This Is My Home Now
Thud!
Simon charged straight at the shattered Dungeon Master.
Even Nirti, her reason clouded from being overwhelmed by the chaos, judged that this alone had to be stopped—dragging her unstable, massive frame into a desperate rush to intercept him.
"!"
In an instant, shadow swallowed the space around them, and a colossal arm wreathed in the shrieking of chimeras came crashing down.
[Not a chance!]
Prince leapt into the air and drove his fist down. Once again—
**BOOOOOM!**
The Hidden Card Punch. The blow landed squarely in the monster's chest. With a deafening roar, Nirti's enormous body crashed to the ground.
'Nice work! Prince!'
With the time Prince had bought him, Simon reached the Dungeon Master unscathed.
Though it possessed immortality, the curse inflicted by Akemus was still preventing its regeneration. Marveling anew at Akemus's efficiency, Simon brought the Greatsword of Ruin down hard into the creature's chest.
With a sickening wet crunch, the greatsword punched through.
'Karl!'
Simon's eyes flew wide open.
'Please!'
Ssssssssssss—
A spectral hound burst forth from the greatsword and began gnawing into the Dungeon Master, devouring it bite by bite. As it rapidly consumed the creature, the Greatsword of Ruin glowed a brilliant, vivid green.
While Simon focused on swallowing the Dungeon Master into his blade, Prince and Kazhan kept Nirti's attention relentlessly fixed on them.
**CRUNCH!**
Prince took Nirti's fist full in the face and was slammed into the wall. His Descent state broke, and he reverted to an ordinary zombie.
< Kazhan Original — Tear >
Launching himself airborne, Kazhan folded his inverted, arc-shaped body in one fluid motion and slashed both arms downward, carving great gashes across the chimera's hide.
But Nirti ignored the wounds entirely and snapped out a kick that sent Kazhan flying.
[My power is infinite!]
Nirti advanced on her heavy chimera-built frame.
[No matter how you struggle! You cannot defeat me in this dungeon!]
"Maybe not."
Shrrring!
At last, the Dungeon Master's absorption was complete through Karl's power. Simon lowered the greatsword until its tip pointed at the ground.
"Which is exactly why I'm about to erase that home-field advantage of yours."
**KRAK!**
Simon's greatsword struck the dungeon floor.
Neural stems, like the veins of a living body, surged up from the ground around the blade.
Karl's second authority.
The power that the mysterious organization known as the Cabal had coveted above all else.
The power to devour a Dungeon Master and seize control of the dungeon itself with its stolen authority.
─────────!
Countless streams of data flooded into Simon's mind.
He clutched his forehead and staggered, forcing himself to endure the torrent. It felt similar to the first time he had cast Compellonia.
These were data utterly unlike any symbol or language defined by humankind. And yet he could understand them. Because now, this power was his.
Gripping the greatsword, Simon drew in a deep breath. Then he cast himself willingly into the unknown sea.
Swimming through the data, tracing down the veins of knowledge and information, he finally found it.
'Immortality.'
His mind burned white-hot.
'I'm going to purge this function from my dungeon. Completely.'
And with that, he severed the 'vein' corresponding to the power of immortality.
[A—AAAAAAAARGH!]
The effect was immediate.
When Simon opened his eyes, the chimeras that made up Nirti's body were scattering into powder, disintegrating before his eyes. As though things that should never have existed were finally being erased, they crumbled away, hollow and empty.
Only then did Simon pull the greatsword free of the floor, a weary smile crossing his face.
"……Even watching it, I can hardly believe it."
Kazhan, who had rushed to protect Simon, muttered in dumbstruck disbelief.
"What on earth did you do, Simon?"
"Simple. I seized control of the dungeon with Karl's power, and removed the power of immortality from it entirely."
Simon lifted his head.
"Those things could only become such extreme chimeras because they were all powered by immortality. I figured if I neutralized just that, the rest would be easy."
The entire vast cavern filled with dust and drifting debris.
Soon every chimera had vanished, and in their midst remained only Nirti, pointlessly flailing her arms at the dust, trying to hold it together.
The shoulder and right arm that had taken the Greatsword of Ruin's blow were gone, and one of her legs had been crushed to a pulp.
A pitiful end for the Cabal's chief researcher, who had once commanded such a towering body.
"Admit it, Nirti."
Thud. Thud.
Simon walked toward her with the greatsword slung over his shoulder.
"This is your defeat."
She rolled her unfocused eyes toward him.
Her will to fight was entirely gone.
"……I only wanted to make them all understand."
She murmured blankly.
"Tarados, which dragged me down into the abyss. The filthy world that never once offered a helping hand—only contempt. What I suffered. Even a ten-thousandth of it."
Her eyes rolled listlessly.
"Planning to lecture me? Student Council President of Kizen."
Simon closed his eyes and touched a hand to his own neck.
"No lectures. But the moment your rage lost its way and flooded in the wrong direction, a catastrophe like this was already written—even if it hadn't been me standing here."
"……"
"The ones blinded by rage who murdered your parents—and you, blinded by rage, who turned Tarados into hell itself."
Simon's voice dropped low.
"Tell me what, fundamentally, makes you any different?"
Strength surged back into her eyes. Her eyelids trembled violently for a moment—then a smile of pure resignation settled at the corners of her mouth.
"……Whatever."
Ssssshh—
Her body began to come apart.
Immortality.
She hadn't just grafted it onto her test subjects—she had planted the power of immortality in her own body as well.
There could be only one reason she was fading away now.
Her life force had long since run dry, and she, too, had been kept alive by that same power of immortality.
"Tell me, Nirti. One last time."
Simon crouched down as he spoke.
"If even now, at the very end, there's a single flicker of guilt left in you as a human being—tell me about that horrific plan the Cabal has been preparing."
She grinned.
And then.
She moved her lips and quietly said something.
Sssssssssss—
Moments later, her body scattered completely and was gone.
After Simon seized control of the dungeon, every last immortal soldier that had swarmed its depths vanished.
The people Serne had rescued, along with the test subjects who had not yet been turned into undead by the power of immortality, were all finally able to leave their cells.
But they couldn't escape the dungeon itself. Not yet.
-GRUUUUOOOORR!
The Ancient Undead of Magnus's Legion—Alaze—and the super-giant undead under his command were still locked in battle outside.
The military tents beyond the dungeon burned, and the ground had split apart as violently as if an earthquake had torn through it.
Most of the Ganes Guild members and regular soldiers who had been fighting Alaze were combat-incapacitated. Ironically, the Gold Mine Dungeon now under Simon's control was the safer place to be.
[Lorraine Archbold. Beyond expectations. Allied casualties. Desperate.]
Alaze intoned.
[The 5th Legion's top-tier combat force. Eight of the ten Gremores. Destroyed single-handedly.]
All around him as he spoke, only the lower halves of the giants remained, kneeling on the ground with unnervily clean severance surfaces.
Only two Gremores now remained.
[Nevertheless. Operation resuming. Karl recovery operation. Proceeding by force.]
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The two surviving Gremores marched past the burning tents, heading straight for the Gold Mine Dungeon.
"They're coming! We have to avoid them here!"
"Everyone, get up to the upper floors!"
The townsfolk who had been imprisoned, along with the soldiers and thieves who had survived the battle with the 5th Legion, hurriedly took refuge inside the Gold Mine Dungeon. Lorraine and General Amin were no different.
"Hah. Hah."
Lorraine, red dagger still in hand, was gasping for breath.
……Idiot. You spent everything protecting every single person, and now you can't even control your own breathing.
She lifted her head between ragged breaths. Amin, supporting her at her side, pleaded with her urgently.
"Lady Lorraine! You must retreat to the upper levels now!"
"No. I can still fight. If those things get through, the people—!"
Flutter—
Just then, a single feather drifted down from the ceiling and settled on Lorraine's shoulder.
[Step back. Simon will deal with them personally.]
Shock and disbelief mingled on Lorraine's face.
"Simon? He just fought Nirti—he can't have anything left in the tank."
[Heh heh. I imagine he has a plan.]
KUUUM— KUUUM—
At last, the two super-giant undead Gremores and Alaze entered the Gold Mine Dungeon, clearing a path through the space before them.
No one was in sight.
[Demonic Beast of Disease, Karl. Target. Searching down to the third basement level. Scan initiating.]
"It's been a while, 5th Legion."
Then—it came. From the darkness of the dungeon, a boy wearing Pier's skull like a crown and bearing the greatsword was walking toward them.
Alaze's eyes flashed.
[Commander of the 7th Legion. Simon Polentia.]
"You're the 5th Legion's Ancient Undead, aren't you? Looking for our Karl, by any chance?"
Simon raised the greatsword.
"He's right here."
Green light rippled across the blade, and smoke poured out of it, coalescing into the shape of a hound.
The expression on Alaze's face, perched atop the Gremore's shoulder, froze over completely.
[Recovery failed. Ancient Undead Karl. Confirmed destroyed. Operation failed.]
"Glad we're on the same page."
Simon lowered the greatsword with a faint smile.
"Then how about you withdraw, quietly?"
[Alaze. Recalculating. Operation modified.]
Savage jet-black energy erupted from the bodies of the two super-giant undead.
[Simon Polentia. Capture. Recovery operation for all 7th Legion Ancient Undead, including Karl. Initiated.]
The Gremores began advancing, hauling their colossal bodies forward.
'Figures.', Simon muttered, and drove the greatsword into the ground.
"You made a mistake."
**SHAAAAAAA—!**
The instant the greatsword bit into the dungeon floor, neural stems shot up along the walls and floor, racing all the way to the ceiling.
"Because this is my home now."
**KRAKAKAKAKAKA!**
Suddenly the dungeon's floor and walls began twisting and warping wholesale, like a living labyrinth. The Gremores scrambled to a halt.
"Capture."
As Simon extended his arm, the dungeon's walls and floor rose up as one and coiled around the Gremores' bodies like serpents.
[What—!]
Simon clenched his fist.
"I can use every function this dungeon has."
**CRUNCH! CRRRUNCH!**
The space-warped dungeon began squeezing the Gremores. And from the walls, the dungeon's own monsters burst forth, tearing into the giants' flesh, biting and gnawing.
As though the entire dungeon itself had resolved to kill the intruders.
[Impossible. An impossible phenomenon.]
Alaze shrieked. Simon violently shook out his clenched fist.
"Nothing is impossible, Ancient Undead."
**SPLAT!**
**SPLURT!**
The two Gremores' flesh rotted and collapsed into complete pulp. When Simon spread his palm, the mangled heaps of meat—no longer recognizable as undead—slithered down and dropped away.
[Alaze. Escape.]
Alaze, still clinging to the giant's shoulder, scrambled to flee, but Simon was faster.
The dungeon's ceiling descended, wrapping around Alaze's body and sealing it inside a cage of stone.
"Quite the cautious one. That's not your real body either, is it? Just a clone."
**KUGUGUGUGU!**
When Simon tapped the floor twice with his foot, the dungeon floor rose up in a pillar and came to a stop directly in front of Alaze's prison.
"Give your Legion Commander Magnus a message."
Simon leaned his head forward toward Alaze and smiled.
"Stop trying to sabotage other people's work—and let's get our legions together for a real fight one of these days."
Simon snapped his fingers—**CRACK!**—and the cage came crashing down, destroying Alaze's clone.
Now that he held even Karl's power in his grasp, there was nothing left to fear.