already giving everything away.
"I saw all of it, so hiding it won't help."
"...This is a little unfair. All I put in my inventory was a tool for digging. A Rare-grade item."
"So that was it. Honestly, I wasn't sure, so I took a guess. Sorry."
"..."
Then Yujun used Flash.
A sword was at Gonetogin's throat. He tried to flee in a panic, but he was already bound inside Yujun's space. Having snuffed out the breathless standoff in a single stroke, Yujun swept his gaze around the area. Only the ground Gonetogin had dug looked sunken in—he must have roughly packed the hole with soil, which was why it sat like that. The illusion-race allies who had been assisting him had all been subdued by Heminine.
If they went down to Heminine, they really were small fry.
He wasn't slighting her, but handling a dozen or more people alone was no easy thing. Had they been anyone of real skill, they would not have fallen to her so easily.
"Fortunately, we're not late. Heminine. Let's hurry up and cruelly steal the work the youngest was doing."
"...Um. Are you doing that on purpose? To make me go soft?"
"I know you're not that good a person. Hurry up and show me that vicious side of yours, the one without blood or tears. Come on, move. It's time to prove your worth to your father."